January 25 - 31, 2010

Paige and sister

baby due in May.

A little Photoshop work on a picture I took this week.

Fortie Family Flyer
January 25 – 31, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Well, my anti virus program has finally saved our family computer. It was able to save windows when the virus first hit but it still had bugs enough to make it impossible to use. I turned it off, waited several days while trying to get my other computer fixed and when I turned it on to see what was going on and see if I needed to take it in somewhere to be fixed the anti virus-program worked for about 5 minutes on updates and suddenly it seems to be working fine. Happy days, the kids can get to their homework and save their semester at school. It is amazing how much we depend on computers these days. I still am trying to figure out how to get the Norton Ghost program to restore my own computer to it’s former self. My home teacher came over and helped restore windows but I may need outside help on the rest of it.
Well, the week has been hard without computers. There is not much new to report. Work at Deseret Book, clean house, help sick and invalid people, put the last few Christmas things away (we always seem to miss a few things no matter how much we check for them through the house), do a bit a genealogy (on new.familysearch.org I found one of the sources for one of my ancestors quoted an article from a newspaper in the mid 1600’s in Massachusetts about his death by falling from an apple tree while pruning it and breaking his neck, he left a wife with 8 kids and one to be born in 2 weeks – sad) and I also did some reading.
In my new reading of the Book of Mormon I discovered something about Lehi’s dream that I never had noticed before (in the 30 or 40 times through the book). Lehi tells of the dream then gives a brief prophecy about the future of the coming of the Messiah and the America’s. When Nephi tells his version the explanation of the dream and the prophecy are intertwined. As he tells of his prophecy when ever he gets to a place like telling of the Messiah teaching the people he pauses to say that the rod represents the word of God (Messiah teaching his word), or the people fighting against the 12 apostles he pauses to say that those people are from the building that represents pride etc. It came to me in a flash that the dream was a picture of the prophecy. It was quite an eye opener. I need to study it more now to really get the full impact of my discovery. I suppose many of you already knew that but it sometimes takes me a while to catch onto things like that.
Well, right after work on Saturday we went to Stake Conference and then again on Sunday morning. We were going to go to our building, which was being used as overflow since our Stake is too big for one building but on my way I felt we should go to the Stake Center. The kids asked why and I didn’t know. We got there and I thought there was going to be no place to sit but half the cultural hall was empty so we had lots of room. It was a good conference and after helping with chairs we went home. It wasn’t until I was home teaching that I learned why the impression to go to the Stake Center. The Gibson’s and Hutchings were at our building and they said the sound was so bad that they couldn’t tell what was being said. The Gibson’s even went home in the middle. Good thing I listened.
I went to the dentist this week and got worked on. My dentist encouraged me to continue working on my LDS game I had started years ago so I am working on that this week (an LDS card game). I’ll try to get it done this time. I have read some good books at the store and will have to get them and share them with you as I read more of them.
We had a nice dinner at grandma and grandpa’s and made cookies for Nathan. We used camo colors but mine looked more like a car wreck, who knew that doing camouflage cookies would be so hard. We had fun and all too soon we had to head home for bed and another week of school, physical therapy and work.
Well, that’s it for another exciting week at the Ken and Tami Fortie home.

Keep looking for rainbows.
Ken and clan


From Elder Fortie:

