Becca in Brazil

Well here we are in Brazil. In the first week we were here, we realized we were as crazy for doing this as many people thought we were. But crazy or not, we sure are enjoying ourselves. Jonathan looks forward to riding the bus, and it is his favorite thing to do here. Estelle, she loves to eat! This is a first for her, and she has yet to remove anything from her mouth and throw it! Nick and I, we enjoy shopping, eating, and exploring. I especially enjoy exploring the shoe mall. In one trip to the shoe mall, I saw more shoes than Nick and I combined in our entire lives! Luckily they aren't as cheap as I had hoped, so we won't be leaving everything here to fit shoes in our luggage. We'll just be leaving one bag's worth, or maybe two. The churrascos (Brazilian Barbeque- not to be confused with bbq sauce!) and fruit vitamina shops are savory. We would love to host anyone here for Thanksgiving. We'll take you to a churrasco for dinner where you can enjoy a delicious feast for only 12 dollars a person (including drinks and dessert). Oh yeah, Nick is doing a pharmacy rotation too. He can only shadow, so they don't see it necessary for him to be at any pharmacy for longer than three or four hours. So we've really been on vacation. In Tucson he was spending about 70 hours a week between work and rotations, so these 20-hour weeks have been quite a delight! If you have any Brazilian orders or want to drop by . . . let us know. We love and miss you all!

Mom's Journal

We all know the value of journal keeping. Looking back on events we recorded ten, twenty, even thirty years ago brings a nostalgic joy that we cannot replicate. I've even looked back on recorded memories that totally surprised me because I'd forgotten them so completely. Slices of my youth disappeared from my personal hard drive until I opened my ancient journal and re-loaded the memory file. How much did Grandpa Bert enrich our lives with exerts of his journal shared in Glimpses of Heaven? How special did it feel to relive some of his experiences as we shared them at his funeral? We have the privilege of possessing those writings to read whenever we want to remember Grandpa Bert, and we can even share them with our young children who don't remember him. Now take a moment to look back in the archives of our family newsletter. Enjoy the stories you wrote years ago, and remember some fun memories. Even share them with your children. These memories help build bonds that strengthen our family relationships more effectively than anything money can buy. And isn't that what we want most, the joy and fulfillment that comes from a strong and happy family?

As we look around, we see sadness and disappointment resulting from carelessness in family relationships. Cherish our families, especially your spouses. Nothing can replace the deep family bonds you share. Take time in your busy day to plan a special moment together, renewing your love. Never forget to demonstrate that you are each other's most important person. As you show your mutual love, you actually teach your children by example, the importance of marriage, a lesson they will unconsciously use over and over in their own married lives. Teach your children well (Crosby, Stills and Nash). Don't ever be afraid to tell them no. Your stewardship as parents requires you to use your wisdom of experience to guide them to do right. Teach your children good manners and self discipline. These "magic" skills make everyday life more tranquil and manageable, and will open countless doors of golden opportunities in the future. With good manners and self discipline, your children can accompany you on countless outings that ultimately broaden their horizons and educate them more fully. These are the formative years. If you don't teach your children manners in the home, the world will teach them later, and the world will not be so kind (Scott Fitzgerald). Let's give our children every opportunity to succeed by providing the very basics in life. Teach them by example, and teach our children well. Remember, "No success can compensate for failure in the home" (David O. McKay).

As you lead your family through the journey of life, take a moment to record family history. Strengthen your family by building deep roots, and write an article in the family newsletter. You can watch as even the desert blooms (Isaiah).

