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