FYI:
For Your Information

Hearing Loss from Common Sounds

“If you attend a rock dance for a couple of hours or ride a snowmobile for an hour, you could lose a little bit of your hearing,” warns clinical audiologist Dr. Kenneth O. Jones.

Dr. Jones, assistant professor of Communicative Habilitation at Brigham Young University, says that many everyday sounds cause hearing losses in the higher hearing range frequencies, making it difficult to distinguish the soft “th,” “s,” and “wh” sounds or enjoy music. These hearing losses can be permanent and are hard to correct with hearing aids.

Here’s a chart showing the average decibel levels (dBA) of some common sound sources and the longest safe exposure at those levels according to the U.S. Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970. Keep in mind that some people will suffer hearing loss after even shorter exposure.

Source	dBA	Maximum Safe Exposure
Rock Dance	102	1 1/2 hours
Bowling Alley	102	1 1/2 hours
Table Saw	100	2 hours
Router	94	5 hours
Trim Saw	98	2 1/2 hours
Snowmobile	108	45 minutes
Chain Saw	100	2 hours
Motorboat	95	4 hours
Lawn Mower	92	6 hours
Handsaw	96	3 1/2 hours
Motorcycle	95	4 hours
Heavy Trucks	95	4 hours

If you can’t avoid exposing yourself to one of these sounds for an unsafe period, there are some protective devices you can use. According to Jones, specially made ear plugs, ear cups, and sound helmets are good sound deadeners, but stuffing cotton in your ears won’t help much.

Because noise-induced hearing losses occur slowly, they are difficult to detect at first. But one sign of possible hearing damage is a ringing in the ears after exposure to intense sounds.

Dating Continuum

Below are several continuums. At each end of the continuum is an extreme of a particular quality, condition, or character trait. On each continuum you are to place three letters. (1) Locate yourself on the continuum. At that point, place an “M” for me. (2) Next, locate the lowest possible point where you could accept a person whom you are considering for a marriage companion, and place a “C” for companion. (3) Now consider the type of persons you are currently dating and place them on the continuum, with a “D” for dates. This exercise will be of no value if you are not completely honest. Do not place anyone on the “X” in the middle of the continuum.

1. Comes from poor family	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Comes from rich family
2. Is religious	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Is not religious
3. Is, or is becoming, educated	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Doesn’t care about education
4. Drinks, smokes, uses drugs	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Has clean health habits
5. Loves athletics	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Dislikes athletics
6. Is ambitious	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Is lazy
7. Is considerate	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Is inconsiderate
8. Is self-centered	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Is concerned about others
9. Is beautiful or handsome	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Is ugly
10. Consistent, stable, dependable	—•——•——•——•——X——•——•——•——•—	Inconsistent, unstable, undependable

LDS Youth Conference—Italian Style

Lido degli Estensi, a small city on the Italian Adriatic Coast, proved to be the site of five days of fun as 250 LDS youth gathered for a youth conference.

When the Italian Mission was formed in 1966 there were just a handful of members in this ancient land where the Apostle Paul once preached the gospel. Today there are two missions, with the Italian membership rapidly approaching 3,000.

The Italy North mission headquartered in Milan and the Italy South Mission based in Rome joined forces for this learning and spiritual experience.

Activities were varied to suit all tastes. There were roadshows, a North-South soccer game, a talent show, a speech workshop, gospel discussion groups, a marathon race, folk dance exhibitions, and a testimony meeting on Sunday that climaxed the week. In addition the Pisa branch presented a polished performance of Carol Lynn Pearson’s play “The Order Is Love,” which was greatly enjoyed.

Marimba Soloist Takes Honors in Vienna Music Festival

Californian Dawn Leslie Gade won first place for her marimba solo Concertino composed by George Frock after she performed at the “Youth and Music in Vienna Festival” held in Vienna, Austria.

Dawn received a $1,000 scholarship, which she plans to use to further her education in music after completing her school next year.

A first-year Laurel in the Loomis Ward, Roseville Stake, Dawn has represented her school, Del Oro High, for two years at the Chico State Music Festival at Chico State College.

Last year Dawn played in the honor band at the Southern California Music Festival at the University of California at Fullerton campus.

