Time Away from Duty for Family

Myrna wrote: I have a problem. I am not going to be able to be to the temple for our Friday shift. I am over the special dressing room so I know that this creates a bind and make a problem for all involved.

It is our family reunion and every one of my children will be in and out at various times for that three-day event. However, I still planned to be to the temple. Then I found out that my grandson, the one who graduated from TimpView in May, will be giving his farewell concert at 4 p.m. on Friday in Provo, prior to his leaving the next morning for a two-week tour of Europe. (He is the one who just received his mission call to Samoa.)

I feel just terrible about this because I know we are about to leave our positions and that my not being there will create another hardship. I would have liked to have left office feeling that I had done my share but I continue to fall short. I took off in February for my daughter's surgery and now here I am asking again. I am so sorry.

Annette Morley wrote: Hi Myrna,

We will be able to cover for you--somehow it always works out. We all have to miss from time to time.  We will miss your cheery smile!

Love, Annette

Myrna wrote: Thanks! I will miss your smile. You always make the work we do seem so worthwhile. I have been praying that it would not be too difficult for any of you. A loaded initiatory and lots of people in the special dressing room would make it really difficult.

I called Cheryl Utley and she said that you would all work it out. She also reminded me that family is first and said that she had taken time off for her son's wedding. All of us, she said, have had to take time off to attend to family matters. 

Even knowing that, I think that I need to be concerned. I love you all.

July 4th Plans and Questions

Some of you are going to the parade in Provo on the 4th. There will be fireworks in Nephi, as usual, that evening. Quite a few of you will be staying here, either camping or in the house. We will have meals for those who are here on the 5th. The afternoon of the 5th, at 4 p.m. in Provo, Kyle will be giving a free going-away concert. He and Brandon leave the morning of the 6th. Who wants to go and who wants to stay in Nephi?

AnnMarie and family will come on the 6th. Julie will be here on the 5th after driving back from Idaho. Jim's baby sister is getting married.

Then beginning early on the morning of the 6th, we will have breakfast, go to the reserved ball park for fun and games, and go to the reserved pool for swimming. That will start at 7 p.m., the earliest that it can be rented. I reserved it for one hour but, if anyone thinks I should, I can add another hour or half hour. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Sunday is church, food, visiting together and doing whatever you all think would be fun. We are always open to ideas on that. We will have a fire pit fire for roasting marshmallows, etc. 

Two things I was hoping to have done, and do not and will not, is the pink bathroom retiling project and the new swing set. We have all the bathroom stuff but have not had time, with Dad's multiple surgeries, to get the work done. Maybe by next year. :) As for the swing set, we want to make a huge one like President Sutorius' but haven't purchased the pipe. Maybe by next year. (Wait, am I saying that a lot?)

One problem we have this year that we have never had before is chickens. Our neighbor, who lives where Merlene Collard lived, has chickens in a coop. The rooster and I are not friends. He starts crowing at 4:30 a.m. That would have made Grandpa Pitts happy, since he thought the whole world should be up and ready to work by 5:30 a.m., but it does NOT make me happy. They also have a bulldog that barks at me when I am in the backyard. I thought he would lose his voice when I was helping LHT weed the garden but he just kept right on barking so I do not know what that will mean. I think he only barks at me and probably because it often makes me jump.

Kirsten wrote: I think with all of us there, another 30 mins would be great at the pool.  I'm happy to pitch in on cost. 

As for retiling, sounds like a fun family service project... We can all be Utah road construction workers and stand around the bathroom door as we watch Shawn, dad, Eric, Jim and David work. :)

Todd wrote: I'm with Jared, we can pitch in as well and I'm more than happy to lean on my Laurels (I'm assuming Megan will be there). Worse case scenario, I can bring the donuts.

Melanie wrote: I thought that too! I want to learn how to re-tile a bathroom (I have two bathrooms I want to redo), and what better learning facility do I have than the School of Leonard and Myrna?
Mel

Myrna wrote: We love you all but you cannot work on the bathroom this 4th of July family reunion. Dad said that, with all of you here, we cannot have the bathroom out of use. It will take a full day's labor to get the old linoleum and old tile off the floor. The toilet has to be removed and the glue has to dry for a full day before it can be grouted and the new one installed. If any of you Utah kids want to help Jim and Dad build the new cupboard, you are welcome to come some other day. 

He said there is just no way that the work can be done during the reunion.

Site with Lots of Rostron info‏

Am I the only one who hasn't seen this? Came across this today as I was searching great grandma Nielsen's records.

 http://genmayle.com/gen/getperson.php?personID=I39590&tree=Test

This particular link is for Grandma Trauntvein. He has compiled lots of information besides just the charts. Thought I'd pass it along just in case, but I know some of you probably already have this site saved.

