TAKE IT ON FAITH

This week, the news of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) that would be visible on Friday and Saturday nights was well announced. Pictures Saturday morning on the local TV stations and social media were amazing, and motivated Eileen and I to try and see them for ourselves. At 10:30 PM Saturday we set out, driving northeast. We were trying to get away from the city lights, and in that we were successful. However, we failed in our efforts to see anything and returned home a little before mid-night. It was a beautiful, clear night, lots of stars but no Northern Lights. We are going to have to trust the accounts of others and accept their pictures as to what had appeared in the night sky. As I drove home last night, I wondered if this is what it is like for investigators of the Church listening to the missionaries, or for young children hearing from their parents about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone wants to see for themselves, but most of us have to just live by faith (see Hebrews 10 & 11).

As we celebrate Mother’s Day today, I find myself extremely grateful for Eileen, the mother of my children, for my mother and grandmothers, and for my mother-in-law. All have been such an important and cherished part of my life. All but Eileen have passed on and I find myself missing them very much. I look forward to the day when we can be together again.

We really put  a lot of effort in to see the Northern Lights.  I know they were visible in our area, because there were several photos such as this one above taken by Travis Heying not far from Kansas City. We don't normally stay up til midnight, however Russell kept thinking if we drive north just a few minutes more maybe we will see them.  Alas, we were disappointed and finally gave up. 

Sister Creer and I (Eileen) went to a celebration of Harry Truman's birthday at the Truman Presidential Library. Truman lived in Independence, both prior to and after being the U.S. President. You can see both of us on the far left hand side of this photo, just to the left of the lady rummaging in her purse. We were at the front of the line of guests. Family members are in front of us. 

                                             Sister Creer, me and Harry Truman.  

Elder Thomason (middle), has returned to our mission after being on a leave of absence for surgery. Elder Hall on the right is 6'5". He has never met anyone who has as big of feet as him.  Elder Thomason has a size 17 shoe so he beats out Elder Hall's shoe size.

Sister Creer's foot in comparison to Elder Thomason's  The heels of their shoes are touching. 

Sister Dennison usually goes to the YSA ward, however joined me today in our family ward.

We have been blessed to have wonderful mothers.  Above is Russell with his mother.

Russell's Grandmothers Werrett and Healy. They came to his house regularly to help his mother while she was ill with cancer. 

Eileen with her sisters and mother at  her sister in law's wedding. Eileen is in the blue.

Our family, outside of the Bountiful Temple after our son Jonathan was sealed to us.

Russell was very close to my mother. He loved to cook for her on Mother's Day. His mother died a year after our marriage. 

A text from young sister missionaries this week. It is the second key fob which has been lost in the week. Unfortunately after several unsuccessful efforts to retrieve the key, it was determined this key was forever lost in the crack under the front stairs. 

CHALLENGING WEEK

Over the past six weeks, we have been picking up cars from the Nissan dealership but been unable to put them in service because we didn’t have license plates.  I (Russell) was hoping (a false hope) that we could get them turned over before the Perrys left.  As the number of cars has grown, so has my fear of how we were going to deal with them should the plates come in all at once, which of course they did!

This week we traded out 24 cars (2024 for 2023 models), 25 percent of our total fleet.  On Monday and Tuesday, we did 22 of those.  The task could not have been accomplished without the help of several senior missionary couples.  The Dennisions and Elder Hall helped me with the cars and the John’s spent the week reconciling the April gas cards.  It has been a long and difficult week, and I’m sure I am not the only senior missionary who is looking forward to the Parkers arrival in June.

We decided to take the Dennisons out to dinner on Saturday as a thank you for their help.  Elder Dennison, as is another senior couple serving here, strictly following a “plant-based” diet.  So, we went to a restaurant named, “The Fix,” one of the few restaurants in Kansas City that cater to this segment of vegans.  The restaurant was not in the nicest part of downtown Kansas City and had the bohemian atmosphere one might expect to find near a college campus.  The food was surprisingly good given my expectations.  It caused me to think about what my food might be like in the Milenium, when, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together, …” (Isaiah 11, 2 Nephi 21 & 30).

As we were leaving the restaurant, Sister Dennison and Sister Creer saw a quaint shop across the street named “Under the Cover,” which they wanted to stop at.  It looked like a nice family-owned bookstore. Fortunately, Eileen had heard about the store on talk radio, which she had listened to for just a few minutes while driving to a doctor’s appointment.  Turns out that nice looking little shop was an adult book and trinket store.  I’m glad Eileen was able to warn the other sisters before they went inside!

I (Eileen) had a bit of a frustrating day on Friday. Russell had been working extremely long hours all week. He has been leaving for the office by about 5:30-6:00 a.m and has been returning after dark.  We recently received a recall on our car which I wanted to take care of since Russell was so busy. Medical has also been quite busy recently for me, with numerous calls each day.  I made an appointment with the dealership for Friday and then called twice to confirm. I was sent 5 reminder notices. After I had traveled 30 minutes to get to the car dealership, I was told that the appointment would be very quick as they needed to order a part before the service could be done. 

On my return trip to the office I received a text from a senior missionary saying she was taking a young missionary to an urgent care.  I have to always receive approval from Missionary Medical before a missionary can go to the doctor. Before I even reached the office where I could check with Missionary Medical, I was texted again saying they were going to the ER stat per the urgent care’s request. I immediately turned around and headed to the hospital which was about 30 minutes away. When I arrived, the missionary was sitting up on a gurney smiling and laughing with her companion. I soon realized that she was not in dire pain requiring surgery or other immediate interventions and returned to the office.   It seemed a bit of a difficult day.

Saturday and Sunday was our stake conference. One talk which particularly impressed me was by the father of 19-year-old Jonathan Fielding.  Jonathan was a young man who had fallen to his death 3 months ago in Utah, while taking a photograph during a hike.  Brother Fielding talked about how he and his wife had just gotten off their shift as ordinance workers at the temple, when they were notified of their son’s passing.  Rather than being bitter about this tragedy, Brother Fielding discussed how blessed they felt to be able to have returned to the temple 30 days later to do Jonathan’s temple work. He testified of the beauty of the Plan of Salvation.  Both he and a member of our Stake Presidency quoted pieces of Alexander Dushku’s talk from the most recent conference. Elder Dushku is our former stake president and he set us apart for our last two missions. 

After 6 months of wearing a boot and almost 4 years of recovering from my bike accident with accompanying surgeries, it feels so good to be playing racquetball.  We have a racquetball court at our apartment complex. We have never seen anyone else use it other than me, Russell and Sister Creer.  I finally beat Sister Creer on Saturday, 4 out of 6 games. 

Elder Dennison cutting up old license plates with tin snippers

Our "lot" with 22 used cars (2023).  Russell will be so glad when these cars are finally gone

Sister Creer, Sister Dennison and me (Eileen) visited the Polly Pop soda factory in Independence. They first opened in 1923.  Russell and I do not drink normal soda drinks and we weren't a huge fan of the "diet" drinks that were sold. Everyone else loved the normal soda flavors.

Russell planted hanging flower baskets just two weeks ago. One is already dying, but the birds love it. They made this lovely nest in what is now a dead flower basket. 

Eating vegan at "The Fix"