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What are you afraid of? "I'm afraid people won't understand what I'm saying. "Me too.! "

What are you afraid of? I’m afraid people won’t understand what I’m saying. Me too!

One Tuesday morning, I wandered down to the staging area where missionaries left the MTC to go into the field. A Sister Missionary, named Sister Lara Vergara, was sitting alone in a room across from the help desk at the CTM and she needed someone to help calm her fears. She was sitting in the room across from the Help Desk. She had a look of fear in her eyes. I went in and sat next to her. We communicated through Deepl. I asked her if she was afraid. She said yes. I asked her what she was afraid of. She said she was afraid that people wouldn’t understand her. I told her that I understood that perfectly! I Robyn Lyn Beck asked if she had called her mom, she said that she had yesterday. As I quickly thought about what to do, I decided not to mention calling her mom again. I felt that I had a better thought come to me. I thought of the paintings that we had in the CTM that we had hoped the missionaries would look at in their journey. The answer for this situation was to point Sister Vergara to the paintings. I told her there was a painting I wanted to show her. We walked to the 1st floor on the opposite side of the building than we were on. I showed her the picture of Jesus rescuing Peter from the stormy waters when he tried to walk on the water. I asked her to look at the painting and to tell me how it made her feel. She said , “I like this painting a lot. He knows how we feel. As she looked at the Savior, saving Peter from going under the water, she said. “I feel that in the same way, He takes care of us and that comforts me. It is what we feel. It helps me remember that He is always there.” We have to let him in.” I asked her if she wanted to keep walking and looking at the paintings. She said, “I think I should go back.” (She wanted to see if they had information on the van that would take her to take to the airport.) She said, “Thank you very much.” We turned a corner and walked down another hall, and a man from the help desk was looking for her. The timing was perfect. She said, I prayed today for angels to minister and to comfort me and you just showed up. Thank you for your love.” “During these weeks in the CTM, I was able to see how Heavenly Father worked in my life Robyn Lyn Beck and to feel his love for me. Today I was able to feel it again! “I’m going to tell my family about you.” I said to her. “I prayed for help too.” You were the answer to my prayers…” When she said that she had fear that people wouldn’t understand her when she spoke, I realized that as I was sent for her, she also was sent for me. It had been a hard week for me with the difference in languages. That morning, I learned how to use Deepl and realized I could communicate using that tool.

Text after she arrived in her mission. Hello Sister Beck: How are you? I thought of you these days. It really was a blessing to be able to meet you, thank you for your love and concern. If you want, you can send me the photos we took so I can show them to my family. I send you a giant hug. I love you. Have a nice week.

Robyn Lyn Beck

Receiving a Call to Serve

In April 2021 we received a call from Elder Marcus Nash of the Quorum of the Seventy. He wanted to know if we would be available to serve a mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil as the MTC President (David). I would be called as the Relief Society

Receiving a Call to serve

We were to have a Zoom meeting with Elder Nash at 11:30 but he got tied up with another phone call. His secretary set up another meeting for 8:30 tonight. I biked for over 10 minutes and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. …

We had a zoom call with Elder Nash tonight. He called us to replace the MTC president in the Sao Paulo MTC. The prior president had medical problems. He said that the call would be for 1.5 years. He said that there is a pre-field training seminar at the Provo MTC on May 11-13 that they want us to attend. They would like to get us down there as soon as possible. There aren’t missionaries in the MTC currently with the Covid problem in Brazil. He said that they are doing remote training of missionaries from the MTC. We accepted the calling. We were surprised to say the least. Elder Nash said not to tell anyone until we receive the official call letter from the First Presidency. He said that Kelly Mills (801 400-8799) from the Missionary Dept would be contacting us to get us going. Ryan and Jeff called us and were anxious to know what the assignment is. They weren’t pleased that we couldn’t tell them now. I am grateful for the Lord trusting us to serve in this assignment. It is a quick response call and we have a lot to do. We know from experience that the Lord will enable us to do this assignment just as he has done in previous assignments.

Setting Apart Blessings

David L. Beck

My Dear Brother David LeRoy Beck,

With the authority of the Holy Priesthood and having been authorized by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the twelve apostles we place our hands upon your head and set you apart as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and as President of the Brazil Sao Paulo Mission Training Center. We confer upon you the authority, and rights, privileges and duties that pertain to these callings in the case of the MTC - keys of the presidency to preside there.

We pronounce a blessing upon you as you formally and officially embark upon this service.

We first assure you of the good pleasure of your Heavenly Father and of our Savior Jesus Christ in your life and what you have accomplished and the way you have fulfilled your covenants and have been obedient to the path that they have lead out both for all of us generally and for you individually.

We sense in this moment their approval and as mentioned their great pleasure in your service, in you character, and in your life. We bless you that you will have that witness come to you again and again as time goes on that of the affirmation of your standing before them. It will give you added confidence and encouragement and the power to go forward in all responsibilities that are now yours. We bless you with gifts of the spirit such as may be required as the Lord deems appropriate from time to time including in particular gifts of discernment, of judgement, of revelation, of teaching, of charity the pure love of Christ, and of faith in Jesus Christ.

And all such other spiritual gifts as the Lord sees fit.

We bless you with the health and vigor that are needed or a continuation of that health and vigor that you have enjoyed through the years to be able to fulfill these assignments to have the capacity to accomplish all those expected of you.

We bless you that you will have joy in this service that it will be a service filled with reward and satisfaction as you go forward and that your influence for good, which has extended far already, may extend in the lives of all the missionaries under your jurisdiction and your time at the MiTC and anyone else who comes within the circle of your association. We express our own admiration for you and respect our love and invoke these and all other blessings that the Lord sees fit to bestow upon you in his great mercy and omniscience and do it all in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. amen

Setting Apart Blessing

Robyn Lyn Beck

Acting in the authority of the Holy Melchezidek Priesthood and by the authorization of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve apostles we unitedly lay our hands upon your head to set you apart to serve as a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as companion to your Husband and as the RS President of the Sao Paulo Brazil MTC.

We bestow upon you the authority and the powers the rights and privileges and duties pertaining to these callings. We bless you as you initiate this sacred service that the Lord will again attend you as he has in all of your prior callings in your life generally particularly in your roles as mother, grandmother as wife, and friend.. We bless you that despite the separations that will be a fact in part of your service that despite that you will have a closeness to your loved ones that you will feel that across the miles. That you’ll have means given you and inspiration given you to counsel your children, your grandchildren in righteousness and wisdom. We bless you that they will hear and heed that counsel. It will stay with them. That your influence from afar and when your’e together will be enduring in their lives and bless them all life long. We bless you that you’ll find joy and satisfaction in this service. That the work you do together as husband and wife, with your dear David, will enhance even further strengthen even more the bonds of love that exist between you that these will become and always be utterly unbreakable eternally - bonds of love, friendship, happiness, and hope.

We bless you that you will have confidence born of the spirit you’ll have faith as you go forward. That you will feel the fullness of love and that you will be able to influence for good as you would desire all around you.

We bless you with health and stamina with the means to carry forward with protection, and watch care from above - both you and David and your loved ones even though you’re apart.

Bless you that as you search the scriptures - it will come to you added light and knowledge. That your prayers will be heard and answered that you’ll be able to rejoice in the expanded understanding of gospel truths that will come to you during this time.

That you’ll be rewarded with treasures, celestial, eternal, spiritual treasures from time to time that you’ll recognize as specific gifts of God to you as a faithful daughter. Indicating his love and his good pleasure in your life of service. We send you forth to do a good work with the assurance of the love, the guidance of the Lord, the holy Spirit, our own heavenly father and our own support and love for you. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Robyn Lyn Beck

What was the neighborhood you grew up in like?

My Childhood Neighborhoods

Some of what I start out with is what I learned from my mother’s journal. I don’t remember the 1st house we lived in on the busy street.

When I was born, I went home to my family of 6 to a 3 room apartment attached to a restaurant called the “Western Sportsman,” on about 2nd South and 500 West in Bountiful, Utah; a place my Dad had built for a business he started. It was located on a very busy street.

The apartment started feeling more and more cramped and especially when Mom and Dad brought Steven (the caboose of our family) home. Here is what my mom said about it:

“After our last two babies came along, we definitely decided our apartment was getting much too small and so we moved into a rented house in a lovely neighborhood, and it was the beginning of a wonderful new life for us. It seemed so good to get off the busy highway and have a fenced yard and live on a quiet street. This was a great place for the kids to grow up. We met a lot of new people and the neighbors were the best ever.

It was in this little house in the circle that we met our dearest and closest friends, Wayne and Evelyn Beck. They were the first ones to come and introduce themselves. I remember how happy I was to know that we had friends so soon and in later years, we were to know why we had met at this time!” It was pure destiny!!

“Two months after moving here, our building with the apartment we had lived in burned down and we had to remodel and build it again.”

Mom and Dad recognized the great blessing they had received by moving before it burned down.

My main memories of being in this second house were:

I fell on a broken chair and cut my upper lip open and hadto have stitches. I had a scar for the rest of my life.
My dad was chasing a rat that he heard in the kitchen inthe middle of the night. He went after it with with a broom, and broke his toe when he stubbed it against the kitchen cupboard. He was pretty mad and the worst part was that the rat got away!!

After living in that house for a year, our neighbor around the corner, asked Dad and Mom if they would be willing to rent her house for two years, so that she could join her husband inTexas. This house was located on 1700 S and Main Street. This house had more room, I had a bedroom to myself, while my brothers shared a room in a finished basement. The extra room felt good to us. I remember being in this house. I remember our long Thanksgiving table that we set up in the living room.

I made some fun friends there. My brother K.C. and David were friends.

Meeting David and his family turned out to be the best outcome of living here. It is in this neighborhood where the picture of us holding hands was taken!!

Memories I have of this neighborhood and house:

I remember David and I playing sacrament together.
I never liked Ricky Keebler, as David said I did. :)
We were playing ball one evening while Mom and Dadwere on a date and Mike swung the bat and hit Lona Smith (our babysitter) and broke her nose. It was so scary!
Dad bought two baby Bobcats for us to have as pets. Theydidn’t last long. One ran out in the street and got hit by a car, and another one had a shot for distemper and it killed him.

We were so sad to lose them both so quickly. They were cute little pets.

I hid my favorite book in a bush overnight. When I went toget it in the morning, it was soaked and had bugs all over it. I was so sad.
There was a store about 10 min away — walking time for ourlittle legs. Mom would give give us chores to do and then pay us in pennies and we would walk there and get penny candy.

We all loved living in this neighborhood. There were lots of kids. The grown ups were caring, considerate, and would do anything for one other. We made lasting friendships.

After two years, we moved to the last house we all finished growing up in. It was just down the street at 2776 S. 500 West. It was a two bedroom house that we remodeled. It had a big yard. We added a nice patio with a swimming pool and a dressing room that looked like the Matterhorn mountain. We had a nice lawn area and garden in the back.

The swimming pool helped us have a lot of fun. We had lots of friends come and swim.

My brothers slept in an attic bedroom altogether, and I had a room on the main level to myself.

My parents were also on that level. We added a living room and remodeled the kitchen.

We had a dog run with Sport, our black lab, the best dog ever; and Chet, a mean dog. Dad used them for hunting.

There was an outdoor movie theatre right next to us. People would come and park next to a speaker and watch the movie. We often would sit on our balcony and watch the movies. We could hear the audio through the speakers that the people would attach to their cars.

