SUZ ET AL SPEAK IN SACRAMENT MEETING ON FATHER'S DAY

Dear Family,

Sunday was Father's Day.  I learned through the grapevine that Suz, Scott and Juju were the speakers in their ward that Sunday.  Suz had kept that quiet but Cheryl spilled the beans (thank goodness) as that is something I would have flown to hear.

I checked with Suz and if she were to be embarrassed, I would not come but she said it was ok.

Here is the family group on a peak overlooking Salt Lake City.  The entire family participated in the program.  There is Tilly, Zandy, Timmy in the front with JuJu, Suz and Scott in the back. The kids all have proper names but this is how they are known in the family.

Suz lives very close to us on about 1310 South and 1500 East in the Bonneville 2nd ward.  The Bonneville stake has been a backbone of the Church with many leaders coming out of that unit.

It was a great meeting. Juju got up and presented a talk that she composed herself and I was impressed with her thoughts, spirit and delivery. Suz had a sweet talk about fathers and her father.  She talked about some of the family traditions, family prayer, scripture reading and Family Home Evening and mentioned how Elvis the Parrot would always say amen after the prayer.  She talked about the Saturday trips to the farm and told about the time we harvested potatoes.  We did not weed well so potato finding was like finding buried treasure in the wild.  The kids all got dirty and we found a good pile of potatoes but when we drove back home and stopped at Meiers for the traditional ice cream cone, we saw they were selling potatoes for 98 cents/10 pounds.  Oh well.  She gave a sweet talk and that is one of the moments parents treasure.  Scott gave a good talk on fatherhood and spoke of his father.  The kids all got p and sang primary songs about Fathers.  Suz's kids doubled the Primary.

We then went over to Suz's for lunch with John, Kaley and their two boys.  It was a wonderful time.  We spent time with Cheryl and her family later and that was great.

Suz's kids and their neighbor, Moriah decided to make a little money.  They went on their front lawn in from of their home and brought out the guitars.  They placed a guitar case opened near the sidewalk already seeded with sone of their own quarters ( subtle hint to throw something in) and serenaded all walking on the sidewalk.  (People actually go on walks in that neighborhood).  They made $8.00.  Here is Juju, Timmy on ukelele, and Moriah. I guess they sounded pretty good.  We used to love performers in the subways of Germany.

All three missionaries are doing well.  Thanks for sharing their letters.

We love you all,

Mom and Dad
  

SARAH GRADUATES FROM LAHSER HIGH; KATE HAS A BIRTHDAY PARTY

Dear Family,


One of the reasons to go back to
Michigan was to attend Sarah's graduation from Lahser High.  This is the last class to graduate from Lahser as both Lahser and Andover are being closed and moved to one ugh school to be built where Andover stands.

Sarah is the first of the family to go there and the first to graduate.  Needless to say that Sarah was a "straight A" student graduating Summa cum Laude according to my Latin means with greatest praise or honor.  Sarah will attend the
BYU in the fall.  So great to have all these pretty smart granddaughters!

We went to the graduation at Oakland University indoor sports arena .here were only about 200 graduates or half the numbers of those graduating from Mapleton.  Both sets of grandparents were there and there was much celebration.

 Here is proud poppa, Bryan, with Sarah.  and here is proud Opa with Sarah

There was also a lakeside birthday party for Kate who turned five.  She looks like Shirley Temple with her curly hair and has a lot of spunk.  Mary organized a party at Wing Lake, much food and Bryan brought the wood from the farm for a late evening fire.  Al came with all her eight kids, Bryan and his kids were there and there were many friends.

Here is Oma with Clara and Kate in the birthday hat with Maryanna looking on.  In the background one sees the Garfinkel family. Mary presented the Julie Wirthlin scholarship award at Andover's awards night and Sydney Garfinkel was the winner of the award we started in memory of Julie.  This is to the best scholar athlete chosen by the school from the senior class.   The award will continue at the new High School and I am tickled it has lasted this long.  We started this in 2000 or so after Julie's passing.  Mary invited the family to attend the p;arty and it was good to meet them.

Well we are back home and getting ready for the rest of summer.  Douglas is in the MTC and I am proud of our grandkids who are in the mission field.  All are doing well and remain focused.

Love, Mom and Dad

BRYAN'S FARM

Dear Family,

Mom and I went to Michigan for several events.  We stayed at the farm in Salem (South Lyon).  We missed our first flight but got a later flight and arrived in the early evening.

This is how the back of the farm looks from the porch.
Bry has the farm looking beter than a State Park.  As we pulled in the driveway, the whole gang was there getting ready for the weeks festivities. Bryan was on the Dixie chopper,  Rob was there and had a new weed whacker trimming.  I had to do a double take because Rob there working reminded me so of past activities.  Mark and Anton were there helping.  The place looked great!

