February, so far

I really should back up to January, but I'm moving forward. Ash and Nate both were part of a Lego League team that Gwen put together -- The Robotic Peacocks. I've always loved the Lego teams my kids have been a part of. They learn about teamwork, commitment, dedication, strengths, weaknesses, and a whole myriad of other character building traits in addition to learning how to program and make robots perform how they'd like them to.

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

Photo courtesy of Jerry Winters

I also love the fact that they love each other.

This winter has been unseasonably warm. Like 60, almost 70 degrees some days. It's been warm enough that Alex decided to throw on his swim suit and try out the stream. This was February 7th and we should have several inches of snow on the ground.

Nate's science fair project made it to the district level which made for a few crazy days as I shuttled him back and forth to the Community Learning Center in Tooele. Unfortunately, his project was not chosen to go on. I love seeing my kids excel at different things but sometimes I'm frankly quite relieved to not have one more event to go to.

Ash and her friend Allie decided to try out their brave and tackle a steep decline on their bikes.

Actually, Allie backed out and Ash went ahead without her and used her face for brakes as she hit a rock and tumbled. She's been miserable for a few days.

Valentines arrived and our kitchen became heart-attack grand central.

There was one particular Valentine that became War of the Mothers. I secretly hope I'm one of those warring mothers whose vying for Best Mom in the World. :)

Raise my ebenezer

Today was a homecoming and three angelic girls sang, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" -- one of my most favorite hymns with such powerful lyrics. Oh how I wish it were in our hymnbooks, but then again that might make it kind of banal and not as heart-stopping.

As they sang the second verse, I had to lean over to Kiersten and ask if she knew what "Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by thy help I've come." All I've known about the word Ebenezer is he's a character in a Dickens novel. I've never heard it used as a noun.

Turns out it's actually from the bible, 1 Samuel 7. The Israelites are under attack from the Philistines and beg the prophet Samuel to plead in their behalf for the Lord to intervene. The Lord hears his pleading and prayers and smites the Philistines. This victory is recorded in 1 Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

Eben-ezer literally means stone of help and was set as a monument for the children of Israel to remember the Lord's mercy and goodness in delivering them from the Philistines.

Wow! I love that little story. Shouldn't we all have our own ebenezers of miracles, tender mercies, spiritual experiences that we raise to help us remember who's really at the helm, who's really waiting to help if we just ask, who's really given us those experiences that's made us who we are today.

If there's one recurrent theme with all scripture that I read, it's that the people are constantly in a cycle of remembering and forgetting their God. It is the tendency of the natural man. Please let me learn the lessons of history. Let me raise my ebenezer so I don't forget the blessings that have poured into my life from a good, gracious, loving Father in Heaven.

As I've thought about this little story, I do have an experience that has stayed with me for many years. Not because it's miraculous and awe-inspiring but because it's probably the first time I really felt the Holy Ghost with power.

It was the summer after my freshman year of college. I was staying with my aunt and uncle for the summer so I could continue working. One afternoon before I had to go in to work, I was sitting in the bedroom I shared with my cousin, reading a book titled, I Know that My Redeemer Lives: Latter-day Prophets Testify of the Savior. As I read the testimonies of these men, I had a strong feeling come over me that what I was reading was true. I felt light. I felt good. I felt inspired. Time seemed to stand still for a moment as the Holy Ghost bore witness to me that day that Jesus Christ is indeed a savior to all men. He is my Savior.

I cannot deny how I felt that day and it's one of my own ebenezers that I can raise as a monument to God that I will not forget, that I cannot forget such an experience, insignificant as it may seem. 

Driving permit

Yep, she finally buckled down and studied a little and passed that driving test to get her permit.

I honestly don't know how my mom and dad coped with six drivers. I can barely handle one. I don't know if my heart can take four more.

Maybe because I was never a very good driver and here's proof.

The photo is very poor quality, but you can kind of see the sad shape my face is in. I tried to take a corner too fast on a road that was recently re-graveled and spun out and ended up in a ditch. I tried backing out but had high-centered the car. The neighbors on the corner saw the whole thing and helped me into their house to clean me up and then took me home. Then I lost it and the tears came. No major damage was done other than my face and pride as I had to retell my story several times including to the driver's ed teacher and highway patrolmen who were both in my ward. And no I was not wearing a seat belt. If I had it might have saved my face. Because of that first crash, new drivers scare me.

I will survive. Deep breaths. Lot of prayers.

Missionary experiences

I thought I'd like to take some of my mom's emails and put them on the blog for a record. So far we've received one letter that went to my sister Katie, but the emails come more frequently. How grateful I am for technology and grateful that they are able to use email in their little remote part of the world.

The follow email was sometime around the middle of January.

Dear Family,
I just saw your Dad sail away into the sunset aboard the Kwai.  You will have to google the Kwai sailing vessel.

It travels between Hawaii and Cook Islands and hits all the other little islands in between!  It was like watching Pirates of the Caribbean to see this ship with it's massive sails! To get aboard you climb into a huge net with a platform and then a crane picks you up and lowers you on to the ship.

He is going to Fanning Island for about 10 days, then the ship comes back and brings them back to Christmas and then heads on up to Hawaii. I guess if you were a guy that might be like working on the crab ships in Alaska except I don't think as dangerous. You certainly would get to see the South Pacific! Dad took two other elders and 3 bikes to get around and it will take about 30 hours to get there! He took a small back pack and a small box of supplies for the branch there. He is suppose to organize the branch because the two counselors keep spending money without the ok. The branch president has been in for 7 years and is willing to stay if he had someone he could work with--that is dedication!

