The Honeymooners Call Home

Teach your children how to be loving by example. That is harder than teaching them to argue, yell, fight, etc, but more rewarding. Mel says Andy is learning Italian verbs. We could use his help. (We will be here two more weeks, Andy.) This area of the world is awesome, but hot and humid...95 degrees and 95% from 10am to 1am when it cools down 5 degrees, like Puerto Penasco in the summer. It is unique to stand at the bell tower (leaning) and know Galileo was here...being in Florence seeing Michealgelo's David and the Ninja Turtles' namesakes...Maria de Medici's home and museum who mothered half the kings and queens of Europe in the Renaissance, whose husband Henry IV was assassinated the day after she was crowned...watch a full moon rise over gondolas in the Adriatic Sea just meters away from the earthly remains of the apostle Marc...be where Columbus was born and raised...and we sailed to where he sailed from to discover America...in Barcelona we found where Tolkin got his inspiration for Hobbit houses in the architecture of Gaudi from the 1800s in his apartments called the Rocks. We miss you all and love you tons. It is tragic about your cousin Rachel. You never know when or where. Keep your loose ends tied up.

Summertime with the Atwoods

June is a milestone month for our family. It marks one year since the end of dental school. What feels crazy to me is how long it took a year to pass during our school years...especially compared with this last year that just flew by us!

School has been out for 1 month and here is what we've been doing-- We put the kids in formal piano lessons. Wow what a difference a weekly lesson makes!! Kambri and Michael are really doing well. McKayla is amazing in her own way. She has been observing us practice her whole life and seems to be a natural pianist. I am even going to start piano lessons here sometime soon.

We spend evenings at the ballpark. Kambri is in softball. She has a strong arm and does a great job throwing in the ball from shortstop. Now if only she would swing the bat... Michael is a pro-tee-ball player. He thinks it is so weird that they have tied every single game.

We have a little pool in the backyard that we bought at Wal-Mart, that we have hardly used due to the very cool summer weather we have had. We also have a little garden. I don't know what it is about moving dirt around with my shovel that makes me feel so happy. But I love it!! The plants are beginning to get yellow flowers, it won't be long till salsa time comes around.

My sprint triathlon is coming up on July 16. So think of me on that day...it starts at 6:30 so think of me EARLY that day. I had an opportunity or opportunities to practice my swimming in the open waters of Lake Powell last week with Andy's family. The kids loved the sun, sand, water, almost camping combo as usual. Andy's family was entertained by my annual attempt to try new "tricks" on the wake-board. We got home late Saturday night and learned about Rachel on Sunday. She lived a beautiful life and left a beautiful legacy in her girls. As Jeni said in her talk Rachel is an eternal being and I know she is with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ now but I still feel so sad, I can't begin to imagine how other family members are feeling during this time. The funeral was so touching.

Andy and Mike went to Vegas for a dental conference. Marilyn (mom-in-law) called me and wondered if I wanted to do the shophop with her. I agreed and I am so glad I did! We traveled from Springville to Logan to Tooele and everywhere in between getting our passports stamped at quilting fabric stores. I got some really great ideas for quilts I want to start. I am already looking forward to next year's shophop. Maybe some of you will accompany us... Well I promised Becca that I would write more often, I hope you are satisfied.

Love your wise sister, Melanie

Martha's Talk

June 26, 2005 Philadelphia 1st Ward Sacrament Meeting Talk

Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from God. Faith comes through studying and living his word and his Gospel.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel. This means that having faith in Jesus Christ precedes any other principle in the gospel. In the newly published: Preach My Gospel manual, 2 characteristics of faith in Christ are defined: the first one includes a firm belief that he is the only begotten Son of God and the Savior and Redeemer of the world. The second states we recognize that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father only by relying on His Son, Jesus Christ's, grace and mercy.

Faith is a principle of action and a principle of power. When we have faith in Christ, we accept and apply his Atonement and His teachings. Faith leads to sincere and lasting repentance. This means that we truly know we are forgiven of our sins. When I truly and sincerely repent of a sin, I feel the warmth of the Holy Ghost enter my heart and I know my Heavenly Father still loves me. I experience a strong desire not to repeat the same mistake again and hopefully in most instances don't! Another example of applying the principle of action to faith is our sincere desire to try as hard as we can to learn and become like our Savior Jesus Christ. We want to learn what His commandments are and obey them. Nephi is a great prophet and example of faith in action that we can learn about in the Book of Mormon. In 1st Nephi 3:7 Nephi gives us an example of how faith in Christ is a principle of action. We must actually go and do the things, which the Lord has commanded. We can learn what his commandments are by reading his word: the scriptures. Helaman 15:7 - 8: This is a great promise to us. If we read our scriptures we will learn about his commandments, which in turn will bring a change of heart unto us. An example of faith in action in my own life happened just after my husband Jeremy and we married. Story. We had the faith to obey and act upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Because of this, we were greatly blessed in our lives. In the most recent General Conference, Elder David E. Sorensen, of the Presidency of the Seventy said, we must trust in the Lord with all our hearts . . . many times when we exercise faith to do the Lord's will, we find that we are richly blessed for our obedience.

