IMPORTANT EXPLANATION
In the above explanation I use the terminology “Ammon-like” that will be used throughout this writing, and
especially for non-Mormon readers I should explain. Ammon was an important young man from ancient
America whose life is detailed in the Book of Mormon, that Mormons, or
LDS people, believe to be the history of ancient America and a companion book
with the Bible, both of which we accept as sacred history and “witnesses of
Jesus Christ.” Ammon had been a rebellious son of an important leader, but who
was converted much the same as had happened to Paul in the New Testament. With
his conversion he believed the Lord wanted him to go as a missionary among a
rebellious faction of his day the book calls, Lamanites.
Along with his brothers and companions they were criticized or “laughed to scorn” by their own people,
but they nonetheless dedicated their
lives to helping the Lamanites and were the first to experience success in such
a dangerous God-appointed mission. The first phase of his effort was a span of 14
years, so “Ammon-like” usually refers
to a 14 year period. Ammon himself actually
continued among his Lamanite converts his entire life—I believe because he married
one of them.
NOW BACK TO "THE STORY"
On digging into my files, and those of my father, to accurately write "the
rest of the story" I became convinced that more details
of the history had to be told in frank honesty, including that of my family and personal life that--some
Foundation leaders had said didn’t need to be told, rather they felt we should just stick to the
work and accomplishments of Foundation projects.
Yet, due to gossip and all kinds of rumors that surfaced over the years,
I felt that in the end the truth should be known, removing the burden from my
shoulders and let the truth take us where it may.
It couldn't be as bad as where gossip and rumor has taken the history causing the loss of many friends.
THE
DIFFICULTIES OF “the rest of the story”
As explained further along, it would
be…..
“……….a
risky challenge as demonstrated by one LDS General Authority, William Bradford—who
had heard a scandalous version of my
history and demanded I confess—so, as I began an honest 2 hour long recounting
of my history....his first response was, "The
devil was deceiving you," but I continued undeterred, with him
later shockingly injecting, "Satan
was trying to destroy you!" But unbothered I continued with
him gradually changing his attitude, eventually saying, "Well, there might be something to this." For a brief moment he comprehended some and
counseled me, saying,
“Don't
tell anyone as no one will understand!"
I went on to say in that section:
One unique
man, Harold Brown, showed that it was possible to understand fairly by
having an .......
.....unbiased open mind, an understanding
heart, a spiritually perceptive spirit, and courageously honest soul.”
Brother Brown is sadly gone. But, I
hope and pray a few such individuals still exist and will be interested
as it was a story worth living and of great value to understand fairly as
did Brother Brown.
So,
I will now begin to stick my neck out and give all a chance to understand this PART 2 of my autobiography entitled PREPARATION, but in this book, A
FIFTY YEAR “IMPOSSIBLE DREAM” IN THE
MOUNTAINS OF THE MAYA, will be Part
1: THE MYSTERIOUS CAUSE & PREPARATION TO ACT, followed by Part 2, The RISKY….JOURNEY, and
concluded in Part 3, with the “rest of the story” in the COMPLETE
FINAL REPORT that comes last.
DIVINE GUIDANCE
To guide me in gradually revealing all--I had
a very profound dream, that two times was interrupted by waking for various
reasons, but each time as I went back to bed, the dream continued without
missing a beat, convincing me it was much more than a simple dream.
A brief summary follows:
I saw myself invited to speak in LDS General Conference but told not to
worry about what I would say as it would be on the teleprompter.
Nevertheless, I felt like I had to prepare in my mind a special message just in
case.
Through a lot of interesting and informative details in the actual
dream, including being shown the technically complicated control room where it
was explained to me how they could quickly edit out unacceptable remarks. I finally got to the point of standing behind
the pulpit looking out over the vast sea of 22,000 souls plus millions of
TV viewers.
At that moment I recalled my experience as a 17-year-old—known at
that time as a very timid soul--in the old Provo Tabernacle in a Stake
Conference in 1953 when looking at what for me was "a vast sea
of 3,000 souls," I bowed my head
thinking a brief prayer and was then guided by the
Lord to speak His words.
In the
Conference Center, after a brief silent prayer, I looked at the
teleprompter to know what I was supposed to say. It had a message in
bold letters clearly from the Lord, saying:
"SPEAK
THE TRUTH FROM YOUR HEART!"
That ended the
dream…so, I was disappointed not being able to see what happened by attempting
to give my own special message. I interpreted the message as guidance from the
Lord in writing my history, and this section on The MYSTERIOUS CAUSE & PREPARATION, the RISKY...JOURNEY, then the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT.
Likely an honest recounting of history will....
"ruffle a few
feathers," but "we have all sinned and fallen
short...."
....and all, including the LDS Church’s Leaders,
need to have an honest chance
to have
"a broken heart
& contrite spirit,"
and
HEAL OURSELVES and
THOSE HURT.
Are you surprised I infer people were “HURT!”
Misunderstanding & believing false reports
were sadly responsible for…
SOME INFANTS DYING! OTHER
GOOD PEOPLE CAUSED
TO LOSE FAITH!
CAUTION THROUGHOUT THIS HISTORY! The author refers to serious mistakes, that literally caused loss
of life, spiritual destruction and loss
of faith that cannot be ignored by HONEST and TRULY HUMBLE PEOPLE—perpetrated by individuals and groups of individuals—REVEALED IN HOPES OF MOTIVATING REPENTANCE! I NEVER INTEND TO INFER THAT ARE IN DOUBT THE
RESTORED GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, or all the wonderful programs of the LDS
Church, and inspiring organizations like the Spoken Word & the Tabernacle
Choir, the Missionary Program so
critical in my life, BYU, etc.
MISTAKES and FAILURES are excellent teachers as long as those making
them have a chance to learn about them and ARE WILLING STUDENTS!
************************************
INTRODUCTION
A KEY PART
OF THE FOUNDATION OF MY LIFE
Part1—of the "Checkered--Faith
& Works"....Autobiographical history 0-22 years old, just takes us to the end of my mission and that of Maria in late 1958. Our leaving for Guatemala was in mid-1967—so
there is a nine year gap I call PREPARATION that will help us
understand and appreciate the RISKY….JOURNEY section that will follow.
I will now summarize very briefly that critical portion
of “the
rest of the story” to give all a chance to understand what we were
going to attempt, and crucially WHY, then how we came to have the courage and the faith to make
what some called
“a reckless and crazy move.”
First, THE MYSTERIOUS
CAUSE
The Sacred Book of the Mayans, THE
POPUL VUH, states that anciently their people had a darkness come over them, causing them to lose their original sacred book,
and bring upon them all the
terrible problems they suffer today. LDS people call this “a
curse,” described in detail in 2 Nephi 1, of the Book of Mormon,
which for you who might not be LDS, is considered by us as the sacred book of the indigenous Americans, newly revealed to the
world.
But, the Mayans have ancient prophecies of a day when they will
solve the problems and prosper.
Correspondingly, LDS people believe in scriptures that say, paraphrased:
“They will
awaken, come out of darkness into the light, and blossom.”
OUR CAUSE WAS TO APPLY A FORMULA TO HELP THEM OVERCOME
“THE CURSE” & “BLOSSOM”
A CHANGE WAS
URGENTLY NEEDED: As an LDS
missionary in 1958 I was sent to the remote area of Coban in Guatemala with a
special purpose given by the Mission President. It was an area known among the
missionaries as The Siberia of Central America, due to its remoteness, rain thirteen
months a year, and difficult
missionary work.
The area’s missionary work was
stagnant and difficult, and the missionaries would evolve into a pattern of
hiking out into the mountains, and not actually do a lot of missionary work.
When one would be changed and a new one sent, the one having been there for a
while would soon infect the new missionary with the same discouragement continuing
the pattern.
I had a different mind-set due to a
prophecy about my life a month earlier in Managua, Nicaragua by Church leader, Hugh B. Brown, inferring a future
that would be among the Mayans, and the Mission President Wagner knew this and
so I was chosen and was sent in fresh with a new missionary, both of us
un-exposed to the discouragement, so we would take seriously our mission. On
arrival at the grass landing field in an Aviateca DC-3 two engine war-surplus airplane,
I was seeing for the first time in my
mission Q’eqchi’-Mayans in their
typical colorful clothing, and to me the area became my Shangri-la.
We quickly knocked on every door in
town and had no success with traditional missionary methods. We seriously took a long look at what we were
doing—on what we were supposed to be doing, and concluded we were going about
our job wrong. NOTE: My Checkered autobiography explains
we were encouraged to seek the Lord’s inspiration to discover more effective methods
of missionary work. We realized our main
purpose, especially among the Mayans was to find an understandable way to get
back into their hands their newly found Sacred Book, and let it take them where
it may, rather than being obsessed with baptisms. If we could have them accept the book, and
find an effective way to help them understand, it would guide them to an
awakening and blossoming.
Consequently I was inspired with a
strategy to do that, FIRST, telling
them with pictures how progressive their
ancestors were who some called “The Greeks of the New World,” THEN read to them from the Popul Vuh
about a darkness that had come upon them
bringing all the problems they still suffered, and LAST, prophecies about the
latter days when “They will awaken, come out of darkness into
the light, and blossom.” But
they would need their Sacred Book, which we would tell them has now been found,
which would help them overcome “the curse & blossom.”
So, our new system would first have
them feeling great about their ancestors and therefore feel good about
themselves and their ability to improve their lives. Next, accepting
their book and help them to understand
it and have the confidence to find a new life. Then I realized that the method had to
outline the steps they would need to take to really blossom.
So….. THE FORMULA that had come to me in the “visions of the night” as a
missionary in 1958, came to be called
The
Philosophy & Principles of the Good life.
Our PURPOSE then was to awaken the interest of Mayans to overcome “the curse” and organize projects to help them apply the principles of the Good Life, which was
our
MYSTERIOUS CAUSE.
**************
Before the 2nd leaving for Guatemala in 1967 we
had a 2 hour long “heart to heart talk”
with my parents, ending with him giving me a Father’s blessing. I quote (in outlined form):
For
better understanding I’ll quote a few paragraphs of that future chapter—THE
RISKY…..JOURNEY, as it mentions clearly our reasons and what would be our
necessary preparation.
“Our final leaving for
Guatemala was after having failed the first time, and we had to return to
Provo, go back to work for Andersen Samplers & Consulting Service,
and wait for authorization to go through Mexico with our huge load. I'll
quote a paragraph or two for complete understanding, coming out of it with a
list of our reasons for making the move.
“Two weeks or so later
a telegram came and we packed up for the 2nd time and headed for Mexico. But
this time, before leaving, had a 2-hour long heart-to-heart talk with my
parents who had been understandably doubtful and scared to death about what we
were to attempt. Dad had previously tried to talk me out of it in what at
times almost became heated conversations. Once he shocked me saying,
"No cursed people in the history of the world
have ever been able to rise above it! You will be sacrificing you and your
family in vain!"
I was shocked that a
true believer in the BOOK OF MORMON would say such, and decided to not
debate the matter anymore, rather quietly continue our preparations. Eventually,
Dad, seeing my resolve decided to support us even without full
understanding.
We had left the first
time without any further discussion, but having to return "with my tail between my legs," as elderly Sister Cannon
had predicted, I felt strongly there was purpose in it, and believed I had to
have a heart to heart talk with mom and dad.
I requested they let
me talk without interruption, but to jot down any comments or questions to deal
with afterwards.
“I described emotionally the long
chain of spiritual experiences had since I was a young boy, including my
(1) NDE
at 16 convincing me I had to dedicate my life SAVING PEOPLE, then me
following Dad's example achieving
(2) spiritual conversion to the Book of Mormon, then I went on
to explain
(3) my mission experiences, focusing on
(4) Hugh B. Brown's prophecy
about my life, then as a missionary
(5) seeing Indian
babies dying that I had to do something about, and later
(6) profound
experiences when I was President of the Spanish American Branch in Provo,
including
(7) critically on the snowy slopes of the Henry Mountains
when, as had happened anciently to Enos, then to Ammon and his
brothers from the Book of Mormon--I literally had "the spirit of
the Lord work on [me] .....," and I had my encounter with the Lord
giving me the courage to make the move--and was supported by Maria and the
kids.”
But, it involved impossible challenges
we have to describe to fully understand.
MY TO DO LIST FOR RETURNING
TO GUATEMALA
1.
Marry the right companion to support me in the
adventure.
2.
Fulfill my military
obligation.
3.
Graduation from BYU
4.
Work in Andersen
Samplers, building up the business and accumulating capital for the
Guatemalan Adventure, as well as investing capital to make enough money for our
new life.
5.
Do research, investigate
and make exploratory trips to prepare the way for a move.
THE CHALLENGE & KEY
EVENTS PREPARING US
My last day in the Central American Mission
was memorable described in my autobiography, but it boiled down to my Mission
President, Edgar L. Wagner, taking me to the airport. I was hoping to insert here a
picture of him, but can’t find one—my camera was stolen during my mission (in
Managua). One of his chores as a Mission President was to talk to the
missionaries in a way to hopefully prevent them falling in love with a local
girl—so his preaching became pretty
extreme even calling one of us gringo’s marrying a Lamanite girl “a
sin.” He especially seemed to
pour it on during the last months of my mission when I was Secretary of the
Mission. He claimed knowing my girl friend, Maria, who had spent a year or so
in the Mormon Colonies in Northern Mexico before migrating to the U.S. This forced me to analyze his arguments, and
it was quite easy—but I was respectful of his intentions and resisted any
debate or getting him in a strangle hold.
But on the way to the airport he said,
“I know who your girl friend is, and you are fully aware of my extreme
preaching on such a mixed marriage, but want you to know that on getting back
together with Maria, if you both feel the way you did before your missions,
ignore everything thing I’ve said and MARRY HER QUICKLY!”
At the
airport a very special woman was there to say goodbye having made the long and
difficult trip from Coban on the bus. It
was Sister Carlota de Yalibat mentioned often in my writings from my mission,
and in the RISKY….JOURNEY
history. I had already said
goodbye to President Wagner, and last of all had a tearful parting with this
very special sister, not saying “ADIOS,”
rather “HASTA LUEGO,” as I knew
that as soon as possible I had to PREPARE and then RETURN TO THE “LAND
OF THE MAYAS.”
Maria, was
still in Mexico, remaining there to help her mother acquire a Resident Visa to
come to the U.S. and so I used the time
to check out three other very special young ladies I had on my list—but, even
though they were all wonderful women, it was quite easy to perceive that being
my wife in a pioneer adventure in the “jungles & mountains of the Maya,”
would be out of the question for any of them.
WHO WAS MARIA BERNARD?
She was
from Tierra Blanca, Veracruz, Mexico with a tragic, but interesting past for our possible future together. She
was the 3rd child born to Angela, her mother—Graciela was her
sister, and brother Albert. But when
Maria was a baby their father was killed by cattle rustlers on their ranch.
His widow, Maria's mother, was emotionally wounded seriously,
and soon was swindled out of their property, all of them ending up literally
starving in a thatch hut. They were
saved by aunt Clementina, mother of Aurora, who years later would marry Jim
Penrod, and be the ones to start AYUDA’s project in Cunen, Guatemala.
So, Maria
was raised by her aunt, in Tierra Blanca, and they were all early converts to
Mormonism we see in an old photograph of the LDS branch members.
I’ll
first insert a picture of the group with a picture of Maria as a young lady
superimposed.
Maria is
the little girl shading her eyes on the left, next to her brother Albert, and
then Graciela, also shading her eyes.
I’ll insert below the complete group picture with a special purpose as
in it we see on the back row, far left, one of the young—but very tall, full
time LDS missionaries, who good fortune would have it was HAROLD BROWN, who years
later became one of the most key actors in our entire history.
He
was—about 33 years later, in 1973 the
LDS Regional Representative who surprised us with his visit at Valparaiso —as
though he was an ANGEL FROM HEAVEN, when we were going through the roughest
period in our history.
He had
known us for years, and even for a time lived a crossed from the Andersen home
on Ash Avenue in Provo. In 1973 from his
home in Mexico City, he explained he had kept
a close eye on what we were doing, hearing some very negative reports, but also
some very positive ones—and figured out what was happening—we were being “laughed
to scorn” –or criticized by some of our own LDS people, as had happened
anciently to Ammon and his companions, criticized by their people.
He
surprised us with a visit and was the only Church leader to come and
investigate with an open mind, and spiritually perceptive heart, and when hearing
what was happening at the hands of the LDS Mission and Leaders from Salt Lake
City, he literally broke down in tears and in significant ways encouraged us to
continue.......and, even later when I became more controversial, he listened with
an open mind and became my supporter throughout his life, rather than turn against me as so many friends and family did. He was the first to begin calling me a…
“Modern Ammon,” and us “A
Family of Ammons.”
NOW BACK TO THE HISTORY
AFTER MY MISSION
Soon I was asked to present a Welcome Home
Sacrament Meeting Program, resulting in a friend and local businessman,
Tom James, asking me to work with him. I tried, but soon determined it best to work with
my father who had recently published
in the Journal of
Bacteriology a report on the Andersen Sampler
and was getting tons of inquiries from all over the world. We established
the family partnership,
Andersen
Samplers & Consulting Service.
Dad soon
discovered that I was the only person he had found to that point who could drill with a
jewelers drill press the 2,400 AIR jets in each sampler—all the way down to the
smallest about the diameter of a human hair.
After my Sacrament Meeting, I was also asked
again—as happened when I was 17, to speak in Stake Conference in the old Provo
Tabernacle, and again had an unforgettable experience talking about my mission
experience to a very large congregation—and congratulated by many, some saying I then spoke with an accent
as though I was a Mexican trying to speak English—which was a compliment for
this guy who had failed Spanish in high school, but discovered at the beginning
of the mission--no Language Training Center yet-- my own system for learning that had me speaking faster
than the average missionary. It was one of the great spiritual experiences of
my life. I actually went on to major in Spanish at BYU, and on graduation
was offered a fellowship to get a Masters Degree at Kansas State University, but
Guatemala and preparing to return was my priority.
“1. MARRY THE RIGHT COMPANION”
In December I received my induction
papers to report to the Army in January, but not
wanting to be away from
Maria for 2 more years I panicked and joined the Army
Reserves on December 31st, signing up to be trained as a Medical Specialist, which turned out to
be for our life in Guatemala, an inspired move.
Maria arrived that same day.
I was finally obedient to my Mission President, and Maria and me quickly
decided to get married on January 20th—her birthday, in 1959. NOTE:
I’m joking about finally being obedient!
DISASTER STRIKES—AFTER THE HONEYMOON A NEW CHALLENGE
A week after the honeymoon, I was going to have to report for Basic
Training at Fort Ord, California, after which I would be sent to San Antonio,
Texas at Fort Sam Houston for medical training.
Once settled into our apartment in Provo I began excitedly talking to
Maria about our future plans which would eventually be to leave the U.S. and
migrate to Guatemala to live and work among the rural Mayan people—with Coban as the target area. Somehow in the excitement of marriage and the
honeymoon, that subject hadn’t come up—A BIG MISTAKE!
Her reaction was never imagined—I was so naive—She was ready to explode
and said,
“If that
is your plan, it will be best for us to immediately get a divorce!”
I was a very orthodox Mormon and “divorce” was not part
of my vocabulary. I launched myself into a step by step recounting of all of my
spiritual experiences as a young teenager, then as a missionary, including the prophecy of Hugh B. Brown—all
adding up to my “Ammon-like” mission and future that I assumed a
good Mormon girl would be excited about.
But my explanation fell on deaf ears and she replied,
“I didn’t
struggle all my life to get out of Mexico to just go back, especially to live
out in the sticks in Guatepeor!”
I began again very emotionally reviewing everything, but then it was
clear it would get me nowhere, and besides, I thought, “The truth is that
it is going to take quite a while to PREPARE properly and somehow during the years it
would take, she will come around,”
so I backed off and privately laid out a subtle plan of PREPARATION—a
bit more complicated than the one I already had.
A day or so later I talked to a Mexican friend, Benjamin de Hoyos, who
knew Maria and he told me that “She came to the U.S. with the plan of
marrying a rich gringo and living in a big house happily ever after!” Poor Maria! She had got a bad deal with me…to say the
least—except, as I joked years later, she got the big house when living in the haunted Central House
at Valparaiso!
OFF TO THE ARMY TO BECOME A MEDICAL
SPECIALIST
My autobiography will tell a lot
of interesting details, but after initially hating and
fighting
all the vulgarity and immorality surrounding me in the Army, I found a way to
turn it around and “next to my mission experience it became to that time
the greatest experience of my life.” It was so much that way that
afterwards I was used by Church leaders to speak to youth groups and help
prepare them for having positive experiences in the Military.
THEN BACK TO BYU EVENTUALLY GRADUATING IN
1963
Of major importance we got together with other Latin American students
and ex-missionaries to study the Gospel in Spanish every Sunday
afternoon. Eventually that was converted
into the Spanish American Branch.
I became the Elder’s Quorum President.
Importantly the Branch Presidency believed all those attending should
forget Latin America and remain in the U.S.--having gathered to Zion, but I held exactly the opposite view
and initiated a monthly fireside to promote us all preparing to go back and be of service where it was needed most—Maria, indirectly
was my target.
AT BYU….I COULDN’T FORGET FOOTBALL &
MY ONETIME DREAM OF THE NFL....
—injuries reducing my
DREAMED OF SUPERBOWL* to
THE BYU“Flag Footall” CHAMPIONSHIP
*The
Super Bowl didn’t exist for 8 more years in 1967 but that is what I call it
today
--AN
EXAMPLE OF DETERMINATION & NOT ACCEPTING BULLYING--
Quoting
first from….FROM PART 1: 0-22 YEARS of my autobiography.
Note:
This is important if you want to understand me and who I am.
I had also been pressured by Chuck Peterson
and the BYU Cougar Club, to go out for
Freshman football, along with Grit Young (Steve Young's father) and others and did so, but my ankle was hurting me—from the serious injury in my senior year in
high school, and I
protected myself too much. I just couldn't play football that way, and so after two weeks dropped out. I was then asked by my
old California friend, Tom Green, to join him in forming a flag football team to play intramural football, and so
one tough bunch of little
guys registered a new team,
The MACCABEES.
WHERE DID THAT NAME COME
FROM AND WHAT DID IT MEAN?
A bit over 2000 years ago the mighty Greek army attempted to conquer the Jewish people and wipe out
their culture. Incredible brutality was unleashed on the Jews and they were going through a great period of darkness, when one family
and their leader, Judah Maccabee, created a revolt against the unbeatable Greek army. He was a fearless leader
and a brilliant strategist who inspired many to take up arms and eventually saved the Jewish people and way of life. So….
….Maccabees
are unbeatable mavericks!
As MACCABEES—to win, we had to play hard and rough, but flag football
would put much less pressure on my “football ankle” than would have been the case playing
football for BYU. I was made the captain
and outlined our basic plays, and we won the championship that
year—1954. Note: Interestingly that had several people ask me why I hadn’t gone out for
football at BYU, and had me thinking I should have had corrective surgery on my
ankle after the High School injury and been on the team with Grit Young!
Soon we all went on missions……
On
returning we got the MACCABEES going again, but things had changed as in previous years there had been too
many injuries so there were all kinds of rules and regulations. In 1954 and
before there was just one narrow flag down our back which was very difficult to
grab so we just played tackle football acting as though we were reaching for
the flag. From 1959 on, as seen in the picture, there was a flag down each side
and strict penalties for knocking down players.
BYU had doubled too in size from 5,000 students to 10,000, and so rather
than just two intramural flag football
leagues, there were 4.
To have a bit of advantage, and run faster than anyone
else, I played barefoot even when on frozen turf—with thick socks taped around
the ankles to not fall down.
We won our
league, and in the playoffs beat another league winner, and then came the
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, against a bunch of giants—all athletes on scholarship from
the baseball and track teams, captained
by Bob “Andy” Mostellar, all-star
pitcher on the baseball team who later went on to play in the Major
Leagues. He was tall, 6’+ and their
quarterback, so became my man on defense, and I his when on offense.
Prior to
the game they were vocal making fun of us as a bunch of midget football
players, and so we decided to teach them who we were on the kickoff
which they would receive. Each of us had
to take out our man—literally!
I remember that play so perfectly it is incredible, but Mostellar
got the ball and swung to his right while each of our guys surprised their guy
knocking them down. I was the only one left to get him. As he came charging down the side line I
launched myself into him hitting him on his hip, lifted him into the air, and
slammed him to the ground—totally surprising him and knocking the wind out of
him. He was so mad at my flagrant foul
he tried desperately to get to his feet and punch me out, but couldn’t get his
breath and was helpless—it was really funny!
The same happened all over the field and penalty flags flew everywhere. It was likely the only play in the history
of any kind of football when literally
every player on a defensive team was called for a flagrant foul!
That moved
them down the field close to the goal, and our zone defense didn’t work and
they made a touchdown. We came back with
our own touchdown, and then decided on
defense to play man-for-man, so it turned into a strange game—rather than
rushing quickly Mostellar, I carefully stalked him to keep him from getting
around me. After their first touchdown,
we matched them touchdown for touchdown, and ended up losing by their initial
touchdown.
But it was a memorable way to play basically my
last football game. If nothing more we
showed them we wouldn’t accept bullying and fought them like true MACCABEES to
the end…..just as you’ll see in my Guatemalan
adventure I resisted and fought bullying to the end, refusing to accept
injustice and unrighteousness.
SORRY ABOUT
THAT, BUT I COULDN’T RESIST REMEMBERING--WITH A SMILE, MY LAST FOOTBALL GAME—
WOW I LOVE FOOTBALL!
NOTE: On honestly analyzing what happened, it occurs to me now
that my attitude to instantly react--taking no guff from any bully,
perhaps cost us the championship. Our insistence on getting instant
satisfaction on that first play had them
scoring easily the first touchdown that won them the game. Otherwise, we might
have—during the normal game--taking no guff, WON THE GAME & HUMILIATED THE
ELITE ATHLETE/BULLIES! But, I have to admit that
I remember that first play
with a smile.
In the Guatemalan Adventure, you'll notice I usually controlled
myself in the face of unrighteous bullying, and rather—retained my calling, letting the bullies leave or the
interview to end, and then showed my tenacity by going to work and showing the
bullies with great success that they had been wrong.
