June 22 - 28, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer
June 22 - 28, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
The end of June approaches and we have a few days in the 90’s and a handful of days in the 80’s and the rest of June in the 70’s or lower. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before; strange things going on these days. The weather and the economy were sure hard on all the art festivals, town days, carnivals and other outdoor community activities. All those artists putting time and money into setting up booths, only to have them blown down or have an empty park to sell to. The few people who braved the weather had no money to spend on homemade crafts and artwork (sometimes the parks were empty and sometimes they were filled with empty people). Pity, there was some amazing work out there. And to top it all off, it seems we spent what money we had on all the latest movies from Hollywood to give liberal groupies along the west coast enough money to fight conservative America for decades to come. We aren’t doing too well in our war against darkness. Perhaps we need some charismatic leadership that can keep this battle in our minds and in our hearts. This is no way to win a battle, sitting on our couches in front of the TV.
(Getting down from soapbox.) Well, this week was spent editing, which didn’t seem to produce anything worthwhile. I also went down to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to get some sunset shots but the sunset didn’t pan out. It was very pretty but it was all behind me. I helped Jennifer take the Arnold kids to Herriman Days on Friday so they could have some fun on some of the rides there, get some cotton candy, etc. We had fun but it started raining on us toward the end. We stopped by Wendy’s for a bite to eat and a beautiful rainbow appeared out the window. I went to my car for my camera and got a few pictures. It was hard because of all the buildings and telephone poles. A few turned out.
Michelle packed for trek that she will be going on next week. Hopefully she will be OK with her bum knee.
Jennifer got a haircut. It makes her look a lot older, maybe too old. She has a few years to go before she needs to start attracting the boys. Getting kids to just be kids these days is no easy task.
We got up early Saturday morning to hit the ward breakfast then Jennifer and I had to leave after a few minutes to be in the Herriman Parade. Some of the cast for the play got to ride in the 100 year old horse drawn wagon (old people and small children) but the rest of us were to walk. As we pulled up in the scooter I dropped Jennifer off and was about to go park when it dawned on me that it would be fun to ride the scooter in the parade. I asked a few people and they thought it was a great idea so I rode up and down the sidelines giving kids high fives and chasing the clown around who was riding a bike that was on top of another bike (welded) which put him about 15 feet in the air. We had fun chasing each other around in circles every time I came his way. We honked at each other and sometimes when I was behind him I would yell at the crowd and ask if someone could get this clown out of my way so I could pass, then he would make a tight turn (he could turn much tighter than I could) and get behind me then start honking at me, it got some great laughs from the people along the street. Then I would zoom up ahead of our group to get a breeze going to cool down. I turned around in front of the fire trucks ahead of our wagon and would honk (my little scooter horn) three or four times at them as I passed and the driver would blow his big fire truck horn at me the same number of times and everyone would laugh. My stage wife, Mrs. Shinn rode with me the last half of the parade. She gave high fives so I could keep my hands on the gas and seemed to have fun. When we got to the pavilion we realized some people had their cars still at the beginning of the parade so I took Brooke, the director, on the scooter to her van so she could come back and get others back to their cars. The scooter came in real handy and seemed to be a big hit. In fact, in our next parade they want to make a banner to go on the scooter to say vote for Mayor Shinn. I’m fine with that (especially since I don’t have to walk in those hot clothes along a hot street).
After the parade we went home and worked on the yard and in the house. Jennifer was supposed to have her friends over to do her school paper burning activity in the back yard but with Herriman Days they decided to go to the carnival and burn papers on another day. Michelle, Jennifer and I went back to the carnival but I hardly saw them. They each went with their own friends and I helped man the booth and took pictures of the small part of our play we put on and of the Herriman Choir performing. After that an impressionist who performs all over the world and happens to live in South Jordan put on an amazing show. He sang songs from all eras of music from the 50’s on and sounded like each artist when he sang a part of their song. He was very funny, kept us rolling with laughter. I called Tami to see if she wanted to come down and join me but she didn’t feel like going out so I watched it alone. After his show Michelle, Jennifer and their friends joined us for fireworks then I talked to the teens for a bit then took the last of our booth down and we headed home (well Michelle went with friends and they stopped to eat before getting home and I dropped one of the teens off at her car and took Jennifer’s friend home then we headed home). We all got home at about 11:30 and were very tired.
Sunday Jennifer gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting as one of the Young Women. She did great but said she was very nervous. After a few hours of our meetings we went to the homecoming of one of Jason’s best friends, David Verwer (sp) and he had a bit of an accent but gave a great talk. He has sure grown from his mission. We visited afterwards then headed home. After a little work on the computer (I have to go through training for the new Family Search program) I finished up home teaching with the Bishop. It is interesting being his partner; he is so busy we usually don’t finish until the last Sunday of the month. We then went to grandpa and grandma’s for dinner and to play with Spencer. He is really growing up. He walks by holding only one hand now and really crawls fast.
Well, that’s it for this week. Hope your ride on the Ferris Wheel is a good one.
Ken and clan



Nathan & Paige:
Nathan and Paige went to Vegas this week for some R&R. They were delayed getting home by one day (standby on JetBlue) but they finally made it.



Chad, Alicia and Spencer
Chad has been traveling up to Idaho to set up fireworks stands for his job. He has been busy.



Brian
Brian has been looking for work this week; still no luck.



From Elder Fortie:
K so this has to be ridiculously short, I have to pop over to half moon Bay in like 10 minutes.
This week has been madness, President Keller went home today, I love that man so much, and am truly in awe with how he ran this mission. That man was handed one of the most difficult missions in the world, and had to face so many disasters, and close down the mission, and there is a reason he was the man called here because I do not think any one else could have handled it as perfectly as he did. He is amazing! I would not be surprised to see him as a new member of the quorum of the 70 next year, and a new member of the 12 in a few years. He is incredible and I will miss him dearly. I talked to him last night on the phone for the last time (a great pleasure seeing as he already did his goodbye's to everyone else last week) and it was just so weird to know he would not be around any more... But we move forward none the less.
I still don't know much about the new mission. For now I have been assigned to stay here as the district leader and upkeep what was the San Francisco mission on this side of the bay. It's chaotic to be sure, and I don't think I've ever spent longer on my knee's, but I LOVE IT. I love this work, it is amazing.
We have a few investigators preparing to be baptized and I'm hoping for once I will be here for their baptism, all but once in my mission every time I kick an area into shape and set up several baptisms, I get transferred before they happen to a dead area where I have to start over. I don't mind too much, but how I would truly love to be here through the whole process with the ones we've got right now.
We found a new investigator last week, who is amazing, and on our next appointment, we came to find out, his step daughter is a member that moved here from El Salvador a year ago and hasn't been able to find the church! So we got her back to church this week which was so cool to see that happen!
I'm doing well, I'm eating way to much still haha, although it's not quite as good as when I was down south, I still get my fill.
I have to go, sorry to be so brief. I love you all and I pray for your happiness and progress in this gospel!
Take care,
Elder Fortie

