Happy New Year! We had a great Christmas and here is some of what we learned…
We learned Christmas Day that we have great friends (family) in our kid’s in-laws. JB and Deb Burley invited us over to their place Christmas morning to watch the grandkids open presents, even though it was “their year” to have Christmas with the kids and they also had their daughter and son in-law and their kids over as well. It was a wonderful morning. After opening gifts we had breakfast of cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole and then we headed back over to Shaunna and Chris’s while the grandkids played with their cousins. We called some of the rest of you to wish you Merry Christmas and just relaxed most of the rest of the day until that night when we went back over to the Burley’s for dinner and to watch the 49ers vs Ravens game. Niners lost badly, sadness, but it was fun chatting with everyone and enjoying the Christmas season. We hope you all know how much we love you and wish we could have been with you this Christmas, but we know that is not always possible nor fair to those great in-laws some of you have and deserve to be with you as well.
Tuesday morning we slept in and the kids played with cousins and with toys they got the day before. I learned from Paige that her new Nintendo game,
Animal Crossing, is kind of like
Mine Craft where she can build a world for herself and visit other friend’s worlds and they can visit hers.
In the afternoon we took a walk to Whatcom Falls along the great trail system that they have here. At the beginning of the walk we went off the established trail and took a side trail. I learned that Taylor is very independent and wanted to walk the trail instead of being carried, so she held my hand and walked the whole way. It was a bit cloudy, but no rain and the hike was nice. On the way back Mom and I decided to walk all the way back to the house…we had driven to a different trailhead to start so that the walk wouldn’t be too long for the younger kids…so we headed off to get in some extra exercise. I learned that Mom has memorized these trails pretty well. I was turned around a couple of times and probably would’ve been lost if she wasn’t with me.
We then headed over to Zoë and Aaron’s place to spend some time with them. Zoë had taken Tori to Seattle for her flight that morning and Melissa left around 11am for her flight, so it was just them and Franklin. We learned that Franklin loves
Lighting McQueen and
Mater. He got them from Santa and spent a lot of the time while we were there, playing with them. He also likes the
Bluey & Bingo mini plushies that we got him. I know he doesn’t look super happy in his picture, but he really did seem to enjoy playing with them. We sat around and just talked and then Aaron and I went to help his friend Harrison jumpstart his car and then pick up sandwiches for dinner. We learned that they have a favorite sandwich place called
Cafe Rumba that makes these great Peruvian sandwiches. They are right, they are very good! We had a relaxing meal and then headed back to the Burley’s to get packed for our flight home the next day. We found Mason working on Paige’s new game trying to build up money and points for her so that she can build some fun stuff. What a nice brother!
The next morning, Wednesday, we went out to play frisbee golf. It was Mom and I and Shaunna and the kids. Chris was working. It’s great that there are lots of places like this around where you can get out of the house and get some exercise and enjoy nature. It sure helps the kids to get the
wiggles out and not be glued to a tv screen all day, as well as learn some new skills and just be with each other.
We then headed home and finished packing and Shaunna drove us to the airport. Our flight was on time, but after takeoff we learned that they were expecting turbulence so they didn’t do any drinks or snacks. Lucky we brought our own. I read The Boys In The Boat which I started on Christmas day, hoping I could finish it before going to see the movie. When we got to Oakland we learned that our flight was delayed, ugh. We left about 40 minutes late, but at least there wasn’t as much turbulence so they decided to do the drinks and snacks. They took our order and then turbulence hit. After about 15 minutes the flight attendants on the
front half of the plane resumed the snack service, but the ones on the back half apparently didn’t get the memo that it was ok so we missed out again. Sadness. We got in a little before midnight and had to wait for our bags, which we needed to check since you bought Mom scissors and she couldn’t bring those in her carry on bag. Our wonderful friends, Max and Lisa Decker picked us up and brought us home. We originally thought that we might be able to arrive early enough to catch the last Trax train home, but Lisa convinced us that we shouldn’t chance it and they would pick us up. They get extra blessings for doing an early morning drop off and a late night pickup.
