Mostly about Utah
This month it was Paul’s birthday so we asked him where he wanted to go to eat. He decided on Dairy Queen, which explains the photograph above. He’s the good looking chap in the yellow shirt.
Aurora’s favorite food seemed to be water, which was in plentiful supply.
Aurora cannot have any milk products so she got to eat just a cone. That’s Adelaide holding Aurora who soon will have a little baby sister.
Derek, Bryson, and Sarah
Perhaps the title of my post is somewhat over done but to me it seems like Derek, Sarah, and Bryson have been in exile. However, the part that says return is right on. Yes, Derek, Sarah, and Bryson are returning to Utah. Derek has found work in Salt Lake City and the family will be here by Memorial Day.
When Jill heard the news she was just ecstatic. Jill is not an emotional women (sounds contradictory, I know) but this once she was a whoopin’ and a hollerin’ all over the house. You could not find a happier woman in all of creation.
I am just glad it has finally happened, a lot sooner than I supposed. I admit the last month I have been praying every morning for them to return. Why am I then surprised when prayers are answered? Lack of faith I suppose.
One thing is known for sure. We won’t be letting them get away so easily the next time, if there ever is a next time.
Welcome home!
Photograph by Adelaide
It was a great week for us. The phone call was fun too, to tell some of my cool stories that I hadn’t yet. We did a lot of biking and walking, teaching lessons etc. We also got general conference in the mail so I’ve been reading that. It was a great conference. How come no one sent what they liked about conference when I asked forever ago? Anyhow maybe you did, but I forgot.
The best thing my companion Elder Harris and I have been improving on is teaching with simplicity. We have improved greatly and we can tell the effect it has had on the people. Danielle is an investigator that says she wasn’t comfortable at all with being in churches and she wasn’t that interested. After a week of her reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon and us teaching her again, her attitude has changed greatly. It shows the importance of having the spirit with us when we teach.
Great job on running Mom. It sounds like you’re doing a lot of things right. Enjoy the pictures of a pond in my area and me with my bike. Thanks for everything!
Love, Elder Willoughby
Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Sarah at Fort Worth Zoo
This photograph of Sarah was taken in April at the Fort Worth Zoo. You are invited to write a caption for the photograph.
Usually the prize is limited to Kaysville and environs but this time it is open to all. The prize is a One Hundred Trillion Dollar banknote. It is not worth anything except that to hold it is very worrying when you realize that your own currency could also end up hyperinflated. Especially with government borrowing at record levels. This 2008 uncirculated Zimbabwe banknote was part of the annual inflation rate of 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000%.
Rachel holding Zimbabwe banknote
When you submit your caption include your email in the comment form. That way I can contact the winner for their address to mail the banknote. If you are reading my Facebook page, click on “View Original Post” to come on over to my blog. If I cannot obtain your address the prize will go to the second place winner.
Only myself and the judge are not eligible to win. Sharpen your keyboards and good luck with your captions. One hundred trillion dollars awaits you. Rachel not included.
Relatives and friend celebrate Paul and Jake's graduation
I was requested to post a few photographs of Paul and Jake’s graduation on Friday. The invitations were sent out and the relatives arrived with varying degrees of gifts. Paul and Jake’s grandpa gave them each a fifty dollar bill. Paul and Jake had present parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, a grandparent, a niece, and a sister-in-law. If you can handle a full resolution (4700 x 3303) 10.8 MB photograph of the relatives click here.
A meal was waiting for everyone with an Adelaide baked cake for dessert. It was a motherboard decorated with wafers but no chocolate chips. Click on the cake that Paul and Jake are holding and you will see that on one of the CPUs my brother Mike is wished happy birthday as well as congratulations to the graduates.
Click to view the cake
After the meal a goodly number attended the University of Utah College of Engineering Convocation at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Jill was able to get a photograph of Paul and Jake because they were seated right next to the aisle.
The convocation seemed like it lasted a long time mainly because it did. When the people you have come to see only take up 1/200th of the alloted time, just sitting there can get a little boring. However, one must pay attention because sometimes there are fractional moments that cause amusement. For example, one of the names that was read out was “Charlie Brown.” That caused a few chuckles to ripple around those present.
After the ceremony we went outside and took some more photographs. We were slow getting off the University of Utah campus because of a detour around a TRAX accident. The one piece of education that we got out of the evening was that if you must attend a convocation, make it a two-for-one event.
Family group photo credit: Zaapit
1-5 bridge connecting Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon
This week we had similar success in finding people to teach. We worked really hard and it was worth it. We plan on doing the same thing this week.
Congratulations on graduating, Paul and Jake. The pictures were really cool. I wasn’t sure if Mom paid you to take them or if you set up your own system to take them yourselves then allowed her to print ’em. Either way they were great.
The blog post was really interesting Dad, I had no idea that there was that kind of crazy inflation.
There is a lot of similar stories like last week I could write. The Lord truly is helping and guiding us in the work. I know it is a great work and that Heavenly Father loves all of His children.
The gloves look great! Thanks Mom.
For this Mothers Day call and I will call Sunday morning to see what time will work best. Happy Mothers Day Mom!
Love, Elder Willoughby
Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Photo Credit: nsjmetzger
On Friday, May 7th, at the University of Utah 141st commencement, 7,034 graduates from all 50 states and 76 countries will receive degrees. The same day we will be with Paul and Jake at the College of Engineering Convocation at the Jon M. Huntsman Center at 6:45 pm.
