In 1980, Laura S. Homer was a stake Relief Society president in Roy, Utah, and was sitting in a stake correlation meeting when she heard a roaring sound. At first, she thought it was an earthquake. "I looked around the room and nobody was doing anything different. But I could not hear."

Photo by Johanna Workman

Laura S. Homer, center, uses the Comtek listening receiver during sacrament meetings. Using such devices, she has graduated from college and is an advocate for the hearing impaired.

Sister Homer, who had been suffering from Meniere's Disease since 1969, had lost her hearing. First in one ear, then in the other. She was now legally deaf. She was among the fewer than 2 percent of those with the disease to lose hearing.

"I went through a terrible depression," Sister Homer of the Roy 10th Ward, Roy Utah South Stake, said. "I finally got some listening devices and help through therapy through the University of Utah. Some students helped me to believe in myself again."

This belief led Sister Homer to get a degree in gerontology — she gave a commencement address at graduation — and become an advocate for the hearing-impaired. Now 70 years old, she is still saddened when she hears of others who do not take advantage of current technology for the hearing impaired — or those who have residual hearing. Especially when those people are members of the Church who do not know about the Comtek listening receivers available in LDS meetinghouses.

"If you are hearing impaired and Church meetings are confusing and frustrating, or if you hear and don't understand, ask your bishop or ward leader if your building has the wireless FM Comtek system," she said. "Ask about the provided receiver and once again participate in your sacrament meeting, especially the sacrament prayers.

"This system has opened up a new world of understanding to me!"

Photo by Johanna Workman

The assistive listening receiver is wireless and can even work with hearing aids with "telephone switches." The receivers are available in most LDS meetinghouses.

The Comtek listening device is a wireless receiver that works with pulpit microphones in chapels enabling the user to sit anywhere in the chapel and listen to speakers and prayers. In addition, hearing aids with a "telephone switch" can "couple" with the Comtek device via a "neck loop" that attaches to the receiver. Any meetinghouse built in the past 20 years has the system available, and most older meetinghouses have since had the system installed. Ward and branch leaders can get more information on the Comtek system by contacting their stake physical facilities representatives. Most Church meetinghouse libraries should have the devices available.

"The Comtek system is not for all people," said Doug Hind, manager of special curriculum/members with disabilities in the Church's Curriculum Department. "They have to make sure these are people who have residual hearing. There are many individuals within a ward or unit who may have a hearing loss who are not aware of the Comtek system. It offers them the opportunity to hear what's being said in their sacrament meetings.

"Often, those who are hearing impaired are not attending Church, and they are not aware they can have this device. With this device, they'd be able to feel the spirit of the meeting," Brother Hind added.

The Comtek system is professional/commercial quality, said Rick Borrowman, technical consultant with Facilities Management for the Church. "We try to provide the very best we can. There are a lot of members who need this assistance. The Church is keenly aware of their needs. It makes such a difference to the people who have [the listening device]."

Just ask members such as Sister Homer, who served from 1996-1997 in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission with her husband, Keith, as coordinators of the Church's distribution center adjacent the temple.

There are other examples, such as the bishop in Idaho who called Church headquarters to find how he could help a hearing-impaired man in his ward. After the man used the receiver, he went to the bishop with tears of gratitude. That was the first time in more than 20 years he had been able to really hear the sacrament prayers.