Dear, dear old friends stopped by for a visit and to pick up pottery for Christmas gifts. Mark and Carolyn Zaugg worked with our church youth group when I was 15-16. Although I am still embarrassed for what an idiot I was in those days, they conveyed unconditional love then, as well as now, and have always made me feel valued. I have not seen them in 46 years! It was as if no time had passed.
I was so lucky to grow up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Our congregations are called wards and the members interact like an extended family. We didn’t just go to church on Sunday and keep to ourselves, We worked and served together and created great friendships. Mark taught our early morning Bible study class that is called Seminary. We had four high schools represented in our ward which was called Mount Vernon Ward. There were so few Mormons in the Washington DC area, in the early 1970s, and so our ward boundaries covered quite large geographical areas. We had a lot of teenagers from all four schools Who made the commitment to drive to a small chaplain’s building on base at Fort Belvoir by 6:15am M-F, before high school. It was so much fun! We all just love being together. We were loud, crazy, and fun-loving, but we were pretty good kids. I learned so much from the Zauggs that has helped me in working with teenagers throughout my adult life. The formula is pretty simple - just love ‘em!