Sincerely having faith in Jesus Christ is essential in our own lives. Whether you are a single person striving to live the gospel, a young boy or girl just trying to sit still through primary, or a parent trying to rear children the best you can, faith in Jesus Christ is essential. In Alma, chapter 32, he compares faith to a young seedling. All you need is a tiny, little seed of faith within yourselves to begin. By treating your faith as a gentle and precious young seedling you have a place to start. Take that young seed and begin to nourish it by studying the word of Christ: the scriptures and then by living his word. As you do this, the sweet feeling of the Holy Ghost will time after time affirm to you that Jesus Christ is our Savior and you will being to have change of heart.

Holding dearly to this faith will help us throughout our life in all circumstances: trials or blessings. Just last weekend, an example of how essential it is to personally have faith in Jesus Christ happened in my family. I have a cousin, Rachel, who is close to the same age as me. We were room roommates in college together for a time. We both graduated, got married and both have two children. Rachel has two girls, a 3-year old and a 3-month old. Last weekend, Rachel, by herself, drove from her home in Utah to Nevada to visit another cousin our same age and that also roomed with us in college and that also is married and has two children. They had a wonderful visit and were both uplifted by their time spent together. On Rachel's drive home back to Utah, a drunk-driving accident occurred on the highway. Traffic was stopped both ways for the police to clean up. Rachel was in the stopped traffic. While the traffic was stopped, a semi-truck came upon the cars, and for an unknown reason, did not apply any breaks at all and slammed full speed into the stopped cars. He plowed straight through 8 cars before coming to a halt. Rachel was among the casualties, leaving behind her husband and two small children.

Without faith in Jesus Christ and the sweet peace his gospel brings to us, Rachel's husband and others would feel complete and utter despair from this tragedy. However, with faith, Rachel's husband knows that families are the most important social unit in time and in eternity. Having faith in this important principle gives me comfort for Rachel and her family. It is interesting to note of Rachel's faith and her obedience to the Lord to put her faith into action the weeks before this tragedy. 4 weeks earlier, Rachel had a special family home evening about the plan of salvation. She and her husband lovingly taught their three-year-old daughter this important principal. They went as far as to take her to the cemetery to show her the grave of a former deceased relative and explained to her that they will one day be reunited with them. Also a few weeks prior to the tragedy, Rachel felt inspired to wean her young two-month-old baby from nursing. She and her husband prayerfully decided to have Rachel return to work and leave her husband at home to tend the children. And finally, the day of the tragedy, while traveling to her home, Rachel felt prompted to personally call all of her family members, making any amends she needed to and tell them she loved them. This was quite an undertaking for Rachel because she has 8 brothers and sisters plus her parents. Moments before the tragedy happened Rachel was on the phone with her husband where she expressed her love for him and their family - almost as if she was saying goodbye. Because of Rachel's obedience to the Lord to put her faith into action, she was able to prepare her family for her departure back to the spirit world. What a sweet blessing!

Bryce's

It is looking more and more promising about going to Brazil this year. We got our passports back in the mail last week. The next step we are waiting on is a reply from the dean of the school in Brazil. After that we'll start doing more serious things, like buying plane tickets. . .

Stelli popped two more new teeth this month. One top tooth is halfway in while the other just broke the skin a day or two ago. Watch out McKay, you should see her big toothy grin. She is our little mop as she pulls and flops herself around the house on her belly. If you're in the other room you can hear her coming as she knocks the wind out of herself with each flop. Then once she gets close enough she’ll just poke her head around the corner for a game of peek-a-boo. She also likes a good game of patty-cake.

Jonathan finished a little swim lesson course earlier this month. He learned how to blow bubbles, kick, back-float and make the lifeguards fall in love with him. His teachers sighed and oo'd over him as he strutted in the pool area with his big clear blue eyes, dreamy strawberry blond hair, and white tummy poking out over his swim trunks. Jonathan is learning more and more songs now and can be found singing to himself in the mirror, bath, shower, car seat, and even while jumping on the bed. For family home evening last week he wanted to sing "Old McDonald had a Gordon and Thomas." Gordon and Thomas are two blue trains from some movies he checks out at the library. He told us exactly how he wanted us to sing the song, "with a choo-choo here and a choo-choo here and a choo-choo-choo." (The chorus usually varies each time it is sung.)

I'm getting used to Nick's rotation schedule. He is generally gone sixty hours a week. So I've picked up a couple aerobic classes at the gym. They sure are more interesting live than on tape. I can still hear Gilead's joke about two birds with one stone echoing in my head. Last week I took the kids on a spontaneous rode trip to Boulder City. It was fun to see the aunts and give them all hugs. I did have a little difficulty placing cousins with their right names; they all looked so different from the last time I saw them! But they were still just as fun to hang out with. We had a sleepover at Mk and Keresa's house. It was girl party since MK was out with his boys and Nick was back in Tucson. Keresa treated us to Jonathan's favorite breakfast the following morning, pancakes! Sydney was adorable; she showed us some of her new tricks. The climactic train ride was next. I had been pumping Jonathan up for it since we left Tucson. But it got even better than that. Jonathan got to sit by Maddy and Less on the ride! To be able to watch Maddy, Less, and Jonathan bounce up and down on the back seat of the train was well worth the trip! Meanwhile Chris and Summer updated me on the latest family happenings.

