Happy Birthday Rick and Stan!!

I thought I'd share some Stan stories for their birthdays. With Stan gone we don't celebrate together anymore. Have a great day,Rick.
Stan, or Grandpa was born in Alaska but moved to the lower 48 at about 6 weeks old. One of his favorite stories about when he was young was the visit to the zoo. Back then they had only short fences and a deep ditch around the animal cages. Stan was about 4 years old and wanted to see the bears a little closer up, and being a very active boy just climbed over the fence and was contemplating the ditch. Other visitors began gasping and screaming but Stan's Mom knew her little boy. She turned her back and said, "Come along, Stanley, let's go get an ice cream cone." He immediately jumped back over the fence and the rest of the visitors breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Have you heard his conversion story? Stan decided to hitch hike to Utah where his good friend was attending BYU. He arrived late in the afternoon and no one was home at the apartment. He just went in and went to sleep. He stayed with them for awhile and some were returned missionaries. They answered questions for him but weren't pushy--His parents had read about the Mormon Church from some anti books from the Library and didn't want him to learn about it.
In the Spring of his senior year in High school he was in a motorcycle accident and was seriously injured--unconscious for awhile-- and they were still concerned about brain damage. Now he had come to Utah and was making some of his own decisions. In the spring when some of the boys went on missions and some went home for the summer, He began living with a family in Provo and their son was soon to leave on a mission. They invited him to listen to the first lesson and he accepted. But then he didn't want to hear more. He took some classes at BYU and got a job working on a church house that was under construction. He kept thinking about what he had heard in the lesson and from his friends. Finally he accepted the invitation to pray about the things he had heard. He hadn't wanted to do that because he kind of knew what the answer would be. But seeing no one around, he knelt in the ditch he was digging at the church and he told me his prayer came out, "Heavenly Father, What do you want me to do about what I've been learning?" And the answer came, "Be baptized." So he resumed taking the lessons and told his folks that he was going to be baptized. They weren't happy but couldn't do much.The son of the family he was staying with baptized him on his 20th birthday.
A year later he was called on a mission. A good family with all girls decided to support him on his mission. He told me that soon after he arrived in his first area, He thought he was sick. He'd suffered from asthma all his life and felt that his lungs were burning and that the asthma was acting up. But one day he was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants about testimony and the burning in your bosom and realized that he was experiencing the Holy Ghost witnessing to him that what he was doing was right. The peace that came from that experience let him know that it wasn't asthma, and the testimony he received helped him as he taught others. He was able to testify boldly and many people felt the spirit and accepted the Gospel and Baptism.

I hope all of you will remember his testimony and the trial of his faith. And remember his birthday. Happy Birthday, both Stan and Rick.