It was seventeen years ago when Maurine and I were sitting in the auditorium of the BYU Jerusalem Center trying to catch our breath as we, for the first time at this angle, gazed out upon the unbelievable view of the Holy City of Gold. We could hardly take it in. We were spellbound. Then we felt two arms embrace us from behind, and a beautiful, deep,
resonant
voice from between our faces said, “Welcome to Heaven.” It was Truman Madsen. He perfectly captured our amazement and our wonder in those three words. That moment was etched upon our souls forever.
Truman's passing yesterday was like an unexpected blow to the stomach for us. We love Truman like a brother. In my lifetime of intense study of the Prophet Joseph, I feel that Truman is the most like him of anyone I ever met. He loved the Prophet Joseph with tenacity. He knew him as if he had spent his life growing up with him. He talked of him as an intimate friend and associate. He wrote of him with power and authority. My familiarity with Truman's countenance would often mix with my mind's eye view of the Prophet Joseph. The two could have been mission companions.
When Maurine and I arrived in Israel our first time together, we happened to jump in a Sherut (a shared taxi) with Truman and Ann Madsen. We had 45 minutes of uninterrupted time with them as we headed from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem . The first thing Truman said to us was, “If you want to find Jesus in the Holy Land you have to bring Him with you.” That was great counsel. I remember asking him during that ride in the Sherut if the very location of Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan at the mouth of the Dead Sea at the lowest place on the face of the earth (1,371 feet below sea level) was significant. He said, “Of course it is. It was necessary for the Savior to descend below all things, even in his baptism at that very spot, to fulfill His mission here on earth.”
Truman took a special interest in Maurine and me as we were working on our book, Source of the Light, A Witness and Testimony of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of All. He was, at the time, the Director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. We called him well in advance of our intended 30-plus days of photographing in the Holy Land and asked him if there was any chance we could stay in the Jerusalem Center itself. He called us back a day later and said, “I'm sorry. There is no room in the Inn .” We figured out another accommodation in a kibbutz just outside Jerusalem , but Truman did something even better for us. Knowing that we don't shoot photos during the flat light of mid day, he invited us to come to lunch at the Oasis (the cafeteria facilities of the Jerusalem Center ) each day and have lunch with him. This was a great chance for our then 16-year-old daughter, Laura, to relax and hang out with the BYU students, and a chance for our two-year-old Mariah to run around and stretch her legs as well (in complete safety). This was just the beginning.
At the end of lunch each day, Truman would ask very sincerely, “Do you have a few minutes?” We would say, “Of course.” He would then take Maurine and me up to his office and just talk to us about various aspects of the Savior's ministry. He went into vivid detail, never holding back or feeling concerned about sharing his life-long study of the Savior with these authors.
I shall never forget the day he sat down and said he wanted to talk to us about the crucifixion. He had already spent at least two hours with us about the Garden of Gethsemane . Now, he spent nearly two hours describing to us the pain and suffering of the Savior on the cross and the agony of this horrific method of execution. He went into painstaking detail with us—with tears streaming down his face, bearing testimony with every breath. Truman's hands gestured as he spoke. His slender body's neck muscles showed plainly as he described each part of the Savior's impending death of the cross. Taking from that conversation and drawing from Frederic Farrar's great work on the Savior, Maurine would write the following: “For capital punishment, the Jews stoned, burned, beheaded, or strangled, but the Romans chose the cruelest punishment of all—crucifixion. It was a lingering death for its tortured victims. The unnatural position made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened;…there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst, dizziness, cramp, starvation, sleeplessness, and shame.” 1Truman's personal teachings and testimony had a profound impact on us.
Once Truman was standing by a table at the Oasis and was talking to us and some other students about various aspects of the some of the Savior's parables. He displayed great emotion as he talked of one, and tears came to his eyes. Then, moments later, he was smiling and even laughing as he taught another obvious truth based on some point or cultural fact. While he was going through these teachings, he noticed that our two-year-old Mariah was following his every emotion—she would laugh when he laughed and even started to cry when he cried. Now, in Savior-like style he picked up Mariah and said, “I believe Mariah here is a perfect example of the Savior's teachings that we are to become like a little child. As I have spoken today, though she does not understand all my words, she has laughed with us so naturally, and cried when I have cried. I believe this is what the Savior meant when he said we should become submissive like a little child.” We have never forgotten that moment. Truman was amazing at creating never-to-be-forgotten moments.
When we started Meridian we wanted so much to have Truman on board as one of the writers. He just could not take the time to add one more commitment to his life. We understood that. Maurine, however, would not stop calling him. This went on for about a year. Finally, Truman, in his gentle, amazing way, said, “Maurine, you are the most persistent and least abrasive woman I have ever met. I'll tell you what. I will send you a box full of my writings and you can do with them whatever you want. Blessings.” His writings graced Meridian for many, many years. His use of the term, “Blessings” caused me to end all my e-mails with that term over the years.
Truman's life and studies will impact generation upon generation. He understood that the atonement was not a part of the gospel—it IS the gospel. He spent his life trying not only to understand the atonement and the restoration of the gospel but striving to incorporate the teachings of eternity into his very being—almost rewriting (submitting) his very DNA. Truman never let his tremendous intellect come crossways with his testimony or faith. His acquisition of knowledge only accelerated his ability to be an effective and powerful teacher—“for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” 2
To Ann, his precious wife, whom we love equally as we did Truman, we say, hold on—our thoughts and prayers and sympathies are with you. May the veil be thin for you in these times to follow—may Truman's mellifluous and resonant voice never leave your mind and heart.
For Truman, all I can wish, this very day (for I write this near midnight yet on the day of his passing) is that while you gaze upon the real scenes that you have spent a lifetime studying, may you have two strong hands come from behind you and may you hear a deep resonant voice say in your ears, “Welcome to Heaven.”
Notes
1 Proctor, Maurine Jensen and Proctor, Scot Facer. Source of the Light, A Witness and Testimony of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of All. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City , 1992, p. 172.
2 See Matthew 7: 29.
