Fortie Family Flyer
May 25 – 31, 2009
Very busy week, very little sleep for us all. Last Sunday, Matt Hutchings invited me to go for a bike ride on Monday morning with a group he had put together. I have been sick for a while so I have done nothing to keep myself in shape and haven’t been on my bike since last fall. I hesitated because of that but then said I would go. As I thought more about it I decided to go up late so they would all go without me. I could then go at my own pace without anyone feeling obligated to stay back with me (all a bunch of young guys from the ward). Then when they came down I could just stop where they met me and go down with them. It turns out they went clear up and around the mountain so I gave up after going further than I have ever been and went down the same way I went up. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes with my many stops for rest to get a bit more than half way up (a climb of a little over 1000 feet (my watch tells me that) and I don’t know the distance in miles but most likely only 3) and then 10 minutes to come back down. It takes Matt 45 minutes to go all the way up (around 4 miles) and then 10 minutes to go down the other side. I am way out of shape and getting old. It was very muddy from the rain we had all weekend and even though it made it a bit harder going up, slipping on steep hills etc., it made it more fun coming down as my tires would slip right into position to avoid rocks and logs making for great adventure. I also rode to the library on Wednesday to try and get back into the biking mode (get my lungs and legs used to working and my rear end used to a bike seat) then I rode up Yellow Fork Canyon again on Saturday morning to see how far I could get. I went up the other side this time and made it further than I have ever gone on that side of the mountain but I took a wrong turn near the top so I didn’t make it all the way around. I ran into a few other bikers, hikers and people on horses along the trail and a couple of guys stopped on horses to talk to me and after I asked them a few questions about the trail they let me know I was on a very steep trail going up to the top of the mountain and told me where the right one was. I went down and got on the right trial where some of the best scenery was but I didn’t have enough time or energy to make it all the way around again. One of these days I’ll get into good enough shape that it won’t take me 3 hours to go up the canyon and around the mountain.
We had a big play practice this week. Things are shaping up for a great play. There are some great voices in this one.
Friday night we went to Chad’s birthday party. We were late because of work but when we got there we had lots of good food and games to play. The cake we very good and we had a great time. We sent them to Treasure Island with grandpa and grandma for their birthdays. It’s a play at the Hale Center Theater and it is very well done. Hope they enjoyed it.
The girls had their last practice for the Temple celebration on Thursday. They were at the conference center from 3:30 to 11:00 pm. We got tickets to go to the conference center to see them but Tami got sick so I went alone. I sat about 10 rows back from the prophet and Elder Eyring. I was on the end seat next to the center isle where some of the kids that knew me would give me high fives as they ran past. The program was excellent and it was great to be there and feel the electricity from 7,000 kids performing one group after the other for 2 hours. This will be an amazing activity they will always remember. Sunday was nap after church day for those needing to catch up from little sleep all week for all the activities, home teaching and talking with Nathan who is finally moved into his apartment. Oh, I almost forgot, he had his truck stolen this week and they found it the next night destroyed so bad they towed it away because they didn’t know if it was drivable. Nathan is going to be able to go see in on Monday. It was stolen right out of their apartment parking lot. Hope insurance will take care of it.
Well, that’s all the news for us.
Keep dancing,
Ken & clan
From Elder Fortie:
Greetings one and all from the great place I call my mission... for the next 3 weeks... sigh...
Okay so you know how I told you all I was going to tell you this week everything that was going on last week that I hadn't quite figured out yet? Well I lied... Because I still haven't figured it all out yet... haha. So the madness news will yet wait along with my new address.
So this week I have been getting re-adgusted (is that spelled right? I'm begining to forget English... the other week I was up in front of half the mission speaking and I couldn't remember the word for misericordioso (merciful) in English, and finally had to just say it in Spanish and say who knows that word in English, a few of the Spanish Elders in the audience all chimed in with the answer, so that was my dumb moment, that and last night I had to ask my companions how to spell reception, because in Spanish it's recepcion, and I could swear it was spelled the same in English.) to being down here, I cover the area of the mission that has the mission office, the airport, and president Keller’s house, so we see a lot of him and all the coming and goings that go on around here, it's pretty crazy. Plus I am also double covering the Assistants area because they are so busy closing down the mission that they don't have time to work in their area at all. So I am running around like a duck with its tail on fire.
