SeeiNG IS alMosT Still nOT BeliEvinG

     Many years ago, while on my mission, I started a project that has blossomed into something that has lasted more than 20 years and now spans 2 generations.  It started with a trivia question in a mission hand book. The question was "Who were the original 12 apostles of this generation?" I started doing a little research in whatever books I could find. (Remember, this is 20 someodd years ago so no internet) I finally was able to get the names of all 12 men and then, as is often the case for me, I took it to the extreme.  I began creating general authoity charts for the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I began with two men on the 1830 chart and then added the original 12 apostles for the 1835 chart. I searched for pictures in anything I could find. (in later years I not only DID use the internet, but also took trips down to the church archives in SLC.) Whenever the was some kind of change to EITHER quorum I would make a new chart. I began adding cross referenced information below the pictures and looking for different pictures so you could actually see the men age as time went on. You know, just what any normal person would do, right??
   Anyway, as time's gone on, I've actually put together a pretty good little binder full of charts and information. It's been carried to church and my kids, especially the boys, have really enjoyed looking through it. Lately however, Tanner (just turned 8) has REALLY gotten into looking at it and apparently not only looking, but studying it as well. The other night Ann was telling me that whenever the kids play "guess what I'm thinking" in the car, that Tanner always seems to be thinking of some little known apostle form times past. I wanted to see just how much he knew so I asked him a question that I knew the answer to off the top of my head.
   "Tanner, what apostle was ordained in 1900?"
   He looked over at me and with only the shortest pause said, "Reed Smoot."
   I was shocked that he knew that, but decided to try him again and said, "What about 1944?"
   Again the slight pause and then, "Mark E. Peterson."
   Oh, it was GAME ON now! I began throwing dates at him and every time there was a slight pause followed by the correct answer. Even Ann and Parker got in on the game. Parker tried to throw him a couple of times by asking dates where there was no change and therefore no chart.  Those times there was the customary pause and then Tanner would say that nothing happened. By this point, Parker had gone and retrieved the binder and was checking the facts with Tanner's answers.
   At one point Ann asked, "1980?"
   Pause. "No one, but in 1981 it was Neal A. Maxwell. He was ordained when Gordon B. Hinckley was set apart as another councelor in the First Presidencey."
   I tried doing thigs differently by asking him different types of questions like, "When was Amasa M. Lyman excommunicated?" or "When did Marvin J. Ashton die?" He never got it wrong. The only time he got a question "wrong" was when he mistakenly gave the answer for 1954 instead of 1854, but once we corrected him on the right centruy he nailed that one as well. This went on for a good 15 plus minutes. At one point I got my phone and began filming him without him knowing. (If he'd have known I was filming, he would have stopped) I got just ove 5 minutes of him doing this and I'm posting it below so you can see and still almost not believe it. I be willing to bet that I could stack him up against the entire rest of the ward and he would skunk them.   With his autism there are times when Tanner's a handful, but that night he proved that in some ways he's smarter than us all.