Rainy Days and Boils

On Tuesday night my boil popped! I was so excited to be able to walk again. Now I just have to be careful with my leg. It seems that the prophecy is true though, as many people told me to be careful because when you get one you get another. I think I am. Oh fun. Hahaha. More experiences! :)

This week was just so crazy because of the medications I had to take any how I had to care for my leg. I was limited in the amout of visits I was capable of doing daily. But I did help other missionaries in the zone with their families! That is sometimes stressful, yet it is everso rewarding to know that I was able to help another area or the zone as a whole. I didn't baptize this week because some of the families that I am teaching need a little bit more time, so this week we might be seeing a few baptisms. I am little bit nervuous becuase some of my recent converts are having problems and need a little bit more care than others. It's a little tough to do that when you already have 90 other people in the same situation plus investiagators and members that need help. I do enjoy a challenege though. Those of you who know me know that. So, let's see where this one carries me this week! :)

I have enjoyed reading more Conference Addresses this week in my death-bed repentance cram to finish this copy of the Ensign before the next conference comes. I am learning to love the words of the living prophets. I now know what it means to treasure up their words. I can't get enough of them. I love it! 

Another interesting thing that I noticed this week was the fulfillment of blessings in my Patriarchal Blessing. I noticed lately that lines of my blessing would go scrolling through my mind when I was faced with certain trials or expereices and I started to notice all of the things that have already been fulfilled! Since then I have read it again and I was astounded at how many things have been passed and how many other things are being fulfilled or I am learning in the current time. It makes me feel good that such miracles are happening in my area, my life and my eternal progression.

P.S. Exciting news. Elder Bolton was the first missionary to find, in the entire mission mind you, that two members of the Seventy are coming out here to this zone for a District Conference at the end of October. I am SO excited to see what will happen. Good news. Fast progression.

Well, have a great week and do something fun! Break the norm! Hahahaha.

Love you all so much,

Elder B

The Old Folks At Home

 Heard It On the Trauntvein

Volume 2 Issue 2 June 19, 2006

The Old Folks at Home

Well, this is the summer for babies! Dad and I are so thankful for the new additions coming to our family. We are also thankful for the ones who are already here. We enjoy our children and grandchildren. I may even get my new job right someday. I have decided that much of what the doctors had me do for all of you must have been the wrong thing. The new up-to-date doctors have

all sorts of new ideas. For example, I used lots of sunlight to lower Billirubin (except for a couple who still needed the lights). Now they have decided that the sun really doesn’t work quickly enough. So I have revised my saying: “Now that grandma knows everything, nobody listens.” It now goes: “Now that grandma thinks she knows everything, nobody dares listen because she is

wrong.”

As you can see from her photos, Christene is a doll! We are glad she is healthy and growing. At her two-week check she had grown an inch and gained one pound.

Kirsten is still waiting, as of this writing.

What fun! I just remember that Eric went a full two weeks over due date and the doctors wouldn’t start me because he was transverse (sideways). They turned him just before delivery. At nine plus pounds, he was stuck.

It has been a joke between Dad and me for years that, whenever we had a new baby, he would leave us at the hospital and go buy a new car. He has changed his tune. With the new grandchildren, he made a step up in the buying chain. He got a new trailer. It is a 29-foot long

bunkhouse style. That means that, in addition to a bedroom, like our current trailer, it has a couch-bed, a table-bed, a bunk bed and a lower bed, beneath the bunk. He did this, he said, so that he will have room for his family (kids and grandkids, one family at a time, to go on a vacation with him). He used to tell me, when we had a new baby, that we now needed a bigger car. I guess this time, we needed a bigger trailer. I went with him trailer-looking but I left the dickering up to him. So now you know, Dad celebrates by buying things. Poor Rachel, she only got Grandpa to buy a new ride-on mower when she was born. We are paying for the beast (trailer) on the good old credit union payment plan. Dad tells me that it will not take the rest of my life (depending on how long Ilive) to pay for the new family addition.

Dad has good news to share. He got his hearing-aids (not for Father’s Day but just because). You can barely see them. There is a little thin line on the ear side and a tiny little aid on the back of the ear. His ears fit closely to his head so they are barely noticeable. They are wonderful! I can actually talk to him in a normal voice and he can hear. It is so good!!!!! He is learning to adjust them. One adjustment filters out the background noise and he is learning where that works the best. The specialist who fit him said that the sooner you get help the better the hearing. Much of the hearing takes place in the brain and, if you have been without certain sounds, like “s” for a while, the harder it is for the brain to interpret that sound. So the sooner you get help the better the brain is able to decipher the sound.

I am still Myrna. Good and bad. Except, that I think I am becoming senile. When I need to be put in the rest home, remember that you all promised to take turns coming to read me children’s books. You can just read he same story over and over because I will not remember the beginning by the time you get to the end.

