Hugs, Toni, About Family on Facebook

Hi Myrna,
    How are you?  I'm about the same.... had a CT scan last week & basically nothing has changed, which is a good thing.
    I just wanted to tell you that I am struggling with the decision on whether or not to add some of your relatives to my facebook page as 'friends'.  Not because I don't feel friendly towards any of them, but since we are not Mormons, or religious at all...  I guess I just think maybe some of my stuff, or my friends stuff, or my kids & step-kids stuff, may be embarrassing either to them or to me.  Sometimes one of us may use what you would consider to be foul language... (I'm sorry, but the
F-word is one of our favorites & we use it frequently when speaking... not so much in writing, but you never know when it may be just the right word for the situation!)
    Anyway, that's why I have not responded to the friend requests..... your thoughts?
Gotta run, need to do some outdoor chores while it's not raining or too cold.  Hope all is well with you & yours.
Hugs, Toni

Letter from Gramps to Braden

Dear Elder Bolton:

Do not flip out when you receive a letter from me. It might be unusual, but, here it goes.

It may go something like this: “One bright day in the middle of the night two dead soldiers stood up to fight, they drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise and shot again the twice dead boys.” What does that have to do with my letter? It got your attention, right?

Well here it goes. It does not seem like you have been in the mission field for this amount of time. One more month and the first four months are gone. I would assume by now you have adjusted to the climate, food and culture--especially to the food. Food wise, which ones are the best liked and which ones are the  least liked?

When I went to Denmark, eating buttermilk soup or col sko (a buttermilk drink) raw fish and etc. were not my favorite things to eat. However, by the time I was just a few months into my mission I could sit down and eat or drink them all, and enjoy them.

People-wise how is it going? Do you do a lot of tracking or do you get a lot of referrals? Ben was telling us that you had three baptisms already. That is great!

Is it one family or a combination? What doctrines caught their eyes? What income level are the people in the area you are in? Are they rich or poor or is it a combination?

While I was in Denmark, we averaged about 130 missionaries. We averaged about 90 baptisms a year. Some missionaries would baptize a family, so when you calculate the figures there were a lot of missionaries who, after two and one half years, went home with out any baptisms. My first companion was one of them. We worked hard for six months. I believe we were one of the top tracking companionships for the number of hours spent tracking. 

I was by chance in the mission office, which was in the south end of the church building, and as I walked past the chapel door I could see a missionary in the back of the chapel with his head bowed down. I recognized his hair. When I got to him, I could see that he was crying. I sat down and asked him what was the matter. He said he was on his way home and, after two and and a half years, he had not even baptized “one snot nosed kid.” He was referring back to a story told by a general authority who happened to be the kid that a missionary had spoken of by stating that “all I did was baptize one snot nosed kid.” Today they only have sixty missionaries in all of Denmark. As far as baptisms are concerned, their average is about the same.

I noticed in your letter that you stated how the Lord puts us in various positions and we then receive challenges through that particular calling. Wait until you come home and, down the road a bit, you are called to be a bishop. Now days the stake presidency trains new bishops. Back when I was called to be a bishop they handed me the bishop’s hand book and I had to learn what was in it. There was a lot of fasting and praying on my part. The Lord blessed me in many ways. Some day I hope to share some of them with you.

Every thing here is going as usual. After next week, we will be out of the grandchild sitting, except for emergencies. Rachel will be going to kindergarten. We were up to her fifth birthday party and the going away party for Ben. However, two Sundays ago we had all the Utah familes at our home for a  combination “see you later” party for the Ohio Trauntveins and for Ben. 

Enough for now. If If I tell you everything now I won’t have any more to tell you later on. Know that we love you and admire what you are doing. 

Love grandpa T.    

Mi Gente!

So...NOTICIAS DE ELDER BOLTON e HIJO!

 

This week we had planned on baptizing two families and getting some really strong potential priesthood holders into the church, yet we had some problems Saturday night and I had to fight to get one baptized (and unfortunately in all the mess all I forgot my camera in the house!). How sad. Anyway, it was fantastic, as we got a couple married and then they got baptized together and then I bought a cake and we had a little party with the members. It was quite the event.

