Donut falls

O hi kid,

I’m writing pretty late tonight, we’re all in bed, mom just turned her light off, clock says 11:05. I imagine you guys getting ready for bed. 

Was today zone conference or tomorrow? I used to look forward to those. You’ve been in the field long enough to have friends to look forward to seeing. I’m curious about your open house assignments. I wonder if you’ll get to eat something good.

Tonight I went on a hike with the teachers Quorum to donut falls. There was still quite a bit of snow up there but the trail was packed enough to make it manageable. For some reason, we followed Westley, who chose the wrong path twice. The first one took us up a steep trail, to the west of the mild trail to the falls. We had t cross country down a pretty steep slope to get to the real trail. That took us just beneath the falls. Then on the way down he again chose the less direct path. Oh well, it was extremely pretty up there and not too cold. Made me want to start hiking more. We live in such a beautiful place.

I can’t say there’s a lot going on right now. Yesterday I got to go finish the five initatories. It was busy at the oquirrer mountain Temple. I had to do them in two sessions. I did 4 of the 5 brothers, so now all 5 are ready for endowments.

As I went through the temple I was making a mental list of all the things that I have to count as blessings during my trial, let’s see if I can list them:

1. Love for the temple. I’ve gone twice a week almost every week since this started. I sadly have to say that for most of my life, I didn’t like to go. It was big and intimidating to me. I always messed up and felt like that was a fault. I never connected with those I was doing the work for. More recently I’ve started wanting to go, but more out of obligation, or as mom would say”doing my duty.” Now, I feel like I’m going because I really desire to be closer to God, and I really feel Him there. I have a lot more confidence getting through the process, and I even feel a connection to those family members I do the work for. I’ve had more than one occasion where I felt them close by.
2. Scriptures. I’ve been motivated to really search the scriptures for what I’m supposed to do, for comfort, and to try to become more familiar with God and Christ. Not just from a doctrinal perspective, but also from a personality perspective. In the Book of Mormon, Jesus speaks with a very assured voice, confident, not condescending, familiar. It reminds me of how my brother used to talk to me. God almost always speaks in covenants, with his side being immovable, asking us to be faithful from our end. It’s not just my trial that has me searching this way, but my calling as well. I feel very unprepared for this, so I search.
3. Conference talks. Most of the above applies here too. But they are even more specific and directly for us. Those brethren and sisters speak from and for our time. The teaching and inspiration is immediate.
4. Church service. Okay, I’m far from perfect at that. But I’ve gone from resenting my calling as an obligation like I used to in Texas, to seeing it as an opportunity to get away from my worries and emerge myself in it. I’m anxious to help the Bishop, I really love getting to know our ward members.

Okay, that’s more than enough Righteous dad for today.

In other events, yesterday Jacob was going with his buddies to see the avengers again. Joseph didn’t get invited because he’s at a different school. So I checked him out a little early and took him. I was going to be vague on the reason for check out part of the form. I was just going to put down “appointment”, then I noticed a few lines up brother fielding had checked his daughter out and boldly wrote “movie” in that line, so I did too. I liked it the second time, but not dying to see it a third, though I’m sure we will when it comes out on video. I think you’ll enjoy it.

I got two more pictures from my new friend and cousin Fred Fell. He sent over newspaper clippings of our grandfathers death. Turns out he was killed in a motorcycle accident. The clippings told where he worked and who he was married to. Fred said that was really all he knows about him. Now we know it too.

Well, I love you kid, I hope all is well, I hope you can avoid any gastro-intestinal discomforts, I pray for your health and safety, your investigators and your happiness.

Pops