I THEN LAUNCHED MYSELF INTO THE TASK OF PREPARING MY RETURN TO
THE LAND OF THE MAYAS WITH TENACITY.
BACK TO GETTING AN EDUCATION
I majored in Spanish, taking the easy way to graduation, along with a
minor in History, as well as in Geology, and even Speech--winning the Speech Contest one year, but actually trained to become a Seminary Teacher with the
idea of maybe one day being the one sent to Central America to establish the
Seminary system, and even did my Student Teaching, but then I was turned off by
an orientation that emphasized how lucrative it could be by being “especially
spiritual!” I dropped that
plan, still planning to in some way establish the first Seminary Class in
Guatemala, but do so as a non-paid volunteer.
Getting paid for teaching the Gospel, just wasn’t right—for me.
I was first working part-time as a janitor early every morning, and
then in my extra time working at Andersen Samplers which I began
to see would be my ticket back to Guatemala so, even though able to graduate in
1962, I went an extra year to have as my minor Business Management, and
while doing that worked part-time as the Administrative Assistant to Raymond
Beckham, of the BYU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION as well as part-time with Andersen
Samplers.
RESEARCH, INVESTIGATIONS & EXPLORATORY TRIPS
At the BYU Library I devoured every book they had about Guatemala, and
began forming different business schemes for our life in Guatemala. I shared all with Maria, preparing her more
and more to think positively about Guatepeor.
We always attended ex-missionary Reunions at LDS Conference times and
eventually stimulated separate meetings talking about us returned missionaries doing something to
help as Brother Hugh B. Brown had prophesied.
I was elected to head the movement and contacted an ex-missionary, Gary
Cooper, who had gone back to hustle one of the O’Donnal daughters, and had a
proposal he made to our group.
I investigated as best I could and had my contacts in Guatemala
checking out the proposal, but there were serious questions and so I began
making plans for a trip—after my BYU Graduation in the summer of 1963.
THE SPECIAL FIRESIDES
At the Branch several firesides had been presented by groups from Latin
American mission areas, but they didn’t do well, and I prepared a fireside to
show them the way and convert Maria. My
camera had been stolen during my mission so I didn’t have slides, so I took
slides of pictures from National Geographic and other magazines and presented a
pretty good result. Maria began
softening. By then I had graduated and was planning my first trip back to
Guatemala, along with an ex-missionary companion, Frank Lawton, and a couple of
friends from BYU, Garth Norman, being one of them.
FIRST EXPLORATORY TRIP IN 1963
Frank drove his car with us to El Paso.
From there we took a Pullman style bus to Mexico City. Then we jumped on
the train all the way down through Veracruz and on to Tapachula, and from there
took Guatemala’s narrow-gauge railroad to Retalhuleu and John O’Donnal’s rubber
plantation where we were supposed to find Gary Cooper.
Some
of O’Donnal’s rubber trees seen on the right.
O’Donnal said that Gary had
given up several months prior and gone back to the U.S. without ever notifying
us. That’s when I had the discussion with O’Donnal who criticized the research I
had done and shared with Gary about his proposal being against the law in
Guatemala. O’Donnal just laughed and
said I didn’t know how things were done in Guatemala, and that the project
proposal could have been done by paying bribes to government officials,
etc. He made fun of my resolve to be honest and not give in to the bribe
system. That was the beginning of me having serious doubts about the
honesty and sincerity of the man who would become a leader for the LDS
Church in Guatemala.
Frank and me rented a car and did some touring
and I was able to get a lot of pictures of my own for the slide show, as well
as having very revealing experiences, and meeting some very fine people.
Frank headed home alone as we had come, I
remained for a while doing more research, and eventually flew home.
THE NEW SLIDE SHOW
BEGINS CONVERTING MARIA
I was able to vastly improve my slide show,
showing Indian Guatemala, but also showing the O’Donnal’s living in a very nice
home, with swimming pool, as well as many views of Modern Guatemala City. Maria, of course always went with me to the
firesides, and after this one remarked, “Living in Guatemala City would
maybe be alright—living in a nice home and having three maids!” In four years some progress was made—more
needed described next.
WORK TO BEGIN
ACCUMULATING CAPITAL
After my graduation in 1963 from BYU I became
the first full time employee of Andersen Samplers & Consulting Service. I was also
released early from my Army Reserve duties as an Instructor in Utah
Valley in Emergency Medical Treatments, due to pressing orders for Andersen
Samplers considered of National
Security importance as dad’s sampler had become the cornerstone of the Government’s
Biological Warfare Detection System.
I produced the first formal brochure for the
business, seen to the right, and put adds in scientific magazines and journals
and sales increased quickly with sales in all 50 states, and in 30 foreign countries.
CALLED AS BRANCH
PRESIDENT
During 1964 I was called to be the President
of the Spanish American Branch that had by then more than 120 adult members,
representing 11 Latin American countries, as well as Canada and the U.S.
I called as my counselors Efren Flores, from
Northern Mexico, and David Buist, an ex-missionary also from the mission in
Guatemala and Central America, who was married to a Latin American woman from
Texas.
SUMMERTIME 1965—THE 2nd
EXPLORATORY TRIP & CLINCHER FOR MARIA
The Branch was mostly composed of BYU
students, so summertime was a time of a lull in the action. So I chose it as a time for a much more
serious exploratory trip to Guatemala—this one specifically for Maria’s
benefit. By then we had three
children: Julie, almost 6, David 2-1/2,
and Cristina 18 months. Cristina was too small to get much out of the
trip, so my mother volunteered to take care of her for 1 month. Julie and David, both understood Spanish, but
wouldn’t speak, so we would leave them with Maria’s relatives in Tierra Blanca,
Veracruz and be forced to begin speaking.
Maria would go with me on a 10 day whirlwind tour of Guatemala,
including Coban and the remote area from there across the country.
With Maria we first visited the O’Donnals so
she could see a sort of gringo family living well in Guatemala and being of
help. Then on to the City, seeing....
MODERN GUATEMALA.
Then to INDIAN GUATEMALA at Patzicia where I was able to show her after a
Sacrament Meeting, malnourished babies that needed help.
Then we made a visit
to the home of the most outstanding LDS family, the family of Branch President Pablo Choc, his home
seen on the right—with dirt floor, soot blackened interior from the open
cooking fire, etc. Sister Choc, we see in the picture, along with the
older daughter to the right, were both killed in the 1976 earthquake, when the
adobe walls were instantly turned to dust, with the heavy roof of timbers and
tiles crushing our friends.
Daniel Choc, as the first Mayan to become a full time missionary for the LDS Church, also was killed in the aftermath of the
quake that killed 25,000 in the country.
We
then continued to Lake Atitlan that some believe to be
“the most beautiful lake in the world.”
From there we drove up to Solola, and on the
outskirts of the town had a hair raising
experience getting pictures of REAL
INDIAN GUATEMALA....
.....along with legitimate recordings all of which helped make my next slide
show professional quality.
We continued to Chichicastenango, and then
back to the city and....
........down the Atlantic Coast Highway to visit the magnificent ruins of QUIRIGUA, getting more wonderful photographs.
After a wonderful experience at Quirigua photographing
the amazing ruins that interestingly had been discovered while Joseph Smith, the
Mormon prophet was still alive and had him speculating it could have been “Zarahemla,”
that at least had him placing the BOOK OF MORMON history squarely in Guatemala.
Then a quick trip to Lake Izabal, almost
getting caught in a monsoon in our small aluminum boat........
....and on to the mountain
stronghold of remote Coban—COLONIAL GUATEMALA where Maria was able to see there
was one General Store, one Dental Clinic, one pharmacy, an old government Hospital and schools.
Then quickly across the country through what would two years later be
my CINE CHAPINLANDIA—the traveling movie tour....
.....then to the ruins of ZACULEO,
and down to Quetzaltenango and a District Conference seeing some of my converts
from 7 years before in the leadership.
Then back to Mexico to get the kids who were by then speaking Spanish
like the natives.
After that trip, Maria was saying,
“WELL, COBAN WOULDN’T BE SO BAD,
BUT NOT OUT IN THE STICKS!”
With that, I was all of a sudden under the pressure of finding
the courage I needed to do what I’d been talking about so much and knew I had to do. I would have to abandon what had become a very comfortable and
lucrative future, and plunge me and my family into the mysterious and dangerous
“jungles and mountains of the Maya” that by then were in the
middle of a vicious Guerrilla War trying to convert Guatemala into
another Cuba.
It had taken me 5 years to brainwash…..I mean, mentally
condition Maria into accepting my vision, now I had to quickly strengthen
my faith to be as strong as, or even stronger than was Ammon’s in ancient
America--he
didn’t have a family to also worry about!
Soon after our
return from that exploratory trip and just prior to the busy school year
beginning, my older brother, Marlo and
Wydonna got married, and at their reception I took a most beautiful picture of
Maria and Julie that I have to include in this history…..you see them to the
right. It was on August 20, 1965, Julie 2 months short of being 6 years old.
INTERESTING PROBLEM FROM TESTIMONY MEETING
Soon
after returning from our trip to Guatemala having made a lot of headway
with Maria, one of our Guatemalan members of the Branch, who along with
her family had been converted by John O'Donnal in Retalhuleu, had also
made a trip back to Guatemala. She stood in Testimony Meeting, and
described how she had literally been tortured in Guatemala to witness
all the poverty and suffering, and said it was so depressing that she
had made the decision to forget all that human misery and never return
to her country. I of course thought, "What a disaster! Rather than
be concerned for her suffering people and wanting to do something to
help, she rather put blinders on, and turned her back on her people."
Gratefully,
Maria also reacted as I did. Interestingly years later when living in
Guatemala I learned that said member's younger brother, Julio Cesar, an
LDS University student in Guatemala City had become the leader of the
main Guerrilla rebel group in the country. Somehow, as
far as I know it never became public knowledge that he was a Mormon.
Eventually he, and his brother, Alfonso, were both killed by Guatemalan
security forces.
Years later
I attended in Salt Lake the Missionary Farewell
Sacrament Meeting Program for the mother in that family, and it was fascinating
to hear leaders in that meeting talk about how that family had suffered “the murder of the two sons” called “Freedom
Fighter martyrs!” It was interesting to see how the family defended
two that created such mayhem, chaos and loss of innocent lives in Guatemala--almost mine!
Now back to more pleasant developments.
THE CHAT WITH MY PARENTS POINT OUT MORE KEY EVENTS
That brings us to what is described in my heart to heart chat with my
parents in 1967,
“(6)…… profound experiences when I was President
of the Spanish American Branch in Provo, including (7) critically
on the snowy slopes of the Henry Mountains when, as had happened
anciently to Enos, then to Ammon and his brothers from the Book of Mormon--I
literally had "the spirit of the Lord work on [me] .....,"
and had my encounter with the Lord
giving me the courage to make the move…..”
REDEDICATING MYSELF AS BRANCH PRESIDENT
…THEN AWAKENED TO DO MORE …
To begin the school year in September with even a larger membership in
the branch, Maria and I, along with my counselors, rededicated ourselves
to do even better than we had the year before.
Maria was now more supportive than ever as we had gradually moved onto
the same page about our future. We were
in all respects the
“perfect marriage” – finally.
I knew that to find the courage to now actually move closer to the
dream of getting back to Guatemala, it was a spiritual matter as had been the
case anciently with Ammon and his companions.
I began my day always being up early—no later than 6:00 AM, beginning
with scripture study, and then going to work.
I would dedicate my evenings to as quickly as possible interview
personally every member of the branch to get to know them, and be able to get
the branch organized, fitting every member into a calling they were best
qualified for.
My plan was to then quickly do a second interview with everyone as part
of a plan to solve what had been our greatest problem in the past—chastity, and
marital relations. This would culminate sometime in October with a Special
Sacrament Meeting focusing on that, followed up in the evening with a Special
Fireside with a panel of experts with questions, answers and discussion.
On September 28th I got a call from one of our members from
Guatemala who had a friend just arrived needing a place to live, and a part-time
job. Her identity will be kept
confidential, and for the purposes of this history we will call her Nora.
That evening I was actually exhausted from all the activity and needed
a rest, but I told the friend to bring Nora over. When they came I recall vividly coming into
the living room with an instant knowing of this young 21 year old. There were profound feelings of knowing and
love. I instantly reacted as had the General
Authority, 12 years later, and as would
be normal for many active Mormons, thinking,
"The
devil is trying to tempt me!"
I recognized I was going to have to be very careful
and said a silent prayer. The beautiful
feeling continued, and I made arrangements to help Nora.
That night I was up late, after the family had retired, studying the
scriptures and praying. My love for
Maria in no way was diminished, but the profound feeling for Nora persisted and
I couldn’t help but think, “Is the Church going to restore plural
marriage--again?” I was pronouncing
the PROHIBITED “P” WORD that
importantly was once in Mormonism a badge
of honor
as the “DIVINE,
ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF THE FULLNESS OF THE RESTORED GOSPEL,” but in
modern Mormonism,
HAD
STRANGELY BECOME POISON!
Note:
From this point on is the area of my personal history that some in the
Foundation leadership--20 years later when the
matter surfaced,
felt didn't need to be revealed to the public,
rather just focus on the positive work among the needy done in the name of the
Foundation. But, now on my own, I felt
it best to tell “the rest of the story” myself, rather than be ambushed later by those
who “don’t understand.”
I had just read Jacob 2, pretty strict about the idea of multiple
wives, and replied to my question, “There is no way such comes back
officially by the Church!” The
Church was enjoying too much the acceptance and even admiration of many in the
world.
I knew well
by that time that the famous Manifesto, that orthodox Mormons believed was a revelation--the
Lord stopping that principle, however just a simple glance made it clear it
wasn’t the Lord talking. And, while not
widely understood, even the Leaders
secretly continued the principle until being caught by the government in
their deception by 1904, when there was a 2nd Manifesto, and to show
they were serious this time, excommunicated in 1905 a couple of the Apostles. One, John W. Taylor, President Taylor’s son—known
then as the Prophet’s prophet, who happily accepted the punishment
continuing with his three wives throughout his life, knowing it wouldn’t stand
in the eternities and there was no need of repentance nor returning to Church
membership.
The Church was tired of persecution, and entered a
new phase to become acceptable to the world,
So I had questions and needed greater
understanding, while realizing too clearly the possibility of this being an “attempt
by the devil to destroy me and render me useless in the work of the Lord.”
I put into service the alarm clock I had used in
the last part of my mission to get up an hour before the other
missionaries, now arising at 5:00 AM.
as I had done in the Mission. Then drive to the chapel to spend a few hours of
study and prayer.
The old chapel, on 1st West & 4th North, had an
altar—like the ones in the temples, and I would kneel at that altar and pour my
soul out to the Lord for greater
understanding and strength I needed and then go to my office for study.
I knew that the General Authorities had instructed
Bishops to do away with such, but there it was for me to use and it intensified
the spiritual feelings while praying.
At times I would go down to the chapel and play
some hymns on the piano and then continue my study of the scriptures. By 8:00 I
would return home, have a quick breakfast and then go to work. This went on for months, seeking to leave no
stone unturned in my effort to cleanse and purify my life seeking the courage
I needed for the move to Guatemala, and multiplied many times in intensity by
this young lady who had entered my life who I felt a divine love for equal to
what I continued to feel for Maria. In a
sense I was living the spirit of the higher law of Celestial marriage.
In the beginning of the struggle for understanding
I naturally considered all the normal explanations that would occur to a person of
faith—that Satan had something to do with this, but time after time, the
wonderful spiritual love persisted inspiring me to do more in my quest, adding
to my agenda of duties with the branch members a weekly temple excursion
filling my car each time with my youthful members.
I
realized that in a very pure spiritual sense I was living with my feelings the
higher law of marriage, or Celestial
marriage as it was originally called. Never was there any hint of
temptation or carnal thoughts.
Eventually it was revealed to me
that one day I would lose Maria in some way, with the possibility of Nora
taking her place. The only way my
orthodox LDS mentality would permit me to interpret losing her was her all of a sudden passing on—which would only be a
temporary loss, but we would be together in the eternities.
But,
I had to keep an open mind about what that losing might mean.
But,
whatever that might mean my prayers then became pleas with the Lord to permit Maria and me to begin the adventure among
the Mayans together. We had come so
far and I didn’t want that to be in vain.
THE
HENRY MOUNTAINS THEN BECOME
CENTRAL TO THE DRAMA
Maria and I had planned a great adventure in Southern Utah for the
weekend of the mid-October deer hunt. I
had an outdoor magazine interested in the article I would write: About a great outdoor trip to Southern
Utah—driving to Bullfrog Bay on Lake Powell, just then filling up where there
was only a boat launch ramp. Then after
a great day of spectacular scenery and fishing, we would drive up into the
Henry Mountains for a great deer hunt.
I awoke that Thursday morning, October 21st, filled
with ominous impressions that if Maria went with, as planned, there would be a
tragedy. Perhaps my faith was weak, but I didn’t want that to happen yet, and had
silent tears rolling down my cheeks when Maria awoke and noticed. “What’s
wrong?” she asked. I replied I
had a feeling of tragedy about the trip and told her,
“You aren’t going
with. I’m going alone!”
That evening I had another “chastity interview” and it was with
Nora.
I then in the dark left for Southern Utah keeping myself awake during
the long drive with a continual prayer to the Lord. I arrived at Bullfrog Bay
finding myself alone, but rather than sleeping, I pulled out my Spanish Book
of Mormon, and just flipped it open with no chapter in mind. It opened to
the Book of Enos, and I read,
“And I will tell
you of the wrestle I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.
– Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests;
and the words which I often heard my father speak concerning eternal
life, and the joy of the saints, sank deep into my heart……..”
I knew in that instant that I had to go through on this trip the same
kind of spiritual transformation
experienced by Enos and decided I
would fast.
I continued studying carefully the Book, reading up through the
discourse of King Benjamin in Mosiah 5. On finishing the 21 page section, I
knelt in prayer, and then began again the same section feeling even more
powerfully the spiritual messages.
All of a sudden the day dawned,
October 22nd, without having
slept, but something very profound had changed in me.
I wrote at that time: “Some
profound changes had happened during the long night—everything was so
beautiful! The Spirit of the Lord had
unlocked to my understanding the secret wonderment of my surroundings. I was left in humble awe at the beauty of the
rock formations, the shadow effects, the reflections on the water, the cool
morning breeze, the desert plants—even the tiny ones. There was a new sensitivity, a new joy in
truly being alive!”
While focusing on the
spirituality of the days alone I was determined to also fulfill my outdoor
purposes for the trip.
So, I boated down the lake to Lost Eden Canyon getting the photographs
I needed. I didn’t fish as I already had
good photographs for that aspect of the experience I would write about.
I then headed for the Henry Mountains that were covered up high by a
new mantle of snow. I drove up the west
side past hunter’s camps in the aspens, until I was into the snow, and parked
for the night and lit my propane gas heater to keep warm.
I got out my Book of Mormon again, and
after a word of prayer, carefully read through the 21 page section from Enos to
Mosiah 5, then knelt in prayer. This was
repeated a number of times until 1:00 AM, Saturday October 23rd when I knelt again, but this time it was
different.
“I was flooded with the Spirit of the Lord and
filled with a love I had never known before.
I felt clean and filled with unspeakable joy and happiness. As I was
embraced by the warmth of His love, fear fled and I spontaneously began making
promises to the Lord in whose presence I was kneeling. I covenanted to do what I had known for
several years I had to do. I now really
believed, I really loved and I was more
than willing to stake my life on that conviction, and promised to leave with my
family for Guatemala as soon as possible and the Lord promised me that as long
as I faithfully persisted in serving those He called, ‘MY LITTLE ONES,’ I
would be protected and guided by Him.” Fear had been overcome by
love.
I slept peacefully as never before in my life.
In fact I slept too peacefully, as when I
awoke it was light, and I was supposed to be on top of the mountain. I struggled up through the snow and about
halfway to the top noticed a hunter coming behind me several hundred yards who
all of a sudden began shooting at a herd that gradually moved between us, and
he then let off another shot that whistled by my right ear, and I yelled
hitting the snow.
As I lay there I envisioned that if Maria had
of been with me, she would have been standing to my right and would have been
lost. I said a heartfelt prayer of
gratitude to the Lord for having answered my prayers preserving her life to
help me lay the groundwork for something of importance among the Lamanites in
Guatemala.
NOTE: Later I talked to the hunter who had
almost shot me—in fact when he heard me yell and I hit the ground, he had
thought he had hit me, and was grateful when
in a moment I got up and continued up the mountain.
In spite of feeling weak from fasting, I continued
to the top of the mountain having seen silhouetted in the early morning sun two huge bucks.
From there I shot the biggest mule deer of my life, but he kicked
himself down the wrong side of the
mountain. So I had to de-bone the deer
and along with the antlers struggled to the top with a 150 lb. load and
slid down the other side to my van.
I rested during the remainder of the day and towards evening headed for
home, but as I got to the pavement I felt the need to pray, so walked along the
river and knelt in prayer, and there was filled with the impression from the
Lord that I had to talk to Nora in some way about what I was experiencing. That filled me with a natural ominous feeling
that such could be harmful to her, so I had my wrestle with the Lord,
who persisted with even stronger impressions of what I had to do. I finally gave up the debate and promised the
Lord to do it, but added that if in any way I was being deceived, rather than
doing anything that would hurt Nora, I would prefer giving my life, and told
the Lord I would give him all the chance he needed to take me if that would be best.
To give Him a chance to take me, I did something that would be
considered crazy, and determined to drive home at full speed, only slowing down
going through one community along the
way. As I raced through the mountains—once I
couldn’t make the turn and left the road—it all of a sudden became like a dream—seemingly as though the van had wings that somehow got me back
on the road. While it took me about
5 hours to get to Southern Utah, I made it home in 3 and was alive.
It was late, but I was greeted by Maria and my mom. Mom, during the week had a dream that there would be
a tragedy on that trip to Southern Utah—that was when she understood Maria was
going with me, but later learned I had gone alone. She was with Maria anxiously waiting for me.
They were both convinced the tragedy would be me, so when I walked in I got a
wonderfully emotional and loving welcome.
THE GREATEST SUNDAY OF MY LIFE
I continued my fast, and the next day, October
24th had the Sunday of my
life. In Priesthood meeting, there was
some kind of discussion going on, and the Elder’s Quorum President, Roque
Quiroz, turned to me and said, “President Andersen, can you help us?” I gave a simple explanation.
For Sunday School I was sitting up front observing all who entered and
wished I could have been the greeter to be able to hug all as I was overwhelmed
with a great love for everybody, including even one or two that were
problems. After the opening exercises something
strange happened, as all came forward surrounding me—all wanting to give me a hug. Nora was part of
that very loving scene. I had never
experienced anything quite so wonderful and humbling before.
Afterwards I got a ride home for Maria and the kids, and remained in my
office doing the final chastity interviews.
Then the Sacrament Meeting, and the Special Fireside, followed by a
whole line of members who wanted to talk to me again—to clarify inaccurate things
they had told me in the interviews. I
finally finished the last draining interview at 11:30 PM and headed for home, feeling very strongly
that I needed to share openly with Maria everything I had been experiencing—prior
to the next day talking with Nora.
I did my best, but was frustrated at being understood by her. She was understanding my guarded explanation
to be about plural marriage. She had
experienced in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico, when only 15 years old, the
advances of Joel LeBaron of that infamous Fundamentalist family, and no
matter what I said, it didn’t matter. By 3:00 AM I gave up, expressed my deep love for her, and tried to sleep
concluding I couldn’t talk with her again about what I was experiencing. But, I was restless, and by 5:00 AM when my
alarm sounded, decided to drive to Salt Lake and attend a session in the
Temple, convinced that if in any way I was being deceived in all that I was
experiencing, it would be there where clarity would come. One of the modern
Apostles once said:
“At the temple the dust
of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we
can see things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our
troubles that we had not previously known.”
I returned home more convinced than ever that I was being guided by the
Lord and had a guarded visit with Nora relating some of the background in my spiritual conversion and development, including
many of my missionary experiences and my conviction that I had an important
work to do among the Mayan peoples of Guatemala and was preparing to return as
soon as possible. I also had felt
strong impressions she should go on a mission, and told her with her comment
that she had been approached before, but cool to the idea. I also
had envisioned some of her future that would be very difficult and troubling, and told her that if she ever felt
the need of advice and help of any kind, she should not hesitate to look for
me, and I would never fail her.
NOTE: The next
Sunday after Sacrament Meeting, Nora asked to speak with me, and in my office said, “How do I make it known I accept the call to go on a mission?” I immediately filled out the Application to
begin the process.
WHAT HAD REALLY HAPPENED ON THAT SPECIAL SUNDAY?
Two weeks later, on November 7th in a Testimony Meeting, the Elder’s Quorum
President Roque Quiroz, related the experience in the Quorum meeting when
asking me to clarify whatever, and said, “As President Andersen spoke to us,
his words penetrated my soul as never before, and as he spoke he was surrounded
by a heavenly light!”
My counselor, Efren Flores, had learned some of what my challenge was,
and also confirmed that he had noticed a very evident spiritual transformation
in me and made some very nice comments that confirmed the good spirit I felt
that special day and through this entire period. I only mention these two, to indicate that
something special was happening to the extent of other’s witnessing it, and it was all good.
As it worked out, Nora, ended up leaving Provo in early November with a
very emotional parting between us. The
day before she was to leave for San Francisco she had sent an envelope to me with one
of her roommates that had $160 for tithing for the wages she had earned doing
work for Andersen Samplers & Consulting Service, and requested
I write a letter of recommendation introducing her to Church leaders in San
Francisco informing them she “had been called on a mission,” which
apparently she was taking very seriously.
I went to the apartment where she lived with other students and members
from Central America to give her the letter.
We were outside on the porch to say goodbye and there was a warm embrace, hesitating a bit
as we separated, then the whole matter was
left in the hands of the Lord.
After getting back to my car I all of a sudden realized that after
separating slightly from the embrace we remained for a moment our noses
separated by ¼ of an inch, when it would have been natural to show love—but I
didn’t even notice, much less felt temptation as was always the case in spite of
the deep love I felt for her and at times demonstrated subtly by her too.
MORE TEMPLE CONFIRMATIONS
A few weeks later I had ominous impressions about Nora living
in San Francisco, and again fasted and prayed for her and went to the Temple,
and there had revealed to me the reason why I had to have that talk with
her—important for our future.
WHAT REASON?
