Christmas Time and Family Time

Sunday, December 22, 2013

December has been an unusual month, partly due to the weather, partly due to the long drive to Lexington Park each day for our visits, and partly due to the season which has added some opportunities for activities and service.  We started out last week with a trip to the Washington, D.C. Temple Visitor's Center on Monday night to see the Christmas lights and attend a concert of two LDS performers, violinist Jenny Oaks Baker (who is Apostle Elder Dallin Oak's daughter) and Irish vocalist Alex Sharpe who used to be a member of the musical ensemble Celtic Woman.  It was well worth the trip, and Sister Boone and I both enjoyed the evening.

Tuesday and Wednesday we made more visits in Lexington Park and attended the Wednesday evening knitting class.  We have had two sisters in the wards, one in White Plains 1st Ward and one in Lexington Park Ward, who both lost their husbands to cancer around Thanksgiving.  We have not had a chance to visit Sister Pauole, but we visited with Sister Pratt this week.  We do the best we can to support them in their time of loss.  The best thing we can do is just be there for them and let them do most of the talking as they work through their grief.  It is a little painful in a way to visit with them because it brings back memories of Verlin's passing, but it is comforting to be able to testify that time will heal.

Thursday we went to the Temple, and Friday we helped the same group who put together the food baskets for Thanksgiving, this time filling Christmas baskets for the needy.  The temperature on Friday (the day before the official first day of winter) was much milder than on Thanksgiving.  I think the high temperature Friday was about 65 degrees.  On Saturday, the first day of winter, it was a sunny but breezy 70 plus a few degrees.  This morning the temperature reached 74 degrees before it started to rain and cool down.  57 degrees for a low is not too bad though.  It has certainly been a sharp contrast to what I usually see in Utah in December.

My highlight for the week came Saturday afternoon when I had the opportunity to join my family via Google Hangout and visit with them for about an hour (minus the lost time due to technical difficulties) while they had the annual Hatch Christmas party at Ammon and Abby's house.  I regret not being able to talk to Heidi, Alvin, and Anson's families, who were not there.  The connection was slow for a while and we had to disconnect a few times to try and improve the communication.  In so doing, I lost focus on the fact that I was going to try and invite them to join our hangout.  But I got to say hi to the rest and also congratulate Parker on being baptized earlier in the day.  Most of Melissa's side of the family were able to attend the baptism, which was held in the American Fork East Stake Center.  They also gave Levi a name and blessing at the same meeting.  It was fun to see everyone that was at Ammon's.  Each of the grandkids took a turn at the computer screen so I could see their cute faces and talk to them.  As I blew them kisses and caught theirs in return, it was almost as good as being there with them—almost.  Another plus for me, being around so many people during flu and cold season is a good way to get sick as we have proven from Christmases past.  This year I am pretty confident that I will not get sick as a result of "attending" the Hatch family party.  Thanks for continuing the tradition of the Christmas gathering.  What a wonderful, blessed time of year!

The life size outdoor creche at the Visitors Center.

Don't you love the camels?!

Here's hoping you will do as President Monson admonished and keep the Spirit of Christ in your Christmas celebrations.

The Christus reflected in the window as we stood inside the Visitors Center and looked out towards the temple.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Worth of Souls

Sunday, December 15, 2013

One of the scriptures I committed to memory this week is D&C 18:10, 15, 16.  "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.  And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father.  And now if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"

Monday was our planning day to prepare for our visits of the rest of the week.  We were not able to work on Tuesday due to continued bad weather.  But we scheduled appointments for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and chose to attend the Temple on Saturday so we could get in more visits this week.  It has been very nice that Sister Boone is familiar with the Lexington Park area and knows many of the sisters.  Having worked there for five months before I got here, she was able to fill our days with appointments with a few active sisters and several that she tried to visit often when she was here before.  There were single sisters, widows, a sister whose husband is not a member, and some with health issues that prevented them from being more active in attending their meetings.  Even though their situations are different, they have something in common with all mankind.  They have a need to love and be loved.  They all appreciate visits from us.  They all need to be reminded that they are beloved daughters of Heavenly parents.

