Week Thirteen…Way to Use the Old Bean!

 This week was great and we learned a lot.

Mom of course was in Murrieta with Julie and Chris and their girls AND Tyler. She says that her kids make the cutest grandchildren, and I have to agree. She had such a great time being grandma and helping around the house and being the taxi driver and holding Tyler whenever she could get him away from all of his sisters. He is a good baby, but hasn’t learned that nighttime is for sleeping.

She also learned that she may have allergies. She did a lot of coughing and sneezing and losing her voice while she was there, but nobody else seemed to be affected, so she’s pretty sure it was some sort of allergies and not a cold. Once she got back here to Utah everything seems to be fine again, except that she is missing being with her grandkids and kids. 

I stayed here in Salt Lake City and did the bachelor thing while she was away. I have done that many times, and have learned that as long as I have cold cereal and milk, and peanut butter and honey, and ice cream and my bike, I will be fine. Mom actually left me with tons of things to eat so I didn’t have to survive on just those previously mentioned foods, but I know I can if I need to. 

Monday was a normal day, but Tuesday I didn’t need to be in to the library until noon, so I have learned that if I get out at a reasonable time I can get a good ride in and be back in time…no problem. Such was this Tuesday. It was still a little chilly outside, but with arm warmers and leg warmers and my vest I was fine. Actually I learned that I should have paid attention to the thought that came into my mind that I ought to take my ear cover with me as well, just in case. It was pretty cold out there and my ears suffered! They were so cold that it reminded me of the time when I was at BYU and I went with Scott Montgomery up to Heber City to celebrate Thanksgiving with his grandparents, and the rest of his family who had driven in from California, along with Steve Klippel who had joined them as well. We got up in the morning and climbed into the back of grandpa Walter’s truck to go out and feed his cattle. It was super cold and pretty soon my ears were freezing. For some reason Steve thought it was a good idea to flick my ear with his finger. Whoaaaaa! I thought my ear had fallen off, it hurt so bad. As I was riding my bike the thought came that I hoped nothing would flick my ear and make it hurt like it did that morning long ago. I’ve learned that I have weird thoughts now and then. (BTW I got in a ride of a little shy of 35 miles. Wahoo.) After my ride I went in and spent the rest of the day at the Family Search Library, and was able to help quite a few people as well as pass off my beginning Swedish training. Vahoo!

I was also bombarded with a bunch of photos from mom of baby Tyler. These three reminded me of someone getting mug shots at the police station. I’m pretty sure though that he isn’t a criminal, except that he is stealing some hearts out there.

Wednesday was Pday and I decided I needed another bike ride. I have learned that there is a trail just above the capital somewhere that you can mountain bike on, so I went out in search of the trailhead after looking it up on the internet. Well, I found the trail at the top of City Creek Canyon Park but there was a sign there (which I didn’t get a picture of) saying that it was the Downhill Only trail and to take the other trail to go up. So I rode further up City Creek Canyon road, but only found a sign saying that bikes had to stay on the paved road there and could only access the road on odd days. So I gave up and rode back down the hill until I got to the Conference Center and then decided to get a little more exercise in so I rode up State St. to the Capital and then home. No off-road trails and a short ride. Ugh. I learned I have to do a little more research before I get out there riding these trails. (Note: I did find another online site describing the trailhead and found out I rode right past it when I came down from the place where the exit is for the downhill only trail…about 1/2 mile further down the road).

I got home and waited around for Salvador, the Xfinity guy, to come. Yes, they sent another guy. Salvador called me on Tuesday while I was at the library and said he had been given permission by the apartment owners to cut holes in the walls or ceilings to find the cable and get it installed. I told him he could come tomorrow but I wasn’t too hopeful that he could solve anything. However, I learned I would be wrong about that. He arrived around 2:30 and told me he would have to start cutting some holes in the walls. I showed him the places where they had already cut holes and he told me that he was the one that cut those holes. Well, I then told him what the last guy that came out said about being pretty sure the cable was just rolled up in the ceiling out in the main hallway. Now this is where the Old Bean comes in. I told him that I had mentioned to the other guy that we might be able to pull out the can light in the hallway and see if we could find the cable that way, but that he didn’t think that would work. Well Salvador thought that was a good idea. So we pulled out the light (which was very easy I might add) and I got up on a chair (I was taller) and reached around inside. I felt a cluster of cables and told him what I felt. He tried to reach them but couldn’t, so the Old Bean got working again and I grabbed my phone and stuck it up in the hole and took pictures in each direction. When Salvador saw this picture he said, “That’s it!”. He went down to his truck and got his ladder and came back and tested the connection to make sure it was our line and then used the previously pulled future fiber optic line in our closet to pull the cable into our apartment. It was done in about 15 minutes with no holes having to be cut anywhere. So we now have super fast internet. Way to use the Old Bean.

