Father's Day

Sunday was a happy day.  I remember sitting in the stands looking out over the congregation.  Several people stood out who have touched my life and become special to me.  I have come to love these people.  I enjoyed directing the music.  Brother Biangel was gone, but Sister Frahm played and she always plays very well. 

The Primary children sang their standard “I’m So Glad When Daddy Comes Home,” and “Fathers.”  There weren’t a lot of them there, but they did a good job.  I played with a few mistakes, but not too badly.

There were several men who bore their testimonies or gave talks.  I was particularly touched when Brother Hales reminded us of how Jesus, in his agony in Gethsemane called out to his Father using the term “Abba,” which is like saying Papa or Daddy.  It is an intimate term, he would naturally have used for his Father at such a time.  I wept as I pictured that time for Him.  I weep even now to think of it.

After church all the men got candy a sweet lady in the ward had made.   Mark got three baggies from the young men.

I think Mark had a good day.  Jonathan emailed him a letter and the rest of the kids called him throughout the day.  He talked to his dad and I called mine.  They both seemed to be having a good Father’s Day.

.I made a roast dinner, using the cast iron skillet.  I think I must have burned the bottom because my gravy turned out nasty.  So we just had roast beef, mashed potatoes and salad and it was fine.

It was a pretty quiet day.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on the sacrifices men make for their families.  The money they make at their jobs is what they use to make a good life for us.  For some reason I am appreciating that more and more.  We are so blessed to have the men in our lives.  I'm so grateful for everything I've learned from my dad, my brothers, my sons and sons-in-law, and especially from Mark. Thank you.   I love you all very much.  And I am especially grateful for my Father in Heaven who always loves me and is always there, ready and waiting, willing to bless me and help me whenever I need Him and ask.  I love Him too.  My life is richer because of all the "fathers" in my life.

There is a beautiful Mormon Message about dads. Enjoy.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001#.UcZa2DRzR

Your Amazing Race-Youth Conference

Friday was the Youth Conference:  “Your Amazing Race.”  Mark and I were asked to head one of the teams.  We met everyone Friday evening.  It was a casual evening, at least we were casually dressed.  There was a meeting in the chapel first, with talks and explanations.  Then we went into the cultural hall where the kids were divided into their teams.  We had a few minutes to talk with them- to get to know them a bit and they us.  Before dinner, there had to be a girl and a boy from each team to learn the etiquette challenge and teach it to the rest of the group before we could have dinner.  They all did fine with that.

After dinner, the kids all had to learn three dances, the Virginia Reel, Swing Dance and a Latin dance called the Merengue.  That one looked really fun.  Actually, they were all really fun.  After the kids learned the dances, they had to actually do them with three different partners from different teams.  The partners then had to sign their dance card.  When they got all three signatures, then they would turn in the dance cards to one of their group leaders, who then turned them all in to the stake leaders.  The first group who got their dance cards turned in got a 10 minute head-start.  It ended with a four-way tie.

No, we weren’t one of them.

The kids seemed to have a good time.  It was interesting to me to see how kids dance these days.  There were a few boys, particularly who have some pretty good break dancing moves.  I’ve been out of the loop with the youth for so long, so it was interesting.

We didn’t get home until 11:00!  And frankly, I slept lousy, but I was up around 6:30.  We had been given $5.00 for each person on our team to buy lunch for.  We had decided we would just go to the grocery store and buy the food for our lunch.  I got it cleared, so we knew it was okay.  I had wanted to make the hoagi sandwiches, but, we didn’t have time and it ended up being fine.

We got away late because some of our kids got to the church late, but we ended up having everyone.  The race was on.

Some of the challenges included meeting with the missionaries and getting pass-along cards.  We then drove them to a shopping center where they were required to give out their cards to strangers.  This is a sad commentary on me, but I told one of my girls when she completed the challenge:  “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.”  (Rudyard Kipling) I told her how scary it was for me to do what she just did.

At lunch, we spread everything out and the kids made their own sandwiches.  One girl wouldn’t eat anything, no matter what I said.  Finally, I talked to Mindy about it.  She just said, “Oh well.”  I caught her later eating pretzels.  I never really understood what the big deal was.

The service project they did was write to missionaries who are serving from the stake.  Then we went to an equestrian park and cleaned out trash cans.  There ended up being about 10.  One of them had maggots in it!  Ewww!  But we got the job done!

There were games and activities throughout the day, including learning three foreign phrases, one in French, one in Korean and on in Estonian. I think the phrase translated said:  "Stand in holy places."

We learned our Korean phrase.

The other scary thing they had to do was do a one minute commercial with two strangers and talk about modesty.  One of our girls happened upon a former high school teacher and he talked to her for about 30 seconds, but they couldn’t get anyone else to talk to them.

We ended up coming in dead last.  I didn’t care.  In fact, I don’t think we even finished, because everyone was waiting for us at the church. We got a group picture before we went inside.  I knew it would be hard to get us all together with everything going on.

They closed with a testimony meeting.  All of the adult group leaders had an opportunity to talk to the kids.  Mark spoke for us, but I did bear my testimony.

