Hello everyone. Thought you might like an update on Austin. The surgery went very well. They reattached the retina on his right (working) eye. The surgeon said it had torn all around, in many spots. He also treated the left eye (his lazy eye) with a laser, because it showed signs of tearing in the future. This is not the same laser surgery that we're use to talking about. It is not a laser for vision. This laser seals the retina to the back of the (eye?) We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 am and were home by 1pm.
In order to "hold" the newly laser-sealed-retina in place, they filled his eye with a gas bubble that puts pressure on the retina (so it will stay in place.) The gas bubble makes it so he cannot see out of his eye. It also requires Austin to keep his head down at all times. He cannot look up, sleep on his back, or sit upright (with his head in an upright position) for 7 days. For example, when he's walking, he has to look at his toes. The bubble gradually disintegrates over a 3 to 6 week period. At that point, we'll have an idea of how good his vision will be. The surgeon also said his vision could continue to change (improve hopefully) for up to 9 or 10 months. He did say that the torn retina reached the macula. Devestating news. Science would say with the damaged macula, his vision has been permanently compromised.
But are we EVER surprised by what priesthood power, fasting, temple attendance, and fervent prayer can accomplish? We are so grateful for all your love, support, prayers, fasting, phone calls & emailing. We ask you to continue to remember to pray and fast for Austin's vision to return. He is an amazing young man who has always kept the commandments, served his freinds and family and lived close to the spirit. I pray the Lord will see fit to bless him with the ability to live a wonderfully productive life until his mission on earth is accomplished.
He needs to be able to see through one of his eyes. This will not be overwith for several months. Please keep his name in your temples!
We love you,
Laurie
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Austin
Dear family,
A lot has happened in the last 15 hours. We discovered that Austin's retina has paritally detached and he will be having surgery Friday (Jan 15) @ 7:30 am. A detached retina is very serious! Unfortunately for Austin, he only has one eye that the brain uses and one eye that the brain has turned "off." The detached retina is in the eye he uses. So you can understand how frightening this is for him to imagine any permanent damage to the eye he uses. The surgeon said this can happen to people who are extremely nearsighted, which he is. And he said it has probably been "tearing" for many months, if not years. Austin's vision became blurry in the last few days...which prompted the examination.
The same "tearing" is going to happen in his other eye (the one the brain turned off.) So they will also do a laser surgery on that eye...to seal it off so it won't tear.
Complications: After surgery, the retina could detach again, even several times, and they would keep doing the surgery over and over, hoping it will stay in place. After healing, a cataract could form on his eye which would have to be removed. Finally, his vision, even after reattaching the retina could remain blurry.
Our family is going to fast tomorrow, Thursday. Please pray for Austin! He is frightened, mostly because he only has one working eye and now it is not working. Please pray for the surgery to go well and for the retina to STAY ATTACHED! Please pray for his vision to improve upon healing (it may take a long time). And that he'll be spared a cataract surgery as well as additional surgeries.
Please add his name to your temple prayer rolls. Of course he's been administered to.
I sure love you each one. I know you are stalwart, faithful, temple-going people and your prayers and faith will make a difference! Your prayers and faith made all the difference in my outcome last summer. Thanks for your love and support!
Laurie and Joel
PS. If I've left anyone out of this email, it was not on purpose. I don't have everyone's email address. Please forward to other family members if you'd like.
A lot has happened in the last 15 hours. We discovered that Austin's retina has paritally detached and he will be having surgery Friday (Jan 15) @ 7:30 am. A detached retina is very serious! Unfortunately for Austin, he only has one eye that the brain uses and one eye that the brain has turned "off." The detached retina is in the eye he uses. So you can understand how frightening this is for him to imagine any permanent damage to the eye he uses. The surgeon said this can happen to people who are extremely nearsighted, which he is. And he said it has probably been "tearing" for many months, if not years. Austin's vision became blurry in the last few days...which prompted the examination.
The same "tearing" is going to happen in his other eye (the one the brain turned off.) So they will also do a laser surgery on that eye...to seal it off so it won't tear.
Complications: After surgery, the retina could detach again, even several times, and they would keep doing the surgery over and over, hoping it will stay in place. After healing, a cataract could form on his eye which would have to be removed. Finally, his vision, even after reattaching the retina could remain blurry.
Our family is going to fast tomorrow, Thursday. Please pray for Austin! He is frightened, mostly because he only has one working eye and now it is not working. Please pray for the surgery to go well and for the retina to STAY ATTACHED! Please pray for his vision to improve upon healing (it may take a long time). And that he'll be spared a cataract surgery as well as additional surgeries.
Please add his name to your temple prayer rolls. Of course he's been administered to.
I sure love you each one. I know you are stalwart, faithful, temple-going people and your prayers and faith will make a difference! Your prayers and faith made all the difference in my outcome last summer. Thanks for your love and support!
Laurie and Joel
PS. If I've left anyone out of this email, it was not on purpose. I don't have everyone's email address. Please forward to other family members if you'd like.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
From Sarah Warnick
Dear Orme Family,
Happy Fall....well it's almost fall....when did school start to begin in summer time! My kids have been back in school for a week now, it's nice to have some quiet time at home. Weston isn't quite sure what to make of all this alone time with Mom. Mom isn't quite as fun as Rylie was last year at playing games and being silly.
My 3 kids get on the bus a little after 8am and get dropped off a little after 4pm. It's weird to have them gone for so long. I guess it's good to have the quiet time at home also, because I started working for the first time in 11 years. I got a job writing health and fitness blogs. Mostly just any kind of copy so that people have somewhere to go to click onto other sights that sell health and fitness stuff. It's nice to be able to work at home and not worry about daycare. I am wondering when I will run out of things to say though.
We really enjoyed our summer cruising around here and there, wherever we felt like it. We stayed in Okie for a few weeks to handle cubscout camp. Then we packed up, said goodbye to David and Sundance, and drove off to Utah. We drove to Washington and stayed a week in the big empty Warnick house in Issaquah. It was really fun to play with Katie and go hiking and rock climbing and play at the property. Our old barn house has kind of been let go on the outside, kind of sad to see. On the way back to Utah we stopped in Idaho and got to go to Rachel's reception! Yay! It was good to see so many of you, and MAN can Steph and Laurie DANCE!!! Wahooo! A
fter a few weeks in Utah, we drove back to Oklahoma to see Daddy and have some doctors appointments. Our insurance doesn't work out of state. Then back to Utah again! My kids are really really good in the car! David worked on a research project for OU this summer (his only free summer of medical school) looking into how primary care doctors spend their time. It was really eye opening for him. They probably have it the worst of all the doctors, no wonder there are fewer every year. We spent our last week in Utah all together as a family. David and I celebrated our 11th anniversary and climbed Mt. Timpanogos to.... celebrate? It was pretty hard and really steep and scary at the top, but I'm so glad I did it. I've always wanted to accomplish that.
Now we're back in OK. Sterling started football and really loves it! I'm surprised because on the first day he kind of freaked out when he had to put that tight helmet on his head and didn't want anyone to knock him down. But after the 2nd practice he thinks it's really fun! Go figure. He and cousin Jackson Balkman are both on the same team with Aunt Amy's bishop and son as their coaches. The team is really coached well, there are actually around 4 coaches and they are the real deal. They've sent home a playbook to memorize, they wear all the gear and do full on tackle football. This is different from the flag football league they have in Spanish Fork.
Sterling turned 10 on the first day of school! I still can't believe he is in 5th grade! He invited his whole class to another race car birthday party. We made a track outside and had RC mania. It was lots of fun. Sterling got a guitar and is excited to start lessons. Alexis started 3rd grade and will finally get to start up Violin lessons again this year after a whole year off. Everything was just too unpredictable last year. She really likes going to activity day girls and has a great group of friends in school and at church. Her biggest gripe is sharing a room with Rylie who can be a bit..... lets say ecclectic in her toy organization skills. Rylie is in 1st grade! I can't believe she is gone all day. It didn't start out well. She stayed up late the first night feeling completely stressed out about how she would open her pudding at lunch. She can't do it, and she knew she didn't want to have me put it in her lunch opened cuz it might spill. I felt so bad when I realized what a big deal this was to her. Luckily me and Alexis were able to explain about all the adults in the lunch room who would help her. She has also gotten lost from her class once, and got confused about how to buy her lunch once. It's tough being 6.
David started back to school this week. It should be a much more interesting year. They will start to learn about all the ways things can go wrong in the body, instead of the way it should be. They will also be learning a lot more of how to perform examinations; David is not excited about the female one. They won't have rotations much till the end of the year, because they will be working on how to do all these examinations. By the time this year's over he'll be a lot better able to walk into a room and talk to a patient and see what direction to take. It's all very interesting.... how someone becomes a doctor. I'm kind of grouchy at all the Dental students in our ward. When their four years are over, they get to start practicing, and making money! We will have another 5 years of residency with a bit of pay.
Sundance was really happy when we all came home! He missed all the kids. He has developed a new thing though. When there are thunder and lightening storms he cries all night long. It's really sad, and it's really really loud! After trying to get him to calm down in his room (the tiled front entryway) he will often make his way to our bed and squish in. But then I can't sleep! He is SUCH a loud breather! It's like he's blowing up a plastic pool or something, and then he snorts the air out. (He also runs in his sleep) Soon I put him back to his room, then the crying starts again. After about 3 rounds, I send him out to the garage so the cat can take care of him. She's a night person anyway. Hope ya'll had a good summer!Love, Sarah and the gang
At Rachel's reception in Boise:
Happy Fall....well it's almost fall....when did school start to begin in summer time! My kids have been back in school for a week now, it's nice to have some quiet time at home. Weston isn't quite sure what to make of all this alone time with Mom. Mom isn't quite as fun as Rylie was last year at playing games and being silly.
My 3 kids get on the bus a little after 8am and get dropped off a little after 4pm. It's weird to have them gone for so long. I guess it's good to have the quiet time at home also, because I started working for the first time in 11 years. I got a job writing health and fitness blogs. Mostly just any kind of copy so that people have somewhere to go to click onto other sights that sell health and fitness stuff. It's nice to be able to work at home and not worry about daycare. I am wondering when I will run out of things to say though.
We really enjoyed our summer cruising around here and there, wherever we felt like it. We stayed in Okie for a few weeks to handle cubscout camp. Then we packed up, said goodbye to David and Sundance, and drove off to Utah. We drove to Washington and stayed a week in the big empty Warnick house in Issaquah. It was really fun to play with Katie and go hiking and rock climbing and play at the property. Our old barn house has kind of been let go on the outside, kind of sad to see. On the way back to Utah we stopped in Idaho and got to go to Rachel's reception! Yay! It was good to see so many of you, and MAN can Steph and Laurie DANCE!!! Wahooo! A
fter a few weeks in Utah, we drove back to Oklahoma to see Daddy and have some doctors appointments. Our insurance doesn't work out of state. Then back to Utah again! My kids are really really good in the car! David worked on a research project for OU this summer (his only free summer of medical school) looking into how primary care doctors spend their time. It was really eye opening for him. They probably have it the worst of all the doctors, no wonder there are fewer every year. We spent our last week in Utah all together as a family. David and I celebrated our 11th anniversary and climbed Mt. Timpanogos to.... celebrate? It was pretty hard and really steep and scary at the top, but I'm so glad I did it. I've always wanted to accomplish that.
Now we're back in OK. Sterling started football and really loves it! I'm surprised because on the first day he kind of freaked out when he had to put that tight helmet on his head and didn't want anyone to knock him down. But after the 2nd practice he thinks it's really fun! Go figure. He and cousin Jackson Balkman are both on the same team with Aunt Amy's bishop and son as their coaches. The team is really coached well, there are actually around 4 coaches and they are the real deal. They've sent home a playbook to memorize, they wear all the gear and do full on tackle football. This is different from the flag football league they have in Spanish Fork.
Sterling turned 10 on the first day of school! I still can't believe he is in 5th grade! He invited his whole class to another race car birthday party. We made a track outside and had RC mania. It was lots of fun. Sterling got a guitar and is excited to start lessons. Alexis started 3rd grade and will finally get to start up Violin lessons again this year after a whole year off. Everything was just too unpredictable last year. She really likes going to activity day girls and has a great group of friends in school and at church. Her biggest gripe is sharing a room with Rylie who can be a bit..... lets say ecclectic in her toy organization skills. Rylie is in 1st grade! I can't believe she is gone all day. It didn't start out well. She stayed up late the first night feeling completely stressed out about how she would open her pudding at lunch. She can't do it, and she knew she didn't want to have me put it in her lunch opened cuz it might spill. I felt so bad when I realized what a big deal this was to her. Luckily me and Alexis were able to explain about all the adults in the lunch room who would help her. She has also gotten lost from her class once, and got confused about how to buy her lunch once. It's tough being 6.
David started back to school this week. It should be a much more interesting year. They will start to learn about all the ways things can go wrong in the body, instead of the way it should be. They will also be learning a lot more of how to perform examinations; David is not excited about the female one. They won't have rotations much till the end of the year, because they will be working on how to do all these examinations. By the time this year's over he'll be a lot better able to walk into a room and talk to a patient and see what direction to take. It's all very interesting.... how someone becomes a doctor. I'm kind of grouchy at all the Dental students in our ward. When their four years are over, they get to start practicing, and making money! We will have another 5 years of residency with a bit of pay.
Sundance was really happy when we all came home! He missed all the kids. He has developed a new thing though. When there are thunder and lightening storms he cries all night long. It's really sad, and it's really really loud! After trying to get him to calm down in his room (the tiled front entryway) he will often make his way to our bed and squish in. But then I can't sleep! He is SUCH a loud breather! It's like he's blowing up a plastic pool or something, and then he snorts the air out. (He also runs in his sleep) Soon I put him back to his room, then the crying starts again. After about 3 rounds, I send him out to the garage so the cat can take care of him. She's a night person anyway. Hope ya'll had a good summer!Love, Sarah and the gang
At Rachel's reception in Boise:
From Lizzy
We've had a lovely spring and summer here in Utah! We're still living in my parent's basement. Quite the cushy place! It's always nice to live in Utah Valley and see ALL the visitors who come through each summer. I loved visiting with Stan and hearing all his stories and words of wisdom (he has lots of good stuff!) and eating healthy with him! Morning omelettes and salads for lunch every day :) We had a blast going to Boise for Rachel's wedding and seeing everyone. Here are some of us outside the temple:
Jessica and family, Jennifer and family, and Sarah and family all came through here and visited. We've been busy with the little kids as usual. I've been doing photo sessions and even built a little indoor studio here. It's cute and has a shabby chic style with full soft light. Pretty fun.
Our biggest news is finally NOT a baby! (I'm so proud of myself for not being pregnant when my baby is almost 1!).
Jed accepted a job offer to be a Border Patrol Agent in the San Diego sector. Yep, he's becoming a federal cop even as I type. His station is El Cajon which is a bit east of San Diego. Right now he is in New Mexico in the middle of nowhere at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He's been gone over a month now. Seven more weeks until he graduates from the Academy but then he has to stay for eight additional weeks to learn Spanish.
He is doing awesome with the training. Out of his class of 50 trainees he is practically #1 in all areas – running, obstacle course, firing range, law/immigration classes. He already has some great buddies and seems to still be weathering it with enthusiasm. He lives in a tiny dorm in a bunk bed but only has to share a bathroom with 3 other guys.
Me and him are meeting up in El Paso over Labor Day weekend for a break for both of us!! I'm counting down the days... If you ever watch “Homeland Security USA” on ABC, you will see the agents in green chasing down illegals and drug smugglers. Last week's episode actually included the San Diego agents and terrain close to where Jed will be working. His area is a lot of rough hilly terrain so he'll likely be on foot, on a four-wheeler, horse, or truck.
