THE HARVARD ALUMNI CLUB OF UTAH

Dear Family,

Memorial weekend has always been big in our family. That was the weekend when we all went to the farm to plant our huge garden and all participated (with various degrees of enthusiasm) and ended it with a gigantic barbecue, Mike, his kids Mom and I will got to St. Charles, ID, for a couple of days to do repairs and get ready for the reunion,

It is also graduation time. We had lunch with Emily and her family as Josh graduated from high school and will attend BYU Idaho with a scholarship in the fall. Way to go Josh!

Al presented the Julie Wirthlin Scholarship at Andover High School graduation in Michigan. Read her post... it is great.

We belong to the Harvard Alumni Club of Utah but never went to a meeting. This time it was held at Steve Covey's mansion up east of the Provo Temple. That is Covey of Covey Franklin Corp. It was quite a place with a two story library and an indoor olympic pool and basketball court next to the family room.

We went to hear Gary Browning speak on his experiences in Russia. It was like stepping back in time 50 years! One gal came up to us and said, "I was the sister to your secretary Diane Higgenson; you operated on my foot and I baby-sat your kids and helped on one of your papers!" It was Julie Higginson and that memory came from a part of my brain that has not seen action for some time. Everyone remembered Mom from sitting with her in the nursery in the Cambridge Ward long ago.

Gary was getting his degree in Russian Studies at Harvard and became a prof at BYU. He was also the first mission president of the St. Petersburg Mission. Rob served under his sucessor, Tom Rogers.

Both these men and Manfred Schutze of East Germany were called toi be Patriarchs of the European East Area. Prof. Browning still goes over there and gives these blessings. He has been there 17 times and given > 1000 blessings, He discussed his experiences which I found particularly interesting as we shared some common things.

There were so many old friends.

The next day we went to another event held at the prestigious Alta Club in Salt Lake. It was a breakfast with Kim Clark as the speaker. Way back then as an undergraduate at Harvard, he was my Stake Young Adult Rep when I was on Richard Bushman's High Council.

Kim went on to become Dean of the Harvard Business School and now President of BYU Idaho. He spoke about the innovations in education that were going on up there and I am glad Josh will be a freshman there.

We have been blessed to know so many people who have gone on to do great things and it is a blessing to see them once again.

Have a good Memorial Weekend,

Love, Dad

STAKE CONFERENCE IN THE ASSEMBLY HALL

Dear Family,

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day but this morning it snowed two inches on the flowers and garden.

Our Single adult university stake had a Stake Conference on Sunday and they held it at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. It was such a beautiful day.

Here is a picture of us in front of the Assembly Hall. Mom and I went the night before to a meeting where I learned I was to speak at the Sunday General session. Patriarchs are to be in the shadows but that is pretty far back.Mom dropped me off and I went first to a Leadership Meeting which was very good.

Our session started at 11:00 AM and ended at 1:00 PM. There was a feeling of history there as we held the conference; the rows were all filled as was the balcony. Every President of the Church had spoken there except for Joseph Smith. There were nice big fancy seats in the front that were very comfortable.

The first speaker was the President of the Temple Square Mission that only has Sister Missionaries with Sister Zone Leaders and APs. The Church received 80,000 referrals from them last year. He gave a rousing good talk on missionary work.

I was the second speaker and talked about the experience of giving my first Patriarchal blessing. I could do that because the young lady had since gotten married and moved out of the stake. I talked about our Heavenly Father's love of each individual. I am out of practice a little for public speaking but Mom said I did OK. It as so great to see 2000 members of the stake there. I had two blessings that evening (and two on Thursday) and those were touching. We finally have the dividing sliding doors built for the office so I have a little privacy. It was a busy but very rich Sunday.

Today is Mom's birthday. I got her a painting of the Savior that we purchased at the Church History museum when we went to hear Laurel Ulrich talk about history associated with stuff in the house. Cheryl is having a dinner party for Mary Clare who has the same birthday and we go there tonight.

Had a root canal the other day and need to go back tomorrow. Ouch!

Doug and John are over in Beijing and they write each day with instant messaging. They are having a blast! I told Doug to pick out a nice pearl choker necklace for Mom at the Pearl Market in Beijing. He will also have dinner with the lady we baptized in Vienna who now lives there.

