Larry 1:5 - 5th Article of Faith - Called of God by prophecy and laying on of hands

5.  I believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

"Called to Serve Him"

Believing as I do in God, the Eternal Father who is an exalted and perfected Being, omniscient and omnipotent, and who has a plan for us, His children, which we supported in our pre-earth life, therefore; it seems reasonable and very rational to me that His implementation of His plan by and through His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ would be handled by a system of perfect order and delegation as necessary.

Thus, the Priesthood, after the Holy Order of the Son of God and its accompanying keys, assignments, and stewardship for Angels, Prophets, and worthy, faithful, and obedient agents to act in His behalf.

It follows then that callings and ordinations would take place properly authorized from God via His Son and so forth for the blessing of mankind and to fulfill Their purposes.

My earliest recollection of how this works in my life was probably when I was a new Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood of the Ogden 56th Ward.  I was new to Priesthood organization and callings but soon learned by experience with the other young quorum members and by callings that were extended to me that I could and would serve the Lord by accepting calls of leadership in all three of the AP quorums.

When I was Priest age I remember helping by teaching some of our own youth Sunday School class but I don't remember being called to do so, it's probably just what we did together since we were a tight group of youth.  Ended when we got Sister Christensen as our SS teacher I suppose.

The next big step for me was receiving a call to serve a FT mission in Switzerland in October 1967 and then being ordained an Elder and receiving my temple endowment at the Salt Lake Temple prior to leaving.

After my mission came the most important calling of my life for now and for eternity, to be a husband!   On Friday the 13th of November 1970 I was blessed to marry Melanie Stone in the Logan Temple.  Wow!  What a time in my/our life and for our future family.

I had a few callings to serve with the youth, as a BB coach, and then in 1972-3 as a counselor to Jack Shaum (of Stop and Shop grocery store) in the YM presidency of the Ogden 7th Ward until my work took us to San Francisco for the summer.

The next calling I remember was after Melanie and I moved to our first home at 319 E 4300 S in Washington Terrace.   I was called for a short time to serve as Scoutmaster and to again coach the YM BB team which I enjoyed.   Then, I was called to serve as a counselor to Walter J. Mikesell in the Sunday School Presidency.

But at this time came the second most important and eternal calling in my life.   On Monday, February 24th, 1975 I became a father to our firstborn son, Jeremy William Hansen.  Again such a terrific blessing to me/us I can't overstate its significance to us both!

Then, while there in the Washington Terrace 4th Ward, I was called to be the Elder's Quorum President in the Washington Terrace 4th Ward and I in turn asked for him, Walter J. Mikesell, along with Danny Blaylock to serve with me as counselors.  We enjoyed our service very much, held PPI's, had good HT success, etc.

Pres. Darrell Olsen of the WT Stake was disappointed when I told him of our move to the Riverdale 1st Ward, in July 1977, but soon after the move I was called by Bp. Gail Sanders to be the ward Finance Clerk.  This was new to me but not hard for me because I liked this type of thing!

Don't remember how long it lasted though before I was then called by Pres. Wes Barton to be the Elder's Quorum President, my second chance at success.   I remember having Glade Wiser and Dave Fowler and Scott Priest as counselors and secretary.  Glade and I went on to become very close friends over the following years.  We enjoyed service and welfare projects, etc.

That calling lasted until early in 1980 when the ward boundaries changed and I was called to serve with Bp. Bryce Gibby as the Ward Clerk/Finance Clerk of the Riverdale 3rd Ward.  This was a new and interesting opportunity to be a little more involved with the Bishopric while I fulfilled my Ward Clerk duties and I learned a lot from he and his counselors, Joe Thompson and Dennis Hill.

Then in 1982 Dennis was released and I was called to replace him in the Bishopric as the 2nd Counselor to Bp. Gibby.  Melanie's dad, Clarence William 'Bill' Stone, ordained me a High Priest and thus started another adventure in the Lord's work and service.  This was an opportunity to reconnect a little more with the people-side of the ward and this felt wonderful to me.

In 1984 things changed once again.  Bp. Gibby was released and succeeded by Bp Dixon Walker who called me to serve as his 1st Counselor in the Bishopric, probably after being counseled to consider doing so by the Stake?  Steve Kimber was called to be the 2nd Counselor.  Anyway, although every Bishopric is a little different and the Lord calls different men at different times for different reasons, we did serve together for about two years.