Here he is off at the airport!
Jessica and family, Jennifer and family, and Sarah and family all came through here and visited. We've been busy with the little kids as usual. I've been doing photo sessions and even built a little indoor studio here. It's cute and has a shabby chic style with full soft light. Pretty fun.
Our biggest news is finally NOT a baby! (I'm so proud of myself for not being pregnant when my baby is almost 1!).
Jed accepted a job offer to be a Border Patrol Agent in the San Diego sector. Yep, he's becoming a federal cop even as I type. His station is El Cajon which is a bit east of San Diego. Right now he is in New Mexico in the middle of nowhere at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He's been gone over a month now. Seven more weeks until he graduates from the Academy but then he has to stay for eight additional weeks to learn Spanish.
He is doing awesome with the training. Out of his class of 50 trainees he is practically #1 in all areas – running, obstacle course, firing range, law/immigration classes. He already has some great buddies and seems to still be weathering it with enthusiasm. He lives in a tiny dorm in a bunk bed but only has to share a bathroom with 3 other guys.
Me and him are meeting up in El Paso over Labor Day weekend for a break for both of us!! I'm counting down the days... If you ever watch “Homeland Security USA” on ABC, you will see the agents in green chasing down illegals and drug smugglers. Last week's episode actually included the San Diego agents and terrain close to where Jed will be working. His area is a lot of rough hilly terrain so he'll likely be on foot, on a four-wheeler, horse, or truck.
Here he is off at the airport!
And our last family summer picture in July:
We'll be moving down to the San Diego area on Dec 5th. Hopefully I'll be able to make a quick trip down there in November to find a house. Exciting changes and it will be fun to be close to those other Ormes in CA!
Other than that, life goes on and time rolls forward. Will started 1st grade today!
Hope everyone is well and hope to hear more from each of you soon.
Love Lizzy + family.
From Steve Orme
We heard from Brian just now that Jane was born at 5:30 am this morning. A healthy 9lb 6 oz, 22inch baby. He says mother and baby doing "great". (Oh the optimism of the new fathers, it's great.) This is a good day.
God Bless
We love you all
Steve
From Elder Wertner
Hey Family!
Wow I was so excited to get all your letters. Today I had 13 emails waiting for me! That was a little overwhelming. I didnt even think I still had that many friends..... Haha Man that was rough hearing about the smoked beef brisket. Just brings a tear to my eye..... I cant wait to check it out in a little bit.
Now let me tell you about ¨This week¨ Oh this beloved week of faith trying experiences. First off a preface. This week On wednesday I got a letter from the stake. Their is a stake service missionary that writes a newsletter toi all the missionaries in the stake. It comes out about every 6 months. I just got the 2nd one. I absolutely love this letter. It gives me an update on a lot of the other missionaries and has alot of inserts from letters from missionaries. Well I was reading it, and I got to the conclusion that some of the guys were being a little too negative. I thought to myself, ¨Of course the mission is hard, and has difficulties, but why would you ever write your family these things?¨ So after thinking that.... I thought about how Dad always said that nothing is ever a done deal, if something bad happens, just power through and find a way to make it work. Now with that said, we got hammered on bad news this week. Just like I feel obliterated, haha. BUT we saw some cool miracles and weve been seeing what prayer, and hard work can do you. I realized I havent been writing too much about our investigators. Let me tell you, we got some All- Star investigators. All of them have their trials, of course, but there is nothing cooler than seeing someone handle their trials with the newfound gospel principles. So I thought before I got into the ¨Story Time¨ and tell you about how we asked for a ride, a truck pulled over and my comp got in, then as I was getting in the back, he took off way fast, still holding on, i jumped on the back of the pick up, but couldnt get in the actually bed part, so i was standing on the bent down bumper the whole way........ So before I get into those type of stories for the week I thought I might give you a look on what´s our All-Star Roster looking like for Inv. And new converts. SO here we go.... First off At Center we got new convert Dianey, Shes the mom of 4 kids, husband is still looking into the church, She got baptized a few weeks ago. Shes At center because she already read throught 1 nephi and has taken notes of what she feels when reading. Not only that, BUT shes got us teaching 2 of her neighbors and their Families.Next at Power Forward We got The Bernal Family Also converts. Its a family of 6 That we baptized the kids because the Parents got baptized when they were 9, but never returned to church. Now they are fully active and a bunch of studs. They hooked us up with 3 families to teach and a spaghetti dinner last night. Dad is a citizen in the US and is taking off to work there for a few months because the bills are getting way bad..... But they are very humble, and studs.Next at Small forward we got Doña Vicky (Or MRS. Vicky)Shes an investigator lined up for this weekend to get baptized. She LOVES talking about her kids and GrandKids And i LOVE to listen. Shes awesome and likes applying God to her family and everything she does.At shooting Guard we have Evelyn and Her family. Her sister is member, but evelyn wasnt. So we baptized her, now the family is active, and The sister went to youth conference this past weekend. She is constantly Giving us references, and trying to teach all the neighbor hood kids. She absolutely loves us.Then at Point Guard we got ANgel. Weve been working with him for a few weeks. Hes this 12 yr old, and his sister and cousins and Grandparents are members, but him no. So hes been coming to church and well make him a deacon afterwards. Hes going to be a church leader someday. HIs baptism will also get moved to this weekend so his mom can go, then we will be working with her.......Honorable mentions would be Maria Guadalupe who came to church with us this week, the only problem is she has 3 kids and a boyfriend. The Big NO NO is that her boyfriend has a family...... We will be laying down the law with them on that one. No exceptions.Also Carolina gave us 4 references of her friends who want to be members of the church. Only problem is they live in another area..... Thats a bummer.Right now this is what we are working with. Of course theres a bunch of other people, but their benchwarmers right now until we see some real good changes in their playing ability. This week all of Sonora gathered all the youth that are members and had a huge youth conference. Us missionaries in Hermosillo, we got to help out for 2 days. One day we had a bunch of stations, and the different groups would run to each station and follow the instructions to get a stamp. They needed like 15 stamps to win. Well one group had 13, and they were begging me for 2 stamps. Of course I Said NO! Well Ok, I said yes, but only if when they are running back to the judges table, they chant my name. Well they did it. And a half an hour later elder Hatch comes up to me and says, ¨You know, I just saw the funniest thing. I group of 15 kids ran by chanting your name, And I thought to myself, Only Wertner would do that.....¨ There were 800 youth that came. It was huge. Then they did a cultural dance thing in the night. Man It was so cool. They had dances from all over the world in an auditorium of about 4000 people. Alot of investigators came. To close it, we (the missionaries) Sang Called to Serve, and then finished with the song ¨Army of Helamen¨ Now imagine the spirit that filled that auditorium when 40 missionaries sang those 2 songs. We had investiagtors all over the place wanting to be baptized and go on missions. Haha I loved it. We had exhanges with the Zone leaders this week. I went with one of the ZLS and they had problems with this investigator. So we were teaching and Shes been way mad with God because her 2 yr old died a few months ago. So I was letting the ZL talk, and I was praying that I could say what needed to be said. And right at the exact moment, I felt like I should take over. And I did, and I asked the lady this question, and she just looked at me, then looked down, an started bawling. And I read this cool scripture, and bore my testimony about eternal families. That her baby already is with God, and that one day she will see her again. Then she accepted a baptismal date! When we met back with my comp and the other Zone Leader. My comp for the day was like ,¨Elder Wertner, Just decided to take over on the lesson, made our investigator cry, and then put a baptismal date for next weekend, Weve been working with her for months, I have no idea how he did it¨
I LOVE being a missionary!!This week we ate deer tacos. They were bomby.I love you all and cant wait to see pictures of Laurens Baptism.I know the church is true and Heavenly Loves Us. I know families can be together forever.I also Have a testimony that we will always be faced with trials, but that never means the games over. There is ALWAYS a way to suceed. If you dont get it at first, try another way, and another and another until you finally get it done.love you all!
Love Elder WertnerDO WORK!!!!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
From Laurie and Family
Jake got to drive the "Days of 47" royalty in this HOT car!
A pot of Jelly Bellys from Laurie's friends following surgery (see my scar!)
Austin & Laurie; Steph & Scott at Rachel's wedding in Boise
Whitney, Laurie & Joel on 4th of July
Dear Family,
It's been a few months since the newsletter has come out, but luckily, many of us have been together, thanks to Rachel & Dustin's wedding! They certainly put on a great party for all of us, with many opportunities to talk our little hearts out....laugh together....and D.A.N.C.E!!!! It makes me want to get together MUCH more often!! A friend of mine was telling me that their family reunions are just torture because there is so much fighting going on, and if no one is fighting, the tension is palpable. Ugh! Can you imagine??? I am so grateful for my extended family and the love I feel from each of you!
The Metcalfs are doing great! The children keep growing....well, nowadays, it's probably more accurate to say they continue to mature- - as they pursue college and missions and eternal companions. I'm not "rushing" Austin....he's only 17! I'm not rushing anybody!!! I'm just sayin'.......season of life, and all that.
Jake and Whitney came home for the summer to work and save money. A savings account gets plumped up quite nicely when you have free room and board. They both are mowing lawns for a guy in our ward....who has employed all of my children at one time or another. You can get up at dawn during the summer...and survive! Nothing like manual labor to toughen you up. And as Whitney says...."not a bad job..... burn calories, get a tan AND get paid!" Austin is working at the golf course. He says that most people play golf drunk! He has to clean out their carts and throw away the evidence. I think that's why there are so many golfers.....you'd have to be drunk to forget how frustrating it is...hence, another round the following Saturday. He always pulls the 4 to 10pm shift, which wreaks havoc on a 17 year old boy's social life! But the job allows him to golf for free at a few city courses, so it's not all bad. Our family attended the Oquirrah Mountain Temple open house last night. It's a beautiful temple. I loved being there with my family.....I just like to watch my kids. I like to just watch them walk and talk and interact with each other. Last night I liked walking behind Jake and Austin...both 6'2" or 6'3", shoulder to shoulder in their white shirts and ties, absorbed in their own conversation (granted, they were probably quoting lines from The Office, or The Simpsons, or Brian Regan....but still!!!!) And I like watching Whitney and Joel throw their heads back and laugh with each other....as they always are doing!
Cory is having a great mission in the D.C. South mission. On Sept 4th he will have 9 months left! His emails are not super long :).....But the growth and confidence he is gaining as a missionary is more evident with each passing month. We sure miss him but wouldn't want him to be anywhere else. We got to hear his mission president give his homecoming report a couple weeks ago. That was really awesome!
Joel and I are just loving every minute of family this summer. Joel and Austin get in quite a bit of golf together. The only problem with older kids is that they always have JOBS! It really gets in the way of my "F.U.N." with them!
And finally, as you all are completely aware of my adventures with surgery and the cutting of the nerve to my voice....let me just give a quick update. I've had a digital scope (camera) put down my throat...no gagging...and It recorded the workings of my vocal folds, nerves, muscles etc.....it was soooo fascinating! I am so impressed with what my body can do...to see the inside working....it's such a miracle!!! I got so excited! I just can't express how impressed I am with this miracle we call a body! Anyway, I saw for myself on a monitor, how the right side is paralyzed. The muscle can't work and do its job. But here's the cool thing....the left side works sooooo hard to make up for what the paralyzed side can't do. It's absolutely HEROIC!!!
Some people think I've completely lost my voice, which isn't true. But if my normal voice is 100%, I'd say the voice I have right now is about 15%. Noisy places and phone conversations are the hardest part....difficult to be heard. Nerves take about a year to heal. So I will be patient and work with my therapist. I will continue to pray and be positive and submissive to my Father's will. He has carried me every moment and given me so much peace and comfort throughout. I've only been discouraged a couple of times and then I go to my knees and am filled with hope and peace and comfort. Things could be so much worse...I'm truly grateful!!! I am so blessed! And I am learning so much! Thank you, each one, for your prayers, phone calls, emails, and incredible love and support. You're all the best!!!
Here's a thought for the day, so that you can be impressed with what YOUR vocal chords do!!!....they slap together 250 x per second when you're speaking!!!
Mom gets off her mission the end of September! Phew....just before another Iowa winter!!! I think 3 missions is enough :) She should stay home now and serve in the temple, which she loves so much. I sure appreciate her example of service and sacrifice!
May you all find peace and joy each day through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know he wants each of us to be happy in this life and then return to Him in the eternities. I can't help but think that probably Grandma and Grandpa were with me as I layed on that operating table for a prolonged period of time....waiting for a 2nd surgeon to be called to the hospital and then the time it took for him to be informed of what had taken place, time spent consulting with Joel, Joel signing more consent papers, time scrubbing in, etc. etc.......I just think that a lot of things went right in a potentially devestating scenario.....all because my Heavenly Father loves me and took care of me.
I love each one of you!
Laurie, Joel, Jake, Whitney, Cory and Austin
A pot of Jelly Bellys from Laurie's friends following surgery (see my scar!)
Austin & Laurie; Steph & Scott at Rachel's wedding in Boise
Whitney, Laurie & Joel on 4th of July
Dear Family,
It's been a few months since the newsletter has come out, but luckily, many of us have been together, thanks to Rachel & Dustin's wedding! They certainly put on a great party for all of us, with many opportunities to talk our little hearts out....laugh together....and D.A.N.C.E!!!! It makes me want to get together MUCH more often!! A friend of mine was telling me that their family reunions are just torture because there is so much fighting going on, and if no one is fighting, the tension is palpable. Ugh! Can you imagine??? I am so grateful for my extended family and the love I feel from each of you!
The Metcalfs are doing great! The children keep growing....well, nowadays, it's probably more accurate to say they continue to mature- - as they pursue college and missions and eternal companions. I'm not "rushing" Austin....he's only 17! I'm not rushing anybody!!! I'm just sayin'.......season of life, and all that.
Jake and Whitney came home for the summer to work and save money. A savings account gets plumped up quite nicely when you have free room and board. They both are mowing lawns for a guy in our ward....who has employed all of my children at one time or another. You can get up at dawn during the summer...and survive! Nothing like manual labor to toughen you up. And as Whitney says...."not a bad job..... burn calories, get a tan AND get paid!" Austin is working at the golf course. He says that most people play golf drunk! He has to clean out their carts and throw away the evidence. I think that's why there are so many golfers.....you'd have to be drunk to forget how frustrating it is...hence, another round the following Saturday. He always pulls the 4 to 10pm shift, which wreaks havoc on a 17 year old boy's social life! But the job allows him to golf for free at a few city courses, so it's not all bad. Our family attended the Oquirrah Mountain Temple open house last night. It's a beautiful temple. I loved being there with my family.....I just like to watch my kids. I like to just watch them walk and talk and interact with each other. Last night I liked walking behind Jake and Austin...both 6'2" or 6'3", shoulder to shoulder in their white shirts and ties, absorbed in their own conversation (granted, they were probably quoting lines from The Office, or The Simpsons, or Brian Regan....but still!!!!) And I like watching Whitney and Joel throw their heads back and laugh with each other....as they always are doing!
Cory is having a great mission in the D.C. South mission. On Sept 4th he will have 9 months left! His emails are not super long :).....But the growth and confidence he is gaining as a missionary is more evident with each passing month. We sure miss him but wouldn't want him to be anywhere else. We got to hear his mission president give his homecoming report a couple weeks ago. That was really awesome!
Joel and I are just loving every minute of family this summer. Joel and Austin get in quite a bit of golf together. The only problem with older kids is that they always have JOBS! It really gets in the way of my "F.U.N." with them!