One purpose of prophecy is....that when what was predicted
begins to be fulfilled, there is immediately a growing of faith. When at
some future date there would begin a quite miraculous fulfillment of what was
inferred, Nora's faith would have a chance to be multiplied and increase the
chance of total fulfillment and pave the way for her having the confidence in
me necessary to help the attainment of our purposes.
But, seemingly wanting a more sure confirmation from
the Lord, a month later I
attended a special Priesthood session
in the temple on Saturday, December 4th. I was in the
Celestial Room, looking into a small sealing room with its altar—similar to the
one shown, when a heavenly vision was
opened up to me filling me with overwhelming love such as only can come from
God and the whole experience was confirmed by the burning in the bosom, and I
shouted within myself to the Lord,
“It is enough Lord, I will bother you no more on
this matter.”
For sure, the vision clearly showed me for whatever reasons, I was chosen to
live Celestial Marriage in some way, but the whole
matter was left in the hands of the Lord and, along with Maria, we prepared to
leave for Guatemala as soon as possible.
Twelve years would go by with neither me nor Nora
having any knowledge of each other. It was left confidently in the hands
of the Lord, but as you will see it was far from over as eventually the Lord
intervened again in our lives as all of a sudden she had desperate need--which I had foreseen, but
she didn’t know what had become of me—so the Lord helped her as will be explained
at the right chronological point in the FINAL REPORT. But, it was without me taking any
initiative while never going through a day without feeling the love for her and
Maria, and having both of them always in my prayers.
CRUCIAL
HISTORICAL NOTE:
As you will see this matter was of critical influence both in my relationship
with the Foundation leadership, and also with LDS Church leaders, so it will be
briefly blended into the history described in the FINAL REPORT. It became
a seemingly unending drama—or as our friend Carl Jacob called it, “A never
ending soap opera,” that he planned on
writing about and becoming famous, but the truth is that MY REAL LIFE WAS
BETTER THAN ANY SOAP OPERA.....and with each complication,
Carl sort of cheered me on!
From
the beginning going through a period of 12 years "leaving it in the hands of the Lord," and then quite
incredibly renewed with a period of 8 years of struggle—attempting to understand and do what the Lord wanted all
three of us to do—and we should have made it then, yet again it would "be left in the hands of the
Lord" and unbelievably 30 years would go by without neither Nora nor
me having any knowledge of the other—but always loving, never forgetting and
always believing. During those years the plot would thicken somewhat and I
would actually be given the opportunity to fulfill the covenant of Celestial
Marriage, and in a tragic sense “loose Maria,” not as anticipated, but nonetheless
sadly lost!
So, it still
wasn’t over but left faithfully in the hands of the Lord and
after 30 years of knowing nothing, out of the blue there Nora was again for the
third time over nearly 50 years. Our relationship could of, and maybe
should have been realized at that point, but 30 years of growing apart--each in our
own way, took its toll--and me especially growing sort of old with related
complications had again our relationship put on hold, and so our union seemingly remains for the future as I had seen
clearly in the vision. Some detail will be woven into the COMPLETE FINAL
REPORT.
THE FIRST LEADER TO HEAR RUMORS IN 1978
The details of the vision in the temple are not revealed here, nor were
they revealed to the Leader, William Bradford, mentioned at the end of the RISKY….JOURNEY
writing, who was told my story—taking
two hours, so there were a lot of details related then, except for the details
of the vision—only telling him basically
as I have also related here, assuring him “It was a revelation in the
Temple confirming what was happening was from the Lord,” and who concluded counseling me,
“Don’t tell
anyone--no one will understand.”
But,
within six months he had broken the confidence and related the matter to
six others in a distorted way—for said
leader it had become “a dream.” The
main one told was Apostle Boyd Packer, who in
two long 1979 interviews with me, to get a recommend for my daughter Julie's wedding, began
weakening my confidence in him by demonstrating he still believed I was guilty
of what is described in the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT--the debunked,“illegal adoption work that destroyed the missionary work in many rural
areas,” plus other comments—like labeling the rumored Nora as “a tramp,” as well as trying to get me to admit the
temple experience he called “a dream,”
was from the devil, and repeatedly all
of a sudden accusing me of adultery,
which I calmly told him each time was not true.
He then insisted I tell him the whole
history,
but with his uninspired condemnatory
attitude
I replied,
“Sorry,
it's not possible because my Priesthood leader counseled me,
‘Don’t tell anyone.........’”
That
didn’t help in my relationship with him, however his negative attitudes
and lack of inspiration had me unconcerned, but he couldn’t
deny me the recommend.
…I had seen a vision, and I knew that the Lord knew he had
given me a vision, and it couldn’t be denied without forfeiting my future in
the eternities.
THE WISDOM OF REPORTING NEGATIVE CONTACTS WITH LEADERS?
In the above summary of experience with a General Authority, along with
others that will be mentioned, especially in the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT, we are dealing
with leaders believing lies, using lies, and pressuring lesser leaders to lie about
reported events. General Authority Scott
once reportedly said the followsing regarding allegations against another General
Authority accused of sexual abuse of children, saying simply: “Don’t take action, just forgive, forget and most
importantly, BE QUIET!” Elder Packer
himself is well known for giving the sane advise. What has the Lord said?
“Cursed are all those
that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they
have sinned when they have not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but have done that
which was meet in mine eyes, and which I commanded them.” Doctrine
& Covenants 121:16
Yet, the Lord said further along in the same revelation:
“Behold, there are
many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? – Because their hearts
are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men,
that they do not learn this one lesson—That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably
connected with the powers of heaven, and
the powers of heaven cannot be controlled, nor handled only upon the principles
of righteousness. – That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we
undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition or to exercise
control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any
degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it
is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.” D&C 121:34-37
In another revelation the Lord even said: “For it shall come to pass that the inhabitants
of Zion shall judge all things pertaining to Zion. – And liars and hypocrites shall
be proved by them, and they who are not apostles and prophets shall be known.”
D&C 64:38, 39
So, for leaders to lie, believe lies, and use lies for whatever purpose,
they are, could we say, “disqualified” as being apostles and prophets,
and cease to be “the Lord’s anointed.”
Throughout this historical writing, let’s keep in mind all of the above
spoken by the Lord, because as you will see time after time good faithful
Latter Day Saints, even supposed outspoken and courageous ones, ALL WENT
SILENT when confronted with this kind of “unrighteousness!”
I remember now the Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize, who said, “WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD IS SILENT, EVEN ONE
VOICE BECOMES POWERFUL!”
That
would be my hope in this historical writing doing as the Lord instructed me to,
“SPEAK THE TRUTH FROM YOUR HEART!”
Hoping my sort of lone “voice in the wilderness” will be a blessing
in helping to fulfill prophecy that in the last days “THE HOUSE OF GOD
WILL BE SET IN ORDER!” D&C85:3-8
THE DIVINE POWER OF A HEAVENLY VISION
The outcome of that Fall of 1965 was profoundly positive for our future. As we LDS have seen, like in the life of
Joseph Smith, a literal HEAVENLY VISION, is powerful like nothing
else. But, for such a risky, faith
motivated move—our
God appointed mission to the dangerous LAND OF THE MAYA was
so profoundly serious—actually a
life-long risky cause, that it would require one more year of
PREPARATION, I will describe next.
SERIOUS PREPARATIONS FOR “THE
JOURNEY”
During 1966 I focused a
lot of my attention on working and promoting Andersen
Samplers, and investing all of our surplus money acquiring first, the
vehicle we would need—a Ford 150 pickup, seen on the right, equipped with a special camper with a
modified
interior. I installed overload springs,
and got tough Michelin tires that would withstand heavy loads. Then began acquiring other equipment we would
need for our first project in Guatemala:
4 - 16mm. movie projectors, a public address system, 2 large 9’ x
12’ professional movie screens, 3 – portable generators, etc.
The THIRD EXPLORATORY TRIP
In the summer
of 1966 I was approached by archaeologist Garth Norman for an\
expedition in Southern Mexico—to sites
relative to the Tree of Life Stela between Tapachula and the Guatemalan
border where we were to end up.
I was
doing some work as a free-lance
photographer and had professional 4” x 5” cameras and capability of doing night
photography to make visible the relief on stelae. 
I converted the camper into a dark room to be
able to immediately develop the 4” x 5” —color and black & white film. I
would be the driver on the expedition, and after finishing with Garth would
travel to Coban for more exploring and investigations prior to our family
move.
We see to the right Garth examining one of the
negatives in my camper/darkroom, with containers of all the chemicals I had to
use to process daily the film—to make sure what I was getting was professional quality
for Garth’s purposes.
In my RISKY….JOURNEY history I
mention that expedition, continuing to Coban,
actually Garth and me
together as he was interested in seeing the mountainous area from Coban to
Huehuetenango as he believed it important in the geography of the BOOK OF
MORMON. Note: That will be explained in
Part 2. Then, after a few
days in Coban he took the bus to the city, and from there flew home.
Later I came
down with malaria resultant from my night photography,
and
drove home alone—unable to eat, treating my malaria, and spending more on soda pop than on gasoline! Gasoline was then very cheap in Mexico, like .15 cents/gallon.
I returned with many more professional quality
photos and was able to upgrade my slide show which became quite popular in the
Utah Valley area
THE OCTOBER 1966 CENTRAL AMERICAN MISSION
EX-MISSIONARY REUNION
Those in charge of the Reunion had heard about my program and invited
me to show it at the reunion. This was a
great opportunity to begin waking people up and remind them of Hugh B. Brown’s
prophecies about the Mayan Indians in Guatemala and our prophesied participation. I reorganized the program especially for them,
beginning with all the color and beauty of Guatemala and the Indian culture,
then showed them the other side of the coin—the poor and suffering even among
those we had converted
and claimed to love.
They needed help, and…
….if not from us as ex-missionaries, from whom?
Among some, it irritated the heck out of them
showing the needy and suffering. President Wagner was there and seemed to be
fine with the program, but President Hancock, who had replaced President
Wagner, came charging at me like an angry bull, and I learned there that telling the truth was not always well
received. I mentioned this in the RISKY..JOURNEY
history, and don’t need to repeat,
except to say...
....MARIA & I WERE IN AGREEMENT TO TALK NO MORE, RATHER ACT.
***********************
OUR FOURTH
EXPLORATORY TRIP—THIS TIME AS A FAMILY
That 2-1/2 month
trip—from mid-November to the end of January 1967, is mentioned in the RISKY….JOURNEY report, but so important in our long history
that I will now insert a description of the highlights of that crucial
exploration:
Our 75 day exploratory/investigative trip prior to
actually making the big move, was eye opening in many ways with a couple of memorable, scary and dangerous
experiences that helped prepare us for many years of residency—as one friend
described it “living from crisis to
crisis!” among the Maya. It was also a
vacation for the family which was likely to be our last—as it worked
out, our last in seven years before we were able to make a trip back to Utah in
1974. I’ll just recount here one series
of learning experiences on our way down, and one scary one on our way home,
along with mention of investigations, and experimentation with projects that
could support us. The first I’ll begin
calling it……..
……DAVID
& THE WHITE HORSE
As we were accustomed to for our first years, we
headed due south from Utah to cross the Mexican border at Nogales,
Arizona. NOTE: Eventually we changed our route to and from the U.S. avoiding
Mexico City, driving less in Mexico, and more in the U.S. on nice highways with
safe Rest Areas. From Nogales to
Guaymas and then slowly enjoying the
many wonderful spots along the Gulf of California or Sea of Cortez, and then
inland through Guadalajara—to there all those areas a few years later became
famous for the drug cartels’ production and trafficking of the narcotic drug
trade.
From Guadalajara, we are inland beginning to climb
into the mountains working our way towards high altitude, 7,350 foot high Mexico City.
But, first we approached very large Lake Chapala—with its murky/muddy waters.
NOTE:
This brings to mind a few years later when I was invited to make my every two
month trip to the U.S. with some friends in their private plane. After spending the night at Tikal, we
proceeded to Veracruz, Mexico where we found the mountains towards Mexico City
all socked in fog which had them going up and down the coast, testing canyons
hoping to find one open and low enough as our small plan couldn’t cope with
altitudes over 15,000 feet. I went to
sleep when they had found one, and woke up a while later seeing the pilot and
his supposed navigator in deep conversation pouring over maps. Then the pilot turned around and asked me and
my seat partner,
“Do either of you know where we
are?”
Shocked
I finished waking up and looked out the window, and luckily down below us a bit
ahead and to the south was a very large lake with murky/muddy waters—I
immediately recognized it as Lake Chapala and told them. Note: Directly above we see the Lake, and
north of it Guadalajara. Veracruz is on
the far right, the Pacific on the left.
With that they found us on the map and made it safely to Guadalajara,
let out a passenger, and finally we made
it to the U.S. In northern Arizona we came to
Flagstaff. The pilot was
apparently navigating by following the highways below us, and from there was to
head north following the highway to Page, and Flaming Gorge Dam, then to Kanab
and then north to the west of the Wasatch Mountains to avoid bad weather.
At
that point I went to sleep, awakening a while later and sensing we were heading
east rather than north I looked down to
notice the highway entering a town which wasn’t supposed to be there, and I
mentioned that to the pilot, and they pulled out their maps and I showed them
it was Winslow, Arizona to the east of Flagstaff. They
had turned east rather than north at Flagstaff!
So
we turned north and crossed Lake Powell mid-lake, flew over the Henry Mountains
and Hanksville and soon were approaching Price with north Soldiers Summit
locked in a storm and had to land st Price
and have someone come from Utah Valley to get us home in a car!
After
so many stupid errors we were lucky to have made it alive. That friend and pilot not surprisingly a few
years later crashed his small plane unwisely trying to make an emergency trip
in a storm from Provo to Nevada—the crashed plane was found the next day on the
mountains east of Springville, with the
pilot and the entire family he was
taking dead!
***********************
Back to 1966 as we
approached Lake Chapala 3 year old David was upfront with me. I had chewed him
out quite harshly over nothing, and was making up to him with a hug. Ahead on the right were a few horses, facing
away from the highway, but all of a sudden a white one wheeled abruptly jumping
right in front of us and we crashed!
Our radiator was pushed
into the fan that chewed up a portion with water squirting everywhere.
Instantly I knew what I had to do. Off
to the side of the road I pulled up close to a phone pole, and turned off the
motor. I jumped out, got a chain….part
of my emergency equipment, attached it to the radiator and the pole, then
started the motor and slowly backed off separating the radiator and the fan so
all functioned normally.
Yes, we lost most of
our water and gradually losing the rest.
I went to our emergency water, filled the radiator and quickly drove
along the lake finding a place we could camp
out as we weren’t near any town.
Lake Chapala is not in the least scenic, so I got no photos, except a few representing our
emergency camp-out!
It would take a few
days, but I had to plug up as best I could the many leaks using more of my
emergency equipment—a large tube of liquid aluminum.
I quickly marked the
leaks with chalk, then drained the radiator, ran the motor just a little so the
warmth would dry the radiator, and
plugged the leaks, then waited for the liquid aluminum to dry.
Then filled the radiator, warmed the motor,
and marked additional leaks, and repeated the procedure a number of times
taking several days while we had a great family camp-out.
Luckily this was one
trip when I bought at the border insurance that would cover a repair, but we
had to make it to Mexico City. My repair
job was far from perfect so we had to have extra water to fill the radiator a
number of times before making it to the City.
The repair took several days, so we finally got to do a little site
seeing in the giant City, with a few pictures to remind us of visits to museums
and tourist spots. We finally continued
south.
We finally made it southeast to Veracruz and on to
Tierra Blanca, Maria’s hometown, visited relatives and then on to Guatemala
where our investigations got serious making our way to Coban.
We camped out
at the soccer stadium—one of the most picturesque I’ve ever seen. Too bad I can’t locate the left portion of
the panorama shot showing the grandstands, and the whole bowl surrounded by pines that fill up
with spectators.
We spent at least a month in the
Coban area, made many new friends, including the governmental leaders, business
and plantation owners and learned all we could. But we could have
never guessed while camping out on the edge of the stadium, and even attending
a soccer game won by Coban’s team, COBAN IMPERIAL, that one day our
VALPARAISO-CENTER FOR INDIAN DEVELOPMENT students would actually be parading
around the stadium for the Annual Fair presided over by Guatemala’s President
Lucas who would award our CID’s participation—
1980
THE BEST OF THE FAIR!
We visited often the one General Store in Coban—EL
GALLO, seen to the right, viewing here the textile/clothing/.footgear side,
with the grocery section in the middle, then the hardware & agricultural
sections on the other side. I met the
owner, Carlos Daetz, one of a unique group of residents of the area of German
descent from the two German migrations to Guatemala—in 1875 and 1925.. The Germans adapted well to the area and
freely mixed with the native population, and contributed to the development of
coffee and cardomon plantations, along with processing plants and exporting
businesses.
By the time of the World War II, there was a well
established German culture in the area even with a German language newspaper,
and it was common to see sympathy manifested with them greeting each other with
a Heil Hitler salute, and there was
fear by the government of sabatoge—as Guatemala was one of the first, along
with the U.S. to declare war on Germany. This resulted in plantations and
properties being confiscated by the government and the Germans being sent back
to Germany, or to concentration camps in
the U.S.
Carlos Daetz was one of them spending the war in the
U.S. and spoke perfect English, as well as Spanish, Kekchi and of course German. He was one who was able to recover his
properties and businesses after the war.
I learned a lot from him, and other acquaintances we established during
that important period.
Later I met an LDS convert sister
who was pure Q’eqchi, but who had married Wellman, and along with her
husband and family spent the war in Germany, returning to Guatemala speaking
perfect German. So it was common to see pure Q’eqchi speaking natives in
the market who obviously had some European blood as seen below.
Many of our associations during that period of
investigation was with those few who were LDS, and the pictures I have used
showing the early pictures of the LDS
branch were taken during that period, as seen below:
One thing that was missing in Coban at that time was
entertainment. There had been a movie
theater, but twice it had burned down.
We put on a number of slide and 16 mm. movie shows using the chapel, but
inviting our many friends who weren’t Mormons.
Several shows were to give people a tour of Utah, along with some of the
trips we would we take as a family every Christmas, celebrating that sacred day
in non-commercial ways, inviting for
tiny Christmas celebrations the poor,
nomad-like fishermen along the Sea of
Cortez, and teaching our children to share simple little gifts and food with
needy people. I also showed them the
slide show I had shown to the ex-missionary groupo in Salt Lake—showing the
beauty of Guatemala, but also the many serious problems that we were planning
on doing our best to solve. For
Christmas Eve we invited all to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas
Program I had as a 16mm. movie, and a color movie about the Savior’s birth and
life, I rented from an agency in Guatemala city I had established a formal
relationship with for the future. All of
them were smashing successes.
The basic idea would be to locate and rent a large
house or building where a wall or two could be knocked down creating a large
hall, such as the Church does to establish a chapel in the beginning. I’d rent 16 mm movies from the agency in the
city, as well as always include educational movies from embassies, and hope
it could be a business 5 or 6 days a week.
Christmas was celebrated in our camper, just as a
family with a few simple gifts you can see below.
We see in these two pictures, Cristina who would
have been 3 years old, David, 4 years old, Julie 7, and Rich 3 months. We also
went on picnics and fishing trips to the
lake at 
San Cristobal.
Nothing was off-limits for me in my explorations and
investigations of every aspect of life in the area, as you can observe in the
following set of photographs from that trip—from getting to know better some of
the most well-off families of the area,
like “The
Sisters de Leon.” 
We see to the to the right a portion of their home. I had got to know them well on my 3rd
exploratory trip when, after getting the photographs Garth Norman needed at the
Izapa site near Tapachula, Mexico, I had continued to Coban and spent a couple
of weeks investigating actually telling people I intended to publish an article
for the National Geographic Magazine. I
had previously contacted the NG Society and they had expressed interest in my
proposal. So I got into all kinds of
places.
An important contact was with said Sisters and I was
invited to visit, have lunch a couple of times.
They were four sisters who had never married, each of them in charge of
different family businesses. Dona
Matilde had a private school, where Julie studied for one year when we finally
moved to Guatemala. They also had
properties, one of which I tried to get them to sell to me towards the end of
1967 when we were living there.
I poked my nose everywhere during these explorations
like in their Churches where the wealthy mixed freely with the Indians as seen
below.
Then in Indian Guatemala where the Q’eqchi natives
practice a mixture of Catholicism and their Mayan traditions.
Even of more importance was exploring the
countryside—where we did not go as missionaries sent with a special purpose to
Coban, but now it was critical as that was where 80% of the Indians lived where
my projected work had to be. Now, nothing
was off-limits for me as I needed to really understand the people and the
cultures of the area.
Of prime importance I visited the schools, and
learned that Coban was the educational center of the Alta Verapaz area. Of course that included their sporting
events, like you see below.
HEADING
FOR HOME
After NEW YEARS, we bid
farewell to all of our new friends assuring them with a “hasta luego” that we
would return to establish our residency there before the end of 1967 and be
ready to go to work.
It turned out to be a
most unforgettable trip home.
All went well getting
out of Guatemala and into Mexico at Tapachula, and then continued up what some BOOK
OF MORMON believers call “ a narrow pass
which led by the sea into the land northward, yea by the sea on the west,” basically a narrow
strip of flat land—light green, along
the Pacific Ocean, separating it from the interior that is made up of rough,
almost impenetrable mountains. Years ago, before there was a highway, there was the railroad and for cars to get to
Tapachula and to Guatemala your car would be put on a railroad flatcar. I’ll insert a Google Earth view to the right (flat area along ocean from Tapachula
northwest to Arriaga).
As the highway leads
towards the Isthmus of Tehuantepec you pass through an area called La Ventosa (windy)—where the constant winds from the
Pacific side have the trees growing sideways pointing east. Night was falling and the area was being
buffeted by the tale end of a storm we heard on the radio had come from the
north leaving snow on Mexico City.
Traffic was moving slowly and carefully through the area where here and
there trucks had been blown over and on their sides along the highway.
We came to the junction
where we had to turn east to go up into the mountains and cross the
Isthmus. It would be about 1 mile to get
away from the flat and into the hills and mountains that would reduce the
danger, but for that mile the wind was
hitting us directly on our left side with gusts that would literally lift our
left wheels off the ground. I yelled at
Maria and the kids to all get on the left side of the camper adding their
weight. Twice more gusts hit us and
lifted our wheels off the ground, then let up and we settled back with a
jolt. With panicky prayer we finally got
into the safety of the hills. But, it
was SCARY TO SAY THE LEAST!
From there we crossed
the Isthmus, through Veracruz and then began our assent towards Mexico City,
but stopped to rest for the night at a place called Fortin de las Flores, and parked for the night in a nice
residential area. As you will see we
had lessons to be learned still.
About an hour later we
were awakened by the flashing lights of a police car. I opened the back door to
talk to them. They warned us that it was
dangerous for us to park in such areas as there was high danger of being
assaulted and robbed. They suggested we
park out along the highway where we would be in view constantly of trucks and
other vehicles going by.
We did that and soon
were trying to go to sleep again, but about an hour later heard voices behind
the camper. A thick fog had moved in
hiding us from the vehicles going by whose lights we could see dimly but we
were hidden by the fog. There were 3 or
4 men behind the camper and soon they got closer and began knocking
loudly. I yelled, “What do you want?” They didn’t reply, rather knocked or rather
pounded on the door!
I yelled loudly in
Spanish, “MARIA, PASS ME THE GUN!”.…….which we didn’t have.
With that they backed
off 30 or 40 feet, still dimly visible through the fog. I told Maria to keep an eye on them, and if
they moved towards us to immediately let me know. In the meantime I was silently reaching
through the boot between the camper and the front seat where Julie was
sleeping, and moving her over so I could get behind the steering wheel.
All of a sudden, Maria
said, “HERE THEY COME!”
With that, in my
underwear, I was through the boot, immediately started the motor, and we
screeched out of there and up the highway, leaving our visitors trying to catch
us but empty handed.
In spite of it having
been a long, tiring day, I was wide awake driving through the fog, up to Mexico
City and skirted around the city that was covered by about 6 inches of snow,
then in the daylight began the descent to the northwest, finally stopping at a
Pemex Gas Station to get dressed and fill up.
I mentioned to the attendant at the gas
station what had happened, and he gave us some advice for the future: “When parking for the night to sleep in your
vehicle, always do as the truckers do, park gathered around a Pemex Gas Station
where there is always an armed guard!”
Sort of like the pioneers did for the night circling
their wagons and have some protection. With many important lessons learned we
finally made it safely back to Utah—now READY FOR THE BIG DECISION
That
experience convinced us it was time to go and we announced to our parents we
would leave in four months. I promised my father that during those months I
would produce a 2 year supply of Andersen
Samplers so he could continue the business without me. I trained
my younger brother, Howard, to do the office work and shipping, and then worked
an average of 19 hours/day six days a week--almost ruining my health, but
finally put in dad's storeroom hundreds of Samplers
NOTABLE
From
Part 2 of my
autobiography, “THE PREPARATION,”
Maria
and I had
patiently and lovingly…..
…moved from “DIVORCE,” in
January 1959 to us being united TO ACT TOGETHER
by 1967
I
knew that in some way I would eventually lose her for this life, but in the
meantime we had to make the best of what time the Lord would give us together.
SACRIFICED
A LOT TO MAKE THE RISKY MOVE
In the upcoming RISKY…..JOURNEY chapter,
I explain how we had to get rid of a lot of our, sort of opulent life, and I
explain: NOTE: Prior to leaving I had
sold all my firearms including my first 30-06 deer rifle, my beloved Ruger
Single-Six revolver, etc. gave away all our furniture and excessive
clothes, dishes and cookware, etc. to needy families, but did take my fishing
equipment. This for me was a big deal as I loved to
that point activities like deer hunting, and even bragged about getting a big
buck every year in my first 11 years of the hunt. During the years of PREPARATION, I justified
getting my first four-wheel-drive vehicle—the first International Harvester
4 x 4 called a Scout, rationalizing it would be our RISKY JOURNEY
4 x 4 vehicle, and in my spare time built on the tiny vehicle a camper—
As leaving for Guatemala was
approaching as a real possibility I had to honestly conclude my beloved Scout was just too small for my entire
family, and so I tearfully sold it, and invested $2,150 in a new Ford 150
pickup, bought a camper and built into it cabinets, table, etc. and used it the
first time with Garth Norman on our archaeological “Tree of Life Stela” expedition in 1966,
and by mid-1967 had it modified more—with a boot giving access between cab and
camper, and with a handmade equipment rack on top of the cab and we were ready.
