Summer! (yay?)

I guess the summer heat is here.  It wasn’t as hot as it has been (not 109 deg), but it was really humid, and the air was heavy.  We didn’t spend a lot of time outside, needless to say.   I think it reached 102, but I don’t know for sure.  We found out we can go to movies!  All 3 of us want to go see “Brave”.  Maybe that will happen on Tuesday, as the office is closed for the 24^th of July.  Can you believe it?  Here in California we celebrate the 24^th of July!  I think it’s great!

We spent the morning helping Sister Scoffield paint the kitchen at the office.  The building has the Bishop’s Storehouse, LDS Family Services, and LDS Employment Resource Services Center in it.  We all share the kitchen.  The kitchen used to be just white, but it is now a really bright shade of green!  I wouldn’t call it florescent green, but it is bright, and I like it!  Sister Scoffield has done a wonderful job of brightening up the whole Storehouse.  No longer are there drab, white walls, but walls filled with color and warmth.  She felt the people that come in need to feel warmth and love, and certainly, the Scoffields fill it with both!  I will try and get a picture sometime soon.  Sister Scoffield told us not to tell anyone in our office about painting the kitchen, to see if they would notice.  I told her “They’ll notice!”  I do like it though!  For all those worried about my wrist – I painted with my left hand, and stayed far away from the edges and door frames, because my left hand is pretty uncoordinated  and I didn’t want to mess up the walls, etc.~

We continue to go to the temple (our beautiful Fresno temple!) every Thursday night.  We haven’t taken the same person twice yet.  We are encouraging those we take to take other people on another night.  I don’t know if that is happening, but hopefully it is.  We have met some wonderful people there. They welcome us every week, and we feel so loved.  Two people from our office work there on Thursday pm, a Brother and a Sister.  It’s good to see them there as well as at the office.

We have been inadvertently blessed to go on Thursday night besides serving in the temple, because two of the workers take turns making cookies on Thursday pm for the temple workers!  We are invited to go have cookies as well!  How cool is that?!?  One of the Brothers (yes – Brothers), Brother Tanner, volunteers at the Employment office on Friday am, so not only do we get cookies on Thursday pm, if there are any leftover, we get cookies on Friday am as well!  They are really good cookies too!  There is a slight competition between the 2 Brothers, seeing who will bake the best cookies.  Brother Tanner made Thumbprint Cookies with a Hershey’s kiss on it instead of jam recently.  They were good!  It did make me want to make some like my mom does though, with jam….  Hummmmmm!  Maybe Monday night?

The only problem is my ever-expanding waist line!  I would hate to see what would happen if I didn’t exercise, but it’s still pretty scary because I DO exercise.  I didn’t do much today – no time with the painting.  We get up at 5:45 am to exercise for ½ hour.  I cannot! get up any earlier!  It’s just too hard, I’m too lazy!  It’s too hot to exercise after we leave the office, and there’s always something else we are doing.  SO…  I guess I’d better not buy any more ice cream, chocolate covered almonds, caramels, starburst………..

Speaking of eating, we had the young Elders over for dinner again.  They are still the same Elders that were here when we arrived.  They said they have been together for 4 months!  They are wonderful – Elder Berg and Elder Jensen.   Britta’s home teachers came (the Betts), thankfully, as it would have been WAY too hot to be outside because the young Elders can’t come in without an adult male in the home!  We had our new friend, Becky Cuthill, come over for dinner too.  She brought fruit and vegetables and herbs, for us and for the Elders.  It was so sweet, but, also, it was presented all wrapped up in tissue paper, making it look like such a festive gift!  She is a real sweetheart!  She is a Native American of the Big Sandy Tribe.  She is awesome!  She graduated from university in English.  She is a kind, kind lady.

