Stuff

Just thought I'd write you an update.  We finally got the white shirts, still no sign of the monitor.  I guess we'll just write it off and consider it lost.  Bummer.  From now on we'll definitely insure and put tracking on anything we send up here. 

I put my origional drive back in the computer.  I figured since it was working in the external case it would probably work in the computer.  It is working fine so far.  All of my programs still work, I'm back to Windows 7, sure glad to have it working again.  Hope it keeps up.  We canceled our trip to Juneau to buy another computer, will probably still pick one up when we have to go in December.  It costs us about $400 each time we go just for the ferry and motel, so try not to go anymore often than we have to.  We also postponed our temple trip to Anchorage so we won't buy our snow tires yet, so didn't really have a good reason to go.  We have to go in December for a zone conference, so will stay an extra day and do that stuff then.

Is there any way to make a backup of this program drive and save my programs so I can transfer them onto a different computer when I get one?  I know the backup program only backs up data files.  But I would like to transfer my stuff onto my new computer if it's possible to do.  I know Troy used to have a program called "Ghost" that did it, but I don't have a copy of it anymore.  I think I left it in Idaho.  Don't know if it would work on W-7 anyway, it was for XP when I got my computer that's still in Idaho.  I did make a new backup of all my data, decided I didn't want to lose it if this goes down again.  I also kept the hard drive I took out with the basic Vista on it that I used to make this work then, just in case.  I also transferred all my data off this drive, but so far it seems to be doing OK. (for the last 3 days, anyway!)

Has been quite a week so far.  Bro. Cox that I'm fixing the tractor for went to Seattle for surgery, was having trouble breathing.  Problem with his tracheotomy.  Found he was two quarts low, so they gave him a blood transfusion.  Checked his wife while there, found she has skin cancer so she's going in for surgery tomorrow.  Then Angela Wilde, one of our young less-actives, got blood clots in her legs yesterday and was life-flighted to Juneau yesterday morning.  When she got there they told her that her father from here in Haines had died of a heart attack.  Of course she can't come home because of her condition.  The father used to be a member, but didn't like the church, joined another one and had his name removed from the records.  We're going over today to see if there is anything we can do for the family.  The mom also had her name removed, so don't know how she'll react.  Should be interesting.  Then Sis. Gilman that was to church but didn't look good was life-flighted to Anchorage yesterday afternoon with kidney failure.  She may have to go into extended care there so she can get dialysis three times a week.  An intersting day.

On top of all that, the branch president, President Lehman is leaving next monday to go to Seattle.  His wife hasn't been feeling well, they think she has a brain tumor.  They will probably be gone 6-8 weeks, so I get to run the branch while he is gone.  So glad we're here!  Definitely feel needed!  We did have a fun Halloween party at the church Friday night, carved pumpkins, frosted and decorated cookies.  We had twenty-two come, three familes who are less-active, a non-member.  I think they had fun, but none came to church yesterday.  Probably a good thing.  I spoke about missionary work.

Well, guess I'd better go get ready for the day. Hope you are having a good week!  At least WE don't have any snow yet!

Love ya. Dad.

Deep thoughts

Journal Oct 30, 2011

I have recently decided I need to write about some things that have touched me or that are just interesting in our mission here in Haines.

First I would like to write about the area here. I believe this is one of the most healing, beautiful areas I have ever been in. I have seen a lot of beautiful places in both the states and in China. Perhaps because I am living here, I am finding Haines healing to my soul. I believe the Lord send me here for me, as well as, for whoever else we are supposed to touch. We came in late summer and the mountains so impressed me. They are high, rocky and pointed. The tops contain white glaciers even in the summer. Waterfalls cascade down the sides of the mountains thousands of feet. Shrubbery and trees grow on the sides of the mountains and appear to be coming out of the rock itself. The power of the slow, tenacious growth of roots, combined with the trickling of rain in the crevices of the rocks cause huge boulders to break lose resulting in landslides. The majesty and the magnitude of the mountains make one constantly aware of the smallness of man. The mountains come steeply down to the edge of the water. There is very little beach and what there is, is rocky. The mountains are magnificent, powerful, and remind me that the power of nature is beyond human control.

