Trying to Beat the Heat

It's gonna be another scorcher today. It's 11am and the thermometer on my deck reads 103'. That may not be the true temperature, but it's hotter than yesterday, and that's enough for me. We don't have air conditioning (few people up here do), so that means we have to find other ways to survive. Here's a few options:

• go see a movie (any suggestions/recommendations?)
• hang out at the grocery store. I guess I could go and do laps around Fred Meyer.
• go for a drive -with the ac turned all the way up.
• go to a beach....which would involve a longish drive.
• go to the church property - which is 10 minutes away.

Guess which one I chose for today. Yup. We're heading to the church property. Located on the banks of the Stillaguamish River. We're meeting Stephanie and Cory there in about an hour. Nathan invited some of the singles branch...

Shall we gather at the river? (it's too hot to dance, so we'll just sing and tap our toes)

Word of the Day

en⋅er⋅vat⋅ed 

[en-er-vey-tid] –adjective

without vigor, force, or strength; languid.

As in:

Due to the excessive heat this week, I am feeling completely enervated. Yeah, it's too darn hot.

Our Man in Japan

Dear Family and Friends,

I trust that all of you are still doing well. I`m doing pretty well for the most part. Though this last week has been pretty busy for me. My previous companion Elder Stufflebeam went home last Thursday which means that most of the first half of the week was spent packing and doing other last minute things. On Wednesday night we took out over 10 bags of garbage and put them on the side of the road (That`s what you`re supposed to do here).

There is one unfortunate thing. I think since last Monday or so we`ve been encountering a cockroach daily. And if you see one cockroach... We`re really working on cleaning the apartment all the way but there`s not always a lot of time. We spend most of our time out proselyting, eating, studying, and sleeping. Cleaning time is pretty rare. Fortunately with transfers and new people in the apartment cleaning might get done more often. It`s really not hard when everyone cleans up after themselves.

Cockroach encounters. In the morning Elder Kunihiro heard a weird noise and then saw a cockroach fall out of the top of the closet onto my luggage. It laid there playing dead but we didn`t trust it so grabbed our cup dedicated to capturing cockroaches and got it before it flipped back over and made a run for it.

During the middle of last night Elder Capener was half awake and had grabbed something squirmy in his hand. He wasn`t really thinking at the time but didn`t want it in his hand so he was going to open the door and throw whatever it was out the door but was to lazy to do so, so he just threw it at the door. It quickly darted back under his futon and that`s when he actually realized it had been a cockroach.

Our first night together just before we were about to start nightly planning Elder Imai saw a cockroach, we spent a few minutes trying to catch it but it was tricky so we gave up and planned. We did get it later that night though.I`m training this transfer and my new companion is Elder Imai from Hokkaido, Japan that`s the north part where it gets really cold in the winter. He`s a good missionary and we`ve really been working hard together. I`ve really been trying to be the best example I can be and things have been going well. We gave out a Book of Mormon before getting off our very first train on the way home. I really expect this to be an extra good transfer.

Well I am going to try to clean the apartment more today and hand write a few letters to those who wrote me so that`s all for this e-mail.

Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West

Pioneer Day

I think we must have had a Pioneer Day picnic every year when I was a kid. For a while it was always out at the church berry farm. The true mainstay was Brother Opager's home brewed root beer. It just wouldn't have been the same without that root beer.

I especially remember the games one year. They had "Find the Needle in the Haystack", climbing a greased pole, and catching a greased pig. I was not old enough for the pole or the pig, but I was the right age for the needle in the haystack. I don't remember if I found the needle, but I do remember looking for it. The "haystacks" were pretty small - a foot or two tall and 3 or 4 feet around.

Good times.

Dreading the Dentist

Why would anyone grow up to be a dentist? I can understand being a doctor or a nurse...but a dentist? No one (that I know) enjoys going to the dentist.

We went to our last dentist, Dr. Jacobson, for 14 1/2 years. I really liked him. He was kind. He was gentle. His office didn't reek of dental office, he had the best selection of magazines, I never had to wait more than 5 minutes. He retired last month. Two weeks later I lost a crown. Now I have to see a new dentist.

I sort of wish you could have try-outs. Put an ad in the paper and then a bunch of dentists would apply to be YOUR dentist. You could see ahead of time if you actually liked them, or if they were scary.

Wish me luck. I'm off to see the dentist.

The Brotherhood

David came for a visit...just after he was in the triple roll-over accident. He left yesterday. We really enjoyed seeing him - since he moved to San Francisco we haven't seen him too often. The last time we saw him was back in October when Steve and I flew down to San Jose for a weekend - and spent a day in San Francisco with David and Xuehui (his girlfriend).

Danny especially enjoys having his big brother visit...okay, all of his brothers are "big brothers", but David is his favorite BB.

I think I have erred somewhere in my child rearing - most of my children are procrastinators when it comes to packing for a trip. David is no exception. About 1/2 an hour before it was time for him to leave he started gathering his stuff up. We still haven't found his iphone charger...but we did find his cap and sunglasses.

It was nice to have 4 of my 5 boys together. And 3 out of 3 grandsons. That's quite the brotherhood.

And now we dance...(thanks to Keira - and her "Company Way")

Where Were You??

On July 20, 1969 I was over at my friend Lori's house. We saw Neil Armstrong take that "one small step..." on her folks small black and white tv. Even though I was only 9 years old this made a huge impression on me. To me, the moon landing was the biggest thing - of national importance - to happen in the 60's.

Where were you?