One day, to my surprise, my Dad came to get me out of class and tell me that we had a new baby brother. I was able to announce it to my class and help in the choice of names. Both Mom and Dad called from the hospital when we had returned home and gave us the names of Joal and Brooke to choose from. We misunderstood and thought the second name was Brick, so my second brother was named Joal Ellis Curtis [a combination of my parent's names, JoAnn and Hal].
The third grade brought with it many wonderful experiences, the greatest of which had to be my baptism. My family had been preparing me for years before and with the help of teachers and a bishop's interview, I felt prepared. President Williams of the Stake Presidency often told a story of our Sunday School class taught by his daughter. After her lesson, she saw Noel and I standing on chairs to see out the ground floor windows to watch the rain. It was raining hard and Noel said, "It's raining so hard that we could never stop it", and I said, "We could if we had enough faith". I must have been listening to the lesson that day.
So I was ready for baptism. The Stake baptismal font was found in the Third Ward house on 4th North and Orchard Drive. My father was there to perform the ordinance and I remember coming out of the water feeling clean and worthy only to be disappointed a few hours later finding out that I still could do things wrong. The next day I was even more disappointed to see that I didn't feel some great change as I was given the [Gift of the] Holy Ghost. That ordinance was performed in the Bountiful Tabernacle. I bore my testimony the same day but remember that I would bear the same testimony almost every month. Because of the praise I received from my first feeble attempt I couldn't help but try again and again. As I grew older, I realized that there was more to a testimony than what one sees and hears, so I limited my participation to only those occasions when my words would contribute to the meeting. I worry now that my Ward hears from me too little.
As I gained more confidence I ventured into the field of music and gave my best to singing. Mom was asked to be the choir leader and soon she had a youth choir as well. I suppose that my singing was as full of energy and vigor as my other activities, but I must have needed some refining. Mom was preparing a musical number and wanted the sweet innocent voice of a child to solo a short verse. Even with all my pleading she found another voice with what she called "a more refined quality". I overcame that disappointment and improved to the point where I was asked to be part of the Stake Children's Choir and was chosen out of that crowd of voices to sing in the Primary Session of the 1966 April Conference. We would meet at the stake and later in regions to practice the songs they asked us to sing. I was asked to sing alto and succeeded only because I sat around many strong and talented voices. That spring conference day they let me out of school early so that we could get there early and have one short rehearsal in that great hall. I was overcome by the size of those organ pipes that had always fit so nicely on our T.V. screen. We all were big-eyed for the practice but by the time conference was aired we had voices and smiles to match.
Our third-grade teacher was Mrs. Lewis. She always allowed us to do projects of our own choice. She would also be quick to give praise and support. I remember that during one of these sessions I had the most wonderful idea. I took all the colored paper I could get my hands ... Next Page
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