Chapter 26

A Trip to Ogden

Brother Chandler travels to North Ogden on a planned visit with the local stake president—The
two men walk throughout the streets of the stake visiting many families over a three-day period—
Momentum and excitement in the gospel are building day by day—Bringing the ideal of the restored
gospel into everyday life.

A man fifty-five years of age, Mark was six feet tall, with brown hair, tanned skin, and a
good athletic build for someone his age. He was born and raised in the Sugarhouse area of Salt
Lake City. At the age of nineteen, he left home to serve a two-year mission to Hawaii. Upon his
return, he completed two years of schooling at a local junior college, and then took an entry-level
job at a manufacturing plant near Provo. In the years that followed, he worked his way up the
organizational ladder to the position of production manager. It could be said of him that he was a
hard worker, a good manager, and someone highly regarded by those with whom he worked
every day. At the close of the work day, however, he usually had just one thing in mind––
hurrying home for dinner. The evening dinners and the time spent with Kathleen and the children
were the great treasures of his life.

The family of Mark and Kathleen consisted of three sons and two daughters. The three
sons, Jeff, Kody, and Lee, were now married and had settled in other parts of the western states.
The two daughters, Kristie and Lori, attended college in the valley and lived on campus.

The Chandler home was very attractive, often noted by passersby for its pleasant
landscaping of rocks, bushes, and trees. Experimenting with different looks in the front yard, the
couple had slowly improved upon it from time to time. When they first looked at buying the
home many years before, they had been pleased with the large section of land in back that was
included with the property. This extra land was quickly put to use for a garden and growing fruit
trees. The home was not luxurious, but it was comfortable and met their needs.

A few blocks away from their home stood the Springville East Stake Center. On this, a
Thursday morning, the building was in a state of rest, enjoying a Sabbath day all its own.
Meeting rooms, offices, and hallways all sat idle.

Arriving to his office in the early hours of the day, Brother Chandler (out of respect for
the man and the office he holds, we will hereafter refer to Mark in this book as either Brother
Chandler or President Chandler when in the performance of his duties) took time to finish up
some routine paperwork—one of the important but less glamorous duties of a stake
administrator. This was a day to catch up and get things done.

But there was much more on his mind today than just normal stake business. Clearing his
desk of pending tasks, he took time to ponder some of the interesting events of recent days.

What a week it had been so far! Taking time off from his job, he had spent the last few
days on a prearranged visit to the Ogden area and, in particular, to the North Ogden 2nd Stake.
Arriving early on a Monday morning, he had worked side by side with the stake president there,
a man named James Hancock, whom he had met a few weeks earlier at a friend's wedding.
Walking together on foot and conversing one with another, the two men had visited nearly forty
families of the stake over a three-day period. For Brother Chandler, the large amount of walking
had been a challenge, making him feel a little out of shape. But overall, the trip to Ogden had
been a marvelous experience, giving him a new vision of what was possible to accomplish in the
Church.

There had been so many things to see. First of all, he had noticed the great momentum
that was building in the stake. The full-time missionaries, for example, were more energized than
ever before. They saw the leader of the stake out there in action every day, just like them. He did
his work in the streets, sidewalks, and homes of the stake, and they came across him regularly in
passing. He participated with them in companion splits––assisting them, training them, inspiring
them, and expanding their reach every day. He was also their chief source of new referrals.

Second, Brother Chandler saw the impact President Hancock was having upon the ward
leaders and priesthood holders in the stake. They no longer felt like they were doing their work
alone, having a chance to regularly work alongside their stake president on visits to families in
their ward. Learning from him directly, they saw what it was to magnify their priesthood
callings. What a blessing it was to receive regular training from someone of the stature and
experience of this man! Through him, they could feel the excitement of the gospel—the kind of
wonderful feelings a priesthood holder wants to grab hold of and embrace fully after
experiencing for the first time. Furthermore, the momentum was constant, not something infused
into the stake only a few times a year around conference time, or inspired by an occasional event
or activity of the Church. President Hancock was the catalyst, going about the work of the Lord
every day to build and sustain the momentum. His presence was noticeable to everyone in the
valley, member and nonmember alike.

Witnessing these things firsthand, Brother Chandler was greatly astonished. Never before
had he seen anything like this in the Church. Stake business was being conducted directly in the
homes and through regular splits with Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthood holders. All of the
priesthood assignments of the wards were being faithfully executed. President Hancock saw to
this personally.

For an elder or high priest to go about his assigned duties regularly, this is surely the
trademark of a functional and productive ward effort. But for a stake president to firmly take
charge of the gospel in his stake––to go forth on foot all day long, every day, in full power as the
leader; to bear down in pure testimony of God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Ghost before the people; to teach and preach the gospel, and to continuously lift up and sustain

the members of his stake by the Spirit of God––surely, there is nothing greater than this. The
ground shakes before the feet of such a man and his purpose.

No additional Church calling was needed, and no additional priesthood authority or keys
were needed––the calling and ordination for this work had already been given to him long ago,
even from the moment he was first ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Nor was there need
for additional groundwork to be laid. Sidewalks in great numbers had been wisely constructed by
Ogden city workers in preparation for this day, making it possible for a stake president to walk
forthright out of the stake center building and directly experience the stake all around himself
along the footpaths. In areas of Latter-day Saint membership great and small, in stakes of the
Church all over the world, the opportunity was there––a man of God could go out every day into
his local community and do a marvelous work and a wonder.

