Early December Happenings

December was filled with many memorable events. One choice experience happened earlier in the month while serving in the temple we had 250 missionaries from the Vancouver Mission attend the temple that day. It was a joy to serve these beautiful, valiant servants of the Lord.

December 5th our sweet missionary, Emily turned 21. I thought of her that day as I tended Ondalynn's children while she recovered from the flu. It was fun to see pictures on Facebook of a good family, the Gil's, in Neuquen who put on a birthday party for her with all the trimmings.

One of the joys of having children and grandchildren close by is the chance to see them more often, even at unexpected times. I rarely go to the mall, but I was there to drop off my shoes at the shoe repair to get a lift put on it. To my surprise as I walked out, I saw Vivi and her children at the play center. How fun is that! I stayed to enjoy them and then I took them to Costco with me.

Then, to be able to attend their special programs, is another treat. We fought the rush hour traffic between Portland and Vancouver, and although a little late, we still got to hear Sydney perform in her school orchestra. We were sorry to miss her duet. Isaac and Bryson had fun "seeing" Santa on the way out. Sydney and Julia have just started piano lessons in September but they are both progressing very quickly. We're glad we could hear them perform at their recital, too.

We had a conference call that evening with Ondalynn, Vivi, Meredith and Julia to prepare for the coming holidays. What a great world we live in where we can connect so easily from Oregon to Idaho and AZ, and anywhere else in this great, big, world.

Other events that kept me busy was having breakfast for 6 Elders (Zone Leaders), the High Councilman over Mission Work and Crismon for a meeting and breakfast held at 7 a.m. each first Saturday of the month to discuss how our stake can better support the missionaries. The following Saturday we had Crismon's counselor's in the stake presidency come for breakfast and a planning session for the coming year.

Other special events were attending several baptisms in our ward, the ward Christmas party, and community Christmas parities. Busy, busy time!

We invited our neighbors, Judy & Dave Pomeroy to attend the Ensign Choir and Orchestra concert that Saturday afternoon. We had an enjoyable time getting better acquainted and it strengthened our friendship. The following Monday we had an Open House in our home for all our neighbors. Judy called me that day to see if she could help me get ready. I had her bake some cookies for me. Little by little, feelings are softening toward us, their Mormon neighbors who they didn't really understand what we believed.

We had eight of our neighbors come to our Christmas Open House. Each one brought a treat to share. We enjoyed the time to get better acquainted with some that were recent move-ins. 

We had the privilege of picking up Steve Hastings at the airport and taking him to lunch before a Reliv gathering early in December. We have thoroughly enjoyed the associations we have had with the top Reliv executives. They are good family men with high values and ethics. 

By using a lot of make-up, I was sort of able to cover up two black eyes from an accident while working in the garage a few days before.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time for family, big or small. This year it was small, but still so wonderful. We were grateful that Crismon & Danielle could come and be with us for the holiday weekend. We have enjoyed our time together. They arrived late Wednesday afternoon and our trip to and from the airport to pick them up reflected the traffic jam of the busy Thanksgiving season with everyone hurrying to be with family far and near.

Danielle jumped in and helped me finish some apple pies. Vivi had come earlier that day to help me with preparations and we had so much fun visiting as we worked together. Thank you so much, Vivi. You saved me!

We also invited Elder & Sister Kimble from West Virginia who are serving as full-time missionaries in our stake to join us. They were thrilled to be invited. Sadly, they are rarely invited to dinner and so it was a special treat for them. They are wonderful, faithful people. They knew Annie (Grow) Linton's family as they are in the same stake and she knew Annie  from Girl's Camp. We had a delightful time getting better acquainted with them.

After dinner we had Danielle perform some of her violin pieces that she is working on for upcoming competitions, along with some hymns and other favorites. What a treat to enjoy that "concert" in our home! She is exceptional. Danielle also played a beautiful arrangement of "Away in a Manager" for the last 5 minutes of our prelude music before our Sacrament Meeting today, (accompanied by Alice Lyle). I wish I could express the outpouring of the spirit that filled our chapel as she began to play. A perfect beginning to the Christmas season. Danielle's abilities coupled with her purity of spirit is a gift she gives through her music. We have loved having them with us this weekend.

