Busy in Our Land of Strangers

Our days of relative leisure appear to be over.  Once again, there is lots to do and commitments to keep.  Layne and I home teach and visit teach the same families.  One of them, the Glenns, has just had a major loss.  Bob Glenn was diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks ago.  He died last week.  Wow.  I didn't know that cancer could overtake a person so quickly.  His wife is reeling from the loss of him.  She asked us to sing at the funeral yesterday.  So Layne and I joined with another couple and sang a quartet version of a medley of hymns.  You know singing isn't my favorite thing.  It makes me nervous to sing in small groups.  So I prayed that I would be calm and confident.  When the time came I was filled with peace.  I was able to look folks in the eye and concentrate on the message of the songs.  I didn't know I could do that.  Maybe I'm meant to sing more often.  Not that I'm claiming any great talent in that area, but at least I can hold my own with some level of calm.  At least of late that seems to be the case.

We appear to be becoming more social as we get to know more people.  There is lots to do here and it seems that there are enough people with time to pursue the local sights to provide us with a happy series of invitations.  We are becoming quite the social creatures.  Layne is even relenting on his preference for always staying home and responding to a variety of chances to do things with new friends.  I think it is a very good thing.

Layne spends much of his time working in our acre.  It is looking lovely.  I take great pleasure in the beauty that is sprouting out of our ground.  And there is green grass everywhere I look.  Grass.  What a pleasure it is.  We are surrounded by green.  I love it!

Here you can see that green grass that seems so wonderful to me.

The lovely garden that grows outside our basement windows.

A view of part of our back yard, with Layne's garden in the back,
a view beyond that and stormy skies overhead.  Beautiful, I think.

Tomorrow we are driving to Salt Lake to visit Layne's twin brother and my sister and her hub.  I'm so looking forward to spending time there.  But I'm not looking forward to driving there in our old truck.  If you remember, it is only good for 55 miles per hour or so.  I anticipate a longer drive than I was hoping for.  But it will be good for hauling home some of the items from Gerald's house that he has offered to let us use.  He and Frances have decided to rent out their Draper home.  So the many items inside must be stored somewhere.  Why not some of them with us!  It'll be a blessing, even if we have to use the truck to make it happen.