And finally, as you all are completely aware of my adventures with surgery and the cutting of the nerve to my voice....let me just give a quick update. I've had a digital scope (camera) put down my throat...no gagging...and It recorded the workings of my vocal folds, nerves, muscles etc.....it was soooo fascinating! I am so impressed with what my body can do...to see the inside working....it's such a miracle!!! I got so excited! I just can't express how impressed I am with this miracle we call a body! Anyway, I saw for myself on a monitor, how the right side is paralyzed. The muscle can't work and do its job. But here's the cool thing....the left side works sooooo hard to make up for what the paralyzed side can't do. It's absolutely HEROIC!!!
Some people think I've completely lost my voice, which isn't true. But if my normal voice is 100%, I'd say the voice I have right now is about 15%. Noisy places and phone conversations are the hardest part....difficult to be heard. Nerves take about a year to heal. So I will be patient and work with my therapist. I will continue to pray and be positive and submissive to my Father's will. He has carried me every moment and given me so much peace and comfort throughout. I've only been discouraged a couple of times and then I go to my knees and am filled with hope and peace and comfort. Things could be so much worse...I'm truly grateful!!! I am so blessed! And I am learning so much! Thank you, each one, for your prayers, phone calls, emails, and incredible love and support. You're all the best!!!
Here's a thought for the day, so that you can be impressed with what YOUR vocal chords do!!!....they slap together 250 x per second when you're speaking!!!
Mom gets off her mission the end of September! Phew....just before another Iowa winter!!! I think 3 missions is enough :) She should stay home now and serve in the temple, which she loves so much. I sure appreciate her example of service and sacrifice!
May you all find peace and joy each day through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know he wants each of us to be happy in this life and then return to Him in the eternities. I can't help but think that probably Grandma and Grandpa were with me as I layed on that operating table for a prolonged period of time....waiting for a 2nd surgeon to be called to the hospital and then the time it took for him to be informed of what had taken place, time spent consulting with Joel, Joel signing more consent papers, time scrubbing in, etc. etc.......I just think that a lot of things went right in a potentially devestating scenario.....all because my Heavenly Father loves me and took care of me.
I love each one of you!
Laurie, Joel, Jake, Whitney, Cory and Austin
Friday, February 13, 2009
January 2009 Newsletter
Please show support to our Family Missionaries:
Elder Jake Wertnermailto:WertnerBrianJWertner@myldsmail.net
Elder Cory Metcalf
Sister Marilyn Orme
3738 Glen Oak Boulevard #14
Sioux City, Iowa 51104
Landline: 712-239-1651
Missionary cell: 412-204-3055
****************************************************
Dear Family,
Ok, this is a really lame letter, but I am in the middle of finishing up my masters this Saturday and I have no time to write—but I did want to let you know (with some encouragement from sarah.. ;) that I got engaged January 24th.. it’s official, ring and all! His name is Dustin Hunt and we are getting married in Boise on June 27th.. and you are ALL invited.. I would love to see as many of you as possible!! My email address is rachellovestulips@yahoo.com if you want more details.. once again, sorry for the lame email.. after Saturday, my life can return to normal.. !
Love, Rachel
Ok, this is a really lame letter, but I am in the middle of finishing up my masters this Saturday and I have no time to write—but I did want to let you know (with some encouragement from sarah.. ;) that I got engaged January 24th.. it’s official, ring and all! His name is Dustin Hunt and we are getting married in Boise on June 27th.. and you are ALL invited.. I would love to see as many of you as possible!! My email address is rachellovestulips@yahoo.com if you want more details.. once again, sorry for the lame email.. after Saturday, my life can return to normal.. !
Love, Rachel
*this photo was stolen off Rachels facebook by the editor of this newsletter. :)
***********************
Dear Family, Sorry we haven't written a newsletter lately, we're just not that interesting! J Brian is still going to Boise State, and studying really hard. He has made the dean's list every semester! I think he's pretty smart. J He still has his pest control job, which he does during the summer, on school breaks, and picks up hours here and there when the school work load is light. He is going to start volunteering two days a week at a free health clinic pretty soon, so that should tighten up his schedule a little. He also spends a lot of time on his calling, which he is really enjoying. He's working with all the young men, helping them get their Duty to God awards. He has really loved getting to know the boys, and working with them one on one and with their families. Since he isn't doing much else, he has also recently decided to train for a marathon. Crazy if you ask me, but his deal. J I am still working at Idaho Dept of Parks and Recreation, in their fiscal department. It's been a good job, and I am really enjoying my new work schedule. I started working 4-10s a few months ago. I take Fridays off, and am really enjoy my long weekends, although I spend most of them doing homework from my online BYU classes. I have the best calling in the ward, and then some. My first calling is the primary pianist, which is super fun. Along with that, I'm the ward choir pianist, as well as the secondary ward organist. So the ward either doesn't have many musicians, or there are people who just aren't fessing up, because they know they'll get three callings! J We moved out of our ghetto apartment about 6 months ago, and are now living in a basement apartment on a really great end of town. The old woman that lives there is Brian's sister-in-law's grandmother. (Always hard to explain.) She doesn't like living alone, as her husband passed away a year ago. But she gives us super cheap rent, Brian gets to use his home-improvement skills (which he loves), and we get a yard, a garage, and all those other things you miss when you're in apartments. It's really close to everything too, and in a great ward. It's been a great experience for us. I'm sure news has spread to a lot of you, but for those of you who haven't heard, Brian and I are happy to announce that we are expecting our first baby. J The due date is July 27th, and we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but will find out on March 20th! So far, mother and baby are both doing great. I got really sick right after I got pregnant, but haven't had anything since then. The first trimester was a constant state of nausea, which was immediately relieved by the start of the second trimester…thank goodness! J So we're just having fun looking at baby stuff and thinking of names. (Suggestions are welcome.) J That's about it for us. Other than our big news, we're pretty boring. J But we hope that you all are doing well, and we'll talk to ya later!
Love,Sarah and Brian Ellsworth
***********************************
from: Laurie Metcalf
Tue, Feb 3, 2009
Here are some snippets from some of Elder Metcalf's letters. On Feb 4th he will have been serving for 8 months:
Dec 18, 2008 letter: "We haven't really taught anyone in Warrenton yet, except Mr. Sharp he's 80. We also have another investigator we taught who is 89, Mr Fishback. We are going to teach another guy Mr. Pendleton who is in his 70s...can you see the trend? ... of course they're going to invite you back, they're 80 years old and lonely and they love Jesus. It's hard because they can't really remember anything either and they can't read very well either. I don't know its just kind of funny. "
December 31, 2008 letter:
Saturday we tracted from 10 am -8:45 pm. So the first strange encouter was Thomas. He is a scientist. He was asking us about religion and basically trying to prove that Reilgion was just invented to give people a sense of peace and sanity. He said his God has satellites and mind control. Then later that night we met a Paegan Witch. We knock this door and a lady on the phone answers and says into the phone, "Oh guess what mom it's latter day saints." That's when in my mind i say, oh crap. She invited us in and finished her phone call. She gave us something to drink, and started educating us on Paeganism, but on top of that she was an extreme feminist. At one point she says,"I am a Paegan Woman Witch." In a very distinct, forceful voice with very good diction. It was just kind of funny! she was trying to bash us and and all that stuff. Oh so later after that we knock on this door and this guy opens up, again on the phone and he says," oh Mormons! Dude i got some Mormons here hold on." "I'm Christian, you guys are gonna hate me." So we walk in and his wife is on the couch also on the phone and she says,"No, no we're not doing this tonight." and the husband says, "ok. get out of my house guys." I said a quick prayer of thanks in my heart, and as we were walking out the door this guy says laughing, "haha you guys are going to burn in hell." I said ok and we went to the next house. It was pretty funny. The way people are. It was a pretty fun day. I've found the most interesting and memorable days are those spent tracting the entire day. What else is funny is that those encouters at the beginning of my mission probably would've shaken me a little bit, but now it almost gives me more strength.
Well I better go, i love you guys.
-elder metcalf
Saturday we tracted from 10 am -8:45 pm. So the first strange encouter was Thomas. He is a scientist. He was asking us about religion and basically trying to prove that Reilgion was just invented to give people a sense of peace and sanity. He said his God has satellites and mind control. Then later that night we met a Paegan Witch. We knock this door and a lady on the phone answers and says into the phone, "Oh guess what mom it's latter day saints." That's when in my mind i say, oh crap. She invited us in and finished her phone call. She gave us something to drink, and started educating us on Paeganism, but on top of that she was an extreme feminist. At one point she says,"I am a Paegan Woman Witch." In a very distinct, forceful voice with very good diction. It was just kind of funny! she was trying to bash us and and all that stuff. Oh so later after that we knock on this door and this guy opens up, again on the phone and he says," oh Mormons! Dude i got some Mormons here hold on." "I'm Christian, you guys are gonna hate me." So we walk in and his wife is on the couch also on the phone and she says,"No, no we're not doing this tonight." and the husband says, "ok. get out of my house guys." I said a quick prayer of thanks in my heart, and as we were walking out the door this guy says laughing, "haha you guys are going to burn in hell." I said ok and we went to the next house. It was pretty funny. The way people are. It was a pretty fun day. I've found the most interesting and memorable days are those spent tracting the entire day. What else is funny is that those encouters at the beginning of my mission probably would've shaken me a little bit, but now it almost gives me more strength.
Well I better go, i love you guys.
-elder metcalf
Jan 7, 2009 letter:
"It's so crazy to me, I have never heard any of my companions share the First Vision or Joseph's story in a lesson. Since I was trained it's been me, somehow, everytime. I'm not exagerating either. It's awesome though, I love it. I love how the lesson can be a big discussion and it can be all noisy, but once you start telling Jospeh's story and you begin the First Vision, they are always silent and listening intently. It's been those times when i feel the spirit the strongest, and i can truly feel it testify through me to them. Man Joseph Smith is my hero. "
****************************************Dear family,
Greetings to you all. We hope everyone is propsering and living the good life. Our family is doing just fine. Our nest seems to get emptier and emptier. Jake headed back to Logan and school at USU after living at home for 8 months. It was fun having him here and we miss him! Austin especially misses the "dead arms!" Not! They got into going to the gym together and we got use to having impromptu wrestling matches whenever they passed in the hallway. All in good brotherly fun! Jake has declared English as his major with an eye on law school following graduation. I don't envy him all that writing....and I even enjoy writing! Austin is having a wonderful junior year of high school. He has a slew of friends to hang out with. He's playing basketball on a city team and is looking forward to playing volleyball on the school mens' club team. When the snow melts, he'll return to work at the golf course and get to use the new irons he just got for his birthday! He purchased a pair of those shoes (think of the "don't touch Jimmy" Seinfeld episode) that are suppose to build your calf muscles and increase your vertical leap. Except they look ridiculous! He likes to wear them when he goes places with ME! We get some looks! Whitney is doing great at BYU. She's always happy and always busy having fun! We're so thankful she likes to come home each Sunday for dinner. She tells us every detail of her life and we eat it up! She and her friends are planning a trip to New York in April. She injured her knee playing volleyball last September and it put her out of participating in any sports until just now. That put a big damper on things for awhile. She loves her intramurals! Elder Metcalf is having a great mission. His letters are very positive. I'll include a couple of paragraphs from him. Joel and I are great. We have great children who are doing good things and they make life fun and interesting. I'm no longer teaching seminary. In the middle of the school year, our Bishop called me to be R.S. president. That totally shocked me - - - to leave in the middle of the year! I must admit that not having that stress has been wonderful even though I truly miss my students! So much! But it was the hardest thing I've ever done...but so rewarding. Any-who...
May the Lord bless each one of you with your righteous desires. We love you!
Laurie, Joel, Jake, Whitney, Cory and Austin
Greetings to you all. We hope everyone is propsering and living the good life. Our family is doing just fine. Our nest seems to get emptier and emptier. Jake headed back to Logan and school at USU after living at home for 8 months. It was fun having him here and we miss him! Austin especially misses the "dead arms!" Not! They got into going to the gym together and we got use to having impromptu wrestling matches whenever they passed in the hallway. All in good brotherly fun! Jake has declared English as his major with an eye on law school following graduation. I don't envy him all that writing....and I even enjoy writing! Austin is having a wonderful junior year of high school. He has a slew of friends to hang out with. He's playing basketball on a city team and is looking forward to playing volleyball on the school mens' club team. When the snow melts, he'll return to work at the golf course and get to use the new irons he just got for his birthday! He purchased a pair of those shoes (think of the "don't touch Jimmy" Seinfeld episode) that are suppose to build your calf muscles and increase your vertical leap. Except they look ridiculous! He likes to wear them when he goes places with ME! We get some looks! Whitney is doing great at BYU. She's always happy and always busy having fun! We're so thankful she likes to come home each Sunday for dinner. She tells us every detail of her life and we eat it up! She and her friends are planning a trip to New York in April. She injured her knee playing volleyball last September and it put her out of participating in any sports until just now. That put a big damper on things for awhile. She loves her intramurals! Elder Metcalf is having a great mission. His letters are very positive. I'll include a couple of paragraphs from him. Joel and I are great. We have great children who are doing good things and they make life fun and interesting. I'm no longer teaching seminary. In the middle of the school year, our Bishop called me to be R.S. president. That totally shocked me - - - to leave in the middle of the year! I must admit that not having that stress has been wonderful even though I truly miss my students! So much! But it was the hardest thing I've ever done...but so rewarding. Any-who...
May the Lord bless each one of you with your righteous desires. We love you!
Laurie, Joel, Jake, Whitney, Cory and Austin
P.S. In case mom doesn't get to write: I got to drive her to her mission in Iowa last November. It was a quick, two day trip across the plains of Wyoming and Nebraska...ON TWO WHEELS! That's because the wind blows hard and continually! It actually felt like the car drove in a perfect line, eastward, balanced on the left front and rear tires! Wind coming from the right side. My hair is still standing on end in a northeasterly direction. Mom should have gotten her companion, finally, just this week. Her original companion got engaged (yes, it's a senior sister) just prior to reporting to the MTC. It happened to be N. Eldon Tanner's daughter! When people heard that in the mission field, they would say to mom, "So! What do you think about N. Eldon Tanner's daughter as your companion!?...are you nervous?" So mom began to reply, "No. I am Merlin Orme's daughter." I love that!!!
Our family on Christmas Eve, 2008 (minus Elder Metcalf)
and Austin with the motorcylce he purchased.
***********************************
January 28, 2009
Hi Orme Family!
This family has been pretty busy traveling. We went to Utah for Christmas and had so much fun! We stayed at my Mom and Dad's house but did lots of visiting with David's family too. On Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed, David and I drove up to Orem in a total blizzard by the way, and picked up our puppy! He is such an adorable pup! He is a golden retriever and his Dad was more of an English Cream golden so he's really light colored. We named him Sundance to remind us of how much we love Utah and the skiing. I think it was an appropriate name because he just LOVES the snow. The kids were so excited when they awoke to a yipping noise on Christmas morning! It was so much fun. Mom and Dad were super nice to allow him to stay in their basement kitchen area. 
After christmas break we drove home in one day! We got up at 3am and drove all day, arriving home around 11:00pm. It was a long day, but everyone did so well. We passed the puppy around and stopped every 2 hours for him to do his business. At home he loves his acre of grass to run around on and is doing really well with the house training. We are just so excited to have a dog! This one is a keeper!
David is having a really great semester at school. He has moved on from gross human anatomy to a brain anatomy class. Each group has the brain from their cadaver in a little container and it takes a whole semester to learn it. David says that Neurology is almost impossible to learn. “Everything just looks like gray matter!” he says. Kirby...any words of advice? Ha ha But the best part about this semester is that David is on rotation with an orthopedic surgeon. This Doctor has been so nice to David and lets him come to hand and spine surgeries and on rounds. He gets to go in 2-3 days a week with him. Last week he let David scrub in on a surgery, stand on one of those special stools and hand him instruments. David is in heaven!
