To Darcy from Mike

Guess who? Mike here, code names Awesomeness and Star Lord. Sorry this took so long. I was under the impression there was a prize for last entry. Also, I kind of forgot to post. Kind of boggles the mind but the memory is starting to go.

I have Darcy this year. Yes, the daughter of Amy who works for the airlines. As Amy’s daughter, she has a ticket to ride on any flight where there is space (shout out to Amy for the great service idea for me, I am sure my fellow Canadians enjoyed the cookies).  I had no clue what to do for my service for Darcy. And then the ideas started falling like dominoes. And I decided on one that I thought Darcy could appreciate.

As you may know, I am not a huge fan of playing games unless there is hula pie and a nice Hawaiian beach involved. So my gift to Darcy was to play games for the month of December anytime I was asked (the main beneficiary of this being my wife). Fortuitously, Darcy got to participate in this as well as she was at my house over Christmas and asked if I wanted to play a game with her and Tyler. So we played a game of Werewolf together. In the first round, I was a villager and people tried to besmirch my good name and make me out to be a werewolf. This put my life in serious jeopardy. In the second game, I was the werewolf and all kinds of high jinks ensued. Good times.

Tyler and Darcy are a great couple. Tyler is a great fit for her. Definitely apples to apples. Of course, none of us ever thought she would be an old maid and she made a great decision. Life is like that, a series of important decisions. And marriage is no trivial pursuit. It is a sequence of very small but important steps. If you can, on average, connect four of these steps, you generally end up with a happy marriage.

Anyway, time to sign off. I hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you enjoyed the hullaballoo and the mall madness. I didn’t get everything I wanted. I especially wanted Chubby Checker’s guitar but I didn’t get it. Oh well, there is always next year.

$20 to the first niece or nephew (even if they are a poopyhead) who can email me 20 board/card/dice games from this post. No parents help and no duplicates (Life is in there twice….whoops, just gave you one answer) 1, 2, 3 Go!

To Char love Darcy

This year I was able to help Char with some LuLaRoe things but that really is something I do just to help her because it Char. Not going out of my way so as I was taking a social entrepreneur class I learned about Kiva. It is a micro-finance business which means they are giving out loans to different groups of people and who would normally not qualify for loan in their country. So meet Jacquelynn, when I read about he I thought wow, if Charise would have been born in a Samoan family instead of ours she and Jacquelynn would be best of friends. 

Jacquelynn's Story
Jacquelynn is a 33-year-old mother with six children. She owns and operates a small business of selling elei printing materials at the market to earn a living. She manages her business really well.

Jacquelynn needs a loan to buy rolling materials, paint color, paint brush, elei design, containers, printing machine, fabrics, and a table to assist her in running the business. She has been doing this for more than two years. Jacquelynn hopes to build a small elei shop in her village. She became a member of SPBD in 2016. 

In case you don't know what elei print is I had to look it up too. 

I was able to help lend money to Jacquelynn to get her clothing businesses running smoothly, as I hoped I helped Char. This business is pretty awesome and you can donated to a variety of countries and categories. Each loan has a certain length and you actually have a 96.8% chance of getting your full loan back. So check out Kiva.org I have really loved looking on this website for people to donate to and when the loan is up you can take it out of the "account" or you can reuse that money for another loan. 

I love ya Char! Merry Christmas and manuia le Kirisimasi!

Basketball Jones, I Got a Basketball Jones

Hi all!

I'm happy to be a part of this family. My family hasn't really ever done anything like this, but I think that it's amazing that my new family does. I am also beyond overjoyed to see how well I fit into the Gates Family, at least from my perspective, but that's also not a surprise due to how well I (obviously) feel that my wife and I match up.

The only hard part (of course) about this season of service is not necessarily knowing those in honor of whom I am supposed to be performing my small act(s) of service. I could even say that I know Tiffany, Mike, and Mitzi pretty well because Darcy and I have gone down to Utah a lot since we started dating. Obviously, Garrett and I get along very well because Idaho boys have to stick together. There is a right way to say Boise, after all. However, I drew Michael Hock's name, and I didn't know him at all!

I do know that he is very into sports, and Dad (Wayne) says that I need to mention that he's probably the second best athlete that I've had the pleasure of meeting in person. The first would be Dad himself. I had also heard that the sport of choice is basketball, and so my service fell into my lap from there.