Thursday we were back in the library and learned from the other missionaries that the day before had been much more busy than the Wednesday before Christmas. Thursday proved to be the same. We were much busier. Since we were floor leads we didn’t get to do much helping of the guests, but we were able to keep our missionaries busy helping those who came in. I was asked in the afternoon to help a guest with some Swedish research and had a great time showing her how to use the archive site and find her ancestors for herself. I have learned that that is my favorite thing…teaching others how to do their own research. There was only one problem with my helping, I spent a little too long with her and missed a meeting I was supposed to be at. Oops!
That night we went to the temple again. Only Sister Hirama was able to go and we had planned to do sealings. She was able to have her grandfather’s sister sealed to her husband and children. There was a very wonderful spirit in the room and she as well as Mom and our sealer began to cry. I have learned that crying doesn’t always indicate you are feeling the Spirit, but many times when you do feel the Spirit it seems to cause emotions of joy, and extreme joy usually makes you cry. After we finished we went outside and learned that they still had their nativity scene out and lit, so we got a picture.
Friday we slept in a bit and then went to workout at the COB. I did my normal weights routine and then decided since I was reading
The Boys In The Boat that I wanted to see if I could row as fast and as far as they do in the book. Most of their races were either 3 or 4 miles long, but their Olympic race was 2000 meters. So I got on the rowing machine and got my pace up to the strokes/minute rate that it said they did and held it there until the last 500 meters when I sprinted as fast as I could. I ended up doing the 2000 meters in a little over 11 minutes. When I finished reading last night I learned that they did it in a little over 6 minutes. I was just a little off their time. 😜 After working out we came back to the apartment and we watched
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As prequels go we thought it was pretty good. It was funny that even though I knew what Snow’s character was like from the books, I still kept thinking he was going to turn out good in this movie. I think they did that on purpose and did a pretty good job of it.
We then went into the library where I spent most of my time working on trying to find the parents of one of my ancestors,
Andrew Jackson Brooks. I learned before we left for Christmas break that my cousin’s wife, Lisa, had added some sources…Census records and marriage records…to Andrew and his wife Sarah. In looking those over I noticed a discrepancy on one of their daughter’s birthdates and sent a message asking Lisa about it. When I got in on Friday I found a response from Lisa and learned that she has been trying to find his parents as well. I also learned that she is coming down to Salt Lake the end of January and we hope to get together and do some more research on him. It’s fun to find out how much we are not alone in any of this work. We have help from tons of people, some who we know, but many who we don’t even know who are prompted to help. So far no luck on finding his parents. I’ll keep looking.
That night Mom made bread to take into the library the next day. She has really learned how to make it so well. She has a whole process figured out and keeps her starter fed and going and makes loaves and lets them rest and rise and then plops one in the oven while she gets the next one ready. She is getting this down to an science as well as an art. Her loaves look and taste so good. While she was baking I was reading, learning again about what Hitler did to persuade the world that Germany was a wonderful place with nothing to hide and nothing anyone should fear as they hosted the 1936 Olympic Games. They did a pretty masterful job of marketing their country. While I read Mom watched the Reacher series on VidAngel as well as the new Percy Jackson series on Disney+. I watched the first two episodes of the Percy Jackson series back in Bellingham one night while we were there. My reaction was that they are pretty good. It’s kind of cool that they are doing these as streaming series now instead of a stand alone movies. They can get much more of the details from the books into the series and making it more enjoyable to watch.
