Letter #80
September 1, 2008
Dear Elder Roper,
What a week?! How’s your week been? I’m hoping this is the last of the overload weeks (dream on!) I’m hoping it will be good to be back teaching again on a regular basis. I thought I’d better write now (Friday) as I’m not sure when we’ll be returning from our family campout this weekend. The news has been touting a “state-cation” instead of a vacation as gas prices are still way out of line. It’s amazing to me how much our lives really depend upon oil – not only for driving, but for transporting our food and goods. As things now stand, we’ll never become independent of oil as all the gazillion of plastic products all come from oil as well. Anyway, I hope we can find some place to camp this weekend. Shauna has gone to a lot of work to get the campout organized – I’ve been so busy trying to get school ready.
Well, Amanda and Jeff are off to Coeur de’Alene. What an adventure for them! It will seem real empty around the house without Amelia, Zady, Clair, and Ross. Amanda was always helping Linda with meals, shopping, laundry – maybe she’s happy to get away! Still, Coeur de’Alene is so far away – it makes me sad.
I really haven’t been feeling well this week. BYU held “rah, rah” meetings on Tuesday, but after struggling through John Tanner’s afternoon talk (academic VP), I came home to get some rest. I had attended an earlier meeting about being a better teacher, which was really pretty good. I probably should have taken advantage of the Learning Center’s help this last year – it would have made my tenure notebook look better. The democratic convention was held in Denver this week and it was interesting to see how the Clinton’s tried to take over the show. Obama accepted the Democratic nomination on Thursday and actually gave a pretty good talk. He gave his acceptance speech in Mile-High stadium in front of 84,000 screaming supporters. He did give some specifics this time – one I like. He said that in ten years, he would make America not dependent upon foreign oil. Now, McCain needs to step up to the plate this week and show that he is what America needs.
Wednesday morning, I wasn’t feeling at all well, so I called the doctor and surprisingly got right in. He took one look in my left ear and said “Oh no!” Well, I knew I had made a good decision in and after looking me over, had the nurse come in and give me one of those big, white paste shots in the dairy-air (sic?). I then drove to ShopKo and bought the pharmacy out! Hope it does the trick! Before going to the doctor, I drove by Orem Community Hospital to see how Gina faired with her tonsillectomy. She was pretty sore, but seemed to be surviving. We had our annual college meeting that afternoon followed by a luncheon together. Just as the dean was about to give his closing remarks, the fire alarm went off – turned out to be some chemical spill in the Benson Building. The fire engineers, police, ambulances – all came screaming to our rescue, but it turned out not to be such a big deal. On my way home, I stopped and picked up some Cost Vita burritos for everyone and then we spent the evening packing Jeff and Amanda’s 24 foot U-Haul truck. Sure hope Amanda’s curio cabinet made it ok!
Thursday morning, Amanda and Jeff left and I drove to Spring Haven for our faculty retreat. We kept tabs on them often and I guess beside the truck stopping all the time (ya, I know…), they made it as far as Butte and stayed in a hotel that evening. I guess Shauna and Rich and Liz and Jared didn’t get off until 9:00 pm that evening for our annual family campout. They actually arrived at Navajo Lake almost exactly at the same time – around 1:00 am in the morning! Even though it was a big pain for them to get tents setup and kids bedded down, it was a good thing as there were people all day on Friday looking for camping spots.
We were hoping to get earlier on Friday, but it wasn’t until 3:00 pm that we finally hit the road. The drive down was long and the car continually overheated pulling the trailer. We got off the freeway at Parawon and drove up over the mountain through Brian Head and Cedar Breaks to Navajo Lake. We had to pull off the road several times, open up the hood, and turn on the heater to get the car cooled down. (Coming home, we didn’t have any problems at all as it was cooler and we stayed on US14 to Cedar City!) Jess and Golden were just a couple of hours behind us. Shauna and Rich had saved some pretty good sites for us and we were all together which was great. I guess they all had had a good day, but everyone looked pretty sun-burned. (Navajo Lake is above 9,000 feet.) It took an hour to get our stuff set up, and after a delicious spaghetti dinner fixed by Jess and Golden, we turned in and all slept pretty well. (My sleeping pills are miracle drugs!) Tyler had come along with us and he had his tent on the hill just above us. I put up our big dome tent and was able to put a small tent right beside ours for Gina and Christina. Gina was pretty miserable the whole trip but really didn’t complain much – I think she enjoyed the outing. We had a pill regiment for both her and me of antibiotics, cortisone, and pain killers.
