Remembering my Dad... on the commemoration of his 100th birthday - December 8, 2012

I'd like to share some of the life sketch I wrote about my Dad on the remembrance of his 100th birthday - December 8, 2012.

Arnold George Albertson

Remembering him on the 100^th anniversary of his birth

December 8, 1912 to December 8, 2012

He died on February 6, 1982 at age 69, almost 31 years ago.

  Daddy, we love you

and we still miss you.

ARNOLD G. ALBERTSON – LIFE SKETCH

From memory of his daughter, Eileen Albertson Petersen

Written February 6, 2009

We were in Argentina on our third mission together

and I guess I was thinking about my Dad

on the day that made 27 years since he had passed away.

ARNOLD GEORGE ALBERTSON was born December 8, 1912 in Jackson, Cassia County, Idaho to Clarence Albertson from Albion and Blanche Ilene Hartwell, originally from Salt Lake City, then Burley, Idaho. He was the oldest of their 8 children. 

When Arnold was about 10 they moved to Montana, and homesteaded a large ranch until his Dad had a severe head injury in a combine accident at harvest time, and was unconscious for 45 days. Clarence's sister, Salome, was a nurse and took Clarence to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  After they did all they could, she had her brother and family move to Idaho in the Hagerman valley where she and her husband, Earl Justice, lived, so she could help take care of him.

Arnold, who was 13 at the time of the accident, had hidden all the money earned from the crops in an empty tomato can in their basement. When the authorities foreclosed on their home and ranch in Montana, Arnold was able to pay for the train tickets for his mother and siblings to get to Hagerman.

Arnold said his Dad was tough on them before, but after the accident became even meaner and beat their mother. When Arnold was about 16, he stood up to his Dad and said they weren't going to let their mother be treated that way anymore. He helped his mother get a divorce, and Clarence moved back to Albion where he lived near other Albertson relatives until his death there in Sept 1955. He had had no further contact with his wife and children; never knowing any of his grandchildren.

When I went to his funeral in Albion when I was 16, I couldn't believe I'd had a grandfather living that close to Wendell, where we lived, and I had never known him.

Arnold worked very hard to help his mother...even building a little house for her and the kids, after their little shack burned down. All the family photos and possessions burned in the fire, but the 8 children were okay. 

 Arnold graduated from Hagerman High School when he was older than 18 because he'd not had a chance to go to school regularly from working on the farm so much. During the Depression he worked in the CCC's up in the McCall forest area where they were building roads. He was the cook and one day ate a whole huge #10 can of the canned pineapple, which he'd never had before, but after that he never liked pineapple again.  He sent most of his paycheck home every week to his mother to buy food for the family.

He fell in love with Verna Huffaker from Wendell when he was 23 and she was 15.  He kept trying to get her to drop out of school and marry him but she insisted she wanted to finish school.

Finally, at the start of her senior year, when she was 17, he "dared" her to elope and she "double dared" him back, and they with their best friends, Marie and Ralph, had a double wedding the next day in Hailey.

He worked as a cook and card dealer in Wendell, Hagerman, Ketchum, then as the goal tender at the Guggenheim Gold Mine in Jarbridge, Nevada. When the gold ran out and the mine closed, he had friends in Long Beach, California who convinced him to come to ship fitter school there and then got him a job in the ship yards in October 1941. It took him 3 months to find housing and earn enough money for us to join him.

I was born a year and three months after they married, so got to be in Wendell, Hagerman, Ketchum, Jarbridge, then to California with them.

 That's my first memory, at age 3 riding on the bus with my Mom to California a month after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  My Mom said I would wink at all the sailors and soldiers on the bus and they winked back.  The day that World War II was over--2 September 1945* (footnote 1)-- we were in downtown Long Beach taking my Grama Huffaker to the Greyhound bus station for her return to Idaho after visiting us.  Confetti and ticker tape were everywhere in the air, horns honking, people crowding in the streets and everyone so happy.

That same month we moved back to Wendell, Idaho, where Daddy began to work as a carpenter and did that for the rest of his life. 

