I think President LeBaron deserves a lot of credit for Brent's spiritual foundation. President LeBaron was more than just his mission president when Brent served in South Africa. He continued to be a role model and great example to Brent all these years post-mission too!Last week Dale LeBaron was killed when he was on a morning walk with his wife and they were struck by a car. He was just 75 years old. I'm so glad Brent was able to fly out to Utah for the funeral on Saturday.
In an article for Mormon Times, his daughter, Debbie St. Jeor, talked about her father's devotion to his 6 children and 34 grandchildren saying: "His main passion in life was the gospel and his family. What my Dad taught is what he lived."
President LeBaron was serving in South Africa in 1978 when President Kimball revealed that the time had come to allow all worthy males to be ordained to priesthood callings. It was a wonderful day in the church! I think the church takes a lot of heat for waiting as long as it did to embrace people of every gender but I've learned that it is hard to judge history because we always bring contemporary philosophy to time periods that we only understand in retrospect. The evolution of ideas, fairness, and equality has changed dramatically for good in my lifetime (thankfully). But I digress!
Back to President LeBaron. He published a book of the conversion stories of many great black African members of the church living in Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. The stories are touching and you can feel the great love President LeBaron has for the African people.
I love the story President LeBaron tells of Jude Inmpey, a church member in Nigeria: "Jude had a dream he was at a social gathering with many people. Someone was playing an organ, but the sound was terrible. People were shouting, "What is wrong with your music?" Finally someone investigated the problem. "He's only playing the white keys!" he reported.
Then Brother Inmpey observed: "For many, many years the Church has been playing only the white keys, but now we are playing on the white and the black keys, and the music is much, much sweeter."