Hello everyone,
Is it nap time yet? Holy cow! I am getting so worn out! Every day 6:30 is coming earlier and earlier, I think some little fool gnome is changing my clock back 10 minutes every night or something! I am really getting worn out here and I'm not sure why. I'm working my tail off but I always have, this is nothing new. Maybe just 2 years worth of doing it is finally catching up with me, I realized yesterday was my 2 year mark... yeah lets not talk about that any more.
Well we had another 3 baptisms last night, things are going very well, extraordinary in fact. We continually week after week are breaking records and the work is going fantastic. I just wish I had a little more time to think, I forget half the time what I did yesterday because I'm just running like a lion in a field of zebra's, not sure what's the head and what's the tail, or for that matter where I even am any more! My companion is finishing up his mission in 3 weeks, and we are trying to have him finish out strong. He's good for me, he's many of the things I'm not. I'm more of a doer and mover, he's an organizer. I do stuff and he keeps track of it haha. It works out well. It really helps out a lot, he takes care of most of the paper work that I would forget to do, and I do all the authoritative stuff. It works out real well.
Well things are going well, our members are helping us a ton, Victor, who is preparing to serve a mission, is just hilarious. Elder Keith is an English Elder, and speaks only a few words in Spanish, and Victor speaks very broken improper English and they were trying to talk to each other, it was HILLARIOUS!!!! I was falling over laughing as elder Keith tried to say hand (mano) but instead said mono (monkey) and Victor looks at him and says "HEY! Why you say me monkey?" that's just a sample of their hilarious conversation. I don't know how to explain it. But Victor helps us a ton, we are basically his best friends so he'd rather go out with us then be with his friends, cause we are his friends! And he is an amazing teacher and fellowshipper so he just goes with us for like 5 hours a day to appointments teaching people and he is just a funny happy kid that everyone loces instantly. He's great to have around, along with many other members who help us so much. But anyhow, I'm out of time, things are going well. I'm tired but happy. I hope you all find yourself at least happy! Be good! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Fortie.

January 18 - 24, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer
January 18 – 24, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Actually this is a lie. There is no family letter this week. Both of our computers still have a fever and a runny noise. This virus has really taken them down. Bro. Taylor is working on them as of yesterday when he came home teaching. He is putting everything over to my external hard drive and is going to then wipe the hard drive and start over. I will then have to download all my programs again. Hopefully it will all work and we will be back to normal sometime this week. With 3 students needing computers and me on one all the time it has really caused problems. I am now using mom's computer just to send this note.
I went and took pictures of the Mt. Timp temple after a snowstorm that hit Utah County. They look OK (nothing real great). I also got a cheap pair of snowshoes with my Christmas money and used them at the mouth of Butterfield Canyon to go around the wild horse ranch to get some shots of the horses. I enjoyed the trip but the snowshoes are not the highest quality. I may combine birthday money and get better snowshoes. With those trips and family pictures my 2 memory cards are almost full so I need my computer soon.
Other than that we are just doing same old same old. Tami has been sick for over a month now (caused by her flu shot that weakened her so she caught something else). The doctor has given her some medication to get rid of the junk and she is finally improving. The girls seem to be improving with physical therapy so improvements are happening all around. Michelle and I are visiting the dentist for a few fixes then Jennifer can get in. Brian's car is having troubles and we need to get his horn fixed but it does run for the most part.
I have read a few interesting books this week that I will have to write about in another letter. One is called "Aspire" that is quite interesting. Another is about possible locations of some of the cities that were destroyed by the earthquake at Christ's crucifixion. Interesting stuff.
Well, I am learning more and more about genealogy as I continue to teach my class. I have also learned a great deal from teaching the High Priests. I continue to learn from the temple and the scriptures as I read and study. The Lord is merciful and His grace is sufficient to overcome weaknesses.
Well, must get to work and let Tami have her computer for work.
Keep reading and studying,
Ken and clan

From Elder Fortie,

Good heavens I don't know what happens to my days anymore. They just kinda float in and out of space, disappearing and coming and going as they wish, popping in and out from parrallel dimentions. (I know... I can't spell anymore, it's not my fault!) So this week... uhm... I taught 27 member present lessons... which is amazing and unheard of... so that was pretty cool... Our zone for the second week in a row taught over 200 lessons, something no one else has ever done, also cool... uhm... we have 3 more baptisms coming up for next week! That’s really good, but we're a little nervous, they are totally ready, but they are afraid, so your prayers in behalf of the Perez family, are very welcome. I'm going bowling in Alemeda with the zone... I think this will be the first p-day that I've actually taken a p-day... my car is in the dealership because some stupid heat shield wasn't put on right and it's rattling against the insides of the car... so I might get to borrow Elder Hess's (a senior couple missionary) Cadillac... that would be fun haha. Okay, probably not really... but him and I joked about it! Uhm, I'm healthy, I'm happy, I'm realizing every day that I can't believe how time passes as I realized I've been the zone leader here for like 6 months... I can't believe how time flies. I saw my "son" Elder Dalton the other day, he's all grown up! He's been out almost 9 months! Dang that makes me feel old... anyhow. Well, I'm sorry this letter is so lame... I can't think of anything really eventful this week, other then the fact that it's been raining cats and dogs still... lame! Anyhow, I hope you are all doing well. Stay strong, keep the faith, and keep a smile!

