I know that living in AZ all my life might make me a little sheltered as to what's out there in the world, but we are seeing flowers, shrubs and trees that we just don't see in AZ. While AZ has it's own beauty, the lush greenness of West Virginia is just stunning. I may have said that at this time last year. It's still true.
First, there are little tiny violets, I'm talking smaller than your baby fingernail, all over. Everywhere you look it's like a purple carpet of violets. Thus the violet jelly from our friend.
The Red bud trees burst open this spring with their magenta flowers and just take your breath away. The dogwood trees have either a white or pink flower when they bloom.
Unfortunately the color on most of the trees does not last very long before the green leaves take over. But for a while it's pretty spectacular.
Then you've got wonderful flowers, Hydrangeas, in pinks, blues and whites all over as well as Peonies in many colors just growing like crazy in peoples yards. When you get 60-ish inches rain a year you get some pretty great plants. I'll tell you, its Almost Heaven.
Our Pathway /Institute classes are going well. Our virtual teaching continues to get a little easier in that we are getting better with this virtual conferencing thing. It isn't quite as scary as it first seemed. We are picking up a few extra students from as far as Michigan. They can join us virtually for their Institute class when before they were to far to drive to a program.
For Mother's Day we set up a Zoom room conference. All of us Traynors were able to be together virtually and had a great visit. It was so fun. There are some fun perks to learning new technology.
Regarding our literacy learners, the Tri-State Literacy council had a yearly recognition dinner for all volunteers and their learners. Their weekly lessons are paying off. Pat and I knew that each of our students had achieved a course completion certificate. We encouraged our students to attend the awards dinner and we attended with them. It was a nice evening.
We had a little challenge this past month. Pat had a crown on a tooth break off. The tooth underneath the crown broke. It happened on a Friday at 12:30 and how many dentists were in their offices, right, none. So he went through the weekend with a hole in his smile. It looked quite hillbilly-ish. Matt said, "Dad, you are going to great lengths to fit in". The quick fix was to have a flipper made that he will wear until he gets home and then our dentist will do an implant and a new crown.
Now for a sweet ministering story. We have a fellow in our ward, Melvin is 63ish, and is in poor health. Last year the sisters tracked him out and he joined the church. This past Monday he was on his way to our monthly empty nesters FHE. As he drove the the church he saw a 90 year old woman sitting on her front porch. She was bent over fanning, trying to stay cool on our 93 degree day, with a hand fan. Melvin saw her as he drove by. He turned his car around and drove into her drive way. He got out and asked her if she had air conditioning. She said no. He told her he had an extra A/C window unit, would she like to have it? She told him it would be nice but that she could not afford to pay him for it. Melvin told her he wanted no payment and returned home, packed up the large window A/C unit, returned to the lady, installed it in her home, showed her how to run it and said, "maybe his will be a little more comfortable for you". She thanked him. He left and came on over to the church. He told us the story and we told him that this is exactly what President Nelson is talking about regarding ministering to each other whether they are members of the church or not. He did a fine thing for someone, and he did not even get her name. He said he just knew she needed help.
We are so excited for the new mission calls. The people of Bentonville, Arkansas will just love Chet and Joy and what experiences await them.
We love you all. Almost Heaven,
Traynors.
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