This week we've experienced what it's like when the cold really hits Oklahoma. We have had a sheet of ice over everything, ice raining down (that sounds really loud on the windows at night) and finally a couple inches of snow on top of that. School has been closed for a few days and the kids are enjoying playing in the cold. Today David and the kids put on their skis and skiied around the neighborhood with Sundance in tow. I wonder what the neighbors thought? The first day the ice hit I was told I could come pick up my kids at school. I got in the van backed up and promptly flew across the driveway and slammed into the basketball pole! I had to leave the van on the grass till David got home. So I was really grateful that I had just bought a weeks worth of groceries and milk and that we haven't lost power.
Sterling started basketball when we got back from Christmas and is really loving it! His rag-tag team hasn't won any games, but they are totally having fun! 
Alexis is getting ready to turn 8 on February 12 and is really excited for her baptism. She is so thrilled to start Activity Days. She won the reflections contest overall in her school for a drawing.
Rylie has been using her Karaoke every day that she got for Christmas, and is still working on learning to read.
Weston hasn't had any more trips to the ER, thank goodness. His latest obsessions is getting Sterling's gerbils out of their cage without being found out. Oh boy!
Love to you all!
Sarah and Family
*****************************
Dear United Family,
From the Irvine Ormes: Greetings! Miss Lana and I hope you are all doing well and growing...taller, smarter, older, wiser and better looking every day. We are enjoying being together here in Irvine and enjoying the closeness of Heather and Haley and their lovely families. Lana is still at Child's World, but has cut back to only teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays. That way she doesn't have the shock of a sudden withdrawl from the company of such wonderful people as 4 and 5 year-olds. She was also teaching the Book of Mormon in Primary to 9 year-olds (and boy did she ever get well-versed in the Book of Mormon), but now she has been given the 4 and 5 year-olds at Primary, too, so it is that age group at work and the same at church, except you can't smack 'em around when they get out of hand at church. Just kidding! Miss Lana would never smack anyone around that she wasn't married to.
We have a new chapel this year and I really like it. We were in a huge back-to-back chapels type of Stake Center (in fact, I think we invented the huge back-to-back buildings right here in the Irvine Stake), and that was nice, but now we have a small, new, cozy building that fits just right and in which the choir sounds really good. There is plenty of parking, too. Oh, yes, the best part--It is a 5 minute drive from our house.
I wish they had a calling for Relief Society Compassionate Listener. Lana would be great in that calling. In fact, that's what she does. Today we were spending a quiet day off together when the young woman came over to tell Lana all about her court date and result. Apparently she assaulted a postal worker and was sentenced to anger management. In the middle of hearing all this (hours of it), the lady called who retired this year and now has all the time in the world to visit her children and grandchildren except they don't really like to have her visit that often, which is sad, but she needs someone to check in with when she gets back, someone who cares that she got back to town safely. But the postal assaulter scarcely took a breath while the other woman was on the phone and then the woman with the 35 year old child called. Her little girl is middle-aged, but still home and now that she has finally gotten the masters degree, is having trouble finding a good reason to keep on being their little girl. All this before noon. And now it seems the schizophrenic woman who relied on Lana has moved back to our ward. Even if it's not a calling, Lana does it well.
As for me, I am still flying the world's neatest little jet even though I am really getting old. I'm getting so old that I don't ever see another pilot this old. I rather enjoy it in good weather, but there hasn't been much of that this winter. I was, for example, in Cleveland at the little airport right on Lake Erie (Burke Lakefront) trying to get the little jet out of there before it got stuck there until spring, but the snow was falling at the rate of an inch per hour and the guys who drive the snowplows couldn't get to work because of the snow on the streets. I got the airplane de-iced twice and once I took a big slippery skid on the taxiway while I was trying to get to the runway, turned 90 degrees and had no control whatever, but missed the parked airplanes and managed to stay on the taxiway. I finally parked it, put the engine covers on it and went home. I was trying to get that airplane out of there for 2 days and when I finally gave up, I was exhausted. Old age has set in. Usually in the winter I get to go down to the Carribean, but not this year for some reason. I did get down to San Jose del Cabo at the tip of Baja and that was warm, but the real bananna belt has been here at home. After I left Cleveland I came home and played golf at 80 degrees. Almost too warm. Cold isn't always bad. It was zero degrees and blue skies forever when I brought the folks out of Sun Valley Idaho the other day. Of course I had to get the little jet (Little. Only 62 feet long.) up and above other traffic as quickly as possible so I climbed initially at 6000 feet per minute. I love it when I can come up with an excuse to do that. The best part was when I flew into Spirit of St. Louis airport and layed over. I got to visit with Stan and Rauna and Aimee and Seth. That was fun.
I could bore you with every out of the way airfield, every crosswind and every flock of birds, but that's not news so I'll end this and look forward to hearing from all of you.
Love from,
Lana and Doug
***************************
Jan., 2009
Dear Orme Family:
I think we have all heard from each other due to Christmas Cards. We had a wonderful Christmas, in fact, this was the first Christmas in my life that I haven’t wanted to take everything down quickly, instead, some of it is actually still up. I’m thinking of putting hearts up on my greenery boughs, then I’ll finally take the remaining Christmas décor down. Outside we have lights on our evergreens, and they will stay on til the snow melts, which will be about April.
Christmas tapping
Adoring Rowan as the Baby Jesus
We have gobs and gobs of snow. Big snowdrifts on each side of the road so you take your life into your hands pulling out onto the street – well not really since there aren’t that many cars driving around our roads. But nevertheless, we have soooo much snow. At Christmas time everyone was outside sledding, JC and Don did a good job of stomping down paths from the bottom to the top of the ski run. Don blew a path entirely around the house which helps too. Sarah got a pup for Christmas, and that path really was nice for the potty training. The sledding was great fun to watch, and it was so sunny up here, we felt we were at a ski resort, as we pulled out the wicker furniture and sat on the cleared path watching all the fun. Don and I always take a few sled runs ourselves.
What dinner time looked like during Christmas Break.
Sarah on Christmas Morning
Sarah on Christmas Morning
Little Carter, 2 yrs young, would get on the back of any sled going down. He loved it. Don had to adjust the jump as the children were sailing 6 feet in the air and coming down rather hard – tears and crying but it didn’t keep them from trudging back up to the top for another run. He got it adjusted perfectly so no one took air. Later after our Christmas people went home, we got tons more snow so that Jed and Will could jump off the deck and softly land in the snow below. Really quite dramatic to watch!Sarah came for Christmas, Lizzy lives here, and Jessica came 2 days after Christmas, so we had half the family here. We all worked and worked cleaning and helping to pack up Lizzy and jed so they could move in with us. Jed will be gone for 4 mos. training in N. Mex for his border patrol job. And then Lizzy and kids will move to their new place wherever he is assigned. But in the meantime, it’s been a very nice time for all of us, the little kids are so cute and nice and Lizzy and Jed are very helpful house-guests. So this Christmas time for us was really a blast. Puppy and all.
What a 3-year old looks like at Dinner.
Don and I are kept busy shopping all the sales, we always have tons of birthdays to give presents for. Tapping has started back up for me, Don is busy as always with his computer projects. My quilting, Camerata Musica, and our empty nester’s activities keep us busy. We go to basketball games tons and volleyball games are a real blast. Don is dieting, he’s losing lots of weight! He’s doing soooo good. We talk to Marilyn quite regularly, but now that she has her new comp, that may come to an end. Congrats to Rachel and Dustin – cool, so happy for you guys!
The biggest news of all tho is that Tricia got contacts. In all my years, the Ophthalmologist's have said i could not have contacts. But with new advancements, this year the Dr. said I could try them. So I went to the optometrist and he said it probably wouldn’t work, but we could try. So this is my third day wearing multi focal contacts. He said it would be hard for me cuz I only see with one eye, but alas, they are working. It’s hard to read with them, which made my shopping a strain, but I persevered. I can read, play piano and shop with them, but when I go back in 2 weeks, he may be able to tweak them for better reading. I can drive with them, just fine, quilt and tap. This is so exciting for me as I never was made for glasses! They are like a little piece of saran wrap and I can’t see them on my finger or in their case without my glasses, so it’s quite an operation getting them in and out as I’m deathly afraid I’m going to lose them. I mean you can wad the flimsy things up and they’re fine! Have mercy.
Snow-blowing has taken the place of mowing for Don. Jed helps out too. Because of his diet I have to sneak all treats. “what is that I smell Tricia?” asks Don. “Oh, nothing, I don’t smell anything.” Responds Tricia. “What is that crunching sound Tricia?” Inquires Don. “The TV.” Answers Tricia. And so it goes.
Our friends in the Nigerian Temple Pres. Reported that the Mission pres. And the two AP’s, were kidnapped at Christmastime, but after 3 days of negotiations they were returned. I’m sure this happens a lot. Don is still the best clerk in the church, and I’m loving playing organ. I guess that’s all our news. We pray morning and night for Stan and Rauna and family and Aimee and kids. Tough times. We are taking an institute class on the D & C and also read a book on Emma Smith – I tell you, those pioneers, what they endured. And the Mo. Orme’s are enduring and we Pray and ask the Lord that He will comfort and provide opportunities and miracles for you. We love you!
I hope everyone writes, I can’t wait to see as many as possible at Rachel’s wedding, any chance to get together as a family is so important and enjoyed so much by us. Love you all. Don and Tricia
**************************
Hey family!
Dont Have much time but some cool things happened.
We had our first experience with witchcraft, Im not supposed to talk about
that stuff alot, but it was weird, I guess its just another thing for you all to
read in my journal when I get back haha
Scary story of the week, we were eating at a members house and it was fish.
It was good, I leaned back in my chair, (Like you do after eating a huge meal)
And I asked her what kind of fish it was. She said She didnt know... Either did
the vendor. I sat forward very quickly, I reallyu thought I was going to be
sick.
I have a scripture for Aunt Haley 1 Tim 4:3
We were trying to get a hitchhike to church, With my smiles and looks we got
a ride... With a big rig! It was sweet pulling up to church in a big rig. Also
with those same smiles and looks we got a ride home. With a gay mexican guy..
After 30 sec in the car, I looked at my comp, we said thanks for the ride, but
we were going to walk the rst of the way.
An investigator called and said she couldnt come to church. The drug guys
had killed her boss, IN the store. Then cut is fingers off and put them on the
counter. Hmmm, Ive heard excuses for not coming to church, but this was by far
the biggest.
During lunch, my comp had his taco open and was talking to the member and
turned around. I took advantage of this opportunity and put habenero salsa in
it. He started tearing up immediately, He had no idea I had but it on. Me and
the member lady were laughing so hard.
During a lesson on the savior we watched a mother beat her kid, like
actually beat him, not just spanking, this was hard core beat down. Definatly
couldnt fel the spirit after that, no matter how hard we tried.
Church is true everywhere right? IN our branch th bishop gave 4 baby
blessings to kids that were aged 3-11. Like full on baby blessings. I looked at
my comp and he had no idea what was going on. He was like, are you allowed to do
that?
I have seen some weird things here in the church haha, like really weird.
Last story. We were at a store at night right before we went home and my comp
was looking at drinks and i wanted some coconut candy. He wasnt paying attention
and I asked him what the word for coconut. Can you already see where this is
going? Well i went to the front and asked the guy. He said how much and I said
not alot. Then he brought out a small bag of sugar, or maybe it was flour...... I
dont know.... I looked down at it, then back at him, and was like hmmmm.... no
thanks actually. It was crazy, What do you say after that to him? Like ¨No, no
the chocolate covered kind¨ So another first, I saw cocaine and yeh
Love you all!
Elder Wertner
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 12:26 PM
Hey Family!
Elder Wertner Here in Mexico Just thought I would write the family an email or
something, Haha.
Well We had transfers this week, Guess where I am? Caborca still. All Is
well, but my companion got transfered to Obregon. They gave me a new companion,
Elder Celis. I have 1 more day than him in the mission. Really crazy that the
put us together. He LOVES FOOD!! When we are having lunch at members or talking
to investgators, heloves to talk food after the lessons. Like Loves Loves Loves
talking food. We have a little bit different personalities with some things, but
what matters is the gospel is being taught to others and that we ae bringing
others unto Christ.
I love being a missionary, Like really really love it. I had a dream the
other night that I was asleep, and dreaming that i was on the mission. And then
I woke up from the fake dream and I was in my Apartment takin a nap, I looked
over and there were pictures of my mission on the table, and I looked at them
and then was really sad that my mission was over. What a strange dream!
Needlessto say I am happy here.
I got my package from Aunt Haley, Oh my goodness, made my day. Like hands
down made my day. Its weird getting american candy, im used to all these chili
suckers and fun candies that the american licorice was like super super rich.
AHH I love It. Oh and the didnt open it!
I call the house for like 2 min or 1 min on chrstmas eve, just to say this
is number. I cant remember if I call you or you call me on christmas day. I keep
forgetting. Im so excited! What to talk about? Maybe how he NBA basketball
league is, or gas prices, maybe what boy Alyssa is talking to this week! Just so
much to talk about.
This week was a cool week. I want to share this experience I had with the
baptism of Jesus. I realize I havent been sharing even 1% of the spirtual
experiences I have here in Mexico. I figure maybe people wouldnt write me if I
didnt put all the cool stories in there, Haha. Just kidding. Well Jesus is 8 yrs
old. Nicest kid ever. Any american candy I brought with me to mexico, went to
him, haha. I just love this kid to death. Reminds me of Lauren, Always sharing
and caring about other people. Whenever I would bring something, He would share
it with everybody until there was only a little piece left for himself. Every
visit to his house was a spiritual experience. You all know what happened with
his family and stuff, but hes a stud! He chose me to baptize him!! How
awesome!!!! Remember the thumbs up that the wertner boys always do. Well No one
here does it, I taught it to him and Now he always has the thumbs up, I think
one of the pictures is of him with the thumbs up. Well I baptized him, and what
a great missionary, he brought 3 of his friends. Words cannot describe the
feeling that I had when I baptized him. Hands down the greatest feeling of my
life. I really felt like a accomplished something when I baptized him. It went
perfect and afterwards he was just happy and went outside and wrestled with his
friends, I kind of joined for a second. Haha.
Family and friends, I got to be honest. This was the coolest thing ever. I
know I will remember that baptism for like the rest of my life. For those that
are in the outside world, if your a priest, its like finding out she likes you,
and shes a member, her family loves you, dad doesnt on any guns, and hes letting
you use the mustang to take her out, TIMES 10. Maybe I will remember it because
of the 20 cockroaches that i had to get out with papertowels, or maybe that
there was about 8 inches of dirty water that we had to get out with a mop, and
then drain the mop and then do it again. Maybe it took us 2 hours to make sure
we wouldnt get sick from the water, But we DID IT!
I really don´t remember that much else from the week. We have so mny
invitations for xmas eve and xmas day. Everyone wants the gringo. Mission
president told us we can go to 2 food appointments on each day for those 2 days,
sweet!
I love being a missionary. Before the mission I had so many Rms tell me to
have fun, the biggest regret theyhad was no having fun until about a year in.
When that many people say the same thing, i took the advice. Every bad thing
that happens, is an opportunity to learn, to grow, and to convert someone else.
My other companion, the last thing he said to me was , ¨Elder Wertner. I love
you man! You taught me to have fun on the mission but to work hard while doing
it, You only have 1 transfer in mexico, your not supposed to figure it out until
later on in the mission¨ I really love being out here. Last week In my broken
spanish I was able to explain about resurection during a sunday school class,
because the teacher didnt know one part of it.