Love, Elder Fortie!

January 11 - 17, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer
January 11 – 17, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Well, it finally caught up with me. I have a great computer with over 20,000 pictures I have taken on it plus all our family letters, all my genealogy, poetry, writings, talks, stories, scripture study notes, etc. and on Friday I went to look at an email from facebook about a comment one of my cousins made about a picture and a virus attacked me and I pushed the button that I thought was the one to delete it but they had cleverly disguised it and it was the button to download the virus. Needless to say, after pushing the button I realized what had happened and I tried to use my anti-virus program to scan for viruses and eliminate it but it had been disabled, I then tried to restore my computer to an earlier setting but it had been disabled so I turned it off and it will no longer start. My hard drive is no more. Hopefully it didn’t find my external hard drive so I will have all but the last few weeks of my work and pictures. I’ll have to take it in somewhere and see what can be done. We are down to the entire family using the old family computer for homework, photography, letter writing and other activities (I guess it could be worse, we could be in the middle of an early blizzard with handcarts in the middle of Wyoming or something but it does seem pretty bad in our modern life filled with a great need for computers in work and school).
Other than that, not much to report. Oh, as I was coming home from printing pictures the other night I was on Bangerter Highway approaching the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and was in a fairly thick fog. As I got to the temple the fog was suddenly gone like passing through a wall and I could see that there was a ring of clear sky around the temple. It was so cool I really kicking myself for not having my camera to take a picture. The temple was in a circle of clear sky that was about a half mile across with the temple right in the middle. It wasn’t even gradual fog but a wall of fog all the way around. Once I drove into the fog again the temple really had a beautiful glow about it for a little ways before it was completely gone again (note to self - keep camera with me at all times). The fog was so thick that I couldn’t see anything around the intersections and I was so fascinated about how the temple looked that I miscalculated how far I had gone and passed the street to my subdivision; crazy night that was.
The rest of the week was work, cleaning around the house and taking care of sick people. The girls both go to physical therapy for knee, hip, ankle, and lower back problems. Tami has been sick for more than a month, ever since she got the swine flu shot. She finally got something to take to help her get over bronchitis. Sometimes I think she is going to cough her lungs right out. On Friday night we played Chinese Checkers since she couldn’t really go out. I also went and got a couple of burgers from Arctic Circle that were on sale for 60 cents and we ate them at home. The kids are busy with work and school. We have had some silly crazy nights around here that most people would shake their heads at because of our crazy humor, but we are all we’ve got and don’t know any different.
I took Michelle to the dentist and she has some work to be done so we will be back.
I got a call this week from Susan Wright who runs half of Murray (the Murray Mansion, Ballet Studio, Costume Shop, Wedding Chapel, Limousine Service, Arts in the Parks Program, and other business’. I used to do all their videos for them (wedding and ballet) and she said she was going to retire and had a good ballet program that she wanted to film to make it available to people in small towns that don’t have the facilities that she has. She said I was the best and she wanted me to do the video (that was very kind of her to say). I told her I had been out of that for some time and didn’t have any equipment anymore. I told her that I knew someone in my ward that did videos and would check with them and get back with her. Jared said he would be glad to talk to her and that I could tag along since I know her so well and know what she expects.
After talking to them about videos and my brain was thinking along those lines, I was doing some genealogy (Uncle Eldon sent me an email about the Cox family web sight so I was looking at that and some other notes about our ancestors in the mid 1600’s in Massachusetts on the new family search website and the Geni.com website). (Once you start genealogy it is amazing how information tends to just start flowing to you without you even telling people you are looking for stuff). Anyway, I was reading a journal of a missionary who came across the same ship that Alexander was on coming from England and when the missionary told about the train trip from New York to Salt Lake with each stop in detail and some of the interesting things that happened along the way I decided to follow the trip on Google Earth. I was able to follow the tracks all the way from city to city and found that only one place no longer exists (in Wyoming). It was so interesting that I thought it would be fun to gather several journals and take the same trip by train filming the whole trip with commentary and readings from the journals along the way; what a cool documentary that would be. Of course you would name names so people would hear the names of relatives that come across on these trips in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and see what they went through. It would be nice to see if we could get some funding to do something like that, gather information and head across the country stopping at each place talking about old buildings that might be standing and what they did in each place. One Sister’s, little baby died a few minutes before they got to a stop for lunch and they waited long enough for her to bury her 7 month old baby (I think that was the age) in a little town somewhere in Wyoming or Nebraska before they continued their journey. What a hard thing to do for that poor mother. These stories would be interesting to tell right in the places where they happened. Maybe I’ll have to see about doing something like that.
Well, Sunday was full of meetings for the girls and genealogy visits for me while Tami was home sick. It is now late and I must rise early. Hope all is well at your place.
All aboard,
Ken and clan



