Yesterday I got a comment on my flashlight post from someone I didn't quite remember from their blog title. They made a reference to my 9/19/07 post and that they had left a comment there as well that I hadn't responded to. (I don't generally make it a habit to go to months past and check for comments.)
I went back to the entry and it came to me as clear as a bell as soon as I read that post and comment! It was Wayne Van Tassell! We had gone to West Torrance High School together with several other friends in common. Wayne was not a member of the church at the time and a friend of mine, Sandy Robbins, spoke to him about the gospel and the church. Wayne began searching and was baptized! He knew my parents well also.
I went off to college in Provo, and he and Sandy were a year behind me and finished up their senior year. I lost contact with Wayne, and Sandy came to the Y and we were roommates. What I learned yesterday, is that he also went to BYU, joined the Navy and was a nuclear reactor operator on a submarine for 6 years. Went back to the Y, grauduated in engineering, has lived in several places in the country. He married in the Los Angeles Temple, has 5 children, 3 grandchildren and lives in Ogden and works now in Salt Lake City!
He threw out a 'tease' that I had his picture on my blog! I thought, no--I don't. Then Shaun said maybe he was a photographer and I had a picture that he might have taken that I got off a search site. No, again. He is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the bass section! and I have a picture of the Choir representing General Conference on my blog. He told me where he was and I will look for him tomorrow morning and all through conference.
We've exchanged emails. What I want to post so that I can remember is this: The joy and peace and excitement that I have felt today is PROFOUND. That after 30+ years to be reconnected however briefly with Wayne and hear his testimony and about his life and family strongly rooted in the gospel is beyond a mortal feeling. The scripture in Alma 17:2 has been playing over and over again in my mind and heart: "...Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."
This is when Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah met up after years of separation and were so happy to see each other again, especially that they had remained steadfast. It is the same feeling that I experienced in the temple with Patti and Richard when Meredith received her endowment. And the feeling I felt as Mike and Adrianne and Josh and Meredith were married--that we were being 'reunited' on earth after our 'separation' from the pre-mortal world.
I'm grateful for this glimpse of eternity.
I went back to the entry and it came to me as clear as a bell as soon as I read that post and comment! It was Wayne Van Tassell! We had gone to West Torrance High School together with several other friends in common. Wayne was not a member of the church at the time and a friend of mine, Sandy Robbins, spoke to him about the gospel and the church. Wayne began searching and was baptized! He knew my parents well also.
I went off to college in Provo, and he and Sandy were a year behind me and finished up their senior year. I lost contact with Wayne, and Sandy came to the Y and we were roommates. What I learned yesterday, is that he also went to BYU, joined the Navy and was a nuclear reactor operator on a submarine for 6 years. Went back to the Y, grauduated in engineering, has lived in several places in the country. He married in the Los Angeles Temple, has 5 children, 3 grandchildren and lives in Ogden and works now in Salt Lake City!
He threw out a 'tease' that I had his picture on my blog! I thought, no--I don't. Then Shaun said maybe he was a photographer and I had a picture that he might have taken that I got off a search site. No, again. He is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the bass section! and I have a picture of the Choir representing General Conference on my blog. He told me where he was and I will look for him tomorrow morning and all through conference.
We've exchanged emails. What I want to post so that I can remember is this: The joy and peace and excitement that I have felt today is PROFOUND. That after 30+ years to be reconnected however briefly with Wayne and hear his testimony and about his life and family strongly rooted in the gospel is beyond a mortal feeling. The scripture in Alma 17:2 has been playing over and over again in my mind and heart: "...Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."
This is when Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah met up after years of separation and were so happy to see each other again, especially that they had remained steadfast. It is the same feeling that I experienced in the temple with Patti and Richard when Meredith received her endowment. And the feeling I felt as Mike and Adrianne and Josh and Meredith were married--that we were being 'reunited' on earth after our 'separation' from the pre-mortal world.
I'm grateful for this glimpse of eternity.
