Lobby closed :-(

Dear Sister Payne,

Happy Monday!  I hope you got to do something for FHE tonight that was enjoyable.  I am sitting on guard outside the bedrooms.  I can hear Nathaniel downstairs talking, grunting, squealing, and interacting with his siblings.  It's wonderful.

You're the best!  I pray for you daily and am grateful for God's blessings upon you.

Love,

Dad

Busy day.  Fast day.  How can time go so quickly?

Work was interesting.  Dalley let us know that several members of her husband's family have tested positive for COVID, and they spend a lot of time with them.  So, she is now in quarantine too.  On Saturday it was announced that over 600 people tested positive for COVID in Utah on that day alone.  As many people predicted, there is a spike in new infections being reported as the economy is trying to open back up.  With two tellers already exposed, I decided today to close the lobby again, and this time we are doing a better job wearing masks in the office when we work with each other.  We can serve our members quite well at the drive-thru and via electronic means, but not if all the staff is sick too.  This is just the best move for now.  But that's a bummer because Friday felt so alive again, with lots of activity in the lobby and people in my employees' offices.  It will come back.

Tonight we had a BBQ with the Albertson's and FHE.  Julie made burgers and I smoked them.  She did an incredible job; they were very tasty.  I even bought avocados and tomatoes at the store to make the burgers even better.  Note to self: store bought tomatoes, even if they are the right color, are never as good as ones from the garden.  The ones I bought looked great, but were still disappointing.  But in just a few more weeks, we'll be harvesting our own red beauties!

For the FHE lesson, I compared Ammon's experience gathering the sheep with kind things that we can do to gather people to Jesus.  We used cotton balls to represent the sheep, and blew them around with straws before gathering them again.  Everyone committed to do something specific to help others this week, then share their experience with the family.  The cotton ball is to remind them of what to do.  I committed to thank each of my employees individually for something specific that they do.  My cotton ball is going to work with me tomorrow to serve as a visual reminder.

Thankful: I am thankful we are all healthy, and I really hope we stay that way.  I am also thankful (again) to be able to provide good food for my family.

Ministering: Can I count preparing an interactive FHE lesson as ministering for my kids?  I hope they know how much I love them and that I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

More later…

A photo from my Uncle Douglas yesterday in honor of Father's Day.  What a great photo of a great man!