September 21 - 27, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer
September 21 - 27, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
What’s up this week? Fall is in the air yes? Well, one can’t tell by the temperatures so far but the autumn leaves are showing up on the mountainside and that tells me I had better get up there to capture a few leaves with my camera before they are gone. I understand the temperature is supposed to go from 90 on Tuesday to 58 on Wednesday, guess I better go soon.
I don’t know what happened this week so I’m not sure why I’m writing. Oh, I do remember cleaning the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Wednesday at 10:00 pm. I cleaned door handles (helping prevent the spread of Swine Flu) and helped with vacuuming and moving furniture. It was nice to just be wandering through the temple by myself (once in a while running into someone else cleaning), in and out of the president’s office and everywhere else. You sure see a lot more of the temple when you clean it than on any tour. We finished up at about midnight and I headed home on the scooter.
I worked on pictures this week but that’s old news. I went to the Sandy Library to put business cards near my pictures on the wall. I noticed a little bubble in my temple picture so I got it down to fix it and it took an hour to get it put together and back up dust free. I didn’t tell anyone I took it down and one of the librarians noticed it and called my house to tell me my picture had been stolen. She almost called the police until she saw me working on it…that was close.
I stopped by a few places to check about jobs, things are not going well and I must find work to stay afloat. I went to several places but everyone said the same thing – NOT HIRING! Not sure what we are going to do. I was out delivering pictures and was late to a priesthood meeting they had on Thursday night. I caught the last half and then we had banana splits in the gym. Bro. Hinckley from my ward (yes he is related to former Pres. Hinckley) came up and said they have the 4 pictures they bought from me all framed and up on their kids walls, he said they look great. I didn’t feel much like talking with people as I was a bit down about not finding a job so I went home without talking to anyone else.
I went to Repartee on Friday to deliver pics then stopped by Curt’s to deliver a picture I fixed of Mary Kay’s parents as a birthday present for them. They invited me to stay for dinner and since my family was every which way that night I stayed. We had a nice visit then I jumped on my scooter and headed home. It is cooling down enough now that I have to have a light coat with me on the scooter at night; fall is in the air.
Saturday was a busy day but same old same old in the morning. We all cleaned a bit (I made them) and then the girls went to work for Sister Arnold and I stopped working on a room in the basement (organizing) to go to my parents house to watch the game (they taped it so I went to get it and bring it home for the family). I missed the first quarter but enjoyed watching with dad, mom, Chad and Spencer, who was all over the place. He is really growing and does something new every time we see him. Tami went to the Relief Society broadcast and dinner at the church. I took the tape of the game home (on the scooter again) and watched it with my family.
We all got to bed late but we found out that Keith and Ricki were back from their mission and were talking in sacrament meeting on Sunday so we slept through our sacrament meeting, went to our other meetings, then headed for their church at 1:00. I couldn’t remember which street the church was on (just a general area) so we drove up and down Redwood Road looking for it (only a few blocks). Since we couldn’t see it from the road I decided that instead of going down each street trying to find it I would go back to their house and see if anyone from their street was going to church. We went down slowly then turned around to come back when I saw someone coming out of his house in a white shirt and tie so we went up the road a ways and waited for him to pass us by. We were acting crazy like we were some kind of spies following someone and trying not to be noticed, it was pretty crazy. Well the guy took us right to church so that was good. We were joking that it was a good thing he wasn’t going to some business meeting downtown or something. That night Jennifer had a dream that she and Michelle were trying to follow someone to Keith and Ricki’s sacrament meeting and the guy went to a park where they were selling baseball cards, crazy how dreams go. Well, Keith and Ricki gave great talks about working with the people in South Africa and we had a good time at their house after the meeting. We stayed until the girls said they needed to go home and take a nap; too many late nights. While they napped I tried to work on the computer but kept falling asleep myself. After a half hour of nodding off I went to my new home teaching companion’s house (couldn’t get past his fax machine to call him) and we decided to just go visit our families without calling first. While he got dressed I was talking with and listening to the rest of the family sing songs (including guests from California). They started the song (with the kids) “There’s a Hole in the Bucket” but couldn’t get past the first line so I ended up having to sing it with them all the way through to help them with each line; we had a fun time. After visiting with our families I headed home and we had a family visit and reading time together then hit the sack.
Sorry this was a boring list of did dos without fun commentary but I must get going. Have a great week and keep singing.
Ken and clan



