Sing us a song….
Scott played the piano and sang amusing versions of familiar songs that had the crowd at his BYU ward talent show cheering!
Scott and Sue Family
A tale of misery and woe
OK, this is my downer post-feel free to skip. I’ve written it in my head several times over the past week and decided to keep waiting to get some perspective before blogging. Not sure if I’ve been successful in gaining perspective, but maybe I’ve cut down on the invective and #$^%& words. It all started with some kids bashing our mailbox with a baseball bat. I found this out when the police officer came early in the morning to tell me about it. We had replaced the box last year after it was destroyed by a pumpkin, but now the combined bashings have rendered our post untenable. We live on a rural route so we have to have a box on the street, which means it’s open to the frequent temptation of cruising juveniles who want to destroy property.
Next we noticed that the hardwood floor in front of the refrigerator felt uneven under our stocking feet. Upon further investigation, we found that the boards were warped, the water line between the frig and sink had a leak and we were looking at Scott’s favorite home repair: plumbing. I’m being facetious, of course, because he’s a handy dude around the house but he really hates plumbing stuff. Then I pulled our clothes out of the dryer to find they were still wet. This was after 3 cycles. Yeah, no heat in there whatsoever. He looked at it and pronounced it DOA. We’d had a couple days to absorb the mailbox, this other happened within a few minutes of each other. We checked the basement office under the kitchen and no water down there. Phew!
After several moments of despair, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We hung the wet clothes around the house to dry, went shopping for a mailbox, plumbing parts, and a new dryer and started fixing. Scott got the leak under the sink fixed, we went to my in-laws to dry enough clothes to last us until the dryer could be delivered a week later, and put a continuous fan on the kitchen floor. So far, so good.
Then a couple days ago we noticed a bad smell in the basement office and found we had wet carpet and a large wet area down the wall destroying the paint, and started fans on that. They weren’t cutting it, so yesterday Scott rented a super blower to get it all dried. I haven’t been down there this morning to check on the progress because it makes me want to cry every time I walk in there. The only good thing I see is that we are both committed to tackling the long-standing problem of cleaning out the office this winter. If only because we don’t want to move so much stuff out of there next time there’s a leak. Oh, and the dryer was delivered late yesterday afternoon, so today I can do laundry and maybe get the clothes dry.
The icemaker is still not hooked up because Scott is nervous to upset the status quo, no decision has been made on what to do about the warped kitchen floor, I can’t even think about the mess in the office, and Blue Stakes has come to mark our parking strip so Scott plans to dig and install our new mailbox this weekend. Just in time for Halloween pumpkin smashing. And did I mention that we desperately need a new water heater?
Fall News
Fall is here so that means our mailbox has been vandalized again. This time it was a baseball bat but the pumpkin option is still a future possibility.
And today was the first snow in Alpine-three weeks earlier than last year. Although it was heavy and stuck to the ground and buildings, now that it’s late afternoon it has retreated to the benches. Most of my annuals survived the snow, but we’ll see how they do against tonight’s almost-freezing temps. Indian summer around the corner, I hope?
Adventures in service crafting
My sister is having a boutique on Saturday at 73 E 1200 N in Pleasant Grove. They are trying to raise money for adoption fees and have solicited craft items. So I’ve been a crafting machine for the last couple weeks to get things done for Monday’s delivery date. Thought I’d share what I managed to make.
Total inventory:
- 1 crochet-edge doll blanket and burp cloth set
- 1 crochet-edge baby blanket and burp cloth set
- 1 crochet-edge flannel pillowcase
- 5 cotton pillowcases
- about 30 handmade cards
- 12 folded star ornaments
- 19 crochet-edge burp cloths
August updates from Elder Brian
August 2, 2011
The work is going really well right now, we have a ton of potential investigators, and it seems like all these investigators are just being handed to us through these crazy miracles.
August 9, 2011
Yesterday, was the worst day of my mission quite possibly. Why would [the investigators we’ve worked with for months] deny the things that they were feeling and felt? Everyone was crying. We left, I was still crying. I didn’t get a hold of myself until after we got home. I feel as a parent must feel if a child decides to abandon their testimony and leave. It is awful. I have had investigators drop me plenty of times before in my mission, I have had people yell/throw things/swear/punch just about everything. But that was brutal. But if anything, my testimony of the church is stronger. In this battle literally against the very forces of hell, we have to be the strong ones. I know my purpose. I know that I am a Son of God and that I am on the Lord’s errands. Although I am imperfect, and I struggle every day, I know who I am and what I can become.
August 16, 2011
We just barely got back from the Newport Beach Temple (the Lord’s beach house as it is referred to here), and it was great! I love the Newport Temple, it is so awesome. This week has been a week of miracles! Truly, it has been incredible to see! From last week’s letter being the worst of times, now it is the best of times! [Our investigator] told us that after the meeting on Monday she felt awful, and she was really confused. She decided to do what we told her to do and to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. She got answers. She knew that everything was true. I was crying, but this time they were tears of joy and of the Spirit instead of pain and heartache. She was crying, we were all crying. It was amazing. Wow. It was such a powerful experience.
August 23, 2011
Multi-Zone Conference! The 4 Orange County zones got together for zone conference because we were being visited by Elder Gibbons from the Second Quorum of the 70. It was awesome! I played piano (as usual), and he said some really nice things about my prelude, he talked about prelude music and the doctrine behind it, and the importance of it, for the first 15 minutes. It was neat. During lunch they had asked some people to share miracles that had happened recently, and [my companion] was asked to talk about [our recent experience] which was neat. Then after lunch, I accompanied [a sister missionary] on the song that I wrote for the conference. It was an arrangement of “I Stand All Amazed/Nearer My God To Thee”. I had kind of done one similar before, but this one was WAY better and new and improved.
August 30, 2011
In the evening we went over and got ready for [our investigator from above’s] baptism! It was incredible! The most spiritual baptism that I have ever been to in my entire life. Quite possibly one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It was amazing! The service was awesome, I played piano and accompanied this girl that sang “Nearer my God to Thee”, and it was powerful. Then I was privileged to be able to perform the ordinance of baptism, and it was such a sweet experience. I have never seen anyone change so much in such a short time. It was incredible. She was bawling, EVERYONE was bawling. I have never experienced something like that before. I have had a ton of spiritual experiences on my mission, too. It was as if we were in heaven. It was amazing. One of the highlights of my mission!!!