16 Nov. 2022 Week #7 Bonus: A little more about the Peters

Dear Family and Friends, 

Bonus Week #7

Because of correspondence with Burke I have some more to share. But first I want to share a couple of pictures we took in the north part of Panay. When we went to the turnover in the mountains a little ways out of Roxas we had an extra 30 minutes to go to some water falls. It was pretty so I thought I would share.













Burke told me a cool story related to the Peters couple that worked for him in Nebraska. I had heard part of this story before and Tami is aware of some of it also. The couple in this story, Jean and Harry Younkins, lived in Tami’s ward. Burke sent me these two pieces in two separate emails as I asked a question.

Glad you got to meet the Peters. There’s a very interesting story about how Elaine got my (very non-member) office manager to attend church by having her accompany the kids for the Primary program, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas program. When Jean tried to not come anymore, Elaine told her they surely needed her to play for the children singing time. Jean said she thought that was only for special occasions. Elaine said something to the effect of “I thought you knew by now that every Sunday here is a special occasion” to which Jean said OK, I’ll be here next Sunday. (Elaine didn’t even know that Jean could play piano—and she plays very well—but kept complaining to Jean about how she needed an accompanist because of the difficulty in using recordings when she just needed to practice one part of the song.) Shortly thereafter Harry, Jean’s husband and one of my very good foremen, got two returned missionary interns from USU. They got Jean reading the BoM which is another interesting story. But very long story short, Jean was baptized and is, to this day, very active in the church and doing tons of genealogy and temple work. She and Harry moved to Star Valley after retirement and Harry joined the church, another amazing story, just a little over a year before he died of cancer. They were able to be sealed in the Logan temple before Harry died. Mitch and Elaine can take a lot of credit for getting that ball rolling—especially Elaine. She and Jean just clicked from the get-go—like they were good friends from the pre-existence. Tami knows Jean who has remarried a widower and is now Jean Merritt.

One thing that perhaps ought to be added is that the Peters and the Younkins were taking turns hosting each other for Sunday dinner after church—before Jean ever started going to church. It was at those times that Elaine would complain about not having an accompanist for the kids. She never saw Jean’s piano which was in her bedroom. When Jean finally volunteered to help, Elaine suggested that she come to church a little early so she could see and practice the music. Jean told Elaine to just bring the music to her and she would practice right there. That’s when Elaine learned about the piano in the bedroom. Jean immediately became the pianist for the branch meetings in addition to the Primary singing time.


Thanks, Burke, that is a cool story.


With love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda