December Decorations and more...

December was filled with blessings and heartaches. The Christmas season began early in our home as Daisy and Kaeley wanted to decorate for Christmas about five days before Thanksgiving. We've never decorated that early before. It was fun to see them so happy and excited.

An early Christmas present from Emily and Bronson was a new printer. We were desperate for a printer, and they were so generous to give that to us. It works so well!

We were happy we could attend in person church, as we are now allowed up to 25% capacity, which means we could easily have 100 people attend, although our numbers have been more like 40-60 in attendance. Our stake did a Music Devotional during the Christmas season. Crismon and I filmed a short message that was added to the end of the Devotional.

Since we couldn't hold our traditional neighborhood gathering the first part of December as we have in the past, we organized a Zoom gathering. It was fun to catch up on each others lives. We only had six households join in, but at least we still connected which was important.

On December 9th we were privileged to have a Zoom call with Elder Bragg and his wife, a general authority who was doing a virtual tour of the mission. What was most interesting was personal insights regarding Pres. Nelson's recent worldwide message to the world. He shared that in one of their meetings that they all attend together on one of the floors of the JS building, which has been dedicated as a gathering place for the Brethren as they can't meet in the SLC temple that is being renovated, Pres. Nelson talked about his concern for the people around the world. He had been pondering about it for some time and asking the Lord about it. The spirit spoke to him and said, "What are you going to do about it, boy?" That night, he woke in the middle of the night with a distinct revelation of what he was to do. He was told what to ask us to do on social media and even the date that he was to present his worldwide message. Pres. Nelson has been so good about counseling us to seek revelation in our lives, and he has shared more about receiving revelation than any other of the prophets in our lifetime.

Dec. 15th, we were able to watch Asher's orchestra concert on youtube. It's so neat how they can put the sound together of all the performers and we can enjoy their orchestra, although they don't physically gather to play together.

Wed., Dec. 16th Vivi and the children left about 2:30 in the afternoon to go to the mall. Tragically, as they were going through an intersection out in the country area, a truck, going way too fast, ran the stop sign and plowed in to them. He hit them on the right passenger wheel and it tore off the front of their van. It was so traumatic for all of them. Gratefully, we were home, and we could immediately go to pick them up, about 10 minutes away. They went to the hospital later that day to get checked out. Fortunately, they were OK, but Vivi was hurt the worse in her chest and neck. Their car was totaled. We are so grateful for divine protection over them.

The next morning we were to leave to go back East for Christmas with Meredith and Dallin's family. Thankfully, we had cancelled our trip several weeks before due to the increase of COVID, and we were home to take care of Vivi, and Dad to work on her insurance. It has taken hours and days trying to work it out. She was able to buy a nice Nissan 2017 with 31,000 miles for $12,000, about the amount she would receive from the insurance company.

It was kind of exhausting for me to keep up with caring for Vivi along with meals, and laundry. Ondalynn and Gary came on Friday, the 18th and brought a delicious soup, homemade rolls, and cookies. Also, members of the ward were good to reach out and help. We had three yummy meals brought in the week after Christmas.

Seth and Tiffany and the boys came on Saturday, the 19th. I put together a lunch for all of us with leftover soups we had. They brought a beautiful basket with two loaves of good bread from Great Harvest and some granola. We had a wonderful visit with them. Preston and Asher played their violins, as well. 

We were concerned on Wed., the 23rd that Tiffany was sick. Of course, we all worry about COVID. She was tested and the next day on Christmas Eve Day, she called to say she was positive. We were now really concerned as they had been in our home for two hours and we had eaten at the same table. I already wasn't feeling the best. As the day went on I began feeling worse. We canceled our plans to go to the Vance's for Christmas Eve. But now, what to do to make it fun for the kids? Daisy was crying as she was so disappointed. The Vance's were sad, too, especially Isaac. We hurried and ordered take out, and that helped save the night for the children. We had a sweet time reading from Luke together and opening the secret pal gifts. We FaceTimed with Dallin's family for about a half-hour which was nice.

On Christmas, we had fun exchanging gifts. Then we visited with each of the families over FaceTime, or by phone. I was really feeling sick, so it was hard for me to talk on the phone.

On Saturday the 26th I was able to get a COVID test with the County Health Center in a drive-through set up in a parking lot. I learned the following Monday that my test was negative. I was really surprised, as many of my symptoms were similar to Tiffany's with headache, dizziness, feeling very cold, weakness, and fatigue. I don't know if I got a false negative test or not. 

We celebrated Crismon's 72nd birthday on Wed., the 30th. I had planned a Surprise Zoom Call with all the children for 1:30 pm that day. The Vance's came by, right before that to surprise Dad. He was definitely surprised when I brought in the computer with all the family there to wish him a Happy Birthday. I had asked them to come prepared to share a memory, a funny experience, or something about Dad. It was so fun reminiscing together. We watched a movie together that night. He had a great day. He's wonderful!

