Challis Power

Jimmy's baptism All there!  All smiling?  The rain showers keep coming.   Seattle or Salt Lake? The hills are brilliant green, the wild grasses four feet tall.   Temple Square is awash with color—purple, red, yellow, orange, white. Wonderful!   It only took about three days to “flip” the beds from the spring bulbs and pansies to the summer annuals.   We learned on the Garden Tour today that there are twenty-five professional gardeners who design the gardens, then hundreds of volunteers come and implement the design.                    The rain splashed down in Kansas, too, while we were there last week for Jimmy’s baptism and for Noel and Darrin’s marriage celebration for their Kansas friends.    Thankfully, the evening of the celebration was beautiful even if the strong breezes did make us scrap our plans to use table cloths at the outdoor venue.   It was ...

The oldest and youngest Together at the Temple--a good place to be Most of the tulips have disappeared from Temple Square.   We miss their splendor, but no doubt, the beds will soon be popping with flowers of a different variety.   We noticed on our walk this morning up Cedar Creek Canyon that the creek is running very high.   The snow on the high mountain peaks is gradually receding.             The warmer weather has brought more “business” to the Library, which is the opposite of what I would expect.   I wish we could re-tract the roof or pull the computers outside.   Besides helping guests, I have also been reviewing missionary training lessons and Elder Challis has been helping our zone leader with scheduling.   The decision to open the Library on Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons, beginning the first of June, has been made.   But we are still not sure of full-time missionary ...

Celebrations!   We feel blessed that in the past two weeks we were able to be with every member of our family as they gathered for Noel and Darrin’s sealing in the Draper Temple.   It was especially sweet that we could be in the celestial room with all seven of our children and their spouses, plus my three siblings and some of Elder Challis’ siblings.   Many felt the presence of “those who’ve gone before.”   The desire of Noel’s heart was that her grandparents could witness her sealing after years of prayers, hope, and faith.   Not just coincidence that President Hansen said during the ceremony that there were “other witnesses.”               The party afterwards at Wheeler Historic Farm was full of hydrangeas, sunshine, smile-for-the-pictures, tacos, cake, friends, cousins, laughter, and love—and a few excited children.    They were especially excited about the groom’s cake which Megan...

We are blessed to have President Fenn as our mission president.   I am not sure if we’ve mentioned it before, but he is the son-in-law of Elder Bruce R. McConkie—pretty much meeting the qualifications Elder McConkie must have set for the husband of his daughter.   It seems President Fenn practically has the Standard Works memorized.   He and Sister Fenn gave a presentation on Monday night at mission conference about the witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection.   Interesting and inspiring.               Tuesday, it was announced in our zone that Elder and Sister Challis would begin serving as assistant zone leaders.   Help!   Assistants needing assistance!     We will serve under Elder and Sister Robinson who had been serving as assistants.   Their hands are good hands for the zone to be in. We just need to follow and see if we can lighten their loads—and I need to learn a lot more...

“I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be” comes to mind as we walk around Temple Square.   I thought the flower display was wonderful two weeks ago, but it has grown in color and brilliance.   And the blossoms are out—pink and white popcorn trees everywhere!   We see a row right outside our balcony window, west of the Conference Center.   For good reason, Temple Square has become a popular place for picture taking.   So fun to see families together.             The number of patrons has increased at the Library—there’s not so much time to work on our own research, nor to lop off twigs and branches that have been erroneously attached to families in the tree or to straighten tangled branches.   (Please don’t mess with “my” dead!)     I always cheer inwardly (sometimes outwardly, too) when I am able to help someone find information important to them—like the maiden name of a wom...

The 2019 Challis Baby Club is complete (maybe?) with the arrival of Phillip Jon Nauman on March 30, about 5:00am.   Jaynie was scheduled for an induction on April 11 if he hadn’t shown up by then.   He was a thoughtful little guy and saved his mom twelve-last-days-of-pregnancy-that-seem-like-twenty-four.    It was nice that Elder Challis and I were already close by helping Lindsey with the twins on our p-day as she returned to her teaching job.    So I “moved camp” to Jaynie’s to care for Henley and Hal, Friday night through Sunday.   Then Jaynie and Ki brought Phillip home.   Happy family!                 It was hard to leave the babies and come back to the library, but I got to help a patron today by tending her baby.   I guess that service would go in the “other” category on our report. The young mother thought her baby boy would be content sitting on her lap while she...

March Madness!   Yes, the Challis KU fans are sad that the Jayhawks lost in the second round, but the first round was great, especially because Elder Challis got to go to the game with some of the kids at the Vivint Arena, just three blocks from our apartment.   Henley (almost 4) and Hal (almost 2) were my buddies at the apartment.   Long hall ways for running and elevators for button pushing are pretty fun.             My hopes that there would be some “spillover” from the tournament into the Library were realized when a couple of young statisticians showed up and wanted to “learn what it was all about.”   I helped one of them set up an account and start his tree.   Family Search then came up with some records of his family. He was amazed--and he was hooked, especially interested to learn more about his grandfather.   I am sad when someone tells me that they don’t know their grandparents because...