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Show Emphasis On Safety Brings Premium Refund A sizeable refund, representing 31 per cent of the total premium paid, was presented to the Church Missionary Committee by the Kemper Group, an insurance firm. The refund represented the premium on 2,200 automobiles in the United States and Canada, said Don H. Axe, Denver, regional manager for Kemper Insurance. The local agent is Richard E. Jacobsen of Curtis Brandley, insurance brokers. Accepting the check for the Missionary Committee was Elder Gordon B. Hinckley of the Council of the Twelve. This is an outstanding record when you consider that this achievement runs contrary to all accident involvement statistics for this age group. Its interesting to our company and the industry that of the many claims our company has processed in the past six years on this account not a single claim involved alcoholic beverages, narcotics, or other social misbehavior, Mr. Axe said. & Theo E. Mebius, Church fleet administrator, said the missionary fleet is operated mostly by many thousand drivers from ages 19 through 25, driving over 42,000,000 miles each year in the U.S. and Canada. Reason for the sizeable refund, Mr. Mebius said, is the emphasis on safety. The need for safe driving is established in the Missicnary Home and continues to be stressed to the missionaries while laboring in the mission field, Mr. Mebius said. He said that all missionary drivers are graded with their past history when they enter the missionary home. Seat belts are a must in all of the nearly 3,000 cars owned by the Church. And drivers and passengers are required to have them fastened while the car is in motion. For the missionaries, the pilot and program is in effect Under this program both elders assigned to an automobile are responsible. The is required co-pil- co-pil- to keep as sharp a lookout as the pilot of driver. No reading or other diversionary activity is allowed for either elder. Missionary cars are required to stay off the streets and freeways at peak periods. There is no driving after 10:30 p.m. Both the car and the missionaries are at rest after this time." is required to be out In backing a car, the of the car directing the pilot to do away with the possibility of accident. Mr. Jacobsen said the worst cause of accidents as far as the mission cars are concerned was tailgating or following too close to the car ahead. Second primary cause was cutting in too soon when passing another vehicle. And backing mishaps ranked third. co-pil- ot Another serious cause of accidents was driving too fast for existing conditions. Its interesting to note that because of the Church program of upgrading its fleet, mechanical failure as a cause of accidents was almost nil, Mr. Jacobsen said. 'A Spiritual He Faces Many Problems Feast' For Servicemen By JACK E. JARRARD Church News Traveling Editor LIMA, PERU Serving in the mission field is more than seeking out converts. Take Archie D. Ford for instance. He and his family live in Lima and he works many hours a day as regional supervisor of general construction for the Church and also is the area treasurer for the Church Building Committee. Originally from Sanford, Colo., Mr. Ford has a home in California and hopes to return there when his assignment is completed in the northern part of South America. He has been in South America for the past six years and his job of building chapels and other Church buildings takes him into Bolivia, northern Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela as well as all of Peru. The way the Church is growing, its keeping me and the other brethren with similar callings hopping to get buildings up to house the membership, Mr. Ford said. His chief work is building and paying for real estate. I dont acquire real estate, that comes under another department with headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, Mr. Ford said. Were young in these missions and dont have buildings. We have some chapels but many more are needed and I can see the need for five or six projects a year, he added. There are many problems facing Mr. Ford, but, as he says, with patience they can be overcome. Materials are scarce and fairly costly especially cement for the making of concrete. We have to build with an eye to quality which isnt done too extensively here. Special equipment has to be imported. It is cheaper to ship Douglas fir from Seattle than it is to buy and bring jungle wood in over the Andes. Productivity of the worker is lower here than in the States, but then so are wages. "The pay for a building laborer is only about J1 per day here. The reason for the lower output, I think, is because many are undernourished. In a building sense it is cheaper to hire more men than try to use power equipment which is very expensive," he said. Mr. Ford joined the Church in 1949 MT. FUJI, JAPAN This can only be described as a spiritual feast, Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Council of the Twelve said in describing the three-daFar East Servicemen's Conference held at Mt. Fuji Hotel here. There were more than 800 servicemen and their families at the conference to hear Elder Benson and other speakers, including the presidents of five Asian missions. They were Pres. Edward Y. Okazaki, a Mission; Pres. Paul S. Rose, Philippine Mission ; Pres. Robert Slo-ve- r, Korean Mission; Pres. Brent Hardy, Southern Far East Mission and Pres. Walter S. Bills, Japan Mission. Also attending was Chaplain (Maj.) James R. Palmer, Servicemens Coordinator for Asian Missions. He is stationed at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan. In addition to general sessions where those attending were charged with upholding and living the standards of the Church, there were meetings and activities concerning other programs of the Church. There was a general priesthood session as well as a leadership seminar. The latter was held for district and branch presidencies, clerks, district councils, group leaders, executive secretaries, youth and adult Aaronic Priesthood secretaries. Also included were conference sessions for all auxiliaries including Relief Society, Primary, MIA and Sunday School. Elder Benson said after the conference: It was a spiritual feast for three days. We held four general sessions, a priesthood meeting and one of the most effective and fulfilling priesthood leadership meetings I have ever attended. In addition all the auxiliaries hoi meetings and there were three fireside r testimeetings on Sunday night. A mony meeting was a highlight and many testimdnies were from some of the 159 servicemen on leave from Vietnam. One general session was devoted to missionary work. They have taken seriously President McKay's appeal that every member is a missionary. It was interesting that as the conference started Japan had the heaviest snowstorm since 1898. Only a single lane was cleared on the highway to Mt. Fuji Hotel. It was stormy, foggy and dismal. But Friday evening during die first session the fog lifted and the weather was so clear we could see the highest peak of Mt Fuji. y Japan-Okinaw- Archie D. Ford, regional supervisor of construction in South American area, locates newest project. 1 two-hou- when he got married to his LDS sweetheart. My new religion didnt take at first, but when my wife and I moved to California I got active and then served in an Elders quorum presidency and in a bishopric. I was in the bishopric when I got my first call to serve a building mission. I Mission in served in the Spanish-America- n San Antonio and then came to South America in 1963. After I wa3 released as an area supervisor I stayed on as regional supervi-M- r. Ford said. sor, Since he started his work in the building area for the Church he has participated in the building of 26 chapels. There have been seven chapels built in his region in the past five years. The Church owns mission homes and offices in LaPaj, Bolivia, and Lima, Peru as well as the home and office used by Mr. Ford and his family. His son, Richard, 17, has been going to school hi Alamosa, Colo., and the Fords daughter, Jennifer, 14, attends school in Lima. WEEK JENDING , K MAY-31I , .1969 ff CHURCH- -5 |