Saturday morning started out bright and sunny. It was fun to all be together again – at least those who could be there. We kind of took things easy, just enjoying relaxing and catching up on what the grandkids have been doing all summer, while we waited for Derek and Kelly. Kelly had had to take her state fair picture entry to Salt Lake on Thursday, so they couldn’t drive down until Saturday.
Well, we all knew the weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t good – in fact, the weather man said there was a 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms all weekend and into this week – they were right on!! I could see that clouds forming to the west of our camp, so we had an hour to prepare before all heck broke loose! Thank goodness we had two awnings with us and we set them up with plastic underneath. I rained, no, it poured for almost an hour as we huddled under the canopies trying to stay dry and cook supper at the same time. (The rain soon began to puddle in the plastic and so we had to be vigilant in pushing the water to the edges of the awnings.) We were in good spirits though and it was an adventure for the kids. It was Drew’s birthday and so after eating, Liz brought out Transformer cupcakes, Drew opened his presents, and we had a memorable birthday party. I have to tell you that the Lord is always very mindful of each of us and after offering a prayer, the rain did subside and we were able to get bedded down for the evening fairly dry (a few of the tents add an inch of water in them!)
Sunday morning was a wet day as well, but we not only survived, we had a great time. All our lawn chairs were still soaked, so we weren’t able to just sit around a visit. We drove to Cedar Breaks and enjoyed the view there of some pretty spectacular scenery. The kids completed a forestry workbook at the visitor center and earned their Junior Ranger Badges – they were pretty excited about that! Before supper, we drove to the trail head for Cascade Falls – if you could call them falls. I guess Navajo Lake drains from both ends and the west end comes through a tunnel of sorts and drops down into the Zion valley. It was really a beautiful mile hike, the kids really enjoyed it, and afterwards, we all fixed our tin foil dinners back at camp. After assessing our situation and looking at the dark clouds gathering in the south, we all decided it was time to break camp and not stay another night. Again, we were very grateful to the Lord for watching over us. We prayed that He would stay the rains while we had dinner and struck our camp. It was a lot of work getting things packed up and for the most part, we just rolled things up and threw them in the cars/trailer. (Gina was a real trooper and despite still not feeling well, she really helped getting things packed.) Our tinfoil dinner was delicious!!! (It was Kelly and Derek’s meal.) Just as we finished eating and cleaning up, the heavens opened up again and it poured just as it had on Saturday. We had only a couple of things left to load up, but for the most part, the timing was everything we asked for in our prayer. I’m so grateful that the Lord lives and listens and answers our pleadings. As I said, the rains came strong again and it was foggy and wet going up over the pass towards Cedar City. We took it slow, gassed up in Cedar, and started for home on the freeway at around 10:00 pm. It rained off and on most of the way home but what a lightening show to the west!! From Nephi until we arrived home, it really poured and it was very nerve racking trying to see the lines on the road. I was very relieved to get off the freeway. Around Spanish Fork Golden had pulled off the freeway because he was having trouble with his truck hydroplaning. So, we followed him the rest of the way going only around 50 mph until we turned off on the University exit in Provo. When we arrived home, we carried in the coolers and pillows, took showers, and hit the sacks – relieved to be home safe.
So, other than all that, our week wasn’t all that eventful! What’s happening down Mexico way? So you think you might be transferred again soon – I had a lot of transfers on my mission and they were always exciting as I remember. I’m very proud of your work ethics and dedication to the Lord. Your time in the mission field grows shorter everyday, doesn’t it? What a wonderful blessing your mission will be to you, your companion, your children, and all those you’ll serve throughout your life. As Zion’s camp was sometimes hard for those early brethren, from those men, the Lord chose the leadership for His church. Those men who showed they would always follow the Lord were prepared to build the Kingdom and bless others because of their faithfulness. I know the church you represent is true – the only true and living church on the earth today! We all love and pray for you always.
Love, Dad
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