Dallin & Janelle and Girls in March

We are blessed grandparents to have these darling girls spend their spring break with us. We loved having them here. They hiked up to Multnomah Falls, played with cousins, Sunday dinner together with us and the Vance family, playing at the park, dates for their Mom and Dad, and just making us happy. Dallin prepared his delicious pizzas for our family dinner. The best!

We especially appreciated Dallin working very hard to clean our garage, along with Janelle's help me made great progress in dejunking. We opened my box with dolls from my childhood and the girls had fun playing with them. The one Dorothy is holding is my Raggedy Ann doll that I had for many years as a little girl. The princess doll that Ruby is holding is one that I received when I was about 10 years old. I will always remember walking in on Christmas morning and seeing those 3 beautiful dolls for me and my sisters, Meredith and Kathi. I loved having that doll sit on my bed each day. Dorothy is wearing a fancy hat that my Grandmother Smith use to wear. The Alpaca rug was from Crismon's mission. We placed it on our bed for a number of years.

Sunday afternoon I took the girls on a walk on the Springwater Trail. It was cool and slightly rainy, but it was a special afternoon watching them discover so many interesting things on the trail that I never notice. Before they left we had a cold, but fun morning at the Imagination Station Park.

Stake Conference with Elder Call

One of the choice blessings that come from Crismon's calling as the Stake President is the sweet opportunity of hosting one of the authorities in our home. Elder Robert Mack Call from Tacoma, was our Area Seventy that presided at our conference. He brought a wonderful spirit to our conference, and we felt of his great love for all the members and for us. Saturday morning, Feb. 27th, Crismon picked him up at the airport and brought him to our home for lunch. Then they spent the next hour or so visiting with some less actives. They had some very good visits with them. One brother in particular who has been inactive for years, was now in the hospital with pneumonia and wasn't doing well. He was touched by their visit and blessing, and expressed a real desire to get his life in order to take his wife to the temple.

Two days before he arrived I worked very hard making a chicken soup to serve on Saturday for lunch. That night I had the feeling I should check with Alisha was she had planned for her Saturday evening meal. Turns out we had both planned the same menu; soup, salads and rolls. It was too tired on Friday, nor did I have the time, to go to the grocery store to buy something else. I thought of a different meal I could do with the food I had on hand. I made a chicken pasta salad, fruit salad with a poppy seed lime dressing, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and I had purchased some good french bread from Fred Meyer. Fortunately, everything worked out OK on Saturday for lunch and it tasted good.

That evening Alisha put on a delicious meal at the church house in between meetings with the wives of the stake presidency, the mission president and his wife. (Pres. Craig Ballard & Sis. Melissa Ballard). Pres. Ballard is Elder M. Russell Ballard's son.

Sunday morning I served the Maple Pear-Apple Oatmeal Bake. Elder Call especially liked it and asked for the recipe! He is the one that makes the oatmeal at their home and he had never tasted baked oatmeal before. After the Sat. night meeting, he and Crismon had bread, milk, and Alice-Anne's delicious bottled peaches.

Crismon had three talks to give during the conference. He always speaks with humility but power. You can feel the mantle of his calling upon him. He always gives such good talks, related from scriptural insights. Elder Call goes by the spirit and is inspired on people to ask to come up and bear their testimonies. Turns out they were exactly the right people for him to ask for a number of reasons. One of them was LaCressa Clardy. She has had many struggles and one being feeling the love of Heavenly Father for her. He spoke with her afterwards and said, "The Lord knows you and loves you." He said there was a light over her when he saw her in the audience, and he knew she was the right one to ask to speak. The Holy Ghost really directs these men.

Elder Call shared a very tender story about a car accident that their son-in-law and granddaughter were in. Sadly, the granddaughter died and the son-in-law lost his job as it took a year of rehabilitation. It was such an emotional story, and also one that drew all of them closer to the Savior.

I recorded in my journal on the evening of Sat., Feb. 27th: "Considering the stress I'm under and all the work I've been doing, I am amazingly blessed of the Lord. He is sustaining me greatly. I typically would be in much more pain and weakness. I feel His generous hand to me."

Crismon is blessed to serve with his two good counselors, Paul Hansen and Steven Christiansen.

The Joy of the Temple

The latter part of October I received a call while on our trip to Hawaii asking me to speak to the Damascus Relief Society evening meeting on the temple in January. It is always such a worry for me to speak, but it's also a great opportunity to ponder, pray, and search the scriptures to try to come to know what the Lord would have me say. Because of a scheduling problem, they pushed the date back to Feb. 18th. It was a pretty long time to have a speaking assignment to worry about, but it was a blessing to prepare for it. I decided to speak on the "Joy of the Temple."

