Dear Grandchildren,
Although this notice has been a week in coming, I want to offer a big shout-out to Nashelle for the successful run of Camelot in Vernal. Talk about working your heart out for weeks in rehearsals and then directing the show for another couple of weeks! It has been non stop action both inside and outside of the Jackson apartment for what seems to be an eternity. Although the crowds were not overwhelming, those who came went away with a wonderful appreciation of what this musical can give to its audiences. As you may know, this is only the first baby step in Nashelle’s planned run in the town. She now has the keys of ownership to the theater in downtown Vernal where she intends to mount a long series of plays and musicals during the foreseeable future. I am sure that she would love the kind of success that the Shakespearean run of plays have enjoyed in Cedar City. Or something like unto it. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One step at a time. In my mind, she has now taken that first giant baby step.
The dropoff is huge from being engaged with Young Single Adults one week to fighting ants the next. But that is what we have done. Ant struggles. Grandma innocently set an emptied container of yoghurt in a corner of the kitchen floor with the intent of throwing it away. Soon. Very soon. Well, it sat there for a few days. When she went to toss it three days ago, the container was full of ants. So she put a little water in the container and set it in the microwave oven. A few minutes later, nothing was alive in the container. But we had a big problem with the ants on the floor and under one of the cupboards. Two cans of bug spray and a big, frightened cockroach later which climbed up my back in its attempt to escape, we seem to be surmounting the little varmints. But it has not been easy. We have occasionally found a few of them in distant rooms in the house. It seems that they liked the first offering of food and are now looking for the next delicious dish. We are carefully cleaning the floor in the kitchen daily and spraying at night before going to bed. The fact that these little varmints have ascended this far in our apartment building means that they are very good climbers. Perhaps better than the Tour de France climbers. But I digress.
A year ago, we arrived in the country at the end of Ramadan, or Ramazan, as it is called around here. But because the three-day Bayram festival fell during a weekend, beginning on a Friday evening and ending on a Monday, we saw hardly any evidence of the holiday. But hey! We were just new in town, moving into our apartment the day that Bayram ended. So we saw almost nothing of its presence. But this year, everything was different. Bayram began on a Tuesday evening and ran through Friday evening, essentially taking the week with it. So everything around here closed up on Tuesday in anticipation of the holiday. Since then, we have seen almost no shops open on the streets, almost no one walking around, and almost no noise, except for the ravens and seagulls and dogs in the early mornings. All of the cars that usually park in the neighborhood have been gone. They just disappeared. We assume that people either went to the seashore or into the high country to get away from the heat and humidity. Where did we go? Why ask? Not far, is the answer. It was a quiet week, except for the ants.
Almost nothing can be bigger than Parker's marriage in a couple of days. He and Lindsey look to be a perfectly happy couple. We all wish them the best and brightest future that anyone can imagine and hope for. They have a lot of peaks and valleys ahead of them. But they are well grounded and will go forward in faith and determination. I have begun to pray earnestly for them and their future together. I have every expectation that they and their children will become a very important part of our growing family, just as Nashelle and Daniel and Hannalyn are. Of course, we would love to be on site for the celebration. But we are where we need to be and should be. I have that assurance, from the beginning of this venture. And I know that Parker and Lindsey know that they are in the right place with the right person.
We were 18 in our Sacrament Meeting today, ten in the hotel room and eight by Skype. Four were non-members at the hotel where we met. Two other non-members joined on Skype with member friends. Sadly, neither of my good counselors was there. One was hosting important guests and the other was dealing with a work overage. For only a third time we included a talk by one of the persons who was on Skype. She did a wonderful job of talking about prayer. Because my one counselor who was scheduled to speak could not be present, I stepped into the breach and talked about what Jesus prayed for on the top of the mountain before calling the Twelve (Luke 6:12). He obviously prayed for and about the Twelve whom he chose from "his disciples" (6:13). I also suggested that he prayed for those who sought "what they might do to [him]" (6:11). After all, in the following sermon he instructs his followers to "pray for them which despitefully use you" (6:28). He is the example and would not ask us to do something that he would not do himself. Right? The YVs worked their usually skilled electronic wizardry.
I love you and pray for you each day.
Grandpa Brown
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