Adventures of Rose and Bob

January news

2010-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Rose writing: Just wanted you to know that we are still here. We still enjoy living in Gilbert and we still like our home. This past weekend Ruth Warnick was blessed in her home ward by her father. We attended and then had a luncheon here at our house. The traveling Warnicks stayed with us over Sat night.

We do a lot of reading about political things. I do write to congressmen and senators from time to time. Is that enough? What could we, Rose and Bob, and you who are reading this do to help our country remain free from socialism? I like making decisions for myself. I do not want the government decided things for me. I am finding that there is sooooooo many things to read and so many opinions that contradict each other it almost makes me want to forget the "whole mess" but we can't! We need to get involved.

We have been eating peas, radishes and lettuce from our garden.
We had a lot of rain but thankfully no flooding in and around our house. We are thankful for our blessings.

Heavy Rain in Gilbert

2010-01-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

We are almost through a record setting heavy rain sequence here in Gilbert. Many roads are closed due to high water. We expect this to all be past by Saturday morning.

the enlarged dukelow family

2010-01-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

family picture

2010-01-12T11:21:00.001-08:00

The original Dukelow family

New Year, New hopes, New Pictures

2010-01-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Rose writes: Life continues to treat us so good and we are so thankful for that. We had a nice Christmas season and had a lot of fun doing graham cracker houses on Christmas afternoon. It is becoming a yearly tradition. We make them and then send pictures to those who are interested to do the judging and they respond back through email or phone calls as to which one they like. If you want to be included in the judging next year, send us your email address.

Laura came for a visit on Dec 29 and stayed until Jan 6. That was a very pleasant visit. Gwyndolynn and her family came on Jan 1 and stayed until Jan 5. Thankfully Rebecca and Lydia are close by so it was fun to have us all together and we even managed some pictures which I will attach.

We really appreciate the warm weather here in Gilbert as we listen to the weather report around the country. We are sooooo glad that we are here.

Thanks to all who sent cards, family letters and pictures. We did not do that this year but I feel I still need to write a "year in review" or I just might forget what we did during 2009.

In April my(Rose's) siblings are coming for a reunion. I am really looking forward to that. Our main interest is genealogy, pictures and having a good time together.
If you have any information that will help us with genealogy, please send it along.

I have another email address, politicalconcerns@gmail.com, that I am using for political information and pass-alongs. If you want such things coming to you via email, just send me an email to the above address and I will include you on my list.
I feel it is important for me to learn more about my town, county, state and country and to study the lives of the people who will be running for office and are already in office. I want to vote based on what I know about them and what they believe instead of just recognizing their names.

I am really excited about the new format of The Ensign, our church magazine. There is definitely something for everyone. Our new Relief Society/Priesthood Manual is also new and different from what we have been used to. I think by reading all the scriptures and pondering what they mean to me in my life today I will grow closer to my Heavenly Father and He will provide strength to me that I can live more like Him. I am so thankful for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know I am a child of God and that I have great potential if I will just develop those talents and gifts that he has given to me.

I will add, hopefully, several other pictures in another post.

What did you do for freedom today?

2009-10-18T16:49:00.001-07:00

Rose writes: When I saw this old poster I knew I needed to save it and to share it. I am a very blessed person. I enjoy so many modern conveniences. Life is good to me but I had to think, how long will it be this way. What am I doing to make America the great land that it has been for so many years?

What is going on in our lives.

2009-10-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Bob and I had a beautiful drive to Utah via Bryce Canyon. Driving back was also a very beautiful drive. I do have pics but have not downloaded them to my computer. I think Bob has put some on his facebook account.

My sister went into the hospital with blood clots in her lungs so that stopped her from getting her planned knee surgery. That,of course, was a big disappointment for her.

It was good seeing our daughters while in Utah. Gwyndolynn slipped on an uneven sidewalk and broke a bone on her foot which will require 6-8 weeks of wearing a "boot". She is busy studying law at the U. of U. Laura is really getting in the swing of things in her job.

Lydia is still"growing". Baby is due in Dec. Rebecca is busy, busy, busy with work and teaching. Life does go on. We do enjoy our lives. We are so blessed.

My immediate passion is working on family history work. I am trying to compile records of living cousins and their children on the Peine line. If you know of anything to share, please do.