Payson Temple

They handed this out to use on Sunday at church.  It's fun to see that it is finally happening. Amy

Jason is Ordained

I tried to call, but I didn't get you either at home ( I figured that you are still at Kirstens) or on the cell phone.  I know that you check your email so here it is.  Jason is being ordained after church on the 11th (at 12:00).  We hope that you can make it but we understand if you can't.  It is going to be very low key since we have to hurry and leave to head up to Salt Lake right after for my sister's baby's blessing.

 

Let me know if you will be able to make it.

 

Amy

OK, I check the mandlht@msn.com every day. I check this email only once a month and so I missed this. However, we were still in Colorado. Congratulations to Jason and family. I am sorry that we missed the great event because we would have been there with bells on (quiet ones so as not to disturb the spirituality)!!!!!!!

Dave's Mom's Bio

From David C. About Richard

This goes with posting done on June 3, 2011

Hi Myrna,

Thank you for writing these stories down, I really enjoy reading them!  Sorry it took so long for me to respond, I had a couple of pictures I have been going to scan, but as usual, it takes me a long time to get around to it :{  

      I am attempting to include three pictures that you probably haven't seen before.  When we lived up Huntington canyon, I took some pictures with my little trusty camera, most of which was scenery, but there was some gems. Garth, clowning around, Richard with Spot (yes, he was named "Spot", we weren't particularly original ;) ), and Richard when he was home sick with the mumps.  I also have a paper Mom wrote in 1932, her "autobiography"  I don't know if you've ever seen it but just in case, I will include it.

      Spot was protective of Richard as you remember, but it was a rocky beginning.  Spot would allow all of us to mess with him all we wanted, but the first time Richard tried to pick something out of his food dish, Spot growled, bared his teeth and snapped at Rich.  As I remember, there was no skin broken or blood drawn, but as you might expect, Dad wasn't very happy, and threatened to put Spot to sleep if he couldn't trust him.  (I remember thinking that Richard should somehow be trained to stay away from Spot's dish, rather than lose Spot!)  Dad had a little training session with Spot, and I have no idea what took place, but after that, we could all mess with Spot in any way we wanted and that wonderful dog would just take it (and love it!).  It did take quite awhile before Spot would grab Richard's pants cuff and drag him around the yard like he did with me and Garth, but eventually he did.  And you're right, he was particularly watchful of Richard.  I thought Richard's heart would break when Spot had his final set-to with a porcupine (his third), and couldn't recover.  We somehow thought that he was indestructible...  I always thought that Spot was part Pointer, Great Dane and German Shepherd - at least, that's what we always told people.  

      Other than what I added, I believe your writing was accurate, and stirred my memories.  Those days were so wonderful, bright and shiny - every day was filled with new experiences and promises of more.  If it were possible, I would like to do it all over again, just so that I could remember all of the things I've forgotten.  I wish now that I had kept diaries throughout the years - if I had known how lousy my memory would be, I would have :)

      Love, Dave

Greek Christmas Cookies (Kourambiedes)

Ingredients

3 sticks unsalted butter, soft

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup powdered sugar, plus additional for coating

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and salt and whip until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sugar, egg, orange juice, almond extract and vanilla and beat until all of the ingredients are integrated. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add sifted flour to the butter mixture. Using a rubber spatula, remove the dough and transfer it onto a piece of waxed paper or parchment. Let sit about 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After the dough has cooled, pinch off small pieces and roll them into about 1-inch balls between the palms of your hands. Place them in a single layer with space in between each, on a greased baking sheet. Repeat the process until all of the cookie dough has been rolled. Place the sheets in the oven and bake until the cookies are just slightly brown, about 15 minutes.  Using a spatula take off pan and set in powder sugar dusted platter. Be very gentle since they break if handled roughly or if you used too much flour.  If you want the powder sugar to stick on your cookies and to stay on no matter what or where they are placed or stored after dusting, the trick is you have to dust them right out of the oven. Cover with powder sugar. Cool. Cover again with powder sugar.

I hate it when they put cloves in these, but some Greeks take a whole clove and stick it in the center of each cookie before dusting with powder sugar.  The trick to dusting with powder sugar is to put about a cup of powder sugar into a metal sieve and dust on top of your cookies.

Holiday cookies should not only look festive but taste scrumpdilieshes. This recipe is taken from an old Greek cookie recipe famous throughout Greece.  Some claim that the recipe for Kourambiedes pronounced Koorampbeeaidaes is the only really true Greek cookie recipe that wasn’t modified, shared or taken from the Turks. In Symi (a Greek island)  they are shaped into palm size cookies cut with a cookie cutter into star fish.

These cookies make an elegant display at weddings as they look delightful in powdered sugar on doily dressed trays.  The cookie dough itself looks simple but the main idea is to get a dough that will not break apart when the cookie is taken out of the oven and dusted or will not crunch like a piece of toasted bread.  Doesn’t take much practice to learn how to make a trully original Greek cookie called kourambiedes.

The cookie dough is soft and melts in your mouth. Some adaptations are to add a half cup of finely ground almonds to the dough before shaping. The traditional kourambiedes melts in your mouth, has no nuts added and makes you feel sweetly grateful.

