K and D's Family Blog: A Texas Treat and All Boxed In

What a wonderful conference with much meaningful and important instruction and many useful reminders. We especially enjoyed Elder Holland’s talk on "Faith and Belief" and its place in our lives. We wish every less-active and most active members would embrace its message; we are sure many will identify with it. In the coming weeks it is our goal to re-play it often as we visit members of the branch. It was a delightful immersion into prophetic insights coupled with feelings of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. As has become our custom we provided lunch between the Sunday sessions for all who came. We were hoping to have some less-active members or investigators attend but this time there were “just” members. It was our pleasure to serve.

Another reason, and there were many, that made this conference special was a visit from our oldest daughter who braved the perpetual winter of the UP to visit from her “near tropical” home in Texas. Together we were able to listen to conference, she without interruption from her children and husband and us without the need to teach lessons and provide music for Sunday meetings. It was great to see her. We are thinking that all of our children and the grandkids should visit us so we could get readjusted before venturing back into civilian life.

5'4" Stephanie relaxing on our special, for guests, five foot couch.
It's a Gulliver like experience. They all look
so innocent when they are asleep.

In addition to General Conference other events the first week of April included the completion of some of Sister Johnson’s Visiting Teaching assignments plus our regular visits with less-active members. It was on a mid-week day we encountered the Roche family. Their names and information had appeared on the branch rolls just a few weeks prior to our visit so we wanted to meet them and assess the situation. We arrived, unannounced, early Wednesday afternoon. It was spring break so all of the family was home including the father who had, unfortunately, lost his job just three days before. We were politely and cordially received. The family had moved to Crystal Falls from Taylorsville, Utah some seven months previous. In addition to the father and mother there are three children, a 16-year-old daughter and sons 13 and 11. The boys are possibly not baptized since neither one showed up on the records that came to the branch. We were excited to meet this intact family with actual children. The father said he looked up when we knocked and he just knew it was the missionaries at his door. It was to him as though we had been sent. After all of the previous evidences of God’s handiwork and love for his children we are inclined to agree with him. The better news is, there are active members living not far from this family. The branch clerk and his grown son live just four houses away and have already volunteered to be their home teachers. In this small town these two brethren had, in fact, already met the mother who works part time at a small local store. Since this families’ presence has been revealed to us we have begun the process of helping the husband find another job and involving other branch members who can help. Another need is with the 11 year old son who suffers from Spina Bifida and some other serious birth challenges. He will undergo surgeries on both hips in Milwaukee this week. We are grateful the Lord inspired us to meet with this family and that there are individuals in the Lord’s storehouse who are capable and willing to help.

We are slowly climbing out of the throes of Global Cooling to the much more pleasant prospect of Global Warming. After exhaustive analyzation and research I think the arguments all boil down the size of the beaches available for sun bathing.

Here are some Pics of a local woman in our most recent winter storm with strange protective head gear.