Last week our mission president came and spoke very frankly to all of us here in the zone, kinda macheted us (humbled us), and then left. I learned quite a bit in the two hours that we had to talk to him as a zone and individually when we were doing some practice lessons with him. He was rather impressed by my teaching (even though i was SUPER nervous to practice teaching in front of a mission president) and then old me to keep up the good work training. WHEW! Apparently even though I have so much on my little plate and I feel like I really never know what I'm doing, the Lord has been blessing me and guiding me the entire way. That sometimes seems so hard for me, especially being who I am, uptight and a perfectionist...but I have had to change and grow up a little, relax a little. I have truly learned that all we can do sometimes is trust in the Lord and give Him our all and then hope that tomorrow He will help me give even more.

I feel so strange sometimes because people tell me things that I know that the Lord intends for me to hear and intends to use to help and guide me, but sometimes they surprise me. Like, for example, I was talking to one of the ZL's the other day and I said something like all I wanted to do was train the rest of my mission and never have any other responsibilities. He just laughed and looked at me and then said, "Oh, you were serious. Bolton, just breaking the news to you, you're training on your second change. The Lord is prepping you for something big here." I was just dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say to respond! Someone else said that to me too...i was not a happy elder. But, life goes on and I keep fighting everyday to prove to the Lord that I am learning, growing and changing. Maybe, if He wants me to be a leader here I will be, but until then I'm going to enjoy my simple life. 

I cannot even explain how much stuff I am learning and how much I am growing out here. I love my Heavenly Father and thank Him for everything He gives me. I know that He not only loves me, but that he trusts in me and my abilities. With Him I can do anything and overcome everything, so right now I live as if tomorrow were my last day here in Nicaragua and give my all.

Love you all and hope that all is well.

Love, 
Elder Braden D. Bolton

You Are My Sunshine (Nice Version)

You Are My Sunshine (Nice Version) as sung by Sharon Kay and Paul Sutorius. Kind words are written by Paul.


Verse 1:
My life is brighter when I am near you
And no one else can take your place
There is a sweetness when you are with me
It brings such joy just to see your face.


Chorus:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away.


Verse 2:
I can remember, when I first saw you,
A place was opened in my heart.
You kindly filled it, to overflowing,
I promise you that we'll never part.


Chorus:


Verse 3:
You once were lovely and I was handsome
Your shape was something to adore
To gravity we've become a victim
Our once firm flesh is heading towards the floor.


Chorus:

Photos of Myrna at the Alligator Farm

Thanks to Toni Jackson, cousin, I have this photo at all. When I went back home to Utah after the summer vacation, I took the photo to school to share for my vacation show-and-tell. I don't know what happened to it. My teacher, Mrs. King, thought that one of my friends must have "borrowed" it, though I have no idea why that would ever happen. At one point, when I became literate in Photoshop, I tried to put together a fake photo but it just wasn't right. I know why, of course, it was not the original and did not have these wonderful people included.

The people in this photo, in the background, are important to me. Jessie Brighton (my great-aunt), Vivian Smith (my maternal grandmother), Gilbert Brighton (my great-uncle). Uncle Gilbert baptized me. He was in the bishopric in his ward in California.

What a great gift Toni has given me. I have a piece of my childhood and a very happy day in my life restored.

Thomas Carr family history addition

Thomas Carr family joining the LDS Church in St. Helier, Jersey Island, Channel Islands in 1849. 
Thomas Carr was Richard Smith’s 2nd great grandfather.
From Donnette Smith - August 11, 2010 


This is a small addition to the Thomas Carr biography that was written in 1979. There was some interesting information on a BYU-TV program in 2009 about the history of the LDS Church in France that answers the question of how it was that there was such a large branch of the LDS church in the Island of Jersey when the Carrs moved there and were converted.
 
Thomas Carr had run away from home at age 15 to become a sailor in the British Navy. He later married Louisa Butler at Gosport, Hampshire. They had six children there in different towns on the south coast of England as the family moved around a good deal to be near the harbor when Thomas' ship would come in. Then Thomas’s ship was stationed at St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands. The Islands were within a few miles of France but had belonged to the British since William the Conquerer came to England in 1066. Thomas and Louisa had two more children in 1838 and 1843 while they were living in Guernsey. Then Thomas’s ship was stationed at St. Helier, Jersey Island. There they found a nice branch of the LDS Church into which Thomas and, Louisa were baptized and confirmed Sept. 26, l849 by Elder William C. Dunbar. A month later on October 31, three of their children were also baptized: Susan, Elizabeth and George.

