Graduations, Promotions and more...

Dallin receiving a PhD in English from Notre Dame

·      Bryan Williams (Meredith) graduating from Medical School, then on to Residency in Hawaii in Pediatric Medicine beginning the first of June.

 Seth earning tenure from the University of Minnesota in Journalism

·      Crismon Jr. finishing a year of intensive schooling in the Chinese language in Taiwan, on to graduated school at the Univ. of Colorado in Boulder this fall.

·      Austin Doutre (Julia) graduated from BYU-I , internship in Pocatello, on to graduate school at the Univ. of Idaho in Moscow this fall.

Gary Vance (Ondalynn) is now with Mill Creek Residential Trust as the Managing Director for their Portland Region.

Brett Caudle, (Vivienne) CEO of The Tech Academy in Portland OR.

Emily finished her junior year at BYU

Gary & Alice-Anne Johns celebrating 11 happy, terrific years together.  Gary was recognized for excellent performance for Merit Sensor Systems as their Processor Engineer.

Other blessings…

Crismon & Vivienne were privileged to sit next to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at a dinner for 9 stake presidents and their wives following a training in Portland. This was a  very choice opportunity to visit one-on-one for 90 minutes with him and learn many insights of the Brethren, their schedules, their lives. Then we loved the opportunity to host Bishop Dean Davies of the Presiding Bishopric for a special Stake Conference and enjoying a special Luncheon with him, Elder Maynes, and Elder Holland on that Sunday. 

We enjoyed a quick trip to Cancun, Mexico that we earned through our Reliv Business in the middle of April; always nice to have an all-expensed paid trip. Best of all, was attending General Conf. in Salt Lake City, and visiting Alice-Anne & Gary Johns’ family.

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Wedding Day for cousin Lynette

Attending a temple wedding is a glorious event, and then when it is family, it is even better! May 2nd, niece Lynette Lewis was sealed in the Portland, OR temple to Ian Lake from Wilsonville. It was a perfect spring day. We were so happy to join our wonderful Corwin & Lynette Lewis family and rejoice in this blessed day with them. Lynette was a beautiful bride and Ian the handsome groom. They are an outstanding couple with a great future ahead. Hunter was the only sibling out of 14, not attending the wedding as he is on a mission to Peru. It was wonderful to see the Lewis siblings and get caught up with their busy, productive lives.

Ian's parents are David & Marcie Lake and he is the stake president of the Lake Oswego Stake. David's sister is Teresa Oldham. The Oldham's were in our stake for many years in Gresham and Bro. Dave Oldham served as a Bishop of the Damascus ward before they moved to Utah. It was so fun to be with Teresa, her sister, Susan, and their parents, Bro. & Sister Lake and visit with them at the Luncheon held at a beautiful country club in Wilsonville. Ian's Grandpa Lake was the sealer. It was fun to have Myreel Pease there, too, from BYU-I. We enjoyed hosting Wilfried Friday night and some of Lynette's friends on Friday and Saturday evening in our home.

A special treat was hearing all the Corwin Lewis' sing "A Marvelous Work" at the Luncheon. We love being with family for these choice events. It's always inspiring to be surrounded by righteous, good family members striving to live true to Gospel principles. Family is Forever!

Trip to Cancun, Mexico

We enjoyed a quick, but terrific trip to Cancun, Mexico. We earned the trip through Reliv for being among the top 30 distributors with the highest volume in sales in November & December of 2014. It's always a wonderful opportunity to be with the good-Christian people involved with Reliv. We come away feeling like we've been to a family reunion as there is so much respect and love for each other in the business. We feel this is a credit to the outstanding leadership of Bob Montgomery, and the others on the corporate team. They have instilled the attitude of as we reach out and help others succeed, we will succeed, too. We love being a part of the Reliv team. We're pictured here with Bob, the CEO, and founder of the Reliv company. We also enjoyed sitting with Ryan Montgomery (Bob's son), the President, and his family for the final dinner. They are wonderful people.

It was a fast trip, arriving on Thursday, April 16th and returning late Sunday evening, the 19th. There was a group event and dinner for the Opening night on the beach. Friday, after a short meeting together, we relaxed and swam in the different pools and Lazy River. One highlight was visiting with an Amish couple that we have become good friends with for about 2 hours about the church and our beliefs. Since we met them about 7 years ago, their strict religious behaviors have changed slightly and we hope the emphasis on the family unit and the idea that we live together forever as families might have touched their hearts in some way.

Saturday Crismon had arranged for a LDS tour to the Mayan Tulum ruins, dating back to the 13th century. It was fascinating to see this well preserved temple site, probably the best-preserved coastal Maya site, nestled along the spectacular Caribbean deep blue waters. Most interesting was getting a LDS insight and parallels to Book of Mormon scriptures. As much as I enjoyed being there, this was a stretch for me physically with a lot of walking, climbing, and surviving a very hot day.

