I haven't been in my blog since Christmas and many things have happened.
After spending a wonderful Christmas in Lindon, Cedar Hills, Salt Lake City and Sandy, we came home between Christmas and New Years. We spent New Years Eve out with a free taco dinner and a movie. Just an enjoyable quiet time with just the two of us "Seeing in 2009".
We received word that on January 9, 2009 that Curt's niece, Barbara died. She was only 46 years old and died suddenly. She was fighting the flu and having a hard time breathing so her mother, Lorena, took her to St. Marks Hospital, only a few blocks from where they live. As soon as they arrived the elders on duty at the hospital gave her a blessing. As soon as the blessing ended, she relaxed and was gone. Her whole body just shut down all at once. Her funeral was on January 15th, a beautiful and inspirational funeral by the family. Even her 12 year old son, Brandon, spoke briefly. I had the privilege of singing "This I Know", and Cathy (our daughter-in-law) accompanied me. I told them it was Barbara's testimony "There is eternal life and Jesus is the Christ". It was written by Gerald Lund and his wife, Lynn, in a musical that goes along with his books "The Work and the Glory". It affected people emotionally and made many cry. The way Barbara died so peacefully, the family was at peace with her going.
At 11:35 p.m. on January 17th, our granddaughter Amanda gave birth to our 2nd Great-Grandson Kyle Trenton. He wasn't due until February 1st. I think that he wanted to be born while Great Grandpa and Grandma were in Sandy so we would be able to hold and love him before we had to head home. This is Mike and Cathy's 2nd grandson. He was early but healthy and weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and I checked and he has ten fingers and toes. It's really fun to watch Mike and Cathy as grandparents.
We were home just two weeks when we received word that on January 29th, Marlow, a very close friend of our's, had died. He had bone cancer for about 1 1/2 years so it wasn't a surprise, just didn't know when it would be. Marlow was Curt's cousin and best friend growing up in Escalante. Christa, his wife, was my best friend in high school. Curt and I introduced them and took them on a blind date to the All Church Dance Festival at the U of U. This was in 1951. They were married before we were and had twice as many children.
Marlow's funeral was on Monday, February 1st. On Sunday, we headed north again for his funeral and on Monday back home afterwards, because Curt was scheduled for outpatient foot surgery on Tuesday.
He had the big and middle toes on his left foot bone removed and straightened. He's supposed to keep it elevated and stay off from it, but its hard to keep a good man down. He was back yesterday to the doctor for a checkup and his foot was bleeding to the point of a big area of fresh blood was on the bottom of the bandage about the size of a small orange. He was chastised by the nurse and doctor and was told to stay off it and elevated. He can go to church this Sunday for one meeting but has to keep it up and straight out on the bench. He has a special shoe that he has to wear for another 2 or 3 weeks. He took his regular shoe with him yesterday in hopes that he could wear it (ha! ha! no such luck)! He's getting lots of reading done and some television watching. He's upset that he can't get on his computer and play games, but I don't know how long that will last. I mentioned to several including the doctor, if and when Curt has surgery again that I'm going to leave town and leave a BIG gorilla to sit on him and see that he follows the doctors instructions. He tries my patience and doesn't seem to understand the problems he could and did face with not following the doctors instructions. The bleeding yesterday was one result and example!
On January 23rd the Directors of our Member to Locate Mission (Elder & Sister Despain)received a call from the Church Membership Dept. in Salt Lake City with changes to be made in our mission here in St. George. They eliminated the Tuesday & Thursday a.m. shifts. The missionaries and volunteers on those two shifts were affected and were to be reassigned to other shifts. We were the Shift Leaders on Thursday a.m. We were already assigned to 3 shifts so we just kept our other 2 shifts (2 are normal for missionaries). So we now serve about 5 hours on Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon.
They also reassigned our Assistant Directors (Elder and Sister Hayes) to another mission. They had just been with us for a short time and everyone had learned to love them. They will be greatly missed. These were the only ones that left all others stayed and were reassigned to other shifts. We have a wonderful group of people serving in our mission. We love everyone and feel like it's a close family. I've decided that the changes will be a good and just as much work or more will be done. The changes were go in effect this past week, but with Curt's surgery we weren't there and probably won't be for another week since he had the bleeding problem. We have two couples that will probably be able to fill in for us again. I hope we can soon get back, we miss it!
The Salt Lake Member Location Mission call center (located in the basement of the Relief Society Bldg.) had their one night shift cancelled and they don't have any shifts on Fridays. I'm glad we don't have to fight the parking problems here like they have there. (Here in St. George our mission is located in the basement of the St. George Tabernacle.)
On Saturday afternoons a bunch of the missionaries get together for lunch (usually hot polish dogs & drinks) at Costco. There's about 25 that meet and eat and talk. We'll miss that today also. Guess what? We had meals-on-wheels for lunch. Elder Hawkins and Sister Borrowman brought us our hot dogs and a drink from Costco. What a treat and nice thing for them to do!
Well, I think that brings me pretty much up to date! Like I said "A Time of Changes." We loved our time with family and the many friends we had a chance to visit, our plate has been too full and it is good to be home.
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Thought for Today
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1 - To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;
2 - A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 - A time to kill, and time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 - A time to weep, and a time to laugh; and time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 - A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 - A time to get, and a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 - A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 - A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Grandma Cathy with our two Great-Grandsons Max & Kyle.
