WORST STORM EVER...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008, was pretty much the worst storm of the season yet. It hit just around the time people were beginning to head home from work. The freeways stacked up fast and there were major accidents within the first hour of the storm front passing through. Unfortunately the storm stalled. One of our newest employees, who lives in Eagle Mountain, which is west of Saratoga Springs, left work about 4:15 p.m. and didn't arrive home until after 11:00 p.m. When she finally got within four miles of her home all the main traffic arteries were closed because of accidents and she had to sit on the road for three hours without moving. We had children snowed in at schools, the entrances to the freeways blocked, and raging winds swirling the snow to whiteout conditions. At the end of the day it left about a foot of snow behind; two feet dropped in Tooele.

And as I look out of my window today it's hard to tell it ever happened. The snow has dried completely from the roads and the stacked snow is melting quickly. Ahhh, Utah.

Rick and Marilyn went over on Valentines to visit with Grandma Whittaker at River Meadows. It's heartbreaking to see how dramatically she is changing. Marilyn cried all the way home because of how she felt about seeing her mom decline. Aging can be such a sad process.

At the Empty Nester's Family Home Evening we had a missionary couple, the Henderson's, speak to us and they had recently returned from South America where they served somewhere in the Congo. They were not the typical humanitarian service missionary, they were actually 1200 miles away from the mission home spreading the word as best they could by the passable French they knew. It was quite a story. The surprise is how prepared these people are for the message. They know their bible, they already live the word of wisdom, and they also understand tithing. So when they hear the story of the vision and the translation of the Book of Mormon they are truly willing to pray for an answer as to whether it is true after they have actually read the Book of Mormon. They said the male members of the tribe are the ones who come to investigate and are baptized before they ever invite their own family to come and see what the church is all about. Their favorite story is about a young man who sought them out, accepted the message, was baptized and had accepted a position in the church when his young wife appeared one day with two children in tow. She came to see what this church was all about because it had changed her husband so entirely. Another convert spoke at the baptism of one of his friends and held high an Ensign where he had turned the page to a picture of Jesus. He folded it in half and explained that was how he slept at night with his new friend acting as his pillow.