This was a great neighborhood to live in. We played night games most nights in the summer.

David and I had our wedding reception in the back yard. We had a fishpond on the opposite side of the swimming pool and Mountain. During our reception, a lady was talking to someone and backed right into the pool and fell down! It was the thing people always remembered about our reception!!

I had a wonderful childhood, with amazing parents and we made a lot of great memories in the neighborhoods we lived in.

Robyn Lyn Beck

How is life different today compared to when you were a child?

Life is much different today than when I was a child.

I am grateful for the time I was born. Life was quite a bit different then, but I liked the calmness and slower pace.

We lived in smaller neighborhoods. We played night games. We played sports, but we didn’t travel to other places to play. The games were just played at schools in our city.

Gas stations had attendants that would pump the gas. While the gas was pumping, the attendant would wash the windows, check oil levels and radiators. It seemed liked the cars would overheat more easily, especially when we were on trips and drove long distances.

We went to school each day. The schools had swings and slippery slides - very simple playgrounds. They had tether ball poles. That was a game I loved to play and I was pretty good at it.

The pace seemed much more calm and serene. Life didn’t seem so busy. There was a lot of time to play and just be kids. Everyone pretty much went home at the same time at night. Dinner time was honored and families would sit around the table and enjoy dinner together.

We didn’t eat out much. Sometimes we would go out for birthdays, but mainly we just ate at home. There weren’t a lot of restaurants to choose from.

The fast food places were quite different. They had lanes that we would park in. We would roll down the window on the driver’s side to talk to do an attendant taking our order.

It was mostly girls who took the orders. They would either walk or be on roller skates. The attendant would come and take our order on a pad. She would take it to the building where the food was made and they would make it. The attendant would then take the food back to the car when it was ready, and the person on the driver’s side would put their window down halfway and the attendant would hang the tray on their window and then come back and take away when we were done.

We loved french fries, which were new to us at the time. When fry sauce came to town, we couldn’t believe how yummy it was!

Our life seemed simple and wonderful. Grocery stores had few cereal choices. Nothing like we have today. I remember my mom getting a counter check to fill out to buy groceries. She had her own checks, but stores also had checks if you needed one. You would write your name and account # on the check and use it to pay for the groceries. There was only one or two banks in the area.

People could leave the key in the ignition and no one would take their car. They would leave car locks and house locks unlocked because people didn’t think anyone would steal their property.

People didn’t have as much money as they do today. Homes were generally smaller. We didn’t have air conditioning in our homes. We did have heating. The first air conditioners were called, “Swamp coolers.” They would sit on the top of the house and water would run through the unit and then push cool hair into the house. They were quite loud and noisy.

We used typewriters to write letters. We didn’t have computers or calculators. All math was done by hand.

No one had cell phones. We communicated over land lines. My

Grandma had a party line- which meant that she shared a line with someone else. Sometimes they would try and use the phone at the same time. You could pick up the phone and hear the conversation of others. Cell phones have brought good things, but it has also provided many ways for us to disconnect from our family. This, I believe, has really changed society and important interactions with others.

They didn’t have automatic car washes. We would wash our car with a bucket of soap and some water.

We didn’t have dishwashers. We washed dishes by hand, dried them, and put them away.

Life was much different way back when! :)))))

Slurpees from 7-11 were a big deal. They were a frozen icy treat like a snow cone. But these were so much better. When they arrived we couldn’t figure out how we ever lived without them. They are still pretty popular today.

Slowly many moved to bigger houses, but some of the people that lived in our neighborhood growing up, lived in the same house until they died.

Life was simple, it was easy, and it was fun!

Robyn Lyn Beck

What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done?

What are you afraid of? I’m afraid people won’t understand what I’m saying. Me too!

asked if she had called her mom, she said that she had yesterday. As I quickly thought about what to do, I decided not to mention calling her mom again. I felt that I had a better thought come to me. I thought of the paintings that we had in the CTM that we had hoped the missionaries would look at in their journey. The answer for this situation was to point Sister Vergara to the paintings. I told her there was a painting I wanted to show her. We walked to the 1st floor on the opposite side of the building than we were on. I showed her the picture of Jesus rescuing Peter from the stormy waters when he tried to walk on the water. I asked her to look at the painting and to tell me how it made her feel. She said , “I like this painting a lot. He knows how we feel. As she looked at the Savior, saving Peter from going under the water, she said. “I feel that in the same way, He takes care of us and that comforts me. It is what we feel. It helps me remember that He is always there.” We have to let him in.” I asked her if she wanted to keep walking and looking at the paintings. She said, “I think I should go back.” (She wanted to see if they had information on the van that would take her to take to the airport.) She said, “Thank you very much.” We turned a corner and walked down another hall, and a man from the help desk was looking for her. The timing was perfect. She said, I prayed today for angels to minister and to comfort me and you just showed up. Thank you for your love.” “During these weeks in the CTM, I was able to see how Heavenly Father worked in my life Robyn Lyn Beck

and to feel his love for me. Today I was able to feel it again! “I’m going to tell my family about you.” I said to her. “I prayed for help too.” You were the answer to my prayers…” When she said that she had fear that people wouldn’t understand her when she spoke, I realized that as I was sent for her, she also was sent for me. It had been a hard week for me with the difference in languages. That morning, I learned how to use Deepl and realized I could communicate using that tool.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done?

The Chance I had to Apologize for doing something Stupid

As I look back on my life, I had an experience come to mind that is quite sad for me to remember. I considered it to be one of the stupidest things I had ever done.

When I was in grade school, kids would bully other kids. One way they would do this is by saying that certain kids had “fleas.” I don’t know how or who it was that determined which kids had fleas and which ones didn’t, but everyone seemed to know the ones who “did.”

If you rubbed against, touched, or had any contact with the person who had fleas, you would then “have fleas.” You would have to touch someone else within a few seconds in order to rid Robyn Lyn Beck

yourself of the fleas. The person you gave them to, would then have to give them to someone else. This would go around and around until recess was over.

Early on, I remember joining in during part of one recess, receiving and giving “Nancy’s fleas” away.

After, I immediately felt so bad. It was such a stupid thing to do. I, of course, never felt good about it and in later years, whenever bullying came up, my thoughts immediately went to this memory and about how stupid and mean it was to have participated in such a demeaning activity.

Oh how I wished I could have taken my actions back, and stood up for Nancy and all of the other kids who were being bullied.

One day, a few years after I was married and living in our home, I was able to at least apologize for my actions, in what I felt, came about in quite a remarkable way.

As I was working outside in our front yard, I looked down the street and saw a man doing some work on a house in our neighborhood. Sitting on the lawn, in front of that house, was a woman who resembled Nancy. I kept working, but kept my eye on her, trying to decide that if it was her, what I should do.

Robyn Lyn Beck

After so many years, did I have the guts to apologize to her and have a conversation? I walked down the street to see if it, indeed, was her. It was.

I began by introducing myself. She remembered me. We had a cordial conversation, and then I apologized for participating in the recess activity, but more emphatically for not doing something to stop it. She mentioned how hard it had been for her. We had a good conversation and I was glad to learn that she had moved on. She was married, had children, and was happy.

It was an incredible gift I was given to apologize to Nancy and to see that she was doing well.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What were your favorite toys as a child?

My Favorite Childhood Toys

When I was young, I used to love to play with dolls and paper dolls. I had two special dolls that I loved and have fond memories of. My first doll that I can remember was a baby doll named, “Cindy.” She went everywhere with me when I was very young. I had a stroller that I put her in when we went for walks. She was just a little doll with such a cute face. For my birthday and Christmas I would get new clothes for her. My mom and I would also make clothes for her when we went on camping and fishing trips with the family. I had her for quite a few years.

I can’t remember the name of my second favorite doll, but I remember that she was about as tall as I was. She had batteries inside of her that helped her to walk. I remember having to hold her hand and guide her along.

Robyn Lyn Beck

I also used to love to play with paper dolls. I had a collection of them and I would play with them for hours.

One of my favorite activities in the summer was making dolls and their clothes out of flowers. My friend, Sally and I, would meet at the flower patch each morning and begin making new dolls, because the ones from yesterday would wilt during the night. We called them our Hollyhock dolls, because the flowers we used were called Hollyhocks. I very much loved nature and pretending with Sally, who lived at the bottom of my street. We loved the summer flowers and being outside.

Hollyhock flowers were our favorite kind of flower to use to make dolls because we could make them look so fancy. We would use a beautiful flower for the skirts and buds that hadn’t opened yet for the doll’s heads. They would go to Cinderella Balls, and many different kinds of events, so they had to have fancy clothes. :)

One time while Sally and I were playing, we decided to write songs! We had never done this before and we really weren’t very musical, but we wrote a song one day that we thought was worthy of getting paid for. It was called, “Sunny Side.” It went like this:

“Sunny side I’m always dreaming

Sunny side the sun keeps streaming

Sunny side, the moon is full of love.”

Robyn Lyn Beck

We wrote down the words on paper and went house to house to see if anyone would give us .10 for a copy of our song. We would sing it so they would get the full impact of the song.

I remember some of the neighbors being very nice and giving us maybe a nickle or a couple of pennies!!

I loved my carefree days as a child and playing outside.

Caitlin

This is so fun! We need make flower dolls with Jane!

Robyn Lyn Beck

What was your Mom like when you were a child?

What my Mom was like when I was a child

My Mom was so beautiful. She always dressed with such style. She loved to color her hair. Her natural color was Brown, but during my childhood I remember it being blond, a darker brown, and red. She also wore wigs. Her hair was quite thin and I think it was hard for her to do much with it. She also wore dresses often.

Mom was very organized. She was always ready for holidays - days before. I remember putting up the tables for Thanksgiving days before the holiday. She had them all set and ready to go. She never seemed rushed or frazzled and I believe it was because she was always so organized.

She was kind. She was very thoughtful of our neighbors and would take them goodies, and meals, and love!

I never remember hearing Mom yell at or get mad at me. She had a gentle and loving spirit and a sweet personality.

She loved to dress me up in frilly clothes and fancy shoes! She would always make my hair look cute. My hair didn’t come in until I was about 2 years old.

My head was pretty much bald, with a bit of frizz. It finally started coming in between my second and third year and she was so exited. But, one day, my brother, K.C. decided he would try his hand at being a barber. He told me to sit down on a chair and he began cutting off all the growth that I had. Mom was in tears when she saw me. During her life, she talked a lot about that experience.

I always thought my mom could do anything. She was clever and smart and talented. We went to a Relief Society Bazaar and had to wear hats that we had made. She made us each a beautiful hat out of fresh flowers. I remember it feeling heavy on my head.

She loved to teach. She taught in Relief Society and at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers meetings. She would type her thoughts on cards and refer to them when necessary. She served in the Stake Relief Society and really loved that.

Mom was a great cook. I always loved her food. She made a meal I especially loved - Sauerkraut and Kaneflies. It was a German meal and it was yummy. I also loved her Hamburger Pie, her Rhubarb Pie, Peach Pie, Chicken Kiev with baked potatoes.

Mom also ate slowly and savored each bite. She worked hard to get the food on the table with 4 hungry sons and my Dad. She loved to get everyone fed and then, often, she would sit down by herself and just savor every bite of her food. As I think back on it, I actually think she didn’t eat until we were done, because she wanted to make sure everyone had enough to eat, before she ate. She would never eat anything unless everyone had some of it.

