My family and I moved into the La Crosse Second branch in early June 2004. I had just completed my commitment to the army and was coming to La Crosse to do a one-year fellowship in Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery at Gundersen. We lived on the south side of La Crosse so geographically we belonged to the branch. Rick Mikat was branch president at the time. We enjoyed the small, intimate feeling that comes with a small branch. My wife served with Raquel Petree in the Young Women’s program for a time, mostly working with the Robinson girls, since they were the only active YW at the time. Just a few months after starting my fellowship I was offered a job to stay on as staff at Gundersen. While I always thought I’d end up back in Utah, jobs there were not quite what I was looking for and we eventually accepted the offer and started looking for a house to buy. I was called to be a primary teacher for a short time until Brother Mikat was released and Leon Madeux was called to replace him as branch president. I was called to be his first counselor and John Colton was called as second counselor. I enjoyed working with these good brethren. Leon was all about the members and their needs, and didn’t worry so much about the meetings. He would often leave bishopric meeting, PEC or ward council meetings early to go pick up members so they could attend church. These were usually less active or just people that didn’t have cars.
Eventually he took a new job in the twin cities and moved his family up there. President Spackman, our stake president at the time, called me to be the new branch president in the spring of 2007. I requested John Colton as my first counselor and Lynn Burbach as my second counselor, and they were called. I remember not long after being sustained, Cory, the 8 year old grandson of the Michaels died from cancer. That was the first funeral I had to organize and conduct. I was quite nervous as I had never done this before and the stakes seemed to be higher because it was a child. It was a very difficult time for the branch. A short 3 months after being sustained as branch president, the branch was dissolved and rolled up into the ward, creating a single, larger ward in La Crosse in the summer of 2007. The ward had had a lot of key families move out the previous few months and the ward was struggling to fill positions without over-taxing the faithful members. Steve Sorensen was called as the bishop, replacing Ron Knapmiller, and I was called as first counselor with Jacque Durnford as second counselor. Thus ended my short tenure as branch president. I had mixed emotions about the whole change. I really enjoyed the closeness we shared as a branch and worried we might lose some of that in a bigger ward. I didn’t really know that many members of the ward that well, so there was the fear of the unknown I suppose. But I was excited about combining the youth since the branch youth program was so anemic in numbers and my kids were coming up on that age soon. I was hopeful that a more robust youth program would be better for youth engagement and provide a more rich experience for them.