WE THEN PREPARED & BID FAREWELL
So, on July 12, 1967, with a lot of
faith, we headed south the FIRST TIME to Nogales, Arizona/Mexico to
cross the border. Then on August 9th,
we had our heart to heart talk with my parents, then received a “Father’s
blessing,” and left for THE SECOND ATTEMPT and soon we were legally
driving carefully south through Mexico towards Guatemala.
It would not be easy, but we knew that
the Lord would be with us as long as we heeded His promptings and did the best
we could. That JOURNEY was
successful the...
....ANDERSEN
FAMILY PRIVATE PEACE CORP...
...crossing the border into Guatemala
on
AUGUST
19, 1967, then 50 years later on AUGUST 19, 2017
I celebrated alone the amazing
GOLDEN
ANNIVERSARY
with a Hot Fudge Sundae
at McDonalds and retired the
GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION
That was a group of generous brothers
& sisters, spearheaded by my father, Dr. Ariel
A. Andersen, all of whom cared deeply about the
Lord's "little ones" we lovingly
served for 50 years
in the
Mountains of the Maya, and whose loving donations are said to have…
“Saved
thousands & aided many tens of thousands acquire an education!"
To all those
selfless people that made up the Foundation we send our love
and
appreciation for your generosity over these many years.
*************
Part 2 the epic history
THE RISKY, BREATHTAKING 1967 PIONEER JOURNEY TO THE JUNGLES & MOUNTAINS OF THE
MAYA
By Cordell M Andersen, for 50 years the volunteer Field Director
Beginning with an INTRODUCTION TO:
YEAR ONE of THE
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
The 50 year Anniversary of our work in Guatemala was celebrated with no fanfare on August 19, 2017, at which time the
Guatemalan Foundation was legally retired. No "fanfare" as our
effort was never to get any credit for what was accomplished, and publicity
received was never by my initiative. Fifty years ago I just wanted to quietly...
...disappear into the jungles and mountains of the Maya and with my family
serve the Lord and his "little ones" in my own simple
way--following the example of one of my heroes from the Book of Mormon
history, Ammon, from ancient America...
...all in
harmony with the inspiration, guidance and the opportunities
the Lord would
give me.
"The mountains of the
Maya" look pretty good in this
beautiful photo, but......below we see the harsh reality of Indian Guatemala, the
colorful clothing of their women actually being a disguise for their misery and
suffering. It was into this world we would go in 1967 that was also
in the beginning stages of a communist backed Guerrilla War trying to convert
Guatemala into another Cuba.
A few very
orthodox Mormons told me that the only proper way to do as I intended was to
wait and hope to be "called by the Prophet."
On the
other hand I believed in the Lord's words when He said,
"....men should
be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free
will, and bring to pass much righteousness.....he that doeth not anything
until he is commanded......is damned." (D&C 58:26-29).
I didn't believe in "polishing apples" and cultivating
the right friendships as I noticed a few doing to increase their chances of
being "called," but rather thought,
"If the Lord
was ever to speak to his Prophet calling me to whatever,
he more
than likely would be perplexed exclaiming,
'Cordell....who?'"
The Prophet would have to Google my name
and learn I had a High Uintas Wilderness Project that saved lives, was an expert on "tie
hackers," & on "Pioneer Timber Slides that made Provo and Springville," published a book about the
High Uinta Mountains, and, if he went deep enough in his Google
Search, learn I had something to do with a Foundation responsible
for having "saved thousands of Mayan Indians, and helped many tens of
thousands get an education," plus, following the links, read about a Harold
Brown--one of the "called and chosen" by him who insisted us
Andersen's weren't crazy to live close enough to the Indians to actually help
them, and even in 1973 was
the first friend and LDS leader to begin
calling me
"A modern Ammon!"
If the Prophet searched deeper he would learn
that in that year--1973, when facing opposition from sources we never anticipated, to
give us encouragement to persist, Brown told us paraphrased*:
"Your
efforts have stimulated world-wide welfare services! You must continue the experiment, and
will have my continual support!"
* Harold Brown's exact words were
blunt and to the point, and will
be used in the--RELIGIOUS HISTORY FOR
LDS PEOPLE in the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT
Then he would likely be even more shocked to learn that
later, when my life became quite controversial, Brown was told the whole story and
was one of the few who understood--so much so that he even volunteered to be a trustee for the Foundation and persisted until
age related issues made his normal life impossible.
And, if the Prophet really wanted to understand
why the Lord had mentioned my name to him, he would dig deeper and learn that in
1977 some important people in his Office Building in Salt Lake City had decided
to ask the Church’s Bonneville
Corporation to make it’s first full length dramatic movie about the
Andersen Family’s life in Guatemala centered on a “miraculous performance” by BYU’s Lamanite Generation, and the
aftermath in which our precious Michelle, “Pepita,”
was tragically lost, and how our family reacted to that horrible accident.
The Prophet would learn that those people who
hatched the movie plan had interviewed me for
7 hours in the Church Office Building, knowing that my life had become
controversial, but decided it best for the Church to tell the story in a nice
way to avoid others doing so in a way that would hurt the Church—so offered a
contract and paid for an option to do the film.
Digging even deeper he would
likely become angry seeing how the film was squelched by the unrighteous
intervention of one of his leaders, leaving the way open for me to write about our history as I'm now doing.
He would hopefully become more interested to learn
the details, as Harold Brown had done.
That and much, much more will be described in
this history of the family’s JOURNEY to THE LAND OF THE MAYA,
followed by the COMPLETE FINAL
REPORT.
MY
SAINTLY PARENT'S SUPPORT
Most
of the publicity received came from my father's initiative who felt proud of
what we were attempting and believed all should help and thus greatly multiply
the good accomplished. I believe strongly the Lord was guiding both of our
efforts. He eventually, three years after we left for Guatemala,
spearheaded the organization of the Foundation to help. It will be mentioned
later at the right chronological point.
A PROPHETIC TOUR & CALL TO ACTION
I should mention that after what
was called "a prophetic tour of Central
America" at the
end of 1957 by LDS General Authority Hugh B. Brown, it was common for many
missionaries to believe we had a continuing responsibility for the people,
especially for the critically needy Indians of Guatemala who he explained clearly had "A PROPHETIC DESTINY" in which some of us were to play an important role.
I
especially was impacted by Hugh B. Brown as in a missionary meeting in
Managua he called me by name and prophesied about my future that would
be among the indigenous people Mormons call Lamanites. This
was another crucial link in a long chain of personal, spiritually
transformative experiences that dominated my life in a serious way and
influenced me
to be very deliberate and dedicated about my future.
So, early on there were two
efforts by ex-LDS missionaries to return to Guatemala to be of some
help--Vernon Webster & Gary Cooper-- but, they hadn't lasted more than six months and
have been forgotten.
Our effort likewise wasn't expected to last very long, but our Andersen
family
pioneering endeavor was different--first achieving a 14 year "Ammon-like"
period, but then persisting and was still going strong after 50 years, and so
perhaps is historically of great value to report about fully and
honestly. It didn't work out being just another crazy, flash in the pan,
ill-prepared undertaking as everyone but my father had predicted, but honestly
reporting the truth has strangely ruffled feathers.
Above, at the 14 year "Ammon-like"
point you see me putting the finishing touches on the government school we
constructed in the midst of the Guerrilla War, and dedicated with heavily armed
Guatemalan Army troops on the perimeter using Israeli weapons, seen below...
....to protect the celebration from any
possible attack. During this critical time in Guatemala's history, only Israel
was willing to help Guatemala from becoming another Cuba.
While
it began as a very personal family project, it three years later merged with
the Foundation organized to help our altruistic efforts........supported
over the years by literally hundreds, if not thousands of contributors, and we
owe it to them to report honestly the history in the FINAL
REPORT.
NOW BACK TO THE STORY
The eventual "retirement" date
of the Foundation was 50 years after I and my family crossed the border into
Guatemala in 1967 to begin what for nearly three years was just a
family effort to help the needy Indians out of faith and love--no foundation yet, nor was
it an LDS Church effort--although motivated by faith in the spirit of the
Gospel law of consecration. Only the Lord asked us to do it, and no
one offered to pay us anything. We would work to support ourselves and our
effort giving freely of our time, talents and all that we had. We
called our endeavor:
THE ANDERSEN FAMILY PRIVATE PEACE CORP
Above we
see us Andersen's ready to leave Provo, Utah in
1967.
As I was putting this history together I couldn't help but remark
repeatedly,
"Now, in 2020, I can’t even begin to envision again
having the guts
to do it. Whether you're in favor or not,
understand or not, it was
a
JOURNEY OF SIMPLE and PROFOUND FAITH--born of the Lord
speaking to
me in Coban as a missionary in 1958, and then on
the snowy slopes of
the Henry Mountains in fall 1965--
--giving me the courage to do as I knew I
had to do!"
Our team included my wife Maria, and children Julie, David, Cristina and
Richard
******************************
This
story,
THE
ORIGINAL MOVE TO GUATEMALA IN 1967...
...was in brief eventually added
onto the end of the FINAL REPORT a year or more after initially
being posted, and not likely seen by hardly anyone, and not written well
enough to be worthy--for our family, of such a monumental faith
motivated move.
This family history will now be
told in greater detail than ever before in an improved version with
80+ photographs. This will include, I believe for the first time,
the description of our FIRST FAILED EFFORT, due to our promise to the
Lord to be honest in all of our dealings. Nevertheless it began a whole
series of MIRACLES--that led to the 4th one that got us finally
into Guatemala on August 19, 1967 and literally minutes later we were on our
way to Guatemala City.
THE FINAL REPORT --
after its original introduction, was tweaked and added to many times and, in its
final version had much of what I have called "the rest of the
story," but wasn't likely noticed very much either--so, you missed
your chance--as it has been removed for the present while making necessary
improvements, additions--including the essential controversial historical
aspects of this 50+ year history without which many things don't make
sense. It will have over 400 photographs, and maybe more as—
--I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHS,
especially for a subject known as......
..... THE LAND WHERE COLOR WAS INVENTED!
Above is seen the color of Guatemala in the typical dress of
over 100 candidates for the INDIAN QUEEN OF GUATEMALA, or as they call her in
all of the 23 different indigenous languages,
"DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF HEAVEN!"
**********************
When, along with Part 1: THE PREPARATION TO ACT, and this Part 2: THE RISKY.....PIONEER JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE MAYAS, and Part 3: The COMPLETE FINAL REPORT is completed--all of them will then be translated into Spanish for all
of my Guatemalan brothers and sisters--who also deserve to know the
truth of the history in which they were a central part.
Será luego traducido al español para todos mis queridos hermanos
Guatemaltecos.
When
and if the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT is ready to publish in its final form it will be built around
this family history guided by a very spiritual experience,
related in some detail in Part 1: THE PREPARATION, wherein
I was told to:
"Speak the truth
from your heart!"
***********************
I will now go to the
story of us leaving Provo, Utah, then failing to get through Mexico
on the first attempt--because I had sworn to be totally honest in
everything in our Guatemalan adventure, and specifically
not give in to the "bribe
system."
It is important to
keep this in mind as I was eventually
accused falsely of being
dishonest, untrustworthy and
involved in an illegal project mentioned below.
HONESTY THE BEST POLICY?
In my 4
exploratory trips to Guatemala, and research over 9 years in preparation for
the move, I mentioned my resolve to a gringo who had lived many years in
Guatemala. He made fun of my intentions indicating that doing anything in
Guatemala required using "the bribe system"
and other under-the-table business practices-which he claimed were "necessary to have success in
Guatemala."
By
strict gospel standards, his questionable attitude was later of dire
consequences in the history--he apparently rationalizing that lying and
deception were justified and necessary to defeat our effort which he
considered of no value and even dangerous.
This was, as far as we knew, the
beginning of what came to be called
"a spirit of competition rather
than cooperation."
Sadly
he was able to convince key leaders of
the same and lies were believed, repeated and then repeated widely to
many. I have not been liked by mentioning this, but the TRUTH MUST BE
KNOWN.
Years
later in his autobiography, he was careful to
not mention our methods and successes. He avoided like the plague mention
of an international adoption scandal he was
responsible for which had our friends, Carl Jacob and Ortensia Ovalle go to
prison, as well as my manager, Miguel Max, and supervisor of the Central House,
Florencia Rivas, be put in jail, but all blamed on me as the ring-leader with a
warrant out for my arrest at the borders, and was believed by LDS Leaders, except
for our friend Harold Brown and, at that time LDS Regional Representative,
Enrique Rittscher.
Perplexingly--even
after being told the truth, the lie continued to be repeated-
-likely still
believed by many today. Other critical historical inaccuracies and
omissions are troubling to say the least in the autobiography, all of these raising doubts about his
entire book. Some details are related in the
COMPLETE FINAL REPORT, item #20, etc.
I gratefully
was able to maintain my resolve to be honest in all my dealings and maintain
our integrity over all those years and be blessed time after time by key
individuals--like Harold Brown, Enrique Rittscher, Oliverio Guerrero and a few
others who--seeing how I worked hard alongside my Mayan employees and
treated all as brothers and sisters -- trusted me completely and helped make
possible us persisting over more than half a century of unceasing efforts to
lift up as many of our needy Lamanite brothers and sisters as possible.
NOW TO
THE CHALLENGE!
Many of
you likely don't know that we failed to get through Mexico on the first
attempt--what then?
What
did we have to go through to finally get to the
"Land of the
Mayas?"
Above
we see our GOAL –
live among and be of effective help to the needy Mayan people, like the
LDS
family from Patzicia we see above still living together in a very small
dirt
floored hut—years after their conversion to Mormonism. We are literally
seeing
in this picture the kitchen, dining room, living room, and for the
bedroom at least it would have straw mattes on the dirt floor, but no
potable
water. And, as was the case in 1967, most Indians had no
outhouse—making their homes and home sites
INCUBATORS FOR SICKNESS & DEATH
How
many of us “desire for our Mayan brothers
what we desire for ourselves?”
But, someone had to do
something about that...and if not us, who?
************************
Below is the story of
how we first failed to get through Mexico, then made it, along with a brief summary of what happened
during those first exciting years and brief mention of most of the history with much greater detail in the
COMPLETE FINAL REPORT.
1/2 MILLION MILES OF
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE:
Utah to MEXICO and on to GUATEMALA, then
later--back and forth between Guatemala & Utah every two months for many
years--to keep alive the family, & THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM!
THE
FIRST ATTEMPT TO MOVE TO GUATEMALA & MIRACLES
This chapter of the book
of our life began with our first attempt to get through Mexico with our pickup
2,000 lbs. overloaded with 3 generators, four 16 mm. projectors, a P.A. system,
two 9' x 12' professional movie screens, aluminum boat and outboard motor, etc.
Note: I had installed overload
springs & bought Michelin tires--both effective
in getting us to Coban, but then I noticed that all of the 4 rims were
cracked! But, we did make it.......finally! --
We were not going
half-cocked but only after 9 years of quite dedicated preparation--mentioned
briefly in early
Foundation
historical reports (2nd page), and in Part 1 of this writing.
We were finally ready
and drove to my parent's home in Provo, Utah to say goodbye. Below we zoom in
again to remind us.
Our Ford 150 pickup with
the modified camper was this
"modern pioneer
family's covered wagon."
It was a tearful
parting, except for an elderly neighbor, a Sister Cannon, who sarcastically
smiled and said something like,
"I'll give you 6
months, and you'll come running home with your tail between your legs!"
I just confidently smiled and resisted getting
her in a strangle hold as I had learned to do with bullies in my youth, and we
headed south.
The camper on the back
of our Ford pickup was loaded almost to the ceiling, just leaving enough space
for us to crawl in on top to sleep on cushions that covered our precious
load--everything we had left on this earth.
NOTE: Prior to leaving I had
sold all my firearms, including my first 30-06 deer rifle, my beloved Ruger
Single-Six revolver, etc. gave away all our furniture and excessive
clothes, dishes and cookware, etc. to needy families, but did take my fishing
equipment.
We couldn't afford to
stay at motels, as the total cash in our pockets for the life-long journey was
only $4,273. But, as mentioned we did have a load of valuable equipment
and the pickup/camper--in all of which we had invested $10,000--some of it
mentioned in the initial paragraph, with which we were to begin a business
venture that hopefully would support us, as well as place us in rural Guatemala
where the need was critical, and where we would be able to learn and do a lot
of good while preparing for even greater things.
NOTE:
$10,000 would be a joke by 2020 standards, perhaps not even enough for a
down-payment on a pickup, but the economy was different then. The Ford 150
pickup brand new cost $2,150--of course no 4x4, nor electric windows, no A/C, only a simple radio, etc.
The $4,273 of cash, plus
equipment I will admit sounds pretty quixotic .... as
emphasized the year before (1966) when I presented the program at the
October LDS Ex-Missionary Reunion
for Central American missionaries.
I showed them graphically with
slides the beautifully colorful Guatemalan culture, but then shocked them with
the other side of the coin--the desperate life and death needs of the
people we had worked with and claimed to love, then suggested something had to be done. An
ex-Mission President in attendance was terribly offended I had mentioned sick
and dying LDS Indian babies and converts and angrily rushed at me to
argue. That was the beginning of realizing that telling the truth was
perplexingly dangerous, yet it had to be reported if anything positive was to
eventually be done. The FINAL REPORT will describe a whole chain of such
events with one very hopeful outcome, but a steep price was paid!
That visual presentation provoked a discussion afterward, some of the group
being supportive of doing something, but saying they were in no position to do
anything, then telling me,
"You
be the guinea pig. If the experiment works, we'll follow!"
But the overall reaction paraphrased from two who would become LDS Church
leaders was:
"You don't have the
necessary capital.....nor qualified with sufficient education."
To all of them, I
suggested that:
If we have the Spirit of
the Lord to guide and bless our efforts, our basket will be replenished from
time to time enabling us to do a lot of good among a very worthy and needy
people, and
added that if we didn't
at least attempt something we would be somewhat responsible for additional
deaths among the Indian babies and children.
****************************
With that experience,
WE
AS A FAMILY DECIDED TO TALK NO MORE, BUT ACT
A month later we
left on one last 2-1/2 month exploratory trip to pave the way for the move. It became an awakening and adventurous experience that
properly prepared us for a life-time of progress and success.
Here we are on that
last exploratory trip--my 4th one, camping out near the soccer
stadium in Coban. During those 75 days, only once did we stay in a motel.
Our 2-1/2-month-old Richard, by the time we returned had spent half
of his life as a pioneer camping out.
SEE
THE INTERESTING, SCARY & ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCES OF THAT FOURTH
EXPLORATORY TRIP
in Part 1: THE MYSTERIOUS CAUSE &
PREPARATION……
That experience convinced us it was
time to go and we announced to our parents we would leave in four months. I
promised my father that during those months I would produce a 2 year supply of Andersen
Samplers so he could continue the business without me. I trained my
younger brother, Howard, to do the office work and shipping, and then worked an
average of 19 hours/day six days a week--almost ruining my health, but finally
put in dad's storeroom hundreds of Samplers.
--THEN WE PREPARED FOR THE MOVE--
SO IN
MID-1967, WITH A LOT OF FAITH, WE HEADED SOUTH TO NOGALES, ARIZONA/MEXICO TO
CROSS THE BORDER
When
the Mexican border officials saw our load they just shook their heads, hinted
for bribes, and seeing my refusal, said it wasn't likely possible to get
through Mexico. One suggested we look for a Customs Broker to help us. I
talked to a number of them explaining everything had to be done legally with no
bribes, and they all shook their heads. I returned to the Customs House
and was told that I had to keep looking and was assured there would be one
willing to help us.
We
finally found that "one" who requested
authorization from Mexico City to pass through Mexico, and said
it would take a while--from one week to six months!
So
we unloaded all the prohibited stuff in the Broker's warehouse and drove south
to San Carlos Bay for a week-long wait on the Sea of Cortez.
There’s nothing we could do but
relax for a week, so we had finally a family vacation, swimming and playing in
the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez.
David and me used some of the time to experience some great fishing for
Spanish mackerel, and other tropical fish, and so ate a lot of delicious
freshly caught fish.
And were even lucky enough for the
first time in my experience from our own small aluminum boat catching an exotic
Dorado, even though small for these famous fishing treasurers.
But of most
importance we experienced
there the FIRST MIRACLE when David and Julie
were saved after having been set adrift alone on the open ocean in our
aluminum boat when the anchor rope was cut by a surging sea! I had
been skin diving and when returning where the boat had been--found it gone, and
went into action.
Seven-year-old
Julie and
5-year-old David, in the meantime all of a sudden noticed the anchor
rope trailing behind and realized they were adrift and tried
unsuccessfully to start the cold
outboard motor, then knelt in the boat and prayed.
Then
after failing
again to start the motor, prayed again, and as they raised their heads
they saw
me 200 yards distant swimming to their rescue and made it just seconds
before
being dashed onto a rocky shoreline by the large waves. I climbed
aboard, immediately started the motor and got us out of danger, then we
had an emotional moment all of us hugging each other with grateful tears and we then knelt embracing each other and offered a humble prayer of gratitude to the Lord.
Then, the SECOND MIRACLE
The next day, with
Maria helping me, we recovered the anchor from the depths--which
we see to the right today painted gold, which became a symbol of our "faith"
for our entire 50+ years in the Guatemalan project, which was our Savior.
By
the way, Maria, did an incredible job helping me recover the anchor,
which required her to operate the boat, backing into the spot so I could
jump out and start the search, and while I searched head out to sea and hold the
position waiting for my signal to back in and pick me up. The print
version of this story goes through all the details of her great effort.
NOTE: On
returning to civilization the first thing I did was add a length of galvanized
chain to the anchor, replacing the nylon rope that had been cut.
We
returned to Nogales but no authorization had come to travel with our load
through Mexico, so we had no choice but leave our stuff in the warehouse,
return to Provo and go back to work for Andersen Samplers &
Consulting Service while waiting for the news of authorization
from the Customs Broker.
This
meant facing my parent's neighbor, Sister Cannon, who had predicted we would only last "6 months and come
running home with your tail between your legs," but all of a
sudden we were returning "with
our tail between our legs" in ONLY TWO WEEKS!
When
she came out to welcome us home, she wasn't able to contain her laughter and
for a moment I thought her heart would fail. She, eventually would pass
on and become one of our "guardian
angels," with eyes wide opened--easily seeing thru all the
gossip and rumors mentioned further along that evolved soon, and I
believe she became an avid supporter over all these 
years!
I went back to work producing Andersen Samplers, earning enough in a
couple of weeks to pay for all the losses due to extra travel, enough for
the Custom's Broker, and the bond he required.
SECOND ATTEMPT & MORE MIRACLES
Two weeks or so later a telegram came and we
packed up for the 2nd time and headed for Mexico. But this time, before
leaving, had a 2-hour long heart-to-heart talk with my parents who had been
understandably doubtful and scared to death about what we were to
attempt. Dad had previously tried to talk me out of it in what at times
almost became heated conversations. Once he shocked me saying, "No
cursed people in the history of the world have ever been able to rise above it!
You will be sacrificing you and your family in vain!" I was
shocked that a true believer in the BOOK OF MORMON would say such, and decided
to not debate the matter anymore, rather quietly continue our
preparations. Eventually, Dad, seeing my resolve decided to support
us even without full understanding.
We had left the first
time without any further discussion, but having to return 
"with my tail
between my legs," I felt strongly there was purpose in it, and
believed I had to have a heart to heart talk with mom and dad.
I
requested they let me talk without interruption, but to jot down any
comments
or questions to deal with afterwards. I described emotionally the long
chain of spiritual experiences had since I was a young boy, including my
NDE at 16 convincing me I had to dedicate my life SAVING PEOPLE, then
me following Dad's example achieving spiritual conversion. I went on to explain my mission experiences, focusing on Hugh B. Brown's prophecy about my life, then as a
missionary seeing Indian babies dying that I had to do something about,
and later profound experiences when I was President of the Spanish American Branch in
Provo, including critically on the snowy slopes of the Henry Mountains
when, as had happened anciently to Enos, then to Ammon and his brothers
from
the Book of Mormon--I literally had "the spirit of the Lord work on [me]
.....," and I had my encounter with the Lord giving me the courage
to make the move--and was supported by Maria and the kids.
Additionally
I explained the Philosophy
& Principles of the Good Life Method of helping Indians that had come to me as a
missionary in the Coban area in 1958, and believed the Lord wanted me to
experiment with it and perfect its application among the Indigenous people,
while also experiencing the struggle of surviving in rural Guatemala--along
with our Indians, all of us learning and rising up together. And, in so
doing also be available to help the local members of our Church in any way the
leaders in Guatemala felt appropriate.
It was a humbling and tearful experience for all of us. On conclusion of my
explanation, they were humbly quiet seemingly understanding--at least
accepting. I then asked my father for a "Father's
Blessing," which he tearfully gave me--and was faithful doing his part
in helping its fulfillment for the last 16 years of his life.
It still
took time at the border to do all the red tape, pay off the Broker, etc. but I
stuck to my covenant to
be honest and not give in to "the bribe system" south of the border--and
was suffering the consequences for my principles, but I had to be loyal to my
faith believing the Lord would help. We finally headed legally south towards
Guatemala.
To the right, Maria is playing with Dave and Julie on the Veracruz
beach where began my "CANTINFLAS...comedian ordeal" 11 years later,
described at the end of the FINAL REPORT.
The trip
through Mexico took us a week as we had to travel slowly with our big load and
did some visiting of relatives along the way.
As we traveled we observed
as always fascinating typical scenes. One memorable one was of a pickup
after a baseball game loaded even more than ours.
Another in a
village with a burial ground surrounding a Catholic Church, that was sort of a
preview of what we would fight against for all our years in Guatemala--a very
high 50% infant mortality rate that would be scandalous in the U.S. Most
of the grave mounds were tiny from babies--like some I had literally seen die
when in Coban as a missionary whose deaths nobody cared about which aroused
righteous indignation in me that I had to do something about--or be held responsible!
We finally
made it through scary Mexico City--where we visited relatives, then down to
Veracruz and Maria's home town of Tierra Blanca with more visiting.
