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.
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
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
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
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