Missionary Monday!

I think—I'm pretty sure—I skipped last Monday because we were busy moving. (I'll have to post about that later.

But, anyway, here are today's missionary updates—first, from Michael:

"This week I went to a devotional for the YSA stake that we cover and had the opportunity to listen to several very good speakers. We first heard from a Brother (Chad?) Kirby who is a former seminary teacher and is currently an EFY speaker and salesman for a large software company. he was a John Bytheway kind of speaker who keeps the audience laughing while teaching about the gospel. The second speakers were a married couple who gave a presentation on things they wish they'd known or realized when they were dating. I really enjoyed listening to their advice. The last one was Sister Elaine S. Dalton, former General Young Women's President and she gave a really good talk on always remembering your divine potential which is probably what you would expect someone in her position to talk about. We had an opportunity to meet her and she's very nice. She told Elder Mortensen that he's going to be a general authority one day and he doesn't know what to think of that. I like to use it to tease him when he's being silly. While at that activity one of the YSA girls there commented on how cool my name is and I learned that being quick-witted doesn't always go hand-in-hand with being a missionary because my response was "I know how it can be your name too." Fortunately I don't think she caught that and I left. Elder Mortensen face-palmed when I later told him what happened. He didn't hear it either I guess."

[Tee-hee!]

"I'm really looking forward to finding out what my new call will be or if I will even get one but I have no idea when to expect it. ...I hope you are all doing well and enjoying life. Remember that the key to success in this life is found in trusting God and following His commandments. Forget everything that stops you from doing that and you will be blessed.  
Love, Michael"

Elder Mortensen, Elder North, Elaine S. Dalton

And here's Jason's news:

"Hi everyone!
It's been a good week. I had Zone Conference this week, and it was super good. And super long. I guess the longer a mission president has been on his mission the more he has to say to his missionaries, because his first transfer meetings and zone conferences were only a couple hours long, but last Thursday we started at 8:30 and ended at 4:30, only taking forty minutes total for lunch and two washroom breaks."

[Washroom breaks. :-)]

"The topic was Consecration and Sacrifice. To summarize the whole meeting, if you are humble enough to do literally anything that you are asked to do by a servant of God (meaning any church leader from your senior companion or Dad to the Prophet), you're living both laws. If you are willing but unable to do what is asked you are equally worthy. ...I know that following the counsel of prophets and church leaders will bring the most assurance and peace and blessings that there are to be had.

"I had a personal interview with President Burt...He told me to do everything right, everything perfect, without hesitation, dragging my companion along with me and ignoring opposition from Satan or others around me. I needed that.

I love you!
Jason"

And that's the news for this Missionary Monday. :-)

Missionary Monday!

Michael had a big weekend! Or at least a big Friday. Here's what he wrote:

"So this week was the week I had to decide. For those of you who don't know, I am serving a two-transfer mission. The difference between that and a normal mission is that I only serve for two transfers and after that I have the option to serve again for another 21 months. I had a very hard time choosing to serve as a missionary to begin with and even though my experience so far has been good it has also been hard. When the survey came I said that I want to go home. A few hours later my mission president called to make sure that's what I wanted and I wasn't sure anymore so I got some extra time to think about it and I also got permission to call home. After talking with Mom and Dad I realized that I am being tested. This is not a matter of whether or not I will serve a mission but whether or not I will trust God. He knows what I want and he loves me. He knows whether it would be better for me to serve or go home. All I had to do was decide whether I trust God or not. I told my mission president that I changed my mind, that I would continue my service. He told me in return that my survey has already gone in and that they will see that I chose to go home first and then changed my mind. As a result of that they may not give me another call. I am not worried about that. If Heavenly Father wants me to serve then I will and if he doesn't then I won't. The important part is what I have learned of this experience and that  is that we must always put God first because he knows who we are and who we can become. He knows whether it is better for us to do one thing or another. I had to make a hard choice this week but I know that I made the right one."

So Bruce and I thought Michael had a few weeks to make that decision. We happened to, on the spur-of-the-moment, go to my sister Melanie's house Friday night to watch a movie. Michael tried to reach us at home for about two hours before he had the inspiration to call Melanie. He talked to Bruce for about 20 minutes—and I have to tell you Bruce is awesome! He is good with people and great with his kids; I could tell he was saying just the right things—things I would have never thought of myself. (I would be more likely to express my views and wonder why nobody gets it but me.) Michael made his decision while they were talking; then he talked to me for 10 minutes or so and let me know what he'd decided. (Although I could already tell from hearing Bruce's end of their conversation.)

