Bill Wilson - Grandma Dot's Brother

Hello all,

I thought you might find an interesting connection in Elder Eyring's address in this morning's first session of General Conference just a few moments ago.

He was talking about feeling a witness and referenced two particular instances when he was a young man where he was present when stakes were created from districts. The first of those was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the second in Boston, Massachusetts (where he was attending Harvard Business School).

Elder Eyring said, "I was there when seeming ordinary men whom I knew well were called as stake presidents. I received a witness that they were called as servants and that I would be blessed by their callings. And they were lifted up to their callings."

The stake president that he referenced in Albuquerque was Bill Wilson, my mother's older brother. Uncle Bill was the first president of the Albuquerque stake. He wrote his life history which I have and tells remarkable stories about his experiences in the Church as a young missionary and in later years as a stake president. I have a copy ot that personal history. Here is an extract:

"The area made such good progress that the Brethren in Salt Lake City decided we should be made into a Stake. A conference was held in October of 1957. Brother Mark E. Petersen, Brother Delbert L. Stapley, and President Elggren came down to interview all of the people who would preside in the Stake. This would be a very large Stake, that went from Bluewater, about 110 miles West of us, to Taos, about 135 miles North, to Las Vegas, about the same distance away, and Los Alamos, about a hundred miles distant....

"The day they interviewed in Albuquerque, I was in bed with the flu. I got a telephone call from President Elggren along in the afternoon. He asked if I was able to come down to the Church for a short while, and I told him I could. I assumed from the call that they probably were going to make me a Bishop, so I didn't worry too much about the interview. I went down, was interviewed and came back home. A little later in the same afternoon the phone rang again, and they asked me if I couldcome back for another interview. I went back again. That night, I spent a very restless night, as did the rest of my family. I even woke Lu up once and told her that I dreamed I had been put in the Stake Presidency. She said, 'Oh, you just aren't feeling good. Go back to sleep.'

"About 6:00 A.M., or maybe even earlier, Rita came in (she was 13 at the time), and she woke me up and said, 'Dad, I had a dream last night, that they made you Stake President.' I told her to get back in bed and not worry about it any more, but I lay there waiting for the phone to ring, because by then I knew it was going to ring.

"About 6:45, the phone rang and it was President Elggren, and he asked if he and Brother Stapley and Brother Petersen could come up and interview my family. I told him it would be fine with me. He said they would come in about an hour. We rushed around getting the house in order for such an early visit from the General Authorities.

"First they interviewed Lu very thoroughly, then they interviewed the girls. (Uncle Bill had 3 daughters: KayLee, Rita and Ann). All the time they were inteviewing the family, Rita just sat and cried. After the interview was over, and they had asked me if I would be the new Stake President, Brother Petersen asked Rita why she had been crying, and she told him about her dream. He asked if she would in her own handwriting write down the dream exactly as she remembered it. She did this and it was sent to Salt Lake City, where it is now in the offices of the Church."

I was touched when I reread Uncle Bill's account of his calling.

There is another poignant story associated with this. Let me quote further from Uncle Bill's personal history:

"On November 10, 1980 Rita was taking Bill (her son and father's namesake) back to high school, and she had Heather with her. Heather was in the back seat of the van and Bill in the front seat. An Air Force boy ran a red light and hit Rita head on. It was a horrible wreck. It occurred about 12:30 during the day...Rita was very seriously hurt, and Bill and Heather were badly hurt, but not in critical condition."

Rita passed away 10 days later. She was 35 years old and the mother of five children. She was a devoted wife and mother and dedicated member of the Church.

The next time you run into Elder Eyring, you might ask him about Uncle Bill who apparently had an important influence on his life.

Love,
Dad/Bruce