Where it all started

When we went to Provo and Orem to see where the Florida Thompsons got started, everything had changed. The Joaquin school and the basement apartment I lived in on 600 N kitty corner from the Manavoo Chapel while I was in fourth grade were gone. The Joseph Smith Building where I finally met Mom to start our courtship was gone. However, I can show you where "the bright yellow vision" took place. This was the Language Training Mission (LTM) for German missionaries where I taught 1964-1967. See, I'm even wearing my official teaching clothes.


It was locked so we couldn't get in to show Caroly coming down the winding grand stairway in her bright yellow dress, catching my eye like an angel descending from heaven. Her Spanish district was temporarily meeting in our building. I remember my moment of joy replaced by despair as I thought I was doomed to eternal bachelorhood since all the beautiful girls my age were heading off on missions.


Since the old Joseph Smith Auditorium is no more, I can't show you the aisle at church where my angel returned three years later, this time in turquoise. But here are Uncle Oren and Aunt Burnie Powell who hid her away in Salt Lake City while she did her student teaching. "He who hesitates is lost" kept flashing through my mind. God had given me a six week head start to win Caroly's heart before the missionaries returning from her mission could find her and try to win her affections.


Here's the Salt Lake Tabernacle where the day before we were married we sat with our extended families listening to the Tabernacle Choir broadcast. When it was over, we turned around and there immediately behind me was Carole, the great cook with one blue and one green eye who had been in hot pursuit when angel Caroly returned from heaven, making one last try to claim me. At 7 a.m. the next morning June 12 Caroly and I were married in the temple you see in the background. We took Wendy and Debbie to see the room after doing a session.


This is the first house we lived in after our honeymoon at the University of Michigan summer school. We lived on the upper floor. We found this house in Orem just before I left Mom for a six week stay in Guatemala to do linguistic fieldwork with the Cakchiquel Indians. We brought back three Cakchiquels to work on translating the Book of Mormon. Two of them stayed with us in the bedroom you can see to the right over the porch. This was Carrie's first house. It's also the place that had little mice scurrying around as Mom's pets while I was in Guatemala and had flies living in the walls all winter. That's when we decided that we are thoroughly modern in our housing preferences. I believe this is the corner of 800 South and 800 East.


This is the small chapel several blocks down the street that we went to and where Carrie was blessed. Our first calling was to jointly teach the 14 year olds--a wild bunch we learned later, but we and they both thrived. I also taught the priest's quorum. It's the oldest chapel in Orem. Several wards met here while we built a new stake center a block from our house.