Then in March of 1986, the stake boundaries were realigned once again and a new ward, the Riverdale 7th Ward was formed.  I was called by Pres. Ronald Hamblen to be the Bishop!  This was a big change and shock to me.   I was familiar with some of what the Bishop did, but I really had no idea how deep and strong the currents of service in this sacred office ran.  But along with my counselors, Dale Hunter and Kent Hill, we did our best.

Kent eventually moved and Greg Limburg was called to be his replacement as the 2nd Counselor. 

Greg served a while and then was released and Dan Beech succeeded him for the remainder of my term as Bishop.  These were wonderful days, never to be forgotten and cherished by us forever and ever.  We were released on Mother's Day 1991 after a little over five years of service.   Dan, Dale and I along with our wives get together every year for dinner to celebrate this wonderful time of service and our brotherhood.  I love these men!

After being released as Bishop, Stake President Ron Hamblen called me later in 1991 to serve on the High Council with an assignment to the Melchizedek Priesthood Committee under Pres. Carl Cook, his 2nd Counselor.  I had an assignment as well to assist with the Riverdale 2nd ward leadership and MP.  Bp. Brett Schneiter was 2nd Ward Bishop at that time.  I grew to love attending and serving there and with the other eleven on the HC and the Stake Presidency which also included Pres. Keith Carrigan as the 1st Counselor.

While on the HC, I also had an assignment which would prove valuable in my future work.  This was to organize and assist with a Sr. Citizens dinner etc. each year.

After serving on the HC for a time, in early 1993 Pres Hamblen was released as the Stake President.   Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Twelve came to reorganize our stake leadership.   Pres. Carl Cook was called and I was called to be his 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency along with Pres. Bob Kellerstrass as his 2nd Counselor. 

This was another exciting and demanding calling which provided much learning and growing experience.   It was a little bit different to work on the Stake level and deal primarily with those in the Stake who were strong and active.  During this time we took turns renewing Temple Recommends which became one of my favorite duties, meeting with those faithful members.

After a year or two Pres. Kellerstrass was released and replaced by Pres. Steven Eichmeier as 2nd Counselor.   I didn't really know him well prior, but over the remaining years we became very close friends serving together.

This calling in the Stake Presidency continued for about eight years when, not to our surprise, Pres Cook was called in 2001 to be an Area Authority Seventy.   We were released and President Bret Schneiter was called to succeed Pres Cook.

(As a side note, Pres Cook continued a few years until he was called to be the President of the New Zealand Auckland Mission after which he was called again as an Area Authority Seventy.  This time he served until April 2011 when he was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy as a General Authority of the Church.  From this point he was assigned to the Area Presidency of the Africa Southeast Area as the 2nd Counselor to Pres. Dale Renlund.  When Pres Renlund was released in 2014 Carl was called to be the Area President.  More on this later.)

After my release from the Stake Presidency, I returned to the Riverdale 3rd Ward and served once again with now Bishop Joe Thompson as his Ward Clerk.  This continued for some time until Bro. Gunther Gaudig, the Ward Finance Clerk became terminally ill and then I assisted him to the end and eventually took over for him after his passing.    Bro. Gaudig had served as my Finance Clerk when I was Bishop as well, he was a wonderul German brother and did a tremendous job in serving.

About this time, in fact it was November 24th, 2004, came the next biggest and blessed calling of my life,  I became a Grandfather to Jimmy's little girl, Marlie Hansen.  Again an almost indescribable joyous occasion and experience.   Just look at her and those beautiful big blue eyes!

After serving again as Finance Clerk my calling shifted for a time to Missionary work.   I was called to serve as a Ward Missionary with my dear brother Dale Hunter who was the Ward Mission Leader.   Once again we were together and out visiting the people in their homes which we both loved as much as just being together!  We also enjoyed teaching the Gospel Principles SS class and grew the class and had a great time with the members and investigators.

When the time came for us to move to our new home in 2010, Melanie and I received a calling to teach the Temple Preparation lessons in our new ward the Riverdale 8th with Bp. James Aurich (who had served as our Exec Secretary while we were in the Stake Presidency).  We served in this for a while and were happy to teach Clark and Connie Bybee and attend the temple with them.  

Then we were both called as Ward Missionaries and I as the Ward Mission Leader, succeeding Mitch Shaw, former Bishop of the Riverdale 3rd Ward who had been called to succeed Pres. Schneiter as Riverdale Stake President.  Again we tried to engage in Missionary work in the ward and had some other wonderful Ward missionaries working with us, Rose Bell, Iris Graham, Jodi Brown, in particular.

