March Is Half Over - A Unique Season 2009

A recent email was in cartoon form showing people dragging their personal crosses through life. One man prayed several times for the Lord to reduce the size of his cross. Each time he took out a saw and cut a piece off the tail end the thanked the Lord for making his way easier. There came a ravine and the others with their full-size crosses were able to use them to bridge the gap. The man with the shortened cross could not make it. An explanation accompanies the cartoon. It is, “We complain about the cross we bear but don't realize it is preparing us for the dip in the road that God can see and we cannot.” It sort of boils down to trusting the Lord all along the way.
It has been a unique week. Saturday was our ward activity, the Un-Olympics. It was fun but also a relief to have it over.

Gold Medal – Daddy B.J.

Silver Medal – David Gent
Bronze Medal – Graham Hall Bishop B.J. racing Bro. Hall Adryann and Brynneé

Sunday I arrived at church at 7:00 AM to join the ward council meeting. It seemed to be starting to snow. Several minutes later Brother Stan Palmer arrived with large snowflakes on head and shoulders. By the time that meeting finished there was about an inch of snow but the Bishop decided to proceed with sacrament meeting. We had four of Justin Stailey’s out-of-town family members sleeping at out house. They and many others came to Bremerton for the blessing of Justin’s son that morning. The first announcement cancelled the other meetings. I was certainly grateful the snow tires were still on my car as I drove four of the visitors to their family celebration in about three inches of snow. I used my extra time at home that day to work on the new ward phone list. The snow was gone by morning
Monday evening the four full-time missionaries in our ward came to dinner. I had a ‘missionary moment’ to report. A new couple moved in up the road from us across from Diana Purdy. He is a pastor and starting a new church here. I met him a couple of weeks ago as he was performing the service to taking folks’ garbage cans from the street to their houses. Monday morning I stopped at his house to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. First he said he already had a copy on his bookshelf. When I opened it to show him our family picture and explained that I had marked this copy so he could read throughout it in about an hour-and-a-half, he said since I went to that work he would accept it. He said some neighbors objected to his retrieving their garbage cans so he changed service strategies to picking up roadside litter.
Yesterday Adam emailed me a web address for a beautiful slide show. Its title slide is “Here Are Some Tips That May Bring You A Beautiful Life! “ The quote from one slide says, ”Dream more while you are awake.” The accompanying picture is of a doll lying at the side of a street with a dream bubble by her picturing her between dad and mom stick figures. I looked at it several times before I understood it. Anyway there were thirty slides with wise suggestions. I liked the slide show so much that I copied it to my computer as a power point presentation. I get excited when I learn something new for using my computer and I did in this case. I also enjoy sharing computer hints. Yesterday Brenda Holmes, who helps at Daddy B.J.’s office, asked me two questions about excel spreadsheets and I was able to show her how to perform both tasks. All told I had several computer-growth-highs yesterday.
This morning I have been on the phone with T-Mobile to set up Daddy B.J.’s new cell phone under Nathan’s Loyalty Family Plan. Daddy B.J.’s cell number will be ported over from Sprint to T-Mobile and it will save us lots of money. Saving money is another thing that is dear to my heart and gives me warm fuzzy feelings.