She was selfless and always made sure everyone else was taken care of before she took care of her own needs.

I remember her taking afternoon naps quite often. She told me that if I was tired in the afternoon, all I needed to do was lay down for 20 minutes and that would rejuvenate me to carry on. And she was right. As a mother myself, I often would take a 20 minute nap that would give me the energy I needed.

Mom was strong and worked extremely hard. She helped my Dad start some businesses and she was always on the front lines working as hard as anyone to make it successful. She and my Dad were a good team.

I remember her taking care of her mom when she was dying. She was at her house most everyday for a few months attending to her every need. Mom was adopted and she had a special love for her parents. She felt that they had given her such a beautiful and happy home and never wanted to disappoint them. The day she died she asked my mom, “Is it raining outside?” Mom answered,”No it is a beautiful sunny day.” Her mom replied, “It is on the other side.”

She died shortly after.

Mom had a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. She was always faithful. She always accepted callings given to her and performed them to the best of her ability. She went to church often without Dad, as he was inactive for part of my life. When they were in their 70’s they went on a mission to the Philippines. It was the dream of her life to go on a mission, and she was so incredibly happy when they received their call. It was a great joy to watch them give their Homecoming Talks. Their mission changed them.

She loved camping, traveling, beautiful flowers, her family, making a lovely home for us to grow up in, and being our friend, as well as our Mother.

She and my Dad made a beautiful home in the mountains for us to come and enjoy with them. It was a piece of heaven on earth. She put all the love she had into it. When I was a mother with young children, she said to me.

“Robyn, why don’t you bring the kids and come up to the cabin and stay for 2 weeks. David can come after 2 weeks and pick you up.”

At first I couldn’t imagine how that would work for us with the church responsibilities we had and other things going on. But then I thought, why not, and we loaded up the brown van, every summer after that and off we went to spend two glorious weeks with Grandma and Grandpa. It was the best part of the summer for us and the kids loved being there. They loved Grandma’s food and love, and Grandpa’s great adventures.

My mom had great love for her children. I always felt her love for me. I was blessed to be sent to the sweetest, most loving Mom in the whole world. Mom taught me about God, she taught me to pray, to love others and to have great faith. She taught me to trust that the gift of the Holy Ghost would be the most important gift God could give to me. Over the years, I found her to be right!

In this life, her last words to me were, “Robyn I’ve loved you from the beginning.” I always felt that.

I am so grateful for my mom - for her love, her life, and her faith.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What was your Dad like when you were a child?

Grandpa Max Ray Ericksen

My Dad

My Dad, Max Ray Ericksen, was born on June 17, 1925 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. His parents were Leonard Douglas and Jennette Staples Ericksen. His grandmother, Ane Marie Madsen crossed the plains with the Willy Handcart Company. He was blessed to have her influence for 4 years of his life. Her Dad, Ole Madsen, lost his life on that journey seeking religious freedom.

Dad was raised in the small town of Hamer, Idaho where he learned to hunt, fish, and help his Dad at the Railroad Dept. He loved Life!

As a young boy he developed compassion and empathy for the local Indian tribes. He spent many years reading and studying about them and he appreciated their traditions.

He developed a great love for Indians and supported them by buying the things that they made- baby carriers, jewelry, crafts. He thought they were very mistreated, and he always tried to help them.

He moved with his family to West Bountiful, Utah and attended Davis High School and East High School. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and served during World War II in the Naval Air Transportation Service. He married his High School sweetheart, LeIsle Blunt, in the Salt Lake Temple on June 25, 1947. They loved living in Bountiful where they raised their 5 children, Greg, Mike, Kent C., Robyn, and Steven.

He owned and managed the Western Sportsman Cafe for a year and later started a company (with a few friends) called, “The Do It All.”

He worked with the U.S. Air Force developing a system to help airplanes land safely. Later he founded Pro-Mark, Inc. the parent company of Orbit Irrigation, which grew into a worldwide manufacturer of sprinkler products. For over 40 years, the company provided a living for hundreds of associates and their families.

Max served his community and loved children. He sponsored “Little Biddy Buddy Day”; an activity day where kids of all ages were taught how to fish, play outdoor games and enjoy a picnic with their family. It was held in Mueller Park Canyon in Bountiful, Utah. This was a favorite activity for our family.

He owned one of the first air boats in Utah and used it to hunt with his boys. He also used the boat to search for downed planes and rescue hunters stranded or lost in the marshes of Farmington Bay. He had a keen sense of direction.

He served as a Deputy State Fish and Game Conservation Officer.

A Favorite Saying, of his, was “keep your fly on top of the water and your powder dry.”

After many years of fishing and hunting, Dad gave up this sport, saying that, “he had nothing against the animals.”

He later became a fisher of men as he was blessed to serve with Mom in the Philippines Manila Mission. This was a special season for them as they enjoyed serving as ‘member locators’ and they dearly loved the people there. They served with the same vigor and dedication that they exemplified in all aspects of their lives.

Dad had a vast array of knowledge and abilities. He could converse well on almost any topic and could fix anything. He spent his time, his talents, and his means on that which would build his eternal family. His family was always number one.

He was a wonderful Husband, Dad and Grandpa. He was fun, full of love, adventuresome, happy, could fix anything, loved his family, and service oriented - to name a few!. He loved Mom and always, provided well for his family.

He always sought to give us something to look forward to. We took many fun trips and he provided a beautiful cabin for us to use for the rest of our lives.

I felt great love from my Dad. He was interested in my life and always helped and supported me in anything I wanted to do. He did this for all of his kids.

He loved Christy, Jeff, Ryan, and Brandon so much. He came to the hospital as soon as he heard they were born. He loved having them at the cabin and looked forward to planning activities that made it so much fun.

When he and Grandma came to Rio, when we served, he liked telling stories that kept the kids spellbound as they listened. He had so many stories to share.

He called me “Balloonie” throughout most of my life. Not sure how I got that name. I think I loved balloons as a child. We felt a great loss when he passed away in 2014. He lived a wonderful life. He was an exceptional Dad, Grandpa, and Great Grandpa. Our reunion with him and Mom will be joyous!

Robyn Lyn Beck

Which musicians or bands have you most liked seeing live?

Managing Money

Spending money on myself is not easy for me to do. Spending money on others is fun and easy for me, but spending money on myself has always been hard for me to justify.

After we graduated from college and began working, we had saved enough money for a down payment on a house.

We found the house we wanted and purchased it in October of 1977. We paid $58,000 for it. It was the first time we had ever spent that kind of money. We had to borrow the money from a bank and pay it back month by month. We were kind of in shock the day we signed the contract. Our interest rate was 8.75%. After going to the bank to sign papers, we went home and both laid flat on our couch and love seat and stared up at the ceiling Robyn Lyn Beck

realizing the big debt we had just incurred.

It was a lot of money, and we knew that we would have to be careful to not overspend for other things we couldn’t afford.

We knew it was important that we always had the money in the bank for the monthly payments. However, the down payment took about everything we had saved up. Soon after we bought our house, we decided we needed to take the newspaper off of our windows and hang some blinds in our upstairs windows for privacy.

We went to a blind store and found the ones we wanted. Viva, the women who helped us at the blind store, came to our home. She measured and we chose the fabric, and we ordered the blinds. We had a 2-3 week waiting period before their arrival.

We had to put a 20% deposit down on them and planned to pay the rest when they were installed. They were quite expensive (at least for us).

We were both working and got paid every 2 weeks. We didn’t think anything about it until the blinds came in much quicker than we had anticipated. We had used our money for other things that we needed and we had no money to pay for the blinds. It was a horrible feeling. Viva began calling us to get an install date.

I didn’t want to tell her that we didn’t have the money and so I ignored her phone calls and didn’t returned her messages. I felt sick inside, knowing that we had ordered something, but had no money to pay for it.

One day she came to my door and I went into the bedroom and shut the door so I wouldn’t have to face her.

A week later, we finally got our paychecks and we had the money to pay for the blinds.

I wrote her a check, she hung the blinds up, and I vowed that day that I would never, ever order something that I didn’t have the money to pay for.

From then on, I would order something only if I had the money at the time to pay for what I was ordering. It was a great lesson that I never forgot, and that experience never happened again!

Robyn Lyn Beck

Which musicians or bands have you most liked seeing live?

Which Musicians or Bands Have You Most Liked Seeing Live?

There have been a lot of great musicians in my lifetime. The music really changed when our children were growing up.

The ones I really enjoyed are listed in this story.

We had the chance to go and see John Denver in a “Wildlife Concert.” He was a great musician. He could play different guitars, and the piano. His concert was up in Park City just above our condo. We went to the concert with friends.

I went to see the Doobie Brothers at Utah State University when I lived in Logan.

We went to see Simon and Garfunkel’s last concert tour. One of the venues was the Delta Center in SLC. It was fun to see all of Robyn Lyn Beck

the “old” people (who were our age) at this concert. This was one of our favorite duos. Their music was mellow, harmonious and fun to listen to. It was sad to think they were winding up their music career. It was really great to see this last concert.

I saw Barbra Streisand in a concert on TV. I loved her voice and her music.

I went with my friend, Jan Young, to a Celine Dion concert in Las Vegas. She had a lot of popular songs. She recorded some of the movie sound track music popular during these years. I loved this concert.

We went to see Sissel, David Archeletta and the Tabernacle Choir, as well as many others at the conference center in SLC.

We liked going to the Symphony Hall in SLC. We saw Marvin Hamlisch, who was a pianist and also sang a little. He played and sang a parody on “Families can be Together Forever.” It was very funny. There are other artists we went to see there.

We went to the Eccles theatre and saw Gentri for a Christmas concert and also, Manheim Steamroller. I had liked Manheim since my teenage years.

I liked the Beatles music. They were on the Ed Sullivan show and made quite the splash! Girls were going crazy trying to get close enough to touch them. Their popular song at that time was, “I Robyn Lyn Beck

Want to Hold Your Hand.”

I liked a group called the Moody Blues. My brother Mike got me into them. We went to their concert at the Salt Palace.

The Folk group Peter, Paul, and Mary was a favorite.

Also, Gordon Lightfoot and Jim Croce. They both had very different and recognizable voices.

Elton John’s songs were favorites of mine. Especially the song

(Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) he changed to (Goodbye England’s Rose) when Princess Diana died in a car accident. He sang it at her funeral.

One of the most wonderful experiences of my life was when

David would pick up his guitar and sing to me. He would sing John Denver songs: Sunshine on my Shoulders and My Lady. He also sang Gordon Lightfoot music: If You Could Read My Mind

I love music!!

Robyn Lyn Beck

Were you well-behaved or badly-behaved as a child?

WERE YOU WELL BEHAVED OR BADLY BEHAVED AS A CHILD?

I think my parents would be the best ones to answer this question, but since they are no longer with us, I will have to rely on excerpts from their books about me and some of my own recollections of my childhood.

I think for the most part I was well behaved. I don’t remember my parents grounding me or getting mad at me, although, I’m sure I wasn’t a perfect child.

I know that I held my parents in the highest esteem and I always wanted to be polite and show respect by doing what they asked me to do.

My Dad taught me to respect my elders. I remember in those days when I would talk to adults, I was taught to address them as Mr., Mrs., Brother, or Sister. We would never call adults by their first names. That would be considered very impolite.

