October 27, 2008

Dear Children,

Dad and I had lots of fun with being in charge of the “Empty Nesters” Family Home Evening this week. We played Conference Jeopardy; it was a great reminder and review for me to build a game around this month’s General Conference. I used a resource on the internet but had to check facts several times as it wasn’t always accurate. The researching helped me remember messages that I liked. I guess that is a good memory tool, to make a game, which makes sense since many of you had projects like that in school when you were studying a theme.

Since Dad and I are trying hard to eat better foods, having a group over allowed me to make some treats. I had just recently received my shipment of orange chocolate from Sally Farb so I was anxious to try Aubrey’s Easy Oreo Truffles with that. They turned out pretty yummy and I only had to eat one!

The rock man came this week and “started” on our entry project . . . yeah! They got everything plastered and then left saying they didn’t know when they were gong to get back. Who knows what that will mean in construction language! It is going to look nice though. I had my fingers crossed that I could get Dad to do the stamped concrete in the entryway by Christmas so you could all enjoy it but there is good news and bad news about that project. In our planning, he said he would probably need to wait until February if business picked back up. Well, business picked back up.

It is a great blessing to have our Church membership and for Dad to be known as a fair and honest business man with great skills. The Vancouver church buildings are taking longer than expected (that is not so good since he has had obstacles that were not in the bid) but now the Temple needs some work done right now and President Richardson needs a small job done on his bakery. Right now Dad feels overwhelmed with work that needs to be done before the weather turns worse.

Speaking of blessings, I have been praying for Dad ‘s work and this week a man came up to the job site to ask Dad if he needed a worker. Dad came home so happy and said that a savior came to the jobsite that day and his name was Jesus, Jesus Gallegos form Acapulco! Dad looked at the jack hammer on the ground by his feet and asked him, “Do you know how to use one of those?” The man said yes and he has been working, very well, for Dad everyday since! Dad comes home everyday more relived that Jesus is working out so well. Thankfully, he has lived in Oregon since his high school years so his English is well enough for Dad to communicate with him. He is a family man who really wants to work and Dad likes his work ethic and the speed in which he accomplishes his tasks. He also has some distant connections with the Church and so he might be interested in knowing more about the gospel, which would be wonderful for his family. It will be good if he can travel to work on the Temple with Dad.

I love having the time available to go to institute! I had another great class this week. We studies John 7:17 “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Our discussion revolved around the DO part so we read part of a talk from Loren C Dunn (June 1971 Ensign “Drink of the Pure Water”) where he gave a challenge to test out God’s law. For a space of three months he asked us to attend church (paying attention), have morning and evening prayer, obey the Word of Wisdom, stay morally clean, read the Book of Mormon each day and pray about it. He said we would know if the gospel was from God by then. We ended the class watching Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge’s very powerful general conference talk about Jesus Christ’s gospel being the easiest way to live. He told us to follow the Lord and be endowed by His power. He suggested we have two choices: the easy way (God’s way) or another way. Elder Corbridge graduated from BYU’s law school with Brother Stark, my institute teacher in the first class that went through.

Grandma and I traveled down to Albany and had a wonderful visit with Kyre and Klaire on Friday. It was a beautiful day. Kyre showed Grandma her place and all of her wildly producing tomato plants in her front yard. Klaire showed us her toys as she put them away to go to lunch. We were in shock to have her tell us her colors as handled the toys. Green is obviously her favorite color (like her Halmoni!) since that is the color she gets right every time! Even so, she knows what a color is since she goes through the color names to guess. I tried to help her cash the refund checks from Scott’s taxes last year and their tax stimulus check but both her back at Wells Fargo and my bank will not budge on handling a check with Scott’s name on it since she took his name off their account last fall. I spent a good amount of time calling around to get some advice. The banks said to go back to the IRS and Eric Green said that would be a nightmare. I had a thought to call Kyre’s payee that was assigned to her through her disabilities program. Previously, I thought that it was ridiculous for the government to pay someone $30.00 a month to pay Kyre’s three or four bills but now I am so thankful they do. Her payee said she can handle the checks with a letter signed by both Scott and Kyre. It will just take me writing another letter and driving to meet her in Corvallis. I will be SO glad to have this behind me.