Because of the complications my mother had after my birth, she was told she would never be able to have more children.  However, when I was 10 1/2 my baby sister, Janice was born. Mom told me that Arnold could not wait to get home after work to play with her.  We were all overjoyed to become a family of four.

Mom had gotten her high school diploma while in California through a correspondence course, and when I was a junior and senior she went to night classes at the Twin Falls Business College after working at the Wendell Cleaners all day. She was able to get a great job as secretary to the boss of the Southern Idaho Production Credit Association in Gooding. Daddy didn't want her driving on the roads in the winter, and since he had to drive all over Magic Valley anyway for his carpentry jobs, he said Gooding would be their new hometown.

Right after the war we lived in the old McBurney teacherage school house out in the country near my grandparents.  When it was put up for auction, Daddy bought it, had it moved to town, and built on to it making it into a beautiful home.  [Photo at left; home on Utah St., Gooding, Idaho below 1957-61,]

Then when they moved to Gooding in 1957, right after I had graduated from Wendell High School and gone to business college in Salt Lake City, they rented a tiny house while he built Mom her "dream home."  [Sorry we don’t have a photo. Janice do you have a photo of it?]

However, he sold it before she got to live in it because he was afraid he couldn't make the payments of $120 a month.  Mom made $200 a month at the PCA and I don’t know if he made much more than that in carpentry.  He bought a little 20x28 house on Wyoming Street and kept building on to it until it became a beautiful home for her, which she doesn't want to leave.

My Dad ended his carpenter years as the maintenance man for the new Tupperware plant in Jerome, commuting from Gooding.  He had just retired and was planning to open "Arnold's Antiques" in the big honey shed behind their home that had come with the original purchase. Mom and Dad had collected lots of wonderful antiques from many Saturday auctions all over the Magic Valley. Mom had one more year until her retirement in 1983 after 26 years at her great job with the Southern Idaho PCA.  So Arnold had been looking at trailers for them to do some traveling in.

 He loved to fish, and when I was little I would go with him to the Malad River in Hagerman...until I saw a snake there, and that ended my fishing trips with my Dad.

But his retirement plans never materialized when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in August 1981, and after 4 surgeries, the doctors told him the tumor was growing faster than they could cut it out.

My Daddy was converted and baptized in July 1954. Arnold and Verna were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple the day Walt and I were married there, June 14, 1961. Janice and I were sealed to our parents.

He would call his grandkids "little scaliwags," and it was a joy to me that our boys got to go fishing with him and Grampa Huffaker one time.

He liked to tease and loved baseball. When I was a junior, during the World Series of 1955, he "rented" a TV set. He was so excited to actually see the games that he never took the TV back, arranging to make payments until he owned it. That's why I'm a die-hard Yankee fan to this day...my Daddy loved the Yankees. 

He was quiet, like his mother and never liked to stand out in a crowd, and was a staunch Democrat, which I am not. Mom said they just canceled out each other's vote at election time. He was a union man, believing the unions helped the working man, but the Union didn't come through for him at his death, not giving his widow the right benefits.  However, she has had a good retirement pension from her years with PCA.

His mother, Blanche Ilene Hartwell Albertson, passed away on July 27, 1966, at the age of 72.  She is buried at the Hagerman, Idaho Cemetery

He smoked and drank coffee for many years, and he said Mom learned how to make really good coffee for him, even though she never drank it.  I heard him occasionally cuss a little when he hit his finger with the hammer.  But I never heard him take the Lord's name in vain.  Two weeks before he died I heard him say: 'Damn cancer!" 

I look forward to seeing him again in the Spirit World. I pray each day that he is happy and successful in his missionary work in heaven.   I wish he could come get Mom soon.

      End of this life sketch I wrote in 2009 from memory because I had none of our family histories with me in Argentina.  I have just added the photos for this 2012 update.

Posterity
Arnold & Verna have 2 children, 11 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren with 1 more due in March 2014.   I hope to post some photos of his posterity, also.

