President and Sister Morby, the Oregon Portland Mission, asked that I recount the story of a young mother's conversion in our stake and how it was a direct fulfillment to a father's blessing 17 years before. I am grateful that they asked so I could have it for this history, as well.
In June 1995, the oldest of our nine children graduated from high school. Ondalynn Lewis was a bright, worthy, beautiful red-head bound for BYU. But what impressed us most was that she had surrounded herself during her years at Barlow High School with good friends; most of them not of our faith, but good, wholesome Christian young ladies like her.
Prior to leaving for college just
a few days after her high school graduation, I gave Ondalynn a father’s blessing,
as I had done many times before at the beginning of a school year. However,
this time I had the impression to bless her that one of her friends would join
the Church. I was taken aback by the impression. I had never made such a
promise (nor have I ever since). In my mind’s eye, I saw her friend Erica
Peterson, a striking, athletic young woman, but not necessarily the most
religious of the group. However, I did not identify Erica in the blessing
thinking it inappropriate. Ondalynn, upon hearing this part of the blessing later
told me she immediately thought of her friend Missy, who was extremely devoted
in her faith.
Over the years I occasionally
asked Ondalynn if she had heard from her high school friend Erica Peterson
never explaining why I asked. It was always the same: nothing new. As she went
through college, served a mission and then married, Ondalynn’s contact with
Erica became less and less until finally she had little knowledge of Erica’s
whereabouts or what she was doing.
In 1999, I was called as a
counselor in the Mount Hood Oregon Stake Presidency and for the next nine years
I watched and wondered from the stand if I would some day see Erica Peterson
walk into a sacrament meeting. I must confess as time passed my hope waned that
I would ever witness the fulfillment of a promise made to a daughter so many
years before.
In February 2012, I was called as
president of our stake. I was surprised by the call. I had been out of the
presidency for four years and was now 63 years old, an age at which most stake
presidents get released not called. I wondered then and wonder today why I was
called.
But a part of that answer came on
May 27, exactly three months from the day I was installed. The night before I
had been weighed down by concerns in the stake and wrestled through the night.
I barely got two hours of sleep that night and faced a full day of meetings
beginning with stake presidency meeting at 6:30 am and culminating with the
Sandy River Ward Conference beginning at 11:30 am where I was expected to speak
at least twice, if not three times; my mind was not clear, my thoughts were
jumbled.
“Why is this so hard? Why am I
struggling?” I wondered.
Shortly before ward conference
began, I noticed a young mother walk briskly into the meeting and slip into the
pew with her family. They were sitting so the pulpit blocked my view. Something
had touched me inside as I saw her come in. I thought to myself: “I know her,
but why don’t I recognize her? Who is she?” I had lived in this stake for 23
years and knew just about everyone by name. But I couldn’t place her name and
now the pulpit, no matter how hard I strained, blocked my view of her family. I
temporarily forgot about her and enjoyed the spirit of the meeting.
Afterwards, I just happened to
walk down the aisle where they were seated. I had forgotten about her and now
she had hustled off to take her little boy to Primary. As I came down the
aisle, a young father was waiting for me. As we greeted each other, he said,
“My wife knew your daughter in high school.” Suddenly it all rushed back. “Is
your wife Erica Peterson?!” I exclaimed in almost disbelief.
“Yes, now Erica Smith,” her
husband Owen Smith replied.
I wept openly in front of this
stranger and tried to choke out the words of why I had suddenly become so
emotional.
I rejoiced as he recounted their
story, how he had left his deep LDS roots and followed the world for most of
his life, marrying outside the church that ended in divorce. Then he met Erica,
who had never married, and now she was pregnant with their second child. A
yearning had returned to him for more in life and he remembered the teachings
of his parents. The Sandy River Ward quickly rallied around them and brought
them into the warmth of the Spirit. Erica was now basking in their love and
progressing in the missionary lessons.
I was so overcome by this sudden
fulfillment of a long-held (long-lost?) dream that I couldn’t resist telling
this story from the pulpit during the adult meeting in the third hour of ward
conference. As I stood at the pulpit and gazed into Erica’s face, I asked her
forgiveness that I was about to tell her a story she had never heard, but would
in the end “pile on you a ton of pressure” knowing that she hadn’t actually
joined the Church yet. She accepted my apology and joined with me in my tears.
Erica was baptized on August 4,
2012 in fulfillment of a promise made by a trembling father to a righteous
daughter 17 years before. At that baptism was her closest LDS high school
friends, Nicole Kelson Blackburn, who spoke at the service, and my daughter,
Ondalynn, now a mother of five children, who had just moved with her family
from the Washington D.C. area to nearby Camas, Washington.
I now bear testimony freely as one
who knows: the Lord keeps His promises.
Eria Peterson
Smith is joined at her baptism by high school friends Ondalynn Lewis Vance
(left) and Nicole Kelson Blackburn (right)
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