We had a fun meal at Red Robin and then it was time to leave; it is always so hard to leave. Grandma escaped being late to her hair appointment only by me driving her there instead of picking up her car. We made an evening of it when I had to return to pick her up by going to the fabric store.

Katie has a trip planned to St. Louis in November for an interview with a newsroom there for an internship during winter semester. Keep her in your prayers; it would be great to get a good internship and of course, she is happy that it is close to her favorite baseball team, the Cardinals!!! Katie tried to do the interview over the phone but they insisted she come to Missouri. Thankfully, Joe will meet her there.

Speaking of the Cardinals, we had four missionaries over to dinner this week. When I have them I like to fix an easy “large group” meal so I can test out some recipes for when everyone is home for Christmas. One of the new missionaries, I think Spanish speaking, was so excited that there were Cardinal fans in the family. He was from Southern California so I do not know what his connection to the team would be; maybe because I do not understand the whole sports craze (unless it is BYU of course)!

Adrianne was in Las Vegas this weekend with her roommate Kenna. I forgot to ask if she connected with Aaron as she hoped on Saturday to see his new house (Morty was out of town). She described to me the wonderful meal, in too much detail, that was prepared by Kenna’s Mexican grandma! It made me so hungry. I talked with Aaron a lot this week as he has been helping Grandma and I with her Excel spreadsheets and also we are trying to coordinate Christmas travel so that we can, for a small moment, possibly get all the family together for a picture in Beaverton. Morty was watching the Ducks in Phoenix this week; they won. Shawn and Aubrey hear today if they are having a boy or girl!

With the autumn colors becoming more vivid and the leaves falling, Dad and I decided it may be a good time, while it was still fairly dry, to make a mad dash effort to prepare the garden for winter. We traded a leisurely Saturday for one filled with fast paced work to accomplish our task before stake conference meetings. I was able to pull all the vegetable plants and hang any remaining tomato and pepper plants by the shed (an experiment) to preserve any last growth until a bad freeze. I harvested lots of ripe vegetables and Dad suggested I check out the potato plant that “Sammy planted”. There were potato plant vines growing from the sand box under the Eagle’s Nest. Sure enough, Sammy must have stolen a potato, which she does often, and buried her treasure in the sand box. Her potatoes were the most perfectly formed batch there were! I think I will add more sand to my potato area next year! This picture shows her perfect red potatoes. It was very fulfilling to enjoy a meal after stake conference the next day with so many things from our garden; made me feel pioneerish!

Rebekah got her cast off last week; her elbow is still tender but now she can exercise it to get back her range of motion. Heidi and Bill’s stake was split. They are now in the Founders Stake. I think I forgot part of the name. Their ward name changed also with the stake change. They called Saturday morning to describe to Dad the huge curb machine that was working right next to their home to put in more streets. Dad was wishing he had one of those for the job he is on right now!

Our stake conference meetings were especially good this weekend. They went right along with what I had been studying in institute. Our Saturday night meetings revolved around making our family top priority and the center of our concerns. They spoke about the basics in strengthening our family. I liked the focus being on what we could do as individuals to weather the storms of uncertainty in the world by concentrating our energies in self strength building and to build up our homes. It made great sense.

We enjoyed a wonderful meeting on Sunday, a broadcast in which Elder L Tom Perry and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke with two other general authorities. Elder Perry urged us to go back to the conference messages and use what we have been taught there. He suggested ways we can allow the spirit of those great meetings stay in our homes from season to season. He said to open up the November Ensign issue and assign future family home evening lessons to include the talks. He also suggested that we watch for themes in each conference; he suggested that the themes this past conference were unity and getting our homes in order for troubled times ahead.

Charles Dahlquist spoke to the youth (well, all of us) reminding them of four important points:

1-We are not alone

2-Stand in holy places (avoid places of temptation)

3-Keep our minds clean (more easily done if we fill our time with purposeful activities)

4-Learn to do hard things

President Uchtdorf bore a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ, the Church and having a living prophet both at the beginning of his talk and the end, except at the end he added his KNOWLEDGE that he knows God knows us and knows him personally. He also pleaded to any capable young men from Oregon who were not serving a mission to rethink that decision. He suggested that we continue to ask prayerfully two questions, listen to promptings about the questions and set goals to act on those promptings

What am I personally doing to increase my faith in Jesus Christ?

