Chapter 27

The Family Business

James Hancock is president of the North Ogden 2nd Stake—He performs daily visits throughout
the stake while also working in the family landscaping business—An accident as a teenager leaves him
with an impaired left foot—The famous story “The Countess and the Impossible” has a motivating
influence on his life; as a youth, he seeks to implement the gospel of Jesus Christ in his ward at the level
of the five-dollar lawn—Later in life, he and his wife Beth continue this goal after they are married.

Along the main interstate highway of Utah, some seventy-five miles north of Springville,
lies the beautiful city of North Ogden. As one enters the city, what is most striking is the
mountain which commands the town. The mountain and city are one.

Past the city center, and up through the winding street of 575 East, stands the North
Ogden 2nd Stake Center. Late one Monday afternoon, the local stake president, Brother James
Hancock, was just leaving his office. Locking the front door of the building, he headed outside to
the sidewalk and continued on foot.

A strong afternoon sun bore down upon him, reddening his forehead and cheeks, yet it
was still a pleasant walk through the hillside neighborhood. With the cooling air of sprinklers felt
along the way, the sun could be comfortably warm in small amounts. Seeing the bench next to
the sidewalk up ahead, he stopped to rest and then checked his watch––it was 3:50 PM. Visions
of his wife Beth preparing beef stew, steaming bread rolls, and homemade raspberry jam leaped
into his imagination.

I'll get in two more visits and then head home for supper!

A stranger to the area who had not yet seen Brother Hancock about his work every day,
would have noticed the slight limp in his walk—the result of an injury he had suffered many
years ago as a young man. The slight disability, however, had never impeded his work for the
Lord. He walked briskly and covered a lot of ground. He sometimes experienced pain and
soreness in his foot when walking long distances, so he planned his routes carefully to ensure
benches or other places of rest were available when needed.

Today the pain was greater than usual, so Brother Hancock sat down on the bench,
removed his shoe, and rubbed briskly along the sole of his foot for relief. But bouts with pain
were far fewer now than in the past. Through advances in medicine, he had achieved significant
progress in normalizing his walking style and minimizing pain. Time and technology had

combined together to provide a nice healing effect in his life, allowing him to move easily
throughout the stake most days with virtually no pain at all.

As for employment, James worked for Hancock Landscaping LLC, a business founded
and still managed directly by his father, Ashley S. Hancock. Laboring hard alongside his father
and brothers over the years, he had helped the business develop into a stable and successful
enterprise. While it was true that he had been called to a Church leadership position in recent
years, he was otherwise a plain and simple man. Having few hobbies, educational milestones, or
interesting career accomplishments like other men his age, he may have seemed to some as one
lacking in stature or leadership experience. Nevertheless, he performed his job-related tasks
extremely well and was a favorite of customers, demonstrating excellent workmanship in the
landscape construction projects he managed, something he credited to his father at every
opportunity. He enjoyed his job and fit in well with his brothers and coworkers.

The influence of Ashley, his father, had been crucial in the development of James into a
man. While many lessons learned in his childhood had contributed to his success in life, one in
particular stood out. His father had often referred to the beloved story “The Countess and the
Impossible” in family home evening lessons. The story was a family favorite since it was
directly related to the family’s landscaping business, an enterprise involving everyone in the
family in one way or another. It gave an account of a wealthy countess from a small town in
Utah who had hired a young boy to cut her lawn. The Countess offered the boy different levels
of reward depending on how well he did the job, amounts ranging from fifty cents to five dollars.
Five dollars was the highest reward possible, although the prospect of paying out that much
money was not considered realistic. The Countess was quite certain the five-dollar lawn job was
impossible to achieve.

For James, the lesson of the story had always been clear––seek after excellence in all that
you do in life. While he saw the relevance the lesson had towards landscaping work he did for
his father, he was more apt to apply it in his basketball training where it helped motivate him to
practice hard towards dreams of stardom. It was said by many at the time that James had
potential for a promising athletic career. The injury to his foot, unfortunately, had forced him to
lay aside such dreams.

