With about three months left on our Mission, we decided to try posting on our blog once again. When we started we had high hopes about how consistent we were going to be. Well, we shall have to see how the next several weeks go.
I wish I could say that we have had great things happen since our last post. However, that is not necessarily the case. We have completed our trek to visit most of the temples in the area that we are allowed to travel and that has been great. Almost every time we have been able to do family names which has been very rewarding. Our goal is continue to take family names so long as we have a supply of them.
Lorene has been able to find a few new names for missing children which always brings her a great sense of happiness. In addition, she continues to try and correct her tree which is a never-ending process. As for me, I continue to try and put my family together, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to do so. With the help of a good friend I have been trying to find my great-grandfather's family in Canada, but so far I have not been able to connect all the dots yet. However, I have one particular family that I have been working with and it looks somewhat promising. I am almost to the stage where I am ready to adopt this family and add them to my tree or put them in Family Tree without connecting them.
Our children struggle and it's hard to be away and not able to do much to help them. Our son's two boys will be probably be sent again to live with their own parents soon. The youngest likely will go live with his mom starting sometime next month. The oldest of the boys likely will be returned to live with his dad. We are concerned about how that is going to work out for him but understand that he's made some progress in getting his life in order. Our daughter and her family who have been caring for the boys could use a breather, but I think it is going to be hard on all concerned when these placements are made.
Our family has been blessed as both are oldest and middle daughter are now employed full time -- both in Cedar City. Cyndie is working for Southwest Applied Technology College in the testing department. If all goes as planned she should complete her online courses and be able to graduate from Utah State University next month. She has worked so very hard and it has been so stressful, but we are hoping that she will feel a great sense of accomplishment. Laura is now teaching at Southern Utah University in the English Department and loves it. Teaching at a university has been a long- time goal of hers and we believe she has found the niche she has been looking for.
Well, its time to turn over the keyboard to my editor to make sense out of what I have written.
I have had a couple of experiences which I would like to share with you. One is what we call in our mission a "heart-turning experience." We had the son of an old friend from California (who now lives here in Utah) come in with his wife to visit us. We talked for awhile and encouraged him to come back and we'd help him work on his family tree. A couple of weeks later, he did come back by himself and I proceeded to get him into FamilySearch/Family Tree to see what we could find. We were hoping to find some names for ancestors that needed temple work done. We did find a few names, but then I had to leave to attend a meeting so I encouraged him to return again so we could do more. I couldn't tell what his feelings were, but hoped that he had had a heart-turning experience that would lead him to continue to work on his family history. The next day, his mother called me and told me that he came to her very excited about what we had found and wanted to do more. It was a d touching experience.
The other thing I want to share is a difficult thing to speak about because it involves a good friend who is dying from cancer. My friend, Suzi Lewis, was diagnosed with multiple myloma about 4 years ago. It seemed that the doctors were able to keep it under control with medication. In addition to the cancer, she had a series of small heart attacks about 18 months ago and had to have open-heart surgery to remove a blockage. At that time, I was able to go and spend about a week with her as she recuperated from her surgery. While there, I observed that she was having trouble with her memory, but I attributed it to the surgery and medication she was taking. However, I noticed that it improved little, if any, as I visited with her on the phone over the next several months. I spoke with her husband about it and he said she was suffering from dementia. Then, about a month ago, I received a group email from him updating friends and family of her condition. The doctors had determined that the cancer treatments were no longer working and had put her on palliative care, which basically means "there's nothing more we can do and we will now make her as comfortable as possible." Steve and I decided that it would be a good idea for me to go see her as soon as possible, so last week I was able to fly to Oregon where she now lives and spend a few days with her. It was a bittersweet experience--very hard to see her so weak and unable to do things for herself. In addition, her dementia has gotten worse, to the point where her husband has to make a sign for her every day to tell her what day it is and if they have any appointments. Saying good-bye was particularly hard, but I'm very glad that I was able to go spend some time with her. I'm also very grateful for our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation--to know that this life is not all there is and that there is a great and glorious resurrection and re-uniting of us to our loved ones that have passed on.
We hope you are all doing well and that the upcoming Christmas Season will bring you happiness as you contemplate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and time to spend with those you love.
Steve and Lorene Walker