But a cool thing was I got to go to the wedding reception (thus why I needed to know how to spell reception) this week of the daughter of a family I used to visit last time I was down here. They are great long term members, but her new husband is a recent convert of about a year and a half that I got to work with to help prep. him for their temple wedding. So that was really cool. His parents are not members, and I helped them set up for the reception at the church and got to have a good chat with them, they are great people and perhaps with time and the example of their son and new daughter in Law they will begin to feel the power of this gospel.
This week the adults had some special meeting during church so they asked us Elders to help take care of the primary, we had a grand old time, and when we left all the primary children told us were way better then the adults. So we felt pretty cool, at least the kids like us. A lot of people were excited to see me back at church this Sunday, I haven't been in this ward since November. Especially the Bishop was glad to have me back, he is an amazing man, and he and I get along great and had a lot of laughs while getting a lot of good done, I'm excited to work with him again, he is my favorite bishop in the mission. He is pretty young, only like 30, but does an amazing job at fulfilling his responsibilities and is very involved in the mission work, yet he is a blast to be around and just a great friend.
I live in an apartment with 5 Elders, two of them are from the English program and Elder Lisonbee, is one of my best friends in the mission and he is just hilarious, he and I have a blast together! We have some of the other Elders in our apartment rolling sometimes when the two of us get going. Also I had an interview with Pres. Keller this past week and he told me my letters are his favorite to read of all the letters he gets from missionaries because everyone else just writes and says stuff about the area, which is good, and which I do, but when I write, I have a blast with it, requesting things like a new Volkswagen hippie bus with a supplied fridge of cheese cake and chocolate milk, or telling him random funny stories, drawing him fun pictures and stuff, or just being myself. I don't just list what's going on, I write with personality which no one else apparently does and he just loves it, he says I start smiling before I even start reading your letters, as soon as I see that it's from you I can't help but wonder and start laughing about what I'm going to read now. Last week I wrote him a soap opera to explain to him something that happened in the canal. All my interviews with President Keller are just a blast, everyone else says he asks them all these questions about what they are doing and stuff, with me he says "Elder Fortie are you still temple worthy?" I tell him yes and he says "good, that's all I need, cause I know the answers to the rest of the questions already, now did you ever hear the joke about the genie and the Oscar Meyer wiener?" etc. etc. I truly love that man, I cannot imagine my mission without him... it will be so sad to see him go in 3 weeks, I cannot picture a better mission president. We have the highest obedience level of all the missions around us, and it's because everyone wants to obey President Keller because everyone LOVES the man! No one has any desire to disobey. He has truly mastered Joseph Smith's teaching of "we do not govern men's lives for them, we teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves". President Keller has never had to impose all these extra rules that all the other missions have, because he teaches us what we should do, and knows we know what to do, and since we all respect him so much, we do it. It will be a sad, sad day to see him go.
Well I am about out of time, I left the new mission address home, so I'll get it to you later, sorry, but I still have the same address for now anyways. Keep a stiff upper lip, and make sure it's a stiff up, not a stiff down!Love Elder Fortie.
