JOHN GETS SWORN IN AS A UTAH LAWYER

Dear Family,

Today was another red letter day for John who was sworn in as a lawyer in Utah passing the bar.  It was a big deal!  The swearing in took place in Abravanel Hall where the symphony performs.  The lower  level was packed as was the first balcony all around.  There must have been 200 new lawyers admitted to the Superior and District courts.  There were nine judges from the Utah Supreme Court and several Federal District court Judges who were there in their  robes.  John had studied hard for the bar, taking a month off work to study.  Here he is with all his certificates.  There were  two rather good talks given by Judges and then there was the presentation of the young lawyers.  They had to stand and take an oath and I thought the entire proceeding was impressive.

Here is the proud Papa, Momma, and wife Kaley.  I am not sure what this all totally entails but I believe John can now officially appear in court and be part of the process.  Their firm does a lot of defense work for Doctors and hospitals and John is getting a crash course in some of the details of medicine.

We were waiting outside on South Temple street and a fairly large group of Chinese tourists came by.  John said hello in Chinese, one shouted something back and John responded in Chinese.  There was a look of amazement on several young guys faces not expecting to hear fluent Chinese across the street from the Temple on their tour of Salt Lake City.

It is interesting to watch your children grow up and we have been particularly and richly blessed in that regard.  Someone sent this picture they found in their old photo files.  Here was John and Julie not even two years old and now here is John  with family and a career in law.

Tall and strong Oak trees grow from acorns.

We are proud of John and this accomplishment.

We go to Spokane on Thursday.  Time is flying by.

Love, Mom and Dad

JULIE'S TREE AT ANDOVER iS MOVED TO THE FARM

Dear Family,

As you know Andover High School, where all 17 of you graduated, is being torn down and a new high school is planned on that site.

As you can see from the picture, very little of the High School stands except for the science hall.

However still alive and vibrant was the tree the Senior Class of 2000 planted at Andover High School in Memory of Julie (a senior then) who passed away with Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2000.  The tree was planted in the courtyard and has been growing each year.

With the demolition of the school, Mary has been instrumental in trying to save the tree.  She contacted school superintendents, planners, and construction people in an effort to save the tree.  They did not have a place for it in the new High School so Mary arranged for it to be dug up and moved.

The school paid for a tree removal company to come to Andover and dig up the tree.  Here is the huge machine digging into the base to save the tree and the roots.

Here it is on the truck as they left Andover.  This was a big job and we are so tickled that this memorial tree was spared and saved.

Mary picked the spot on the farm on the expansive front lawn, front and center next to the bolder Bry dug up by the old basketball hoop.  These pics were not taken with my Leica but do show what happened.

That is a great spot.  Andover will also bring out the circle of bricks that surrounded the tree.

About two years or so ago, Mom and I visited the awards night at Andover High School, and presented the Julie Memorial Scholarship that Mom, I, and Jon Huntsman funded in 2000. That scholarship, still going,  will be transferred to the new Bloomfield Hills High School.  During the ceremony, I spoke of the award ($1000) given to a scholar athlete picked by the school as Julie was both.  I mentioned that all 17 children graduated from Andover and there was a little gasp.  Mom presented the award. The school holds a deep place in our hearts.  We appreciate their efforts to save this Memorial Tree now on Bryan's farm.

Thanks to Mary, Bry and Andover High School for this effort.

Love, Dad and Mom

ST. GEORGE AND BECCA HAS HER BABY

Dear Family,

Gotta catch up on the Blogs.  Last week, Mom and I drove down to St. George to visit Becca and Paul and maybe help out a little with the new baby that arrived the day before.

Here is Becca and her crew holding their sixth child and our eightieth grandchild, little Annalise.  All are healthy and Becca had this one without an epidural.  Here is a pic of Becca with her family in her hospital room.  When I saw this picture, it reminded me a lot of how Mom looked with new babies.

Becca is in good shape and tough.  She went to Church on Sunday with the new baby and started right in with her accounting work.  Mom helped a lot in the home and I kept the boys entertained.

The Governor of Utah opened the five state
parks so we all took a ride to Zions, something
I had never done before.  This is one great collection of Sandstone peaks, gorgeous  in formation and color.  Here we are standing in front of one at one of the Shuttle stops with Becca and the new baby, Annalise, on her first road trip.

Here is what was called the "Court of the Patriarchs" named after the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Really a great thing to see.

