Letter

Dearest Family, May 27, 2011

Well, it has been quite an eventful week or two. Last week we did quite a lot of service, we went over to Ng’s and I helped him reinforce a banister post that was loose, then we spent the next two days installing his stair rail and a railing along the top of the stairs between the entry way and the living room. It is where we had taken out part of a wall earlier in the spring because he wanted to make his living room look larger. We got it in, and it looks really good, but still took two days to do it. Then I helped him figure out how to take the tires off his motorcycle so he could get them fixed. The back one had the cords showing through, and the front one was bald. It is a Honda Can-am, so it has all of this plastic around the tires and the Honda shop here wanted $175 to change them out, and he already has the new tires. I showed him how to get the plastic off, and we got the wheels off. (Shaft drive). He was going to have the tires changed at a tire shop, which was fine with me, but another friend of is from the Philippines went and got them from the tire shop and changed them himself. He said he had been changing them since he was a little kid because EVERYBODY rides motorbikes over there. Still took him about two hours to do them, so I was really glad he did. Then I put them back on for him, and took the trunk release out so he could fix it. Turns out he couldn’t buy a new cable for that year of bike, so he is building a new one out of a bicycle brake cable. I decided I’d let him.

Anyway, on Friday we went out to Tom Hirsch’s and helped him clear some of his land so that he can park some of his equipment out of site of the house. The trees here grow really close together, mostly lodge pole pine, but with a few birch here and there. The pines are about 1 ½” in diameter, but about 10-15’ tall. They grow like weeds. Anyway, we pulled a bunch of them up with his tractor that I fixed the week before. You just wrap a chain around them and pull them up like weeds, then drag them over to burn them. We had a fun bonfire and a good visit along with it. Some of them we cut up with the chainsaw because they were too long to burn and we didn’t want the fire to spread. We’re going to go out today and help him block up a bunch of wood for this winter. He’s about my age, but is really stove up from motorcycle and snowmobile wrecks and working hard logging for a good part of his life, but he’s really an awesome guy and a real strength to the branch here. We’ve really gotten to be good friends. Besides, he has a shop with lots of tools that he lets me borrow when I need them. I do wish he had a hoist, though! J

Saturday I worked at Ng’s again for awhile, plus we have been teaching lessons almost every night, or visiting with less-actives and investigators. We did lose Daniel this week, we were supposed to have a lesson with him last Tuesday, but when we went over his wife said he had been picked up for throwing water-balloons and was out after curfew for the second time, so he was in jail, but could we take him up his Book of Mormon. We went up and gave a Book of Mormon to the jailer, but they wouldn’t let us in because we haven’t filled out the necessary paperwork yet. Will do that this week. Anyway, because this was the second time he had broken curfew it looks like he’ll be there for 6-10 months. We’re going to try to continue to visit him, but can’t count him as an investigator anymore. But maybe we can count him as a “captive audience?” L

Then on Monday (our regular P-day) I helped our landlord, Mark, work on some of his stuff. First I helped him change the lower control arm on his 4-wheeler because he didn’t know how to change out the bushings, and the ball-joint had broken. Then I fixed the starter on his Ford diesel pickup. Then I helped him weld the catalytic converter back to the exhaust pipe on his motorhome. That turned into a major job, it’s a ’98 Ford with a V-10, so we pulled it up on the curb so we could crawl under it. We used a borrowed 110v wire-feed welder, but it wasn’t hot enough to flow good, and he had some crappy flux-core wire. Plus it kept blowing the breaker. Finally we gave up and went out to Toms and borrowed his acetylene torch set. It’s a monster, about 400 lbs, but the three of us rolled it up ramps into the back of Mark’s pickup and tied it in. We used it to fix the exhaust, which took about three hours because the stupid flux-core wire left pockets of glass from the flux everywhere, so by the time you got it hot enough for the metal to flow the glass out, it would burn a hole in the pipe. Finally got it done. Then we took Tom’s torch back out to him. Tom wasn’t there, so we backed the pickup up to the shop to unload it. I forgot Mark had wrecked his motorcycle the night before and hurt his shoulder so no strength there. I was on top, Mark on the bottom. With is bad shoulder he couldn’t hold it back, and I did OK by myself until it got to the steep part of the ramp, then it took off with me still trying to hold it back. I didn’t want to let go because I didn’t want it to run over Mark! Anyway, it hit the bottom of the ramp and stopped, but I didn’t. It launched me and I face-planted on the concrete floor! Got a nice shiner, a sore wrist and some bruises out of it, but am doing OK now. Everybody asks me how I got my shiner, and I just tell them it is a result of miss-communication. Mom said “Duck!” and I said, “Where?”

We lost another of our investigator families this week. We had a great lesson with them at the Branch President’s house last Thursday, but Pres. Little put quite a bit of pressure on them to come to church on Sunday. Since they don’t drive he said someone would pick them up. They were kind of reluctant, but he wouldn’t give up. Then he called them and on Sunday morning and said someone would be over. They didn’t answer the phone so he left a message. We tried to call them several times this week, and they didn’t answer or call back. We went to see them last night, and Justin told us that they wanted to decide for themselves, and didn’t want us to come back for awhile. We told him that would be fine, invited him to continue to read his Book of Mormon, and asked if we could call him in a week or two. I also told him that I would tell the other people not to call him anymore. We parted on friendly terms, but sometimes fellowshipping can get a little over-zealous. We fell really sad, because they were doing so well. Justin has quit smoking and they have been really receptive, but it was at a pretty sensitive time and just too soon to push.

We are looking forward to going out to dinner tonight for our 42^nd wedding anniversary. The Ng’s are going to take us out to a Salmon and Barbeque House here in town that is supposed to be really good. We would never go there on our own, as it’s really expensive, but they want to take us for helping them with the house. It will be fun, and Mom is excited to have their famous fish n’ chips! I’m going to see if they have good ribs!

Warren, we’re so excited about your research fellowship with ISU with the internship at INL! That should be an awesome experience that will open many doors to you. And I’m dang jealous that you are going to be working on hybrid auto research! Thank you so much for calling to tell us about it! It will be so nice to be able to get your degree without having to go deep in debt! Mom loved her Mother’s day present from you and Rachel, she loves getting the multiple little presents, and the notes with them were delightful!

Ed and Julie, I hope you guys aren’t floating away! From the news it looks like the river is still rising, but at least it hasn’t reached the highest level yet, and the cooler weather might help it slow down a little. Ed, your motorcycle sounds awesome! Those Kawasaki’s are great bikes, and should give you better mileage than even your Camry. Might be a little chilly in the mornings, though! Did you get it running yet? Mark was riding his Honda the other day and hit a little patch of sandy gravel on a curve and dumped it. Messed his shoulder up, bruised his hip, and really cracked his helmet. Probably would have killed him if he hadn’t been wearing it. I helped him fix the handle-bars and throttle on his bike Monday, but I haven’t seen him riding it again yet. His wife isn’t very excited about him having it in the first place, and really ticked now that he’s had his first accident. He hasn’t ridden a lot, you can tell.

Well, Mom thinks it’s time to go get breakfast, so I guess I’ll close. We love you all, and we love to hear from you.

Love, Dad and Mom.