Part way through our second day, we went to visit Rosie.  When we knocked on her door, she called out "who's there?"  Sister Boone told her it was the sister missionaries, and she opened the door for us.  She invited us in and apologized that her house wasn't cleaner.  Sister Boone had warned me that she was a hoarder, but I had forgotten.  She moved a few things to clear a path to the couch and tried to clear a spot for us to sit down on the couch where she had been huddled under a thin blanket before we arrived.  The room was lit with a single light bulb.  The house was cold as ice and so were her hands.  She was wearing several layers of shirts, a sweater, a thin coat and knee-length sweat pants.  She wore a knitted head band over her wispy white hair.  When we commented on how cold her hands felt to us, she explained that she refused to pay her fuel bill because she felt they cheated her when they delivered the last tank of fuel.  She said they only pretended to fill the tank and charged her for a full tank.  So she lives without fuel.  Her face and hands show signs of a hard life.  She is from Vietnam, but had married an American.  He has since left her.  Her children no longer come around.  She said material things do not matter to her.  If someone wants something she will give it to them.  At the same time she lives with the assumption that others are out to steal things from her or cheat her.  When we later expressed our concerns about her to the Relief Society president, she told us that Rosie is a very independent woman.  They try to take care of her, but they have to be careful that they do not make her feel like they are meddling in her affairs or she quits coming to church.

We sat and visited her for quite a while, though she did most of the talking.  Her strong accent made it very difficult to understand, and at times I thought she had slipped back into speaking her native tongue instead of English.  I was touched by the feeling I had in my heart the first time I saw her smile.  Her smile brought light and warmth into the room, and she looked young and beautiful.  I was reminded that she too is a beloved daughter of a loving Heavenly Father who knows and loves her.

Senior Missionary Outing to the Kennedy Center

December 8, 2013

Sister Boone and I decided that we would finally participate in one of the Senior Missionary excursions.  Yesterday we went to Washington, D.C. to tour the Kennedy Center.  The tour was set for 11:00.  We could either drive to the Branch Avenue Metro stop and pay about $10 each to ride the Metro to Foggy Bottom and then take a free shuttle over to the Kennedy Center, or we could drive to the Kennedy Center and pay $22 for parking.  We decided to drive.  That was an easy choice for me because it is Sister Boone's turn to drive this month.  She has driven into D.C. with her brother and daughter a few times now and felt more comfortable driving there.  We arrived about 10:50, with only a couple of detours, one because of construction and the other because we missed our turn. 

We started the tour a few minutes late as we waited for a couple of people to join us.  We started in the Hall of Nations and then planned to proceed from there to the various concert sites.  There was the large Concert Hall, the Opera House, the Eisenhower Theater, and the Terrace Theater.  Each of the lobbies displayed gifts of art from countries around the world.  Before we could see even one of the areas, we were told that those areas were closed for our safety while crews were setting up for later events of the weekend.  She tried to tell us what beautiful views we were missing out on, but this was no consolation.  We turned to go to the only place we could see that morning, the terrace, which we were excited to do.  But when we walked past the desk where the tours began on our way to the terrace, our guide was informed that the terrace was also closed now.  She offered her sincere apology and invited us to come back another day, which we probably will not do.  We saw the only things that remained open for the public--the gift shops--and then headed to lunch.

We got on the shuttle bus to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop and across the street to Roti Mediterranean Grill.  The grill has a stand-in-line type of service similar to Café Rio or Subway.  They did not have enough hot and ready food to feed our group of 21, so some of us had to wait while they cooked up more meat and fill our orders.  For me, this little shop was reminiscent of the one where Alex took Verlin and I to eat doner kebabs almost seven Christmases ago when we were in Frankfurt in 2006.