For the past two years Dawn has placed first in her stake annual festival of music.

Wyoming Youth Visits Capital

A visit to the White House, a talk with the Chief Justice, and a look at Congress in session were just some of the activities of Harvey J. North and other youths from around the nation who visited Washington, D.C., as part of the Boys’ Nation program of the American Legion.

Harvey was also the voting Wyoming delegate for the Distributive Education Clubs of America national elections in Atlantic City, N.J.

17-year-old Relief Society President Called

Called as a Relief Society branch president at age 17, Debbie Mink is one of the organization’s youngest leaders in Church history.

A BYU freshman from Redlands, California, Debbie is studying nursing and history on a scholarship.

Debbie feels strongly that the auxiliary can help develop testimonies and guide women in learning obedience to the priesthood.

Laurel Conference Hosts 23 Stakes

Twenty-three stakes were actively involved in a regional Laurel Conference held at Ricks College, Rexburg, Idaho, recently. The theme of the conference was “Beauty Is Eternal.”

Activities included general assemblies, workshops, sports activities, and a fashion show presented by the Idaho Falls South Stake. Saturday there was a water fight that washed the girls up for the banquet. The Idaho Falls North Stake provided the entertainment. Following dinner the girls received their Laurelife medallions.

Root Beer Guzzling and a Special “Mail Call”

Members of the Seal Beach and Long Beach Eighth wards, Long Beach Stake, report their youth conference was a well-planned success.

With the bishops youth committees selecting “Be Ye Not of the World” as the conference theme, 164 persons spent three days in fun activities as well as spiritual discussions. Friday and Saturday meant water balloons, toilet-papered dorms, relay games, root beer guzzling contests, and egg tossing. Sunday included priesthood, Relief Society, Sunday School, and testimony meetings.

An especially humbling and revealing experience for those attending was a “mail call” that brought a letter from parents to each youth.

Some of the comments:

“It’s the first time my parents have ever called me son!”

“My mother says I am an example to her and she loves to see how happy I am in my church.”

“I do so many stupid things I’m amazed my parents love me so much.”

Rodeo Round-up Attracts 80 Participants

Learning the ropes of steer riding as an Aaronic Priesthood MIA activity? Youths of the Spanish Fork and Palmyra (Utah) Stakes herded their horses and enthusiasm into a rodeo that included goat tying, calf roping, barrel races, and wild cow milking.

Originating with the youth committees of the two stakes, the rodeo attracted more than 80 participants. Organizing and planning the event, along with the publicity and selection of advisers, were all projects of the youth committees.

Among the ropers, riders, and milkers interest ran high. Randy Young, who entered the steer riding event, said the rodeo provided “excitement, action, and lots of fun.” At 14 he’s a seven-year veteran of the arena.

Dean Sorenson started three years ago when he was nine and says the best way to learn the basics is from an older brother, a father, or a friend.

Many of the local young people frequently ride in the weekly rodeo at nearby Birdseye, which provides stiff competition and good training, according to Dean.

“The Plane Will Get Down Safely!”

On November 3, 1973, a great, winged shadow bumped swiftly across the tortured grey landscape of the Gila wilderness in New Mexico. Six miles above, the interrupted sunlight shone on the back of a National Airlines DC10 jetliner that seemed to hang in the four o’clock blue afternoon while the world moved underneath. Inside, just in front of the craft’s eastern wing, Elder Leonard Dobson was riding home in style.

While the ragged mountains slipped away under his right elbow, he relaxed, reading a little from the book of 2 Nephi in his battered, Spanish-language Book of Mormon and turning occasionally to snap a photo from his cabin window.

And sometimes he just leaned back and thought about some of the wonderful people he was leaving behind in the Venezuela Mission where he had served faithfully for two years, and he thought, perhaps, of an LDS lawyer in Sonora, California, who had given a copy of the Book of Mormon to a 26-year-old non-Mormon civil engineer named Leonard Dobson.

A brief year as a member, a mission call, the mission (could it really have been two years?), and now he was sitting on a six-mile-high cushion of air, waiting for the red and yellow lights of the San Francisco airport to come and gather him home.