Spanish.... Hmmm what to say about it. I understand literally almost
everything, except specific words. talking is a different story. I imagine I
sound like a 5 yr old, but thats ok. I can be very direct with my sentances
about the gospel, and people pay special attention. Maybe I will just do it the
entire mission so people listen.
We have a problem getting people to church. Investigators that is. Any
Advice from B. Clyde, Kirby or anyone else? We have it at 9 Am, not in our area,
and people are usually partying all night. Weve tried teaching special lessons
on sabbath day and its importance. Invest. need to go to church twice to be
baptised. We have people that are ready for baptism but cant because of church.
We lost 2 baptism the day of, what a bummer. One dropped the bomb on us and
told us they werent married legally. Well time for a wedding this week. We lost
one more Bdate because of smoking, but we are trying to help him with that. Zone
Leaders arent liking the whole not many investigators at church thing. We don´t
either. We have a lesson with them the night before, and then say we will pick
them up in the morning. They wont answer the door, or be there. Looks like we
need some prayers from the good people of San Diego.
I Love the dusk and dawns here. Downright beautiful. Its been very very cold
here in the morning. I miss being warm in bed, Haha. Just kidding mom, My bed is
warm!!!
Last thing is please to all that is reading this article. Do me one favor por
favor. I am in mexico serving a mission and trying to help the good people of
mexico to become closer to their savior. This Christmas Please Please Focus on
one person or family that needs help, not with money or worldly things, but with
spiritual help. Pray to know who arounds you needs that boost of faith in the
savior, and do all that you can to help them feel the saviors love. Our Heavenly
Father and Savior Love every single person, they love the poor boys here that
call me bad words in english, or the old lady that makes perfect warm tortillas,
or even the companion that pees all over the toilet seat, and the ground, or
eats your special candy from your aunt Haley. So show faith in Jesus Christ and
Help Someone feel his love.
I have a testimony of this work. I know the work of a missionary is of God.
I know that The spirit can touch even the hardest of hearts, that miracles can
happen, and that Everyone is a child of God. I know that my savior lives, he is
everywhere, I see his hand in all things that are good. If you dont have a
testimony of the Savior right now its ok, Because I know he lives, and I have
that testimony and you can lean on my testimony, because he lives.
Love Always, Elder Wertner
P.S. I teach those boys new words, and say they are cool or slang words in
english. But the words are, Gospel, Faith, church. Oh I love hearing them yell
with those words at eachother.
Also, What did I do when my comp ate my special candy, you might ask?
You see I have been taught and love by 2 great parents. Yet each has a
different approach. I had 2 ways I could have gone. The mom way, ¨Not say
anything, and maybe offer him more¨ or the dad way ¨Take his candy walk into
the room eating it and just sit down, then later offer some of my candy that I
have, and then say, oops theres no more! Someone ate it!!¨ I took the Mom
route this time, maybe I will try the Dad route next time!!!
Church is True!!!!
From: Brian Wertner [mailto:BrianJWertner@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 12:22 PM
Hey Family!!!
Ok, I know You are all looking forward to my pictures. But they take sooo
Long, and its either A- I dont have cool ones this week or B- I have cool ones
but I cant show them because Nana and Mom would Kill me, and then Dad would
think they were cool, but then send them to someone else, who would think I was
very stupid. Well I will describe 2 of the pictures I have. 1 is of about 30
vultures eating a dog. Its gross, But its really cool. Man when the Vultures
screech and flap their wings, its songs like some animals straight from like the
firery pits of you know where. They do not sound like something from this world.
It gave me the chills the other day. They are about the size of My upper half,
with wings the length of my arms, THEY are HUGE!!
The other picture is of me, getting into the house, when we locked the keys
in the house. We live on the 2nd story, I climbed up the ladder, made of half
inch re-bar, sauddered together. Very Very dangerous, when I got to the roof, I
lowered myself down, and was standing on the window ledge, because the window
was open. I was able to wedge my knee in the upper half of the window, and let
go of the roof, only held by me knee wedged in the the top of the window. I got
in and opened the door, Quite a heroic act. I kept trying to feel if the spirit
was prompting me not to do it, but I didnt get any bad feelings about it. Thank
goodness Im living my life in standards with the missionary standards, or who
knows what would have happened.
Therefore I cannot show those pictures. Hahaha, I LOVE the mission.
Tuseday we were walking trying to get a hitchhike to an appt. We saw a dog on
the side of the road and it had been hit by a car, a little chiahua. Then we saw
Sister Samano Walking out to the dog. She reminds me of Nana, Exactly like Nana,
and is one of the ladies that tells me to put my sweater on. ANyways, I realized
it was her dog. The same dog that last sunday for dinner fell asleep on my lap.
Sister Samano, was like , ¨Get out of here you crazy dogs, or i will beat
you!¨ (Nana Right?) Well I said, ¨Hermana Samano, I will hold it on my lap,
its just a little baby.¨ Haha. It was really funny, But then it fell asleep on
me. Anyways, enough of memory lane. We saw it laying there, and I was like,
Please no, Not That dog. And it was still breathing a little, and Hermana Samano
was just balling, so I was like, Hna get the car and we can take it to the vet.
Just I picked up the dog, and it was bleeding, and I got blood all over my
shirt, and on my Name tag, My name tag,the white part, is stained with blood.
And we said a prayer in the car for the dog. And then we got to the vet and Hna
Samano couldnt watch them work on the dog, so I had to keep it calm. And then,
we had to go, but we told her everything was going to be alright, that we were
praying for her and her dog. And 3 days ago, we went and checked on it, and it
was doing awesome!!! Prayers can help everyone, even dogs that are almost dead.
We came home the other night and to our suprise were 2 homemade blankets, and
cake, From Hna Samano, and Hna Amezquitoa. She is this old lady in our branch,
We had lunch at her house, and she brought out 100´s of pictures of her kids,
grand kids, and even great grand kids. She was so happy to talk about them, and
to have someone to look at the pictures with her. We arent supposed to spend too
much time at members, but I figured that this time was ok. So the 2 sisters got
together and made us blankets, and Cake. Man, Just makes you so happy after a
long day to get something like that.
Quick thought. Alyssa and Brook Need to Get the Valor Award Next year, Im
thinking maybe snowboarding trip with me if they get it. They can come up in 2
christmases, Haha.
Yesterday, that boy Jesus That we baptized, brought a stray dog into the
church. His poor mom was just dying, she felt so bad. You didnt see it in the
picture, because he took the one of me on the roof when we were building his
house, but he climbed up there with me and helped me put their roof on. I think
He is the one teaching me all these bad habits..... Haha
Friday we were walking to an appt. We took the train tracks, a car goes
speeding by us under the tracks, then a cop car comes speeding by also. (This
all happened in like 30 sec) Then 2 cops get out, rush to the car, yank the 2
passengers out, point their guns at them, a pull a huge bag of marijuana out of
one the guys pants. I wish I had my camera ready. It was very random, just
walking to an appt, thinking, and out of no where this happens.
We had a lunch appt wednesday and the lady gave us like this fruit juice. I
drank some of it, and it didnt settle right. And then I had another glass, and
it just tasted weird. Well I got done and the bottom of glass had stuff in it.
Turns out it was home made iced Tea. I was like, ¨oh man, mom is going to kill
me, oh man, Heavenly Father is not going to be happy either.¨ I felt really
bad, and quickly asked for water. We told her we can´t have this, its against
the word of wisdom.
Do you guys know that I can remember how many actual showers I have had here.
like actual, water coming from a faucet and showering you. Its been 2. The rest,
every 3 or 4 days, we heat up half a gallon of water, pour it into a 5 gallon
bucket, and fill it up with water from the sink. Then we use a cup, its reminds
me of when i was like 4 and mom used to use a cup of water and bathe me. The 2
times Ive taken actually showers have been in other missionaries house during,
exchanges. When they tell us we are doing splits the next day, and im going to a
house with a shower, I get every excited. Pack up my towel, and my bar of soap,
and just am so stoked to take a shower. Woo Hoo, if there is one day that I look
foward to in the month. Its Showering Day.
The family that we baptized last week, and 2 weeks before that. There were 2
baptism for their family. Well we went to check on them and gave them a lesson
on the temple. The little boy, that I am holding in the baptism picture. He was
trained by the devil himself. Man that kid thinks like a demon. Hes 4. Well that
day we were over, he went into the room and lit the vase full of fake flowers on
fire. The small house got smoke all inside and i threw the flowers out the
window. And that boy was laughing and laughing, until is mom took him to the
back room. Then he stopped laughing very quickly.
We are teaching this woman named Ramona. Shes like 45 and was this beauty
queen when she was younger. I thought to myself, This house reminds me alot of
the lady I used to take care of her animals, in San Francisco. She was this
beauty queen, and then went crazy and kept dead animals in her freezer. I kid
you not, exact same feeling when I walked into Ramonas house. I did not like it
at all. She came with us to church. Shes slightly crazy now. Apparently, her
husband shot himself in the head, right in front of here, like 15 years ago, in
the exact same house that we were in. I was like , ¨What the freak! We are out
of here¨ And she didnt want us to leave, Im telling you it was really weird
there. The rest of the day, I had a very bad feeling about her. We talked to our
branch president, cause we had lunch at his house, he said shes a witch, and
that the other missionaries like 3 years ago had problems with her also. My
companion got excited, hes into all those goblins and creature, dark stuff. I
was like, ¨Not a chance, not a chance I am going back there!!¨
This american was in our branch yesterday, he was visting a companion from
his mission who lived by us. He got my number, and said he wanted to call you
guys. Ive given my number to like 5 american members that say they want to call
you guys and tell you how im doing. I don´t think anyone has called, but if he
does, that is kind of neat.
I know this is a long letter, but please rmember this. I have aksed like 100
people for Jordan Hepworths adress. Please can someone get it for me? Its been
since like the 2nd week in the MTC. And im like 4 and a half months out. PLease
PLease PLease, Jordan Hepworths Adress. Thanks! You guys are the best.
Oh cool quote of the week, its from Grandpa Orme in one of his letters he
wrote me in 2006, I thought its a neat quote for the upcoming year, ¨Young Men
must be willing to Attempt the impossible¨ I think Im going to keep that quote
in my mind when it comes to people that are not as open to the missionaries. By
the Way, if you get a chance, can you ask Gpa Orme, to write me another book, i
think its about time. Dont worry. He will know what it means.
Sounds like all is well in Wertner Household, as well as here, IM holding
down the fort. Oh yeh, We had Sushi this week, a member took us out. I didnt
sick. But then Again, I have years of experience of eating sushi with Old man
Wertner.
If I had to say there was one thing I miss, It would be all-you-can-eat sushi
outings with Papa Wertner. Cough cough, I mean the family, It would be the
family. Hahaha
Love you all!!! And miss You (Sushi outings)!!!
Elder Wertner
P.S. We gave a blessing to a man that had a heart attack. We tried to baptize
his wife, and 2 kids. He threw a fit and said not a chance in the world. I
thought to myself. He needs something in his life to happen to bring him closer
to god. Then they can be baptized as a family. Its so horrible, but he had the
heart attack 2 days later!! He is doing great, getting back to normal, the day
after, he asked his wife for us to bring him the pamphlets on the restoration and
the plan of salvation. It made me reflect on the ways that our Heavenly Father
works. When something gets in the way of his plan, he fixes that something.
Never Ever think that just because we want something, it will be that way. God
has a plan, his plan is like the big steam roller, that just keeps on going. You
better get with the plan, or your in trouble, no matter what, his plan goes
forward.
***************************
Dear Orme Family,
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our family enjoyed looking at everyone's pictures and reading the newsletters. I was trying to think of what to write, our kids are all so busy but when I think of what you would be interested in hearing I second guess myself. So I will just tell you what we are doing. Tim and I spend our time raising 6 kids, serving The Lord in our family and Church callings and driving our kids all over town to all of their activities. It is a great life. Tim and I are both serving in the youth programs at Church. We both love it. I am busy working on New Beginnings right now, I am very excited and hope it will be as much fun as I think it will be. We look forward to Mondays in our house, that is when we get our email from our oldest son,"Elder Wertner" Jacob. He is serving a Mission in Hermisillo, Mexico. He is doing well. I did forward a letter he wrote in January. We have watched his testimony grow and have seen our family blessed by the Lord as he serves. I have felt a great sense of peace, and havn't worried very much about his safety. Jessica is having fun at college. She just turned 18 is legal now. It was kind of scary sending your 17 year old off to college, be she has done a great job. I think it was hard for her to go back after Christmas break, but she quickly got back into the routine and is having so much fun. Alyssa is a sophmore in high school, she is so busy and there are many days where she leaves the house for seminary at 5:45 am and doesn't get home from cross country/track practice until after 4. She is in pre-season track workouts now and is very excited to run the 800 like her brother did. Brooke is in 8th grade and is busy with basketball. She plays on 2 club teams which involves alot of practices and games. She turned 14 and has gone to a few church dances and had so much fun. Justin is in 6th grade and is also just as busy as his sister Brooke with basketball. He is a Deacon now and is passing the Sacrament, and enjoying all the fun scout adventures. I just try and not think about what they are doing on those campouts. I learned from my older son, it is just better that I don't even think about it. Then when they are out of scouts they can tell me all the scary stories they want. ha ha. Lauren is in 2nd grade, she is seven and can't wait until this summer when she will her Baptism. She is excited because she just moved from addition to times in math. She likes to play soccer and takes art lessons. We are very excited to read all of your newsletters.
Love, Heather, Tim and family
****************
I’ve decided this year is going to be the best year ever! My kids are growing up and giving me some time to get things done, and I am loving it! All those years of a baby on my hip, and now it’s over. Carter, my baby will be turning 3 the end of March, wow! Lizzy is 5, Calvin 7 and Mikaala is 9.
I’ve started a program from the R.S. (even though I’m not in there), called the University of Excellence. You chose a major and accomplish all the requirements. It’s an amazing program, you all should look into it for your ward. It was written by a lady Riley Walker, and has made it to our ward. My goal is to get a PhD in Theology, so it’s a lot of reading of the scriptures, and the lessons each week for R.S. and Sunday school, saying your personal, family and couple prayers daily, reading scripture as a family daily, missionary related activities, take an institute class and many more. I decided on this major because I thought it would help me spiritually to grow and in turn help my family grow stronger. JC is amazed at my dedication.
I’m still playing volleyball 4 days a week for 2 hours. The last couple weeks I’ve been running a mile before practice, that’s 24 times around the gym, if anyone wants to know. I bring my iPod and hook it up so we can play to my music. I’m sure everyone loves listening to it, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Jesse McCartney….. I’m young at heart! HSM3 comes out Feb 17th, I’m so excited! I told my friends I’m going to have a HSM3 party and watch the DVD. They all just rolled their eye at me. You have to love me right?
Mikaala and Lizzy are going to start taking Polynesian dance lessons once a week from a lady at church. It only costs $5/ hour! I am so excited to see how they like it. The teacher is Lizzy’s primary teacher, so she will already be comfortable with her. Calvin has been asking to play soccer, but that costs so much! I need to find someone in the ward who wants to teach that too!
JC is going to a conference in March to SLC. I’m excited to see if he meets someone who could give him a job. He could work at a company doing research or at a university. He doesn’t care as long as he has a job. I always thought he’d be a professor, but…..at this point! Who cares! I’m sure we’ll finish the year out here, or longer.
So that’s it from Hayward. Love you all!
Jessica
Calving with his new baby cousin.
Lizzy's first happy meal. 
Mikaala and the snowman we made in Idaho. 
Carter loved holding his new baby cousin.
