From Dad October 25, 2015

October 25, 2015

Re: Letter 47 of 3

Dear Riley:

November is almost here! It’s hard to believe. We’ve enjoyed beautiful weather in the mid to upper 60’s with evenings down in the 40’s to 50’S. We sleep with the window open and rarely need either the heater or the AC. The fall colors are now subdued on the mountains and occasionally there is the slightest dusting of snow on Timpanogos. What a beautiful time of year! The garden is still producing on some level and we’re getting some wonderful chard, beets and carrots out of the planter boxes.

Since the cold weather is expected to hit us the first of this week, your mother wants to get in as much biking as possible before conditions dictate putting the bike away for the winter. We took advantage of the good weather yesterday to go out to Highland and back. We visited with T and J for nearly an hour and were welcomed into their home with ice cold lemonade in enormous chilled mugs when we arrived. The total trip was nearly 32 miles and we averaged 18.23 miles per hour for the trip. What was sort of funny was that we passed a number of serious bikers with road bikes and all the appropriate attire. We’re discovering that serious bikers are competitive by nature. And one couple seemed to take particular issue with the fact they were passed by a tandem with both riders looking like they were simply out for a joy ride, which we were. A few miles down the trail, they passed us again and worked to put some distance between them and us. It was sort of funny to see the man looking back over his shoulder from time to time only to find that we were a little closer each time. At length, they succumbed to the sheer awesomeness of tandem power as we passed them once again. I was wondering what, if any, communication would be appropriate in passing since they seemed somewhat stung by the reality of what they were up against. Your mother just gave them a big smile and wished them a pleasant ride. I had two more gears to use and wasn’t yet winded, so we just pulled steadily past them and that was that. Your mother visit teaches Sister Y, who is a serious biker, and mentioned our experience with competitive bikers. She was informed that it’s extremely demoralizing in the biking world to be passed by a tandem, but two strong sets of legs and a pair of well conditioned riders on a tandem bike is a serious force to be reckoned with. We’re toying with the idea of a competitive race just to see how we measure up, but regardless of racing competitively we just love it and it makes a great bonding pastime in an already wonderful marriage.

I can’t remember if Josie’s favorite hymn was Choose the Right before you left, but we sing this more than any other song for FHE. Even when Josie isn’t song, she encourages the person in charge of music to pick this one. Well, we sang as a family in sacrament today, and guess what hymn we sang? I think it went pretty well. Elise accompanied on the piano and did a great job. Josie sang with gusto and warmed hearts with her smiles and contagious enthusiasm. We got a lot of positive feedback, but make no mistake…Josie stole the show. So adorable!

I’ve been thinking about your challenge of building the work in your area and had some impressions which might help. Perhaps by now you’ve come to the same conclusion; the strength of any ward lies in the members, but strong priesthood in the home in particular. If I were faced with a declining membership on account of inactivity, I would ensure that every priesthood holder received a personal visit from preferably either a bishopric member, or one of the priesthood auxiliary leaders within a short period of time. These visits should be coupled with genuine expressions of love, an invitation to each priesthood holder to share his conversion story, an expression of how much they’re needed, and an invitation to come back. I just can’t help but feel this approach would generate results far exceeding expectations.

Well, I have this feeling I need to visit some people, so I’ll take my leave. We are so pleased with your progress and the opportunities that leadership will provide. We pray for you daily and look forward to your letters and pictures with great anticipation. I did take your request of hearing more about my own mission to heart and will be going through my journal to find experiences which might prove useful to you.

All my love,
Dad