But when I went away to school, that wasn’t the case. It seemed that first names were used more often when talking to adults. That is something that I had a hard time getting used to. Nowadays even little kids call adults by their first name. I still think it seems disrespectful.

I think I mostly minded my parents. I wanted them to trust me.

I remember one evening as a teenager, when I was with friends, I got permission to go to a friend’s home that was quite far from our home. After we got there we decided that we didn’t want to stay and so we went to another house.

I remember feeling so guilty because I was at a different house than I told my parents I would be at. I couldn’t enjoy myself that night. I was glad to get home.

I always tried to do what they asked me to do so that they would always know they could trust that I would do what I said I would do.

I don’t ever remember getting spanked!! I feel like I had a peaceful childhood!

Here are some excerpts from Mom’s book about me:

Age 8 “When Robyn was 8 years old, she was doing great inschool and she loved to read. She would sit in her room for hours and read. She got along well with her brothers, but they liked to tease her a lot.”

“She got a watch for her birthday this year and was very exacting in getting to bed on time; especially on a school night. She would never stay up late on school nights. She always wanted to get to school on time, and if she thought she was the least bit late, she would have a tizzy.”

Age 11 - “Robyn had her tonsils out. She was so brave. She hadto stay in the hospital for an extra day to get the bleeding under control. She was doing a lot of babysitting and was very dependable. She loved to cook and she learned to knit and sew. She had a mind of her own and knew exactly what she liked in fashion and hairdos. She played the piano and started taking voice lessons.”
Age 12 - “Robyn turned 12 this year. She helped me a lotaround the house. She took a lot of teasing from her brothers, but handled it well.”
Age 18 - “Robyn graduated from High School. She would nowbe going to the college of her choice, finding the guy of her dreams, and making serious plans for the future. She loved life, loved the gospel, and everything she did, she did well.”

Robyn Lyn Beck

What were your grandparents like?

MY GRANDPARENTS WERE SO SWEET AND KIND

GRANDPA ERICKSEN

My Dad’s Father

Leonard Douglas Ericksen

April 20, 1888 - March 25,1960

I was 6 years old when my Grandpa Ericksen died of a stroke, within a couple of weeks after his retirement from the Union Pacific Railroad where he worked for 52 years.

He was one of 10 children born to goodly emigrant parents. He and his brother Christian were the only two children to live to maturity.

His last name (and mine) would have been Ohlenschlager, but when his Father’s family immigrated to the United States, they changed their last name to Ericksen, which was much easier to pronounce. From that time on, that was the name he was known by. Grandpa grew to be 6’1” tall. He had clear blue eyes and was a handsome man.

As a small boy, Grandpa used to gather eggs from a chicken coop and take them to the corner store to exchange them for candy.

It wasn’t easy to just go to the store and buy the meat you wanted for dinner. Often times, they had to kill the meat they ate. One time Leonard, his wife and children (Including my Dad) went to the mountains camping. There were a lot of sheep camps in the mountains. During one camping trip they bought a lamb and butchered it for their dinner.

Grandpa was a very happy person. He was very intelligent. He graduated from the Wasatch Academy. You had to be an “A” student to get accepted there. He got along well with everyone and had a lot of friends. He spent much of his time with his Grandpa and Grandma. From them he learned to speak fluent Danish.

In preparation for his life’s work, he worked after school at the Denver/Rio Grande Railroads, and then later on for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Grandpa liked to play jokes on people. It used to be the tradition to take a Valentine to the door of someone you liked, leave it on the porch, ring the doorbell and run. Grandpa would tie a string onto the Valentine and then ring the doorbell. When the person at the door would try to pick up the Valentine, Grandpa would pull it away with the string.

The Valentine that won his heart was Jennette Staples. She was 5’2” tall with dark brown eyes. Grandpa was much taller than she was. They met at a party. They had 3 children. Their last one was my Dad.

Since I was so young when my Grandpa died, I don’t have a lot of memories of him. I do remember, as a little girl, sitting on his lap and talking to him. I remember going to their house right next to the train tracks and being scared as the trains went by so quickly. He also would put his hand behind my ear and pretend to pull a dime or a nickel from it. I loved that! That event was followed by walking to the penny candy store close to our house and spending the money he gave us. He was a lot of fun to be with.

He had a stroke, which led to his death in 1960. He and Grandma had looked so forward to retirement and they never had a chance to enjoy it.

I loved him.

GRANDMA ERICKSEN

My Dad’s Mother

Jennette Staples

December 3, 1890 - February 24, 1977 1890-1977

Grandma was born at her Uncles house in Sevier County,

Utah on December 3, 1888 to James Tunis Staples and Ruthetta Gardner.

She had 3 brothers. She knew the loneliness of growing up without a mother, as her mother died when she just was 5 years old. Her three brothers were very kind to her and her father kept the family together and cared for them.

As a child she walked in her sleep. One night her mother found her almost ready to fall down the stairs. After that, in her young years, she was tied to a bedpost.

Her brothers attended school and since there were no friends near her to play with, she felt very alone.

When she was four years old, her mom gave birth to a baby sister. Jennette was holding her baby sister when her Mom’s brother arrived. The two of them went outside to talk leaving Jennette and her sister in the house alone. Suddenly Jennette and her sister began crying. Jennette’s mom and brother ran inside and saw the 2 girls on the floor with hot embers on their hands. The house was on fire. They quickly got them out of the house and then carried buckets of water from a ditch and got the fire out, but not before the house was gone.

Eventually, she married Leonard Ericksen and they raised 3 children Grandpa Max, Doug Ericksen and Virginia Laird. She was very generous in her life; opening her home to anyone who needed a meal, sharing clothes, and other goods they had in excess.

After Leonard died so suddenly, Grandma felt very alone. She moved in with Doug for a few years and then moved across the the street from us into a nice apartment complex with others her age. I remember her at the viewing for Grandpa. She was very distressed and crying out begging for him to come back. It was very hard for a 6 year old to watch and I was quite scared by it.

My brothers and I visited her often and she would always have sugar cookies, pink mints and root beer for us to eat while we visited. She would let us help ourselves to whatever we wanted. I loved my visits with her. Grandma loved the Bible and most of the time when I would visit her, the Bible would either be on her lap or on the table next to her.

Grandma was a humble and sweet woman.

She loved to knit and made lots of things. One year I told her I wanted to knit a sweater for my mom for Christmas. I asked her if she could help me. She seemed very happy to help. I went to the store and bought bright pink yarn (a young girl color!) and we worked on the sweater everyday after school. We finished it just before Christmas. I gave it to my mom, but never saw her wear it. As I grew older, I totally understood why she never wore it!! She was always so sweet in expressing appreciation for how much time it took me to make it, but it was pretty bright!!!

She was a good cook. She made yummy roasts and homemade candy. My favorite was the Pinoche candy she made.

Our last wonderful memory of her was the year David and I took her to see the Christmas lights on temple square. We had such a fun time together. She thanked us over and over for such a fun evening. She died the next February. We tried to call her phone, but she didn’t answer. When my Dad went to check on her, he found her in her bedroom on the floor. It was a sad day for us.

I loved her.

Grandpa Blunt

Harold Sylvester Blunt

My Mom’s Father

September 14,1902 - March 9,1981

Grandpa Blunt was a fun person. He was quite a tease but a bundle of laughs. He had a great sense of humor. He always made us feel good. He could talk just like Donald Duck and I loved it!

He always acted so happy to see us and would talk to us and showed interest in our lives. I remember sitting on his lap in a rocking chair when I was little. He worked for the Deseret News newspaper in the printing department for many years. His responsibility was to run copies of the paper. He never learned to drive a car, so Grandma drove them everywhere. He had the patience of Job.

He was a very generous man. He was always willing to help those less fortunate. One time there was a young man who showed up for work at the Deseret News. He’s clothing was shabby and his shoes with holes. After work that night, Dad took him downtown to buy him some clothes.

When Grandpa Blunt passed away, I was the only one with him. Mom and Dad were in their final weeks of staying in Arizona for the winter months. Grandpa suffered from diabetes and fell ill in March of 1981. Mom was monitoring his health carefully from afar. He was admitted to the hospital and I called my Mom and told her that he wasn’t doing well. She and Dad started the long drive home, hoping to arrive before he passed away.

I went to the hospital the morning of March 4 to be with him. When I arrived, I went to his room and held his hand. He was not conscious but I could tell that he knew I was there. I told him I loved him. He didn’t open his eyes. People told me that I sounded just like my Mom when I spoke. I told him that Mom was on her way to see him. My Grandpa died shortly after I arrived and before my Mom got home. I believe that my Grandpa thought I was Mom. He had been waiting for her to come, and I think when he heard my voice, he thought Mom was there.

The good thing was that he didn’t have to suffer more, but my Mom always felt sad that she didn’t make it home in time. I was glad to be with him as he departed this life. He was a gentle and loving man. He always would find the best in everyone and everything. He never was negative. He loved life. I love Him.

GRANDMA BLUNT

Amy Louise Grames Blunt

My Mom’s Mother

February 3, 1903 - May 31, 1965

My mom was adopted by Harold and Amy Blunt. They loved Mom and were so happy she joined their family. Three years after the adoption, Grandma Blunt gave birth to Geniel, mom’s little sister. She didn’t ever know her birth parents.

Grandma Blunt was so sweet.

She was a very good cook and she catered weddings. At times she did this to supplement the household income. I loved going to her house and watching her make butter mints. She was very good at it. Pouring the candy on a marble slab at the right time was very important. I found this out by a few failed attempts.

She would pull the taffy on a hook that was hung on her wall. She pulled until the consistency was right, and then she would make it into a rope and cut the butter mints. They were so yummy! I tried to make these butter mints when Christy got married, but they were really tricky. Every step was crucial and had to be done exactly as explained in the recipe. I appreciated her even more when I tried to make these mints.

I used to stay overnight at her house. I would sleep in my mom’s bed that she had shared with her sister growing up. I played house with a little kitchen and toys that my mom played with as a little girl.

In the morning, she would make the yummiest toast for breakfast. It tasted so much different than the toast at my house and I couldn’t figure out why. I asked my mom one day and she said it was because Grandma used real butter. My mom always bought margarine to save money. Real butter on toast was the best!

Grandma was an excellent seamstress and would make clothes for my dolls. She saved lots of material that she organized in rows on shelves in her basement. She also would hide money in the house. When she passed away, my mom found money under the dining table, downstairs in nooks and crannies, between mattresses, etc.

Years later when the house was sold, the lady who bought the house called my mom and told her that she found several hundred dollars in the basement of the house. When my mom went to pick it up, and walked into the house, there were 4 young children staring at her. The owners seemed to be quite poor.

My Mom told her to keep the money. The woman was so grateful.

Grandma walked with a limp due to an illness she had as a child. She was very sweet and I always felt loved by her. She had a heart filled with love for everyone. Tramps would come by her house and she would make them a nice lunch and put it on the back porch. She was very generous and kind.

Grandma and Grandpa had neighbors that didn’t treat them very well. The neighbors thought that my Grandparents had put their fence 12” onto their property. My Grandparents felt that it was their property and in fact it was. The sad thing was that the woman didn’t speak to Grandma and Grandpa for years. The man was cordial to my Grandpa but not super friendly. When Grandma was on her deathbed, the woman came over and saw my Grandma. It was so sad that they weren’t able to have a friendship over the years, especially since the perceived problem didn’t even exist.

