Hope your week has been a great one! I enjoyed your letter from last week. It sounded so upbeat and enthusiastic. Glad you and H. Rios are getting along well and that she is "encouraging" you to fully participate in all aspects of the work--including the dreaded "phone calls." That is one of the hardest parts of learning a new language, since you can't rely on any nonverbal cues (gestures, expressions, etc.) to help you understand what people are saying. Plus, I don't know how the phone systems are in Peru, but in Eastern Europe, the phone connections themselves were pretty poor, so talking on the phone was always an adventure. Keep working on it!
We had ward conference today, and Pres. Merrill and Pres.Christensen both asked how you were doing. Come to think of it, a bunch of people inquired about you today. Also, last night we had a temple session in advance of ward conference. Tyler Willardson's parents happened to be in the session and we ended up seeing them at Kneader's afterwards, where we went for a dinner/treat. They asked how you were doing and told us a bit about Tyler's experience in Brazil. In any event, we've had a lot of chances to talk about you this week, which I always enjoy doing!
Yesterday, Kent and I started our training to hike Mt. Whitney by taking on Flatiron. A cold front moved in over the weekend, and the high temperatures dropped 20 degrees, from the mid-90s to the low 70s. Still, I couldn't convince myself to throw a jacket in my backpack (after all, it's nearly May -- in Phoenix! a jacket? really?). Well, I regretted that decision when we got to the top of the canyon and made our way out to the edge of the Flatiron. It was cold and WINDY!
The cold and wind didn't bother us much on the way up, since we were somewhat protected by hiking in the canyon, and mostly because we were hot and sweaty trying to conquer the challenging elevation gain. We made good time (1:38 from start to the tip of Flatiron) and I was impressed with Kent's stamina. We only took a couple of brief breaks for water and some apple slices.
I wanted to do a bit more exploring in the area on top, and perhaps head up to the peak, but given the conditions and our lack of warm gear, we didn't stay up there too long. We did go visit a new memorial that was recently put up for the 3 children and company that died in the plane crash up there on thanksgiving in 2011. On our way down, it started to rain. When we hit the "bowl" area, the rock was very slick and I biffed it. Nothing hurt but my pride. We basically slid/scooted down the rest of that area. Kent thought the rain and wind made the adventure even more cool. :-)
We were home by around 11:15 a.m. I spent the rest of the day on a few projects that needed to get done: unclog the downstairs bathroom sink; fertilize the grass in the backyard; and continue doing battle with the mesquite tree in the front. On the last project (tree), I chopped off a couple of major branches, so now none of the tree is hanging over the driveway. Doris came out and asked me if I'm cutting the whole thing down. I said: "undecided." Mom thinks it looks good. I think it still needs some work, but I had to wrap up for the day so we could make it to ward temple night. Mostly, I was grateful for a cool day to work in. I don't think I'll get another Saturday in the 70s for a long time.
Lindsay has been sick this weekend (fever, sore throat), but insisted on going to her soccer game, which she won. Kent and I were hiking and Mom was at a conference, so Paige went with her and waved the family flag. They won. Lindsay spent most of Sat afternoon and evening resting. She stayed home from church today, but seems to be feeling a bit better now. Hopefully, that trend will continue because Mom has jury duty tomorrow and has to be in downtown Phoenix all day. (So, she gets to carpool with me. Yay :-).
On Friday, Mom took me on a date to go play racquetball again. She beat me when I played left-handed and played well even when I was using my right hand. She's definitely a competitor! I love spending time with her.
Thursday was Paige's bday. She didn't want to do anything elaborate, so we ordered take-out from Panda Express and had cheesecake and opened presents here at home (mostly clothes). Mom had taken her pre-bday-shopping the prior Saturday. Grandma came over after her shift at the temple was over and ate some dinner with us. All in all, it was a pretty laid back bday, which is pretty much Paige's style.
| Our fancy dinner for Paige's B-day! |
| Grandma Garner & Paige on her birthday! |
I taught FHE on Monday, based on Pres. Monson's conference talk about love/kindness. I challenged everyone to memorize the little poem he quoted:
I have wept in the night for the shortness of sight
That to somebody's need made me blind,
But I never have yet shed a tear of regret
For being a little too kind.
Monday was also the Boston Marathon--one year after the bombing at the event in 2013. An American, Meb Keflezghi, won the men's race--something that has not happened since 1983. It was fun to follow his path to victory. Meb is nearly 39 (getting pretty old in the elite racing group) and has a marathon PR that was 4 or 5 minutes slower than a number of the elite runners in the field, and the last marathon he ran, back in November, was his worst time ever. Yet, he pulled out the victory in Boston, leaving the pack shortly after the halfway point and building a lead that none of the supposedly "better" runners could bridge to catch him at the end. There are a lot of good gospel analogies in the victory (which was also a PR for him).
The women's race was exciting as well. An emerging American star, Shalane Flanagan, led the women's race for nearly 18 miles before being passed up by the eventual victor and and a few other elites (Shalane ended up finishing 7th in a time that: (a) was a personal best by more than 3 minutes; (b) was a Boston record for any American woman; and (c) would have won any of the previous 10 marathons). Unlike the elite men (who "let Meb go" earlier in the race, confident that he would burn out and that they could catch him later), the elite women stuck with Shalane's punishing early pace, and as a result, the top three women's finishers all finished under the prior record time on the Boston course. Again, lots of good gospel analogies here :-)
I chuckled reading your experience in being thrown into teaching Sunday School. I was looking back at my mission journal and realizing that I gave my first sacrament meeting talk in Serbo-Croatian after being in the mission field for about two weeks. So, I feel ya! Sounds like you not only survived, but it turned out well. Good for you!
I could also relate to your mention of random people on the street trying to speak English to you. On my mission, we called them "English jocks." Sometimes they were pretty funny. Other times it was kind of sad, because the only English words they knew were swear words :-/...
Well, we are going to head over to Grandma's for one of our regular, Sunday evening visits, so I guess I'll sign off.
We are proud of you and pray for your success in your labors. Keep working hard!
Love,
Dad
P.S. As Mother's Day is approaching, let us know what arrangements we should make as we anticipate an opportunity to call or skype.
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