Mountain Top Reunion Summary 1975 - 1979
Mountain Top Missionaries
Check out the pictures from the reunion
Held July 4th to July 6th
Sister Scott, President Scott, President Preece, Sister Preece
More
pictures here
Reunion
Dates: July
4-6, 2002
The
following summary was provided by Sister Dixie (Lee) Adair
WOW......I guess I've been putting this off as long as I can. It's been over two weeks now since the reunion has ended and I have been postponing
this
e-mail - 1. because everyone received so many e-mails from me before the reunion
and - 2. I guess I was hoping someone would write this summary for me.
I don't know how I can put down in words how great this reunion was for me. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I think this was also the general
consensus of all those who attended. It is so amazing how a little glimpse of the past can enrich your future. We've learned that from the scriptures
haven't we?
The Picnic
The picnic was fantastic everyone who worked on it did such a great job. I know David Freeman and others were videotaping and we should be able to have
memories on tape from this event once they get all the tapes together. Brad Smith provided such a great area to have the picnic it was perfect for this
event. It was so much fun watching people drive up, and to see if you could recognize who they were before they put their name tags on. Name tags were
presented to each individual in attendance and the thanks for them went to Kenny Wardell and Jim Gish. We appreciate everyone that worked so hard to get
everyone set up and ready to go.
The T-shirts were beautiful and anyone that didn't get one is really missing a
great memento. Brad Smith did such an excellent job making the T-shirts possible for us. If you would still like a T-shirt from this reunion we are
taking names on a list and if the total adds up to over 50 shirts we have the opportunity to offer them to you once again, at a price of $15.00 plus shipping
and handling. Thanks also goes out to Raegene (Wahlstrom) Weston and to Susan (Gooch) Raines for helping to put together the sheets to help us find things to
do with our families, or our families to do in Salt Lake City in our spare time when we were not attending reunion events. The gathering of everyone together
again was so awesome....you just didn't know who to go talk to first and to be able to meet their families was a real plus. I personally had four of my
companions who attended. It was wonderful that so many came and participated. After the picnic lunch everyone brought for their own families the true
mingling began. Of course President and Sister Preece and President and Sister Scott were the height of the event for everyone. We then had a few games for
the kids thanks to Bruce Tyers and his family and Lori (Driskill) Kaler and hers. The adults preferred to just sit and mingle of course. We then had a
wonderful evening meal which consisted of Sloppy Joes, salad, and potato chips and it was topped off with watermelon for dessert it just hit the spot because
it was a little warmer outside than we had expected. The evening meal was a great success because of the great efforts of Daylene Wright and her son Cory,
and Carol Anne (Anderson) Rockwell, and all others who pitched in and helped. We, thanks to Brooks Walker, had an excellent sound system and were able to
have an inspirational talent show. The Cook family gave us a
wonderful patriotic musical number and then Russell Cook's beautiful wife gave us a patriotic reading. They are a very talented family. Then we had two of
Mike Petersen daughters, Sarah and Julie give us unforgettable solos....although I have forgotten the complete name of the first it was "Lavender something" and then
his eldest daughter, Julie sang the "Star Spangled Banner", another very talented family. We then topped off the talent show with our own Sister Diane (Brookes)
Anderson singing with her lovely voice the first verse of "High on a Mountain Top" with her inviting the rest of the group join in on the other verses. We
then held an auction for the remaining watermelons and salad pouches that were left over Carl Abla made the perfect auctioneer. This money helped to offset
the cost of the dinner and other expenses incurred during the course of the reunion....needless to say the good ole Mountain Top Spirit was there and the
auction was a great success. Thank you to everyone that participated. We topped off the evening with fireworks for the kids...I have to thank my family
which I never did introduce during the whole reunion. I did by no means purposely leave them out, but, I was very busy and my thought processes were
not always the best so I will do it now....even though you can't see them you will know I have them. Kerry my husband and faithful companion through this
whole thing from start to finish almost two years ago. My daughter Kindra age: 19 years, my son Tanner age 16 years, my daughter Kenzlee almost 14 years, my
daughter Kaci 11 years, and my son Keller almost 5 years. My many thanks go out to them for all their help and support.