I loved her.

Robyn Lyn Beck

California Here We Come!

Robyn and Debbie

Sitting in my seat, waiting to take off, I had butterflies in my stomach. This was my first airplane trip! The door closed and the flight attendants took their seats.

My nervousness intensified as the plane taxied down the runway, stopped and then the pilot put the pedal to the metal.

As the plane took flight, I closed my eyes, saying a short prayer, that we would live through this adventure. ☺️

When I finally opened them, gazing through the tiny airplane window - I looked down on the mountains I had always looked up to see. The sky was a brilliant blue with white fluffy clouds. I had never seen the top of a cloud! They were big enough to jump on and play in!

WOW! What a beautiful sight.

For years Debbie, seated next to me, had been one of my best friends. We met in grade school and grew a close friendship. We lived a mere 5 minutes apart!

By our Senior year of High school we were ready to break out of our cocoons!

She and I talked incessantly about plans after graduation.

Our initial thought was to take our first trip together via an airplane! We got along well, we had both been working and saving money, and there was really nothing to stand in our way!

Air travel was expensive in those days, and it wasn’t the main way to travel. Driving was much more common.

Our parents were a little nervous about us going, but also excited for us to have this “adult” experience. After all, “WE WERE BOTH EIGHTEEN!”

Debbie and I discussed many different places we could go. We knew as we talked that we needed a plan that our parents would feel good about. As graduation got closer, we got more serious about making our plans.

Being inexperienced travelers, our parents had but one request.

It was that we travel to a place where a relative or close friend lived — who could provide transportation for us while there.

Having someone pick us up and be close by, if needed, felt really good to them.

We were too young, of course, to rent a car and so we definitely needed help getting around once we landed…

This, actually posed a huge hurdle for us. We were ONLY 18 and our number of world wide friends was pretty limited! As we pondered our possibilities, Debbie thought of her sister, Michelle, who lived on the beach in Carmel, California. Being girls from Bountiful, Utah We thought this sounded like the perfect possibility and such a cool place to go!!

The only problem in our plan, was that Michelle wasn’t at all close to her family, and hadn’t been for many years. Debbie and Michelle hadn’t even spoken in several years.

That didn’t deter us! We steadily went forward with our plans!

After school one day, we went to Debbie’s house, picked up the phone and dialed Michelle’s number. We nervously introduced ourselves and asked her what she thought about us coming for a visit. I had never met her before, but she sounded really nice and seemed excited about us coming.

We both asked our parents what they thought. 🤞

All of them seemed happy with the plans we had made.

We got our plane reservations! 👏👏

Turning 18 brought the opportunity for new adventures in my life, and luckily I had money, to facilitate my ideas, tucked safely away..

I had worked for my Dad during school and had received a paycheck every two weeks, and didn’t have a lot of expenses at that time. In fact I would put my paychecks in my top dresser drawer in my bedroom and cash them one at a time as I needed money.

That really messed up my Dad’s accounting system! He was always asking me to PLEASE cash my checks!

Two weeks after our High School graduation, we boarded our flight and within 2 hours found ourselves in Michelle’s house on a beautiful beach in Carmel, California.

The town was full of lots of (one of a kind) shops, yummy food, and breathtaking views from every vantage point!

Michelle was delightful and made a great effort to make this trip memorable for us!

She even let us stay at her home. We did return with lots of sweet memories, and a newfound friend and sister.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What is the most scared you’ve ever been?

Times I Felt Most Scared

The first experience that scared me was when Ryan was in grade school. He was playing on the playground on bars. He fell off — landing on his head. He had a bad cut and Ben Aird carried him into the school office. The school secretary called me and I went and picked him up.

I took him to a doctor close to the school. He sewed him up without doing an x-ray. That wasn’t good.

We took him home and put him in bed. Christy was sitting by him while I was getting him some water. He started to talk gibberish his eyes rolled back into his head. He seemed out of it. I called the Emergency Dept at Primary Children’s hospital and they told me to bring him right in. He was having seizures.

I got someone to watch the kids and put Ryan in the car and went to the hospital.

They discovered that Ryan had a depressed skull fracture. They needed to operate immediately.

I was pretty upset about the situation. The doctor I took him to should have x-rayed his head before sewing him up.

We waited several hours while he was being operated on. The operation was successful.

Ryan stayed in the hospital for a few days. I stayed with him in the day and David stayed with him at night.The hospital personnel treated him so well. Primary children’s is a wonderful hospital.

When we took him home, he had home health care for a couple of weeks. All turned out well, but it was a pretty scary time. He had a lot of attention from ward members and friends. We were so grateful that it all turned out well.

The second experience was in Brazil with Brandon when he was about 7 years old. It was a Sunday. We were at church in Jardim Botanico when we were on our Mission in Rio de Janeiro. Following our meetings, the boys were playing outside in the church yard. There was a pile of junk there, including a broken sink. Brandon fell on the sink’s sharp broken edge and sliced his wrist.

He had a very deep wound. Being in Brazil, we didn’t know where to take him. We called the area Office and they directed us to the nearest hospital. We went there as quickly as we could. It was so scary seeing such a deep wound.

We took him to the Emergency Room. They got him right in and were able to stitch him up.

We believe that we had received a miracle that day. First was that Dad was with us and not traveling. Second was that the wound just narrowly missed cutting his artery, his tendon, or his nerve. We felt so blessed and Brandon healed perfectly.

The third experience was when Jeff was young and riding his bike in the back yard and fell off his bike. He scraped his leg up and we washed it and put a bandage on it. It got infection in it and we couldn’t get it stopped. There was a red line running up his leg. Each day we would draw on his skin to show how much the line grew. It was scary. We were going to Lakeview hospital and everyday they would give him high double doses of antibiotics but it didn’t seem to phase it.

We finally took him up to the University of Utah Hospital to an infectious disease doctor who got involved and he said that the other doctors had been using a “bazooka,” and he was going to use a “rifle”, meaning he was going to go after the specific infection instead of trying to kill all infections. As soon as he applied that, the line started going down. Jeff was fine after a couple of doses, but it had been a very scary time.

The last experience was so scary. David’s mom was in the hospital. She broke her hip and she wasn’t doing well. She was at Lakeview Hospital and David and his siblings decided to transfer her to the University of Utah Hospital. Which they did. David went in to see his Mom the next morning. Dan Clegg happened to be there and he had been checking on Evelyn. David and Dan were in a Stake Presidency together at that time.

David was fasting for his mom that morning. Dan - out of the blue —asked David if he had had a PSA test recently. David told him he hadn’t. (You need to be fasting to have the test.)

Since he was fasting, he thought it would be a perfect time to do the test. David had the test and the numbers came back high. He went to a urologist and they found cancer in his prostate. We were so grateful for Dan’s suggestion that David have the test. He likely would not have had a test if Dan hadn’t suggested and ordered it.

It was a scary time going through the surgery and recovery. We were blessed that they were able to get all of the cancer. The doctor told us that it was 3 months from breaking out of the capsule and possibly going to other parts of his body.

For me the scariest experiences of my life have been related to health issues of people I love.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What is one of your favorite memories of your mother?

What is one of your favorite memories of your Mother?

My mother is so sweet. She is very service oriented and always worked hard to make things fun. She passed from this life on June 18, 2018. We miss her so much!

Here are two favorite memories of her.

MOM’S FUN IDEA!

Mom and Dad built a beautiful cabin at Flaming Gorge. They spent a majority of the warm summer months up there. We loved going there, but with responsibilities at home we didn’t get up there as often as we would have liked.

One Summer day, in June, Mom called me and said, “Robyn, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you bring the kids up to the cabin for 2 weeks. David can come and pick you up after the 2 weeks is up, spend the weekend, and you can drive home together?”

I could see that she had really thought this through!

My first thought was, “How could we possibly do this? I thought about my list of things to do at home, the responsibilities I had in my calling in Young Women, and I wondered how David would get along without us!

It was a fabulous idea!!

The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea! It would give us some quality time with my Mom and Dad and with each other. The kids would have a ball, riding horses and bikes, feeding Squaw lady (Grandpa’s horse), catching frogs at the frog pond and roaming around the mountains observing the abundant wildlife living there.

That night David and I discussed it. We both agreed it would be good for the kids and good for our family to be away together. It would give him some needed time to get caught up with things at work and in his calling before he joined us.

We made plans to go, and it turned into a great summer tradition - the highlight of our summer. We couldn’t wait!

Each year, we loaded our van high with clothes, food, and activities and off we would go to Flaming Gorge for two weeks. It was a trip we looked forward to all year.

We missed David during those weeks, but he was able to get caught up on things that made his load lighter and we had quality time with him when he came. I thought Mom was a genius to think of such a great idea.

The kids spent quality time with Grandpa. For two weeks they were Grandpa’s ranch hands. He would plan such fun things for them.

Mom spoiled all of us, making her most delicious recipes including a favorite; Chicken Kiev, potatoes, orange jello salad, and homemade ice cream!

My mom’s service oriented spirit and great love was always evident in all that she did. She blessed each of us in many ways. This time with my parents was priceless! We made wonderful and unforgettable memories.

ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!!!! YES!! OF COURSE!!!

One day while talking to Mom on the phone, she asked me if I would let her come to my house once a week during the school year and tend our kids. WHAT???

She expressed her desire to have more quality time with the kids, and felt that it would be good for me to have some time to myself, to run errands, have lunch with David, etc. After I picked myself off of the floor, :) we talked about the details.

I, of course, didn’t have to think hard about this idea. I could see that it was an amazing opportunity for both of us. However, I always knew I was getting the better end of the deal… So we planned a day of the week, and a time frame and began the very next week. I had several hours to myself to do whatever I wanted to do. It was an incredible gift to me.

I would come home to: my wash clean and folded: my fridge cleaned out: dinner ready: happy kids: and an exhausted, but smiling mom!

She always said that she loved every minute - and so did the kids!

The kids would talk about this day with excitement. They would come home on the bus and as they turned the corner they would see the garage door up and Grandma’s car parked in the driveway. They would bee line to the house as fast as they could, open the freezer and get out a vanilla ice cream cup with orange sherbet and a little wooden spoon - that Grandma would always put there during her visit

This quality time with Grandma was such a blessing for our kids and for me. Mom was always a blessing in my life. She is a jewel! I miss her so…

Robyn Lyn Beck

Retirement

Retirement Here we Come!!!

David and I started dating after his mission and when we were both in college. It was a glorious time for us. We attended the University of Utah. My degree was in English with a minor in Business, and his major was in Electrical Engineering.

We loved the beautiful fall days at the beginning of Fall Semester. We would meet up some days, and David would share his lunch with me. Every day his sweet mom would put up a lunch for him. He would share it with me and we would have contests to see who could make their lunch sound the most delicious.

We also loved to meet up and walk around the campus together between classes. We spent a fair amount of time in the library catching up on homework and studying.

After our graduations, we bought our home on Browns Park in Bountiful, Utah in the United States of America.

David began working for Utah Power and Light Company in Salt Lake City in their planning department. He went on to get his Master's Degree in Engineering Administration. With his job, David traveled quite a bit up to Oregon, flying in a small plane.

I went to work at Pro-Mark, Inc., which was a company owned by my father and all of my family worked in the company. I was the Office Manager for several years.

David also had a computer company. He put together computers and sold them. It brought in extra money and it was really nice. Together we brought in good money.

