TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

For weeks, Lia, Eliza, Bekah and I have been enjoying some really great time together,  The week of August 19 stepped it up a bit.  Erin and her daughter Lauren, Melissa and I (and for an evening Lia) were together for a spectacular few days on campus at BYU for Education Week.  The classes I attended were truly wonderful, especially the ones I felt related to our English YSAs, or which helped to strengthen my knowledge and faith in the Savior. But for sheer fun, those days with some of my favorite women in the world were priceless.  Melissa and Lauren were hilarious as they reported in about crepes, ice cream, brownies and all things delicious.  Erin shared some very spiritual insights she had received and sat beside me in many outstanding talks.  SK's sister Carolyn joined us for many classes, as well as our evenings in search of dinner at outlying restaurants. One of the Restaurants was the one Kasper is managing.  We had some fantastic food the...

Going to Denmark was sweet for both of us, but so incredible for SK.  He not only served as a young elder there well over 50 years ago, but his (our) last name is very Danish, and several of his lines go directly back to that great country.  It seems that a majority of church members can trace one or more of their family lines to Denmark......but not me. As I have worked on family history over the last few years, I have been astonished at how all of my lines go back to that little clump of isles....the British Isles.  Even those who came on the Mayflower were born in England.  The DNA report confirms it:  I am British! Hoorah!  I am returning to the country of my ancestors.

Once again, that magical date rolled around, and once again the family gathered to celebrate.  SK has indeed turned seventy six.  His hair is white and thinner than in past years and his hearing is less than spectacular, but he gets around with ease and still finds all kinds of things to be enthused about....like bowling at Eliza's Birthday party! Lia gave him a pickleball paddle for his birthday on Monday.  He set out at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday to observe the game at the Murray City Park, a 30-minute drive from Lia's home in North Salt Lake.  He got home somewhere between 10 and 11 a.m.  He was excited and eager to go back the next day.  He had watched the game being played, asked questions and then was drawn into a few games. He has played every day since then, and it's Friday.  He is sunburned.  At this writing (8:30 p.m.) he is at the Woods Cross Pickleball courts.  His Fitbit indicates that he is putting several miles a day on hi...

Yesterday we were excited to travel to Provo, where we shared a meal with Kasper, one of our YSAs from Copenhagen.  He is a chef and was more than helpful and kind at our center in Denmark.  He came in and cooked several meals, and helped me once in a while when I cooked. We were able to attend his wedding in Provo a year or so ago, and to meet his bride and hear the story of how they met.  He is still head over heels in love with her, he still loves cooking, he still has more energy and drive than any one person should have, and he is still an entrepreneur in every sense of the word.  He has several irons in the fire and is in the beginning stages of establishing a new business.  We are excited and happy for him and feel quite confident that he will succeed. He caught us up on all the news of many other of the YSAs from Copenhagen.  We loved hearing what and how that are doing. One of the most astounding revelations of the get-together was finding ou...

For two weeks, we have stayed close to Lia and her little daughters.  On Thursday, we had two appointments that we have been anticipating with pleasure.  We left North Salt Lake in the morning and met Teresa and Anna and their parents for lunch at the Lion House Restaurant near Temple Square.  It was cloudy and cool and we used an umbrella!  We walked huddled next to each other as the rain pelted the wonderful little canopy over our heads.  It was a short stroll from the parking lot underneath the Joseph Smith Memorial Building through the campus of Church office buildings and down to the entrance.  I vowed that we will get a very large umbrella for England....it is cozy to share, but much nicer if we can be comfortable and still protected! We waited for them first on South Temple, then down the walkway and into the restaurant, drinking up the wonderful scents coming from the kitchen.  Soon they arrived, and they had their parents with them!  I ...

For nearly two years I have been communicating with a cousin that I haven't seen in half a century or so.  She contacted me and asked if we could go to lunch.  She is the daughter of my father's older brother. We have tried to arrange a get together a couple of times and it just hasn't worked.  Now, with this time in Utah for 6 weeks, we were able to meet.  The arranged rendezvous site was a little restaurant south of the Salt Lake Temple.  The time was 11:45 on a Monday.  I got there right on time.  I recognized her immediately.  She was sitting with her back to us (Lia accompanied me to the shopping center so that she could get a few errands done.) at a table under a canopy of beautifully green trees.  Her long blond hair gleamed in the sunlight and she was smartly dressed in business attire.  She turned as we approached and smiled radiantly at us.  She was so much like her mother that it took my breath away. She told me that ...

Isn't jargon interesting?  Within our community, we use the phrase "set apart."  It means exactly what it sounds like it means, yet it is so much bigger than merely being set to the side as different.  Online dictionaries give us some light:  "Set apart means to keep or intend for a special purpose.  Synonyms are:  bless, sanctify, consecrate, hallow, dedicate.  I love the idea that we have been consecrated to serve in a special way - for a special purpose. Nearly the entire family gathered in President Allen's office...actually a seminary classroom doubling as a stake office until new offices are built (as an appendage to the second new building for our stake).  It would have been impossible to fit us all in his office.  We were missing Lia and her daughters, Ethan, Andrew, Brooke and Clint, and Jake.  We were still a large group.  It was such a great feeling to look around the room and see the faces of loved ones. President Al...