Tell us some things about what you've been doing since your mission.
After my mission, I went to work as a miner at the gilsonite mine in Bonanza, UT where my father had worked before he died when I was 8 months old. I was called as young adults chairman for the stake and organized weekly, monthly, and yearly activities with the help of two other stake chairmen. I met and married my ex-wife during that calling. We were married Feb. 23, 1979, and I began work as a Motel Manager. After that, I worked as a Coca-Cola delivery man, then as a worker for Brown and Root as they were building Red Fleet Damn north of Vernal. While working at the motel my first child was born, a daughter. My wife had a very hard time with delivery and I feared she would not survive. Then I was lucky to secure a good job as a custodian at Discovery Elementary School. I returned to college and worked full-time. Three more children were born and we decided, because of conflict with my family, to move to Pennsylvania where my wife's family lived. I worked at five different jobs there and got to know my wife's family. Then we returned to Vernal and my wife got a teaching job as a Special Ed teacher. I returned to USU Vernal Extention full time and completed my BS degree in Elementary Education and was hired to teach 5th grade. Over the next 22 years, I taught grades one through eight. Our fifth child was born, growing our family of two daughters and three sons. But my wife developed gestational diabetes with this fifth pregnancy which was life threatening so I decided to have a vasectomy so we would not have any more children. I became increasingly depressed and began psychological and drug therapy. Around 2008 I attempted suicide and was committed to the psych hospital at UofU hospital. There I was blessed with an amazing psychiatrist who helped me come to terms with the fact that I'm a homosexual. She helped me realize that the life-long conflict of living with anti-gay dogma, taught by the church, was a major contributor to my depression and unhappiness. So, I began a two-year study to learn all I could about the church and religion in general. Within 6 months I was convinced the church was not true and resigned my membership. In 2009 I left my family, divorced in 2010 and in 2011 met my husband. We have been married for 7 wonderful years, and I, for the first time in my life, enjoy a very happy life. I love my new life!