Update: Sunday, May 15, 2022

Posterity of Arnold & Verna Huffaker Albertson

Posterity of Walter & Eileen Albertson Petersen

Posterity of Janice Lynn Albertson Robertson

As of May11 2022

 

Posterity of Arnold & Verna Huffaker Albertson

   Children – 2

       Spouses of Children – 2

              G-Children – 11

              Spouses of G-Children – 10

                     G-G-Children – 54

                     Spouses of G-G-Children – 11

                               GG-G Children – 8, 2 more due in 2022

 

Posterity of Walter & Eileen Albertson Petersen

Children – 7

       Spouses of Children - 6

G-Children – 39

       Spouses of G-Children – 6

G=G-Children - 2

 

Posterity of Janice Lynn Albertson Robertson

Children – 4

       Spouses of Children – 4

        G-Children – 15

       Spouses of G-Children – 5

G-G-Children – 4

 As of May 2022

 

 

It's December already?

Sunday, December 2, 2012 at the Sonzacate Stake Conference...

Roberto Torres and Aida Palacios came to ride with us and show us the way. It was 1 1/2 hours over, but just under 1 hour coming back because of road construction and having to go two different ways.
We really appreciated it. (In the background is the white Honda van that the temple president drives.)

President Camparero was released today after serving 10 years. His counselor is on the left. The other counselor was called as a
counselor to President Julio Soto Morales who were being set apart, so I didn't get a photo of them.

The stake choir sang beautiful music.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan, First Quorum of the Seventy and Second Counselor in the Central America Area, presided. He shared a message about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and why people have to have trials and suffer.

Walt loves to greet the members. This young man asked to have a photo taken with the temple president.

I was surprised to see snow cone and ice cream vendors outside the gates of the stake center as we drove out.

When we returned to San Salvador, we invited our guides to come in to see the temple president's beautiful apartment.  They loved to see the temple from the second floor terrace.

They also enjoyed seeing our 10-minute DVD of our family that our daughter, Jen, put together for our 50th wedding anniversary in June 2011.  Jen, we have watched it many, many times and love it every time!

We invited them to join us and the temple missionaries for dinner, but Roberto was fasting until later in the day.  We did give them each a Hershey's chocolate bar to take with them for later.
We then joined our temple missionary couples for our weekly Sunday pot-luck dinner.  We had left a jello salad and whipped cream before we left that morning.
Clockwise from the top: Hna. Diane Wall, Elder Frank Wall, Elder Trent Kitley, Hna. Arlene Kitley, Hna. Marilyn Gibbons, Elder David Gibbons, Walt, Elder Lon Thompson, and Hna. Nancy Thompson.
They are each great cooks and we have delicious meals each Sunday.

We will be going over to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional 
at 7:00 on our Central Standard Time (6:00 p.m. MST). It is always an inspiration to hear from President Monson, President Eyring, and President Uchtdorf.

We hope you will all have a wonderful December 2012 and the Spirit of Christmas in your homes and hearts.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

I am thankful that Walt can walk with his cane now and does not need to use the walker.  He does exercises each day which are strengthening his back and his right leg.  It was his right leg that became so weak when his back problems started in April that caused several falls when it gave out.
    This is why we went to Utah for him to have back surgery, which was done May 1.

Walt left at 6:20 this morning for a Regional Correlation Council with the Area 70, Elder Duarte. It was for the second half of the 18 stake presidents in El Salvador. The first one was on Sunday, Nov. 2 in Sonsacote.
These are held quarterly.  

President Petersen told the stake presidents that the temple is doing well.  He told them that the ultimate goal of all that they do, first for themselves and then for their people, including temple ordinances, is to be a God and to have eternal increase.

One of the quotes he used is Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-4
"In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;
"And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood--meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage--;
"And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.
"He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase."

President Rafael Majano, his first counselor (on the right in the photo above), did some teaching about recommend activation, the recommend for personal ordinances and the need for more temple workers.

