PART 2 OF AUGUST 11TH POST

I mentioned yesterday in the post that Lake Josepheus near the Scout Bradley campground, is pretty. Here are pictures of that lake. It's at the end of the road, about 17-18 miles off of the main road. It has a few picnic tables and even a restroom there. That was a very unexpected area for those items. The lake is not one for motors, but a very pleasant spot to enjoy the beauty that Heavenly Father created. Someone was fishing when we got there. I don't know if they had any luck.

Our Primary Presidency was basically in charge of the Ward

Pioneer Celebration. It was the Primary Activity Day, but we

included the whole ward. We had a booth where everyone dressed up for family pictures. The secretary of the Presidency is pregnant. Since we are responsible of young children, 2 of of pretended to be holding a baby in the Presidency picture. In the picture of the other couple and us, I was a little disappointed with the outcome. Just a second before the gal took the picture, someone said don't smile because we were holding the frying pans. I quit smiling. I realize that no one else heard the instructions. It would have been better if all were "on board" with the same instructions.

Other things that we did for the Pioneer Celebration: Homemade butter-shaking baby food jars until finished, Hand cranked homemade ice cream, Water melon seed spitting contest, A game of team work -walking on long boards together as a team. It looked kind of hard. There was of course the stick pull game that Joseph Smith always did.

These are cousins in our Primary doing the walking team game. I didn't get a great picture of them in action. Some of the participants had 3 or 4 team members walking the game at the same time. That looked difficult.

Well, things are or not much different with Rick. He's always depressed, sleeps much of the time. That's his way of "checking out" of life. He continues to go to his counselor and doctor. One piece of possible good news for Rick: A few weeks ago, I noticed on our Caller ID that the L.D.S. Church Missions had called. I wondered then what that was about. Well this last Sunday, the Bishop called Rick into his office. The people that are running the L.D.S. Employment office in our area are actually called on a mission to do this. They are from our ward. They want Rick to help them. The Bishop said that it would be about 10 hours a week. It is an official mission. The Bishop has to send in the papers to the church headquarters and wait for the official call to come. We're not sure exactly what he will be doing. However, I'm excited about this. It will give him purpose to get out of bed or to get up and do something. Maybe, he won't feel so hopeless and useless. I can't convince him to make the effort. This will force him to make the effort.

I'm still trying to learn the Spanish Initiatory at the Temple. The Anointing part is the hard part. I just can't figure out how to say a few of the words. However, I almost have the hard part memorized. I just have one more phrase on this section. The rest will be fairly easy. (When I got so busy with moving Mom, my priorities got rearranged. My heart wasn't into learning it as much as it was a little earlier.) I've gone as a patron in the Spanish Booth more than once. I really like that, because it helps me to hear the words being pronounced. The Shift Coordinator that works on the Spanish Shift says that after I finish work, I can work on her shift 0occasionally in the Spanish Initiatory Booth. That means I would only work the one hour. That would be fun!

A few weeks before the maintenance time of the Temple in June, I subbed on my shift as the Initiatory Coordinator. That is what I was trained to do in the Boise Temple. Officially in July, I started being the Initiatory Coordinator-trading off every other month. I really like that, but I miss officiating in Initiatory because that is where I get my "Spiritual Shot in the Arm" for the week. I glad that I get to trade off.

I will be going back to work for the harvest season any day now. I know not until after Friday, but it could be any day after that. That will mean working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day,
the seventh day of the week I'm at the Temple. I should finish work sometime in October. Life will be very busy for awhile. I'm grateful that this year, we started later than some years. I needed the extra time to get everything in order with mom and getting her Medicaid going. I still haven't figured out what to do with everything that is in our kitchen, but it's starting to appear that it's getting closer to being done.
This Saturday if I'm not working, the Relief Society is going rafting near Hagerman and Bliss. I've done it with Grant once. It's not a real exciting float-part of it is fun. I'm hoping to get to go. Other years when the Relief Society goes, I'm always working. It was scheduled for last Thursday evening, but got postponed due to a funeral in the ward.

Well, don't expect to hear from me for awhile. Life is busy.