Love,
Kirsten

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Re: Wow! Correction to the paragraph.‏

Myrna wrote: Always read your stuff before you send it. The paragraph following should read as corrected:
The story of Sister Neill F. Marriott, who, at the age of 22, was converted and baptized into the Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, was toucing. One year later she married David C. Marriott in the Salt Lake Temple, one of those who helped introduce her to the church. They are the parents of 11 children.

Todd wrote: Really? What is toucing?

Myrna wrote: Let's all laugh together, hehehe. It is, of course, touching. TOUCHING. Let your fingers do the walking but only it your mind is really in charge. Thanks or, as the Danes would say, undskyld (excuse me), tak (thanks), selv tak (you're welcome). Danish goodbye: Farvel (favel); or goodbye (informal): Hej hej (said High High). I should just write in Danish but then no English-speakers could read it. Touching in Danish? Rører.


Melanie wrote: Oh though humility, though art my constant friend. When I walk upright thou helps me to fall to my knees.  :)

Wow! (My letter to my missionaries.)

I am sending the same letter to both of you this week. I am hoping that you were all part of the the church's largest missionary training conference. I imagined both of you sitting there, in a gathering in your particular mission, and learning from the experience. I saw your beloved faces, in mind's eye.

I did not even recognize the Marriott Center at BYU with all of the missionaries in attendance there. I was so impressed with the conference. In our stake, all members ages 18 and older were invited. A few parents brought youth approaching that age with them. There were not as many in attendance at our location as I would have hoped. I think there were something like 220 present. We were counted, as were the members of ward and stake councils present, so the number could be reported to Salt Lake.

“To all the full-time missionaries sharing in this broadcast around the world, we say never again in your entire life are you going to be part of a zone conference this large!” said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum the Twelve as he conducted the meeting. “To the many members of the church gathered in innumerable locations, we affirm that ward and stake councils can no longer say of this great army of missionaries, ‘There they go.’ No, the hour is upon us in which we must now say, ‘Here they come.’ All of us must plan for and use this heaven-sent resource in the most productive way possible.”

Of course, in my "Tears At All Times and in All Places" stage of life, I did shed quite a few. I now know why my grandmother always told me that a lady carried a cloth handkerchief. I borrowed LHT's hanky. I need to invest in some of my own--cloth ones--so that I will be prepared for the floods of my own making.

LHT said that when he went into the mission field there were approximately 5,000 missionaries world-wide. Now there are 70,174.

Our ward met for Sacrament meeting only so that we would be out in plenty of time to get to the stake center. We are the late session and we do not end until the 4 p.m. hour. LHT and I had the distinction, at 3:15 p.m., of being the first in attendance. We certainly had our pick of seats.

LHT (Gramps/Dad) and I have been wondering about our neighborhood. Perhaps we can be of service among our neighbors. The older homes around us are being purchased by good young people but none of them are active. Some of them are, likely, not members. It does take courage to invite. The fellowship part is the easy part. It has always been easy for us to be good neighbors. That is particularly true of LHT who, at the drop of a hat, is off to shovel snow, lend himself and his tools, and be of general good service.

I cried when the missionaries sang. How powerful that was and how it made me think of the two missionary grandsons I have serving and of another about to serve. My little mission of working to provide Sacrament services for the assisted living center seemed so small in comparison with what our missionaries are doing in the field. LHT does most of the organizing and I do most of the "just showing up to love." I offer a lot of prayers, closing or opening, as needed. And I cry. As we receive the weekly letters, our testimonies are strengthened. How blessed we are, as a family, by the missionary service of our stalwart two.

I also was touched by the segment dealing with teaching and the one on repentance. I learned from them answers I had been seeking.

The story of Sister Neill F. Marriott, who, at the age of 22, was converted and baptized into the Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, was touching. One year later she married David C. Marriott in the Salt Lake Temple, one of those who helped introduce her to the church. They are the parents of 11 children.

We love you. We are proud of your work. We are touched by your testimonies. How thankful we are that you are part of our family.

Some Random Memories

We didn't have a freezer when I was young. We had a tiny little box at the top of our fridge that was just big enough for a coupe of ice cube trays and we thought it was great. Sometimes you could even store a bit of ice cream in the little cubicle. If it was left too long, the container filled with ice crystals and became dreadful tasting. It was better, however, than the fridge that I remember from my three-year old life. That was a literal ice box. It had a chamber for keeping things cold and another for the ice. A man would come every few days and sell us some dry ice to put in the top of the box which kept things cold for a bit. That was during Word War II. 

My grandmother would be at school teaching and I would be home at the apartment we shared with my beloved Aunt Renee and Uncle Max. The ice man would come and I would be fascinated by the whole procedure. He would carry the ice into the house with a pair of large ice tongs. Aunt Renee said that if he touched the dry ice it would be so cold that it would burn his hands.