The water that runs off the glaciers carries with it glacier silt. This is fine grey-blue silt that fills the rivers and changes their courses. Where the streams enter the ocean, a change of color can be seen seeping into currents. The silt is soft and acts like quick sand in many areas. Rivers here have powerful currents, 3-10 miles an hour. At times, fishermen sink in the sands or get washed down the river from these strong currents. Glaciers do not look like what I expected. They appear as snow trapped between canyon walls with waterfalls rushing from underneath them. The glaciers are huge. There is a blue reflection on the glaciers in some lights. These glaciers recede up the mountain as they melt. In sunlight, they are beautiful.

This is an area referred to as a Boreal forest. The trees grow densely together perhaps fifty to seventy feet tall. The soil is spongy from decayed foliage and pine needles. In areas where there has been a lot of moisture it becomes dangerous; because, it acts like quicksand. In these areas, it is called muskeg and must be crossed carefully. Trees often fall as the ground seems to be continually shifting, either from the wet soil or the steepness of the mountains on which they grow.

Animals are larger here. Moose make Idaho moose seem small. Foxes are twice the size of our fox. Eagles are larger. House cats are even larger by a third again. Maybe the harsh climate makes them more durable and creates a need to be hardier. Texas may brag because of the bigness of the land, but it has nothing compared to Alaska.

In the fall, there are no words to describe the beauty of the leaves. They are almost fluorescent in their brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. I might mention that the colors in the flowers here are also exceptionally bright. I don’t know if it is the clean air, or the harshness of the climate that makes them so large and intensely colored. It is like they must have this great burst of color and size to validate their short existence. I can hardly grasp enough of the fall beauties. I want to sit outside and absorb them into my very being, reach out my hands and hold the sacred silence. I want to seal them in my heart to nourish me during the long winter to come. I could spend hours soaking in this beauty.

As the leaves fall, there is a grey, murky beauty that comes. One can now see out into the forest, fallen trees, and marshy areas. There is harshness to the environment, but also a promise of tenacious strength that transfers to the animals and people in this area. People here accept the harsh climates, the difficulty of transportation, the limited medical facilities, and survive. They are not whiners. They go on doing what has to be done. Accepting whatever comes. The winters are long and dark, but they know spring comes with sunshine, warmth, and beauty. The harsh winters give people greater appreciation for the short time when the elements cease their relentless buffetings.

I have yet to experience the winds. I guess the winds that blow from the north are cold and merciless. The winds from the channel bring wet snows of up to three feet at a time. Some winters there is up to twenty feet of snow. While the temperatures are more mild here compared to Whitehorse, it still drops to the low teens and down to minus 20. Some years it gets down to -40. Because the wind blows all winter, the wind chill and the moisture make a wet-cold that seeps into your bones and stays. The rain causes black ice to form on top of the frozen ground which makes driving hazardous. I am sure the area takes on a different kind of beauty in the winter which I will write about later.

Update to Uncle Bob

Hi family,

Just thought I'd send you a copy of a letter I sent to Uncle Bob--a few new things that I didn't put I last week's letter to everyone.  We love you!   Dad.

Dear Uncle Bob and Aunt Liz,

It is really good to hear from you again. I'm afraid I didn't do very well answering your last letter, but it was good to hear about your 4-wheeler rides, though it is a shame you didn't get a chance to go more often. Scary about flipping it in the washout. I'm so glad you weren't hurt, and that your machine was OK so you could ride it out. I know what you mean when you said it was hard to get it back up. I think things have just gotten a lot heavier than they used to be when I was younger. And having fun sure takes a lot more work!

It's fun to hear about the kids. How are Kaylene and Mark liking Corpus Christi? They must like it if they're buying a house down there. It's probably more humid than Pahrump was, but I'll bet it isn't any hotter! It sounds like it was really fun to see so many of the kids all at once. Isn't it funny how they fall back into their "pecking order" roles when they get together? We really chuckle about that when our kids get together, even though they are grown with families of their own! I guess they never stop being kids any more than we stop being parents. I catch myself telling Ed what to do, even though he has kids getting ready to graduate from high school! He just grins and is really patient. How did we get this old???

It sounds like a wonderful weekend up at the cabin. It would be so much more justifiable to share it with the whole family with set times and weeks to use it. So many of them sit empty so much of the time, then everybody wants to use it at the same time. Shawna's trip to Australia sounds fun. Is she going to visit any of the areas you were in? I'd be surprised, as it's a BIG country!

