On leaving Wymount

Dad asked us to reflect upon the value of our Wymount experience and share those reflections with the family. I think the answer to what Wymount did for me is found in answer to another question Dad asked a few hours later: what is it that makes Colleen Jeffery a saint?

Colleen has two little boys, Joseph and jacob, who are the sweetest, best behaved, most polite boys around. They are only fourteen months apart, and Colleen is running the very happy, gospel-centered home in which she's raising them on a very small budget which doesn't really have a great prospect of increasing. Colleen doesn't complain or bemoan this situation; she whole-heartedly heeds the counsel our church leaders have issued not to worry about the size of your husband's income, just worry about living within it joyfully.

Though in my mind this consecration to home and family alone would make her a saint, Colleen's sainthood doesn't stop there. Having majored in some field which focuses on family, Colleen is basically an expert at parenting. Instead of shoring this knowledge up to herself, Colleen has bettered all of our parenting both by formal instruction and by non-intrusive example. I have heard many, many parents in the ward, especially parents of toddlers, use phrases and methods of discipline which they learned from Colleen. Colleen has even gone so far as to care part-time for the daughter of a working mother in our ward, a role she fills as though this little girl was her own.

Even with these attributes and actions to her credit, Colleen yet does more. She is always taking meals to new mothers or sick or stressed sisters. She takes desperate moms' kids outside to play so her harried sisters in the gospel can have a break. She is always first arrived at any Relief Society activity to offer her services at the piano or to set-up. She is always a few minutes late leaving, after helping clean-up and taken down. She recognizes any small service she can perform and quietly performs it.

All these elements taken together--and I do not doubt but that there are myriad more which I don't see--seal Colleen a saint in my mind. But what makes the Wymount experience so meaningful is that it is full of Colleen Jefferies. Wymount houses Angela Kohlers, examples of impetuous, constant generosity. It houses Ginger Bloomfields, examples of the joy and serenity to be found in consecrating oneself to building a home. It houses Marli McNivens, whose service is so quiet yet extensive, one only knows of it when she's the recipient. It houses the Kate Ballards, whose undaunted optimism and unmitigated trust in the Savior could be a school master for apostles. And the list goes on and on.

In Mosiah 18, Mormon recounts the conversion of the people who followed Alma. In verse 30, Mormon comments

And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

Wymount taught me what it means to live as a Latter-day Saint. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to confrom to the ideal held up by my associates there, but I will always look back to the examples in that place for guidance in reaching that ideal. How beautiful is Wymount in my eyes for the knowledge to which I came during my time there. I would certainly wish such an experience upon anyone.