We started our month of May with many more commitments than we had initially planned. We were giving lessons or presentations many times over the first few weeks of the month. Those requests came over a few months, but culminated at the same time. This kept us scrambling with all of our efforts to both prepare and present. Before we finished this rush of committments, we were right into the end of the school year performances with many of our grandchildren. We then ended the month with our traditional five grandchildren birthdays in about 8 days and two more in the first days of June. During this busy month we were blessed to learn and experience a new way to worship in "The House of Glory".
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| Our two institute classes and a choir and dance performance for grandchildren |
Giving Lessons and Presentations:
In January, Debbie had accepted a turn in teaching the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in their May meeting. In February, Tom was happy to accept a request to substitute for a ward member in teaching his Sunday School class on Fast Day in May. In February we started our Family Home Evening group and we accepted our normal turn in hosting the Family Home Evening, also in May. On April 10, we were asked to make a presentation to the Legacy House branch in our stake for their Family Home Evening on May 5. On April 15, we accepted a request to teach an additional institute class in our Church Service Mission for the Term beginning May 5. Add all of this to our normal Monday Come Follow Me study groups and the standard Thursday evening Institute classes that we were teaching and we quickly recognized that we were in an overload situation at the beginning of May. One thing that we have learned in our lives, is that when we are overwhelmed, we need to turn things over to the Lord. During this month, we have seen the hand of the Lord consistently in everything that we have done. We testify that we survived this month of May. We finished most nights exhausted, but happy, as the Lord helped is in unmistakable ways.
We did recognize our predicament in the middle of April and started to prepare the best that we could. We started with our Family Home Evening Presentation. We decided to center it around seeing the Hand of the Lord in our Lives. We enjoyed telling much of our life story in 40 minutes, primarily showing photos and explaining how the Lord's plan was better than our plan. We enjoyed very much preparing and presenting stories of our lives that we knew well. We now have a presentation that we can use in other situations. In fact, we based our Family Home Evening group which we hosted the following Monday on the same theme.
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| Cover Page of our Presentation to the Legacy House Branch |
Teaching Sunday School is based on our daily and weekly study of Come Follow Me. The preparation of the materials wasn't as hard as deciding how to share the wonderful principles that we had studied the prior two weeks. The Lord shared new thoughts and insights that helped the class to be a success.
What was perhaps the most concerning was our new assignment to teach our new institute class to students in West Africa on Thursday mornings (Their Thursday evenings) and our institute class to students in Utah on Thursday evenings. This took extra effort and preparation. Our first gathering of this term was on May 8. This was the most difficult because we had not met our class or understood anything of their challenges. After the first week, our anxieties were more in check. However the preparation challenges have continued each week as we are now teaching two different courses to two different classes on two different continents. The course we are teaching to the group in West Africa is the same that we taught last term, so that helps a bit, even though the needs of the class alters our approach.
We have found that when we pray together before we prepare a lesson plan, the Lord gives inspiration to both of us. This allows us to develop a lesson plan that works. We have learned on this mission the importance of allowing the students to teach each other. We are to come to our weekly gatherings with inspired questions, from the Teachers manual. We simply facilitate a discussion with students who have already studied the lessons before coming to our gathering. We have been blown away with the amazing comments and personal insights that the students bring to class and share with each other.
Even though the culture between our West African students and the Utah students is vastly different, the commitment to and testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ are outstanding in both classes. This mission is not easy, but it is rewarding. We have learned to love these students with all of our hearts. Each of them has their own life challenges, but they trust in the Lord to help them through those trials. In the first 4 weeks of this term with our students we have seen marriages, births of children, car accidents, West African burials, job changes, conflicting schedules and much more. We have students who have attended from a cruise on her honeymoon, from a rodeo ground, before her son was performing, from a meetinghouse in Nigeria to access WiFi, from students in their places of employment, and much more. Their lives are not easy, but their faith carries them through.
Mothers Day and Family Reunion Planning
Some of Debbie's children planned to invite her to brunch on Saturday before Mother's Day, May 10. Since we were going to be in Cache Valley that day for Serenity's dance recital, it was decided to hold the brunch in Hyrum, Utah with Debbie and Beckie traveling up. After the brunch we attended Serenity's dance recital and had scheduled to visit the Lodge near Bear Lake where we will be holding our Family Reunion in July. This actually worked out very well and our son Dan and his family drove us up to Bear Lake and joined in the tour of the Lodge. This actually helped quite a bit so that we could be more rested to drive back to South Jordan at the end of the day.
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| Debbie with four of her children in Cache Valley they before Mother's Day |
We had held our second planning meeting for our Family Reunion the Sunday before with 10 of our children who will coming to the Family Reunion with their families.
