Bob Erekson's Beginnings in Aurora Branch

When cleaning my father's office after his passing, I found among his papers a typescript of his life story from 1935 to June 22, 1942. The excerpt included below contains references to the Aurora Branch after meeting the Greer family in May 1941. These stories show how different the Aurora Branch was from his church-related experiences in what he calls "the valley of the mountains."

The photo on the right shows a young, green Bob Erekson in June 1940 on the day he left Utah to enlist in the Army Air Corps at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. About a year later, he decided to look up the Church. On the weekend of May 17, 1941, he hitched a ride to Chicago and found out to his surprise that quarterly stake conference was being held. He was introduced to the Greer family and promised to visit them the next weekend. He paid some friends fifty cents to take him to Aurora. Here is Bob's story:

"Sunday morning I got up and went to Sunday School with the Greers. It was very nice to be back in Church once again, helping with the Sacrament and all the rest of the work I could do. Mr. Greer was having some trouble with his back, and Louise had to work that afternoon, so we took her to work but found that she didn’t have to go to work until 3:00 p.m. So Mr. Greer went to the doctor and I took Louise for a drive in Mr. Greer’s ’36 Buick...After that I went back to the doctor’s office.

"That night I went to Sacrament Meeting. It was a very wonderful meeting and after it was over I helped a Mr. [John E.] Whowell from Chicago and Mr. [John] Wendt of Aurora administer to Mr. Greer so his back would bet well. It was the first time I ever did anything like that since I had been made an Elder nearly a year ago, just before I joined the Air Corps.
"After the meeting was over I went back to the Greers, changed back to my uniform, after which Mr. Greer drove me out of Aurora about seven miles and I began hitch-hiking...

As you see, the new experiences began immediately: administering to the sick, bearing his testimony, giving talks, sightseeing in Nauvoo, and attending General Conference. He was needed in Aurora. Best of all, he found that he loved his new-found Church activity.Knowing that Louise was there kept his enthusiasm high. This photo was taken on his first weekend in Aurora.

"[Four days later] Thursday afternoon at three p.m. I took off for Aurora on my thumb. I got there at seven p.m. Central Daylight Time.
"I took my coveralls and as soon as I got there I changed to them and helped Jimmy mow the lawn…Sunday I went to Sunday School and Testimony meeting. One thing about testimony meetings in Aurora different from those back home, is that every person in Aurora got up and bore his or her testimony. So I bore my first testimony. That evening was conjoint or mutual night, and so the young people took care of the program. I gave a talk and all of the others did something...

"[The next week] Louise had to take care of some children so she brought them to Sunday School and in the afternoon while Mr. and Mrs. Greer went to Chicago, Louise, Jimmy, Mary Jane, the Kids, and I went on a picnic in Philips Park, Aurora…At 6:00 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Greer came for us and later we went to church. The speaker from Chicago didn’t show up, so they asked me to talk. After that I drove the Greers home and then Mr. and Mrs. Schleifer took me out to the junction from where I hitched back to the field....

"During the month of June I bought myself a 1936 Buick four door sedan. On the fourth of July the Greer family went to Nauvoo and Carthage. They took me along and it was a trip that I will never forget.
"Sunday July 6, 1941 I had to talk in church and because of the lack of speakers Louise and I sang “Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses.”...

"[September] Among other things was Quarterly Conference for the Chicago stake at Milwaukee. From the General Board there was Harold B. Lee of the Twelve. I never really enjoyed a conference until I heard him talk. It seemed to me that he was talking just to me, almost as if he knew my every question and thought...


[A trip to General Conference] "So I left the Field at about noon Tuesday September 30, 1941 and drove to Aurora where I picked [up] the entire Greer family and we started into the setting sun which was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen since I came East...
"Later I drove to McCraney’s where the Greers were to stay during their visit in the valley of the mountains. After going to a session of General Conference I went home to Payson, Utah, a drive of about sixty-five miles. …The next day I took Mother to S.L. where we attended the afternoon session of the General Conference for that day. This was the first time I had ever been in the Tabernacle. It is really a thrill to be on the inside of such a beautiful building...
"The next day Saturday October 3, 1941 I picked up the Greer Family and took them to Spanish Fork a small town about six miles from Payson. There I left the Greers with one of the Missionaries, who had visited them when he was on a mission in the Northern States Mission..."

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