We had dinner after that and ended the evening with a dance.  Mark and I helped clean up.  We stayed for a while, but then went on home.

We stopped on the way home for a roast.  After a shower, I read a bit, but I was really tired and ended up going to bed fairly early.

It was a good experience for me.  These kids are being better prepared than we ever were growing up.  But then, I believe more is expected of them now.  The Lord expects our youth to be ready to serve missions at 18 and 19, and they are stepping up.  I'm really glad we got to participate.  Mark has a good rapport with the youth. I don't always know how to relate.  They're good kids, though. 

Utah

We spent the last nine days in Salt Lake.  Mark went mainly to start his next temple project in Cedar City, working in the Church Office Building most of the time, meeting and talking with those who will be involved in the project.

I went mainly to be with family.  Friday evening, Rebecca was in charge of a girl's camp fundraiser BBQ, so we went to support her in that and ended up also bidding on a couple of desserts for the cause.

We celebrated Mark's birthday by taking the family to Hoagle Zoo.  It was especially great because not only were we with our children who live around the Salt Lake area, but our son, Sean and his family, were there from Texas.  It's the first time since Chris and Charity got married that we've all been together.  It meant a lot.

After the zoo, we stopped by and got six large pizzas and bread sticks, while Chris and Charity got drinks, cupcakes for dessert and napkins, plates, etc.  We met everyone at Sugar House Park, near the playground equipment, which made it perfect for us and the kids.

We ate every last one of those pizzas!!  We all sang to Mark and the grand kids did their rendition of Happy Birthday "We will, we will rock you   Happy birthday.  Grandpa!"  Very cool!

Sunday after church we had everyone over for dinner.  We just had crock pot BBQ chicken and baked potatoes.  Rebecca brought salad and watermelon.  Chris and Charity brought cornbread and Lyndsay brought pop for everyone.

My parents came down from Idaho to see us and that was wonderful because my mom hasn't seen all of my family probably since the last reunion we had.  She was not able to come to Chris and Charity's wedding.

Lyndsay took some wonderful family pictures!  Our last family picture was taken in California at the beach house we rented in May 2007.  We've had several additions since that time.

Our house in Salt Lake is starting to feel like home.  There are some things we will do to update it, but it is a comfortable house and we feel at home in our ward.

Chris came over Monday and throughout the week to build shelves in our garage.  It will enable us to organize camping gear and other things so we can turn one of the basement bedrooms into a  food storage room.  Mark helped, of course, but he did most of the work!

Mark and I drove to Moroni to see the wall mural for the Fort Lauderdale temple.  It is beautiful Florida landscape with native plants and animals.  It was a pleasure to meet the artist.

We drove on down to Cedar City so Mark could meet with people who will be involved in this project and to see and spend time with our partners and dear friends Tom and Brenda Pugh.  The property chosen for the temple site is not very far from where we used to live.  Cedar is a great place for a temple and it's very much needed there.  We're so excited that Mark has been asked to do this project.

One of the benefits of living with our kids is being able to play with Eva.  I got to tend her on Friday so the kids could go to Lagoon.  Mark's dad came down from Idaho and Mark was able to have lunch with him and two of his brothers.  Later, we spent some time outside with Eva, weeding and fixing sprinklers.

We left Saturday morning to come back to Florida.  It was kind of hard to leave, but I have to say that the time in Florida has gone by so quickly.  We still have things to do here.  We found everything fine, except the birds had taken over our porch and there was bird poop everywhere!

Sunday and things are back to normal.

Lunch for the Temple Workers

Elder and Sister DeGraffenried, at the counsel from Brother Brent Roberts, hosted a luncheon for all of the workers at the temple last Thursday.

Sister D. and Mark went to Publix and got all of the food.  We had been able to borrow a large BBQ grill, and Dave Griffiths of Zwick Construction did all of the cooking.  Sister D had enlisted the help of some of the sisters from her Davie Ward, and Mark called President Anderson and asked if we could borrow four Spanish speaking missionaries to serve and help out.  He obliged.  So many of our workers speak limited English, we wanted someone who could communicate with them; not to proselytize, but just to serve and help where needed.  This is a way for us to thank everyone for all of their hard work.

We were all very grateful for the tarp that was put up over the food.  It was hot!  Sweat ran down my back and wearing the serving gloves made my hands sweat like I'd put them under running water.  I can't imagine how miserable we would have all been had we been working in the sun.  So thank you so much Kevin of KHS&S.  He and his workers put the tarp up for us.  He is just an awesome- all around-good guy.  I hear good things about him from Mark all the time.

All in all, I thought the luncheon was a great success.  Probably between the temple workers and those who helped out, we served around 90 people. Everyone seemed happy and appreciative. This is something we are planning to continue, perhaps the next one will be around the end of summer.

We had hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies, pop (non-caffeinated) and watermelon.  The watermelon especially was so sweet and delicious!

I'm so glad we did this!  It was a privilege to come serve.

