General News

Well our little attempt at missionary seems to be working out well. I had another lesson with Steve Wilborn and the elders on Thursday night. The elders did better and Steve has set a baptismal date for Jan 7. We will be in Costa Rica at that time so we hope he can move the date forward to the last week of the year when we will all be here. He has asked me to give him a blessing at this week’s lesson and I’m praying for the spirit. Pray for him and his wife Melissa also please. Investigator class was so good today because we had Steve plus two other non member fathers there with their member wives and we talked about how the gospel blesses our family. It makes me so thankful for the church.
Well it is official – Preston (Elder Van Dyke) proposed to Tiana Friday night. They already had the date set – Feb 20; the time 11 am; and the place Salt Lake Temple. All that was needed was the asking. Preston was going to wait until he could ask me face-to-face at Thanksgiving but he ran out of patience (he lost a few points for lack of patience, but who is keeping score). He called me on Friday and after a few minutes of medium grilling him I gave my permission. He took Tiana to a fancy restaurant overlooking the temple in SLC and then walked around temple square, but never asked her. That was his plan to make her think it was coming but never ask to make her wonder what was going on. I suggested a few things to spice up the anticipation and Preston and I were suddenly in cahoots to frustrate Tiana – I like this guy. It all worked out great and Tiana was surprised. We’ll finally have someone in the family that can challenge the hulk Austin (other than Don).
Don is bringing home a girl for us to meet at Christmas time. Her name is Melissa and she is a non member, but has been to church a few times and may take the lessons. She wants to keep the commandments and is helping Don as well. I like her too, even if I haven’t met her yet. They will probably get engaged just before he leaves for Iraq in Feb and get married when he returns.
Well we have survived the first week of the projected Obana presidency and the stock market only dropped 1300 points. We're in for a long 4 years.