Things are quiet in the missionary Department today

Love you all,

Dad

VISIT FROM THE BUCKEYE STATE

Dear Family,

Yesterday Katje D. her kids and her American "Host Mom" came for a visit.

You remember Katje was the young lady from East Germany who came over as a High School exchage student and stayed with a family in Springville, UT (with 10 children). When she was 18 and had retrned to Germany, she was baptized into the church, then came back to BYU.

She had a part time job with the MTC as a language instructor and one of her jobs was to train two Mission Presidents going to Germany in conversational German speech. Her two pupils were Pres. Larry M. going to Frankfurt and me going to Munich. For several months we had a daily one hour chat in German about the Gospel, the Church, the missionary lessons, family and many things and it was so much fun. When we were on our mission, Katje's mom, Marita M. joined the church in Howerswerda, Germany.

Katje filled a mission in Moscow Russia and came back to the Y where she met her husband, Daniel D, who also served in Russia and were married, They moved to Columbus Ohio where he is getting a masters in Slavic language studies at Ohio State.

It was good to see Katje again with her two little kids.

I was intrigued with the 3 year old daughter Talipa. This little girl reminded me so much of those German dolls I used to buy our girls. She had bright eyes, thick brunette hair in two pigtails. She speaks to her mother in German and to her father in English.

Her German was perfect in syntax and sentence structure with an excellent vocabulary. It reminded me of what Mark Twain said about the German language, "It is not so hard; children speak it and dogs understand it!" Talipa seemed to know what language to speak to others, She spoke to me in German and to Mom in English all in the same breathe. She discovered the basement and the cache of toys and brought up plastic food and served her mother. She was very obedient and at the end was told to clean up her little plastic food party and return the things to the basement which she did without a murmur! One time she did say, " aber,,, (but..) whereupon the Mom, Katje, said, "Es gibt kein aber_(no buts) and I wondered how many ties I heard that in German growing up.

At the end Katje was putting her kids in the van and then this little three year old bolted from the car and came up to Mom and said "I want to give you a hug" and embraced her around the legs and then came to me and said, "Dir auch!" and I got a hug around the legs.

It was good to see Katje again and her bright little daughter and her new little boy. I thought about our own grandkids and wondered if Heavenly Father was saving the Best for Last.

Love, Dad

THINGS YOU DO NOT SEE EVERYDAY #2

Dear Family,

Here is another thing you do not see everyday. Here is a picture of Elder Niel Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve holding little Garret James Wirthlin right after John did his name and blessing. Elder Anderson wanted to take this picture to show Garret when he goes on his mission in 19 years.

At that moment I thought how inter-twined all our lives are. We met Elder Anderson when he was in the Seventy doing a tour of the Detroit Michigan Mission when Mom and I were full time missionaries in that mission doing the medical coverage. Our paths crossed several times since and I did not know John would marry his niece. John and Kaley were married by Elder Wirthlin in the Salt Lake Temple when we got back from Germany and Austria.

So here is a picture of Elder Anderson (who was called to fill a spot in the Quorum of the Twelve after Elder Wirthlin's passing) holding a Wirthlin Stammhalter, my grandson, Garret James Wirthlin, our 69th grandchild, after John gave him his name and blessing. Elder Anderson stood in the circle. It is such a small world and all our paths in life cross those of others almost periodically and we are all so tightly connected.

Here is a picture of John and Kaley and their little guys, Grant and Garret, as we visited with all the families after the blessings.

There was a great stake conference there; Kaley's Dad gave a short talk and Elder Anderson gave a great and enthusiastic talk that was positive and encouraging. There was a great Spirit there. Elder Anderson's wife, Cathy gave a good talk and held a Women's Conference the day before that Mom and Kaley's Mom went to. Kaley's Mom is Stake Relief Society President and spoke in that conference.

So the weekend was full of achievement, Family get togethers all around and ended on a high spiritual note,

Alles gute, Dad

TRIP TO FLORIDA, JOHN'S LAW GRADUATION

Dear Family,

Well we got back from our trip to Florida to see John, Kaley, Grant and Garret. John and his family are in Inverness, FL, where Kaley's parents live, until they move to Tampa when John joins a law firm there,

We went to John's graduation from the University of Florida law school with a Doctor of Jurisprudence. John is now BS, MS, JD.