Bountiful Temple Session:
How can I write about an experience that is so incredible. The only thing that could have made it better was if many, many others could have joined
us......It's like having one of the best experiences and you want to share it with all your family, but some are missing and you wish they were there to
share it with you. The Bountiful Temple is so beautiful it's situated high above the city and a perfect place for our missionaries to gather "High on a
Mountain Top." We met in the Temple chapel at 8:30 a.m. What a feeling to see those who you've
shared so much with, walk in in there white clothing in such a special place. I am sure we all felt the same feeling of unity recalling memories in our minds
of the great work we were all involved in together. Just to take it all in, the spirit was so strong. While we were waiting for everyone to come in the
chapel I opened the Book of Mormon to 3rd Nephi 11: 1 and I'm going to change this just a little bit so it will show how I felt just sitting there. "And
now it came to pass that there were a great multitude gathered together, of the people of the Canada Vancouver Mission, round about the temple which was in the
land Bountiful; and they were showing one to another the great and marvelous change which had taken place." I'm sure everyone that was there had their own
feelings about seeing everyone after they came out of the session into the Celestial Room. I will share just a couple of mine...when I walked into the
Celestial room how wonderful it felt to see those familiar yet different faces that I new from long ago.....how glorious will it be when you cross through
that veil from this life. I guess it gave me just a glimpse of that scene, how inexpressible the feeling to see all your family and friends again and how sad
not to see those who are not there. Missionary work is the key. How ironic isn't it. After we exited the Temple we enjoyed talking one with another and
taking pictures. Many thanks to Tod Phillips and Codi White for setting this wonderful opportunity up for us.
"The Testaments"
What a wonderful experience all those who were able to come were greatly
uplifted by this beautiful movie. This movie is truly a testimony builder. I sincerely doubt a person came out of that movie without feeling the spirit as
it bore testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. As far as I could see not a dry eye left that theatre. Afterwards we just stopped and mingled in the lobby and
enjoyed each others company. We all then left our separate ways until we would meet again for the fireside that night. Thank you to Steve Young for arranging
this experience for us.
The Fireside:
Okay many thanks go out to Barry Anderson first who organized the fireside. We
would also like to thank President and Sister Preece for being there to share their special experiences with us. Great appreciation also goes out to
President and Sister Scott for being there and sharing their testimonies and thoughts, making arrangements for the building, and for providing the
refreshments, and last but not least Russell Cook for co-coordinating the slides and missionary memorabilia for the gathering afterwards. How can you add
upon perfection so I won't even try, I will tell you just a little bit about the fireside there were probably about 200 in attendance including spouse's and
a few children. There was not an actual count taken but President Scott told me that the chapel held about 200 people and it was filled to capacity. We
were so excited that so many showed up. Barry Anderson conducted and also led the singing and Sister Jackie Curtis played the piano for us, which we also
really appreciated. President and Sister Preece spoke first. they were followed by President and Sister Scott. Each one bore testimony of missionary
work and how their lives were touched by being part of a guiding force in so many missionaries lives. President Preece also added his appreciation for all
the prayers and fasting on his behalf during his illness. Sister Preece bore her testimony and told a little about how their family was doing now. Sister
Scott gave her testimony on missionary work and told about their children and their families and told us especially how Jeff Scott was doing and how he is
improving from his resent illness and thanked us for our prayers on his behalf. The fireside concluded with President Scott who shared a lot of memories of the
mission including thanks to President Preece regarding how he had done so much to help make his job easier as a new Mission President coming in. President
Scott bore testimony of how we needed to come out of our comfort zone and get to know and help reactivate those in our own wards. We need to continue to use
our missionary talents and not hide them under a bushel. The meeting closed with the appropriate hymn "God Be With You Til We Meet Again". We then closed
with prayer and a blessing on the food. We then had a beautiful gathering afterwards. Memorabilia had been gathered by Russell Cook including mission
notes, photo albums, flags, maps, scriptures etc...etc...etc....it was so much fun looking at all the items
displayed and reacquainting with old companions and seeing other alumni for the first time in many years and also making new
friends. We also had a slide show in a separate room with many slides from the mission....wow, how time flies, trying to figure out who all those elders and
sisters were could have entertained everyone for another couple of hours at least. The refreshments were superb and "a good time was had by all"
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