Off to North Platte -- Surprise

I was up at 5:30am to catch a 10:14am flight out of Salt Lake City.  I left the apartment by 6:40am; I had aimed for 6:30am. The drive down wasn’t too bad.  Elder Eubanks had recommended that I take Legacy Highway to avoid some of the traffic and big trucks—they’re not allowed on that highway.  Parked in the economy lot and took shuttle bus to terminal.  Pretty efficient. 

I had arrived in plenty of time.  Ended up passing the time talking with a gentleman from Kansas.  He was waiting for my Frontier flight to come in so he could meet his wife.  They had booked at different times to come to Salt Lake for a grandchild’s blessing or priesthood ordination.  Not sure which because he was telling about how they fly out for their grandchildren’s special ordinations.

Frontier had a full plane and asked for people to check their carry-on through.  I took advantage of the opportunity (no charge for checking) so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting my suitcase from one gate to the other.  When I returned to my seat, someone else had sat where I was so I went to the bathroom.  Upon returning their large duffle bag was there but the person wasn’t.  A TSA gal came by to check it out and asked if I knew who it had belonged to.  No idea, but I thought it had been a woman (wasn’t even certain about that).  They notified the police.  An officer came after a bit to take it away.  The gal from TSA says it happens quite often that people leave their luggage to go to the bathroom or get a bite even though they aren’t suppose to.  She has even been asked to watch someone’s luggage which she can’t do.  I think they opened it up later and found some ID because I heard them announce on the PA for someone to come claim their lost item.

We took off at 10:14am and arrived in Denver at 11:30am.  Had a three hour layover.  There I had the opportunity to talk to a couple from Vernal, Utah.  They had been down in Texas visiting her family.  I
didn’t realize there was a flight to Vernal on Great Lakes Airline.  They seem to go to all the out of the way places.

We left Denver at 3pm and arrived in North Platte at 5pm.  The flight was pretty smooth, but noisy, the consequences of flying in a smaller aircraft.  I was able to have an isle seat and a window seat all at the same time.

Michelle was there to pick me up.  She dropped me off at Jeanne’s, but didn’t come to the door with me.  Jeanne made sure to have Laurel answer the door.  I rang the door bell a couple times before she opened it.  When Laurel opened the door, she stood there with her mouth open in disbelief.  I said “I heard there is a baptism tomorrow.   I thought I would come for it.”  All the kids were in disbelief when they saw me.  One of the few times they have been speechless.  After they recovered from their initial shock, they were very excited to see me and I had lots of hugs.

Close of 2012

December 28, we made a trip to Tremonton this evening.  Sister Bews' family from Boise was going to Salt Lake and asked if we would meet them for dinner.  I chose Tremonton over Brigham City because I thought the road might be easier to travel.  I wasn't too thrilled driving over the slush and ice of Sardine Canyon on Christmas Day.  We met them at Denny's.  Sister Bews was excited to see her family again. 

December 29, I am going to North Platte for Laurel's baptism on January 5!  President Hiers has given me permission to go.  I will be gone Friday through Monday this coming weekend.  Sister Bews is especially excited for me because I haven't had an opportunity to see my family for awhile and she has visited with hers a couple times.

Jeanne emailed me not to say anything to Laurel when I talk with the kids tonight on video chat.  We'll surprise her with my visit.  Michelle wants to pick me up at the airport, so I can just walk up to the door and knock on it.  What fun!

December 31, Becky was really happy for me when she came into the Center.  She was delighted that I was going to see my family and attend the baptism.  As other missionaries learned of my trip, they were all very excited and happy for me.  We have arranged for Sister Bews to have transportation to the Center on Friday and Monday.  The ward will watch over her during the weekend.

Back to the Employment Center

Boy am I feeling tired this evening.  It was back to work today.  I managed to stay busy even though the Center wasn't that busy.  There is always paper work that can be done for AJS.  We had a new candidate start today. 

I was asked by Elder Davis last week to give the spiritual thought today.  I picked the 4th Day of Christmas from the 12 Days of Christmas gifts Jeanne and the kids had sent me.  The 4th day was calling birds and Jeanne turned it to "calling" like in Church.  She had five quotes about serving a mission as a senior and after each quote was a note written by one of the grandchildren.  I thought it was very appropriate to share with the Service Missionaries because they are all grandparents setting an example for their grandchildren.

It snowed most of the day.  It was almost a repeat of Monday.  The storm is suppose to continue through tomorrow.  We didn't go far from the Center at lunch time; we drove to Wendy's which was about two blocks away.