On New Years Eve Day, Julia, Austin and Dallin came down from the Kenmore, north of Seattle. Dallin has been afraid of Gary in the past, and when they drove up to the Vance's house he said, "I want to go to Daisy-Kaeley's house. Gratefully, it was just Isaac that was there at first and he started playing with him. Gradually, the others came and it helped him not feel so overwhelmed. Now that he is older, he was able to adjust easily and he absolutely loved playing with the boys, and even taking Gary's hand to show him something. This was a big breakthrough. He loved playing football with the boys and wearing Paxton's BYU 1 jersey. He kept saying "I Zach Wilson!"

Ondalynn prepared a lovely formal dinner for New Year's Eve. Afterwards we play a game Daisy had put together, wrapping candy and surprises in plastic wrap and they took turns unwinding it. Then we exchanged Christmas gifts. We headed home soon after and Dad and I didn't welcome in the New Year by staying up, but Vivi and the girls did.

We are all hoping that 2021 will bring a containment of the COVID virus, a rebound in the economy, and greater love and peace in our country. It has been quite a year!

A Thankful Thanksgiving

We are grateful for the rich blessings that we have felt during this month of gratitude, and throughout the year. We are thankful for the wonderful video message from our dear Prophet, Pres. Nelson on “Hope and Healing.” We loved seeing the many posts on social media of people expressing their blessings. Being grateful does help lift our spirits. We also appreciated the apostolic blessing that Pres. Nelson gave to all those affected by the fires this summer.

Crismon was able to serve in the temple earlier in the month. It was a sweet blessing for him to officiate a session for those receiving their endowment for the first time.

We decided to quarantine as a family for 12-14 days before Thanksgiving so we could gather safely together. We were sad to miss Crismon & Danielle and Julia & Austin who felt they shouldn’t travel to Oregon due to new restrictions and a spike in Covid cases in our area. The other families all participated in the quarantine, Seth & Tiffany’s family, Vivi and her children, and the Vances, and so we felt we could gather safely. Everything was so lovely, and the blessing of being together again was wonderful!  

We had a double celebration as Thanksgiving was our grandson Addison’s (son of Seth & Tiffany) 17th birthday.

We’re thankful for sweet grandchildren who helped decorate our home for Christmas. This was the first time we had decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving. 
We are grateful for opportunities to gather in person for Church meetings. Crismon has been working with the faith liaison for the Oregon Health Authority in the Governor’s office. He has joined with other ministers to help change the governor’s in-person limitation for faith meetings and services from 25 people to 25% capacity. So with our large meetinghouses we can now have up to 100 in attendance. We are so grateful that we can now meet with more members of our ward. We send our love to all of you at this glorious time of the year.

October Fun

The month began with the wonderful General Conference messages from our Prophet and leaders. Our country is at a time of great unrest. Listening to a prophet’s voice brings hope and renewed peace in our lives. His message of “Let God Prevail” is so needed.

Fun events with family included having Julia & Austin and 2-year old Dallin come for a long weekend visit. The grandchildren enjoyed picking out their favorite pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, and celebrating Daisy’s 12th birthday with a Harry Potter theme. We gathered at Ondalynn’s home for the BYU football game, along with Seth’s family. It’s been fun to see the Cougars doing well this year.

We had the unique opportunity of attending the temple for a living endowment for a young man leaving on a mission from our stake. This was a sweet experience that we cherished.

The Church Historian for the NW area contacted us asking if he could interview us, recording it to be sent to the Church archives. His assignment is to interview stake presidents and their wives and the Stake RS Pres asking us about our parents, our lives, spiritual experiences, etc. We had a preliminary interview and then he sent us the notes he took. From this, he interviewed us again and recorded it. We appreciated that he sent us a copy for our own records.

We are now meeting in-person for our Church meetings. If we receive an email inviting us to attend, as they are trying to keep within the state-mandated gathering limit of 50 people. It felt so good to be back in the chapel. For our first Stake Missionary Virtual Fireside, Crismon interviewed two of our recently returned missionaries from Romania and Germany regarding the new way of doing missionary work. It was fascinating to learn how much missionary work is changing compared to the days of knocking doors and conducting street meetings to find people to teach.

We ended the month visiting Seth & Tiffany’s family in Eugene, listening to two grandson’s violin performances, soccer games, and fun time with their family. They live on what is called, "Halloween Street." They usually have 400-500 trick-or-treaters. This year they only had about 50, and we had none. But where we live, high on a hill, we usually don't have any children come by.

Update on our children that our shared with our extended family:

Ondalynn is homeschooling her youngest two boys, 3rd and 4th grade, one in middle school, and two in HS are doing online learning. Gary is consulting for two companies and is building his own business, Vance Development, with plans to begin building an apartment complex next year.