From Elder Fortie:
So this week... it's wet... it's raining like the Lord has forgotten his promise to not flood the earth again. Today was finally supposed to be my p-day (I'll explain why it's "finally" in a second) but now it looks like I'm going to go spend it pumping water out of flooded members and investigators houses that are mid thigh deep in water... oh joy...
But on a cool note, the reason my p-day got delayed till today is because Elder Hinckley (eldest son of the late Prophet, president Hinckley) of the quorum of the 70, came to our mission and did a meeting with all us zone leaders, and then he did a conference with all the missionaries and trained there, and then afterwards, each zone leader and the assistants each had an individual PPI (personal priesthood interview) with him! It was really cool, and he is just like his dad. During my PPI however him and I came to a terrible realization... I am the oldest missionary in the mission!!!! I started my mission in January 2008, and it is now Jan 2010, all the other missionaries who started before, or at the same time as me, went home a few days ago... I am the oldest missionary in the mission! He thought that was hilarious as that dawned on me and my eyes went wide and I said "oh no! Elder Hinckley, how hard would it be to get my mission extended even more?" He smiled and said "well Elder Fortie, break your other leg!" I laughed but I wanted a serious answer! It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't what I expected it to be, we just had a jolly old time him and I, me being myself, which is a bit of a scary thing I know. He said he loved it, told me I'm the happiest and funniest missionary he's seen, and that he had heard nothing but amazing things about me and told me to keep doing exactly what your doing, president Wade uses you as the model for the mission. Which is exactly the same thing that President Packer said to me today as well when I talked to him. So that was a very great exaggeration and a nice lie on their part hahaha. No I appreciated the time I got to spend with him. Afterwards he gave me a big hug and I couldn't help but think "hehe, I just got to hug the prophets son... hehe" though I was surprised about how casual and natural I felt talking to him. I didn't feel intimidated or nervous at all. I went in their cracking jokes as usual as if he was my old friend and we had a great time. By the way Dad he saw your picture of the Oakland temple hanging in the dining room of the mission home where he stayed and he LOVED it!
So that was my Monday, which is normally p-day so it got pushed back to Tuesday, but then I got a phone call and they said they needed me to go to San Francisco on Tuesday to work on some of the mission cars. So then my p-day got pushed to today, Wednesday. So Tuesday, in what could have been a monsoon, I went out into the rain and worked on cars for 3 hours till I was soaked to the bone, but I got the job done and I enjoyed getting to at least drive through my good old San Fran. So now here I am, on my way to do e-mail, when we get a call about all the flooding houses that need rescuing, so there goes my p-day haha. Such is life I suppose... I don't know what keeps us running sometimes. Sometimes I'm amazed we even have time to fill our car with gas to make it to our next sight of madness and mayhem! At times we don't even have time to do that as the low fuel light had been on for about 25 miles this past week, we rolled into the gas station though and were able to toss 30 seconds worth of gas into it (didn't have time to wait for it to fill up) to get us through the day till we could find a second to fill up.Oh, on another note, this past week we were driving home from somewhere, and saw these guys in this SUV with a flat tire, that seemed to be in trouble. It was pouring rain, and they looked totally bewildered, they didn't know how to get the spare tire off of an SUV, which unlike cars where the spare tire is just in the trunk, it hangs by a steel cable underneath the back of the vehicle and you have to lower it by a special lever through a small key hole in the back of the vehicle. So we pulled over and me in my white shirt and slacks, got in their to fix their tire. My two companions (I had two for the day because one was trainging but his greenie hadn't come yet so he was with us till his greenie arrived) weren't sure how to do it, none of the 3 guys in the SUV knew, so I was forced to get down in the puddle under the SUV only to discover the thing was broken and wouldn't release. So I had to take it apart, then once I got that done, the guys jack didn't belong to the vehicle so it couldn't get it high enough off the ground to put the new tire on... So finally I had to jimmy rig the sucker to get it up in the air enough to get the new tire on. Something, possibly just my own common sense because of the akward nature of the jack, or possibly a little inspiration told me to out jack from our car, as a back up catch in case it fell off the other jack. So I did so and thanks to our wonderful friends who I think were high, who we were changing the tire for, the car did indeed fall off the jack when one of the fools leaned on the car... But gratefully the back up jack got it. So I got the other tire on finally, and then I told the guy "don't torque it tight while it's still on the jack, just tighten it part way, then we will lower it and tighten it all the way." Well, I don't know what they were speaking, some ghetto Oakland language that I didn't honestly understand half their English, and maybe therefore they didn't understand all mine, because sure enough, the moment I turn my back he jumps on it like an angry monkey after a mango, and torque the sucker down real hard, pulling the car off of the back up jack!!! By now I was about to throw the tire iron at them and walk off, but luckily the tire was far enough on that it stayed on and kept the car from falling. So we tightened it on all the way till, then I had to get under the car (now safely set on 4 tires) and untangle the jack from out of the frame. His jack got a bit bent up, but ours luckily was fine, but by the end of it, I was soaked, dirty, my white shirt was black and gray, I was cold and tired as it took me about 1.5 HOURS to do the stupid thing, and a little more then frustrated with their lack of intelligence. But they were certainly grateful and I told them to go up and visit the temple Visitors center some time. All in all it was an interesting time...
Well I got to get going, I hope you are all doing well and that life keeps moving forward for you all. I'm tired and worn out but loving every minute of it. So keep on keeping on and I'll do the same!Love Elder Fortie.