What am I doing as a family to strengthen the home and family?

He warned us that pornography, violence and ungodliness will destroy our families. When he suggested that we take a look at lds.org for study ideas to increase our faith, he warned us to be careful of the entrapments of the internet: time and unworthy sites. He left us with three challenges:

• Always have a current recommend
• Study the word of God daily
• Speak with our Heavenly Father daily

I haven’t ordered my conference CD’s yet but this weekend certainly reminded me to do so. Do any of you want me to order a set for you also? Let me know this week please.

Have a great week ahead. I love you! Love, Mom

October 20, 2008

Dear Children,

Happily exhausted! These two weeks have flown by; we were kept very busy! The weather had just started getting colder here so I looked forward to a warmer temperature in Las Vegas. After arriving there and working on Aaron’s new home, I was wishing for Oregon weather again. Each time I went to work upstairs I wished that I had done the upstairs work earlier in the day because of the heat up there. The boys kept saying how nice and cool it was!

Aaron and Morty have already done so much to the home. It looked beautiful when we walked in the very first day so it was hard to have worked so hard while we were there but not see much difference, since it was so nice in the beginning!

Aaron had some great ideas for his backyard but received more advice from Dad. We hope to be able to go back in late February to help with the concrete work. They ave a small backyard, many of the homes there are like that. I guess, with the heat, there are not so many people who want to relax in a large backyard much (and also care for it!). Aaron plans to buy trees to add some shade to the home; that will be nice.

The first order of work was to finish painting the doors and paint all the closet doors. They painted all the trim, shelving, baseboards and doors a chocolate brown. It is very nice looking. Dad organized the paint job in the garage so that we had all the closet door lined in a row, standing, to make it easier. I really wish I had a picture of it; it was a great idea (he had seen the professional painters do it before). In fact, I feel badly that I didn’t get pictures all week (I was too busy to think of it)!

Each day there seemed to be more painting to do as we concentrated on finishing up all painting odds and ends. On the last day, I scrubbed the bathroom sink that previously looked impossibly stained from being the paint brush cleaning station and left it looking like new. That was a relief! Actually, each day Morty left for work early in the morning and would “organize the crew” by writing a job list on a white board. It kept us on track! Thankfully, he rushed through his stops each day so he could come home to help. The boys had a carpenter add shelves to some of the closets so Dad used the wire shelving to add to the guest room closet and an upstairs bedroom closet.

The hardest job was scrubbing. Washing and sealing all the new tile floors. The sealant didn’t work as expected so Dad rented a buffer from Home Depot thank goodness. I have a finger tip that is still numb from that job! A lot was accomplished and there were lots of improvements made.

After landing and going out to lunch, I didn’t leave the house until Aunt Denise came into town on Thursday and we went to help the boys pick out house plants. That evening, the last night there, we went to a yogurt shop that had several flavors and toppings from which to choose. It was fun.

Next visit, we will definitely go to a show or two! Do we say that each time?

Morty flew with us to Utah for homecoming weekend. It was a fun family weekend. Shawn, Aubrey and Gregory flew in from California so we had a great family gathering. Besides it being homecoming weekend, there is always much to do and see in Utah.

Katie picked us up from the Salt Lake airport. We had to leave one of our boxes at the airport (but remove all of its contents) to fit everything in her car. We had an early flight so we headed to a breakfast spot towards the canyons about which Katie had heard much. It is an old fashioned diner called Ruth’s. There we enjoyed homemade-type meals like biscuits and gravy! We knew Heidi would be very pleased to see us next with the special cargo we were carrying. We stopped in Daybreak with Heidi’s “missing-in-action” golf clubs. We found them in Aaron and Morty’s garage while looking for a travel case to bring Katie’s clubs from Las Vegas to Utah. Someone had inadvertently put Heidi’s clubs in Aaron or Katie’s traveling case so they were a stowaway with all of Aaron’s belongings carted to Las Vegas! Rebekah danced around to see her uncle, probably more than her grandparents! She was so excited to show him how her new blue bear could slide down the star rail and not fall off! It was a perfect demonstration as Morty’s had packed away for Jenna and Rebekah, two new little bears bearing the name of Las Vegas, of course, on their overalls. They had to be put to the test of sliding down the stair rail also. I wish I had a picture of that.

