Fortie Family Flyer
February 1 – 7, 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
February, here already? What did they do with January? I just got some of the Christmas CD’s I put on hold in November at the library, guess that didn’t work, have to put them on hold earlier next Christmas (maybe I should start right now).
We’ve had a rather dry winter so far. We did have one week that caught the mountains up about a month ago but a bit boring and gray before and after that.
Nathan called this week but I was working. He seems to be having a rather difficult time this trip. Guess the bad guys are not cooperating. He says he has seen the Lord’s hand in preserving his life. Glad to hear that, but don’t like to here that he needs it.
On Monday we went to Chad’s first play for his middle School theater classes. It was very well done and the parents and school loved it. They made some good money off of ticket sales. Many are telling him it is the best they have ever had. Hard work but a great job. Spencer is growing and changing every week. It is fun to go visit each Sunday.
Brian is busy with school and his church job as Ward Mission Leader in the Singles Ward. They had a baptism last week.
Elder Fortie is doing well in Oakland and is getting near that dreaded end of the mission and suddenly have the rest of your life ahead of you.
Michelle is busy with school and working at Kneaders. She just finished working her schedule out for her senior year at Riverton High. She is supposed to be going to the new Herriman High but they give seniors the opportunity to stay with their old school.
Jennifer has been sick a few times these past few weeks. Her physical theropist thinks her back is not improving fast enough so he is wondering if she might have rheumatoid arthritis. He asked her to get a blood test but it came back negative. She is always the one with the strange unknown diseases. Hopefully we will get this figured out so she can get better. She is still doing a great job babysitting. The boys sure love her.
In other news, the truck’s starter motor just decided he had had enough and stopped starting. You know how it goes, you start then stop then start then stop for 13 years and one day you stop starting; he has gone the way of all the earth. I was at a hamburger place getting Michelle a lunch so she could drive me home during her lunch so I could use the truck the first half of the day and she could use it after school. Guess that plan didn’t work. Dad came to help me get it going and get it to a garage. After $350.00 a new starter is ready to join the team. This one has a lifetime warranty but then how much more of a lifetime does my truck have? Time will tell. I should have had them check the heater while they were at it but then maybe I’ll have to save up for that; maybe by July I’ll have enough to get that fixed.
The rest of the week has been work and work and then more work. I made an appointment with another distributor to get my pictures going. Well see if they can do a better job.
On Saturday I administered the ACT test in the morning and then worked at Deseret Book the rest of the day. I was gone from home from 6:45 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; long day.
Bore my testimony on Sunday, I got a bit emotional and both girls had to leave the room as they got emotional about what I was talking about as well. I talked about the blessings of prayers from the prayer circle in the temple.
We enjoyed a nice birthday dinner that Alicia prepared for me. Tami made my favorite cake, her special carat cake; good stuff. I have felt impressed that we are not singing enough as a society so I suggested we sing a song before Spencer went to bed. We sang “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” because the girls just got through reading a book with those words to Spencer. We all sang and Spencer sat mesmerized at this unusual new singing thing. When we stopped he started singing as if he wanted us to continue, but it didn’t work, it was his bedtime and there was nothing he could do to delay any longer. We had fun and got home late as usual.
I memorized a poem this week. It was a poem written by my 15th great grandfather, Sir Thomas Moore (through grandma Klingler). I gave it as my talent in Family Home Evening. It is called “The Bird Let Loose.”
“The Bird let loose in eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne’er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.
“So grant me, God, from every care
And stain of passion free,
Aloft, through virtues purer air,
To hold my course to thee!
No sin to cloud, no lore to stay
My soul, as home she springs;–
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy freedom in her wings!
I memorized William Wordsworth’s “From Ode On Intimations of Immortality” last week (no relation that I know of), which was much easier than this one. For some reason I really struggled getting this one down. You will probably recognize Bill’s (j/k) Wordsworth’s poem:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere it’s setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
His poem was in the church film, “Man’s Search for Happiness” we used to show on my mission. I wonder if I could memorize a poem every week and how long I could keep them in my memory. Perhaps I should next memorize a few lines from the poem of my 16th great grandfather, Geoffrey Chaucer, through my grandma Fortie’s line. Maybe a few lines from his “Student’s Tale” in “The Canterbury Tales.”
