FATHER'S DAY

This morning in Sacrament meeting, the Blue Mills ward had a wonderful program on fathers and becoming a disciple of Christ.  Rather than the typical rest song performed by the primary kids, about three dozen of the youth took part in a program of talks and musical numbers.  Bishop Winchester led the music.  As I (Russell) listened to the talks, several spoke on the good examples their fathers are to them.  It reminded me that I too have been blessed by a good father and two grandfathers that raised me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I also thought of my multiple generations of great-grandfathers, the most recent being my maternal grandmother’s father, who joined the Church between about 100 and 180 years ago in Europe and then immigrated to Utah.  I have been richly blessed to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life from birth due to their willingness to listen to the missionaries' messages and then act upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost, to be baptized and then teach their posterity the Gospel.  Without them joining the Church, I may well not know of my Father in Heaven or His son Jesus Christ.  I owe everything to a loving Father in Heaven, my Savior Jesus Christ, and generations of loving earthly fathers on who’s figurative shoulders I stand.

I also owe a lot to another father, my father-in-law, Maxwell Cannon for his raising Eileen and being such a big part of my life over the last 40 years prior to his passing while we were in the Philippeans.  He had a great influence on my children and grandchildren.

On Thursday afternoon two of the young elders who live in our apartment complex dropped by to see us with a loaf of bread.  They asked me if I could possibly go to the complex’s gym in the mornings.  They like to go and workout but have to leave if a female comes in and another adult male is not present.  With most of the training of my replacement completed, it was just the push I needed to start working out in the mornings.  I realized I do have time now to do something other than just work, which is really nice.  And leave it to Eileen to start quoting scripture to me about it, she popped off with 2 Nephi 2:11.

Last Monday, at our senior district family home evening, Eileen spoke on some of her experiences with Operation Smile.  She had to cut way back on her hundreds of slides.  With only 30 minutes, she decided to focus on her experiences in Rawanda, the Congo (DRC), Jordan and Ethiopia.  A copy of her PowerPoint presentation will be attached once she figures out how to upload it to blogger. 

Unfortunately I forgot to ask someone to take a photo of me (Eileen) doing my presentation on Operation Smile. My presentation included some of my experiences  and I talked about what a profound impact doing this humanitarian work had on my life. 

How did President and Sister Sommerfeldt get to spend some time with Donny Osmond and his wife?  I thought they should have invited the nurse just in case someone got sick.....

Sister Creer and I went to an excellent lecture by Doris Kearns Goodwin. She has the distinction of being a historian and author of several presidential biographies.  Her husband was a speech writer for John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson. She was humorous and extremely articulate in her presentation. 

Cute Elder Webber made this sour dough bread himself and gave it to us as a thank you gift for the help we have given him. It was a perfect loaf of bread without one air bubble in it. Well done Elder!

Our senior missionary activity on Saturday was to visit the Steamboat Arabia. This boat was a paddle boat which sank in the Missouri River in 1856.  Prior to it's sinking it had carried Some local men (one of whom was at the museum) searched for it until they found it in a cornfield. They dug it up and found lots of supplies which were meant to head to the "frontier".  Rather than selling the supplies they decided to make a museum so that others could get an idea of the kinds of supplies were being utilized in the 1850s.  Many of the items were found in perfect condition once the mud was washed off. Others were being cleaned off by archeologists which we could view while they worked. It was extremely interesting.

Steamboat Arabia painting (above).  Eileen and Russell in front of the hull of the ship which was discovered (below).

Dishes and shoes found in barrels on the steamboat.  One of the men who discovered the find said that he had tasted the bottled pickles found in a barrel and they still tasted good after 150 years of being hidden in mud.

Charles Thompson joined the LDS church and had a book he was planning on printing about Mormonism. The printing plates are shown below.  The destination was Council Bluffs.

Medication in bottles discovered on the boat. 

These maps showed the immigration routes that those heading west took. 

Information about Mormon emigrants and the ships they took. 

Eileen can't resist being in with the pioneers. I look a bit short here. 

A year ago we were on a church history tour and stopped one evening at this Culvers. We decided to have some ice cream at the same Culvers as last year at this time. 

Russell with his father, grandfather and great grandfather.  Russell's father is now 91 years old. 

Eileen with her father. We had gone up into the mountains to go on Heather's side by sides. He was in his 90s at this point and enjoyed the day immensely despite his age. 

The gift for the men in the congregation at church today was homemade cookies and a tie with the words, Families are Forever.