I was at work when one of my coworkers called and said that he wanted to do something to get back in shape. He asked me how good I was at basketball from a 1 to LeBron, and I had to tell him that I was probably only a 2. His response was that I'm probably better than him, and that he would like for us to meet for basketball to help him with his fitness goals.

A byproduct of this call is that I haven't necessarily done my season of service action as of yet, but it is that I will be spending some of my mornings (and losing some of my precious sleep) helping a friend and playing basketball. I hope that Hock would approve!

Love from Tyler

P.S. My middle name is Tyler and my first name is Ryan. Because of that, I tried to add some HTML code to this page in honor of Ryan, but Blogspot takes the fun out of website development.

Click the link first!!! For the Star Wars fan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGddGW1NQ_o&list=FLhxyzDR5wdpF29F9ZPBuZBg&index=2&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGddGW1NQ_o&list=FLhxyzDR5wdpF29F9ZPBuZBg&index=2&t=0s

What I had planned was nothing big, but I know it would put a smile on Garett face if he was here.  My first part of my project was that I wanted to find a way to bring some joy to my coworkers during this incredibly busy time during retail. I decided that I would carry everywhere I went I would carry Star Wars button pins, stickers, and for my co-workers, and Chewbacca Pez. Kids would get ecstatic and tell me how much they wanted to see the new movie and my co-workers came running for the classic old school memories of the taste of Pez. By the end of the weekend my coworkers came up to me hearing that I had some Pez and beg for a pick me up.

Next step was much more terrifying. As a seasonal employee of the Disney Store I feel like I have been lucky enough to be trained in all aspects of the store. However, it seemed to me that only one girl, my supervisor Vienna, ever does the special events inside the Disney theater. It was Star Wars weekend and Vienna tells me that we will not be having trivia because she has to do shipment and nobody else will do it. I learned that it wasn’t a matter of training but lack of volunteers from cast members to do the events. I am by no means up to par with my Star Wars knowledge as Garrett is but I knew that if he came to a Disney Store on Star Wars weekend he would rule at Star Wars trivia. Before I knew it I volunteered myself and found myself with the script, headset, and an audience all within 5 minutes. She wasn’t going to wait for me to change my mind!  I know it sounds like a disaster but never tell me the odds! There were so many kids in the crowd sitting in the front waiting anxiously for me to start. I thought to myself to do or do not. There is no try. This is Disney after all and Garretts passion. To put it simply it was amazing.

 To be able to make people stop and pause for a moment to gather around to celebrate beloved characters from one of the worlds most beloved movie series was special. I knew Garett could have answered every single one of my questions. Garett I love you to the galaxy and beyond!

May the force be with you Garett……. Always

With love from your Jedi in training,

 Dixie

Service, Trying New Things, and Tradition

All that know and love Ed Gates see by his example that he is a hard worker and often serves others through his hard work. Chuck often will share memories with our kids of watching Ed selflessly serve.
One memory that Chuck has shared with me was that Ed (and Kriss) would often be the last to leave after a ward activity to be sure to help clean up. Even when they were not a part of the group leading the activity. At Halloween, a small group of few executed an amazing Trunk or Treat Chili and Chocolate Cook Off. Unfortunately, when the event was over those same few who worked so hard setting up and carrying out the event where doing almost all the clean up.

Eddie and Ernie at the Trunk or Treat event

I was planning to go visit a friend after the party who was in town for just the weekend, so Chuck had taken all the kids home after the party. I decided that instead of immediately leaving to go visit that friend and I thought of the memories that Chuck has of Ed serving others after a ward event and decided to stay to help clean. I went to work in the church kitchen all on my own and just started washing all the trays, bowls, and serving spoons that seemed to just be piled in the sink at the end of the event. I emptied trash cans, wiped down counters, and swept floors.
I have been the one in charge of many of those events and I always appreciated those extra helpers at the end of a long event. Thank you Ed for being a great example of serving others.

At the grocery store before Thanksgiving

 At Thanksgiving this year, Ed was in charge of cooking the turkey and gravy for the family Thanksgiving dinner.  The helpful produce guy at the grocery store convinced Ed that he should brine the turkey, but Ed had never prepared a turkey that way. He decided to try something new - brine turkey and cook it differently than he had done before.
Growing up, using a brine was the only way I had seen a turkey prepped and I have fond memories of learning to cook from my dad. I love that I was able to spend the day with Ed side by side preparing and cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to serve Ed directly (I hope) by helping him with this new technique. It ended up being a beautiful turkey, one that warranted a "ceremoniously carry to the table on a platter for everyone to Oh and Ah over" turkey like you see in movies according to Lani and Charise. Which Ed did proudly.