From Elder Fortie:
Well howdy folks, how goes the outside world? Has it come to an end over in your neck of the woods? Or are we all still in this together? Hopefully the world continues to move forward for you as well.Well things are pretty crazy here, I spend even more time then ever jumping all over the bay and doing what ever on earth it is I do...So I still am trying to get used to being in Oakland, there's not that there's anything specifically different about it, it just feels like I'm not in my mission any more... it feels like I already finished my mission and now I'm just some place else doing mission type stuff. It's strange, but I'll get used to it. Oh by the way, family type people, one of the missionaries I am zone leader over is named Elder Wright, he is from grandma and grandpa's ward in cottonwood heights!!! I remember him from when we were younger. I assume you know who I'm talking about, the Wright family over there in the Butler ward, that was a bit of a surprise to see him here, small world eh? I'm actually going to go on exchanges with him tonight and tomorrow. So give a greeting to the Wright family and tell them no worries I'm keepin an eye on their kiddo. So this week apparently the speakers didn't show up or didn't get called, so I got called upon without notice to give a 7 minute talk in church along with one of the sister missionaries, she was a little nervous thinking she couldn't fill a full 7 minutes in Spanish on the spot without preparation, so I went first and did what I do best... flapped my jaw! haha it don't matter what language you make me speak, I'll ramble on till the cows come home. Which the bishop was totally okay with because they were panicking trying to figure out what to do with the time. So I got up and preached for about 12-15 minutes, and very gratefully, thanks to the Lord blessing me with the gift of gab, I was able to fill the time for the ward, leave the sister 4 minutes to bear her testimony and the bishop about 4 to chat himself. I guess the spirit did a better job of speaking then I did because afterwards people came up to me thanking me because they learned things from me saying I said things I don't remember saying? Which hey, that's cool, glad to just be a mouth piece if that's what I need to be, I just wish I could remember the little bits of wisdom everyone else seems to remember me saying... then I'd be a whole lot better off! haha.That night at a fireside, once again on the spot, the mission president called me up to give a presentation in a recent convert and investigator fireside. So I got up, in the back of my mind thinking "this happens way too often to me" and threw down a talk in Spanish once again. This one I had some free reign on, and it wasn't a sacrament meeting so I hammed it up pretty well and we had the audience laughing their heads off as I pretended to be a lazy x-box addicted teenager and my companion tried to convince me to come to church with him. The mission president doesn't speak Spanish, and so he was rather confused as to what on earth was going on, but he thought it was funny none the less and by the end of it we talked to the congregation about how to invite their friends to church etc. and it went really well. So twice in one day, I thanked Heavenly Father for not making me shy and not being afraid to make a fool of myself or speak in front of large groups of people. That is sure an attribute that comes in handy in the mission field haha.We have been working hard at finding new people to teach, me and my companion have brought in more new investigators then any 3 other companionships in our zone combined! And we have 3 that we are hoping to bring towards baptism in the next month or two. Our main problem right now is everyone up and got death flu sickness or the end of the world close to comatose all at the same time on us! So all our people who were doing well suddenly can't meet with us because they are half alive... But we will push forward.In other news, San Francisco had their GAY PRIDE WEEK!!!! Which includes the gay pride parade and other fun... activities. Yeah... I'm not even gonna explain that one, use your imagination. Actually no don't, don't imagine, just know it was interesting and proved for a challenging week.Well I am totally stoked for conference! I LOVE general conference, it's so cool!!! It's amazingly exciting! I always get so stoked to see what Elder Holland is going to throw down next! Or what story President Monson's going to amaze us with, or what wise crack President Uchdorf will make! Ah, I can't wait to hear it!By the way... uhm... I'm extending my mission! hehe! President Wade and I are talking and pretty sure I'm going to stay an extra transfer! It's still in the works, so it's not final yet, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna work out! Which is really cool because they don't really do that much any more! I'm excited.Well I gotta get headed one and all. I'm doing well, I'm busy but that's a good thing. I hope you all stay busy as well but keep a smile on your face! All said and done, we will all have difficult times in life, you can either come to the end of your life looking back and noticing that you frowned through all of them, or that you smiled. They're gonna happen, but we get to choose whether or not we keep a smile during them.Keep your stick on the ice. (not that we have any here! gosh it's ridiculously hot for September!)Love Elder Fortie



