2021 The door is about to shut!

I must begin by saying, gone are the days when you take 1 or 2 photos of major events in your life. Now, we have a camera in our hand at all times and are constantly taking pictures. So to choose just a few pictures to show your life in one year, is extrememly difficult. That being said, be ready for an explosion of photos. Just remember, you came to this sight voluntarily. I have to admit, it’s been a pretty good year, despite the pandemic still lingering and our lives feeling like we’re still on hold. We’ve spent so much time with family and even adventured out into cruising again. If you make it through all my writing, realize that this is my history for this year and I do it mostly for myself.

January: We spent spend several days throughout the month with the O’Neils. Being on Utah Lake with the ice fields was a new and fun experience for everyone. We did some bowling with them when Indy turned four. There’s never a dull minute when Indy is around. Our good friends, Robert and Julie Briggs, whom we met while teaching in China, came to visit us in St. George. The sad part of the month was when Millie and Jacob finalized their divorce. Grateful they are able to remain very cordial with each other. Ellery and Aayla spend about 50/50 with each parent. Jacob was able to buy a townhome not far from Millie’s home.

February: Navy turned two. She’s a cutie and is growing up so fast. We went to California for Luka’s baby blessing and spent some fun days with the Schramms. We celebrated Chinese New Year, visited Solvang and an ostrich farm and made valentine’s cookies. For a long time, Kim has wanted to expand the master closet over the stairway. So, he finally got his wish. In 2020, I worked throughout the year making friendship bracelets to send to the Fijian dorm students. I wanted to make one for all 57 of them and send them before they graduated in November and left for home. Unfortunately, they didn’t get them until February. BUT fortunately, all the students were still there since the borders were still closed because of COVID. It warmed my heart when they sent me pictures of them all with their bracelets.

March: The weather in March in St. George is close to perfect so we were able to ride our e-bikes quite a bit. Our favorite was riding through Zion National Park. Annie started a candle business, which she is very passionate about. She sells subscription candles and does individual sells as well. She makes all her candles in her home. Check her out at sageandpinecandles.com. It’s been fun receiving a new scented candle each month. Not only did we celebrate my birthday but we celebrated 10 years with Esme. Towards the end of the month, I flew to Iowa and picked up my mom and flew her back to our place. She’d never been to St. George so that was quite a treat. We all enjoyed her company with many visitors for two weeks before I flew back home with her.

April: Ellery turned 14 early in April. A couple of days later, the O’Neils were traumatized when Winston got spooked, ran from Esme, who was walking her and dashed across the street when she got to her house just as a vehicle was driving by. It was a beautiful spring day so everyone was in the front yard enjoying the weather. Winston was a dream come true for Esme and seeing him hit and killed was devastating. They buried him in the backyard next to Chester. Our backyard has become quite a pet cemetery.

May: As the weather continued to improve we decided to take a trip to Moab and visit Arches. The very next weekend, Millie and the girls wanted to go again, so we went 2 weekends in a row. When we were first married we went to Natural Bridges and loved it. It’s not very well known. We went again this year and loved it all over again. They have some beautiful natural bridges with some great hikes to get to them.

June: After much contemplating, Katie and Brandon contacted Winston’s breeders and learned they had new puppies born in April. At the end of the month, they brought home a blood sister to Winston and named her Poppy Seed. Esme and Katie both are a bit paranoid and watch her carefully. We took another trip to California when James was called to be the Bishop of his ward. We spent a fun week picking strawberries, swimming at Oma & Opa Schramm’s pool, playing at the beach, and going to the zoo. We also were able to visit with a former BYU ward member, Jessica Lew Michie with her husband and new baby girl. Lori and Ladd Stewart, who were missionaries in Kiribati while we were in Fiji, came to visit us with their two daughters. Dallin Wilcox, another former BYU ward member, was visiting in Las Vegas so we were able to meet up with him as we passed through coming home from California. Barbara Openshaw also came to visit. Barbara is a good friend who taught with us in China.

July: Millie, Ellery and Aayla went to Orem with us to celebrate the 4th of July. We always love watching the fireworks in Provo. We also visited the Loveland Aquarium. We returned the end of the month when Abbie and James came out and spent the weekend with them and the O’Neils for Brandon’s birthday. Payson Lake use to be a favorite place to go when our girls were little so it brought back lots of memories as we spent the day there with our grown daughters and their families. Annie and Dale brought home a new kitten. They have waited a long time to get this particular breed. They are in love with Luna.