Gorgeous Turkey!

Also, when I reminded Ed we needed to make the gravy for the turkey, Ed was wanting to watch some football. He had already worked so hard, so I was happy to serve Ed directly by making the gravy for him.
My day of wanting to serve Ed by helping him in the kitchen, turned in to a wonderful gift to myself as we were able to spend a little one on one time that I cannot really remember every doing with Ed. It was a wonderful memory that I will treasure. Now I have memories of cooking side by side in the kitchen with both my fathers.

Next Holiday, Christmas! After working for several years in retail through the holiday season, I pretty much despise going shopping at any time of year, but especially in the month of December.
This year Chuck shared a memory of Ed that I had not heard before - Ed loves going to the mall on Christmas Eve, but not for why you think. Chuck told the kids and I that Papa as a young kid coming from a family with not a lot of money, they would often have friends of their family pick them up and take them shopping on Christmas Eve so that the kids could pick out and buy gifts to give each other on Christmas.
Chuck has memories of going with his Dad and sisters to the mall or swap meet to buy gifts for one another to carry on that tradition or even not to necessarily buy anything at all, but to just feed off the hullabaloo excitement of people watching on Christmas Eve.

Entering the crazy for tradition and memory's sake.

As a service to Ed, I want my children to carry on fun traditions of their Papa. So on Christmas Eve, after Chuck told the kids about the memory he had of shopping for his siblings, we decided to toke the five kids to Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve for them to pick out gifts for one another.

Quite possibly one of my least favorite places to go and on one of the busiest days of the year. It was crazy in full force. Just to give you an idea - there were no carts in the front of the store to grab on your way in at one point. (We luckily snagged one in the parking lot on the way in).

Ernie showing his siblings something he would love. 

After our first 20 mins, I went back to the car and had a good cry because I had a not so great interaction at the customer service desk about a return I was trying to make. I pulled myself together and went back in to find the kids in the toy aisle. They had walked around with each other talking about things they loved and were excited about choosing gifts for one another.

It turned into a great afternoon in honor of a wonderful memory of Papa.

Ed - thank you for your example of hard work, serving others, trying new things, and establishing / carrying on traditions. I am eternally grateful to be your one and only favorite daughter in law.
With Love,
Ashley

Wayne, mountain man!!!

Last Christmas I was shoveling the snow from my driveway. A new Utah resident, I was starting the snow thing. As I was shoveling, I thought, you know what would be awesome, is if I got Wayne for season of service and I shoveled my neighbors driveways as well. And then, I asked Carrie if I could please have Wayne for the year. And I did! So this year, any time it snowed, I would shovel one of my neighbors (or 3) driveways. Many different months for the past year I would try to do one each time I did mine. I Thought of Wayne each time I would shovel. I’m so thankful for you big brother and so glad Heavenly Father sent you to our house to live. Love you! 

Love tiff 

MeiLani.
I just wanted to make your life easier this year. I wanted to help you get to be a fun mom. I hoped to ease your burden a little this year. I have no idea if I helped or hindered.... I might have been so excited to have them around that I spoiled them rotten and returned them more spoiled then you could have even imagined! I wanted to be there for you when you needed to travel so you would know that your kids were still being loved and expected to do their chores and live their morals. Sometimes those were the things that got forgotten when we went out of town and had sitters.

I had no idea how much Brighton would be a part of it. Really all our kids. They love your babies... So. Much!

So all the times I got to snuggle, sit with, drive, teach, practice, sing, scold and love on your babies.....
This year I hope you know what an incredible rock star mom you are!
   

   

   

 

Economics… What is It? Is it all about money?

To begin with, this blog has a little pressure, because we are introducing this to a new member of our family.  By some coincidence, I hav3 been given the distinct privilege to introduce this Blog experience to the new member of our family… Our first grandson-in-law, Tyler Partridge.  In our family, the in-laws are the same as our children.  It is my understanding that Tyler is presently working to finish up getting his degree in economics.  Unless some of you can help me out, I don’t know lots about his history.  I know his Mom has a cookie shop and he has worked there for awhile.   