We are hoping to go fishing again this week. The Silvers are running, and they must be doing OK, as there are hundreds of eagles along the river, and the bears are coming out again. So are the Canadians! The people here get upset when hundreds of people from the Yukon come here and fish. Our Branch President muttered, "So many danged Canadians you can hardly find a place along the bank to throw out your line without getting tangled up with some Canuk!" I had to chuckle. Two months ago we were one! The Silver Salmon (also called Coho) are REALLY good eating, so we'd like to get two or three for our freezer. It costs us $20/day each for a license (out of state, of course), but if we can catch a few it would be worth it. Silvers in the store cost us $15/lb even here! If we caught three or four 15 pounders it would be cheap fish!

The weather here is fall, the leaves are beautiful, and we're getting a lot of rain. I guess when it does get cold it will dump three or four feet of snow in a storm. That I'm not looking forward to! At least we don't have to shovel the rain!~

We have been working Wednesday mornings in the Family History Center here, I've been cleaning up the hard-drives on the computers so they aren't as slow, also got rid of a bunch of stuff that didn't work anymore. I'm trying to get some more computers, as we only have four, and we've been having five or six people coming. We've taken our laptops over to help fill in the gaps. I set up a wireless network so they can connect easily, and that helps. We are going to open the center on Thursday evenings to see if we can accommodate more people. Tonight is our first night open so we'll see how it goes. We also have it open on Sundays from 2-4, and we get a few from the branch, though a lot of them go home and take naps. I don't blame them.

I went to the high school on Monday to meet the shop teachers. They have one guy that teaches welding, woods, sheet-metal and small engines. Reminds me a lot of the little shop I taught at that first year up in Westwood. They have another guy that only teaches afternoons in the woodshop. He was starting a community night class for woodworking this week and asked if I'd like to come as a volunteer assistant. I told him, "Sure!" We had our first class last night, and only five of the people came. There will be eight next week. Of course I can't wear my missionary badge at the school, but I thought it was pretty neat when Mr. Hayes introduced me to the class. He said, "This is Mr. Powell. He is here in Haines for the next year or so as a missionary for the Mormon Church. He is going to be helping us here for the class, but I'm sure he'd like to talk to you about your church." I hadn't said a thing to him except when we met we told him we were missionaries here and would like to get to know the people. It was really fun teaching woodworking again. I helped a lady make a drawer for her camper, and start on some doors for her entertainment center. Mr. Hayes watched us for a few minutes, then helped other people start their projects. I guess he was satisfied that I wasn't going to cut off any fingers soon. We think it's going to give us an opportunity to get to know people on a more casual basis than just walking around in a suit trying to get them to come visit them.

Troy and Emma just bought a different house; it's out in the country, an older house that they are doing a ton of work to. It's on a couple of acres, and they are excited to have room for the kids to play. They have been in "communities" the last two houses, and the homeowners associations have micro-managed everything they do. They will be glad to be away from that. They are doing major remodeling on the house, adding a family room and bedroom where the garage is, putting in a third bathroom, moving the kitchen and utility room, stuff like that. I kind of wish I was there to go help them, but in some ways I'm kind of glad I'm not. It's going to be really nice when it's finished. He called and asked how I would suggest running the new plumbing under the cement slab floor. Told him he'd better rent a slab saw and have a lot of patience. One of the lines needs to go about 20' through a 4" slab. Good luck! Makes me tired to think about it. The fun thing is that they are going to move in and work on it while they are in it. They want to get their other house up for sale before the market dies for the winter. Right now they are making two house payments and it's pretty hard with the expenses of trying to remodel at the same time. They have saved some money up, so I think they'll be OK for a little while, but I think they put most of their savings as a down payment when they bought it.

Well, ReNee thinks it's time to go do our laundry, so I guess I'd better close for now. We love hearing from you, and hope your health is good. We've come to really appreciate the importance of good health here in this branch where we're the next to the youngest! I'm also amazed at how well some of the people do that are way older than us!

We love you! Tell the kids hello for us.

Dondavid and ReNee

New Letter

October 9, 2011

Dear All,

Here it is October already, and I haven’t written for so long! Sometimes it seems like there isn’t a lot going on, and sometimes it seems we’re so busy we don’t have time. I guess it just boils down to getting up the energy to sit down and organize everything to get it written down. Thank you all so much for your letters, and please remember that even though we don’t write often, we still think of you and hope you are doing well.