Christmas Day

Results of the Christmas Eve snowfall

Around noon we headed out for Salt Lake City.  On our way out of town we encountered ground fog for a couple miles.  It looked pretty cool.  The highway to Brigham City was a bit slushy and icy in parts.  The Wellsville Mountains have very steep slopes, so they block out some of the sun keeping the snow and ice from melting completely on various parts of the highway.  After we were on I-15 the drive was pretty clear.  Salt Lake is about an hour and half drive from Logan. 

The Marriott had free enclosed public parking for the day and is only a block away from Temple Square.  I’m sure the car didn’t mind being out of the weather and it was nice to have a warm building to go through.

We walked toured the Assembly hall, the old Tabernacle, and the North Visitor’s Center (we had been in the South Visitor’s Center on a previous trip).  It has been over twenty years since I had last gone through these buildings.  Everything was lovely with the Christmas greenery.  At 5pm they turned on the lights!  That was quite a sight to see.

Tree in City Creek Mall

Looking from City Creek Mall towards the Temple

Reflection Pool in front of the Temple with Nativity

Assembly Hall

Nativity outside Tabernacle

We head home around 6pm stopping at Denny’s in Layton for dinner.  It was a very busy restaurant! :-o  I guess because it was one of the few open on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

Today it has snowed off and on all day, mostly on.  We didn’t go to Salt Lake like we had planned for Christmas Eve.  I know that once I get over the Wellsville Mountains, the weather won’t be quite so bad.  The problem is getting from here to there!  I’m still learning or practicing driving in snow and slush, and on icy roads.  I’m not ready to challenge myself.  Consequently, we stayed in Providence.

We ventured out in the snow to go to the movies.  We saw “Rise of the Guardians.”  The snowplow was digging out the parking lot when we arrived.  I only had to drive about a half mile to the theatre, but it was still a very snowy drive.  We always clean off the car before we go anywhere because I like to see where I’m driving through all my windows.  After the movie we had to dig the car out again, and the movie was only 90 minutes long.  Glad we didn’t see a 2 hour or 3 hour movie!

Dinner with the Schwab family was very nice.  We had chicken and baked red potatoes.  I’ve never baked a red potato.  And these weren’t small red potatoes.  The flavor was a little different, but good.  After dinner, I shared with the family “To Be a Brother Like That” story which came in my Day 5 envelope of the 12 Days of Christmas.  It is a great story and goes a little different than you expect.  You can find it on the internet.

 

3 December

As the saying goes, it never rains, but it pours.  Today we have new AJS candidates, nine to be exact.  We will be very busy getting them ready to go job searching.

We have also been assigned one DI associate each to work with.  DI has a program similar to AJS called APP.  One big difference in the programs is the DI people get paid to do their job search.  They only have one coach who teleconferences with them.  We've been asked to supplement their coach by working with the participants on their "Me in 30," Power Statements, and résumés.  The DI coach has several DI's he works with.  When he is not telelconferencing, he is expected to find job leads for the associates hew work with.  This is a paid position, so he needs to find leads.

6 December

Utah Ogden Mission Conference

Wow, what a day.  Our Utah Ogden Mission met in Ogden for an all day conference.  Elder and Sister Cook were visiting our mission conference and have just been called by President Uchtdorf to serve as a Mission President.  They have no idea where they will be going, but all of their mission material is in French.

Roomful of Missionaries

The morning was a round robin training session.  Since we are not proselyting missionaries, we helped set up the lunch.  We had the entire mission there, 240 Elders and Sisters.  If they get any more missionaries, they will need a bigger building.  The Mission office is in a Stake Center and that is where the conference was held.  Lunch was ham, baked potatoes, and salad with lots of apple and pumpkin pie for dessert. 

After lunch there was a talent show put on by the missionaries.  Even the office staff did a creative rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas.  A fun rap video started out the talent show.  We have some Polynesians serving in our mission.  The girls did a couple dances, then the guys did their presentation.  There was a cute and funny skit around teaching the first lesson.  We had guitarists, pianists, an accordion player and a harmonica play besides dancers and singers.  The show last almost three hours, lots of talent.  It was 4:45pm when everything was over. 

We had been there since 9:00am.  It was about a 50 minute drive home.  We had driven there in the fog, but most of it was gone when we left.  Some still hung in parts of the area.  When we past by Brigham City on our way out we couldn't see the Temple and it was still hidden in the fog when we went home.  Generally the Brigham City Temple looks like a palace at the base of the Wellsville Mountains when you drive along I-15.

 Relief Society Activity

 Our day wasn't over when we arrived home.  We still had a Relief Society Christmas activity to go to that evening.  We had arranged to meet one of our visit teaching sisters there.  The activity was a presentation of the Nativity creche with traditions suggested for each member of the Nativity.  It was a spiritual way to end the day.