Seth & Tiffany are co-teaching Seminary, virtually. They are enjoying having three of their boys in their class. Seth, now a full professor, oversees the undergraduate Communications program at UofO. Their son, Jackson, a high school senior, is also working part-time with 1-Password as a programmer.

Alice-Anne & Gary Johns are expecting a boy, their #5 the end of February. Gary continues as an engineer at Merit Medical.

Vivi is a Reading Specialist at Hollydale Elementary where her youngest, Kaeley is a 3rd grader. Her work is virtual, and requires her to be in the school several hours a day, as well as working from home.

Dallin continues as an assistant professor at Southern Virginia University, teaching English, writing, and American Civics. Janelle is a speech pathologist.

Meredith Williams is managing her four in school, Kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, & 6th grade at home, along with her active 3 year-old. Husband Bryan is finishing his 3rd year in a Neonatal Fellowship at Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland.

Crismon Jr. & Danielle are living with her parents in Las Vegas while he continues his PhD studies at Columbia University in New York. Danielle teaches several violin students online.

Julia & Austin Doutre live in Kenmore, WA with Austin presently working from home with Puget Sound Energy, as an energy management engineer. They have a 2-year old son, Dallin.

Emily & Bronson live in Madison, WI. They have an 8-month old daughter, Elise. Emily is a human resources marketing specialist at an outsourced HR firm, working ¾ time from home. Bronson works for Epic, a healthcare software company.

September School and Surprises

This has been a month of many challenges, and yet many tender mercies and prayers answered. Our most exciting news is the joy of anticipating another grandbaby, #28, the end of February. Alice-Anne is expecting #5. 

Oregon suffered the worst wildfires in the state's history. Due to dry conditions, high temperatures, and especially strong, swirling winds caused a high number of fires in just a few days.The town of Estacada in our stake, was in the path of a fire. The town had to evacuate. Crismon kept busy that week trying to coordinate the efforts of helping members of our stake who were out of their homes. The stake center became a gathering place for campers and tents for members and nonmembers. They were allowed to use the facilities. None chose to actually stay inside the building, but it helped rescue people in need. Others were placed in member's homes.

The city of Sandy and part of Damascus was on Level 2 which meant to be prepared to evacuate at a moments notice. Half of our stake was under evacuation orders. Gratefully, the winds turned when the fire was just one-half mile from Estacada. Our prayers were answered, and the fire went in another direction.

We were also dealing with very hazardous air quality. The smoke in the air was so bad they were saying the equipment they use to measure it didn't read that high. We were wearing masks in our house because it smelled and tasted like a campfire. We hoped, fasted, and prayed for rain. Finally, after nine days the rain came and rescued us. It was a very eerie time with the air being extremely still, and thick with an orange haze everywhere. We felt like prisoners in our own homes, and it felt so wonderful to be able to go outside and breathe again.

Ondalynn's family drove to Utah to escape the hazardous air since they had online school, and spent some time hiking in Arches National Park, visiting the Johns family, and having lots of fun seeing their Vance family, too.

Seth and Tiffany's family took off for Driggs, ID, to stay with her Matt and Lisa who were renting a huge place close to the Tetons. They had a fabulous time there. In Eugene, they suffered from the hazardous air about five days ahead of us. The fires were especially bad in Medford and around Eugene. Sadly, 150 homes of members were burned in southern Oregon.

School was delayed a week due to the smoke, but the children are finally back to school, but online only. They all miss friends, sports, and other activities, but Clark, Daisy, and Kaeley, who live in our home are adapting well and they each have their own device, provided by the school to do online learning. Our other grandchildren are doing online school. The Johns children have some classes at school. Jocelyn is in Kindergarten. One day her Mom found her watching her class, while she was in bed, with Ivan, (almost 3) snuggled up by her. What a different world we live in!

We had our Stake Conference on Sept. 26-27th. Our prayers were answered, and it went well. Crismon requested permission to hold a stake conference as all had been canceled for the fall, but he was given permission. We didn't have a visiting authority. It was also, our first "in-person" meetings in the chapel with 50 people, and the first virtual stake conference. There were many details to take care of to make that all happen, but other than the feed cutting out a little at the end of Crismon's talk on Saturday evening, it went well. Because it was virtual, our children were able to join, and it was wonderful for them to hear their Dad speak (which might be his last stake conference), as it will be nine years next February. I know I'm prejudiced, but Crismon gave a masterful talk on Sunday morning, covering so many important issues that we're facing, and counseled us to avoid contention, fear not, and draw strength and peace through Jesus Christ. 

Other highlights of the month included a fun evening with the Vance's on Labor Day to watch the BYU game. It's been great to see the Cougars doing well. Remembering Pres. Nelson's 96th birthday on the 9th, Bronson's birthday the 15th, Kaeley & Dallin's birthdays the 22nd, and what would have been my Dad's 99th birthday on the 25th, and Grandma Lewises 100th birthday on the 27th. 