After several years of trying to convince David to come to work at Pro-Mark, he finally consented. We needed someone to handle the Management end of the company including the financial areas. It took a catastrophe to finally get him to come, but it was a great move for us. The man over computers and accounting in our company made a mistake trying to back the computer up and he lost all of the data we had. It took us weeks to get everything back on line and working right again.

As hard as that experience was, it opened the door for David to come and things were so much better after everything was organized and fixed.

We both loved working there. We worked hard, spending many late nights there. We probably worked too many hours at times, but it was really great working together. We called the irrigation arm of our company Orbit Irrigation. It did very well. We also started to buy land together as it related to the business. That was a great move and allowed us to have good passive income after the sale went through.

We weren't able to have children for the first 7 years of our married life, and so we spent many hours working and taking trips,

As we got older, and our families grew up, we decided it was time to sell our company. It had done well and we changed the name to Orbit Irrigation. We were all able to make a good living and we decided it was time to look at moving on from the business and from each other as it pertained to financial things. So we worked hard and put it on the market. Within a few months we had a buyer and we signed an agreement in February of 2018 and we were free to move on separately.

Then started the first day of the rest of our lives.

This was the perfect time for us to prepare to serve. We went through all the rooms in our house. We got rid of things, cleaned it up and started thinking about what we would want to do. With the pandemic still an issue, we didn’t want to go — so, we hadn’t turned in papers.

We were getting more serious about trying to figure it out. I knew David wanted to go to Brazil, because it is a place he loves! He loves the language, (and is very good at it), and the goodness of the people. I wasn’t so sure about going back to Brazil. I too love the people, but I wanted to be able to speak freely and enjoy it without stressing about the language. I was conflicted.

We did very well. We also started to buy land together as it related to the business. That was a great move and allowed us to have good passive income after the sale went through.

In February of 2018, we sold the company we had owned for many years, It was a monumental day for us. David retired and we talked about going on a mission. Then the Pandemic started and we were cooped up in our house for 2 years. We worked hard at putting things together in our house, dejunking, and preparing to leave it for 18 months.

Robyn Lyn Beck

When in life have you felt most alone? What gave you strength during those times?

Throughout my life, I have been able to handle almost anything that came at me. There is one distinct day that I can remember, when I felt like I wasn’t able to.

In January, 1996, David was called by Apostle James E. Faust to preside over an LDS mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for 3 years. During that time, we would have 530 missionaries to watch over and care for. I was to help him in this work, and our children, of course, would be able to go and take part in this wonderful opportunity and adventure. We accepted this assignment and began our preparations to get ready to go. We had 6 months to get our affairs in order so we could leave. This included:

Learning Portuguese. We worked on this a little bit, but withso many other things to do to prepare to leave, when we arrived in Brazil, we only knew how to say, “Eu te Amo,” sing Happy Birthday in Portuguese, and a few other words, greetings, and phrases. A great blessing for us was that David had previously lived in Brazil for 5 years. Three of those years were as a young child when his Dad presided over a mission in Sao Paulo, and the other two years were as a 19-21 year old missionary. His Portuguese was phenomenal!
The kids completing their current school year — with goodgrades!
Studying boxes of information and instruction we hadreceived on overseeing a mission…
Attending a 3 day seminar for New Mission Presidents andtheir wives.
Selling 2 vending machines that the kids owned andoperated.
Organizing our finances to be turned over to an accountant tohandle.
Filling up a pod with our personal belongings that would besent to our mission in May. Trying to anticipate all we would need to take.
Getting our house ready to be locked up for 3 years.
David delegating his work responsibilities to others.
Getting ourselves spiritually ready to take over the missionon the day that we arrived in Brazil.

June 30th came and, amazingly, we were as ready as we could be to leave for Brazil!

As we walked towards the kitchen door to leave, I turned around and took one last look at our home that we loved, and that we wouldn’t see again for 3 years. I noticed a book on my table that a friend had left for me. I threw it in my carry on bag and out the door we went — saying goodbye to the life that we knew.

The book I took was called, “OneTattered Angel.” I read a few chapters on the plane from Los Angeles to Brazil! We flew from SLC to LAX and from LAX to RIO, a total of about 15 hours.

The current Mission President, his Wife, and the Mission

Assistants greeted us at the airport. We went to lunch, to the Mission Office, and ended at the Mission Home where they handed over to David the keys to the Mission Home, the Office, and the Cars. We watched them walk out — shutting the door behind them. It felt surreal.

At that moment we stepped on a fast track, and rode it for the next 3 years!

Monday August 12, 1996

We had been living in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for a month.

Excerpts from my journal

Rio is such a beautiful city.

Since our arrival, we have driven through most of the areas in our mission and met all of our missionaries. In the month of July we welcomed one new Sister missionary, said goodbye to six Elders, held zone conferences in 3 locations, and enrolled our kids in school and piano lessons. Phew!!

August came, and we started our four week cycle all over again.

On August 8th, we celebrated Jeff’s birthday, and at 10:00 p.m., David left to accompany our 2nd group of departing missionaries to the airport. He then boarded a plane and flew to Vitoria, a city 8 hours away.

David would be gone for a week, interviewing missionaries, and having zone conferences. Without either of us having a cell phone, it wouldn’t be easy for us to communicate while he was traveling.

I was so grateful that David had spent quite a bit of time during our first month helping the kids and I to feel comfortable in our new surroundings. Since he was leaving, we stocked up on needed food and supplies. The taxi arrived, and the kids and I were in good spirits when we watched David and the missionaries drive away.

The kids and I went back into the apartment. Little did I know that I was on the verge of finding out the difficulty of being alone with the kids, in a foreign country, where we couldn’t speak or understand the language.

The kids were in their 2nd week of school.

The weekend ended up being quite difficult with David gone. In our high rise apartment, the kids didn’t have a lot to do. Our pod hadn’t yet arrived and feeling quite homesick, the kids were missing their personal things, and their friends,

We went to church on Sunday, but couldn’t understand much. Since I had been told several times by different people how dangerous Rio was, I felt uneasy venturing out of our area too far.

Sunday night, after tucking the kids into bed, I started to get nervous thinking of David being so far away. My prayers were more fervent that night. I tossed and turned well into the night.

Monday morning came without much restful sleep. I decided to get up early to fix the kids a yummy breakfast and get them off to school.

After eating breakfast together, we said a prayer, I gave the kids hugs, and they all headed down the elevator to catch the bus. They all seemed to be in great spirits today and I was ready for some time to myself to get some talks written and to study Portuguese. I was excited they had made the bus. I knew this was a piece that needed to go well while David was gone.

We had two cars in the mission but they had manual transmissions - which I didn’t have much experience with. Since my sense of direction wasn’t great, and the traffic was very congested, I was not so inclined to venture out on my own.

I heard the elevator coming back up and the door opened. Christy had forgotten her watch, and came back upstairs to get it. Again I said goodbye to her.

I was feeling tired and thought I’d lay back down for a few minutes. I went into the bedroom and laid on the bed. Again I heard the door open and Christy came into my bedroom and announced that the bus had left her. I felt panic.

“How was I going to get Christy to school?”

I called the mission office, but no one answered. I was hoping the assistants could come and take her.

I called the school and they told me that they would send a taxi to get her. We waited for over an hour and no one came.

I again called the mission office and the assistants answered and said they would leave and come right over to get Christy. I felt great relief.

They came and picked her up and took her to school.

As I watched Christy and the assistants drive away, I felt so inadequate. I felt like I couldn’t take care of my children’s simplest needs as I should have been able to do as their mother. I had never felt such loneliness in my life.

I was glad to have some time — hoping to pull myself together and regroup.

I laid on my bed and had a good cry.

I started filling up the tub and looked for something to read. The book I had brought on the plane, “One Tattered Angel” was on a shelf in my closet.

I hadn’t read the book since our trip here. I got into a nice hot tub and read to the end of the book.

Briefly, this book is about the experience of foster parents that adopted a baby girl who had a lot of health issues and a short life expectancy. She was born with a brain stem, but no brain. The book talks about the limitations that we have in life. Things we have to deal with and compensate for.

Here are some quotes from the book: “Do you ever wish you didn’t have…limitations? Do you ever think you got handed a raw deal in life? Don’t you get tired of things being hard all the time? Being happy in our limitations helps us be more Christlike. We aren’t being given a raw deal. It is worth it!!

As I read this book, and the hard situation these parents faced, I put my woes into perspective. I started counting my blessings as I focused on all the good things that were happening. Living in a foreign country was an incredible experience for our family. Even though it can be hard, we have already had some amazing blessings. I began looking for all the reasons it was good for us to be doing this. There were so many!

I knew it was going to be an amazing and unforgettable experience for all of us and each of us!

It totally brought me out of my lonely feeling. I felt energized and I had a feeling of pure happiness. A new found confidence, that I would have help on this mission, swept over me.

I thought about ways the spirit had already helped me in my journey. I had experiences knowing that this was meant to be and I knew that our family would be blessed for any sacrifice we made and that I made…

I got out of the tub, got dressed and fixed an after school snack for the kids. I was so excited for them to get home!

I’m so grateful for my knowledge of the reality of God and his ability to help us in our lives. We were in Rio on His errand, and I just needed to watch for the blessings and count them one by one! And from then on, I did.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What was a book that really made a difference for you as an adult?

THE BOOK THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE FOR ME AS AN ADULT

When I read this question, a book came to my mind immediately. I was introduced to this book when I was a teenager, and it has had a great impact on my life as an adult and especially in my role as a mother.

When I became a mother, I sought good books that would give me insights and ideas to help me as we were raising Christy, Jeff, Ryan and Brandon. One evening, I attended a meeting where I was part of a discussion group with women of all ages and at every stage of life.

One of the young mothers asked the women with grown children if there was a book on raising children that they really liked and could suggest to us younger mothers. I paid close attention.

Sharon, a woman, who I greatly admired, spoke up and said that the only book she needed was this same book. The one that was already on my bookshelf! A book that I had read!

Her answer intrigued me. I was thinking of a very different kind of parenting book. It hadn’t crossed my mind that her book suggestion was a parenting book, but I was excited to look into this more.

That night, I began my personal journey of discovering the ways that this book could help me as a mother. I started thinking about it in terms of a parenting book.

The book begins with stories about a family traveling through the wilderness. Not so different, really, from every family making their way through life not knowing what to expect day to day. I remembered reading the promised outcomes that I could hope to have through a serious study of this book. I found and reviewed them again:

#1 A power… will begin to flow into your life the moment you begin a serious study of the book.” Benson

The windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life.

You can be immunized from the evils of the day. Nelson

#2“…If in our homes parents will read…this book prayerfully and regularly

…by themselves and with their children …the spirit of reverence will increase, mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. the spirit of contention will depart.

Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom.

Children will be responsive and submissive to parents counsel.

Righteousness will increase.” Romney

#3 When you… hunger and thirst after these words you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”

#4 It was written for our day. It is a witness of the reality of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

These promised outcomes were definitely things that I wanted for our family. I especially loved the idea of finding life in greater abundance. I wasn’t sure exactly what this meant when I started my journey, but as time went on, I understood.

Excitedly, I began my study of this book…

Soon after, I recognized the promised power that began to flow as I studied. I believe that this book opens the windows of heaven and allows one to receive inspiration and revelation for their life. Receiving inspiration is so thrilling. My most wonderful days are when I recognize promptings coming to me as thoughts and ideas of things I can do for others. When I act on a prompting, I experience what “living life in greater abundance” means!

