Thanks for your patience, Tom!
I knew I forgot something. Oh yeah, this morning I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
No. That wasn't it. What was it? Oh yeah! It was this thing that came in the mail. Whoops! My bad. That's our doormat.
Rather, it was this: Let's see what Young Russell has to say in his autobiography, From Heart to Heart
From the Preface on page ix:
From "Annual Highlights (1960 - 1978)" on page 305:Russell M. Nelson wrote: The original motivation to write this review seemed to spring simultaneously from my dear wife, Dantzel, and from President Spencer W. Kimball. Then a plea from President B. Lloyd Poelman provided additional prompting. Unifocal direction from three I loved so much could not be ignored. The final nudge came as I was a passenger in a small airplane plummeting earthward with one of its two engines exploded. I realized then that although both the spiritual and material needs for my family had been provided, I had not left for them a reasonable recapitulation of my life that they could review. The safe emergency landing of that disabled aircraft provided me with the chance I needed.
From the bottom of page 376 to the top of 377, we get the money quote:Russell M. Nelson wrote:To assist in documenting events of significance that have happened to me, to Dantzel, and to the children, annual highlights will be listed in this section. Of course, many important events occurred that won't be summarized here. For example, little will be mentioned about the major and minor operative procedures I have performed from 1955 to 1978, which now total more than six thousand.
Not included are a number of speeches at wards, at firesides, and at funerals, which became almost a matter of routine each week of the year. If there was any value in the comments I made, I am grateful, but I realize that the privilege of this kind of service is in the preparation and presentation of those remarks.
The daily work and the attendance at routine scientific meetings won't be recapitulated here either, but they are all recorded in my daily journals. I have attempted to summarize here only those things that are of significance in our lives as members of the family, plus a number of world events and Church-related incidents that have shaped the destiny of mankind. This section includes the years from 1960 to 1978; the highlights of the preceding years are all interwoven in the fabric of the preceding narrative.
In the world of medical science, it is expedient to summarize one's background in the form of "curriculum vitae" and a list of publications. Such data are also added to this record.
With deepest gratitude, I note that ever since I began to record in my journals, I have never missed a day of work because of illness. In addition, I remember never having missed a day of school except for a couple of days in grade school when I had chicken pos. I know I had perfect attendance in junior high and high school, at the university, and all through medical school. I can only be extremely thankful to my Father in heaven for giving me such a great blessing, for I have been in the midst of illness almost all that time. Moreover, my experiences on the front line of artillery action and under sniper fire by guerillas in Korea, in a crippled airplane with an exploded engine as it plummeted earthward, in the grip of thundering rapids on the relentless Colorado River, submerged while wearing high waders in the Snake River - all these episodes, any one of which could have ended fatally, combine to make my statement of gratitude to God for life, health, and strength a most sincere one.
Russell M. Nelson wrote: November 12 - Flew to St. George. When one of the small airplane's engines exploded, I expected to be killed. But after a precipitous dive in the disabled plane, the pilot made a safe emergency landing in Delta. I was going to St. George to give the opening prayer at the inaugural services at which Rolfe Kerr became president of Dixie College.