January 4 - 10, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer
January 4 - 10, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Happy 4th of January, oh wait, that’s not a holiday is it. That’s the one in July… now I remember (getting old and starting to forget things). So what is going on in January that is worthy of writing about? Our government is being taken over by Socialists but then you knew that. How to stop it I don’t know. Preach the gospel I guess. We have a generation that is willing to give up their freedoms to be taken care of. How do we convince them it isn’t worth it, time will tell (history has told us but not too many pay much attention to that). It appears the book of Revelation tells us of some dire consequences to the poor choices people are making right now but it is hard to get those who have been raised to be like cattle to think about stuff like that. Interesting time to be alive for sure.
On the lighter side, our entire family is going on a diet this week; too much Christmas candy I suppose (one can never tell). I had a couple of oranges for breakfast this morning (and no they were not those chocolate oranges that you slam down on the end to break them into slices (we finished those off)).
We went to see that show called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or something like that. It was at the $1.00 Theater on Monday night. We all enjoyed it.
The heater in the truck is starting to go out. Too bad it couldn’t have waited a month or two for warmer weather. Course with my luck it’ll start working again in July and we won’t be able to shut it off. Life’s crazy sometimes.
We have had a few leaks under the kitchen sink over the past little while that we have been trying to pinpoint. Well, it’s not hard now, it’s been a real rainstorm under there over the last few days. Grandpa came over with a few tools and we replaced the faucet with a new one Tami said she wanted for Christmas. It’s a real fancy one with a high neck (so’s we can get more dishes in the sink before we have to wash them to get to the faucet), also the end of the faucet comes off so you can spray all around the room if ya have a need to (for those family water fights in the kitchen). We even put in a soap dispenser in that 4th hole to the right (you know the one I’m talking about) that was meant for the sprayer. I’m telling you we are getting ta be as fancy as other city folks around these parts.
My genealogy class is getting pretty high tech on Sunday. We set up like 6 computers on a table so people could sign in to the New Family Search site and start doing their genealogy right during Sunday School. What next? Maybe I’ll give a prize to the first person who finds out if they are related to someone else in the ward (you know, like a 6th cousin twice removed or something).
I also taught the first lesson in the Gospel Principles book to the High Priests. It should have been like a 10 minutes lesson about our Heavenly Father so I studied a few other books about the general Christian beliefs of what God is like so it would last longer and I almost didn’t get the whole lesson in before time was up. As you can tell by this letter I do tend to ramble.
After church I was calling members of the ward to set up appointments for genealogy visits for next week when Nathan called. Everyone else was at meetings (Young Women’s Presidency for the girls (Jennifer was just called as the Beehive Pres.), Church for Brian, and Visiting Teaching for Tami) but they all gradually came home while I was on the phone with him so they all got to talk with him. It sounds like things are rather difficult where he is but he seems to be in tact and surviving. The bad guys are stepping up their efforts and that keeps Nathan busy. He says he has had some interesting situations that he will be able to tell about later (probably in 40 years or so). After talking with Nathan for quite a while we headed for grandpa and grandma’s for dinner and games. The dinner was great and I won the golf game afterwards so I was having a fine day. We also had like the biggest pieces of chocolate cake I have ever seen (Alicia’s famous cake). She cut them extra big and we couldn’t resist eating them as she cut them. Guess it was because we were starting a diet and we had to get our last big dessert in before evil diet Monday came around. Funny how good desserts taste when you are about to stop eating them. They can sure make it hard to go on a diet sometimes; life is indeed difficult here in America (j/k).
I started the Book of Mormon this week and noticed right in the first chapter that both Nephi and Lehi talk about hard lives yet immediately say how merciful the Lord is. Guess there is a lesson somewhere in there. Nephi says he has seen many afflictions in his days yet he is highly favored of the Lord. Not many of us connect those two. Then Lehi says he sees a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem and how the people are going to be killed with swards or taken captive and then goes on and on about the Lord’s love and mercy. That seems to be good news for those of us who don’t really deserve much love and mercy yet the Lord seems to be happy to give it out in abundance. I’d like to be like that.
Well, that’s it from our house (with a new faucet). Keep moping up after the leaks.
Ken and clan



