STAKE CONFERENCE, STYLE 2011

Dear Family.

We had Stake Conference this weekend. One of the things about my calling is that I do not have to go to any meetings such as High Council or Stake PEC.  This is always nice in one way but we are a little out of the loop.

I got a call about Thursday from our Stake President informing me of the Stake conference coming this weekend.  I had seen it on the Stake calender and put it on my calender but did not know where the various meetings were to be held..

The "Evening Adult Meeting" was held last night in the Jordan River Institute building which has this huge hall.  Mom and I finally found the place (it was on a street that did not exist on any of my GPS devices).  We went to the Jordan River Temple and asked for directions.  The place was packed with hundreds of Single Adult members.  President Plumb always asked for me and Mom to sit on the stand in front.  I looked at the program and it was outlined the same way they did it in Germany.  There was the list of participants and the exact time allotted each one.  I did not have an assignment and we sat back to enjoy the meeting.  At the end, just before President Plumb was to speak, he turns to me and says, "You have two to three minutes!"

Well I have always had the rule that a good five minute talk in the church had three essentials; one scripture, one story and one main point.  In a two minute, you can still get in one scripture and make a short point but have to leave out the story.  The councilor in the Stake Presidency talked about his Patriarchal Blessing and I tied it in with that.

The next morning, our leadership meeting was held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square,  pictured above.  Mom and I sat up front in those big comfortable chairs and we did not have to speak.  At 9:30 AM, we hurried across Temple Square to the Conference center.  This was a regional meeting and 120 Stakes participated in this session.  21 Stakes were invited to meet int he Conference Center and it was packed.  Elder Bednar was the main speaker and it was great. It was televised to the other 100 Stakes in the South Salt Lake Area

When I was growing up Stake Conference was a little more complicated;, there was  always a Saturday night Leadership meeting.  Then on Sunday, it was two two hour sessions, one in the morning from ten to noon and then another one in the afternoon from two to four PM.  The afternoon session was always a bit more sparsely attended.  They are getting this down pretty well.

Lots of visiting in the family this past weekend.  Roy went back to Detroit to talk to people at GM and spent some great fun time with Bryan at the farm fooling around with Bry's new Kabuto ATV.  Then Rob was down in Orlando visiting an ophthalmology meeting and got together with John.  We are starting to think about Thanksgiving when Rob and Eva and crew and even maybe John and Kaley + kids will visit.

We love you all, Mom and Dad

MINI MISSIONARY GET TOGETHER

Dear Family,

We are back in full swing.

We had a little get together last evening with a few of our missionaries.  Dario and Trisha Dzierzon and their kids were in town.  Trisha's parents have moved to Utah so maybe we will see them a little more often

They flew in from Freiberg, Germany, the city in which the East German Temple was built. They came with their four children including the red headed twins.

It was great to see them again.  They wanted to visit with some of their old companions so we had an informal get together.  This is almost like a family picture now complete with the kids.  Front row: Heidi, Mom with one of the boys who speaks fluent German and American English.. Behind is Kristi, Trisha and Dario with the Buben.  Back is Dianne, Daniel T., the pilot in the Air Force), Tommy M., Jordan B. and Elizabeth with hubby.  It is wonderful to see all moving ahead with their lives.

It is school vacation time in Utah so people have taken off.  Cheryl and Paul and their gang drove down to San Francisco.  I took three of Doug's boys down to Cabelas that was packed with families and their children.  I did not buy anything.

Thanksgiving should be fun with Rob and Eva coming and the gang here in Utah.

All is well, Love, Dad

OCTOBER FUN

Dear Family,

I have been getting over a nasty flu and have been grounded for a couple of weeks so there has not been too much going on up at Sherwood Drive.  We did get out on Sunday night to visit old friends from Vienna.  Here we are with the Husz's.  They have been called to preside over the Freiberg Temple in East Germany.  He was my Austrian counselor on our mission to Germany and Austria.  They are great members and his wife is an absolute miracle.  While we were over there, she had an abdominal cancer with spread, had a huge surgery and was sent home to die but her recovery is something that I have never seen before.  They will be great in their Temple service. As we left, I started to sing, "Sag beim Abschied leise Servus", an Austrian song of parting, and at the end we broke out into a duet.  Great friends, great time.

We attended a solemn assembly in the Salt Lake Temple. There are about 5000 who are serving one way or another in the temple and they have these meetings once a year.  They  had two sessions, the first had about 3000 present.  We went to the 11 AM session and there must have been at least 2000 there.  President Eyring gave the address and the whole experience was wonderful.

In the meantime there was plenty going on in the family especially in Michigan.  Rick went back to Michigan.  We have all visited Rick's tree farm in the Sierras and helped with the wood cutting.  This time he came to work with Bryan and Paul in cutting wood.  Here is the doctor of the chain saw, Rick with Paul on their farm getting a winter supply of wood.  He also spent a couple of days with Bryan clearing wood from the additional property that Bry added to our old farm.

Here are the two wood cutters getting a bite  to eat in that hole in the wall place in South Lyon called Chinese Food.  So there is Bryan in his Carhart bib overalls, President of a successful business computer company and there is Rick in his wood cutting outfit, Rick a partner in a Beverly Hills Law firm returning to the earth and.  So great

So while the guys were in the Chinese restaurant in South Lyon, MI, Dr. Doug was actually over in China, eating real Chinese food.  He was there for two weeks on his yearly excursion to better the results of the surgical operation, carotid endarterectomy.  He did not operate on this occasion but gave many talks in many places including Beijing and Shanghai.  We may go back with him next year if I am feeling pretty good.