From Michelle,
Family,
I have to be super quick because it’s late and Mom and Dad have given me 10ish minutes to write this, and I have a lot to talk about… so here goes!!
Last week was Homecoming week, which was fabulous, and a WHOLE LOT OF FUN!!! We went to the Homecoming game on Friday! My friends and I got decked out in our school colors, and I wore a feather boa and we all got our faces painted! We watched the game together and screamed until we thought our throats would bleed. We took enough pictures to cover a large wall, and laughed so hard the people around us must have thought that we were on laughing gas! It was a really awesome time!
Then on Saturday, it was the HOMECOMING DANCE!!! For our day activity, we went and made ice cream sculptures, painted each other’s faces, and went and got smoothies and went to the Whisper Dome park to play some sports (and yes, we did all of those things with our faces still painted)! Then they dropped us girls off at our houses to get dressed and ready for the dance! We went out to dinner at Mark Anthony’s, which is some mighty delicious Italian food (which happens to be my favorite!! Everything about Italy is my favorite I guess :] hehe!) and watched pieces of the BYU game while we were eating! Then we went and got all of our pictures taken, and went to the dance! The gym looked amazing for the dance and we all had a lot of fun! One of my best friends that was a senior last year was there, and I got to dance with him and talk to him (with the permission of my date of course) and that was lots of fun! Then when the dance ended, we went back to the house of one of the guys in our group and we took out his sandrail (which is like a dune buggy!) in the field by our houses and along the streets! It was so much fun! But then it started raining really hard and we had to end the festivities and head home!
The next day was Sunday and I went to Special Needs sacrament meeting with my little Down Syndrome friend, Celeste! She and I both had to speak, and it was really cool. I have only been in Special Needs Mutual for a few weeks, and I was surprised at how much I had already come to love Celeste. I didn’t think I would, but I started crying part way through my talk, and I found it hard to speak. She really is such a sweet little girl! After church, we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s to have dinner with them and Chad, Alicia, and Spencer! I love spending time with them!
This week, I started working at Kneader’s bakery! It is a cute little bakery/restaurant right outside of our neighborhood with delicious food! A lot of my friends work there too, so that has been a lot of fun, and they aren’t open on Sundays, so I figured it was the perfect place for me! I really love it there even though things can get a bit crazy!
Saturday, Jennifer and I watched Sam and Adam Arnold at the Children’s Discovery Museum in downtown Salt Lake City! They were there for their brother’s birthday and we were keeping track of them! It was actually a pretty cool place and we had a lot of fun with that! Although, there was a downside… I had a friend of mine ask me if I wanted to go the BYU game with him, and I couldn’t go! He had tickets in the student section… and I had to work instead! I was totally bummed! But it’s okay, I guess I needed the money.
Okay, that’s my ten-minute letter… I may have gone a little over my time limit, but they haven’t noticed yet, so I figure it’s alright! I hope things are well with each of you! Best of luck with everything that you encounter, and remember that I love you all!! Have a great week! And here is my quote of the day for you: Where you end up in your time here isn’t the most important thing. It's the road you take to get there. The road you take is what you'll look back on and call your life. ~Tim Wiley
Love,
~Michelle Fortie <3

September 14 - 20, 2009

For pics click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kensbestpics/FamilySeptember2009#

