Fish teeth and I-Pods

Hey everyone and greeting from sunny Colorado. I just spent the last 30 mins talking to Don in Iraq. He is on a much bigger base now and has access to phone and email. He is doing great and will be here for the month of April. He is winding down his tour and really ready to come home and as he said “beat my butt in the racquetball court”. He is celebrating his two month anniversary of not smoking and is now working with a Navy captain on base to conduct church services. He has asked us to look for a car for him and we’re hoping for some kind of military discount. He’s got a boat load of pictures to show us and stories of goofy things he’s eaten. He said Lewis and his are doing better although they are still reeling from losing the baby. April will be a great month and a busy one for the house.

While in the temple on Wed night I was working the new name booth and talking with a real nice guy who said he was a mining engineer. Well he was being modest; he really is the CEO of a gold mining company operating around the world. I told him about Dave graduating from BYU – Idaho in April and the CEO wanted Dave’s resume. I called Danica the next day around noon to tell her of the hoped for opportunity and she responded immediately and emailed the resume. Dave called him the next day and did an impromptu interview with the CEO and the VP. It appears that they may be putting together an offer for Dave to work there permanently. They have mines in Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, and other exotic places in the world. It could be a great deal, because the family would be here in Colorado…YIPEE!!! Grandkids!!! It is funny because within in the hour from when I had called Danica was going to cash the check from the other company which would have committed Dave to them. I love the temple for lots of reasons.

I did get some bad news this week. The doctor’s group I was working with for their 401 K business decided to go with someone else. My contact there really didn’t know what he was doing and it caused a lot of problems and I lost the business. So we pick up from where we are and move forward. I’m still holding out hope for the AmCheck deal, which is alive and well.

I had a great dive at the Aquarium yesterday. It was my first time in the “Reservoir” which is a cold fresh water tank. It looks like a mild mannered lake with lots of calm friendly fish. Not so. It was a mad house. The fish knew it was feeding time and they were piled up where we get into the water waiting for food. They are very aggressive and hungry. We were feeding these Garr (fish with a very long needle nose mouth, full of sharp teeth) and they weren’t shy, but the food (another small fish) would hang out their needle mouth and the other fish would attack the slop over and it was wild. They constantly were pecking at my hands and several kept biting my scrubbing rag as I tried to clean the windows. The worse was a large fish that bit the back of my neck and got its teeth caught in my hood. It jerked me back until it let go. I jumped at first and then started laughing. It is hard to jump when you’re suspended in water. The fish would come up and run right into my mask looking for something to bite. It was so fun and helped me forget about the lost sale.

Next weekend is Stake Conference and we will get a new Stake Presidency so I will fill you in on all the details when that happens. I got to teach priesthood this week and wanted to share a story I told the quorum. I know a man in another stake, who left an excellent teaching job on the east coast to move to the Denver area, but teaching doesn’t pay nearly as well here and they are struggling financially. His kids were sad about leaving their friends and he ran into some marital problems. Unfortunately he was also disfellowshiped from the church and very discouraged about life piling on grief after grief. He loves music and under great financial distress his wife sacrificed here and there to buy him a slick new I-Pod. He was elated and downloaded a ton of music to enjoy. It was an oasis from his struggles. Then someone at school stole the I-Pod and he was devastated. He pleaded with his classes to return the music – it was a gift and he didn’t care to punish anyone he just wanted his I-Pod back. Then after two weeks of pleading it wasn’t returned to him and it really sent him into severe disappointment. The I-Pod was the last straw and he decided to stop going to church and wanted to give up.

He got up that Sunday morning thinking he wouldn’t join his family at church, but that didn’t seem right and so he went to church. Just as he entered the building the bishop pulled him aside and handed him a large envelope. The bishop told him that someone in the ward had felt impressed to put this package together and give it to the bishop. He told the bishop that someone in the ward needed it, but didn’t tell the bishop what it was. The bishop prayed about it and decided to give it to my friend. My friend took the package outside and opened it to find a brand new I-Pod inside. He just sat out on the church steps and wept big tears to realize that the Lord loved him and had heard his prayers. There is so much power from listening to the whisperings of the spirit.