October 5 - 11, 2009

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Fortie Family Flyer
October 5 – 11, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
It’s the week after general conference and it is already time to take myself in for an end of the week spiritual tune up to see if I actually took to heart some of the things that I felt impressed to do during conference. Have I put forth sufficient effort to change or have I slipped back into the same old same old me? Hopefully I will find that my spark plugs are clean enough to receive a strong impulse from the distributor to keep me running smooth. And hopefully I can scrape off the corrosion that prevents me from getting all fired up, becoming a new me for a new future. As Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “And ah, for a man to arise in me, that the man I am may cease to be.”
Lets see, what did I do this week, oh now I remember, I was supposed to take notes throughout the week so I wouldn’t come to this moment and draw a blank. What in the world did I do this week that is worth writing down? I watched a few genealogy programs on BYU.TV (I mostly listen to them because they are on while I am editing) and they talked of people who found journals of ancestors who wrote every night all their lives and when those journals were found they became a valuable source of information about the community in Scotland where the writer lived more than a century ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of my ancestors were mentioned somewhere in his writings as he didn’t live too far from where they lived at the time. With that and President Eyring’s words about writing daily about what the spirit does to help me each day, makes me think I had better get started.
We do seem to be in a rut that I am not pleased with. Everyone is working each evening and it seems that family time is getting pushed off more and more until we have become typical Americans; hardly speaking to each other as we rush about being so involved in the thick of thin things. I sense the need to change but how to get my family to go along with that is the hard part. How to convince teens and those in their 20’s that family is valued in every culture except ours and that lack of value placed on family must be fought with all our hearts. I miss the days when we often had family singing time and family gospel discussions. Daily scripture study has become stressful moments of lets hurry because I have homework and must get to bed. Contention is on the rise in our country and in our home; my heart hurts as I search for answers to create a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of God. May God bless me in my efforts.
Nothing grand the first half of the week (that I recall). We all looked forward to Nathan and Paige’s visit over the weekend. They came Friday morning, after driving all night. We were there each night having dinner and talking and playing. Friday night several of us went to the temple to do initiatory work and sealings and that was enjoyable. We got a kick out of the looks on the temple worker’s faces as we, four Fortie’s (Curt, Nathan, Brian and myself (too bad Chad was out of town and dad couldn’t come)), walked in to do initiatory work (they just need your last name). One asked if we knew Max (who he knew). After we got to mom and dads we had pizza and sat around and talked.
Saturday we were all busy working and rushing about. I took pictures Saturday night for Facil and his wife, Susan’s family. After that we all got together and had crepes that Tami made and then had Nathan’s birthday cake.
I really had a strong feeling to do something with the pictures I took in the mountains of the snow on the autumn leaves. I discovered how to create a slide show on Picasa so I spent some time learning how to do that. I showed it to the family and they enjoyed it.
Sunday we went to dad and mom’s ward so we could spend more time with the family. Most slept after church then we ate and talked and decided the weekend had gone too fast. I rode the scooter there on Saturday so I left it there Saturday night because of the rain (and went home with the family in the car). Since it was there I took it home Sunday night, it was a cold night but I was bundled up enough to make the ride a pleasant one.
Well, that’s our week. I am behind so I didn’t spend much time telling this tale but you get the picture. Hope your week was a good one.
Don’t fall for all the trappings of our society, keep family number one.
Ken and clan




From Elder Fortie:
Well everyone, I've been gone all day once again running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I have less then 10 minutes... sigh... I'm thinking I'm just gonna do something dumb like drive to San Diego for a p-day so I can get released from zone leader and go back to just getting to work an area haha. Okay obviously that's a joke! I love helping everyone. I keep getting complaints from you all that you wish I had more time to write... well I'm sorry, I wish I did too, but it's just kinda what were gonna have to accept for a while, remember I got called out here to serve these people, getting to e-mail all of you is a luxury, some missions don't get that and we would have to suffice with an even shorter hand written letter, so be happy for e-mail. Sorry my time is so limited, I pity the poor A.P's, if I am this busy, I cannot imagine their poor lives.
So this week me and my companion put on a zone activity, we had the entire zone (40-45 people, somewhere around there) together in a park and we had a pumpkin carving contest, and a bunch of random games I came up with kinda as an early Halloween party, because this is when I could find time to do it haha! It was a lot of fun and people really seemed to enjoy it so we’re glad it went well. My pumpkin actually won an award! My artistic talent is finally blooming (to be honest it was cause the judges were all sister missionaries and mine looked like Wall-E so they thought it was cute (it wasn't meant to look like Wall-E... oops) So, I won even though there were much better pumpkins there).
We have been finding tons of people to teach, we just have no time to teach anyone! So it's frustrating, we lead our zone in every aspect, yet we are flying between cracks to find time to do it all, so it's been madness, but I do enjoy a good bit of madness.
Well Again, sorry to be short, no I am not coming home in January, got that one fixed, whether or not I got the extension I haven't had a chance to talk to president again yet to find out, we shall see!
Take care!
Love,Elder Fortie