Since the family reunion had come to an end, we needed to return the car we borrowed from Dad and Mom for us to use while Abe's family drove our car.
Abe had given both Glen and me a Cubii under-desk elliptical. Glen uses his religiously every single day for hours at a time. I have been happy about that since it helped Glen's foot surgery recovery and it also keeps Glen moving while he sits at his desk for so many hours each day.
I don't sit at the desk that much--mostly just to blog--and don't really like to be moving while I'm trying to do computer work.
When we learned Dad had gotten a blood clot in his calf, we thought we would give him my Cubii and see how he likes it and hopefully it will keep his blood circulating.
We think this would make a cute advertisement photo for the Cubii!!!
The letter was supposed to be telling something about an ancestor and how the youth can draw strength from knowing stories about their ancestors.
We were asked to help Troy and Carol Nielsen with the service project part of youth conference. We were at Aspen Grove when the group got together to sort all the hygiene kit items that had been donated.
The night before youth conference, we went to the church and got everything organized into two groups of supplies, so there would be equal supplies for each group.
The youth moved into the church building where we had quilts set up and they learned how to tie a quilt.
Oh happy day for both of us knowing we had finished that day's assignment just in time to get to the Bountiful Temple for Gabe and Maggie's sealing. It was so sweet to see them in the temple together exactly one year to the day (Ben's birthday to be exact) of their wedding day.
When a quilt got finished, we would put on a new one and kept the youth busy. Even the boys got involved in the quilting and most learned to enjoy it.
Along one wall, tables were set up for the youth to work on cutting and tying the edges of two fleece pieces of material together making a warm blanket.
We had been invited to stay for lunch. Glen kept hoping and hoping lunch would be Chick-fil-A. Imagine his delight when our friend JoAnne, chairman of the food committee, had organized Chick-fil-A to be served both days at this location. Oh happy day (for Glen)!!!
We had originally told Andy and Amanda we would not be able to attend the evening dinner celebration because we had been asked to help set up that night for the next day's activities.
Glen was a worker bee and got things all organized for the next day while we were there and talked the Nielsens into not going back that night.
We were free!! I checked with Andy to see if it would be okay if we attended after all and he gave the affirmative nod to the idea. HURRAH!!!! I was sure excited to have a delicious meal that evening in Andy and Amanda's beautiful back yard.
It was discovered earlier that the delightfully cool gymnasium of the day before was no longer delightful nor cool. It was downright hot.
The problem of the malfunctioning air conditioner was addressed before the youth arrived. The accordion doors to the chapel were opened to let the cool air from that room drift into the gym. Some fans were located and helped blow the colder air our way.
Two more quilt frames were set up the second day because we were worried we would not be able to finish all the quilts that day.
Shockingly, that quilt got totally tied and we happily, and with much relief, were able to add it to the quilt pile.
The total count for the service project:
We had a miracle quilt experience with a big quilt that was put on the frames with very little time left before lunch. There was no way the youth were ever going to finish that thing. But, Carol was determined to get it done. The leaders came to the rescue to work on that quilt after the youth left.
Clean-up of the gym was going on all around us, but we kept working. I was the needle-threader and kept the ladies going by not having to stop to thread their needles.
The youth were working hard on the fleece quilts just as they had the day before.
I spied something surprising at the other end of the long fleece table.
Yes, there was a group of men cutting and tying--one of which was my husband. Yay for Glen!!!
It was fun and fulfilling to see the stacks of blankets and quilts all ready to donate.
500 hygiene kits108 double-thickness fleece blankets30 quilts
Our part seemed very miniscule in what was accomplished, but we were happy we helped and happy the youth had been kept busy those two mornings working on a worthwhile service project.
It was time for my parents to join us at another play at Hale Centre Theatre. This one was a musical romantic comedy and we all LOVED it!!!
Mom declared it her favorite play to date. We always walk out of there marveling at the stage sets that move and change frequently, at the talented actors and this time at the clever and fun plot.
As per tradition, we went to dinner after the play. We usually go to Red Lobster and that is where we went.
The next day was our first time to speak at the prison during the worship service. It is not called sacrament meeting because the sacrament is not administered and passed to the inmates.
Our Olympus branch was and is still not allowing volunteers due to a Covid outbreak. This makes 6 weeks and counting of not being able to get in there.
In the meantime, the other branches have been allowing volunteers. Since Glen is on the district council, we are asked to speak every third Sunday in a different branch of the prison--like the high council does in each stake.
Last week we were invited to the Wasatch 1st branch, which is general population male inmates. We had joined the branch presidency in their early-morning sacrament meeting and council.
This branch of the prison has a chapel and we were allowed to meet onsite in the chapel for a short sacrament meeting where we were able to partake of the sacrament.
At 9:00 a.m., the inmates started filing in and we shook hands with each one of them. One of the inmates plays the piano very beautifully and hurried right in and took his seat on the piano bench. Another inmate was the chorister and two others gave the prayers.
There were 38 inmates in attendance. I had spent a lot of time thinking, praying and preparing for my talk.