May 25 – 31, 2009
Very busy week, very little sleep for us all. Last Sunday, Matt Hutchings invited me to go for a bike ride on Monday morning with a group he had put together. I have been sick for a while so I have done nothing to keep myself in shape and haven’t been on my bike since last fall. I hesitated because of that but then said I would go. As I thought more about it I decided to go up late so they would all go without me. I could then go at my own pace without anyone feeling obligated to stay back with me (all a bunch of young guys from the ward). Then when they came down I could just stop where they met me and go down with them. It turns out they went clear up and around the mountain so I gave up after going further than I have ever been and went down the same way I went up. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes with my many stops for rest to get a bit more than half way up (a climb of a little over 1000 feet (my watch tells me that) and I don’t know the distance in miles but most likely only 3) and then 10 minutes to come back down. It takes Matt 45 minutes to go all the way up (around 4 miles) and then 10 minutes to go down the other side. I am way out of shape and getting old. It was very muddy from the rain we had all weekend and even though it made it a bit harder going up, slipping on steep hills etc., it made it more fun coming down as my tires would slip right into position to avoid rocks and logs making for great adventure. I also rode to the library on Wednesday to try and get back into the biking mode (get my lungs and legs used to working and my rear end used to a bike seat) then I rode up Yellow Fork Canyon again on Saturday morning to see how far I could get. I went up the other side this time and made it further than I have ever gone on that side of the mountain but I took a wrong turn near the top so I didn’t make it all the way around. I ran into a few other bikers, hikers and people on horses along the trail and a couple of guys stopped on horses to talk to me and after I asked them a few questions about the trail they let me know I was on a very steep trail going up to the top of the mountain and told me where the right one was. I went down and got on the right trial where some of the best scenery was but I didn’t have enough time or energy to make it all the way around again. One of these days I’ll get into good enough shape that it won’t take me 3 hours to go up the canyon and around the mountain.
We had a big play practice this week. Things are shaping up for a great play. There are some great voices in this one.
Friday night we went to Chad’s birthday party. We were late because of work but when we got there we had lots of good food and games to play. The cake we very good and we had a great time. We sent them to Treasure Island with grandpa and grandma for their birthdays. It’s a play at the Hale Center Theater and it is very well done. Hope they enjoyed it.
The girls had their last practice for the Temple celebration on Thursday. They were at the conference center from 3:30 to 11:00 pm. We got tickets to go to the conference center to see them but Tami got sick so I went alone. I sat about 10 rows back from the prophet and Elder Eyring. I was on the end seat next to the center isle where some of the kids that knew me would give me high fives as they ran past. The program was excellent and it was great to be there and feel the electricity from 7,000 kids performing one group after the other for 2 hours. This will be an amazing activity they will always remember. Sunday was nap after church day for those needing to catch up from little sleep all week for all the activities, home teaching and talking with Nathan who is finally moved into his apartment. Oh, I almost forgot, he had his truck stolen this week and they found it the next night destroyed so bad they towed it away because they didn’t know if it was drivable. Nathan is going to be able to go see in on Monday. It was stolen right out of their apartment parking lot. Hope insurance will take care of it.
Well, that’s all the news for us.
Keep dancing,
Ken & clan
From Elder Fortie:
Greetings one and all from the great place I call my mission... for the next 3 weeks... sigh...
Okay so you know how I told you all I was going to tell you this week everything that was going on last week that I hadn't quite figured out yet? Well I lied... Because I still haven't figured it all out yet... haha. So the madness news will yet wait along with my new address.
So this week I have been getting re-adgusted (is that spelled right? I'm begining to forget English... the other week I was up in front of half the mission speaking and I couldn't remember the word for misericordioso (merciful) in English, and finally had to just say it in Spanish and say who knows that word in English, a few of the Spanish Elders in the audience all chimed in with the answer, so that was my dumb moment, that and last night I had to ask my companions how to spell reception, because in Spanish it's recepcion, and I could swear it was spelled the same in English.) to being down here, I cover the area of the mission that has the mission office, the airport, and president Keller’s house, so we see a lot of him and all the coming and goings that go on around here, it's pretty crazy. Plus I am also double covering the Assistants area because they are so busy closing down the mission that they don't have time to work in their area at all. So I am running around like a duck with its tail on fire.
But a cool thing was I got to go to the wedding reception (thus why I needed to know how to spell reception) this week of the daughter of a family I used to visit last time I was down here. They are great long term members, but her new husband is a recent convert of about a year and a half that I got to work with to help prep. him for their temple wedding. So that was really cool. His parents are not members, and I helped them set up for the reception at the church and got to have a good chat with them, they are great people and perhaps with time and the example of their son and new daughter in Law they will begin to feel the power of this gospel.