************
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November 2008
Please support our Family Missionaries:
Elder Cory Metcalf
(info coming)
Sister Marilyn Orme
3738 Glen Oak Boulevard #14
Sioux City, Iowa 51104
Landline: 712-239-1651
Missionary cell: 412-204-3055
Elder Jake Wertner
BrianJWertner@myldsmail.net
Our other children, Alyssa 15/Brooke 14/Justin 11/ and Lauren 7, still keep us very busy. A friend of mine asked me the other day, does it seem alot easier with 4 at home versus 6. I said no! The ones who left were my drivers and helpers. We are now finding ourselves driving for early morning seminary and to from every activity. We were spoiled while Jake and Jessica were at that perfect driving age, and I didn't realize how much help they were. We actually do love going to all the activities. Alyssa is running cross country and doing realy well this season. Brooke and Justin are both on club basketball teams and it is so much fun to watch. Tim coaches both of them so it is a family activity. Lauren is playing soccer and we were so happy on Sat. she got her first goal of the season.
It’s been such a long time since we had the family newsletter going. I’m so glad we’re getting one going this month. Thanks Sarah. I have been looking at some pictures taken 4 years ago. Marilyn, stan, me and steve with donna and don going to Spokane, breakfast at the Felts Field airport, going through the Davenport, then going to Bainbridge island, wa. those pictures brought back such great memories. Then I looked at some pictures taken years and years ago with grandma bagley, doug and lana and heather and haley, Stephanie and laurie, Steve and donna, mom and dad. Can you even imagine those days? Big roast beef dinners in the back yard in the Spokane summer time, or dad barbequeing in the backyard, using apple wood for the best taste. Pictures of assorted folks on dad’s horses, or out in the boat. Wow, those were the days! And now we have all our grandkids, our kids being the mom and dad, time is really something isn’t it?
A Funeral really brings a family together, and tho that funeral was so sad, seeing those little children cry and cry, to see Jared dressed in his Temple clothes, provided some comfort. A family forever. I also looked at pictures from several years ago when sarah and elizabeth and don and I went up to the Tooele Cemetary, and saw the grave sites of our pioneer loved ones. John Kirby and Nettie orme, Sarah Cross and Samuel W. Orme, the Parks and Jean Harvey. One little lane in that cemetery is named Orme Lane. Jared was met by lots of family as lots of family said goodbye to him here.
It’s most sad that summer is over with. It’s Nov. now and summer is a thing of the past here. The tops of our mountains here got snow while we were in church today. At least we can still see our green green grass. The garden is a thing of the past, but we canned grape juice, and made jams and ate good stuff out of it. Next year it will even be better. Our fruit trees are really growing, and I’m sure we’ll get a good crop of raspberries. The grapes were really something tho, just beautiful and only 2 years old. Ok, enough of the farm report.
Oh, also last night as I was going through the house changing the hundreds of clocks we have in this house, I sat down at our old desk in the basement and found a file of old letters from Mom & Dad. Marilyn had just told me a trick or treat story about Mom and Dad yesterday, and there it was in writing, Mom was writing it to me. Some kids had to come back to see Dad with his white hair. That was fun to read those letters. Marilyn and Laurie came up straight from the MTC on fri. night and spent the night with us. We talked all the next day, then went over to see Lizzy’s new little Rowan. So now tomorrow morning they leave on their drive for Des Moine, Iowa. Good luck Marilyn!
BYU football has our nerves frayed, they were suppose to do so well, have only lost one game, but still, they hardly win, always in the last 20 seconds they pull it together. This week is our first basketball game and also our last football game. It will be a cold one! Going to be in the 40’s all this week. this year we decided to get season tickets for men’s volleyball. BYU is hosting the NCAA championships, so it should be fun. Don has been doing lots of golfing and clerking in the ward and works security for byu football practices, and I’m still tap dancing and quilting, and playing piano for our Camerata Musica and playing organ for church. We love our empty nester’s group here and have fun with them. You didn’t know what Camerata Musica is? It’s a music club a gal and I started up. You work all month to perform, and then we play piano, sing, play violin, whatever is your talent, for each other. Performing! It is so good for you. I highly recommend it, good for the brain and the heart – ha.
Speaking of golf, Stephanie, Laurie and I got to go to the State Golf Tournament and see Scott play. It was so much fun. It was up by Park City so it was very very scenic, just a beautiful day, and scott is such a GREAT golfer. We also went to Las Vegas, via Stephanie’s house and went to Phantom of the opera. I could hardly stand it, it was soooooo good! I didn’t want to leave, I was spellbound every minute of it. We stayed two nights in the Bellagio, and swam in the pools, ate the famous buffet, it was great. The night before the phantom, we decided we should see if we could walk down the strip to where the Phantom was playing because we were told the street would be so busy, we wouldn’t make it. well, walking down that strip is something else, not only very very crowded, not only took forever to get there, in fact we didn’t make it, but it was like sin city. I mean, I’d n ever seen such stuff! We began our walk with the beautiful fountains outside the hotel, all set to music, and came back ready to go home and forget seeing Phantom. The next day I called up Lizzy to get directions to the Temple, we needed a little change of pace, and she said, “Mom, we told you, don’t leave the hotel!!” I didn’t remember that. A few minutes later, Jed called, “Tricia, I told you, don’t leave the hotel, there is plenty for you guys to do IN the hotel, you weren’t suppose to leave the hotel!!!” So next time, we are NOT staying in Las Vegas, we’ll stay with Stephanie and cam and scott and matt, all safe and sound, and just jet for a performance and jet right back. quite an experience, BUT Phantom was incredible! We took a little trip to Monterey and Carmel, CA. at the end of summer. What a fun trip, we saw the aquarium, the Hearst Castle and other cool places and then stayed a few days with jessica and family. In June and July we had every single member of our own posterity here at the house except JC who was at a critical point of his research. Imagine, everyone here. It was a wild ride, really something. In the evening we would all sit out in the grass and watch dozens of kids scooter or skate board down our driveway, and no one collided. We went to swimming pools, and ponds, and movies, and ate out and celebrated the 4th and celebrated birthdays. It was truly amazing!
Mon, Oct. 27th was Mom’s 95th birthday. Little Zoe turned one, and Rowan is 2 months old and all the grands in between. General Conf. was amazing! Sept. marked Mom and Dad’s 75th year anniversary. They were married in 1933. We moved into our new chapel just 2 min. from our house. I can’t believe having a church that close. And we don’t even have any kids to drive to church activities. Don and I celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary and went up to Logan and went to our Temple.
We are still having lots of fun living at our mountain home and BYU and Lizzy’s. We miss katie, jennifer, amy, sarah and jessica, but we’re doing pretty good for two old retired folks. Take care everyone, it was soooo good seeing you last week in Mo. Love you all our united family.
Love, Don and Tricia
Hello family.
Love to you all from the Guinns!!!!!!!
Hope everyone is doing great! We love any opportunity to visit with family. It was a sad day going to Jared’s funeral in Missouri, but good to be with family. Aimee’s five children are so beautiful and so sweet. I got to know a few of them when I was there. Our thoughts and prayers are with their family often and with Stan, Rauna, and all my Orme Cousins.
Love to you all!
I'm still doing my usual thing - online marketing in the evenings, photo sessions, proofing pics, and design work on weekends or whenever I get a moment! We're sad to see Fall passing as those beautiful colors and warm days turn to barren cold. Fingers crossed we don't have 5 months of snow again.
Blessings to all,
Please support our Family Missionaries:
Elder Cory Metcalf
(info coming)
Sister Marilyn Orme
3738 Glen Oak Boulevard #14
Sioux City, Iowa 51104
Landline: 712-239-1651
Missionary cell: 412-204-3055
Elder Jake Wertner
BrianJWertner@myldsmail.net
***************************************
Mesa AZ Dec. 15, 1985
Dear Tricia, Don and Girls.
It’s Sunday morning an hour before we go to church and we don’t get any mail so thought we would write some. This is our eleventh day in Mesa and so much has happened it seems like it couldn’t be longer than a full month maybe two. Anyway we are fine, the sun is shining and it is supposed to be in the high 60”s today, it has been cold for a couple of days and nights. Well 50 degrees in the day and 35 at night. Is that cold?How are you folks? We hear that all your snow is gone. You can find out about any place in the northwest at the Temple. All you have to do is say “Seattle” and somebody nearby has a child there. Hope that everybody is looking forward to Christmas and that all of you survive.We went to the Temple three days last week. Lots of people remembered us. I walked through the veil the first day and they grabbed me and put me to work. They haven’t done it since though. The temple is closed now until Jan. 2. The temple grounds are just beautiful. I heard they had put up 100,000 of the little lights and really it looks like it. They have a program every night at 7:00 p.m. We have been to two. It’s pretty cold because it is outside and we don’t have very many warm clothes, but we put on lots of layers. Mom even wore two pairs of slacks last night. It’s good entertainment and afterwards we go in the Visitors Center and get warm and watch one of their films and then walk home. We got hurrying too fast because we were cold once and Mom got a chest pain so last night “we watched it” and she was fine.We have had quite a few experiences since we left our little home in Spokane. We didn’t think they were so bad. Marilyn is really responsible for getting us the apartments although we really had to scramble for this one. We wanted to tell her how we made out and tried to call her several times, but got nothing but a busy signal on the machine. I paced up and down in front of the Dairy Queen (where the phone is) until one night the little girls in the DQ rapped on the window and beckoned me in and asked me if I needed something to eat. So I bought a pint of ice cream and came home. Anyway we wrote Marilyn a letter as we did you and told her the same things and I guess she was about to come over and get us and take us to S.B. We finally got hold of a phone and called her and she was pretty well up in the air.We do have a phone, sort of. Everybody in these six apts. Are about like us and they kind of share and share alike. Well I went down to get a phone and they wanted $69.50 to hook it up at the office, the phone jacks are already here. That sounded like a downright gauging to me, so I told them so and walked out. Sr. Gower, the lady over top of us (we are in the basement) had said we could use her phone anytime we wanted, so we used it a couple of times, one day she said she had two phone one on a long cord and if we could find a way to get it down here we could just take one of her phones. I think it took me all of three minutes to get that phone down on our kitchen table. We will pay the phone bill (not long distance). She doesn’t get many calls. So we have a phone, sort of. The number is 602-962-7780. Our time is one hour ahead of yours.We walk to the temple and the grocery store and I walk anyplace downtown but we can’t walk to church. The church sold our chapel to the Jews and it is now a synagogue. They are going to build a new one just up the street across from the temple but it isn’t even started yet. On account of the church, we bought a car but it won’t run. I hide my face and blush with shame everytime I mention that car. First time in my life I ever made a bad buy on a used car. We will let you know how it turns out.We are going to ride to church with Bro. Rodgers across the street and it is about time so will let you know how we make out when we come back.(mom finishes the letter in her handwriting)Dear Family, Now it’s my turn. We came home from church and fixed some soup and cheese sandwich and now it is starting to get dark. The sun was shining when we came home from church. We had our ward teachers tonight since our supper. They were very good. We would like to see you. Guess you are getting ready for Christmas. We have a nice program every night over at the temple gardens. All the brushes and trees are lit up with Christmas tree lights. Dad said he thought there were about 100,000 lights the size of Christmas tree lights, little ones. The palm trees up high are lit up. It is sure something to see. We are invited to Shirley and Bills for Christmas. So we will have fun. Love Mom (she wrote Erva and then crossed it out and wrote Mom)
Dear Orme Family,
Words are so inadequate to tell Stan and Rauna and family how terribly sorry we are about Jared's passing. But I want you to know how much we love your family and we have prayed for your peace and comfort at such a difficult time. I'm so glad that your siblings were able to be with you. And I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. I was able to drive mom to her mission in Iowa. It was a great road trip! We left Salt Lake City and drove eastward through Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. It was an easy flat road! We stopped and saw Fort Kearney in Nebraska and we also stopped at Winter Quarters to tour the visitors center, the pioneer cemetary and see the temple. Mom's mission president seems to be a wonderful (extremely warm and welcoming) man. I got to have breakfast with him, his wife and mom before flying home to Salt Lake. Today I was set apart as the ward relief society president. It came as a complete surprise to me...because I was in the middle of a school year, teaching early morning seminary. But wherever the Lord asks me to serve, I'm happy to do it. Joel and all our kids are doing just fine. Jake is heading back to Utah State in January. Whitney is at the Y. Cory is on his mission and doing very well and really liking it. Austin is a Junior in high school. The golf course where he works just closed because of snow, he bought himself a motorcylce (to save on gas), and he was just asked to a school dance by a cute girl. So life is good when you're 16.I hope things are going well for everyone else. All our love,The Metcalfs, Laurie, Joel, Jake, Whitney, Cory and Austin
(The pictures are of Cory in the MTC and Marilyn and Laurie outside the Florence NB temple.)
Dear Family,
We are excited about the Family newsletter and hearing how everyone is doing.
Our family is doing well, we are still in North San Diego. Tim and I are doing great and enjoying are family and the many great experiences that come from having 6 children. This summer we sent our oldest son, Jacob off to the MTC. He is now known as Elder Wertner. We are very excited for his decision to serve The Lord. He is doing great. He absolutely loved the MTC experience. He sent many letters describing how powerful the Holy Ghost is felt in the MTC. On October 26 he left the MTC for Hermisillo Mexico. He called us from the airport and he sounded so happy and strong. Everything a mother wants to hear (and a nana too!) My mom came over so she could talk to him as well. We recieved an email on the 27th from him letting us know that he made it there safe and sound. We are now just waiting for his email letting us know how his first week went. Although there is some violence in Mexico, I don't think it is in his area and I feel a great sense of peace. So I am sure all will be fine.
Our family is doing well, we are still in North San Diego. Tim and I are doing great and enjoying are family and the many great experiences that come from having 6 children. This summer we sent our oldest son, Jacob off to the MTC. He is now known as Elder Wertner. We are very excited for his decision to serve The Lord. He is doing great. He absolutely loved the MTC experience. He sent many letters describing how powerful the Holy Ghost is felt in the MTC. On October 26 he left the MTC for Hermisillo Mexico. He called us from the airport and he sounded so happy and strong. Everything a mother wants to hear (and a nana too!) My mom came over so she could talk to him as well. We recieved an email on the 27th from him letting us know that he made it there safe and sound. We are now just waiting for his email letting us know how his first week went. Although there is some violence in Mexico, I don't think it is in his area and I feel a great sense of peace. So I am sure all will be fine.
Our next oldest daughter Jessica,left for college this summer. This was kind of hard for me because she is only 17. She is attending UVU in Orem. She is living in an apartment in Branburry. She is rooming with a good friend from our ward who is going to BYU. They are having a great time. Very social girls, but we have been assured that her grades are good and she is doing all of her homework.
Our other children, Alyssa 15/Brooke 14/Justin 11/ and Lauren 7, still keep us very busy. A friend of mine asked me the other day, does it seem alot easier with 4 at home versus 6. I said no! The ones who left were my drivers and helpers. We are now finding ourselves driving for early morning seminary and to from every activity. We were spoiled while Jake and Jessica were at that perfect driving age, and I didn't realize how much help they were. We actually do love going to all the activities. Alyssa is running cross country and doing realy well this season. Brooke and Justin are both on club basketball teams and it is so much fun to watch. Tim coaches both of them so it is a family activity. Lauren is playing soccer and we were so happy on Sat. she got her first goal of the season.
Tim is still working for Federal Express, and serving in the Stake YM Presidency, I am still the ward YW President and loving it.
We enjoyed a girls trip to Utah recently and loved visiting the Arrowsmiths home. It is absolutely beautiful. I am glad Tim wasn't on that trip or he would have wanted to leave CA and move down the street from the Arrowsmiths,(Which would be great except our kids would not want to leave their school and friends.) Their house, street, trees and view are amazing. Don was a great host and we enjoyed spending time with Elizabeth and her sweet family.
