Andrew's First Baptism

Andrew has been in the mission field almost 2 1/2 months and just had his first convert baptism this past weekend. I thought his letter was so great that I want to share part of it with you (fyi-Elder Jergensen is Andrew's companion):

Dear family,
    Erik Harmon was baptized on September 26th, 2009 and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on September 27th, 2009.  That was my first convert baptism!  A baptism is really energizing, it makes you realize that your work has finally paid off.  I didn't do anything personally except be in the circle where Erik received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, but that doesn't matter.  At all.

    Erik has a really strong testimony.  He bore it twice, once at the baptismal service after he was baptized, and again in church after he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  He says that he was unsure about the truthfulness of the church.  There were two things he looked at, the aspect of the church he could see without faith, and then with faith.  He said that the things the church did were great and everyone lived what they believed, unlike a ton of other churches he's seen.  It was only after he went to Nauvoo and to Carthage Jail that he gained his testimony of Joseph Smith, that he really was a true prophet of God and that this really was the true church that Jesus Christ and God established on the earth.  Erik said he knew the church was true by the power of the Holy Ghost, and he said he wanted the responsibility, the blessings, and everything that the church had to offer.  He is a great man and now, a really solid member.
     
Now for something fun from Andrew's email:

By the way, Jeremy Oborn ( my BYU roommate) is Elder Jergensen's friend from High School.  I knew that both Jeremy Oborn and Elder Jergensen went to Logan, but it never really clicked that they might have known each other until Elder Jergensen looked though my directory and said, "Dude, Oborn was in your ward?  That's crazy!  He was my best friend back in High School.  We hung out all the time at school."  To which my response was, "Yeah, I know him, he was my roommate!  We lived in the same room for a year.  You were friends with him?"  It's a small world.  Even smaller if you're LDS.
 

"Annie" and my talented kids

Workshops for the Jr High and High School's combined cast for the musical "Annie" were Monday and Tuesday. Tryouts were Wednesday. Callbacks were Thursday...Hannah was 1 of 8 called back for the roll of Annie and Eric was 1 of 4 called back for Daddy Warbucks. Glen said they had 100 tryout, so that's pretty good that they made it to call backs.

Even though Eric was willing to shave his head, they gave the roll to another. Should I pretend to be sad? I guess I am a little bit. But Eric gets to be President Roosevelt and another character.

Jamee Wohle, one of Hannah's friends, will be Annie. Hannah will be "Duffy," who's an orphan. I envisioned Hannah wanting to cut and perm her beautiful red hair for the roll of Annie...so glad she won't as I can't picture that!

Any talent in singing and acting and the desire to be on the stage must come from Glen (though if they can inherit some things from my sister that's a possibility, too), because they certainly didn't get it from me.

Way to go kids!!!

Garden report

OK, I knew radishes grown here would be bitter. Glen and Alex planted some anyway...and they were definitely bitter. That didn't stop Glen from eating some anyway. (of course, I don't like them even when they aren't bitter)
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Another disappointment was the cucumbers. We grew one plant...and it's produce was also too bitter to eat.
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The watermelon was a mix. One we picked too soon and it had no flavor. The other 2 have been pretty good. We've also had a couple canteloupe and they were very sweet. I think there's a honeydew out there still waiting to be picked.
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We are sure enjoying our tomatoes and zucchini. Banana peppers were good, too.
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The pea harvest was extremely poor...maybe a cup total, but then again we didn't have too many plants to start with.
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Still have to harvest the winter squash and my eggplant and red bell peppers.
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Anyway, thanks Glen and Alex for putting our garden in!!!

my daughter...should I strangle her or hug her?

If you go down 2 posts you will see that there are 2 back-to-school photos now whereas a few hours ago, there was only one...I just realized Hannah added the one where she is giving a crazy face. Did she think I wouldn't notice???

The funny thing is that when I posted the original photo, I signed out of my blog account because I was afraid that when Hannah saw it she would delete the photo altogether.

I cannot figure her out sometimes.

The "blessing" of bad genes

I blame my Dad's side of the family. I'm told that's the side I take after, so that's where I'm pointing my finger.

I had a check-up at the end of July and my cholesterol is back up. It was 244. I've had it as high as 289 before, but then I was able to keep it down around 205...but now it's creeping back up. So the doctor asked if I wanted to try to get it down by myself again (without prescribed drugs) and I said I sure did.

Not going on meds is a BIG motivating factor for me (hence the "blessing" of bad genes). In the past 5 weeks I have not been dieting to lose weight, but I have been walking almost every day and I have adapted my diet (who knew I could survive on so little cheese?). As of this morning, I am down 12 pounds!

In February I had posted about my weight. I was at 172 then, but by my doctor's visit I was up to 180...so I'm now at 168. Which is very thrilling. (I try not to think of where I could be now if I hadn't gained all those pounds at the end of winter...I could be at 160...trying not to think about that...I'm happy at 168...as long as I keep losing...)

I have to say Glen is losing weight too. And since we were both dropping pounds so rapidly I really worried that our scale was broken and that I really wasn't losing any weight. I had Glen double-check his weight with the scale at school and it looks like our scale is probably not broken. What a relief.

So, my genes lead me to a disposition to high cholesterol...and staying off meds motivates me to eat right in a way that wanting to lose weight doesn't...and so I'm doing better. Hence, my bad genes have been a blessing!

So, thanks Dad, for passing your genes along to me!

I'll find out in a few months if any of this is affecting my cholesterol levels...sure hope so.