Happy Father's Day

Well today is Father's day.  Grateful for all the Father's in my life.  Especially my own dear father who has passed to the other side.  He was an ideal father and I was so blessed to have him in my life.  I am grateful for the father of my children.  I am grateful for Larry and the good example of a husband that he sets for my children and grandchildren.  He is truly a self sacrificing person and I love him so much.  I hope all my children can learn from his loving example.

We had a really good lesson on the oath and covenant of the priesthood today in Relief Society.  It pointed out the ways that both men and women obtain the priesthood and the blessings that the Lord promises to those that magnify their calling in the priesthood.  It also pointed out that women magnify the priesthood by magnifying their callings.  I have never had a problem with the fact that I am not ordained to the priesthood because I have all the blessings of the priesthood but it was a good lesson to clarify what the oath and covenant really are.  She pointed out that the covenants are what we promise God we will do and the oath is the blessing that God promises to give us if we keep our covenants.

We had the kids all afternoon for Nathan for Father's Day and they stayed overnight last night.  We ate lunch and made cookies and had Family Home Evening.  Then the kids and Nathan did different things on their electronics.  Maggie took a nap for about 2 hours so I was able to read and watch some videos on lds.org on Family History and Missionary work.  Larry really got into helping the kids today too. Larry didn't get much of a Father's day dinner because we focused on what the kids liked to keep it simple.

Erick has been working on digitizing some of the slides that John and I took over the years that I had not already done and he posted some pictures of Annette and Rex and I on Facebook that were fun.  Annette looked a lot like Maren in the picture.  Then Jeff posted a picture of Larry when he was a baby so it was fun to see the old pictures of ourselves.

Last Monday Larry and I found ourselves very behind on our work at the mission.  The Williams had been gone for a little more than a week with their family and we had been going to Zone Conferences and had Mission Leaders Conference the week before so we needed to spend some time in the office.  We determined that we would not go to the Zone Conference for Round Rock and Round Rock East Areas on Tuesday.  It would have taken most of the day to drive to Austin and back.  So we sent the materials with the Assistants and stayed in the office.

On Tuesday I spent most of the day doing referrals and typing in baptism and confirmation records.  Larry has mileage reports that he has to do at the first of the month so the gas credit cards that the missionaries have can be reloaded with money for the month.  He really had a lot of receipts out for so late in the beginning of the month.  He also has some cars that need to be sold and some new cars coming in.  He has to get the cars that need to be sold repaired so they are like new so he was getting estimates on that.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I ran home to feed Nathan and on Tuesday he was out going to somewhere with a friend and the door was locked and I had forgot to bring my keys so I just had to go back and eat snacks at the office.  On Wednesday he had the Senior military missionaries feeding him Kentucky Fried Chicken so I stole some of it for Larry and I and went back to the office. 

Nathan is going to the VA on Monday's and Friday's now for Physical Therapy.  They come and pick him up so it works out well for all of us.  Sometimes he spends most of the day there if he has another appointment and he is getting so he can endure that better but sometimes he is really tired after a full day like that.

Tuesday the Williams came back and got some work caught up but they had to leave again because Elder Williams mother was dying.  They flew out for Colorado on Wednesday morning.  In talking to them later in the week, she died before they got there but it was good to be there and help with the arrangements for them.  They got back on Friday but have to go again this coming week for Tuesday and Wednesday to Dallas for the funeral.

On Thursday I typed in 26 Baptisms and it took me most of the day but I was finally caught up. I was at the mission all by myself that day and because they were having a Finding by Faith training in San Antonio for all the areas here and all the missionaries were there it was really quiet.  I liked that. They are baptizing about 50 people a month in this mission so I was behind about three weeks.  I learned that the ward clerks start calling you if you are behind because they cannot issue a call or record their tithing or do a number of other things if their membership has not returned and if I have not submitted the Baptism record then it does not come back.  So no more getting behind.