Special September Stake Conference

I hope I'll never forget the wonderful feeling in my heart today. I just want to shout to the world, "Israel, Israel, God is Calling." We have just finished a tremendous Stake Conference. My heart is very full of this beautiful Sabbath day. I am SO very grateful I could attend the Adult Saturday evening meeting and the Sunday morning general session in person!!! It has been 6 months since I've been in the church building. The last time I attended church in person was March 1 of this year. Six months! I can't believe it's been this long! Who could have imagined that we would not be going back to church for so long?!?

Of course, things are far from normal. We wear masks the entire time in the building. We skip every other pew, we try to social distance 6 feet from one another, we sing with masks on, we are greeted after entering the building with a touchless hand sanitizer before entering the chapel, and we are to leave the building immediately afterward. Church is different, but what isn't different is the most important thing of all, the spirit of the Lord that brings us joy. I felt a rich outpouring of the spirit in all the meetings. I especially loved the organ prelude and the singing of the hymns. As Crismon mentioned in his talk, he wondered why we didn't cry aloud as the people in King Benjamin's day. The spirit prompted him that we do it through singing. 

I'm grateful I was able to join the Zoom broadcast of the Leadership meeting on Saturday evening. It was the first Leadership meeting I was able to attend since Crismon has been the stake president. Crismon gave an excellent talk in that meeting about going forward with faith in our lives and making the most of our time during this pandemic. Now isn't the time to wait out this difficult time, but now is the time to go forward with newness in our faith and trust in God.

There were many good messages in our Saturday evening meeting on staying emotionally and spiritually strong through this time. The little habits of scripture study, prayers, FHE, using Come, Follow Me, and reaching out in service will get us through the trials of this time in our lives.

I wanted to record a message that Alice-Anne posted on our family Groupme Chat referring to our Sunday morning meeting: I thought her message was meaningful because this stake conference comes on the heels of the terrible wildfires that were raging in Oregon. Half of our stake was affected by the evacuation orders.

Dad that was a wonderful message and you brought the Spirit so powerfully. We were all able to watch it. Thanks for letting us listen in. I think you are a very inspired leader to push/request for a stake conference this fall that just "happened" to land right after those terrible fires. I am sure the members of your stake needed that message of the signs of the second coming and why we don't need to fear. I can imagine that brought a lot of peace to your members at a turbulent time.

We feel so blessed in our stake that no lives or property were lost to the fires. This conference reminded us of those things that are most important in our lives. Gathering together as members is one of those important things. I hope that it can continue!!!

Immediately, after returning home, Crismon got on the Scripture study Zoom meeting he has every other week with the teenage grandchildren. They are so good to join in and participate, and they seem to have a great time chatting with each other. He has had a great experience having this time with them. They are amazing youth, with great insights.

A few of the notes from this morning's session:

Mariah Nutall: Build on the Rock of Jesus Christ. When you can't change your circumstances, change yourself. Do not fear.

Ammon Brown: Recently returned from the Germany, Alpine Mission. His first 18 months were normal, and then COVID hit. His mission president encouraged them to be like a palm tree. Sway with the wind, but stay grounded. Fear it Satan's greatest tool. There is power in keeping covenants and doing those spiritual habits of scripture study, prayers, and keeping the commandments. (HC report, answer to his prayers came more often, as he began praying for someone else.)

Wendy Vermullen: Recent convert of 6 months. "How does the Gospel give me strength?" She shared that they had asked her ahead what songs she wanted at her baptism. She had heard the song, "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," and wanted that song. She didn't know it was a Primary song. It was very special that the musical number in the beginning of that stake conference meeting was "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," sung by LeAnn Miller, her daughter Brandi Pappenfus, and Brandi's two daughters. That wasn't a coincidence, but a witness that God is in the details of our lives. When she heard that song for the first time it represented what she was trying to do, to be Christlike. Before being taught the gospel, she had never heard the word "Christlike" before. She has learned "tools" to live by to help her be like Christ. She shared an experience of visiting a friend who was mourning the loss of a loved one, and other examples of reaching out with kindness.

Sister Angie Haymond: I'll never take gathering with members at church for granted again. Half of the missionaries have been reassigned that are in this mission. All these missionaries chose to stay out and serve. Invite them to your homes. They need to serve.

Pres. Steve Haymond (Mission Pres.): He shared an incredible story of how one of the missionaries in Estacada felt strongly that they should go down a dark lane, although it was late and they needed to get back in the apt. They pulled off the road to pray, and all three Elders felt that strong impression. They discovered a woman sitting on her porch step. When they offered to help her

My heart is full. I love this glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It's true! We have a prophet to guide us! We are living in the latter-day days.