August 30, 2015
Re: Letter 39 of 3
Dear Riley:
Well, I’m typing this letter on a new computer. After replacing the battery, power cord, and motherboard on my other computer to no avail, I finally accepted the reality that I needed to go shopping. This one is considerably more capable than my last and boots up in about 15 seconds. I’m still limping along until I get office permanently installed and my former hard drive cloned. It’s kind of funny how dependent we become on these devices and how much we take for granted when things are operating as intended. At any rate, a big stress has been at least partially lifted.
Yesterday was a full day, but I feel I didn’t get nearly as much done as I planned. We didn’t anticipate grandma and grandpa P coming home from California today, so went over to pick their garden. Wow! What a garden! It took three adults and two children a little over an hour to pick most of the produce. We didn’t do an entirely complete job on the small cherry tomatoes because there must have been several thousand. Anyway, we’re eating a lot of garden produce from both our garden and Grandpa’s. It’s nice, but I’m certain I never want to care for a garden that size on an extended basis.
The tandem bike is a hit and we’ve put a lot of miles on it already. Friday evening your mother and I took it up the canyon to Vivian Park (again). We got sort of a late start so were running out of daylight on the way down. This made things a little more exciting than I was entirely comfortable with but we did OK. (A headlight is another item we’ve now added to our accessories list.) A bicycle has got to be one of the most accessorized things people own and we’re having fun customizing this tandem to our liking. Yesterday I took Elise and Aleah out for rides and we had a great time. Aleah initially told me she didn’t feel comfortable going fast, but I told her she’d gotten on the bike with the wrong person to go slow. She quickly lost her reservations and settled in for the ride. She could hardly stop talking about how much fun it was and was sorry to come home at the end. Anyway, good times and I didn’t feel the time was poorly spent.
Church was good today and I came home tired, but spiritually renewed. We had SD speak on the importance of choices and he did a good job. A new young family (H) also spoke on conversion, the power of the Word, and evidence of things not seen which are true. I was moved by their experiences and the wonderful Spirit they brought to the meeting. It’s just true and beautiful and the Spirit and the fruits of the gospel bear witness of it. There were some people in the congregation with faith struggles and I prayed their hearts would be touched. It was wise council shared in a very personal and tender way which, if followed, would certainly shore up a crumbling foundation of testimony.
Being the 5th Sunday we had a combined meeting for the final hour. We adapted the training we’d received as a bishopric on giving the Sabbath back to the Savior. I think it went well and we had some wonderful participation from the members. At any rate, I consider it no small thing that the brethren have determined that the best thing we can do to bolster our faith, increase our spiritual sensitivity, weather all the winds of doctrine which blow, and resist the fiery darts of the adversary is to fully give the Sabbath to the Savior and do His pleasure instead of ours. This would naturally include a deepening of our understanding of the Atonement and being sanctified through the Sacrament. If the members could really do this, I’m confident we would see miraculous results in the lives of families and individuals.
We had M and L over for fondue dinner this evening. (Homemade sourdough of course.) Sorry! I don’t want to make you homesick, but it was awesome. I was able to give them priesthood blessings for the new school year following dinner and it brought a sweet spirit into the home. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of E’s death. It’s been a hard year of adjustments for them. They’re just blessed to have each other through the hard times. They’re really both extraordinarily good people and I couldn’t help but feel at least a portion of just how very much they are loved by God.
Well, as always I look forward to your letters and pictures. I’m confident you have an important part to play in your new area and believe you’re already being inspired on how to move the work forward. I liked your story about the less active member you felt inspired to ask about his baptism and conversion. I’ve witnessed President B as he questioned two other less active families in the same manner with much the same result. As they remembered, the Spirit rushed in and their hearts were touched as they in effect bore testimony of the gospel truths they had forsaken to some extent. All present were uplifted and edified. We love you and pray for your safety and success numerous times daily. Stay the course and keep the faith!
Love,
Dad
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