Then
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Pacific Coast and south to Tapachula,
then to the Izapa archaeological site where we parked and spent the night
preparing for crossing into Guatemala the next day.
This was
where the year before in 1966, using night photography, I had got for Archaeologist Garth
Norman the 4"x 5" professional quality photos of the Tree
of Life Stone and others he has used in many publications since.
On that 1966 expedition we afterwards continued to Coban together
following the backcountry road from Huehuetenango passing through the remote towns
where a year later I would be operating a traveling movie. Garth was interested to see the area including
Coban he was sure was a key part of ancient history described in the BOOK OF MORMON.
THE
BOOK OF MORMON’S NARROW STRIP OF WILDERNESS
Both Garth and I believed the geography of the book’s peoples
was centered on Guatemala. It’s Central Highlands
was the book’s “Land of Nephi” with a
primary river beginning there and flowing northward into the book’s “Land of Zarahemla.” The river was named “SIDON.”
A major river in Guatemala begins in the Highlands near Santa
Cruz del Quiche, named the “Rio Negro.”
When reaching the Sacapulas area the name becomes the“El Rio Sacapulas.” There the river is turned westward by a chain of
mountains—believed to be “the narrow strip
of wilderness” that stretch eastward
all the way to the Caribbean. Then bordering on Alta Verapaz the river turns northward through the deep Chixoy Canyon,
and there is named the “Rio Chicoy,” until
downstream, joined by other rivers becomes the mighty Usumacinta River forming the border with Mexico and eventually flows
into the Gulf of Mexico. I’ll insert below a Google Earth view of the area.
With Garth, I drove to Huehuetenango to follow the backcountry
road through my eventual traveling movie route, going through Aguacatan, then on
to Sacapulas where we crossed the river, and continued eastward through Cunen, Uspantan,
and Chicaman, then down into the deep canyon crossing the Chixoy River where it
continued north. We climbed out of the canyon
to San Cristobal Verapaz, and about 20 miles further arrived in Coban. I’ll insert a photo of the Chixoy canyon near Valparaiso.
When I finished my
research and was ready to head home I decided to relax and go fishing at
the lake near San Cristobal Verapaz, and was having great success, as seen
below--actually catching and releasing 10 like this one.
One
of those 10 became an astounding experience when fishing with top-water
lures the large-mouth black bass all of a sudden erupted out of the
water in a spectacular leap and came down with mouth wide open on the
lure and the fight was on, becoming one of the great fishing experiences
of my life!
NOTE:
Years later a skin diver with speargun got a 27 lb. large mouth black
bass here that a week before I almost caught on fishing equipment. If I
had of been successful, it would still be a WORLD RECORD.
I then decided to try skin diving and fishing
with my speargun as I was noticing others doing there, but after a little while
in the cool water I began feeling sick--like the flu was coming on, and decided
to get my boat up on top of my camper while I still had
strength.
I headed for Guatemala City, passing through Valparaiso for the
first time--of course never imagining at that time that I would eventually
spend 26 years of my life there.
I bought flu medicines in Tactic and
continued to the City where the next afternoon I had a date to have dinner with
Berkley Spencer and his wife, Carolyn--he was considered by me to be the greatest missionary from my time, and was
back in Guatemala working on his PhD. During that dinner I all of a sudden had
my first attack of malaria resultant from the photo shoots in the jungle at
night 15 days before. Berkley gave me medications.
The next day I headed
for Mexico City where I had to go to the National
Anthropological Museum to retake a couple of photographs for Garth, then
continued north stopping at what we called...
.........Andersen Cove near Guaymas where I
wanted to put my boat in the water and fish and skin dive some, but was too
weak. So continued north and near the
border at night--a black cow all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere taking out
my headlights—so I couldn’t drive at night anymore.
I slept right there
until with first light I heard a bunch of angry voices. I
looked out to see people
examining the dead cow, then heading for me with machetes. I got out of there fast and finally
made my way back to Provo, Utah—finishing safely the famous trip through
Mexico treating myself for malaria and unable to eat anything, and......
...spending more money
on soda pop than on gasoline!
NOTE: Garth still owes me for the soda pop--the cost for all
the great photos I got for him that made him famous!
I'm of course sort of joking!!!!
NOW BACK TO MAKING OUR
WAY TO THE GUATEMALAN BORDER in 1967 -- with some fervent prayers in our heart
but actually with no nervousness about confronting border officials to leave
Mexico, and then enter Guatemala. I was calm and confidant.
At
the Mexican side of the border with Guatemala, I parked on the railroad bridge
we had to drive across and the customs officials came out and I showed them the
detailed list they had to check to make sure something hadn't remained in
Mexico, and so we could get our bond back from the broker (which he never
sent anyway). They said we'd have to unload
everything, and I replied that would be fine as we had all the time
in the world.
But
when I opened the camper door and they saw it loaded right up to near the
ceiling--which would take all day to unload and then load, and a train was
behind us and had to get across--so then occurred the THIRD MIRACLE--they
just read each item on the list and asked if it was in our pickup, and with
my, "sà señor," they
took my word, checked each item and in 10 minutes--with no bribes, we crossed
the bridge into Guatemala on
Saturday, August 19, 1967.
At
Guatemala's Customs, I set before the official my folder of invoices, and list
of everything we had, saying "I know it will likely take some
time, and we'll have to pay import duties on some items, but we have lots of
time--so let's get to work!"
It
was Saturday afternoon, and apparently they didn't want to work too hard, and
besides, they were blown away by my frank honesty. The official went down
the list, and with each item asked if it was new or used. With the "new" items,
like a couple of three generators, and 2 16mm. movie projectors, I said
they were "new." But the official seemed irritated
by my honesty, and came back saying, "But didn't you at least turn
them on, or start them up to see if they worked?" I agreed
I had done that, so--he concluded,
"Then, they are
used!"
Within
45 minutes of having arrived at the Mexican side of the border, we were
on our way towards Guatemala City without having to unload anything, no payment
of duties on anything--only paying a $4.50 fee to have crossed the bridge, and NO
PAYMENT OF BRIBES.
ARRIVING IN
"THE
LAND OF ETERNAL SPRING"
The FOURTH
MIRACLE had
happened, and all the trouble caused by being honest, and ignoring John O'Donnal's advice to "pay bribes," was more than made up
for. We only had to eventually pay duties on the pickup, but considered a
work vehicle, so duty was cheap.
Then
on to Guatemala City aided by one of the outstanding men of my earthly
experience, Enrique Rittscher, who invited us to stay in one of his apartments
while doing business in the city--visiting a lawyer to get the process started
to get a Permanent Resident Visa, getting the duty paid on the pickup, etc.
While
there doing business Enrique and me had the evenings to talk about what we were
going to attempt. He was sincerely interested, saying, "It's
about time that some Latter Day Saints became interested in helping the needy
Lamanites," and made the comment that he felt that "one
day we will be working together." The FINAL REPORT will explain that.
I
couldn't attempt the trip to Coban with the entire load, so the family stayed at
the Rittscher apartments, along with having in storage half of our load--which
now also included a propane gas stove, two 100 lb. propane gas tanks and a
small refrigerator.
So off I went alone to
Coban--leaving behind MODERN GUATEMALA & plunging into MAYAN/INDIAN
GUATEMALA-- to find a place to rent, unload, and then return for the family
and the rest of our things. Soon the contrast of culture between the city
and Indian Guatemala were stark to say the least, seeing Indian women loaded
with giant loads of firewood headed for home. The men and boys, with their giant hoes, out
working the steep, rocky fields to produce corn and black beans.
The 120 mile trip was halfway on the pavement--the Atlantic
Highway, then on rough mountain roads, fording 11 streams before getting to
Coban.
The trip to Coban took around
10 hours, and I was always amazed after such a long, slow drive to find
civilization--in Utah such a trip would end in one finding great deer
hunting!
At
Coban's Texaco gas station I continued a life-long friendship with it's owner,
Luis Gonzalez Borja. I had met him there in 1958 when I was a
missionary. He was then a young boy working for free washing customers'
windshields, and hoping to get a paying job. Nine years later he was the
owner and years later became President Lucas' Transportation Minister and one
of only two in the Lucas government that didn't end up going to jail for
corruption. The other one was Rafael Castillo, Lucas' Secretary of State,
who I had worked with as a janitor at BYU in 1959, and years later helped by
him to get established in Guatemala.
At that time
Coban--COLONIAL GUATEMALA, was a sleepy little town where you rarely saw
other vehicles--
There was one General Store, one pharmacy, one
dentist, an old rundown government hospital, and government and private schools.
TODAY --53 years later
--March 2020, there are stoplights and traffic jams all over the town which
now includes a Shopping Mall, McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Payless Shoes, and
everything good & bad you can imagine!
I
first looked for Alfredo Rodas, the LDS Branch President. I wanted to hire him as my assistant and
guide. For years he had worked for the
Post Office delivering mail all over town and not well paid. I offered him more and he gladly accepted. We
found a home to rent, and unloaded our stuff.
In our conversations I learned that two of my
new friends on the 4th exploration trip, who had attended my slide
and movie shows, had grabbed my idea of a movie business. One ran the Red Cross and he was showing
16mm. movies to raise money for the Red Cross.
The other one had a more formal movie theater using commercial 35mm.
movies. Both were showing movies of
doubtful morality to attract big crowds, and their big day was Sunday. Neither of those ideas were part of my plan,
so I had to hustle and come up with something different—which worked out being
the traveling movie I’ll describe in a moment, but first I had to return to
Guatemala City to get the family and make the second trip.
A FEW GLIMPSES OF
THE FAMILY HISTORY IN RURAL GUATEMALA
From
1967 seven exciting, even breathtaking, adventurous years would go by before
being able to make a trip north in 1974. A friend visiting during
those years--Kay Franz, characterized them as "living from crisis to
crisis," but also by me as "miracle after
miracle...after miracle--blessed, guided and protected by the Lord."
CRISIS TO
CRISIS....MIRACLE AFTER MIRACLE!
During
those 7 years--1967 to 1974, four more children would be born: Joe "Joey," Marcia "Nita,"
Daniel "Danny," and Michelle "Pepita." Maria was a beautiful
mother, incredibly courageous having each with the help of a midwife at
the government hospital in Coban, most of those years living in a rental house
in Coban.
In
the meantime, I worked hard to get profitable business projects
functioning to support us. First the traveling movie venture--
Cine Chapinlandia (item
#1 in the FINAL REPORT)……..
……which
was an unbelievable experience showing over nearly 6 months educational and
commercial movies to 50,000 rural Guatemalans......below we see the patio of
the Catholic Convent in Sacapulas where I would spend the night with the
priests and nuns. Other towns didn't even have electricity and I
would use a portable generator. The remote towns were: Chicaman, Uspantan, Cunen, Nebaj, Sacapulas, and Aguacatan.
For many it was
their first movie ever. The camper also became a traveling medical
clinic as in that entire area, 200,000 people didn't have one doctor, and only
one medical clinic--but poorly supplied. So I quickly began learning
about treating serious problems I hadn't learned about as a Medical Specialist
in the Army. That eye opening adventure was later gossiped about as
our "first failure," that still has me smiling at
the poor souls who didn't know what they were talking about.
Then on December 5,
1967, it blended into
Granja & Tienda La Cabana.....
....the poultry enterprise (item #2), that became the
first commercial poultry farm in North central Guatemala--and later
gossiped about as our "second failure," which had me
laughing all the way to the bank! In the picture below we see our first
Guatemalan baby, Joseph "Joey" Albert Andersen, born on January 2, 1968.
That in
turn on February 2, 1968 blended into the
Paradise Valley Plantation-
-Finca Valparaiso (item #3)......
.........with a visit sandwiched in-between from my
parents, sister, Jolene, and brother, Howard seen above at Coban's grass
landing strip, having flown on an Aviateca DC-3 taking 30 minutes, rather than on a bus taking 10-12 hours.
Above
we see the entrance to the Central House area, and below a portion of Valparaiso as seen a few years later after
creating a lake, then clearing and mowing an
area that revealed mounds that along with the rest of the property was
discovered to be an ancient fortified city--by the way mentioned
in the BOOK of MORMON and speculated by some LDS archaeologists as
The City
of Helam.
NOTE: Directly above is the peninsula of land circled
by the road where years later the LDS Church would build a chapel,
which in a scandalous move would later be
destroyed by bulldozers.
Until then I had
continued every two weeks the traveling movie, but now with two properties to
manage and develop, plus a large debt to pay off, I finally had to end the
traveling movie--Cine Chapinlandia. Then, 7 months later, realizing
that everything we were doing at the Farm could be done even more effectively
on the plantation, we sold the poultry farm. For the
next 26 years, I focused on Valparaiso.
HARD WORK AT THE VALPARAISO PLANTATION --
THE FAMILY IN COBAN
During
the week I was separated from the family as I was working hard to
manage a 600 acre property that was mostly undeveloped, but with 39
resident families--each head of household of whom I had to give
employment for two weeks each month, while at the same time we needed
profits to support ourselves, and begin paying off a lot of money we
owed on the property.
On Sundays I would take my family to the plantation. The older kids would
go
with me to visit the families in their huts, and almost immediately we
had to begin treating the sick. On those Sunday evenings we began
trying to awaken the Pokomchi-Mayans with the first movies they had ever seen.
Maria had moved with me to Guatemala with the agreement I wouldn't force her to "live out in the sticks,"
but soon all the children ganged up on her and insisted they all move
to the plantation to help me 100% of the time. We first lived in the
warehouse we used as our movie theater.
THE CENTRAL HOUSE FAMILY
The old “haunted” Central House was fixed up a little with us moving in,
along with those that helped us manage everything, and soon our family grew as we
had to begin helping abandoned and orphaned children, then needy mothers with their
children, volunteer helpers from Guatemala City, and from BYU—USA, as well as Vocational
Students from other areas, such as Patzicia and other parts of the country, plus
the sick that needed intensive care.
Visitors puzzled by what we
were doing called us
“THE MOB.”
Other critics accused Maria and me of....
“You don't love
your children as you live with a bunch of Indians who could infect them with incurable,
tropical diseases!”
Gospel explanations about us trying our best to live Christ-like lives, “loving and
helping the needy” fell on deaf ears! Gratefully there were a few who looked at it differently and began helping. By mid-1970 the Foundation began helping us with
some of the expenses.
THE FASCINATING SOURCE OF THAT CRITICISM & IT'S REVERSAL
Surprisingly the accusation we "didn't love our children" mentioned
above was leveled against us by Bob Arnold and his wife when they first
arrived in Guatemala assigned to establish the LDS Seminary System
in Central America.
That judgmental attitude towards us was a big part
of the war of criticism against us in the early 70's, but with Harold
Brown's (mentioned in a moment) help, at least with the Arnold's, was reversed by 1974-76 when
he was the Mission President and by 1976 said,
"Valparaiso is the only place in the country where positive things are happening!"
And much more--described in the RELIGIOUS HISTORY that follows the report of this Risky...Journey.
To be able to house in some descent way up to
50+ in the old “haunted” Central House,
we had to clean, disinfect, gun-down and set traps for the critters--and the ghosts disappeared, we then remodeled,
painted, furnished, and of great importance had to create a whole new potable water
system along with an interesting evolution of our electricity systems—all of which will be covered in the FINAL REPORT.
The Vocational Education Program we called "learning with a shovel"...or a hoe, a chain saw, poultry, etc.
was started immediately as I had to train those interested in how to
work with poultry, hogs, cattle, carpentry, etc. None of the older
workers called "colonos" would accept, so I made a juicy offer to
their teenage boys and soon had a great group preparing them to manage
profit producing projects.
Next came elementary education, started by Julie as mentioned in a moment, then a legally authorized school, along with adult literacy classes--and the plantation became known as:
THE CID--the Center for Indian Development—El Centro
Indigena de Desarrollo (item #7), specializing in what we called
A PROGRAM OF TOTAL DEVELOPMENT.
From here we extended out all over the country with aid projects.
All the while applying the.......
....Philosophy &
Principles of the Good Life--
--to awaken and help
those we met on the movie tour, then our people at the farm,
followed by the plantation and arousing everybody's interest not only in
helping themselves improve their lives but also in saving their own.
-- Keep reading to learn the details of the GOOD LIFE METHOD of helping
Indians--(item
#3 in the FINAL REPORT)
*****************
HELP FROM THE U.S. BEGAN
FORMALLY
From August 19, 1967 to
mid-1970 we were on our own as a family -- then family & friends from "the
land northward" began making possible doing more on all fronts.
THE FOUNDATION--Where
did it come from?
The Foundation--spearheaded by my father, Dr. Ariel A. Andersen,
unbeknownst to us in Guatemala, along with a group of friends interested
in helping the effort, applied for legal recognition in Provo,
Utah and was accepted mid-1970 --3 years after us Andersen's launched ourselves
on our own into the mysterious
"Land of the Mayas."
Dad worked tirelessly as a non-paid volunteer promoting and funding the
Foundation for the last 14 years of his life--his 14 YEAR "AMMON-LIKE
MISSION" -- for which he refused to even accept expense
reimbursement, much less some kind of "modest living
allowance." He was rather the major contributor in time and
money--this was Dad literally living the
Gospel law of consecration
he had promised to do as is the case with all active Mormons.
To be
able to do so he sold their home in the Oakhills area of Provo, and
rather lived in a less expensive rental home as well as also selling the
culminating work of his life, Andersen
Samplers & Consulting Service--mentioned previously.
The Foundation and helping the needy in Guatemala then became his "labor
of faith and love."
My father was the most unassuming, sincerely saintly, virtuous, honest and
generous man of faith I have ever known and sadly went down to his grave in 1983
perplexed by a pattern that would soon evolve--not just one or two problems, rather continual repetition over the years of confusing...
...misunderstanding, injustice, misjudgment, a spirit of competition rather
than cooperation, faulty inspiration, and a lack of gratitude that developed among some
people of influence.
I'm
not referring to an occasional mistake, problem, or offense--as none of us humans are perfect,
but rather a continual recurrence over decades of actual cruel injustices that were
spiritually destructive to many very good people, and deadly for innocent infants--all requiring contrite
recognition, and profound systematic changes--otherwise, according to the scriptures:
"....the
powers of heaven cannot be controlled or handled only on the principles
of righteousness. -- but when we undertake to cover our sins or gratify
our pride....or exercise control....in any degree of unrighteousness,
behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is
grieved....and Amen to the priesthood or authority of that man."
D&C 121:34-42
The words of the Lord--above certainly indicate the gravity
of such. It was
no joking matter as many in my family and early converts in
Guatemala--who knew of the confusion and injustice, without having a strong
spiritual foundation, were even tragically moved away from the faith community
and, in their eyes what was supposed to be "the work of the Lord,"
became a mockery and a cruel joke.
At
best, the work of the Lord was slowed--at worst many were lost and enemies
created. The Lord will be merciful towards those hurt
, and judgment of those
responsible is in His hands, but a continuance of such must be reversed by the
truth being known for the good of the living and future generations.
Others were confused and discouraged from continuing their support of programs that
were saving
lives—and by them discontinuing their help, caused loss of life of untold people.
CAUTION! The author refers to serious
mistakes—that literally caused loss of life,
spiritual destruction and loss of faith—perpetrated by individuals and groups of individuals REVEALED
IN HOPES OF MOTIVATING REPENTANCE! SUCH
ARE NEVER INTENDED
TO INFER THAT THE RESTORED FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS IN DOUBT
The COMPLETE FINAL REPORT will give a recounting of
these serious injustices, that need to be understood so as to not persist in
multiplying them on into the future and destroying spiritually the innocent,
and cutting numberless infant’s lives short.
NOT PLAYING THE VICTIMS
But, Dad refused to play victim and generously and humbly put up the good
fight until his passing in 1983, having started helping from the beginning in
1967--several times giving me bonuses for the work I had done before leaving,
and then selling the family business, providing me with my share that we
invested in our life saving work in Guatemala.
Out on the front lines, we didn’t meekly roll
over as victims either, rather found ways to confront bullying and injustice,
and rather multiplied our efforts to do good and save lives!
The Foundation immediately began helping in THE ALTRUISTIC
ACTIVITIES OF OUR FAMILY which we were already doing on our own as the PRIVATE
FAMILY PEACE CORP supported from our own agro-business profits
while using all of our surplus to help the 240 resident Poqomchi Indians on the
plantation, plus accepting invitations to treat the sick and dying in nearby
villages--like Najquitob, as well as reachig all the way to Patzicia..
During
all of our first years we performed thousands of medical treatments every year like
we see
above Julie helping me do at Valparaiso. Julie at 10 years old learned
quickly and when I had to be gone for a day or two, she would continue
with all the treatments, including giving antibiotic injections--all a
great preparation for her to eventually become a Registered Nurse.
With the Foundation's help we
were able to expand our efforts to many areas.
Our family efforts, prior to the
Foundation, also included long trips to Patzicia to help the LDS members
who were literally suffering and dying. Travel out of our isolated area
then was difficult and eventually I decided we could help most by
bringing to Valparaiso as "vocational students" Daniel
Choc, his sister, Carmela, and Gonzalo Cujcuj and his sister, Carmela, as part
of our Vocational Education Program, in which they would be prepared
best to help themselves and their people through our "program of total
development" -- the only such LDS oriented program in the whole world
at that time.
A LIST OF OUR FAMILY PROJECTS
WHICH IN MID-1970 THE FOUNDATION BEGAN HELPING WITH, follows:
1.
Elementary, vocational education, and adult literacy
programs.
2.
Support of orphan children, and needy mothers and their children.
3.
A home for vocational students from other areas.
4.
A home visiting program of all families in the area to report sickness in time
to save lives.
5.
Medical and sanitary services-including the building of outhouse floors and
seats for all families who took the initiative to dig the hole.
6. A Home Improvement Program
doing our best to convert the huts into "healthy homes."
7.
A “welfare program” including “A cooperative welfare vegetable
farm.”
8.
A recreation program: Soccer, swimming, fishing, dancing, etc.
9.
In my official calling as a Local Missionary—authorized by the Mission
President to act “like a District President” I did so personally (and as
a family), not with Foundation help: Religious services for those interested,
including the 1st (unofficial) Seminary Class (Book of Mormon)
in Central America, then a Sunday School, followed by a Relief Society.
In addition to beginning to help with medical
treatments, I recall the first actual Foundation project was to help our Vocational
Education Program, by getting us a tractor we see below being driven by
Daniel Choc from Patzicia. His big dream for his life had been to
be able to drive a tractor.
He arrived as a barefoot 16 year old,
never having even brushed his teeth, nor given a speech in his LDS Chapel, but
I sensed great potential in this humble Cakchiquel Indian teenager
and chose him to be the first to learn to operate the tractor. He
caught on quickly and eventually became the "Tractor
Supervisor" teaching 26 other vocational students how to use the
tractor plus much, much more explained more fully in the FINAL REPORT.
When
Daniel returned to Patzicia 2-1/2years later he amazed the LDS members in
Patzicia when giving a speech, one of the elderly leaders remarking, "He
left here a boy, but returned a man!" He soon would become the
first Mayan Indian to become a full-time missionary for the LDS Church.
At Valparaiso he had been a
local missionary for around two years, him and companion, Carlos Valdez,
accounting for 26 baptisms—which became his real mission, never mentioned by
those who later wrote about him.
On leaving Valparaiso he suggested that the best way to help his people would
be to expand and formalize our Program of Total Development to reach
more of his people, and together we hatched a plan for after his mission
establishing a Center for Indian Development--CID #2 in Patzicia with
him as Director. Sadly his life was cut short by the tragic 1976
earthquake that killed 25,000 of his people.
Back
to Valparaiso, 1970 had already begun a miraculous period of 3 years with no
death at the Valparaiso Plantation--when previously at least 50% of the
children were dying before reaching their 5th year--an average of 8 infant
deaths/year. With the Foundation's help we were able to achieve outhouses
for every one of the 39 families--previously with NONE, and continued with no
deaths--of babies or anybody, and improve and expand our projects and
eventually extend our efforts to other areas of the country.
A
major part of eliminating death at Valparaiso was in 1970 achieving
100% of the 39 home sites with outhouses. They had to dig their hole,
then we provided the floor and the seat. They would then build the
structure around it.
The Foundation help for altruistic activities
made possible using our profits to expand our business projects and employ more
needy Indians in helping them become independent and even be able to help their
own people. The Foundation offered to help with our
children's education, paying for Calvert School correspondence courses in
English and we accepted that.
With the English correspondence classes, Julie again became my “right hand man,” tutoring herself, as well as doing so for David and
Cristina. They in turn tutored Richard and
Joey. Julie also was the first to begin a
class for 6 little barefoot Indian children—including THE FIRST LITTLE GIRL from Valparaiso to get an education. Eventually that evolved into us formally
starting our own elementary school.
Maria was busy taking care of the little children, eventually after Joey, Marcia, Danny, Michelle, Cindy and Celestina.
See
the FINAL REPORT for a complete view of educational efforts, as well as
below in the panels of photos. Also the tragic loss of Michelle.
THE COMPETITION? Strangely those who apparently looked at us as competition
started a rumor that all was a scam for us to get rich. Just the
opposite was true as from our work and business profits we were always
contributors to the Foundation using our time, property, equipment,
vehicles and more for Foundation projects, and often over the years sold old
cows, pine trees, and even pieces of our property to be able to contribute the
cash needed for Foundation projects.
How grateful we were and are for the amazing
support and encouragement we received over these 50+ years. Thanks to each of
you from the bottom of our heart.
Initially, the foundation was
called the Cordell Andersen Foundation--but soon I insisted on
changing the name to reflect better what we were doing, so for the next 40
years it was the Foundation for Indian Development. In 2010 the name was changed
again so that Google searches would guide people to aid projects among the
Mayans in Guatemala, rather than leading them to altruistic activities among
Indians in India--the name becoming the
GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION.
On retiring the Foundation in 2017, as
mentioned previously, an effort was made to do a FINAL REPORT of the 50
year-long adventure to experiment with an idea—
Much greater and colorful detail will be given in the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT
THE PHILOSOPHY
& PRINCIPLES OF THE GOOD LIFE --
-- explained in item #4 of the FINAL REPORT,
but summarized below:
THE PHILOSOPHY:
1.
The present Indigenous Mayans are descendants of a onetime progressive and
advanced people described today by some as "THE GREEKS OF THE NEW WORLD."
=2.
