All About How Ebert Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Taken from an interview with Ebert Heagy, by Jaclyn Day, granddaughter, April 2019

“Hi everybody!”

Had you heard of the church [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints] at all as a kid?

“That brings back a memory.  My brother and I were going fishing with my father, up Sun River at Camel’s Dam.  On the way we went past an area where there were some Mormon properties there.  And my father commented, “Oh, lots of Mormons farm in this particular area.”  Ok, so.... what?  But anyway, that’s my first memory of Mormons being mentioned at all in my life.”

Did you feel like your Mom or Dad or other family members had some strong opinions about them one way or another?

“Oh, perhaps.  I guess it was probably not positive.  Manchester area—that would have been the Thurbers, and the Blackburns are the names that come to mind, Binghams, they were farmers."

Who were your friends that were members of the church, or at what age were you acquainted?

“Oh, my first real contact with them was when I first visited an LDS service one Sunday evening.”

Why did you do that?

“Well, all my friends in the service were working or out of state or something so I decided to go to the Mormon Church and see if they were rolling in the aisles or whatever they did.  Just curious, you know. 

“I met a friend I knew from school, it was Kay Blackburn, and she escorted me into the church and I sat there during the service and everything and saw nobody rolling in the aisles or whatever, and she mentioned something about the youth getting together and there being something to eat.  So anyway, it was a little fireside.”

Do you remember what the fireside was about?

“The kids bore their testimonies to one another.  It was a testimony meeting.  Wow.  Couldn’t have been better, right?”

About how old were you for that?

“18-19, something like that.”

So, you had been at school already and were friends with some of these kids and got invited to the fireside where they were bearing their testimonies—we got that right?—and you were glad they weren’t rolling in the aisles and weird? 

“Mmhmm.  Well, I don’t know, I kinda looked for the show.  That was one of the favorite things my friends and I did was go to different churches. “

What other churches did you go to? 

“Well, the one that was the most memorable was the Assembly of God.  And recently one of my friends, Warren Johnson, died, and I was talking to another friend-Vern Fischer- about Warren and our visit to the Assembly of God Church.

“Vern was sitting next to Warren.  Something about the service or the people tickled Warren and his belly started to jiggle.  Vern could hardly contain himself from laughing, so he got up and went to the back of the chapel of the church.

“We enjoyed going to different churches and things.”

You had a good group of friends.

“Oh, yes.”

I remember you went to BYU for awhile.  How does BYU fit into your story?  Were you already a member of the church, or you weren’t, or why did you do that?

“Yes, I was already a member.  I hadn’t been very long, and looking at going to college.  I kind of wanted to go to a Spanish speaking church in Mexico or someplace.  I had this friend freshly out of the army, he was a paratrooper, and he was looking at colleges as well.  He said he would like to go to school but he wasn’t going to go out of the country, so I talked him into going to BYU.  I had already been to Bozeman for a year myself.”

What kind of classes did you take at BYU?  Did you get to take a Book of Mormon class or anything like that?

“You know, probably that.  Took calculus, and something else that was difficult, I forget.  Anyway, it was way above my head, and I was too busy going to dances every evening.”

You were looking for Grandma?  Was that the problem?

“Well, not necessarily.  I’d already met her.”

I was going to ask you about meeting with the missionaries, or how that happened.  Did you tell your friends you wanted to meet with the missionaries?  Or someone invited you over?

“At that time they were called 'Home Missionaries'.  They happened to be in that testimony meeting, so I was introduced to them, asked if I wanted to meet with them, and 'Sure, I’ll meet with ya', so I met with them before the next Sunday and I was invited to go to church once again.  So I went again, and—you said did I have any questions about religion--?  All the other churches I went to, the Godhead question blew my mind.  I never understood how they could all three be one.  It just didn’t make sense.  So, when it was explained to me...the reality...well, I agreed.  It made sense.  And then everything else that was taught made sense.”

Do you remember the first time you read the Book of Mormon, or what you thought about Joseph Smith?

“I really don’t remember as a youth reading it.  I wasn’t much of a reader at that time, and it was fine with me if Joseph Smith...the Joseph Smith story was just fine with me.”

Mom (Lori) thinks that David O. McKay would have been the prophet at the time.

“That’s true.”

How does Grandma (Bev) come into the story and what did her family think about you being a convert?

“Well I met her before I went to BYU, and then when I came home I started dating her.  And I was accepted unconditionally by her folks.”

I imagine they would have been pretty good to you, with Grandpa Ely having joined the church.

Bev:  It was better than what they were used to seeing me date.  I was dating a Catholic.

What was your family’s reaction when you told them you wanted to join the church?

“Well, the only comment I remember was, 'You know they pay tithing...'" [This got a good laugh as Grandpa has often been teased about the rusty hinges on his wallet—he may have inherited this quality].

So, they didn’t get to come to the sealing, was that difficult?

“Well, I was going to get married no matter what, so...   We had a nice reception.”

Did you and Grandma receive your endowments the same day?  “Yes.”

Do you remember your first calling?

“Yes. I was a statistical clerk.  A membership clerk.  And there were a lot of folks moving in and out because it was Malmstrom Airforce Base, so it was busy.  I also was assigned to visit the hospitals regularly and enjoyed that.”

Mom and I were trying to count how many of your descendants have served missions.  We think 8 and Laura will make 9.  And how many missionaries went out when you were a bishop, that you helped get their paperwork together and help them decide to go?  That was a lot of my friends, so that was several more.

Did you have any particularly favorite experiences while you were a bishop that you’d like to share?  Sorry, surprise question.

“Oh, I don’t know.  I remember Jack Haynes, I guess we were organizing a trip to the temple or something, and Jack Haynes says, “You know definitely who is in control here.”  So anyway, I always liked that comment from Jack Haynes.”

And then you and Grandma were temple workers at the Cardston temple for about how long?

“Weren’t we temple workers six years?  Seven years Grandma says.  Every other weekend, Friday night and Saturday morning we would serve.  And it’s good to be up there even now.  I don’t think there’s been a time we’ve been up there that we haven’t seen somebody that we worked with.  We quit because of the cancer thing.”

I don’t really have any more questions to ask you.  Did you have anything you’d like to add?

“Well, I’m glad that I married a very good woman.  She comes from a good family of hard working people.  And we are so pleased to have the family that we have.  All of you kids, and grandkids, great grandkids—quite a blessing.”