 |
| Grandma and Grandpa Frye |
My grandfather, Kenneth Leroy
Frye, had his autobiography typed by my mother, Linda Beth Frye Hartley, in
1975. He recounted his experience of joining The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints that I found faith promoting, and I
want to share it. Below are his words copied verbatim about his conversion. His
entire autobiography is available through FamilySearch.org. I am grateful for diligent
missionaries and Sunday School teachers, a grandma who left a good example and influence, and also God's priesthood
authority and power.
From my grandpa's autobiography:
"[...] The story of the
early part of my life, my Navy Career and other jobs, ends here. Now I'll tell
the story of the religious side of my life. My parents were Methodists so that
is the faith I embraced.
My wife is a member of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So when our children were born, she
wanted them blessed in her church, which I agreed to.
Sometime before we left
Washington, D.C., the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, or Mormons, started calling at our home. I let them in, treated them politely
and listened to one or two of the lessons. I was a hard nut to crack, so they
stopped coming to see me. A second set came and gave up. If I remember correctly,
a third set came. I had a lot of questions the others weren't able to answer.
When I asked the same questions of these missionaries, one of them would go on
talking while the other would search the scriptures for an answer. And he
nearly always found it. I was doing quite well with these missionaries but was
far from being converted. Then I was transferred to California.
It wasn't long until the
missionaries started coming to see me again. But they finally gave up. Then
Brother Jay A. Van Wagoner and another missionary, Brother Miller, came to see
me. Brother Van Wagoner was able to answer my questions better than any of the
missionaries.
Then too, I had been attending
the investigator's class with Sister Verla Sandstrom as the teacher. She was a
very good teacher. And through her influence and some really good missionaries,
but primarily through the good influence and example of my wife, I finally
consented to being baptized. But I didn't feel that I was yet fully converted.
However, there was something even
more significant that played a great part in my conversion. My wife had been
subject to blackouts after the birth of our first child, and her condition grew
worse with each succeeding pregnancy. Once she fell and cut her head open. The
missionaries had been coming to see us, and my wife, having great faith,
suggested that we ask the missionaries to administer to her. My first reaction
was, "What can those two young kids do who aren't even dry behind the ears
yet?" But I knew no harm could be done so consented to her being
administered to.
Well, needless to say, after that
I had greater respect for the priesthood and its powers. Beth has never had one
blackout since that time. She did have a sort of amnesia spell while in a neurologist's
office a short time after that, but nothing more even of that nature since.
It was on 6 March 1954, that I
was baptized, and I was confirmed on 7 March 1954. I was baptized and confirmed
by Jay A. Van Wagoner, an Elder."
Another important part of Grandpa Frye's conversion was his disbelief in the doctrine of the Trinity. I remember him telling me that the doctrine of the Godhead and what we believed about Heavenly Father being a separate Being from Jesus Christ was important in his conversion to our faith. I think he might have gleaned his testimony of Their separateness from his mother's own testimony. He said this:
ReplyDelete“My [Methodist?] mother took great pride in her children, dressed them well and gave them loving care. It was a great blow to my par-ents when they lost their little eighteen month old baby Carl. I remember my mother crying and carrying on about it for a long time. It just seemed she couldn't get over his death. It wasn't until I was a grown man in my forties, or thereabouts, that my mother told me in confidence, lest someone might make light of what she told, that one night when she had gone to bed and was grieving over the loss of her little son, that God appeared to her and said, ‘Why do you grieve so? Didn't I give my only begotten son?’ She said that from that time on she felt better and was better able to bear her loss.”
Autobiography of Kenneth Leroy Frye, Sr., typed by Linda Beth Frye Brown (daughter) on 12 June 1975.