When Doug Griffin from Australia and Glenn Hawkes from the United States served as missionary companions in the early 1960s in Western Australia, they found one of those contacts best described as "golden."
They met Grace McAlpine when she went to the home of an LDS friend who was preparing to leave on a mission. She was receptive and responded in every way that missionaries pray for with the people they teach. Just before Grace was to be baptized, Elder Griffin was transferred. Elder Robert Reynolds, almost straight off the plane as a new missionary arriving in Australia, was invited to baptize Grace.Elders Hawkes and Griffin completed their missions and returned to their homes. Grace served in the same mission as those who had taught her. Eventually, she married and had three sons.
Recently, Glenn Hawkes returned to Adelaide on a business trip. There he discovered that the wife of Australia Adelaide Mission Pres. Peter M. Masson was Grace McAlpine Masson, his "golden" contact of nearly 30 years ago.
Arrangements were made for Brother Hawkes, Brother Griffin and Sister Masson to meet at the mission home in Adelaide. Joining them in the reunion were Brother Griffin's wife, Kay, and several others who had also served missions together. Their mission president was Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Council of the Twelve, who died in 1985.
While visiting in Australia, Brother Hawkes assisted Pres. Masson in ordaining the Massons' eldest son, Tim, to the office of elder. While at the mission home, Brother Hawkes received a message that a member of the Council of the Twelve had been trying to reach him by telephone. When he placed the call to the United States, he learned he was being called to serve as a counselor in a stake presidency in Maryland.
