My emails revolve around food... :)

Dear Family,

You are all wonderful and I love each of you.

Love,

Dad

Sunday, November 1, 2020
9:52 pm

Great couple of days, amazing how fast time goes.

Yesterday was chore day.  Worked in the house with the kids, got inside chores done.  Pulled out the garden.  Must have been over 200 pounds of tomato vines etc.  Used Dad's truck to haul to the compost site.  Ministered there to an old guy folding up his tarp and a young couple struggling to unload a large load wrapped in a tarp.  Two extra hands made all the difference for them.

Julie carved pumpkins with the kids while I was outside working.  Bless her for the great work she does with our kids.  Then I took Neil, Isaac, Emma and Camilla trick or treating through our neighborhood.  We got started around 5:45 and hit every house with a porch light on.  It took about 90 minutes, and the kids candy buckets were overflowing.  Camilla literally had stuff spilling out.  And we went until the kids were asking if we could please be done.  I love it when I am not the stick-in-the-mud saying we need to go home.

Dinner was late last night.  Enjoyed burgers to begin our fast.  Mine had a fried egg, tomato, pineapple and cheese.  Too bad we didn't have bacon or avocado.  But it was already hugely messy; that might have been too much.

Today was full but nice.  Started w/ Bishopric meeting.  I love the men I am working with and pray for them and their families.  Then Ward Council.  They are good people who want to do good and I am looking forward to making a difference together.  Conducted my first tithing settlement interviews today.  Early on is great – I get all the active members who want to visit with the Bishop.  I hope it continues that way.

I was home by 3:00 pm, which is my goal "home time" on Sunday.  That is also when Sunday School started, so I joined that for the next 30 minutes.  Then we did a few Sunday activities.  Camilla tried to orchestrate charades, and I think we made it good.  Then we talked about the role of sorrow (Mormon 2) and how we can use it to become better.  Dinner was excellent, then we sang a hymn and read scriptures.

After dinner I helped give Nancy Nusink a blessing.  She has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and starts chemo tomorrow.  I will pray for her.  The most likely "best case" scenario is that she will have 12-18 months with the chemo.  Without it the doctors think she only has 3 months.  She has lived a faithful life.

Thankful and Ministering: See above.

More later…

The Payne house decked out for Halloweeen.

This is what happens when you ask Neil to go to the other room and grab all the copies of the BoM he can find.  Literalist!

Look at these sweet potatoes that we harvested yesterday from our garden!  I love making Sunday dinner with Abbie each week.  (Sorry Mark, we speak English now.)

Last night's burger before it became a total mess.