Father's Day, 15 Jun 2014

We celebrated Father's Day this Sunday.  At church, the speakers covered repentance and then the Primary children sang a song for the fathers.  They handed out a bag of treats to all of the fathers.  It was so cute to see them excited about taking the bags to the men.

The candy at the bottom is like laffy taffy.

I gave him a set of screw drivers and a pair of pliers since he misses not having tools here.  We are not supposed to fix anything; we are to call the engineers to come and take care of things.  He did create a stand out of a wire clothes hanger for our clock.  We are not to put any holes in the walls.

The day was filled with Father's Day greetings from the children: An email from Bob, a card from Nelson, and face time calls came from others.

We made pancakes for breakfast and I didn't burn them!  I have discovered that when the burners heat up, they are hot and continue to get hotter!  I also made meatloaf, dinner rolls, and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for Dad's meal this evening.

We invited Sister George and Sister Renowden to join us for dinner.  We had a lovely time with them and everyone seemed to enjoy the meal.  We all took a moment to share memories of our fathers.

Sister Renowden:  "I can't say much since he walked out on us when I was two."

Sister George:  "He was always there but I really didn't do much with him.  He was in the military and when it came time to re-enlist, my mum didn't want him to, so he didn't.  I think that was always a sad event for him.  He liked the military."

Dad:  "He was Dad.  He married my mom and the two of them raised us."

Me:  "My parents joined the church before I was born.  They raised my brothers and I in the church, always focusing on living the gospel.  The only harsh time I remember of him was the time my brother and I acted up in church.  That evening he had us kneel by the bed and he spanked us with his belt."

After dinner we attended the fireside in the Visitor's Centre about fathers.  Elder & Sister Powers were the guest speakers from Brighton, where they are serving as support missionaries over the YSA program in the stake.  He is a former swim coach from BYU.  They talked about how fathers are teachers; always teaching their children, their family, those they associate with, and teaching themselves, always looking to be better.  And, our Eternal Father is the same way - always teaching.

Six sister missionaries sang a beautiful arrangement of, "Father, Are You Really There?"  They really set the mood for the speakers.  We were blessed to be there and take part in the wonderful spirit that permeated the room.