My other goal is to get my food storage together. I must get serious about this NOW.

Health care is a big issue going on in the United States today. It is time that we all tried to give our bodies the right food, the right amount of sleep, less stress and more exercises (I don't like to exercise but my body likes it!)

While traveling we listed to some books on tapes. One was The Wisdom of crowds: why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economies, societies and nations. We found this very informative.

The second book, we haven't finished it yet, is Intelligence matters :the CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the failure of America's war on Terror. Wow! I almost wish we were not listening to it. It is so SAD that these agencies mess things up so terribly. The intelligence committee just does not want to cooperate and share information that would help America be prepared. Sadly, the government officials do not want to accept the facts- they have their own agenda.

As I (Rose) have been reading in the Book of Mormon I can see sooooo many similarities between their day and ours. I am so glad that we have this scripture. I know it is true and it is for our day to help us make better choices if we just would.

Important talk from Elder Dallin H. Oaks

2009-10-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

13 October 2009 Transcript of Elder Dallin H. Oaks speech given at BYU-Idaho on 13 October 2009.

My dear young friends, I am pleased to speak to this BYU-Idaho audience. I am conscious that I am also speaking to many in other places. In this time of the Internet, what we say in one place is instantly put before a wider audience, including many to whom we do not intend to speak. That complicates my task, so I ask your understanding as I speak to a very diverse audience.

In choosing my subject I have relied on an old military maxim that when there is a battle underway, persons who desire to join the fray should “march to the sound of the guns.”[i] So it is that I invite you to march with me as I speak about religious freedom under the United States Constitution. There is a battle over the meaning of that freedom. The contest is of eternal importance, and it is your generation that must understand the issues and make the efforts to prevail.

An 1833 revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith declared that the Lord established the United States Constitution by wise men whom he raised up for that very purpose (Doctrine and Covenants 101:80). The Lord also declared that this constitution “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77; emphasis added).

In 1833, when almost all people in the world were still ruled by kings or tyrants, few could see how the infant United States Constitution could be divinely designed “for the rights and protection of all flesh.” Today, 176 years after that revelation, almost every nation in the world has adopted a written constitution, and the United States Constitution profoundly influenced all of them. Truly, this nation’s most important export is its constitution, whose great principles stand as a model “for the rights and protection of all flesh.” On the vital human right of religious freedom, however, many constitutions fall short of the protections that are needed, so we are grateful that the United States government seeks to encourage religious freedom all over the world.[ii]

II.

To illustrate the importance of basic human rights in other countries, I refer to some recent history in Mongolia, which shows that the religious freedom we have taken for granted in the United States must be won by dangerous sacrifice in some other nations.

Following the perestroika movement in the Soviet Union, popular demonstrations in Mongolia forced the Communist government to resign in March 1990. Other political parties were legalized, but the first Mongolian elections gave the Communists a majority in the new parliament, and the old repressive attitudes persisted in all government departments. The full functioning of a democratic process and the full enjoyment of the people’s needed freedoms do not occur without a struggle. In Mongolia, the freedoms of speech, press and religion — a principal feature of the inspired United States Constitution — remained unfulfilled.

In that precarious environment, a 42-year-old married woman, Oyun Altangerel, a department head in the state library, courageously took some actions that would prove historic. Acting against official pressure, she organized a “Democratic Association Branch Council.” This 12-member group, the first of its kind, spoke out for democracy and proposed that state employees have the freedoms of worship, belief and expression, including the right to belong to a political party of their choice.

When Oyun and others were fired from their state employment, Oyun began a hunger strike in the state library. Within three hours she was joined by 20 others, mostly women, and their hunger strike, which continued for five days, became a public demonstration that took their grievances to the people of Mongolia. This demonstration, backed by major democratic movement leaders, encouraged other government employees to organize similar democratic councils. These dangerous actions expanded into a national anti-government movement that voiced powerful support for the basic human freedoms of speech, press and religion. Eventually the government accepted the demands, and in the adoption of a democratic constitution two years later Mongolia took a major step toward a free society.

