MTC Coincidences

 

During our week long stay at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, we met many people - some our trainers and some missionaries going to various parts of the world.  We were amazed at how many people we met with whom we had common ties. 

 

Here is a list of some of them:

  1. Tami Rains – Waited on us at the post office = She lived in our ward when I served as Bishop in Renton.
  2. Boyd Jarman – MTC class teacher = He played basketball with relative Don Malmrose at BYU many years ago.
  3. Fred and Laurel Leavitt – Senior couple missionaries = We knew them when we lived at UCLA as college students.  I was the ward clerk to her father who was Bishop of the UCLA ward.  At the time, they lived in Granada Hills and did for many years, then recently moved to St. George, Utah.  They were called to serve in the same mission as ours and at the same time.  They will be serving on the island of Grenada whose capital is St. George.
  4. David Madsen - Counselor in MTC presidency = His brother, Paul Madsen, is our doctor in Kent and who also lives in our Kent ward.
  5. Brother and Sister Skousen – Senior couple missionaries = They were called to serve as auditors for the area which includes our West Indies mission.  Because he does not speak French, I will probably assist him when he comes to Guadeloupe.
  6. Brother and Sister Williams – Senior couple missionaries = He served as Bishop in Mount Vernon and knows our friend Bishop Call.  He also went to school at UCLA and received his Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering in the same month and year as did I.  We must has met and had common classes, but we don’t remember.
  7. Edison Tipan – missionary = He was brought in to the Church by Brother Joseph in Chicago, who later was our High Priest Group Leader in the Kent 5th ward.
  8. Elder Robinson – supervisor of senior missionary couples = Served a full time mission in France a couple of years after I did.  He remembers Roger Vincent very well.
  9. President Robison – West Indies Mission President = Served a full time mission in France about 10 years after I did.  He remembers being in the Paris mission home when Yvon and Roger Vincent came to repaint the mission home.
  10. Brother and Sister Christensen – Senior couple missionaries = Knows Bishop Roger Malmrose.  Although we don’t know him, we believe that he descends from my great grandfather Bengt Malmrose.
  11. Hal Cirsinc - Senior missionary = He was an attorney many years ago in Los Angeles and knew of my father.  He also was the attorney for Mr. Keck in Beverly Hills who let us use his suite of rooms at the top of the Mapes Hotel in Reno for our honeymoon.

Last but not least:

  1. Arnold and Joanne Miller – Senior couple missionaries called to Bordeaux, France = When I served on my mission in Nancy, France, there was an Arnold Miller who served in the same city at the same time.  I really enjoyed him.  His companion was Howard Gilstrap, who later went to UCLA at the same time that I did and we knew each other back then.  Years later, I had heard that Elder Miller had become quite sick and died.  Because he was a good friend in Nancy, this saddened me.  I reflected on this several times over the years.  In fact, during visits to the Vincent families in France in recent years, they asked if I had any news of his whereabouts, and I sadly reported that he had died.  At the opening session in the MTC for the senior couples, they announced that Elder Miller would give the opening prayer.  I thought that this was odd that there was a man with the same name going to France who would give the prayer.  After the opening hymn, he stood up to go to the stand.  It was the same Elder Miller with whom I had served in Nancy 45 years ago!  And he wasn’t dead after all.  What a thrill this was for me.  We got together many times during the week and talked over old times.  He asked where I had heard that he died, but I could not recall.