Fortie Family Flyer
September 14 – 20, 209

Dear Family and Friends,
It’s a lovely day for a letter. How goes your reading and stretching your mind this week. Hope you have new things to tell on your quest for wisdom.
Not much to tell of in these parts. Everyone is busy, leaving no time to write. That’s not exactly true, Tami got another DVD of Monk this week from the library so everyone had to watch those episodes before she had to take it back. The things we do in our spare time. We don’t watch much live TV but we do get a few things from the library to watch now and then (no commercials). I got a bit frustrated this week. I kept making mistakes in my editing that cost me many hours as I had to do it over again; hard lessons.
Tami went with Sister Arnold to a movie for a girl’s night out so I went to the temple. It was a good experience and I felt a healing power come over me as I went through the initiatory work. That’s the first time I have been at the front door of the temple at night (I have taken night pictures of the temple from far away but not right at the door) and the view of the valley from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple is beautiful; must bring my camera next time.
Saturday was a busy day, I had a genealogy class at 9:00 then worked around the house and on pictures until Michelle’s date came to pick her up. They went out and played during the day then she came back to get ready for the homecoming dance later on. We took pictures and sent them on their way at 5:30 that night. After she left Tami, Brian and I went to the ward emergency preparedness dinner and fireside. It was a good bowl of soup and fruit and some good instruction on preparedness. We bought masks for emergencies then ate some great desserts (to help us have an emergency supply around our waistlines for future use). I was called at about 10:00 pm to see if I could teach the High Priests on Sunday. I read over the lesson then went to bed (let my subconscious work on it while I slept).
Sunday we all slept in because Michelle was going to speak at her Special Needs Mutual Sacrament meeting at 1:00 so we decided to all go to that one. We went to our Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society/Young Woman’s meetings and my lesson was on genealogy so it was up my alley. We had some good discussion and some questions about where rebellious children were going to end up and people seemed to think it went well. After church the girls had Young Woman’s leadership meetings then we went to the Special Needs Meeting and came home to write and get ready to go to dinner at my parents. Our home teachers were next door when I came home from church on my scooter (we went at different times), so when they came over to talk to me about my scooter and find out when they could come over I had them come in right then as we were all sitting around waiting for Brian to come home so we could head out. We had a nice visit.
They didn’t need the soup Tami was assigned to bring to the fireside Saturday night so we took it with us for dinner. Scott and Stacie were there we had some good conversation catching up with them and a good time was had by all. We went outside and played with Spencer and took pictures. Mom and dad went to pick Curt up from the airport after his cruise/training as Mary Kay wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t go get him. They took him home then came back. Later on we played a little golf (card game) and had peach cobbler that Alicia had made (and of course lots of ice-cream). A good time was had by all and the time came too quickly when we had to get going to get girls to bed for school in the morning.
Well that’s it for our crowd; make sure your ready for the next emergency or two.
Ken and clan


P.S. I have been reading a book called “Wisdomkeepers” by Steve Wall and Harvey Arden. These two guys went around the country to different Native Americans and talked to their elders about what they had to tell us. I read an interesting story told by Leila Fisher, from the Hob tribe in Washington State.
She asked the two guys if they ever wondered how wisdom comes and then proceeded to tell them this story.
“There was a man, a postman here on the reservation, who heard some of the Elders talking about receiving objects that bring great power. He didn’t know much about such things, but he thought to himself that it would be a wonderful thing if he could receive such an object – which can only be bestowed by the Creator. In particular, he heard from the Elders that the highest such object a person can receive is an eagle feather. He decided that was the one for him. If he could just receive an eagle feather he would have all the power and wisdom and prestige he desired. But he knew he couldn’t buy one and he couldn’t ask anyone to give him one. It just had to come to him somehow by the Creator’s will.”
“Day after day he went around looking for an eagle feather. He figured one would come his way if he just kept his eyes open. It got so he thought of nothing else. That eagle feather occupied his thoughts from sunup to sundown. Weeks passed, thin months, then years. Every day the postman did his rounds, always looking for that eagle feather – looking just as hard as he could. He paid no attention to his family or friends. He just kept his mind fixed on that eagle feather. But it never seemed to come. He started to grow old, but still no feather. Finally, he came to realize that no matter how hard he looked he was no closer to getting the feather than he had been the day he started.”
“One day he took a break by the side of the road. He got out of his little jeep mail-carrier and had a talk with the Creator. He said: “I’m so tired of looking for that eagle feather. Maybe I’m not supposed to get one. I’ve spent all my life thinking about that feather. I’ve hardly given a thought to my family and friends. All a cared about was that feather, and now life has just about passed me by. I’ve missed out on a lot of good things. Well, I’m giving up the search, I’m going to stop looking for that feather and start living. Maybe I have time enough left to make it up to my family and friends. Forgive me for the way I have conducted my life!”
“Then – and only then – a great peace came into him. He suddenly felt better inside than he had in all these years. Just as he finished his talk with the Creator and started getting back in his jeep, he was surprised by a shadow passing over him. Holding his hands over his eyes, he looked up into the sky and saw, high above, a great bird flying over. Almost instantly it disappeared. Then he saw something floating down ever so lightly on the breeze – a beautiful tail feather. It was his eagle feather! He realized that the feather had come not a single moment before he had stopped searching and made his peace with the Creator. He finally learned that wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start truly living the life the Creator intended for you.”
“That postman is still alive and he’s a changed person. People come to him for wisdom now and he shares everything he knows. Even though now he has the power and the prestige he searched for, he no longer cares about such things. He’s concerned about others, not himself. So now you know how wisdom comes.”
Interesting story.




