mike and ruth

The Tabernacle Choir will be singing the national anthem at the Utah Jazz’ first home game of the season on Friday October 30. If you want to see or hear them you will need to get your tickets right away! I have heard that the games will not be on commercial television. I have heard some cable stations will have their games but this one might not be available in the local market. The last time the choir sang for a basketball game here was in 2001. We will be rehearsing at the Energy Solutions Arena (pka Delta Center) tonight before the regular rehearsal. Go Jazz!

I was invited to participate in a Basic Training Course for new Boy Scout leaders this weekend at the Maple Dell Scout Camp about 30 miles from home. The course was in Spanish!

My assignment was to help teach Dutch oven cooking (we had a translator) and cook meals for the trainees and the staff. There were 30 people to feed. We went shopping for the food and arrived at Maple Dell early in the evening to prepare for dinner. The evening was beautiful and cool, and the leaders were the most enthusiastic group of trainees I have ever worked with. I have not been active in scouting since I joined the choir 12 years ago except for occasional participation in events like this. Before I was very involved on almost a weekly basis in the District, and on a monthly basis as a roundtable commissioner. At that time I knew most of the scouting leaders in the Utah Lake District. (Now I know very few of the current leaders.) We had dinner and taught our Dutch oven cooking class, put together three fruit cobblers, and then I drove back to town for work. I worked all night and returned directly to the camp to help prepare breakfast. After the meal the only sister (participating with her huaband) went about helping to clean up. It was unexpected but appreciated. I took a nap before lunch. Brent and our assistant got started on lunch before I returned and they had the sandwiches all made. We didn’t cook for lunch but served a cold meal that was enthusicastically shared by the participants. After a nature hike for the trainees were were engaged to teach methods of cooking without utinsels (pots, pans, stoves, etc.) by suggesting ways of cooking food on a campfire without them. This was a subject they were a little less interested in (they were also getting tired), and after the first few minutes it was decided to shorten the class and have them move on to their next– and final class. We cleaned up, again with the help of one sister, and left for home late in the afternoon. It was a successful venture and good to see that the leaders of Spanish-speaking units are so enthusiastically embracing the program of teaching the boys about scouting. It was an inspiration to see this excitement.

Singer and songwriter Natalie Cole and famed historian David McCullough will take the stage with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square on December 10-13 for “The Wondrous Gift of Christmas.” This is going to be another of a series of memorable performances in the 21,000 seat Conference Center complete with coreography and music written especially for this concert by Music Director Mack Wilberg. We look forward with great anticipation to the experience we will be a part of. Many of us are very excited about the oppportunity of working closely with this well-known and beloved musician. She has been an institution to music in the United State for decades, following in the footsteps of her father Nat “King” Cole. See details about the concert at http://www.lds.org/events/info/0,8197,726-1-740,00.html#.

Mom and her four sisters and their mother (Grandma) are enjoying a well-deserved retreat together near Park City at Exclusive Resorts, which is the company for which Uncle Robert works. He made the arrangements for them and they all went up for a few days. I hear that they are enjoying their time together and are working on a few projects. We all hope that they have a great time and enjoy their “time off” with each other. Mom was worried about us but we are getting along OK without her. It helps us appreciate the many things she does for us, because we now have to do them for ourselves. Thank you dear, for all you do, and have a good time!

I just finished my second year working nights at Convergys for NetApp. It has been a good experience most of the time, supposing that challenges are going to take place no matter where you work. I spend time there with some great people, which makes the experience of working at night more tolerable and sometimes downright entertaining. NetApp has a lot of great products that we support, and it is a pleasure speaking with NetApp customers. Occasionally we are called for issues that are not ours but we try to help the customer see where the issue is so it can be resolved.

This photo is a view of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. It is the featured photo of the day on Wikipedia, and was a candidate for picture of the year in 2007. It was also the picture of the day one day in 2007. We live in a place that is so beautiful! Photos like this one are so amazing to me. I have always been fascinated by the stars and constellations in the skies. In junior high school I was a member of the astonomy club, hosted by Mr. Miller. Many of my friends were also in the club. I have seen the planet Saturn through the telescope at the University of Utah. The rings were so amazing to see. Photos taken in recent years of Saturn and its moons are just amazing to me. I have a few friends who have timers that will allow them to take time exposure photos of the moon and stars, which will keep the camera in place while the earth moves. This makes it possible to take photos of celestial objects over time with clarity. A time exposure of the moon becomes a stripe of light without such equipment. We live in a fascinating world.