7 December - Employment Center Mission Conference

Another Mission Conference, this time we had the opportunity to sleep in as it didn't start until 10am and we only had to travel to North Logan.  Becky shared thoughts of 2012.  She started with the last verse of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "For lo! the days are hast’ning on, By prophets seen of old,  When with the ever-circling years Shall come the time foretold, When the new heav’n and earth shall own The Prince of Peace their King, And the whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing."  She said compared how the "days are hast'ning on" to the events that we see going on in the world now.  The US Employment Centers are now united with the efforts of Deseret Industries.  Becky referred to Elder Scott's talk that nothing is temporal, it is all spiritual.  We have a new focus of helping members to become self-reliant.  Self-reliance is prerequisite to giving service which results in giving back to.  In the Center we can see the Lord's hand in the work we do.  President Monson said "The Lord is in the details of our lives."  Miracles are happening at the ERC and we get to pray for more. 

Our theme for 2013 is "Extending the Reach"  Logan's ERS mission goal is to place 2860 members this; so far we have placed 2776.  We are only reaching 10% of the members registered at the LDSjobs.org.  60% of people who register on the site do it from home.  Some come in or call the center for assistance.  The Church wants us to increase our reach from 10% to 15%.  There are a variety of ways we can do this, including contacting Ward and Stake leaders to share what we can do to assist them.  We will be learning more at our next mission conference in January.

Our lunch was provided by Church headquarters.  It was Chicken Cordon Bleu catered by The Bluebird Restaurant in Logan.  This is a historic restaurant in Logan and considered one of the finer establishments.  The food and service was very good.

After lunch, Becky's son Jonathan spoke to us.  He just returned home from his mission in Florida Fort Lauderdale on Thursday (yesterday).  He shared how his mission had been challenged to increase their numbers.  He told how he had set goals that seemed difficult and had achieved  them.  The key is to set goals, pray, and expect answers.  He quoted Proverbs 29:18:  "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

9 December - Driving on Snow

My car is on the right of the open spot.

I had my first real test of driving in the snow this morning.  It was a light snow, not a wet snow, but it packed down pretty good.  (I could hear it creak under my feet when I walked to the car. :->)  The roads were not plowed when we made our trip to the chapel for choir practice and church.  Now was the time for me to put into practice everything I had read or heard.  It went well until I turned onto the main street when I felt the car slide a little--turn into the slide not away went through my mind.  I don't know that Sister Bews noticed it because I was going slow and it was a little slide, but I felt the car do a short glide on the pavement. 

11 December - :-) Mutual Admiration Society

DI proved us with a wonderful lunch, sandwich fixings from Kneaders. Kneaders is kind of like Togo, but much better; they make their own bread.  If I remember correctly, they started in Provo.  I learned about Kneaders when daughter and son-in-law were attending BYU.  It was very delicious lunch.  

Deseret Industries appreciate us for helping their associates and we appreciate them for sharing the building with us. We have a mutual admiration society thing going on here.

13 December

12 Days of Christmas

What fun!  I have gotten a box from my family with fun little packages for the 12 Days of Christmas.  The first one is mix for making a dozen Peanut Butter Cookies.  I put on The Nutcracker and went to work.  It was quick and easy; I like quick and easy.  Now I have cookies to munch on (I squeezed out more than a dozen cookies).

Also in the box were new colored pictures for my bedroom walls.  :-)

Santa Visit

 










Santa came to the Center to visit the AJS missionaries.  Jana's husband dropped in on her invite.  He likes doing Santa Claus and is built for it.  She made the outfit.  Jana was one of our candidates and now works for DI.

14 December - A Job!

Hurray, Elizabeth has a job!.  She has been in AJS just barely two weeks.  It helped that Elder Humphreys had connections.  The Payless Shoe store manager is in his ward and told Elder Humphreys that he had an opening for a full time person.  We sent Elizabeth and Dawn in to interview.  Elizabeth was asked to come back for a second interview.  She did her second interview this afternoon and felt she had done well.  We had done a mock interview and I suggested that she try to get more background information about Payless.  Elizabeth did her homework and wowed them with what she knew.  However she felt her age would be against her because she noticed that they had younger people working in the store.  Then she received the call with the job offer.

15 December

Ward Christmas Breakfast

I must be getting old because The Ward Christmas Breakfast was nice, but nothing special.  The Bishop started the occasion out by reading a few verses from Luke 2 about the birth of Christ.  The Polar Express was the theme they chose to go with including a visit from Santa.  The children were told they could come in their pajamas if they wanted to. The food was good: fruit, juice & milk, blueberry muffins, and a shredded potato casserole.  We had lots and lots of left overs some of which was taken to Providence Place. It was just missing the reverence I would want for the occasion or the place. 