After we ate, Sister Boone and I said goodbye to the others and returned via shuttle to the parking garage at the Center and headed home.  We tried very hard to follow the GPS closely to get out of unfamiliar territory and onto the highway that we are familiar with from our weekly trips to the temple.  We almost made it without incident.  At one point, we drove onto the freeway ramp on the left side of the ramp and found out when we merged that we had only 2/10 of a mile to move to the right and exit again.  Sister Boone slowed down almost to a stop to wait for passing cars to let her in and then she shot across the last two lanes and off the freeway.  We proceeded on to the next stretch thankful and surprised that we had made it.  A few seconds later, we heard a woman's voice behind us over a loud speaker saying "That was a smooth move."  We looked around to see where the voice was coming from.  Where did that voice come from and was she talking to us was the question of the day.  Sister Boone looked in her side view mirror and noticed what appeared to be an unmarked police vehicle behind us.  We mused about what kind of woman it would take to be a tough female Washington, D.C. detective; obviously one with some grit--and a sense of humor.  A few minutes later, she pulled into the lane to our left and passed us.  Sister Boone pulled in behind her, and her lights went on for just a couple seconds.  100 feet later, she turned off the road to go the other direction.  Was she sending us a warning to be careful or giving us her version of the high five for Sister Boone's "smooth move"?  Sister Boone said that Heavenly Father really knew her well and had compassion on her by assigning her to work in Southern Maryland instead of the metro area where traffic is crazy.  She added that sometimes she is sure that he is having a good laugh at our expense.  She makes me laugh too.

Sometime Saturday night a storm began to make its way across Maryland.  We weren't sure whether we should risk driving an hour south to Lexington Park for church, since there was a winter storm advisory against travel due to freezing rain and snowy conditions.  We decided that we would wait until 12:00 to make a decision.  If it seemed too bad we would just go to church in White Plains.  It looked like it wasn't that bad, so we got on our boots and grabbed our gloves and umbrellas and left the apartment.  When we got to the car and Sister Boone started to clean the windows, we realized that the rain was already freezing on the car and would soon be freezing on the roads as well.  So we returned to our apartment and waited another 45 minutes and headed back out to go to White Plains 1:00 meeting.  As we approached the road out of our parking lot, Sister Boone applied the brakes and the anti-lock brakes kicked in as we skidded to a stop.  We drove at a turtle's pace to the church and arrived about 1:05.  There were only four cars in the parking lot.  It appeared that a few others had been parked there for a little while because they had less snow than the rest of the parking lot.  I guess they forgot to send us the memo about canceling church.  We drove back home and spent the day in our apartment.  I read scriptures, the Ensign, watched videos on lds.org and we watched Music and the Spoken Word.  We later also watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional this evening to help it feel a little more like Sunday.  Tomorrow we will do some planning and hopefully get back to work on Tuesday after a long break from our visits. We are both anxious to be engaged in the work once more.

Week of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28, 2013

We started out this week, on Monday, the 25th helping with a Community Outreach service project preparing holiday food baskets for the needy.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but the temperature was quite chilly.  Even though we were in a building, the doors were opened all the time as pallets and cases of food were hauled in for us to sort and distribute into shopping bags.  I started out wearing gloves but threw those in the car once they got too soiled and wet to do me any good.  By noon, we had sorted all of the food and filled all of the bags that were available.  More people came to volunteer their service, and everyone was just standing around waiting for more bags to arrive, so Sister Boone and I decided to go home a little early.

Since we could not do our regular Thursday Temple Day we decided to attend the Temple on Tuesday.  Monday night a storm began to move through the area and we drove to and from the temple in pretty heavy rain.  Wednesday we drove back to the Temple (still raining) to be at the Visitors Center for the annual Mission picture.  They took the picture following the transfer/farewell meeting.  12 elders were going home (one had already gone to catch his plane), and they each had the opportunity to bear their testimonies at the end of the meeting.

Then we went upstairs and gathered together for the mission picture.  Hopefully we will get a copy of the picture.  I am interested in seeing how it turns out.  There were about 220 people in the picture so the photographer took some wide-angle shots, then used a narrower lens and took several pictures (about 20) that he will edit and "stitch" together to make one big picture.  He told everyone they would have to find the best position that allowed their full face to show and then not move or talk until he had taken all of the pictures so that he could connect the faces from one frame to the next.  Do you think it is possible for 190 young missionaries to not move or talk for ten minutes?  It didn't happen.  Hopefully photo shop will do the job.

As we left the Visitors Center, I took a few pictures of the trees with Christmas lights on them.  We will be working at the Visitors Center three days in December during the Festival of Lights, but it probably won't be much darker than it was this rainy day to get better pictures of the lights.

