We have had another busy week here… nothing out of the ordinary, but lots of little things that take up our time. Wednesday night was especially crazy. Jonathon was at Planning Commission the whole night, Andrew had his youth activity, we had tickets for the BYU basketball game, and Hyrum had an awards ceremony for his Reflections project. We tried to sell the BYU tickets, but we were playing a very small school (Queens), so they were only worth like $5 each. Jonathon ended up giving them away to some of the people he works with. I’m sure they enjoyed them, and we will have other opportunities to go, so it was fine. I was supposed to be at a YW activity, but we had enough leaders, so I ended up taking Hyrum. He got First place for the school in the 2D art category, and Second Place at the District level. His project was so cool that I was surprised he didn’t get first place until I remembered that 6th graders have to compete in the intermediate division with the middle schoolers. He and his good friend, Peter, both received awards, so we went together. They had a slide show of the projects playing, yummy treats, and prizes for the winners. The prizes were small because of the very limited budget (a $2 bill and a gift card for a milkshake at Chick-fil-A), but he was still really happy! If that isn’t enough, I got a call from his school art teacher on Saturday night telling me that Hyrum’s school project was selected for a prize as well. He is a pretty creative and talented guy!
On Saturday we attended Uncle Bob’s funeral (Jonathon’s uncle, Robert Fish). We haven’t seen them in quite a while, and it sounds like his dementia had gotten pretty bad in recent months. They had moved him into a care center, and I think seeing him lose his memory was probably harder than his actual death. They felt like they had already lost him long ago. I hope Jonathon and his company can someday make a difference in the lives of people who suffer from Alzheimers, dementia, etc. It is such a devastating thing to have to endure for the families. The funeral itself was nice. A bunch of the Egbert family from Murtaugh came to support Aunt Deanna and the girls. Uncle Bob was a very shy and anxious guy, so not many people knew him particularly well. I learned a lot about his life from the talks and life sketch they gave. Dad Hill gave one of the talks and did a really nice job expounding the plan of salvation and the blessings of the gospel. Jonathon ended up being one of the pall bearers since they didn’t have any sons. That was a nice and unexpected gesture. It was snowing and cold, so the graveside part was very short, but we had the family luncheon afterward and had time to talk to all the cousins and aunts and uncles that came. It is hard to see that generation start to pass away with Uncle Armond in August and now Uncle Bob. We have been very blessed and lucky to know and love so many wonderful Aunts and Uncles for all these years.
Saturday night was the BYU football game against Kansas. It was a home game, and Kansas had a losing record, so I was hopeful we would continue our winning streak. Nathan was in town for the funeral, so I offered to give my ticket to him so that he could enjoy the game. I enjoy going to the games, but it was late and cold, so I was happy to stay behind. BYU played pretty poorly. We were the better team, but we missed several scoring opportunities and lost the game when we couldn’t score from the 10 yard line with a minute to go. It was sad to lose our winning streak, especially when we should have won, but it was bound to happen at some point. It was a good run while it lasted. We will see what next week brings...
Sunday was Stake Conference. It was a good meeting. There was one talk in particular that I wanted to share. Libby Jaynes just got back from her mission in Armenia/Georgia. She spoke about the power of the Book of Mormon. She said that when she was a missionary, one of the most successful ways that she found people to teach was to ask about the needs of people she met on the street. Everyone has something that they are struggling with: loneliness, searching for truth, finding peace, health problems, guilt/a need to repent, and other trials. She and her companion would study these common needs and find scriptures in the Book of Mormon that would answer these needs/questions. When they would talk to people, she would find out what they were struggling with and have a scripture from the Book of Mormon ready to share with them. The Book of Mormon has the answers to all of our question and problems and bears a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. She challenged us to study the Book of Mormon with these types of needs in mind so that we could do a better job of helping others. I thought it was a very insightful talk and could be beneficial for all of us as we try to be good missionaries.
This evening we headed up to Salt Lake to have dinner with Jonathon’s former graduate student, Maliha. She is from Bangladesh and wanted to feed us a traditional Bengali meal. None of us, aside from Jonathon, really knew her at all, so we weren’t super thrilled to go, but it ended up being nice. She made us a lot of interesting food. Fried lentil and potato nuggets, breaded tuna skewers, fish curry, goat curry, a jam made from the Indian jujube fruit, and basmati rice pilaf. None of those things were something that I would be really excited to try, but most of them were actually good (I admit that I skipped the fish because it had a lot of bones in it, and I just couldn’t…). The goat and lentil things were actually pretty tasty. For dessert she served a dish that reminded me a lot of rice pudding with cinnamon, raisins, and pistachios. It was called Lachcha Shemai and was very creamy and not too sweet. I really enjoyed it! She also had little candies called Kaju Katli. They were little squares of sweetened candy made from cashews. They reminded me a lot of paçoca from Brazil. We talked a lot about her culture, and learned a lot. Andrew and Hyrum were good sports and made the best of it. They even tried most of the food and had a good attitude. They must be growing up!
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