Joan and Tom Come to Visit

 A couple of days after the end of the Hinton reunion, Joan and Tom came for a visit. 

They arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  Our temple sealing assignment is Tuesday evening.  They signed up for the 7:30pm session where Ken was the sealer.  Pam and Roger came, too.  It was a sweet session.  Because it was the last session of the day, I was able to go into the sealing room with them and serve as witness as we sealed many ancestors from many of our lines.

Wednesday morning is my Keynote rehearsal.  Joan came with me to sing with the Keynotes.  She has been doing that for years.  I love having her come.  While we did that, Ken and Tom went on a hike.

A local hill has a distinctive name and shape.  The name alone makes you want to climb it.  So they decided to hike Mollie's Nipple.

It is a steep, rocky difficult hike,  . . .

But the views atop make it worth doing.

Joan and Tom are Pathways missionaries online with students from South America.  They hooked up their computers and had their meeting on Wednesday evening.  

Joan and I shopped on Friday and Tom golfed.

Ken, Tom, and Joan did another beautiful hike on Saturday.

After going out for dinner on Friday evening, we drove by the St. George temple.

That evening, it was so fun to cheer on the Cougars together.  Joan and I always text back and forth during the BYU games, but it was nice to share it in person.

Their son and grandson were at the game.

So was our granddaughter.

Elder Kearon and Elder Rasband just before the game.

Brielle and her roommates were on the jumbo tron during the game.

The game was won on a last second pass completion.  We were going nuts here and everyone was in the stadium.  What a fun ending to a fun visit from Tom and Joan.

The Captricorn Stone

The Capricorn Stone by Madeleine Brent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this novel. It was exciting and kept me guessing throughout. And bonus- it was free of bad language and immorality. The book may not win literary awards, but I really liked it. It kept me turning pages. I will seek out other books by this author.

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Go As a River

 

Go as a River by Shelley Read
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a beautifully written story. It is mostly a sad story. It is a story of a courageous young girl, turned woman who had great sadness to bear all of her life. I felt the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.

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The Song of Bernadette

>The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story has interested me for years. It is the story of Saint Bernadette. Bernadette was a young, poor girl living in Lourdes, France. She was not particularly smart or gifted and suffered from severe asthma. When she was fourteen years old, she had a vision/visitation from who was later to believed to be the virgin Mary. These visitations continued daily for fourteen days, and then occasionally thereafter. The visitor’s messages included instructions to eat nearby herbs and drink from a spring (which seemed to have healing powers) have a processional, and build a cathedral. Years later, Bernadette became a Catholic nun and shortly after her death was granted sainthood by the Catholic church.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can’t help but compare Joseph Smith’s story. He was fourteen years old when visited by God, the Father and the Son. He too was given a message, but, unlike Bernadette’s, his message was world changing. He, like Bernadette was doubted and persecuted, but, in almost the same words, both said they had seen a vision and they knew God knew it and they could not deny it.
I know that Joseph’s story is true. I don’t know the truth of Bernadette’s story, but it was so interesting to read and think about. It is a beautiful book. There is a movie of the same title that I would like to see.


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I Found You

 

I Found You by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Fiction: Thriller
I find I’m not that good at guessing what will happen in a plot and this one kept me guessing. It is a creative and complex story. It is a love story, and I liked that part. It is a 5-star book for plot and characters. But it’s a 2-star book for the disturbing violent scenes. I wouldn’t mind reading a quiet, happily ever after sequel for I liked the characters and want them to be happy.


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Family Book Club

 We recently gathered online with our daughters for book club.  We were to discuss this book:

It was an excellent book that helps restore faith in humanity.  
But truth be told, most of our time is spent visiting and catching up with each other.

Shonna recently had extensive jaw surgery.  So it was especially good to talk to her and hear her voice.  None of us had talked on the phone with her since communication is hard, but we could understand her just fine on this call.  She was still quite swollen and numb.  We are praying earnestly that she will recover quickly and completely.

We love these "book clubs" with our core family.  How we love these daughters!

PS  We did discuss the book for a few minutes.  I think we all recommend it!

Worth a Thousand Words

 Some pictures just are . . .

This is one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema.  

Something Good

MARIA:
Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somewhere in my wicked miserable past
There must have been a moment of truth
For here you are standing there loving me
Whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good.

CAPTAIN:
For here you are standing there loving me
Whether or not you should

MARIA:
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
MARIA AND CAPTAIN:
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
MARIA:
So somewhere in my youth
CAPTAIN:
Or childhood
MARIA:
I must have done something
MARIA AND CAPTAIN:
Something good...

We Host the Hinton Family Sibling Reunion 2024

 We recently hosted the Hinton Family Reunion here in southern Utah.  Rick and Sherrie and Don and Ada are on missions so were not in attendance.  Lorene is serving a mission in Salt Lake City, but was able to attend.  

The reunion started on Thursday.  We had dinner in host homes:

Ken and Kay hosted Jim and Leslie

Dave and Gerri hosted Clark and Nan

Mark and Kathy hosted Lorene

After dinner, at 6pm, we met in the Red Cliffs temple for a sealing session with Ken as the sealer.  We were able to seal many of our ancestors.

After the temple, we came to our house for ice cream.

Friday started with breakfast together at IHOP.  We then went to our church.  We each took a journal of Ken's mom or dad and read in it for about 45 minutes, then we gathered to report on what we read.  This is an activity that we have done two previous times and is always a highlight.

After a picnic lunch, we gathered in our basement to share a piece of music that has meaning to us.  It was wonderful.

The last piece of music was shared upstairs by Jim.  He had learned to play a favorite piece on the piano.

After Hawaiian Haystacks dinner prepared by Gerri, we had a zoom call with the missionaries where we asked them questions that they answered.

After breakfast in the host homes on Saturday, we met at the historic St. George temple for an endowment session.  Afterward, we met at Pasta Factory for lunch.

Those who wanted to, then met at our home to watch the BYU game.  Some read books or napped instead.

It was so fun to watch with other true blue fans.

After a delicious taco dinner prepared by Kathy, we had some workshops.  Clark and Nan taught us with a power point presentation about the effects of cancel culture- those who vilify the founding fathers.  It was really well done and memorable.  Jim and Leslie each reported on a book they had read.  Jim reported on the Wright brothers, a book written by David McCullough and Leslie reported on "These is My Words."

Sunday morning we met at our ward for 8:30am church, then came to our house for business meeting and pasta bar lunch before everyone left to go home.

It was a wonderful reunion!