I also remember that we walked a lot. We walked to the small grocery to get needed items. There was a little corner grocery and we would just ask for what we wanted. The grocer would fill the order by giving you the item you wanted. Forget asking for a brand at that small store. You got what he had. Of course, we shopped once a week at the larger grocery store where you went around with a cart and picked out what you wanted. At the corner grocery, a child could be sent with a few dollars and come home with the item in a brown paper bag and some change. When I was tiny, of course, I just went with an adult. When I got older I was allowed to walk there and back. Usually, I was allowed a few pennies for a treat because I had run the errand. You know, had I kept walking everywhere, like I did back then, I would be in a lot better shape than I am. Now I have taken up daily walking for my health. Then I just did it because everyone else did. :)

When we moved to Carbon Avenue, there was Mabbitt's Market just a block away. When my cousins and I would be sent there for a can of tuna, for example, we were given a nickel to buy a treat. I liked to use it all on a Three Musketeers Bar because he actually had three chocolate sections and we could each have one. However, we usually got something else like all-day suckers. Sometimes we would buy popsicles which we all liked but which made a mess of the fronts of our outfits before we got the block back home.

I refuse to correct letters to the editor.

I really hate to disappoint anyone but I have been thinking over what I have been asked to do. I appreciate that all writers like to get feedback from other writers. I do not think that journalists, aside from those who have that assignment, should help edit the writings of those who want to submit articles that are their opinions. I work a beat and I am really leery of reading and helping with letters-to-the editor.

I had a person, whom I thought of as a friendly school-mate of a couple of my children, who made all sorts of trouble for me a year ago. He brought a letter to me to have me correct (grammar and punctuation). I had him sign the copy I then printed off for him signifying that it was his work and not mine. I dated the copy and he turned it in to the newspaper. It was printed in our local paper. He was taken to court for what the authorities thought was the threatening nature of the letter. I was called to court, under oath, to bear witness as to what had happened with that letter. He tried to claim that I had changed the letter after it was printed. I had not, could not and would not. Luckily the jury considered my long newsprint reputation. He was found guilty and served jail time. I became a lot more concerned about what I help others with. The disclaimer that is printed on every opinion page was saving for the newspaper but Allan and I determined that we would not be so helpful in the future. At our local newspaper, we are mostly interested in local issues and are not interested in national issues or topics that the state papers cover.

There are many others in the community who would be willing to assist with the need for a good critic.  Snow College has many classes of many types that are taught in Nephi via interactive computer instruction at the Juab School District office. Of course, for those there is a fee. I am not willing to do that job. Perhaps an English teacher, for a fee, would consider reading letters-to-the-editor.

In Provo, there are writer's groups that anyone can join. I belonged to one such group for awhile and a chapter was even started here. We Juab County members all became too busy and closed the local chapter.

I hope that makes sense to all but, whether it does or not, I will not do that work ever again. 

More from Myrna's Soapbox

Some children are confused about the Latter-day Saint church because they get conflicting information. They hear little about the church that is really true. They do not attend meetings, except rarely, where they have an opportunity to hear what we really do believe. Some folks send their boys to Scouts thinking that they are receiving some religious training. At Scouts, they talk about scouting. There is some talk of religion and some teaching but not as much as is taught in Sunday meetings. Weekday meetings of Young Women have some teachings but they also have a lot of activities. Sunday meetings are the only ones where they really talk about beliefs. One of these precious children said that at Sunday School with the youth, they have no idea what they are talking about. Why would they? They hear different ideas from different people. Until the teen years, no one is  mature enough to study on their own and really learn doctrine. Even then it is nice to have a Seminary teacher to help explain ideas. 

We don't spend hours of time studying while we are with any children outside of church. When we are at home, no matter who is with us, we do read our scriptures, say evening family prayers and bless the food. 

All of us learn precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. It takes a lifetime of devotion and learning to become an enduring follower of Christ.

One child I was with recently asked about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The only one of us who knew about it, really, was Leonard because he taught about it in Utah History.

Jim told me that, if a person REALLY wanted to know about a topic that occurred in the past, they should read about it on their own. He said you should, in his opinion, go to the source nearest the actual happening. Historians can be biased but the people who lived the event can best understand it. One  of our ancestors opposed the killings. He tried to get help to prevent them. He testified against the perpetrators. Those writings are available.

Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning. I just love children and would like to know how to help. I just hope they all know that. I hope.

Grandpa Ray, the storekeeper

Did you know that my (Myrna's) Grandpa Ray Smith was the bookkeeper and the storekeeper at a CCC camp. That happened years after the Mexican/American War. In fact, that was after he had owned his own butcher shop in Huntington. He became ill, they later discovered that he had terminal lung cancer, and decided that he would train as a bookkeeper. He stayed with Fred and Pearle Smith, his brother and sister-in-law, in Springville, for a time and went to school. When he finished, he went to work as the bookkeeper at a CCC camp. He could add, so I was told, a long list of figures by moving his finger down the line arriving at the total, in his mind, when he reached the bottom of the line. He would then move up the line in the same way, checking his accuracy of the first time. He figures always resulted in the same total.