October 27, 2020

Our back deck door has needed painting for some time and we finally picked up the paint this week and finished the project. Now we are thinking the basement door needs some love. Always something. We also went to LazyBoy this week to look for an accent chair for the basement but decided against the one we were considering and came home and ordered one online from Wayfair. Tom has been good about my home renovations but I am sure he is hoping it will soon be done. Does that ever happen? I just have too much time at home with opportunity to be looking around the house.

I made bran muffins this week and our bran muffins are Grandma Tanner’s recipe which is a very large recipe. The batter can be kept in the fridge for days but I think a week is long enough. We have been eating muffins and we took a dozen muffins over to Cindy and family. We are eating far too well during this pandemic.

I had a phone appointment with my doctor this week and Tom had an appointment with Glen Collingridge, who is Tom’s doctor. Tom is going to go in to have a checkup. We went for flu shots this week too and that was an adventure because getting in for a flu shot is not too easy right now. Because of the pandemic, the government is encouraging flu shots for everyone to lessen the burden on the health system.

I met with Carol Jones again this week via zoom. We discussed one of the conference talks. We took her the sacrament on Sunday too. She is a wonderful convert and a great person to get to know. She is eager to learn and be involved.

We have been working on our Ward Christmas Musical this week and it seems to be coming together. We have all the performers and we have presented our program to the Bishopric for approval. Now we wait to receive the final go ahead.

We watched the funeral for Josie’s husband Patrick on Saturday. He died suddenly from a heart attack and we are feeling for her and sorry we are not able to be with her during this distancing time. I also checked on Shirlene this week to see how she has been doing since Ross’s passing. Her daughter Nancy has been here with her and Nancy is taking her back with her to Utah for the winter. Our hearts are hurting for both Shirlene and Josie.

We have finished pulling the flowers out of our flower beds. The weather has certainly turned and our kids in Kelowna and Montana have had snow this past week. This change in weather and seasons will offer us some new experiences and challenges for our isolation. We are finding our path each day.

October 20, 2020

 Zooming is the new way of meeting with people for church or for other reasons. We never heard of it before covid restriction were put in place. We zoomed Carol Jones again this week and gave her the last of the ‘new member’ lessons and agreed we would continue to meet with her weekly and discuss other gospel topics. We zoomed sacrament meeting on Sunday and I zoomed a meeting with the Relief Society Presidency to discuss the format for the upcoming lesson this week. Tom and Athol Symonds have been zooming trying to figure out how to incorporate Tabernacle Choir music into the ward zoom only Sacrament meetings. We also zoomed into a ‘viewing’ for Josie McCarthy’s husband who passed away recently. They will also zoom the funeral this coming Saturday. We do a great deal of zooming.

We have been asked to organize the ward Christmas Musical and so we have been working on that this week and calling people to perform. I think we have a simple but beautiful program in place and we have some great people taking part. We have Julie Duerichen and her daughter Holly singing, Rueben Leonard singing as well as Charlotte Law singing and the Tsai brothers singing and /or playing instruments.  Carol Hur is playing the violin and Brian and Brenda Leavitt are our readers. We are calling  it “Silent - Holy Night” and plan on it being about 45 minutes long. We will zoom at least one of the two performances and perhaps record and broadcast a version of it. We still need someone to do decor, handle filming/sound and someone to play accompaniment. It is falling into place,

We also cleaned up the back deck for winter, cut Tom’s hair and took Carol Jones the sacrament on Sunday. We have both made phone appointments with our own doctors this week which is also the new way of doing things. We received an email from our London Temple President this week which included his desires for us to return in the near future. He feels it will be 6-9 months before we are able to go back. We answer emails, phone our family and others and tend to our house and yard. We FaceTime our family and connect with our ministering people by email or phone. Roger Jahn has another aneurism and will have surgery in December. Our world seems small at times but it does go beyond our walls and we are grateful for that. Our family are all busy and we appreciate them and each other.