This week the adults had some special meeting during church so they asked us Elders to help take care of the primary, we had a grand old time, and when we left all the primary children told us were way better then the adults. So we felt pretty cool, at least the kids like us. A lot of people were excited to see me back at church this Sunday, I haven't been in this ward since November. Especially the Bishop was glad to have me back, he is an amazing man, and he and I get along great and had a lot of laughs while getting a lot of good done, I'm excited to work with him again, he is my favorite bishop in the mission. He is pretty young, only like 30, but does an amazing job at fulfilling his responsibilities and is very involved in the mission work, yet he is a blast to be around and just a great friend.
I live in an apartment with 5 Elders, two of them are from the English program and Elder Lisonbee, is one of my best friends in the mission and he is just hilarious, he and I have a blast together! We have some of the other Elders in our apartment rolling sometimes when the two of us get going. Also I had an interview with Pres. Keller this past week and he told me my letters are his favorite to read of all the letters he gets from missionaries because everyone else just writes and says stuff about the area, which is good, and which I do, but when I write, I have a blast with it, requesting things like a new Volkswagen hippie bus with a supplied fridge of cheese cake and chocolate milk, or telling him random funny stories, drawing him fun pictures and stuff, or just being myself. I don't just list what's going on, I write with personality which no one else apparently does and he just loves it, he says I start smiling before I even start reading your letters, as soon as I see that it's from you I can't help but wonder and start laughing about what I'm going to read now. Last week I wrote him a soap opera to explain to him something that happened in the canal. All my interviews with President Keller are just a blast, everyone else says he asks them all these questions about what they are doing and stuff, with me he says "Elder Fortie are you still temple worthy?" I tell him yes and he says "good, that's all I need, cause I know the answers to the rest of the questions already, now did you ever hear the joke about the genie and the Oscar Meyer wiener?" etc. etc. I truly love that man, I cannot imagine my mission without him... it will be so sad to see him go in 3 weeks, I cannot picture a better mission president. We have the highest obedience level of all the missions around us, and it's because everyone wants to obey President Keller because everyone LOVES the man! No one has any desire to disobey. He has truly mastered Joseph Smith's teaching of "we do not govern men's lives for them, we teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves". President Keller has never had to impose all these extra rules that all the other missions have, because he teaches us what we should do, and knows we know what to do, and since we all respect him so much, we do it. It will be a sad, sad day to see him go.
Well I am about out of time, I left the new mission address home, so I'll get it to you later, sorry, but I still have the same address for now anyways. Keep a stiff upper lip, and make sure it's a stiff up, not a stiff down!Love Elder Fortie.
From Jennifer:
Greetings one and all,
This past weekend, Saturday to be specific, Michelle and I had the chance to be in a celebration for two new temples that have been built near us, but not only for that, it was also a celebration for the blessings that temples bring us, such as eternal families and being able to be in the presence of our Lord and Savior. It really was also a celebration for Him, for what He has done for us, the things that we can’t begin to imagine. Wow I’m really sorry about any spelling mistakes made here; my eyes are so blurry I can’t see the keys. Going up to the conference center you’re all pumped, going over your dance moves in your head then I got up on the stage and I looked out and saw the prophet smiling so big and looking out at US and you realize why you’re really there – why I was really there. I then remembered I was up on stage so I had to pull myself together and not start bawling up there. Then we got to the end and the temple came up and we sang I love to see the temple and I lost it. I felt like I was just going to burst from the power of the Spirit. It was the most amazing feeling in the world and I really would not trade it for anything. Especially when our prophet walked in, the room just filled with a feeling I could never begin to explain. I cried there too and at the end where he went through and shook some of the youth’s hands, yup I was bawling. It was a once in a lifetime experience that is so personal to everyone in their own way, a chance that is beyond description. In fact, at the beginning when we got there I suddenly was hit by the biggest migraine on the face of the earth, I was ready to start crying and not from the spirit this time. It hurt to take a single step, and then I realized I have to dance up on that stage and immediately I knew I couldn’t. Then my friend suggested I should pray, so I did, it helped very gradually but I still thought I couldn’t dance then it came time for us to go line up to get up on stage and just like that it was gone. So I had my own personal miracle I only wish it had lasted cause the second I got home it came back super strong. Ha ha.