Thursday I got up early and went to the temple to do an 8am endowment session. I learned that 8am is not a popular time and the session was less crowded than most sessions we have been in lately. I went sock shopping after that to get some olive green socks to go with my suit and slacks of the same color and then off to get the car washed.

By then it was time to get ready to go into the library and I checked my phone to learn that Mom had sent me more Tyler pictures. I am worried that he is getting indoctrinated into having selfies of him every day. I hope it doesn’t mess him up for the future…😜 The rest of the day was pretty normal and nothing particularly exciting happened.

Friday I learned that they want me to take on a couple of more duties at he library…stay tuned for more on that later. I was able to sneak off for a bit in the evening to go pick up Mom at the airport and then ran back to finish off my shift at the library. 

Saturday we both were back together at the library and Mom learned that she is getting pretty good at helping people get started in Family Search and building their family tree. She was able to especially help one lady get a bunch of stuff sorted out and help her grow her tree. She even learned it is fun! Fun! That’s the word she used. I was able to help one lady with reading some Swedish documents and a Dutch couple get their family tree started. They were so excited that they asked to take a picture with me and the computer screen to send to his mom back in the Netherlands. Maybe I need to get some tips from Tyler about selfies?

After our shift was finished we drove down to Lindon to attend the retirement party for a colleague of mine, Eric Shields. He taught in Tooele when I was at Taylorsville Seminary. Then he was transferred out to Northern California and taught at the Stockton Institute when I was Assistant Area Director and Area Director. I learned that he had just retired…Friday was his last day at the Utah Valley Institute. He taught for 40 years in the Seminaries and Institute program. Great man. In talking with his wife, Heidi, we learned that they are looking forward to submitting papers and going on a mission. They have to wait for about a year and half because they are currently serving as Branch Leaders in the MTC. They will be great missionaries. 

This morning we got up and went to Music and the Spoken Word. We learned that Spring has finally arrived here. We were able to walk to the tabernacle without needing a jacket and these lovely flowers greeted us outside of our apartment building and on

Temple Square. It was really a nice day. We then attended our Leadership Pattern Journey class and learned that we both need to be better at writing down spiritual impressions when they come. This one quote kind of says it all… “The prompting that goes unresponded to may not be repeated.  Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital. A special thought can also be lost later in the day in the rough and tumble of life.  God should not, and may not, choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what was given such a low priority as to put it aside” (Neal a. Maxwell, The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book, ed. Cory H. Maxwell [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 171). 

We then went to church and learned that we are not going to have a special mission branch anymore. The Area Presidency has decided that we need to attend local wards to help strengthen them, which is what we thought we would be doing when we first arrived here. So the 220+ missionaries from this mission will be spread out in about 15 different units near the downtown area. This should take place after May 14th and we are excited to learn where we will be attending. We secretly hope it will be one of the Polynesian units…oops, I guess it’s not a secret if I put it on this post. 

We went out after dinner to take a walk up by the State Capital building. It is surrounded by cherry trees and they are currently all in bloom. We learned that half of Salt Lake City also knew about this and decided to show up today to do photo shoots for weddings and graduations and new family shots. It was packed with people. It was fun to see so many different people out enjoying the weather and the beauties of this world. 

We ended our day with a fun night teaching two other missionary couples, the Barneys and the Engstroms, how to play Mah Jong. They were quick to pick it up and we had a great time playing with them and getting to know them better…and Mom didn’t win. What!?

Love you all!

BE GOOD.

Sister Mom and Elder Dad