In closing I want to send our love, thoughts and prayers to the MO. Orme family. We love you and are praying for you.
In closing I want to send our love, thoughts and prayers to the MO. Orme family. We love you and are praying for you.
Love, Heather, Tim and Family
Hola Familia,
I hope all is well at the Wertner farm. OK first off, im Caborca, but not in
the city, we are in the out skirts. We are allowed to go into the city on
sundays for church, and mondays for P-days. Besides that though, we stick to our
area. To find our area, google map it, caborca is on one side, in the middle is
3 small mountains, with radio towers and the other side is our area. Literally
not a single house is made of anything better then cinder blocks. I feel
horrible. When we talk to people their clothes are always dirty, like way
dirtier than justins used to be when he was younger. And that is pretty dirty. I
am sending pictures and i hope you will see the difference between the city and
our side. We have 3 paved roads, maybe 4 actually.
The food is great, its a big meal in the middle for lunch, and then smaller
meals for bfeast and dinner. Lunch is usually at a members. The food is good but
tears you up haha.
Ok a list of things that happened this week that our faith builders, not trials
or bad things, but just incidents to help build faith.
1. 2 days in a row our lunch appts fell through, which is the biggest bummer
ever, sometimes we dont eat breakfeast and so lunch is a big deal, haha
something I look forward to big time! haha
2. This woman that was going to be baptized along with her son, we found out
shes the mistress to this other man. And she has a new born, but its not from
the man shes living with, which isnt offically her husband anyways, it was a
huge bummer.
3. We came home one day after the lunch appt fell through to find that our
power was out. We went to the power meter and found the switches off. So we
thought. oh niños. (children) but we soon found out the power company turned it
off because they thought we didnt pay. So no lunch and no power. Well we went to
get it fixed and we had to go all around the city of caborca to different places
to get it fixed and turned back on but we couldnt do anything about it, so we
didnt have power for 2 days. No fans, yep no fans. haha and yes mom we threw out
the bad stuff from the fridge, so everything.
The weather isnt bad at all. My companion is from mexico and says its hot, but
hey its only hot when you make it hot. Remember that! Well it gets hot in the
cars if we hitch hike somewhere. Its called Ritte, sometimes we have to do that
for appts because of how far away they are.
There is so much dust its crazy! all my pants are brown when i get home from
the day. I will make sure to send pictures of my shoes also. Haha wow cold
showers feel great at night.
We have 10 progressing investigators. Our goal is by the end of this 6 weeks to
have 15 baptisms. Its tough because alot of people arent married, they just live
together.
Some fun things about mexico. First, if i had to complain about one thing it
would be that im not allowed to eat street food, at least not fro like 6 month.
Elder bonney and elder workman from my district in the MTC are in the city
caborca. Bonney ate a sonoran hot dog and didnt get sick, we have cell phones to
report daily data to the zone leaders since we are so far away, he called me and
was bragging about it. Anyways I better not eat anything, because if im
disobedient then thats when something bad will happen to me.
This last week we tuaght like 30 lessons, which is good. But check this out.
When contacting a person on the street you ask them a church question, like
about prophets or eternal families, and then ask if you can teach them in their
house tomorow. Well in mexico they don´t want to let you down, so they always
say yes. SO you get all their information down, and then you have to ask them,
¨realmente pedemos enseñar mas sobre porfetas, en su casa mañana?¨´ Really
can we teach you more about prophets tomorow in your house. You have to say
¨really¨ and then its the strangest thing, about 75% of the time they say no
im busy. Literally the conversations will go, blah blah blah can we teach you
tomorow, and then they say ¨oh yes yes please come teach me and my family!¨¨
and then you ¨get their info and then say ¨ really can we teach you tomorow?¨
and they say, um no i have work, and you think to yourself they were just
totally stoked a second ago!.
Anways, our branch has like 30 members, guess how many investigators we had
come to church, um can you say 12! Thats a new record, by 3 people. It was
awesome. Next step is to baptize.
Ok since I know everyone wants to know about spanish. Heres the deal, Ive only
been here for a week but if the persona isnt old, or super young and is missing
more then 8 or 9 teeth ( which is like 40%) of the people, then I can pretty
much understand what they are talking about. I can speak it decently, but have
just been bearing my testimony, contacting and normal talking, I still can´t
roll my R´s though!
Really though everything is dirty here, as in there is alot of dust, so like
thats why the food you have to be carful with and i can walk arounf my room
without sandals or sock on. I was getting into bed the other night, and a new
friend decided to sleep with me, a nice cockroach was sitting on my pillow. mmmm
breakfeast! ahah i took a picture but i didnt load it to the computer, maybe
next weeks picture.
Love elder wertner
the city, we are in the out skirts. We are allowed to go into the city on
sundays for church, and mondays for P-days. Besides that though, we stick to our
area. To find our area, google map it, caborca is on one side, in the middle is
3 small mountains, with radio towers and the other side is our area. Literally
not a single house is made of anything better then cinder blocks. I feel
horrible. When we talk to people their clothes are always dirty, like way
dirtier than justins used to be when he was younger. And that is pretty dirty. I
am sending pictures and i hope you will see the difference between the city and
our side. We have 3 paved roads, maybe 4 actually.
The food is great, its a big meal in the middle for lunch, and then smaller
meals for bfeast and dinner. Lunch is usually at a members. The food is good but
tears you up haha.
Ok a list of things that happened this week that our faith builders, not trials
or bad things, but just incidents to help build faith.
1. 2 days in a row our lunch appts fell through, which is the biggest bummer
ever, sometimes we dont eat breakfeast and so lunch is a big deal, haha
something I look forward to big time! haha
2. This woman that was going to be baptized along with her son, we found out
shes the mistress to this other man. And she has a new born, but its not from
the man shes living with, which isnt offically her husband anyways, it was a
huge bummer.
3. We came home one day after the lunch appt fell through to find that our
power was out. We went to the power meter and found the switches off. So we
thought. oh niños. (children) but we soon found out the power company turned it
off because they thought we didnt pay. So no lunch and no power. Well we went to
get it fixed and we had to go all around the city of caborca to different places
to get it fixed and turned back on but we couldnt do anything about it, so we
didnt have power for 2 days. No fans, yep no fans. haha and yes mom we threw out
the bad stuff from the fridge, so everything.
The weather isnt bad at all. My companion is from mexico and says its hot, but
hey its only hot when you make it hot. Remember that! Well it gets hot in the
cars if we hitch hike somewhere. Its called Ritte, sometimes we have to do that
for appts because of how far away they are.
There is so much dust its crazy! all my pants are brown when i get home from
the day. I will make sure to send pictures of my shoes also. Haha wow cold
showers feel great at night.
We have 10 progressing investigators. Our goal is by the end of this 6 weeks to
have 15 baptisms. Its tough because alot of people arent married, they just live
together.
Some fun things about mexico. First, if i had to complain about one thing it
would be that im not allowed to eat street food, at least not fro like 6 month.
Elder bonney and elder workman from my district in the MTC are in the city
caborca. Bonney ate a sonoran hot dog and didnt get sick, we have cell phones to
report daily data to the zone leaders since we are so far away, he called me and
was bragging about it. Anyways I better not eat anything, because if im
disobedient then thats when something bad will happen to me.
This last week we tuaght like 30 lessons, which is good. But check this out.
When contacting a person on the street you ask them a church question, like
about prophets or eternal families, and then ask if you can teach them in their
house tomorow. Well in mexico they don´t want to let you down, so they always
say yes. SO you get all their information down, and then you have to ask them,
¨realmente pedemos enseñar mas sobre porfetas, en su casa mañana?¨´ Really
can we teach you more about prophets tomorow in your house. You have to say
¨really¨ and then its the strangest thing, about 75% of the time they say no
im busy. Literally the conversations will go, blah blah blah can we teach you
tomorow, and then they say ¨oh yes yes please come teach me and my family!¨¨
and then you ¨get their info and then say ¨ really can we teach you tomorow?¨
and they say, um no i have work, and you think to yourself they were just
totally stoked a second ago!.
Anways, our branch has like 30 members, guess how many investigators we had
come to church, um can you say 12! Thats a new record, by 3 people. It was
awesome. Next step is to baptize.
Ok since I know everyone wants to know about spanish. Heres the deal, Ive only
been here for a week but if the persona isnt old, or super young and is missing
more then 8 or 9 teeth ( which is like 40%) of the people, then I can pretty
much understand what they are talking about. I can speak it decently, but have
just been bearing my testimony, contacting and normal talking, I still can´t
roll my R´s though!
Really though everything is dirty here, as in there is alot of dust, so like
thats why the food you have to be carful with and i can walk arounf my room
without sandals or sock on. I was getting into bed the other night, and a new
friend decided to sleep with me, a nice cockroach was sitting on my pillow. mmmm
breakfeast! ahah i took a picture but i didnt load it to the computer, maybe
next weeks picture.
Love elder wertner
Nov, 2, 2008
It’s been such a long time since we had the family newsletter going. I’m so glad we’re getting one going this month. Thanks Sarah. I have been looking at some pictures taken 4 years ago. Marilyn, stan, me and steve with donna and don going to Spokane, breakfast at the Felts Field airport, going through the Davenport, then going to Bainbridge island, wa. those pictures brought back such great memories. Then I looked at some pictures taken years and years ago with grandma bagley, doug and lana and heather and haley, Stephanie and laurie, Steve and donna, mom and dad. Can you even imagine those days? Big roast beef dinners in the back yard in the Spokane summer time, or dad barbequeing in the backyard, using apple wood for the best taste. Pictures of assorted folks on dad’s horses, or out in the boat. Wow, those were the days! And now we have all our grandkids, our kids being the mom and dad, time is really something isn’t it?
A Funeral really brings a family together, and tho that funeral was so sad, seeing those little children cry and cry, to see Jared dressed in his Temple clothes, provided some comfort. A family forever. I also looked at pictures from several years ago when sarah and elizabeth and don and I went up to the Tooele Cemetary, and saw the grave sites of our pioneer loved ones. John Kirby and Nettie orme, Sarah Cross and Samuel W. Orme, the Parks and Jean Harvey. One little lane in that cemetery is named Orme Lane. Jared was met by lots of family as lots of family said goodbye to him here.
It’s most sad that summer is over with. It’s Nov. now and summer is a thing of the past here. The tops of our mountains here got snow while we were in church today. At least we can still see our green green grass. The garden is a thing of the past, but we canned grape juice, and made jams and ate good stuff out of it. Next year it will even be better. Our fruit trees are really growing, and I’m sure we’ll get a good crop of raspberries. The grapes were really something tho, just beautiful and only 2 years old. Ok, enough of the farm report.
Oh, also last night as I was going through the house changing the hundreds of clocks we have in this house, I sat down at our old desk in the basement and found a file of old letters from Mom & Dad. Marilyn had just told me a trick or treat story about Mom and Dad yesterday, and there it was in writing, Mom was writing it to me. Some kids had to come back to see Dad with his white hair. That was fun to read those letters. Marilyn and Laurie came up straight from the MTC on fri. night and spent the night with us. We talked all the next day, then went over to see Lizzy’s new little Rowan. So now tomorrow morning they leave on their drive for Des Moine, Iowa. Good luck Marilyn!
BYU football has our nerves frayed, they were suppose to do so well, have only lost one game, but still, they hardly win, always in the last 20 seconds they pull it together. This week is our first basketball game and also our last football game. It will be a cold one! Going to be in the 40’s all this week. this year we decided to get season tickets for men’s volleyball. BYU is hosting the NCAA championships, so it should be fun. Don has been doing lots of golfing and clerking in the ward and works security for byu football practices, and I’m still tap dancing and quilting, and playing piano for our Camerata Musica and playing organ for church. We love our empty nester’s group here and have fun with them. You didn’t know what Camerata Musica is? It’s a music club a gal and I started up. You work all month to perform, and then we play piano, sing, play violin, whatever is your talent, for each other. Performing! It is so good for you. I highly recommend it, good for the brain and the heart – ha.
Speaking of golf, Stephanie, Laurie and I got to go to the State Golf Tournament and see Scott play. It was so much fun. It was up by Park City so it was very very scenic, just a beautiful day, and scott is such a GREAT golfer. We also went to Las Vegas, via Stephanie’s house and went to Phantom of the opera. I could hardly stand it, it was soooooo good! I didn’t want to leave, I was spellbound every minute of it. We stayed two nights in the Bellagio, and swam in the pools, ate the famous buffet, it was great. The night before the phantom, we decided we should see if we could walk down the strip to where the Phantom was playing because we were told the street would be so busy, we wouldn’t make it. well, walking down that strip is something else, not only very very crowded, not only took forever to get there, in fact we didn’t make it, but it was like sin city. I mean, I’d n ever seen such stuff! We began our walk with the beautiful fountains outside the hotel, all set to music, and came back ready to go home and forget seeing Phantom. The next day I called up Lizzy to get directions to the Temple, we needed a little change of pace, and she said, “Mom, we told you, don’t leave the hotel!!” I didn’t remember that. A few minutes later, Jed called, “Tricia, I told you, don’t leave the hotel, there is plenty for you guys to do IN the hotel, you weren’t suppose to leave the hotel!!!” So next time, we are NOT staying in Las Vegas, we’ll stay with Stephanie and cam and scott and matt, all safe and sound, and just jet for a performance and jet right back. quite an experience, BUT Phantom was incredible! We took a little trip to Monterey and Carmel, CA. at the end of summer. What a fun trip, we saw the aquarium, the Hearst Castle and other cool places and then stayed a few days with jessica and family. In June and July we had every single member of our own posterity here at the house except JC who was at a critical point of his research. Imagine, everyone here. It was a wild ride, really something. In the evening we would all sit out in the grass and watch dozens of kids scooter or skate board down our driveway, and no one collided. We went to swimming pools, and ponds, and movies, and ate out and celebrated the 4th and celebrated birthdays. It was truly amazing!
Mon, Oct. 27th was Mom’s 95th birthday. Little Zoe turned one, and Rowan is 2 months old and all the grands in between. General Conf. was amazing! Sept. marked Mom and Dad’s 75th year anniversary. They were married in 1933. We moved into our new chapel just 2 min. from our house. I can’t believe having a church that close. And we don’t even have any kids to drive to church activities. Don and I celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary and went up to Logan and went to our Temple.
We are still having lots of fun living at our mountain home and BYU and Lizzy’s. We miss katie, jennifer, amy, sarah and jessica, but we’re doing pretty good for two old retired folks. Take care everyone, it was soooo good seeing you last week in Mo. Love you all our united family.
Love, Don and Tricia
Hello family.
I don't have much time, but I thought I would send in a short update. The family is doing great. School is pretty tough, but we seem to be managing. Davin started seminary and the greatest miracle happened when they called Brad to be his teacher. Those two are mighty tired. Emmie started Kindergarten. So, I have one in high school, one in middle school, one in elementary, one in kinder, and a toddler at home. This means 4 drop off times and 4 pick up times. Piano is coming along for Davin, Perry and Josie. Davin recently played for a convert baptism. He did great. Perry plays for young women. Davin is finishing up cross country and ready to start basketball. He is so tall and so skinny. All the protien shakes in the world won't counteract the 50 miles he runs each week. Perry and Josie are fun to watch on the soccer field each Saturday. Emmie is on a break right now but Brad just signed her up for spring soccer. Brody turned two. He is exhausting. Most recently he did some beautiful art work all over my nice chair. Oh, and we must not forget the day before when he used a bar stool to climb up in the cupboard where the scissors are safely kept and then decided to use them to cut the dryer vent. He is beautiful, intelligent, and loving thank goodness. We have been consumed as of late with prop 8. We are trying to make it so California is like 32 other states that protects marraige as being between a man and a woman only. I can just hear Grandpa about now. Who would have thought you would be called prejudice and bigoted for having traditional values and trying to protect marraige as it has always been. We will see what happens. I gave the lesson in R.S. on Sunday, and it was on gratitude. Henry B. Eyring's talk from 2007 conference to be exact. I am reminded of all the blessings I have been given - this family being one of the greatest.
