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Show She's four feet even Custodian measures up to tali task BY DEBRA SPIVEY COLONIAL HEIGHTS, VA. Having cleaned up the Petersburg Ward building for the past six years, Jeanette Whitaker hasnt come up short yet. Perhaps to measure up to the job of being ward custodian she should be 10 feet tall. She is, however, known as the least tall person in the Richmond Virginia Stake measuring in at an even four feet. When the bishop asked her and husband her Johnny to be the ward custodians, they accepted. We went home and prayed about said it until the next Sunday, Brother Whitaker. I have had to do things the hard added Sister way all my life, Whitaker. I didnt expect custodial work to be any different. The cabinets and kitchen sink were specially constructed so she could reach them. All along the bottom are four sliding steps that pull out on rollers. The steps car be pushed in when not in use. It gives me about five extra inches. That really helps, she said. Her hardest task replacing is made lightbuibs in the gym easier by replacing them all at the I have found it best to same time. change all the lights at once rather than several times a week. When one burns out, we know the others will in a few days. She and her husband try to work the same hours. We have fun when we are together. We talk about vacation plans or our flowers in the yard. Sometimes we play the radio, she ch said. Brother Whitaker said they talk a Jeanette Whitaker is successful custodian despite her height. lot about their work also. We laugh a lot and sometimes Visitors center led them to answers Continued from page 7 be disturbed by his sons remarks and he began to have a real desire to gain a deeper understanding of the Ten Commandments. Randomly opening his Book of Mormon, he began reading at the ninth chapter of Mosiah, the record of Zeniff and his descendants. Eventually he came to the account of wicked King Noah and his experience with Abinadi. In Chapter 13 he read Abinadis discourse on the commandments. He recited' the commandments in a way I had never heard them before, said Brother Altmayer. The following day I had a wonderful discussion with my son about the Ten Command 12 CHURCH j ments and felt a great comfort in knowing that our Lord was instrumental in helping me gain a testimony and teaching my son those things that I never taught him before. His wife was also making progress. She had received a copy of the Book of Mormon in Finnish from her sister, a member in Finland, and found that text much easier for her to understand. The Altmayers were baptized in February of this year and have continued to have other spiritual experiences as they have prayed and read the scriptures. They are now members of the Manhattan 2nd Ward. She is a secretary in the Relief Society and he is directing food storage activities in the ward. WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 3, 1977 I remembered seeing several bales of hay in the gym during a party. Then the bales disappeared. He searched throughout the building and didnt find them. The next day, opening the storage closet, he found five bales of hay wedged between the shelves on the chairs. Another time, after a missionary open house, they lost the piano for the Junior Sunday School room. Again, a search failed to turn up the piano. It was found in a corner behind a stack complain, he said. And sometimes my wife cries when people dont treat the chapel right. Basketball season is pretty rough and she is right there seeing that the building is being taken care of. Sister Whitaker often uses a unique method to get cooperation from people using the building. If I were waxing the foyer and didnt want anyone to walk on it, I found I would get better results if I wrote a cute little poem. She said she has tried to be as conscientious as the first day she started. Some think we are too particular about the care of the building, she of chairs and flannelboards, But a church has to have someone who loves it and cares for it. completely covered. Asked if they felt they had been successful as ward custodians, they said that they would like to think that they had been. It hasnt been easy. There were times when we wanted to quit, but we prayed a lot and the Lord helped us, said Brother Whitaker. With the determination my wife has, I knew she wouldnt give up. Sister Whitaker is the only small member of her family. She said her mother raised her to be like everyone else, and to have the drive to succeed. As an elementary student, she was so small her book bag almost touched the ground. Children are part of the job, and Sister Whitaker loves them all. They like to stand up to me and say, I am as tall as you are. The little children like to follow her around and talk to her and feel her hands and arms. I think they want to know if I am for real, she smiled. I overheard a little girl ask her little friend why Sister Whitaker was so little. The friend said, Heavenly Father made that way so she could be a special friend to the children. Brother Whitaker recalled some of the difficult things that come as part of the job. I have always been proud to let people know that I am a Mormon, she said. Since I am a Mormon and am so because of my size, I have to be extra careful in the way I live. I wouldnt change my size for anything in the world in this life. This is the way I want to be now. But in the life to come, I hope to be like everyone else, she said. I have a husband who loves me and parents who were always there when I needed them. I have the true Church and look forward to the eternities with my husband and the children we will have. I am truly blessed. said. well-know- hr n Artist portrays prophets PROVO, UTAH It was not until Sister Vida Swenson became president of the Provo 3rd Ward, Provo East Stake, Relief Society that she discovered her talent in art. In 1946 there was a program to honor President George Albert Smith in our ward, she said. The program called for a picture of him large enough to be seen from the back of the chapel. None was available, nor did we succeed in getting anyone to draw even a rough sketch of him. Since I was Relief Society president, it was finally assigned to me. Since she had taken a couple of elementary adult education art classes, she knew she had charcoal, paper and an eraser at home. Urgency spurred me on and gave me the courage to try to draw some kind of likeness of President Smith. She completed the project in a short time and found she had produced an excellent portrait of the President of the Church. Over the years she has completed portraits of all the Presidents of the Church except President Harold B. Lee and President Spencer W. Kimball. My faith and prayers carried me through, she said. If I were not in tune, my work seemed fruitless. At other times, each stroke of effort counted and I felt inspired in what I was doing. All the portraits are inches and all were drawn from small pictures of the prophets. The paintings were displayed by a department store in Salt Lake City during a recent general conference. I have never had any formal training, said Sister Swenson. I probably never would have discovered this talent had it not been for the opportunity which came through Relief Society. r w 1 |