We are left with 2 sisters and 2 elders and all of sudden it has gotten quiet and calm. We were suppose to have two more elders coming tomorrow but Fiji canceled a flight from Tarawa to Fiji because of a storm. So because they missed that flight from Tarawa meant they would miss the flight to Christmas. Can you see what a nightmare this mission would be for a poor mission president. He has to deal with 3 countries! And Fiji is by far the worse! President Weir is trying to help out a man buy his own plane and then the church would hire him to fly the mission president and missionaries around this mission. Most of the outer islands do have a small--grass/dirt runway but not Fanning. They are suppose to be working on an airstrip into there. The best news is our Elder Bettencourt is coming back!  We are shocked that the President would send him back here and not keep him on Tarawa, but we are pleased because I think he has turned the corner and he knows being on Christmas is the best place to be.

It is interesting how my vision of life around me has changed. Instead of dirty shacks that people live in, I'm beginning to see those places where people try to fix up their yards by piling shells around the trunks, the yard has been swept clean and the garbage and clutter is gone. There are a lot of cinder block homes. I think the government builds all those and the people who live in them are probably government workers. We drove around London one day and realized there is a nice neighborhood where homes are fixed up and the more "wealthy" live there. Your dad had to find a young potential missionary to see if he still wanted to go on a mission and as I looked around I could tell it was a sub-division going in, with three or four cement houses being built. There are some that do bury their garbage, but the majority it is thrown in a heap and burned. I got to thinking it made me remember how Ferron was when we first moved in and the streets were not paved and the ones that were paved were full of pot-holes--that is the main road around the island. I'm beginning to see people too with new eyes. They don't just look brown with beautiful smiles.  I'm finally beginning to tell them apart and even understanding them!

We visited Poland Sunday which is 25 miles away from any village. They are truly all by themselves! It was like going into a ghetto area. There was not nice homes there at all. Mostly grass/tin huts and very, very dirty! This is the place you would send a missionary that you really hated! It would be cruel and unusual punishment! Church was held in the Primary School classroom and the principal was the fixing up a class room. We invited her to church and thought she would come but didn't. I got such a charge out of the posters on the wall. One said "always speaking English", below was the Kiribati translation. They had the alphabet around the room with English words. They had a list of rules in English, but then learning numbers was in Kiribati. It was so poor with no books to speak of. The teacher was assigned to be a principal here--lucky her! When you work for the government you go where the government puts you and after about 5 years then you get moved to even a different island sometimes. We came away quite discouraged with poor Poland. At the beginning of meeting, no one was there so we went through the village inviting people to come. The first person the sister talked with was an older gentleman who had moved there and was living with the Seven Day Adventists. So he declined our invitation and no wonder the women hurried and left. We had come out on Thursday with invitations and on Sunday you could tell the pastors of the different churches had probably talked to the people because they acted so scared or they just were not home! The bell kept ringing probably for the Kiribati United Church to come there instead of with us. This was the church that has the former missionary who had served a mission in Tonga but now he lost his job with the police for being drunk and needed money so he became a minister of the Kiribati church. He did not like us at all. We went back to the school and ended up having church with the unit leader and some of his grandchildren. We had one young father, a member, come in with his little boy, who is headed back to Tarawa in a week and an older gentleman that surprised the unit leader because he was active in the Kiribati church. Maybe he came to see what kind of message we had.

I just had a good discussion with the sisters. They are teaching a young father who is Seven Day Adventist but had a lot of questions of who Jesus Christ is. Our sailor friend, Tony, had the same belief that Jesus Christ is in you and the Holy Ghost is in Jesus Christ and then it becomes a part of you. This young father has had a friend who was LDS in Tarawa and has given him a lot of what we believe. He knew about Joseph Smith, Mount Zion, the second coming, the first vision, not adding to the bible-revelation and more. The poor sisters said they were all over the place discussing all kinds of doctrines. So when they go back they are going to have him hold his questions to the end and give their lesson so they will feel they had given him some understanding. He reads English and loves the Doctrine and Covenants--Whoa he is starting at the end! I had a triple combination here for them to give him, but tell him to start with the Book of Mormon and then his understanding of who Christ really is will come! I can't wait for what they have to tell me tomorrow night! I'm so impressed with Sister Pasina and her knowledge and understanding of the gospel. She is a very good teacher in that she can teach clearly and simply and uses scriptures. So the best advice I have for the grand kids--read your scriptures and memorize your scriptures. It  will come in great use!

There is nothing as constant as change! Today our schedules changed from having two elders come to none and from having an elder who just left here for the MTC come back here tomorrow because he missed the visa deadline, but luckily we talked President Weir into letting him go to Tarawa so he wouldn't have to come back home to work with the missionaries here. Right now we have two elders who are trying to cover 3 villages with a distance of 20 miles in between. They will be busy! We have two baptisms scheduled so far for Saturday -- one here and one in Banana 10 miles away. I better scoot because I'm headed to the airport in the morning anyway to see a sister missionary leave for the MTC. She is going to Singapore and she will just barely miss her sister who went into the MTC on Dec 31st! That sister is going to West Indies. This church is truly growing all over the world. I had to laugh at Sister Pasina from Tonga and Sister Sarufa from New Guinea because they were talking of how backward it is here on Christmas! I said it is not this way in your country --slow computer, banking system constantly down, power outages and all the other fun things of Christmas. They said absolutely not, this is a third world country! Okay now I'm curious and want to visit Tonga and New Guinea. I was impressed at the modernization of Fiji--it is the next Hawaii!

I will end with this funny story:  Your Dad is always bringing the lady at the post office a coke to get in good with her. The other day her friend said "you bring her a 'coke' of many colors"!!!  Then they laughed and laughed! Love you all and missing all the fun times of being with you!

Mom/Grandma Jewels