The BYU-TV program explained that some LDS missionaries were sent to France in the early 1840s and were able to open several branches there. Elder William C. Dunbar was among those missionaries on mainland France. Then there was a lot of unrest in France, and when revolution and civil war was imminent, the church leaders advised the members to move to Jersey, in the Channel Islands which was only about 17 miles off the French shore. That was why there was a nice LDS Branch on the Island of Jersey when the Carr’s moved there, heard about the church, and were baptized in 1849.

Thomas' ship was anchored in the Channel Islands when he retired from the Navy. After some time he moved the family to France because they could live more cheaply there than they could in England. Elizabeth told her children she went to a French school when they lived in France. The family left the L.D.S. branch at St. Helier in February, 1853. They may have moved to France at that time. Elizabeth said that her father would go by boat to the Island to collect his pension payments. She could remember him coming back one day all upset because the men at the office where he went to collect his payments had found out he had left the United Kingdom. They stopped his pension payments and kept all his papers. Her father walked the floor and could not sleep, he was so worried. He moved his family to the suburbs of London, closer to the Admiralty Offices, to endeavor to get his pension reinstated. After losing his pension Thomas had to go back to being a seaman, this time with the merchant service. It was a long time before his pension was started again.
 
Thomas Carr’s daughter, Elizabeth, married William Bean. They lived with and took care of Thomas Carr and Louisa Butler Carr, and after their deaths, the Bean family and Elizabeth Bean’s sister’s family, Thomas and Susan Carr LePage, left England for Utah. They were able to cross the plains on a train in 1877.
 
According to the TV program, a few years after the Carrs moved to the London area, many of the LDS church members in St. Helier, Jersey Island sailed to the United States and traveled across the plains to Utah.

Rhubarb-Strawberry (or Raspberry) Pie

4 cups rhubarb cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 cups strawberries, cut into pieces (or raspberries, whole)

2 cups sugar

1 pkg (8-serving size) JELL-O Strawberry (or Raspberry) Flavor Sugar Free Gelatin

1/4 cup Minute Tapioca

Prepared pie crust for a two-crust 9-inch pie

Line a 9-inch pie pan with half the pastry. Combine sugar, Jell-O and minute tapioca in a large mixing bowl and stir to mix. Cut strawberries in quarters (or less) and cut rhubarb into 1/2-inch pieces. Add the rhubarb and berries to the dry ingredients, stirring well to coat. Let sit for 15-minutes. Pile into the pastry-lined pan. Cut slits as bent hoes for steam in the top crust and place pastry atop filling. Seal and flute edge. Lightly cover edges with foil. Bake at 350 degrees. Bake about 40-minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is lightly browned.

Kimberly wrote: Can we have this next Sunday?

Myrna wrote: Are you coming here next Sunday?

Kimberly wrote: Shawn thought Sunday was the day we were all getting together with Todd's family.

Myrna wrote: LHT says that everyone is coming here on Sunday for dinner to say goodbye to Todd and family. I just never know what is going on.  It is the 8th and that is the date. So, yes, I am planning on making the pie for dessert.

Kimberly wrote: Thanks!  Been trying to figure out when it was for sure.  :)  What is our assignment?

Myrna wrote: NOW you are really pushing it.  Dad is in bed and, remember, I have no idea.  I'll let you know in the a.m. unless someone else out there has the answer? 

Brigitta wrote: Don't worry. She gave up and went to bed. lol!

MISS YOU GRANDMA!!! :D

Myrna wrote: OK, but both you and I know that it is really 10:45 p.m. and not the 4:20 a.m. my e-mail thinks it is. I miss you also!

  

The Family

The family is all in Utah, except for Michael and me. I've been working while Michael has been working it. He just got back from High Adventure.



Had to cope with ruffing it in the wilds of Wisconsin.

Suffered through torturous vistas and strenuous activities.

Was forced to chop the wood.

Sat around a lot.

Practically starved!

Had to be outside in the dark.

I hope he recovers from the event. I don't know if he will.

Re: Jamboree

Daily Herald is following Kyle's council (National Parks Council) in the newspaper.  There is also someone there who has started tweeting along the way.  Here is the link.

http://heraldextra.com/lifestyles/scouting/.  Kyle is troop 939.

This is the real link.  The other one doesn't work.

http://picasaweb.google.com/118288055480199128720/

Here is something new.  This is the Picasa link to Kyle's troops pictures.

Orange is their color.

WWW.Picasa.Google.com/118288055480199128720

There is also someone there who has started tweeting along the way.  Here is the link.

http://heraldextra.com/lifestyles/scouting/.  Kyle is troop 939.

Dane Jamboree Photos--Looks Like Fun!