"Author, Author...."

Most of you have already heard this story, but it's too good not to repeat.

Last month as I was taking my home teaching companion home after we had made a visit, I stopped in at their condo (which is in our complex) and visited with him and his wife, Betty, for a few minutes.  During our visit talk turned to Christmas and she started telling me how she always tries to find a good book to send to each of their 14 married grandchildren.  She mentioned that she had attended a family home evening group recently and one of the sisters reviewed a book she really liked and recommended it to the group.

Betty picked up a Deseret Book Store catalog, opened to the page where the book was advertised.  She pointed to the ad for "I'm Not Perfect..." and said "Do you know anything about this book?"  I said "Yes; in fact I have a copy of it."  "Well," she asked, "it was written for youth but Sister W. (the home evening reviewer) said she thought adults would find it interesting, too. Do you think it would?"
"Oh, I'm sure they would.  As a matter of fact, I know the author."
"You do?"
"Yes, he just lives over in South Jordan."
"Sister W. said he was a seminary teacher."
"That's right; he's also my grandson."

I wish you could have seen the look on Betty's face.  "Your GRANDSON wrote this book.?"
"Yes. He has co-authored a couple of others, too."
"Well, that settles it.  I'm going to buy copies of this book for all 14 my grandchildren."

Then I sort of stuck my neck out.  "Would you like him to autograph them?", I asked.
"Would he do that?"
"I can gaurantee you he would."
"All of them?"
"Yes.  In fact, if you'd like I'll bet he would even put the names of each family in their books."
"Oh, that would be great!!"

So, we left it at that.

After sharing this story with Shirley, I called Tony and told him what I had committed him to.  He readily agreed to do everything I had promised.

About three weeks went by.  No word from Sister M. (Betty).  Then last Thursday she called and said "Are you going to be home for a while? I have fifteen copies of that book to be signed."  She and Ron brought the box of books over to our condo and the four of us visited for two hours.

That evening I called Tony and he said he would drop by after work on Friday, which he did.  We called Ron and Betty and told them we were on our way to bring the books back to them.

"Already???"

We took Tony with us and they got a chance to meet him.  One of their daughters and her husband were there too, so Betty and I had a great time telling them the whole story behind buying the books.

All in all, quite a nice experience.

Thank you, Tony, for being so gracious.

Oh --the fifteenth copy was for Ron and Betty.