Viv & Brett's family joined us for pie and games that evening. The holidays wouldn't have been the same without grandchildren. Clark & Daisy loved playing the game "Life" with grandpa.

Friday morning I braved one store with all the crowds for Black Friday shopping. Danielle and Crismon had good success at another store. We enjoyed attending the temple together that afternoon. The Caudle's had Crismon & Danielle to dinner that evening and Dad and I attended the GHS production of "Hello Dolly." We had three young people from our stake involved. The costuming and staging were incredible, excellent dancing and performing made it so fun.

Saturday Dad watched BYU beat Nevada, 28-23 at Jim & Denny Bowles home, Crismon & Danielle worked on homework and that evening we were able to get the living room decorated. I was worried how we'd do it without Emily, but fortunately she organized all of it so well when she packed it up last Christmas that it went smoothly, thanks to help from Danielle.

We had a fun "Google Hangout" with most of our family this afternoon and then the Caudle's joined us for dinner and FHE where we shared our testimonies. We love being with family.

Our thoughts are especially with Emily this week as she turns 21 on Thursday. Happy Birthday Emily! We love our faithful, sweet missionary daughter! 

November highlights

I loved the Thanksgiving hymns that we have been singing in our meetings this month, but it’s still hard to believe it will be Thanksgiving this week. Where has this year gone? We look forward to having Crismon and Danielle here with us. Our table will be small in numbers this year as the Vance’s are now in Orem with Gary’s family for the week and the Caudle’s will be with Brett’s family for Thanksgiving. We will have a missionary couple serving in our stake join us. We are thankful for the bounteous blessings that our Heavenly Father has showered upon us and on our family. We delight in His glorious gospel plan of happiness, and we’re so thankful for the power of the Atonement in our lives that He sacrificed for each one of us individually that we might enjoy the blessings of eternal life. We’re grateful for a faithful, enthusiastic missionary who is serving well in the Argentina Neuquen Mission.

We have been edified by the wonderful talks and the spirit that attended our meetings today. I’m grateful for Heavenly Father’s help in giving my RS lesson today, taken from Sis. Bonnie Oscarson’s General Conf. talk entitled “Be Ye Converted.” A few quotes from the lesson:

True conversion is more than merely having a knowledge of gospel principles and implies even more than just having a testimony of those principles. It is possible to have a testimony of the gospel without living it. Being truly converted means we are acting upon what we believe and allowing it to create “a mighty change in us, or in our hearts.”3

I asked the class what were the three things that Sis. Oscarson said were needed to become converted after we read this quote: You become converted as a result of … righteous efforts to follow the Savior.”4 It takes time, effort, and work.

Our RS Pres, Sis. Southworth, who is also a Seminary teacher said, “I think a lot in acronyms. She turned it around to : Work, Effort, Time. She said that she remembers it by “WET.” Get converted by getting your feet wet and then keep on swimming. I thought that was a great way to put it.

Immediately following our block meetings, I met Crismon and we drove together to the Portland Stake Center for a change made with the YSA wards in our area. Because of the dramatic increase in missionaries over the past year from 58,000 to 82,000+ and up to 90,000 missionaries by the end of the year, 58 new missions were created. In our area, the Vancouver Mission was organized and some of the wards in Gresham and Portland are in the new Vancouver Mission. This required a major change in the boundaries of the YSA wards as our Mt. Hood YSA ward was now in a different mission than our stake. Elder Risenmay, our Area Seventy presided. A new YSA ward was created, the Springwater YSA Ward, belonging to the Portland Stake was formed with Greg Brown, as the former Bishop of the Mt. Hood Ward was called as Bishop, with DeWin Harris as his 1st counselor and James Robinson, 2nd counselor. Some of the YSA’s from the Aldercreek Ward are now in the Springwater Ward and some of our YSA’s are in either the Aldercreek or Springwater Ward. It’s a bit confusing, but it comes down to the fact that we now only have 6 units in our stake and many of our YSA’s in our stake will be driving to Milwaukee for their meetings and activities. Change is always good, and we know that lives will be blessed as they attend the ward they are to assigned. Kirk Arnell was called as the 2nd counselor in the Aldercreek Ward, with Bro. Bevers as the Bishop. Elder Risenmay’s talk was very powerful and inspiring.