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| Zoom meeting with 10 of the families that will be going to our Family Reunion. |
As we visited the lodge, we were pleasantly surprised about what we could see first hand. We had worried about a dining space for about 60 people. The on-line photos had only showed a breakfast eating area. We were pleased to see a room that seats at least 56 so that we can eat all together. We also could see one of the adjoining rooms that can be a hang out and sleeping room for some of the teenage boys. We inspected each of the 16 bedrooms and the outdoor facilities which were wonderful. We left with a higher comfort level and optimism that all would work out for the Family Reunion.
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| The Dining Hall, much more space than we had anticipated |
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| One of the living rooms with a bear skin on the wall |
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| An extra overflow room outside of four of the bedrooms. It will work for older boys who do not fit in the rooms with their parents. |
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| An area behind the lodge with an enclosed fence for the little ones to roam |
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| Side of the lodge with space for volleyball and tetherball |
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| A fire pit on the other side of the creek |
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| Having milk shakes in Garden City with Dan and his family |
By the time that we got home it was late. However, I was able to get Debbie to go clothes shopping on Friday before and I bought her roses and hid them in the garage in water. After a complicated week, I was still able to honor my sweet wife and have a few surprises for her.
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| She knew her other gifts, but was surprised by the roses |
Grandchildren Performances:
Once Debbie presented her lesson on May 19, the pressure of the extra classes reduced, but the invitations to the year end performances were increasing. Let me back up a little. Our first dance recital was with Serenity in Cache Valley on Saturday, May 10 (see above). We had another dance recital scheduled for Evelyn for Saturday, May 17. We woke up that day thinking that it would be a simple Saturday. After we finished doing the Emergency Preparedness drill on Saturday morning (Debbie is one of the block captains in our neighborhood), we came back into our house and found multiple texts at the last minute. They invited us to a choir concert for Ashton (from Cache Valley) to be held at Clearfield High School at noon and a dance recital for Aria at Brighton High School at 6:00 pm. This was the same time as Evelyn's recital, but we were able to go to an earlier recital at 4:00 pm at Murray High School. To make a long story short, we were able to attend two dance recitals and a choir concert at three different high schools all on the same day. We were also attended a play at Hillcrest High School with Joshua the night before.
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| Some of the programs that we have accumulated over the last few weeks |
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| Serenity (middle) at her dance recital on May 10 (Mountain Crest High School) |
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| Finding Ashton at Clearfield High School |
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| Ashton's Middle school choir who took first place in the competition |
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| Ashton in the choir, second from the right, front row |
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| Evelyn at her dance recital at Murray High School |
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| Evelyn is the girl on the left who is in the air with her jump |
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| Aria after her dance recital at Brighton High School |
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| Aria in green with her arms stretched out |
The next Wednesday night, we were able to watch our grandson Jon, dance in a ballroom dance performance at Hillcrest High School. We had missed his performance in December when we were visiting our grandson in North Dakota, so we wanted to make sure we were there. Jon danced much better than we imagined. We were pleasantly surprised.
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| Jon, dancing with his partner on the left |
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| Jon, second from the right |
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| Jon, after the performance |
The same day of this performance our granddaughters were doing a piano recital in Hyrum, Utah. Their father sent videos of the performance and we were able to watch later.
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| Ellie playing her song, memorized |
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| Olivia, playing a duet with her teacher |
Joshua Digerness:
We need to reserve a section of this blog just for our grandson, Joshua Digerness. We have never spent so much time supporting any of our grandchildren than we have Joshua. He has been in performing arts for years and always has a performance to attend. Joshua just graduated from Hillcrest High School. He spent the last two years in their Vocal Ensemble and performed in many of their school plays. At the end of the year he received several awards. This includes the outstanding male vocalist of the year, Honor Diploma, at least 3.75 GPA, and a top ensemble performance in the school play earlier in the year. We watched his last play on May 16, his Pops Concert of the Vocal Ensemble on May 28, and his graduation on May 29. We attended his academic honors night on You Tube on May 20, and missed his Musical awards on May 22. It is a full-time job just to support him, but he is worth it. He is a fine young man. Perhaps the most important, he has been called to serve a full-time mission in Harare Zimbabwe beginning in August. We found an open Sunday in his schedule and had him for dinner at our home with Elder and Sister Edwards from our Ward. Elder Edwards served as a General Authority of the Church and they were mission leaders in Zimbabwe 25 years ago. We were pleased that they were willing to spend time sharing their experiences and love for the country of Zimbabwe.
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| Joshua spending time with Elder and Sister Edwards, learning about Zimbabwe |
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| Joshua after his performance in Cymebeline two days previous |
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| Josh with his outstanding male vocalist award |
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| Joshua with his last performance with the Vocal Ensemble, kneeling in the middle |
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| From the Vocal Ensemble Pops Concert program |
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| Joshua's bio in the Pops Concert Program |
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| Joshua on Graduation Day, May 29. It fit right in between our two institute classes. |
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| Joshua singing a short duet line in the musical number of the graduation ceremony |
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| Joshua graduating |
DeVores in Pennsylvania:
This was a big call out to Joshua, but it is not meant to minimize our other High School graduate, Thomas DeVore. He will be graduating next week in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. We hope to have photos of his graduation for our next blog. In our last family Zoom meeting we started a GroupMe account for our family, so we are able to participate better with our out of town children. The following are a few of the photos that we have from the DeVores in Pennsylvania. Henry also was in the top 10% of his class and Edward played in the band concert. We miss these events, but are still very proud of each of our grandchildren.