I hope that as you looked around for TV programs to watch this past weekend, you encountered broadcasts of LDS General Conference among the things you saw available on television. It was definitely a memorable conference for me. The choirs sang some wonderful music, my brother was the director for the Saturday evening Priesthood session, the organists for each of the conference sessions are people I know. The talks were very timely and memorable. President Monson announced five new temples including one for Brigham City, Utah. The Presiding Bishop spoke about honesty and many other similarly-spelled words. Elder Holland passionately proclaimed the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and its divine origin with the actual book owned by Hyrum Smith in his hand. We heard from numerous General Authorities who were native speakers of other languages, more than I can ever remember ever hearing before. The church is truly becoming very international. There are more members of the LDS church outside of the United States than in the United States. More members speak Spanish than English. It is amazing how the truth is being accepted by people around the globe. An outline of the speakers and their talks from each Conference session is available on the LDS Church News website at http://www.ldschurchnews.com/conference/ During a historic 16-day tour of Africa on Aug. 16-31, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated Cameroon and Rwanda for the preaching of the gospel. In so doing, he became the first known apostle to ever set foot in either nation. It was a memorable occasion for everyone there to visit with him and witness the dedication of these great lands for the preaching of the gospel. “These were days not soon to be forgotten” will be entered in the diaries of many who were witnesses of these events.

On October 1st we had snow in the mountains of Utah, as far south as Utah and Carbon Counties. Here is a photo of Mt. Timpanogos (11,749 ft.) that I took today looking at the mountain from the west. You can see the fall leaves that remain after the rain and wind the past few days. The weather is unseasonably cool, with many northern Utah valleys reaching below the freezing mark overnight in the past two days. The low in our area is forecast to be 33 degrees tonight. It is already 37 degrees right now, with mostly clear skies. It is very nice to have it be cool but we have not really seen fall weather as high temps were in the 85-90 degree range less than a week ago. We hope that real fall weather will return for at least several weeks. It frequently snows before November but here’s hoping that the first winter weather waits at least until Halloween (Oct. 31) or later.

Here are some fall pictures I took today when Mom and I took Kristen and Grandma for a short drive during lunch. We went up Provo Canyon and then up the South Fork of Provo Canyon just a few miles. I was not able to see the fall colors the past few years before storms came and most of the leaves were off of the trees. Grandma said that when they lived in the east they always wanted to travel to Vermont to see the fall colors. She added that the colors there could not be any more brilliant than those we were seeing today. The east usually has spectacular colors in the fall. So, I hope that you easterners enjoy these few pics taken in the west. Enjoy the brilliant colors!

Our good friend Dave Palfreyman succombed to cancer this week. Here is his obituary for those who knew him. This was a surprise to us, we found out about his illness only last week.
Beloved husband, father, and son, David Kent Palfreyman, 55, of Orem, UT, died Monday, Sept., 21, 2009 at his home of liver cancer. He was born June 18, 1954, in Provo, Utah, a son of Kent B. and Anna Marie Creer Palfreyman. He married Denise Hatch August 11, 1977, in the Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple. They were later divorced. He married Kaylene Casper February 14, 2009, in Midway, Utah. He graduated from Springville High School in 1972. Afterwards, he attended BYU earning a Bachelors Degree in Communications. He toured with the Young Ambassadors and the Sounds of Freedom as their master of ceremonies. Dave was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in the Germany Dusseldorf Mission from 1973-1975, and held many church callings. Dave worked at Lockkhart Loan Company and then Central Bank for 25 years. He was most recently employed as an Assistant Vice President of Bank of Utah, Orem Branch. Dave was an active citizen. After a number of years of serving on the City of Orem Planning Commission, he was elected to the City Council. He described his public service as an honor and a privilege. He also served in various roles in support of Utah Valley University, through the Wolverine Club and UVU Foundation Board. He was a long time member of the Orem Rotary Club. Dave’s fondest pastimes were watching baseball, football, basketball, and wrestling. He also coached many young athletes these last 20 years. Dave was a friend to, and was loved by many. His kind spirit and jovial outlook allowed him to touch and uplift many who had the blessed chance to know and be known by him. He is survived by his wife, Kaylene; his children, Amber (Ryan) Hellwig, Julia K Palfreyman, Matthew K. (Kelly) Palfreyman, and S. Rhett Palfreyman; his step children, Tiffany (Jared) Wood, Zann Tevor (Trisha) Casper, Keena (Kaleb) Harris; nine grandchildren; his father, Kent, his step mother, Janet; one sister and brother, Annette (Conway) Richards, Mark (Mary) Palfreyman. Funeral services will be held Friday, September 25th, at 11 a.m. in the Orem Park Stake Center, 195 West 300 South, Orem. Friends may call Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Park 10th Ward, 50 South 750 West, and Friday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the stake center. Burial will be in the Springville Evergreen Cemetery, Springville, Utah. Condolences may be sent to www.walkerfamilymortuary.com