Women Aren't Welcome Here

It's amazing (but maybe very common in the church) how fast we can adjust to change even when that change comes much sooner than we may expect.  I was comfortable teaching the boys in Primary  each week and Relief Society once a month.  Maybe that was the problem.  I was getting too comfortable.  But I wasn't quite ready for an extreme change.  I was called to be Primary president.  I just couldn't see myself being a leader ... of anything.  I had been a counselor before in several other organizations but never president.  I have always been uncomfortable interacting with people,  but I learned to handle smaller numbers.  And I did enjoy teaching because it gave me the opportunity to learn.  You've heard it said that a teacher learns more than her/his students.  That is so true.  I had learned how the scouting program works and I had two boys coming up who would soon be in that organization, so that knowledge would be very helpful.  Teaching doctrinal lessons in Relief Society helped me to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm sure I would learn additional skills (specifically leadership skills and how to survive working with large groups of people even if most of them would be children).  I did love children and had had some experience with my own "gaggle" of them.   So I just dove in and tried to let the Spirit guide me as to what I should do.  About my only achievement was organizing for the first time a centralized filing system for visual aids to be used for each class.  Before, each teacher received a packet  of aids for her class that came from Salt Lake.  The aids would get lost over the year and would have to be re-ordered.  Now they would check out what they needed each week and then return them to our central primary "library".  It worked out great.  Wouldn't you know, the next year the church changed its' library system to include all visual aids.  We had the idea first.  (not really).

When Jim was called into the bishopric of our ward,  I was customarily released from Primary.  But because I had had experience now with scouting and the primary program I was quickly grabbed up by the stake Primary.  Back in those days the stake primary presidency include a scout leader. That was my calling. I was called to be the scout director for the Primary.  As I mentioned previously, not only were the cub scouts under the direction of the Primary but also the Guide Patrol,  the 11year old regular scouts.  But now they wanted me to get the same formal training as prospective scout masters. I think they thought that would give me more "legitimacy" when training new scout leaders in the Primary. That was part of my new calling.   This was really intimidating because most of the leaders of the 11 year old scouts were men.  And ... women had never been included in district held Scout Master training.

You should have seen the look on the faces of those aspiring Scout Masters when I walked into that class that first night.  They told me that I was in the wrong class on the wrong night ... that cub scout training was on a different night.  When I said I wasn't here for Cubs ... that I was here for Scout Master training, some men started laughing while the teacher of the group politely informed me that women were not allowed to be Scout Masters.  Even when I tried to explain how the LDS program of scouting worked, and that I would only be teaching scouting skills,  he  hesitantly let me stay while he "looked into the matter'.

The first thing I realized was that I needed a uniform.  But only blue Den Mother's ones were available.  So I made a skirt in the proper color, bought a a size  "small" mens shirt,  and added the necessary scout masters decals.  At that first meeting we were divided into patrols.  Of course nobody wanted me in their patrol.  When I offered to make the patrol flag for any patrol that would take me, I received several offers.  I don't think they really thought I would follow through or even show up at the next meeting because I had been so humiliated .  But show up I did with the most awesome flag of any other patrol.  I was now getting my foot in the door.  Each meeting after that I brought homemade cookies, cinnamon rolls, and speciality cakes and breads.  I  volunteered to make or bring anything my patrol was assigned.  By now my petrol loved me and all the rest were jealous.  I finished my training and still have a certificate to prove it.  I still may be the only trained woman "Scout Master" in the church.

I was now also responsible for the Cub Scout program in our stake. That included organizing and carrying out a yearly day camp for these boys.  When I tried to find some guidelines for these camps or perhaps someone who knew what had been done in the past, I came up empty.  So I had to start from scratch.  I talked to other stakes, to mothers of cubs and to my fellow presidency members.  All they could tell me was that it was different every year.  So..... I developed my own ideas as to what a day camp should be for young aspiring scouts.  And I did put all my plans, including maps and names of potential qualified and experienced men that could be asked to help into book form.  At least there would be one reference book that could be used another year.  I later learned that that book became the standard guide for all future day camps in that stake.  I'm not bragging.  I just realized that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ uses whatever talents we my have to further Their work.  I am an organizer.  I love order and I love to organize things .... anything.  Just ask Jim.  He hates it!!!

One of the perks of this calling was that once a year I was able to go to Salt Lake at conference time where they gave training sessions during the week before conference for all stake leaders of all the various organizations in the church.  I don't remember how I was able to get away from family responsibilities in order to go, but I really did enjoy being with all the sisters in these sessions.  Oh, yes.  nI just remembered that my older girls would have been in high school at this time so I had "built in" baby sitters.