At the time of the accident, James had to reconcile himself with the new reality in his life.
Playing basketball at the level he was accustomed was no longer going to be possible. He also
had to wonder what impact the disability would have on him in trying to lead a full life in areas
other than sports. What were his career choices now? How would his mobility problems affect
his attending college or serving a mission? The vocational counselor at the high school routinely
talked with James, reassuring him that he could still do almost anything he could imagine; he just
needed to work harder at it than others. Nevertheless, these were difficult times for James. He
tried to remain positive, but his circumstances had changed, and seemingly for the worse. It
became a time of great soul searching, causing him to think about his life more soberly than
other boys his age.

There were, however, some very important events in James’s life that occurred just prior
to the accident, events that had helped prepare him for the trials to come. In fact, even before the

accident, a major transition in his life had already been underway. He had come to realize there
were more important things in life than sports. Basketball had been a good thing, helping to teach
him self-discipline and the value of hard work. But it wasn't an end in itself. And the same could
also be said of a career working in the family's landscaping business. It would be essential for
financial support, especially once he got married and had a family of his own, but there were
greater things for him to pursue in life.

In consideration of the numerous career options that were available to him, he took time
to browse through materials provided by his vocational counselor: university degree programs,
technical college class listings, and apprenticeship opportunities. He also talked at length with
his father about the direction of the family business and what plans were on the table to expand it
outside of Ogden. His career options and income potential, therefore, seemed fairly impressive,
reminding him that he still had much to be thankful for. He discussed his career choices with
many of the people around him––his parents, his older brothers, ward members, his teachers and
counselors at school, and some of his best friends. They all had constructive ideas and opinions
to offer, but James also had some ideas of his own, and it was not long before he had reached a
decision.

Choosing to lay aside the good counsel of all those around him, James decided upon a
career opportunity that was just perfect for a young, disabled basketball player like himself. His
new career goal in life would be to see the gospel of Jesus Christ implemented at the five-dollar
lawn level in the North Ogden area, starting first in his home ward. This would be his main
career in life, running parallel with his job in the family business. Instead of the heavy hours of
training he might have otherwise spent every day on the basketball court in pursuit of a college
scholarship, he would do this. He would refocus the lesson of the Countess and the five-dollar
lawn once more, but this time towards the highest aspiration of humanity—the building of Zion.

James had worked hard in his life to become a great basketball player and was, therefore,
special in that respect. But in the other areas of his life, he was more ordinary. He was born into
an average Latter-day Saint family, having no special family lineage or famous last name. His
years growing up had been very comfortable, living along the Wasatch Front in a typical,
middle-class neighborhood. As a member of the Church, he had often marveled at the great
prophets and leaders of the Church, past and present, and had derived great personal strength
from their teachings and good examples. But he didn’t see himself as anyone particularly special.
He was just James—James Anthony Hancock, an Aaronic Priesthood holder living in North
Ogden, Utah.

He had been blessed with a strong faith, but nothing unusual or exceptional. His technical
knowledge of the scriptures was sufficient to get him by in seminary class, but nothing much
beyond that. He could select the play and lead an offense on the basketball court extremely well,
but as an Aaronic Priesthood holder, he had not yet distinguished himself as a leader or in doing
good to others. He had been just one among many in that regard.

His conversion to the restored gospel had also been somewhat routine. It came by
attending Church meetings every week, obeying the commandments, attending seminary classes,
participating in priesthood assignments, learning to pray on his own, reading the scriptures every

day—particularly the more powerful ones in the Book of Mormon—and listening at conference
time to talks of the general authorities.

All of these things had proceeded forth normally in his life until one day, one particular
principle of the gospel struck him with great power––the principle that any member of the
Church was capable of doing a lifetime of amazing things, even unspeakable things, in the
gospel in his or her ward. He came to realize that there was unlimited power to do good
bestowed upon every individual; that the gospel, absolutely, contained greater and more glorious
things to find for anyone willing to pursue it fully in their personal time; and that, the more
precious parts of the gospel could only be discovered on one’s own, without being prodded, and
without being told to do so by someone else. To say this another way, there was an opportunity
(and a need) for someone (anyone) to become the catalyst for building Zion in one's ward and
stake––an opportunity to stand up and make big things happen. And so it was with James. At the
time of his accident as a teen, he had already reached an important milestone. He was beginning
to act rather than be acted upon.

