Dorothy

November 9, 2009
Dear Family,
Always something going on around here…
As you know, Penny entered the MTC on September 16th and after 2 ½ weeks of missionary training, arrived in Calgary on October 6th. Her new companion is from the Cottonwood Heights area (Sister Jackson) and is a head taller than Penny. They are serving in the Young Single Adults Ward in Calgary. They are working with the members to get them to give them referrals. They are also very good to feed the missionaries at least 4 nights a week. Penny says the guys are better at signing up to serve them meals than the girls. She has a few investigators they are working with. She says the elders in her zone are crazy but a lot of fun. She seems to really be enjoying her mission.
It’s been nice to be able to attend our new temple, the beautiful Oquirrh Mountain Temple, since it opened the end of August. It takes us just less than 20 minutes to get there. One day I saw cousin Diane Ceslak there and we gave each other a hug. She is also in this temple district.
During October Becky directed the play “Wait Until Dark” at the Barn Community Theater. She does a good job. The play was very well done.
Daniel was also in an appropriate play for the Halloween season. He played the part of Simon Stride in the musical, “Jekyll and Hyde” in Lehi. It was also very well done, a PG 13 type show that I normally wouldn’t go see, but seeing as how my son was in it, I did and I’m glad… glad I was sitting on the 3rd row and had some of the stabbing blocked from my view.
The biggest news for us is that after 5 years and 10 months, Alan was released as bishop of our ward. That is the longest any bishop has served in our ward since it was established in 1988. None of the former bishops live in our ward now, they’ve all moved! We don’t plan on following the trend. We plan on staying here… for the rest of our days, unless some unusual opportunity comes our way. Alan was sustained the same day as a member of the high council, so we’re glad they’re keeping him busy.
Now that he has a bit more free time, Alan is considering the idea of joining a choir. He really misses leading a good choir… he also can’t decide on which one. So last week he tried out the one Heather goes to, “The Sterling Singers” which didn’t help his decision. He said it was a huge choir (couple hundred) but it was a lot of fun with a lot of really good singers. Next time he’ll try his former choir (Mountain West Chorale) again.
Ariane performed in her high school’s “South Pacific” musical the first weekend in November. She did a great job singing and dancing and enjoyed this first experience in a musical. It was fun to see it the same night with Mom, Jennifer, Heather, Casey, Jason, Becky, Kevin, Alan, and I and Becky’s family. Daniel and Marcus saw it the night before. Daniel was in this same musical at the same high school when he was a senior 11 years ago!
Last week we replaced our nearly 23 year old water heater, the one that was new when our house was built! Water just started dripping out the bottom one day and continued until there were a lot of drops of rusty water going down the drain. So we called our plumber and got a new one installed before it got any worse. They say water heaters nowadays are expected to last only 9 years. Why don’t they make them like they used to??
It was a lot of fun to have a “sisters reunion” (including Priscilla over the phone since she couldn’t come up and go to lunch with us) when Jennifer and Lucy happened to come into town the same weekend. It was especially fun with the added surprise of Lucy’s (very clever way of announcing their) very happy family news. Congratulations to the Dave & Lucy Yorgason family. We are so excited for you!!
May everyone enjoy this season of thanksgiving as we all have much to be thankful for!
Love, Dorothy and family