As described in their own writings, the POPUL VUH, they lost an original
"Sacred Book," and fell into a period of darkness with consequences
they still suffer today.
3.
The present indigenous peoples have the same potential for greatness, and are
promised in their own writings a future of blossoming and prosperity.
THE PRINCIPLES of
THE GOOD LIFE:
A formula of concepts they need to apply to
"Come out of
darkness into the light and blossom."
1.
Be clean in all aspects of life
2.
Care properly for your body and nourish it well
3.
Live in a clean & cleanable home & home site
4.
Have a united family, parents and children loving each other
5.
Education for all
6.
Be industrious, but learn how to work productively
7.
On achieving the Good Life, share with others.
For
those Mayans interested in religion, there were other principles:
1.
Believe in and follow the God of this land who is Jesus Christ.
2.
Believe that anciently they had a Sacred Book that had been lost, but now
found.
3. Be obedient to Him and unite with others who
believe in the same principles of progress.
The "idea" was designed
to help effectively needy Mayan-Indians and other poor Guatemalans--not a
band-aid fix, rather a
PROGRAM OF TOTAL DEVELOPMENT.
It was a method that was believed could have world-wide application to help any
needy people. The effort was made to employ and save
as many needy Mayans as possible, but on a broader long-term scale, we
hoped our effort would:
Awaken other's interest in helping needy people--especially Individuals and institutions that would have the finances and
expertise to apply the proven ideas on a very broad scale.....
.......at which time we would happily fade
away, and continue quietly as a family--living and working among Indians in
remote areas not reached by normal altruistic institutions.
******************************
NOW....BACK TO THE EVOLUTION OF HISTORY
IMPORTANT NOTE:
As described above our work involving many people, added to greatly by all the following
developments, all requiring great quantities of potable water and electricity, none
of which existed in the beginning. THOSE
DEVELOPMENTS WILL BE DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IN THE COMPLETE FINAL REPORT.
************************
Exactly four
years after purchasing Valparaiso, on February 2, 1972 we became the owners in a sweet-heart deal of
a bankrupt dairy in Coban.....
......La Lecherias--Dairy--las Victorias
....that for 1 year was
operated at its original site in Coban while we built new dairy facilities
at Valparaiso that included a modern milking parlor, processing facility, cold storage
room, 5 new homes for dairy workers, new potable water system, and a diesel
electric plant to operate the dairy & area--and later
after we finally got line electricity, for emergencies.
On February 2, 1973, exactly
one year after becoming owners of the dairy, and 5 years after purchasing
Valparaiso, all was moved to Valparaiso and, me being in the cattle
business--had a BYU Animal Husbandry professor, Keith Hoops, visit and label me as a "rodeo
clown" because we didn't have alfalfa nor produce
silage. We rather had our livestock on high quality pasture 12 months a year rather
than eating expensive hay and silage--and..... again had me laughing all the
way to the bank and quickly paying off the large bank loan, while employing
full-time 39 Guatemalans with much better than average wages, and supporting
the family giving us time to dedicate ourselves to altruistic projects all over
the country.
It became the largest dairy in
Northern Guatemala, eventually with two of our cows and a heifer all defeating
in a Livestock Show the Grand Champion of the Jersey Breed in all of Central
America. From the "bankrupt
dairy's" production of 3.5 liters of milk daily per cow when we took over,
we quickly solved serious problems and increased production per cow to 16.5
liters/day/cow, said to be the best in the country.
I smilingly continue to have fun calling myself
"RODEO CLOWN!"
THE OPPOSITION
The author, or inventor of the gossip about our early failures, and he
who said "To have success in Guatemala you had to use the bribe system ....
and other unlawful business practices," for incomprehensible reasons couldn't see anything good happening
at Valparaiso, and said, "Close down the Foundation, sell Valparaiso
and go to the South Coast, buy a plantation, and make some
money!"
Since we didn't have a
luxurious home with a swimming pool to entertain guests from the U.S., or go on nice vacations,
etc., etc. we were still failures for him.
"Saving thousands,
and helping tens of thousands of Indians to receive an education,"
wasn't
apparently on his priority list.
Up to mid-1970 we
were on our own as the Andersen
Family Peace Corp (1967-1970)--supporting ourselves and the projects
previously listed. Then from July 1970 on we continued with the help of the Foundation for Indian Development
that covered most of the altruistic projects. The Foundation had
never been part of our plan, nor requested--but much appreciated. It was
all an initiative of those in Provo, Utah interested in helping, spearheaded by
my father, and is important regarding item #3 of the FINAL REPORT about the
rumors and gossip that people conjured up in their minds.
GOOD PUBLICITY but also
GOSSIP EVOLVED....
....FASCINATING TO SAY
THE LEAST
For the first 6 years, we were
appreciative of a great deal of positive publicity we received from our own
people--mostly from Utah, but also perplexed, and often amused by criticism of
our efforts that all seemed to come from what we began calling "friendly
fire." It wasn't actually very friendly at all, but it did
all come from our own people--LDS U.S. citizens living, working, and/or
visiting in Guatemala--and interestingly all from people who had never visited
us, but thought themselves to be experts and sadly believed by some important
people.
It was from them that came the
gossip about my failures mentioned above and in the FINAL REPORT, items
#1, #2, #3, & #10, etc.
It seemed like certain people
who admitted would never do what we were attempting, and who never even
visited to see what was going on, were obsessed with finding something wrong in
what we were doing and criticism got out of hand. I'll leave the psychological
analysis in your hands.
I had come knowing there would
be opposition but was pretty naive about not expecting it to come from my own
people. I should have known better as one of my heroes, whose example I
was attempting to follow, Ammon, from the BOOK OF MORMON,
was "laughed to scorn" by his own people for
wanting to go on a self-appointed mission to help the Lamanites (as
Mormons call the Indians).
ENCOURAGING VISIT FROM SPENCER W. KIMBALL
By 1971
I was reminded about this when LDS Apostle, Spencer W. Kimball, on a visit to
Guatemala City for Conference of the Guatemala City Stake, requested a visit
with me. I made the long trip to Guatemala City taking with 4 of our youths
called to be local missionaries. In a private visit Brother Kimball
congratulated me for what I was doing, suggested ways to promote the
Foundation, and then warned,
"Don't pay any
attention to criticism as such had also happened anciently to Ammon and his
companions who were 'laughed to scorn' by their own people."
I know he was
referring to criticism from what we could call low level "friendly
fire," but I'm not sure whether he also
perceived it would come from some of his companions in Church leadership. I soon
was prepared for almost anything—although I’ll admit years later that I wasn’t
a very good diplomat, as I had ingrained in me what I learned as a young, very
short kid bullied by everyone, TO NOT TAKE ANY GUFF FROM ANYONE
and be HONEST calling a SPADE A SPADE.
Bullying and dishonesty fired
up my competitive genes--especially when it was hurting our life saving work. If the perpetrators thought such would shut me
down and end my effort, they were very mistaken. I'm still
working hard to find a way to report the truth in a way that will awaken a
spirit of decency in honest people, and end up being a blessing for justice and
truth because..
...DESCENT
PEOPLE APOLOGIZE WHEN THEY ARE WRONG.
I could not accept
false stories, lies, and injustices no matter who they came from nor whether
their motives in some perverted way had some noble objective in the
perpetrator's imagination. Strangely--telling the truth time after
time got me in trouble, but interestingly, in the words of Harold Brown, "embarrassed" the leaders into taking action. In fact "telling the truth...and getting into trouble," is basically what had me putting on
hold the original FINAL REPORT, and presently doing my best to improve it so as to result in even more necessary change.
“Something was
wrong” repeated many times over the years, presenting the need for change, but also the dilemma: How to
write honestly the FINAL REPORT and have it result in GOOD?
HAROLD BROWN'S SURPRISE VISIT
In
1973 we learned from friend and LDS Regional Representative in Central
America, Harold Brown, who surprised us with a visit and in a Church
meeting explained it was being
rumored that:
1.) I was crazy for what I was attempting (and I guess
my wife, Maria, just stupid);
2.) That so many years had gone by because I was
afraid to return to the U.S. as I would have to face prosecution for
something horrible I had done, and,
3.) I was giving a charitable appearance
to our life, but it was a scam as my real purpose, according to the gossipers, was
to build myself a business empire using the Foundation and the LDS Church TO GET RICH.
As explained in the FINAL REPORT, Harold Brown,
revealed to us the above criticism, then went on to explain in that meeting
that he didn't believe any of that, told the Ammon story, and began calling our
effort "Ammon-like" and described forcefully his heartfelt
belief in our effort, having the packed congregation all in tears. He
became our supporter and friend all of his life, while many others failed. (item
#12)
More details of this visit will be described in the RELIGIOUS HISTORY, as part of the FINAL REPORT.
UNFOUNDED CRITICISM..
..BASED ON MISINFORMATION...&
ITS OUTCOME!
Until
all of that reached an important climax in January 1973--saved finally in
November by the angelic visit of Harold Brown, I was having such an incredible
time realizing my dream--beyond anything I had imagined possible so quickly, my
previous intense interests in BYU sports, hunting, fishing, and the High
Uintas had been pushed into the background of my life. However, the unfair
ambush by people I had never dreamed would be our opposition, had me reacting
as I did as a child and teenager to bullies, "to not take any guff
from anyone," which unfair, untruthful, and unjust bullying
motivated me to do more. Yet, eventually, as it persisted, I'll confess I was affected
deeply, my wife much more so, along with my kids, and I became very disappointed resulting in me all of a sudden
wanting more contact with the world of Utah.
So,
first, I bought a roll of copper wire and installed it as a radio antenna from
the Central House at Valparaiso 150 yards up to the top of the tallest pine
above us.....hoping even to pick up at night KSL radio from Salt Lake
City.
Later, when the Utah Jazz moved from New Orleans to Utah, with
games on KSL radio in the beginning, I found that I could pick up the last
quarter of night games on my pickup radio by driving way up the mountain into
guerrilla territory on the edge of the Chixoy Canyon where I had a direct line
on Salt Lake. In the spooky darkness, I'd listen to "Hotrod" Hundley
announce excitedly the last quarter of games--and I became the......
......Utah
Jazz fan who risked his life most to support the team.
Later, at the Farm of
the Holy Man, from 1994 until 2002, our dish antennae made possible us
watching those great games against the Chicago Bulls for the NBA Championship
as seen in the picture on the right with John Stockton on the TV in our living
room. (see item #28).
With me are my five children
from the 2nd marriage--I'll explain clearly in the FINAL REPORT. From 1994
on as a Mr. Mom I spent 20 years alone raising these 5, who are: Cordel
Ammon "Lito," Nephi, Mahana, Aura, and Jesse.
But, back to 1973-74 and the
disappointment of amazing success being ambushed by "friendly
fire," and the beginning of the renewed interests
mentioned--we began thinking of making our first trip to the U.S. in 7
years, take in BYU football games, do a little fishing and go deer
hunting.
With Maria, it
had almost ended our marriage, but for all the rest of her years in Guatemala it resulted in her wanting to go to Coban often
with our delivery vehicle and associate with relatively educated, high-class
Ladino women and other friends.
By 1981, when I moved her back to Provo, Utah because
of the guerrilla war, she admitted that unjust criticism and lack of
gratitude from Church leaders--and especially the blaming of us for
"illegal adoption work," while letting those actually
responsible, who had lied-- go unscathed and
afterward even given higher callings, had her concluding that her
years in Guatemala had "been hell," and
she never wanted to live there again.
Note: The international
adoption scandal story is told in item #18 in the FINAL REPORT.
However, in some ways, this
change in reverting to previous interests maybe wasn't such a bad idea, as
perhaps it helped us have a little more balance and variety in our lives--and
did give us the experience we never imagined would be part of our lives
dedicated to the Lamanites.
So, by 1974 we had our business
projects functioning successfully with our original Vocational Students--now
employees--running the business. We began thinking about making a Fall
trip back to Utah. But, we only had two work vehicles so had to consider
flying--with the Foundation promising us a vehicle for a return trip if we
could get to Utah on our own.
So--we did as always when Foundation money was lacking for a
project, we sold a bunch of old cows for slaughter, got on a Pan
American 747 jumbo jet and made our first vacation trip--and, rather than
be put in jail for whatever, we were treated like war heroes returning from the
front lines. From then on we usually made a trip each Fall, and
sometimes in between, like I did in 1978 when needing to get a delivery van for
our business-- a funny story told at the end of the FINAL REPORT.
On the
1974 trip, the Foundation provided us with a Plymouth Van for our family
transportation as well as for everything else we were doing. We see
it below on the left after our return trip, which included
driving all the way up to Seattle, putting a Fireside on arranged by my brother
Marlo, and then down the coast, putting on several Firesides along the way and
ending at my sister Gayle's home in San Diego for Thanksgiving. Then
entering Mexico and driving down Lower California and from La Paz took a ferry
to Mazatlan and on to Guatemala--thus adding to our original trip and beginning
to accumulate over the next 30 years many, many miles traveling through Mexico
and having some very memorable, and scary experiences.
The pickup is loaded with my Vocational Students on the way to some activity.
A
GUERRILLA THREAT ENDED MARIA'S & THE
FAMILY'S
14 YEAR AMMON-LIKE
MISSION.
In 1981 a "death threat" from the
guerrillas led to me quickly taking Maria and the kids back to
Utah--ending Maria's exceptional "Ammon-like 14 year mission"
helping to make possible a great work among the Mayans, as well as great
contributions from all of my children who never faltered in being with me in
the adventure. Without their 14-year contribution, laying a great foundation
for success, I would likely have never been able to do very much.
After
establishing the family in a rental home in Provo, Utah and getting them a car
for transportation, I was quickly back in Guatemala as I had to keep the
business going that supported us, as well as continue the Foundation projects.
But, I had to do so clandestinely--disguised and armed as
there was evidence that a rebel group of guerrillas refused to obey the main
leader in our part of the country who had told his troops to leave me and the
plantation alone. But, the Central House Family ended as threats from the
rebel group of the house being torched had no one wanting to live there
anymore. I had to hustle to find safe homes for everyone.
I also
had to keep the family going in Utah, so I began spending two months in
Guatemala, then 2 months in Utah, making 5 to 6 trips a year to keep everything
going in both countries. At that time I also became AYUDA's (see
item #23) representative in Guatemala as that aid organization's
representatives from the U.S. decided it too dangerous to travel to Guatemala,
and eventually AYUDA disappeared and we kept their projects in Cunen going on
our own for the next 10 years.
During
all those years, with traveling back and forth every two months, I
accumulated around 500,000 miles of travel.
Below
we see the family back in Utah, including for 18 months the outstanding student
and member of the Central House Family, Moncho, or Victor Ramon Yat
Valdez, we see him to Maria's right in the background. Today in 2020 he is
Bishop Victor Valdez, of the Valparaiso LDS Ward.
And it seemed like on every one of those trips I narrowly
escaped serious accidents and likely death, as well as having many dangerous
experiences.
During
my months in Guatemala--over 10 years, I quite
miraculously escaped from the guerrillas a few times and once at
Valparaiso we were in the middle of a shoot-out between the Army and guerrillas
after which my Dodge delivery van was used to carry dead and wounded to
Coban--all Army and guerrillas, with nobody from Valparaiso ever injured.
Previously me and my Indian brothers
literally had to fight off invaders and put many in
jail; Then in the 90's--when we were back in the Central House, with my new wife, Maria
Elena, we had to deal with a well organized "mafia," called "Los
Colitas," murderous bandits--posing as guerrillas, who
assaulted us, catching me off-guard and threatening to take my wife into the
mountains unless I gave them all our money and weapons--they got a sub-machine
gun, and a couple of pistols, but I talked them out of taking my dad's Browning
.22 rifle, but, because I reported the assault to the police and
Army, the thugs promised to kill my family and burn down the Central House!
But, I was determined to not let that happen--re-armed
quickly and night after night I was waiting in ambush to eliminate them--the ambusher always
with a tremendous advantage, each night in a different position. I was armed (this will sound quite Quixotic)
with my father's Browning .22 rifle--but loaded with deadly "Israeli
Terminator bullets" (not available to the public), plus
my Para Ordinance .45 pistol and back-up .380, and fully intended
to become a "MODERN AMMON"--who killed 7 rustlers of the King's
flocks and gained the confidence of the King and people.
NOTE:
The "Colitas" were saved from me by being arrested by government
security forces and I got back my sub-machine gun! I participated
in the trial and have the only video VHS tape of the "Los
Colitas" trial of those who were captured.
CONCLUSIONS
Well, to say the least, our family, and this "RODEO CLOWN,"
had the time of our lives with adventure after adventure and a bit of success
along with Harold Brown informing us that we achieved our objective
of awakening the interest of helping needy people among individuals and
institutions that would have the finances and expertise to apply the proven
ideas on a very large scale. He explained
our efforts had....
....stimulated the organization of LDS world-wide welfare
services....
.....which he admitted we would never get credit for--except from him, and now
almost 50 years later has me smile gratefully every time I see a TV report by
the LDS Church about their World-wide Humanitarian Services projects all
around the world. The step by step evolution of our influence in that
will all be explained in good detail in the FINAL REPORT--mainly
in item #11--of which, as I now look back on the 50+ years of effort, has
me almost incredulous that it could all have happened--while at the same time
feeling profoundly grateful for the blessing it all was in my life, that of
my family, and importantly among many thousands of Guatemalans.
You'll get that point once you see the complete FINAL REPORT.
For example, In doing thousands of medical
treatments every year, especially in the first 15 years, 3 times dealing
with deadly rabies, then treating almost
every tropical and deadly sickness known to man-- tuberculosis, pneumonia,
malaria, dengue, typhoid, typhus, tetanus, amoebic dysentery, and all kinds of
intestinal infections, etc. and a continuing epidemic of malnutrition,
kwashiorkor (protein deficiency)--
--and I even did an emergency hernia surgery that
I had a lot of fun retelling at BYU's 1977 Education Week in
item #17, that tells the story of receiving that year the
BYU Distinguished
Service Award--and, while
saving others from those serious diseases and conditions at times found
myself coming down with the same, and then..... had to save
myself.
I yelled for my kids to bring me my medical bag!
******************
For a number of years, we also helped
sponsor the.....
....NATIONAL INDIAN FOLKLORE FESTIVAL...
.....but
then decided our local area needed our help most, so for 14 consecutive years
we sponsored, along with the Foundation, the INDIAN FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
in Santa Cruz Verapaz, and I was privileged each year with crowning the
new queen and blessed with unique opportunities to participate in
their private religious ceremonies and I was even permitted to take rare
video footage.
Below
we see a photograph of the country-wide Mayan candidates for the
National
Indigenous Folklore Festival,
called
by some
"THE
MOST COLORFUL INDIGENOUS EVENT
IN THE AMERICAS"
......each
with their distinct typical clothing, language, and customs.
The FESTIVAL is held in Coban on the last Saturday in July each year.
As explained near the beginning of this post..........the FESTIVAL is to show to the world the
colorful and fascinating Indigenous cultures of Mayan-Guatemala and to choose
the INDIAN QUEEN, or as they call her in all of the 23 different
indigenous languages,
"DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF
HEAVEN!"
On one float we see a
very significant statement composed by a Mayan Priest who told me how through visions he was prepared
by ”Nahual Gwinak,” the white, bearded Holy
Man who had visited them anciently.
Princess Carolina Moran
Princess Norma Laj
Marta Elena Hun, above, 15 years
old, in her competition for “Daughter of
the King of Heaven,” in 1985, shocked all by appearing dressed in a quipil
made from a flour sack, and a tattered skirt, both over 100 years old, and in
her speech explained:
“I’m
dressed in the legitimate clothing of my people, while the very colorful
and beautiful ceremonial clothing used by all the candidates, is rather a
disguise for our misery and suffering!
Those who really care about the Mayans should be doing something about
the sick, the malnourished, the poor suffering masses!”
She went on to tie in the competition
with a 21 year old school teacher from San Marcos who was able to give a more
complete reply to a question and won, Marta Elena taking 2nd place,
but for me she was the
“Daughter of the King of Heaven”
Princess Marta Elena Hun
***************************
For us
Andersen's and the Foundation it was a blessing to help in these great
activities along with an unending chain of projects in every one of the 33
villages of Santa Cruz Verapaz, as well as surrounding areas, all the way down
into the Polochic Valley, and across the country in the Central Highlands,
mostly centered on Patzicia and Patzun having fulfilled the goal of......
......."SAVING THOUSANDS, & MAKING EDUCATION
AVAILABLE TO MANY TENS OF THOUSANDS,"
which
blessing we will always cherish.
***************************
I have now finished the COMPLETE FINAL REPORT with the unvarnished
story--
"before
it's too late."
For more details my extensive files and many journals
will be be donated to a University library,
and will have to be used to unravel more of the life-long
"Checkered Faith & Work Journey"--
if anyone is
interested in the challenge.
And,
it will be a risky challenge as demonstrated by one LDS General
Authority--who had heard a scandalous version of my history and demanded
I confess--so as I began a 2 hour long recounting of my history....his
first response was, "The devil was deceiving you," but I continued undeterred, with him later shockingly injecting, "Satan was trying to destroy you!" But unbothered I continued with him gradually changing his attitude, eventually saying,
"Well,
there might be something to this,"
as for
a brief moment he comprehended and then counseled me, saying,
"If
you tell too little, or too much they won't understand.
Don't
tell anyone as no one will understand!"
On
the other hand, one unique man, Harold Brown, showed that it was
possible to understand fairly by having an.....
.....unbiased
open mind, an understanding heart, and
a spiritually perceptive spirit.
Brother
Brown is sadly gone. But, I hope and pray a few such individuals
still
exist and will be interested as it was a life worth living and a history
of
great value to understand fairly as did Brother Brown--so I will now
stick my neck out and give all a chance to understand as part
of the
COMPLETE FINAL REPORT which follows.
****************************
THANKS
FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT,
YOU ARE
DEEPLY APPRECIATED AND LOVED.
************************
FOLLOWS THE
Part 3 the critical conclusions
*******
THE GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION
presents PART 3
THE COMPLETE
FINAL REPORT
for 50 YEARS OF TOTAL
DEDICATION--of many caring & faithful people
--The TWELVE STRONG & WHAT
THEY HELPED US ACCOMPLISH—
--32 MEMORABLE HISTORICAL
EFFORTS, EVENTS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
in
THE JUNGLES & MOUNTAINS OF
THE MAYA
PREFACE to the
COMPLETE FINAL
REPORT
The GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION was quietly
retired, with no fanfare, after 50 years of service, on August 19, 2017—50 years after the Andersen Family crossed the
border into Guatemala to begin on our own what was called for 3 years the
Andersen Family Private Peace Corp
Report by "life-long volunteer Field Director," Cordell M.
Andersen,
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of the beginning will be similar to
what you might have seen before, but believe me there is a lot of new, and
exiting reports with many photos you’ve never seen before including
emotional items of “the rest of the story!”
So, read-on……I always expressed gratitude and
felt overwhelmingly blessed for having been the servant of my Guatemalan
brothers and sisters for 50 YEARS—actually for 64 years since the beginning of my LDS
mission in Central America in 1956.
Above, I’m expressing gratitude kneeling at a Mayan altar from the “Religious
Center” of the Valparaiso—Ancient Fortified City, interestingly joined by my
guard dog, Goku—one day I hope to
learn if he really knew what he was doing.
NOTE: My son Nephi got this incredible chance
photo. Thanks, Nephi
My partner during some of those
years was Dr. Carl Jacob who told me of being greatly stimulated in his
interest in helping the “Lamanites,” Mormon terminology for Indigenous
Americans, on hearing LDS Apostle Melvin J. Ballard tell a
group of Spanish speaking missionaries,
"A
call to a Lamanite mission is a life-long call."
By the end of my mission in 1958,
I felt that even though I didn't learn about the statement until I was already
back in Guatemala living and working among the rural Mayans in remote
Guatemala. Daily I reflect gratefully on the Lord blessing me as He did, and
never cease to pray He will bless me to somehow be worthy of such an incredible
blessing and help me be deserving of my greatest beloved friends being the
thousands of brothers and sisters I was able to serve to the best of my ability
for more than half a century. The love was and is profound. Thanks.
The following
COMPLETE FINAL REPORT is:
A historical distilling of
50 years of twists, turns, and complexities-
--sometimes humorous, often
inspiring--
At times tragic and
controversial when perplexing decisions
& judgments were made based on "erroneous reports"
and
"widespread misunderstanding."
Yet, in the end, a fascinating
history of human conflict & triumph
I have struggled to make a summarized report that
accurately portrays the most important aspects of this 50+ year long
effort. The controversial history
is included for the first time with many details.
This is a sincere and
honest effort to tell what has been called "the rest of the
story," it’s need to
be told foreshadowed at the 10-year point by the BONNEVILLE
CORPORATION, that considered the astonishing story worth telling in their
first feature-length dramatic movie as explained in item #29. The next 40 years made it much more compelling
and historically meaningful. But it could only be understood and honestly
retold by rare individuals with "open minds and understanding
hearts" capable of comprehending fairly and telling the story
with integrity. I am the only one who really knows the history, and am believed
to be an honest man by key actors in the drama, like, Harold Brown, Enrique
Rittscher, and Oliverio Guerrero who trusted me so completely it was almost
scary—read on to see if they were right in their judgment.
THE
LORD’S COUNSEL TO TELL THE STORY
To guide me in gradually revealing all—I had a very profound dream, that two times was
interrupted by waking for various reasons, but each time as I went back to bed,
the dream continued without missing a beat, convincing me it was much more than
a simple dream==it really was A VISION IN A DREAM. A brief summary
of this unique spiritual experience was told in Part 1: THE MYSTERIOUS CAUSE
& THE PREPARATION TO ACT...., and
needs not be repeated, except for the conclusion, which was a message in bold
letters, clearly from the Lord, who said:
"SPEAK THE TRUTH FROM YOUR HEART!"
I accepted the guidance specifically for doing
this series of historical reports:
Part 1: The MYSTERIOUS CAUSE
and PREPARATION TO ACT and have the Courage to Make the Risky…Journey,
Part 2:
The RISKY, BREATHTAKING 1967 PIONEER JOURNEY TO THE JUNGLES
& MOUNTAINS OF THE MAYA. and,
Part 3: The COMPLETE FINAL REPORT
THE THEME OF THE
ADMITTEDLY IDEALISTIC
QUIXOTIC/AMMON-like
ADVENTURE
ALWAYS WAS:
"No man is a true believer unless he desires
for his brother that which he desires for himself"
See Jacob 2:13- 19,& D&C 38:25, --
expanded in item #28 and elsewhere
Let me just say that what follows is
a testament to the many who encouraged and gave
generous support—
like my children
& grandchildren seen below at the dedication of the
Ariel & Ines Andersen Chuluc School near Patzicia in 1987.
