Starting out - on which foot?

This past weekend I attended two weddings, both rather spur-of-the-moment affairs, each involved a returned missionary.


In the first wedding, necessitated by young couple who had let their feelings go too far, and wound up with a child on the way, I have hope. He is from the Bahamas, and she is from Haiti, and they are both trying to learn to “fit in”. They are both very naïve, and love and care for each other, but really do not have any idea of how much their lives have changed, and are about to change. They were both living with relatives, and are now trying to get out on their own – with nothing but their love and a baby coming. They will need a lot of help and prayers and guidance.

But it is the second wedding that causes me the most concern. This returned missionary, only 24 years old, had already been married once, and divorced, and now has a pregnant new bride. I am certain she is in love with him, and I hope this time he is really in love with his new wife. I am concerned that he may have no more respect for this marriage than he had for the marriage to his previous wife. I hope I am wrong, but the impression I get from this couple is that this young woman, only eighteen years old was taken advantage of by an older, more experienced man who has not been upholding his Priesthood. I do not think he has even told his parents that he was getting married.

This is one of many times that I am glad I am not the Bishop, and do not have to be the “Judge in Israel”; being one of his counselors shows me entirely enough of the problems, concerns and issues in our little Ward.

More Progress on Projects



Second Wall
Framed and Wrap installed



Cool nights and comfortably warm days have helped the project move along, except - - I really do not feel like getting started until it gets at least 60 outside (65 is even better). So, I try to run around and get my errands done early, while it still cold (sort of) and work on the project later during the warmer part of the day.  The rest of the week the low is supposed to be 58 or 59 degrees and the high 78 or 79.



Second Wall
Siding Going on



I finally started getting the Second Wall built this morning - I'd Already done the layout and installed the anchor bolts. 

I split up the plates and cut the studs, then began nailing in the studs.  I squared the framing and installed the “Building Wrap”, then I started putting on the siding.  It’s not done, but I should be able to finish shear nailing it up on Monday and get the first coat of paint on it.

Projects and Progress

I am finally making some progress on some of my larger projects, well, one of them anyway. Back in September I got the permit to build a storage shed in the back yard, on the opposite side of the pool from the house, but up close to the screenroom wall (about six inches way). I’d had the concrete pad poured two and a half years ago when the pool went in. It seemed like from that time forward, every time I could get some progress on it something would come up, either we had to make a trip to the west coast (Pacific coast, not the west coast of Florida), someone would get sick or injured, or we’d have visitors or bad weather.

First Wall Framing

The first wall to be framed needed to be the wall next to the screenroom, and because of the proximity it needed to be framed, sided, nailed off, and painted before it could be raised. Progress has been really slow; back in November my son, Joey, helped me finish nailing off the siding on the first wall, then I got a chest cold, or two or three- finally a friend of mine from Virginia came to visit and although we all had colds, including my friend Larry, with his help two coats of paint were put on that first wall. OK, actually Larry did most of the work, while I coughed.

Then, two weeks ago, just as I felt I was finally kicking this series of coulds, while getting ready for church, I had a sharp, stabbing pain in my lower back. And, I spent most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on the living room floor with my lower legs up on the footstool. After Bishopric I asked Bishop Pedraza, Kenny Rider and Mike Kremkau to give me a blessing, and it eased the pain a lot, but I still had to be careful how I stood up, and reaching or bending over needed to be avoided. My back is still tender, and now, knowing that the problem is multiple degenerating discs, arthritis and some bone spurs all in the same place, I have resigned myself to moving carefully. However -

Now, warmer weather and just a slight breeze convinced me that I should be able to raise the first wall, and begin framing the second and subsequent walls.



First Wall Raised



Tomorrow I'll start framing the second 26-foot wall.

Memorial for a friend who has gone on

This has been another time for reflection as I prepared my talk for Carol Whiteaker’s memorial service this afternoon.  Carol was one of the Sisters that I was responsible for Home Teaching, from the time that she was re-baptized, about a year-and-a-half ago, until she passed away from cancer on January 7th.  In preparing for my talk earlier this week I found myself guided to speak on the Priesthood; and with Carol’s recent return to the church, how she had understood the power and blessings of the Priesthood and the need for the Priesthood to come into her home.  Her husband is a non-member, who has, in the last several months progressed a long way in his understanding of the church and its part in Carol’s life.  I don’t think he still fully understands the power of the Priesthood to act in the name of God, but as her cancer progressed there were several times that he stayed in the room while my companion and I would lay our hands on Carol's head and pronounce a blessing on her.  Early on there was a healing blessing, according to the will of Heavenly Father.  Later there were some for comfort and to ease the pain that she was going through.  it was hard to see Carol suffer though this, but as a friend it was always easy to visit her.  She always had time for her Home Teachers and friends.  As various Ward members, friends and a few of her family spoke, the picture began to fill out for him and her other family members from other faiths on how everything in the Church relies upon Christ and the Priesthood power, from an opening prayer, blessings that had been given, the blessings of the Sacrament, the spirit of revelation in preparing our talks, and even the closing prayer.  She was an inspiration for many, a good mother and wife, and a friend that I will miss.  I know that she now no longer suffers and I am sure that she is at peace with our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Missionary Moments



