Thoughts on Easter

April 8, 2007
Dear Elder Pugh,
I taught the lesson in Primary class and I was glad it was the basic Easter message. It made me think of the resurrection. In sharing time, the video “Easter Dream” was shown. That is one of my favorite LDS church videos. It gives me hope that I will see my dad again and my grandparents that I never knew. (My Dad's parents died before I was born.) I read yesterday in the Trib’s (Salt Lake Tribune) religion section, an article by Connie Clark, who has a ministry in Evanston, Wyoming. She wrote about the resurrection and the mentally ill. When Christ was resurrected, not only was there hope for the dead, but also for the living. The Atonement brings a hope of being able to repent, to make our lives new again. We all (just like those who are mentally ill) struggle daily, constantly repenting, renewing our goals again and again. Rev. Clark’s message touched a note with me, because I live with mental illness most days. My oldest brother suffers from either bipolar 1 or paranoid schizophrenia, which is undiagnosed. It is one reason, why I haven’t been home in almost five years. I miss home, but there is still the hope that I will return again.
(This statute of Christ is found in the Nauvoo LDS Visitors Center. I chose this one because Christ has his hands outstretched to us. Christ is also looking down and I am thinking He is looking at us below on earth. The statute in the Salt Lake Temple Square Visitors Center is the same, but with the heavens as a background. This statute has the background of the visitor center's garden. Although I took the picture in September, the trees and such were still green. For me green is represents a newness; a fresh start. April 24, 2011)

March 27, 2011 – When I re-read the last line of Mark’s letter, I realized that my siblings and I did return home to the Magic Valley. The first time was in August 2008, when John, Jay and I made a quick trip to attend the Twin Fall Temple Openhouse. We spent the night at a motel, went to the openhouse with my mom. Afterwords, we had lunch at JB’s in Burley. We never saw Mike, but it planted a deeper seed of hope. When we got back to Salt Lake, Mike mentioned that it would have been good to see us at the house. The first weekend in August 2010, we headed home for a lunch at Mom’s. My sister, Laura and her family were headed to Lake Powell for a family reunion and Mary and Doug were returning from Wendover, Nevada. Steven flew in from California and drove up with John, Jay and me. We helped clean up the yard and after dinner, had a short family meeting. Mike did not hide in his room as he usually does when visitors arrive. He even helped out in the yard. My brothers and I had planned to spend the night at the neighbors, but after my sisters and their families left, Mike had a change of heart and suggested we spend the night.
It is difficult dealing with someone has a mental illness. But I have learned to hope and keep the faith. When resurrection happens, the old will be cast off and a newness will come. I will have full use of ears and Mike will be better. And yes, I will get to see my Dad again.

Salt Lake Marathons

This morning before I even got out of bed, the runners for the Salt Lake Marathon and Half-Marathon crossed the starting line. It brought back memories of the first Salt Lake Marathon to run thru the heart of Holladay. It was 2004 and Jay and I had lived in our condo for about 7 months. A few days before the race, the sponsors or some one connected to the marathon left a goodie bag on our door. My boss, Pat, would call it swag. All I can remember is the long tube noise makers and the chip bag clip, which we still use. I remember seeing quite a few neighbors watch the marathon that year. But the next year, it wasn't such a big event. No swag on the doors and not as many neighbors watching. I did see Dave Rasmussen, a former co-worker in 2005, because as he passed by, he asked where I was working at. I told him the University of Utah, which probably didn't settle too well with him, since he was (and probably still is) a big BYU fan. In 2006, the marathon was moved to June, but in 2007, it was moved back to April, where it has stayed ever since. I don't know when the half-marathon was added, but Mark and Darren ran it in 2008 or maybe it was 2007. Crystal, their younger sister, ran her first marathon in 2009. Jay and I drove to 2700 South. I tried to get a picture of her, but my cellphone and camera was not cooperating. But she was smiling and waved at some friends and me as ran by. Last year, Jay and I drove back to 2700. Crystal's sister-in-law spotted me, but Crystal didn't even notice me. Not even when I called out her name. A train wreck could have happen in front of her and she would not even noticed. She was so focused that she wasn't smiling. But she was fixing her pony tail as she approached me. Our condo was doing clean up this year, so I didn't check out the half-marathon. But I did notice a former neighbor when I took a peak at marathon running past the corner up the street. I only saw the back of her, so I didn't take out my cellphone. Even though, I didn't cheer the runners on, I wonder if Dave Rasmussen ran the race again. And who knows, maybe next year, my camera and I will be out there cheering on the runners. (Picture on the left was taken in 2005. The picture on the right is Crystal in 2010 running her second half-marathon.)

General Conference Memories

Conference Weekend brings back quite a few memories. It has always meant a break from regular church. Some have been on Easter, sometimes it snowed or rained, but mostly it was good weather. My earliest memories of General Conference are of home when it was a three day event. I don’t remember ever listening to a Friday session, but I was aware in high school that they happened. I think the last Friday session was during my freshman year of college. Even though I was in Salt Lake, I don’t remember listening to the session. I was probably so caught up in my classes that I didn’t realize I was missing historical event. When I was growing up in Idaho, we listened to General Conference on the radio. It was hit and miss with the TV stations broadcasting sessions. Listening to conference was like listening to a boxing match. The volume was up way loud, so my dad, who lost his hearing in World War II, could hear it. Usually my dad wasn’t next to the radio during conference like he was a boxing match, so my Mom had radios at both ends of the house and the basement. Once a radio was in the bathroom; there was no escaping General Conference.

When I moved to Utah, I learned there was conference weather, which meant snow at most April sessions. Spring is unpredictable in Utah and other Western states. I remember when my friend, Scott Pugh came home from his mission from Columbia, where it was summer. He came home to a snowy Easter. I remember seeing him sitting on the couch during a Sunday session and he looked like he was shivering. I spent quite a few Conferences Sundays with the Pughs, most of them happen to be Easter. One Easter conference morning, Jared wanted to dye more eggs, but all the cooked eggs had been dyed. So he decided he would microwave the eggs to speed up the process. Jared forgot to poke holes in the eggs and set the timer for a long time. Dad got egged as he walked by the microwave when the eggs exploded.

Living in Utah has given me the opportunity to attend conference in both the tabernacle and the Conference Center. My first General conference attendance was while I was a student at Ricks College. I came down to Salt Lake and went to the Sunday afternoon session with Cindy, a former roommate from LDS Business College. We stood in line during the morning session while it snowed and then we walked back to the dorms. It was until the early 1980’s that I attended the next session, which may have been the Saturday morning session. My mom, Jay and Laura came down to Salt Lake to attend conference and we were able to attend the welfare session, which was soon discontinued. Or the next session might have been a Saturday afternoon session with Ann, my roommate. I did attend a Sunday morning session with her also. I also attended another session with Mom, Laura and Jay before they left home for college. I remember picking up a free box lunch after two morning sessions. But most of the conference sessions I attended were in front of TV at home. While I was in student wards, I did attend a few Sunday mornings sessions at the bishop’s house. The first and only session of General Conference at the Conference Center was six years ago. John got 3 tickets for the session. We caught crowded Trax at 90th South that became more crowded as we traveled toward downtown. (At the time there was only one stop before 90th South.)

I took this picture about 11 a.m. Sunday morning, April 3rd. At 12:30 while this picture was posting I looked out and saw that the sun was shining. The snow may be gone by 4 or 6 p.m. Yesterday, it was a bit overcast as I walked to Fresh Market. There was a warm breeze and I would have been fine in short sleeves. This is typical April weather for Utah. Wait five minutes and the weather will change.