Here is Mom holding her new little granddaughter, Annalise, our 80th grandchild.  This baby is one cute little thing and Abigail is so happy to have a baby sister.  Little Alex  (Concho or Mom called him Chunko) was not so sure he wanted a new baby being displaced as the youngest, but he fought to hold her as well.

We had a good time there and it was such a thrill to see this new baby.  Next one is Alison's early next year.  Our cup runneth over.

We drove back and that was the farthest we have driven since returning from Germany.  It was a nice drive back.  We had a nice family night with Suz and Scott and reviewed some of the conference talks.  We talked about the ten commandments and Scott asked, "Where do you find the Ten Commandments?"  Juju replied , "Well of course, at LDS.org!"  It is true you can access the scriptures there but Scott was looking for the Old Testament answer.

Becca is in full swing now and the next weekend, had Cheryl and her entire family stay over on their way to California.  Since it was a school break for teachers, Suz and her kids drove down and stayed with Becca's as did Kristina with some of her girls.  They all went yard sale shopping in St. George.  Suz sold her car and bought another used one in one day in St. George! Doug got back from China and promptly did a weekend campout with the scouts and his boys.  

Our four missionaries, Madeline, Natalie, Douglas and Jake are doing well and seem very motivated. Maddie was in the hospital in Dublin, Ireland,for a few days for a GI ailment and the good thing about that was she was allowed to speak with home and since there was a medical question, I was allowed to call her as well.  Cheryl made up for the call she could not get on Mother's Day.  Maddie sounded great and those Mission Presidents are lucky to have such great missionaries.

Spokane again next  week and I always look forward to visiting Rob and Jeff with their families.

Love,  Dad and Mom

CONFERENCE TIME, REUIONS

Dear Family,

Conference week was great!  It is also a time for reunions and many visits as people come from all over the world to attend General Conference.

We had  little flash missionary reunion at our chapel.  David Wirthlin called and told me about a special West German Missionary Reunion held in our meeting house.  I promptly announced it on Facebook so that as many are here could come and hear President Uchtdorf and Sister Uchtdorf speak to all former German speaking missionaries.  Here is our Munich-Austrian group that occupied two rows in the chapel.  So fun to see them as we have not crossed paths for some time.  Sister Uchtdorf spoke on behalf of all the converts brought to the Church by Missionaries in Germany,  Switzerland and Austria expressing great gratitude for their efforts.  She spoke of her mother's conversion and how upset her Oma was with their baptisms but finally over the years, at age 72, the Oma was baptized saying if her family went to Heaven, she wanted to go to the same heaven.  This was a great event.

Larry and Madeline Manwarig came to Conference a stayed with us.  We have a great m with them; Larry and I share common interests and tastes.  We took in the "Little World" Chinese food dive on 13th and State which is one of his favorites.  I do not go frequently but when I sat down, the owner asked,"Steamed clams?" "Oh yeah" We went to the Jordan Temple together as well and just had a great time chatting and visiting.

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We had a visit from Mirja Balhorn who came from Germany.  She was one of our sister missionaries, lives in Hamburg and works as a dental assistant.  She brought her cousin as well.  She filled us in on what is going on in the mission field.  They  now belong to the Berlin Mission

My sister in law, Laura, came with Ralph, his wife and Andrew, their son.  They also had tickets to Conference and it was fun to visit and get caught up with them.  Laura now lives with Ralph's family and Ralph moved to the Tampa, Florida area.

Our own missionary group from the 1955 - 1958 era had their last reunion,  The group is thinning out as we all get older.  Here is my first companion and Trainer on the right, Albert Perschon (Nephew to President Perschon, our Mission President)  We started in the Altstadt of Bern. We were transferred  Zolikofen shortly after the dedication of the first temple in Europe, We had a lot of success there.  On my left is Elder Benson; we share the same great grandfather Leopold Wirthlin.

We had our traditional Father's and Son's get together after General Priesthood meeting.  This year it was on television which was a departure although when in Austria, I encouraged the sister missionaries to sneak in at the back of the room to watch it.  Priesthood meeting was great!  After I had roasted a boneless rib roast and had Mom and Madeline Manwaring watch it.  It was the most perfectly cooked rib roast that I can remember.  Present were Doug's sons, Nate, Spence and Tommy, Mike brought Joseph who kept good notes and could answer all questions about the talks, John Hickey came with Joseph, Scott was there as were the Manwarings.  John came with the best cheesecake desert. John slept over and we babysat the boys as John and Kaley attended Sunday session with special seats from Elder Anderson.

It was a memorable conference and we felt great joy in seeing everyone again.  We go to St. George next.

Love, Mom and Dad