For dinner, Britta bought Tri-Tip which is a local favorite and really good!  Brother Betts was very kind in cooking the tri-tip on the grill – with some Alpine Touch – it was delicious!  We had potato salad, fruit, baked beans, grilled corn on the cob, tomatoes, and blueberry angel food cake and ice cream!  All in all – a wonderful evening ~

Sister Morris and I are going to give some workshops in a couple of towns in August/September.  Two are in Modesto, on different dates (a spot of driving there), the other is over to Santa Maria.  There could be as many as 25 people in one of the Modesto workshops!  Now that’s going to be a challenge!  But!  It will be great!  Looking forward to it! 

We will probably spend at least one night in Santa Maria.  I was thinking renting a hotel room would be good, but with the price of gas – maybe we’ll sleep in the car!  (I AM JUST KIDDING, MOM!)  We’ll borrow a tent….

Well – it’s bedtime – sorry there aren’t any pictures.  I keep forgetting to take it out of my purse!  I hope you all are doing well.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  I feel strength from them every day!  Love, Sister Ure

Okay - here it is - a picture of the new "do". I cringed when that first SNIP went across the back of my neck!  Well - it will grow out.  Some people at church said it makes me look 10 years younger!  Well - now I look 29!!!  LOL!!!!

 

I'll write again later.  Yes, it's after bed time.  I hope everyone is doing well!  Love, Sister Ure

Short note to self - don't let someone talk you into having your hair cut short!  A picture will be posted when I can get my hair to look good, ..... or it has grown out!  The person who cut my hair does have a peach, nectarine, plum orchard, and let us have some - oh my!  oh my!  delicious!

It was 109 deg. F the other day - 109!!!!  (whimper)  Only part of one foot melted..... 

I feel so bad for Britta's fat, stuffed sausage puppy (overweight weiner dog) - you can just tell he's so uncomfortable!  I'm glad I'm indoors!

A sweet sister from the ward had Sister Morris and I come over to her house to pick some fresh produce!  Oh my goodness!  What a wonderful bunch of fruits and veges!  The car smelt divine when we were driving home.

I hope everyone is doing well ~  Love, Sister Ure

So much to write and so little time!  I quickly will tell about the 4th of July (who am I kidding?  I never tell anything quickly!).  It started with a bike ride at 7 am.  It was really fun, but my wrist was not ready for it, so I spent the day trying to keep the swelling down.  It wasn't too bad.  We went with Britta's home teachers) the Betts', another person from our ward here, so with Sister Morris and I there were 5 people.  We came back and got ready to go to breakfast at the Rasmussens.  They are the nicest people!  I am just so impressed with them.  We visited for awhile outside, while it was still pleasant.  The only unpleasant thing was a helicopter flying around and around - I think they were looking for us, but luckily we were hiding under the shade of the tree.....  Apparently, they look for people often over in the Rasmussen's neighborhood....

We came back to the house, and Britta had a nap - she had taken some nyquil trying to keep a cold at bay, but kept falling asleep at breakfast.  Sis. Morris worked on her lesson for this coming Sunday - she was asked to teach Relief Society #12 - "An Enthusiastic Desire to Share the Gospel".  I did some laundry, and started getting some things ready for going to dinner later.  We were invited to Elsie Marrott's home for dinner.  Britta's daughter had invited us there, but we couldn't go because there was going to be alcohol there.  So Elsie invited us to her home.  We were going to take a salad, so I started working on that.  Sister Morris has a veg-a-matic (slicer) and I thought it would be fun to use it.  You can all see where this is headed!  I was fine on the first vegetable - the zucchini, but when I started to cut the carrots, I for some reason didn't think I would need to use the "holder" "guard" - whatever it's called, and tried to make the top of my finger part of the salad......

     Bandaged

Add caption

  Blurry, but sort of showing the chunk taken out

  yeah - it's gross

It's not too painful right now - I honestly thought I had just received a paper cut type of cut - it does hurt when it's not wrapped and I bump it!  I won't gross everyone out by saying I threw away what I cut off.....

So - needless to say - Sister Morris finished the salad!  Not a good way to get out of doing some work.