Choosing to pursue this path in life, James soon found that he had entered unknown and
uncharted waters. Neighbors and friends, in particular, found it difficult to relate to him and to
understand what he was trying to do. From the time of his accident, it had always been James's
awkward walking style that was most noticeable to others, particularly to those who didn’t know
him. But as his new career goal became more widely known, it was this instead that people came
to associate with him.

Thus, James had entered the spotlight, and the eyes of the ward were now upon him, like
the pivotal moment in Les Miserables when Jean Valjean came forth before the crowd in the
courtroom of Arras:

Not a mouth breathed; the first commotion of astonishment had been followed by a
silence like that of the grave; those within the hall experienced that sort of religious terror which
seizes the masses when something grand has been done.... It was a striking circumstance that no
question was put, that no authority intervened. The peculiarity of sublime spectacles is, that they
capture all souls and turn witnesses into spectators. No one, probably, could have explained
what he felt; no one, probably, said to himself that he was witnessing the splendid outburst of a
grand light: all felt themselves inwardly dazzled.

James was still very young, and someone who would not otherwise have been of much
consequence or standing among the people. Nevertheless, older and more distinguished members
of the ward began to take notice of him. In fact, his newly stated goal in life was disturbing to
some when it was discovered. While it was taken seriously by virtually no one, being more of a
curiosity than anything else, it, nonetheless, caused many in the ward to murmur.

This is way too many hours a week for a young Aaronic Priesthood holder to spend doing
Church work!

Why can’t he just be like all the other boys his age, doing only what he is asked to do by
the bishop and his youth leaders? Isn’t that enough already? His parents need to sit down with

him and have a serious talk. He should refocus his prior basketball energy towards homework,
school activities, and other important things like that.

And among those who murmured, there were some who raised even greater concerns.

Should James even be allowed to do this?

Doesn’t he need to be called and formally set apart by someone in the bishopric? For
heaven's sake, James is just a teenager! This is all just foolishness!

And what can he possibly hope to achieve anyway? He has no leadership experience; he
only holds the Aaronic Priesthood. What would he actually do every day in the ward that is not
being done already? Does he even know what the word Zion means? Certainly, we all know Zion
is impossible to achieve, particularly in ordinary Utah wards like ours. If it were possible to do,
we, the older and wiser members of the ward, would have done something like that already.

James, however, was not discouraged, and he did his own mental calculations. In
practical terms, he could see that a major project like this would require one or two generations,
forty or fifty years at a minimum; and there was no guarantee he would see the five-dollar lawn
level ever reached in his lifetime. But it was quite exciting to think about nonetheless.

Let’s see... our ward is probably at the fifty or sixty-cents level now. Perhaps after the
first ten years and a lot of hard work, we could reach the one-dollar level; after twenty years, the
two-dollar level; and after thirty years, the three-dollar level––a dollar per decade!

I wonder what our lives would be like every day if we were living in a two- or three-
dollar ward? It would certainly require a lot of time and effort, but it does seem possible. And
what kind of impact would even a two-dollar level ward have upon the surrounding wards and
stakes here in North Ogden? Surely, we've never seen anything like this before in the Church, not
in any of the Utah stakes, not in any of the other stakes within the United States, and not in any
of the other stakes of the Church throughout the world.

His projections were not based on anything solid, just a general feel of how long
something like that might take. In evaluating the time requirement, he recalled the attitude of
Ammon from the Book of Mormon. Ammon had made a similar calculation, being prepared to
dwell with the Lamanites "perhaps until the day he dies," and thus setting aside the rest of his life
for his chosen endeavor.

Later in life, following his mission, James and his new wife, Beth, of Millville, would
continue working towards his goal, deciding to "set up shop" in their North Ogden ward and,
presumably, reside there until the end of their lives, as long as the family business economics
proved sustainable. Utah, and the Wasatch Front generally, offered an economic forecast as good
or better than most, they thought, so they were quite sure that they would have the means
necessary to support themselves. But if not, they would simply take what they had learned here
in the early years of their marriage and start the same idea somewhere else. But they did hope

and pray that they might be able to reside here, for Utah was their home and the place where they
wanted to raise their children.

