Mel: Quite a week with our friend Shane from Washington.

Here's a snippit from my journal:

In other news, I did the Summerfest with James Sorenson and Matt Logan. We had a fun time. It rained like crazy Saturday so we didn't make much money but we each sold some and got enough "wow's" to keep us holding our head up. Mitch and Chass came as people were packing up but they bought the big temple. Mitch was up till 12:30 hanging it and sent me a picture of the installation. Cool

Church was never to be forgotten. Wayne gave a good talk. The others were pretty good too. Then… we went to my class. Shane (our friend we met at the tabernacle choir concert was on a roll. The lesson was about the gifts of the Spirit but we didn't get to that for a while. I explained that Heavenly Father loves us and He gives us gifts to help us get back and help each other get back. That's when Shane went off talking about how God is a kid playing with his life like a Yo-yo. I put the positive spin on it that as Yo-yo's we are rough and when we bump against things we are smoothed like JS's rock analogy. He expressed frustration that I always put a positive spin on things. A sister Shana Young then pointed out how she'd struggled in the past and made bad choices but realized that despite her parents and upbringing, her life's path was her choice and she finally used her agency to get back on the path. She was in tears and that's when Shane burst a gasket. He stood up swore about how this always happens when he gets involved with these &%$@#*&)%^$*# scriptures and stormed out of the room. I was barely able to go on. I was pretty sad and said a prayer that he'd be OK and not do something stupid.

After 10 minutes he came back! Prayers were answered. Wow. He stood at the front of the class room and apologized and said that he didn't have anywhere else to go and asked if he could come back. Everyone offered an overwhelming yes and he sat down. Then we continued with the lesson. I compared this life to an adventure where we were all given some of the needed supplies. And we are to discover them and share them with each other. Some have matches, some have water, etc. Shane pitched in again and said that he felt that all his life he'd been offering people his matches but no one would take them. Bro Gwilliams offered that perhaps he needed to be more creative in how he offered his matches. I suggested that Jesus too had his gifts rejected and sometimes he was creative and sometimes he just took His matches to someone else. It ended well and there were hugs all around. Linda Hudson gave me one to start and then gave Raeghn and Shane one. Jessie Shock's mother in law was awesome and talked with Shane afterward about his great worth and so did Linda.

That night I asked him if he'd like a blessing. He agreed and afterwards he admitted that he had felt unexplainable feelings both after coming back into the class room and during his blessing. The next day we were able to get his car running! Whoo hoo. It was family home evening so we had a weiner roast and played some basketball in the church parking lot. A pretty good time and the food was great. Raeghn knows how to throw a party!

The next morning we sent Shane off for home. I wrote him a letter encouraging him to turn to his Heavenly Father and take the missionary lessons. I'm working on getting that arranged. What a crazy time. It was not a coincidence that he was towed all the way from the I-15 freeway into Logan. I know our prayers to teach someone the gospel were answered. What a wonderful experience it was. I've never blessed a non-member and the Spirit was strong. I forgot to mention that the morning before, Saturday, the Spirit told me to get up to the temple. Raeghn gave me Mom's initiatories and I did them. It was a great experience and I now realize that the reason was to get me ready for that lesson and blessing. I leaned on the promised blessings pretty heavily!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great example of helping those in need! No matter how poor you are!

Raeghn: Busy week. Lots of running around, and not much to show for it. Shad, Adam, Andrew and I had a picnic in our forest on Wednesday. That was the highlight of my week. We went and checked out Shad's fort that he is building, and I'm so amazed! he's made a bridge to cross the water, put up a bunch of wood on a tree for support, put a hammock, and cleared a lot of weeds and fallen wood. It is the perfect spot for a fun fort... Wayne and Kveena are still working hard at the cub scout camp, and doing so well at it. Adam and Andrew are having a fun summer with learning time, and reading time, and play time. They are learning the value of chores and helping around the house (especially with Wayne & Kveena gone, we're having to do the things they usually do)... I'm feeling well, and really loving feeling the baby kick inside of me. This is my favorite part of pregnancy. Our heart and prayers are going out to Stan and Sh'Nell and are really impressed by their faith and love for the Lord.

