Zoom Church – A Cross on the 17th

June 7, 2020

David Dibble (American, born 1977)

Reverence (2019)

Thomas was giving the discussion that follows the sacrament being passed in Zoom Church.

He opened by asking a question associated with the week’s scripture readings.

The question was from The Centre for Latter-Day Saints Art Website, and Thomas was drawing attention to a picture by David Dibble of an old barn the structure, which the artist had softened to give cathedral-like properties.

The question Thomas asked all of us was “What stories from your ancestors have shaped your life approach?”

Catherine offer her story, one from her Grandfather Doral Pilling’s life. Catherine told the story from memory. Catherine said this story helped her know how important it is to test something out. Doral recorded this story in his life history. I am going copy that except from his book, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Oral History Program, Doral Pilling, page 72-73. Doral says,

I now have to go back a bit and fill in a little of my personal life. I was born a member of the Mormon Church. Until I was about 13, I always attended, but at that time I went to Shelby, Montana where there was not a branch of our church, so I gradually weaned myself away from participation in church activities. In Shelby there was nothing of a “spiritual nature” that I could go to, so I became inactive. It wasn’t until I was about 31 years old that I decided to give the Church an opportunity to help me. It happened this way.

Several of my good friends were active in the Church, here in Calgary – they continually used every possible means to persuade me to become active, but without avail. On the other side I have several good friends that were not Mormons. The first thing I knew, I was, in my own mind, making comparisons between my non-member and member friends. The non-members, generally, had more money and better jobs, but somehow the member friends seemed to be the happiest. Sure, I thought, there must be a reason; but what could it be?
The only way I could find out was to compare them, but how could I do that without doing the things the Mormons were doing? 

I had given the other side some eighteen years of fair trail, so I decided to give the Church a chance. 

They all seemed so sure of their position, although it didn’t seem sound to me. 

I don’t know what month it was, but it was the 17th of the month when I walked up to my calendar, put a cross on the 17th, and then counted over six months, and marked the 17th again. 

I made a decision there! 

What I was going to do was to go to every meeting the Church had and do whatever they asked me to do, for a period of six months. I didn’t find it easy to make this move, and at first, I thought maybe the little old church we were going to might cave in on me, but as I attended and took part. I think I became more “sure of myself” than my Mormon friends had been. Before the six months was up, I was the President of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association, where there was lots of activity and that suited me just fine. Afterall, I liked to be a winner, and sports was the one place where I had had most of my practices, so I liked it. (p 72-73)

Each of us at Zoom Church answered the same question: what stories from your ancestors have shaped your life approach?  I also shared one from Doral's life, remembering him telling it to me in always the same version. I go to this story when I have questions about if there is really life after death.  This story happened when Doral was a student at the University of Utah. 

Doral writes,

Although I had my tonsils removed when a boy, I was still having trouble with them so I went to the doctor and he told me that they had only been “partially” removed and that they were imbedded in my throat and would have to be removed. He wanted $50 for the job, but said he could do it in our house for $35, so I took the $35 job. He turned out to be not much of a doctor and they thought I was going to die. I was out for a long time, and when I came to I told them that Adolph Woolstien (he was the other javelin thrower) had died. They laughed at me, thinking I had a dream but when they went to school they came back and told me that Adolph had his eyes dilated for testing, and while walking on a plank over a skylight in the Park Building he stepped off the board, fell through the glass, and lighting on the steps had died. This always bothered me a bit, but it is true. (p33-34)

Eric Jarvis, Kathryn and George Jarvis, Rebecca Jarvis, Thomas Jarvis and Norman Kong all shared stories of ancestors that had shaped their lives as well.

Arta