My patriarchal blessing

I was sixteen years old when I received my patriarchal blessing. It was a Thursday evening, September 2, 1965. I drove alone to the stake center. Neither of my parents came with me. There in a warm room we had to ourselves I met the patriarch, Leon H. Swenson, and his wife. She was there as his scribe.

I had handed him the recommend that authorized him to give me a blessing. My parents' names were on the recommend. The only specific thing I remember from our preliminaries is that he asked me what the R stood for in the middle of my father's name: Ivard R Cleverly. That was his actual full legal name. But I knew the R stood for his mother's maiden name, Ritchie, and I told him that, not realizing until afterward that in the record he created he renamed my father Ivard Ritchie Cleverly. My real answer should have been that the R stood for nothing.

Brother Swenson had me sit in a chair, and he walked around behind me and placed his hands on my head and began speaking. "Brother Dean Batt Cleverly," he began, "in the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which I bear and by the authority in me vested as an ordained patriarch in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I place my hands upon your head and give unto you your patriarchal blessing."

He spoke a phrase at a time and paused long enough for Sister Swenson to write it down in long-hand. He continued that way throughout the blessing, alternately speaking and pausing until he came to the end of the blessing: "This blessing I now seal upon you by the power in me vested and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

And then I drove home. I had not felt anything particularly special about the experience and for the most part did not remember the details of what he said until the typed copy came in the mail a few weeks later.

I did recall that I was of the tribe of Ephraim, which did not surprise me since everyone else in my family who had received patriarchal blessings, and indeed most members of the Church I knew anything about, were of Ephraim. And I remembered that I was told never to decline opportunities that would come to me to serve in the Church. That would shortly become important counsel to me.

The next afternoon, however, I received a spiritual confirmation that the blessing was literally from the Lord. During the summers I drove the mobile Dairy Queen truck around Nampa and sold ice cream to whoever would stop me. We affectionately referred to it as the Dilly Wagon. I had the town divided into three basic areas and would cover one of them on Mondays and Thursdays, the second one on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the third one on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Friday afternoon I drove up the street that passed by the stake center in my ding-a-linging Dilly Wagon. As I slowly drove by, the Spirit of the Lord come upon me in a particularly powerful manner and confirmed in my heart and soul that there in that building the previous evening the heavens had opened and the Lord, through his authorized servant, had given me a revelation that was for me alone.

I am grateful for my patriarchal blessing. And I am grateful for the confirming witness that came to me, through the power of the Holy Ghost, that its message was scripture to me, a blessing from a loving Father to guide me throughout my life.