Likely not much of what
I describe here would have happened as it did without them, and
OTHER KEY EARTHLY
INDIVIDUALS—such as:
THE TWELVE STRONG & KEY SUPPORTING ACTORS
& CONTINUAL
HELP FROM THE LORD.
Especially were all of them critical for one who really was a "novice," or
as some began calling me a "RODEO CLOWN," –How that began is explained in
item #11. It
wasn’t meant as a compliment, but I loved it and continue to use it—we have to
learn to laugh at ourselves as often as possible, and some of us are open to that frequently!
Some called the attempt "CRAZY," or “QUIXOTIC.” On our arrival in
1967 the
LDS
Mission President, David Clark, was mystified, saying
"I wouldn't ever attempt what you
say you came here to do!"
Yet,
someone once said:
"IT'S ONLY CRAZY UNTIL IT IS
ACCOMPLISHED!"
and
"GREAT WORKS & GREAT
FOLLY MAY BE INDISTINGUISHABLE AT THE OUTSET."
So, "at the
outset," judgment should be put on hold, ignoring what
rumors and gossip you might have heard—no matter who it came from, and taking
time to go over the three historical reports with an open, unbiased mind,
and see if it ended up being a
"GREAT FOLLY," or a "GREAT
WORK"
in its
long term effect in the world.
IMPORTANT EXPLANATION
As explained in Part 1 I use the terminology “Ammon-like” that will be used throughout this writing, and
especially for non-Mormon readers I should explain. Ammon was an important young man from ancient
America whose life is detailed in the Book of Mormon, that Mormons, or
LDS people, believe to be the history of ancient America and a companion book
with the Bible, both of which we accept as sacred history and “witnesses of
Jesus Christ.” Ammon had been a rebellious son of an important leader, but who
was converted much the same as had happened to Paul in the New Testament. With
his conversion he believed the Lord wanted him to go as a missionary among a
rebellious faction of his day the book calls, Lamanites.
Along with his brothers and companions they were criticized or “laughed to scorn” by their own people,
but they nonetheless dedicated their
lives to helping the Lamanites and were the first to experience success in such
a dangerous God-appointed mission. The first phase of his effort was a span of 14
years, so “Ammon-like” usually refers
to a 14 year period. Ammon himself actually
continued among his Lamanite converts his entire life—I believe because he married
one of them.
*****************************************
The TWELVE STRONG...
plus supporting actors without
whom....who knows?
FIRST and foremost, my father, ARIEL A.
ANDERSEN & his wife—my mom.
Both of whom blessed my life in so many ways, and
actually got me started right on our second attempt to leave for Guatemala,
when dad humbly accepted my request for a Father's Blessing and
was faithful to his blessing, they together giving their all to help until
their passing years later in 1983 and 1986—14 of those years, an—AMMON-LIKE MISSION—dad organizing & managing as a non-paid
volunteer what today is THE GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION.
Others in the family likewise
were generous "supporting actors," like ALL
OF MY CHILDREN, and my older brother, Marlo, one of
the major contributors in the first years, who even persisted right up past
the Golden Anniversary,
with an extra donation.
I can't
mention everyone as the list is long, but other crucial "supporting
actors" were those in the first years, like: The very first contribution
from WESTON KILLPACK, and his Highland High School LDS Seminary, critical to helping us
get started. The organization of the Foundation by my father and friends
is mentioned in item
#7, which Foundation continued until the Golden
Anniversary on August 19, 2017 having:
Saved thousands and helped many tens of thousands
receive an education."
***************************
SECOND, my friend and brother since the first day of my LDS
mission in May 
1956, J. Frederick “TOBY” PINGREE, who
was a big-time helper from even before the Foundation was organized with a
$5,000 business loan—turned into a
contribution once the Foundation was organized. Then continuing over more
than 50 years right up to the end, and who in the '80s brought on
board others from his family, especially his brother, Dr. GEORGE
PINGREE, joined at the hip with
Toby, sharing this "Second" spot on the
critical list of THE STRONG;
******************
After my
parent's passing, others from the family took up the baton: Uncles, cousins,, and of special note—
THIRD,
my 2nd cousin, JOSEPH JENSEN
He was
contacted about our work back before the new century when the Foundation
was
kind of desperate and I did a Family Promotion using my mom's
old address book from 1986. My cousin Nelda, on my father's side of the
family received that promotion and passed it on to her son, Joseph, that
led to him making contact and it evolved into him becoming the greatest
contributor in the Foundation's history, without whom the last 17-18
years would have been vastly different, likely only with just small, but still
important--Educational & Emergency Aid projects.
NOTE: He was gratefully another of those who made two other large
donations after we had completed our 50 years of serving the Mayan people in
August 2017. One of them recently in March 2018 after the special SCHOOL
SUPPLIES promotion. THANKS, JOE.
********************************
FOURTH, a
couple who I called "The Most Persistent," DOUG CAMPBELL
and his wife Rinez
The Campbells, since reading about us in the July 1971 ENSIGN
have contributed every month with sometimes large extra
donations--Breathtakingly for 46 years--even an extra donation after the GOLDEN
ANNIVERSARY in August!
NOTE: Now in 2018 we can say they've done it for 47 years, as they are among the 5 who have donated in March as a result
of the extra promotion among a few to help Federico and me with the 2018 SCHOOL
SUPPLIES PROJECT in which we provided 1,560 of the neediest with supplies to
get them started right. THANKS, DOUG & RINEZ.
**********************************
FIFTH, he
we call "The Most Incredible," HAL
POULSEN & wife, NEVA
At the time of the Great
Earthquake of 1976, they gave 6 months of their lives with us,
leaving their
vehicle, trailer and tools, then continued as contributors, and in the
end when Hal was able to retire, after beginning to receive Social
Security, worked one extra year as a part-time school bus driver,
and had all of his salary direct deposited into the Foundation's bank
account!
NOTE: We have to add a SPECIAL THANKS TO HAL & NEVA, as they also
donated again in March 2018 to help us with the SCHOOL SUPPLIES
PROJECT. Gratefully they are those who "DON'T GIVE
UP.....EASILY!"
****************************
Then, dear ex-missionary companion and life-long
friend,.......
SIXTH, C. JESS GROESBECK
Jess stuck with us since missionary days in 1957, when we called
ourselves"Nicaraguan Elders," seen to the right--who
inspired me as in my mind he was "the hardest working LDS
missionary of all time." He continued as a friend for
decades, with many years as Chairman the Board of the Foundation, including
when there evolved a lot of controversies.
*****************************
SEVENTH, LDS Apostle EZRA TAFT BENSON & later President of the LDS CHURCH
When an Apostle
he also had been Secretary of Agriculture in the Cabinet of President
Dwight
Eisenhower, who impressed me, prior to us going to Guatemala at a BYU
Devotional, when he said,
"If I were young again, I'd go south!"
Then once in
Guatemala in 1968 when I was working on one of my purposes of going to
Guatemala, which was, Get out on the front lines combating the threat of
communism that was coming close to turning Guatemala into another Cuba, which effort, among other things,
involved me showing a USIS documentary, "Revolution
Betrayed," about Cuba, and created fear in Mission leaders
that the Mormon chapel in Coban might be bombed, and I was ordered to
desist. I rather wrote consulting with two LDS General Authorities
in Utah, that resulted in two interesting replies:
One, from the
highest level—from First Presidency counselor, Marion G. Romney, who told
me to just read the Church's statement
about communism and then shut up! The other reply
was fascinating, from Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, congratulating me for my efforts and basically telling me,
POUR IT ON—which I
continued to do for the next 49 years!
Years later as
President of the Church he made comments about the importance of the Book of
Mormon which further endeared me gratefully
to him. He said……..
(President Benson,
CR, Oct. 1984, pp. 4-5)
My beloved
brethren and sisters, for some years now I have been deeply concerned that we
are not using the Book of Mormon as God intends. As I participated in
the Mexico City Temple dedication, I received the distinct impression that God
is not pleased with our neglect of the Book of Mormon. In the
eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord decreed that the
whole Church was under condemnation, even all the children of Zion, because of
the way they treated the Book of Mormon. "And they shall remain under this condemnation until they
repent," said the Lord,
"and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon"
(D&C 84:57). “Zion cannot fully arise and put on her beautiful garments if
she is under this condemnation.” (See D&C 82:14).
I had come to understand this as a missionary in 1958 when inspired with
the Good
Life Method to get the Sacred Book of the Indigenous peoples
back in their hands to help them come out
of darkness into the light and blossom as I explain in item #4.
President Benson’s
statement, pronounced at the 17 year point of our history, so much in harmony
with our effort, further had him become very important during our many years
of effort, because tragically we encountered those who opposed the
Good Life Method that effectively had
hundreds and thousands of Lamanites accepting the Book of Mormon. Sadly near the end of his
life he joined others in showing he was also human, which also teaches us the
lesson how careful all of us should be in judging others.
CONCERNING HIS STUMBLE: Since all of us humans are
“flawed,” as President of the
Church in 1988-89, he failed to recognize what might be called "a
big whopper" with
tragic consequences in the Santa
Cruz Verapaz/Valparaiso area as will be explained in The LDS Church History for
Alta Verapaz in item #12 & #28 of
this FINAL REPORT.
Apparently, he had no way of knowing that what was
reported to him was not true resulting in its profoundly disastrous human
consequences.
Some will object to me relating
such instances of mistakes and injustice in this FINAL REPORT, but the Lord told me to
“Speak the truth
from your heart”
The
Gospel teaches us that all need to have an honest chance to recognize our mistakes and
have
"a broken heart & contrite spirit,"
and be able to……
MAKE RESTITUTION WITH THOSE HURT & EARN FORGIVENESS!
Mistakes are not
failures if all of us, including Church leaders, can take advantage of knowing
about them to be able to repent, repair the damage done, and do better in the
future.
But, it is worth repeating that from early on President Benson was still a
giant motivator and supporter—especially in the anti-communist aspects of our work in
Guatemala, and his insistence on the importance of the Book of Mormon,
that was so much in harmony with our half
century effort that we will always be grateful for him and President
Kimball, explained next.
**************************
EIGHTH, SPENCER
W. KIMBALL, Apostle & later President of the LDS Church.
It has to
be mentioned in this PREFACE—that when criticism
was mounting from
people of our own religious community—with "a spirit of competition &
contention, rather than of cooperation, and gratitude," in
1971 he requested a private interview with me in Guatemala City when there for
a Stake Conference. I made the long trip from Valparaiso to the City, taking
with me our first four young men to be set apart as Local Missionaries,
including Daniel Choc, and Miguel Max—both among my most unforgettable Guatemalans.
Elder
Kimball congratulated me for what we were doing, gave suggestions how to
promote the Foundation, and encouraged us to persist saying, "Don't pay any attention to criticism as such had
also happened anciently to Ammon and his companions who were 'laughed to
scorn' by their own people."
I know he was referring to criticism from what could be called low
level "friendly fire," but perhaps he also
perceived it would come from some of his companions in Church leadership.
I was prepared for almost anything, except in the beginning--not for
that, but had to be a quick learner and
not be bullied unjustly—not even by “his companions,” and consequently was
able to survive the 50+ year effort, when in the beginning it was predicted we
would only last 6 months.
One year
later, in 1972, he was supportive of a unique effort by the Valparaiso LDS Group that
was in our 3rd year with no deaths at Valparaiso, where previously
an average of 8 infants died every year, and he helped win its authorization by the Church Financial
Department. It became a key part of stopping rampant death in
the area for 3 years and demonstrated a strategy that was revolutionary and
potentially applicable on a worldwide scale—as explained in item
#12—which item now
includes CRUCIAL EVENTS THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY. But Elder Kimball's encouragement was of key
importance in the 50+ years of history reported in this COMPLETE FINAL REPORT
that developed into…..
"Saving thousands and helping many tens of
thousands receive an education."
*********************
NINTH, Regional Representative, HAROLD BROWN for the LDS Church
He was a true
friend and came to us in "our moment of greatest
need" in 1973 and
again in 1986. He understood
completely some negative things that were happening, and not only repeated
the advice given by Kimball, but was the first to begin calling our
effort "Ammon-like," and insisted we couldn’t let opposition, even from the highest
level, stop us.
He encouraged us to persist and gave us encouraging news—about a World-Wide
humanitarian organization our efforts had inspired. See item #12.
He promised his support, and gave
it faithfully, while others—close friends and relatives who should have known
better, failed.
Later when my life became even more
controversial—some details of which
another leader advised me "Don’t tell anyone as no one will
understand,” Brown engaged with me in a long and frank
conversation that included “the rest of
the story,” and not only was he the
rare exception—understanding, but promised and actually gave his continual
support—including volunteering to be a Trustee for the Foundation and persisted
until age-related conditions ended his effective life. But, for many
years he was a lifesaver whose support and encouragement helped make possible
achieving our GOLDEN
ANNIVERSARY serving the needy in Guatemala! See details
in items #12, #14, 15, 16, 18 & #28. NOTE:
In the last item I will relate my
conversation with him that had him understanding and giving his support when
many failed.
***************************
TENTH, ENRIQUE RITTSCHER, also a one-time LDS Regional
Representative.
He was the first
key Guatemalan of crucial influence and help, and one of the great
men of
my earthly experience who was a genuinely honest man and a true friend—who helped and encouraged us in many ways.
He understood clearly why in the eyes of some I became controversial—he explaining,
"Cordell is a
pioneer helping the Mayan peoples, and an outsider free from the control of
the establishment and thereby a threat to some insecure leaders and
bureaucrats who felt they had to oppose Cordell no matter how right,
inspired and effective his methods were!"
Brother Rittscher
persisted as a sincere friend, eventually volunteering to co-sign for credit
purchases for crucial expansion, and becoming my partner in almost introducing
Kentucky Fried Chicken into Guatemala.
On his first visit
to Valparaiso, he surprised us entering our crude office where I was busy
training a couple of Vocational Students in accounting, and record-keeping,
when he saw Miguel Max on the floor under a table with a slide projector
viewing in that semi-darkness the Foundation slide show, “The Testimony of Miguel Max.”
Enrique smiled broadly at the scene, and said, “I don’t know who that is under the table on the floor, but I foresee
that he will one day be a leader in the Church!” NOTE: A few years later Miguel became
my Counselor in the First District Presidency of the Verapaces, and described
last as one of the TWELVE STRONG! He would have become much more than that, but
as mentioned when I describe him, he was among many of the best whose faith was
damaged by unrighteous leadership.
Enrique was very sensitive to the
needs of those less fortunate, and I can add that when he perceived injustice in any form he would
boldly speak up and refuse to be silenced. This eventually made him controversial
too—when he was the REGIONAL
REPRESENTATIVE for the General Authorities, and he lobbied for more concern
and effective help for the needy. He considered the attitudes of his superiors “hard-hearted” that evolved into what shocked some in the LDS religious
community when he wrote a letter to the Church President requesting his name be
removed from the membership records. It
wasn’t a shock for me as he had confided to me some details of what he was
experiencing with superiors in Church leadership.
Some in our religious community
are bothered by the controversy Enrique and I created by being honest and
following the dictates of the Spirit, and automatically conclude something was
wrong with him, and me, dishonestly refusing to consider other sources for the
controversies. Brother Rittscher and I both fit into what I
believe was said by Aristotle, something like,
"If you don't want to be
criticized, say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing."
Both of us rather focused on DOING, BEING HONEST—REFUSING TO BE SILENCED, and doing our
best TO BE what
we were supposed to be in defending what we believed deeply the Lord felt
was right, true, and just.
**********************
ELEVENTH, FEDERICO VELIZ
PACAY
A dedicated and devout Catholic who became early on my partner
in helping his
people—persisting
for 42
years. He is….
“THE VOLUNTEER OF ALL VOLUNTEERS”
….explained
with much more detail in item #19 that describes the new
approach of Foundation work from 1979 on when we did as LDS leaders wanted and
had our work free of the LDS image with my two representatives both being
devout Catholics which opened up all rural areas of Guatemala to our work,
and multiplied many times our influence in what we began calling “a preparatory work,” but worthy of mention right here the
following about Federico after the Foundation was retired.
SPECIAL
NOTE: After the Foundation was retired at the end of
2017, he persisted on his own responding to the pleas of 5 of the neediest
rural schools in his area, took all of the Emergency Fund of $1,103 the
Foundation had given him in parting, plus he borrowed $414 from a sister,
and provided 1,560 students with supplies to begin the 2018
School Year. Since his monthly retirement pay is only $468, he did ask me
if he couldn't get some help--to at least be able to pay off the loan, so
I took the balance of $700 in my Emergency Fund, provided by the Foundation as
its final expenditure, and sent it to him to "help a little," making his personal
donation for the project, $817.
Afterward, the FIVE mentioned above gratefully
responded to a special promotion to help us with $1,295 of the $1,517 spent on
the supplies. The generosity of the FIVE has now made possible building
back up most of Federico's Emergency Fund, as well as mine. So in the
final accounting, we also donated about $100 each. Federico is profoundly
grateful for this help, as am I--since my retirement income is only a
little more than Federico's. But,
it is clear that Federico's personal dedication to his people is
breathtaking!
*****************************
TWELFTH to complete my list of real heroes, one who represents the
Mayans, MIGUEL MAX
He was one of my first vocational students,
but who didn't last long as I needed
help quick, and so he
also became my first Supervisor in charge of a
growing herd of cattle, and my
leading companion pursuing cattle rustlers in the mountains. Then was the one who came dashing in from
patrol duty interrupting our evening Family
Hour announcing "the guerrillas are here," as
well as my companion in fighting off invaders and helping put a
bunch in jail.
He also
was the first Maya/Poqomchi to be called as a local
missionary for the LDS Church, first from Valparaiso to become
the Manager of Valparaiso, then elected President of
the Valparaiso Cooperative in an effort to help the Indians become
owners, and then my Counselor in the new Alta/Baja Verapaz LDS
District Presidency. Tragically in 1989 when “the big Whopper”
was believed by Church leaders and they took unrighteous action, Miguel’s
faith was also shaken—not in the Gospel, rather in the Leaders, as happened to many, but I know the Lord
understands the total sincerity of his honest reaction and his place in the
eternities is assured.
He also was
key in the CHULAC ADVENTURE, and my companion
in THE GREAT MACHAQUILA RIVER ADVENTURE in motorized dugout canoes—another adventure not even told yet, but
mentioned in the Note at the end of item #16. Miguel is seen above with me when meeting him in 2016 after years
of separation. No other words but to say, I'm
grateful for him, love him and have him in my heart and prayers always.
***************************
SPECIAL STATEMENT FROM A SUPPORTING ACTOR STEVE
COVEY
I feel
moved to add here a person I consider an important "supporting actor" whose statement
was unexpected
and extremely motivating, who in 1977, when one of the Vice-Presidents of
BYU, attended a special fireside up Hobblecreek Canyon at the home of
Phil Christensen—one of the founders of the Foundation, and at the end said:
"I
came here expecting to find an Albert Schweitzer, but found someone who just
didn't talk theory, principles, and dreams—like the rest of us do, but more like a modern
Brigham Young, who actually is doing what he says he believes."
*********************
OTHER KEY SUPPORTING ACTORS/ACTRESSES
My special daughter MAHANA—who works full-time to support
herself and son,
Ryan, and she also goes to school full-time to become a
Registered Nurse. Nonetheless, after
making a large donation in August 2017, she also donated again to help her
people, becoming the FOURTH
DONOR of the five for
2018. THANKS, MAHANA, you are one of the great "supporting actresses."
BEST
FOR LAST—AN INCREDIBLE SUPPORTING ACTOR
WITHOUT WHOM THIS REPORT WOULD NOT EXIST & MUCH MORE
My
wonderful son, JESSE—when
we moved back to the U.S. in 2002, was a
junior in high School, but already becoming an expert with computers and the
internet. He was shocked to learn
that the Foundation didn’t even have a website, so he created one and
forced the rest of us to fill in the blanks, opening up
the modern era of the
Foundation. Of course he became my
professor in computer science, and with unbelievable patience has helped me
do the impossible over the years with the computer. He
then clewed us in that the name of the Foundation for Indian Development, on a Google
search took one to India, so we changed the name to the GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION. He has been my life saver, and I love him a
ton and am grateful for him letting me park my Cabin-A alongside of his home in
American Fork.
Best give credit also to
the FIFTH DONOR from the special promotion.
It was long-time donor, ALBERT BERNARD, Maria's older
brother. Thanks, Albert.
Others were key "supporting actors" in
crucial ways, like my old fishing buddy, BOB ALLEN & WIFE, LUCETTE, helping
right up to the end.
There are
so many more, for whom I'm most grateful as all helped in a great cause.
My cause became your cause too, and you deserve almost all the
credit;
*******************
Last, let me mention a key "supporting actor,"
MIGUEL ANGEL ORTIZ
He was crucial in
the first years, my friend & brother, who came to me in my time of need as
an 18-year-old, actually was my first vocational student—at least my first graduate as in one year he learned from me how to work with
poultry, cattle, hogs, how to drive, do accounting and business
management, and at 19 became the
Manager during a critical year of development, then returned later
to help make a success out of the Victorias Dairy.....
Miguel is seen to
the right with his wife, Miriam, and son, Oliverio, reported on in 2016 in
Foundation reports.
He was the first Guatemalan to become the Valparaiso
Branch President—only to sadly be damaged in his faith due to
terribly mistaken and tragic leadership decisions—said Leaders more than
deserving of having the symbolic “millstone
hung on their necks!” He is still my beloved brother, one of
the many SUCCESS STORIES, now owning his own cattle ranch north of
Coban-- WOW.........I JUST SAW THE PHOTO/ESSAY AGAIN (LINKED TO
BELOW ) & I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TAKING THE TOUR TO SEE THE AREA,
WHAT ITS GEOGRAPHY and CULTURE ARE LIKE & THE SUCCESS OF THE VOCATIONAL
PROGRAM AT THE VALPARAISO CID, which helped produce Miguel Angel. Click
on: VISIT MIGUEL ANGEL'S RANCH.
************************
A MILLION THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED MAKE POSSIBLE ALL THE FOLLOWING
LIST and MORE, & WHO DESERVE MOST OF THE CREDIT.
INTRODUCTION
The original list with 23 items, without
photographs has been added to many times--now with 32 items that
have been organized better and put in better chronological order with more than 400 photographs, along
with many tweaks and major additions—and now what could be called
"The rest of the Story."
SO, IF YOU READ AN EARLY VERSION—THIS COMPLETE FINAL
REPORT IS QUITE DIFFERENT
& TO UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY – IT IS CRITICAL TO READ
CAREFULLY AGAIN WHAT FOLLOWS
A part of the new items deal
with successful efforts to support
ourselves—as we
were volunteers with no living allowance of any kind from the
Foundation much less from the LDS Church, for doing religiously motivated
leadership and altruistic activities. Without these key business ventures,
the effort would have only lasted the predicted "six months," rather than 50 years. Our
business profits made possible us Andersen’s being non-paid volunteer Field Directors
for 50 years! Rather than as
gossiped about as “a scam to get
rich,”—the opposite was the truth as our business ventures, time after time
provided the money necessary for critical
Foundation projects by selling old cows for slaughter, selling pine trees, and
even selling parcels of land.
The simple life I now live is a
testament to us having given the cause
our all, as shown in item #28—what you will see is a modern-day equivalent of the simple life I saw
myself living while giving everything to SAVE PEOPLE, all coming from an
NDE—Near Death Experience I had when 16 years old which started this 68 year
history.
The other new items are in the
category of “the rest of the story”
and deal with my family and personal life
as well as the religious history—I finally decided it couldn’t be separated
from the rest of the history, even though at one point the Foundation
leadership felt like it was unnecessary
and that we should only stick to reporting Foundation projects and success
stories—that was fine for the Foundation, but now—being alone, I realize it is crucial to tell the whole story—so, this
COMPLETE FINAL REPORT is a comprehensive history of, like they say, “the whole enchilada!”
The first
two business ventures described are also what the "experts," called
our first "failures," which
has me still smiling. It was coming from those who presented us with our
greatest challenge over the 50 years, which was:
"A spirit of competition
& contention rather than
one of cooperation, and
gratitude."
I'm not complaining—as
actually opposition &
criticism—after we got over the initial disappointment, became tremendously motivating.
I'm rather adding a couple of interesting points without which the
history is not complete. I'll
let you be the judge of the importance of said items.
Admittedly
we were novices—as you've heard me even joke about being called a "Rodeo Clown," or “a
crazy don Quijote,” as I was not a farmer, much less a cattle or
dairyman, nor had a Ph.D. in anything.
Additionally, in 1966 I had made
a presentation in an Ex-Missionary
Reunion in Salt Lake City proposing
something needed to be done to solve the "life & death problems" of those
we all claimed to love, but then told by two ex-missionaries who would
become Church leaders,
"You
don’t have the necessary capital.....nor qualified with
sufficient education."
So I have admitted openly
it was an "impossible
dream....against all odds," and so, as I worked
relentlessly along with my family, I began having fun characterizing
myself as a crazy Don
Quijote de la Mancha, and later really liked the "rodeo clown" label,
as well as proudly, but humbly accepting being called “a modern Ammon,” as I was trying to
follow the example of my real hero of
ancient America, "laughed
to scorn" by those of his own religious community.
But, it’s well
to note that I wasn’t so naive as to imagine that me and family alone would be
able to save all the needy Mayans, or as Mormons call them, "LAMANITES." In
my historical writings I state that my original purpose was to go to work on a small scale as a family,
do as much as we could, learn from the experience, then do more, and more—and:
"Hopefully be a catalyst for action on a big scale by
qualified individuals and well-funded institutions."
We were to experiment with the
strategy I felt was revealed divinely to me as an LDS missionary in Coban in
1958, known as THE PHILOSOPHY
& PRINCIPLES OF THE GOOD LIFE, which began as an effective way to achieve
what I believed was our primary purpose among the Indians—get back
into their hands in an understandable way their original Sacred Book and
let it lead them where it may, rather than just push for impressive baptism
statistics. But having in their hands
their book and understanding it—was just the beginning. It had to evolve into them actually
solving their problems—by applying The Principles, coming out of darkness into
the light, and literally blossoming!
