25 April 2010

25 April 2010

Dear Loved Ones,
What a wonderful blessing we have received this week with the miraculous recovery of Julie. We too are so grateful that she is able to return to health and strength and pray that she will be able to continue along that path. We love you Julie.
One of our new sister missionaries has arrived this week. Sister Grouch is from Washington, UT, but has only been there 6 months so is not real familiar with a lot of people there. Doesn’t know the Whitney’s, she has missed out! She went thru the MTC with her companion but she has had some back trouble and so was not able to come right out, we expect her the end of this week. The young Sister missionaries just can’t believe how much flexibility we have as Senior missionaries. I guess there are some perks to getting older. I imagine serving in the Employment Center gives us even more flexibility since we are not going out door to door etc. They often give Sr Sister missionaries a different day off even.
Jack continues with his knee injections – they seem to be helping and only takes him away from the Center a few minutes each week. Nice to have doctors so close by.
Jack taught the Professional Networking Class that’s held each week over at the Carrollton Stake Center. I know he does a good job even though I’m not able to go there with him – I need to stay at the Center and help there while he’s out.
Tuesday was a very busy day for him, he had several people that all came in on the same day that have been working with him and just like working with him, kept him pretty busy. He does good work!
Tuesday while Jack was gone Brother Honeycutt, a Stake Employment Specialist came in. We found out we were both from Nevada and had a great visit. He left Las Vegas in the 60’s. His uncle ran the station out at Dry Lake, his last name was Cannon. Was ‘Rash’ Cannon’s first name Larry? Larry was his son (the uncle’s) – we decided that it probably was. By the time he left we had sang a few strains of ‘Home Means Nevada’ together. It was GREAT.
Wednesday Donna T. invited me to go out with her to a ward out in Denton to do a presentation for the Young Women. I gladly accepted the invitation. Donna T and Julie P are such great teachers, it’s always great to tag along and learn from them. I’m good at carrying things in and out and passing out papers and pencils.
Thursday for our P-day we went back out through Denton and then on to Muenster. There was some beautiful country out there. We enjoyed the town of Muenster, settled by Germans in the 1800’s. There are quite a few towns settled by Germans around this area, getting a little more in touch with my German heritage, -- eating sausage and cheese anyway.
Friday and Saturday were quite slow at the Center, not too many people came in so we are having a little time to help get the new sister oriented. Also Sister Lyle is ‘manning’ the front desk now so that takes a huge responsibility off of me. It’s nice to have time to follow up on things and finish up a project a little more before you’re hit with several others.
Jack worked with an insurance company getting them signed on our system to post jobs. His name was Stoddard Goulding. Jack told him that he knew and was related to some Gouldings. The man quickly replied well do you know where Henrieville, Utah is? His grandfather is Elijah Goulding from there.

There was a major revision at ldsjobs this past week. Some things worked and some didn’t. Some very active Specialists were no longer active and can no longer their tabs and information that they are supposed to as leaders. A few other bugs too. So trying to get those things worked out. See where the problems are and what to do about them.
Saturday after our time at the Center we went to Fort Worth to the Saturday evening of Stake Conference. It’s a good thing we left in plenty of time (like 2 hours to spare) because we got waaaay lost. The GPS wouldn’t accept the right address and we ended up way out in the boon docks – out with the long horn cattle, which we enjoyed seeing of course. Fortunately Elder Nelson had visited and helped a lady from that Stake earlier in the day, they discussed attending the St. Conference. She mentioned how she got there so he was able to recognize some names of streets, I finally was able to locate them on the map, ‘magically’ really, when I wasn’t even really looking for it – a tender mercy for sure. We made it in time with 30 minutes to spare, which gave us enough time to meet the High Councilor over Employment and a Stake Pres-y member. Great people over there, a wonderful Stake President & Pres-y. It is really helping to visit the Stake Conferences to meet people and get a feel for the Stakes.
This late afternoon Craig Jessop was a guest conductor at one of the Methodists churches here in Dallas. They were performing Verdi’s Requiem. They had a choir that consisted of abt 150 members, orchestra and soloists. It was very well done but a little heavy duty, quite dramatic music and on the opera side. About ¾ of the way thru I staged a coughing attack and had to leave – just to put Jack out of his misery. It worked out nice because that gave us plenty of time to get over to the Coppell building where I auditioned for a cantata, ‘Joseph Smith,’ that the Carrollton Stake will be doing in the Fall. I think I passed the audition, it wasn’t too threatening. (Jack says, mention it was a very high-pitched, operatic Alta Ray type deal. He enjoyed the choir and orchestra a lot. We sat up in the balcony where the trumpets gave their echo reply.)
Well, with all of that said, how are things in your world? It looks like Logandale will see a 90 degree weather day and then a few days later have the high be in the 60’s. Looks like its bouncing around a lot. How’s all the family? What’s everyone up to? Always good to hear from you!!
It’s getting late, time to sign off……
We sure love and miss you all,
Grandpa & Grandma Nelson, Mom & Dad
Jack & Gaye
Jack n Gaye