For Latter-day Saints, this birth of constitutional freedom in Mongolia has special interest. Less than two years after the historic hunger strike, we sent our first missionaries to Mongolia. In 1992 these couples began their meetings in the state library, where Oyun was working. The following year, she showed her courage again by being baptized into this newly arrived Christian church. Her only child, a 22-year-old son, was baptized two years later. Today, the Mongolian members of our Church number 9,000, reportedly the largest group of Christians in the country. A few months ago we organized our first stake in Mongolia. Called as the stake president was Sister Oyun’s son, Odgerel. He had studied for a year at BYU-Hawaii, and his wife, Ariuna, a former missionary in Utah, graduated there.[iii]

III.

One of the great fundamentals of our inspired constitution, relied on by Oyun of Mongolia and countless others struggling for freedom in many countries in the world, is the principle that the people are the source of government power. This principle of popular sovereignty was first written and applied on the American continent over 200 years ago. A group of colonies won independence from a king, and their representatives had the unique opportunity of establishing a new government. They did this by creating the first written constitution that has survived to govern a modern nation. The United States Constitution declared the source of government power, delegated that power to a government, and regulated its exercise.

Along with many other religious people, we affirm that God is the ultimate source of power and that, under Him, it is the people’s inherent right to decide their form of government. Sovereign power is not inherent in a state or nation just because its leaders have the power that comes from force of arms. And sovereign power does not come from the divine right of a king, who grants his subjects such power as he pleases or is forced to concede, as in Magna Carta. As the preamble to our constitution states: “We the People of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

This principle of sovereignty in the people explains the meaning of God’s revelation that He established the Constitution of the United States “that every man may act . . . according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:78). In other words, the most desirable condition for the effective exercise of God-given moral agency is a condition of maximum freedom and responsibility — the opposite of slavery or political oppression. With freedom we can be accountable for our own actions and cannot blame our conditions on our bondage to another. This is the condition the Lord praised in the Book of Mormon, where the people — not a king — established the laws and were governed by them (see Mosiah 29:23–26). This popular sovereignty necessarily implies popular responsibility. Instead of blaming their troubles on a king or tyrant, all citizens are responsible to share the burdens of governing, “that every man might bear his part” (Mosiah 29:34).

IV.

“For the rights and protection of all flesh” the United State Constitution includes in its First Amendment the guarantees of free exercise of religion and free speech and press. Without these great fundamentals of the Constitution, America could not have served as the host nation for the restoration of the gospel, which began just three decades after the Bill of Rights was ratified.

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The prohibition against “an establishment of religion” was intended to separate churches and government, to prevent a national church of the kind still found in Europe. In the interest of time I will say no more about the establishment of religion, but only concentrate on the direction that the United States shall have no law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.

The guarantee of the free exercise of religion, which I will call religious freedom, is the first expression in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. As noted by many, this “pre-eminent place” identifies freedom of religion as “a cornerstone of American democracy.”[iv] The American colonies were originally settled by people who, for the most part, had come to this continent to be able to practice their religious faith without persecution, and their successors deliberately placed religious freedom first in the nation’s Bill of Rights. So it is that our national law formally declares: “The right to freedom of religion undergirds the very origin and existence of the United States.”[v]

The free “exercise” of religion obviously involves both the right to choose religious beliefs and affiliations and the right to “exercise” or practice those beliefs. But in a nation with citizens of many different religious beliefs, the right of some to act upon their religious principles must be qualified by the government’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of all. Otherwise, for example, the government could not protect its citizens’ person or property from neighbors whose intentions include taking human life or stealing in circumstances rationalized on the basis of their religious beliefs.

The inherent conflict between the precious religious freedom of the people and the legitimate regulatory responsibilities of the government is the central issue of religious freedom. Here are just a few examples of current controversial public issues that involve this conflict: laws governing marriage and adoption; laws regulating the activities of church-related organizations like BYU-Idaho in furtherance of their religious missions — activities such as who they will serve or employ; and laws prohibiting discrimination in employment or work conditions against persons with unpopular religious beliefs or practices.

The problems are not simple, and over the years the United States Supreme Court, which has the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the meaning of the lofty and general provisions of the Constitution, has struggled to identify principles that can guide its decisions when government action is claimed to violate someone’s free exercise of religion. As would be expected, most of the battles over the extent of religious freedom have involved government efforts to impose upon the practices of small groups like Mormons. Not surprisingly, government officials sometimes seem more tolerant toward the religious practices of large groups of voters.

