February Newsletter

Dear Family,
I hope MaryAnn and Michelle both had wonderful birthdays. I know I did. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great birthday dinner. January and what we have seen of February have been full of shoveling snow. I don’t know about the rest of you, but we have mountains of snow piled up around our driveway. Today is sunny and I think the forecast is for warmer weather. I just hope it doesn’t get too warm too fast to cause flooding. I am sure you have all felt as we have the loss of our beloved prophet president Hinkley. I have been impressed with the expressions of love and affection from those who are not of our faith from around the world. He was truly a wonderful ambassador for the Lord’s church. I couldn’t help but feel grateful that he was blessed to not have to suffer a long drawn out period of poor health. It seemed as though he was able to carry out his work up to almost the last days of his life. His whole life has been a testimony of the promise made in the oath and covenant of the priesthood, “are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies”. Laurie and I enjoyed the World Wide Leadership meeting held for all adults yesterday. It is good to know that the Lord’s pattern is set and won’t change with every wind of change in today’s storm of values and philosophies. For an update on the activities around our house, wedding plans pretty well fill the air most of the time and consume most of Laurie’s time. Laralyn and Rodney were able to start moving stuff into their new apartment yesterday. I believe Rodney is going to be living there until they get married. Our house was getting filled with shower gifts and Laralyn’s stuff. Now it is just full of reception stuff. Bethany has a new job, and a pretty good one at that. She works at the new Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. She works in central processing cleaning the surgery instruments. It is full time work and includes full benefits. Austin’s 16th birthday is coming soon and he thinks that is pretty cool. Macall started working at the local elementary school as a sweeper like her older brother and sisters all did. Bryce and Shane weathered the Klondike Winter Camp up at Jordanell State Park along with their dad a few weeks ago. It was cold and there was a lot of snow. Putting up spring bar tents in 8-10 feet of snow became quite a trick. Dave let us have his club 100 tickets to the Jazz versus the Bulls basketball game last night. We had a great time. What a fantastic experience it was to get to go to the dinner before the game and then sit 3 rows up from the floor. It was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities and a lot of fun. Thanks Dave. Miranda and Mollie have enjoyed getting a bunch of their big sister’s (Laralyn’s) fun hand-me-downs as she is sorting through her stuff. Until next month, we wish you all a healthy safe and wonderful time.
Darrell, Laurie and kids.