Week Fifty…Driving in the Snow Can Be a Little Drifty!

Here are some of our learnings for this week…

This was the forecast for our week. We learned that there was a winter storm warning issued and geared up for a snowy week. Well as I have learned from prior experience, weather forecasts are not to be thought of as absolutes. Those in the business are doing their best to watch patterns and developments and to then predict what they think is coming. Many times those predictions are very wrong. Either it is far worse than predicted and the timing isn’t correct, or nothing actually happens at all. In our case this week it was mostly the latter. On Tuesday while we were at the library we had a squall come through town that had high winds, but didn’t drop a lot of snow. That night it snowed some, maybe a couple of inches, but enough to make roads a bit slushy. Throughout the day on Wednesday it snowed a little, on and off, and I’ll tell you later about our drive to and from Hale Center Theater on Wednesday night, but the rest of the week was supposed to have a pretty good storm come through that was going to leave at least a foot of snow on the ground and we got nothing. Roads are clear and dry, no snowplows needed. We didn’t even have to worry about our walk over to the Delta Center last night for the Jazz/Lakers game, the sidewalks were great and we even were able to cut through a dry parking lot to make the walk shorter.

Monday morning we went into the library, and I believe because of the weather forecast we had even less guests in the library as we did last week. It was soooo quiet. I had two meetings in the morning and mostly just worked on French training the rest of the day. Mom the same. That evening we had a mission fireside with Steve and Julie Nelson. He is a member of The Piano Guys and usually plays the cello with them. We learned that his wife is also a very accomplished musician and plays the violin. They did a great fireside presentation on developing positive thought processes and of course sharing some great musical numbers with us. I really enjoyed learning a bit about his learning how to overcome ADHD and channeling that into other aspects of his life, especially his music. It took him awhile to learn how to keep focused on his instrument and the music and make it part of him. We really liked his wife’s contributions, what she had learned from being a single mom while he was on the road while touring with his group. She learned to rely heavily on the Lord. Here is one of their musical numbers. https://photos.app.goo.gl/3MWcdPXoDYdzVFoW7 We ended the night by watching the ending of the Washington/Michigan game. Sadness. 

Tuesday I went and worked out at the COB while Mom took one of the sister missionaries to go shopping at Walmart. They were gone quite awhile so I used the time to read some more talks from last conference. This one was a good one. I learned a lot by pondering one of his statements…”Covenants are the shape of God’s embrace.”  I used to view covenants as things my Father wanted me to do, commandments to be obeyed and checked off the list. Now I see them as in invitations to join with Him in a partnership to experience and be educated by this life I have been given, and not have to do it by myself. He offers His love and strength and support and understanding to be with me in everything I do, if I want it. The covenant is my way of saying I want it. It is interesting how you can be guided to learn so many different things from the same thing. When I heard and then read this talk the first couple of times, I didn’t see this teaching. I focused on other aspects of the talk. I have learned it is valuable to read them more than once and to ponder.

We went into the library at noon and learned it was pretty quiet. At about 3 the squall came through. We could hear the winds coming down through the elevator shafts. It passed quickly, but there were those forecasts of heavy snow to follow, so since we were floor leaders in the evening we started sending anyone home that had to drive a ways in order to beat the storm. We didn’t have many guests left in the library and  most of them were content to work on their own and didn’t need any help from us. So we closed up shop at 8pm and headed home. 

Wednesday is Pday of course. We went back to the COB gym in the morning and Mom decided to do some arm workouts while I rode the bike. She had some things to do before going to lunch with her ministering sister, so she headed back to the apartment while I just kept riding. I learned that the bike I was riding has some different programmable rides to choose from. I first did a 30 minute weight loss ride. It started with a 5 minute warmup then did a lot of hill climbs of various percent grades from 1 to 11 percent. It definitely caused me some heavy breathing and breaking out in sweat. After finishing that I did a video ride where they take you on one of the stages of the Tour de France. I chose the ride to Gap which actually turned out to be a fairly easy ride. It lasted 44 minutes and only had one steep climb on it. But I spent a total of an hour and twenty minutes on the bike and my bum was a bit sore when I got off the bike. It’s been awhile.

We learned on our walk home Tuesday night that they have opened up the area north of the Tabernacle so we decided to walk through there on our way to workout. It’s nice. Lots of open grassy areas, and plants and a restroom facility. I am sure it will look very nice in the spring when all of the flowers start to bloom and the trees get leaves. Right now it looks kind of barren and bleak with white snow everywhere that you look.

Mom went off to her lunch and I had some cereal for breakfast and then started to watch another season of

Alone. We just spent the rest of the afternoon doing 

nothing much. About 4pm I took a couple of the tables that we have down to the apartment lobby. The apartment management was sponsoring a dinner for all of the residents and they thought they needed more seating. They were right. Dinner started at 6pm and we wanted to go early so that we could get on the road early to head off to Clue at our monthly Hale Center Theater production. When we got there we learned just about everyone else had the same idea to come early. We got to know a couple couples from the building. One from Argentina and one from Utah that are moving down to Saratoga Springs next month. Then we headed off to Clue. We were glad we

went early. The freeways were mostly clear, but still a bit slippery and unsafe, so we drove about 50mph the whole way. When we got there we found the theater about half full and then they came out and announced that they had some actors that hadn’t yet arrived. They were delayed by snowy roads. They came out two more times after that, including one time with the director of the play to take audience questions. We finally got started 55 minutes late and the ushers invited us to move down and take any open seats if we would like, so we did, which was nice because our seats were on the side up towards the back. We got a better view about 3 rows further down and in the middle section. The play was just ok, not our most favorite so far. We learned that it was a lot like the movie Clue, but even more silly and slapstick kind of humor. Some moments were good and had us laughing, but most of it was just too silly in my opinion. We then drove slowly home and saw one guy on the freeway that got over too far to the right and started sliding and hit his brakes and slid into the barrier. He bounced off and just kept driving. 

