Ray's Mission V

Elder Giles

Following about six weeks with elder colbern, he was replaced by elder Alan Giles who join me in Waterford. Elder Giles was a big person and towered over me by about two inches. He was easily as big as I was and had a build similar to mine. Elder Giles had been out a little bit less than me but seemed to be very well versed in knowing his discussions and was able to carry his load as we taught our various investigators. Elder Giles had sung in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir prior to leaving for the British South Mission; and was very talented in his singing. It was not uncommon for him to be asked to provide a solo during our zone meetings. He had a beautiful voice. Elder Giles also had a uniquely distinguishable hand. Growing up in Riverdale. Utah, he’d had had plenty of opportunity to handle guns of all kinds and hunt whenever he could. Unfortunately, he’d experienced a very frightening mishap in his youth. As a seasoned teenager, he was cleaning his 45-caliber pistol one day when it went off. He happened to be holding it with its barrel tightly against his right palm. When it went off, it threw his hand all the way around his body. Had he been holding it even an inch away from his palm he would have lost his entire hand. As it was, however, he experienced a hole in his right palm. The doctors were able to repair his hand such that it appeared to be normal except for scar tissue on either side of his palm. Because his poem had been repaired, it was slightly narrowed; and fit my hand rather well. I good naturedly tried to encourage him though he had made peace with his circumstance long before meeting me. As he took Elder Colburn's place, we seem to hit it off right away and spent very little time becoming accustomed to one another. We seem to complement one another rather well and enjoyed our companionship while I was in Hertford. 

Snow

One morning, we awoke to a rather significant snowfall that had occurred during the night. It had snowed about 3 inches deep with fluffy wet snow. Because we were fully dependent upon our bicycles to travel to our tracting area, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to navigate such deep snow that morning.(Such deep snow was not a frequent event in Southern England) I remember elder Giles straddling his bike; displaying a significant amount of snow, attaching to either side of his front wheel. We waited a couple of hours for the snow to begin melting before we braved travelling in the wet snow that remained. We were able to navigate along the various roads because they had shown significant progress in melting the snow that had fallen. We just had to avoid any slick spots. The entire countryside had been covered by a pleasant, pure blanket of snow. From our window we could observe the entire area in vivid, white snow. 

As it so happens, we were tracting a street in Hertford that was near the center of the town. The street was a rather well traveled street; and there was a significant amount of traffic on it that day. We were tracting homes that were fairly near the street because there was only a narrow sidewalk in front of their doors. Their doors opened almost directly onto the street; with only about 2 1/2 feet of sidewalk to the street where cars and lorries whizzed by (An English lorry was the equivalent of a Mack truck). As we knocked on these doors, we spent a minute or so speaking with the individual who answered the door. This one particular time, we were speaking with a woman and heard a lorry passing by as we stood in front of her door. Her eyes quickly widened, and she quickly shut the door - just as the lorry passed by; producing a huge wave of draining street water to absolutely envelope both Elder Giles and myself. I quickly surmised that the lorry driver knew exactly what he was doing when he drove so close to the sidewalk amidst the observable water there. For this to cover both Elder Giles and myself, it had to be a very large wave of water indeed. We were both well over 6 feet tall. That water that didn't hit our backs dashed against the woman's door; covering it with street water and bouncing back to drench our fronts. (Because the sun shone and was melting the snow, we were not wearing our rain macs) Being completely drenched by this experience, we had little recourse but to head home to dry clothes. (no one was going to invite us in being as drenched as we were.) 

Confrontation

It was while I was with Elder Giles in Hertford that a significant event occurred one day. We had been tracting in a fairly densely populated part of Hertford and had chosen to lunch in a nearby park in the midst of the subdivisions. We obtained a sandwich and soda pop from the shops prior to entering the park and sat down in the grassy sunlit area. We were about 30 feet away from a nearby park public convenience and sat there enjoying the sunlight, the slight grassy hill, and our lunch. We were all alone in the park and enjoying our lunch amidst these pleasant surroundings. After a little while Elder Giles announced that he was going to visit the public convenience; and walked off toward the building; leaving his lunch sitting on the grass near where I was sitting. Just about that time a group of teenage boys about 16 entered the park and walked toward where I was sitting. We had become familiar with these group of teenage boys who wore thick heavy boots and short haircuts. They almost always travelled in a pack! They were frequently referred to as - skinheads! I knew that I was going to be singled out because I appeared to be alone in the midst of the park. The boys surrounded me where I sat and began to taunt me; because I was obviously religious and apparently a missionary who would not contend with such obvious skinheads. I had expected such treatment and was tolerating their derision as they stood surrounding me. One of the boys reached down and took my soda pop which still had a little bit left in the bottle. Because I was no longer interested in eating my lunch (because I was full) I did not contend with this boy. However, as he drank the soda pop another boy reached down to take my companion’s soda pop. I firmly stated that he was not to do that (because it was not mine to permit). I explained that it was my companion’s (not mine to give) and he was in the public convenience. Because I was countering their combined derisive taunting, they immediately began to taunt me even louder and more sarcastically; counting on their numbers (there were about 6 of them) to protect them from challenge. Because they had not especially done anything (just verbal cat calls) I saw no reason to confront them nor challenge them. Following their verbal derision, they moved to a nearby wooden fence to climb over it and continue their way. As they did, I began thinking that they should not be allowed to get away with such foolishness. As they were endeavoring to climb the fence (the first one had not yet climbed the fence) I stood up and began walking toward them. They had been ignoring me and one of the fellows saw me coming (I was about 35 feet away). He informed his companions and they turned as a group to face me. I was incensed and walked right up to them and through them (they stood aside) to their leader who was attempting to climb the fence. As incensed as I was, my anger was clearly observable. And I grabbed the leader by his shirt with my 2 fists. I was now about two inches from his face and was singling him out with my face directly in front of his. I growled through gritted teeth in his face that, “If he was ever to do anything like that to me again, I would put my fist through his face!!”. I then shoved him away from me against the fence and turned to face his fellows. Expecting to be overwhelmed by his group of teenagers; I walked back through the I'll I had made walking to their leader. As I walked back to where I was having lunch I fully expected them 2 come after me and I would have to fight the entire group. Nevertheless I was so incensed that I was willing to risk that. As I sat down, I observed them scrambling over the fence. Once they were protectively behind the fence (they were observable behind a chain link fence that attached to the wooden fence) they once again commenced their cat calls. I had accomplished my purposes and was no longer concerned with these ‘punks’. A short time later, elder Giles emerged from the public convenience and we returned to our tracting. 

