Happy 100th Dear Dad!


Our day started out with Sacrament Meeting and then Relief Society/Priesthood.  Both meetings were inspiring, and well worth the effort to be there.  Immediately following those meetings all of the senior missionaries met together for a district council, which was simply another inspiring meeting.  Three of our own senior missionaries taught us out of "Preach My Gospel."

They gave us the schedule for the rest of the day:



So far we've been to Sacrament Meeting, Relief Society, The Combined District Council, the Match His Message meeting, and we still have the Departure Devotional and the Evening Devotional!  But it has been a beautiful day and I anticipate it will be that way until we fall into bed.

Today is also my father's birthday.  He would have been 100 years old today.  He was - and is a source of strength, comfort and wisdom to me for all of my days.  I will be eternally grateful for his presence in my life.  My siblings and their spouses, and SK and I got together for dinner on our mother's birthday (September 4) just because we need to be together every so often.  We were missing Dave and Deb - who will be our mission president and companion in London England. 

Dave and Deb are front and center.

And as a footnote on Dad's birthday, I snapped these pictures of our mission president and his companion, our brother
Dave and his wife Deb, as well as the mission president and companion in Cambodia (our dear friend, former neighbor, former bishop, stake president and mayor John and LaCinda Lewis.)  There are two large boards with every mission represented showing the mission president and his wife.


It will be wonderful to see them once a month or so, but we will miss the other incredible 6 family members.  Being with them always always lifts me, and reminds me of the two dear individuals who raised us and poured all of the best hopes into us. 
Dan and Ginny

SK and me

Jim and Judy

Lisa and Mike

There are so many other good restaurants that we could have gone to, but this round table brings us back to the Mandarin Restaurant in Bountiful.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Master Teacher

In the 1st Ward today, an 11-year-old boy gave a talk that was one of he best sacrament meeting talks I have ever heard.  He got up to speak and his head just barely cleared the podium.  He is small and has a shock of dark hair topping a cute slightly freckled face. It will be several years yet before his voice deepens.  He had his written talk, and he read most of it, but he was familiar enough with it that he looked up often and it seemed as if he was speaking from his heart. He began with a quote from Nephi in 2 Nephi 25:29, where Nephi prophesies about the future and then tells us how to worship the Savior. How? this boy asked us. He went on to answer his own question.  Nephi says "with all our might."  The boy then asked how that is done. He cited the story of the converts in the Congo who threw all of their idols into a massive waterfall where they were unrecoverable.  The boy said that when we worship the Savior with all our might, that mea...
Read more

Going Home

  Fifteen missionaries are returning to their homes this week.  For this Saturday night zoom conference broadcast, each bore their testimony from their flats with their companions by their sides.  SK and I teared up many times as we listened to humble, sweet and strong testimonies.  It is easy to see the difference as they get close to their release date.  It they have been faithful, there is a maturity and a sweetness that is unexplainable. Here is a smattering of what was said: There is no growth in the comfort zone.  I am about to go home to my comfort zone...but it struck me that my old comfort zone is no longer comfortable for me.  I want to be in a growth zone. The early apostles did not succeed, but they knew we would. One elder quoted Dave's poem "If."  "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...Hold on...even through the hardest times."  "How can I accomplish these things?  Jesus Chr...
Read more

Shark!

Image
We left our flat way too early for my taste this morning, heading out to go south to Farnborough.  Forty-eight miles, supposedly an hour and twenty minute drive.  We got into some heavy stop and go traffic and it was closer to 2 hours before we got there. We inspected the two young sisters' flat, which was beautifully clean and organized.  They are cute sisters.  They had been in London yesterday for zone conference and excitedly shared all they had heard and been taught.  They had their notes out and were very cute to repeat some great messages from President Checketts.  I hardly ever talk to him when he isn't dealing with numerous issues in the mission and in the middle of at least one or two crises, and planning the next gathering....all at the same time.  It must be that he and Deb are in a constant state of stress.  But he has cleared the half-way mark.  I wonder if he knows how highly he is esteemed by these young missionaries, who ...
Read more