TID BITS

 It sure has been great to see Elder Harmon at Zone Conferences. He is currently in our Zone, serving in Brady, a couple hours away from us. He is representing St. Johns well--so proud of this St. Johnsite! 

 

These kinds of trees are all over Abilene. They have clumps of mistletoe all through the trees. I call them "Dr. Seuss trees." 

Every night thousands of birds (no exaggeration--tens of thousands!) congregate at this intersection by Walmart. They fill the trees, the telephone and electrical wires, and the tops of the buildings. It is rather eerie if you've ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds". We are careful not to park under a tree at this time of night.

It was fun to have Rebecca visit us over Christmas. We went to the Light Fest in Abilene on a very cold night, 21 degrees! But we loved it. It got down to 7 degrees that night. That's the coldest we've seen in Abilene so far. Usually it has been between the 50s and 70s during the day, once in a while dipping into the 40's because of wind chill.

What a privilege it has been to help teach Malachi, a 15 year old boy who loves studying scripture and carries them with him everywhere, even to the grocery store. Malachi was baptized in December. His mother followed her son's example and was baptized 10 days ago. The youth being sent to the earth in these later days are a mighty people and we love them.

Closing thought: This post covers lots of random things, but the one thing they all have in common is their ability to bring joy. Joy in nature, joy in family, joy in shared spiritual experiences, and joy in community.