Pres Mitch called us in to his office in the early months of 2011 and called us to serve on a PT Service Mission to the Jefferson Ward over in Ogden where Bp. Howard Pluim was serving.  This was an exciting calling for the two of us.  I was asked to assist with fixing some financial and audit related issues that had developed in the ward and Melanie was asked to assist wherever the Bishop needed her.

My time in this calling after fixing some of the old long-standing issues was to deal with finance and specifically helping those PT Service Missionaries deal with administering Welfare to the needy members.   This was a gigantic burden for the ward and I was happy to assist wherever I could with this.  We enjoyed serving along side of Bret and Sue Schneiter, Mike and Nancy Hales, and Dave and Connie Bailey.

Melanie helped in Primary some but most interestingly she served as a Visiting Teaching companion to Carolyn Lawrence.   They had quite a list of sisters to visit and went every month.   But probably most importantly, they became close friends and blessings in each other's lives.

We served together at Jefferson until November 2013, a 30-month assignment which we loved from the first to the last day.  We were asked to serve for 24 months but we requested a six-month extension which was approved.

By the end of our service mission we had arrived at the decision to retire from our work and put our papers in for a Full-Time senior mission.  So towards the end of 2013 we began with the medical and dental side of things to get the paperwork together to submit.

After the turn of the year 2014 we had our interviews with Bishop Hall and President David DeYoung (he had succeeded Pres Shaw after his fatal accident).   Then the mission papers went to SLC.

On February 13th, 2014, we gathered our family together at our home to open the large white envelopes from SLC.  To make this especially more memorable for our oldest granddaughter Marlie, we had everyone sit in a circle around us and had Marlie read the letters.  Wendy created a special video to memorialize this terrific experience.   

[Insert the video clip here somehow.]

South Africa Johannesburg Mission, 18 months beginning on Monday, June 2nd with a two-week MTC training in Provo.   Wow!   This was exciting to us.  Ben and Jill were serving in Johannesburg, he as Executive Secretary to the Area President, now Carl Cook!   We were going to join them in South Africa, amazing!

We served as an 'Office Couple' in the Mission Office along side of the Thompson's for a little over eight months.  President Dunn then transferred us to a MLS (Member Leadership Support) way up north-east to the Limpopo Province to live in the city of Polokwane and serve in a group of that Branch in the township of Seshego.  We replaced another senior couple, the Harwards, who returned home.

[Insert more about this later.]

April 29, 2015 I was called by President Dunn to be his 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency.  I tried the best I could for the short time this lasted, until July 1, 2015, to assist him and lighten his heavy load.   This helped him regarding the ecclesiastical side of his calling which deals with members, recommends, Priesthood advancements, and other assignments.   I was very happy to be able to help any way I could to help lift the burden placed upon Pres. Dunn.

Front, E. Menendez, Sis. Dunn, Pres. Dunn, E. Malapula;
2nd, Sis. Allred, Melanie, Sis. Thompson;
3rd, E. Allred, me, E. Thompson.

Then we got a surprise visit towards the end of June 2015.  Pres. and Sister Dunn came up to visit with us and the Winwards (E. Winward was serving as the Polokwane Branch President).  We were invited to a special stake conference meeting down in Pretoria where we would be informed that two stakes would be formed from the one there.   Also, that our mission was to be realigned and all of us serving in the Pretoria and Limpopo areas would be shifted and re-assigned to the Botswana/Namibia mission as of July 1, 2015.

We were both surprised and shocked but willing to move forward.  The younger Elders had a harder time with the change, but change we did.  Pres. Wilson asked me to assume 'Office' duties until such time as a new couple arrived to take over (this actually happened a few months later at the end of November).

In August Pres. Wilson came to Seshego and officially organized the new Seshego Branch, independent of the Polokwane Branch and now on its own with Pres. Elias Mashishi, 1C Martin Sefara, and 2C Andries Mogatho.

We bid farewell to the Winwards in mid-September and to the Butler's in mid-November as they both finished their missions. Following a nice send-off by our Branch members at the end of November, Melanie and I bid them a warm, loving farewell and left for home December 2, 2015.   So happy for the experiences, sad to leave them.

Pres. DeYoung released us as full-time missionaries the night we returned on the 3rd of December.  We reported to the High Council the following Sunday.  We reported in our Ward the same day.  We spoke in 8 of the 9 Riverdale Wards as well.

In January I was called to team-teach SS course 16-17 with Josh Taylor.

In April I was called to be an ordinance worker at the Ogden Temple.  Melanie was called shortly thereafter.  We were set apart and started serving May 5th on the mid-day shift, Thursday's and Friday's.

[It is now September, much has changed,  audits performed, Seshego Branch organized, baptisms and progress....add more later.]