From Elder Fortie:

Alright world, here I come, errr... here I write.
Okay so I'm just kickin against the bricks here in Oakland, I work here in South and East Oakland, uhm, it's ghetto but hey it's about the same as normal for my mission. Drugs, alcohol, hookers, gun fights murders etc. it's all the norm; sadly enough. I guess it's never really normal, but you do begin to at least learn how to believe what you’re seeing rather then be caught in disbelief. I don't mind, strangely enough those are often some of the best area's because you will find the most humble people.
Uhm, the new jobs interesting... I'm not at all afraid of the task, but it's certainly not what I wanted to be doing with my mission... to be nice, the Oakland mission had some serious... problems... that they are now calling on us San Francisco missionaries to fix. So that's what I get to do.
Also as far as the supervising the temple goes, mostly I just supervise the visitor center, the temple runs itself pretty well haha.
I work South East Oakland, and its pretty ghetto, but that's cool, I’m used to that haha, I've been in the ghetto for the majority of my mission, I just appear to belong there. Although I have to admit, I miss San Francisco... a lot... Oakland just doesn't feel like my mission. But I will adjust; I didn't come out here for me anyways. So we just push forward.
My birthday was alright, it was kinda sad because since I'm in a brand new area no one knew me, so they didn't know it was my birthday, or if they found out they didn't know who I was so it was just oh... happy birthday... So it was kinda lame, but oh well, I've got plenty to go. Although some of the missionaries made me cake... and then shoved my face into it... it was funny. I am very grateful for the birthday package though! I loved it, although I am sad to say the pears were pear soup... but thanks anyways! Well I again, must run, to much to do with to little time, I just got told last night that I have to put together a zone conference... for tomorrow, something went wrong so they dumped it on us... sigh, such is life.
Well I'll talk to you all later, be happy! Saty Good!
Love Elder Fortie

September 7 - 13, 2009

See pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kensbestpics/FamilySeptember2009#

