A year has passed in service, great joy doth fill our soul
With friends and family near us, Christ’s birth has made us whole
Another year now calls us, good blessings sure to come
Another year in service, with joy we’ll bring them home
As stated previously, back in April 2025 we left our Pleasant Grove home in the hands of our daughter Melanie, moved our residence to an apartment in Maui, Hawaii, then moved our church records to the corresponding Kahului 1st Ward. We were then called by our new stake president Benjamin Hanks as part-time senior service missionaries with assignment as Group Leaders in Healing through the Savior, 12 Step Addiction Recovery Program. Being called as part-time service missionaries in our new ‘home’ stake, we are free to travel and elected to spend Christmas back home in Pleasant Grove.
We enjoyed the company of our family who live in Utah, and our daughter Lisa who was visiting from Alaska, and wish we could have spent time with family who live in other states. We took care of doctor and dental appointments which included a visit to my cardiologist to address my recurring Atrial fibrillation, and my physical therapist to address ongoing sciatica. We also got some automobile maintenance performed and some leaf raking before the belated snows fall. One day, Joan let me know that her wedding band was missing and that she believed it may have slipped off her finger while putting leaves in large leaf bags for disposal. So, I conjured-up a sifting system out of an old bed frame and kitty fence wire (think chicken wire), and spent a day on my hands and knees carefully feeling my way through six bags of leaves looking for her ring. The exercise was not successful and we are still not certain where the ring is.
On three separate evenings I worked with my son Mike, obtaining lumber and building studded walls for the basement of their new home in Eagle Mountain. It was a lot of work but I enjoyed working with my son and passing on skills I learned from his grandpa. It also gave Joan and I fun time with our grandchildren and we enjoyed meals prepared so well by Mikes wife, Rebecca. While there Joan taught our grand-daughters to crochet.
We had two events at the home of our children Bethany and her husband James and their three boys. The events included a Winter Solstice BBQ, and a Christmas morning brunch. They also came to our home New Year’s Eve. Each of these gatherings were very delightful. We played Banana-grams in there somewhere. We had two events in Lehi at the home of our daughter Jana and her husband Brent Greenhalgh. The first was on Christmas Day, with all our Utah family gathered for good food, gift giving, and enjoyable association. The second was a few days later to celebrate the high school graduation of our grandson Owen who completed high school early and will start BYU immediately. This large gathering included most of the Utah residents from both Jana and Brent’s families. Some personal conversations occurred that we hope were a blessing to people we love.
Our time in Utah included two temple trips with deep reflection and gratitude for God’s plan, mercy and covenants. Our favorite temple is the Provo City Center Temple due to its beautiful woodwork, and sentimental value derived from Joan and I having lived in Provo in our youth. We recall the events there many years ago when the building was the Provo Tabernacle. The other session was in the Mount Timpanogos Temple where years ago we had the privilege of attending the dedication with our older children. During these two sessions I pondered about patterns and sequences in the Plan of Salvation, as well as on God’s many creations, and the evidence each creation provides of the reality of God, the creator (and other deep thoughts and peaceful feelings).
Early in this time at our Utah home, we were able to spend time with our daughter Lisa, who is dealing with some health and other challenges. She returned to Anchorage Alaska on Christmas Eve and safely to her home on Christmas Day. We love her and pray for her blessings. We had lengthy and enjoyable visits with our daughter Melanie who is about to enter her final semester at UVU. She is a nursery teacher in our ward, has great ambitions to be a writer and editor, and we enjoy the time we have with her when we are home. We are grateful to have her taking care of our home in Utah.
On Christmas Eve, Joan, Melanie and I read from the New Testament and watched the 2006 movie, “The Nativity Story.” We pondered the seeking shepherd in the movie who said to Mary, “We are all given something, a gift. Your gift is what you carry inside of you.” We felt the glory and importance and love of Christ’s sacred birth. We felt great love, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Like Nephi we pondered what the angel said to him, “Look and behold the condescension of God!” (1 Nephi 11:26) And like Alma we said in our hearts, “And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold: Yea, my soul was filled with joy…” (Alma 36:20).
As we boarded the plane on New Year’s Day to return to Maui, we felt grateful for the past year of service, our recent time with friends and family in Utah, the wonderful Christmas season, and the months to come of service to our friends in Hawaii. We had a meaningful and blessed season of service in 2025, and we have every confidence that 2026 will also be a meaningful and blessed season in our lives.
A year has passed in service, great joy doth fill our soul
With friends and family near us, Christ’s birth has made us whole
Another year now calls us, good blessings sure to come
Another year in service, with joy we’ll bring them home
It was Christmas of 1909 just before my dad was to come home [from his two-year mission.] We were down to board floors and paper curtains [having sold the furniture piece by piece.] We had large five-gallon lard cans to sit on; a stove, table, and a bed that we all slept in. We sat in bed and sang Christmas carols until…it was time to go to sleep. We only had a bowl of rice that night for our dinner… We went to sleep hoping…for Santa to come. I woke up to the sound of crying. I went into the other room and found Mama crying. I asked what the matter was. She said…she was so grateful and happy to her Heavenly Father, and told me to go back to bed so Santa could come. I…was wakened again by her sobs. I went to sleep the third time and woke up at 7:30 am with mother still crying. As we all came out of the bedroom she made us kneel in prayer before we could see our toys. I will never forget the prayer my mother offered, thanking the Lord for his goodness to us. We then went out on the porch; there was a doll and dishes for the girls, a tool box for the boys and a small decorated Christmas Tree and a basket of food… We danced around the tree and sang and went to bed that night with our hearts full of happiness and our stomachs full of good food. Brother Alma Winn was our Santa and he had eight children of his own… My mother had cried and prayed all that night. Her prayers were answered… How grateful I am for the faith of my mother and grateful…that we five little ones weren’t forgotten by a “Santa” who had been inspired to come and help us in time of need.
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