In today's email Michael continues:

"Aside from all that this week was pretty good. Lehi has an event every year called Lehi Roundup where they do a parade and activities for several days in a row. Because of that no one wanted to schedule appointments with us and we had no lessons planned. What we did instead was attend the parade and hand out pass-along cards...
...Next week all the missionaries in both the Provo and Orem missions will be in the Provo 4th of July parade and I suspect it will be just as slow.
...I love hearing from everyone.
Love
Michael"

Michael with Elder Mortensen after the Roundup Days parade

On the phone Friday night Michael told me that in his area the missionaries are like celebrities—people know who they are, honk, smile, wave, say "hi," and buy them dinner all the time. And, sure enough, next week they will be in the 4th of July parade. Celebrities, indeed! ;-)

The subject of Jason's email is "Some Crazy People"

"In a good way though, mostly. I did meet a murderer this week, but we had a cool conversation with him. Funny enough, we met him at the park swinging a big sword around like he knew something about what he was doing. It was an actual weight, but plastic, Gladius if anyone wants to look it up. The sort of sword that gladiators use. Apparently he's one of those people who like to dress up in historic armor and beat each other up with real, but dull, swords, most of which they make themselves.

He grew up with some kind of Christian parents, but if I recall correctly he became atheist due to some hypocrisy of his parents and also due to some questions he had, like was it really murder if the guy he killed was a serial rapist?  ... his actual big question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" is answered in the Book of Mormon. Knowing the purpose of this life (2 Nephi 2) is to experience evil to know the good as to help us to grow spiritually is a perfect answer. He needed to ponder on it, but he liked that answer, as well as our explanation of the Pre-Earth life and God's plan."

I won't copy Jason's whole email here, but he also met a woman who has been hit by trucks "at different times of her life. One of those trucks was a massive logging truck, without the logs, but if you ever see one you will know that you do not want to be hit by one." This woman had a question about divorce that they couldn't answer, so Jason and his companion are planning to study it and get back to her.

So both my boys are healthy and happy and doing good work. (Well, I assume they are healthy. I wonder if they'd tell me if they weren't? Probably not, unless it was really, seriously bad.)
And that's it for this week's Missionary Monday.

Missionary Monday

News from my boys!

Michael says:

"Here are the photos from this week. The wife of one of our bishops said that I have to send home photos every week so that you know I'm okay."

Yay for the bishop's wife!

I'm assuming this picture is showing off his tan line that goes along with long sleeves, a watch, and days spent outside. Brandon says, "Is his skin really that white? That's so weird! It looks like sour cream." Hahaha!

Michael also says:

"This week we had dinner with a few different young single adults because we cover a YSA stake and the common theme seems to be that they're not great cooks, they're a little awkward with company, and they seem to view dinner with the missionaries as a really good date opportunity."

He was also impressed (not favorably) by having Chili-Mac for the first time ever at another home. Michael makes me laugh.

As for Jason, he seems happy and busy as ever. The subject line of his email said "In Canada 30 degrees is hot." (He totally blew me away a few months ago when he said they were having really perfect, 6-degree weather. Until I remembered they measure in celsius.)

"It's been getting pretty warm up here. I have two tan lines, because I have two short sleeve shirts and five long sleeved shirts. So one line is on my wrist and the other is up on my bicep. It's kinda funny looking.
...I don't have much else to say anyways, we've been knocking on a lot of doors. For Father's Day the High Priests and Elders Quorum put on a dinner for the Relief Society and other Women (non-members and any other possible similar aged women). I thought that was neat."

"Anyways?" Is that a Canadian thing? And apparently both of my missionaries are impressed with their tan lines. :-) That's it for this Missionary Monday.

Finished!

Finally! After months and months, my bathroom is finished! And it's way . . . cute! (Normally I would have said it's "stinkin' cute," but there is nothing stinky about this bathroom any more. :-) )

So way back in April, you may recall, I dropped a utensil down the flushing toilet and had to remove said toilet from its home. And this started a whole remodeling process in that bathroom.

What you're seeing here is the toilet pipe with a plastic bag stuffed into it. You can see my toes at the bottom of the picture—I am standing where the bathtub used to be.We knew about a hole in the floor that needed repair. What we didn't know was that the whole floor from the door to the toilet was rotten—we could push a screwdriver through that blackness (without the help of a hammer). Gross!

Well, the trouble was that I only had a weekend husband, so it took a long time to get the floor ripped out and replaced again. Probably five weeks or so. :-/

Once the floor was fixed, we needed the bathtub put back in and backer-board installed so we could lay tile. Our friend, Ryan Goodwin, came over and installed the bathtub and started on the backer-board for us. A few days later my brother Gregory came over and finished that task. Then Greg started on the wall tiles; he showed me how to cut and lay tile, and I was able to finish about 50% of the tiled walls myself. Yay!

It's a lot like frosting a cake. And about as much fun.

When the shower walls were done, Bruce and I did the floor tiles. It was a neat trick, figuring out a pattern to use so that we wouldn't have to go buy any more tiles. And after the tiles were all in place, we did the grout.

See? He's even using something that works just like a frosting bag! 
A really big, heavy-duty frosting bag.

the finished shower walls (yay!)
and the finished floor (yay!)