“In your wise thought, how all our days must flee
In verying ways, on to eternity;
For sleep or wake, in spite of all endeavor,
Time waits for none of us, but flees forever.
“And though your green youth still may shine in flower,
Age creeps upon it, silent as a stone;
Death threatens every age, and lays his power
On every rank: all yield to him alone;
And just as surely as to all is known
That we shall die, as surely none can say
How death shall cut him down, or name the day.
His writings basically brought the English language into being (or at least into popular usage). It is interesting though, how much the English language has changed. This is a translation from his original. The spelling and strange words are so different from how we write today that we can hardly understand it without someone translating it into modern English. He was truly a great writer. Perhaps someday I can get to know him.
I was trying to think of my lines as Mayor Shinn in the Music Man the other day and came up with some, but not as many as I would think I should remember since it was just last summer (partly because I needed some cues from other people that my lines are responses to). Perhaps in the Spirit World I will remember them all. My grandfather, Jowett Fortie and great, great grandfather, Alexander Fortie were often in plays during their lives. Wouldn’t that be fun to be in a play with them (and even Geoffrey) in the Spirit World? Who knows how many other ancestors enjoyed being in plays or musical groups? We could entertain all the cousins at a giant family reunion up there. Hey, it could happen.
Well, that is it from our house; hope your week was good.
February 1 – 7, 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
February, here already? What did they do with January? I just got some of the Christmas CD’s I put on hold in November at the library, guess that didn’t work, have to put them on hold earlier next Christmas (maybe I should start right now).
We’ve had a rather dry winter so far. We did have one week that caught the mountains up about a month ago but a bit boring and gray before and after that.
Nathan called this week but I was working. He seems to be having a rather difficult time this trip. Guess the bad guys are not cooperating. He says he has seen the Lord’s hand in preserving his life. Glad to hear that, but don’t like to here that he needs it.
On Monday we went to Chad’s first play for his middle School theater classes. It was very well done and the parents and school loved it. They made some good money off of ticket sales. Many are telling him it is the best they have ever had. Hard work but a great job. Spencer is growing and changing every week. It is fun to go visit each Sunday.
Brian is busy with school and his church job as Ward Mission Leader in the Singles Ward. They had a baptism last week.
Elder Fortie is doing well in Oakland and is getting near that dreaded end of the mission and suddenly have the rest of your life ahead of you.
Michelle is busy with school and working at Kneaders. She just finished working her schedule out for her senior year at Riverton High. She is supposed to be going to the new Herriman High but they give seniors the opportunity to stay with their old school.
Jennifer has been sick a few times these past few weeks. Her physical theropist thinks her back is not improving fast enough so he is wondering if she might have rheumatoid arthritis. He asked her to get a blood test but it came back negative. She is always the one with the strange unknown diseases. Hopefully we will get this figured out so she can get better. She is still doing a great job babysitting. The boys sure love her.
In other news, the truck’s starter motor just decided he had had enough and stopped starting. You know how it goes, you start then stop then start then stop for 13 years and one day you stop starting; he has gone the way of all the earth. I was at a hamburger place getting Michelle a lunch so she could drive me home during her lunch so I could use the truck the first half of the day and she could use it after school. Guess that plan didn’t work. Dad came to help me get it going and get it to a garage. After $350.00 a new starter is ready to join the team. This one has a lifetime warranty but then how much more of a lifetime does my truck have? Time will tell. I should have had them check the heater while they were at it but then maybe I’ll have to save up for that; maybe by July I’ll have enough to get that fixed.
The rest of the week has been work and work and then more work. I made an appointment with another distributor to get my pictures going. Well see if they can do a better job.