From Elder Fortie:
The fight goes on! I'm still going... I'm tired, I'm smudged and dirty. But I live on! Man alive they are trying to burn me out here. Transfers came, and I'm staying again. That means I will stay Zone leader over the largest zone in the mission, in the largest mission in the world, for at least 1/3 of my mission... longer then any one else I know of. Usually they give us a break from being in charge of this place for too long because it's a really high stress, burn out job with a lot of junk to deal with. And yet... they have left me here to run myself into the ground... I don't think they like me very much... they're trying to short circuit what's left of my feeble mind... Sigh. Oh well, I'll go till the spark plugs stop sparkin. I don't mind too much. It's got its ups and downs. I just need to do a better job at remembering the up's more than the downs I suppose.
But anyhow, things are going well, the work is moving forward, I'm not sure how but it is. I don't think I'm doing it, the Lord must send some gnomes in by night to get it done. Honestly I feel like this is the least productive and least effective time of my mission, and yet I'm seeing more success then I've ever seen before. Someone explain that equation to me... Or maybe you shouldn't that would confuse me more.
Well the guy we baptized last Sunday got confirmed this Sunday, but before he'd even gotten confirmed, I took him with me to an appointment on Wednesday. I had another member lined up to go with us, but he canceled on me like an hour before the lesson, I went into panic trying to find someone to help us out but no one could do it. Finally with like 25 minutes till the appointment I was driving by his house and just thought, why not. I knocked on his door, he opened it up and said "come on in (all in Spanish of course) I just walked in from work and was about to shower but I'd love to have you teach me." I said I actually didn't come to teach you tonight, I came to ask if you could do me a favor, I need your help... then proceeded to tell him about the appointment and the other member falling through. He just looked at me and said "I'll jump in the shower right now! We better hurry!" I said are you sure you can? He turned and looked at me and said "Elder, when I got baptized I promised I would take the Savior's name upon me and represent him and serve others. I have to go, it's my duty." Then he ran off to jump in the shower. 15 minutes later he was standing in his suit at the door ready to go, as we were walking out he pointed at the wall and said did you notice that? I looked and he had framed his baptismal program and hung it on his wall... I could not believe this man. Then we ran to the appointment. He tore it up in there, teaching them all about how he had changed and the church had saved him and if it wasn't for the church he would probably be dead or living under a freeway overpass by now (this is the former drug Lord and gang member turned father dreaming of the day when he can give a Melchizedek priesthood blessing.) and how they needed to do what he did and he would be by the next day to see them (without me, he just was going to go visit them) and would pick them up for church if they wanted. He is amazing, he is telling every thing that breathes that he is speaking in a fireside, just 2 weeks after his confirmation, about his conversion story and he is planning on inviting everyone in the chapel to be baptized during his talk. The man is exploding with conversion, and now wants the rest of the world to do the same. I can't believe him he is amazing. Anyhow, I gots to get running. Be good, be smart, and be happy. Good luck!!!Love, Elder Fortie