Here is something that went on at Al's farm.  She went out and bought three Marino sheep who will lamb in December.  Paul put them in the back of their van and hauled them to their farm.  Al wanted this particular sheep for the wool which she will use. There farm goes as far back as you can see in the photo.

Here is Rick and Bryan's daughter, Sarah, going to church in our Bloomfield Hills ward with the Detroit Temple in the background

Then the entire Family clan got together for dinner at Al and Paul's farm in Munci, MI. There was Al, Paul and kids, Mary and Mark with their kids Bryan and Kristina and their kids with visiting guest woodsman, Rick.

I wish we could have been there also.

I will start back in the temple this week.  We have a little get together this weekend with our friends, the Dzierzons who are visiting from Saxony, Germany.

We go to Virginia in November to see our good friends the Manwarings and do a little project in his woods but it won't be wood cutting, ()could be however) . Rick and Gemina come for Halloween and Rob and Eva and their kids will come for Thanksgiving.

Love to all,  Dad

AUTUMN, VISITS, EAGLES AND CONFRENCE

Dear family,

I have been getting over the  flu so I have not kept up as well.  Autumn has arrived and the mountains are beautiful. The west has such a charm and this little picture was taken on top  of immigration canyon.

We had a visit from John, Kaley adn the boys, Grant (I call him Grantli) and Garrett.  Kaley's brother was married in the Salt Lake Temple.  Her uncle by marriage, Elder Andersen, performed the ceremony.  There was a dinner the night before at the Joseph Smith building and here is a picture of John leading a chorus of the William's grandchildren  There is Grant front and center singing with enthusiasm.

I always have fun with the grandsons.  Grant played with me almost non stop when he was at home.  Here he is in the Basement.  He calls me Poopa instead of Opa.  He said, "Look, I built a Temple!"  He builds temples instead of forts with the big blocks.  It was good to see them even if briefly.

Then there was the Eagle court of honor for Mike's son, Joseph. This was a great court of honor as Joseph completed his  Eagle award just before his 16th birthday.  We are proud of his accomplishment.  We have a growing Eagles Nest in the family with all eight sons having earned their Eagle awards in addition to now, Aaron, Johnny, Josh and Douglas.  Others are in the loop. Here we are with Mike, Rayanne, Joseph the star, Oma and Opa.

We had a great General Conference of the Church..  We watched at home.  The Counsel and direction was on the point and very uplifting. All the guys came up for Priesthood meeting that was broadcast in our stake house.  They came from Mapleton and Cottonwood Heights.  There were twelve of us on a row.  This is a tradition that goes to my youth as well.  I al;ways went with my father for as long as I can remember.  After the meeting, we gathered at our house for the semi annual steak barbecue and a great time was enjoyed by all.  Part of the deal is that I quiz the boys on each talk given in the meeting and they did pay attention..

Then we made grape juice!  My friend, VL Kesler, is a master horticulturist, and has this great vineyard in Holliday.  He had a bumper crop of grapes and invited us over to pick. I got sick and could not go but Mom went over one moring and came back with a load of grapes.   We had purchased a Victoria Steamer in high hopes of our three vines doing something but alas that will be in the future.  You fill the top container with grapes, start the steam and the juice comes out the plastic tubing.  It is ready to be sealed in a Mason jar.  You get about 5 quarts from one filling.  We ended up with 35 quarts of the best grape juice.  Interesting that now Al and Cathy are doing it also.  Cathy says that canning grape juice "is easy, Pete does it!" I did the first batch and totally trashed the kitchen,  We figured out a better wat to avoid a lot of mess.  It is one of those,"Sweet is the work"


Well that is about all for now Alles Gute, Opa u. Oma

DE JA VU, FRIDAY NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Dear Family,

Had a bit of De Ja  Vu recently when we went to watch Highland High School play Brigham High School. We went to watch Madeline cheer lead.  We were up in the bleachers again as we were 20-30 or more years ago watching our kids play various roles in Andover High School football games.

There were the guys who played football.  There was Bryan, Doug, Jeff, Rob and John ( whose team went to State). We were the obnoxious parents cheering our sons as if they were the only players on the team.  Bryan was great and could catch a pass if it came withing six feet of him but he got permanently injured when he was hit from the side.  I was the team Doctor having to bench Bry when he injured his knee.  He has since had several operations on that knee.  All played their hearts out.

Rob played tough football and he was big and strong from doing some work at the farm.  John played almost every position and it was so great to watch our sons play.

But we also went to watch Andover cheerleaders as several of our daughters were Cheer leaders. There was Emily, Cheryl, Mary, Al and for a short while, Julie. Al was going out with her future husband, Paul, in High School and she used to cheer for him.

 

And now this has shifted a generation.  Here is Madeline, Cheryl's daughter who is cheer leading for Highland High School. She is into ballet and is very graceful.  It was so much fun watching her with the others.  They have to be athletic for all the tricks they do now.  Way to go Madeline.

Our other daughters did a sport each term of school.  They were all runners and still are.  Mary and Cheryl are going to the Boston Marathon next year.  Becca and Suz are still doing marathons.

Life is a marathon as well and we have such good runners in the family.

Love you all, Dad