On Saturday I administered the ACT test in the morning and then worked at Deseret Book the rest of the day. I was gone from home from 6:45 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; long day.
Bore my testimony on Sunday, I got a bit emotional and both girls had to leave the room as they got emotional about what I was talking about as well. I talked about the blessings of prayers from the prayer circle in the temple.
We enjoyed a nice birthday dinner that Alicia prepared for me. Tami made my favorite cake, her special carat cake; good stuff. I have felt impressed that we are not singing enough as a society so I suggested we sing a song before Spencer went to bed. We sang “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” because the girls just got through reading a book with those words to Spencer. We all sang and Spencer sat mesmerized at this unusual new singing thing. When we stopped he started singing as if he wanted us to continue, but it didn’t work, it was his bedtime and there was nothing he could do to delay any longer. We had fun and got home late as usual.
I memorized a poem this week. It was a poem written by my 15th great grandfather, Sir Thomas Moore (through grandma Klingler). I gave it as my talent in Family Home Evening. It is called “The Bird Let Loose.”
“The Bird let loose in eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne’er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.
“So grant me, God, from every care
And stain of passion free,
Aloft, through virtues purer air,
To hold my course to thee!
No sin to cloud, no lore to stay
My soul, as home she springs;–
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy freedom in her wings!
I memorized William Wordsworth’s “From Ode On Intimations of Immortality” last week (no relation that I know of), which was much easier than this one. For some reason I really struggled getting this one down. You will probably recognize Bill’s (j/k) Wordsworth’s poem:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere it’s setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
His poem was in the church film, “Man’s Search for Happiness” we used to show on my mission. I wonder if I could memorize a poem every week and how long I could keep them in my memory. Perhaps I should next memorize a few lines from the poem of my 16th great grandfather, Geoffrey Chaucer, through my grandma Fortie’s line. Maybe a few lines from his “Student’s Tale” in “The Canterbury Tales.”
“In your wise thought, how all our days must flee
In verying ways, on to eternity;
For sleep or wake, in spite of all endeavor,
Time waits for none of us, but flees forever.
“And though your green youth still may shine in flower,
Age creeps upon it, silent as a stone;
Death threatens every age, and lays his power
On every rank: all yield to him alone;
And just as surely as to all is known
That we shall die, as surely none can say
How death shall cut him down, or name the day.
His writings basically brought the English language into being (or at least into popular usage). It is interesting though, how much the English language has changed. This is a translation from his original. The spelling and strange words are so different from how we write today that we can hardly understand it without someone translating it into modern English. He was truly a great writer. Perhaps someday I can get to know him.
I was trying to think of my lines as Mayor Shinn in the Music Man the other day and came up with some, but not as many as I would think I should remember since it was just last summer (partly because I needed some cues from other people that my lines are responses to). Perhaps in the Spirit World I will remember them all. My grandfather, Jowett Fortie and great, great grandfather, Alexander Fortie were often in plays during their lives. Wouldn’t that be fun to be in a play with them (and even Geoffrey) in the Spirit World? Who knows how many other ancestors enjoyed being in plays or musical groups? We could entertain all the cousins at a giant family reunion up there. Hey, it could happen.
Well, that is it from our house; hope your week was good.
Keep reading the great poets.
