Elder Nat is "currently" serving in a rural town called Codegua. One of the highlights this last month was a woman in the branch getting baptized. He wanted to do something special for the occasion and so he asked for the recipe and made my family's lemon cookie recipe. These cookies are one of his favorites "currently". He felt that the baptism went really well even though there were so many things that seemed to be going wrong leading up to the ordinance. He felt so grateful that she persevered and did get baptized. He doesn't write a lot each week but he seems very happy and has a positive attitude even when things go wrong. For example, his tire on his bicycle blew up and then his companion's bike completely broke and is not fixable-so they are "currently" waiting for new bikes.
Lindsay is "currently" a Senior in high school this year. Some of her "current" classes are ASL 4, A' cappella, and Chamber choir. She also is "currently" the president of the new ASL club. They held their first official activity today and she felt that it went well. They met during lunch and had donuts and played signing games. She is "currently" enjoying these classes and seems to have an exciting year ahead.
Ethan is "currently" a ninth grader. He is also "currently" playing soccer and his team so far has started well by winning their first two games. Ethan is also not very happy in some respects as he "currently" is wearing braces (round 2). He will have them on for about 18 months and then he will be done with braces for good. He is "currently" very busy with school and soccer and will soon be working on his Eagle scout project.
Clarissa is "currently" a sixth grader this year. She is also "currently" enjoying being 11 years old as she celebrated her birthday this last month. Because she turned 11, we had to do a Harry Potter birthday party. It is a tradition in our family. We had the girls come and get "sorted" into different houses. We then had the "wand choose the wizard" and then went downstairs for transfiguration (Charades), and Defense against the Dark Arts (Harry Potter werewolves game), and then Quidditch and then finished with Potions (making butterbeer). The girls had a blast! We were so grateful for my sister-in-law who let us borrow the cool things that she made. Clarissa felt like it was one of her best birthday parties she has ever had. She "currently" is working hard to get everything done everyday and be responsible.
Zachary is "currently" in Kindergarten. He is loving feeling like a big kid because he gets to go to school with the other big kids. I can't believe that my baby is in Kindergarten. I will admit that one of us shed some tears that day-I will let you guess who ;) He is also "currently" playing soccer again this year and is on a team with all of his friends being coached by his Dad. Needless to say, he "currently" loves soccer.
Well, this month has been difficult. At the beginning of the month, we found out that Travis has been let go from his "current" employer due to some restructuring. He has been working for this company for 20 years. All month long, I have been thinking of a talk given by a distant relative, Elder Hugh B. Brown, about a "currant bush".
" I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and went after it, and I cut it down, and pruned it, and clipped it back until there was nothing left but a little clump of stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven't entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it, and smiled, and said, "What are you crying about?" You know, I thought I heard that currant bush talk. And I thought I heard it say this: "How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me, because I didn't make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here." That's what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, "Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn't intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and some day, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down, for caring enough about me to hurt me. Thank you, Mr. Gardener."
Time passed. Years passed, and I found myself in England. I was in command of a cavalry unit in the Canadian Army. I had made rather rapid progress as far as promotions are concerned, and I held the rank of field officer in the British Canadian Army. And I was proud of my position. And there was an opportunity for me to become a general. I had taken all the examinations. I had the seniority. There was just one man between me and that which for ten years I had hoped to get, the office of general in the British Army. I swelled up with pride. And this one man became a casualty, and I received a telegram from London. It said: "Be in my office tomorrow morning at 10:00," signed by General Turner in charge of all Canadian forces. I called in my valet, my personal servant. I told him to polish my buttons, to brush my hat and my boots, and to make me look like a general because that is what I was going to be. He did the best he could with what he had to work on, and I went up to London. I walked smartly into the office of the General, and I saluted him smartly, and he gave me the same kind of a salute a senior officer usually gives-a sort of "Get out of the way, worm!" He said, "Sit down, Brown." Then he said, "I'm sorry I cannot make the appointment. You are entitled to it. You have passed all the examinations. You have the seniority. You've been a good officer, but I can't make the appointment. You are to return to Canada and become a training officer and a transport officer. Someone else will be made a general." That for which I had been hoping and praying for ten years suddenly slipped out of my fingers.
Then he went into the other room to answer the telephone, and I took a soldier's privilege of looking on his desk. I saw my personal history sheet. Right across the bottom of it in bold, block-type letters was written, "THIS MAN IS A MORMON." We were not very well liked in those days. When I saw that, I knew why I had not been appointed. I already held the highest rank of any Mormon in the British Army. He came back and said, "That's all, Brown." I saluted him again, but not quite as smartly. I saluted out of duty and went out. I got on the train and started back to my town, 120 miles away, with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. And every click of the wheels on the rails seemed to say, "You are a failure. You will be called a coward when you get home. You raised all those Mormon boys to join the army, then you sneak off home." I knew what I was going to get, and when I got to my tent, I was so bitter that I threw my cap and my saddle brown belt on the cot. I clinched my fists and I shook them at heaven. I said, "How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done-that I should have done-that I haven't done. How could you do this to me?" I was as bitter as gall.
And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, "I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do." The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness and my bitterness. While kneeling there I hear a song being sung in and adjoining tent. A number of Mormon boys met regularly every Tuesday night. I usually met with them. We would sit on the floor and have a Mutual Improvement Association. As I was Kneeling there, praying for forgiveness, I heard their voices singing:
"It my not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea:
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me;
But if, by a still, small voice He calls
To paths that I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I'll go where you want me to go."
I arose from my knees a humble man. And now, almost fifty years later, I look up to Him and say, "Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me."
I don't know what the future holds for our family. I am nervous because of the unknown, but I also know that somehow, things will work out. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and our children and that things will work out for our good.
My "moment of joy" was when Travis and I went to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants to "celebrate" a new chapter in our lives. I felt at peace being with him and I know that this trial can help us to grow even closer.
Cathy
*The school pics were from my Facebook post of , "Coming to a school near you!!!" You get the picture. Anyway, there will be drama, action, mystery, and romance etc. That is why the kids are holding different objects. Also, I will try to get a birthday picture of Clarissa posted soon :)
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