From Michelle:
Alright peeps, here it goes again!
This week has been a lot of running around and preparing for me to leave for my pioneer trek! Aren’t things supposed to slow down a lot during the summer? Someone forgot to send that memo to my life.
When I haven’t been running around packing like a chicken with my head cut off, I’ve been trying to get my room redone. I’ve been chiseling and stripping an old dresser that we have so that I can repaint it, but it’s a lot of hard work. My hands are becoming strangely buff! I’ve lost half of the feeling in my right hand, and my pointer finger on that hand is permanently numb from using the chisel so much! But I will be SO excited when it all comes together and my room looks awesome!
For Young Women’s this week, we were getting our first year girls first aid ready. I had to put on a skit with my fellow laurel about what to do in different situations, and I played the role of the nerdy little first-year! I love acting and improv so it was a really fun skit for me! My girls were all cracking up and trying to take pictures (which I quickly labeled as illegal seeing as I never wanted anyone else to ever see me like that again!) Then we practiced our CPR with the CPR dummies. I told the girls to name their dummy after the guy they like, so maybe it wouldn’t seem so weird. They all laughed and then started playing right along with me. I love being with my young women and making them laugh. Sometimes, it’s the highlight of my week.
My best friend Courtney and I went on a hike this week in preparation for trek. It was really hot outside, and we went pretty far, but we had fun! We took little sack lunches and ate while we were out. I’m nervous, but really excited for this trek thing! I pull a handcart for 13 miles my first day (tomorrow) and then get to sleep on the ground and wake up early and do the same thing the next day. It could be interesting!
I also helped my friend Dallin with his eagle project the other day, and we ended up having a ton of fun! His parents seriously over feed me every time I am there! I love talking to them, and they get really excited every time that I come over because we just have a lot of fun!
Yesterday, we had our Fort Herriman Town Days. My best friend Ashley sang up on stage, and she did great! She has an amazing voice like nobody I know! We’re trying to talk her into trying out for American Idol, but she’s not too keen on the idea… we’ll work on it! After she sang, we got our group of friends together, and started going on rides together. We went on Farris wheels, spinning teacups, and something like Lagoon’s screamer! I think half of the fun was just being there with my pals! I love them all to death! Then we watched the fireworks, and went and got lots of food at Wendy’s. It was an amazing night!
Gotta go, I’ve gotta get up early to head out! Hope ya’ll have a great week and do everything that you hope to accomplish! Ciao!
Love,
Michelle Fortie



From Jennifer:
Hi there everyone!
This week I gave a talk on Sunday which I was shaking SO hard threw but finally got threw it! Daddy and I were in the Herriman parade together and we were walking through the streets singing Wells Fargo Wagon, Passing out fliers and throwing Candy at little children... Ur um I mean TO little children, of course! ;) And Herriman days! The carnival was way cool! I went with all my friends there and found out I actually really LOVE Ferris wheels which I thought I very much hated and was very much afraid of! I got ambushed by a guy that likes me and he dragged me on the Ferris wheel with him, very romantic for him! For me it was just plain awkward! But Michelle saved me (she is a great sister after all!) love you Mic! By letting me chill with her for a couple minutes until my two best GIRL friends could show up! But the rest was great fun and my friend Josh came and he hung out with all us girls and also protecting me from the guy that likes me. The fireworks were great! I ended up saving Michelle to! But while rescuing her she rescued me! We did a lot of saving that day! I felt like Superman! J!
Um on Friday I took the boys to the Carnival they had lots of fun! It was kind of crazy and stressing but we all had fun in the end!
The rain finally went away (for this week at least!) after one last big bang that took our power out on Friday! It was awesome! I love when the power goes out! It was pretty crazy constantly having pouring rain!
Well I can’t really think about much else accept lots of weeding and working! I got a burn on my leg from the Motorcycle! It hurt forever and its turning funny cool colors. It looks so cool! Wow you can tell I was raised with brothers!
OH! On Tuesday? I got my haircut! I love it! It still feels kind of weird though!
Hey Elder Fortie have you moved areas yet? Let us know! Love you all! Smile when you’re bored cause there is nothing better to do!
~Jennifer Fortie

June 15 - 21, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer
June 15 – 21, 2009

Dear Family and Fiends (just kidding I meant Friends),
Happy rainy week to you. Our rain for June is approaching 400% of what we normally get. I wonder if our house is high enough up on the hill to have lake front property if Lake Bonneville returns. Some folks in Herriman and Draper have had some heavy flooding and mud slides, we have had rain almost every day this month. Even Moroni couldn’t escape the storms. He (on the Oquirrh Mountain Temple) got hit by lightning a few days ago (while Brian was there in the parking lot helping direct traffic) and had the gold burned off his arm and part of his head. Mike said they have to replace Moroni statues on the temples now and then because they are the lightning rods and the Timpanogos Temple has had the most replaced of any temple (I think he said 6). Guess the people around there need to do the most repenting or something. Perhaps if you walk around the Oquirrh Mountain Temple this week you might find little beads of gold fallen from an angel, could be a great keepsake to show your grandkids; or sell on eBay, or what ever. Actually grandpa said there is only about 6 ounces of gold on the entire angel but at over $900.00 per ounce that’s still a lot of money. Facil and I were thinking of flying over the temple in a helicopter and trying to lasso a Moroni and take it home but then we thought that might not go over well when trying to get a temple recommend.
Anyway, Tami’s health has been good this week, just tired and needing lots of sleep. She goes into the doctor on Monday to see what is going on. Hopefully they can help her.
Not much to report for the rest of the week. Some yard work, kids helping with weeding and mowing (the rain made the weeds easier to pull and the lawn harder to mow), some house work, some play practices, some garage cleaning, some temple picture editing, some movie watching, etc. Yes we all went to see Race to Witch Mountain for a family activity. It was pretty good.
Tami had a Relief Society craft auction night on Thursday. Michelle and Jennifer went with her. You fill out a sheet that asks if you read scriptures daily, say family prayer, go to church, etc. and you get points for all the good things you do, then you use those points to buy the things that you want out of all the crafts that everyone brought. Tami gave away 5 8x10’s of my temple pictures. They seemed to go pretty well. Most were my newest shots of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (I sent one of everything and let people pick which one they wanted). Oh, on my way home from someplace else, I saw the sun shining through some sprinklers in a farmers field. I thought they looked cool so I went home, grabbed my camera and went back to take a few shots. Can't do much with them but I like them.
On Sunday we had a nice Father’s Day dinner at grandpa and grandma’s. Tami usually fixed chicken crepes or turkey enchiladas (my favorites) and since grandpa and grandma had some turkey we decided to do the turkey enchiladas. Tami was pretty busy with work so Alicia stepped in and made four pans of enchiladas. She did a great job with Tami’s description over the phone of how to do it. Tami just made up the recipe so she had to tell Alicia from memory what to do. Everyone brought something and we had quite a feast. Curt and Mary Kay were there with Mary Kay’s mom and Facil and Susan, their friends and Craig stopped by for a few minutes. Mike and Linda and girls were there, our family, all but Nathan, Paige and Jason (of course, if not I would not be writing about it). After dinner we got to joking around and things got pretty crazy with everyone coming up with goofy stuff ‘till we could hardly breath for the laughter. It just went on and on about kidnapping Spencer and stealing Moroni statues from temples and what all until we thought there should be one of those reality shows of our family which would make us all rich ‘cause everyone would be watching it wondering how these Mormons could be so crazy without drugs or alcohol. If only people knew it can be done. To top it off we spent a few minutes calming down so we could give Susan a blessing before they left. A nice spiritual ending to a fun day. A few of us stayed late talking about world events and the last days. It was a good time.
Well, that’s it from our soggy but still intact place.
Keep treading water,
Ken and clan