Papas con Chorizo



The second Tuesday of each month I have the full-time missionaries over for dinner and afterwards we go on splits. One of the dishes I fixed this evening is a common Mexican cold salad; Black Bean, Cilantro and Sweet Pea Rice. It makes a nice tangy counterpoint to the Papas con Chorizo I served as the main dish.

The Missionaries in our Ward are not Latinos, one is from California, and one is from Utah, but are both learning/teaching in Spanish. There are several Latino members in our Ward and quite a few Latino families within our Ward boundaries. But, I have noticed that although there is a large population of Latinos in Florida, very few are Mexican, many come from Guatemala, Argentina, El Salvador, Columbia and Panama as well as Puerto Rico and Cuba. 

Black Bean, Cilantro and Sweet Pea Rice



Sunday before last (5th Sunday in January) our Ward Theme was on missionary work, and the Ward Missionaries were the Speakers in Sacrament meeting, with Full-time Missionaries giving the opening and closing prayers. The youth speaker and the 2nd and 3rd speakers gave their talks in English. Our Ward Mission Leader (a Guatemalan) recently acquired US citizenship and his wife is going through the process now. His wife was our first adult speaker and gave her talk in both English and Spanish. He was the concluding speaker and gave his talk entirely in Spanish. I know some of our other members did not understand his words, but the spirit carried his talk to all in the chapel. The Full-time Missionaries had an investigator family in the meeting, both Latino, who expressed surprise and some amazement that our church would have Spanish speakers. So, the missionary 5th Sunday talks probably helped the missionary work in the Ward; now if we can just figure out a way to get all of the brothers to do their Home Teaching . . .

Florida late-winter/early-spring weather –

It’s 9:00 pm and it’s still a balmy 81 degrees with a slight breeze outside. I am trying to get in the habit of spending at least fifteen minutes in our hot tub each evening before bed. I had it built into the deck at the same time as the pool – about 2 1/2 years ago – but since I usually keep the pool at 89-91 degrees I really have not used the hot tub as much as I should- we had some cooler weather a few weeks ago (40s to low 50s) and my lower back has started bothering me again – probably hasn’t for some time because of the Celebrex I was taking for my arthritic right shoulder. With a total shoulder replacement almost three years ago it feels great, and I really do not want to be on Celebrex continually – too hard on the stomach, heart and liver. So, I am resolved to make myself sit in the hot tub and watch the stars, clouds and occasional plane through the screenroom roof each night. I really love living in Florida . . .

Salsa Prima Vera

Since we moved to southern Florida I find that I really miss the friends and acquaintances I knew in Alexandria, and some of the people I’ve met since then who, for one reason or another are no longer a part of my life.
I recently prepared a batch of Salsa from a recipe I’ve developed over the years and my thoughts turned to a friend and his family who have moved to Boston. I sent him a message that I’d fixed a batch of the salsa he had liked while they were here in Fort Pierce Ward and that we missed him and his family. He replied that they missed us too, and that I never did send him my recipe for the salsa (which I did right away).
He also wrote that they were enjoying living only fifteen minutes from the Temple, but that they did miss the closeness of our smaller Ward. Here in South Florida we are a bit over an hour-and-a-half from the Orlando Temple, and, when it finally gets built, we will be just about the same distance from the new Fort Lauderdale Temple.
My thoughts then turned to some of the special people for whom I have a particular fondness. Some of them I haven’t heard from since we moved, and others I’ve been able to follow on Facebook, Twitter or through their blogs. I hope their thoughts of me are as fond as my thoughts of them.

looking for better weather

Tough time getting out of bed this morning; not that I didn’t want to, rather that my lower back is once again acting up. I’ve been to the doctor before about it- diagnosis was multiple degenerating disks, several bone spurs and some arthritis. I’ve been on Celebrex for years for the arthritis, and as I checked online today, it seems the procedure for repairing the disks is still not available, and often surgery doesn't even help – maybe it’s time to see if having the bone spurs removed will help enough to let me get mobile again. Still, it seems like it only bothers me when the weather is cold (relatively speaking, we’ve been down into the 40s this past week in south Florida, the rest of the country has had much worse cold). Maybe I need to move farther south, like Panama or Guatemala or Belize – the lower the latitude the better the attitude?