Called to Serve our King

I think Dad would agree that the year following his graduation from high school was one of his life’s most significant. He decided to attend a year of college, in Taylorsville. “When I first graduated from high school, I went to an electronic technical college…It just seemed to be a better deal. It’s not really where I wanted to go, but that’s where I wound up.” He went there for a year, working part-time and leaning toward achieving a certificate in electronics. Allan describes his thoughts and feelings at that time; “None of that was really what I wanted to do anyway. I’m not sure why I went that way, but I guess I couldn’t find the money to try for BYU. I wanted to go to BYU, but I’m not sure why I didn’t try for that. I think my oldest brother Kelly had somewhat of an influence. He was saying he would help pay for my schooling if I would commit to go to school for four years and forget about this mission stuff. And if I would just go ahead and finish my college, he would help get me into work wherever, and maybe even be able to help get me a job with IBM, which is where he was working. But I had to have that commitment, and I just wasn’t willing to do that. I was ready and waiting. I was just biding my time for a year before I went on my mission.”

At a time when college wasn’t as wide spread of an option as it is now and coming from a family of relatively humble circumstances, this would have been a hard decision for most. But not for Allan. His propensity toward obedience and activity in the church led him to the natural and easy decision to serve a full time mission. “I liked going to church. I liked the activity and associations there, and so it was good for me. It was like going on a mission was not something that was – it was something that was expected, but I didn’t feel pressured by it at all. It was something I wanted to do.” Despite being the ninth child, Allan was the first to serve a mission, not just in his immediate family, but the first of his ancestors who had joined the church on both his mothers and fathers side. Although he may not have realized it at the time, the decision to serve a mission would become a significant milestone not only in his life but a turning point for many of those around him.

At the time, his parents were not active in the church, but Allan had already established his faith and the decision to serve was immediate and without doubt. His papers were submitted prior to his nineteenth birthday and his call was received shortly thereafter.

Allan remembered the day he received his mission call. Upon returning home, his mother told him that he had a letter from the church. “I think she knew it was the call” he said. “So I opened it up and there it was. You are going to Ohio, you need to bring these things, don’t do these things.”

Allan was called to serve in the Ohio Mission, a brand new mission that had recently been created from the Great Lakes Mission. It consisted of all of Ohio, most of West Virginia and small strips of both Kentucky and Pennsylvania. “I was excited to get the call…I was a little disappointed I went state-side, I (had) hoped to go on a foreign mission, but then I had many years since been thankful that I did not have to learn a foreign language, because I have learned since that I do not have much aptitude for language. But it was exciting to receive, and to plan.”