From Brian:

Dear Family,
Well another week of fun filled festivities, or something.
Monday for family home evening our ward played water kick ball. They filled up little kiddy pools for bases, and a slip and slide for home with a sprinkler on it to keep it wet and a little soap.. It was really fun, and extremely wet.
On Tuesday I had a class down town at Salt Lake Community College. It was just a free class about learning and memory. I found out I am Very auditory, with visual to go along with it. I learn best when I hear someone teach me and see charts or hands on things. I get a lot more out of listening to an audio book than reading, etc. The teacher said a good study strategy for my learning type would be to record my lectures in college. So I have a little tape recorder, I think I will. I rode my scooter to trax and took trax to my class. I ran into the guy who plays in all the LDS movies, the big Polynesian guy who plays Conroy in Baptists at our BBQ. He is also that rat in the smoking commercials. Well he is the film teacher at SLCC downtown.
Wednesday I called around to pharmacies some more, trying to find a job as a pharmacy tech. They train you on the job and I already have a basic background of terminology and working with some chemicals. Then our singles ward played ultimate Frisbee until it began to rain, then I left. They are crazy; I can’t stand the rain anymore.
Thursday I read a lot. I am reading the book “restoring the ancient church” about the apostasy and also a series of ensign articles from the mid 1980’s on how the Bible came to be. It is fascinating. That is one of my favorite subjects of study. I would love to minor in Theology if I could.
Friday we did a bunch of weeding outside. The garden has been taken over so we took it back. It was a massacre. We sustained some casualties on our side too; I got small red rashes on my arm from the June grass. We did some cleaning inside, then at night I went with some friends to a party outside at someone’s house. We had hot dogs and pop, and some played rock band. I just watched and openly mocked the various wardrobes of the virtual characters. Like an anorexic captain Hook, a guy that looks like a cross between a pug and the Hulk and a girl with lime green socks. I don’t like that game; it’s boring to me.
Saturday is a special day; it’s the day we got ready for Fathers day. More weeding in the morning, because they just won’t die. Mom rented a movie called the golden compass, which was pretty good. The movie was interesting and different but we liked it. Our Cat Einstein got a library receipt (the ones they tape to the object you check out with your name on it for holding) stuck to his tail, and was walking around waving it around, completely oblivious. He is such a dork, we feel bad for him. He is sort of naive and socially inept. So it was hilarious, like someone had stuck a “kick me” sign on his rear. We got it on video.
On Sunday in the morning breakfast was made and the girls gave dad this plack that said, “We already found our prince charming, his name is Daddy.” I had meetings at noon with the bishopric. The Bishop said in PEC, “We have cookies to hand out to the brethren after sacrament meeting, to celebrate manhood day. Since none of them are Fathers it is manhood day.” We all laughed. The speakers talked on Joseph F. Smith, Hyrum’s son. I didn’t know he was the first prophet to be born and raised in the church and also the last to personally know the prophet Joseph. In Sunday school I said the opening prayer. As I was expressing thanks for our fathers, I then paused and it just kind of came out, I said “and Heavenly Father, happy Fathers day from all of us.” I didn’t expect to say that but I did. Some people in back sort of snickered. But I figure, if anyone deserves to be told happy Fathers day, He does.
We went to Grandpa and grandmas afterwards for dinner. It was so much fun. That is one of those dinners that will be remembered for a long time. Facil tried to tell me to create a diversion so he could sneak downstairs and kidnap the baby (He loves Spencer to death and thinks he’s the cutest baby ever, so he always jokes about stealing him.) They said “we better not send Brian, he will say ‘ooh look over here at me, I’m a diversion! No- one pay attention to the baby being carried out, I mean, there’s no baby. Stay calm.” Then Mom came over and Fassil said “oh no, now we’re attracting all these unsavory people to the conversation.” And everybody just started playing off everyone else, talking about having never paid dowry’s on their spouses to grandpa, and how they are still saving up cows in their backyards. Fassil tried to sneak out the back sliding door, not knowing there was a screen, and said, “Oh you have a mosquito net!” Chad said, “it’s a Fassil net. Worked like a charm.” It was a riot! We all couldn’t breathe for about a half hour. Then Facil’s wife, Susan, needed a blessing, so dad anointed and Curt gave it. The spirit was really strong. I swear, they need to make a reality TV show of our family. Only at the Fortie household could a gathering be more chaotic than a drunken bar fight, without any alcohol, but still end with a priesthood blessing. We talked about the last days, and the church and how it will be the only organized body, the light of strength that people will come to for safety. It was late by the time we finally headed home.

Well love ya all. Jason I hope you are well, and ready to move soon. Do some good. God be with you.

Brian Fortie



From Elder Fortie:
Well one and all, today marks the beginning of my adventures in a new mission. I've been assigned to stay behind and hold down the fort for now in what was formerly the San Francisco mission, still the district leader over the most ridiculously enormous district ever! It's quite time consuming running around between so many different wards and appeasing so many different missionaries and their needs. But I make do. One of my 2 companions went home this morning to Canada, that's the third time I've been a missionaries last companion, it's a strange feeling. He goes home to Canada today, spends tomorrow with his family, and Wednesday he will be at BYU for school... I could not do that one, off a mission and a day later shipped off to school. I think that might kill me. But none the less, we do what we can.
May I say it amazes me just how this world is. People in this world just don't understand how subtle and sneaky Satan is. It starts out with a frappachino from Star Bucks that "isn't really that bad, it's not a big deal" then with a green tea drink here or there, then maybe a rated R movie or two, that "Isn't really worse then what I see and hear every day" then our music that "oh I don't really pay attention to the words, I just like the beat" and thus we slowly let Satan lie to us, and we lie to ourselves that those little things we are doing really aren't anything and that they don't effect us and that "I'm okay, I can do those things and still be fine". But my goodness that's when Satan has us, that's when he knows he can lie to you and you will believe him, and if you believed him once, you will believe him again and again and again. Until that little frappachino has turned into just a little taste of a beer at a party that we shouldn't really be at but were not quite sure how but somehow we ended up there despite the hesitation we felt because of the voice of the Spirit. And now that voice of the Spirit leaves you, because it knows you aren't going to listen to it, and then you are alone... and making the right choices, that you are already not really making, gets harder and harder, and you make them less and less. Till finally you realize you are in trouble, but by then you don't know how to get out, and you start to try and cover it up, and doing so drags you deeper into your own mistakes, and you detach yourself from those that can help you for fear of them finding out, and thus you become even more alone. I see it time and time again in a mission and I am truly deeply sorrowed for those who allow themselves to say "it's not a big deal" or "it doesn't effect me". I pity these people, and it brings me nearly to tears to see someone so deceived that they are the only one who does not see how much those little things that "aren't effecting them" really are effecting them. I have to waste so much of my time as a missionary helping these people who already know the truth rather then those who are searching for it. Satan is the ultimate deceiver, and we must treat him like a plague, that we stay AS FAR FROM AS POSSIBLE, not get as close to as we can while trying not to get infected. Sorry for my spill, but hey I'm a missionary, that's what I do.
My time is up, I must go, hopefully you get a package from me today, take care all, Dad and grandpa and Chad and all you other dads, happy Fathers day! Love Elder Fortie