Fall is here, the leaves are all changing color and falling off the trees. Our high today is supposed to be 48. It isn't a question of "whether" it will rain, just "how long." It does make for beautiful fall colors, and we have really enjoyed the drives up “the highway” when we visit people who live up toward the border. It is beautiful, and the colors are almost fluorescent. The rain wets the leaves, then the sun comes out and they just sparkle. There is such a variety of color, photography can hardly catch the essence of it. At least we don't measure our rainfall in feet like they do in Ketchikan. Ketchikan is in our zone and stake, so we get to talk to the missionaries from there at conferences.

We had stake conference in Juneau a couple of weeks ago. It is good to get to see the other missionaries. . We took the ferry over last weekend to attend Stake Conference, was there three days. The ferry is nice, but takes about 4 1/2 hours for the trip each way. We took our car so we could shop, they have a Costco and a Wal-mart there, so we stocked up on some things we can't get here. Stuff is still expensive there, but at least we can get it. We also ate at McDonalds and Subway, so it was quite a treat! We don't have any fast-food places here, and hamburgers in the restaurant are $10/ea. Gas is cheaper here than in Whitehorse, only $4.59/gal, about $1 cheaper. We are enjoying that.

On Sept. 20^th we went to Juneau again for a zone conference. We flew over to that one, it only takes 20 min. to fly because it isn’t really that far away, but it takes a long time by boat because it only goes about 8 knots. Anyway, Elder Robert Walker of the Presidency of the 70 was there, and it was really good to visit with him and his wife. It turns out his wife, Vicki VanWagnen Walker, was one of Mom’s friends when she was in high school in Provo. Vicki is Bev’s age, but she recognized mom and they had a great time chatting about Provo and friends they had in common. Elder Walker is over the church temple committee, and it was fun to get to hear about how the attitude towards the church changes as more temples are built around the world. He talked about the new temple in Rome, and how the church met with the Catholic Church before announcing it, and how the Catholic Church has been supportive of the temple from the very beginning. It seems that the Cardinal of the Catholic Inter-faith relations board is originally from France, and the member of the Area Presidency that was assigned to meet with him was also from France, so they thought he could communicate with him better. Turned out that when they met and began to visit, they were from both from the same village in France, and had gone to the same schools together. They had a great visit, and the Cardinal made the recommendation to the Pope that the church be given every kind of assistance that they needed to obtain the permits to build. Sure reaffirms our knowledge that the Lord really is in charge! Pres. Walker also explained that the temple is NOT “within sight” of the Vatican, but is on one of the outlying “ring roads.”

We still aren't teaching anybody here yet, but we are getting to know more people and at least can let them know we're members of the church. Mostly we are just helping out in the branch. We had 21 to church today, which is a pretty good Sunday, but having Pres. Lehman’s son and his family definitely helped. There are only 4 priesthood holders, including me, so we take turns blessing and passing the Sacrament. We do have a nice closeness with the members of the branch, though, and they seem to be really happy we are here. I hooked up a wireless internet system in the chapel last week, spent a couple of hours last night getting the Branch President's ancient laptop to be able to hook up to it. We finally did, but I spent a lot of time on the phone with Ed figuring out what to do. What a valuable help he has been! At the zone conference we were given to believe that we'll be here in Haines for at least another year, maybe till the rest of our mission. That will be fine with us. We really like the small-town feel and love the members here.

We spent a Saturday doing a community service project picking up litter along the beaches. It was fun getting to know some more people in the community, and they appreciated the help. It was our branch project to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the welfare program. We had nine members of the branch that participated, which is a really good turnout for things. They appreciated our help, because only about 30 people turned out in all. We picked up a lot of trash that comes in on the tides, plus a lot of cans people leave when they have parties on the beach. There aren't any nice sandy beaches here, but people build fires and drink beer there anyway. The next issue of the local paper had a picture of two members of our branch rolling a tire up to the pick-up point.

The Monday before conference we had a branch project here at the chapel (Family Home Evening) doing brush trimming and grounds cleanup. We cut a lot of the scrub alder that grows up like weeds here. It is much like willows, and grows to make the church grounds look scruffy and overgrown. At first we tried using a brush shredder, but it was taking so long and was so heavy we finally just built a big bonfire and burned it. It gave us a great excuse for a wiener roast, so we got hot-dogs and the trimmings and finished up eating and singing around the fire. It was fun because the people are older so they know a lot of the songs I do, and we had fun singing. The grounds look a lot better, and we had a great turnout. We had quite a few of the less-active members that don’t usually come on Sundays.