August: My dear sweet sister, Kim and her husband, Lupe, sold their home in southern California and decided to move across the country to Georgia. They spent a couple of days with us on their journey out east. Ellery and Aayla went on a trip to San Francisco with their day and got to do some fishing. Taucahn has some great shows this year that we were able to attend, Annie…Beauty and the Beast…and Count of Monte Crisco. We also had tickets to School of Rock but it was rained out. Katie turned 40 this year…sorry to expose you Katie. For her birthday, all she wanted was a beach, so Brandon took her on a week Caribbean Cruise. We had a blast spending the week with the kids.

September: When the grandkids are early teens, we take them on a trip. We took Brinley to Washington DC. We took Ellery and Meggie to Disneyland. We told Esme, Aayla & Robi that we would take them to Disneyland after our mission. Well, we decided instead to take them on Disney Cruise. We spent 4 days on the Disney Dream. Two of the days were spent at Castaway Cay. I could spend a whole page writing about our trip but I won’t! Let’s just say….Costumes, Dancing, Swimming, Making Sand Castles, Water Slide, Make-up, Candy, Gourmet Food, and Ice Cream Cones… It was fabulous. The last couple of months, Kim taught an assessment class to two of the teachers at the LDS Fiji College where we had served our mission. It was all done over zoom. It was great to reconnect with Oere and meet Vili.

October: The month started with another cruise for Kim and I. We did a 2 week repositioning Panama Cruise. We only had 3 stops leaving 10 sea days. We visited Puerta Vallarta, Costa Rica and Columbia. We absolutely found the canal very fascinating. It took about 9 hours to get fully through the canals. Kim was thrilled to be able to reach across and touch the canal. Also, on the cruise we met two couples who live just on the other side of the freeway from us in St. George. It’s been so fun to make new friends. We spent a day in Miami and another day in Key West. As soon as we got back we had a Fiji Missionary Reunion with a few of the senior couples that served in Fiji while we were there. We did a small hike, rode e-bikes and of course had dinner together. We love our fellow Fiji missionary friends. We were home for 3 days before Kim went to Orem to help Brandon finish the basement on their rental home. Then I joined him three days later. Then we flew to California….which is a long story of its own….and went to Disneyland with Abbie, James, Macie and Maverick. Oh, we love Disneyland. It’s so fun to go with kids! It was exhausting and we could have spent another day but…. Then James dis an Ironman in Oceanside. We cheered him along the route while Maverick and Macie played on the beach. On Halloween, we all dressed up and took the kids trick or treating. Grandkids and being grandparents are the best.

November: The month started with Millie running a ½ marathon with her boyfriend, Bryan Watabe. She rocked it! I always say Millie is a beast with it comes to her racing and workouts. Judy and Don Harvey spent a couple of days with us. Zion Park was the favorite e-bike ride twice this month. The whole family came to St. George for Thanksgiving. Everyone except Brinley who had to choose which holiday to get off work. She chose Christmas. Thanksgiving brought turkey trot to all who desired….Rhonda, Katie, Millie & James. And that was the order of finishing…opposite. We played games, did art projects, watched movies, learned to write our names in Chinese, got our traditional Christmas pajamas and cooked and ate good food. We were blessed to have one of Kim’s former Chinese students (from China) join us for a real American Thanksgiving. He is getting his masters in Dayton, Ohio. Abbie celebrated her birthday the same weekend. And the weekend ended with Kyson being baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

December: We have a family tradition where we celebrate the four Christmas advents (the four Sundays before Christmas). With everyone in different parts of the country, we have been doing zoom advents together. We did a “nailed it” competition where everyone had to make a Grinch cake. We played Grinch Bingo. We played a wheel of fortune game with quotes from favorite Christmas movies and everyone received a Grinch puzzle and the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Guess we had a theme going this year. Each advent ended with a video of Christ’s birth narrated by members of the family. For Christmas this year, we look forward to spending the week with Annie and Dale, Brinley, Meggie and Robi in Colorado.