Wayne:Hey I have been doing great lately. I am doing good at work with the scout camp and I am doing good in my scripture reading. I am soo sorry for missing a few blog entries. Hope you are having a good mission over there. The swimming pool was fun I went on the high dive a few times and I also went on the slide that goes very steep. I went to youth conference and I had loads of fun there. A girl got bit by a rattle snake. She got bit about 15 feet away from my tent! She had to go to the hospital and missed the amazing spiritual experience. She was really looking forward to it also. At youth conference we did a service project of picking dyers woad and cutting firewood. There was a fire side that was amazingly spiritual! After the Fire Side there was a square dance. That was really fun also. It was pretty tiring though. Well it is getting late and as it says in Doctrine and covenants 88:124 I need to go to sleep. Have a great week!
Kvinde hi you guys, this summer I've been working at a scout camp with Wayne. it's really cool and gives me a reason to wake up early. I've made great friends while on lunch breaks. thanks for the awesome card! any ways this week we get Thursday, Friday, Saturday ,and the next Monday off. then i have girls camp.it will be fun. miss you allot.tell you how it went next week. bye!
Shad: Hi, thank you for the birthday card,the photos and the money this week as you now we went swimming. The whole family is going to the zoo in Salt Lake and the Planetarium this coming Friday. hope you guys are having successful mission. Love you, bye!
Adam: I miss you. This week we went to the aquatic center (the local outdoor pool) and I got to go on the water slide all by myself. It was so fun! I love you.
Andrew: We went swimming this week. I went on a swirly slide 2 times and a lifeguard catched me at the end! It was fun. I saw someone about 7 go down the steep slide, not the swirly slide, go down with a shirt on. Wayne even went on that steep one! Today I went to church at my old ward. I sang a song about Pioneers, and it says they sang as they walked and walked and walked (as Andrew is dictating this to me he's singing it...) I miss you! I love you!

Fathers Day!

Wayne:
Kvinde:hi! happy fathers day you guys. hope you're having a great summer. is it warm up there? well i love you lots. better go to bed it's getting late i'll try to wright more next week see you latter!
Shad: These last two weeks were Fun. Two weeks ago me and Kvinde had our last choir concert of the year, but we are quitting, me because it is to high for me and Kvinde... I don't know... but the week after that dad had a booth at the Summer Fest and sold photos. Saturday night I had a dream that Grandam and Grandpa Torrie were on there mission in Logan all along and they never told us! I know they would tell us though so I knew that it was a dream. Fathers day was great. We made my dad peanut butter and chocolate chip cake, one of his favorite flavors. well done writing, Love you!
Adam: I miss you. I'm going to go swimming next week. Dad made a new friend and he's telling him about the church. Be safe! Love you.

Andrew: I miss you. I'm watching a movie about where you are for your mission (Legacy). I love you!
Mel: What a couple of weeks! Sorry for the delay in writing. Crazy times. We went to our first air show and Hill Air Force Base.

The company is just holding on. The bank gave us a delinquency notice to freeze our line of credit because they believe our finance reports show that our ability to pay is in question. Raeghn, I, and my accountant went into the bank and gave them the best story we could. They said that we're on probation and they'll monitor on a daily-weekly basis. We don't know how we can make payroll in two weeks. And me and my shareholders are going without pay currently. We're praying hard and are thankful for the prayers of our family. We have some leads but we're still waiting to hear. Hopefully we will get a positive response this week. Then we can start working on solving engineering problems and not bank problems. I pray that is His will. But whatever it is I know it will be for our good. It already has been.

We met a young man named Shane from Washington state and I've been spending a lot of time with him. His car broke down on the highway I-15 and for some reason they towed him into Logan vs. towns much closer. We know it has been an answer to our prayers to meet people who need the gospel. He's come to church a couple of times and has read part of the BofM we gave him. We're still trying to fix his car. Mitch is helping now so our chances have gone way up. He has been staying in our old house but the renters are moving in next week, so we're not sure what we're going to do. We're going to go up to the university tomorrow and see what we can find for attractive major for him. It sure has made me thankful for my incredible parents and the gospel. What a priceless gift they both are. Only actions can do the gratitude justice and so I try to do better. A long way to go but I have an eternity to progress. I need it! It also has made me thankful for Raeghn and our children. More blessings I don't deserve. More in debt in this sense than I'll ever be financially. I just hope the Lord is more patient than our banker.

I did the big Summerfest Art Show. I invited two other fledgling photographers to share a booth and we all sold enought pictures to make a little money. We got rained out the last day but we had fun and met some great people. Mitch and Chass bought one of my big temple ones so that was cool. Mitch put it on their wall that night and emailed me a picture at 1:00 am.


Raeghn: Hope all is well there. Life is great here. I'm getting big, and loving feeling the baby kick and move around inside of me. The miracle of life is always so much stronger when I carry a baby. Today for fathers day we've had a fun day. Mel is a great father and husband and I owe so much of that to you two. I thank the Lord everyday for him and his goodness. I sure am blessed. Today he taught an incrediable lesson in Gospel Principles and did so well with all sorts of distractions and comments that might not have been the best, but he lead them back on track and handled it so well. He follows and teaches with the Spirit so well. He's been a great example of pure love through his service to Shane. I can't believe how giving and compasionate of a man he is, he never ceases to amaze me. Like I said, I'm so blessed!
I hear you met our Bishop, who is also my cousin. He's a great bishop. He's a faithful person, and leads our ward well...
We're praying for you, and know you are doing great things!