With 4 young children, it wasn’t easy to be consistent. Sometimes I only had time to read a small amount. Other times I read and studied more. The promised blessings kept me going. I wanted to be successful. I didn’t receive promptings every day, but I definitely noticed a difference in my day when I studied and when I didn’t.

David has always been a great example to me of consistently making this book an important part of his life. As I think back over our 45 years of marriage, I have an image of him starting each day with prayer and studying this book. I can’t think of a time when this didn’t happen.

This book has drawn David and I closer to each other. We have experienced some especially tender moments while sharing ideas and thoughts that have come to us through our study. I love David’s insights. I am so grateful for his steady example and influence for good in our life together. .

Over the years I noticed a difference as our family studied this book together. As promised, there was a better feeling in our home and I felt our family grow closer. I didn’t feel as much contention.

I loved studying it together in Brazil as we took our time and went slowly through it, practicing the cycle of Inspiration (writing down our thoughts and feelings as we studied) taught to us by Elder Richard G. Scott. It took us 5 years to go from start to finish.

Many times I had ideas come specifically pertaining to our children - and it happened through the years for each of them as needed.

There are stories in the book that have great meaning for our lives today. Stories that help us to understand how to overcome the difficulties that are part of life on earth.

There are countless stories, when the people in the book followed the spirit in their lives and recognized heaven’s help in the same way we do today.

I love the thought that it is the same spirit helping many different groups of people through many generations and eras of life. Experiences that people in this book recorded in their day, now help us as we go through similar experiences in our lives.

As I have had thoughts and ideas come to me, I have learned to write them down so I don’t forget them. I am then able to act on them. I have been given opportunities to lend a helping hand. I have had promptings to call someone, visit someone, or send a note. Often those that I helped would say, “how did you know?” The truth was that I didn’t. I was just responding to a prompting that I received.

Thoughts were sometimes subtle and I wouldn’t notice them as inspiration until later when I saw the outcome of acting on a thought that I had. I have learned to act quickly to ideas and thoughts.

I have made notes of many of the experiences I have had. I wish I would have recorded all of them.

I have learned that when my days begin by studying this book, my days are markedly better. That doesn’t mean that life is necessarily easier, or that I don’t face challenges, but I have confidence that I will receive help. I never want to be without this power in my life.

This book also helps me to know the reality of Jesus Christ and to feel His love for me and my family. It is also called Another Testament of Jesus Christ and is filled with His teachings, His doctrine, and shows His interaction with people on earth.

Being connected to Heaven’s power was the reason my friend could say that this was the only book she needed to raise her children. She knew that as she made this book an important part of her life, needed help would come. I know this as well.

This is a book all about parenting. It teaches children who they are and where to go when they need help as they face trials and challenges in this life. It helps them to know that Jesus Christ loves them with His infinite love. It teaches them that sins are forgiven by the power of His atonement. We don’t have to be perfect, we just have to keep trying. We don’t have to carry burdens, we can always move forward and live in peace. He is someone who gave His life for each of us, who loves us unconditionally, and who is always there for us.

It’s a book that helps us to find our way through the wilderness of life. It is a book that changes our nature; allowing us to parent with greater wisdom, love, and insight. It helps us to understand our heritage. It encourages us to do our best.

We came to earth as part of a family; the place where we began, the place where we feel loved, accepted and cherished, the place where we always belong. A family we can be with forever.

What I couldn’t have known when I started this journey was the impact this book would have on me day after day, week after week, and month after month throughout my life. I feel that I live life in abundance because the spirit connects me to the windows of heaven enabling me to have wonderful opportunities and experiences as I follow promptings.

One last reason, and probably the most important, is that this book is the only one on earth that comes with a promise that you can know if the book is true. You can know if the events really happened, that Jesus Christ lives, that He gave his life to atone for our sins, and that He was resurrected. Because of Him, we will all live again.

I can tell you, that through my own experience, I followed the instructions given and I have had that sure and undeniable manifestation of the spirit that this book is true and that Jesus Christ lives. This book is called, The Book of Mormon.

Robyn Lyn Beck

What fascinated you as a child?

I loved the Era I grew up in. So many things changed and happened during those years. It was an exciting time. Here are some of the things that fascinated me as a child.

Getting a Hula Hoop

The Hula Hoop was invented in 1958 and it was the hottest thing to get for Birthdays and Christmas! It became a huge fad across America!

I was so excited to get one. My friends and I would play with our Hula Hoops often!

Astronauts landing on the Moon

It was a nervous time for the American Citizens and the Astronaut’s families as the lunar aircraft was launched into outer space heading for the moon.

I remember sitting in our living room waiting for them to land and to see the pictures that would be transmitted from the Moon. It felt like FOREVER!! But finally the pictures came. The pictures were fuzzy and not great, but it was so exciting. There was such a feeling of patriotism as we watched Neil Armstrong place the American Flag in the soil on the Moon!! The words he spoke were

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In 2019 we had the opportunity of going to the Nasa Space Center in Florida with Gabe on his 12 year old trip with Grammy and Bumpah and we experienced the excitement and emotion of this moon landing all over again, as we watched the event on a big screen through tear filled eyes. It was very emotional for us.

7-11 Slurpees

The 7-11 company, which is a convenience store, became very successful when I was young. Their claims to fame were staying open 24 hours and selling Slurpees— a snow cone type treat — but much better — with flavors we had never had before. I loved it when my brother, who could drive a car, would take us to 7-11 and get a Slurpee!! So Fun!!!

Disneyland in Anaheim, California opened up.

Everyone was excited and talking about it. It was filled with fun rides like we had never seen before. Going there was one of the most fun trips we took as a family.

First Color TV

When I was little, we only had black and white TV’s. The TV’s were very simple to operate. You just pulled a button out and it went on - then pushed the button and it went off! It had a rotary channel changer and that was it. There were just a few channels and a limited selection of shows to watch. Some of my favorites were Bonanza, My Three Sons, Cartoons,

News, The Dick Van Dyke show, and several others.

My Uncle Doug worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and one year the company had a drawing where they gave the winner a Color TV. My uncle’s name was drawn!

We couldn’t wait to be able to go to his house and see shows in color. As we talked about a time we could go there, we realized that the movie, “The Wizard of OZ, which was shown every year, would be showing in a couple of weeks.

We made plans to go to his house on the night it was showing.

We all piled in our car that my brother could drive, stopped at 7Eleven to get a Slurpee and arrived at Uncle Doug’s just as the movie was about to start. The first half of the movie was black and white, but when they went to OZ, it was all in glorious color!! We were out of our minds excited to see color on a TV!! I’ll never forget that day. It was so fun!!

Also, there was a Peacock that was the logo for one of the TV stations. Periodically it would show during the day to advertise that station. We would get excited to see that peacock in color.

It was a couple of years after Uncle Doug got his TV that we were able to buy one for our home.

Personal Computers

When I was a child we didn’t have computers. Everything was done on typewriters. In 1980 the first personal computers were sold. I loved word processing programs. We had just gotten excited about using white-out to correct mistakes on documents and then computers came along. It was thrilling!! It made doing papers for school so much better!

Flying in an Airplane

Airplane trips as a young child were non existent. When I was 18 and able to take my first airplane ride, I was fascinated looking out the airplane window at the giant fluffy clouds. It looked like we could jump right on top of them! I loved seeing great views of mountains closeup and having a spectacular view of our part of the world!

I have loved seeing so many wonderful changes as I’ve grown up.

It’s been a fascinating life!!

Robyn Lyn Beck

What things matter most to you in life?

WHAT MATTERS MOST TO ME

As I look over my life and think about what really matters most to me, it really boils down to… RELATIONSHIPS.

I must start with my HUSBAND… David is intelligent, handsome, amazing, generous, kind, loving, hardworking, gentle, fun, always building others, compassionate, a loving leader, incredible son and brother. He is a wonderful husband and father who has always had his kids in his heart. He is always looking for ways to help and bless them. He has mentored them and is helping them to succeed in business and has given them tools to help. He has been incredibly generous in his desires to bless them long after we’re gone.

I love him more than I could ever express. He has helped so many people in this world be better. I’m at the top of that list. He has a great heart and soul and always has the desire to do good. I am so blessed to be by his side sharing life. Because of him, our life has been a wonderful adventure. I’m grateful for the blessing we have of being together forever. He is the wind beneath my wings. It is because of his great faith and his commitment to God that each of our children came to us. He prayed them here. He is remarkable and Christlike.

My relationship with DAVID matters the most to me.

My relationship with my parents was great. I knew I could always count on them to be there for me, to support me, and to help me grow into adulthood.

My relationship with my Dad was tender. I knew that he loved me and really cared about me. I didn’t feel that I lacked for anything that was necessary in my life. He was my protector when I was growing up. He always took the opportunity to express his love for me and his appreciation for small things I would do for him. I always felt that he would do anything for me. He was my boss and my mentor in the business world. He taught me how to work hard, and how to treat employees. My relationship with him was an important part of growing up. He helped shape my life and gave me wings to fly.

My relationship with my DAD matters the most to me.

My relationship with my MOM was sweet. She was my kindred spirit. She carried me and nurtured me. She spent those 9 months making sure she ate the right foods, got enough rest, and prepared my new home for me. She gave birth to me.

On her death bed, she told me, “Robyn, I’ve loved you from the beginning!” It was such a tender moment - one that I will never forget. I felt so grateful for her.

She taught me to care, to be soft, and gentle. She taught me to make a home where people could grow and feel loved. Mom tended my kids and was there when I needed extra hands. She knew what I needed before I did. She provided a safe place. She taught me how to be a mom and how to love sincerely. She helped me know what was important in life and to find happiness. She came to Brazil (along with Dad) and supported me, brought two suitcases full of things that made my life easier there. She stayed and helped me for a couple of weeks. She was always there for me. She taught me to pray, to love God, to love others, and to serve.

My relationship with MOM matters the most to me.

My relationship with each of my children is very important to me. For 9 months they were growing near and in my heart. I raised them and each of them will always have a special place deep in my heart. Each one will always be a part of me. There is nothing they could do that would change my deep and abiding love for them. There is no other way to describe my relationship with my children other than miraculous, tender, sweet, wonderful, amazing, unforgettable. It would be hard to define the depth of my love for each one of them. There is nothing good I wouldn’t do for them. Having each one arrive was so exciting!!

Christy made me a Mom. She came to earth to share her love. It seemed like we waited an eternity for her to come, but she was definitely worth the wait! She didn’t come as the others. She didn’t grow in my womb, but she grew in my heart.

Heaven and earth came together when Christy arrived. She was the answer to hundreds of prayers that were offered over many years.

She was worth the wait!!

She has brought wonderful children into the world and is such a loving, kind mother, and a sweet sister who would do anything for anyone.

She is beautiful inside and out. She has a caring, loving, tender heart, and sweet spirit. She would drop whatever she is doing to help someone. She is always generous and gives thoughtful gifts. She has a giant spirit and has been able to succor the weak and strengthen the feeble knees and the hands that hang down, in this life, wherever she has lived. She is open and caring and desires to share her experiences to help others who walk the path with her. She is very generous and giving. She has made a beautiful home for her family. She brings a peace to the world with her love for plants and beautiful things. She is good at yoga, and has helped us to recognize ways it can help us overcome stress and hard things that come our way. She brings light, love, and kindness to our family. She has been through very hard things in life and has come out on top. I’m so grateful to have this sweet daughter in my life. I love her so much.

