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 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
No comments:
Post a Comment