Some of the highlights of the past month have been tending the Caudle children overnight while Vivi & Brett enjoyed some time together. Sat. morning we took them to Vancouver to see Bryson’s flag football game.

We had a birthday celebration for Vivi, Ondalynn and Isaac here in our home.

We called Ruby and Norah on their 3rd birthday and we wished Happy Birthday to Addison who turns 10 this Tues thanks to FaceTime. It was fun hearing and seeing Preston play the violin and Addison and Jackson perform their piano recital pieces, along with seeing the updating of their 3 bathrooms.

Last weekend we tended the Vance children from Friday afternoon until early Saturday evening while Ondalynn & Gary went on a get-away overnight. We were glad to give them a break. The children were all so good. Sydney, Julia & Bryson were hard workers helping Grandpa to clean our building on Saturday morning. Then they were patient at our home while Grandpa met with a new distributor. I took the younger boys for a walk in their neighborhood in the morning, but it was cold and raining.  

Last Friday night we tended the Caudle children so Vivi & Brett could go to dinner to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary.

The Portland Stake was celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year. They have had four major events during this year of celebration. We were invited on Nov. 9th to a special dinner honoring all the Stake Presidents and their wives who have been split off from the original Portland Stake. From there we all traveled to the Colonial Heights Chapel (30th & Harrison-Larry also served as Bishop in this building) for a special program. The stories of the growth of the church in this area was fascinating. They presented each Stake Pres. a large, framed pencil drawing of their particular Stake Center, done by a member who is a professional artist. They were incredible! What a special evening, and we felt privileged to be there.

Other highlights with our family. Dallin had a paper that he had written published in the Scholarly Journal. He was recognized by the entire department for this outstanding accomplishment. Congratulations, Dallin!

Julia has joined Austin as temple workers on the early morning Sat. shift. They both love working in the temple and doing it together. Julia's trainer said to her the other day, after she had passed off all of the assignments, "Your mother would be so proud of you." I am!

Seth took Jackson on a trip last weekend to AZ to see Meredith’s family, the Grand Canyon and to visit Grandma Lewis and the Peases.’ Thank you all for hosting them. They had a terrific time. Grandma was strong through the entire visit.

Earlier in the month there was a training for the new Powell Valley Bishopric. The stake presidency wives have their own breakout session where we do a training with them. It’s always a special treat to get better acquainted with these good sisters and their husbands.

Back to the end of Oct. on the 28th, Crismon set apart Martha & Chuck Allen for their mission to Oslo, Norway. We will miss them!

The second weekend in November, we had a special Reliv event here in Portland where Ryan Schmidt, Pres. of Soy Labs in California and the Chairman of the Missouri Plant Science Center that has partnered with Reliv (in bringing about highly enriched soy with increased amounts of lunsin, the naturally occurring soy peptide responsible for the health benefits of soy,) was our special guest. It was a fascinating weekend. Along with the excellent training, and learning about some of the incredible studies done on the benefits of the LunaRich X capsules (it was voted best new consumer product of the year), we were surprised to receive two big bonuses from Reliv. There was a special promotion going on during August, September and October. We ended up being 1st in the nation for sales in August, 2nd in the nation for October and we took the overall 3-month bonus for being 1st in the nation for those three months combined. We were gone to General Conf. the first part of Oct., and then to St. Louis two weeks later so our time at home was shortened, but Heavenly Father blessed us greatly to earn those generous bonuses that helps us so much as we build our business.

We have enjoyed several days of sunshine, but bitter cold weather, especially with strong winds that bring the chill factor down. Despite the cold, we have savored the beautiful, bright glow of the sun, that is often hidden during the short, dark, winter days. This meant that Saturday Crismon was able to get a fair amount of yard work done in preparation for colder days ahead. We were thankful for a Sat. at home that we could push forward with household projects. Then a dinner with Reliv friends at Jim & Quila Buhler’s home in Oregon City.

