EARLY MARRIAGE

After the honey moon (and emergency tooth proceedure) we drove back to Fresno and started househunting (nothing like waiting to the last minute)! We had to find a place to live that night as we were all packed up and ready to move in. (naivety of youth!) Well needless to say, after a day of searching the entire city of Fresno (not quite-a little exageration-but it sure seemed like it!), we were still homeless and living out of our car. It took the sunrising, and a new day to find our first "home". We were desperate and ended up renting a rather expensive apartment (to Lloyd's dismay), but then again--THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS IN LIFE!! Lloyd found a job at a gas station and I began my hunt for a job before school started. I had worked for Fresno State in the office and was able to return. I worked there till school was out and so Lloyd could quit the service station job to devote to his time to his studies. (That summer, Lloyd got a job at General Box company which was his demise. The injuries acquired from lifting those heavy boxes lasted him through his life and caused the necessity of surgery in his last few years.) My job ended with the school end and back to job hunting I went.
My first real job was acquired in the form of bank teller for Wells Fargo Bank. I was always so stressed that my amounts would not balance at the end of the day (we had a little adding machine and our own hand counting, posting, and math calculations to do. Everything had to balance or else--not go home till it did!!) After about 6 mosnths of stress, I decided it was time to quit before I got fired!!! Well timing was not quick enough so they kindly "laid me off"! I got unemployment and you guessed it, back to the streets of job hunting! :( After a few months I was hired by Valley Medical Center in a secretarial position. Typing ALL day with a big picture window to my side of beautiful sunny days was too consuming to me. Transferring departments helped greatly. Billing Department for pharmacy became my new home with a picture window, small office, and ability to run back and forth to the Pharmacy (breathing in the fresh air and beauty of the world as I passed between the buildings :)!)! In those days, yes, the dark ages, we had to do all the billing by hand with the person's bill from the Dr., the pharmacies posting, and our ownlist of codes for the drugs to do the posting. During this time, I became quite knowledgeable of drugs and their purposes as well as many new friends. What I did not know.... Little did I know that the girl over me and the other girl in the little office would be very aloof to me and do a lot of lies and backbiting. Mistakes were always caused by me according to her. A lot of tears and discouragement occurred during this time. Perhaps too it was the adversary, for during this time my friend from high school reintroduced the gospel to me.
We had been good friends all during high school and she had also moved to Fresno after marriage (even working in an adjoing building to where I worked). All through High School she had invited me to functions at the "Mormon" church. I went to most of them, but declined the missionaries coming because I was aware of my parents feelings about the church. Now to return to present day, she was to sing at "A Night with the Stake President" (who unbeknownst to me, was speaking on eternal marriage. :) ) Secretly, I always had felt the spirit and wanted SO badly to join the church and was kept from it only to not displease my parents. I was so excited at the new opportunity to choose for myself!!!! That night so penetrated my spirit that I immediately asked her about arranging for the missionaries to come. At that comment she almost fell off her chair! I will never forget that look on her face!! Of course her comment was, "sure, we can arrange that!" Now to convince Lloyd... He had said that the night was okay. I told him how desperately I had always wanted to listen to the missionaries and knew that the church was right. His response was to agree to "Just listen to what they had to say....." Good enough for me!!!! Stay tuned for next blog of conversion stories......................