The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” ³⁵
This quotation came to me very strongly as I thought about our stake conference yesterday. There were wonderful talks and discussions about enriching our Sabbath day observance and the importance of the sacrament. This work is progressing and we are feeling the weight of hastening the work of the Lord. We have some days that seem to be more productive than others, but we are feeling the press of time. We have just over nine months left on our calling and we have many things to do. Shortly there will be some changes in our mission because the new mission president will be here in just over two weeks. Transfers are coming in just ten days and those transfers will determine which mission our young missionaries will serve for the balance of their times in the field.
Last Monday we attended our son-in-law; Ron Jensen's fathers funeral in Clifton, Idaho. Henry Jensen was a good man and he and his wife had seven children, all about a year apart. The children were raised in the Gospel and are good and thoughtful people. All of the children and a couple of grandchildren took part in the services. It was a fitting tribute to a good, hard working, gentleman farmer who died while saying his prayers in a facility in Preston.
We had one of those memorable visits when we returned from the funeral. We called a sister who is nearly ninety years old. We asked her when a good time would be to come and visit her, she said, "right now." So we drove over and she talked to us how much she loved the Lord and her family. Then she said how much she appreciates the young men who deliver the sacrament to her each Sunday. The last Sunday she told us how one boy rode his bike as he balanced the sacrament trays. She doesn't feel like she has done all she needs to do in life but we assured her that taking care of her family was of utmost importance, What a sweet spirit we felt as we visited with this dear sister!
After dinner we had a great time teaching family history to a young family with four children in our own ward.
On Wed we had a visit scheduled and we wondered about the children. They had a son 18 and one four. How we enjoyed that visit! The older boy has his mission call to the Philippines, and will be leaving in about a month. The younger boy was inquisitive and bright. We had a great time talking about how family history can be an asset in missionary work and talked with the family about some ideas on researching and finding stories about their family.
Thursday we drove to Pleasant View to pick up Sis Frazier from an exchange, then later had a great dinner with a family that we had shared a dinner with about a year ago. It was a fun visit, the children were excited about discovering family information and see how they had matured. Their mother is the Primary president and their father is on our high council.
After dinner we split up and went with counterparts in the stake single adult committee. We brethren made several visits but found only one person at home. Ruth went with the sisters and they found four people home and invited them to a barbecue coming up next week.
 Friday we spent a lot of the day working at home. Ruth had tried to download some video for our visits on her computer. She downloaded one item that brought an avalanche of garbage with it and basically crashed her computer when she tried to clean it off. With some help from our son-in-law Sid, we have pretty much gotten things back to normal. When we called to verify our dinner for the evening, the sister said, "This will be your favorite meal." When we arrived she had prepared a meal of burgers and salad. The burgers were from a recipe of her grandmothers called apple burgers. The patties are made of hamburger and sausage. Then topped with fried bacon strips, apple slices, Dijon mustard mixed with honey and served on a thin bun like a pita pocket. Wow, what a meal! The three children were a delight and excited for the booklets and coloring pages we left with them.
Saturday we spent a lot of the day on the road. We were on our way to Eureka to a memorial for our sister-in-law, Carole Ann Castleton who died last week. We couldn't go past Eagle Mountain without seeing our grandchildren. Keith was working and some of the children were busy with other activities. We had a good visit anyway and then headed out for Eureka. It was good to see the four children and their families. They put on a nice meal and some good memories were remembered during the memorial. The family had good support from people in the community. It was good to be there to support the family. Gloria and Royal were in Italy on vacation, Elizabeth and Harold were in Washington with family so that left Chuck, Lavon and George to represent the family. Of course Nick was there with his children.
 Sunday was our stake conference. Priesthood leadership meeting was a different format. Several brethren were given scripture references when they arrived at the meeting and asked to lead a discussion on the topic of the scripture. We had a discussion on the importance of the sacrament and the atonement of Christ, the importance of fasting and prayer, how the Sabbath day can be a delight, obedience.
Our general session was held in three different buildings including the stake center. The topics were changing our hearts, fasting and prayer, following our Savior, and Keeping the Sabbath Day holy.
Following a delightful dinner with a member family with four wonderful children we attended a musical fireside presented by our young elders and sisters. They had asked several recent converts to bear their testimonies and they were wonderful. What a full day but a wonderful day.