President Eduardo Alas, his second counselor (on the left in the photo above), and his wife, Hna. Consuelo Alas, spoke at the Juayua (kinda pronounced "who-a-you-a" Stake Conference for us, since Walt needed to be at the Regional Correlation Council.

Below is a photo with my two great assistants to the matron: Hna. Maria Aida Majano, on the right, and Hna. Consuelo del Carmen de Alas is on the left.  They are hard workers and are great helpers.  I could not fulfill this calling without them.

We hope you have all had a great Thanksgiving time with your families and friends.
Since Monday is when we can all be together on our Preparation Day (P-Day) when the temple is closed, we have our Thanksgiving dinner then.  We had 21.  Here we all are.  We started to set up on the balcony terrace, but the generator for all the buildings on our temple square block was going all day.  The electricity was off for the day (which is very rare), and the generator was too loud for anyone to have been able to talk to each other and hear anything.

So the Kitley's offered to have the tables set up in their apartment.  Here we are:

The empty seats on the end are where our temple recorder, Jaime López, his wife Gladis, and her sister Eydi sat when they arrived a little late.  Here they are in the photo below:

Hermana Arlene Kitley made headbands in honor of the pilgrims and Indians who held the first Thanksgiving.
She put extra feathers in Walt's headband because she said he is our "chief."

Here are Elder Frank and Hermana Diane Wall.  She got up at 5:00 a.m. and made the pies: pumpkin, apple, and banana cream.  They were delicious -- as was everything else!

And a fun surprise was Hermana Joanne Hall made and brought these fun "Oreo" turkeys, even though she and Elder Richards Hall were not able to come to our actual dinner. What a sweetheart!

And our pilgrim, Indian, and cornucopia decorations reminded us also of the blessings of each Autumn's plentiful harvest and those who helped settle our great homeland.
And I like this plaque I brought back from the Cracker Barrel in Tennessee that says:
"The best things made in the kitchen are memories."

Each day in November on face book I have posted a "Today I am thankful for..."
I'll copy these to our blog the end of November to keep a record of them.
We are thankful for so many things, and we know that you all are, too.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Thank you to Janiece Burgess for reminding us that today was the re-dedication of the newly remodeled Boise Temple. I looked up in the Church Almanac to see when it was first dedicated. I remembered it was in May 1984, one year after the Burley Idaho Stake was divided and our Burley Idaho West Stake was formed.
 Our dear Boise Idaho Temple has had 4 "dedications" now:
 Dedication: May 25-30, 1984 by President Gordon B. Hinckley
 Dedication of remodeled facilities by Elder James E. Faust, Feb. 14, 1987.
 Dedication of new baptistry by Elder Faust May 29, 1987.
 Dedication of newly remodeled temple by ________________      Nov. 18, 2012
 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Mormon temples are unique buildings that are not used for normal Sunday worship services. While chapels, where services are held, are open to the public, the temples require special permission to attend, and are for people who have been members of the Church for at least one year and have achieved a high level of obedience to God’s commandments. Only adults may enter the temple except for a limited number of situations. Following are some thoughts and stories from Thomas S. Monson, the Mormon prophet, on these sacred buildings.

 The Temple as Service,
quote by our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson:
 "Now, my brothers and sisters, we have built temples throughout the world and will continue to do so. To you who are worthy and able to attend the temple, I would admonish you to go often. The temple is a place where we can find peace. There we receive a renewed dedication to the gospel and a strengthened resolve to keep the commandments. What a privilege it is to be able to go to the temple, where we may experience the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of the Lord. Great service is given when we perform vicarious ordinances for those who have gone beyond the veil. In many cases we do not know those for whom we perform the work. We expect no thanks, nor do we have the assurance that they will accept that which we offer. However, we serve, and in that process we attain that which comes of no other effort: we literally become saviors on Mount Zion. As our Savior gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for us, so we, in some small measure, do the same when we perform proxy work in the temple for those who have no means of moving forward unless something is done for them by those of us here on the earth."
-- Thomas S. Monson, “Until We Meet Again,” Ensign, May 2009, 112–14

Also today, Sunday, November 18, 2012
Walt and I spoke at the El Salvador Layco Stake Conference about temples.
The photo is Walt with the Stake President, President Francisco Rodríguez.

