One of the Joys of Finally Being an Adult

One thing that I noticed when I got back from my mission was the difference in the stories that I heard from my parents. All of a sudden, it seemed that I was seeing a side of them that I had imagined was there, but it was never confirmed to me. We sort of moved past the parent phase (though still there) and moved toward the friendship mode, as I was now an adult. My parents were now willing to tell me their secret stories. Just the other night I had the chance to recount some stories about my dad, and they just made me laugh when I considered the man who helped raise me! Here are some examples. Enjoy!

My dad was a little bit more rebellious and daring than I ever dared imagine, even with things that we consider sacred. He has told me of at least four moments of when he either messed with the sacrament or the meeting.
1) He and his friends always knew that a certain family they wanted to tease would sit in the same seat every Sunday. As teachers preparing the sacrament they decided to put Styrofoam in one bread tray and place it on the table so that the deacons would take it to that family. Well, the priests saw the odd tray and switched it so that it would go to the bishop. Cover blown.
2) We have all seen how the priests will sit back down into the bench when they are finished handing out the sacrament; they just sit down and fall backwards into the back of the bench. My dad masterminded the decision to remove the bolts holding the bench to the floor. Needless to say, just as soon as the sacrament was handed out the priests sat down and all three of them fell backward with a loud crash. Again, my dad was pinpointed as the ring leader.
3) Quick and short: to keep people more awake, they put sprite in the sacrament cups. Talk about a little shock when you take the water!
4) My dad was sitting out with his friend in the audience during the sacrament. My dad was awake, but his friend was completely out of it. While the bishop was finishing conducting and outlining the remaining portion of the meeting, my dad poked his friend and told him the bishop had just called on him to give the closing prayer. Still coming out of his sleep, he just walked up to the front and took the pulpit when the bishop finished, not having listened to what was going on, and closed the meeting with prayer. The ward was shocked, but the he bishop got up and explained that the important thing was taking the sacrament, and with that accomplished and the meeting closed, they would ask the speakers come back next week and dismissed the ward for their other meetings. And then asked for a meeting with my dad over the pulpit:)

He would have never told me those things, for fear that I would repeat them. Now one last story about my dad. (This one I was present for).

He was the assistant coach of my little league baseball team. He was also a bishop at the time. One game we were playing was not quite going our way and the umpire had definitely started to hate our head coach. Well, at one moment it looked like our head coach was for sure going to get kicked out. However, my dad had a meeting that he had to go to during the game. If our head coach got kicked out, he would have to stay, because there must always be at least one coach on the field. This also meant that only one coach could be kicked out.

So my dad ran up to our coach and took him back to the dugout and then somehow got all riled up and just came out yelling at the ump and doing his best to get kicked out. I remember just sitting back stunned watching my dad yell and scream and throw his hat on the ground like Lou Pinella! It was great. As soon as the hat touched the ground the ump threw him out of the game. He yelled a little more, ran to the dugout, grabbed his stuff, looked at me and smiled as he ran to the car. He did that so he could leave for his meeting!

Hopefully the stories are half as funny for you as they are for me!