My options for relating my options to Tyler, in some ways, coincides with his economic degree.  For Tyler’s information, Kriss and I have spent 6 years of our lives in a country that is filled with poverty.  The number one thing in the governments eyes is to put as much money in their own pockets as possible.  Consequently, the poverty of the entire nation is much, muc h worse than our country.  Kriss and I have been associated for 4 of the last 6 years of helping with the orphanage over in the Congo.  Since we have come home, Kriss has talked a great deal about how we can still help a couple of the “Kids” from the orphanage.  There is one young man that we helped a great deal to be able to go serve his Heavenly Father on a mission.  What is a  challenge to us is how to draw a line between enabling and making a sacrifice to help.  Each one of the young men in the Congo have to raise a certain amount of money for their sacrifice for their mission.  We were able to help him earn the money to go by having him clean our home for several months.  

Jonathan has now returned from his mission and was informed that it was time for him to leave the orphanage and go out on his own, as the food is limited for the orphans.  I am sure that his entire belongings were from his mission clothing, and they would fit in one suitcase.  If you can picture this young man, coming home from his mission, with no family, other than the orphanage mom, who raised him, and her sadly telling him he would have to go out on is own.  He had no place to go, no place to sleep, and no money.  So economically, we have decided, thinking of our new grandson, to try to help this young man.  We were able to help him financially get into an apartment, after him searching for a few months.  In the meantime, we helped coordinate for Stan Houghton, the temple contractor, paid for Jonathan to take driving school.  Once he graduated from driving school, he got a job driving for 2 hours a day taking a man to work and his daughter to school each day.  He makes $5 a day, of which $2 goes for his transport.  That leaves him $3 a day.  Now, Tyler, our economic major… knows there is not much you can do to survive on $3 per day.  Sideline, we knew several homeless children well, and became aquainted with them.  Not wanting this to happen to this young man, who we became very fond of, who has adopted us as his parents Mutter Gates and Papa Gates.  We realize that if a young man is able to learn English over there, that it can help immensely, for his future.  Before his mission, he was self-teaching English. Sometime before he went on his mission, we made a loan to a US man who was starting an English school who was to repay us  the money we loaned him.  We could see that the school was not doing well “economically”, so we decided we would use some of the money the school owed us, towards Jonathan’s education in learning to speak English.  We just received his report card this week that he has passed level three.  Level six means he would be completely fluent.

After listening to a talk recently by Elder Uchdorf, he said "Through your efforts to help the poor, the needy, to reach out to those in distress, your own character is purified and forged, your spirit is enlarged and you walk a little a taller.   I decided we would get fully on board to help this young man get a start in life.  I realize that I have gone into some detail here, in something that is very foreign to you.  This picture I am trying to paint is ingrained in Kriss and My lives, to know how blessed we are to live in the United States of America… to have a beautiful family, who we can relate to, who we can call for a chat to be cheered up, and to feel of the love of a family, of parents who love us… no matter what circumstances our children in.  The freedom to jump in a car and drive from one state to another, without being confined to one place…. To have food in our belly, when we go to sleep.  These are things Jonathan doesn’t have.  But he is one of the strongest young men we have ever known.  I never, ever saw one ounce of selfishness as we worked together side, by side, building the wall at the orphanage.  He was about 16 years old at the time.  He was the “Father” image in the orphanage his entire life.  He was young men’s president at the time of 18 young men in his ward, that looked up to him.  

So in conclusion, on behalf of our first new grandson… and him being an economic major, we will be economically supporting this young man by, (1) helping him with his deposit and rent and meager furnishings for his apartment (he uses his own $3 a day for food) and (2) helping him with his education in English, and (3) Helping him get enrolled in the University with a major in computer science technology.  Economically, this is not a financial investment for us.  But it is an investment in a special individual’s life… and building a leader in the gospel in the Congo.

Welcome to the family Tyler.  We are looking forward to getting to know you better.  Happy Holidays.  Love, Papa Gates

Oh Canada!

 My Dear Brother Mike,

This season has been a strange one for me.  I am not homeless, nonetheless, I am without a home and things have been not normal.  I’ve tried to get into the Christmas spirit and thinking about what to do for you has helped me anytime I have felt lost.  I have enjoyed the time I have spent thinking about you and how glad I am that you are a part of our family…my Canadian Brother.

This year, on Christmas Eve, in honor of you, I made 82 Canadian Maple Leaf sugar cookies, and today, on Christmas Day, I gave them out to every passenger on our Air Canada flight.  Merry Christmas.  Love you – Amy

https://youtu.be/y1iUThreUFo