In Orem we settled in at Grandma’s home but not for long. We rounded up as many of our children that were available for an early celebration of Grandma Bitter’s birthday at none other than Tucano’s (Flesh Café). That late lunch always stays with you for dinner and snack time combined! That night, Dad and I went to Homecoming Spectacular. It is always amazing to see all the BYU performing groups. “Going the Distance” was the Homecoming theme for the year and the slide show tribute to Rex Lee at the end of the performance was especially touching and meaningful as he was at BYU when I was there and he was instrumental in starting the law school. The start-up-community-feel in those first few years at J. Reuben Clark Law School was a special privilege with which to be so closely involved. As a baby, Morty was a bright smiling face in those halls; he always attracted a lot of attention there. I was especially filled with really great memories upon hearing the music to the tribute, “A Hero’s Welcome” or “Going the Distance” from Disney’s Hercules movie. It brought tears to my eyes with the great memories of putting together Nate’s slide show for his Eagle Court of Honor to that song. Special family memories; they are the best!!!

It was a special treat for Dad and I to have Nate still at Grandma’s; we were able to be around him more this trip than ever before. He has been so busy with his jammed packed last semester of classes and his work at Orangesoda.com that he hasn’t had time to move into his apartment yet.

Dad and I couldn’t interest anyone else to accompany us to the homecoming parade Saturday morning. Our children tell us that only freshman attend!!! Dad has memories from his years of being in charge of homecoming parades that were on a much grander scale. I remember heading down the hill to watch the parade on University Avenue in my days; I guess I do only remember going as a freshman though. The parade these days surrounds the street closets to the campus. We watched again this year by the pizza place that used to be called Heaps of Pizza (I can’t remember the new name). Next year Dad wants to run in the race right before the parade. He wants to know if any of you will join him. They were making blue pancakes at various spots of the parade route which we enjoyed this year.

With a threat of snow, we bundled up for the football game. Grandma Bitter gave me her wool BYU blanket; now that is a treasure! That saved me as I did not think of packing for icy weather as I headed for Las Vegas first! Morty had lent me a coat to bring when he looked ahead and saw the weather predictions for Utah. The game was great and luckily, someone in Jerry’s family didn’t come down for the game and Ben Sparks was curtailed by a blizzard so we sat in their chair seats again. Our seats were on the freezing cold metal benches. We learned after the fact that for the last half of the game, most of our children at the game bunched together with some of the cousins and enjoyed the game in the end zone. I couldn’t see where they were sitting so I missed Morty and Nate’s trademark streamers after the first touchdown.

Dad and I ended the whirlwind trip with a Canadian Thanksgiving feast on Monday night thanks to Heidi and Bill. They organized a great event to celebrate both Canadian Thanksgiving AND Grandma Bitter’s birthday. They gathered 39 people at Grandma and Grandpa’s home for a complete Thanksgiving meal! Grandma had about 10 different kinds of luscious pies for her birthday candle! It was wonderful; everyone loved it. It made a perfect ending to our trip.

And we came home and collapsed! But we have had fun here this week also. We kept up the “BYU” theme and went to the BYU Ballroom Dancer’s Performance on Saturday night. It was fabulous; they always are! They have such energy. Dad made a fun date of it; we went to dinner downtown and then to the show. I think it was the first time we used our Entertainment Card which is a good thing since it expires in less than a month! It was a wonderful evening. The only thing that spoiled the week for us was watching a VERY disappointing BYU football loss to TCU on television Thursday evening. Yikes!

Dad and I enjoyed our visit this week with Scott and learned an interesting detail about OSP. Scott tells us that envelopes are the preferred form of currency among the inmates. They pay each other with the pre-stamped envelopes that they can buy at the canteen, which cost 49 cents. They are not supposed to and most prisons in the system make the men write their return address right at purchase. But, again, OSP has their “traditions” and the system that has been in place for a long time just does not get changed. This conversation all started when he expressed disappointment that the barber never cuts his hair the way he likes it; it just gets buzzed. He said the reason is because he does not slip the barber money (which is envelopes). So they sneak the envelopes to each other or have another person deliver envelopes to a person’s cell to pay for any services. Scott gave someone some financial advice and found envelopes in his cell afterward.