Kevin, (in the bandana) is the foreman for the drywallers.  He and his men set up the tarp to cover our food area.  It was something he did as a kindness and it was so appreciated.  He's just that kind of guy!  It was quite hot, so this helped so much!

Our cook, Dave Griffiths from Zwick Construction.  Also a great guy!

Our missionary helpers

We were busy!

I was eating an giant olive.

You can see Mark and Elder D in the background.

Our Next Temple

Well, we have been asked to do another temple.  And the next temple is...(drum roll please!)

CEDAR CITY!!

I was surprised, but it actually makes perfect sense.  Where we have lived and worked there for eighteen years, Mark knows so many people.  He was very excited to be going back and being with people he has known and enjoyed and loved working with.  It will be a wonderful project for him.

We will not, however, be moving back to Cedar City.  We will live in our home in Salt Lake and Mark will work out of the Church Office Building and drive down to Cedar when he needs to.  He will also be over other projects too, so we will be centrally located and he will be traveling to the different projects that he is assigned to.  It will be exciting and to see what else he will be asked to do.  I'm so happy for him.

As for me, moving back to Salt Lake means being close to kids and grand kids, being able, once again, to be involved in their lives, helping out when I'm needed, attending activities, having family get-togethers and seeing our parents and siblings more often.  I'm okay with that. 

However, knowing that there is a possibility that we may never again go to a site, I have been especially grateful for this opportunity we've had to be in South Florida.  It is an experience that I will always remember and treasure.  It's difficult to express the joy I've had being here, the wonderful people we've met and grown to love, the beautiful scenery.  I've loved being on this side of the country, experiencing the different cultures and flavors of this place.  Have there been any challenges?  Of course there has!  I think I've missed the family more than I thought I would, and I've come to realize that I need exercise and sunshine to stay emotionally healthy.  Most of my struggles have naturally been self-inflicted and I've been able to work through them.  The good and the growth Mark and I have both experienced definitely over rides any negatives there has been.  I just feel so lucky, so blessed to have had this experience and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. 

Visitors

Bill Smith, who is directly over Mark flew out in February to see how the progress was going on the temple.  We had him over to our home for dinner along with Elder and Sister DeGraffenried, and two of the project managers here from Utah working for Zwick Construction.  It was a lovely evening.  Bill is a great man, with such a great spirit.  I was helping Sister DeGraffenried at the temple site the next day and Bill came in to talk to us.  He reminded us of the importance of putting God first in our lives and when we do those things that aren't important would drop away.  I felt the Spirit so strongly.  It reminds me that these men who are over this great work are great spiritual men, who have proven themselves to the Lord in other ways, besides their construction abilities.

Bill was pleased with the way things are going on the temple site.  Mark has been essentially left alone to take care of everything concerning this job.  Anyone who knows Mark, knows that he is a self-starter and when he has a job to do he does it.  Of course there have been some challenges, but he just works through them.

Bill Smith and Mark

Bishop Dean Davies from the Presiding Bishopric visited the temple site on Saturday, May 4th.  It was to be a low-key visit, so not many knew about it.  He had driven down from Orlando with his assistant executive secretary, Dave McMillan. Tony Burns, who was recently released as the area authority was also invited to tour the temple with Bishop Davies.  Elder Burns has been instrumental in getting a temple here in South Florida.  The protocol has been that no one is allowed onto the temple site unless they are approved from Salt Lake.  Elder Burns has honored that protocol, so I'm sure he was thrilled to be invited to tour the site with Bishop Davies.

Everyone worked hard to clean everything up as much as possible (it is a construction site after all).  Bishop Davies was "very pleased" with their visit.  Before he left he gave Mark a special blessing.  He came home so happy.

Bishop Dean Davies and Mark

 Last week Cory Karl, who is Mark's boss and Brent Roberts, who is over the Special Projects Department (which includes temples), came out from Salt Lake to tour the temple site.  We met them for dinner Wednesday evening at Carraba's along with Elder and Sister DeGraffenried.  I had already met Cory from the interviews we had with them before we came here, but Brent is new to me.  He's a big burly guy.  They are both great men and they were also very pleased with how things are going at the temple.  Mark received some great priesthood counsel and some ideas on how members can become involved in their temple.  Loved it!

Cory Karl, Brent Roberts, Mark, President and Sister Anderson

Everyone has worked so hard to make this temple as beautiful as possible.  Mark always goes the extra mile when he does a job.  He has proved that he is more than capable.  We found out a couple of months ago that Mark has been hired on permanently full time with the Church, so we don't have to worry if there will be another temple for us to do.  I'm so proud of him, and so grateful to the Lord for blessing us in this tremendous way.

Wildlife

I am so often delighted by what I see here in Florida, especially the wildlife, which is so different than what I have seen throughout my life!  The other day, I was driving down the street when a big iguana started to cross.  There was an iguana near the canal at the temple site and an iguana sitting in the window sill of the temple. 

Several weeks ago, I saw a beautiful white egret on the bank of the canal.  At girl's camp, I saw an armadillo.  I love it!

The picture of this egret is not the exact one I saw, but looks like it.  So beautiful!