The roses are really trying to start some growth but the snow keeps coming...
The flowers coming up in the bed next to the roses.....
This is the bed I see when facing the north (toward the conference center)
And this is the bed facing south from the same spot
The warning signs were out again today, heeded by all the conference visitors
We have been waiting for word that our zone move has been approved and it finally came last week so we will be begin getting our missionaries ready to move from the Family History Library to new office space in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We hope to have the move completed within 2-3 weeks. It will be very nice to be in a space with windows although I will miss being in the Family History Library. We have become quite close with some of the other missionaries on the British Floor and I will definitely miss the devotionals. We will join another zone and may actually collapse the Historical Families Reconstitution Zone altogether. We will see. First of all we need to get moved and that will not be a small thing.
I have been working with one of our cute Tongan sisters who is putting together her personal life story. Her name is Pianola Mapu. The more I do with her on her book the more I am amazed at this sweet woman. I know that she is special to Heavenly Father. She is an incredible person who has had many manifestations in her life of the great love Heavenly Father and Jesus have for her. She and her husband had a traveling show called "Sounds of Polynesia". They worked all over the country performing and raising their family. Her husband died about 30 years ago and her only son, who was a football star in Altoona, Iowa, was killed one year later. He was killed in a car accident after a championship game by one of his teammates who was drunk. She has amazing faith and hope and it has been such a pleasure for me to help a little with this wonderful project. I feel it a privilege to spend a little time with her and hear her stories. We will finish her book this week. She will not be moving with us to our new office and I will miss her.
Over the past two weeks we have enjoyed listening to two wonderful speakers at special firesides. The first was Brother Klopfer who spoke about his escape from East Germany with his mother and sister when he was young. I will write about that in more detail another day. The second was last week where we were able to listen to the story of Michael Kennedy. He is the first of the direct descendants of Joseph Smith to receive the priesthood. It is so interesting to learn about what happened to Joseph's family after the saints left Nauvoo and Emma, but Brother Kennedy's story is very interesting and inspiring all alone. Once again we learn that there are no coincidences and that the Lord is in the detail of our lives.
Autumn and Derrick came up from Provo for conference. It is so fun to see her body change with the growth of our first grandchild. She is feeling well and it is always great to be with them. We feel so blessed to have been called close by so we get to see our first grandchild soon after he arrives.
We had a funny experience last week that I just have to share. At some point in his life Ed developed a reflex to let out a loud and frightening yell when he is startled with something. It is very loud and when heard it sounds like he is hurt to the point of death. Last Tuesday we were leaving the apartment building with a little cart of food for a zone luncheon and Ed was pulling the cart behind him. He does not do real well with gauging space and as we came around the corner from the elevators into the little lobby where the offices and the front door are he didn't clear the corner and one of the wheels of the cart caught it and the cart stopped short while Ed kept walking. Ed felt the handle leave his hand at the same time he felt and heard the crash of the wheel and dropping the handle it crashed quickly to the ground with the dishes and food clattering away. But all the clatter of the dishes, etc was dimmed by the loud, scary death yell that came out of Ed's mouth. I have never gotten used to that sound, nor am I likely to, but I have heard it before so I turned around to see that Ed had everything under control. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me had never heard the Ed death yell sound before and she was so startled by it she let out a little scream herself.
Now all of this happened within less than 5 seconds but I wasn't prepared for the next thing that happened. Rushing out of the social room came the apartment manager and 4 other staff members who were having a meeting and heard the death yell and subsequent scream from the other lady. The look on their faces was priceless! I'm not sure what they expected to see when they came around the corner, but these 5 adults were ready to call 911. I don't know how Ed could ever stop death yell because it is such a conditioned response, but he may find that one day he is responsible for someone having a heart attack! ^_^
It is late and I need to get to bed. I can tell it is late because I usually am in bed when the trains go through and I have heard the train whistles. It's not really a whistle anymore, more like a horn. I used to think it was just one tone, but I have since learned from my sister that it is a tri-chord....three tones that sound as one. I like to listen from the bed and feel all comfy and cozy as I fall asleep dreaming of trains. Did you know I love trains?
Well, now you do.
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