Saturday morning Mom sliced up the bread she had made the day before to take into the library, and started on some more. I read, and then we headed into the library. We found the library medium busy. I worked on some of my family tree and then was asked to help Nik from The Netherlands. He explained that he wanted to find his mother’s parents. So we searched his mom’s name in the records and found nothing…nothing in
FamilySearch or
Open Archives or
WieWasWie. So I suggested we just put in her maiden name and see who popped up. The first result was his grandfather and grandmother’s wedding record. Kaching! When we saw it he immediately remembered that he did know his grandmother’s name and that was it. It of course showed who their parents were as well. So we went back to
FamilySearch and entered his grandmother. That showed that someone else had already entered her and
ka-blam that line went back to the early 1700’s. Grandpa’s line did the same thing. But I noticed that there weren’t many if any sources attached so I showed him how to attach these sources. He caught on quickly
and did them for both grandparents. I learned that he was going to be officially retired he next day and he said this could definitely be a new hobby to keep him busy when he returned to The Netherlands. Wahoo! Another convert. He shook my hand and thanked me and headed over to tour Temple Square.
We finished our shift and closed down the floor and came home where I finished reading my book and Mom made another loaf of sourdough bread. Pretty, huh!? So since I finished The Boys In The Boat I think Mom and I need to go see the movie. Definitely a good idea for an upcoming date night. Speaking of date night, I forgot to mention that one of the date nights coming up for us is a Jazz vs Lakers game. Tori bought me tickets for my Christmas present. I heard that Johnathan also got some Lakers tickets. Good for you, although I think I will be rooting for a different outcome than you would when we go to watch our game. 😁
Today we walked to church in the 32° weather. Definitely cold, but still no snow so the sidewalks are safe to maneuver. The second hour of church today was a bit different. It is a 5th Sunday and usually the bishopric or ward council does some sort of lesson. But our lesson today was a broadcast from the Area Presidency. It was preceded by a message from Elder D. Todd Christofferson. He told a great story of when he was a bishop and had planned a family vacation and received a phone call from a man in his ward, a convert of just a few years, who told him that his mother had died and wanted him to come to the funeral with him. Elder Christofferson explained that he would be out of town on vacation and said sorry. Well when he returned from vacation he learned that this man was very offended and decided he wouldn’t come to church anymore. Elder Christofferson felt that this guy was being unrealistic and not very kind to him, seeing as how he was sacrificing so much time with his family serving as a bishop and shouldn’t expect
him to cancel a family vacation to attend a funeral of a woman he didn’t even know. But over the next few weeks the Spirit nudged him and he finally went to the man’s home to apologize. They spent about an hour talking and were able to resolve the problem and the man came back to church. But the Spirit kept bugging him and he realized he needed to repent for how he had handled the whole situation. He could have made a few phone calls and got his counselors involved as well as the home teachers and relief society president. Simple things that he had overlooked as he selfishly thought of his own situation. The whole broadcast was about helping
create a more Zion-like atmosphere in our wards and stakes. How we can look for ways to help and bring joy into the lives of our ward family, like Enoch was able to do in his city.
While I was talking to one of the missionaries in the library yesterday he asked what we were going to do for New Year’s Eve. I told him we were thinking of inviting some fellow missionaries over to our place to play games and watch the ball drop at midnight (EST…10pm our time). I asked him what he was
doing and he said he had no plans, so I invited him to our get together. This afternoon I got a text from him saying they would like to come. Wahoo. So they, and a few two other couples came over to help us bring in the new year. We talked and played a game and did the countdown with NYC and danced and kissed and then talked some more. Everyone left a little after 11 and we stayed up watching a movie,
Ondine, and then fireworks erupted outside and lots of whooping and yelling to bring in the new year here in Salt Lake City.
Now it is time for bed. Love you all. Happy New Year. May 2024 be a wonderful year full of joy and love and peace.
BE GOOD!
Mom and Dad
doing and he said he had no plans, so I invited him to our get together. This afternoon I got a text from him saying they would like to come. Wahoo. So they, and a few two other couples came over to help us bring in the new year. We talked and played a game and did the countdown with NYC and danced and kissed and then talked some more. Everyone left a little after 11 and we stayed up watching a movie, Ondine, and then fireworks erupted outside and lots of whooping and yelling to bring in the new year here in Salt Lake City. 
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