Well lots of play practice and last minute assignments from school. Only four more days!!!!!!!! HOORAH! And of course my job. In fact, Saturday morning I babysat and we went to the park, I had three of the boys and we decided to play tag, well pretty soon a little boy and his sister came up to ask if they could play. We said of course, the more the merrier! So they played with us, then two more boys came to ask if they could join us and we all said sure! Next was another little girl and we had quite a few players then they all decided they wanted to play the oh so beloved game-mother goose! So we made a big circle on the grass and started playing that, we got three more players and then after about twenty minutes of that we all decided to play hide and go seek and again we got four more players. At the end we had 19 kids that had joined the boys and I, they all knew me by name and as they one by one or two by two left they asked if I would be there next week, then their mothers thanked me for keeping their children entertained. I just laughed and told them it was no problem and we all had fun. Well I need to go to bed so adieus! Church is true and the book is blue!
-Jennifer Fortie
Greetings one and all,
This past weekend, Saturday to be specific, Michelle and I had the chance to be in a celebration for two new temples that have been built near us, but not only for that, it was also a celebration for the blessings that temples bring us, such as eternal families and being able to be in the presence of our Lord and Savior. It really was also a celebration for Him, for what He has done for us, the things that we can’t begin to imagine. Wow I’m really sorry about any spelling mistakes made here; my eyes are so blurry I can’t see the keys. Going up to the conference center you’re all pumped, going over your dance moves in your head then I got up on the stage and I looked out and saw the prophet smiling so big and looking out at US and you realize why you’re really there – why I was really there. I then remembered I was up on stage so I had to pull myself together and not start bawling up there. Then we got to the end and the temple came up and we sang I love to see the temple and I lost it. I felt like I was just going to burst from the power of the Spirit. It was the most amazing feeling in the world and I really would not trade it for anything. Especially when our prophet walked in, the room just filled with a feeling I could never begin to explain. I cried there too and at the end where he went through and shook some of the youth’s hands, yup I was bawling. It was a once in a lifetime experience that is so personal to everyone in their own way, a chance that is beyond description. In fact, at the beginning when we got there I suddenly was hit by the biggest migraine on the face of the earth, I was ready to start crying and not from the spirit this time. It hurt to take a single step, and then I realized I have to dance up on that stage and immediately I knew I couldn’t. Then my friend suggested I should pray, so I did, it helped very gradually but I still thought I couldn’t dance then it came time for us to go line up to get up on stage and just like that it was gone. So I had my own personal miracle I only wish it had lasted cause the second I got home it came back super strong. Ha ha.
Well lots of play practice and last minute assignments from school. Only four more days!!!!!!!! HOORAH! And of course my job. In fact, Saturday morning I babysat and we went to the park, I had three of the boys and we decided to play tag, well pretty soon a little boy and his sister came up to ask if they could play. We said of course, the more the merrier! So they played with us, then two more boys came to ask if they could join us and we all said sure! Next was another little girl and we had quite a few players then they all decided they wanted to play the oh so beloved game-mother goose! So we made a big circle on the grass and started playing that, we got three more players and then after about twenty minutes of that we all decided to play hide and go seek and again we got four more players. At the end we had 19 kids that had joined the boys and I, they all knew me by name and as they one by one or two by two left they asked if I would be there next week, then their mothers thanked me for keeping their children entertained. I just laughed and told them it was no problem and we all had fun. Well I need to go to bed so adieus! Church is true and the book is blue!
-Jennifer Fortie
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