A Great Sense Of Belonging (Part 1 of 8)

My faith grew out of the faith of my parents. But at a very young age I came to know for myself that what I was participating in was true. At age twelve I had been ordained a deacon. I then had the proper authority to pass the Sacrament at Church. I was usually dressed very nicely for this service. I wore a pair of blue checkered pants, polyester, double knit. (In the early 1970s they were considered very stylish.) And I had a blue suit jacket which was also double knit. I wore a knit vest many times as well. And a white shirt and tie. Once though, I had woven, on a long, thin loom, made from link-n-log roof slats, a tie. I wore it proudly one day while passing the Sacrament. My goal was to eventually weave a whole suit coat. But the tie turned out to be enough.
Two times a year, in April and then again in October, the Church held it’s General Conference. When this happened, everyone stayed at home and watched Conference on TV during conference weekend. It hasn’t been this way for a long time now, but in the early 1970s, we still gathered on Sunday evening for Sacrament Meeting. This was a tri ward Sacrament Meeting, meaning, all three wards that met in our Church building met together at once to partake of the Sacrament with a few short speakers reflecting on the just concluded General Conference. One of the last one of these was held when I was first counselor in the Deacons Quorum presidency. Our ward was in charge of the Sacrament on that particular day and the president couldn’t be there so I was asked, at age thirteen, to organize the deacons for passing the sacrament to such a large group. I was pleased that we were able to rely on the Deacons from just our ward, and we didn’t have to ask deacons from the other two wards to pass the Sacrament. Another time President N. Eldon Tanner of the First Presidency of the Church, spoke at a missionary farewell in our ward. I had the assignment to pass the number one position, meaning the stand and all the people who sat up there. I passed the Sacrament to President Tanner first. He whispered to Bishop Webb, “I see that in your ward you have to use some Teachers to pass the Sacrament.” Although I had almost reached my full adult height of six feet, two inches, I was still not fourteen and therefore not yet in the Teachers Quorum. The bishop remarked to President Tanner, “That boy is a Deacon!”