From Michelle:
Heido ho!
I’ve got a LOT to write about, so I’ve really gotta catch up here! Be patient as I stumble through this as quickly as a possibly can!
School is out for the summer! The last week of school was a blast as usual! We had a big BBQ out at the seminary building, and that is where half of the school was hanging out all day Monday! We played games, ate food, and just said goodbye! I can’t believe that the year is already over. Things flew by so quickly. Tuesday we all went to school and hung out and had fun yet again, not much different from the day before! Preston, Garrett, and I got in a water fight and then our friend Stephen came out of nowhere with a super-soaker and totally dominated the whole thing! But it was a lot of fun! Then Tuesday night, we had the yearbook stomp where everyone gets their yearbooks and starts signing away! Our yearbooks look really cool this year and I was excited to finally get it so that we could all relive the school year! It was also really hard to have senior friends sign though, because it really hit you then that you wouldn’t really be seeing them anymore. I started crying at one point, because some of my best friends this year have been seniors. All in all it was a really fun night and a good final farewell to some friends. Wednesday was an optional day at school. You didn’t really have to come, but some of us did just to make sure we got the signatures of people we had missed the night before at the stomp! I also was supposed to do an hour of attendance school because of days that I missed. Luckily, I have friends in high places! My friend Rob Murray is an SBO and talked the office ladies into letting me escape 50 minutes of my hour long penalty! He and I went into where he and the rest of the seniors were doing graduation practice, and just sat and ate egg rolls until he headed out to go practice with them! Then I went and found my group of friends that I had come with and we all headed back to Courtney’s house to watch movies, play games, and go to the park! We got rained on, but it was a blast!
I have this new found obsession… I don’t even know why! I had a friend teach me how to make these really cute bracelets out of embroidery thread, and it’s kind of addicting! I can’t even remember how many I’ve made! They are really pretty though, and I think I’m getting buff fingers just from making them!
About a week ago, I was up at my best friend Ashley’s house with a group of friends and we were all playing night games! It was Ash, Taylar Shay, Taylor Wayne, his friend Jason, Courtney, and I… and we had A BLAST!!!! Jason is one of the funniest kids I’ve ever met, and paired with Taylor Wayne, the two of them had us laughing so hard, I swear we all got six packs from laughing so hard! I love my group of friends and love how crazy we can all be together, and none of us really care!
The next night I was up at Ash’s house again, and Ash, Tay, and I invited over Jordan Jack and Riley to come watch a movie and play games! We played Apples to Apples while eating ice cream and I can’t count the number of times all of us almost choked on our ice cream because we started laughing so hard! They are both crazy guys and so much fun to be around!
A few days later, Courtney and I got together and walked to Kneaders to hang out and have something to eat! They have delicious food there, and since Courtney works there, we get a great discount! On our way there, we just laughed and took numerous strolls down memory lane! We got to talking about old friends that have since moved, and our favorite memories with those people! After eating our delicious food, we began our walk home, still chatting about old time. We were so distracted that we didn’t notice the looming clouds that began to settle in the sky above us. Suddenly, a down pour hit us like a semi with winds that seemed like they could send us flying! We began running for cover, but we were laughing so hard that it was almost impossible! We finally made it back to her house and took a million pictures and tried to get ourselves dried off! Then we went with our friend Ashley and my brother Brian and his friend Chad to a candle-light vigil for a teacher at Riverton High School (my school) who just died of breast cancer. We were in such happy moods, that it was hard to take in the solemn spirit that was there, but we did our best to pay our respects to her, and headed out after Brian had said a few words, seeing as a stalker-ish type kid of mine was there.
Sunday, I went to a farewell for a friend of mine, Marie Buhler. I’ve been friends with her family for a while now, so my friend Preston and I stayed at their house for quite a while just eating, singing, and playing games with their family! Their family is a lot like ours, so I love being over there and just feeling right at home!
This past week I don’t remember much of… I didn’t write it down… oops! I went in and got my physical so that I can go on trek, and the only thing holding me back a little bit is my knee (go figure). But I can still go, I just have to take it easy!
For Young Women’s on Tuesday, we went downtown and had one of the elders from the quorum of the seventy give us a tour of some of the church buildings! We got to sit in the only room where the entire quorum of the seventy, all the twelve apostles, and the presidency have all been together in twenty years. He said that even at conference, all the twelve aren’t together just for safety precautions!
Other than that, I’ve been redesigning my room! So I’ve been painting, scraping paint, and shopping for everything necessary! I want to be an interior designer when I grow up, so this is all a lot of fun for me!
Saturday, I went to Lagoon with one of my best friends, Ashley! It was raining, but in all honesty, I think that was half the fun! She and I went last year as well, so we are making it tradition! I love the rides, and make her go on all of them no matter what, which is part of the reason I am her favorite person to go with! She is afraid of heights, so she is terrified before, but during and after the ride, she loves that I made her go! We had the time of our lives, and were drenched by the end of the night, but I think we had permanent smiles plastered upon our faces!
Sunday we went out to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a father’s day dinner and games! The food was delicious and as always, their house was packed with a handful of friends and family! It was so much fun, and us kids had a blast playing games in the backyard! I can’t tell you how much I love family gatherings!
Well, there is my novel. Sorry it took so long! I love you all and hope things are well with you! :] Good luck in all your endeavors! And remember, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything!
~Michelle Fortie



From Jennifer:
Hello there everyone!
Play practice is getting crazy! Summer is here! Life is nuts! Yup, sounds about right! J Well two weeks ago I had the AMAZING experience to go to Oakcrest, L.D.S. girls camp. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life and for sure the most spiritual week in my life! I learned so much out there and my testimony grew so much stronger. From the zip line to the mud slide it was SO much fun! But Utah has been forgetting it’s a dessert and we have been more like Washington the past two weeks, pouring rain! Especially up in the mountains at camp! With outdoor activities everyone was worried we would have to stay inside all week! But there is the amazing miracle of power of prayer! Every time we needed to do something outside we knelt down and prayed and immediately the rain would stop, there isn’t one thing we missed! Coincidence? I think not! J! Nevertheless it was amazing! But one time we were in a pavilion, talking about modesty and lightning STRUCK! The thunder then followed immediately, so loud it shattered a window - it was so cool! But we all had to go back into our cabins. But it was awesome! I can’t wait to go again next year!
On Monday we went as a family to see Race To Witch Mountain. It was a good show! We all had a great time! Then of course play practice and the much loved job I have throughout the week and Fathers Day! We went over to Grandma and Grandpas to eat Delicious food and have MANY laughs! We had Mounteers, Uncle Curt and Mary Kay, Chad and Alicia and the cutest Nephew on Earth baby Spencer! And Facil and his wife Susan. They aren’t actually blood related but they sure feel like family! I would be honored to have them with us, although it feels like they are! J! Well Michelle needs the computer so I should head out! Love you all! Nathan and Paige we would love to come to visit! Good luck Missionaries! So long everyone!
-Jennifer F.