Love, Mom

Martha's Madness

I have a teaching story for you. Since singing time leader is my only outlet to the music teaching world (besides my few piano students) I guess I take it a little too seriously. Anyway, two Sundays ago we were doing a semi-dress rehearsal for the primary sacrament meeting program. It was supposed to be low key in the primary room. The plan was to go over the children's parts and songs in both jr. and sr. primary. We ended up singing a lot more than the children and I anticipated because so many speaking parts were skipped (all the sr. speaking parts were skipped in jr. primary, and all the jr. speaking parts were skipped in sr. primary). Jr. Primary dealt with singing all the songs (10 in total) pretty well. I only had one child blurt out, "oh sh--!" when she had reached her singing limit, and a few others scream loudly after some of the songs when they had reached their singing limits. However, it was nothing that I was not used to and dealt with it accordingly. Sr. Primary was an entirely different story . . . it was like one of those bad nightmares I used to have the day before school begins. Kids were vocally refusing to sing. Some of the kids would loudly stomp their feet and protest. Some of them would baa like sheep instead of sing. Some would just sit their and stick out their bottom lip and pout. At first I tried to deal with the problems, but they only got worse. I then realized it was all about survival if I was going to make it to the end. I just stood up there and waved my arm. The primary president was at a loss too. Except she was such a stinker---after all the speaking parts were done she excused herself and told the kids to review their primary program songs. I felt like saying, "Thanks a lot, you chicken!" Of course I wasn't going to dare ask the kids to sing again, so I just told them to relax and listen to the piano music. Some were so far gone they started saying, "I don't want to relax!" I didn't know what to do at that point, so I just sat down and tried to make it until the closing prayer. And dang if the president didn't have me do a closing song with the kids too! Whatever, I don't know if anyone was singing. I sure couldn't; I would have started to cry! So as soon as the closing prayer was said, I darted out of the room and went to look for Jeremy. I found him, and all he had to do was look at me, and he said, "You wanna leave right now?" I nodded yes, and he told me to go to the car while he went and picked up Lyle from nursery. Luckily I made it to the car before my tears spilt. It was a pretty hard day. I don't know if all the investigators and new converts (they make up a good portion of our primary) didn't get any sleep the night before, or maybe they ate too much candy for breakfast. I don't remember ever experiencing such chaotic children before. After that day, the president called and talked to me and bla bla bla about how she would help more the following Sunday. Whatever, I was still nervous. The week went on, and I put it out of my mind. Then Sunday snuck up on me, and boom it was the morning, and Jeremy was still finishing my "sing-o-meter" for me, and I didn't even want to go to church. By the time we were on our way to church in the car, I started crying again and said I didn't think I could face those juvenile delinquents again. We were doing our full rehearsal in the sacrament meeting room, and I was supposed to meet with some of the soloists before church began. Jeremy said he'd turn the car around for me, and I could just go home. I was tempted to, but said to keep going. When we got to church he gave me a blessing, and believe it or not, I felt better. (I guess it's more pleasant and useful not being mad at Jeremy) I faced those kids with courage and determination--good thing they couldn't see my out-of-control shaking legs. Jeremy controlled the sing-o-meter just how I wanted him too. The stinker little kids behaved like normal children most of the time, and every child sang his little heart out. Who knows why they were so much more pleasant that Sunday than the previous one, but at least I didn't have ask to be released from my calling and have my church membership revoked. Just kidding, but I sure felt like that after that rotten singing time. I just think those kids from the inner city just aren't used to having to sit still and deal with all the other foreign things church expects of them. Then those few longtime members see that they can get away with anything, and they have a hay day. It's really been a growing experience for me. Anyway, that is my latest teaching experience. I'm curious to see how they'll do this week of the actual program . . .

Becca sent such darling pictures of her kids I'm going to have to send some of mine now. Rummy's birthday was a blast last week. It was like he knew something was special that day, and he was giddy as can be. The highlight was his birthday cake. I made him his own little one, and I've never seen such a small person eat something with so much passion. He was making all kinds of noises and stuffing cake in his mouth right and left. It sounds kind of gross, but it was so cute seeing a one-year-old do it! Lyle is going to be Captain Hook for Halloween, and we let him try on his costume, and he thought he was just the man of the day.

Philadelphia's public transit system is on strike. This means Jeremy needs the car to drive to school everyday. I should have waited to potty train Lyle now since we're home all day. I'm not expecting the strike to resolve any time soon. The Philly mayor made a statement today that was pretty pathetic. He said that the union workers are "really mad and we should just sit tight for a while and support them in their right to strike." Whatever, obviously the mayor does not depend on public transit!

We had a fun Halloween experience here. The kids dressed up for the ward party and had a blast. Lyle once again won the costume contest. He was Hook and even though I didn't make his costume from scratch this year he was so dang cute acting like a pirate he still won! Hyrum was Hook's alligator and Jeremy and I were Hook's pirates. Fun fun. Then for Halloween night we stayed home and Jeremy took turns carving pumpkins with the boys while I handed out candy. Lyle helped me hand out candy and took this job very seriously. He never once whined about wanting the candy. Instead he would seriously say to the trick-or-treaters, "Come here kids, have some candy, Happy Halloween!" I would tell the kids they looked so cute and before I knew it Lyle was telling the kids, "You look so cute." I think Lyle was the cutest out of them all! Rummy liked to help carve the pumpkin but did not like to help pass out the candy. He would run out the screen door everytime I opened it to hand out candy and then try and steal the candy from the kids. Good thing he has a big smile to get him out of any trouble!

