9 December 2018

 Dear everybody,

   Wow, the year is coming to a close so quickly. Natalie's birthday is tomorrow! Happy birthday, Natalie . . . we love you! 

   Steve, I imagine you've had a busy day. How did everything go?  I'm sending this email to both of your addresses, just in case; I don't know if you've switched from one to the other for sure. 

   Today in our Sacrament meeting, Bubba (Branson) Moon, gave his mission farewell talk and Curtis Cardon gave his mission report. It was a great meeting. Then Grandpa taught the lesson in Gospel Doctrine class. It's always good, but today seemed extra special. Then after church he drove to Boise. He just called from his motel, and leaves on a flight for DC very early in the morning. He'll be back Friday, after returning to Boise for other meetings. He's not actually going to DC, but to Fairfax, Virginia, just for a couple of days. Yesterday he was the official photographer for Shop with a Cop, at the Rexburg Walmart. Friday night he went on a ride along with one of his officers.  He's busy, busy, as usual! 

   One thing I forgot about Curtis Cardon. He mentioned in his talk that he had served in Paducah Kentucky, Nashville, Clarksville,  and Altamont Tennessee. He was super surprised when Gran asked him if he knew Nina Fults (Greg's widow). He knew the family well! He's going to come over one day and he and Gran will have a nice visit, I'm sure. Heidi and Dixie were two of Greg's favorite kids. He came to visit us a couple of times when we were living in St. Anthony, when he was still doing cross country long haul trucking, before he got too sick to work. Greg's parents were good friends of my parents, when we were both kids. They did a lot to fellowship Gran and Granddad when they first joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when I was a baby. Our families go way back, and it's fun to think that a young man from Egin knows them. 

   I had intended to tell some family history in these emails, but never remember to.  Something that's been on my mind a lot lately was a job that Granddad and I did to support my two older brothers on their missions, from when I was 14-17. We tested dairy herds for the State of Idaho. We would visit one herd for a morning and an evening milking, once a month and take small samples from each cow, label them, and put a small preservative pill in each cup. The next day, Gran would get them ready to ship to Boise. Gran was busy at home with two babies (Jake and Jane).  We tested 20-25 herds each month, and then see them again a month later. It all had to do with the percentage of milk-fat.  Granddad had to sign on the radio station (KRXK) at 5 each morning, so I did the morning milkings and he would do the evening. I was sometimes late for school, but not often. I wasn't old enough to drive at night, much of that time, but 5 am in January is dark too, but it didn't matter. Then after school I worked at Dairy Queen, and then later at Shirley's Drive In, home of the Rexburger . . . until the flood in 1976, right after I graduated from high school, when it was washed away. I met a lot of nice people doing the dairy herd testing. Now and then I'll hear about one of them, or even see someone from those days. Blair Parker, one of the dairy farmers I knew back then, passed away recently. It was a good experience; I'm glad I was able to help. 

   Well, back to present day . . . Stephen, please know we are all thinking of you. Please include us all in your email list. Looking forward to hearing from you! Have a wonderful trip on Tuesday! Watch for Sidney Camargo, your Grandpa's mission companion. He might be able to come and see you while you're in Sao Paulo. He and his wife, Marisa, are dear friends of ours. 

   Love to you all. 

Mom/Johanna/Nana

Hi from Denver Everyone,

We're enjoying a nice Sunday evening here.  Thanks for the family history Mom.  I remember you telling about doing that job before, but I didn't remember all of those details.  It's fun to think back on jobs we've done over the years.  I had an opportunity to share the story about how Sam and I worked at Papa J's with some of my coworkers this fall.  It was at our company leadership retreat in San Diego.  We all took turns telling stories about our first jobs.  I enjoyed sharing the story about how we started working at such young ages and all the lessons and skills we learned while working together there.  For those in the family that don't know; Papa J's was a small family-owned Italian restaurant in Westminster.  We started working there at about the same time, I was a dishwasher in the kitchen and Sam worked busing tables. I was 14 and Sam was 12 years old when we started.  We both worked there for quite a long time and had to stop working for a while due to child labor laws that caught up with the owners.  They brought us back on as employees after we could get work permits at age 15 and we both learned how to make pizza's and prepare the dinner items on the menu also.

My trip to Vegas and San Diego in October was great!  I learned a lot and had some fun also.  Some highlights for me were going to the top of the Eiffel tower (not as cool as the one in Paris) again with my good friend Garrett, and I got to do the longest zip line in the state of California on that part of the trip.  The zip line was over half a mile long and steep enough that I was cruising at about 50 miles per hour.  It was pretty amazing and it feels like a very long slide with a spring at the end to stop you.  I also was able to do the tour of the USS Midway again and learned that there is much more area to see on the lower decks than Lynsey and I saw this summer.  So if any of you ever have the chance to see it make sure to do the "Island Tour" and then also go downstairs as far as you can.  Be prepared to duck going through the doorways.

Sam outlined the time we spent together for Thanksgiving very well in his previous email so I'll just add a few pictures we took.  Since coming home the last two weeks have flown by.  Work is very busy for me right now so that's mostly all I've done.  Lynsey and Joseph are busy with all kinds of things too.  They went to see a performance of The Nutcracker at Denver University last weekend that some kids from Joseph's school were in.  We also all went to see a play at Columbine called "The Radium Girls" that a couple young women from our ward had parts in.  It was very well done and has a powerful message.  The story is actually very sad but worth seeing to know about what happened to them.  Here is a quick summary I copied from the internet.  

"The Radium Girls were mostly young female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. Painting was done by women at three different sites in the United States, and the term now applies to the women working at the facilities beginning around 1917;

The women in each facility had been told the paint was harmless, and subsequently ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to "point" their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine point; some also painted their fingernails, face and teeth with the glowing substance. The women were instructed to point their brushes because using rags, or a water rinse, caused them to waste too much time and waste too much of the material made from powdered radium, gum arabic and water.

Five women in New Jersey challenged their employer in a case over the right of individual workers who contract occupational diseases to sue their employers under New Jersey's occupational injuries law, which at the time had a two-year statute of limitations, but settled out of court in 1928" 

Since we saw the play Joseph has been reading the book about their story.  

It was my turn to teach the deacons quorum today and I used a lesson that Karen found and taught last week in her Sunday School class.  It's all about remembering to keep Christ our focus at Christmas time and not lose ourselves in all the other fun, but not really important things.  The lesson is done entirely without talking, the person presenting has pages printed out to hold up and lets the class read the message and also watch a few short videos that pertain to the lesson.  The reverence and spirit that is allowed to be there were very powerful with no distraction from people chatting and other comments.  I was very proud of Joseph and his class, no one said a word the entire time and that's very impressive for a bunch of 12 and 13-year-old boys.  

I'll attach some pictures from the science camp also.

I think that's all for now.  

Love from Ben, Lynsey, and Joseph