June 8 - 14, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer,
June 8 - 14, 2009

Dear family and friends,
What up? I am like totally at a loss here as to what happened like clear last Monday. It’s like really gone man. I think my brain has like been totally taken over by aliens or something. Like I think I forgot to wear my aluminum pointy hat or something like you know what I'm saying man.
Well anyway… this week has indeed been a blur. For Family Home Evening we played games, all sorts, we even had a lesson. Oh wait, that was on Sunday because Jennifer was going to be gone to camp all week. She left Monday morning and we picked the poor soggy thing up on Friday. You see it has rained this whole week (off and on) so they had a rather wet camp but still had fun. They did have some excitement with lightning but I had better let her tell her own tales.
I talked to Kory at play practice on Tuesday night and we decided to go to the Oquirrh Mountain temple Friday morning for some sunrise shots (it was supposed to be clear on Friday). The next day, Wednesday, I thought the clouds were particularly interesting so in spite of the threat of rain I went down and hunted out some good places for some good long distance shots of the temple. I went up behind the temple and found a trail along a golf course but it never got close enough to the temple to get a shot. I did get some good wildflower shots though. It rained a little on me, just some light sprinkles; made for some good rain-on-flowers shots. I finally went across the street from the temple and found a few good places for some shots with the field in front of the temple. It is not going to be there for long as they are building houses there now. The clouds were great and I got some good shots. I then noticed a pond on the other side of a fence so I thought it might make some good reflection shots. I worked my way to another street where I found a trail that I figured lead through the bushes to the small pond. Just then the rain started coming down pretty hard and I got the feeling it wasn’t going to let up so I headed home. I went up through Herriman on my way and the streets were like rivers in a few places with a few inches of water running over the entire street. I later heard than the Bundersons, who used to live in our ward, along with 3 other families got about 8 feet of water in their basement from that storm. I went up on the hill and got a good shot of the storm cell moving through the valley and the strangest thing happened. As I was standing on the edge of the hill I could hear the storm moving through the valley. It sounded like a train. It was like low thunder but it was non stop. I couldn’t tell if it was constant lightning inside the cell so I couldn’t see it or if it was billions of raindrops hitting the streets so hard that it was making a constant roaring thunder like sound that was echoing through the whole valley. It was really strange. While I was up there another cell moved up from Prove between the mountains on the west and east sides and it was fun to watch. Well after the show I went home to see if I had any flooding in my back yard and we didn’t get touched. The sidewalks were still dry; both storms just missed our neighborhood. We got hit later but not as bad as those. A few days before that we got hit pretty hard and we had an inch of hail stones a bit bigger than peas on our back porch. It has been a rather violent week as far as storms go. We have been rained on almost every day and I noticed on KSL’s new weather channel last week (before all these storms) that some places were at 300% of their normal rainfall for June. It’s amazing we haven’t had more flooding.
Kory (Trapane, on the Herriman Arts Council) and I got up at 5:00 on Friday, the only non rainy morning, and went down to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for some sunrise shots. It was rather cool and we were in heavy jackets. We got some good shots of the temple from a church parking lot north-east of the temple. I had taken some pictures near that church on Wednesday but these were different with the sunrise. I told Kory about the pond so we went there for some reflection shots. We then got some shots of dewdrops on plants near the pond then headed home. It was a good time; two photographers just enjoying the early morning and the creativity of nature armed with cameras and imaginations.
On Saturday I went in to Jordan High School at 7:00 to give the ACT test. All went well. Then I went across the street to the Asian Festival and took a few pictures of some of the dancers. I went home and put one of the girls faces with some tall grass I took on Friday and put some Chinese symbols in that said “Inner Peace.” It was fun to use my creativity but I’m not sure what I will use it for. Maybe I should do a series of shots using Chinese symbols. Later on we all went to see Race to Witch Mountain at the dollar theater. We all enjoyed the show.
Sunday was church, naps and food. Don’t remember much else.
That’s it from our angle.
Happy shooting
Ken and clan





From Elder Jason Fortie:

Tada! Here I am, once again pushing upward, onward! Forever through the madness! Never give up! Never surrender! Come what may and love it! (although I am expecting some extra spiritual denero in my blessings check this month for all the junk I'm dealing with, sheesh!)
So district leader over 80% of the zone continues to be interesting, I find my time is just sucked up in meetings! Dealing with all my missionaries, and then their wards and leaders, especially the sisters, no offense to any of you lady type people, but I don't know how you sisters do it, but the sister missionaries take SO much more maintenance then Elders! Especially since a lot of them are so sweet and submissive that they can't get DOWN TO BUSINESS if their ward is slacking, so I have to come in and pull a what's what with ward leaders in sisters areas from time to time. But the effort appears to be paying off! The work is really taking off! We had 11 people at church this past week! And we have a baptismal date for the fourth of July with a 17 year old Peruvian girl we have been teaching named Jennifer, and her mom is not far from setting a baptismal date herself! All in all there is a total of 7 people within the missionaries in my district that have a baptismal date! Which is phenomenal! So the work is going well here and I am enjoying the challenge and stretch of the greater opportunities to serve that come with such a crazy responsibility over this district. This week could be especially crazy as the mission president in Oakland is asking for early additional help, so president Keller and I have been talking and they may be taking 2 Elders from My district over to Oakland to help them out. As to who I still don't know, I will find out today, it could be me for all I know, we shall see.
So Paige came in this week for a business trip, we went out to dinner at a place called the Elephant bar and grill. It's got a really nice location right on the water front over looking the bay, and you can see both San Francisco and Oakland from it, I've been to it before, but they changed their menu since the last time I was there, it was still good, but I liked what I had last time better. But mostly it was just nice to meet Paige, we had a good time and it was exciting to be able to get to know my newest sister in Law, now I only have one more to meet, although she doesn't exist yet, no pressure Brian, I wouldn't mind actually getting to go to the ceiling session to meet whoever that ends up being. But anyhow, I hope Paige enjoyed our dinner and her brief stay here in the bay!
So the other day we found this Arabic Christian guy from Jerusalem, we gave him an Arabic book of Mormon, (luckily our office keeps like 45 different languages on stock because of the diversity of our mission!) and we came back a week later and he has read like 300 pages already! that's exciting but I won't get to teach him because he doesn't speak Spanish, he will go to the English sisters in the area. But that is a rare find, a Christian man from Jerusalem, that is Arabic, wow, welcome to San Francisco.
So this week we knocked into a drunk guy who was quite humorous, friendly, but not to bright, he tried to explain to me he was from some secret military group and he just got back from Iraq that he couldn't tell me about because of all the "people watching" as he glanced around suspiciously (we were the only ones to be seen anywhere) . His sloppy hair, pot belly, scrawny arms and half dazed drunken stupor made me doubt his claims... but he made for a good laugh to end our day.
Well I gotta get going, we're headed over to down town San Fran for a bit, and I need to change before we go. Just so you all know, from now on if anyone wants to send anything to me, my new address starting basically Wednesday will be...

Elder Jason Fortie
California Oakland San Francisco mission
4945 Lincoln Way
Oakland, CA 94602

Please spread the word far and wide to everyone you know that that is my new address, because Elders love getting letters, and none can come if they have not the correct address! Keep your stick on the ice everyone!