Enjoy the rest of fall!

Love, the Tanners

Matt's Zone Leader Stories or Tales from the Azua ZL

Oct 24: Malaria

Monday night on the way home from Family Home Evening with a member, we got a very frantic phone call from Elder Espaillat about his companion Elder Defillipis. Elder Espaillat always talks really fast and with a Dominican accent. But he was particularly frantic, and so I could hardly understand him at all. After struggling to understand high fever, really scared, can't feel hands, I gave the phone to Elder Mejia to get more in detail what was happening.

We rode over to their house on bikes (we have no truck) only to find Elder Defillippis really pale looking in bed, Elder Espaillat kind of freaking out, and about 5 neighbor ladies jumping up and down saying, "You need to get him to a hospital, he's dying! Do something! Get him to a hospital!" Now, if you sneeze in front of a Dominican, they'll say almost the same thing, so I wasn't about to jump to any conclusions. I talked to him a little bit, and he had a high fever, and for a while, he lost feeling in his hands which balled into fists out of his control. So we gave him a blessing, then called the old couple missionaries to tell them we might need the truck to take him somewhere, but I was going to wait to call the APs first. But before I could call anyone else, the neighbors had found a car and loaded him up to the Azua clinic. A better name would be the Azua circus.

There, after some time, they gave him Tylenol in an injection in the rear. He started to feel better (I had already offered to give him some Tylenol in the house) but everyone insisted we wait to get some lab results. So they took his blood and urine (after about 3 and a half hours) and the doctor came out saying "He's got malaria! Take him somewhere now! He's got malaria!" So, I made a call to the mission president's wife (at about 11:30 at night now) to see if she wanted us to take him into the capital immediately to take care of his malaria? Everyone was pretty nervous and not knowing what to do. So we got the truck, packed our weekend bags, and got off to the capital at about 1AM.

We arrived just after 3 AM to a clinic in the capital where they took us right away, but laughed at us when we told them our patient had malaria. We insisted and gave him the blood test results. He laughed harder and said that the results were absolutely normal. So he gave Elder Defillippis another shot of Tylenol in the rear, and we called the mission president's wife again to tell her the scoop, and she invited us to the mission house to sleep. It was about 3:45 now.

So after relaxing the morning at the mission home, we made our way to the mission doctor and he said, "Yep, you've got a fever caused by what looks like a stomach bug." He prescribed Tylenol and Pepto Bismol. We drove home.

Oct 27: Exorcism

Coming out from a lesson in a part of our area where we don't get cell phone reception, our phone went berserk telling us we had missed calls and text messages from our missionaries in Sabana Yegua and the ZLs in San Juan. Sabana Yegua is an area we're in charge of about a half hour away, and San Juan is another city about an hour and a half away. We made a few calls, and Elder Young in Sabana Yegua told us how he was really scared his companion was feeling really strange as they went into a house, and a girl was acting strange and felt really cold. Everyone in the house was saying, "She's possessed! She's got a demon!" So he called San Juan when he couldn't get hold of us but was still really frightened.

I being an expert in the area of exorcism (sarcasm, I was just as clueless and pretty frightened too), but I told him to calm down and try and give her a blessing, and I'd call the APs. They gave me some tips, and I called Elder Young back to see how things were going. He was much calmer, and said he doubted anything was wrong. He then gave the account of how she suddenly became "possessed" conveniently the same day as a big test at school. He felt he had the situation under control.

Oct 28: Ataca de la chica

So it's no secret down here that missionaries, especially the fair-skinned blue-eyed ones, are automatically attractive to most Dominican girls. President has been especially cracking down on problems with the mujeres jovenes after he had to send home two elders from problems last transfer. That made us particularly jumpy when a girl from Rama III, who has had a history of kissing missionaries in Azua, sent a love letter to Elder Kinsey. This was after Elder Kinsey declined invitations to come over to her house after President's warning at zone conference. Luckily, Elder Kinsey is a very valiant missionary and wouldn't have such problems. But now president is a little jumpy and is considering putting Hermana Missionaries in Azua in that rama. Well, we'll see about that. . .

Everything else though is under control.