For the members of the Church in North Ogden, a major transformation in their lives was
underway, a transformation in living the gospel beyond anything they could have ever dreamed.
The stake was being directly supervised every day, following the pattern established by the
Savior in the early years of the restored Church. As we see in the Doctrine and Covenants, the
Savior personally supervised the day-to-day operations of the startup of the Church, including
the translation into English, the financing, and the publication of the Book of Mormon. He
provided training on gospel principles, routinely answering both high-level and low-level
questions. But most important of all, He was there among them. Through the daily revelations
given to Joseph, He was a constant light to them; they could feel His presence and leadership in
their midst. Thus, the D&C is a wonderful priesthood training manual demonstrating effective
supervision techniques to manage a group of saints.

As individual members of the Church, we receive patriarchal blessings. But what about a
stake as a whole? What is its patriarchal blessing? Is there a ceiling of performance for a stake?
Is there a limitation of blessings, set in stone or in writing by the Lord, for a group of Latter-day
Saints gathered together in any size? As of this writing, there are approximately three thousand
stakes and three thousand gifted stake presidents worldwide. Can just one person, a leader of
some kind, make a dramatic impact upon the people he serves?

And what is the reality of things on the ground in our local congregations? What small
part of the ideal is actually possible to achieve in today’s sophisticated and very skeptical world?

For surely, conditions within the real world are not ideal. All people, even Latter-day
Saints, can be fragile and weak. Many Church callings on the books are often not acted upon in
wards, and many that are can become routine in nature, and performed in lukewarm fashion.
Faith in the Savior for many members is at the hope level, not at the level of a prophet or an
apostle. Things do break down in execution at all levels of the Church and need to be spiritually
recharged. Great challenges face Latter-day Saint families and individuals every day, and they
can seem insurmountable at times—challenges of normal life and normal human events. There
are days of frustration, anger, embarrassment, confusion, worry, fear, boredom, depression,
helplessness, and uncertainty in life. But as Brother Chandler had noticed, these challenges were
starting to be overcome in the North Ogden 2nd Stake through the faith and vision of Brother
Hancock. He had found a way forward, a way to bring the excitement of the ideal into everyday

life. Direct supervision and daily visits throughout the stake by the leader was the key to making
all of this happen.

Passing a few hours in his office, Brother Chandler continued to ponder the many
insights he had gained on the trip. In a way, he saw the work being done by President Hancock
as similar to what he often did in his garden: tilling, weeding, and cultivating delicate fruits and
vegetables—a faithful servant taking care of the master’s vineyard. He felt an urge to get going
on similar work in his own stake. But once started, how could he sustain himself over time in
such an effort? His time was only free for a few more days. He could do pretty much anything he
wanted today, but his vacation time ended Friday, and he would need to be back to work again
on Monday.

Nevertheless, the trip to Ogden had made a deep impression on him. He now had the
opportunity to reevaluate his life and career again at age fifty-five. Yet there were still so many
questions to work through in his mind.

Is it even practical for someone like me to do what Brother Hancock does every day? And
if so, for how many years?

Could I reach the point where I have the financial means to support myself in such an
endeavor and still meet my family’s needs?

Would there be enough tasks in the stake for me to do every day, to keep myself busy?

Will these important tasks of the gospel otherwise get done without me taking the lead?

He didn’t need an answer to the last two questions. The stake had a wide range of needs
that were not even close to being met every day. That was clear to him. Historically, the trends of
key statistics in the stake showed only satisfactory performance, perhaps a C grade at best. And
unfortunately, supporting these trends over the years was an underlying assumption that this was
the best that could be done in the Church—a legacy of normal expectations passed down from
one generation to another as though foreordained by God, or as if there was an assumed level of
mediocre performance spelled out in the Church Handbook that everyone in the Church had been
commanded to follow. Worst of all, it seemed likely that these same historical trends would
continue into the foreseeable future, fixed in their course and unalterable by man.

But there was another possibility. A marvelous work might go forth from his own hand.
Like President Hancock in Ogden, he himself could become the catalyst for the Springville East
Stake––a light on a hill so to speak––helping to set the stage for higher levels of excellence in the
gospel now, and for generations to come.

Ideas of what his new career in life might be, and what he might actually do every day in
the stake started to form in his mind. He recalled passages from Les Miserables that describe the
Bishop of D––:

He goes out in the rain, he walks in the water, he travels in winter. He fears neither
suspicious roads nor dangerous encounters, nor night. He visited the poor so long as he had any
money; when he no longer had any, he visited the rich.

It was a perfect festival wherever he appeared. One would have said that his presence
had something warming and luminous about it. The children and the old people came out to the
doorsteps for the Bishop as for the sun. He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They
pointed out his house to anyone who was in need of anything.

The Bishop's day was quite full to the brim, of good words and good deeds. Nevertheless,
it was not complete if cold or rainy weather prevented his passing an hour or two in his garden
before going to bed. It seemed to be a sort of rite with him, to prepare himself for slumber by
meditation in the presence of the grand spectacles of the nocturnal heavens.

Sometimes, he was heard pacing slowly along the walks at a very advanced hour of the
night. He was there alone, communing with himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the serenity of
his heart with the serenity of the ether, moved amid the darkness by the visible splendor of the
constellations and the invisible splendor of God, opening his heart to the thoughts which fall
from the Unknown. At such moments, while he offered his heart at the hour when nocturnal
flowers offer their perfume, illuminated like a lamp amid the starry night, he poured himself out
in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of creation.

Kneeling down next to his desk, Brother Chandler prayed silently. Soon, the Comforter
warmed his bosom. These questions of his were wonderful to think about and discuss with the
Lord through prayer, and the answers would, in time, be wonderful to receive. There was no
stupor of thought to encounter when asking the Lord questions such as these. A great treasure
had been uncovered, and he was a man prepared to receive it.

Like Nephi, he first needed to find the ore. With the ore found, he could then make tools.
And with the tools in hand, he could then go forth and build a mighty ship to cross the ocean.