We loved watching general conference last weekend. The satellite dish hadn’t worked for some time, so I spent a couple of days working on it, and between working in the rain and spending a lot of time with tech support in Salt Lake, we were able to get it working. The nearest Stake specialist is up in Anchorage, and they said there was no way we could get someone here to fix it before conference. We were so glad to be able to watch it. We had tried to watch the Relief Society broadcast on the internet the week before, but the connection here is so slow that it wouldn’t stream, and it kept stopping and dropping the signal. We only got to listen to a little bit of Elder Packer’s talk. With the satellite broadcast, we were able to watch all five sessions together, and they came in great! We were able to have dinner together after both Saturday’s and Sunday’s sessions. Because of the difference in time zones, we watched all sessions two hours before they were broadcast! We got to watch them at 8 & 12, with the Priesthood Session at 4 on Saturday! Who says living in Alaska doesn’t have its perks! J I felt especially good when we went to Whitehorse on Thursday and found out that they didn’t get to watch any of it because their dish was not working, and they had to listen to it on the radio! And they have a lots bigger branch than we have! Their ward technical person is pretty protective and won’t let others work with it, but he doesn’t take the time to fix it himself.

We went over to Whitehorse so ReNee could go to the chiropractor. She has been having some problems with the muscles in her neck and back again, and the lady over there really helps her out. It is about a 4 ½ hour drive from here, but the weather was nice (though rainy), and the drive was beautiful. We saw a couple of coyotes and chased a moose down the highway a ways, but didn’t see any bears this time around. I think they are all down at the rivers eating salmon! We are in the middle of the Silvers and Kings run, and the eagles are really starting to move in. We see dozens of them along the rivers eating dead spawners. There are a lot of young fledglings, Bald Eagles don’t get their distinctive white heads and tails until they are four years old or older.

It was really fun to go to Whitehorse again, it felt just like going home. We spent two nights at the home of Tim and Beth Ng and caught up on a lot of great visiting. They are doing awesome in the church, and Sam and Matt, the kids, are still meeting with the missionaries. We are hoping that their mom lets them join soon. They are attending church and mutual, and are enjoying the friendships they have made. We also had two wonderful visits with Tom and Patty Hirsch that we got to know really well while we were there. We also stopped by and visited Mike and Rachel Hrebian. Mike was less-active and Rachel isn’t a member. They began attending again and we taught Rachel the discussions. She hasn’t joined yet, but is attending with Mike regularly, and Mike was just put into the Elder’s Quorum presidency. We are pretty excited! We told Rachel that when she decides to get baptized, we’ll come over again!

We returned to Haines Saturday morning, and helped fill the baptismal font so President Lehman’s grandson from Anchorage could get baptized. Jesse recently turned eight, and wanted to be baptized here so his grandparents could participate. He was baptized by his father, and grandpa confirmed him in Sacrament Meeting this morning. It took a long time to fill the font, as the water heater isn’t very big, so we’d put in two or three inches of water, wait an hour for the water heater to recover, put in a couple more, etc. We finally ran out of time, so we heated big pots of water on the stove and poured them in with cold water until we finally got enough to cover him. It’s a good thing he wasn’t very big! I don’t think the font has been used for a few years, as there was a thick layer of dirt, dust, rust and dead spiders in the bottom. It took awhile to clean it, and Pres. Lehman brought the deck-scrubber from his boat to clean it. It looks really good now, and we will try to make sure it gets used again before we leave! Jesse and his family returned to Anchorage this afternoon because Mark has to work tomorrow. It’s about a 14 hour drive from here. In fact driving across Alaska reminds me a lot of driving across Texas—it’s a long way between towns! We passed one car and met four on-coming cars yesterday in the 300 miles to Whitehorse. And it is a holiday weekend! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in Canada!
It was really good to visit with Brent on the phone last week. We called him to see how he is doing after his accident with the chainsaw and the tree, and he sounds like he is doing amazingly well. He has been working, part-time at first, then full time with a back brace, but meeting his patients and operating his business. Kiley has done a great job keeping us posted on their blog, which is at: http://palsrwe.blogspot.com/. When we see the pictures, we realize just how blessed we are!

