Last Sunday was spent at Jonathan's. They hold a real sacrament meeting. And that afternoon Miriam received her patriarchal blessing; this was a marvelous experience as we spent about 30 minutes visiting with the patriarch and gained insight to how he receives revelation for each individual that requests a blessing from him. It was a beautiful blessing, too. We come home to the wonderful smells of pizza. David was in charge of preparing dinner this night, and he did a great job. If you are visiting this family, you don't want to miss Sunday pizza dinners; they are so delicious. And most of the children know how to make the dough and prepare the pizza.
Monday, after using Jonathan's office to conduct seminary, I headed home. I did make a stop at Sam's to stock up on some of their food stuffs. I returned in time to put things away and get ready for another week at home.
Wednesday I had a meeting with personnel at the law office that manages our trusts. Sandy may have passed away 15 months ago, but there are still a few loose legal ends that need to be completely transferred to me. I stopped by the DMV to get the title on the van changed to my trust, only to find out I need a lien release from the bank showing the loan was paid off. The bank is sending one. We are still doing battle with one bank that does not acknowledge me as the rightful heir and therefore is blocking me from access to that account. My lawyer is confident they will soon see the light and change their behavior. Fortunately, the money in that account is not a significant amount and there is no pressing need for it. I thought the purpose of the trust was to avoid such situations!
Because on occasion I tend to rock the boat, the elder's quorum president asked me to come up with suggestions for some activities that would help create unity amongst the men in our quorum. Three others were willing to meet on Thursday to discuss things we can do to strengthen us spiritually and temporally. We were not able to resolve all the world's problems in an hour; the general consensus was that we need more opportunities to gather, something which current virus restrictions inhibit. We are going to try to reactivate the monthly empty nester meeting and a hot dog roast/bon fire is on the schedule in the coming weeks. We will continue with live EQ meetings every other week, and we proposed SS be held on the other two weeks.
Friday and Saturday I felt ambitious and brought down six storage tubs from the attic. They contained our Christmas decorations. They are now separated into two groups: that which I will keep, but put in the storage shed (easier to access than the attic) and that which is to be given away. I took pictures of 30 plus items and posted to family members in the hopes that someone will adopt them.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been visited with two unwanted guests. Jack Frost invaded the downstairs upright freezer door, building up ice across the top of the door and into the freezer. First thought was to replace the 10 year old freezer; that thought quickly vanished when I discovered the cost of a new one was twice what I paid 10 years ago. A new door seal was 1/10th the price of a freezer. After about an hour's work, the new seal was installed. There is still a light dusting of frost across part of the door but over 90% of the previous frost and ice is gone.
The other undesirable guest was a leaky toilet. I would never have known there was a problem if not for those midnight visits to the bathroom. I could hear water running for a few seconds, and then stop. After experiencing this for a couple of nights, I went downstairs and turned off the water to that toilet. By day's end the tank was empty. So I replaced the flapper valve; although diminished, the water was still leaking. So I bought a new float valve assembly and overflow tube. Installation involved removing the tank from the commode to install a new seal with the which was no big issue. However, it still leaked enough to annoy me. So off came the water tank and the nut holding the seal was retightened. Victory is now mine!
In our Youtube sacrament meeting, we heard from a recent convert and her relatively new husband, who is a long time member. After 40 years of marriage, her first husband died of cancer. Six year later she met and then married Steve. He introduced her to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She quoted D&C 123:12 and asked if during her upbringing was she kept from the truth? Her parents were not religious so she was not overly involved in a church. As a college student, young adult and then mother who attended church when she made the time to be involved, she asked: 'did I keep myself from the truth?' She basically answered these two questions. However, the answer to her last question is not so obvious: 'why did it take so long for her to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ?'
Life in Mountain Home continues. No snow, but night time temperatures in the 20s. I am still teaching seminary five days a week to a group of amazing youth. And I am hopefully moving forward with my plans to enlarge the kitchen. Stay tuned for more on this new adventure!
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