More fun photos from our Bend trip:

Thanksgiving 2008

There were 15 of us met in Bend at the Dodge home. It was a joyful reunion. My family is great!

The dinner was super. Home grown turkey, and no canned pie filling here!

We hiked to the top of Pilot Butte for a panoramic view of the mountains.

Thanks, Sheryl and Jonathan, for being such wonderful hosts.

Come what may and love it anyway

Our FHE last night was a rousing discussion at Tingeys about Elder Wirthlin's last conference talk. He gave four ways to deal with challenges:

1. Try to see it with humor. For me that's difficult. Once in Bozeman Eldon and I were to meet at a football game "on the east side of the stadium." Turns out the stadium is not aligned strictly north and south so he was looking on the southeast side and I was looking for him on the northeast side. We never did find each other at that game and I still fail to see the humor in it.

2. Look at the eternal view. So putting it in perspective makes us see how small it was.

3. Look for the compensations. I gave the example of Sheryl on her blogsite having a column of Curtisisms. She looks for the cute things he says and posts them. My favorite is: "Life isn't even, it's odd!" Eldon said he would have given that example if I hadn't.

4. Trust the Lord. It will all turn out.

This was a great and insightful talk given from a chair by a man who can no longer stand at the pulpit.  

So I have adapted and am trying to adopt Elder Wirthlin's mother's maxim: "Come what may and love it anyway."

Gratitudes

About three times now Aunt Gail has posted gratitudes, things she's thankful for, on her blog. In the latest one she's thankful for her sunroom of all things! To see a picture of her beautiful sunroom, check out her blog. Her attitude of gratitude makes me think she's living a happy life.

So I want to post 7 things I'm grateful for and challenge all who read my blog to do the same! This will help get us in the mood for Thanksgiving!

1. I'm grateful for Eldon. He is the most generous person I know. I realize he pretends to be stingy about a few oddball things, but I think he does that for attention. Down deep he is totally generous. Even the Bishop thanked him for his generosity at tithing settlement last night. He lets me have practically anything I want. He is very generous to look past my faults and love me NO MATTER WHAT.

2. I'm grateful for my eyes. I love to read and work on the computer and go for walks, for all of which I need good eyes. How sad it would be not to be able to see. I should add glasses to that, for without them, I wouldn't see very well.

2. I'm grateful for my computer. It never ceases to amaze me. There is so much you can do on it! Like keep in touch with your loved ones. Learn new things. Order movies to watch. Do research about your ancestors. The new FamilySearch program is just great, by the way. It has been interesting to check through it and straighten out some mistakes, so hopefully when you get on it will be more correct. Now you don't have to worry about keeping a record--the church has it all on the internet. It is the only  way to keep track of temple work that has been done and that will be done in the future.

4. I'm grateful for the 5 wonderful children Heavenly Father loaned us to take care of and teach and encourage.  It's been amazing to watch their growth and see how they've each one become a better person in spite of the bumps in the road. Their spouses have helped them and the Lord has helped them.

5. I'm grateful for the calling to teach SS with Eldon. He's a great teacher. He has a disarming way about him that helps the students relax and want to learn with him. 

6. I'm grateful for a clothes dryer. I wouldn't want to be clothes pinning wet clothes to a line outside in this cold wet weather!

7. I'm grateful for pioneer ancestors who went through all kinds of struggles to  come to Utah and help build up Zion. An example (I told about at DUP) is William Jex who was born in 1831 in England. He had about 6 weeks of schooling. He accepted the gospel as a young man and decided to go to Utah. He married his brother's widow, Eliza, as the sail ship was about to depart Liverpool. They settled first in Salt Lake and experienced the cricket plague. They were close to starvation. After Johnston's Army came they decided to go south and settled in Spanish Fork, at first in a dugout in the side of a hill. He served a mission back to England when he was 52. William and Eliza had 11 children and he had 4 with a polygamous wife, Jemima. He had a broom factory and lumber yard in Spanish Fork. He was able to attend the dedicatory services of the Manti Temple and heard heavenly music. He became a patriarch and died at age 97.

Visit from the Andrei Girls

Brenda brought her girls down for a visit while Mike was painting the living room. We went to Jeff Tingey's wedding reception and Brenda saw a few old friends. 

We watched the movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth which was a totally unbelievable and fun movie. Thankfully no one had nightmares afterwards.

Let's Go to the Coast

So we packed up the van and headed out. First stop was for lunch in Monmouth at the Burgerville because we had a gift coupon from Carl. Excellent food! We had turkey sandwiches and sweet potato fries. We wondered if Carl had gone there often when he was going to school in Monmouth.

We did some Christmas shopping at the mall and then stopped at Boiler Bay. The waves were crashing. There weren't many tourists this time of year. We spent the night at Beverly and then walked on the beach the next morning. It was a nice break.

Descended from Patriots and Pioneers

Pam brought her kids for a day while they prepared for the Veteran's Day parade in Albany. Their float took second place so they were happy. It was a cold rainy day so they got wet and cold. 

Pam made their outfits. Esther was Betsy Ross and carried a flag. She looked cute and demure in her period costume and I wish I had gotten her picture.

Zachary and Erik were patriots and really looked handsome. (You can tell Erik has been waving in a parade!)

So these amazingly outgoing and energetic grandchildren are children of the American Revolution on their mother's side and descendants of the Utah Pioneers on their father's. 

I hope they're proud of their progenitors and willing to stand up for and carry on the values and ideals of those stalwart patriots and pioneers.

Another Good Story from our SS Class

Dolcie Myrold told this one. When she was about 14 her Mia Maid teacher (who'd earlier had a child out of wedlock and repented) said that she felt bad that her sins would be on the heads of her parents. Dolcie said the Spirit whispered that this was not correct doctrine. She went home and searched the scriptures and found the truth, that as long as the parents have taught correct doctrine they won't be held responsible for their child's sins.

This story illustrated well the two principles we were teaching: 1) that the teacher must teach true doctrine, and 2) that the student is responsible for learning. Both of these principles require study and listening to the Spirit.

We are learning more from our students than they are from us!

Finley Wildlife Refuge

We walked around the Woodpecker Loop once while Emily ran it 5 or 6 times! It was beautiful even though it was drizzling off and on.

We saw hundreds of Canadian Geese coming in (from Canada, I suppose). We also saw some snowy egrets.

Then we went to the hazelnut place and enjoyed a yummy (small) ice cream cone.

Teaching by the Spirit brings joy

When we got home from church we were still pumped by our Sunday School class. We had a photo shoot with our personal photographer, ELO, and this one expresses our happiness.

The lesson was on teaching by the Spirit. We talked about the ways to bring the Spirit into the classroom--prayer, music, personal experiences, testimony, scriptures, and showing love. When we talked about prayer, Brian Rosenbalm told this personal experience that really brought the Spirit in. When he was in Seminary they had a new teacher, Brother Gullerud, who was a convert. The kids didn't cooperate because they thought he was nerdy. One day they were particularly bad and Brother Gullerud stopped the class in frustration and said, "I just can't go on. We'll stop for the day, but first let me say a prayer." He said a heartfelt prayer and it touched Brian's heart, so much so that he choked up telling us about it (and so did we).  What a perfect example of how telling personal experiences (the teacher's or the students') can bring the Spirit into the classroom.