I grew up on dairy and poultry farms managed or owned by my father in the Bountiful, Utah area. I thought I ate a healthy diet, which included meat, eggs and milk. I obeyed the Word of Wisdom as I understood it, but contrary to the Word of Wisdom promise, my health was failing.
 

As my own boss in my some-times animal husbandry and all-the-time mechanical repair business, I was never short on exercise. My work was always physically demanding and strenuous. I could “throw” a cow, “drop” a cantankerous horse, pull wire or break thread on the largest rusty pipe or bolt without difficulty. I did unfortunately believe, as I had been thoroughly taught, that I needed to sufficiently consume, for the “good” of my health, teeth and bones, the products of my own dairy and animal husbandry industry. I had no shortage of milk, eggs or meat. I should have been as healthy as my old horse Frisky – but it was not so!
 

One day [at 49 years old] as I was working on a washing machine, I leaned over it and bumped into a little mass in my chest that gave me a sharp pain. I thought, “Wow what is going on here?”
 

I went to the hospital. After several tests, I learned that I had tumors in my chest and abdomen. I had one very large tumor in my upper back with tentacles reaching into my chest cavity and brain. I also had stage 4 malignant melanoma.
 

The doctors at the VA hospital did the best they could to save my life. I underwent four cancer surgeries, each lasting three hours or more. I woke up during one of the operations while they were scraping the cancer off my rib bones. They had to increase my anesthesia. I also suffered multiple TIAs or mini-strokes during and after these surgeries. My life declined and its limits became no larger than the hospital ward or my own imprisoning bedroom. All else in my life’s dreams and efforts collapsed, vanished or were taken away.
 

Four months later in June of 1990 a third stroke took my sight and left me with little speech and motor function. My left side was fully impaired. Two and a half years of endless headache, pain and perpetual nausea were now in process! I was overwhelmed and depressed with my dysfunction as additional cancer cleanup surgeries and treatment continued! My world no longer fully visible, workable and for the most part communicable, crumbled about me. Unannounced to me, a team of psychiatrists were quietly adding to my cabinet full of prescriptions. Their tiny pills further disconnected me from logic and life.
 

Seven months later in January of 1991, my heart was tired, damaged and wanting to stop. Suffering a heart attack, though still alive, I was sped again out of my bedroom back to my old familiar emergency bed in the VA hospital. The evaluations revealed a malfunctioning heart valve. My life was returned as before, back to my bedroom, but with some more pills to take, of course.
 

Six months later in June of 1991, my body was slowly going into septicemia, or shock, from a recent dog bite. Though the doctors heroically worked on me, my heart and lungs did stop for a short time. In those moments between life and death, I passed from the emergency room into a garden or large park. I was brought to a grand picnic table, which I believe represented the Table of the Lord. There were many people gathered around it. I recognized Joseph Smith, Emma Smith, and other early Latter-day Saint leaders from their portraits. Jesus Christ stood on the right side of me and my grandfather, Eli B. Rodgers, who served in the Salt Lake Temple Presidency, was on the left. As I looked at this great table, I looked for milk and honey and other familiar foods, but saw only foods of the garden. A question began to form in my mind, “Where were the animal foods?” At first it was like I was not there to them, but as that question began to form in my mind, all of them, like a choir in unison, stopped and said, “We do not partake of those things here.” Instantly I understood that the issue was the taking of life. I understood that my cancers, heart disease and strokes were a consequence of my willingness to take the life of a creature (or animal).
 

As everybody went back to what they were doing, Emma Smith maintained eye contact with me. I sensed that she wanted to tell me something. She was a beautiful lady with long black hair and porcelain skin. Still standing between Jesus Christ and my grandfather Eli, I had a lengthy conversation with Emma. She was very concerned about the deterioration of the health of children on earth. I also learned that because Emma had lost her first three children at birth, she urged Joseph to inquire as to the reason, and he received the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom.
 

As we concluded our communication, the scene at the garden dissolved and suddenly I found myself at my local ward, looking at my wife, with Jesus Christ and Eli as my escorts. I also had a foster son, biological son and a daughter on missions for the church, all at the same time. I could see each of them as inserts in that view. My family desperately needed me. I plead with my Lord, “I cannot stay here (in the spirit world) they need to know what I now know.” Then Jesus promised me, “I will help you with your family, if you help me with mine.” I understood and made a promise to never eat animal foods and offend Him again by so doing, and to do everything I could to educate His family to live within this truth.
 

As I barely awoke from my near death experience, I immediately called for the dietitian of the hospital. My strangely out-of-character words to the hospital dietitian were, “Nothing need die, that I might live!” Sensing her and everyone’s disbelief from this old rancher’s request, and struggling again to speak, I restated, “Nothing is to lose its life, so that I might have mine!” Death’s embrace did work profound change in my way of thinking – never again to be the same! Passing near death I understood nature’s wisdom and my foolish errors. I had to make a compassionate and intelligent change. That wonderful lady of the kitchen facilities understood, and from that day forward she was my “angel” in the hospital kitchen, making sure that my hospital menu was only of gentle foods. Nothing more was to suffer for me or my appetite!
 

As a former dairyman/rancher this new way of thinking was unusual, uncomfortable, even offensive to many of my friends and family. We were steeped in the time-honored traditions of our fathers, along with our lucrative profits and pride.
 

But eleven months later I was past death and looked so much better! April 5, 1992 was once my medically predicted death date! However, here I was sweetly living 60 lbs lighter, sight, speech and mobility returning. My blood analysis was equal to a 20-year old. My immune system was back and working, a remaining growth under my rib reducing and a third mass in my groin – gone! Arthritis, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, tinnitus, teeth (what I had left) all healing! But the most important healing for me was my returning ability to play and interact again with my family and friends.
 

In June of 1991, when I had my near death experience, I had a tumor just below my right rib the size of a walnut. After two years on the plant-based diet, I went back to my oncologist for x-rays. The tumor was now the size of a pea! It was proof that I was getting better! However, my doctor attributed it to “spontaneous remission” and took no interest in my healthy diet. Seven years later, the University of Utah wanted to study my case for cancer research, but when they found out I ate only plants, the idea was dropped.
 

For the next ten years of my life, I traveled all over the western United States, teaching people about the plant-based diet. It was both enjoyable and difficult, but I was up for the task. I made many friends along the way. Many lectures were given at universities such as USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, Cal Poly Tech, UC Davies, University of Riverside, UC San Diego, all the universities in Utah and Nevada, Harvard, Yale and many others. Additional lectures were given at public libraries and gatherings at homes and health food stores. What a happy honor to have friends who are now engaged in caring for the precious temples of the human spirit, who are willing to speak out and courageously act in defense of all the voiceless, helpless and innocent life of creation – including our own priceless children. I am now in my 78th year and going strong. My doctor gave me nine months to live in 1991, but here I am today – nearly 30 years later!