Now, most of the work was done only on weekends—at least until Bruce's summer break which started May 23. (Yaaaayyy!) We finished the tiling and grouting during Bruce's first weeks home, but once people knew he was home he was suddenly being called on all kinds of errands. We were starting to get excited to actually have a new bathroom soon, but there was still the problem of the toilet that was outside with some kind of kitchen utensil stuck in it. :-/

So three weeks ago I decided I would just have to take a look at that awful old toilet in the backyard again. I discovered that if I turned that hunk of porcelain upside-down, and tilted my head just the exact right way, and shone a flashlight into it, I could just barely see the tip of that nasty, stupid old spoon. How to get it out was the big, big question. Gregory had told me, way back when, that I could just reach into the toilet drain with my hand and pull it out. (This makes me wonder how small he thinks my hand really is—I couldn't even get one finger and a thumb in together.) As I looked around for something narrow and fairly flexible to push into the drain, Lo and Behold! I found the long-absent toilet snake! So I stood the toilet right-side-up and started snaking it. But I couldn't tell if anything was happening or not, so over it goes, upside-down, again. When I moved it this time I heard a happy sound: the sound of something metal clinking on porcelain. So, over she goes again. More snaking, a little pounding and shaking, and Clunk! Out comes the spoon! Yay!

This is what your toilet will look like when you leave it outside for two months, during the rainy season. Gross!

And the big, tough, brave girl tosses the spoon straight into the trashcan.

Clearing that drain may have been the most exciting thing I'd done all summer (to that point). I scrubbed all the garden crud out of the commode, and Bruce reinstalled the throne, in its special place. Yaaaaayyyy!!

Bruce also reconnected the bathtub drains, faucet and shower head, and the bathroom was finished!
Except . . .

I really wanted to hang up all the super-cute pictures I'd been gathering. But we're planning to move—soon. Was it just ridiculous to hang a bunch of stuff on the freshly patched and painted walls? Probably. But Bruce said, "It's still your house." And I really wanted to see it done. And I still have some wall-compound and paint. So I did it. :-)

Here's what the bathroom looked like just before I started tearing it apart:

And here's how it looks now:

The pictures are all super-cute, but if you want to really see them, you'll just have to come over. (In fact, I'd really like that.) That is the very last pair of pointe shoes I ever danced in, hanging in the corner by the mirror (they've been stashed in a drawer for thirty years).Yes, I designed a ballerina bathroom! The horrible pink counter-top that we've lived with for the last fifteen years finally works. And I love my new bathroom!

I Love Dancing

Today I was going through the boxes that I keep stashed under my bed and I found this:

I created this design for a college class in 1985. (I bet you didn't know I went to college right after high-school, did you? I don't talk about it much because I pretty much just goofed off and got incredibly bad grades until I dropped out.) Anyway, I remember thinking this would be an awesome T-shirt design, back in the day. In fact, I still think it's pretty cool, and I still think it would make a nice T-shirt design. But what it really made me remember is that I really loved dancing! (You wouldn't think, to see me now, that I had ever been a dancer either, would you? But I was. A really good dancer.) 

my very first recital with Royal's School of Dance
I don't remember the name of the dance

Beginning Ballet was the very first class I took from LeAnn (I also started in a combination tap-jazz class). And I was in love with my marvelous teacher and with dancing right from the start. I remember talking the ears off of my friends at school the next day, showing them how you had to stand turned-out, pulled-up, and with a straight back. (I also remember one of them snottily telling me that my back was not straight, and I thought I'd show her; just wait. And if she'd cared as much as I did, I really would have showed her! ;-))

my first tap-dance in one of LeAnn's recitals
"Booglie-Wooglie"

I advanced through LeAnn's classes pretty quickly—by the time I was eleven I had earned my pointe shoes, and by the time I was fourteen I was in all of her most advanced classes. When I was in eighth and ninth grades I took all my dance shoes and my music to school so I could practice through my lunch period every day. Before I moved on to college I was taking 1½ hours to 3 hours of classes from LeAnn each night, and I worked for her as the pianist for every ballet class that I wasn't taking myself. I grew up in the dance studio, staying there for four or five hours Mondays through Fridays; I lived and breathed it.

my second recital
I was chosen to be in a group of four for this dance,
in addition to the waltz that my entire class did this year.
I love this costume.

I loved everything about dance—especially ballet (well, maybe not the blisters on my feet from my pointe shoes). I loved the studio and I had such respect and admiration for LeAnn. I loved pushing myself to jump higher, stretch farther, and grow stronger. I loved learning to act the part of the dance (happy, sad, etc.). My leotards and tights were my favorite clothes. I loved pulling my hair back and doing my makeup for my date with dance every night. I even appreciated the tired, achy feeling in my body the next day, and I loved working that feeling away in my class that night. I loved the brainwork it required of me. I loved the music and I loved making my body move with the music.  I adored the thrill of being on stage, in front of an audience. It was so exciting, and so alive!
I really. loved. dancing.

Kitri's solo from Don Quixote; I was seventeen

probably my favorite dance I ever did,
"You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile"
with LeAnn (left) and my sister, Melanie (center)
So much fun!

When I pulled out that drawing today, and really examined it, all those feelings came right back. And you know what? I still love dancing. How I would love to take ballet classes! I don't ever need to be on a stage again, but I would love to be moving and feeling that way.