December 27, 2009 - January 3, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer
December 27 – January 3, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
It’s Happy Birthday Alicia Week, you’re really getting up there. Keep on keeping on.
Christmas is over the goose is getting skinny (in fact he is all skin and bones). Well, actually we have never had goose on Christmas; it’s the pig that got skinny this year at our Christmas dinner. Come to think of it we have never had Figgie Pudding either. Someday it would be fun to research what people had for Christmas dinner a century or more ago and try it ourselves.
This has been a strange Christmas this year. I suppose it is because I am back into retail and my holiday is consumed with working every day, nights and Saturdays, rushing around helping 3 or 4 people at a time then dealing with the endless returns after Christmas. With that in mind I have nothing to report other than work and more work. Not much sense in telling about grumpy discouraged customers standing in long lines trying to get it all done before Christmas then exchanging it all after Christmas. And now, like Mormon to his son Moroni, I “dwell no longer upon this horrible scene.”
My store is not as friendly as those I have worked at in years past. I don’t feel very welcome and don’t enjoy my time there. There are a few friendly faces but something tells me I don’t belong.

On Monday we woke up to a beautiful scene of frost on the trees. I grabbed my camera and went out to get a few shots. It was confined to a narrow strip right through Herriman. I got several shots and enjoyed the trip; it was good for the creative juices. There was a beautiful white scene at every turn. I posted the pictures on Red Bubble and one lady asked permission to paint the shot of the old house with white trees all around. I said that would be great.

The plan was, when Chad and Alicia came home from California, we were to go to grandpa and grandma’s for a New Years Eve party, then stay over and open presents on New Years Day and relax. Unfortunately work dictated otherwise. Michelle and I worked late on New Years Eve so we didn’t get there until dinner was over and the night was far spent. We ate quickly, played games then went out and made more than our share of noise at midnight. Everyone stayed over but me, I had to work early so I went home. Tami stayed there but worked at the center starting at something like 6:00 a.m. and I got to my store by 9. I thought it was rather dumb to open that early and I was right. We sat around (all of us tired) with only a few customers coming in here and there for the first few hours. They sent me to Wal-Mart for a few supplies then by noon they decided to send someone home. I volunteered and that was fine with everyone there. I went home, worked a bit on a calendar I was going to give to my parents for Christmas, then headed out, stopping at a few stores on my way to my parents for gift giving. We had a nice time and Spencer seemed to enjoy his presents. It was also Alicia’s birthday so we had a party and cake for her as well. We are a wild and crazy party bunch. The night came quickly and we left slowly.
Michelle worked early on Saturday, Jennifer Tami and I later.
On Sunday we slept in as our church times changed to 11:00. I helped people get signed up in my genealogy class as we had three computers hooked up so people could get on to the New Family Search site and learn by doing.
Alicia fixed us a nice Sunday dinner and later we all looked at the Capture My Utah book I got for Christmas then watched the DVD to see what pictures we had on there. Chad submitted a few pictures and had one picture on the DVD and I had four (four in the book and four on the DVD, at least so far, we haven’t watched the last for categories yet).
Well, we got to bed late and it is back to school for the kids on Monday. 2010 here we go,
Ken and clan