With computer scientist parents and an older brother and sister with computer science degrees, perhaps it is not surprising that Paul and Jake chose a similar career path. But why a degree in Computer Engineering? According to U.S. News & World Report:
If there’s an app for something, there’s a software engineer behind it. From video games to missile systems to, yes, your iPhone, almost every big idea in modern business is supported by software. The work of designing, building, maintaining, and integrating those increasingly complex systems continues to be one the fastest-growing corners of the job market.
The job outlook is promising:
Employment of computer software engineers is expected to swell by a whopping 295,200 jobs, or more than 32 percent, between 2008 and 2018. That rate is well above the average for all occupations, as companies continually integrate new technologies and design their own.
Perhaps you are wondering how this is all working out for our recent graduates. Paul is already working full-time in his chosen field for a local employer and Jake joins him May 10.
Credits: Photography and announcement design by Adelaide of Ada Shot Me.
Fort Vancouver, Washington
This has been a good week for us. I got my new companion, Elder Harris, on Wednesday and we went straight to work. He is from Springville, Utah and has been out on his mission about the same amount of time as me.
This week we had a lot of good finding experiences. We finally got to meet a family we’d been trying to for awhile. She missed our last appointment because she had a baby. We figured that was a good excuse. Anyhow she is a member and her husband is investigating. He was really open to the message with the baby changing perspectives.
We were also able to contact a member referral and teach him and his son. He wasn’t too excited about any church, but liked to talk about the doctrine. He agreed to meet with us again, so we’ll keep working with him.
Then on Sunday after church we planned to go to a certain area to contact some people that said we could come back later. As we were walking someone called us off the street and told us to come over. When we got there he said in a broken English Russian accent to come into his garden which was in his backyard. We thought it was a little strange, but followed him back there where we sat down and he talked to us about God. We taught him about the Godhead and he said a few times that he really likes the Mormons. He said to come back anytime. We felt very blessed as it’s not everyday where new investigators call after missionaries.
Then we went to try back at another house of a man that talked to us for a while before. He shared the story of when he had been driving a trailer and was delivering it to a house. He was absolutely exhausted and didn’t know how he was going to move so much stuff from the trailer to the house. Plus he had been having one of the worst days of his life, he estimated it would take 4 hours to do it all by himself. Then he asked us, “Guess who showed up?” Some missionaries came and helped him and got the job done in an hour which allowed him to get the trailer back in time and move on to other things. He said, “They were working like I was paying ’em.” It had really softened his heart and he was really open to us teaching him. We are excited and happy for the good work of all missionaries.
So in all we found 5 new investigators this week. It was truly the Lord directing us where to go and to be at the right place at the right time. Along with that we had another really good lesson on Saturday night. We “happened” to come to their house right before she went to work, after he woke up from a nap, and they had just finished discussing all of their many trials. I opened my scriptures to share a thought and it fell open to a scripture in Alma 26:27. It hit right home to her that even through all her trials, the Lord is still there for her. She went to work and worked all night and on Sunday she came to church. She came with her husband who isn’t a member and that completely shocked us as he hadn’t committed to do much by all the other missionaries. I know the Lord led us there to come right at the right time and share what they needed.
My bike is to speed up travel time and to be more effective. We ride to appointments, lunch, to member’s houses, to places where we are going to track, and at the end of the day we ride home. Yep I have a helmet and I wear it, ya it has reflectors too. Feel free to ask any more questions. Thanks for all you do Mom!
Love, Elder Willoughby
Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Photo Credit: Glen Williams
Vancouver Washington and Portland Oregon skyline
This week went by really fast! It always seems that the first week of the transfer goes a little slow then it speed rockets through the rest. So the actual transfer calls came on Saturday. Elder Schroeder is getting transferred, which is too bad because he was way cool. We only got to serve for two weeks with each other. My new companion comes on Wednesday. Luckily the area is really small so I was able to learn it well before transfers.
It is crazy to hear what is happening in Mongolia. I think I’ll finish my mission here in Washington, but I am grateful that I was able to serve there for a year. I got the CD and have been having fun listening to conference. I forgot the paper you sent on boxing gloves, but I think the red boxing glove that was like 50 to 60 dollars will do. He wanted them to be hard etc for competitions and for training. Thanks Mom!
We had a wonderful lesson with a lady that has been investigating for some time. We taught baptism and she had already been baptized Catholic. We taught her about authority etc and it made sense to her. She committed to come to view a baptism last Saturday and to come to church, but she hurt her hip and couldn’t make it. She said as we left her house, “Well if I get baptized I’ll have to get my grandson to come with me.” That was really good to hear. We’ll keep working with her. She should be good to come next week.
Other than that we have been doing a lot of finding. We contacted lots of former investigators and found some success with that. Also some member refferals have helped us out a bit. It is always exciting to find a new investigator.
They are saying Mothers Day call should be before 9am, I could probably call later somehow, but I don’t really know much about it.
I’m thinking I’ll need my bike. If it is cost effective to send it here like less than 30 or 40 dollars then go ahead and send it, but anymore than that I may consider just buying a bike here. The cost to send it here and back could be as much as bikes are being sold here. You can send it to the Battleground address that I gave last week. I hope that doesn’t cause too much trouble, but it would be very useful to have. Also I think it came with a lock or something. Anyway do what ya can.
Love, Elder Willoughby
Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Photo Credit: Greg Dawson