Suddenly the sleepy rumble of the three jet engines was shattered by a deafening explosion; far below the huge shadow faltered; inside the plane there were screams of shock and horror, quickly dying into stunned silence.

“I looked back over my left shoulder into the cabin area to see what had happened, because it sounded like the explosion was in back of me,” Leonard reports. “Then I looked back over my right shoulder and saw the engine coming apart, pieces falling away, and flames. My first thought was, ‘Oh no; you’re going to be one of those people who go in a big airplane crash.’ The very first thing I did was pray. It just didn’t make any sense for me to die at that time, but if I was going to I wanted to talk to my Maker about it, so I started praying.”

As he prayed, all fear left him. The words, “You are a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ; the plane will get down safely,” kept running through his mind. Certain passages from his patriarchal blessing also came into consciousness, reassuring him that his mission on earth was not yet completed. It was a calm and confident young man who finished his prayer and turned to see what he could do to help.

“Some passengers were screaming and some were rushing around the cabin. The stewardesses were very busy. At that time I noticed the condensation in the cabin area, a fog that looked like smoke, and I realized that I couldn’t hear.” He found out later that the fog and the temporary deafness both resulted from a broken window two seats back through which the cabin had decompressed.

As oxygen rushed from the cabin through the broken window, oxygen masks began dropping from their compartments overhead. Leonard’s didn’t drop, and he had to pry off the panel with his fingernails and remove the mask manually. Many of the masks didn’t work properly.

“People were moving from one seat to another trying to find a mask that worked. Some of them were fainting, and as they fainted their arms would fall away from their faces and their masks would fall off.”

There was a real spirit of brotherhood in the little airplane community, passengers helping passengers as best they could. The stewardesses moved about with amazing energy and efficiency, administering oxygen and first aid to those in need.

And so, with an engine gone, the cabin depressurized, and an ocean of thin air under them, the huge craft dipped its nose and went looking for its shadow.

“The pilot put the plane into a steep dive to get some thicker air into the cabin. I got up to help some people across the aisle who had fainted but a stewardess came to them with a portable oxygen supply and motioned for me to sit down and buckle up. They had to communicate by gestures because no one could hear.”

Wanting to help somehow, Leonard began taking pictures of the disintegrating engine as the plane plummeted earthward. These pictures later proved to be an invaluable aid to the National Airlines investigating team.

The jet leveled off a few thousand feet above the rugged desert floor, and the passengers were told to get into crash landing position with their heads between their knees. The last thing Leonard saw before putting his head down was jagged peaks flashing by. A few minutes later they all felt the beautiful jolt of rubber against concrete. The wounded plane with one engine destroyed had managed to limp into Albuquerque, New Mexico, thanks to the skill of the crew and the blessings of the Lord.

On the ground the passengers slid to safety down emergency chutes and then embraced one another as old friends, shouting words that no one could hear.

The happiness of the occasion was marred by a tragedy that some of the passengers didn’t even know about yet. The man sitting by the broken window had been sucked out of the plane by the force of the decompression. There had also been several heart attacks and cases of shock.

It was a day of stark tragedy, lightened only by the fact that according to all the laws of probability, the tragedy should have been much much worse.

In retrospect Leonard says, “Life is a gift and is very precious. We are in the Lord’s hands at all times, and we must use the life, light, and guidance we have in his service. All we have and are we owe to him.”

And just as a great jet found its own shadow in the safety of the Albuquerque airport, Elder Leonard Dobson found a faint shadow of God’s great love for his servants in those few terse words: “You are a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ; the plane will get down safely.”

Left. Youth from Sicily display native dress and dance. Above. Members from the Piedmont Valley present circle dance of their region. Right. The ever-popular “La Tarantella”

Harvey J. North

Debbie Mink

Deborah Jeppson sings conference theme song

Impromptu basketball was a popular activity

Leonard happened to snap a picture of the right engine shortly before the explosion

This picture of the right engine was taken while the plane was diving. The cowling has been blown off, the turbine rotors broken, and the hydraulic tubing exposed and smashed. Bits of the engine broke a window and damaged the fuselage of the plane

After landing safely in Albuquerque, the passengers deplaned down emergency chutes. The left arrow points out the broken window through which a man was pulled by the force of decompression. The right arrow points out Leonard’s window