Scott is doing well. His cell mate has not left and he learned that he may not make a request of a cell mate since he has not been there for 12 months. Twelve months is coming up soon, though that Scott has been in state custody (November 20). I remember those two days very vividly. I found something recently that I read that reminded me of the absolute horror I felt that Monday and Tuesday as I tried so hard to regain a sense of peace. Dad and I gathered much strength from Scott at that time.

Scott reflected on the decision to divulge and confess all his worse thoughts and said how important it was to him to be free of the guilt that had plagued his for years since thoughts are the heart of the matter as we read in Matthew 5:28 “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

We mentioned the comings and goings of many of you around the holidays. His visiting list filled since he has so many siblings and he would like to know, after the holidays, how likely any of you that live out of town may return to visit him. It takes much longer to get someone on the list these days (the new system was supposed to make it shorter). If he removes you, he can’t put you back on for 3 months. He recently received a letter that Shawn was going to be removed when he tried to add Wid Payne, which he did not request so he is going to write to fix that since he knows Shawn will be here for the holidays. He asked if Aubrey and Bill wanted to visit him and said there is a way to request a special one time visit since you are out of town, without affecting the 15 on the list. The process needs to start now. You can get an application at Oregon.gov/odoc and then I believe that you must mail it to him. It is the regular application but you check the box for special one time visit. That does not prevent you from another one time visit again or being on the list later.

We love you all! I want to close with one idea to remember from General Conference. Elder Cook said President Monson was asked on his birthday what his ideal gift would be that members could give him. He said to “find someone having a hard time and do something for them.”