Unpopular minority religions are especially dependent upon a constitutional guarantee of free exercise of religion. We are fortunate to have such a guarantee in the United States, but many nations do not. The importance of that guarantee in the United States should make us ever diligent to defend it. And it is in need of being defended. During my lifetime I have seen a significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion in our public life, and I believe that the vitality of religious freedom is in danger of being weakened accordingly.

Religious belief is obviously protected against government action. The practice of that belief must have some limits, as I suggested earlier. But unless the guarantee of free exercise of religion gives a religious actor greater protection against government prohibitions than are already guaranteed to all actors by other provisions of the constitution (like freedom of speech), what is the special value of religious freedom? Surely the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion was intended to grant more freedom to religious action than to other kinds of action. Treating actions based on religious belief the same as actions based on other systems of belief should not be enough to satisfy the special place of religion in the United States Constitution.

Religious freedom has always been at risk. It was repression of religious belief and practice that drove the Pilgrim fathers and other dissenters to the shores of this continent. Even today, leaders in all too many nations use state power to repress religious believers.

The greatest infringements of religious freedom occur when the exercise of religion collides with other powerful forces in society. Among the most threatening collisions in the United States today are (1) the rising strength of those who seek to silence religious voices in public debates, and (2) perceived conflicts between religious freedom and the popular appeal of newly alleged civil rights.

As I address this audience of young adults, I invite your careful attention to what I say on these subjects, because I am describing conditions you will face and challenges you must confront.

Silencing Religious Voices in the Public Square

A writer for The Christian Science Monitor predicts that the coming century will be “very secular and religiously antagonistic,” with intolerance of Christianity “ris[ing] to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes.”[vi] Other wise observers have noted the ever-growing, relentless attack on the Christian religion by forces who reject the existence or authority of God.[vii] The extent and nature of religious devotion in this nation is changing. The tide of public opinion in favor of religion is receding, and this probably portends public pressures for laws that will impinge on religious freedom.

Atheism has always been hostile to religion, such as in its arguments that freedom of or for religion should include freedom from religion. Atheism’s threat rises as its proponents grow in numbers and aggressiveness. “By some counts,” a recent article in The Economist declares, “there are at least 500 [million] declared non-believers in the world — enough to make atheism the fourth-biggest religion.”[viii] And atheism’s spokesmen are aggressive, as recent publications show.[ix] As noted by John A. Howard of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, these voices “have developed great skills in demonizing those who disagree with them, turning their opponents into objects of fear, hatred and scorn.”[x]

Such forces — atheists and others — would intimidate persons with religious-based points of view from influencing or making the laws of their state or nation. Noted author and legal commentator Hugh Hewitt described the current circumstance this way:

“There is a growing anti-religious bigotry in the United States. . . .

“For three decades people of faith have watched a systematic and very effective effort waged in the courts and the media to drive them from the public square and to delegitimize their participation in politics as somehow threatening.”[xi]

For example, a prominent gay-rights spokesman gave this explanation for his objection to our Church’s position on California’s Proposition 8:

“I’m not intending it to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people. . . . My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims.”[xii]

Aside from the obvious fact that this objection would deny free speech as well as religious freedom to members of our Church and its coalition partners, there are other reasons why the public square must be open to religious ideas and religious persons. As Richard John Neuhaus said many years ago, “In a democracy that is free and robust, an opinion is no more disqualified for being ‘religious’ than for being atheistic, or psychoanalytic, or Marxist, or just plain dumb.”[xiii]

Religious Freedom Diluted by Other “Civil Rights”

A second threat to religious freedom is from those who perceive it to be in conflict with the newly alleged “civil right” of same-gender couples to enjoy the privileges of marriage.

We have endured a wave of media-reported charges that the Mormons are trying to “deny” people or “strip” people of their “rights.” After a significant majority of California voters (seven million — over 52 percent) approved Proposition 8’s limiting marriage to a man and a woman, some opponents characterized the vote as denying people their civil rights. In fact, the Proposition 8 battle was not about civil rights, but about what equal rights demand and what religious rights protect. At no time did anyone question or jeopardize the civil right of Proposition 8 opponents to vote or speak their views.