As a special wedding present, the newlyweds were given a large and beautiful painting,
close in size to those on display at Temple Square. It portrayed a young boy standing next to the
Savior, both of whom overlooking the expansive lawn of a mansion. The painting, captioned
with the title “The North Ogden 2nd Stake," was a gift to them from Charles and Sarah White, a
wealthy couple in the ward. The painting, luxuriously framed, was a commissioned artwork they
would put on display in their future home. As such, it couldn't help but showcase well and
dominate their receiving room near the front door, something visitors later would enjoy taking a
close look at when entering their home.

It is also worth noting that this same Charles White, several years before, had done
something of even greater significance in the life of James. While not mentioning Charles's name
directly, James had once declared, "In my personal life years ago, I was blessed by the actions of
a great man, someone who unbeknownst to me at the time, gave up a part of his wealth to pay for
advanced surgeries and other treatments on my left foot following the accident. His help then is a
key reason why today I am able to walk and visit members every day throughout the stake. It
was not until years later that I found out how much of his money he had spent to help me. In a
sense, I work every day to pay off this large investment in my foot."

For James it was clear––the lawn of a beautiful mansion had been set out in front of him
to care for by the Savior. And when Beth came along, she was prepared to assist him in this great
work. The project of James became their first adoption as a family, and it would evolve in time
to become the centerpiece of their family experiences together. As they worked towards this goal
over time, as well as in later years when James was called to be the stake president, the family
landscaping business proved to be of great value. Working part time with his father on some
days, and full time when needed on busier days, he strove to keep as much time as possible free
for his daily visits around the stake. When things came up at work or home, he would simply
reschedule his visits forward into the subsequent days. This allowed for a seemingly infinite
supply of days from which he could draw. He found that there was always sufficient time and
there was no need to rush when doing his regular visiting schedule, since his yesterdays, todays,
and tomorrows were all essentially the same. The building of Zion was a timeless endeavor.

Figuratively speaking, his circumstances were similar to those of Alma the Younger.
Laying down his judgment seat, James went about the work of the Lord, teaching and preaching
in the homes of the people of his stake. Going beyond the formal duties and roles typically
associated with a stake president, he became a great leader among his fellow men.

His circumstances were also like those of Nephi, son of Helaman, yielding up his
judgment seat to go preach the word of God with his younger brother Lehi all the remainder of
his days. Active every day in this special work, James declared the gospel with power and
authority. Accompanied by priesthood holders assigned to him day by day from among the
wards, he went about his visits as though encircled by fire. The Holy Spirit of God came down
from heaven and filled his heart, teaching him the finer points of the gospel and directing him
hour by hour in his labors.

In the course of his travels upon the sidewalks and streets of North Ogden, there was
hardly a worry of him being cast into prison and denied food or water, or of being quietly put to
death by an enemy. Instead, he could expect to be kindly received by almost everyone he met
and be received at home regularly by his loving wife Beth with her wonderfully prepared lunches
and dinners. He was living in the modern era of the restored gospel in the United States of
America, able to preach the gospel all day long unencumbered. It was a time of great happiness
and prosperity for Brother Hancock and all the people of the Church.

By virtue of his great works over many years, Brother Hancock became a light on a hill
for everyone in the valley to see. He came to know the people in the stake one by one, and they,
in turn, knew him. Passing through each neighborhood regularly on foot, his exposure to the
community was greatly magnified, extending beyond the time he spent teaching and visiting in
their homes.

With each passing year, there was also a cumulative effect of his visits upon the
testimonies of the members of the stake; stability, constancy of purpose, and quality of delivery
were creating this effect. President James Hancock was the tip of the spear. Bishops, ward
leaders, and the full-time missionaries in the area all took notice, sensing that something special
in the gospel was taking place. Like a large stone cast into the center of a pond, creating a ripple
across the surrounding waters, the impact was felt by everyone in the community.

For James and Beth at home, it was also their hope that ideas related to their goal, if
presented well, might appeal to their children now, and also later on in the future. In this way,
their children might touch the lives of the next generation in similar fashion.

As was taught in the story of Scrooge in The Christmas Carol, mankind was to become
the family business.