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The story begins in the waning years of WWII when there was a dearth of young men available to serve missions, so married men were sometimes called to fill short missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was in 1946 that my grandfather, Fay Edmund Hepworth, was called to serve a six month mission in Northern California. He was a 38-year-old quiet farmer in Star Valley, Wyoming with six young children at home, but he faithfully answered the call to serve when his twin brother, Bishop Jay Hepworth extended the call to him. He left in November 1946, minimizing the time he'd be away during the busy season on his farm.
Elder Hepworth recorded in a letter to his mission President that he'd met and started teaching a Mr. and Mrs. Goff on December 20, 1946. Mr. Goff never showed much interest in the gospel, but Mrs. Margaret Goff turned out to be a "golden" investigator, reading the entire Doctrine and Covenants in a night and eagerly devouring any gospel literature they could get her. In Elder Hepworth’s journal, he records having several "cottage meetings" with them and describes her happiness that she'd finally found the truth and her eagerness to be baptized. Margaret specifically requested that Elder Hepworth be the one to baptize her, however he ended being transferred before the baptism occurred. He happily recorded in his journal in early April 1947 that she was scheduled to be baptized on April 5th.
Margaret Goff was baptized at that time and went on to become a faithful and committed member of the church. In 1949 she sent this letter to my grandfather along with a book of poetry she'd written entitled, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ."
My mother, Rosanna, had not been born yet when my grandfather served his mission, but she remembers meeting Margaret and her family several times when she came to visit them in Wyoming. One time Margaret brought a box of fresh oranges straight off the tree in California--an absolute delight to my Mom and her siblings! This picture is from May 1955 and shows Fay and Margaret along with several children from their families on one of the Goff family's trips to Wyoming.
Later, Margaret's daughter, Beatrice, went on to write the primary song, "Faith," which was a favorite of our family's and was sung at my grandmother (and Fay’s wife), Florize Hepworth's, funeral.
Now fast forward about 75-years from that initial meeting between my grandfather and Margaret in Northern California. Our son, Adam, was recently assigned to serve in the B. Ward of the Portland Oregon mission. My mother, Rosanna, heard that my son's new mission companion had the last name "Goff" and she sent my Elder G. a letter sharing a bit about this story. After taking a quick look on FamilySearch, Elder G. and his companion discovered there is quite a connected legacy in this new companionship.
Lo and behold, the great-grandson of Elder Hepworth {Elder Adam G.} is currently missionary companions with the great-grandson of Margaret {Adam's companion}. There are so many independent decisions that had to preface this interaction -my grandfather accepting the call to serve a mission, Margaret accepting the gospel and choosing to be baptized, multiple generations of two families doing their best to pass on their legacies of faith to their children, two elders making the choice to serve missions, inspired church leaders assigning them to labor in the same mission, and, finally, an inspired mission president assigning them to serve together, despite knowing nothing of this connection. But, the Lord knew and directed the necessary inspiration that needed to occur for these great-grandson elders to serve together.
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