YSMs Meet Tom

On Sunday my husband sets up giving the sacrament to the Elizabeth Ann Whitney district.  Tom is able to help for the past few weeks.  

We used to do this in the Visitors' Center but since that is being torn apart, other spaces have come into play.  We use the Cultural Hall.  One of these districts came at the wrong time so we had two.  Shh, don't tell.  We're supposed to keep under a certain number of people in a group.  

We were able to introduce Tom to these Sisters who, I'm sure, had no idea who he is.  He was very excited about that.

 

Happy Birthday President Rizley

 

Today is President Rizley's birthday.  Prior to our Zoom worship meeting, we made signs to give a silent birthday greeting.  It was fun to see his face as he recognized that we were all wishing him a happy birthday.  

Thanks to my companion for this fun idea!  I wish I would've taken the picture when there were more signs up.  But then I was holding mine up.

Another Sign Needs Attention

When we arrived in Nauvoo back in June of 2019 we noticed that the sign on the front of the stake center needed some cleaning.  I have some experience in doing this and we thought that we needed to accomplish this task before leaving.

Thursday was a pretty nice day.  We had temperatures in the mid 40's  so we decided it was the day to clean that sign.

I've done this in Iron Mountain several years ago and I had an amazing spiritual experience in pondering it.  I didn't expect the same but I knew there would be a great satisfaction in doing so.

I began on the south side and used my sander to clean the grit and grime off of the name of the Savior's church.

My sweetheart worked on the north side.  His circular sander worked a lot better than the one I used.

This job went a lot faster with two people.  A courser sandpaper helped make the task faster as well.  The final thing that made it faster was the fact that there are no letters "Visitors Welcome" attached to this building.

When all was done, I used the circular sander and a finer sandpaper to buff the letters.

I think the final project looks terrific!  It is once again a privilege to give this service that no one asked us to do.  All I could think of is President Nelson saying, "The Lord loves effort."  This was an effort that I am honored to give.

Big 10 & Tom

Once I finished the work on the Carthage Cottage, I was asked to go to the Big 10 and do some painting.  The dishwashers have been removed and the appliance garage has been removed from the upper cabinet.  Most of the cabinets were taken down and the counter tops were removed.

In the six apartments that we've already painted, the job was very easy and took less than a day.  I needed to paint the corner and the spot where the upper cupboard above the fridge was removed.

In the four apartments that haven't been repainted yet, I needed to paint the small north wall, the bigger east wall and the even larger south wall.

I did the cutting along the ceiling and the corner of the southwest wall.  I gave Tom the roller and taught him how to paint the walls.  He did a pretty good job considering he was new at this.

Tom told me that he "loves painting" and that "It's fun!"  Jared would be proud of him.  Jared told me that I needed to teach him how to cut.  That's not happening.  In one apartment I didn't start in the southwest corner and Tom did.  He slopped paint on the west wall.  I needed to go back the next day and paint one more wall.  It will be a lot easier for the painters who come after me.  They won't have to paint the kitchens.

Carthage Cottage #1

 Jared gave me a specific job that was just for me.  He asked me to paint Carthage Cottage #1.  Not just do some spot painting but to actually paint the entire house.  I started it prior to Christmas and actually had Erin come with me to help on a couple of those days.  

Then Covid struck the mission and all of the missionaries were asked to stay home.  There were no virtual tours or FM work.  In fact, Jordan sent the FM employees home for three days just in case.  

After our two week quarantine, we went back to work on this house.  My husband and Tom helped since we couldn't work with anyone that didn't live in our house.  Things loosened up a little and the Polls were able to come over to the house and assist in our job for two days.  On the third day, Elder Poll was hospitalized and we needed to take Sister Poll to the hospital in Peoria.  Therefore, we didn't finish on that Friday when I thought we would be done.  One more day the following week and we had it finished.  We helped the Polls place the furniture since they would be moving in to this place.  It was a fun project but needed a lot of repairs in the plaster walls.  No sheetrock here.  I learned a lot again.

Anniversary #38

I think this was the first time in years that we didn't have KFC for our anniversary meal.  I did receive these beautiful flowers though.  

I think about our life together and feel thankful for it.  Let me list some of the things that I love.

1.   Creating a family with 5 wonderful people as our children.

2.   The ability to work together.  I enjoy being able to work together.

3.   Being able to support my sweetheart during all of his many callings.

4.   Going to SLC for General Conference

5.   Taking a vacation on the beach.

6.   Performing in the City of Joseph pageant together.

7.   Being temple workers together.

8.   Serving together as Temple & Family History Consultants.

9.   Having him by my side as we watched my father take his last breaths.

10. Going on walks together.

11. Date nights.

12. Motorcycle rides.

13. Going to the temple together to do our family work.

14. He thanks me for marrying him.

15. He buys me dresses and other chothing.

16. No matter how I look, he thinks I look good.

17. He always encourages me to be a better version of myself.

18. Watching him create things

19. Watching and listening to him greet our youngest grandchildren.

20. Listening to him open up the scriptures to me.

21. Setting goals and seeing them come to fruition.

22. Serving a mission together.

23. He makes a plan and listens as I propose an alternate plan.

24. We both like to camp.

25. He provides for us/me.

26. He helps with household chores.

27. We love to dance together.

28. He "interviews" those men interested in our daughters.

29. He supports me when I decide to throw a party/picnic

30. His generosity and charity for others.

31. His ability to make friends.

32. Pushing me out of my comfort zone.

33. The desire to serve our community.

34. His ability to fix just about anything.

35. His listening to me when I have a thought.

36. His dedication to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

37. Projects that we work on together.

38. Our family.  How we love our family.

Quarantine and Temple Building

Many of the FM missionaries tested positive for Covid just after Christmas.  Since I tested negative, I had a longer quarantine than my husband.  I went for a second test and that too was negative.  All the FM missionaries were told to stay home and not work for almost two weeks.

I decided I needed to make some beaded temples for some special people here.  The Manti was made for the Rizleys.  They were very surprised with this creation that sits on original wood that came from the Heber C. Kimball porch.

I didn't have a pattern for the Los Angeles temple but I made one anyway.  This one was for the Ballards.  They too were pretty surprised.

The Salt Lake City temple was made for the Binghams.  They weren't home when we delivered it.  They called later in the evening and were blown away.  Both of them!  They said they were going to turn off the lights and just watch it like a Christmas tree all lit up.

I'm so glad they all liked what we created.  Quarantine was long but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  At least I was here with the love of my life.