This morning we had the great privilege of interviewing Brother and Sister Turley. We met up at Geoff's house early in the morning where Ashley fed us a tasty breakfast. Then, we packed up my car and took off to Boerne, Texas. We had a nice morning drive through the Hill Country -- the air was a little misty and the sun shone through like a golden orb hanging in the sky.
Eventually, we found our way to the Turley's house and, after setting up, enjoyed a great interview. Brother Turley moved from the Mexican Colonies to Texas as a baby in the late 1920s and has memories of meeting for church at the Bremer's house and at the Woodmen of the World Hall, before the Branch got a building of their own on Buena Vista Street. His dad, Henry Eyring Turley, served as the Branch President and District President -- among many other callings -- and later as the first Patriarch of the San Antonio Texas Stake. Brother Turley (who we interviewed) was the first Bishop of the San Antonio 2nd Ward, which was formed in 1958 at the same time the San Antonio Texas Stake was formed.
Sister Turley told us about feeding the LDS servicemen stationed in San Antonio during WWII, of marching in the Pioneer Day Parade at the Hemisfair in 1968, and of helping with relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
The Turley's are great examples of what it means to give your life to the Lord and we were very privileged to be in their home and spend the morning with them.
On the way home, we stopped at Cartwright's BBQ because Ashley was craving steak. It was pretty good food. Chris said he had eaten there 5 years earlier. We pulled into Austin at around 2pm.
--Mark Sanderson
Eventually, we found our way to the Turley's house and, after setting up, enjoyed a great interview. Brother Turley moved from the Mexican Colonies to Texas as a baby in the late 1920s and has memories of meeting for church at the Bremer's house and at the Woodmen of the World Hall, before the Branch got a building of their own on Buena Vista Street. His dad, Henry Eyring Turley, served as the Branch President and District President -- among many other callings -- and later as the first Patriarch of the San Antonio Texas Stake. Brother Turley (who we interviewed) was the first Bishop of the San Antonio 2nd Ward, which was formed in 1958 at the same time the San Antonio Texas Stake was formed.
Sister Turley told us about feeding the LDS servicemen stationed in San Antonio during WWII, of marching in the Pioneer Day Parade at the Hemisfair in 1968, and of helping with relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
The Turley's are great examples of what it means to give your life to the Lord and we were very privileged to be in their home and spend the morning with them.
On the way home, we stopped at Cartwright's BBQ because Ashley was craving steak. It was pretty good food. Chris said he had eaten there 5 years earlier. We pulled into Austin at around 2pm.
--Mark Sanderson
Mark and Ashley--Ambassadors of the Cause
Here's a word from Mark about his visit with Stake President Hassle!
On Sunday, September 9th, Ashley and I drove down to San Antonio after
church to meet with President Hassle of the San Antonio North Stake.
He had a meeting in the East Stake so we were scheduled to meet him
there. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up missing him, but we
ended up briefly meeting President Allen of the San Antonio East Stake
and Elder Olson, our Area Authority Seventy, to whom we mentioned the
documentary. They seemed interested also so we'll see how they come
into play as our production story unfolds (yes, that's the literary
technique of foreshadowing).
After dropping a copy of our demo off at the Normans, we went to
Ashley's parents house for dinner. We then headed up to President
Hassle's house, who Ashley had talked with on the phone and
rescheduled for that evening. President Hassle was very friendly and
we ended up staying there for 3 and a half hours and learned a bunch
about the construction of the San Antonio Temple (he's the stake
president who made the San Antonio Temple happen). In the end, we
scheduled a formal interview with him, where we would come with our
equipment and capture him and his wife on camera.
Our purpose in going there to see him was to ask him for funding to
support our project. We discussed this near the end of our 3 and a
half hours and he was positive, mentioning that he knew people who
would be more than willing to help. He also recommended that we talk
with President Otte, the temple president, who is a CPA and who is
rather gifted at raising money. We also need to compile a budget plan,
showing how much we've spent thus far and how much we expect to spend
for the remainder of the project.
So, our meeting with President Hassle was productive in more ways than
we had expected. I'm really glad we had our demo (displaying clips
from our interviews up to this point) ready to show him. He was really
impressed by it, stating how the color and audio were such good
quality, and was excited to be a part of the project. The feeling is
mutual as we're excited to have him as part of the project!
--Mark Sanderson
On Sunday, September 9th, Ashley and I drove down to San Antonio after
church to meet with President Hassle of the San Antonio North Stake.
He had a meeting in the East Stake so we were scheduled to meet him
there. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up missing him, but we
ended up briefly meeting President Allen of the San Antonio East Stake
and Elder Olson, our Area Authority Seventy, to whom we mentioned the
documentary. They seemed interested also so we'll see how they come
into play as our production story unfolds (yes, that's the literary
technique of foreshadowing).
After dropping a copy of our demo off at the Normans, we went to
Ashley's parents house for dinner. We then headed up to President
Hassle's house, who Ashley had talked with on the phone and
rescheduled for that evening. President Hassle was very friendly and
we ended up staying there for 3 and a half hours and learned a bunch
about the construction of the San Antonio Temple (he's the stake
president who made the San Antonio Temple happen). In the end, we
scheduled a formal interview with him, where we would come with our
equipment and capture him and his wife on camera.
Our purpose in going there to see him was to ask him for funding to
support our project. We discussed this near the end of our 3 and a
half hours and he was positive, mentioning that he knew people who
would be more than willing to help. He also recommended that we talk
with President Otte, the temple president, who is a CPA and who is
rather gifted at raising money. We also need to compile a budget plan,
showing how much we've spent thus far and how much we expect to spend
for the remainder of the project.
So, our meeting with President Hassle was productive in more ways than
we had expected. I'm really glad we had our demo (displaying clips
from our interviews up to this point) ready to show him. He was really
impressed by it, stating how the color and audio were such good
quality, and was excited to be a part of the project. The feeling is
mutual as we're excited to have him as part of the project!
--Mark Sanderson
The Sweet End to the Marathon
This morning was glorious . . . I slept in until 11:30. Since we already got temple footage Saturday morning, nothing was on the agenda this morning, so I was more than happy to turn my cell phone alarm off and drift back into sleep. We attended the Talbert’s family ward and afterward we ate lunch and rushed over to the Fykes’ household for an interview. President Fykes is part of the temple presidency for the San Antonio temple, and has a long history with San Antonio and Corpus Christi. After that we headed to Bro. Hernandez’s house for the last interview of the day. He was the first Hispanic bishop in San Antonio. That was a great interview because you could tell that he had great love for the area and the church, he shared his testimony in Spanish, and even though I couldn’t understand his words, I could understand the strong Spirit that was there. We ended the evening and weekend with a laid back late dinner of biscuits and gravy and watermelons at the Talbert’s, said our good bye’s and now we’re heading back on the road to Austin. (It’s about 10:45 right now and I’m writing this on my laptop on a word doc.) Overall, we filmed 6 interviews this weekend (which is twice the amount of interviews we had prior to this weekend). This was an incredible jump ahead in our production. Now I have the first day of school to look forward to this week . . . Ugh.