Scorching the World

I think some of my kids would like to know what they could have seen if they lived in Provo. Sounds fun!

The ward gave us a nice little farewell dinner, but first they had us give talks. I think the talks were in place of Sacrament meeting talks, so that was fine. Lucio, the Luceros, and Teresita & her brother Cokin. The Cervantes boys, Yerli and Isai. Isai will leave for his mission to Brazil soon, and Yerli will leave before we get back. Then we had a more personal farewell/retirement party/birthday party at our house: I didn't get very many pictures but it was a nice get-together.

This is probably as close as I'll ever get to having any of John's art.  Beautiful!

I mean, really! How do people live like this? That's just craziness. Look at the size of those ice cycles!  Course this is beautiful!

Finally the day arrived that Yany has been dreading the most. The Funeral. She was worried about  the physicaluty of it because she is almost totally immobile; she was worried about having limited access to a bathroom because of those isues; she was worried about the Marines who would do Taps and a 21 gun salute and that she might faint from the emotion of it all, and she was worried about falling apart and not being able to handle seeing John's body for the last time. She was exhausted when she went to bed Friday night. We were worried about her tackling this day when she was already so tired from the day of the viewing. But she woke up in a wonderful mood. She had dreamed of John. He came to her at 5 a.m. and put his face right up to hers and gave her a message and she felt his love and joy. She was wide awake after that and in great spirits. She got up and got dressed and ready to go on time.  She even ate a pretty good breakfast. Tracey, Tom and I left at 9:30 so we co...

Friday finally came and went. I knew it would be a long, busy day and wasn't wrong about that. We went to bed that night the earliest we've gone all week, and if people hadn't been visiting, we probably would have gone to sleep earlier. We got up pretty early (about 6am) and tried to be very quiet while everyone else in the house slept. Tom made another run to stores to try to find copies of of the newspaper with the obituary. Thursday he had done the same thing, but went too late to find any stores that weren't already sold out. While he was gone I took a shower. Tracey was sleeping in the livingroom, so I tried to be very quiet.  When I finally got my make up on and hair almost done, I finally opened the bathroom door and heard Yany yelling for me from downstairs. Apparently she had been calling and calling for me but I couldn't hear her with the bathroom fan on. I took care of what she needed and then spent some time down there talking with her. When Tom retu...

On Thursday morning Tom and I got up and began our regular routines. When we heard Yany stirring, I went down to see if I could help. We began talking about the events of the previous day, and the conversation drifted to other things. When I felt it was appropriate, I told her that there is one thing I want from her. After all of this has settled down, the only thing I want from her is her story of her experiences while aiding in the translation of the Bible to Spanish. She began to talk about it and I wished I had had a tape recorder. It boils down to the fact that the experience was so spiritual and sacred that she has never talked about it. She can say that about 100 people collaborated on it. There were experts from each Spanish speaking region of the world who helped get the words that would be the most generally understood; there were experts in Hebrew who compared the wording of the English and Spanish to the original text and worked very long and painstakingly, comparing every ...

Tuesday night we slept much better so Wednesday we woke up more refreshed. Janina had decided to spend the night 'so that Yany wouldn't be alone'. So Wednesday morning when Yany woke up, Janina went downstairs where Yany sleeps and helped her get up and dressed. . Tom and I got up and dressed and I started cleaning and organizing kitchen cupboards. When we figured they had to be getting hungry, Tom made a delicious breakfast of fried spuds with scrambled eggs with green beans. I took a plate down to Yany and found that she and Janina were busy working on Johns paperwork - sorting and organizing and trying to find important papers. She was so grateful for the breakfast and that I had taken it to her. After that I also took down plates of food for Janina and her daughter. They were down there all morning and I made myself busy cleaning cupboards. I tried not to toss anything she might possibly want, but put like things together and threw out anything that was past its expir...

On Tuesday morning, we woke up excessively tired. It is so dry in Utah I can feel it in my skin, hair and eyes. I'm always thirsty and have been drinking huge quantities of water and applying lotion liberally. Also the house is kept at 81 degrees. I told someone here that when our house gets to 81, we turn on the air conditioning! I had brought layers of clothes and socks and shoes to keep warm while here, and I've had to go with the lightest layers and go barefoot all the time. When we go out into the snowy weather, it feels good to cool off a little! But in our room, we closed the door, and closed the vent and covered it to keep the heat out. Then we opened a window a little and were able to sleep, altho we still didn't need any blankets at all. We slept very lightly, listening for any sound or indication that Yany might need help. She looked so tired and drained when she went to bed I was actually afraid she might not make it through the night. When she got up I went d...

