Following their July 1, 1985 release from the Uruguay
Montevideo Mission, where he had been serving as president, Waldo and Beverly
Call had planned to return home to Colonia Juarez. There they hoped to
put the affairs of their farm in order, leave it in the hands of their
sons, and then find a temporary home near a temple, where they could serve
by doing temple work.
Things didn't turn out quite that way. They realized
their desire to continue serving—but it was be through Elder Call’s new
assignment in the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was not something either
of them had expected. “This will change our
life-style completely, of course,” he reflected.
“He always wanted to be of service more than anything
else,” Sister Call added. “It doesn’t make a bit of difference what he’s
asked to do in the Church, he’s ready.”
Life was always that way for Waldo Pratt Call—when
he was called as regional representative over a wide area in Mexico, as
president of the Colonia Juarez Stake, as a high councilor, bishop’s counselor,
and Scoutmaster. He has been serving in Church callings almost continuously
since he became a member of his deacons quorum presidency as a boy.
In this service, his love for people always came
to the fore. As a mission president, he stressed that a missionary’s
first concern must not be filling quotas, but finding families who have
not yet heard the gospel and giving them the opportunity.
In his new calling in the Seventy, he said, “I feel very humble
and very weak. But I feel that we (he often includes his wife in his references)
can love the people. And we can teach them common sense in the gospel—basic
gospel principles of faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost,
honesty, patience, and love.”
And how would the calling affect Sister Call? It will
be an opportunity “to be with him, to share the ups and downs,” she replied.
Sister Call said her husband brings many strengths
to the calling of a Seventy. Perhaps the greatest was obedience. “He is totally obedient—to
the Brethren, to the doctrines of the Church, and to the Lord, and he always
has been.”
Their son Pratt pointed out that his father learned
leadership through Church experience. In addition, people trusted him because
they knew his honesty, and he had an admirable “capacity for hard work.
He’s never been afraid of it.”
Waldo Pratt Call was born in Colonia Juarez on 5
February 1928. He and his wife were high school sweethearts; they met at
the Juarez Stake Academy. They had seven children: Sandra (Mrs. John Hatch);
Rebecca; W. Pratt Call, Jr.; Robert David; Mark Anson; Nancy; and Jon Dana.
Elder Call said he learned hard work and service
from his parents, Charles Helaman and Hannah Skousen Call. (Charles Helaman
Call was a grandson of Helaman Pratt, the son of Elder Parley
P. Pratt of the Council of the Twelve.) Charles and Hannah Call taught
their thirteen children to work, and they set an example of Church service.
When the children were old enough to receive Church assignments, those
assignments took precedence over chores at home.
Elder Call graduated from Brigham Young University
in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy and horticulture.
In addition to managing his orchards (apples, peaches, pears) and farm,
he taught for nine years at the Juarez Stake Academy, in subjects ranging
from music to math and anatomy.
With such a rich background of interests and devotion
to the gospel, Elder Call was well prepared for this important service
in the Lord’s kingdom.
Elder Call served four years of his five-year calling
in the First Quorum of the Seventy before being transferred to the Second
Quorum of the Seventy on April 1, 1989. Serving faithfully, he was honorably
released a year later on October 6, 1990.