October 5, 2008

"Opportunity is missed by most people because

it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison

Dear Children,
I loved a few of the quotes from the BYU devotional this last Tuesday about doing the right things for the right reasons. He taught that accepting truths requires obeying the feelings of the Spirit, self discipline, and then, courage to live that which is right in the sight of the Lord. He also taught that pursuing easy things makes us weak but pursuing that which is hard, makes us stronger. Above is my favorite quote from his talk though.
Much of his talk helped me to prepare to listen to conference and especially act on feelings and impression from listening to our leaders like the scripture in Ezra 7:10 (prepare my heart to hear the word of the Lord and DO IT). In my institute class this week we covered the scriptures through John 4 and I enjoyed especially John 4:14 which reminded me to think about what I need to do to drink deeply of the living waters (doctrines of the Gospel, word of God and Atonement).
Some sad news of the week for many of you: Georgia Harris passed away late last Sunday night. Her services are tomorrow so, unfortunately, Dad and I will miss it. She has been so ill with kidney failure for so long but just about a week ago, she looked like she was feeling a little better. She was a great teacher to some of you.
On Tuesday Dad and I were able to drive down to Sweet Home and see Sunhee play soccer. It took me back several years ago, watching many of you playing soccer. She is an aggressive player who doesn’t wait around for the ball to come to her. It was fun to watch her enthusiasm for the game. She made at least three shots on the goal and she was only in the forward position about a third of the game.
At the end of the game, Meeja got her turn to run across the field and run she did! She took off like a bullet running past and around the goal, then back to us. She has also got a set of running legs on her and the energy to boot!
Dad and I took a small detour back to Angie’s house after the game to have a victory treat. Sunhee chose Dairy Queen so we all loaded up on soft serve ice cream.
Speaking of sports, Morty called this week one day to share his excitement over his and Nate’s recent plans for more college sports later this month. Already planning to go to Los Angeles with Aaron and Nate this weekend for the Oregon-USC game, he is now returning to Texas with Nate for the BYU-TCU game and then later in that same weekend to a Texas college game with one that starts with “M” (Michigan or Missouri; I know it is an important to them)! As Morty told me excitedly, I thought, “These boys are never going to have time to settled down and get married.” But I instead joined in the fun of the moment for Morty and laughed with him that he is a crazy sports nut. I was glad that the next statement Morty made was, “We’ve got to do this before we get married. This is one more stadium on our list to visit!” Well, it looks like they are having fun in Los Angeles this weekend. Morty made a connection with Bryan Bybee and will stay at his place while there. He ran into Bryan and Rachel Bybee many months ago at church there on a previous visit to Southern California.
Besides soccer games, Dad and I enjoyed our favorite team sports this week being able to watch BYU beat Utah State on Friday evening. I recorded it so we could start a bit late, after Dad’s later work errands, and catch up by skipping through the commercials, but I ended up listening to most of the game over the baby monitor while I needed to keep working in the kitchen.
I found myself falling behind by evening as my projects grew greater on Friday as I was preparing to leave on Monday. On Friday morning, the thought came to me in a panic that I was going to be from the garden quite a while and since the weather has turned more fall-like, I realized there was a possibility that we could have a nighttime freeze that could wipe out my tomatoes, peppers and basil. I picked much of it and froze a huge batch of a tomato soup base that I experimented with earlier this fall, researched and froze basil mixed with a bit of olive oil and made my first batch of canned salsa in over 25 years. I prefer fresh of course but I decided to make my salsa specific to my chicken and rice dish (with its own chili powder included) so I can just open a jar and the recipe is ready to go. I hope it turns out. It made more than I realized that it would since I loaded it up with extra vegetables from the garden. It took me much longer than expected since I sliced open a finger, right through my nail, instead of one of many tomatoes that I was cutting. Don’t worry; I checked for blood and body parts left on the cutting board so there is no extra protein in that salsa!!! I was determined to finish all my projects so I wrapped it and held enough pressure to stop the bleeding and then gingerly applied gauze and a rubber glove so I could continue.
It was a very welcome rest to relax with the Stangers at Olive Garden after the game at the end of the night. They had called earlier in the week and offered to treat us to dinner. I just requested it be after the BYU game! We had a late night (or early morning) with the Stangers since we didn’t start until late and we closed the restaurant after sitting and talking after dinner. Then, we came back to the house to play only one game of Canadian Salad since we had to get up early to prepare to drive to Adam’s soccer game in Albany and birthday party in Jefferson.
We had a full day on Saturday celebrating Adam’s big day; he turns nine years old today! Dad and I were anxious to see Adam play soccer. Aunt Lynn said that his footwork is getting very excellent. Unfortunately the game was cancelled when part of the team learned that the earlier rains had scared away some of the players. We were surprised since we are so used to soccer in the rain. I remember that some of you were disappointed when it wasn’t raining during game time!
Adam’s party at the park was timed perfectly for the weather. They have an excellent park facility with a large covered picnic area and nice children’s play area. At the last minute we were thrilled to be able to pick up Alina and drive her down from Keiser. Dad and I haven’t seen her since April so it was nice to get updated on her school and activities. She is still involved with her softball team. It was so fun to see Alina playing with Klaire and Adam. Wendi drove with her great grandmother, Mimi, so she could bring the car that she just received for her birthday. I tried to take a picture but my camera’s batteries went dead just before she left.
It was a great party. Uncle Mickey barbecued hamburgers for everyone. Adam and Aunt Lynn had decorated the cake that was in the shape of a car! Adam received some wonderful gifts, especially a large keyboard so that he can practice for his piano lessons that he just started this year. All the children were kept very busy and happy on the play structure, just stopping to eat dinner, cake and watch the gifts being opened. We returned to Beaverton late on Saturday and tried to squeeze in just one session of general conference before going to bed.