We are so blessed to have testimonies of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for His atonement and the light and peace that He brings into our lives. We have been blessed with a beautiful family and wonderful lives. May you feel the peace that only Christ can bring. May His light shine in your lives throughout this year. The principal at the Fiji LDS Primary School always says, “Life is Good!” And I couldn’t agree more. Even in this crazy world where our politicians can’t seem to get along and can’t work together because they can’t trust anyone from a different party; where many people throughout the world don’t trust the scientists or the medical personnel on how to combat a deadly virus; and even in religions there seem to be many who don’t trust their ecclesiastical leaders and some have gone as far as to stop trusting God. But within my own home and my own family I still proclaim, “Life is Good!” I’m so blessed with a shelter over my head, clothing on my back, a fabulous family whom I love with all my heart and a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ, whom we celebrate this Christmas season. I believe we can trust Him. It’s because of Him, that life is good. Because He loves us unconditionally and because He showed us how to love others regardless of who they are, what they believe or what they look like. Because of His atonement and His resurrection, we can look forward with Hope and Faith and Trust. He brings us the peace we need in this mixed up world . He brings us Hope and Love. May you feel of that peace and love throughout this Holiday Season and throughout the coming year. Life is Good! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2020 A Year Never to be Forgotten

BEWARE!  This is a long post but with great pictures at the end....so if you don't want to read, go at least and see a year of pictures that follow!  😅

What a year it has been. There has been some wonderful things about this year and some things that we hope will quickly go away and never return.  

The year started great as we were serving as ITEP missionaries (international teacher education program)  in Suva, Fiji.  We had been in Fiji for 5 months and looking forward to a full and complete year of working in both the LDS Church College (high school) and the LDS Primary School.  We were excited with the idea of starting and ending a school year with these wonderful teachers.

In early January we helped the College Leadership enroll and orient the students for a new school year.  Kim was and I was taking each student's picture and orienting them to the handbook.  Kim and spent quite a bit of time helping get the handbook put together in a format that everyone could access it easily.  After a week of orienting, school started.  I spent the next week orienting all the students who didn't come in for their orientation and getting them into class.  Then there was the new dorms.  The college had been building a dorm for foreign students to enroll in the college.  Students from Papa New Guinea, Vanautu, and Solomon Islands were invited to attend the school.  Since this was a new adventure for Fiji, they only enrolled 52 students for the first year.  The new dorms hold at least 100, possible as many as 140.  We were fortunate to have been able to be present when the new students arrived that first day.  The first half came in the afternoon and the rest came that evening.  There were mentor students who volunteered to help get them settled in their new homes.  They sang them songs, introduced them to the leadership, and helped distribute supplies.  The students were fed a meal and set free to explore their new surroundings.  

In February we were asked to help with the dorm students.  Sister Maiwiriwiri, the assistant principal over the dorms, asked us if we would be willing to provide an activity every Friday night for the dorm students and provide a devotion on Sunday evenings. We excitedly agreed.  This soon became one of the highlights of our mission.  We started out with a Chinese New Year Celebration since it was the weekend of the Chinese New Year and we had just spent a year and a half in China.  We played games, did calligraphy, learned how to use chopsticks, and other activities.  At the end we set off Chinese lanterns into the night sky.  We were a bit nervous not knowing if the night air was too warm to allow the lanterns to lift into the sky.  But after waiting patiently they all floated away to the cheers of the students.  The fireworks that we lit at the conclusion set off many loud hoops and hollers.   We were able to play birthday party games, learn how to bake cookies, dance, bear testimony and sing with these students.  It was these students whom we spent our last night with that gave us our last farewell.  It was only fitting.  

Kim taught a class on classroom management to five teachers at the schools.  There were two newly hired teachers at the college that took the class that we loved getting to know.  We were just coming to the end of the class when news came out that the Corona Virus or Covid-19 had struck Fiji.  How quickly plans were made for us to go home.  We got the news on a Thursday and we were flying home on Sunday night.  The shortened version goes something like this:  We were in a leadership meeting at the college where we were discussing what to do if the virus came to Fiji.  There were lots of ideas and opinions expressed.  Just after the meeting the announcement came out that a man Lautoka was diagnosed with the virus.  The Prime Minister announced that Latoka would be locked down at midnight.  No one goes in and no one goes out.  There was a senior couple in the city that had hours to get out of the city with all of their belongings.  There was a misunderstanding and Kim thought he also shut down all the schools in the country.  (He actually was only shutting down the schools in Lautoka).  Thinking the schools were shut down, we went and visited the mission president who told us it was time to go home.  All of the temple missionaries had left when the temples closed.  There was a humanitarian missionary couple who had gone home earlier in the week. The 2 office couple missionaries were going to stand it out.  We got a flight to leave that Sunday evening.  Later in the day, Fiji airways announced they would fly out of the country on Sunday and then no more foreign flights. Phew! That was a blessing.  We went ahead with our plans on our Friday night activity for the dorms.  After our activity, the students surprised with a good bye celebration.  They gave us gifts,  sang the tradition Fiji farewell song, Isa Lei.  And ended with God Be With You.  Talk about tears.  Then there were hundreds of photos taken and we were off.  We packed that weekend and met the couple that had been in Lautoka at the airport and flew home to the US on Sunday.  It was a week later when the country DID shut down all the schools in the country and another week when the church chartered a flight that picked up all the US missionaries from Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.  The last two couples that worked in the mission office were required to be on that flight.  How quickly things can change.  