The graduation took place in an auditorium across the street from the "Swamp" where the Gators play football. Luckily this was a law school graduation only but was still long enough. There were 300 graduates.

I was plenty proud of John as Mom, Kaley, the two boys sat up in the bleachers cheering and whooping it up for John. John is lucky to have a job as many of his classmates have not found positions. They are looking for a house in Tampa.

We were all proud of John and his accomplishment. Always good to get these merit badges of adult life and he can go in several directions.

The next day, John and I avoided the oyster bars of Orlando but he did take me to a typical Florida restaurant called the "Front Porch Restaurant" cracker" type food and listed it so on the menu.
Here is John where we had a little breakfast. There were these people in there in cut off T shirts, tattoos all over with their Harleys outside. I had eggs over grits and John had a Cuban sandwich.

There was drama the day before as we drove back from Gainsville, we had a flat blow out in a rear tire on a busy road but luckily right in front of a repair shop where they were aqbloe to jack up the car and force off the rear rim. There is a lot of wide open spaces but instead of sagebrush there is swamp and we were lucky to have a flat right in front of a shop in the boonies where they could help. We had dinner with Kaley's family and also Elder Niel Anderson of the quorums of the Twelve was there as he was holding a special Regional Training meeting on Saturday and special stake Conference on Sunday. He is Kaley's uncle and we had a great time visiting with him again as we ate gator tail, hush puppies, grouper and all the other good things they serve in Florida.

It was an exciting two days,

Love, Dad and Mom

BLITZBESUCH IN ST. CHARLES, ID

Dear Family,

Our 50th wedding anniversary is coming up in July and after the official celebration in Salt Lake, a group of the family will go to Bear Lake to stay and have a good time in our little farm house in St. Charles.

We thought we would make a quick visit up there to get the place going. Doug, Spence, Tom-Tom, Mom and I decided to make a 24 hour trip up there as every ones schedule is so full. We went up after Doug's office hours. Loaded up the diesel pickup and long flat trailer with tools, supplies and an ATV. We left at 8:30 PM and got there at midnight.

We checked the garage and the old Toyota Land Cruiser started up as did the ATV, and John Deere mower. We went to bed late but got up early and had a good old Bear Lake breakfast on the huge grill. Here is a picture of Opa, Doug, Spence and Tom-Tom getting the hash browns, bacon eggs and pancakes ready. It was cold up there, just above freezing.

After breakfast we got the Toyota ( The Induna) out to be picked up.


Everything gets pretty hard use in the summer with all the activity. This time the clutch was slipping on my favorite 4WD vehicle, there was a hole in the exhaust and it was being hauled off to Laketown for repairs.

Doug and the boys picked up a huge trailer load of fallen branches and I got on the John Deere to cut all the grass. If you do not start now, it will be a hay field by the 4th of July. Mom was hanging pictures. Doug then fixed plumbing in the bathroom as I did the shooting chore with the boys. they got out their BB guns and Spence blasted old cans with a 410 shotgun.


Mom was cleaning her way to the backdoor. It was interesting that there were no vermin in the house. those ultrasonic sound emitters keep out the mice and other creepy things. As Mom did this, Doug mounted my Idaho elk horn mount on the East side of the house. It extends from the door to theves of the roof and was too big to be inside of any house. Looks sharp Doug.

Sunday was Mother's Day. I gave my lesson on Prophets; Mom with her big heart wanted to make Mother's Day easier for the younger Mothers and invited families for dinner. Doug and his family and Cheryl and her family came over for dinner and a Family Night. The dinner was pretty good and the Family Night was good as we had everyone say something about their mothers and the Husbands about their wives; it then disintegrated into a pillow fight with everyone one seven years and younger piling in. We managed to get everyone quieted down and kneeling for Family Prayer and sent them outside to burn off Oma's ice cream cake.

We go to Florida this week to see John, Kaley and the the little guys. We will bless their new little boy and go to John's graduation from law school. He starts with a law firm in Tampa but first he goes with Doug to China for a week. When the Euro comes down a little more, I would love to gt over to Germany and Austria one more time.

Alles Gute, Oma and Opa

MOM'S MOTHER'S DAY SOLAR OVEN, IT WORKS!

