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away from other family members, we’d be moving into an area with
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into an area where our children would have little opportunity to associ-
ate with LDS kids. I feared that their membership and feeling about the
Church could become very tenuous. My maternal great-grandparents
had joined the Church while living on Cape Cod, about forty miles away
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and relatives and a comfortable living situation in order to move to the
unknown west in order to live with LDS Church members – to “build
Zion.” Jean and I knelt beside our bed in Cambridge to ask the Lord’s
guidance in making our decision about accepting the job. It was, per-
haps, the most agonizing decision I have ever faced in my life. Was I
selling out for a higher income what my great-grandparents had sacri-
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With this background, you may possibly understand how ter-
ribly torn I was. Aboard the plane returning to San Francisco I received
the most amazing experience of my entire life. I was silently praying
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voice said, “My son, peace be unto thy soul. Thy prayers have been
heard.” The voice then went on to tell me that if I decided to move east
it would be satisfactory. I was also told if I chose to remain in the west,
things would work out satisfactorily. I did not recognize the voice. If a
voice from heaven were to speak to me, I would expect it to be my Dad,
whom I dearly loved and who loved me. My Mother had taught me to
pray when faced with problems and I had done so throughout my life. I
was troubled because if I were to receive personal counsel from heaven,
I would expect to receive direct counsel to make one choice or the other.
As a result, I was still unsure of what to do. Perhaps I should add that I
was not asleep or dreaming and I do not hallucinate – I did hear a voice
from heaven, as surprising to me it was then and remains now.

I returned to work at Chevron Research and told them frankly
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I had recognized the danger to my career of telling Chevron people that
I was considering taking a job with another company, there seemed to
be no particular reaction on their part. About a week later I was told
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