Tired Road Warrior

I’ve been skipping church a lot lately. For a couple of years, I attended Sacrament Meeting regularly, largely to keep my wife company. However, over the last year my attendance has fallen off. There are many reasons why, principally a pre-occupation with work. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago I made the mistake of returning. It was during this Sacrament Meeting that the bishop read the letter from the First Presidency encouraging members to write their Senators in support of the “one man to one woman” marriage Amendment. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Stake High Councilman got up and implied the Lord had spoken, we needed to act.

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On Monday, June 12, 1905, my grandfather (Dr. George LeRoy Rees) accompanied by his brother left Cache Valley for Salt Lake City:

“. . . there were no missionary schools or preparatory work and on June 13th in the Annex of the Salt Lake Temple was set apart by Apostle Francis M. Lyman for my mission. June 14th I left by train for New York City and from there to Boston where was to be my embarkation. This was an exciting trip. Big cities, skyscrapers and so many wonderful sights for I had never been outside the State of Utah before. From New York we were to sail on a beautiful vessel to Fall River, Rhode Island, and from there by train to Boston. At Boston we had the opportunity to observe many of the historic relics of Revolutionary Days, such as ship Constitution, Old South Church, Bunker Hill.”

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When I compare the Mormon church meetings of my youth in East Lansing, Michigan, with contemporary meetings in Orem, Utah, the differences are depressing. These differences are probably caused by several factors: (1) the locations of the individual wards; (2) point in time each occurred (the experiences are separated by nearly 50 years and the church has evolved); (3) the Mormon church’s correlation program; and (4) perhaps my over idealized images of the past.

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