Mom has the Emergency Preparedness calling in our ward and is into it big-time. She is making brownies out of beans, there is sprouting going on in addition to my Kefir milk production,

Liza's mother told Mom about Solar Ovens and Mom wanted one for Mother's Day. They are not cheap but there was a sale at the Bosch store so we picked one up.

We watched the DVD and figured out how to use it

Today I tried it by taking a package of Ramen, chicken flavor, some egg noodles and some diced frozen chicken breast, covered it with water and aimed it at the sun on our front porch. This was about noon. The reflectors quickly gathered the suns rays and concentrated the heat through the glass window and into the over where I had this hearty chicken soup in a small porcelain pan. You could watch the temperature in the oven rise. They have all the accessories at the Bosch store.

We then went to Smiths to stock up for the Sunday family dinner; a side trip to Home Depot and when I came back, looked into the oven which was hot and the soup was simmering. I took it out and it was done to perfection.

I love free energy!

Next we will try some rice and then an Elk Stew cooked on our doorstep with free energy. Not sure we will recover the cost of the oven but it is cool to have nature working for you!

Sunday dinner with some of the family on Mother's Day, we will go up to Bear Lake to check on things tonight. Give a lesson in Church on Sunday and am busy weekly with my calling.

Love, Dad

BOYS WILL HAVE FUN!

Dear Family,

Roy flew down last weekend for some serious gun range work. Roy, Doug and I had to sight in seven rifles five of mine and two of Doug's. My far vision is somewhat diminished so I needed a pair of young sharp eyes to help in the process,

We went out on Friday Morning and stayed there until late afternoon, We got a 22-250, 223, 222 Rem. and three 30-06 rifles zeroed.

A lot of people may not understand this activity at all but for precision shooters it is really a blast, literally. Roy has become a long distance shooter and wins competitions, He shoots at 1000 yards and has specialty firearms to do this.

We took three Blaser rifles and two Austrian hunting rifles to zero in the point of aim. Finally they were all zeroed in and Roy suggested a competition, There is absolutely nothing we do without a competition!

The target was a ground hog silhouette at 100 yards., Five shots to the center of the target got a certain score and if you could hit the eye of the target, that got more. The eye of the target is less than 1/2".

Roy nailed the center of the target with five shots and then got the eye right in the middle with my 308 sniper rifle, Doug nailed his eye as well with a 30-06 hunting rifles. I hit the edge of the eye using a 25x scope. The eyes are not what they used to be.

Anyway this is what we call a successful day at the range, Good shooting Roy and Doug!

Love, Dad

MORE WEDDINGS

Dear Family,

We have been busy and it has been difficult yo write a weekly update.

A week ago Saturday was a day of emotional swings. We attended the funeral of a 44 year old mother of seven who died tragically. The viewing brought long lines of well wishers

The funeral was sweet and uplifting. Elder Packard gave the opening prayer, Elder Ballard the closing prayer and there were talks from the siblings. President Monson spoke as well giving comfort to the family.

Immediately after this funeral, w went to the Salt Lake Temple to see our former Sister Missionary Camile W. get married to Eric T. and it was a beautiful experience.

It is interesting how people meet who marry one another. This time Camile's missionary companion. Kelsey D. (now L.), played a significant role. Camile and Kelsey have kept close in touch and one night, Kelsey told Camille about this great guy in their ward in Indiana. Phone numbers were given and I believe Camille and Erich wore out the batteries on their first cell phone conversation. For him it was love at first hearing; one thing led to another and Camille moved from Washington to Indiana with this trip to Salt Lake. She grew up in the Taylorsville area (where I used to hunt pheasants as a teenager). This was sweet and the dinner they had afterward was also great and we saw several other former missionaries, now married.

Here is Kelsey and Dave who also live in Indiana. It is so fascinating how couples meet. It does not seem so random.

Well we go to Florida next week to see John graduate from Law School. We will also bless the baby boy we missed on our last trip there. Everyone seems to be going somewhere. Emily, John and Johnny are in Greece, back to Johnny's mission field. Doug and Spence are going to Beijing to do some more carotid surgery and train Chinese surgeons. John will be going as well as a newly graduated lawyer and their interpreter.

We will go up to Bear Lake thi Saturday to open the farmhouse and get things ready for the summer activity.

May Heaven be with you all

Love, Dad