LDS Scene

Patti and Samuel Frustaci became the focus of international attention May 21 after Sister Frustaci gave birth to septuplets. Sadly, not all of the infants survived. One, a girl later named Christina Elizabeth, was stillborn, and three others—David Anthony, James Martin, and Bonnie Marie—passed away later. At Ensign deadline time, tiny Patricia Ann, Stephen Earl, and Richard Charles were making daily improvements. All of the babies, born twelve weeks prematurely, suffered from hyaline membrane disease, a malady affecting their lungs, which were not yet fully developed. Brother Frustaci served as spokesman for the couple in numerous press interviews while his wife recuperated.

The Frustacis are members of the Arlington Third Ward, Riverside California West Stake.

Lorna Kesterson of the Henderson Third Ward, Henderson Nevada Stake, was elected mayor of Henderson, Nevada in a May 7 election. Sister Kesterson has been serving on the city council for the past ten years.

The Church’s Polynesian Cultural Center recently hosted a high-level delegation of officials from the People’s Republic of China for a week-long tourism and cultural management seminar. Ralph G. Rodgers, PCC president and general manager, issued an invitation to the Chinese group after Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang visited the center in 1984. The center is adjacent to the BYU—Hawaii campus, where several students from the People’s Republic of China have attended school in recent years.

BEEF magazine, a cattle industry publication that is circulated nationwide in the United States, focused on Ricks College in a recent issue with a major article devoted to one of the LDS school’s programs. “This unique college course teaches students all the practical things needed to run a ranch,” the magazine explained. The Beef Production Management Program at Ricks includes both classroom work and practical, on-the-ranch experience.

Brigham Young University distance runner Ed Eyestone performed the back-to-back feats of winning the 10,000-meter race May 31 and the 5,000-meter race June 1 at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Track and Field Championships for the United States, in Austin, Texas. He is the first from BYU, and the first from the United States since 1968, to win the two championships in the same year.

John R. Schneider recently received the Excellence Award from the United States government’s Small Business Administration for saving the government 151 million dollars. The saving was effected by procuring sophisticated aircraft and missile systems through small businesses. Brother Schneider is bishop of the Kettering Ward, Dayton Ohio Stake.