Week of March 15 - 21, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was very different as we remained home and could not attend church. We both got dressed as though it was Sunday

 and basically went through our same studies of Come Follow Me lessons, journal writing, indexing, etc. Our bishop is working out some way for our young men to deliver the Sacrament to each home. We will need to provide the bread and water and have the bread already torn up. They will come in gloves, will bless it and then will use hand sanitizer as they leave. To be honest, it will be a real challenge to partake of the emblems of the Savior's death while the Aaronic Priesthood is fearful to come near us. We shall see what happens.

We enjoyed a lovely visit with Grandma on Sunday morning and she is doing very well, and since the quarantine affects any visits to her brother, Loyd, she is using the time to clean kitchen cupboards and have some lunches out with Jenny, Kayty and me.

No temple this week with all temples closed.

I so enjoyed my Come Follow Me studies of Jacob 5-7 in the Book of Mormon every day after returning from my jog. I continue to listen to at least one General Conference talk per day.

I have indexed 5214 records and reviewed 29198 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

We talked to Allison and Adam on Sunday night. They are hanging in there and are healthy and happy. Mike's workload has most certainly increased as he continues at Amazon. With the closing of the temples, her work hours there have been greatly decreased, though they will try to give her some hours. She is already setting up a schedule for the kids so they have time for helping out, for reading, for school work, and for recreation. Adam is not sad about school being out, though he will miss his history class. He quickly completed a packet that should have taken much longer. Grace is terribly disappointed in the situation since she was supposed to receive her Young Womanhood Recognition Award at church as well as participate in musical presentations. Josh and Sam are always trying to be happy kids, though their soccer practices are also put on hold. We got to text Grace a bit on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Nevada governor closed all non essential businesses, so no more temple work unless called. On Wednesday, we MarcoPolod with Grace and Josh. They took a long walk and ended up at a convenience store in their neighborhood. Though their coupon had expired, the clerk gave them each a soda to drink. Allison got a few work hours at the temple this week. Grace is excited about life though not terribly happy about missing a Saturday night dance. The youngers got schoolwork and contact online this week and enjoyed that.

It was just wonderful to be able to Marco Polo on a few occasions this week!!

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan and Cameo are both working from home now and the kids are doing their best to stay busy. We FaceTimed on Wednesday and got to talk to the kids. Kaylee was practicing her karate and gymnastics. Their garden is doing well and seeds are coming up. When the weather is good, they get to play outdoors and ride on their scooters and motorcycles. They are adjusting to long work hours for both mom and dad and staying home and away from school. It was so nice to FaceTime with them a few times!

The Doran Rice Family
Here are some wonderful pics of Amber's visit with her dad last week.

On Sunday evening, Kooper fell off a neighbor's trampoline and broke both his ulna and radius right above the wrist. The lower hand/wrist was actually bent due to the complete fractures so Kooper had to be put to sleep for them to be able to reset the bones and put them in a temporary cast. After swelling had gone down they put on the permanent cast. Doran stayed at the hospital with him while the hospital made Amber and Kelsie go home due to the Corona Virus quarantine.

On Monday, Kooper received lots of calls, treats and a special visit from Uncle Nathan, Aunt Jessica and his cousins. However, Tuesday brought the pain of an injury, leaving Doran and Amber with sleepless nights and work days. We visited on Thursday night and Dad visited on Friday to drop off some of Doran's things that were in a box in the attic.

Happy Birthday in quarantine (referred to as Social Distancing) on Saturday to Doran. Quite a unique birthday to remember!

Morgan

Morgan is doing well and still working.

Kayty

Kayty's work moved home on Wednesday. She set up her "office" as best she could. She likes the casual dress she gets to wear but misses the travel away and her usual routine. She and Grandma attempted lunch this week. They ordered Cafe Rio, picked it up and then brought it home to eat. 

The Nathan Rice Family

We got to FaceTime with Anna and Ellie on Monday night as they were visiting Kooper. It was just wonderful to be able to see and talk to them!

Dad's Garden

I picked carrots this week, along with chard and spinach for Dad's salads. We have tomatoes growing now. Dad harvested a lot of cilantro that volunteered and is drying it. 

Other highlights

Dad and I did LOTS of cleaning this week. The attic was our next task, and it is nearly all emptied out except for Nathan's transformers and one box of his, a few boxes of Kayty and some truck parts.

Explaining to Nano the situation we are in was terribly difficult. I did get a copy of the blog printed up after enlarging the printing, and I told her that would come to her every week until I could visit. Also, Grandma was on the local news, in a whole story about a special phone set up so she can visit Loyd through the window. She was the entire story!!!

I read something this morning that reminded us to document this experience. I tried to share some last week, but sometimes the situation we are now experiencing comes so close to my heart that I must stop and breath...and just not think too much about what is happening. It has been a daily massive change, and every time you feel like you adjust and say, "Ok, I can deal with this", another massive change happens the next day. It was as I studied my "Come Follow Me" lesson on Tuesday morning while I exercised that I received answers to my prayers for help. I listen to a presentation on YouTube by two gentlemen who teach at BYU called Book of Mormon Central, and as they went through the Allegory of the Olive Tree, I began to see that, instead of this being a situation where church members are being saddened, inconvenience, upended, etc, it instead is a time that the Master of the Vineyard is pruning us, digging about us, dunging us, grafting us. It is an opportunity for church members to grow stronger and more nourished roots. It is a chance for us to build our relationship with Jesus even stronger, so that, when this does end, we will be able to better assist in the gathering of Israel and in bringing forth good fruit. When I saw on the internet that retail stores were now closing their doors, I was not as troubled. I also decided to take things one day at a time. Tuesday, I asked to help me find romaine lettuce and other fresh vegetables. As each day is full of news...mostly negative...I had to decide to keep off social media so much and to not pursue stories that included that type of information. It was so helpful to remember that fear and faith cannot go together.