October 13, 2020

 We were finally able to make arrangements with our friend Debra Moore, who the children had commissioned to take our anniversary pictures. We set Wednesday morning as the date and Derby Reach Historical site by the river in Fort Langley as the location. We got up early that morning and found it to be be a very foggy day but I was actually  thrilled because I think fog adds an interesting dimension to photographs and bright sunny days can prove to be difficult when taking pictures.. We had a fun time with Debra and hope she was able to make something of these old people. She hasn’t sent the finished “shoot” to us as yet.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend and, because our children have been going to school and some back at work, Cindy felt we shouldn’t all be getting together because of virus concerns. We determined if we were not going to have dinner with our family, we would take our meal to people who needed a Thanksgiving dinner. We phoned Gene and Marie next door as Gene is suffering from cancer. She had a turkey and was going to make their own meal.  We phoned Cheyenne across the street who is home alone with her father Wayne while her mother Jean and sister Charmaine are in Austria getting Charmaine settled in a fine arts college. We just told them we were bringing them dinner because we know they need help.  We took the sacrament to Carol Jones on Sunday and discovered that her husband would be in Saskatoon for Thanksgiving and the remainder of the winter and so we told her we would bring her dinner too. We started baking and preparing our regular Thanksgiving meal throughout the week - carrot cake, layered salad, stuffing, rolls, yams, mashed potatoes/gravy, brussel sprouts/carrots/bacon and turkey. Our table seemed empty with just the two of us but we hoped that our food helped some others. We have lots of leftovers and will get some cake to Cindy’s family.

We were very thankful on Thanksgiving Day to receive news that Jean and Charmaine were able to obtain Charmaine’s visa clearance in Austria, as we had been trying to help do it from this end and were running into difficulties. We were saddened though to receive news, that same day, that our good friend Ross Slarks had passed away. He had cancer and had been suffering these past years with multiple complications resulting from the initial surgery. We are grateful his pain is no more but sorrowing for Shirlene and her family. Ross and Shirlene were teenage sweethearts and were always joined at the hip. They are about ten years older than us but they and their family have been part of our lives since we were teenagers ourselves. Ross was Tom’s councillor in the bishopric when Tom was a young Bishop. I had babysat their children and Nancy, their daughter, babysat our children. We had holidayed with them and joyed and sorrowed with them thru the years.

Our sister in law Jeannette called this week and expressed concern for Tom’s sister Carolyn, who is going thru a difficult divorce. Tom called Carolyn and learned that she is still struggling to achieve a settlement with her husband, who is also a Tom. He is extremely successful but states that his money is all tied up and that there is nothing for Carolyn. Our hearts are breaking and we have determined to not only pray for Carolyn but for Tom, that his heart will be softened. He is a lawyer and never wants to feel he has lost a case even against his own wife. They had ten children together, with nine living.

I have been sorting thru more family pictures again this week and proof reading the “StoryWorth” histories of ourselves that the children are having us write. It has been a good project for us to work on durning this time.

We are always working on the music for the ward meetings and we also met with Dave Leavitt, via zoom today, to get going on the ward Christmas Musical that we are in charge of this year. We will have to  follow the covid parameters and probably have 2-3 performances, with one being zoomed into homes. This is something we have never done before but we will pray for help and success.

We have done more yard work this week and got our growing dogwood tree in the backyard trimmed in preparation for fall and winter. We are also trying to prepare for Hallowe’en and determine what that will look like this year. Everything is new or at least different at this unique time.

October 6, 2020

 Our highlight of the week was our two days of October General Conference. Conference each six months has always been a much anticipated event in our lives. Through the years we have listened to it, attended it or watched it and now, with covid concerns, we look forward to that much appreciated connection with our leaders. They said that last April’s conference had more people tuning in than any other conference to date. We have not heard if that trend continued this time. The messages were directive, comforting and encouraging. The overall theme seemed to be “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 and Elder Holland’s concluding scripture, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 And so we carry on in faith and wait upon the Lord.

Covid numbers have been on the rise again but have levelled out here in BC a little. Even Donald Trump and his wife have been dealing with covid this week. We have been concerned with the children back in the schools and people all together again that cases might increase but so far, other than in Eastern Canada and places like New York City, the numbers haven’t been too bad. It is still bad in England which breaks our hearts.

We taught Carol Jones another lesson this week via zoom and this time we did it on our own without the Sister Missionaries We have one more lesson to teach her this week as part of her New Member discussions. We really like her and have been enjoying getting to know her. We will be taking her the sacrament each week from now on. We would to get to know her husband Martin but he is not in sight when we spend time with her.