We went to Elsie's, had pizza and salad, chips, pop, treats!  We went to fireworks after that.  We sat in a cul-de-sac where someone had made homemade ice cream and handed it out.  We were by a stadium that lit some fireworks off too!  We couldn't see the ones on the ground very well, but that's to be expected.  There were lots of people in there and everyone brought fireworks (legal kind) to let off while waiting for the big show.  Here's some pictures.  The 'big show' picture didn't turn out very well.

 

 

 

Pretty blurry, but we were there and we could smell them and feel them!  I love fireworks!  It was a nice day!

I had wanted to tell about one of the missionary experiences we have had.  It started out really kind of weird.  A man came to the door with some tire lug nuts and a part of a tool.  He was pretty scruffy looking, so I reached up and locked the screen door.  He said he had a flat tire and was stuck down the road about 3 houses.  I wasn't about to let him in; I couldn't see his car - I was thinking - uh huh!  whatever!  ain't buying that!  I told him, sorry, we don't have that tool.  I felt bad as I didn't for sure know whether or not I have the tool.  He leaves, and I see him go to the next door neighbors.  I was worried about them having this scruffy fellow come to their door, as they have little kids...  I wondered what was going on, and what I would do if someone was hurt.  But really, I had no idea who this person was, but because of the way he looked, I had determined he was up to no good. 

As I was doing laundry (forever laundry), I saw this same person walk back down the street.  So I wait for him to go past the driveway, and a little further, and I go out to see, as quietly as I can, if he really does have a flat tire.  Sure enough, there was a car about 3-4 houses down the street and he's pulling a spare tire out of the back of the car. 

The Spirit worked on me a bit and told me to go see if I had that tool, or something that would fit and take them to him.  I pulled out the biggest rachet I have and a couple other tools (thanks, Mike!), as well as my tire iron, asked Sister Morris to stand guard by the mailbox just in case, and took the tools down.  I didn't think they would fit, but I was trying to listen to the Spirit. 

I told the man (I'll call him Fred), showing him the tools, that this was what I had.  He looked at the tools and said they wouldn't work.  Then he looked at my missionary tag and asked what church I belong to, and that he was looking for a new church!  I told him!  He asked where we meet for church - I told him!  He asked if it was a good church - I told him yes!  We talked for a bit more then I asked if there was anyone I could call for him, and he said his sister, so she could arrange a ride for him.  I took his name down, her name and number down, and on my way back to the house, tears streaming down my face - I told Heavenly Father thank you for allowing me to be a part of this, and to forgive me for judging this man.  We can be wise with our personal safety, but someday I will learn not to judge unrighteously. 

Sister Morris and I took the man some water and a couple of snacks, and also a Book of Mormon and a couple of pass along cards.  We talked about the church, and his family, and other things.  Fred remembered having contact with LDS Missionaries before.  Fred asked if our church was the church that had that John Smith guy, with all the wives, and that he didn't think that was right.  Sister Morris answered well, which alleviated some concerns!

The story that wasn't suppose to be long is being very long indeed.  We ended up calling a senior missionary couple over to Britta's house, the Elder is a mechanic, to see if he could help, but the Elder ended up taking the man for a replacement tool as Fred had just bought the one that had broken.   The store was on the other side of town!  I felt bad about that!  Fred and the Elder returned,
the tire was changed with the help of a really nice young man.  We told Fred that God had sent us to him to help him, and that he needed to remember that God loved him and wanted him to learn about the LDS Church.  We asked if he wanted people to come over to talk with him - he said yes!  We were able to call in a referral!  It was such an amazing, and interesting experience.  I learned a lot!  The last I heard, Fred had agreed to have the missionaries come over.  Amazing!  It would be nice to know if he continued on...

Well - I shall post this - there is more, but not for today.  Too long of a short story - I hope everyone is doing well - It was frying hot today.  The temp was cooler than yesterday, but the humidity was much higher - oh boy!  Here we go - (whimper, whimper).  Love, Sister Ure

PS   HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TAEGEN!