The lilacs were out and the trees were all lush.  Michigan is a beautiful place this time of year.  Kristina had her parents there and later organized a great barbecue. Al and her kids were there as well as Mary with her two children and it was fun! Mary's friend Audrey was there with her husband and kids.  Her husband is a resident in urology but grew up on a farm and he was working hard to get the garden planted.

I got on the John Deere Tractor and did some work.  Bry had this great power take off cultivator on the back and we got the old garden ready for corn. I made about four passes and the soil was absolutely powder.  Bry got out the automatic corn planter and we put in a bunch of rows.  Rob stayed with us at the farm and it was like old times.

We put on the brush hog and I did some work reclaiming some of the fields in the back "40"  We cleared several acres of brush and weeds.  I just love being on that tractor.  I managed to drop it into a deep hole and had to get Bryan to pull me out with his truck.

We trimmed the trails and it was like a tunnel of vegetation.  Bry now has a mile of property between seven and eight mile road and at first I wondered why it took so long to get back to the house.  Mom went through old office files.

The field looks great and as I  cut the perimeter noticed that the field is in better condition than ever before with good hay and the clover everywhere.  I hope Bry can cut it and bale it as hay is very expensive now.

It felt so good to be back on the farm even though there are no animals.  It is just beautiful.  We had another family barbecue on Saturday with all hands present.

We  had an enjoyable visit and it was great to breathe truly fresh air/ Nice work Bry et al.

Love, Dad and Mom

MICHELE'S BAPTISM AND OTHER BLOOMFIELD HILLS WARD NEWS

Dear Family,

One of the reasons to go back to Michigan was to attend Michele's (Mimi) baptism. It was on a Sunday afternoon in the Bloomfield Hills Ward.  Here is a picture of Mimi and Bryan before the baptism.  Even though there had been three hours of church service, most of the ward returned for the baptism.the chapel was full.  Kristina's mother gave a talk on Baptism and then Bryan performed the baptism.  All the cousins stood up and sang  " I Like to Look for Rainbows" (the baptism song)

I must apologize for this snapshot.  It was taken surreptitiously with my iPhone.  Probably should not do this in Church but I realized that this group would not be together again like this for a long time.  Al and her kids came as well and here are all the cousins: front row, George, Henry, Clara, Katie. Mimi, Maryanna, Henry, with William James, Heidi in the middle row, and Sarah Scotty and Mary's German exchange student, Anton, in the back.

After the baptism, Mom gave a good talk on the Holy Ghost and Bryan asked me to confirm Michele a member os the church.  After the closing prayer there was a rush of little kids to the Primary Room where there were two tables of sweet treats.  It was a fine baptismal ceremony and great event.

There have been three German High School exchange students with families in the Bloomfield Hills ward, attending Andover High School.  There are also two German families who live there as well and I knew two of them in the mission field. (Einie kleine Deutsche Gemeinde in Michigan!) During Fast meeting, one of the girls got up and bore her testimony.  It was very interesting as the rules prohibit active proselyting and they do not speak to missionaries but they emesh themselves into the lives of the host families.  The two girls went to early morning seminary each and every day and attended all church meetings.  They expressed desire to join after they return to Germany and straighten things out with their families.

Mary had a young man, Anton from Dusseldorf  stayed with them for a year.  He liked it so much, he kept extending the duration of stay.  He became a member of the family fitting right in and doing all the things the family was engaged.  He rode in the back of the car when they came to Utah. He is a very fine young man, respectful and very helpful.  He pitches in on the farm.  On Sunday, he was assigned to give a 5 minute talk in Church and they listed him as Br. Mavric.  He gave a very mature talk and bore testimony to the truth of the Restoration, a talk which he prepared himself.  He goes home in a couple of weeks.  Good things going on in the old ward!

Need to write about a couple of other things in Michigan.  We had a ball.  Mom is down in California this week helping Bina with their move to Florida.

We Love you All,

Dad

AL'S MICHIGAN FARM

Dear Family,

We came back to Michigan for several family events and have been staying at the farm in South Lyon as it is halfway between Bloomfield Hills and Al's farm in Munith (not far from Jackson). We visited Al and Paul and their family twice.

Here is a picture of Al, Arabella the milking goat and Maryanna (Mu Mu) Henry is in the background.  They have this great 20 acre farm, almost all tillable complete with 7 goats, two cows, several sheep, a duck, lots of laying hens and little chicks.  There is this huge Pyrenees hound in with the goats to keep the coyotes away. Some of the kids have food allergies so they drink goats milk.

