9. Bringing Order Out of Chaos

A report on the clean-up effort following the June 5, 1976, Teton Dam disaster in eastern Idaho, as reported in the September 1976 issue of the Cleverly Newsletter.

A hand-scribbled sign on the wall of the Rexburg Idaho North Stake center reads: “Let’s bring order out of chaos the priesthood way.” And that’s what thousands of faithful, dedicated Rexburg Saints are trying to do, assisted by millions of man-hours of labor donated by thousands of other Saints from southern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northern Utah.

On Thursday, July 8, I took a day off work to go with some 260 others from our stake to help in the great clean-up effort. We left at 3:45 in the morning on six chartered buses and arrived back in Salt Lake at midnight, very tired, but very grateful to have been able to serve our Idaho brethren.

It was sobering to see the destruction, the utter dirty mess that was still around in the north and west parts of Rexburg, and to realize that a full month had passed since the flood.

I helped a man whose jewelry store still needed more cleaning. Mud was everywhere. He was one of the fortunate storekeepers. He had lost only his entire inventory and his home; he still had his family and his faith in the gospel and his shop. He was optimistic and grateful.

What we were helping do on that day was also being done on other days by volunteers from scores of other stakes—an excellent example of how the Saints can bring order out of chaos the priesthood way.

Elder Boyd K. Packer said that “it is not without probability that all of us will face challenges such as this in the generation ahead and that this is a suiting up and a preparing for all of us” (Ensign, Aug. 1976, 70).

3. Lessons from Our Children

A final thought written by Claudia in the March 1974 Cleverly Newsletter. Michael at the time was five or six months old.

Elder Boyd K. Packer once said the only significant lessons he has learned in life have been taught by his children. I too find Michael Adam is one of my best teachers. I would like to share something I've learned from him just over the past two or three weeks.

A couple of weeks ago he learned how to roll over from his stomach to his back. To watch him struggle though just tore my heart out. He wasn't sure what he was doing—it was all so new to him—and sometimes he would get so frustrated at his struggles. I wanted so much to pick him up myself and turn him over—to save all that trouble and heartache—but I knew I couldn't. The struggles made him strong, and he couldn't learn if I did it for him.

It occurred to me one day while I was watching him try that our earth life is but a type and shadow of eternity, a testing ground, and that parents have a very similar relationship to their children as our Heavenly Father has to us. With all this in mind, it came to me that the Lord watches over us too and sees our struggles. But like parents here on earth He sometimes has to just let us struggle so we can learn more effectively through our experience and grow stronger.

"Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee over all thy foes" (D&C 121:7-8).

How well the Lord has said it. And realizing my own love for Michael Adam, I now have a deeper understanding of the Lord's love for us and of why He gives us trials and tribulations. I am very grateful for these things and for a loving Father who would care to give us these learning experiences that we might grow.