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

To my sister, example, and friend.

I have really enjoyed doing my service this year for Ashley. I love the opportunity it provides for me to put myself in her shoes I’m serving and think of how they would act. I feel like I have grown so much closer to her this year not just because of the service but because I realized more and more how similar we are. 

When we went up to visit in November I was reminded of how similar we are. When she asked me if I wanted to wake up at 5:30 and go exercise I was all In! When she came down to visit us for Thanksgiving and I asked her if she wanted to go play basketball the night before Thanksgiving at 9 PM at night she was all in!

I reached out to her mom and sister to get more inspiration and it really did sound similar to descriptions of me growing up!

"She was determined in anything she tried .... She was elected student body president of her elementary school. Using a little machine she made hundreds of buttons using the slogan, “Cash needs Ash” which took her campaign over the top. She loved soccer and basketball and was very aggressive on the field and court. She was sort of tomboyish, never into makeup or fashion. Always had her hair pulled back in a pony tail."

"Ashley is determined and a problem solver...when she was just barely crawling my mom notes how if she got in a jam (like stuck under the table or something) she would persevere and keep trying until she got out of the jam...while Suz and I would just stop and cry when we were her age and in the same situation.  She has been like that her whole life - a doer, a hard worker, a problem solver. She is determined and will persevere in the face of a challenge."

"Ashley has also always had a tender heart to those less fortunate.  I have seen that throughout her life, but especially noticed how patient and compassionate she was as she helped women who were struggling when she served as RS Pres.  She could talk freely with me as I was not in her ward/stake,  but she always spoke with such kindness about those who needed help, even if their circumstances were a result of their own poor decisions.  I love her Christlike compassion."

To follow Ashley‘s example I decided to try to up my game in my calling as a primary teacher. I really love my calling. I love the lessons and I love my primary kids. As I was unpacking my Christmas decorations this year I found a Christmas ornament that one of Hadley‘s old teachers had made for their primary class. It was so fun to look at the picture from a few years ago and see how all of those kids had grown so much. I decided to embrace that and apply it to how I can improve in my calling and using my pretty terrible craft skills I attempted to make ornaments for each of my primary class. Although they didn’t turn out as perfect as I would have liked I hope each of my students will love it.

Ashley my dear sister. I hope you know how much I truly love you. I am so grateful to have you as a sister but more important to have you as a friend. I get so excited every time I see a Marco Polo from you. I love knowing that I can laugh with you cry with you be uplifted spiritually with you and learn and grow from you.

Since I was just a cardboard cut out at your wedding, the only thing I knew about my new sister-in-law when I was on my mission was she was a gorgeous brunette with long brown curls (based on wedding pictures) that made my brother so extremely happy! I had no idea at the time that we had so much in common and would become dear friends.

The last thing I channeled my inner Ashley for was helping my husband with his Christmas service. This year at Thanksgiving my heart exploded with joy attending a temple session with Chuck and Ashley as the witness couple. This year I have recognized their efforts to support each other in recognizing things they can improve and also looking for ways they can support each other better.

As Michael and I prayed about our Christmas services, I felt very strongly that part of my service was to support my husband in getting his done. We felt Ryan very strongly in our home as we worked on the video. I loved feeling the power of our brother in our home, reminding us how much he loves his daughters and reminding us of the truthfulness that all of us are an eternal family. It reminded my once again that there is no such thing as "in-laws" in heaven. 

Ashley, I am grateful to be your eternal sister!

Love me