Debra Moore is taking pictures of us for our fiftieth anniversary and both she and Cindy suggested we go to Derby Reach Heritage area near Fort Langley. We drove there on Friday to take a look around and go for our daily walk. It is lovely location near the Fraser River and should work just fine for the photographs we are asking for. The children gave us this as part of our anniversary gift. We will have the Salmon House dinner they gave us too next month after we go to Karl’s for my hair cut on the North Shore. Our anniversary is being celebrated over a few months and that is lovely.

Fall is coming and we are trying to get a few things done in our yard in preparation. We get the odd warm day but things are definitely starting to cool. We carry on with projects at home and have pretty well decided that we will spend Thanksgiving separated from our family as a precaution. It breaks my heart as the children are the ones we are most thankful for and they are what make the holidays special. So our covid time goes. We hope we are making the most of it and being of benefit to others in some ways.

September 29, 2020

Our high light of this week was our grandson Wyatt’s baptism on Saturday September 26th. We were unable to cross the border to be with him but his mother Larissa sent pictures and we were happy for them as a family and proud of him. His father Scott baptized him.

After the Funes family painters completed our painting projects, we had a day of cleaning things up and putting the house back together and then a couple more days of hanging the family pictures and the big mirror back up. We went to Michael’s to buy frames for sixteen grandchildren and now have to get current pictures of all of them and get that arrangement up. Carrying the sixteen frames pulled my neck out but the grandchildren are worth it and more.

We helped the Sister missionaries teach a new member lesson to Carol Jones via zoom on Thursday and we taught our grandson Max his last two Temple Prep lessons on Saturday. We zoomed Fast and Testimony meeting on Sunday and then took the Sacrament to Carol Jones and came home for me to be able to zoom  Relief Society. We delivered our BC food drive bags in our area on Tuesday and discovered that someone else had already delivered bags to our street. When we went out on Saturday to pick the food bags up, we found Keith Moran and realized he had been our double delivery culprit. 

Our neighbour Jean and daughter Charmaine are in Austria where she has been admitted to the Fine Arts University in Salzburg. They have, however, been struggling to get her criminal clearance thru the RCMP so some of us have been trying to help out. Tom has called the police a couple of times and they are just saying she needs to be here in person. Jean was ready to fly home with her and then back again but we have all been fasting and praying and things are looking a little more hopeful. I took two picture IDs of Charmaine to Robert Kearl to notarized and have ready in case they are needed. It has been most disturbing to them and to us that the police have not been more helpful. We have seen the paperwork that needs to be filled out and it is very basic and certainly can be done online. 

We went back to the North Shore this week for Karl to cut my hair. We picked up things from our favourite bakeries and walked on the sea wall before coming home. We miss the North Shore but not the increase in building and traffic.

It has been a busy week and seems like life is on the move again. We are still trying to be covid careful.

 

September 22, 2020

We are excited today because the Funes’ are here painting our new trim work and the baseboards we had repaired.  We have waited since July for this project to be completed. Our first painter was a “no show”, so we turned to Brother and Sister Funes who we knew we could rely on. We should have approached them first. The painters are all busy despite the covid concerns. They are all wearing masks in our house.

We feel very blessed because, after about a week of smoke filled skies and the inability to go outside very much, some rains came and the skies are clear. Clean air and blue skies are more appreciated at this time but should be always.

We taught Max two more Temple Prep lessons this week and he and Jacqui have decided that they will each go thru the Temple in their respective countries when they are each prepared. When the borders finally open they will be ready to be sealed and hopefully Tom will be able to perform that sealing.

We have been going thru Tom’s mission box this week and reviewing memories. We are realizing how many letters nearly three years apart adds up to as he was on his mission for nearly 2 1/2 years and we were engaged and apart for nearly another half year. He also has letters from his family, friends and people such as Mary Romney their “nanny” who became a third grandmother to them and Ches Pierson our seminary teacher.

We have done work in the yard this week with air cleared and our work now seems to be more fall oriented than summer as the seasons are changing. Tom trimmed the cedar hedge again as that has been bothering him. We also got his hair cut, reinsuranced the car and got other errands done. We have not wanted to insure the car for a full year just in case we go back on our mission. I went to have my eyes checked with Dan Davies as my eye that has been infected this past year has been bothering me a little. He has me putting eye drops in and cleaning it thoroughly. My knee still continues to heal slowly and Tom is healing from a strain in his back. We have constant need of repair these days. We have been asked to help give Carol Jones to post baptism lessons and we are happy to do so.