We decide to fly to St. George since Katie and Brandon were in our Orem home.  No one was living in that home and we were required to do 14 day quarantine.  There was no big homecoming at the airport or anywhere for that matter.  Millie and Jacob stocked the cupboards.  Millie and the girls would walk the trail behind the house so we could see each other from a distance.  After the quarantine, we bought a car.  We had sold our car before leaving for Fiji because we were going to be gone for 2 years.  Once we had a car things started to get a little bit normal.  As normal as anything was at that time.  

We eventually made trips to see all our kids.  First Orem to visit Katie and Brandon.  Then Colorado to see Annie and Dale and Iowa to see my parents.  The day after we arrived in Iowa, my 91 year old father was put in the hospital for congestive heart failure.  At that point we didn't feel like we could leave my mom and our 2 day visit turned into a 2 week visit.  No one was allowed to visit my dad at the hospital.  My mom would talk to him on the phone and occasionally a nurse.  We finally got word that they were going to send him home the following week and set him up on hospice.  We decided to make a quick trip home and be back in time to get him home.  We arrived in St. George on a Friday evening and on Saturday morning I got a call from the doctor telling me my dad had passed away that morning.   My heart was broken as I felt like I had deserted my mom when she need me to be there the most.  We quickly got back in the car and arrived Monday with my older sister, Cheri arriving there on Sunday.  My sister Kim and brother Hollis came as quickly as they could.  We had a very nice funeral and burial and I stayed 2 more weeks just to help my mom get settled into being in the house alone.  This was all in June.  She has has done quite well the rest of the year.  She gets lonely but I'm proud of how strong she is.  After June, we were finally able to make it out to California and visit Abbie and James.  

Kim found many projects around the house.  It started with cleaning the carpets throughout the house.  That was a huge job.  He put backsplash up in the kitchen and added smart plus and switches around the house.  He added an awning on the back patio.   His biggest project was painting the garages in both the Orem house and the St. George house and putting epoxy on the floors.  In St. George he redid all the shelving.  We have the best garages in the neighborhood.  That's what happens when a couple of months on leave from your mission turns into 9 months.  

In July, the director over the Pacific Island Schools asked me to help Sister Poll, the coordinator over the ITEP missionaries, and the principal at the Fiji Primary School, Meirisi,  put together a reading program for Kindergarten through 3rd Grade.  He named it the Pre to Three Reading Program.  Tima, the resource teacher, has also been very involved in the program.  I went to work on take home packets with readers and activities and discussion questions for Kindergarten.  Tima and Meisi went to work on year 3.  They did a trial run with the things they put together in September.  I haven't heard how they went other than the parents were excited about the program.  In January, when their new school year begins, they will start the project for other years as well.  It's been a lot of work and a lot of work still to go.  

We have been able to make a couple of trips to California.  One in September for Maverick's 2nd birthday.  Then on October 9 Abbie gave birth to Luka Max.  We both went out for a week and Kim went home and I spent another week helping Abbie adjust to three kids.  She's a pro and doing very well.  We also took a couple of weekend trips with Millie and Jacob.  We went to Bryce Canyon one week end and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on another one.  We did some hiking at Zion's National Park, Kolob Canyon and Buck Skin Gulch.  We also have made several trips back and forth to Orem.  

When many people are weary after this long year, I find gratitude for the time we've been able to spend with our family.  I'm grateful I was home for my father's funeral and for the birth of our 12th grandchild.  We have missed the people of Fiji and feel like we left long before our work was done.  We pray daily for the time when we will be able to return.  We have enjoyed continuing to work remotely with Elder and Sister Poll and our Fijian teachers.  We have officially been granted a 6 month extension on our mission.  We haven't been officially released and are considered "on leave" and our clock is still ticking.  Our release date was July 2021 but is now December 2021.  We don't know when but we feel confident we will be returning and finishing our work there.  

May you find peace, joy and happiness, and good health this holiday season.  We love the Savior, Jesus Christ.   We love our Heavenly Father.    

Merry Christmas.  

Marau ni Kerisimasi! (English Fijian)

Marau ni Siga ni Sucu!  (Real Fijian) 

Get you a tissue before you watch this video.  Esme has wanted this since she could talk.