Love to you all from the Guinns!!!!!!!
November 3, 2008
Dear Ormes,
I feel like you all must be sick of hearing from/about me! But alas….I will write my newsletter, ha ha. The last letter that went out was in January. We were waiting anxiously to hear if David got into med school! Well, you’ve probably heard by now that David got accepted into OU med school, and we moved out to OK City! So strange, I mean, never in a million years would I have thought we would move here. But it is SO much fun living next to Amy and Thad. When we drove out here to look for a house we zoned in on a small area surrounding Amy! We found a house that is 6 ½ minutes driveway to driveway. But sadly, it is a different city, ward, stake, school etc. etc. But we really liked the neighborhood and the house fits our needs. Plus it comes with an acre of flat dry weeds! We need to do something with it. We left Utah around August 1st but our home in Utah still hadn’t sold. The realtor didn’t show it ONE time. So me and the kids packed up the van and drove back to Utah to work on selling the house. I was planning open houses, flyers, meeting brokers etc.. I was going to work full time on it….plus I had the bonus of being HOME. So we drove for two days, unloaded the van and went next door to Nancy’s house (David’s Mom lived next door to us). While we were eating dinner the realtor came and showed the house for the first time and sold it! We just couldn’t believe it! So we still stayed for a month and made sure the closing went through…you just never know. Then David flew out and drove us home.
I feel like you all must be sick of hearing from/about me! But alas….I will write my newsletter, ha ha. The last letter that went out was in January. We were waiting anxiously to hear if David got into med school! Well, you’ve probably heard by now that David got accepted into OU med school, and we moved out to OK City! So strange, I mean, never in a million years would I have thought we would move here. But it is SO much fun living next to Amy and Thad. When we drove out here to look for a house we zoned in on a small area surrounding Amy! We found a house that is 6 ½ minutes driveway to driveway. But sadly, it is a different city, ward, stake, school etc. etc. But we really liked the neighborhood and the house fits our needs. Plus it comes with an acre of flat dry weeds! We need to do something with it. We left Utah around August 1st but our home in Utah still hadn’t sold. The realtor didn’t show it ONE time. So me and the kids packed up the van and drove back to Utah to work on selling the house. I was planning open houses, flyers, meeting brokers etc.. I was going to work full time on it….plus I had the bonus of being HOME. So we drove for two days, unloaded the van and went next door to Nancy’s house (David’s Mom lived next door to us). While we were eating dinner the realtor came and showed the house for the first time and sold it! We just couldn’t believe it! So we still stayed for a month and made sure the closing went through…you just never know. Then David flew out and drove us home.
Here we all are at Amy and Thad’s famous Trunk or Treat Party.
David is LOVING LOVING LOVING med school. He has gross anatomy, bio chemistry, human embryology, and then a bunch of smaller classes. He is learning to use his stethoscope, and does rounds with a doctor once a week in his white coat. At school the students are broken down into groups of about 18. Each group has a kind of office suite. They each have a desk and there is a small kitchen. Then they also have a conference room with big white boards to work out their fancy chemistry problems on, and computer/TV. OU is a very beautiful school and the people are really friendly and nice. They are also one of the most team spirited schools I have ever seen. It is really unbelievable. I think people would cut off their arm for the football team if they thought it would help. David studies a lot. He is known to get up around 6:30 and leave and then not get home till 9pm. He wants to get great grades! Here he is at his desk.
The kids are adjusting….slowly! They really miss their old house (where they all had their own room) their friends and especially their school. I miss our ward, my friends and family, and REAL GROCERY STORES. (Here they mostly just have Walmarts). The kid’s elementary school here is really strict and somewhat unfriendly. But we are trying to get used to it and hope our smiles will catch on. I used to hear a lot of “I HATE this school!!” when they got home, but they are doing a lot better now, especially since they are starting to make friends. Rylie wasn’t too sure about Kindergarten, but is being a good sport! She would rather stay home all day (I think her teacher would too! Ha ha). Sterling will start basketball this month, and Alexis and Rylie have done Pom Pom clinic and love it. We still need to find a violin teacher and a good Ballet Academy. We are excited to visit Utah for Christmas and get lots of skiing in.
We had a pretty crazy week last week when Weston jumped off the mailbox and broke his leg. I feel bad that I waited till the next day to take him to the Emergency room, I thought it was just a sprain. He was a pretty good sport though, and had many admirers. He got to choose the color of his cast and said “Geen” when presented with the color choices. So he is learning to drag his leg around and I am spending a lot of time running to him to hand him stuff! He turns
2 this month.
We had a pretty crazy week last week when Weston jumped off the mailbox and broke his leg. I feel bad that I waited till the next day to take him to the Emergency room, I thought it was just a sprain. He was a pretty good sport though, and had many admirers. He got to choose the color of his cast and said “Geen” when presented with the color choices. So he is learning to drag his leg around and I am spending a lot of time running to him to hand him stuff! He turns
2 this month.
Hope everyone is doing great! We love any opportunity to visit with family. It was a sad day going to Jared’s funeral in Missouri, but good to be with family. Aimee’s five children are so beautiful and so sweet. I got to know a few of them when I was there. Our thoughts and prayers are with their family often and with Stan, Rauna, and all my Orme Cousins.
Love to you all!
Sarah, David, Sterling, Alexis, Rylie, and Weston.
Hi Family,
Fall has really hit the northwest. We've had wind and rain storms and power outages already. The four oldest, Anne, Abbie, Isabelle and Josh are finishing up soccer season in this nasty weather. Everyone has had a great year, though not a winning season.
Anne is preparing for violin solo and ensemble competitions after Christmas, she also teaches herself the piano and likes figuring out the guitar. Abbie is taking piano lessons as well as playing the clarinet for the Junior High band. Isabelle started taking violin lessons at her elementary school and is learning the guitar with John's help and some Taylor Swift music. She has really surprised us with how much she can play. Josh is interested in piano and I have given him a few exciting (to him) lessons. He also likes to play the guitar, but plays like the kid in August Rush. Surprisingly it sounds really good.
My new theory on getting the kids to practice is to tell them (honestly) that they "have a gift for music and that we are willing to support that gift by providing opportunity for them with instruments and lessons, etc. However, if they are not willing to put the effort into expanding their gift, then we are not interested in paying for it." Let me tell you, you've never seen someone start practicing so fast!
Josh just quit martial arts. He was so good at it and will get back to it later, but he really likes just playing after school. The instructor called me up because he said it was helpful having Josh in the class because he was an example to the other kids. His school teacher has said some really great things about how helpful he has been this year to the new kids in their class.
Eliza likes to sing and make up rhymes, along with tooting, burping, jumping off the top bunk and watching Power Rangers. She bikes on some of my shorter 3 miles runs. We found a bigger bike at a garage sale so she can keep up now. We started bringing a friend because she would get quite bored with me. At the last minute she was a butterfly for Halloween because we couldn't find a pink power ranger costume. We gave away all the barbies, play houses, and dress up clothes this fall since she doesn't play with them. She does like playing with baby dolls and arranging her stuffed animals on her bed with their blankies.
Last Sunday she and Josh rearranged their room. I was shocked because me and Jennifer used to do this all the time. When Jennifer was 7 and I was 9 we would move our entire bedroom down and then up 2 flights of stairs! None of my kids have been interested in this until now. Josh moved everything in his room except the bunk beds. I was very impressed. He then posted a note for our bestest friends' kids to stay out and clean up their mess in his room. So embarrassing!
I have been busy with my James O'Neal Surgery Fundraising campaign. James had surgery yesterday and things went really well. They weren't able to get the entire tumor off, but can work on it another time. He was losing a lot of blood. We raised over $200,000 for him. This entire story has been a dream to me. Everyone has contributed, but to say that I started it, is unreal. You can watch the story of his surgery here. http://www.komonews.com/problemsolvers
I am also teaching Isabelle's primary class, and have started the kids newspaper at school for the PACE program. So far no articles... hmmm. I am running 3-4 times a week, 4-6 miles each run. Half of the runs are early with 4 other friends. We wear headlamps and have gained some notoriety as the "headlamp group" seen around town.
John marches on as the bishop of our ward. He is gone 2-3 nights a week and all day Sunday, but we have a nice routine and it hasn't been too challenging for our family. We are grateful that he is able to serve our Heavenly Father and can see many blessings and challenges in our lives from it. John started riding his road bike one way to work in August and is continuing to do it despite the terrible weather. We'll see how the cold affects him though. His ride is 18.5 miles on a beautiful paved trail along the water. It is near our house and goes right past his office. John is remodeling our downstairs bathroom when he's home and awake. It's slow going as you can imagine, but it's nice to look at and it will be nicer to use I'm sure.
I can't begin to tell you how sad I was at the loss of our dear cousin Jared. I wished I could have come to the funeral and been there with everyone and hugged his sweet family. My words can't express the sadness I feel. He was such a wonderful man, another fantastic Orme boy. I'm sure grandma and grandpa brought him home tucked between their arms, but oh, how he will be missed here by everyone.
Carry on, carry on! From the handcart saga and prior, to the great loss of Jared, the Orme family always carries on. God bless everyone!
Katie & John Knopf
Anne, Abigail, Isabelle, Joshua, Eliza
KatieKnopf@yahoo.com
206-335-5808
FriendsOfJamesOneal@BlogSpot.com
Anne is preparing for violin solo and ensemble competitions after Christmas, she also teaches herself the piano and likes figuring out the guitar. Abbie is taking piano lessons as well as playing the clarinet for the Junior High band. Isabelle started taking violin lessons at her elementary school and is learning the guitar with John's help and some Taylor Swift music. She has really surprised us with how much she can play. Josh is interested in piano and I have given him a few exciting (to him) lessons. He also likes to play the guitar, but plays like the kid in August Rush. Surprisingly it sounds really good.
My new theory on getting the kids to practice is to tell them (honestly) that they "have a gift for music and that we are willing to support that gift by providing opportunity for them with instruments and lessons, etc. However, if they are not willing to put the effort into expanding their gift, then we are not interested in paying for it." Let me tell you, you've never seen someone start practicing so fast!
Josh just quit martial arts. He was so good at it and will get back to it later, but he really likes just playing after school. The instructor called me up because he said it was helpful having Josh in the class because he was an example to the other kids. His school teacher has said some really great things about how helpful he has been this year to the new kids in their class.
Eliza likes to sing and make up rhymes, along with tooting, burping, jumping off the top bunk and watching Power Rangers. She bikes on some of my shorter 3 miles runs. We found a bigger bike at a garage sale so she can keep up now. We started bringing a friend because she would get quite bored with me. At the last minute she was a butterfly for Halloween because we couldn't find a pink power ranger costume. We gave away all the barbies, play houses, and dress up clothes this fall since she doesn't play with them. She does like playing with baby dolls and arranging her stuffed animals on her bed with their blankies.
Last Sunday she and Josh rearranged their room. I was shocked because me and Jennifer used to do this all the time. When Jennifer was 7 and I was 9 we would move our entire bedroom down and then up 2 flights of stairs! None of my kids have been interested in this until now. Josh moved everything in his room except the bunk beds. I was very impressed. He then posted a note for our bestest friends' kids to stay out and clean up their mess in his room. So embarrassing!
I have been busy with my James O'Neal Surgery Fundraising campaign. James had surgery yesterday and things went really well. They weren't able to get the entire tumor off, but can work on it another time. He was losing a lot of blood. We raised over $200,000 for him. This entire story has been a dream to me. Everyone has contributed, but to say that I started it, is unreal. You can watch the story of his surgery here. http://www.komonews.com/problemsolvers
I am also teaching Isabelle's primary class, and have started the kids newspaper at school for the PACE program. So far no articles... hmmm. I am running 3-4 times a week, 4-6 miles each run. Half of the runs are early with 4 other friends. We wear headlamps and have gained some notoriety as the "headlamp group" seen around town.
John marches on as the bishop of our ward. He is gone 2-3 nights a week and all day Sunday, but we have a nice routine and it hasn't been too challenging for our family. We are grateful that he is able to serve our Heavenly Father and can see many blessings and challenges in our lives from it. John started riding his road bike one way to work in August and is continuing to do it despite the terrible weather. We'll see how the cold affects him though. His ride is 18.5 miles on a beautiful paved trail along the water. It is near our house and goes right past his office. John is remodeling our downstairs bathroom when he's home and awake. It's slow going as you can imagine, but it's nice to look at and it will be nicer to use I'm sure.
I can't begin to tell you how sad I was at the loss of our dear cousin Jared. I wished I could have come to the funeral and been there with everyone and hugged his sweet family. My words can't express the sadness I feel. He was such a wonderful man, another fantastic Orme boy. I'm sure grandma and grandpa brought him home tucked between their arms, but oh, how he will be missed here by everyone.
Carry on, carry on! From the handcart saga and prior, to the great loss of Jared, the Orme family always carries on. God bless everyone!
Katie & John Knopf
Anne, Abigail, Isabelle, Joshua, Eliza
KatieKnopf@yahoo.com
206-335-5808
FriendsOfJamesOneal@BlogSpot.com
Hello, Hello,
As I sit here posting all your newsletters I thought I would add mine to the end. Things are moving along as they do. Isn't it amazing how fast time passes? My mom says it passes slowly for her and always has. I can't even imagine! There's never enough time, never enough money, never enough of anything it seems. I have finally resorted to praying in a closet and locking my bathroom door to eat a candybar or talk on the phone while 30 fingers wiggle under the door. I never thought the day would come! Have I turned into my mother?? Four little ones keep me very busy, but it's also nice that they have each other to play with.
Will is 5 1/2 and is my biggest helper. He will pace the house with Rowan in his arms for a long while so I can get things done. Sam is 3 and helps with the laundry and washes ALL the windows. Lydia turns 2 in a week and only needs her pacifier and silky blanket to be happy. I am grateful for one girl and grateful the rest are boys! Rowan is already 2 months and is soft and round. He sleeps a lot but he seems to cry whenever he's awake. He is a very attached baby and wants to be on my skin at all times. He likes to smile and coo at his siblings and is still the most coveted thing in our household. It is very easy to stay home and stick to our routine - but a little rough if anyone comes over or if we go out!
Jed and I still love teaching the 16-18 year old S.S. class and we have the best ward in the Church. Jed has been working at the Daily Herald paper selling the auto classifieds but really doesn't love it. He has a conditional offer from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for an agent slot. He is in the midst of a mountain of paperwork for his background check and will have the big board interview in a month or two. If it goes through he will be sent to the academy in New Mexico for 2 months of physical, on-the-job training followed with 2 more months of learning Spanish full-time before we relocate to a border state - CA, AZ, NM, or TX. We're teaching the kids to say hola! We are happy that Jed has found a career that really interests him. Can't you just see him barreling down the desert at 2 a.m. in a jeep with a huge gun sticking out the side?? And no committment to the military! This is his dream job. (He had been trying to get into law enforcement here in Utah but there are some hiring freezing and huge budget cuts right now - so no luck there.)
I'm still doing my usual thing - online marketing in the evenings, photo sessions, proofing pics, and design work on weekends or whenever I get a moment! We're sad to see Fall passing as those beautiful colors and warm days turn to barren cold. Fingers crossed we don't have 5 months of snow again.
Our deepest sympathies go out to Stan and Rauna and family at this difficult time. We are thinking of you and praying for your peace and comfort.
Blessings to all,
Love Elizabeth
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