Sunday, May 18, 2008

Bishop Bo

These pictures are from our recently completed Circle of Champions trip where Bo, Ted and I went to Tucson. I thought I would tell a little of the story of Donovan Jackson.

We met 14 years ago. He was a part time advisor for Waddell and Reed. He and his brother Darrin ran a pre-school full time. We were friendly and occasionally shared a ride up to meetings in Reno. He and his brother sold the Pre-school and Donovan (Bo) decided to go full time with Waddell and Reed. He opened an office in Minden, bought some furniture and hired a secretary. I was still working out of my office at home. I was getting really busy and a little overwhelmed and needed help to get everything done. I sensed that Bo was not doing enough business to do much more than cover his overhead. I proposed to him that we merge our two practices into one and form a partnership. That was 10 1/2 years ago and we've been going strong in the business ever since. We added Ted to the practice 7 years ago and Janelle 6 years ago.

At the time we started working together, Bo was single, dating beutiful women, hunting, fishing, skiing and taking many adventures. He and his friend Vini had traveled to the Europe and traveled the British Isles on motorcycles, sailed the Greek Islands, traveled to Turkey, helicopter skied in Alaska, and dove for abalone off the California coast . His latest trip several years ago was to go back packing along the "Inca Trail" in Peru. I told him that I wanted to see the pictures when he got back. This was actually before we started working together. When he showed me the pictures I asked him if anyone told him where all the Inca's went to. He said "no one knows". I told him that I knew and when I had time I'd tell him. We were traveling together to a meeting in Reno and he turned to me and said "you've got an hour, tell me what happened to the Incas". So we talked about the Book of Mormon. Later that night Jared and I took him a copy of the Book of Mormon and one of the church videos that we watched together. Bo started seeing the missionaries. He went through several over the course of two years. One day he showed up at church. He said he had a dream that the missionaries were there waiting for him and he had to meet them. He has been coming to church every since. Now he is married to Heather Paterson, has four little boys and was recently called to be the Bishop of the CVIII ward in the Valley. Quite a journey.

2 comments:

Jesse said...

Bo's story and his life now are an inspiration. How wonderful you get to be a part of it.

Susy said...

I remember Marla sharing this story when it was happening. I was so happy to see where his journey has lead him thus far! What an inspiration to stand up and share the gospel!