25 February 2008

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Ed and the Grand Hyatt’s foyer.

25 February 2008 – Monday

Scripture to ponder today: Alma 32:21 – Hebrews 11-12:1 about Faith and Hope. Repeated from yesterday.

Oh how I hate to get up in the morning – that line from a WWII song comes to mind as I think about how I felt when the alarm went off. I quickly stopped it and went back to sleep. The only exercise I had was catching a few more zzzzzzzzzzzz before getting out of bed. The morning went as usual. I finished yesterday’s journal, read some e-mail – including Janice Creer’s mission letter – received a Skype call from Tom which we will continue when we get to the office – and read from the Kitab Mormon.

As I finishing yesterday’s journal I realized I had not taken the time to ponder the scripture of the day. There was no excuse for that because I had plenty of time to read the scriptures. Hopefully this experience will help me to be more diligent in the future.

We went into the office for just a couple of hours to get some work done. Mary posted all our PEF contacts that Sam had called. At least we are keeping that up – hopefully they will cancel all the old debts and the next couple can forget about PEF. I found that I had not moved all the files off the old computer that I should have.

We called Tom on Skype but it was no better at the office than it was at the apartment. The connection is just too slow to do any good. But we did get to see and hear William and Kelli for a short time. William is getting really big. Around noon Ed called to say he was in town and to set up a time when we could get together tonight. It was great to hear his voice.

Back at the apartment Mary got busy putting together the material we need to take with us on Wednesday. The piles that pretty well filled our living room are all coming together into neat packages for the couples. Hopefully they will all be used over the next few months as we bring more branches on line.

I helped by staying out of her way and taking a nap. After my nap I went to the gym to get in my half hour of exercise that I missed this morning. Then we read from the Kitab Mormon. About the time we finished, Ed called and said he was on the way back to the hotel. We quickly got ready and left to join him. The trip there did not start well. We hit a real traffic jam for about 15 minutes – all caused because of one turn-around that is always a mess. It is the kind of bottle-neck that could easily be fixed but probably never will be. At least we had a driver who could speak pretty good English and was a lot of fun.

Ed is staying at the Hyatt Grand and boy does it earn it’s name. The entry must have cost more than most hotels we stay in. I thought the Marriott here was nice, but it looks like a shack compared to the Hyatt.

Ed looks great – exactly like he did the last time we saw him which must be about 2 years ago. It is hard to believe that he is going on 52. I can still remember him throwing up on me when I was burping him. (Sorry about that Ed – but it is true.) After some big hugs we went to the attached mall and wandered around the food court. Like the hotel the mall is really upscale but the food court was not all that expensive. We found a very busy noodle place and decided that it must have good food to attract that many customers and we were right. We ate and talked for a couple of hours before all of us were starting to drag. He should be pretty much dead after spending 35 hours getting here from SF. We will see him again tomorrow night.

It has been a good day. I made sure that I studied the scripture and pondered the idea of faith and the need to show faith by living the gospel and helping others. Moroni chapter 9 has a very good discourse on faith as the way we can “lay hold of every good thing.”



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