We have pretty much gotten used to the bears around here. We now say, “There’s another bear,” whereas not too long ago ReNee would scream, “THERE’S A BEAR! STOP!” and would dive for her camera while I’d frantically search for a safe place to pull off and stop and hope the bear didn’t run off before we got a picture of them. I’m sure many of the bears were walking away chuckling, thinking, “Boy, these ‘tourists’ are sure dumb!” We still can’t leave anything out that might attract the bears because it is a misdemeanor to do so, and we don’t want them that close anyway. There are reports of them wandering around town all the time in the newspaper, and the police have to “shoo” them back out into the woods. (usually back across the street!) I guess in a few months when it gets really cold most of them will be full of salmon and find a good place to curl up in hibernation for the winter. Sounds better all the time! Around here a lot of people hunt bears for food, but they don’t like to eat them in the fall because they all taste like fish! I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Eat Alaskan Pork—Shoot a bear!” Most of the bears we have around here are blacks and Alaskan Brown Bear. The only difference between an Alaskan Brown Bear and a Grizzly is that the Browns live on the coast and are bigger because there is so much food to eat. (Spawning Salmon). One of our less-actives got one a year or so ago that would have had a hard time getting its head into a 55-gallon oil drum. It is mounted and at one of the sporting goods shops here in town, and it is huge!

We took this picture out of our kitchen window when this one came to visit while we were having lunch a few weeks ago. It became quite a nuisance because it started breaking into people’s houses, and had returned several times even after they had moved it away. It got so it wouldn’t eat natural food, but preferred foraging people’s garages, houses and chicken pens. The last straw was when a woman woke up in the middle of the night to the noise of it breaking into her house while just she and her daughter were home. They left through the bedroom window as the bear destroyed their kitchen, so the police shot it and gave it to the Native Americans. Just another page of normal life in Alaska! And Warren was complaining about bats in the garage at home?

We went down to the Chilcoot inlet a couple of weeks ago and fished for the Pink Salmon when they were running. They are also called “humpbacks” because of the large hump the males grow when they spawn. It was really fun, and I caught about 25 or 30 in the two hours we fished. We only kept three because we have limited space in our freezer, but they are about gone now, so we’re going to try for some silvers this week. We can only keep two each, but they are bigger, and the meat is better. We want to wait till they are running good, as a non-resident license costs $20/ea for a one-day permit. So we want to be pretty sure to get our money’s worth. Silvers usually run 15-25 lbs each, and salmon is selling in the stores here for about $15/lb, so if we catch one it will more than pay for itself; besides it will be FUN! There are definitely some perks to being a Senior Missionary!

We have enjoyed working with some of the members here. Last week we went out to work on Bro. Cox’s tractor, I put a new fuel shut-off valve in it. The valve had broken off so he couldn’t shut off the fuel when he changed filters, so I changed the valve out with a full fuel tank. Only lost about ½ gallon of diesel, but it was kind of messy. He thought we’d have to drain the whole tank, but that would have lost a lot more fuel than we did, so he was pretty excited. He also has a little John Deere dozer with a broken track adjuster, we need to take it off and order another one, but I need to see if he wants to spend the money on it. The parts are over $500, but it isn’t worth much the way it is. I just don’t know if he’ll use it enough to want to put that much into it. He has a hard time getting around, but it really is good to move snow with, and they have a fairly long driveway to plow when we get a heavy snow. Brother Cox has a tracheotomy so he has to put his thumb over the hole in his throat to talk, and he only has 40% of his lungs left, but he is awesome and has such a sweet, humble spirit. They are so good to us, and so appreciate any help we can do for them. He is the one I was talking about when I told about his looking out of his kitchen window above the sink that is about 7’ above the ground, and looking eye-to-eye with a bear that was looking in the window. Said it startled him a little. He was in the navy and fought in the Korean, Viet-Nam and first Gulf war. He really has some interesting stories to tell!

ReNee and the Relief Society Presidency is setting up a Relief Society culture night for next week on the 17^th, we’ve asked a couple of ladies from the Philippines to come teach the sisters about Philippine culture and food. They seem quite excited about it. One of them is married to a less-active brother, and we had a great visit with him. We decided that since the ladies were going to be having a party and food without us, we should all go have a party without them, so we’re going to go up to 33 Mile and have hamburgers together. We’re going to invite the non-member husband of the other lady and some of the other less-actives and have a “guy” party. Everybody got quite excited about it, so we’re going to see if we can set it up and get as many as we can out for it.

Well, I guess I’d better get going for now. We really appreciate hearing from you, and hope everything is going well in your lives. May the Lord bless you all, and may your families and loved ones be well. We love you all!

Love, Dondavid and ReNee