When Craig Allen Cardon was called to serve a mission to Italy in 1968, the country became central to his self-concept in a way that would influence his life as a husband and father in years to come.
"In my ignorance as a young man, I had not ever focused on the fact that the Cardon family came from Italy and was converted in 1852 during the time of Lorenzo Snow's ministry to Italy," said Elder Cardon, who was sustained at April general conference to the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
The mission put him in touch with his Italian heritage and, today, he fondly recounts the fact that Cardons, along with other families who would become prominent in the Church, lived in the French-Italian Alps as adherents to the Waldensian faith at the time of their conversion.
Elder Cardon was privileged to begin his mission soon after the work opened in Italy.
During that time, he corresponded by mail with Deborah Dana, whom he had dated while they attended high school in Mesa, Ariz., but never steadily.
"Dad had a three-in-one rule," he noted. "You could have three dates with the same girl, then you needed a date with someone else."
Both Elder and Sister Cardon affirm the wisdom of that rule, and they have carried it on in rearing their own eight children. But they saw each other much more frequently after he returned from Italy and, within two months, they were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple.
Seven of their eight children had been born by the time he was called to preside over what has become the Italy Rome Mission at the young age of 34.
"Frankly, I believe the Church was looking for leaders who spoke Italian, and I think part of the reason I was called at an early age was that I spoke the language," he reflected. In any event, missionary service in Italy would again be an important element in Elder Cardon's life experience, this time with his wife and their seven children. What by any account would be a challenge for such a large and young family was, in fact, a blessing, both Cardons affirm.
"The kids became each others' best friends," he said, attributing the spirit of love in their home to his wife, who, he said, "abhors contention."
They laugh as they recall an occasion when they had to be away from home for the evening and left the children with strict instructions not to leave the kitchen until the dinner dishes were washed. The Cardon children gave the directive a creative and loose interpretation: So long as they were in physical contact with each other, and any part of one child was in the kitchen, the others could leave the room. They devised a game of seeing how far they could roll an orange into the next room and retrieve it while linked together with the toe of one of them touching the kitchen floor.
"We came back, and they were having a great time and the dishes weren't done; but they had not left the kitchen!" Elder Cardon said.
"On a spiritual note," Sister Cardon said, "I remember when we were in Italy and we were striving to read scriptures as a family while the children were little." Elder and Sister Cardon had to be away from home one Monday evening, a rare occurrence for the customary family home evening time. When they returned, eldest daughter Tricia told of the children's efforts to read the scriptures. Andrea, then about baptism age, had become emotional during the scripture reading, saying that she felt Heavenly Father close to her and that she felt His love for the family.
"They were just little children reading the scriptures together," Sister Cardon said. "And I just think that experience, being there in Italy, cemented their relationship."
The family's dedication to building the kingdom of God continued a legacy passed to Elder Cardon from his father, Wilford, who was in the petroleum retailing business. On one occasion, after a three-hour contract negotiation with some oil company vice presidents, Wilford had insisted they remain while he tell them about the most important thing in his life. They each left with a copy of the Book of Mormon.
"Can you imagine the example that was to me as a young man?" Elder Cardon asked. "It was in his soul; he just loved it."
And so it was that while presiding over the mission in Italy, President Cardon, emulating his father, lived close to the Spirit.
With affection, he tells of the endeavor in the mission to acquire properties that could be converted into meetinghouses. This was at a time when local members were expected to come up with a share of the cost of the property acquisition. To him, it seemed the burden would be impossible for the local members to meet.
He was drafting a letter to Church headquarters to ask for an exception to the requirement, when he experienced the proverbial stupor of thought (see Doctrine and Covenants 9:7). This caused him to go to the Lord in prayer, and he received a strong impression that the leaders were not to ask for the exception.
"We were coming up on the Christmas season, and I learned that you have to be careful what you ask the saints, because they are faithful," he recounted. "But we determined that we would invite the saints, to the extent that they would feel comfortable within their own homes, to forgo their Christmas plans and other plans and, rather, to contribute to the building fund." Those who did so received a brick to place under their Christmas tree as a memento of their sacrifice.
He describes the result as a miracle. Contributions far exceeded what was anticipated, "and Zion was established temporally in that part of the Lord's kingdom."
Now, with his Brethren among the General Authorities, Elder Cardon will have the opportunity to work full time building the kingdom in other ways.
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
