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Show A PURPOSE IN LIFE Gospel Unites Family On Temple Square By PAUL Conference and the soldiers There are special groups who come to Conference from all over the world. But there wasnt a more special group than one which came from Denver, Colo. They were 12 patients from Fitzsimmons General Hospital in the Colorado capital, and all were returnees 'rcm the war in Vietnam. One of the group is a returned missionary. Two were in wheelchairs. One of the wheelchair patients had lost both legs, the other one had lost a foot and part of the bone of the other leg had been blown out with a land mine. All of the patients are at Fitzsimmons for treatment of injuries in the war zone. They were led by Pfc. Dennis E. Broadbent, a former missionary to Italy, and who is group leader of an independent branch at the hospital. The branch is attached to the Denver 18th Ward. Pfc. Broadbent is not a Vietnam veteran, but is studying in the medical division in Denver. Ilis assistant leaders in the group are William E. Bunn, Boise, Idaho, a medical specialist and a returned missionary, and Larry Weight of Springville, Utah. Larry is a Vietnam veteran, a returned missionary and one of the wheelchair patients. David Trexler of American Fork Utah was the other wheelchair patient at Conference. Secretary at the branch is David Bordas, a student at Metropolitan State College in Denver. Also attending conference with the group was Lani Hubbard, a registered nurse attached to Fitzsimmons. There are about 30 LDS personnel and 25 LDS palienls at the hospital, says Pfc. Broadbent, whose father, Cecil Broadbent, was released last summer as president of the West German Mission. What does the group do in the way of Church work and services? We get pretty' good cooperation from Chaplain Taggart at the hospital. We have organized visits to the Church member patients, and we conduct a family home evening as well as Sacrament meetings, Pfc. Broadbent said. We hold an organized family home evening on Monday nights, and we also have home teaching visits. In addition to the home and teaching to patients and personnel at the hospital, we have regular visits from the elders of the Denver 4th and 18th Wards, he said. Does this activity help in missionary work? Yes, says Pfc. Broadbent. Nonmembers of the Church are invited to attend family home evening and other activities. If they are interested at all their names are referred to Western States Mission headquarters in Denver, and the elders go calling. We have had three baptisms at Fitzsimmons, Pfc. Broadbent said. Larry Weight served an honorable mission to the Gulf States and upon his return entered the BYU to continue his studies. When he reached 24 years of age, the draft board called him and he was eventually sent to Vietnam were he was wounded. What does the war do to these young men? According to Brother Weight the veterans are more serious in attitudes and their thinking. Not many are bitter, either, he said. Hes not. He explains it this way: If any of the soldiers have seen communism in action and the way those poor farmers are treated by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese regulars, they cant be bitter about serving and helping the South Vietnamese, the young soldier said. When all surgery on his injured legs is completed and hes able to use the artificial foot, Elder Weight intends to return to BYU and finish his schooling. lie was studying youth leadership. He intends to finish (his then go into education where he can leach the young people. This was, indeed, a very special group, wlto had sje-f'iseats to see and hear all sessions of the recently completed General Conference. al k . t SWENSON It happened near the Seagull Monument pool last week as hundreds of Relief Society women spilled out of Thursday morning departmental sessions onto Temple Square. The attractive blonde woman who spotted the pretty brunette sitting on her suitcase near the monument pool and rushed to embrarr her was Mrs. Mary Jane Fite, Nederland, Tex. The dark girl was her daughter Christene, 19. And during conference weekend on Temple Square, a time and a place with a tradition for happy reunions, none were mere dramatic than this meeting of mother and daughter after two months separation. When Christene Fite left Nederland, Tex., in August to come to Rcxburg, Idaho in preparation for fall quarter at Ricks College, she was a now member of the Church by three months. as far as ChrisBut Mrs. File was disappointed and tene knew upset that her daughter had been baptized. You just about kicked the missionaries out of the house, mother, Christene said, only Now, mother and daughter stood in a strange city, hundreds of miles from home, hands and eyes locked, quietly emoting about their new and sisters in the special reallionship Church. I have two new callings in the Church you dont even know about, Mrs. Fite suddenly recalled (choir president and MIA speech and drama director). Im going to work for my (GoldChristene en) Gleaner Award, beamed. The reunion went on for more than an hour as conference visitors hurried unnoticing past the monument pool. Both' with stories to tell, Mrs. Fite and Christene recounted the details for a reporter and photographer. Dur family trickled into the Church one at a time, Christene said. First me, then my sister (Sue Lynn, 17) then my mother. It was the second day of Hemis-Fai- r 68 in San Antonio, Tex., when Christene went to the fair with her sorority sisters at Lamar Tech in Beaumont. It started raining and the only place open was the Mormon Pavilion, Christene said. We went in to get out of the rain. I think it rained for a reason. Christene was so impressed with the film "Mans Search for Happiness, that she left her name as a referral for missionaries. Mrs. Fite, a Sunday School teachactive member of er and her own church, was not overjoyed about her daughters sudden preoccupation with Murmonism, nor her constant references to the beautiful film at the Mormon Pavi'ion. Remind me not to go there, Mrs. Fite said. Christene was baptized in late May after being taught by ttie missionaries, and her sister Sue Lynn followed, July 5. Christene talked her mother into letting her transfer her studies to a Mormon school, Ricks College at Rexburg,t Idaho. Meanwhile, back in ' life-lon- ... (ill Mary Jane Fite, Christene Fit reunion on Temple Square. Mrs. Nederland, the missionaries were working with Mrs. File. I was looking at things Christene had left around for me to read and I had the missionaries in several times for meals, she said. Maybe I was ready for the Gospel, but I just didnt want to give up. One tiling, however, was working to the missionaries advantage. Mrs. Fite was realizing the Church had changed Christene dramatically. She had been active in her moth- ers church until she was a senior in high school. "After that, I had difficulty in getting her to go, Mrs. Fite said. She no longer found it satisfying. Now, Christene going to church, was not only but her whole and outlook had her mother said. "She changed, had become serene, she had a purpose in Pfe. She had just bloomed. One night after the missionaries had eaten at the Fite home, one of them told Mrs. Fite: You have given us food for our bodies. Let us give vou food for personality WEEK ENDING share happy your soul. That went right through me, Mrs. Fite said, I really felt it. But still she fought her inclinations. Maybe later, she mumbled. Not right now. There was a moment of silence, then Mm. Fite dropped her guard. Do you have your flannel boards with you? she asked. She was baptized 1 12 weeks later. Mrs. Fite wrote to her daughter and they agreed to meet in Salt Lake City for October conference. We wore just completely uplifted by the meetings, Mrs. Fite said. The speakers were so obviously dedicated, jt was an inspiration tc me to try harder to Jive and do better. There was also a bonus in Mrs. Fites conference visit. I had been so much against seeing Mans Search for Happiness that I hadnt seen it until yesterday, here on Temple Square, she said. It was so tiemendous I went back and saw it a second time. i .it OCTOBER 12. 1968 CHURCH-- 17 |