Here is Oma, Al and the kids: George, Maryanna, Henry, Clara, Oma holding Charlie, Peter, William, James and Al in front of there cute  1880 farm house.

Al has this great garden and has been following the recommendations of an Austrian Gardner, Sepp Holzer . She met him in Ann Arbor where he made a presentation through an interpeter. She is using what is called Hugelkultur.  They make a large mound of hardwood logs, cover this with compost and manure layers with compost the top layer and they plant into the side and top.  Supposed to aerate the soil better.

Here is Clara next to the Potato Tower.  One makes a cylinder out of chicken wire, lines it with straw and puts in a base of compost.  Then one takes the potatoes and lines the outside perimeter with seed potatoes pointing the eyes outward so the plant grow through the screen with the potatoes on the inside.  Here you can see the potato leaves coming through the side.

There are all sorts of birds and beasts on the farm. Here is MuMu training her new chick.  They get their own eggs each day.  The goats are milked twice a day and the garden supplies greens and herbs.  Really a fun thing and a bit labor intensive.  They have sheep for wool and for the freezer.  Al served two meals of their lamb and it was great!  Two heifers are being fattened as well.  We learned growing up that it was hard to make pets of the farm animals as some are destined to the food storage.

Here we are in this quaint kitchen having a dinner of lamb shanks that Al did so well.  The house is heated with a wood burning stove and Paul has a huge pile of logs to split for the coming winter.

We met several of Al's friends and neighbor who have been very supportive and helpful.  One neighbor brings venison and the family loves it.  Paul wanted to get a deer gun as there are so many in the area.  We went to a store in Jackson and I had get a Savage bolt slug gun with a scope.  We sighted the gun in at Bryan's farm and now he is set!

It was so fun to see Al and Paul's farm and see how enthusiastically the are pursuing all projects.  Interesting as Al hated to work on our farm in Michigan but I guess there is a farm gene on the family that is expressing itself.  Good work Al and Paul and all the children helpers.

Note about Bry's farm to follow.

Love, Dad and Mom

GEMINA'S BABY SHOWER

Dear Family,

We are in Michigan now at Al's farm.  I finally got my internet and mail accounts to work after I was hacked several times on my Google internet account.  Al has a good wireless network so I will drop a short note.

There was a lot of activity before we left for Michigan.  The highlight however was Gemina's Baby Shower.

Rick and Gemina are expecting a little boy early in July. This is a great event and also a little unusual.  They have been trying to have a child for a long time and even tried the in-vitro procedures but it did not take.   This time they decided to try the surrogacy route.  There are agencies that handle all the details.  There are lawyers, contracts and much expense.

The agency found a surrogate mother who has to pass stringent tests.  They set up the in vitro fertilization, prepare the mother host and finally the implantation of the blastosphere embryos.  The person they found lived in Salt Lake City and was parenthetically LDS.  Of the two embryos implanted, one implanted successfully.  The pregnancy is followed very carefully and it turns out it will be a boy!  The surrogate mother has two children and they feel it is enough for them but she enjoys the pregnancies and was very willing to do this service.

Since the baby is coming soon, Cheryl opened her lovely house, Mary sent out the invitations and others helped.  Suz made the best macaroon cookies but there was a ton of other food.

Many came including Suz, Cathy, Becca (from St. George), Emily, Rayanne, Kaley, Kristina, and of course Cheryl.  Daughters were also there. Eva came down from Spokane. Then Gemina's sisters from New York and other places with husbands comine as well to celebrate this unusual and long expectant child.  The surrogate mother and her husband were also there.

The guys were not invited so Rick organized a lunch at a sweet Chinese restaurant and Mike, John, Doug, Gemina's brother, the husband of the surrogate mother, Rick and the Opa were all there.

We had a great lunch and party and decided that some of us would crash the shower.When we arrived, there was Gemina opening shower gifts.
She asked that people bring children's books.

There was not a lot said but all of a sudden I felt the absolute joy that quietly filled the room to the brim and I choked a little.  Then Gemina thanked everyone for coming and for the gifts wiping some moisture from her eyes and then the surrogate mother also spoke, tearfully, expressing her joy in helping to bring a child to this family.  It was very sweet and moving and most understood
 and appreciated by all the gals that were present.  It is always a miracle to bring a live baby into this world and we are always reminded that it is such a sacred event.  Congratulations Rick and Gemina.

There were two more parties after the shower.  Suz had a poolside party for two of her daughters and she prepared 61 baskets of favors for the invited.  Mom and I went to the theater to see a ballet recital.  Four of Cheryl's daughters, Mary Claire, Lauren, Olivia and little Emmy all were on stage dancing....so great!

We will report on the doings here in Michigan later

Love, Dad and Mom