Nathan was frustrated because someone submitted something to the VA stating that because of a report that was issued in July of 2013 he may not be competent to handle his money and they wanted to appoint a fiduciary for him.  He had 60 days to prove to them that he was competent.  Larry has been frustrated that the VA has not recognized that I am his wife yet for his disability payments even though he gave them the papers with the initial application and resubmitted them again in August of last year.  So they went together to the Disabled American Veterans to see if they could get some help with their cases.  They went at 7:30 in the morning because they do not take appointments and it took them until almost 2:30 p.m. to finish being seen as they had 23 people before them. 

But it was a good trip for both of them.  The lady that Nathan saw took one look at him and talked to him and said that she could solve his problem with a phone call to his psychiatrist.  So he just needs to get them to call them soon.  Larry was thrilled because he found out that a lot of the cases have been transferred to other organizations like the DAV because of the complaints about the length of processing of some problems at the VA and so by going in he basically put his case to the front again and they should have it processed soon they said.  He was also excited because when she found out that he had neuropathy and a few other things she said that he could be declared unable to work and he would receive more money.  I don't know if that is good considering how much we are doing for the mission and Nathan but we know that part of the reason we are doing so well is because of the Lord's blessing us to have the stamina to keep doing what we are doing.  He is also blessing us with the ability to do the work better than we could do by ourselves.  But I still wonder if it is honest.

Thursday evening we went to Bingo night again.  Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center was providing the dinner for the Wounded Warriors that evening and because that is the last place that Nathan stayed before he came home he was able to see all the people that he worked with there and renew friendships.  I think that was fun for Nathan.  And of course we did not win!! As always.

Friday was a fairly quiet day also.  Larry was there with me this time though.  I had a dr appointment with the dermatologist in the morning for my itching neck and then I got to the office about 11:00 a.m.  We worked until about 6:00 p.m.

Friday evening I did not know if we would have the kids at first and I was really tired.  When we got home Nathan said that they were not coming until Saturday about 3:30p.m.  That was the greatest present that Sara could have given me.  I was just tired and though I love them to death they wear me out sometimes.  So we took Nathan and went out for chinese and then watched a Bones when we got home.

Saturday morning we got up early and I went with Larry to pick up a new car about 8:00 a.m.  Unfortunately they did not have it ready so I dropped Larry off at the office even thought it was our Preparation Day and he wanted to work all day.  I went home and was able to get some pictures sent to the kids outside of Utah that have needed to be sent since before the mission.  I also sent some to family that we did not get to visit on our way to Texas as our car broke down at the MTC.

At about 10:30 a.m. I took Nathan to a shoe store that sells good orthodic shoes to get him a pair of shoes that will fit over the brace that he should wear on his right foot.  It is too big to fit in his shoes if he wears his regular size and so we determined that he would need to get a larger one.  They determined that he needed a 14E to fit the brace.  They did not have it in but they were able to order it and he will have it in about 2 weeks.  In the mean time he has a different brace he is wearing that fits better in his shoe but is not as solid as the new brace.

Nathan treated me to lunch at Chipolatas grill.  I really liked the concept of building a taco, salad, burrito or bowl the way I like it.  We got lunch for Larry also and then we took it to the office so that I could take him to get the car that was supposed to be finished at 12:00 p.m.  It was the first time that Nathan had been able to go to the mission office and go inside with us.  Sister Williams was there trying to get some work done also and some of the Assistants.

We got home about 2:30 p.m.  The kids were supposed to be there about 3:30 p.m. and so I worked on getting my 2 visiting teaching people from the Woodlake Ward Contacted.  I had to write a letter to the one as she has no phone listed on the record.  The other one was on vacation with family in Elsinore, Utah so I had to just talk on the phone with her.  I got that finished and then we waited and worked on paperwork until the kids finally came at 5:00 p.m.

In the mean time Nathan had invited a family from the Woodlake ward over for the evening so we dashed to the store to get Isaac and Sammy some new church shirts because Nathan thought that theirs were getting too small and then we came back and went swimming and had pizza with the Eric Alonzo family.  They brought a salad and some soda and as they have kids about the same age as Nathan's kids I think that everyone had a good time.

Well it is too late so I must finish.  Sorry no time to do pictures from Facebook and I did not take any this week!!