Ken and clan
From Elder Fortie:
Good heavens, didn't I just write one of these? Well we had some more baptisms last week, they are a great family, they are amazing people, the little 11 year old girl is so cute, she ran up to me after she had changed after being baptized and said "Elder Fortie I felt it! I felt the burning in the bosom! I've always wanted to feel it and I finally felt it!" It went really well. And we had another baptism last night of a mother and her son, who tried to hide from the missionaries until they came to one of the baptisms 2 weeks ago and felt the spirit and said "I want that!" And turned their lives around. Fantastic people. The Lord is blessing this place abundantly, it's ridiculous. No other ward in the entire bay area has seen anything like what this ward has seen in the past 6 months. It has been amazing and I have loved being a part of it. The Stake that I have been the zone leader for for the past 6 months has been just seeing miracles. We have another Elder with us for a few days, and he saw our numbers as we were finishing some reports last night and said "good grief that's more then I've ever seen any other 2 zones in the mission combined get!" And that's how things have been for about 6 months, just on fire and we're loving it, the stake leaders are loving it, President Wade is loving it, it's just amazing! The work is really much easier then everyone makes it. People just don't realize how simple it can be, if they take the time to figure it out, not just missionaries, but members as well, can make the work FLY!!! Preach my Gospel should be a far more studied book among our church members. It is one of the most inspired and revelatory works in years, put together by the apostles, and when you DO what it says, it WORKS!!!!! People get so far away from the gospel of Jesus Christ into deep unnecessary doctrines, that may be interesting but are unnecessary for salvation. I would not be surprised if a third of the active members of the church don't even know the basic doctrines contained in chp. 3 of Preach my Gospel. There are so many things that members should know that they don't. If you have a Preach my gospel, turn to page 172, and do the activity that it says to do on it about creating a list of people. If you don't have one, get one. Report to me in your next letter what you have done about it! I will be following up with you next time I write! Don't let me down! I gotta go, I'm tired but happy. I'm still smiling even if my eyes are drooping! (and my gut... but that's another story... stinking missionary lifestyle, it's like being a sloth that lives in a buffet!) Keep up the good work and go find out how easy it is to be a missionary. Go find out how easy it is to save someone’s soul. Go find out how easy it is to give someone the joy that you have that they have been lacking their whole life. Go find out what it means to be a Latter Day Saint.
Ken and clan
From Elder Fortie:
Good heavens, didn't I just write one of these? Well we had some more baptisms last week, they are a great family, they are amazing people, the little 11 year old girl is so cute, she ran up to me after she had changed after being baptized and said "Elder Fortie I felt it! I felt the burning in the bosom! I've always wanted to feel it and I finally felt it!" It went really well. And we had another baptism last night of a mother and her son, who tried to hide from the missionaries until they came to one of the baptisms 2 weeks ago and felt the spirit and said "I want that!" And turned their lives around. Fantastic people. The Lord is blessing this place abundantly, it's ridiculous. No other ward in the entire bay area has seen anything like what this ward has seen in the past 6 months. It has been amazing and I have loved being a part of it. The Stake that I have been the zone leader for for the past 6 months has been just seeing miracles. We have another Elder with us for a few days, and he saw our numbers as we were finishing some reports last night and said "good grief that's more then I've ever seen any other 2 zones in the mission combined get!" And that's how things have been for about 6 months, just on fire and we're loving it, the stake leaders are loving it, President Wade is loving it, it's just amazing! The work is really much easier then everyone makes it. People just don't realize how simple it can be, if they take the time to figure it out, not just missionaries, but members as well, can make the work FLY!!! Preach my Gospel should be a far more studied book among our church members. It is one of the most inspired and revelatory works in years, put together by the apostles, and when you DO what it says, it WORKS!!!!! People get so far away from the gospel of Jesus Christ into deep unnecessary doctrines, that may be interesting but are unnecessary for salvation. I would not be surprised if a third of the active members of the church don't even know the basic doctrines contained in chp. 3 of Preach my Gospel. There are so many things that members should know that they don't. If you have a Preach my gospel, turn to page 172, and do the activity that it says to do on it about creating a list of people. If you don't have one, get one. Report to me in your next letter what you have done about it! I will be following up with you next time I write! Don't let me down! I gotta go, I'm tired but happy. I'm still smiling even if my eyes are drooping! (and my gut... but that's another story... stinking missionary lifestyle, it's like being a sloth that lives in a buffet!) Keep up the good work and go find out how easy it is to be a missionary. Go find out how easy it is to save someone’s soul. Go find out how easy it is to give someone the joy that you have that they have been lacking their whole life. Go find out what it means to be a Latter Day Saint.
Love, Elder Fortie
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