February 11, 2018

This week everything has been overshadowed by the loss of my beautiful sister-in-law, Linda.

She was such a dear and wonderful friend to me in my life.  Over the years we shared many heartaches and many joyous happy times.  She was always there for me in any circumstance.  My children loved going to her house because they knew they were loved and welcome.  Heaven received a special angel when she left this painful mortality and returned to the joyous presence of those she loves on the other side of the veil.

I am grateful to have received permission to fly home to be with my family as we celebrate her life.  I will fly to AZ on Thursday and return here on Monday the 19th.  It is an extra bonus to be able to see children, grandchildren, siblings and cousins while I am there.  In years past we had impromptu family reunions at wedding receptions.  Now, we have entered the era where those receptions occur at funerals instead.  It is hard to realize that now I am part of the "older generation". I miss seeing the older generation of my youth--Grandma Tenney, Aunt Ruth Lamereaux, etc.  And the older generation for my children,  Mom and Dad, all of my aunts and uncles, (the "grandma-aunts" as Janae referred to her great-aunts--who were too numerous to keep the names straight) etc.  We are truly walking in the footsteps of giants.  I hope I am equal to the task.

This week for us has been pretty low-key.  We have focused on survival as our recuperation from persistent upper respiratory infections has sapped our energy and stamina.  We have worked diligently at the temple all week.  The first day was tough, since I hadn't been vertical for more than a few hours at a time and we suddenly had seven hour shifts everyday.  But we have managed to fulfill our assignments.  We still aren't completely well--but we are on our way!

Spencer continues to work hard on preparing lessons for his temple preparation class.  He is a good teacher and hopefully we will succeed in getting members of the ward to the temple.

From Spencer:
My tender mercy of the week.  On Feb. 16th we had one and a half hours in sealings.  The sealer ran out of family file cards.  I told him I had a handful of them.  I had done the research during the two week break.  He asked me to bring some of them "we may have time".  It turned out that those names were all we did for the next hour.  I was able to assist in the ordinances of relatives of my ancestors that in other circumstances may have taken weeks or months.  We find ourselves in situations where we can promote or perform ordinances because we are there in the temple.
What an opportunity it is!

We love you all,
Jeanine and Spencer