The real issue in the Proposition 8 debate — an issue that will not go away in years to come and for whose resolution it is critical that we protect everyone’s freedom of speech and the equally important freedom to stand for religious beliefs — is whether the opponents of Proposition 8 should be allowed to change the vital institution of marriage itself.

The marriage union of a man and a woman has been the teaching of the Judeo-Christian scriptures and the core legal definition and practice of marriage in Western culture for thousands of years. Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling on civil rights. The supporters of Proposition 8 were exercising their constitutional right to defend the institution of marriage — an institution of transcendent importance that they, along with countless others of many persuasions, feel conscientiously obliged to protect.

Religious freedom needs defending against the claims of newly asserted human rights. The so-called “Yogyakarta Principles,” published by an international human rights group, call for governments to assure that all persons have the right to practice their religious beliefs regardless of sexual orientation or identity.[xiv] This apparently proposes that governments require church practices and their doctrines to ignore gender differences. Any such effort to have governments invade religion to override religious doctrines or practices should be resisted by all believers. At the same time, all who conduct such resistance should frame their advocacy and their personal relations so that they are never seen as being doctrinaire opponents of the very real civil rights (such as free speech) of their adversaries or any other disadvantaged group.

VI.

And now, in conclusion, I offer five points of counsel on how Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves to enhance religious freedom in this period of turmoil and challenge.

First, we must speak with love, always showing patience, understanding and compassion toward our adversaries. We are under command to love our neighbor (Luke 10:27), to forgive all men (Doctrine and Covenants 64:10), to do good to them who despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44) and to conduct our teaching in mildness and meekness (Doctrine and Covenants 38:41).

Even as we seek to speak with love, we must not be surprised when our positions are ridiculed and we are persecuted and reviled. As the Savior said, “so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:12). And modern revelation commands us not to revile against revilers (Doctrine and Covenants 19:30).

Second, we must not be deterred or coerced into silence by the kinds of intimidation I have described. We must insist on our constitutional right and duty to exercise our religion, to vote our consciences on public issues and to participate in elections and debates in the public square and the halls of justice. These are the rights of all citizens and they are also the rights of religious leaders. While our church rarely speaks on public issues, it does so by exception on what the First Presidency defines as significant moral issues, which could surely include laws affecting the fundamental legal/cultural/moral environment of our communities and nations.

We must also insist on this companion condition of democratic government: when churches and their members or any other group act or speak out on public issues, win or lose, they have a right to expect freedom from retaliation.

Along with many others, we were disappointed with what we experienced in the aftermath of California’s adoption of Proposition 8, including vandalism of church facilities and harassment of church members by firings and boycotts of member businesses and by retaliation against donors. Mormons were the targets of most of this, but it also hit other churches in the pro-8 coalition and other persons who could be identified as supporters. Fortunately, some recognized such retaliation for what it was. A full-page ad in the New York Times branded this “violence and intimidation” against religious organizations and individual believers “simply because they supported Proposition 8 [as] an outrage that must stop.” [xv] The fact that this ad was signed by some leaders who had no history of friendship for our faith only added to its force.

It is important to note that while this aggressive intimidation in connection with the Proposition 8 election was primarily directed at religious persons and symbols, it was not anti-religious as such. These incidents were expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest. As such, these incidents of “violence and intimidation” are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic. In their effect they are like the well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South that produced corrective federal civil-rights legislation.

Third, we must insist on our freedom to preach the doctrines of our faith. Why do I make this obvious point? Religious people who share our moral convictions feel some intimidation. Fortunately, our leaders do not refrain from stating and explaining our position that homosexual behavior is sinful. Last summer Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke these words to a BYU audience:

“We follow Jesus Christ by living the law of chastity. God gave this commandment, and He has never revoked or changed it. This law is clear and simple. No one is to engage in sexual relationships outside the bounds the Lord has set. This applies to homosexual behavior of any kind and to heterosexual relationships outside marriage. It is a sin to violate the law of chastity.

“We follow Jesus Christ by adhering to God’s law of marriage, which is marriage between one man and one woman. This commandment has been in place from the very beginning.”[xvi]

We will continue to teach what our Heavenly Father has commanded us to teach, and trust that the precious free exercise of religion remains strong enough to guarantee our right to exercise this most basic freedom.

