How does your garden grow?

Dear Sister Payne,

Happy p-day!  By the time you read this, I suspect it will be p-day.  I hope it is a good one.  The weather here is beautiful and getting warmer.  Maybe it will be just right for you to get out and enjoy some Canadian sunshine.  We are looking forward to having the missionaries over for dinner tomorrow.  If possible, it might be helpful to move our chat a little earlier in the day.  The missionaries eat dinner at 5:00 pm, and we'll be making curry.  If not, we'll put you on the laptop and chat while we saute veggies.

I love you a ton! 

Love,

Dad

Good day today.  I worked hard at work and got lots done.  Learned more about our computer security and sent a request for a security analysis.  Re-created an Excel macro that we use every day but that needed to be updated for a change in one of our systems.  Downloaded a list of email addresses for our members that are no longer working to try to get better addresses.  Learned about an update to a fraud fighting tool on our debit and credit cards.  Wow, that all sounds pretty boring.

Today Julie, Mark and others transplanted the pumpkin, zucchini, and sweet potatoes that have been growing in containers on the front porch, moving them to the garden.  I hooked up the sprinklers for them after dinner and also fertilized the raspberries because they look a little anemic.  The tomatoes look amazing and the strawberries are dark green and growing berries.  I need to spray the peppers for bugs.

Thankful: I’m thankful for the scriptures.  Tonight I read Alma 18 to the little kids while they laid in bed, and it was great.  I’ve read the story dozens of times, but I never tire of it.  Tonight I had a little better understanding of what it means that Lamoni was “caught with guile.”  Ammon didn’t trick Lamoni into believing the gospel.  Instead, Ammon used unconventional means to gain Lamoni’s trust.  Instead of marching in with an army or trying to impress Lamoni with his pedigree or knowledge, he simply showed up and genuinely served him.  He did this because he truly loved the Lamanites as God’s children.  That was what motivated his actions, leading the servants and Lamoni to trust Ammon.  That indirect course to trust was the “guile” with which Ammon persuaded Lamoni to listen and believe.

Ministering: I talked with Mike this morning on my way to work.  His dad’s health is failing and he didn’t get to visit him in person on Father’s Day out of fear of the coronavirus.  He’s still living in a hotel while his condo is repaired.  It sounds like that process is moving very slowly.  How frustrating.  I hope I can listen and be supportive.

More later…

Zucchini, Strawberry, and Pumpkin

I was attacked for Father's Day, and it was wonderful!