THE PHILOSOPHY would supply them with the
motivation, THE PRINCIPLES would be what they had to understand
and be able to apply in their lives.
We would help as many as we could and by our example lead
the way, learn the necessary methods, and teaching techniques, hoping to awaken
others with a movement—that would likely have us forgotten and never
given any credit—yet evolve into large
scale, significant efforts, and then we would just fade away quietly, but with
a grateful smile watching what we knew our efforts helped stimulate and
hope and pray it could be done effectively. See item #12
NOTE: Here at the outset we have to mention this was not
happening in Indian branches, like Patzicia, where the members were still
living in primitive, unsanitary conditions with their homes and home sites
literally being “incubators for disease and death.” Below we see the home of President Pablo Choc
of the Patzicia Branch —this is how we as a Church helped the most
outstanding LDS family to live in the famous Patzicia area!
The members from Patzicia still suffered the
majority of the elements of “the curse” or “darkness” outlined in
2 Nephi 1, and among them there were infant deaths.
Our covenant as a Church, and brothers and sisters,
was to:
“Think of your brethren like unto yourselves,
and be [friendly] with all and [generous] with your substance, that they may be
rich like unto you.”
BOOK
OF MORMON, Jacob 2:16
They
still didn’t understand what their Sacred Book was about, their sermons all
being from the BIBLE, giving them the appearance of being “evangelicos,” rather
than “awakened Latter Day Saint Lamanite converts.”
At one
point I did a study there discovering that one important chapter from the BOOK
OF MORMON had 22 keywords they did not understand, sometimes even
giving an opposite interpretation—for example
the word “apostasy” they
interpreted as something positive associated with “apostoles!” —even though I was dealing with men who
all claimed to know how to read and write, including the Branch President.
In a
Mutual meeting the week before the GREAT
EARTHQUAKE I helped the 160 in attendance for the first time understand 2
Nephi 1 and the elements of the curse.
They were shocked to realize and admit that in most ways they—supposedly
as converted Lamanites, were still under
“the curse.”
In launching myself and family
into said cause, it was good and critical for me to recognize our
deficiencies and weaknesses, just as I had done as a very small-statured
child and youth--bullied by almost everyone, yet determined to do something
about it—so strengthened myself to not take any guff from anyone. NOTE: For
those interested enough in understanding to have read my Checkered autobiography, Part
1—0 to 22 years, you learned that in “strengthening myself” I came to
believe that I would kill someone if I hit them with a doubled-up fist, so made
my first covenant with the Lord to never hit anyone that way, rather get them
in a stranglehold—literally, but later
symbolically.
You'll notice by reading on that
this, as respectfully as possible, included biting my lip—in the moment at
times, or during the interview with some important Leaders who perplexingly
became part of the "friendly
fire" with whom I soon learned wouldn't accept the opinion
or inspiration of this lowly servant—I just wasn’t a called and chosen member of the establishment—no matter how successful my methods were.
So, I
waited for the interview to end, or for the visiting leader to leave, and then persisted in following the inspiration
received within the jurisdiction of my responsibility and demonstrated with
success that my guidance had come from the Lord.
But from 1966 on I believe those
of my religious, community failed to understand the power of being spiritually
born of God and transformed with a quite well understood divine mission
and calling, with absolute confidence—with, metaphorically:
“The back capable of being strengthened to
carry whatever load was required."
So, in the learning process
we struggled, stumbled at times and had our failures—but not the ones being gossiped about.
But, with everything we learned—recognizing our weaknesses, and with the
help of the Lord plowed forward doing
our best—as our survival, and that of
many Indians depended on us being quick learners. So I
lit the candles (or Coleman lantern) at night and studied to keep
one page ahead of my vocational students, and employees, then literally, put on
my boots and worked with them, often taking the lead with disgusting and even
dangerous tasks....then they would follow.
Actually working and dirtying my
hands had me breaking the Ladino tradition, and that of well-heeled, and finely dressed gringos, and earned
the scorn of many—except for a
few honest people in my business dealings who came to trust me totally, and because of it, the way continually
opened up for even more amazing developments. So, I will add new sections
relating in some detail the acquisition of the Poultry Farm & business,
the Valparaiso
Plantation and especially the cattle
and Dairy business, plus at
the end the Farm of
the Holy Man.
NOTE: You might question why it
is important to mix personal/family business with altruism, but not
only did all of that support us making possible 50 years of managing altruism
as volunteers, but you’ll notice here
and there, it was the business profits that made possible Foundation projects,
when donations were lacking—like when I had promised the people in Patzicia by
a specific date the Foundation would pay for purchasing the property for the
school construction—but the funds didn’t appear from the Foundation, but the
property was paid for by me selling 5 old cows for slaughter. Time after time that pattern
shot down completely the eventual accusation that all “was a scam using the
Foundation and the Church for me to build a business empire and get rich,” but
the opposition didn’t care about facts.
THE LONG-TERM POTENTIAL OF OUR EFFORTS?
One of the promotional firesides
presented by my father was to his LDS
Stake High Priest Quorum members and their wives. One of them, a brother Paul E. Felt,
previously the Director of the BYU
Lamanite Development Program, who was by then the ex-Mission President of
the Church’s Southwest Indian Mission, and afterwards a Professor of Religion at
BYU, after the fireside he published in a report the following describing the
long-term outcome of the Foundation’s work:
“I
is not unlikely that within a few decades it will be recognized that the most
significant work among the Lamanites of our century is that being undertaken by
the Foundation for Indian Development and the Cordell Andersen family!”
To give proper
understanding to this amazing prediction we’ve got to keep in mind not only the
direct work undertaken, but also the stimulus it was for statements you’ll read
about by Harold Brown, referring to the work
stimulating LDS Church leaders to organize what today is LDS World Wide Humanitarian Services,
and work that was started in areas like
Guatemala’s Polochic area, so far creating among rural Lamanites 2 LDS Stakes (Senahu
& Chulac), and possibly by now a 3rd – (Sacsuha), and methods—The Good Life, and teaching
techniques all described in this FINAL REPORT. In addition seeds were planted all over among the tens of thousands helped get an education that
are sprouting everywhere—all with an unending potential future
READ ON TO SEE IF THERE MIGHT BE ANY TRUTH IN HIS
PREDICTION.
************************
Now on to
the meat of this FINAL REPORT:
THE 32 MEMORABLE EFFORTS,
EVENTS
& ACCOMPLISHMENTS
We'll begin with the item being
gossiped about as our
“FIRST FAILURE."
1. FOR 6 MONTHS, IN THE
BEGINNING, RAN A TRAVELING MOVIE--CINE CHAPINLANDIA—IN THE MOST ISOLATED PART OF THE COUNTRY
The
original idea of creating a simple movie theater in Coban had been acted upon
by several of my friends by the time we arrived, so the plan changed to a
traveling movie visiting four of the most isolated communities in the country,
but expanded after the first tour to six: Chicaman, San
Miguel Uspantan, Cunen, Sacapulas, Aguacatan and Nebaj,
By the end of August I had the family
into the rental house, needed furniture on order with local carpenters, and I moved
fast for our first project—the traveling movie—CINE CHAPINLANDIA.
Over 5 months we
achieved showing educational and good quality commercial movies to 50,000
people, with my camper also being A MOBIL MEDICAL CLINIC
& LIBRARY as there were no effective medical services in most of an area of
200,000 people, and not one library until 1983 when we cooperated with AYUDA to
construct and inaugurate one in Cunen.
This experience
began adding to my Army training as a Medical Specialist and preparing me to
perform for many years thousands of medical treatments every year. This literally was a PRIVATE
PEACE CORP of great success.
To the right, you see me in
Chicaman unloading the frame for our 9' x 12' movie screen and
getting ready our theater--which was an old abandoned Catholic Church.
Alfredo Rodas, in the dark sweater was borrowing
benches from the Catholic Church.
HOW & WHERE IT ALL DEVELOPED
Early in September, with my partner, Alfredo
Rodas, I left Coban heading west scheduled to visit
Chicaman, San Miguel Uspantan, Cunen and Sacapulas.
CHICAMAN:
From San Cristobal it took us a bit over an hour to descend into the
Chixoy Canyon, cross the river and switchback up to 4,823 foot elevation Chicaman—a
small town with no electricity. After
arriving we went directly to talk to the mayor, explaining our project and
asked if there was a place we could use as a theater. He was excited about a movie coming to town
and explained that the only place available was the abandoned Catholic Church
and promised to put some workers to cleaning it up. Another of his aids took us to the school and
our suggestion of educational movies was immediately accepted and soon we were
entertaining the children. We used the
free movie to have the children let everybody know that at 7:00 PM there would
be movies costing .10 and .15 cents.
As soon as we got set up for the
show we drove around town and with our public address system, a speaker you can
see on top of the camper, we announced the show. It was a smashing success some bringing their
own chairs, and we announced that in two weeks there would be two
showings: 5:00 & 8:00 PM.
San
Miguel USPANTAN: It took about another hour to get there. A much larger and more developed town than
Chicaman. At nearly 6,000 ft. elevation,
and with electricity. A village of
Uspantan within a few years would produce a NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER, an Indian
woman, Rigoberta Menchu. Uspantan today
is well known for the archaeological site of Chitinamit,
believed to be Jakawitz, the first capital of the K'iche' Maya.
We immediately looked for the
mayor who was happy to let us use the Municipal Hall, except that there were
basically no benches. Soon we were
showing educational movies at the school, then had the evening show at 7:00
announcing that next time there would be two showings, and suggested they bring
their own chairs.
Santa
Maria CUNEN: On Wednesday we traveled west
about another hour and came to Cunen, at about the same elevation as
Uspantan—6,000 feet. It is a small town
with no electricitry found in a valley with wheat fields, as well as corn carpeting
the valley
It was here that a few years
later Utah based AYUDA INC. established their project under the supervision of
Jim Penrod, his wife Aurora, and kids.
They spent 18 months here. Fifteeen
years later when AYUDA disappeared, we took over and kept the projects alive
for 10 years.
We immediately talked to the
mayor who was happy to let us use the Municipal Hall, but which had no benches. We would begin to remedy that problem, as
I’ll explain in a moment, and eventually supplied all our towns with benches.
We showed movies at the school,
and then went around town announcing the evening movie which was again a great
success.
SACAPULAS:
On Thursday we left Cunen, climbed up to a low pass, and dropped down to
the Sacapulas River, and the town located at about 4,000 ft. elevation. The
Catholic Church and Municipal buildings had been damaged by earthquakes and so
we found the mayor in temporary quarters.
He was happy with our project but had no where to show a movie, but sent
us to the Catholic Convent. The priests
and nuns were happy with our project and invited us to use the patio when the
weather was good, and their temporary chapel if there was rain. They invited us to pull into their compound
and spend the night there.
We had great success there as you
can see with my photo of an outdoor show.
This is Cine Chapinlandiain in
Sacapulas, with a view of the spectators in the outdoor patio of
the Catholic Convent which was our theater and where we spent
the night with the priests and nuns.
I had a most memorable experience there with a
surprisingly young and beautiful "Mother Superior,"
who one night surprised me in my
camper reading the BIBLE.
That stimulated a great conversation. It might have ended up
with a great convert if they hadn’t of transferred her back
to Chichicastenango—maybe to keep her away from me!
RE-EVALUATING OUR PROJECT
On Friday morning we reviewed
what had happened and decided that we had to add on two more towns to make it
six for the week and take advantage of the long journey to increase the
income.. It would be exhausting but we
would then have a week off to do any needed pickup repairs, make a quick trip
to the City to get more movies, and have time to cut out wood for benches we
would pile on top of the camper and assemble in each town—one at a time until
all had benches.
The head Priest suggested we add
on AGUACATAN, about another hour west, and NEBAJ, a fairyland town on the north
slope of the Cuchumatanes Mountains. It
was accessed from the pass between Sacapulas and Cunen, the road then climbing
a 10,500 foot pass to then drop down to Nebaj at 6,200 feet, the home of the
IXIL Indians.
So on our next tour, on Friday,
after Sacapulas we headed west to:
AGUACATAN:
It is located at 4,480 ft. elevation, and is unique with a language
called Awakateko
. It was a fairly large town and had
electricity. Talking to the mayor we
discovered that a Catholic Priest was showing movies, but the mayor encouraged
us to go ahead as we promised good quality movies, plus the educational ones,
including free movies at the school. The mayor interestingly was an Evangelist,
so liked the competition for the Catholic Priest. We would use the Municipal
Hall, that had no benches, so on our next tour we were assembling benches in
the street as you see Rodas doing below.
We had great success here, mainly
because we found a very enthusiastic 16 year old, Miguel Ishmael Chavez, who
spoke the native language and as we plied the streets of the town he would grab
the microphone and with great enthusiasm go to work promoting the movies in
Spanish and in Awakateko
Miguel
Ishmael would
later join us at Valparaiso as a Vocational
Student, and got involved in everything we were doing. Then one day he disappeared to only return
later, when we sent him to work with Carl Jacob in his strawberry project. Miguel would eventually be baptized into the
LDS Church in Patzun. Later he joined us
again with his
wife Elena.
To
the left we see Miguel with Rodas after joining us. To the right we see him a
few years later helping with a drunk.
In recent years I got back in
contact with him from Atlanta, Georgia where he was for a while, but is back in
Coban and now, 54 years after we met, are still in touch.
From there, on Saturday, we drove
back to the pass above Sacapulas. There we had a unique experience
related to the modern Sacred Book of the Indians—THE BOOK OF MORMON.
COINCIDENTAL
EXPERIENCE RELATED TO THE GEOGRAPHY
OF THE
BOOK OF MORMON
At what let’s call “The Cunen/Sacapulas Pass,” we met two Indians with huge loads on their
backs. They said they were coming from
Santa Cruz del Quiche and hiking to the Peten to sell their products. NOTE: A careful study of the BOOK OF MORMON, to
determine how long it took to travel following the mountain trails from the
“Land of Nephi,” to the “Land of Zarahemla” I came up with the journey taking
them 20-21 days.
Now back to our chat with the two
Indians hiking from the Highlands to the Peten.
I asked them how long it took them.
Their reply, “Twenty-one days!” PERFECT
HARMONY WITH THE BOOK
OF MORMON.
From there we began grinding our way up to the 10,500
foot pass, and started our descent to all of a suddewn have appear like a vision the Ixil town
of NEBAJ appeaing way below surrounded by fields of wheat.
Santa
Maria NEBAJ: The Municipal Hall was large and part of a
town complex that occupied a rectangular building with a large patio in the
middle surrounded by a corridor, and offices. The patio had become a basketball
court, and had been roofed over with a high oval roof. The mayor told us that would be our
theater. They had a lot of benches that
could be arranged there. We somehow
installed two pulleys up high and with rope would hoist our movie screen frame
up so all could see the movies. The
Police Station was on the far side, with jail cells opening onto the corridor,
so those in jail could watch the movies for free.
We had great success here with
only an evening show as it couldn’t be darkened for a daytime show. After the movie we would pack up and by 11:00
PM head for home, usually arriving by 5:00 AM, so we could rest a little and
then direct the Church services.
PROBLEMS: Several times when there were heavy rains,
the road to the pass was blocked by large fallen trees and we couldn’t get
around the blockage, and had to backtrack to Nebaj to spend the night. We sent telegrams advising our families, and
Maria and the women had to take over and hold what we called a Sunday
School. Each of those two times the road
was eventually cleared and we would finally make it home by Sunday afternoon.
The
Traveling Movie—Cine Chapinlandia, finally had to end as the initial .10 and .15 cents
charge was too much for most of the poor towns, so we reduced it to .05 and
.10, concerned more for getting a large audience and serving the people, than
profit. However, the need of supplying every town with
benches--made during the off-week, and the rough roads that always required
pickup repairs, and also in between it all, a quick trip to Guatemala
City (and back then it was an 8-10 hour journey,--one way, fording
quite a few streams, etc.) to get from the USIS, Canadian, Japanese, &
Israeli Embassies more educational movies, and another commercial one, plus paying Alfredo Rodas his salary—all of
which caused economically a loss.
But,
it was so enlightening for so many people and provided me with invaluable
experience in so many ways—that I became
convinced that if I was ever like, say—a
mission president, or supervising the Peace Corp, I would have teams of
missionaries, or volunteers, doing precisely that in isolated areas with the
goal of bringing enlightenment to every town in my area, all in harmony with
my "agricultural approach
to helping a needy people"(see item #15) -- cultivating friends all over
the country, helping people in whatever way they needed and were ready
for, and preparing entire areas for even greater things.
Important NOTE: This approach was in harmony with what Ammon
did to have great success in his missionary work. When captured and confronted by the Lamanite King
he didn’t instantly call him to repentance preaching the Gospel of Christ, rather
told him he wanted to live among them and was happy to become a servant helping
taking care of the King’s animals. In time, by doing an exceptional job helping
the King where he needed help, the way was opened up for him to preach and did so
with incredible success. On the other hand
his brothers tried the direct approach and ended up in jail
But,
our initial capital of $4,273 was disappearing—but the traveling movie $500 loss over 6
months was covered by the first donation from Salt Lake City's Highland
High School LDS Seminary, directed by my old friend, Weston Killpack.
But, to support the family, I needed quickly to find a piece of land, have a
vegetable/fruit garden, and get a business started that would support us.
OF
GREAT IMPORTANCE: The spirit of Cine
Chapinlandia lived on for all our years in Guatemala, showing many movies,
in many places, to instruct, and entertain.
Eventually we produced our own educational videos to awaken, inspire and
enhance the lives of all as explained in item #25
describing the showing of the movie, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to 10,000
people all around the country. This was
done in schools, chapels of many churches, hospitals, jails, groups of
Alcoholics Anonymous, and even in EL
PAVON—the Federal Penitentiary. In
the beginning, this included movies educating the public about the menace of
communism—which was one of my purposes, as mentioned in the Preface referring
to Ezra Taft Benson as one of THE TWELVE STRONG.
2. THE 1st COMMERCIAL
POULTRY FARM IN NORTHERN GUATEMALA –Granja La Cabana located on the outskirts of San
Juan Chamelco, 30 minutes south of Coban.
Gossiped about as our "2nd FAILURE."
Note: Somewhere in
the History Summaries I talk about and quote a friend who
visited us and
told us about all the "failure" gossip. See item #12.
My search for some land for a
garden and an agro-business to support us abruptly ended on December
5th when just such an opportunity presented itself by a "Captain
Penny" from Florida who had just bought a 50 acre
farm in San Juan Chamelco, 30 minutes south of Coban.
It had a few laying hens ready to
produce, but then due to an emergency Captain Penny had to sell the farm
quickly and return to the U.S.
His hobby was orchids that he
determined its worldwide capital to be Alta Verapaz and had purchased a
property in his Shangri-la.
We took over, and quickly learned
about poultry, doubling the production, only to
learn no one in Coban
wanted our white eggs—famous then for
very pale yolks. I made an emergency trip to the city and with poultry
suppliers, I had already come to know, found a solution—mixing an additive to the feed and producing dark
orange yolks and tasty eggs. After breaking our eggs open in front of
potential customers, contracts were made for all our eggs.
A bonus from the family business
in Provo, Utah, Andersen Sampler's & Consulting Service, due
to work I had done prior to leaving for Guatemala, made possible more than
doubling again the production with 1,000 chicks, and creating what was called
the
The First Poultry Farm in
Northern Guatemala,
By the time our 1,000 chicks had
grown and come into production it was the beginning of the rainy season when
all the Indians planted their corn and corralled their chickens to keep them
from eating the new plants. This caused
many to get sick, and without foraging their production dropped leaving us as
the only provider of eggs in the area, with people every afternoon lining up in
front of our store for me to come with
the eggs, and in 30 minutes we were sold out every day.
Our STORE was in the front of our rental home in
Coban, 30 minutes north of the Farm. In the picture: Julie, then Rich in my arms, in
Maria’s arms, Joey, our first Guatemalan baby born on January 2, 1968, then
David and Cristina.
Note: As a "Rodeo
Clown" and also a sort of nutty Don Quijote kind of guy,
I was soon known--humorously to me as—the
"POULTRY
EXPERT"
in a vast area of Guatemala.
My
only previous experience was….here comes a confession, when
moving to Utah in 1952, with my new teenage buddies from the
Oakhills II Ward, we stole a chicken one dark night, took it to my girl
friend's house (Janet Beck) where she cooked it for us--it was awful! NOTE: By the
way, after becoming a convert I repented of having done that!
MANUEL HAD A SERIOUS
ALCOHOLISM PROBLEM &
WANTED “the pill” TO
SOLVE IT
For the first two months at the
Farm we continued every other week with the traveling movie and Manuel had to
be totally responsible, including daily taking the egg production on the
bus to our store. Maria informed me that
sometimes it was Julia who brought the eggs.
Something was wrong and one Sunday I found him drunk with Julia trying
hard to do all of his work. We had a
serious talk and I gave him one more chance to get control of his life. He failed and according to my word he was to
be fired.
He came to me still drunk and
cried like a baby begging me to give him “the pill” he assumed Rodas and me
took to keep us from drinking.
I told him the “pill” was found
in my faith in Jesus Christ and being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He said he wanted to learn, so I began giving him and Julia lessons and there was a positive response and all went well.
ANOTHER AMAZING COINCIDENCE AMONG MANY
For the litter in our chicken coops,
we used the dry coffee shell, called “cascabillo” we would get for free at the coffee
beneficiaries. At the one we went to on the
outskirts of Coban, I would work with the workers there to fill and load bags that
weighed around 150 lbs. Among the Indian workers there was a young man 17 years
old who looked more European. He was Miguel
Angel Ortiz Rossi, of Italian descent, called in Guatemala a “Ladino, “ but he was
different working hard alongside Indian workers as friends.
We came to know him, and even invited
him to Church in Coban and he came. But all
of a sudden he and his mother moved to Guatemala City. I told him whenever he returned he would be welcome
at Valparaiso we had during that period become owners.
He would a year or so later appear
at Valparaiso when I had lost my manager, Alfredo Rodas, to serious sickness and
wasn’t expected to live. I was struggling
to manage everything without knowing the Pokomchi/Maya language. Miguel became my partner in training as a Vocational
Student, learning from me how to work with poultry, hogs, cattle, and do accounting.
We managed the plantation together as luckily
again, as had been the case with Alfredo Rodas, he was originally from San Cristobal
and he spoke Pokomchi. He is seen in the first “Mob” picture with our Joey
in his arms.
A year later when 18 I made him the manager. He would be with us for two critical periods.
FARM SOLD
TO CONSOLIDATE ALL EFFORTS AT VALPARAISO
By February we had the good
fortune of acquiring the VALPARAISO PLANTATION and so for the
next 6 months I would travel back and forth—The Farm 30 minutes south of Coban
on one dirt road, and the Plantation one hour west on the rough road that was
the “Highway” to Guatemala City, and
I became too divided. Everything we were doing at the farm we could do at
Valparaiso even more efficiently—and we were already preparing to do it having
built during those months chicken coops at Valparaiso, so in September 1968 I
sold the poultry farm for the same amount spent on it. Manuel and Julia wanted to go with us to Valparaiso
which they did and there they lived in the Central House and he took charge of
the poultry.
OUT OF THE SUPPOSED “failed farm” WE
GOT THE FOLLOWING:
You can decide…..Was this a failure?
1.) Effectively supporting us for 10 months;
2.) Giving us an incredible education in all aspects of
agriculture in Guatemala, for example planting our first wonderful vegetable
garden in Guatemala….at the farm in deep black soil.
For example, each red potato
plant produced an average of 7 lbs. of potatoes, averaging 1 lb. for each potato,
etc.
3.) Becoming acquainted intimately with the people of Coban and the quirks of marketing in rural Guatemala;
as well as
4.)
in the Journal of
Bacteriology a report on the Andersen Sampler
and was getting tons of inquiries from all over the world. We established
the family partnership,
fighting
all the vulgarity and immorality surrounding me in the Army, I found a way to
turn it around and “next to my mission experience it became to that time
the greatest experience of my life.” It was so much that way that
afterwards I was used by Church leaders to speak to youth groups and help
prepare them for having positive experiences in the Military.
Then we made a visit
to the home of the most outstanding LDS family, the family of Branch President Pablo Choc, his home
seen on the right—with dirt floor, soot blackened interior from the open
cooking fire, etc. Sister Choc, we see in the picture, along with the
older daughter to the right, were both killed in the 1976 earthquake, when the
adobe walls were instantly turned to dust, with the heavy roof of timbers and
tiles crushing our friends.
The old chapel, on 1st West & 4th North, had an
altar—like the ones in the temples, and I would kneel at that altar and pour my
soul out to the Lord for greater
understanding and strength I needed and 
modified
interior. I installed overload springs,
and got tough Michelin tires that would withstand heavy loads. Then began acquiring other equipment we would
need for our first project in Guatemala:
4 - 16mm. movie projectors, a public address system, 2 large 9’ x
12’ professional movie screens, 3 – portable generators, etc.
and claimed to love. 
San Cristobal.
We see to the to the right a portion of their home. I had got to know them well on my 3rd
exploratory trip when, after getting the photographs Garth Norman needed at the
Izapa site near Tapachula, Mexico, I had continued to Coban and spent a couple
of weeks investigating actually telling people I intended to publish an article
for the National Geographic Magazine. I
had previously contacted the NG Society and they had expressed interest in my
proposal. So I got into all kinds of
places.
years! 
"with my tail
between my legs," I felt strongly there was purpose in it, and
believed I had to have a heart to heart talk with mom and dad. 
One
of those 10 became an astounding experience when fishing with top-water
lures the large-mouth black bass all of a sudden erupted out of the
water in a spectacular leap and came down with mouth wide open on the
lure and the fight was on, becoming one of the great fishing experiences
of my life!
experience, Enrique Rittscher, who invited us to stay in one of his apartments
while doing business in the city--visiting a lawyer to get the process started
to get a Permanent Resident Visa, getting the duty paid on the pickup, etc.
SIXTH, C. JESS GROESBECK
the modern era of the
Foundation. Of course he became my
professor in computer science, and with unbelievable patience has helped me
do the impossible over the years with the computer. 