Afterwards we had lunch together as a group and then we were taken to an underground river where we could cool off for an hour swim. Swimming in a cave with many bats hanging from the top was quite a creepy, but fun experience. Our guide gave us extra time at each stop and we returned back to our resort late that afternoon.

That evening was the farewell dinner together at a plaza in the center of the shopping area connected to the resort. We were entertained by incredible dancers that told the history of Mexico through dance. It was probably the best performance of its kind that we have seen.

We were hoping to attend an 8 a.m. church meeting, going by taxi into Cancun, but our return trip was a little earlier than we had planned, coupled with the fact that I was struggling physical due to pain and fatigue from the previous day, it turned out we couldn't make it, which we felt very badly about. We were grateful to travel to places we never would be able to go without these bonuses to us. Interesting to learn, that Delon, Clyde, Myreel, Alvin & Jessica were probably about 30 miles north vacationing in the area, too.  We were treated so well while staying in this beautiful, relaxing, amazing resort. It was taste of paradise.

Special Stake Conference

We had the unique privilege of hosting Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishopric for a Special Stake Conference held on April 26th. We had just had Elder David Baxter for our Stake Conference the end of February. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Richard J. Maynes, and Bishop Davies were in the Portland area on Saturday, April 25th for a Priesthood Leadership Training with 9 stakes in our mission. Those invited were the Stake Presidencies, the Bishoprics, Elders Quorum Presidents, and the Ward Mission Leader. Crismon received a wealth of good information during the  4-hour training on Saturday afternoon. Then the wives of stake presidents were invited to come for a dinner with the visiting authorities. 

We were so blessed to have the privilege of sitting right next to Elder Holland at the dinner. In fact, there was just one other couple with us on our table, Pres. Allen & Jeri Oyler. Sister Oyler and I work together on the same shift in the temple. For 90-minutes we asked Elder Holland all kinds of questions. He was very open and forthcoming on many things from what he would do if he were "King for the Day," to calling himself "the rebel Apostle" with his unusual ideas on certain things in the church.

We will see a greater emphasis placed on keeping the Sabbath day holy. We might see them suggest families have their FHE on Sunday evening with their activity on Monday night. He shared insights into the Brethren, their schedules, the declining health of Pres. Packer, Elder Perry, Elder Scott and Elder Hales, and sadly, the serious health issues his wife has had over the last 6 months. She spent 5 months in the hospital with a terrible pneumonia. Sometimes he was sleeping in the hospital so he could see her. She was in Provo so she could be closer to her daughter for her help. Also, her son-in-law was the head surgeon of that hospital and insisted they not put her on a ventilator when her lung capacity was down to 5%, despite what her doctors wanted to do. Elder Holland said, that one decision probably saved her life. Through the power of the Priesthood, many prayers, their faith, and especially her faith and determination, she finally pulled through it, although she was literally on her deathbed. Shortly after last Oct. Conference she "walked" into the hospital and within 8 days, the doctors told Elder Holland they were losing her and it was time to call in the family. That was a shock to Elder Holland. Through the generous mercy of God, miracles happen.

One thing Crismon shared in his stake with our members was that Elder Holland gave all of them, and the members of their stake an "Apostolic Blessing." Quoting from Crismon's blog about his service as stake president, he said:

He blessed us (as leaders) and extended the blessing to the members of each of our stakes (there were 9 stakes represented). That’s why I mentioned it in stake conference because I wanted our members to know they had received a blessing via the priesthood leaders in the meeting. 

As you may have heard him say, Elder Holland repeated in his training that we are members of the "Church of Happy Endings," a nice way to remind everyone that Satan will not win, our victory is assured, so we need to hang in there. 

This wonderful spirit of optimism is further bolstered by the spirit of his blessing in which he blessed us with healing of relationships and a spiritual healing of our posterity to the tenth generation. He blessed us that the gospel will go deep into our hearts and through our covenants we will see the Lord’s hand in our lives to sustain us through these difficult times.

As for the spiritual healing of our posterity, he clarified, “They will have to repent like everyone else,” (suggesting this blessing cannot override agency),  but the power of our making and keeping covenants will reach out to our posterity down to the 10th generation and bring them back.

Sunday, Crismon picked up Bishop Davies from his hotel in Lake Oswego and drove him to our stake conference. There was a meeting prior with the stake presidency. The talks were especially good in our meeting. Then Crismon and I drove Bishop Davies to the Tualatin church building for a lunch with Elder Holland, Elder Maynes, the new Area Seventy, Elder Stapleton, and Elder Risenmay, the outgoing Area Seventy, our mission president, Pres. & Sister Craig Ballard, (Elder Ballard's son) and temple president, Steven & Diane Pond. We were blessed again, this time to sit next to Bishop Davies and learn so much from him. We also sat next to Dave and Marcie Lake, Ian's parents. They had returned late the night before from the Utah reception for Lynette & Ian. They are such lovely people. Dave is a brother to our good friend, Teresa Oldham, that use to live in our stake.