After I took the photo above, a sweet Sister offered to take a photo of all three of us together.

I know I missed last Sunday -- promise to blog tomorrow after we get back from our talks at the El Salvador Layco Stake Conference.

God Bless America

Our dear friends, Ross & Karen Taylor, just e-mailed this to us.

A forward worth reading
Meg.

From: Ed Lauritsen [mailto:edlauritsen@msn.com]

Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 2:50 AM
Subject: A post-election epiphany: The real winner in campaign 2012

It is Election Night 2012, and I'm sitting here at my computer listening to Governor Romney's 

concession speech, trying to come to grips with his defeat---our defeat. And into my mind comes

three interesting thoughts. The first comes with a scripture:    

"Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." (D&C 88:73).

If the Lord's "work" is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39),

and if that process begins by hearing about the Church andseeing its members, then the sooner and 

the faster the greatest number of people can see andhear about the Latter-day Saints---especially about

exemplary Saints like the Romneys---the more the work is hastened. And though the Church has 55,000+ 

missionaries who are quietly and patiently roaming the world knocking on doors, the Lord has brought the

LDS Governor and his LDS family into the very homes ofmillions of people around the U.S. and the world 

via TV, radio, and Internet for more than a year now---people who might never have received or accepted the 

missionaries or LDS neighbors, let alone have learned about the LDS way of life. But now they have listened, 

watched, and learned, and many of them will likely be more curious and receptive to the missionaries in the 

future. And that also goes for many of the Evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics who locked arms with the 

Latter-Day Saints (thanks to Glenn Beck) during this long presidential campaign. Bottom line: the Romneys 

lost a hard-fought political battle, but they---and the Church---won a decisive, long-awaited cultural and 

spiritual victory in opening the minds and hearts of millions.

Another post-election thought: "Be careful what you pray for."

Had Romney won, it is highly doubtful that he and his team would have been able to rescue the nation's

wounded economy from the purposeful destruction that Obama has intentionally inflicted upon it, Obama

having done so in order to "fundamentally transform" our free enterprise system into a Socialist state. Had

Romney won, the only possible way to have saved the nation and its economy would have been to make

deep cuts in the welfare and entitlement programs---cuts that would have been branded "murderous, 

discriminatory and racist" at every turn by the Liberal mainstream media. And the ever-increasing drumbeat 

of these accusations over the next four years would have given license to thousands---perhaps millions---

of malcontents to take to the streets in "civil unrest" (aka anarchy). As such, Romney's never-ending vilification

in print and in the electronic media would have soon painted him---and his fellow Mormons---as the enemies

of America, with all the resulting antagonism, stress, and persecution of the Church, both at home and abroad. 

As is, over the next four years, right-wing zealots---notChristian Conservatives--- will likely become increasingly 

resistant, confrontational, and possibly violent in response to the creeping Socialism. Thus, "social unrest" may

begin at the other end of the political spectrum, likely precipitating equally violent responses from the pro-Socialist

masses. 

And this foregoing scenario brings me to the third and final thought tonight, one which also was accompanied by the

written word, this time in the form of a powerful metaphor by Hugh Nibley. I close with it:

“On the last night of a play, the whole cast and stage crew stay in the theater until the small, or not so small, hours of 

the morning striking the old set.  If there is to be a new opening soon, as the economy of the theater requires, it is 

important that the new set should be in place and ready for the opening night; all the while the old set was finishing 

its usefulness and then being taken down, the new set was rising in splendor to be ready for the drama that would 

immediately follow. So it is with this world. It is not our business to tear down the old set---the agencies that do that 

are already hard at work and very efficient---the set is coming down all around us with spectacular effect. Our business

is to see to it that the new set is well on the way for what is to come---and that means a different kind of politics, beyond

the scope of the tragedy that is now playing its closing night. We are preparing for the establishment of Zion.”