Fortie Family Flyer
September 7 – 13, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
It’s good to see you again; after all it’s been an entire week since we last had one of our little chats. Hope your adventures are top notch.
Well, as for our house let’s see, we had a holiday Monday so we went holidaying. We all went over to Curt and Mary Kay’s for lunner (that’s either a late lunch or an early dinner, take your pick). We ate some fine food and got ourselves rather full, then foolishly went out to play volleyball. Now while everyone else was barefoot, I was playing in my steel toe boots (which I always wear to keep my ankle stable so it will last the entire day) so I with a belly full of food and heavy boots on wasn’t going to do much jumping (we won’t even talk about the fact that I was the oldest one playing). We ended up having Curt, Chad, Jennifer and me against Brent, Craig, Facil and Michelle. After a few minutes I finally decided to take my heavy boots off and take my chances. It wasn’t bad until I started diving and tumbling in an attempt to make some amazing saves (which didn’t work out so well, not like it used to 30 years ago) and on one of my rolls I hit my toes pretty hard. I limped a bit but the adrenalin kept me going. Finally after we won two of the three fairly long games we stopped (I don’t think Brent and Craig tried very hard - trying to be nice to the old folks and all). When I went to put my shoes on I looked at my aching toe and noticed it was very black at the tip (my middle toe on my left foot) I have had a broken toe before and I realized that, once again, I had broken my toe right at the tip. I carefully put my sock and shoe on and stayed off of it as much as I could for the rest of the day. We had a great time there talking, eating and playing then headed home. I taped my broken toe to the one next to it so I wouldn’t bend it as that was very painful. That worked and the tape is still there holding my toe straight until it heals.
As usual, the rest of the week was spent editing pictures of Rauckhorsts and Arnolds and making prints of temples for people in the ward and some out of town who saw my pics on the internet.
On Thursday I went to Repartee Gallery to get a check as we needed money quickly (and they owed me money from January until now). I also went down to BYU to take inventory and put more pictures in. It was exciting that my last check from BYU was double from the month before but my attempts to get Sounds of Zion to distribute them all over the country have met with dead ends. I came home a bit discouraged that I can’t seem to make enough to take care of my family. It has also been very discouraging that my attempt to become a teacher has also, as is the case with so many other things, come to a dead end. My personality is such that I have a hard time (though I know how important it is) keeping a positive attitude when things are not going well. I’ll keep working on it. Artists seem to always have it very hard before things go well for them (some not until they are dead). Believing when things are hard is a challenge. Should I persist or get a job at Wal-Mart to pay the bills or both, I don’t know; probably both.
Late Friday night I was watching an episode of Monk meeting his father that my family said I needed to watch (a DVD from the library – before it had to go back) when I looked up and saw Tyler Rauckhorst in the hallway. He came home with Brian after a young adult activity. I guess he texted Brian saying he was in town and needed a place to stay. We made a bed for him in the family room and we all get to bed at about 1:00 a.m. I wish I had had more time to spend with him but he came to hang with someone in Provo on Saturday and I was gone before he woke up.
With all the commotion I forgot that I was supposed to go administer the ACT test early Saturday morning, luckily they called me and I headed out as quickly as I could. They got my group in their seats for me and I got there just in time to do the test. I am so absent minded. It is always hard to give the test. I like to interact with the kids but they don’t want anything to do with some old guy giving a test that they will never see again. You are a stranger and they just want to take the test and leave; wouldn’t want to do that everyday. One of the younger Fox kids was in my room and he came up to talk to me afterwards (they used to be in our ward out here, before the ward boundaries started shrinking with new houses being built around us).
After the test we all headed to my parents to watch the BYU game. Though it is nice to beat the other team (Tulane) so easily it isn’t nearly as exciting. We cheered for the great plays and ate chips and salsa and cookies and ice-cream and had fun. We had to leave rather quickly after the game, Brian had a singles ward activity and Michelle had homework. Jennifer stayed home as she wasn’t feeling well.
Sunday Jennifer stayed home from church fairly sick. I was called last week to teach the High Priests and was set apart today and taught my first lesson right after being set apart. It was about friendship and I challenged everyone at the end to invite someone over to make a friend before I teach again next month (I only teach one lesson each month). The lesson seemed to go well. After church I made some calls to see who in the ward we could visit to talk to about where their family is at with their genealogy. After getting three families lined up I picked Bro. Mueller up and we headed out. The visits were good and we noticed that some people are more interested in getting genealogy going than others. Hopefully we can get some fires burning under some feet in the ward.
Well, that’s it from our house; pretty exciting huh. Well, maybe not so much but that’s life. Sometimes hard and sometimes fun. I listened to a Liz Lemon Swindle talk on BYU TV while writing this letter and it was helpful. She talked of her history as an artist and it was a difficult one; I guess everyone has challenges. It helped me out and I’m glad I ran into it.

I’m reading a book called “Virus of the Mind,” it’s got a few interesting points but most of it is about evolution and is junk. It makes me want to write a book that makes fun of the foolish THEORY of evolution. I wish I had the money to be able to sit and write. Someone needs to; that stuff is so full of holes that I have no doubt it will someday be looked at like the crazy notion science/religion once had about the sun and all the stars being in a sphere circling around the earth. The strange orbits of the other planets, which they also believed were going around the earth, needed some pretty crazy mathematical formulas to make their theories fit because of the strange orbits. It’s amazing what lengths they go through today to avoid a higher intelligence… selfish genes indeed, what crazy fiction.
Anyway, hope your Labor Day was labor free (just say no to labor on labor day).
Watch your toes,
Ken and clan