Bishop Davies asked Crismon to send him a copy of the photo of the 3 of us. We received this nice response back:

Dear President Lewis:

It was a very great pleasure and honor to be with you and your stake members on Sunday. I felt such a sweet spirit, and admire the way you lead. I do hope to see you again, and the invitation is open that if you come to SLC I hope you will come and say hello.

All the very best,

Dean

April Conference Weekend

We had the fun treat of stopping for a three-hour layover in Phoenix on our way to Salt Lake. Actually making a direct flight would've been great, but since Southwest doesn't fly direct anymore from Portland to Salt Lake, we had a three-hour layover. Bryan and Meredith brought their cute kids to the airport and picked us up. Then we went to a nearby park to visit and play with the children. What a delightful time we had with them! I had just been there the week before helping Meredith with new baby Jocelyn. This made it so fun for dad to meet little Jocelyn before they moved to Hawaii.

As we were flying to Salt Lake I was getting hungry and was tempted to eat a granola bar, but then I began to think about Alice-Anne's good homemade bread, and figured that there would probably be some there. We were welcomed to five loaves of homemade bread thanks to Gary. He had gotten up early that morning and made the bread before going to work so we would have it. What a great guy!

We had so much fun seeing their cute family again. All the children seemed like their legs grew so long!

Soon we were outside enjoying the beautiful day. Elliot wanted to show off his skills on his strider bike. He is a bundle of energy and so curious about the world.

That evening the children colored Easter eggs. Gary is so good to be in the middle of all of these fun family activities helping the kids do these projects.

Friday Alice-Anne and I began visiting early in the morning, and we didn't get out of our pajamas until later that afternoon! Dad had gone to meet with some new prospects in our business, and we just kept visiting, putting a little bit of food in front of the kids when they came in hungry. We had such a great time together.

Later, Dad and I took the children to the park and to Arctic Circle for dinner. We sent Alice-Anne and Gary on a date. Emily came that evening, and although not much time left, the two of us headed to the mall for a little shopping. I enjoyed time to visit with Emily that evening.

Saturday morning, April 4th was my 63rd birthday. We are often in Salt Lake for April conference, consequently, the Johns are always making my birthday extra special for me with delicious whole-wheat pancakes, strawberries, and whipped cream!

The conference messages were so wonderful. What an inspiration to hear from our leaders. Although they were so good the first time I heard them, they seem to get even better as I have listen to them again. It reminds me kind of like a big pot of soup, it taste good the first time, but by the next day, it seems to get better with time. We enjoyed watching the morning session with the Johns and then Emily and the two of us hurried to Salt Lake to secure good seats for the afternoon session.

We enjoyed meeting Bronson's family after the afternoon session. They are such good people.

Since Crismon didn't have any sons to go to the priesthood session with him, he gave his tickets to my brother, Randy, and his son, Corbin, who had just turned 12-years-old the week before and had been ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a treat for Corbin to be in the conference center for his first priesthood meeting.

Emily stayed with the Gardener's that afternoon and evening, and Dad came back with me to West Jordan and he attended the priesthood session with Gary.

We were so glad that Kenna could go with us on Sunday afternoon. She is delightful! We had very good seats in the second row behind the VIP section on the Plaza level. It was nice to be closer to the Brethren and enjoy another terrific conference session.

Emily and Bronson came with us to Alice-Anne's for a very nice Sunday dinner. Each year they make my favorite homemade carrot cake for dessert. Thank you, Alice-Anne and Gary! You always do so much to make it special for me.

Monday, the weather turned cold. Saturday and Sunday had been bright, sunny, and beautiful. We took the children to a nice park to give Alice-Anne time to do some projects on our own.

Crismon had appointments in Bountiful with Reliv customers. Then that evening we had been invited to dinner at the Solomon's home. He works for the church in the temple department over all the Recorders. They invited us to their home to enjoy Indian food. They are very loving good people with some amazing stories to share. We connected through sharing Reliv with them. They invited all of the Johns' family, too, so it was a fun evening together. The children were polite and ate the different food. 

It was sad to say goodbye to our fun Utah family. They go out of their way to make it a lovely weekend for us. We sure appreciate all of their hospitality. The children are always so loving and keep us smiling. There was lots of wrestling time with Grandpa too. The children were at the beginning of their three-week break from school. They are on year-round school, and it worked out nicely to have them home while we were there. Friends would come to play, and Kenna reminded me of Alice-Anne by organizing all the children in skits that they performed for us.

They were cute to write thank you notes and sneak them in my purse before I left. How we enjoy the sweet children!