We were asked to help on the Ward Christmas Breakfast committee.  Our job was to be at the Stake Center by 7am to help set up, and then serve.  There was snow on the ground when I awoke at 5:30am and it continued to fall during the morning. There were quite a few people who showed up to help prepare and set up for the party.  A couple of the men shoveled the snow off on the sidewalks and cleared the parking lot.  Everything ran smoothly including clean up.  Most of the attendees helped clean up which made it go faster.  That is one of the impressive things about church; everyone pitches in at the end of an activity to put things away and clean up.   

Dinner and Theatre

This evening we attended a show at the Eccles Theatre, the Bar J Wranglers.  It was highly recommended by several of the missionaries at the Center.  They said it was good, clean, fun entertainment.  I wasn't disappointed.  If you remember Roy Rogers or The Sons of the Pioneers, the Bar J Wranglers play that kind of music.  They poke fun at each which brings in the comedy.  Some of the songs were Christmas and some of the songs were Western.  One of my favorite parts was when they sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" to the tune of "Ghost Riders in the Sky."  It was good!

The Bar J Wranglers have a place called the Bar J Chuckwagon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they serve food and entertain.  I guess they do that from May through September close the restaurant then tour the rest of the year.  I think their entertainment would do well in North Platte.
http://www.barjchuckwagon.com/Wranglers.htm  

We went out to dinner at the Coppermill on Main Street and parked behind their building.  The Eccles Theatre doesn't really have parking.  It wasn't more than a two block walk which some locals think is a long ways to go for parking.  The Coppermill is one of the nicer places in town to eat--nice atmosphere, decent food, and a little pricey.  Now we can say we have been there.  (Still partial to the Sizzler salad bar.)

16 December

Another snowy Sunday.  The streets were clear this morning when we headed out for choir and church.  It is not a heavy snow; it is just drifting down in feathery flakes.

Boy am I glad that I keep a spare set of glasses in the car.  I put my glasses on this morning and the lens fell followed by the screw.  Luckily I found the screw, but didn't have the means to put it back in my glasses.  I went the to car to retrieve my extra pair of glasses.  The last time I order new glasses my prescription had only changed minutely, so it is just adjusting to a different frame.

18 December

Yesterday at lunch it was raining; by late afternoon it was snowing.  We had a trip planned to Ogden today and I was getting nervous about the drive.  Sister Bews needed to get her flu shot from the mission doctor and her health insurance card from the Mission Office.

This morning our driveway was ice, but it wasn't snowing or raining.  The morning stayed dry so the main roads were dry and the side roads wet.  We took off for Ogden at lunch time.  The drive went smoothly and the roads dry.  After we crossed over the Wellsville Mountains into Brigham City and down I-15 the snow started to become sparse.  The storm we were expecting had stayed south of I-80 and we weren't driving that far south.  First we stopped at the doctor's home then went to the Mission Office.  It was fun to touch bases with everyone in the Mission Office.  President Hiers and his wife were in Salt Lake going to the temple with the newly arrived missionaries.  I guess he takes the new ones through the Salt Lake Temple when they arrive.  He also takes the departing Missionaries through the temple too.  They go on a different day.

We drove home along US 89 which follows along closer to the mountains than I-15.  US 89 is the slower and older route, but there is more to see.  When we looked to the west we could see how close I-15 gets to the the Great Salt Lake.  You don't realize it when you travel along that freeway.

It was after 4pm when we arrived back in Providence, so we didn't go into work.  Instead, we went to the temple.  Going to the temple is always such a good feeling.

I am having so much fun opening my 12 Days of Christmas from Jeanne and the kids (Carolyn helped too).  Today was the 7th day and I received a Bath and Body Works bath wash.  They all come with fun stories too. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Pumpkin Turkey

We were invited to join several families for dinner at the church.  One of the sister's we visit teach invited us.  There were four or five families there, 23 people.  Two other families had been invited as guests also.  It was a melding of two wards, Providence 1st and Cobblestone 1st.  They use to be in the same ward before it was split.  There was lots of good food and great company.  We had 12 pies.  Obviously, there were lots of left overs.

In the evening we went over to Sister Nielsen's and Sister Jensen's for desert, pumpkin pie.  I had brought a punch to the dinner and had leftovers, so I brought it to go with the pie.  It was excellent pie.  We ended up taking half of it home.

It was a very good day with special people.