We were ready today to drop off our bags in our neighborhood for the BC Food Drive only to find that someone had already done it. This happened last year too so Tom is checking into it. We don’t want to upset the neighbors by approaching them with extra bags. The whole community and BC are now involved in the Thanksgiving Food Drive. This began about a decade ago when Tom, while serving as Stake President, had our Vancouver stake doing this service project and then suggested it as an opportunity for other Stakes in BC as well. The Area leaders had asked for suggestions and this was Tom’s. He had learned of it from Calgary. It has expanded since and hopefully helps the community.

We keep busy each day and still hope for a return to complete our mission at the London Temple in England. Tom watches the announcements regarding covid and keeps watching reports on the status of the Temples.

Reading loft updated and trim work painted

Front entrance trim work painted

September 15, 2020

We try to keep busy in positive ways during this pandemic and reading books written by church authors has been one of those things that we have felt good about doing. I have been listening to audio books, especially during the healing of my knee. My knee is doing better but I am still reading. Tom listens to numerous books too and now he has pulled a muscle in his back so may be listening even more. What a pair we are! I read Wendy Watson Nelson’s “The Heavens are Open” this week and it was excellent. I have also read Sheri Dew’s book on President Nelson, David Butler’s trilogy on the Godhead, Emily Belle Freeman’s book on Grace, Tim Ballard’s “Pilgrims Hypothesis” and a book authored by a gay member of the church “Without the Mask”. All were excellent.

We use email, messaging and the phone to keep in touch with family and friends these days. We message, FaceTime and phone our children regularly. We email friends from the mission and contribute to and read the mission “app” and we email and phone our ministering people. We work on our musical chairmen calling at home and email and phone those we need to talk to. The children have us working on our histories by sending us each a question every week that we reply to and then send to a site called “Storyworth”. They answers will be made into books at the end of the year. As Tom was answering questions he began thinking of his friend Peter Russell who we had known during our teenage and young married years but hadn’t talked to for decades. He asked Liza to try getting Pete’s phone number from his son Paul who Liza and Brendon had known in Saskatoon. She succeeded in obtaining both Peter and Clares’ numbers. They had been divorced long ago and we had a little contact with Clare since but none with Peter. We had double dated in our teenage years and Clare had come to Vancouver to live with us and attend UBC with me for a year just before we both got married. I was able to make contact with her and we had a lovely visit, catching up on literally years. She had completed her PHD and is still working with the Calgary School Board and she has been busy with her four children and twelve grandchildren. She has bought her parents home and now lives just where she grew up. Her life has been full of good things. Tom has yet to make contact with Peter but we know his life has been less positive and perhaps that is why Tom has had these feelings and he needs to speak to him.

Fires on the west coast of the USA have sent smoke across the borders to us. Forests and communities are burning and the poor air quality is affecting millions. Both Liza and Larissa have the smoke in the interior and in Montana. We are praying for rain to help everyone involved in this concerning situation. We have limited our walking and our time outside.

We were happy Saturday to have Max over to receive the first two Temple Prep lessons. He received permission to have us give him the lessons and we love it. He is preparing to go through the Temple and eventually, when flights are able to fly between Australia and Canada, be sealed in the Temple to his fiancée Jacqui. Jacqui is having the same lessons in Australia. They do not care which Temple or country they marry in, they just want to marry and have Tom be their sealer.

We were surprised when we had a zoom meeting with the missionaries Saturday evening to find that one of the missionaries was Elder Swan, Tom’s brother Wayne’s grandson. Elder Swan had orchestrated the whole thing and knew he would be teaching us. He was serving down in South America when covid hit and was brought home and reassigned to Vancouver. He seems to be a fine young man and we were thrilled to get to know him.

We are still celebrating family birthdays online and our grandson Wyatt and his father Scott both had their birthdays this week. Wyatt was one very excited birthday boy receiving a new bike and lego set as well as being able to skateboard with three friends.

We are trying to keep busy during these confining times and hope that our busyness is of some value to us and to others.

Scott and Wyatt

Max here for Temple Lesson