Thursday we were worried about the snow, but it didn’t snow much during the night and we had a nice walk to the library in the morning. We did our floor lead assignment and had another fairly quiet day. We had a reservation to do initiatories at the Bountiful Temple at 5pm and Mom called to make sure they were still open. We learned that they were. So since it wasn’t snowing yet we left for there at 4pm. We had three sister missionaries with us…Sister Docherty, Sister Hirama and Sister Pruner. Everything went smoothly and afterwards we asked if they wanted to go out to dinner? They liked that idea so we asked where? Silence. Sister Docherty mentioned that she had never been to Chick-fil-A so we decided that was where we would go. But the nearest one was the opposite direction from where we needed to go so we decided to go to the one in the downtown mall food court. Yum. Mom had a coupon for a free sandwich and I got fries and a shake. Shocker?

Friday I got up early and went to give platelets. I was offered another t-shirt but they were all out of the one that I didn’t already have, the one in the picture here. So I decided I don’t need a second one and just headed home. Mom planned to go workout, but never got over there. I went and washed the car after my donation, going back to the same self-serve car wash that I used last time. I learned from a quick search on the internet that it was one of the closest as well as best reviewed places around. So I got back and ate some lunch and then we headed into the library. While I was hanging around trying to find something to do, in walked Kimberly and Scott. They had just gotten to Salt Lake the night before, after driving Cameron and Kiersten’s cars across country from Virginia. We gave them a short tour and talked for a bit, then we had to get back to work and they needed to go. Again it was a quiet night and there was another winter storm warning, so we sent people home early. By the time we closed down we had only two guests and four missionaries on our floor. Now that is super slow.

Saturday morning we awoke to no snow! Surprised? We went into the library to learn that we were finally busy. I think everyone else decided that this storm stuff wasn’t going to happen and it was their day off so they came to the library. Unfortunately we had about seven missionaries who weren’t able to come in so it made it kind of hectic trying to cover all of the assignments. But we got ‘er done and were able to help quite a few folks. I think at the end of the night we had over 65 guests that we helped. One thing that Mom really liked was that we helped a lady named Bonnie who was doing Netherlands research. We helped her identify some children that had not been added to a family and I showed her how to save and highlight the records to each of the individuals. While I was taking a late lunch, Mom went back down and helped Bonnie do more of those. Quick study! 

We then headed home and changed, got some dinner and walked over to the Delta Center for the Jazz/Lakers game that Tori gave me tickets to for Christmas. As I mentioned earlier it was nice and clear and we were able to walk over there with no slippage worries. We found our seats and settled in and waited to see how the game was going to turn out. I had previously learned from a post on my ESPN app that LeBron wasn’t going to be playing, so that was kind of a bummer to not see a future Hall-of-Famer play, but there were others on the floor…Anthony Davis and  Lauri Markkanen, etc…who 

could possibly be considered someday for that, seeing how they are playing now. Anyway, the festivities got under way with Paige Anne, the American Idol contestant from Utah singing the National Anthem and then they introduced the starting lineups with all of the hoopla that they do these days. Finally the game started and it was a good game. Back and forth most of the night. I told Mom before the game that if it was a boring one or she wasn’t into it at all we could head home at half, but she was into it…yelling and cheering when they dropped 3’s or when they stole the ball. We stayed for the whole game and watched the Jazz make a third quarter run and hold onto it through the fourth to win the game. Markkanen ended up with 29 points. He plays so smoothly for a 7 foot man!

E

Today was Sunday. We had a normal day at church and then came home for lunch. Then we walked over to the COB for the monthly One Heart Gathering. It was FINALLY snowing! Big huge flakes. Not very hard and it wasn’t sticking but this was finally the snow they had been saying was coming. So we put on our stay dry coats and walked over for the meeting. As you probably remember from previous posts, this is the meeting where new missionaries introduce themselves and those that are leaving say goodbye. One couple that was introducing themselves were the Browns. They are from Brigham City and have been assigned to attend our same ward. We talked to them for about a half an hour after church today. They were just assigned to serve on the Discovery Zone floor in the FamilySearch library. They are about our age and seem very nice. After the talks were finished we went out and they had snacks for us to munch on while we visited with some of the other missionaries. I learned from one missionary that she has a difficult time pondering scriptures. That was interesting

to me and a bit baffling, as I have no problems when it comes to that. I need to remember that everyone else does not see or understand or think exactly like I do. We are all different and have our own strengths and weaknesses. Sorry if I have ever assumed you should think or understand exactly as I do. I love you all for the marvelous children that you are and the great strengths that you bring to our family.

Well the night is coming on and I should be finished with his post.

Again, we love you.

BE GOOD!

Mom and Dad