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| Bonner's Ferry, Idaho |
At midnight, the alarm clock in the
room where we were staying went off. I
got up and shut it off. I used my phone
as a flashlight to shut it down. I
noticed that I had received an email from a friend from Casa Grande. One of my good friends from my younger years had suddenly died.
This was a shock. I lay in bed for a while, thinking about her, unable to believe that she was gone.
I finally went to sleep, and then I woke up early.
I took a shower, and, when I got
out, there was a text from Nate, inviting us over for breakfast. We got ready and then packed up the car. It was a chilly, frosty morning.
We drove to Nathan’s house. He has such a beautiful view from his place
that I took a couple of pictures. (Seen above.)
We went in for breakfast. I visited with the wives for a while. I really like them.
After breakfast, I hopped into the
truck with Nate and his son, Vaughn, and my father-in-law followed us. We drove to the Canadian border, which was
just a few miles away. We got to the
checkpoint, and all of the border guards know who the people in Bountiful are. He asked Nate what his business was in
Canada, and Nate answered, “We’re going to see Winston.”
When they learned that I was
visiting from Arizona, they started grilling us with questions. They asked when we were leaving, and I said
that I wasn’t sure. Either Sunday or Monday. Nate later told me that this was why they
detained us for so long, that I needed to be up front with them and give direct
answers. They directed us to pull over,
and we waited for about fifteen minutes until they let us go on in into Canada.
My first time in Canada!
We drove to Bountiful, which is
just a few miles from the border. It is
beautiful, nestled in a narrow valley up against the tall mountains. Nate drove us on a brief tour of Bountiful. He showed us the school, which is broken down
into several smaller buildings to avoid permit problems. He showed us their chapel, where Vaughn is
the sound technician. The community is
shared with the Warrenites, or people belonging to the FLDS. It is not
like Centennial Park, or even like out at the my community, where there is a physical
separation between the factions. They
all live in the same neighborhood. You
can tell the home of the Warrenites, because they have high fences and trashy yards. We would drive past Warrenites, and Nate would mutter about whether or not they would say hi. He said that he has family in Colorado City,
like his mother. They can’t even visit
with him, because it will get them in trouble with the priesthood leadership.
I have to admit – there was a lot
of tension and an oppressive feeling in the community.
We stopped briefly to see my friend. He came out of his house,
barefoot, to see us. We saw the rest of
the family. We went in, and he took my father-in-law aside for a little but to speak in private.
Winston contacted Nate and told him to bring us down for lunch. My friend was invited, too, but he
didn’t show up.
We went to Winston’s house, which
was enormous, like an apartment complex.
He had a separate building with an enormous kitchen and dining
room. He has wives that work full time in
there. It is like an industrial kitchen,
and they make 17 loaves of bread a day.
We sat with Winston, and we ate
turkey sandwiches with avocado on homemade bread, raw milk, and peaches. It was good.
Earlier, Nate had invited me to
ride with him and Winston to Cranbrook, a nearby community, on business. It would give me a chance to see a bit more
of British Columbia. I was looking
forward to it. During lunch, Winston
invited us out to ride with him to Cranbrook, so that we could talk more.
My father-in-law declined, saying that we were
here for the benefit of our friends. I looked at him
in disbelief. We have a chance to have a
discussion with this dynamic character, and he declines? When he saw my look, he decided to
accept. But he said that he would go,
and my brother-in-law and I would stay and visit the our friends. This upset me, too. So the “adults” go and talk, and the “kids”
stay at home. I know this is the way my father-in-law sees things. But I really felt like I
should have been in on any discussions with Winston. I was relegated to the status of unimportant,
and Winston didn’t take me seriously after that. I felt marginalized. This made me a bit angry.
As we got up from the table, Nate told me, “I guess you got bumped.”
They left, and my brother-in-law and I hopped
in with Vaughn. He drove us around the
community, including taking us to see the rodeo grounds. I got more information from Vaughn than I did
anyone else.
I asked him if they live United
Order. They don’t. All of the land is owned UEP Trust. If the state of Utah hadn’t appointed a
fiduciary to oversee the trust, they would have been in trouble. Warren Jeffs could have told them to leave, and
then they would have been without homes.
They do several work projects together, help each other build homes. But one of the downsides is that they can
only do work projects until they run out of money. Then they have to wait to get money, and it
seems that once funds come in that they move onto other projects, leaving
previous endeavors unfinished. The homes
of Winston’s followers are clean, whereas the FLDS homes are junky and littered
with trash. They don’t appreciate their
stewardship.
I asked him if they do
endowments. He said that they
don’t. They really don’t know much about
that and have enough on their plate trying to live their lives as simply as
they can. Maybe someday they will
receive those things.
Something unusual is going on in
the community. There are other visitors
in the community this weekend from Salt Lake.
They are members of the Ivan Nielsen/ Frank Naylor group, a breakoff
from Centennial Park. One of Winston’s
daughters was marrying someone from that group.
It was the first intergroup marriage.
The only stipulation was that Winston was the one to perform the
marriage.
I told Vaughn, “One of the issues
facing our young people is that there is no one for them to marry. They are all related, so in order to get
married they are going to have to go outside to find someone.”
“Exactly,” answered Vaughn. “Winston may have many children, but there is
no one here for them to marry. The way I
see things, if you believe in Christ, and we believe in Christ, there is no
reason that our communities can’t come together.”
This really struck me. I understood why we were there. Winston is a very confident man who does not
perceive himself as needing anything.
But there is an opportunity before him, if he will accept it. Given his prejudices, he will probably not
accept it, but it is a chance before him nonetheless. What do we have to offer? The ordinances. The fullness of the priesthood. What does Winston have? Sons and daughters for our children. I felt the Spirit strongly that this was the
case. I was very glad at this point that
I stayed and had this conversation with Vaughn.
I was amazed to see that the Lord had brought us here.
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| Winston Blackmore |
I saw signs on some of the houses
about water contamination, so I requested that we go into town to get some
bottled water. Vaughn drove us to
Creston, and we went to a grocery store and bought a flat of water. My brother-in-law had a silly grin on his face the whole
time and made it a point to inform the cashier that this was our first time in
Canada.
We went back to my friend’s
house and visited with his family. They
served us some homemade kambucha. It was my first time trying it, and it was pretty nasty.
We went out to the living room, and
then my father-in-law and Nate showed up. My father-in-law later
told me that it was a good visit. He
said that Winston had asked to know a bit about his perception of Joseph
Musser. He told my father-in-law that he appreciated
hearing his side of things. Winston told him that he refused to learn anything from someone who was less intelligent
than him. This made an impression on my father-in-law, because he kept mentioning this.
Our friends served us a dinner of barley
cooked like Boston baked beans with bread.
It was simple, but good. We said
goodbye to Nate and Vaughn, and our friends invited us to stay for their weekly
meeting. The kids all did parts, and it
was impressive how they not only recited, but had to explain how they
understood everything.
Our friend guided us over to a trailer owned by a man who was out of town. It was simple on the outside, but
very nice on the inside. There were many
huge ants crawling everywhere, though. I
was assigned a bed. We visited for a
while, and then I went to bed after plugging in all of my electronic
devices. I was exhausted.
This story will continue in one more installment.
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