What I do to keep them fresh is to let them sit for several hours after dusting with powder sugar. I then use cup cake cup holders as individual doilies. I put one powdered cookie into a paper cup and store them in trays covered with waxed paper or in plastic containers in the freezer. The paper cupcake holders keep them separate and that way they don’t bump each other and they stay fresh and neat looking when served.  If you take them out of the freezer, let them thaw for an hour or two before serving.

Re: Solutions

The shirts and ties can be sent directly to Braden through a Nicaraguan courier service. I have that address if you would like. Also, it is cheaper to send me the shirts and ties and I can send a box to him. We have sent several packages to missionaries in his area in the past thirteen months. If you would like to donate money, just send me a check for the amount, I will deposit it in Braden's account and he can use his debit card to purchase the Liahonas. What an amazing young man he is. We are grateful for his love of the people whom he serves. 

Thank you.
Melanie

Solutions

Another week in the life of this missionary has flown by! I was thinking about how weird it is that we are in September now, which is just so strange of a concept for me. I remember last September as if it were yesterday. So bizarre that so much time has passed by. Also, Ben is at BYU starting his first Fall Semester...that was me 2 years ago. Ahhhhh! I am getting old. And let's face the facts, I'm getting bald and thin. I think that old age has already set in. ;) But I'm still just as cute as ever. Hahaha.

My new companion is from San Francisco, California (well, Concord to be exact). He is Tongan. He's pretty big, I feel even shorter now. His name is Elder Taufa. We have had a rather crazy week this week. Hopefully things will be semi normal this week. We did baptize a large family (in number, not size of people). There were seven people in this one family. And it would have been two families, but one of the women decided to go rebellious on us. We'll try to prepare her for this week. I don't let people run away from me too easily.

My companion and Elder Lundquist's companion left on Tuesday morning so we worked together Tuesday and Wednesday and my companion came Thursday afternoon. It was very hot. He came from the city of Matagalpa (the mountains), so he was a little shocked by the heat he felt when he got here, but he's been a trooper about it.

I am excited about this change and the new challenges and trials that await me. I know that changes are still rather bothersome, but I am getting used to being in a constant whirl of change. The constants: the people, the missionaries, the Gospel. However, the variants are strange and unpredictable: emotions, culture, understanding, etc. I am glad that I am adapting to other people's needs and wants and that I am learning to solve problems. Another fantastic realization. Generally when there's something that needs to get done, or there's a problem that needs to get fixed, people come to me. It is a truly humbling thing because it teaches me to listen, respect and love; it also teaches me that sometimes I really do not have any answers and that divine help is what I really need. Sure I may get tiffed at times when I get like five problems thrown at me at one time, yet I step back (figuratively, of course) and think, "This opportunity will never come again. How should you act? How do you want to remember this situation, with regret or with joy?" I try to keep myself in line.

We are preparing a fun baptismal activity this week. We might go to a little community about 5 km. away to go to a little pond to baptize. The goal is a family per area, or 9 families as a Zone. Now, this is not too difficult in theory considering the monthly baptismal statistics for this zone per month. Lately, however, things have been happening and the zone has been slipping into a little bit of a hard time. Some of it is due to the people we teach and other uncontrollable circumstances, while others like pride, disunity, and selfishness lead us father away from the miraculous successes we've been experiencing here. I am also trying to get like 5 men to receive the Aaronic Priesthood this week. That is so crucial for activity in the church here.

Receiving the Priesthood here allows the people to actually get to know the Branch President and receive a responsibility. The only problem out here is finding ties and white shirts. We try to make sure that the men have ties and white shirts, but they are very hard to find. I have found a place that sells used ties for $1, but the shirts are almost impossible to find.

Okay...so there are some ways you all could try and help the people out here a little bit. Saving one of those used white shirts that your husbands or sons never wears, getting rid of some of the ugly ties they decide to buy from China for $2 just for the bargin. Save those things, ask people in your wards, or your neighborhoods to do the same. Then, put them in a nice carboard box and send them out here! Also, out here, due to local circumstances, the Church provides a year's subscription to the Liahona for 20 codobas, or $1 (like 92 cents really). If you would like to help, talk to my mother about how to donate even a dollar to this fund. Then, I will make an order from Nicaragua for the Branches I help out. Two service opportunities, little sacrifice, HUGE meaning to these humble members and missionaries living out here.

Have a great week! Read your scriptures. Read with your families and spouses. Discuss how you feel and what you learn from the scriptures with the ones you love and you will be doing your own kind of missionary work! Pray hard. Serve even harder. Act. Decide. Be.

Love, Elder B

Scenes from the Pitts

In back: Laurel, Edna, Ruth, Tom, Cydney, Garth, Maxine, Bob
In front: two of Bob's daughters

Grandpa Pitts, As a Farmer

Edna Pilling Pitts 

Dad and Edna Catch Fish