Fourth, as advocates of the obvious truth that persons with religious positions or motivations have the right to express their religious views in public, we must nevertheless be wise in our political participation. Preachers have been prime movers in the civil rights movement from the earliest advocates of abolition, but even the civil rights of religionists must be exercised legally and wisely.

As Latter-day Saints, we should never be reticent to declare and act upon the sure foundations of our faith. The call of conscience — whether religious or otherwise — requires no secular justification. At the same time, religious persons will often be most persuasive in political discourse by framing arguments and positions in ways that are respectful of those who do not share their religious beliefs and that contribute to the reasoned discussion and compromise that is essential in a pluralistic society.[xvii]

Fifth and finally, Latter-day Saints must be careful never to support or act upon the idea that a person must subscribe to some particular set of religious beliefs in order to qualify for a public office. The framers of our constitution included a provision that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” (Article VI). That constitutional principle forbids a religious test as a legal requirement, but it of course leaves citizens free to cast their votes on the basis of any preference they choose. But wise religious leaders and members will never advocate religious tests for public office.

Fragile freedoms are best preserved when not employed beyond their intended purpose. If a candidate is seen to be rejected at the ballot box primarily because of religious belief or affiliation, the precious free exercise of religion is weakened at its foundation, especially when this reason for rejection has been advocated by other religionists. Such advocacy suggests that if religionists prevail in electing their preferred candidate this will lead to the use of government power in support of their religious beliefs and practices. The religion of a candidate should not be an issue in a political campaign.

Conclusion

It was the Christian principles of human worth and dignity that made possible the formation of the United States Constitution over 200 years ago, and only those principles in the hearts of a majority of our diverse population can sustain that constitution today. Our constitution’s revolutionary concepts of sovereignty in the people and significant guarantees of personal rights were, as John A. Howard has written,

“generated by a people for whom Christianity had been for a century and a half the compelling feature of their lives. It was Jesus who first stated that all men are created equal [and] that every person . . . is valued and loved by God.”[xviii]

Professor Dinesh D’Souza reminds us:

“The attempt to ground respect for equality on a purely secular basis ignores the vital contribution by Christianity to its spread. It is folly to believe that it could survive without the continuing aid of religious belief.”[xix]

Religious values and political realities are so interlinked in the origin and perpetuation of this nation that we cannot lose the influence of Christianity in the public square without seriously jeopardizing our freedoms. I maintain that this is a political fact, well qualified for argument in the public square by religious people whose freedom to believe and act must always be protected by what is properly called our “First Freedom,” the free exercise of religion.

My dear brothers and sisters, I testify to the truth of these principles I have expressed today. I testify of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who is the author and finisher of our faith and whose revelations to a prophet of God in these modern times have affirmed the foundation of the United States constitution, which as we have said, was given by God to His children for the rights and protection of all flesh. May God bless us to understand it, to sustain it, and to spread its influence throughout the world, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Notes

[i] Robert Debs Heinl Jr., Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1978), 141.

[ii] Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad to the Secretary of State and to the President of the United States, 17 May 1999, 6–7, 30–65. The International Religious Freedom Act, adopted in 1998, 22 USC 6401 et seq., established an office of international religious affairs in the U.S. State Department headed by an Ambassador at Large and the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom. Both of these bodies submit annual reports that assess the status of religious freedom under international standards worldwide and help encourage better implementation of commitments countries around the world have made to respect this fundamental right.

[iii] The information about events in Mongolia was obtained from correspondence with President Odgerel and from Mary N. Cook, former senior missionary and wife of Richard E. Cook, the first mission president in Mongolia.

[iv] Final Report of the Advisory Committee, 6.

[v] 22 USC 6401(a).

[vi] Michael Spencer, “The Coming Evangelical Collapse,” The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Mar. 2009.

[vii] E.g., John A. Howard, “Liberty: America’s Creative Power,” Howard Center, 22 June 2009, 6.

[viii] “In God’s Name: A Special Report on Religion and Public Life,” The Economist, 3 Nov. 2007, 10.

[ix] E.g., The Six Ways of Atheism, which was advertised “to absolutely disprove the existence of God, logically and simply,” was sent free to leading universities and public libraries in all major English-speaking countries in the world. Press release, 26 May 2009.

[x] Howard, “Liberty: America’s Creative Power,” 6.

[xi] Hugh Hewitt, A Mormon in the White House? (Washington DC: Regnery, 2007), 242–43.