I was feeling a little uncomfortable about the beginning of my talk, but Heavenly Father was so good to me. I happened to read an email that I received from Laura Evins Clark who I taught and saw baptized while on my mission. She talked about the happiness that had come into her life from joining the church, doing family history work and taking the names to the temple. It was the perfect introduction to my talk, and I'm so grateful for the inspiration that came that very day of my talk. I was blessed to have the spirit there with me. It was one of the better attended evening meetings than they usually have, and the sisters participated well which made all the difference. It was such a good feeling to have it over, though.

I do receive so much joy in serving in the House of the Lord and seeing His generous hand in my life, blessing me and helping me do each of the ordinances for the sisters. It is very painful and difficult to stand, but He helps me through it, and often I marvel at how He lifts that pain at times so I don't have to suffer as much. There are so many blessings that come from temple attendance and temple service.

 First row: Chauncy Childs, Danalee Stevenson, Sis. Russell, Sis. missionary, Janeen House, Amy Kelson. Second row: Donna McCain, Colleen Pattiani, Debbi Miller, sister, Linda Jorgensen.

 First row continued: Amy Miller, Jillian Barron. Second row: Tara Miller, Beth Newell, Dara Dillon, Leslie Hatton, Cindy Hansen.

Back row continued: Julie Milburn, Whitney Kelson, Leone Walton.

On Feb. 17th, Crismon joined me in serving in the temple each Wednesday. Because of his church calling, he can't be a regular temple ordinance worker, but he was called as a volunteer, as a veil worker, to serve at the recommend desk, and also in the baptistry. He can also serve in sealings. Pres. Pond called him and then set him a part. He had to do it twice since he didn't set him apart to serve at the Recommend Desk. One thing that was really sweet was he pronounced upon Crismon, all the blessings he had received precious would be added upon him as well. It's a joy for me to have him serving with me now. I'm enjoying reading Pres. Henry B. Eyring's biography called "He Will Lead You Along." Pres. Eyring has kept very good journals, and the book quotes from his journal. It is fascinating. This picture was actually taken a month after Crismon started serving.

February Happenings

Michael and Lori Fryar were so kind to let us use their beach house in Garibaldi, OR for a short Anniversary get-away. The temple was closed for the first two weeks in Feb. We left on Wed., the 3rd and returned Friday evening. We had such a fun and relaxing time together. The weather was cold, windy and cloudy, but we had some sunshine that we took advantage of.

The next week we were able to attend one of Sydney's basketball games. She is a good athlete. We had so much fun cheering her on while enjoying the boys, too.

We attended a fun Valentine's Day in Estacada with their ward on Friday night, Feb. 12th. A nice way to celebrate Valentine's and for me to meet more good members in that ward. Then, my sweetheart surprised me with beautiful roses and carnations on Valentine's Day. He is such a great husband, so loving, kind, and always working so hard. Saturday morning we fed 8 Elders and Bro Conklin by 7 a.m. We do that each month. It is hard on me, but I'm glad I can do my best to help support Crismon in his calling as it means so much for him to meet monthly with the Elders for breakfast in our home. There was a multi-stake broadcast that Sunday. Crismon spoke for 20 minutes before the broadcast. Every talk is stressful for him as he prepares, but he always does so well. The Lord blesses him for his great preparation. That evening was a fun dinner at the Vance's.

Tues., Feb. 16th was an exciting day as Seth called with the great news that he excepted the offer from the University of Oregon as an endowed chair. This honor is pretty much unheard of for one being so young. Earlier in the month on Saturday, Feb. 6th, Seth & Tiffany flew in to Portland after visiting the University of Missouri and Columbia. They were actively recruiting him for a position there with a high pay. We naturally wanted them to come to the Univ. of Oregon, but we wanted to make sure it was the best thing for their family. We had a family dinner together that evening and then early the next morning they headed to Eugene to visit some wards there and get a feel to see where they should land. We couldn't be more excited to have them moving to Oregon later this summer! That will bring half of our grandchildren to the NW!!!

Clark's birthday, Caudle's move

Cute Clark turned 9 yr. old on January 18th. We gathered as a family the day before his birthday, to celebrate. He is such a good boy. I'm grateful to be close to get to know them better. We were so happy for the Caudle's. They were able to find a house to rent, barely in their ward boundaries. It is so nice, just perfect for their family. We helped with the move as best we could on Saturday, Jan. 23rd. I made a big pot of Taco Soup that we took over that evening. 