Monday morning we got up fairly early and showered and dressed. The plan was to pack Tanya's car for our last load to storage and get back by 8am as we had some important phone calls that we needed to take care of as soon as businesses opened. Unfortunately and typically, there was just too much to do before we could leave. We finished the packing and got everything out near the garage, and then worked on packing our suitcases for the last time and cleaning our room. We had breakfast and got on the road about 8:30 or so.  I drove the Miata and Tom drove Tanya's car. We quickly unloaded the car and made some arrangements in the garage, then pulled my cute little car in and disconnected the battery. It was a little sad to leave my car in the garage for 2 years, but that's ok. We headed from there to our Rd 29 rental to take the title for the utility trailer to them because they bought it. Selling that at the last minute was yet another miracle that fell into place right bef...

We had a wonderful Sabbath with the McGills, Pettus', Tracey, and Ryan all here with us. It was Fast Sunday so there were no potato burritos for breakfast. Tom and I got up quickly and got off to Church first. Since it starts at 9 now, we had to leave by 8 to get there a little early so I could warm up on the piano. Tom had the presence of mind to let those going to Church know that because of construction on the freeway, they would need alternate directions to the building. I wouldn't have even thought of that. So we got there and eventually our family came in and sat down before the meeting started, but I was playing prelude, so I couldn't see who all came. I was really hoping everyone would come, but the McGills and Ryan stayed home. We were really happy to see Tracey there, along with the Knudsens and Pettus'. It was a very nice Sacrament meeting. We were afraid it would turn into a eulogy for us leaving, but people behaved themselves and only mentioned us for s...

Saturday, Jan 5th was our next to the last day in Tanya's house, our next to the last day in Fresno, and our next to the last day as ordinary members of the Church. We began by going to Caeli and Cannon's "lil hoopsters" (basketball) games. The kids are so little, it is pretty funny to watch them struggle to control the ball while protecting it from the other team. After the games we took the Knudsens out for lunch at a nice place we found in Fresno. It was fun and the food is so delicious. The kids tried so hard to behave well and the waitress was very attentative to them. When we got home, we got serious about packing up our room. We had already taken a couple of loads of bins full of stuff to storage, so there were only a few more bins and then it was pretty cleared out. By the time the Pettus' and McGills got here, we were ready for the big people to help take our sofabed and other big furniture out. They loaded up our van as full as it could go, and Tom too...

Yesterday was rather frustrating in some ways. There were a few things that we've worked on all week to try to get settled and set up and one was Tom's Medicare. He got it set up and got his card last year, but it had Part B set up to not be effective until July 1, instead of January 1. He called them last November and asked them about it but they said they had no idea why it was set up that way, and he would have to fill out a form and send it in. They sent him the form, and he took care of it, and then waited in vain to hear back that it had been taken care of. When we tried to set up the supplemental insurance, we couldn't set his up because the Medicare still had the July date for Part B. So he started calling on Monday. The line was always busy, and he was told to leave a message. As a matter of fact, it said that if this matter was urgent, then he should leave a message on this certain number and someone would call back within 3 days. I wonder how long it would take...

We really accomplished a lot today; we're so proud of ourselves! We actually crossed 10 things off our list, and some were pretty major. We still have about 15 things on the list for tomorrow, but they are do-able, for the most part. The biggest snags we've found have to do with things that need done that depend on talking to someone who won't call us back. Not sure what to do about that. But our suitcases are almost full and our room is almost empty. As we shopped and ran errands today, we just kept grinning as we saw things falling into place. What a great blessing we've received to have the opportunity to serve a mission!

Today was the first day that we've gone out and found frost all over the lawn and cars. We needed to take my car to be repaired and had to leave by 7:30am, so Tom poured water on my windows while I tried to get the heat going in the car, then he poured water on his windshield and it immediately re-froze. It took a little while to convince the cars they really had to wake up and run in spite of the cold. The bad news was that my car needs a catalytic converter, which I've known for a couple of years, and it will cost a lot! But it has to be done, so we left it and it should be done by tomorrow. Then we have to take Tom's to see if they can find out why the check engine light is always on. We've tried 3 different repairs already, so we should be narrowing it down a bit. But we need to sell it or store it, and it sure would be easier to decide what to do if it were running right. Actually it does run right; it just has a light because of some malfunction in the computer ...