FAMILIES ARE EVERYTHING: August 2008

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Sunday, August 31, 2008

SWISS DAYS! Jeewon, Sayuri and Susan's Midway adventure!

On Friday we went to Swiss Days in Midway Utah. Swiss Days is celebrated at the end of every August the weekend of Labor Day. Midway was settled by swiss immigrants who came to Utah because they were converted to the L.D.S. Church and wanted to be closer to the headquarters in Salt Lake City. Midway is about 1.5 hours away from Farr West. Aunt Marilyn lives there, so we took advantage of her hospitality and slept overnight at her house on the trampoline. It was cold, but Sari and Jee slept in very warm sleeping bags. I slept with a blanket getting up at 1am and moving into Aunt Marilyn's house to sleep on the couch. At 5am, I woke up and ran the Swiss Days 10K. It was a great race even though I had a contact stuck in my eye. Cool morning nice course, winning my age division and receiving a silver goblet. I was 13th overall with a time of 47:23 or 7:37 minute miles. I was proud of this time. I shaved off 5 minutes from my time in Irodoquoit. After the race we ate breakfast, and then went through all the artisan's booths. The craftmanship was unbelievable. Hundreds of booths of paintings, puzzles, metal works, soaps, lotions, potpourri, edibles, charts, flower arrangements and pottery. A portion of all sales go towards the Church's humanitarian service and missionary fund. The parade was cute, the food was delicious and the race was awesome.bb

Sayuri!

Sayuri an exchange student from Japan has come to live with Jeewon, Andrew and I, what an adventure we are going to have this year. Sayuri and her mother came on August 23rd. She is a very smart, hard working, and pleasant. We feel it a privilege to have her live with us. I know her and Jeewon will be the best of friends and sisters before the year is over. She registered for school and is taking accelerated courses. She is stretching herself as well taking cooking and singing. We are excited to learn the differences of yet another country and child of God.

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7 things to know about a baby!

1. During the nine months between conceptions and birth, a baby's weight increases 3,000 million times.
2. Between birth and age 2, a infant will quadruple in size.
3. At birth, a baby's brain is 10 percent of her total body weight, (an adult's is 2 percent).
4. Within 45 hours of birth, a newborn knows her own mother by her smell. (And a blindfolded mom can identify her own child from a host of other babies by scent alone.)
5. At birth, babies have the ability to swim.
6. Human babies are the only primates to smile at their parents.
7. A newborn has feet that are one third of their adult length. By age one, they are nearly half their adult size.

SERVICE PROJECTS

BUS DRIVERS!!!

Twice a day we had the fun of driving from Hobart to the Hill, and then from the Hill back to Hobart. A 45 minute excursion traveling through the most beautiful farm land filled with strawberries, soy beans, corn and grain. It took patience and long suffering to ride on the buses stopping at R.R. crossings and red lights. It was too expensive to take I-90. At the beginning of the long bus rides we always had a devotional which included a prayer, thought and song. This made the bus rides interesting as well as teaching the gospel to the bus drivers. The bus drivers were fun!!! They all had fun spirits and they were a delight to travel with. I hope they all felt the spirit of the cast. I think they did. One bus driver Mary loved the hymns and primary songs we sang. I gave her a copy of the Primary Children's Song Book and Hymnal. I know she will use this the rest of her life. She was so excited to get this and always will be a friend of mine. Donna another bus driver is a dry land mormon. She loves us and we love her. One day I expect all of the bus drivers to baptized. I know they felt the spirit of the truthfulness of the gospel. The church is true. It is a church of love which I know they felt.

Hobart/Williams College

This is where the majority of the Hill Cumorah pageant cast members stayed. The college was on the east end of Lake Seneca. It was beautiful running through this little college town. There were mansions on the lake, old cemeteries, docks and running trails that I seen as I took my morning runs. The houses are very old and unique as well as the city. A triathlon was hosted on Saturday called the musselman tri. Maybe next year? We had p-day at the college. We watched a movie, played games, caught up with our laundry and ate a ton of food. We didn't have time to enjoy the hospitality of this college. We were always at the hill.

MISSIONARY WORK!!!

This is what I love most! I want to bring lasting joy and happiness to all my Brothers and Sisters because of my love for my Savior Jesus Christ. Each night before proselyting in the bowl, I prepare myself by reading from the Book of Mormon, and saying a humble prayer to find those that are seeking the gospel of Jesus Christ (the pure in heart). Some nights it has been difficult to motivate myself to put on my heavy costume and muster up enough courage and energy to reach the goals I have set for myself, however I know through my faith In my Heavenly Father I will be strengthened. I have had many miracles showered upon me through my missionary endeavors. I have made many non-mormon friends at the bowl and have helped members attending the pageant to think of those in their own areas they can share the gospel with. I have been getting between 13-25 referrals every night. I hope they all manifest into baptisms then how great my joy would be. This I hope and pray for along with all the cast members success. I love all my Heavenly Father's children and would like them to have eternal happiness and joy by accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ and entering the waters of baptism.

THE WORK CREW!

Andrew is a member of the cool and famous work crew. 26 boys are selected to participate for one month setting up the stage, lighting and special effects. They are literally worked to death, which is good for them. They live under the hill in bunks, (the only part Andrew doesn't like, he hits his legs and head on the top of the other beds) they go to bed late and get up early to take care of all the problems that occur on the set. Andrew has learned many things from participating as one of the missionary work crew. He has learned to have patience. Living with 25 other boys 24/7 is hard. He's learned long suffering. They work hard and the work is critical for the success of the production. Andrew wears headsets so he knows exactly when and where to be at to pull off the many special effects. He's learned to take instructions and follow through. He leaps on and off the set, scoots under the set and crawls around on and off the sets to make sure all the props and special effects are in place and ready to go. He carries all the scenes on and off the set and makes sure everything is good working order. Everyone depends on him. He's learned to put his faith and trust in the lord and to listen to the spirit which determines if he continues his special effect or not. He's learned to be a missionary and preach the gospel to the pageant attendees every pageant night. He had 4 referrals on Saturday night. He's has learned that he is a child of God and that God has a plan for him. He has learned of the beauty of the atonement and that Jesus Christ is his best friend. Andrew is blessed to have this experience. An experience of a lifetime.

CAST TEAMS

Cast teams are groups of participants at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. The participants are placed in teams according to their ages. I am in Cast Team A2. A1 is the young families, A2 is 30+ and A3 is 60+. Their are cast teams for the young adults, teens and even the primary children. Primary is held everyday while parents are performing at the hill. It's unbelievable the amount of service that is put in to being a cast team leader. Our cast team leader are Kevin and Michelle Sutterfield. He is an attorney in Springville Utah. We have many service projects in which we do under our tent.

DEVOTIONALS

Everyday at the hill we have 2 devotionals. They begin by reciting the Standard of Truth, then we sing a hymn, say a prayer, then enjoy a spiritual talk, followed by the directors comments on how we're doing with the production. The devotionals our awesome. Sometimes the closing song will be sung by families or cast teams members. Everyone is so talented ! The devotional is closed with a prayer. I want to continue this every day having our own family devotionals before reading scriptures.