Package

While in Hertford after Elder Giles had arrived, I received a ‘care package’ from my family. I was excited to receive it and anxious to examine its contents. It contained a clock radio; several personal items; and a knitted sweater that my father had completed; one each for both me and Jay! While I could only use the radio to wake me in the morning and on preparation days, I took particular interest in the sweater that my father had knitted for me. It was an intricate design incorporating totem poles in the front and rear of the warm bulky sweater. It also had totem poles on each sleeve. It was a beautiful sweater and invoked feelings of immense gratitude for the love my father had expended and then sent me and my brother. Of course, I could only wear the sweater on preparation days. I found that I didn't wear the sweater very much because I was very concerned that I might get it smudged so I kept it carefully wrapped throughout the remainderW of my mission. I still have it as a memento to this very day. Shortly after receiving these things, our zone leaders came to spend a couple of days with us in our area. Elder Walunas was one of the zone leaders; and had developed quite a reputation amongst all the missionaries. He had spent time in Vietnam prior to receiving his mission call and was significantly older than the rest of us. He had also developed quite a reputation of baptizing. Thus, it was with a certain sense of awe that we invited him into our digs. As he was unpacking his luggage, he noticed my clock radio and I was unwrapping my sweater to show him. He did not readily recognize the emotional significance of the sweater and took it upon himself to gently chastise me about the clock radio. He also began to taunt me As I showed him the sweater. Because I did not appreciate his taunting and thought it was beneath his station as zone leader; I immediately began to feign distress. I sat on the side of my bed, hung my head, and sadly, mentioned that the sweater had been knitted by my mother! I then tearfully added that she had died only a few weeks prior. With this elder wholeness began to strongly apologize for his callous behaviour. I let him go on for a short moment and then revealed through my countenance that my sadness had been a ruse. He became somewhat angry with my deception and began to chastise me even further. I caught him mid sentence and explained that the sweater had actually been knitted by my father and I held it in high regard. I then told him that he didn't know for sure whether or not someone might have experienced such a circumstance as I had presented. I’d intended to warn him that he should not revert to his military coarseness. He knew better and needed to treat all missionaries with respect and honor. He accepted the council I had given him and repeated his chastisement to me regarding my clock radio. What he didn't know is that I didn't use it for anything other than an alarm clock. My experience with this vaulted missionary was a memorable one. 

Welwyn

In late March, elder Giles and I were instructed to locate digs and open up the area of Welwyn Garden City. It was "a town designed for healthy living and industry making possible a full measure of social life, surrounded by a rural belt". Welwyn was very different from Hertford which grew up ‘organically’ and was well ensconced in British history. It was about 10 miles away; and Elder Giles and I looked forward to the opportunities made available to us in opening up a brand new area. We located a landlord that was willing to rent us some digs and we bid our current landlady goodbye.  Because Welwyn Garden City was so well designed, the residential communities were well planned and located together; making tracting rather easy. Our digs were in an upstairs room of a middle-aged couple having a spare room. We were getting used to living with them as we used available bathroom and kitchen privileges.  We had an oil heater near our single beds to provide warmth in the early mornings of our scripture study.  Unfortunately, while providing heat; it also dried out the air and made it difficult to keep our eyes open. As it turned out, I was only there about 9 days and was then transferred to Teddington where I became a Senior Companion. 

Senior Companion

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Leatherhead

As my days as a senior companion came to a close, I was transferred to Leatherhead England as a companion to elder David Richards. He was a missionary that had been in the mission field for about 8 months and was what I would consider somewhat ‘cocky’ concerning almost anyone he came in contact with. He was cocky with regard to the English people; he was cocky with regards to any missionary that had been in England for less time than him; he was even cocky with those he worked with - including me. He he introduced himself almost immediately as the grandson of general authority, Elder Franklin D Richards. I was not particularly impressed by this and I suspect he detected my mild disdain add him invoking his lineage as something to warrant respect from others. I did not consider this to be of much significance and conversely believed that one garnered respect from another based on their own achievement and performance. I can only assume that my conflicting belief permeated my interactions with elder Richards. Friction between us developed fairly quickly and was held in abeyance by me for the next four to five weeks. nevertheless karma his cockiness seemed to pervade almost anything he did. Finally after about six weeks, the friction between us boiled over and we had serious conflict. I approached our district leader and explained to him the conflict and friction we were experiencing. I remember one confrontation where we almost came to blows (which was extremely unbecoming of servants of the Lord). I remember requesting of elder wyas (our Hawaiian district leader) that we be separated. Because elder Richards was transferred approximately a week later I can only assume that elder wyeths reported my request to our mission president and we were separated as quickly as possible. Though I saw elder Richards but a few times thereafter; I found I still held a measure of resentment toward him. It was a good thing that we were separated!