Con Amor, Elder Winni

Sorry almost nothing happened to us this month.

We had a fun October. We celebrated Milo's second birthday with a cake party. We missed family in Mexico, but we managed to have fun somehow. We went Trick or Treating, and I remembered why I like to stay out of town for Halloween. The kids had fun anyway. Dr. Andy passed out toothbrushes. Some liked them, others not so much. Enjoy the pictures!

Love, the Atwoods

Mk Kgw Srw

We have had a fun October. Around the first part we got to have a good time during conference. We went to Keresa's family and made French toast. It was good. We also took a break during conference half-time and drew out a picture of the back yard on graph paper (my idea) so we could plan what we want to do back there. Some foreshadowing includes a much larger garden, getting rid of the palm tree, and some ground tiles or maybe even cement?...

Then we went to Spanish Fork to have a good old time with Atwoods. MK got some tooth opinions, and now we wait for Andy to learn some more about bones in December. On the way home, we got to ride with Uncle Vern (or did he ride with us?) as he counseled us in his regular way.

Then we had our big ward bash for Halloween. Mk got to dress up as a muscleman and Keresa and Sydney dressed up as clowns. We had a fun night of eating and passing out candy, and we got to judge the desserts.

Then Elder L Tom Perry came over to set apart Keresa's dad in the stake presidency, so we had a pretty spiritual weekend.

Finally we went to Disneyland, and ran into Chris and Summer numerous times, as well as most of the town of Logandale... Someone commented they must have rented a few buses and piled the entire town onto them for a Disneyland trip. Highlights of Disneyland included a show called Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. He did a mousetrap thing, then commented how his boss, Mickey, didn't like that act. We saw a historical movie about 50 years of Disneyland too.

I also got a postcard from Elder Winnie a few weeks ago. He has such nice handwriting you know. And I got a text message from him on my phone.

See everyone later.

Mk Kgw Srw

Editor's note: this family's email address has changed. mckay@tingeylawfirm.com

Choose the Right (Dry Council Sunday)

CTR or Choose the Right was first popularized the '70s by the General Primary President LaVern Parmley. She and her board were looking for a symbol to assist 7-year-old children to learn the teachings of Christ. It has been used as a reminder to help members Choose the Right ever since. Who has not seen a CTR ring?

Choose the Right, however, began long before the 1970s. Turn to Moses 6:33. There the prophet Enoch is talking to his people. "Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you." A prophet tells us what we need to know, as told to them by Our Heavenly Father. That is why we are here. The earth was created to give us the opportunity to learn to choose the right.

Let's begin with what we know. Look to Moroni 7:12

12. Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.

13. But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

14. Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.

15. For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

16. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

17. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

Good comes from God. Evil comes from the devil. They are not, however, equal forces. Let's look at D&C 93:25. "And whatsoever is more or less than this [truth] is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning. "Truth is forever, anything else is from the Liar.

Now let's turn to 2 Nephi 2:27. "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." What is it that we would want?

The choice between good and evil is at the very heart of our experience on earth. In the end, it will not really matter if we were rich or poor, if we were athletic or not, if we had friends or were often forgotten.

We can work, study, laugh and have fun, dance, sing, and enjoy many different experiences. These are a wonderful part of life, but they are not why we are here on earth with a mortal body. The opportunity to choose good over evil is precisely why we are here.

Not one of us would say, "I want to choose evil." We all want to Choose the Right. However, the choice of good over evil is not always easy, evil is insidious. Listen to these warnings:

"Take heed ... that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God." Remember what we read in Moroni 7?

"Ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you." 3 Nephi 18:18

"Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you." D&C 50:3

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our goal is to obtain celestial glory. Remember the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland? Alice comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She talks with the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks, "Which path shall I follow?" The cat answers: "That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which path you take."

Unlike Alice, we all know in our heart of hearts where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life surely leads to the path we will follow in the next. Each of us should remember that he or she is a son or daughter of God, endowed with faith, gifted with courage, and can be guided by prayer. Here is a simple formula to guide you in the choices of life:

1.Fill your minds with truth.

2.Fill your hearts with love.

3.Fill your lives with service.

By doing so, we will Choose the Right. Who doesn't remember what Joshua said? Joshua 24: 15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

That sentiment was repeated again by Jacob in 2 Nephi 10:23, "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves-to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."

Children, Choose the Right. Love, Dad

Bert N Whitney Family Newsletter, Glimpses of Heaven