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| Thomas with some of his works from the Art Show |
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| Henry with some of his works from the Art Show |
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| Timothy running in the Color Me run |
The House of the Lord:
For our mission we are invited to attend their Inservice meetings each month at the Institute in Taylorsville. This past month we were privileged to listen to S. Michael Wilcox for two and a half hours. He focused on the blessings that we find in the "House of the Lord". Michael is a favorite speaker and an author. We were blessed to hear his thoughts about the temple, especially the different houses that are identified in D&C 88:119 and repeated again in the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple. He suggested that when we go to the temple we should go pondering the different houses mentioned in the scriptures.
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| Michael Wilcox teaching is in a delightful personal way |
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| One of his books, which we have. This was the source of most of his comments. |
During the month of May, the Jordan River Temple was closed for two weeks, so we were able to attend at the new Deseret Peak Temple, at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and back to our Jordan River Temple. As we attended these temples, we pondered the House of Prayer, the House of Order, the House of Fasting, and the House of Refuge. As we did, we found new thoughts and inspiration as we found evidences of each of these houses over and over again in the temple, the instruction therein and in the ordinances.
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| At the new Deseret Peak Temple in Tooele |
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| Debbie with the beautiful flowers in front of the Deseret Peak Temple |
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| At the Jordan River on our 26th anniversary of being sealed together, April 30 |
Memorial Day:
We spent Memorial Day with Jacob and Deb. This was our first Memorial Day together since they got married. Deb wanted to know all about our ancestors as we visited their graves. It was a fun time sharing the histories that we consider sacred. What a wonderful time we had together. A few of the photos:
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| Visiting Debbie's Parents |
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| Tom's parents and ancestors |
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| Visiting our daughter Camila's grave |
After returning from the graves, we had a Memorial Day barbecue at Jacob and Deb's house. They hosted in their back yard that they have been working on all Spring. This was a house warming for many family members who had not yet seen their home. The Barbecue turned out excellent. Jacob is a master chef. We had 23 family members that participated, most that live in the Salt Lake Valley. Their yard was shaded and very enjoyable. For us it was amazing to just participate and leave. We are entering into a new phase of our lives and we love it.
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| Everyone sitting outside in the shade, perfect conditions |
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| Plenty of food and fun reminiscing by many of the siblings; priceless! |
Birthdays:
We celebrated a few birthdays in late April, since our last blogpost. They included Tiancom who turned 14 and Olivia, who turned 10.
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| Birthday lunch with Tiancom, our scripture sharing grandson who turned 14 |
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| Olivia turning 10 |
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| Olivia wore us out with "Would you rather" questions from her new book. |
On the way up to Hyrum to celebrate birthdays with Olivia and her dad, Jared, we stopped in South Ogden for a quick visit with Caide. He also signed the documents for me to access his medical records, which we used to gather more information about his disease. We sent it to those studying this disease in Baltimore, Maryland. Caide has an allele with 69 repeats detected in the JPH3 gene, the longest repeat length they have found in all cases of HDL2. We hope that this can be helpful for continuing research.
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| Caide during my visit with him in late April |
Late May is one of the busiest times that we have for birthdays. We have three grandchildren with birthdays on May 20. This year Katelyn turned 23, Aria turned 12, and Sophia turned 5. Then Paisley turned 8 just a week later, May 27 and Jacob Digerness turned 14 on May 28. All but Katelyn received a personal visit, but we had a phone call with her and a nice conversation. June starts with two more birthdays, Abbie turns 15 on June 1 and Serenity turns 10 on June 2.
Sophia's mom and grandmother put on an amazing birthday party. The last few years we have not been available to participate, so this was a priority for us. It was a grand birthday party, Brazilian style. Plenty of food, activities and love. A few photos from the party follow:
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| Sophia with her family at her party |
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| Sophia with her American grandparents, celebrating her 5th birthday |
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| Sophia with her grandma from Brazil and her "American grandparents". Her mother was our exchange student. |
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| The party included a bounce house |
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| Sophia enjoying her birthday books |
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| Aria turning 12 with the same birthday as Sophia |
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| Paisley, turning 8 a week after her sister's birthday |
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Jacob celebrating his 14th Birthday
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| Abbie turning 15 on June 1 |
Protecting some new borns:
In our neighborhood we had some new little ducks. When walking with their mother, they fell down the storm drain. We got involve trying to save the ducklings. Finally, animal control came and saved them.
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| Animal Control playing a chirping sound from her phone to get the ducklings out to where she could pick them up with the net |
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| The first seven ducklings rescued. All were eventually rescued! |
