With new grandchildren on the way, I thought my children would enjoy these:

The Beach House - A Family Favorite!

Many of you know the story behind the purchase of the Beach House - #21 Bay Island - but some of you may not. Let me share with you what I remember.

In 1968, Mom & Dad (Grandma & Grandpa) leased a house for a year at 2233 Bayside Drive in Newport Beach. This is in the Corona Del Mar area, near the harbor entrance. It was a magical year. We played in the bay, rode around in our 18ft outboard, water-skied in the back bay, had families visit with us. Mom bought an upright piano which later was the one that was in the Bay Island beach house, and Dad bought a microwave oven - an Amana Radarange that was in the office lunch room for nearly 25 years until it finally gave up. We had dinner at the Snack Shop restaurant, saw the beginnings of Fashion Island, and visited the Fun Zone by the Pavilion a few times.

With the lease of that first home in our history, Mom & Dad started hunting for a more permanent place where we could vacation as a family, with the beach and the waves and each other. We even spent a summer vacation or two driving up the Pacific Coast and checked out places further afield. As our search continued, they saved their money for the day when they could find the home they wanted. Later in 1969, Dad received a call from Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City. A meeting with members of a small committee was requested, which Mom & Dad attended in a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. They were asked to contribute some money to the church for the purchase of land that the church had been trying to acquire. In summary, over the course of the next 2-3 years, Mom & Dad donated all the savings they had acquired for the purchase of their vacation dream home. But the search continued, faith in the ability to purchase was strong.

Dad had grown a successful business of Price Books and Forms, Inc., based on the original company Mom's dad, Orville Willard, had started named Dealer's Aids Co. years before. From that business, many families were blessed with the means to earn an honest living and learn work. We as the original Larson family (Mom & Dad and all us siblings) were blessed with many material things and the funds to have a good life and bless others with donations to the church in many ways, similar to the one requested by the church at that time. As quickly as the money was donated to the church, new, lucrative business opportunities were given that replaced the monies just as quickly.

As the search continued, we stopped at an Open House on the other end of Bayside Drive in Newport Beach. The realtor later called Mom & Dad with an opportunity to tour a house on Bay Island. Not really expecting anything, but wanting to just see what was beyond the Private Island signs, they went to see it. After they walked thru the house, Mom says, they didn't even say anything to each other, but just looked at each other. Dad offered to purchase it for about 2/3 of the asking price: 1/2 now and 1/2 upon close. Mom says Dad wrote a check on the spot. They paid cash for the house, completely debt-free. The price they ended up paying for the house was about the same amount that they had donated to the church. The Lord matched them dollar for dollar!

After the house purchase was complete, they bought all new furniture, carpeting, a central heating unit and we soon got a dining table and other needed items. We spent our first visit there about the time Brian got home from his mission; April 1972. About that time, Dad dedicated the house, just as he had the Glendora house a year or two before that.  From the Church Handbook: Church members may dedicate their homes as sacred edifices where the Holy Spirit can reside and where family members can worship, find safety from the world, grow spiritually, and prepare for eternal family relationships. This was truly the case with the Beach House.

Even though the house was old, it had character. It had been built in 1910 and added onto a few times. The back bathroom originally had a pull-chain toilet. The doors mostly used skeleton key type locks. Part of it was actually un-level and a beam in the front room/dining room ceiling bent down where it was cracked. But it was comfortable and classy all in one. We had fun decorating it as a beach house should be. We hung shellacked puffer fish from the ceiling. We put up curtains made from sheets in the front room. Dad bought the bay boat for about $700 and we spent countless hours fixing that up. We had the dinghy to row, sailboats - Minuet, Hobie Cat, PacifiCat. Kids would collect shells from the sand in front of the house in buckets. Glenn would redistribute those shells back to be found again.

