Happy Sunday

Dear Jessie and Mark,

I'm going to change how I send my daily message.  Instead of writing in my journal, then copying and pasting it into an email, I'll send you an email, then copy that into my journal.  That way I am less likely to send something to you that I meant to edit out.  (Shocking disclosure - there is more to my journal than you get!)

Today was really nice.  I was up until 1:00 am this morning taking care of Nathaniel.  I decided to sleep in and not attend the Fourth Ward Council meeting.  That was a good decision.  

We attended church at noon and it was so nice.  I really enjoy gathering with other Church members.  A newly married couple that recently moved into our ward, the Zoebell's, spoke in Church.  Madelyn shared an idea in a way I had never thought of before.  We are a Church of getherers.  We gather together to partake of the sacrament and worship God.  We strengthen each other as we gather.  And we engage in missionary work to gather scattered Israel on this side of the veil, and we do temple work to gather scattered Israel on the other side.  Gathering and togetherness is an integral part of God's plan for his children.

I met with Pres. Florence this afternoon.  I am so impressed by the work our Stake Presidency does and the time they devote.  They are amazing men.  I want to fulfill my calling in a way that takes some of the load off them.

We had a virtual Self-Reliance committee meeting this afternoon to discuss the upcoming Self-Reliance classes we are going to start in September.  I think things are progressing, and we feel good about our plans.  The meeting took 13 minutes.  No one complained about that!

Mom planned some fun activities for the family this afternoon.  We played something similar to Hit or Miss, where each person tried to think of a gospel person or event related to a specific word.  The goal was to think of one person or event that many people would think of, and one that no one else would list.  Then we talked about the things we discussed.  The funniest part was when the word was "short."  We all thought of Zaccheus.

Dinner was ... you guessed it, amazing.  Last week Emma ate too much and had to lie down.  Tonight it was mom that overdid it.  I offered to smoke salmon next week so she wouldn't overeat! :)

We are finishing our bedtime story called The Wild Robot.  The book is quite enjoyable.  It is due back at the library tomorrow, but we still have almost 50 pages to go.  We are just getting to the climax, so tomorrow we are going to have a reading marathon.

Mark, will you please check your garment tops?  I have two shirts that I am sure are yours, but Mom said you counted and have as many as you are supposed to have.  If you need these, I'll mail them to you.  Otherwise I'll put them away until you get home.

Jessie, your new bluetooth keyboard should arrive at the mission office tomorrow.  Amazon sent me confirmation that it had been "dispatched."  I guess that is the Canadian version of "shipped."  I didn't know I could speak Canadian! :)

Love you both, and hope you have a wonderful day.

Dad

A success story from yesterday.  I gathered all the tools needed to remove the stuck tub drain stopper, hoping it would take only 20 minutes to complete:

And fifteen minutes later, the project was done!  No additional trips to the hardware store needed!  Miracles never cease!  This is the old drain successfully removed, with the magic tool on the left.