Overall Nick is doing well. His younger brother's, Tim's, cancer has become very aggressive in the last week though. The doctor thinks he has only a few weeks left. So he spends most of his extra time in St. David.

Take care, and we love you!

Where's Jonathan?

A couple nights ago Nick got home fairly late from work and errands. Estelle was already in bed and Jonathan was ready for bed. He asked if he could go to bed but I told him to stay up a little longer and wait for Daddy. When Nick got home Jonathan gave him a hug and told him good night, he was going to bed. This is very rare and has probably only happened one other time. Our children don't usually go to bed so willingly nor with out being put to bed by Nick or I. Although we were surprised to see Jonathan put himself to bed we didn't think much of it and continued a conversation in the living room for about an hour or so. Once we were ready for bed we made the rounds to check on the children and tuck them in. Confusion began to settle in, as we couldn't find Jonathan in his room. So then we checked our room, no Jonathan. Next we checked Estelle's room, still no Jonathan. So we started checking closets, but still, no Jonathan! Then I remembered how Jonathan had started playing under Estelle's bed lately. So we checked under Estelle's bed, then I checked under Jonathan's while Nick headed for our bedroom. From the hallway I could hear Nick chuckling. Jonathan had fallen asleep under our bed! Apparently he was hiding, waiting for us to come into the bedroom. But we talked so long in the living room that he fell asleep!

Sydney Speaks

Well my parents have sure been busy. Mom is always doing stuff for me, like changing my diaper, helping me take a bath, etc. Probably the funnest thing we did this month was to make a fathers day card for dad. Mom helped me cut out silhouettes of my hand and put them around a circle like flower petals, then in the middle of the circle was a picture of me, then down the stem of the flower there were cut out silhouettes of my feet for the leaves. Dad really liked it. I am growing everyday and learning more and more tricks. Now I can laugh, make faces, spit, all kinds of stuff. I even sit up on my own for 30 seconds! Halfway through the month Aunt Becca came to visit me and mom while dad was taking the youth to the Manti Pageant. It was fun. My cousin Stellie had a pancake eating contest with me, she won. Mom still does legal work at home so she can play with me, dad still goes to school all the time. I miss him because he is always gone with school or work or church stuff, but when he comes home he sometimes sneaks in my room and looks at me while he thinks I am sleeping. Mom talked about getting a little swimming pool for our house that would be 18 feet circle and 4 feet deep, but it turned out to be triple the price she thought, so we didn't get it. Instead I got a pet beta fish! His name is snorkel. Dad's garden is nice. He even picked some squash this week. I would like it better if he could grow yummy things instead of squash. He said some of the plants out there are cantaloupe and I will really like them, but they haven't grown anything besides just leaves yet.

See you all later,

Sydney Rae Whitney

Foot Fungus by Elder Winnie

I suppose this was in response to my complaining and grumbling about always being hot and sweaty here, but now we've had nothing but torrents of rain. So now I find myself always wet: either from sweat or from the rain. We still have our gigantic umbrellas that we've used quite a bit, but it never seems to REALLY rain unless we forget the umbrellas in the house! You know how that is.

One night after coming in from working, by shoes were absolutely soaked from the rain. So I threw them at the foot of the bed to dry out and the next day left them there and used another pair. But the following morning, I didn't find them dried out but covered in a fuzzy white mold!! At first I thought maybe it was some kind of athletes foot, but no. Just your regular old bread mold growing all over the wet leather. I suppose that's good to know that my shoes must be real leather if the mold wants a piece of 'em! So I sprinkled them with my Desenex foot powder and put them out in the sun (well, the sun didn't really stay out too long as it began to rain again) but after a day of that, I cleaned them up and they were good to go. But since then, they've regrown more mold. Oh how I miss the hot dry desert where things dry!

But apart from this things are going pretty good. We almost baptized a family this week, but when we went to the government office to get them married, we found that their papers weren't in order and they couldn't get married and baptized this week. So we've set out on a few errands and we hope to get everything finished for this next week. We'll see. Nevertheless, we did have another baptism: a seventeen-year-old friend of one of our other baptisms, Jovanny. He's not very intelligent, but very enthusiastic about the gospel. He's a lot of fun.

We get a new mission president this week too. I don't exactly know what that means to me, but I suppose no matter what, the work goes on. The saying here is, "E'Pa'Lante que Vamos!" (Es Para Adalante que Vamos or It's forward we go!)

Apart from the mold thing in my shoes, not a lot of other exciting things have happened here, but thanks so much for your love and prayers and support and everything always!

Con Amor, E. Winnie