VALE, Ore. — Winning the 2005 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills national title meant scholarship offers totaling more than $100,000 for Matthew Whitaker of the Vale 2nd Ward, Nyssa Oregon Stake.

Photo by Ruth Whitaker

Matthew Whitaker, winner of the 2005 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills national title, hopes to find a technical school that will wait to accept his scholarship awards until after he serves a full-time mission.

But Matthew will likely have to walk away from that monetary windfall to fulfill a more important goal in his life — full-time missionary service.

Matthew and his partner, Oliver Dahlman, from Vale High School — enrollment about 300 — earned the right to vie in the automotive skills nationals by winning the Oregon state competition. That took them to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where, in the vicinity of the Lincoln Memorial, they were pitted against high school teams representing the other 49 states on June 27.

Later, during a Church News telephone interview while taking a break from baling hay on his family's farm west of Vale and not far from the Oregon-Idaho border, Matthew said he wasn't intimidated by the setting or the competition in the national finals. "In all honesty, it never sank in," he admitted.

But he said he and Oliver, who is not a member of the Church, with the help of instructor Merle Saunders, felt well prepared.

That was evident when they were able to correct the numerous bugs planted in their car's starting, charging, ignition, cooling, electrical, lighting, braking, climate control and power train systems, and drive it over the finish line, using just 36 of the allotted 90 minutes.

Helping secure the victory, Matthew scored 97 out of 100 on the written exam that counted for 40 percent of the overall score.

Winning brought scholarship offers, some of them full rides, from several technical schools. But none of them included a commitment to remain valid for two years while Matthew serves his mission. He said he is in the process of contacting the schools to ask them if they will hold their award for him, but the ones that have responded so far have said "no."

That doesn't impact his resolve, though. He said he promised the Lord prior to the nationals that if he won, he would still serve a mission no matter what the sacrifice.

"Going on a mission has been a fact of life," said the 18-year-old who was ordained an elder the week after the national competition. He turns 19 in November, allowing him to get one more harvest in on the farm before his mission.

His parents, Ruth and Lowell Whitaker, have given him a firm gospel foundation. Their training was unequivocal, she said, laughingly stating, "My only choice on Sunday's is what tie I'm going to wear." And while he never remembers a time he didn't plan to serve a mission, he said his resolve was deepened by the example of older sister Erica who served in the South Carolina Columbia Mission a few years ago.

Spending his life in the same house, on the same farm has made long hours and a strong work ethic a way of life for Matthew.

"I don't like working that hard, but the drive and willingness to work I've gotten from it is good," he said.

That drive helped him reach the top of the automotive repair world, and the willingness has carried over into serving the Lord.

E-mail to ghill@desnews.com