After we learned the soccer game was canceled (we were already in Albany) we went to Kyre’s home and visited with Klaire, Kyre and Adam. We played some games with them and then left to go run “errands”. Actually, we drove back up to Salem and visited with Scott since we would be gone this coming week. Our time was shortened with him since I received a call from Janara (first one since April) asking us to pick up Alina since they were having car trouble. We were very happy to comply even though that sent us back to Keizer before heading back south to Jefferson for the party. Scott was very happy to cut things shorter in order for the chance for us to be with his children.
The visit was great. He updated us on his cell mate news. His cell mate hasn’t been moved yet and the other cell in C Block that he hopes to move to will hopefully be available when the time comes. We talked about the difficulties of moving to a new cellblock: being the bottom of the heap again, learning new people and new relationships. But, he made us realize that this time he moves with lots more skills and knowledge. He really wants this cell mate in C Block. He also introduced us to a friendly man in the visiting room and later told us that this man, a tall black man, would be a source of protection to him in C Block. He called him a Christian brother. He explained that he has been in OSP for years and is an unofficial “debt settler”. His “inside” job is to come between two people trying to settle a debt! It is a very intriguing life of complications inside a prison inmate system.
The last picture of Adam is a gift that we saved for Adam when none of his siblings were around. The Mertons were fine with us giving him this gift from Scott. It was a headlamp that was in Scott’s backpack. Adam will be thrilled with it. He writes wonderful letters to his father and Scott loves the ability to write to him. The letters go through our address.
I had to “sleep quickly” since I had promised several families warm cinnamon rolls before the morning session of general conference. I had three people that had bought cinnamon roll deliveries at auctions in the last two years that I had to pay back! I am glad that I have now cleared out all of my previous obligations. I made an especially large batch since Malia Hite was one of the winning bidders. The last time I made her cinnamon rolls, Aaron was living here and I sent a huge pan over to her home so I was thinking that she might expect that again. I also wanted to make a batch for the Georgia Harris family in town and the Whisenant family who will be watching our home and Sammy while we are away. Thank goodness Malia picked up her batch on the way to a singles gathering for conference and Dad delivered the rest.
I saw three sessions of conference today since I couldn’t bear to wait until I get back from our trip. It was such a great conference with so many messages that will be helpful to me. There were, of course, many messages about adversity and troubled times. I loved Neil Andersen’s thoughts on the fact that faith is a decision in his talk on having difficulties with our spiritual footings. He put it simply: choose faith.
Lots of our leaders spoke of faith and hope. President Uchtdorf told us that faith, hope and charity work together to stabilize our lives. Along these same lines Elder Holland admonished us to pray for angels to attend us and be more angel-like to help others.
Several speakers spoke of optimism is the face of adversity. I loved Joseph B. Wirthlin’s talk about choosing happiness over sorrow when he said that adversity handled correctly can be a blessing in our life. I appreciated how he made it clear that he was not teaching us to ignore the reality of pain as he talked of choosing wisely the way we react. He warned us, “The dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to all of us.” L. Tom Perry has a great message about this also and as he spoke of his place to recharge himself, Walden Pond, I wondered where my Walden Pond was. I liked his thoughts on the spiritual benefits of a simplified life and the need for spiritual fuel. President Monson’s message about finding joy in the now was so great. I hope I remember his teaching to never again let a problem to be solved be more important than a person.
Two great speakers brought up some interesting thoughts on unity and I felt that all their ideas were especially important to our family as we show true concern to help one another and demonstrate love for each other. I wish we all could make a careful study of both messages from D. Todd Christofferson and Henry B. Eyring: President Eyring with his thoughts on being a peacemaker and Elder Christofferson’s warning to be free of strife and contention, to forgive all and look after one another the best we can.
It was fun to talk with Katie on Saturday night before I had a chance to hear any of the conference messages and ask her which of the Saturday talks were her favorites. After listening to the Saturday session, I agreed with her especially after hearing the talk by Dallin H, Oaks on the importance of being consistent in our sacrament meeting attendance and being true to our worship of Christ during this time. He said, “Always remember Him; don’t violate that even in sacrament meeting!” I needed that! Morty has called me on that before when I got after him for texting during sacrament meeting and he said I shouldn’t be working on my calendars in my planner during sacrament meeting! He is right.
I loved Sister Elaine Dalton’s message she called “a return to virtue” when she quoted President Monson saying, “There is no friendship more valuable than a clear conscience.” And lastly, I must listen again to the talk by Lawrence Corbridge (I have never heard of him) as he gave a powerful witness of the Savior and he taught that the Lord’s way was not hard. It was amazing.
If you come across a Conference Jeopardy-type activity in the next week or so, let me know. We have the FHE for the empty nesters this month and I want to play a game like that. I have put them together before but maybe someone else will have done it and posted it online before I get around to doing it when I get back!
We ended the day, well, packing. But first we went to Grandma’s for dinner. She stuffed some of our huge bell peppers for dinner; it was so nice not to have to cook. We also took Miss Kitty to stay at the Grandma Hotel while we are gone. She will get a lot of attention there.
Dad remarked last night that we will amazingly be able to see every member of our family within just 10 days! I am so excited for this opportunity; it makes me so happy to be around each one of you. I love you so much. I hope that you have had a chance to look at your holiday calendar. I would love to know who is coming home and when. Someday we really need to try to get everyone home at the same time! I love you! Love, Mom