Love Elder Fortie

June 1 - 7, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer
June 1 – 7, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
I am so grateful the hot days of summer have been postponed for a while. These cool days are just right for bike rides in the canyons. I was checking out the weather channel (the new digital TV channel 5-3) to see what it was going to be like for Jennifer’s camp this week and noticed that the record high for today was 104 and the record low was 35, glad we didn’t get near either of those. We are in the 60’s and 70’s this week with a few sprinkles now and then. The clouds have made for some beautiful skies all week.
I am trying to listen to President Eyring’s conference talk on BYU.TV while I write this letter but it’s not going very well. His talks are the kind that you have to pay attention to so it’s almost impossible to focus on writing and listening at the same time. I’ll have to listen to it again later.
How blessed we are to live here and now. Great things are happening and greater things are coming; I think I must get more oil in my lamp. In my personal scripture study I am going through Jacob chapter 5. This is the chapter where Jacob quotes the writings of Zenos about the parable of the vineyard. I am writing a summery of the chapter and am going to create a list of each event and try to match these events in the parable with actual events or groups of people through history. It is going slow but is very interesting.
Tami has been very sick this past few weeks. She called around to a few specialists and they couldn’t get her in until mid July. She finally found one that could get her in at the end of June so we made an appointment. We almost took her into the emergency room on Monday but by Tuesday morning she started to improve a bit so we decided to wait for the appointment. She was very pale, weak and tired.
I had play practice a few times this week and am slowly learning my lines. I have noticed that because I am new to this performing on stage thing, that when I go through my lines by myself I seem to have them down fairly well but then when I am on the stage interacting with others there are several times when I go blank. I hope I can get used to this whole thing so this going blank thing won’t happen during the performance. We have about a month to go, wish me luck.
I am trying to get back in shape from a winter of sitting at a desk. I have gone on bike rides 3 times this week. Twice in the canyon and once just riding up hill in our subdivision. The few miles and 400 foot climb in the neighborhood seemed almost as hard as going up the canyon. On my Wednesday ride up the canyon I took my camera. The trail is absolutely beautiful this time of year and I got some good shots. I put them on Facebook and had a few people after seeing the pictures ask how to get to the trails so they could go their to ride, hike or run. More people should be up there enjoying such beautiful scenery instead of sitting in front of the TV. I was alone for most of the morning but around eleven I ran into a few people on horses as I was coming down. Then near the parking lot I ran into five or six hikers and another group on horses. I’m sure most of the hikers don’t know that the most beautiful part of the trail is beyond where many of them will go. It takes effort to get to that which brings the greatest joy. Many never know it is there and never know what they are missing out on.
After play practice I dropped by the Riverton Arts Festival to see some of the booths there. I wanted to get some of my work into the art contest but they only allowed people to bring their work in for 2 yours Friday night and I couldn’t. There were some good artists and great work at many of the booths, too bad people don’t have the money to support these people. A few I talked to said it was a bit slow this year; maybe the weather and the economy.
Tami and I went to see the movie “Taken” on Saturday night. It’s about a girl going to Europe and getting kidnapped. People told us if we watched it we wouldn’t want Michelle to go to Europe next summer, they were right – it was scary. She is going with a group with lots of adults but it will take us a few weeks to get over the fear created by that movie. It was very action packed. You might want to go see it.
On Sunday, after choir practice, I talked to Brother Mike Mueller and suggested that we might go visit members each Fast Sunday to find out where everyone is at with their genealogy. If we keep visiting it might get more people advancing so they will have something new to report to us each time we come over. We went to Brother and Sister Gardner, the High Priest group leader (my next door neighbor), and Brother Blaine Butterfield. We had a nice visit and got them working on getting records from relatives and starting the work on their own family histories and genealogy. I think if we can keep that up it will be a good thing. Now I need to get going with my other 2 callings, Ward missionary and the Cultural Arts Specialist. Maybe I can put on some plays about missionaries and get them both taken care of with one activity (lol).
I am reading a book I got at the BYU Bookstore when I went down there to drop off pictures a few weeks ago. It is called The Wisdomkeepers, it is messages from Native American Elders. One told the interviewers that an important part of life is finding your own song. It is amazing how different cultures are. He says that everyone has a song and you must ask the creator to help you find your own song. He also said that everything has a song including healing of sickness and disease. It was interesting to hear his perspective. It reminded me of a few months ago when I heard the tune the cord to my reading glasses made in the wind right by my ear and then I saw the tree in front of me with the branches that were the same size as the cord and I realized that all trees in the forest must have a unique song that the creatures of the forest, with their large ears, can hear. We are missing most of that. I think I am still looking for my song. I hope it is not too late to find it. I’ll keep searching and asking.
School is finally out. Michelle is a junior now and Jennifer is moving on to 8th grade. Wow, they are growing up way too fast. They have had some great activities with the temple celebration and parties this week. I’ll try to get them to write things down.
Well, that’s it for this week.
Make sure you know your own song,
Ken and clan



Nathan and Paige – Are getting settled in their new apartment near Fort Lewis in Washington State. They finally got their furniture 2 ½ weeks late they slept on Nathan’s old mattress on the floor until it got there. Nathan had a week or so off after returning from over seas but is now back to training for his next mission.
Address:
Nathan & Paige Fortie
2308 Brookdale Rd. E.
Apt. I 303
Tacoma, WA 98445



Chad and Alicia –
Chad has signed a contract with a middle school in Utah County for next school year to be the theater teacher there. After signing he had Riverton High School contact him as they were finally getting around to figuring out next year after this expensive split ($30 million). Chad works for a fireworks warehouse for the summer, filling orders and shipping fireworks and fireworks stands around Utah and one or two other states in the area.