Mom & Dad taught us in their actions so many times concerning the beach house that they understood it to be a gift and a blessing. They were not the owners of the house as much as they were the stewards of it. I recall that nearly every time we got there for a long weekend or a week during the summer, Dad would pull out the Stake Directory and start down the list of who we should invite. As a pre-teen and teenager, it seemed to me that we were just getting others to come and play with us. But as I grew up and became a husband and father, who at times has had limited resources to enjoy time away from work and the hustle and bustle of life, I realize that our loving parents were extending to a harried family the same respite that they enjoyed. The bay boat and the Beach House offered hours of relaxation for family, extended family and many friends; an opportunity to focus on each other and enjoy just a few minutes and maybe hours of freedom from worries.

Whenever Dad heard about a newly-engaged couple, he would pull out his calendar, give the soon-to-be-groom a copy of the Beach House booklets he had printed, put their information down in the calendar and let them have a honeymoon spot which they likely would never had been able to afford. When families we knew came upon hard times, a home issue or death in the family or whatever, Mom & Dad were quick to invite them to the Beach House, either on their own or with us to ease their troubles. In return, many were generous back. Pres Doyle Davis spent lots of time trying to get the pull-chain toilet to stop leaking. Dr. Paul Donaldson bought a new dishwasher when the old one quit. The Clawson family gave us boxes of fruit when they stayed at the beach house because their home in Glendora had been damaged (another story). They hired people to fix or paint the house. Dave Watanabe spent weeks there repainting it. Bob Snow from work put in the brick walk to the dock. It was an ongoing project of love and friendship.

I'm sure all of my siblings and many of the older grandchildren can offer their own versions of days spent at the beach house (Larson HideAway) or on the bay boat (The GetAway) or the Minute (The SailAway). Some honeymooned there, had their first Christmas there, lived there while attending college, had countless hours of fun in the sun and surf. Among all that, we all have this in common: it was magical, a true blessing facilitated by loving parents (grandparents) for the benefit and enjoyment of family and friends. It was heaven on earth.

As the years continued, Mom & Dad had felt the time had come to end the legacy of the Beach House. He was concerned with the cost of upkeep, the age of the house. Since they felt strongly that the Beach House was not something they earned, but had been given stewardship over, they felt the time had come to return it to its proper owner. At the end of 1990, and moving into early 1991, they worked with LDS Philanthropies and donated the house to the Benson Foundation of BYU, to help educate farmers in Central America. The blessing of the house now extended beyond to others. Truly, the Lord is mindful of His children who are mindful of each other.

The Christus - Personal Connections

The new symbol for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as introduced by President Russell M. Nelson predominantly features a depiction of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from the Christus statue created by Danish Sculpture Bertel Thorvaldsen. The statue was created in 1821, so it is contemporary to the time of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

A quick history of the statue and its sculpture are on these pages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus_(statue)
https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/EoM/id/5596
https://www.ldsliving.com/The-Christus-Legacy/s/4910
https://www.ldsliving.com/5-Things-You-Never-Knew-About-the-Christus-Statue/s/78222

As noted in these articles, Elder Richards traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark to see the original in the Church of Our Lady. Another story I read at one time mentioned that the Christus statue at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California was the first one he saw, prompting him to look to the original in Denmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Lawn_Memorial_Park_(Glendale)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_L._Eaton

Here's where it gets fun. My parents were married at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park chapel in Glendale on August 4, 1947. Dad said it's because the chapel was available for free. There were not many ward buildings at that time in the Los Angeles area, so it seems a reasonable choice. They then drove to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they were sealed 2-1/2 weeks later on Aug 21, 1947 in the Salt Lake Temple.

I have traveled to the beautiful city Copenhagen three times. On one of our trips there, Allison and I, with Winston and Stewart, visited the Church of Our Lady and we viewed the Christus, along with the statues of the Twelve Apostles. It was a delightful experience. My mind was reflective on a story I read of President Spencer W. Kimball visiting that same church and specifically his comment about the keys that Peter held in his hands.

https://scottwoodward.org/SpencerWKimball_keys_copenhagen.html

On a subsequent trip to Copenhagen in 2016, we visited Thorvaldsen's Museum, built to house many of his works in 1848. In that building are the original plasters of those same statues. Again, it was a touching visit, seeing all those beautiful works created at the hand of an inspired artist, which we now enjoy the fruits of his labors.

Most of all, I love the symbolism of the statue in representing our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.