From Elder Fortie:
2010? Are we serious? I'm confused, I'm not quite sure when this happened. In fact I'm pretty sure were wrong... it's not true, we need to fix the clocks and calendars, some fool messed them up. Well my new years eve was up and down. We had a zone new years eve party at the visitors center of the temple. We closed it down at 5 and had a party from 5:30-9:00 that we had about 45 missionaries at, (that's my zone... the monster zone) and president chose our zone party to come to, so he and his family came as well. We had more food then was sanely necessary, and we watched UP, which was hilarious but really had a good moral at the same time, and we also watched "Forever Strong" a movie about a Utah High school rugby team that is just fantastic! President Wade actually recommended it to us to watch, I was a little surprised that he recommended it, and the first 5 minutes had me a little scared thinking "is this really the movie president Wade recommended us missionaries to watch..." but he was in the room sitting right behind me so I let it go, and after the first 5 or so minutes had past I could see why he recommended it. WOW Fantastic show! Great message, very moving, very well done, and based on a true story as well, Go get it watch it, love it! It's like comparable to remember the Titans. Great show. Then afterwards I kicked everyone out to get them home on time, then stayed and cleaned up, then I got home, thinking I would enjoy a nice peaceful night and have some Martinelli's and go to bed and sleep through the new years seeing as we have a 10:30 lights out policy. But right before bed at like 10:22 we got a call from some sister missionaries on the other side of the mountains that needed a blessing... so I called president and he told me to go, I grabbed my companion and another set of Elders so we wouldn't be alone in their apartment at night, and we set off for a journey over the jolly mountains... By the time we got home it was just a few minutes off for us to see midnight and the new year, so we figured what the heck so we pulled out our Martinelli's and had us a nice midnight toast then hit the sack. Ah the many adventures of life as a missionary. But the blessing I gave her at least seemed to go well, she was very grateful and you could see her countenance change on the spot, she looked worlds better.
Well we had us another wedding on Saturday, and another Baptism on Sunday. Both went smashingly. My one concern with how much success were being blessed with is that I'm gonna burn out this ward! We've already had 2 weddings this transfer and we've got another one set for the end of the month and another 2 weeks after that on Valentines weekend hopefully. I mean hey it's great and I've never seen this kind of success before but I pity the poor ward that keeps putting on show after show for all these things we're throwing at them. But they haven't complained yet, and they do a smashing job. We baptized more people this past year here then they did in the past 2 years combined. My ward had exactly half of the 97 baptisms in the stake for the year. (Well I guess not quite exactly, we had a little over half, half would have given us a .5 of a person) So they stake president is just singing songs about us and the high council is running around publishing my companion and I's names on everything as if it's a stamp of approval to fill up the worlds baptismal fonts. I keep telling them I don't know what on earth is going on, I'm just falling on the blessings. I leave my area for a week and come back and find someone standing by the baptismal font smiling and dressed in white. (okay... slight exaggeration.) But non the less a monkey could claim these blessings like a coconut hitting him on the head there falling so abundantly and right on the spot. I'm just the Gomer Pile that landed in the pile! But I'll pull as much out of the pile as I can muster as long as I'm in there. No point in wasting it I suppose. I just don't know what to think of it all. I mean, I honestly spend less time in my area then any missionary except the assistants... and they barely spend more time out then I do, and yet for some reason the people are just flocking in. It's some serious blessings that's for sure. But alas my time is coming to an end to write this here epistle. Keep the faith, fight the good fight, smile on. I hope all is going well for you all. Have a great new year. Pray for us, for although we are blessed, this is possibly the most stressful time of my mission as well. The Lord is blessing us outrageously probably because we're not giving in even though Satan is attacking us outrageously. I swear I hop from one crisis to another dealing with the most ridiculous things, and right when I'm about to put my head through the horn in the steering wheel of my car while screaming something about Armageddon and dooms day, the Lord dumps a blimp-full of blessings on us that I get so busy trying to catch that I lose my mind enough to forget about all the problems I have to deal with. It's an interesting game of balancing bad madness out with good madness... whatever floats the boat I suppose... or at least keeps it from sinking. My boats full of holes, and new ones keep appearing, but every time I think the holes have over come the boat, the Lord hand's me a bigger bucket and says, "start bailing" My bucket is somehow always just a little bigger then my holes. Thank heavens for that.Love you all, talk to you later.Love Elder Fortie