Brian:
Hello La Familia,
This week has been filled with lots of things to do and see.
On Monday for Family Home Evening my singles ward went to brother Davis’ in the Bishoprics home. We had a lesson where pictures of all 16 of the later day prophets were hung up. We were divided into teams of about 4 (8 teams) and each given two quotes or biographical descriptions. We had to think of who it was and stick them on the picture we thought it matched. Ours was one that said, “when I was called to be a bishop the song went through my head ‘just say no young man, just say no’ and I never served a mission.” That one I knew was President Monson. Our other one said that they were raised by an inactive father and was a lawyer. We figured it was either President Hunter or Lee. Someone had already put a quote on Hunter (and once one has one on it you can’t put another one on unless you convince them to take it off.) So we stuck it on Harold B Lee. Well it was wrong it was Howard W Hunter. We got 1 out of 2. Some of the ones people put were obviously wrong and ridiculous like “I didn’t serve a mission because I thought some other guy would steal my girl while I was gone, and I loved scouting.” Someone put that on Joseph Smith. Come on. They didn’t have scouting or full time missions for every young man back then. Or on Brigham Young’s was “I went to school in Idaho and love to play the Piano.” I don’t think Brigham ever personally set foot in Idaho. He sent colonies there. It was great. Brother Davis gave a really spiritual message about getting to know the Prophets. During the lesson I got a strong answer to a prayer. I had met with the Bishop last Wednesday to talk about missionaries for the ward. He gave me a list of the members who had no callings to pray over. One guy is like 21 or so and still a Priest, he had a rough teen life and got in a rut. He’s turned around and is coming back. At the lesson while brother Davis spoke I looked over at him and the spirit said “that’s your guy.” I just got the really strong feeling that he should be one of my ward missionaries. He’s got a fire about him and a spirit that is truly trying to change. He blessed the sacrament for the first time last week and was way nervous.
I talked to brother Davis after about learning about the prophets. See I have this goal. I have a testimony of prophets in general, because I know the priesthood keys were and are passed. I know Peter gave them to Joseph Smith and they are still on the earth. So automatically every President between Joseph Smith and Tomas Monson was a Prophet. But on an individual basis I have a personal testimony of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young (from Mountain of the Lord’ ‘A man without Eloquence’ and a few other things) David O. McKay, Spencer W. Kimball, Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson.
The Later two were my Prophets, and I have taught and learned enough about the others to know who they are. But I have a goal to gain a specific testimony of each one of the 16 as Prophets Seers and Revelators; as individual men, not just as fillers between when keys were restored and where they are now. I just don’t know enough about each one, or who they were. So brother Davis let my borrow a book about John Taylor. I’m excited.
Tuesday lots of studying, I went down to the U.V. University to check out some more DVD’s on Anatomy and Physiology. I watched a DVD there on laceration and synching and one on the development of the four-chambered heart. Enough of that you say, right.
On Wednesday I went to the park and we played ultimate Frisbee and then volleyball with a group from the ward. They tend to want to keep me up late, like midnight, and I like going to bed at like 10:30. They are forming this habit I don’t want formed. So that impedes me getting up early, all their strange college hours. I detest sleeping in, I feel so groggy and lazy. If I wake up past 8 I feel miserable and unaccomplished all day. I’m going to have to lay down some rules of no starting any movie after 9 or so. But none of my friends want to do anything at 7 in the morning. Sigh.
Thursday I have been keeping a stringent schedule whilst looking for a job. I study anatomy from DVDs and a book, read John Taylor’s biography and read physics and a History book. I don’t let friends do anything till after 7 usually so I can get stuff done. At night Chad, Isaac and some people from the ward went to a park and played capture the flag.
Friday was way fun. So since we usually clean on Saturday and we cleaned a bunch Friday I thought it was Saturday and around 1 O’Clock I thought “oh no, the temple open house!” So I got dressed in my Sunday clothes and rode to the church. Finding no one there I called the Bishop and said “where is everyone?” He said “um, that’s on Saturday Brian.” So I felt dumb and went back. I changed my shirt and tie into a T-shirt, but hadn’t changed my pants and shoes. So Isaac shows up at 7:30 to take me to the regional Singles barn dance (which I also forgot) and I’m half way through a change. So I had an interesting ensemble, T-shirt and Sunday pants.
The dance was so fun, and there was a lot of people. Culture is gone out of our culture, everyone just plays video games now. At the start everyone just sat there on the sides, so I walked out to the center and said “Everybody! This is not a Sit, It’s a Dance! Get up!” and people sort of looked around like “oh yeah, but we don’t know what to do.” It took a bit to get it going. Me and a few others made a point to go ask the girls that were all just sitting there not being asked. Get them out of their comfort zone. I went around and asked everyone’s names that were sitting. We did the Polka and holy cow that is a cardio work out. I was the second the last one on the dance floor, my partner and I trying to out dance the other couple (cause they just kept playing and didn’t stop) and I got a cramp so I was done. Oh well. By the end everyone wanted to go to a movie but it was like 11:30 and I was all Polka’d out so I hit the sack.
Saturday our ward met at the church and carpooled to the Oquir Mountain Temple Open House. We had 50 tickets reserved but only 21 came from our ward. Not even half. And no one brought a non-member or less active. But I can’t blame them. I didn’t either this time around (I am taking someone next Saturday). The spirit there was very strong and it was absolutely beautiful.
Something hit me in there. In one of the rooms I touched a chair (all the rows of chairs for lots of people) and I thought, “you know, the Lord doesn’t sit, he doesn’t need chairs, and certainly not this many. These are for us, when we come to his house. It hit me in an instant. His house is for teaching. Its main purpose is instructing us. So the places were teaching occurs best is the home. Our homes where we are taught as kids the gospel, and the Lords house, we go to be taught more. The BD says the only place on earth that can compare to the Temple is the Home.”
At night we all went to the church (a group of us about 15 from the singles ward) and ate pizza and played “poison” it’s too much to explain but it’s a lot like doge ball only cooler. Anyway, something really funny happened. When you get out you just sit down on the floor right where you are, and if someone gets the person out that got you out you get back in. So I had been out forever just sitting against the wall where I was assassinated. Finally someone hit the guy who got me out, and I rose to my feet slowly, with a maniacal laugh, and my hand clenched up in the air, as if I had just been freed from some eternal curse. Well John Isom, who is this tiny kid like 4 foot 11, was right next to me, with a ball. I didn’t see him out of the corner of my eye. So here I was getting up and laughing like a crazy man, and he hit me with the ball and I immediately sat back down. I was back in for 6 seconds and died again. Everyone started laughing so hard they all fell over and started coughing, including me. I didn’t even see him, or see it coming.
Sunday at testimony meeting, it was amazing how confirmations from the spirit work. And I miss those frequent ones from my mission. Well two of the people I have felt should be ward missionaries got up and bore their testimony and I got a confirming witness on both, that it was the right choice and they will do well. It was amazing to me.
In Elders Quorum we got chewed out. I guess through the grape vine the EQP got word that the sisters are complaining that there is not enough dating in the ward and the guys never ask them out. So we had a lesson on dating. They talked a lot about confidence. At the end Andrew Sacket, turned around (To understand this, you must know that our ward did short movies about 3 months back, in groups. Ours was about a kid getting the courage to ask out a girl, called “a mans search for awesomeness.” I played a character in his inner psyche called “Mr. Awesome” that encouraged him to be brave.)
So he turned around and said, “just exercise your inner Awesome, and everyone laughed. One kid said “Awesome, (about ¼ of the ward still calls me that) will you go on a double date with me?” it was funny.
Well this is way long, I better get it off. Hope everyone is well. Love you all.

Brian



Elder Fortie:
Okay, so the madness explanation. Okay well the dust is settling and things are coming to a close. So I've been running around going crazy the past 2 1/2 weeks because I am the district leader of 80% of the central zone! I am the district leader over all the Spanish and all but one of the English districts in the zone. Why I am the district leader over so many people, your guess is as good as mine, but I don't question, I just work. So it's madness, I spend a lot of time working on district meetings, dealing with numerical stuff, and working with how things are going to pan out. I am also district leader over the 3 A.P's (yes we have 3 in my mission, they needed a third wheel cause things are insane here) the zone leaders, and the trainers. So that's a challenging district meeting and what not, it's also weird when the zone leaders and A.P's have to come to me to ask my permission for stuff or get my keys to get into church buildings etc. etc. But, I do my best and let the Lord do the rest. So as to what will happen to the area's of the San Francisco mission, they will still have some missionaries here, but not many, there will be about 1/6 as many missionaries covering the same areas. Or in other words where 12 missionaries used to be, there will only be 2. So they aren't giving up all hope, just most of it haha. As to what exactly will be my new boundaries I don't know, but I'll find out soon. Most likely I will stick around here for a little while to keep things running when the transitions happen because I am in a leadership position over 80% of the zone, so the new pres. will likely keep me here because I know how things work here and he will have no idea, but one thing I have come to learn about this whole experience with a closing mission, nothing is certain, and nothing is a surprise.
So last night They hosted a huge fireside/ social for President and sister Keller going home. It was so sad! They were both just crying like babies, and we presented them this huge picture one of the missionaries (who is an amazing artist) drew of them kneeling and praying, that we all signed. They are such amazing people, and I have truly grown to love them, I cannot imagine a better mission president, President Keller does an inspired work here, and runs this mission as perfectly as it can be run with a level of respect love and obedience that is incredible. One of the speakers from the stake last night at the fireside said "President Keller, we want you to know, you will always be our mission president" and it rang so true to me. He will always be my president.Well I gotta go, I forgot my new address, but I'll have it next week. I love you all and I'll talk to you all later!
Love elder Fortie