Nibley, Hugh. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless:Classic Essays of Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young 

University Religious Studies Center, 1978, p. 302  

We voted absentee.  We believe that the Lord is in charge.
Someday we will understand the whys and wherefores.
   The United States of America is the Promised Land.
Nate Petersen shared a quote from President Harold B. Lee, Prophet and President of the Church in 1972 and 1973, and many years an Apostle before that.
    I'll share it tomorrow.
            We did feel the 7.4 earthquake that happened on the coast of Guatemala today.  We were in the temple president's office in the weekly planning meeting with the presidency and temple matron (directora) and my assistants (we three Hermanas meet with them once a month).  The room moved back and forth for a minute.  I thought the beautiful stained glass window was going to come out, but it didn't.
         ...and life goes on.

      

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Goodbye October...
      Hello November...the "thankfulness month"
Our week...
     Sunday, November 4
This afternoon we were invited to speak at the Los Alpes Ward in the San Salvador Stake, which is in the suburb San Marcos.
It only took Hno. Alvarenga 15 minutes to drive us from the temple to there.

It was for the endowed members of the ward. I spoke for about 7 minutes, starting by sharing my story about going to the temple for the first time. I was very nervous because I didn't know anything about temples and my parents were also going for the first time, so there had been no temple activity while I was growing up.
Even though there is a lot to learn in the temple -- it is the Lord's University -- I didn't know I just had to remember two things -- one of them being to record how I felt on this very special day.

  
I told them since that day - June 14, 1961 - 51 years ago, I have been able to go to many different temples hundreds of times, and each time I learn something new.

We don't share the ordinances from the temple because they are sacred.

However, it is okay to quote what the Prophets, Apostles, and General Authorities have

had printed in books or talks about the temple and temple work.

I quoted most of my favorite quotes about the temple:

             "We should give more attention to preparation to go to the temple."

                                                                                 -- Elder John A. Widstoe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ENDOWMENT: "a gift.” “A Celestial Course of Instruction.” Brigham Young said:

“Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of  the Lord which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to

            enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who

            stand as sentinels being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and

tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation…”                  

~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        "The temple endowment relates the story of man's eternal journey;

            sets the conditions upon which progress in the eternal worlds depends;

            requires covenants or agreements of those participating to accept and use

            the laws of progress; gives tests by which our willingness and fitness for

            righteousness may be known, and finally points out the ultimate destiny of

            those who love truth and live by it."                  -- Elder John A. Widstoe

                                                                       

            President Harold B. Lee adds this dimension to our understanding of the endowment:  "The temple ceremonies are designed by a wise Heavenly Father who has revealed them to us in these last days as a guide and protection throughout our lives that you and I might not fail of an exaltation in the Celestial kingdom where God and Christ dwell."  --Through Temple Doors, John K. Edmunds, p. 141--Harold B. Lee, Decisions for Successful Living

                                                             (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1978),  p. 141;  The 

Walt's talk was marvelous! I can't share many of the specific words, --because I still don't understand much Spanish--but the members were spellbound and I could see the light in their eyes of being taught by a true follower of the Savior.

     He often has me come stand beside him when he begins and tells them that I am his "eternal sweetheart," and how much he loves and appreciates me.

      Our driver told us on the way back that he heard several couples saying they "want a marriage just like President and Sister Petersen."

Several wanted their photo with us.

And, yes, many still come in the backs of pickups.  He was sitting in the truck bed, until he saw me asking them to stop a second for me to take a photo.  He then hopped up onto the side.

Here is Brother José Alvarenga, who drove us to and from this fireside.  We invite our drivers to come see the temple president's apartment and give them a treat.

I will have to post the rest of our week later...

  We (the 4 Sr. Couple Temple Missionaries, Walt and I) are going on our monthly outing tomorrow - Monday, on our P-day, when the temple is closed.  We've chosen to go back to San Sebastian where we went several months ago.  We were going to San Miguel, but changed our plan.  It will be another adventure to post about.

     Have a great week.  Goodnight.