Thursday, May 19, Fred Woods, a professor of Church History at BYU, came to our home in Spanish Fork where he kept a follow-up appointment to videotape me sharing memories for a 30-minute film about Ivar Sandberg and the Church in South Dakota. He had previously come to our home in April to have me share family history from my parents who were contemporaries and friends of Ivar. In my father's autobiography, he wrote about Ivar's conversion and their friendship, and I have always enjoyed hearing my parents share about Ivar Sandberg's conversion through reading the Book of Mormon.
(Note: I don't expect to see much of me in that 30-minute film, but the interview went well and he seemed to appreciate what I knew and shared.)
My parents first met Ivar in 1934 after he returned from Salt Lake City where he had gone in his Model A Ford with a desire to be baptized, a desire which began while reading the Book of Mormon. While he was in Utah, he learned about my parents being members of the Church in South Dakota and came to see them upon returning back home.
My parents had moved to South Dakota from Utah in 1931; and after being told they did not live close enough to any branch of the Church in the United States, they obtained permission from the president of the North Central States Mission to hold church in their home. After meeting Ivar, they invited him to meet with them. Later, they went to Ivar's trailer house for church services where he continued to invite his neighbors to join them for services, and at night Ivar would visit neighbors to explain more of the principles of the gospel to them.
Ivar Sandberg (center back wearing a dark suit) photographed with my parents and Vernon & Lulu Larsen family.
My mother and dad are at the left; my dad is holding me.
K. is in front of my dad, and Louise is standing between the two Larsen girls with a younger Larsen girl in front of Louise.
Ivar had emigrated from Sweden when he was about 18 and by working hard had accumulated enough money to buy a large acreage where he lived as a bachelor about 20 miles
from where my family lived.
He had developed an interest in religion but by 1932, after reading some books and studying religions very extensively, he had not found a church that seemed to teach according to the Bible; so thinking he should study the nonChristian religions, he went to the library in Gettysburg to check out the Koran.
The librarian agreed to order the Koran as the library didn't have a copy, but she suggested while waiting for it, he might want to check out a copy of the Book of Mormon.
I always enjoyed hearing my parents share about Ivar's conversion through reading the Book of Mormon.
It was Ivar's usual habit to keep his hat on when coming inside for a short time during his working day, but he would always remove his hat when reading the Bible.
Here is a quote from Ivar's written history:
"I had my cap on as I started to read the 'Book of Mormon,' but before long I felt a man ought to read such a book with a bare head."
In 1952, my father had been called to serve as Ivar's counselor in the South Dakota District presidency. However, Ivar died as a result of a pickup truck accident; and so my father served as the president and served in that calling until March 3, 1961.
Ivar and Mildred Sandberg
Ivar converted and married Mildred Nelson, a local school teacher,
(not related to my Nelson family).
They raised a faithful family,
and five of their children filled missions throughout the world.
The faithful posterity of Ivar and Mildred continues to bless many, as do the lives of those converted by him and the message he bore.
When Sam and I were serving as missionaries in the Europe East Area Mission where we lived in Moscow, Russia, we had the opportunity to be in St. Petersburg where we visited with David Sandberg and his wife, as David was serving there
as the mission president.
Before leaving for our mission in 2007, we were asked to speak in district conference in Pierre, SD. At that conference, Joseph S. Cannon, president of the Rapid City Mission, asked all in the audience to stand who were influenced by Ivar Sandberg; and more than half of the congregation stood up, including Sam and me.
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In 1941, the Church's magazine, "The Instructor,"
had an article with a photo of my mother and the little Primary she held in the basement of our home in Cheyenne Agency
with mostly nonmember children.
In this photo, I am the little 3-year-old fourth from the right
sitting by my sister who is wearing a dark vest
and Mother standing behind us wearing a black dress.
This is an aerial photo of Cheyenne Agency where I was born and lived the first three years of my life
before moving to the Rosebud Boarding School near Mission.
(I know this sounds like I was an orphan, but my father worked for the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so we lived in homes on the reservation until we moved to Martin my sophomore year of high school.)
I appreciate my heritage and have good memories of my life and going to school in Mission, but I am grateful for our move to Martin where I met, dated, and married Sam in the Salt Lake Temple between my junior and senior year at BYU. But that's another wonderful story!
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(Copy and paste the link to read this article from the Mormon Journal written by a son of parents who were converted by
Ivar Sandberg.)
