Peeking at All Those Presents Sitting Under the Christmas Tree

Peeking at All Those Presents Sitting Under the Christmas Tree
Have any of you peeked in advance at a wonderful present you are being given?  I have.  Only I didn’t know I was peeking.  Let me explain.
        When I was 12-years-old and my dad was bishop, our ward won the Men’s Soft Ball regionals and advanced to All Church .  For those of my posterity who may read this in coming years let me explain what All Church was.  Each ward had a men’s soft ball team and they competed with the other wards in the stake.  The ward to take 1^st place in their stake advanced to regionals.  If you won 1^st place in your region you advanced to play in the All Church finals and could be the best men’s soft ball team in the entire church.  I remember a few California teams but most of the teams were from Utah wards.  Well back to when my dad was bishop of the Kaysville 6^th ward.  I remember that my dad was so proud of these men.  Dad would take me to All Church and we would spend a good part of the day watching the various teams and appraising them. “Could our ward beat them?  Did it look like they were better than us?”
        Before or after one of our games, that year, my dad and I were walking around and we paused to watch a game.  We saw this man hit what should have been a home run but there was a strong breeze that day and it blew the ball just foul.  We stood there amazed as we continued to watch that man hit one homerun-blown-foul after another and another and another and another.  Weren’t his arms wearing out?  How could anyone hit so many foul balls over the fence?  Finally he hit a double and we groaned a bit in sympathy for him – at just advancing 2 bases  instead of getting a home run, then we went on our way.  A few days later my dad was reading the paper and he told me that that man had been named MVP of All Church that year.  Wow!  And to think I saw him do it.
        Advance the time.  It is now at least 6 years later and Bill and I are eating dinner at mom’s and dad’s home.  I think we were just engaged and my parents were politely trying to learn who this guy was that I’d brought home for them to meet with the big silly grin on his face.  Of course I bragged how he was Valedictorian of his high school graduating class and had been asked to be one of the Valedictory speakers at BYU that year.  He mentioned that he’d played basketball and baseball in high school and that when he was 17 he’d even played in All Church with his ward.  As a matter-of-fact . . .  That was when he was interrupted in his story when dad realized that that was the same year our ward was there.  I then told my honey about this man we saw hit one foul over the fence after another after another.  Bill’s big old silly grin got even wider, if that were possible, as he announced that he was that batter and got MPV that year.  What fun.  To think that I got to have a sneak peek  of my future husband that day – and what an impression he made!
Marsha 2007