From Brian:
Jason Happy birthday! We are sending real tangible letters in your box, but happy birthday, hope all is going well for you.
There is a girl in my ward she’s new. She came up and said, “Are you the ward mission leader?” I said yes that I was, and she said, “What was your last name?” (I had introduced myself in the meeting for new members) I said “Fortie” and she said “are there many Fortie’s around here?” I said “No not many it’s pretty rare.” She asked, “Do you know a Jason Fortie?” and I said “Yep that’s my little brother.” She got excited and said “Oh my gosh, I was in his district in the MTC, I went to Los Angeles Spanish speaking. I’m Heather Fouts. He will remember me as Sister Fouts.” Then she asked me for the missionaries’ number (cause we have sisters so she can go with them.) So she is still doing missionary work, I guess she got back about a month ago.
Don’t know if you remember her. Happy birthday again.





From Elder Fortie:
Alright quickly once again, sorry life gets continually more and more busy. So I got called as the zone leader over the downtown Oakland zone, the largest zone in the mission, 48 missionaries, and I am over the Oakland temple, so my life is a crap shoot of meetings and chaos and all breathing has been put on hold until a later date. Sorry there was no real letter last week, nor really this week seeing as while I was writing last week I got called by pres. to go pick up a missionary who had done something dumb and I had to emergency transfer him to San Francisco, and now I just got called to go help the A.P's so more explanations will have to wait, but I've finally left my San Fran. I'm not gonna lie over here does not feel like my mission, I feel out of place and like I already went home... but we just make the best of what we've got. Sorry everyone, I will write a proper letter some day. Pray that I shall have time to breathe some time this week!Love, Elder Fortie

P.S. (In answer to dad’s letter about getting older) Actually I have been getting white hairs for about the past 6 months... I go the way of all the earth. Hey so the other day I was in the visitors center looking waiting for my companion so I jumped on the genealogy computer to pass some time and I found a Pablo Fortie from Lima Peru!!! He was the only Fortie in all the South American records, might be interesting to look in to. Also I noticed Grandpa's brother Phil who died in the war is not connected to the Fortie family tree on the church's website, might want to look at that too. I'll pray for one and all! Good grief (all the injuries), you all need a nap, or time out or something!


From Michelle:
Dear family and friends,
How are you? How is life treating you? How goes the fight? Just take one step at a time… believe me, it relieves stress! I basically used to be the type that tried to take everything with a running leap… and then I got gray hair… so I’ve just been trying to relax and keep life easy!
I’m not going to give you a day to day update like I usually do, but I will try to quickly hit all of the major points in my life!! First… school is back in session (unfortunately). I was pretty psyched at first to see all of my buddies and the friends I haven’t seen in forever!! But pretty soon, that magic wore off, and I’m just really sick of most of the work and the early mornings. Some of my classes are pretty legit though, and I’ve been having fun with those! My physics class is pretty amazing. Half of it is the fact that I basically have some of the coolest and most fun people EVER in that class. The other half of it is the fact that I pretty much have the greatest physics teacher of all time… that’s all. Mr. Justis is this crazy, funny teacher who is completely unorthodox in all of his teaching methods, but I actually learn a LOT in that class! He’s so great! My French 3H class is pretty great because I have a good friend in there, and he and I have like comedy hour in there! Our teacher says that we argue like a married couple, but we keep him and the rest of the class laughing, so it’s grand!
We had a Labor Day BBQ this past week to celebrate and we went to Uncle Curt and Aunt Mary-Kay’s for some great food and a highly stimulating game of volleyball!! It was a lot of fun and we had many injuries, but ya know, totally worth it!! :] Then we all just kinda hung around and played this game called Fact or Crap, which was pretty freakin amazing, not gonna lie! I won, which was pretty satisfying… :] my competitive side was fed!
For mutual this week, we did service for people in our area who are disabled and can’t do yard work for themselves. On our way there, one of my favorite songs from my favorite band of all time [newly signed] came on the radio… which basically made my day! I was dancing and singing along, as my ward watched and laughed… ‘twas great! Then I got in a plum fight with one of the young men. There were rotting plums on the ground that had fallen from a tree, and we started having a snowball fight with them. It was great, and I think I got him 10x better than he got me! ;] (he wasn’t a very good aim!) And then we ate some delicious treats and it was a great day!
Thursday nights, I have Special Needs Mutual, so I got to go to that again! My little girl was there, ready and waiting to have a great time! She has Down syndrome and is almost 16 years old! She is so sweet and funny, and I love her to death! We had fun singing and coloring this week, and she and I went and talked to her best friend, and a friend of mine that she secretly (or not so secretly) has a crush on! :] She’s adorable and I’ve come to love my Thursday nights!
Last week I forgot to write I believe, but I got asked and answered my Homecoming date, and now I have my dress too!! It’s super pretty and red and white! I love it and I have fun just wearing it all around the house… even though I don’t think my mom enjoy that part too much… she likes it on its hanger! I’m going in a group with one of my best friends forever, so I’m pretty excited! This should be fun! I went on another date with the guy this past week, and we had a lot of fun! He’s really funny, so I’m pretty much stoked!
Friday night I hung with Cole and Courtney (two of my other besties) and we went and visited Taylar Shay (another bestie) and took her a chocolate shake! Then we went to the movie in the park and watched it laying on the grass! It was called… The Man From Snowy River… or something like that… and it was actually pretty funny. We were really hyper, and the acting in it was pretty cheesy, so we pretty much died laughing… that’s all. :]
I think that was all of my week… if I’ve forgotten something big and exciting I’ll be sure to try to remember to add it to next week’s letter, which I will try to remember to write! I love y’all and hope this week goes well!! The greatest weapon a person can own is a confident smile! Much love!!
Love,
Michelle Fortie