We had one last appointment in Waldorf that afternoon before our Thanksgiving holiday break.  This was our final visit in White Plains 2nd Ward for the time being.  We had an appointment with the new Ward Relief Society President, but she was not the President when we set the appointment the previous week.  She was just sustained on Sunday, the 17th.  That evening she received a call from the Bishop about a sister in the Ward who incidentally we had been trying to visit but could not find at home.  The reason was that she was in the hospital.  They did not think it was too serious, although she did have pulmonary problems.  The following day things took a turn for the worse.  That was the day we stopped by her house and left a card to let her know we had been there.  That evening she passed away, so we never did get the opportunity to meet her.  She told the Bishop that she did not want to be alone when she died, so the Bishop and his wife, the High Priest Group Leader and his wife, and the Relief Society President were there for her in her final hours.  So Sister Michela started out her first week as RS President helping with funeral arrangements for this member of the ward.  We had a good visit with Sister Michela and told her that we felt confident she was going to do a wonderful job in her new calling.  We let her know what sisters we had been working with and told her a few that we hoped she or others in the ward would continue to visit.

Sister Boone's daughter, Deana flew in on Thanksgiving Day for a visit and I drove to Heidi's to spend Thanksgiving Day and the weekend with her family.  As Alex was also planning on going to Heidi's, I called him as I left the gas station to see if he was on his way and how the weather was.  I was driving in rain and slush, but the roads weren't bad.  Alex had decided that they would not be coming after all.  Reed got sick Wednesday morning with flu-like symptoms and had not improved enough for them to feel good about going.  They were going to see how he was doing in the morning and possibly still come.  Instead they spent Thanksgiving with another couple in the ward who had their travel plans thwarted by the bad weather conditions for their journey.  We were sad that we were not able to see them, but I am glad that they didn't have to drive in rain/snow and icy roads.

I enjoyed spending time with Heidi's family and eating a delicious meal that Heidi and Bryce had worked long and hard to prepare.  I ended up staying with them until the following Wednesday since Sister Boone's daughter was not leaving until Thursday Dec. 5th.  We drove to DC on Friday and visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum again so Isaiah could show Bryce the discoveries we had made on our first visit there.  With some persistence, Heidi was able to accomplish a few items on her To Do List such as hanging some Christmas lights on the house.  She started out working on her own but decided that she needed some help with the ladder so she sent Isaiah in to get me.  I went out and saw that she had her handy dandy, heavy-duty, (I mean VERY heavy) ladder extended to its fullest limit (maybe 18 feet) and was trying to set it up against the upper story roof (probably about 20 feet in the air).  I am surprised that we did not let it fall through a window while we tried extremely hard to situate it in the bushes so that we could get close enough for it to stand up against the house.  I finally convinced her that it was just too short and we would probably not be able to put lights on the upper roof.  Once I talked her out of trying to go around to the back deck and setting the ladder up there so she could get on the upper roof and hang over the edge to put on the lights, she opted instead to string them across the soffit of the main level; not nearly as impressive but in my mind much safer.  It looked very nice when she finally finished hanging them and found all of the burned out or loose bulbs so that all of the strands were lit.

When I came home after a week at Heidi's, she sent me with a small set of trees and a table cover that I could use to put up a Christmas tree in my apartment.  Sister Boone had already purchased a small tree and set it up in the living room.  She placed little porcelain snowmen on it and it looked so charming.  I just didn't think she would appreciate my homemade ornaments on her tree.  I didn't really have any idea what I was going to do about a tree, but I knew that I needed to display my little menagerie of Christmas ornaments that the kids had made last Christmas.  I am so grateful that Teresa had the foresight to suggest the ornament exchange last year.  When she proposed her idea, I don't think she knew that it would be my last Christmas with the family for a couple of years, and I was going to need something to keep them close to my heart while we were separated by hundreds or thousands of miles.  Thanks, Heidi for the loan of your little trio of trees.  They look so cozy in my room, and Sister Boone told me they look very lovely.

I must confess I am not much of a decorator.  I was grateful to have my husband and children help me with the decorating for the first 36 years or so.  There were a few years there when we were first married that we didn't really worry about setting up a tree when we traveled to San Jose or Montana for Christmas.  And I truly believe this is the first time I have ever decorated a tree all by myself.  It took me several attempts at hanging the ribbon and ornaments before I found something that was satisfying to me.  I took many pictures of it trying to give you a small glimpse of the warmth that it brings into my home far from home.  Oh, what would I do without my family?  I treasure these ornaments that remind me of you.