I felt very inspired as I was able to tie in Elder Dube's conference talk "Pressing Toward the Mark" that was our assignment and the experience we had learned about the Mormon Battalion that I had previously thought I wanted to speak about.
I love it when everything comes together into the inspired finished product.
At the end of the meeting, as we were telling each inmate good-bye, one of them told Glen that after I finished speaking, he leaned over and told the man sitting next to him, "That woman sure knows how to talk!" I took that as a compliment and we both got a big kick out of his comment.
Another inmate told Glen he really liked how happy and cheerful Glen is. Glen always radiates happiness and good cheer and people love being around him and hearing him speak.
After the worship service, we had Sunday School. Glen helped the branch president give a blessing to one of the men. He has been in prison for 18 years. That's a LONG time!!!
It had been an interesting experience being around a different group that day. It was also interesting seeing a different building. Very different from the one where our branch meets.
I experienced a tender mercy the following day when I read this article in the news. It was confirming the message I had just talked about the day before. It reconfirmed to me that the thought I had of talking about the lessons that we and the missionaries learned from the Mormon Battalion are relevant today.
I love it when that happens!!!
Needless to say, I called Glen away from his work to get him to clean up the bird body. It was a relief to get it off the porch and more of a relief when the trash got collected and it was no longer in our trash can.
I was so glad I noticed it before a visitor came to our front porch. That scene would not have been very welcoming.
As Pioneer Day was approaching and as I was feeling the need to go and do something fun, I started researching rodeos. The Ogden Rodeo was sold out.
The Days of '47 Rodeo at the state fairgrounds in Salt Lake City had many available tickets every night.
We decided to go on Thursday night since Glen didn't have to work the next day and it wouldn't matter how late we stayed up. The weather was beautiful when we arrived.
Turns out that was a good idea as the people who were in their seats soon got evacuated and all of us were under the bleachers waiting out the storm which produced a lot of rain.
Randomly, the guy standing next to us struck up conversation and we both figured out we had lived in the Kansas City area. He then asked if we know Carl and Sherrie Dahlquist. WHAT??!!?? They were just our best friends when we lived there. SMALL WORLD!!
Of course I had to take a photo and send it to Sherrie. It was the perfect opportunity to tell her our plans of going to Kansas City for a wedding in August to see if we could get together one of the days we are there.
The cowboys were not too happy about the long delay in starting the rodeo. I am sure they were not too happy about the animals and the arena being soaking wet and muddy, either.
Finally, we got the okay to let spectators take their seats. Thankfully, our seats were up near the top which had an awning covering us. Our seats were dry!!!!
The wind was whipping my hair all around and it was raining lightly and we were getting wet from the blowing wind, but it wasn't too bad and we stayed mostly dry.
The bucking and roping began.
Another big, long delay huddling under the bleachers with hoards of people. Although, we saw many of the people leaving as they were fed up with the rain.
When we got the all clear signal to go back to our seats, once again I was thankful our seats were dry. Somehow we had managed to keep ourselves almost completely dry even during the evacuation.
I kept looking at the sky thinking we were in for another big dumping soon...
Just as we had suspected, the heavens opened up again dumping tons of rain down on the arena. We were quite content sitting under our awning and were willing to stay in our seats for the duration of the storm.
But, when the lightning started, we were all ordered out of our seats and told to take cover under the bleachers. UGH!!!! We sat patiently waiting, keeping dry while we watched the wet, uncovered seat people hurrying out of there to take cover.
The rodeo started up once again as we were noticing how sparse the audience was for the second half of the rodeo.
The good thing was the sky had cleared up--we could see the lights of the city--and we knew it would not rain on our parade *rodeo* anymore.
The bucking was still able to happen after all that rain. I kept wondering how the cowboys would be able to stay on the very wet animals.
The barrel racing was canceled as we were told it would not be safe for "the animal athletes" to compete under those conditions.
It felt very patriotic. I was happy we had gone to celebrate the 24th of July. It was memorable. It was an adventure. It was fun!!!!
As we exited the stadium along the upper level, we looked down at the livestock "animal athletes" in their holding pens. It was good that none of them (or the "human athletes") were injured in the less-than-desirable circumstances of that evening.
We almost didn't even recognize Dave with his long hair and white beard. He said he just let everything grow (including his eyebrows) all through Covid and is not planning to cut and shave until the end of the year.
There was a bonus show for us as we watched a fireworks display after the rodeo.
It had been a really long time since we got together with Glen's sister Bonnie and Dave. They love to drive to Bountiful from West Valley to eat at El Matador. We decided we could stomach Mexican food because it was worth it to get together with them.
Perhaps he could get some gigs during the Christmas season playing Santa Claus...???!!!???
After our Mexican fiesta, we took Brooke and Caroline to Walmart and Costco with us. They were bored and thought that would be a fun thing to do.
It was fun having them with us. Brooke had two goals with our shopping spree. Get Oreos at Walmart and get S'mores Snack Mix at Costco. SUCCESS!!
We also got to have a little visit with Aunt Lucille and Uncle Larry who spotted us as they were entering the store.
We are so thankful for our pioneer heritage.
We are so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and for the right we have to worship how we choose.
Now I feel I have sufficiently celebrated Pioneer Day.