Life Brings Changes, Growth, and Humor

The next five years in Thousand Oaks brought many new experiences in my life which gave me opportunities to learn and grow.  My main focus at this time was my family and trying to be a better mom.  I worked harder at having quality Family Home Evenings.  With seven children now ranging in age from a a new baby to those dreaded teenagers it was hard to reach them all.  Jeanie and Debbie were now in high school having graduated from Waverly Junior High school (Jeanie was valedictorian.  Kathi was in sixth grade and Jon had started kindergarten.  That left me at home with just the baby for at least part of the day.  This gave me an opportunity to attend the traveling "Education Weeks" which were held in California in areas where there were a large number of church members.  They were kind of like the education weeks now held on the BYU campus every year only on a smaller scale.  These usually lasted 2 or 3 days, and you could attend classes you were interested in.  I loved these opportunities to learn more about the church.  When one was being held in the San Fernando valley, about twenty miles from our home, I decided to take Lea and go.  I packed her up in her carrier, took extra bottles just in case I couldn't find a time or place to nurse her, and took off for the day.  I didn't know how this was going to work but I took a chance.  I wasn't disappointed.  Lea was SO good through all the classes so I was even able to take notes.  Dad and I also took the opportunity to attend the monthly "Know Your Religion" series which were held in stake centers in the evening.  I loved learning all I could about the church and my testimony grew from these opportunities.

A great tradition was established during those first years in Thousand Oaks.  The bishop in our ward arranged a campout for the all the members of our ward  Every summer he would reserve a camp sight at Lopez Lake, a resort about 150 miles away.  We went that first year and every year after.  But that was only the beginning.  When the ward quit going, the Mortensens did not.  Our family loved to camp, and as the resort grew and grew with boat rentals, waterslide, and slack lines added our family grew and grew with it.  At first we would rent a "patio" boat for our family until it no longer held our growing family.  We have been going every year to Lake Lopez for the past 48 years and counting.
Those now attending range from the 60 to 70.  About ten years ago we buried a time capsule at the lake which we will did up on our 50th anniversary.  I just hope I will still be around.  I hope to do a whole posting on just our experiences at Lake Lopez over the years.  So many wonderful memories.

I just have to include some humor in this post.  I hate to read boring histories that are more like travelogues.  So .... I cannot help but laugh even now when I recall this incident.  It began when we decided to buy a few chicks with the idea of having our own eggs and even some home grown dinners.  Dad had had a lot of experience killing and preparing chickens for eating in his youth.  That last idea soon came to an end when the kids started naming all the chicks.  I only remember one of those names which was, "Roadrunner".  They loved playing games with the those chicks until they grew into hens and one rooster.  It was that rooster who soon became a problem.  He would roost at night in the tree in our back yard right in back of our bedroom.  Do roosters crow early in the morning?  Yes!!  And sometimes all night.  It was one of those "sometimes" nights that my husband could not sleep because that rooster would not stop crowing.  I could only watch as he jumped out of bed, and dressed only in his underwear, he ran outside, climbed up that tree, grabbed the rooster by the neck, shook him violently five or six times while yelling, "shut up you dumb rooster" (or something even worse), then threw him to the ground.  Needless to say that rooster ended up on our Sunday dinner table.  The boys favorite part of this incident was when Dad chopped of the roosters head and talked him into letting go of its' legs.  You don't have to guess why they thought that this was "cool".

Answers and Blessings Come

I left you hanging in that last post for a long, long time ( 6 years).  If you have been trying to follow this blog I'm sure by now you have just given up.  I won't try to explain or make excuses, but the Spirit has been prompting for quite some time to  "get with it again" or I will be running out of time.  When the Spirit speaks I try to listen.  So now my history, which is contained in this blog, has become a priority.  My eyesight is going as is the mobility in my hands, not to mention my brain which is losing cells at an accelerated pace.

Now to get back to that last post in which I left you hanging.  It ended with Jon, now about 4 years old, asked me question about the baby I was caring for at the time.  He loved that little baby and cried every time her mother came to pick her up.  Now for that question which he asked.  One day when that baby went out the door he turned to me and asked, "How can we get a baby we can keep?"  How could I answer that question when doctors had told me after the twins were born that I would never be able to conceive again because of medical issues.  We had been blessed to have Jon join our family because of a special blessing Jim (my husband) had been given when he was "set a part" as new elders quorum president in our ward.  Because of that miracle we named him Jon which means "Gift from God."                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                     The answer which I gave to Jon's question answer was, "We'll have to ask Heavenly Father" to which he said,  "Let's go ask Him right now".  What do I do?  I certainly didn't want to destroy the innocent faith he had that God does answer prayers.  He'd learned that in Primary.  Did I have the faith that Jon had?  Now I had to test it.  So we went together to the bedroom,  knelt beside the bed and Jon said a simple prayer asking God for a baby sister "in the name of Jesus Christ."

What was the result of this child's prayer?  Nine months later we were blessed with new baby girl whom we named Lea Rae.  After her birth neither I nor any one in the family could call her "my baby" or "our baby".  If we did,  Jon would say, "She's not your baby.  She's my baby.  You didn't pray for her.  I did."  From then on Lea was his baby and he showed it by the way he doted over her.  But she was blessing to our whole family.


Note:  As long as it has taken me to write this short posting, I will have to live to be 100 years old to finish the history of my life in this blog.  But I'm going to keep going as long as I can.