I sure love you! Last week I grabbed a couple of photos of you from the blogs of some of your fellow missionaries and posted them on FB. Lots of comments about how beautiful and beaming you look. I couldn't agree more. Sure hope that you have had a great week!
We had a great Easter service at church today. Of course, the focus was on the Atonement. Bro. Breinholt was one of the speakers. As part of his talk, he referenced the 2001 World Series when the Diamondbacks were facing the New York Yankees. After the Dbacks one the first two games at home, we were feeling confident heading back to New York. After losing a close Game 3, we went into the late innings of Games 4 and 5 with a lead. Each time, the D-backs "closer" (a pitcher from Korea named Byung-Hyun Kim), came in to relieve the starting pitcher and "close out" the game. In each game, however, he gave up home runs that led to Yankee victories. Bro. Breinholt talked about how discouraged Kim must have been, not only to be "responsible" for losing a crucial championship game once, but twice in a row! While he as criticized in the media and some fans lost faith in him, the team rallied to his corner and ultimately, the Dbacks won the series in a dramatic and final Game 7. Like Kim, we can sometimes get discouraged in life, feeling like we can't do anything right and that we have "lost the game." Yet, through the Atonement, we are able to pick ourselves up and try again for the victory, knowing that even when we lose faith in ourselves, the Lord continues to have faith in us. I enjoyed the analogy and message.
After church, we dyed some Easter eggs. Mom bought a dye set that had colored cups to match each of of the dyes. The problem was that the color of the dye "pills" were a bit ambiguous. We made our best guess as to which color went into which cup, but when we poured in the vinegar, we found out that we had put the yellow in the orange cup, the orange in the green cup, and the green in the orange cup. We did good with the blue and pink, though! Everyone got a chuckle out of the mix-up. So, now Lindsay, Amber and I have another dozen hard-boiled eggs to eat, since no one else around here likes them :-)
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| Dave explaining why the colors are not in the right cups. |
We invited Grandma to join us for Easter dinner. (We invited Julie, too, but she was in San Diego for the weekend). Mom cooked turkey, homemade rolls, and mashed potatoes and gravy. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was yummy! We debated about what you were having for Easter dinner, and assumed it probably involved chicken and rice :-).
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| Easter Dinner 2014 |
After dinner, we played some Liverpool Rummy. For a change, I won! Doesn't happen too often. Kent also wanted us to play Pictionary, which we did. We modified the game a bit. It was Grandma, Lindsay, and I against Mom and Kent (with Amber chiming in on their side occasionally). Our team pulled out to a big lead early on, but Mom and Kent kept gaining ground, but never could take the lead, until their very last turn of the game, which gave them the victory.
Yesterday, I got up early and drove up to Las Sendas to do a 12 mile run. I ran up to the top of the community, where there is a trailhead that leads up to the top of the mountain behind the community with the microwave towers on it. The trail was a brutal climb, gaining about 800 feet in about 1.2 miles, but the views were great. It was cloudy with some rain falling from the clouds in the distance (though I think most of it evaporated before it hit the ground). I snapped a couple of photos with my iphone. Once at the top, I descended down the opposite side of the mountain on a service road the lead to Usery Pass road (Ellsworth), which I then ran down to McDowell and back to Las Sendas to complete the loop. It was a challenging but fun run.
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| Top of Usery Mountain on Dave's Run |
What do you guys do in Sullana for exercise?
I hustled home after my run for a quick shower and then headed over with the family to the Ward Easter Egg Hunt at the Smith's house. The egg hunting went well and was well-organized for the various age groups. Amber and Paige went over early to hide eggs, and Amber volunteered at the face painting station. All in all it was a good time, though I forgot to wear a hat or sunscreen, so I got a bit sunburned. Grrr.
We left from the party and headed over to Lindsay's soccer game. Her team is the Smurfs. They faced some tough competition and were down 3-0 at half time. They picked it up in the second half, scoring twice, and gaining momentum. But, they ran out of time and ended up with a close loss. Lindsay had some good defensive "clears" and enjoyed the game. We were glad for the cloud cover, which made the whole day a rather pleasant one.
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| Amber painting Dave's hand (he didn't want his face painted) |
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| Mom and Paige at the Ward Easter Party 2014 |
In the afternoon, I took Kent shopping for some hiking shoes. We went to REI and Sportsman's Warehouse, but couldn't find anything he liked. But I got a new pair of hiking/trail running shoes :-) We start our Mt. Whitney training next weekend, with a hike up Flatiron!
After shopping, I decided to tackle trimming the mesquite tree in the front. You know how the branches that hang over the driveway are bird magnets and result in a bird-poop-covered car :-/. So, I decided to give the tree a serious haircut, chopping off most of the branches over the driveway. I'm not quite done yet, and the tree looks like a bit of a mess, but I took us till about 9 pm just to clean up the mess we had already made. So, I'll need to tackle it again soon. In the meantime, it might qualify for the neighborhood blight award ... Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the mesquite tree, as the chants of "chop it down" are getting louder from Mom, Paige, and the rest of the kids. We'll see.
Mom and I capped off the evening with a Netflix viewing of Thor. I give it an "okay." Not bad, but one viewing was enough. Paige also got asked to "Spring Formal" (aka Mormon Prom) by McKay M. She was excited.
Friday, the kids were out of school for Good Friday, but I went into work. In the evening, we went out to dinner at Culver's and then Mom, Amber, and I watched "Catching Fire."
The only other highlight of the week was that Kent's artwork from school was selected to be on display at Norwood Furniture in downtown Gilbert. They held a reception for the artists during the week, so we went down and checked it out on Tuesday. Kent's piece was a colored-pencil landscape of an African savanna. He did a great job and it was nice that he was recognized.
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| Kent with his picture. |
Lindsay taught our FHE last week on the symbols of Easter. She had prepared the FHE in activity days, which consisted of placing the symbols (e.g., a nail to represent the crucifixion) in numbered, plastic Easter eggs and then pulling them out and discussing them one-by-one. She did a good job.
Well, that's the scoop from me for the week. I'm sure I've forgotten something, but hopefully Mom can clean up what I missed (or mis-remembered) :-).
Hope you are doing great. We pray for your health, safety, and success daily, as well as for your ability to continue progressing with the language. Keep working hard!
Love you,
Dad
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