We love being with our family, talking to them on the phone, communicating through emails, blogs and FaceTime and having opportunities to serve in the church and the blessing of a business to work from home. Life is wonderful.

St. Louis Leadership Trip

We returned late Saturday night from a quick, but rewarding trip to St. Louis sponsored by Reliv. We had earned a Leadership Retreat for new Senior Directors. Earlier in the week we learned that others that were coming had to cancel out for various reasons. We tried to get them to postpone us to another time, but they wanted to bring us out and spend some time helping us in our business and letting us get to know the corporate team on a personal level. We felt honored by this privilege.

Steve Hastings, Vice-Pres. of Nationals Sales, greeted us at the airport. We have had the opportunity to personally visit with most of the Corporate Team in the past on some of the trips with them or other special events, so it was nice to renew those friendships with them. The World Series fever was everywhere, too, so that added to the fun. The only disappointment was my luggage didn't arrive for a day, but I managed.

 

Reliv gave us a warm welcome wherever we went. 

We started out with a personal tour of the factory. Although we had seen it before, this was the first time to see it in operation, and we were shown many interesting details of the production.

The spotless environment, and the description of the many methods they go through in the testing of the product all along the way to ensure the highest quality, and the strictest of standards were very impressive.

We took a quick stop in the lab, and then had the choice experience of meeting one-on-one with Dr. Carl Hastings, our lead scientist. We feel privileged to have him as our Chief Scientific Officer. He was recognized as being in the top 10 Scientific Officers in the country out of 5000 companies. We could ask him all the questions we wanted. We met with the Marketing Team. They wanted us to share what we were doing and how they could help us. Crismon was able to give them a lot of good input with his background in marketing.

Meeting with Dr. Carl Hastings was a highlight.

It was fun to visit the “Kalogris Room” where there was a picture of us on the wall when we were greeting the children in Malaysia.

We were treated to a delicious lunch at the famous “Smoke House” in Chesterfield, not far from Reliv. It was one of the best restaurants we have been to. Ryan Montgomery, the Pres. of the company was our host. He then drove us around the area a little and took us up to where his parents, Bob & Sandy Montgomery, (CEO) live. It was a beautiful area on the bluff of the hill overlooking the valley below which was flooded in 1993 when the levy broke. Reliv was also flooded, but fortunately, they were able to get their inventory out, and saved the computers, and files, etc., but lost a great amount of equipment. Returning back to Reliv headquarters we got to visit with Bob Montgomery in his office for a few minutes.

They gave us $50 to go to dinner that evening on our own and have an evening to ourselves. Since we had had a big lunch, we wanted to use that money toward a taxi to the St. Louis Temple. 

We had a sweet experience in the temple of meeting the Bishop and his wife of the O’Fallon ward. They gave us a ride back to our hotel. They asked us if we were moving to St. Louis as they had received a call from a couple that had just bought a home in their ward and they wondered if by chance it was us. Interestingly, as we were standing in line at the airport about to board we got talking to the couple behind us. Amazingly, they were from Vancouver and they had been the couple that just bought the home in that ward. We ended up seating close to each other and continued to visit. Turns out two of their sons had health issues that haven’t been resolved and they were very interested in hearing about Reliv. The conversation continued as we waited for our next flight. So many little things happened to bring us together, and to share hope with them.

Saturday morning we had training with Don Gibbons on the Corporate Team, lunch with Steve Hastings, and then on to the airport to head home. It was a fast, but beneficial trip. Now we need to get back to work.

 Although a very late night Saturday, I was grateful I was able to drive to Vancouver to hear the Vance children sing and give their parts in the Primary Program. I was so happy I could be there to see all of these beautiful children bringing the spirit in rich abundance to the meeting. Sydney sang a solo for the first verse of a special arrangement of “I Am A Child of God.” Bryson had invited his kindergarten teacher and she came. She had received one other invitation and she had four of her students performing.

I hurried back to our meetings to teach the RS lesson. Then Sunday evening, Crismon and I spoke at the Stake Women’s Fireside. I’m grateful for Heavenly Father’s blessing to help me through a busy, demanding week.