A Lincoln County Friend . . .

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On Wednesday, October 22, we were invited to join the Area Presidency at a dinner with Elder Richard G. Hinckley and Sister Hinckley. (Yes, he is the son of Gordon B. Hinckley, former president of the Church.) Elder Hinckley was in the Philippines to check on the Missionary Training Center (MTC), which needs to be enlarged, and to visit the Cebu Temple site.

The MTC receives new missionaries not only from the Philippines, but from much of Southern and Eastern Asia – Pakistan, Mongolia, India, some from Hong Kong, and on and on. It is barely large enough to handle the 60 or 70 missionaries from the Philippines, so when others come, extra room is scarce. A remodeling was contemplated even before we came. Now we think it will actually start.

Visitors always like to see what is happening at the Cebu Temple. We have not been there since the ground breaking a year ago, but we have heard that it is progressing nicely. The contractor runs two working shifts.

But, back to the dinner. It turned out that Elder Edwards, the president of the Philippines Area, didn’t come because Sister Edwards was not feeling well. That left our group to only four couples. Elder Ko took charge (as typical), assigning who would sit where. When all the places were assigned, it turned out that Sister Roundy was next to Elder Hinckley, on his left, Sister Hinckley on his right.

As the dinner went on, and as you would expect, Elder Hinckley politely asked Sister Roundy where she was from. When she told him Pioche his face lit up, and he said that he knew about Pioche. He said he had cousins in Panaca and that he would visit with them almost every summer. (We knew he had cousins there because her best friend in high school, Terry Wadsworth – now Bleak, is President Hinckley’s niece.)

Elder Hinckley talked all about Panaca, whom he knew there, whom he could remember, and asked about many of them. When she said her name was Horlacher, he said, “Oh, I know that name . . . let me think.” Then he remembered the Horlacher Stop and Shop in Pioche. He remembered going to the store. (All of this would have been back in the late ‘50s, when he was a teenager.) He and Sister Roundy talked all about the neighborhood and the neighbors he remembered, people they both knew. He said he could remember the name “Tommy Horlacher,” but, unfortunately, he couldn't remember the face. He seemed to be elated that he had found someone who could share some memories of his younger-day. He and Sister Roundy turned out to be the best of friends. Elder Roundy was pleased too because Elder Hinckley mentioned several times that he knew some Roundys who were descendants of Shadrach Roundy. (Shadrach Roundy, of early Mormom Church fame, is Elder Roundy's third great grandfather.)

Elder Hinckley and Sister Hinckley told us about his father and mother and how they raised the kids. They talked about how they met and how President Hinckley often told jokes, how he was constantly remodeling the house. Sister Hinckley said her own father was not a member when then got married, but eventually was baptized – when he was something like 87 years old. President Hinckley told her father, “Well, you eventually made it, but it took you nearly a hundred years to do it.”

They told us how Sister Hinckley, his mother, made Christmas so special for all the grandkids. They told us about the many travels his parents had made. He told us that he once accompanied his father to the Swiss Temple when they were preparing it for dedication. They talked about how lonesome his father was after his mother passed away. They shared with us about the day President Hinckley died.

The dinner was a pleasant two hours. Unfortunately, none of us brought a camera, so no pictures. We'll cherish the memories.