As a new member of the Church, I quickly focused on two elderly men in the Baker wards who seemed the epitome of saintliness.  They were soft-spoken, kind, always smiling, and eager to reach out and help everyone.  I determined that if I should ever need a blessing of healing, I would call upon these two men.

The wives of these men were equally saintly.  They were white-haired stalwarts whom the Primary children loved, and who had a wealth of gospel knowledge and experience.  These two couples, the Mays and the Hydes, were mainstays of the Baker 1st Ward.

Sister Hyde once told a story about her (their) conversion to the Church.  I was floored.  I was astounded.  I've remembered the image that story made in my mind after some 30 years of its telling.

The Hyde's son had been befriended by Latter-day Saint youth, and began attending their church activities.  He was becoming very involved and interested, so Sister Hyde said that, "One day I took the Book of Mormon, my cigarettes and a bottle of beer, and I sat down to read, to find out what my son was getting into, and to prove the book was wrong."

The rest is history.  As so often happens when people set out to pit their "wisdom" against what they assume to be a false book, the Book of Mormon and the Spirit convert them to the truth.  The entire Hyde family joined the Church.

Looking at that saintly woman, that wellspring of knowledge, I would never, never have guessed she had that background.  This picture in my mind of Sister Hyde with a cigarette in her mouth and a bottle of beer in her hand is the most incongruous picture imaginable.

But it points out the power of the Book of Mormon, and of the power of good friends, particularly our youth, to change for the better the lives of the honest in heart.

—6 January 1999