Friends create MTC scholarship in honor of former instructor

Danny Walker believes that following spiritual promptings can change the

world by changing lives and blessing the community.

"The still, small voice spoke, and we were fortunate enough to be able

to hear it and to listen," said Walker, who spearheaded the creation of

the Jason Hoyt Memorial Scholarship at the Missionary Training Center in

Provo, Utah. "It just moves people."

The "we" Walker refers to are 10 returned missionaries who were

supervisors at the MTC in the late 1990s.

"They were unusually strong in spirit and were very close," said Shane

Littlefield, the MTC's current director of training.

Littlefield said the 10 were very athletic and formed teams to compete

in BYU intramurals, including basketball, flag football and softball.

"They always took the T-shirt," Littlefield said.

Then on April 29, 1999, Jason Hoyt, one member of the group, died in a

car accident on the way home from a BYU event.

Ten years later, remaining members of the group decided to meet at a

cabin in Sundance and remember the 10th anniversary of their friend's

death.

"We were going to golf and take a walk down memory lane," Walker said.

But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted a way to make the outing

memorable.

"I had what really amounts to a spiritual prompting to go down the path

to try and create a scholarship for Jason," he said.

Walker, Dave Sedgwick, Michael Dalton, David Howell and Mike Clegg —

half the group of 10 — all work for the Ensign Group, a company that

owns and operates nursing homes in California. Walker is the company