Trek Prep: A Labor of Joy

Ward group at the G where we finished our 14 mile "urban hike" through AF and PG.

Oh, trek. Where to begin? I've put off writing this post for too long because I know it's going to be a tough one to do justice to. I suppose I will start off with some of the preparation elements. The gear-up for trek started in my ward back at the end of July. As I wrote about here, we hiked the Mormon Trail through Emmigration Canyon to kick off the trek preparation period. From then until trek in mid-October, there were a number of preparatory tasks I completed, some recommended and some just personal.

Over the River and Through the Woods, Just Not at Thanksgiving Time

In September, I took the chance to go visit Grandma in Idaho for a few days in order to work some more on Grandpa's book. It's been in the works for about 2 years now, and lots of people have had their hands in the pie, so I figured it would be good to try to knock it out finally, if possible.

...And Ends With a Reunion

After the wedding shindigs, everyone but Marinda and Paul stayed at the house and went to church the next day for a relaxed Sunday. Gerrit and Elisabeth left bright and early to go to Washington on Monday and Mom, Dad, Grandma, and I left no-so-bright and early to start the journey to Texas.

It Starts With A Wedding...

August brought a lot of traveling. It started with Marinda's wedding on Aug. 1, and finished off with the Larsen Family Reunion in Port Aransas, Texas. Along the way, I managed to rack up 5 new states I've never been in before. Ok, technically I've had a layover in Texas before, but I hardly think that counts!

A Summit, Gardens, Retreat, and Pioneers Make for a Busy July

Wow, it's been a busy month! I've literally had something going on outside of work every day. This, unfortunately, has left me less time for blogging. I'll just quickly sum up some of the major events.

July 8-11 was the Summer Summit for the stake. It was really quite good in a number of ways. On the Thursday, we had stake temple night. I have never seen a temple so busy as Timp was that night! There was a line of about 10 sisters for the name booth when I got there, and I was still 30 minutes early for the 7:00 session I'd come for.

Big Bash Week, Both Metaphorically and Literally Speaking

It's been a long an exhausting week for me in many ways, though really it's just been a lot of ups and downs. It was our Big Bash Week for the ward, which meant a different activity every day. Part of the exhaustion came from the fact that this is a lot of socializing for my taste. Of course, normally if it was just me, I would have simply skipped some things or left early when I felt like it. These options were eliminated, however, due to my desire to help a few other specific people. Closing the escape hatches on their behalf meant I was in it whole-hog for the long run.

Enter the Family

I'm doing a family blog in addition to this personal one now, and I must say it's causing me to sadly neglect this one more than I probably should. I need to figure out a better balance to maintain both properly, but in the meantime, I'm just trying to make it a week at a time. All that is basically just my lame excuse for not doing a report sooner on the family coming to visit for Elliot's baby blessing last month. To be fair to myself, it was overlapping with my ward's Temple Challenge Day, which I talked about last time, so that ended up getting priority writing simply because I was more concerned about losing the revelations and miracles of that day by not getting to it until later.

Receiving Joy from the Temple Challenge

So the 18th finally arrived, the big day. We were scheduled to meet up at 9:00 AM, but I decided to be early so I could have the names I'd prepared made into cards early to remove another hurtle I'd have to jump later. So at 8:45 I ran in and got my names printed, where I met Amy from my ward who was just finishing getting her names printed. Amy is one of my favorite people here, so it was nice to see her first thing and have a moment to greet her properly.

Being Challenged by the Temple Challenge

It's time to talk about the Temple Challenge I was involved in with the ward, but I probably better start at the very beginning. I've been the Family History Leader in my ward for over a year now, basically since I moved in. During that time, I've seen a little interest from some members of the ward, but not nearly as much as I would have hoped. It's been a point that has troubled me for quite awhile, as I see my role as having the primary responsibility to get people excited about family history and secondarily to help them do the work. I've mostly felt like a failure at the first goal, though moderately successful at the second.

The Conference and the Concert

At the end of February, I had a busy Saturday between attending a stake women's conference and going up to Salt Lake with Marinda and Paul for a concert. The day didn't get off to a great start when I found myself running late to the conference in the morning.

Getting Back to my Roots...Tech

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend RootsTech. I've been excited about going since I signed up back in January, and I was definitely not disappointed when I actually went. There were a lot of interesting things going on, and I learned some very helpful tips for my own family history efforts as well as for my calling as Family History Leader.

Through the Temple Glass

Just a short entry to record something I noticed at the temple last Saturday. I went to Mount Timpanogos for a ward temple session, and the temple was crazy busy. We were supposed to be on the 10:00 AM session, but the entire chapel was full when I got up there about 15 minutes early.

The Gospel, and Myself, Unmasked

Anticipation really is the spice of life. It adds a special savor to all the proceeding days and makes the arrival of the expected event all the more wonderful. How boring life would be without something to look forward to! Recently, I'd been anticipating a ward cabin trip that was announced right after Christmas. I've learned that such things in this ward usually end up being quite interesting, and this time was no exception.

A Hodgepodge of Holidays

December was pretty busy and I didn't get around to recording as much as I probably should have.  I suppose I will just do some of the highlights at this point.