My relationship with CHRISTY matters the most to me.

Jeff is the first child I conceived and carried. I loved his first cry as he arrived on earth. He was the first to help me understand the connection between heaven and earth - how close it really is.

He has always been caring and obedient and concerned for his Mom. He was a funny and a happy baby. I love his smile. He was a joy to raise and I enjoyed getting to know his giant spirit.

He has been a great big brother to his sister and little brothers. They look up to him. He has always had the best interest of his family at heart.

He is very talented in sports and with music. He has alot of natural ability. He is willing to share the gifts he has been given. He provides lots of fun events for us to enjoy. His music has brought us much joy and now as we watch him play songs with his sons, it is so inspiring. He is a wonderful husband to Caitlin, an involved Dad to his 5 littles, a friend to all, and an inspired leader.

He has an eye for good properties and has beautified this state, and helped to make the family business prosper! He is selfless, and has helped countless people understand who they are and what is important in life.

He is handsome!!

He is a kind hearted person who opens his heart, his life, and his home to anyone who needs help. It has been a joy to watch him serve and give of himself. He is truly a disciple of Jesus Christ. He knows what is important in life. I’m so grateful for Jeff.

I love him so much!

My relationship with JEFF matters the most to me.

Ryan, my third child, came to this earth totally obedient, kind, and service oriented. He has great compassion and love for others. He was easy to raise. He is talented in sports and music.

He goes to great lengths to make life fun for all.

Ryan is handsome!

No matter how busy he is, he takes time to lend a listening ear to anyone who needs a pick me up or just needs to be heard. He is aware of those around him in a keen way, and seeks to help them. He has helped Dad with health issues in so many ways and is always there when he is needed. Even when exhausted after a day’s work, he can be found giving Dad a 30 minute back massage. He always takes time, no matter how busy his life is, to be there for others and to help those who struggle. He is very witty and alot of fun. He is a caring husband to Madeline and a loving Daddy to little Louise. He has the gift of discernment and noticing the one. He is a great conversationalist. He has such a fun personality. I’m so grateful for Ryan. I love Ryan so much.

My relationship with RYAN matters the most to me.

Brandon, my 4th child and the caboose in the family was a joy to raise. I was so exited when he came with a dimple in his cheek! I’ve always loved dimples. He was such a cute little boy and is a handsome man. He was a happy and sweet little baby. I loved raising him high above my head and listening to him giggle.

Brandon is handsome!

He was anxious to come to earth. His was my easiest delivery. He couldn’t wait to get here and get on with life. He and Ryan have always been kindred spirits and the best buddies!

He has always been very service oriented. Whenever he comes home, as he comes through the door, he asks what he can do to help. I have appreciated his love and kindness towards David and I.

He is a born leader, has many friends, many followers on instagram, is a great organizer, and a get things done guy! He leaves things much better than he found them, at every turn. He made many successful changes when he was Student Body President at BYU and in Brasilia as Assistant to the President on his mission. He gave many people a vision of who they are and what they can become. He was effective and highly thought of in his job at Kickstart.

He has traveled the world and takes great pictures to document his adventures, including with his drone. He is very talented at capturing the “moments” in life. He is an accomplished soccer player and so fun to watch. He can score and has a lot of sustained energy. He is fun to be around and he is generous with all that he has. He would do anything for anyone. I’m so grateful for Brandon.

My relationship with BRANDON matters the most to me.

I love Brandon so much!

Having a good relationship with my bonus children Scott, Caitlin, and Madeline is important to me. They are wonderful spouses to my children, and helped to make me a Grandma! I love each of them as I do my own. They are raising my grandchildren in such a sweet and loving way. They are each so loving, kind, service oriented, beautiful/handsome, inside and out! I love the way they each care for my child and help them on their life’s journey to continue being the best person they can be. I know they have loving and kind hearts and are living good lives and making a difference in this world. I am so grateful for each of them.

SCOTT GILVEAR matters the most to me. He can do everything, he can fix anything, and is very service oriented — always offering to help in every circumstance with a smile on his face and a happy heart. He is kind, gentle, and good to the core.

Scott is handsome! He is spiritual and Christlike.

He is patient and a loving Father to his 4 precious children. He is a good provider and very patient. He seeks to know how people feel and helps them to know they are valued.

He is always a joy to have around! He is a wonderful husband to Christy. I’ve never seen a harder worker. He never complains. He has always been so kind and loving towards David and me.

I love Scott so much!

CAITLIN BECK matters the most to me. She is happy and a lot of fun to be around. She opens her house to anyone who needs help, and looks for opportunities to serve. She has a lot of energy and uses it to make the world a better place. She is a wonderful mother to five of our precious grandchildren. She loves sports and is especially good at soccer, but can give all the boys a run for their money in most sports! She is kind and loving and always willing to do whatever is needed to help make someone’s life better.

She makes her home a gathering place for our family to gather. She is a great hostess and makes yummy food. I love Caitlin so much.

MADELINE BECK matters the most to me. She has a sweet and happy countenance. She is a loving mother to little Louise. She is willing to help and very family oriented. She takes amazing pictures and captures incredible little moments. She has a keen eye for capturing tender, fun, funny, and memorable moments for our family. She is good at decorating and making her home a beautiful place. With her talents, she makes the world more beautiful.

Madeline is beautiful! She is a great cook and loves to make yummy things for all of us to eat. She is strong and faithful and helps Ryan to be his best self. I love Madeline so much.

I have a vested and eternal interest in our little ones. My relationship with:

GABE -matters the most to me. I was there when Gabe was born, sitting in the hospital awaiting his arrival. He was a darling little baby and we were so excited to welcome him into our family. He always has had a happy countenance and a fun personality. He started the grandkids coming to our family!! He has been a good example for all to follow. Gabe is kind and loving towards all. He is always willing to help. He is good at Basketball and I love watching him play. He is always mentally in the game, and always looks for the open player. He assists in alot of points. He is not a ball hog and doesn’t have to make the shot. He looks for his team to win. He is kind and good natured and we are so grateful to have him as the one for the other kids to follow. He has been a leader at school, at church, at home, and in our family. He has a bright future ahead of him and is working hard to make sure he has the talents and abilities to take every opportunity that lies before him. He is handsome, smart, amazing in every way. I love Gabe so much!! I can’t wait to see the great things he will do and the wonderful person he will become. I love him so much.

SADIE - matters the most to me. Sadie is sweet and loves to learn new things. She was the first grand daughter to come to our family. She has been a good friend to all. She has a lot of friends in her neighborhood. She is always willing to help out and be involved in whatever we are doing as a family. She is sweet and kind. She is beautiful! She does well in school and has a bright future ahead of her. She was a cheer leader in her school, and she would cheer for Gabe who played sports. She was the cutest cheerleader on the squad. She has a pretty singing voice. I love being with Sadie. I love her so much!

ABBY - matters the most to me. Abby is talented. She is a good artist, she’s smart, she’s very loving and affectionate. She is a good horseback rider and she loves being with horses. She is so creative with all kinds of different things. She makes things that look better than the picture she is copying.

Abby is beautiful. She is always creative, is the first one to greet and hug us when we visit, and she is so much fun to be with. I love being with her and sharing life together. I love her so much.

LUCY - matters the most to me. Lucy is a good dancer. She can lip-sync perfectly. She loves playing with friends and being with family. She has a fun personality. As a little girl she liked playing “would you rather.” It was so cute when she couldn’t pronounce her “r’s. She would say would you “wather.” We all loved playing that game with her. She loves their dogs.

Lucy is beautiful. She is a lot of fun to be with, I love Lucy so much.

JACKSON - matters the most to me. Jackson is a lot like his Dad. He is a natural at Sports. It’s been fun watching him play soccer, football, basketball, and baseball. He also plays the violin and is very good at it. Aunt Virginia could play the piano by ear. Jackson has that gift as well. We have enjoyed listening to him play with his Dad and Boston, in recitals and in church meetings. Jeff plays the piano, and Boston plays the cello. Jackson is kind and is a good friend. I love him so much!

BOSTON - matters the most to me. He really had the desire to play the cello and he has gotten so good at it. He gets up in the morning and practices on his own and is getting better and better. He also likes sports. As a boy Football is his favorite. He is the kicker. He is affectionate and very loving. When he was smaller, when we would visit his family, he would run to us and put his arms around us and run into our arms.

JANE - matters the most to me. She is good at writing notes and is a lot of fun. She is fun to read with -sometimes she likes to sing the words when she reads to me. Jane is kind and looks for opportunities to help others. She is smart. She is a big help with the younger kids.

JONAH - matters the most to me. He is good at Puzzles. He Loves life and is happy. He likes to kick balls and loves to laugh.

HANK - matters the most to me. He is good at playing with Jonah. He is tough. He has practically potty trained himself. He has a sweet spirit. He loves to sing Primary songs. He loves books.

LOUISE - matters the most to me. She has cute laugh and is always happy. She is smart and talks in full sentences as a 2 year old. She loves her stuffed Monkey and takes good care of him.

Relationships with all of my brothers - matter the most to me!

Robyn Lyn Beck

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What are the top 5 things that you and your spouse have in common?

Starting to Eat Meals with the Missionaries

What are you afraid of? "I'm afraid people won't understand what I'm saying. "Me too.! "

Receiving a Call to Serve

RLB Viewmont Diploma May 1972

RLB Seminary Graduation Certificate 1971

RLB Church Service Mission 2011-2014 Release Certificate

RLB Certificate of Baptism and Confirmation 1962

RLB Certificate of Baby Blessing

RLB History written by LeIsle Ericksen mother

Western Sportsman 17th South Home 1 17th South Home 2

Cousin Camp July 2024 wedding anniversary

What was the neighborhood you grew up in like?

Robyn Lyn

How is life different today compared to when you were a child?

What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done?

What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done?

What is one of the stupidest things you've ever done?

What are some of your family traditions?

What were your favorite toys as a child?

What was your first boss like?

What was your Mom like when you were a child?

Which musicians or bands have you most liked seeing live?

What was your Dad like when you were a child?

Which musicians or bands have you most liked seeing live?

Which musicians or bands have you most liked seeing live?

Married to David Beck (photos)

Were you well-behaved or badly-behaved as a child?

How my Parents Picked my Name

Max and Robyn (photos)

What are some of your childhood accomplishments?

What were your grandparents like?

California Here We Come!

What was your Mom like when you were a child? (photos)

What is the most scared you’ve ever been?

What is one of your favorite memories of your mother?

Retirement

What is your best advice when it comes to raising children?

What is one of the greatest physical challenges you have ever had to go through? What gave you strength?

What are some of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?

What is one of the most expensive things that you've ever bought?

General Young Men calling President David L. Beck and Sister Robyn L. Beck Calling Apr 2009 – 2015

When in life have you felt most alone? What gave you strength during those times?

Portrait 2005

Brazil Rio de Janeiro North Mission (photo)

Robyn Lyn

Mission Leaders 1996 (photo)

Mission Leaders 1996 (photo)

40th Birthday Party 1994 (photo)

Christy's birth (photos)

What was a book that really made a difference for you as an adult?

What fascinated you as a child?

What things matter most to you in life?