While we were there, Gary Johns texted us and asked if we wanted to hear Alice-Anne's Sat. eve. Stake Conference talk. We were thrilled. Amazingly, through technology, we were able to see and hear her give her talk. She did so well. This was possible because Gary is the technology clerk. She spoke on the power of pray.

Anniversary Trip to Spokane...Moscow...Pullman

When we learned that BYU was playing Gonzaga the middle of January, we knew we needed to make a trip to see our darling granddaughters, and for Dad to attend the game with Dallin. Gratefully, we were able to make the trip, especially since I came down with something two days before we were to leave. I hadn't been sick in a long time, but I was hit with something. I couldn't bear the thoughts of not going as we were so anxious to see Dallin & Janelle's family, even though we just had them at our house for Christmas. We looked forward to seeing their home, Dorothy's school, touring the campus where Dallin was teaching English, and just enjoying their darling family.

I know their is power in prayer, especially as we join together as a family to pray for each other. I contacted each of the family and asked them to pray that I might get well to make this trip. Crismon and our home teacher, Jeff Hinshaw, gave me a priesthood blessing. I think I prayed all day and the next day. I had to miss serving in the temple on that Wednesday. By that evening I started feeling a little better and began to pack. By Thursday morning, Jan 14th I felt well enough to make the trip. It would have been so disappointing to miss this fun trip, so I was very grateful for the tender mercy to get well. Heavenly Father is so good to me. He knows the desires of my heart, and I feel of His generous kindness to me. The drive was so pleasant with bright, blue skies and even warm enough to eat outside on the picnic table at the rest area for our lunch. Of course, we were still bundled up, but it was a delightful drive.

The girls had fun playing with this cute rainbow that their Aunt Elise made for them. It is simple, but it has so many interesting ways it can be used.

Cute Gwendolyn was so darling and huggable. I loved the time to enjoy these girls. Dallin and Dad had a terrific time at the game where BYU won in the end. Janelle attended a cub scout meeting, so I had the treat of reading and putting the girls to bed.

On Friday, Julia arrived in the morning. She and Austin are in Moscow, ID, just an hour and half away. It was nice we could have a little extra time with her. Having lunch with Dorothy was a treat, as we got to see her nice school and her good teacher. In the afternoon, we braved the cold, to visit the Gonzaga University and see Dallin's office and where he teaches. Janelle prepared such great meals, and we had such a great time with them. 

Saturday morning, January 16th was our 41st Wedding Anniversary. I presented Dad with a gift that I put together from January 16, 2014-January 16, 2015. I kept a daily journal of things Dad each day that brought me happiness. It was a sweet project to do that year, and I loved that idea of staying focused on the many good things my sweetheart does for me. He truly is a great man, and I love him so much. Emily was good to format the book for me, get the cover and have it printed at the BYU Press where she works. It only cost $9 as she gets half off. It's entitled, "How I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways, Memoirs of Crismon by Vivienne.

We were sad to leave and miss the fun of reading and playing with the girls, but we were excited to go to Moscow and see Julia & Austin's apartment and to spend some time visiting with them. We drove in a snowstorm. It was slick and times and so it was a little nerve racking, but Julia did a good job. I rode with her and we visited all the way with Dad following behind. Julia prepared a delicious sweet potato, kale soup, and we enjoyed her yummy bread. We wish we could have had more time with them, but we still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us, and the weather was still snowing.

Gratefully, the roads improved and we didn't have any problems. It was fun for me to see the hospital in Moscow where I was born. It was too modern looking to be the actual one, but in the area. I was especially looking forward to going to Pullman, WA where I grew up for the first 9 years of my life. We went up the steep Monroe road. At the bottom of the hill it had a sign that said "Historical Area." In many ways it still looked like I remembered, but the roads were more narrow, and everything more compact. I guess when you're little everything looks bigger. The address had changed on our house, but I am positive it was our house, only white instead of pink, and again, everything smaller than I remembered. The feelings of the heart when you connect back with your childhood is quite amazing. We drove through the Washington Stake University campus, downtown, and then headed home. While driving through Pullman, we received a call from Seth announcing that the U of O had offered him a position there. We were thrilled to hear the good news, but he had to consider his offer at the Univ. of Missouri, too. We were so happy to make this fun trip!