Michelle:
What up peeps?!? :]
So I gotta catch you up on a lot that has been happening lately, because, yeah… it’s been a LOT! So please excuse these brief awkward lines.
Since I can’t really remember where we left off and what we have and have not covered, I guess I’ll just cover major events of the past… monthish.
First we start with my broken nose. Sadly, my first broken bone was busted a few weeks ago. It also has quite the strange story to go along with it. Sit back and relax as this odd tale unfolds. In a moment like that, everything moves in slow motion. A Samoan falls, curls into a ball, and bullets toward Melissa and my waiting arms. Our faces collide, and Melissa’s forehead cracks against my nose. That’s how the whole adventure began. That act so simple and so routine brought me into the broken bone club within a millisecond. But this is more than just a story of a broken nose. It’s a story of doctors, swelling, black eyes, cover-up and make-up, surgery scares, hockey ,masks, and romance… okay, not so much the romance part. It just really sounded like it fit.
Life is full of irony. I, who hate doctors with every fiber of my being, seem to find myself visiting them much more often than the average person. It seems that God has quite the strange sense of humor. None the less, with this little incident, I found myself visiting yet another doctor. And I’ll tell you, my story isn’t exactly the easiest to explain to the nurses and doctors. The words “I hit my nose on some girl’s face” never received such skeptical looks. The x-rays came back and the verdict was: BUSTED!
Friday, I went to school, trying to pretend that nothing had happened. That was harder than it may seem seeing as my nose was the size of Manhattan. I walked into gym and coach freaked out from the start. When I finally talked him into letting me play softball, there was one condition; I wore a lovely accessory on my face… a hockey mask. It made playing difficult, but I was content just to play.
Finally the day came and with a panging feeling of the pain that loomed ahead, I headed to the surgeon’s office. I had been told that surgery would be necessary, and I was not looking forward to it in any way! I walked in and was instantly terrified. The man that was supposed to be straightening my nose had the most crooked and warped nose I had ever seen in my life. I wasn’t sure whether or not I trusted him with my face, seeing as I kind of need it for the rest of my life. He then proceeded to do the thing that all doctors do that I absolutely detest. He began to wiggle and poke the very thing that hurt me so much in the first place. He then decided that he thought it was straight enough and that there would be no need for surgery. So I guess I escaped that death sentence.
But it has left a permanent mark on my life. I can no longer say that I’m one of the select, cool few that have never broken a bone. Word on the street is that I’ve had a nose job, even though it’s not true at all! My brothers call me Michael Jackson. Brian also jokes that I am Cyrano de Bergerac. An emotional permanent scar has been left with me.
So that is my nose story. Now that we’re done with that exciting piece of my life… let’s move on to the next! The temple celebration! We had the opportunity to take part in the celebration for the opening of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple! It was a huge deal at the Conference center and the prophet was there! There were about 7,000 youth performing in about 12+ dances and a youth choir that sang along to some of the dances! I was in the baseball dance as one of the baseball players on the winning team! :] There were about 20 youth on the baseball team and then we had our 100 backup dancers! It was a lot of practice, but also a lot of fun! In the beginning of the dance, I’m sitting on the side of the stage doing a kick line and hand clapping part of the dance about 10 feet from the prophet! While I was doing it during the performance, I looked out and smiled at the prophet! He smiled back and started doing that hand clapping part of the dance with me! I was so amazed and got a little distracted, but no worries, I got right back on course!! He had an amazing time and we were all so full of energy by the end of everything! It was amazing! Then we ran back to our seats and continued to watch the other dances and laugh and clap along with them. At the end, everyone started to sing “I Love To See The Temple”, and as we sang, a replica of the temple rose from behind the fake mountain that was on stage. The temple was about 2 stories tall and it was pure white, and glowing. Tears came to my eyes. The spirit was so incredibly strong it was almost tangible. By the end of the performance, none of us wanted to leave. It was such a remarkable feeling, you just never wanted that feeling to leave you. But alas, after all of our time, hard work, and dedication… it was over. I was so blessed to be a part of this.
Well, I have more to write, but I have to get this off in time! So I’ll write more on a coming day! I love you all and hope that things are going as well for you as they are for me! Remember to make the next 60 seconds worthwhile, because you’re trading a minute of your life for it!! Good luck!
Love,
~Michelle!~



Jennifer:
Hi everyone!
We have a new Microsoft program so if anything turns out weird blame Michelle! She installed it, little computer nerd. J Well let’s see this was my last week as a sevy ever again! Thursday was my last day of school and it was super fun! We had the teacher verses students softball game and then our year book signing party! It was all a blast and we were all acting crazy! Then the last five minutes hit, it seemed to finally kick in to everyone there that this year actually is over. People kept coming up to me and saying do you remember when we slid down the main hallway on our binders or do you remember that time when we kicked the guys butts at football and so much other stuff, I (of course) started crying as our whole group went over all our memories of the crazy, sporadic but most of all fun stuff we did that year. The list was endless as we went through our times when we broke out into song and dance in the classroom, stuffed our face with food we made in cooking and so much more! Then when I was walking back to the locker that would soon be no longer mine then a person tripped and knocked into me and my year book flew out of my hands into the main hallway where there is like 400 kids going threw at once I looked down just to see it getting kicked around by feet that didn’t even know it was down there, it was like a wild stampede and when the dust cleared it was gone. I kept looking around but it was nowhere to be seen so I ran to the office to see if it was there but they said they had not had any turned in so I went home, went to bed then woke up freaking out because I was late for school! Yah took me about twenty seconds to realize that hey I don’t have school! Then mom walked in and with her came… my year book! Someone had turned it into the office! I was so happy! But yah it was all great! Then on our last day my seventh period art teacher Mrs. Clegg was moving her furniture into a different room and another girl and I were helping her then on the last load she said she didn’t mind if we “stalled” a little bit on the way back, so we did just that! We had this lovely cart with wheels on the bottom to hold the boxes on so I got this brilliant idea about how fun it would be to sit on the cart and roll down the main hallway, well that thought became life and we pushed each other down the hall, it was so fun!
Work is amazing! I’m still trying to have fun with them and come up with new ways to have them use their imagination! But something very, very, very happy is that all electronics were banned in their house and I’m not talking about lights I mean the wii, all D.S. games, computers and TV! They had WAY too much time on them so now they have none! It has made then a lot better behavior wise though. But other than that no big news!
Well I should probably stop boring you all so I should just stop here! Remember the lord has put you were you are for a reason; you just may or may not know it yet! He won’t give you a challenge that you can’t face!

- Jennifer Fortie