August 31 - September 6, 2009

Fortie Family Flyer
August 31 – September 6, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
This week has vanished from my memory; I’ll have to do some digging. Looks like I had better write every night as the older I get the more things just become a blur.
Oh yes, I put two pictures in the Sandy Library as part of an art display with the Utah Photographic Art Association. One was my Big Bang picture (see if I can sell it to be rid of it) and my most recent temple shot, the Oquirrh Mountain sunset shot. The Big Bang is a 20x24 canvas and the temple is a framed 16x20 print. Hopefully they will sell.
I worked for a day creating a photo montage on a 4x6 size photo with my name email and web info on it. I think it looks pretty good. I’ll put it in the Sandy library for people who come to see the artwork.
I have also worked a bit on family pictures for Arnolds and some of Whitney. Hope they turn out so they will like them.
Got my monthly check from the BYU Bookstore and it was more than double what it normally is. That was good news. I will have to get down there more often to keep things stocked.
We went to Emma’s baptism on Saturday and had a nice lunch afterwards at Brent and Mandy’s house. They have some cute kids. We came home and worked for a bit then, those of us who didn’t have to work, headed for grandpa and grandma’s to watch the BYU game. It wasn’t a high scoring game and even though it was a nail biter it was fun to watch. We were thinking it was a great victory but as we listened to the news afterwards we realized that this was one of the biggest wins in BYU history – WOW!!! We tried to record the game for the girls but it didn’t work. I checked it and found it to be blank so I took it into the kitchen VCR and caught the last third of the game. We will have to watch it again on KBYU this Friday.
We got home late and got a few things done around the house before we hit the sack.
On Sunday I went with Bro. Mueller again to visit 3 families to talk about how they are doing with their genealogy. It was the usual, some had grandparents who did it and they haven’t done much themselves, some just didn’t get interested, and some seemed to want to get started. We’ll see what happens when we check back with them. I was asked today to teach the High Priest’s on the second Sunday of every month and also to teach the genealogy Sunday School class every week starting in October. That should be interesting. At least it will keep me off the streets.
We had a family home evening lesson Sunday night and then just talked or slept. Both are good.
Well, that’s it from our house; hope you win your game.
Ken and clan





From Elder Fortie
Tuesday
don't have time to write right now, I got transferred, sorry explain later.

Well as you'll find in my letter I got transferred today, but my area consisted of the south tip of San Francisco, South San Francisco (yeah it's different), San Bruno, Pacifica, Milbrae, and Burlingame (my favorite city, it is gorgeous) and my district covered all that plus foster city and San Mateo (I covered most everything, go figure seeing as I had the least time). But now I'm moved haha, so I don't know yet my area etc. I'll let you know when I know.