What I learned from Dad...at Memorial Services by Jenny Chidester

I am Jenny Chidester, Richard and Eileen’s middle child. I always thought I was Daddy’s Favorite, but we all thought that.
I am honoring our Father by sharing with you what he taught us as children.
The first is of FAITH- ~Dad wrote this quote many years ago. “When we can't answer the why we must trust in the reason. When we can't see the reason we must trust in the plan. When the plan becomes obscure we must surrender our lives to God's unfailing love.”
Dad taught us to have Faith in the Lord and to serve the Lord by serving his children.Dad's example of unwavering faith and love of serving others is what strengthened my testimony the most.
When I was a young adult, I was working for a member of our ward. After a couple of weeks of working there my boss took me home. As I got out of the car he very sadly turned to me and said is your Mom single? I haven’t seen your Dad at church with her... I laughed, “oh he's at church alright, He’s just not sitting with us. In fact he is in our Stake Presidency. We both had a good laugh.The Second Lesson was that of FAMILY-
I think my Dad’s motto was “Treat your family like friends and friends like family.”
We learned that family should be your priority and that a mother was to be adored and respected. He also taught us to make our own decisions by putting his complete trust in us.
I remember a couple times getting woke up late at night by Dad after he returned from a late church meeting. He would have all of us go down and complete the dishes we had left behind for our mom to do. We couldn't go back to bed until the job was complete. We learned real fast to always have the dishes done for Mom when Dad was away.What a great lesson I learned from that: To do a job and do it well!
The third lesson we learned was that ofFRIENDS- This saying was in our Family Room : Tis Better far to trust all and be deceived than to doubt one fond heart that should be believed. This was another of Dad's mottos.We learned to not judge, to trust and to love unconditionally. We learned that there was always room for one more…
Our home always had an open door policy and we never knew who would be the guest at any family gathering. We knew they felt loved by Dad and that is all that really mattered.
Dad had a special talent for making everyone think they were special to him, and you had no doubt that he loved you.
While I was at Ricks College my Dad wrote this in a letter to me,
“We had a great Stake Conference and we were told that we have one of the best presidencies in the bi-region. That makes me grateful to serve with President Hodgson. “
Dad developed many sweet friendships during his many years of church service.
President Hodgson shared with us recently that during Stake Conference many years ago Dad announced that the Stake color was “chocolate”. They loved serving with one another, and they both shared a great love of chocolate.
The last thing we learned was the love of food-Dad believed that when Faith, Family, and Friends were combined there should be food and fun.
~Mark Twain said Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. I believe Dad felt the same way.

I personally learned to love Mexican food, peppercini's, salsa the hotter the better, Tabasco sauce, fresh tomato salad, garlic bread, and chocolate from my Dad.

A couple of weeks ago Dad was a little delusional due to his liver failure. He knew who we all were, but came up with some interesting stories throughout the day. Annie and I were talking with him and he informed us that we had exactly two hours to prepare to go to dinner. He said there is going to be 18 of us going to Mexican food and we'd better go get ready. He had twenty dollars and he was paying for it. Then he asked for a comb. Annie said, “oh did you want to comb your hair? Dad said, “no for the two of you” and Annie said “oh do we need a comb?” And Dad said, “Well …I wasn’t going to say anything”… we had a good laugh.

One of Dad’s closest friends, Frank Sanchez, said to Dad once, “If there aren’t enchiladas in the Celestial Kingdom, I’m not going… and Dad agreed

He was determined to get us out to mexican food these past few months. So we will honor his wishes by celebrating with food, family, faith and friends.

Kathy, Annie and I are honored to have been our Father’s caretakers during the last year and a half of his life along with our Mother. We had many tender moments with him individually and will always treasure that time we spent with him especially the last few weeks of his life.
I am honored to be his daughter and along with my siblings will strive to carry on his legacy of love.
Two things I have always known my whole life that God loved me and that my Daddy loved me unconditionally. Who could ask for more? ~Jenny (Daughter)