[xii] Karl Vick, “Gay Groups Targeting Mormons,” Salt Lake Tribune, 30 May 2009, A8 (Washington Post story).

[xiii] “A New Order of Religious Freedom,” First Things, Feb. 1992, 2; also see Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983).

[xiv] The Yogyakarta Principles, Principle 21 (Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2006).

[xv] “No Mob Veto,” New York Times, 5 Dec. 2008.

[xvi] M. Russell Ballard, “Engaging Without Being Defensive,” BYU Commencement Address, 13 August 2009.

[xvii] Among the advocates of this position are Kevin Seamus Hasson, The Right to be Wrong (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005); Douglas Laycock, Anthony Picarello Jr. and Robin Fretwell Wilson, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty: Emerging Conflicts (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008); and Michael J. Perry, “Liberal Democracy and Religious Morality,” 48 DePaul Law Rev. 1, 20–41 (1998). For examples of this kind of advocacy, see What’s the Harm? ed. Lynn D. Wardle (University Press of America, 2008); and Monte Neil Stewart, “Marriage Facts,” 31 Harv. J. of Law & Pub. Policy 313 (2008).

[xviii] John A. Howard, Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society (1620–1945) (Monitou Springs, Ohio: Summit Press, 2008), 57.

[xix] “How Christianity Shaped the West,” Hillsdale College, Nov. 2008, Vol. 37, No. 11, p. 5.

More June pictures

2009-06-30T13:07:00.001-07:00

2009-06-30T13:03:00.001-07:00

June has been a busy month here on the Triangle Ranch.

Laura came to visit us for a week as she is in a career transition stage. We are also enjoying a long visit by Ryan and Kelly Gentry and Eve is also spending many days and nights with us. We are getting good use of the pool. We have also had all the yard sale bikes on the road with no mishaps – so far. The Gentry parents will come and fetch their kids this weekend.

Bob and Sergio spent several days painting and fixing up two of our rental units on the west side of Phoenix. One apartment was in very good shape and the other needed a complete renovation. We have another unit schedule to become vacant as of 1 July so we are hoping Craig’s List attracts us some good tenants.

On 22 June, Bob was attempting to add some voice over to a long video on his Mac Laptop and it froze up. It is now in repair and apparently no data was lost. The Apple Store refused to honor its warrantee because the previous owner had dropped the laptop and dented the corner. Bob tried to argue that the computer worked fine for six months so the dent was not the problem but – rules is rules- and Apple’s rule is if the case is damaged the warrantee is void.

We had a chance to participate in canning spaghetti sauce at the church cannery. We put up approximately 7,500 quarts in a four hour shift. Bob put the empty bottles from the pallets on to the conveyer belt. Rose did quality control.

We were able to have our first youth fireside at our home on 28 June. We had enough chairs for everyone to sit. Bob tried to make a slideshow using Rose’s PC but it did not turn out as well as the slideshows he has made on the Mac. Most of the problems were caused by operator input error as the old Fortran message use to say.

Very good letter to Obama

2009-05-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

I forwarded this letter to some 250 people and then hotmail said I couldn't send any more emails for 24 hours. I tried to reply to an email and they wouldn't let me send it. I didn't realize they set a limit per 24 hours. Did you?

Conversation: An Open Letter to Obama
Subject: An Open Letter to Obama

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends - an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's most highly rated speakers. Acknowledged as the foremost leader in change management, Lou Pritchett has been featured in numerous books and periodicals and accredited by savvy and successful corporate executives everywhere. He is the author of the best seller, Stop Paddling and Start Rocking the Boat.

It was Lou Pritchett who changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering."

Lou Pritchett rose from soap salesman to VP Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble (P&G). Over the course of 36 years, he made corporate history as an agent of change at P&G. He served as president of the company in the Philippines and as corporate VP of World Sales, where he worked in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, India, Middle East, North and South America. Lou Pritchett stood at the vanguard of corporate futurists to challenge a hidebound corporate giant to face the future by creating the future, thus ensuring its continuing role as one of America's great corporate success stories.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European-style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Warren Buffet Advice

2009-05-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Read this to your kids or if they have already left home, send it to them.
There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the world’s second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Following are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1.He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late! Things were very cheap that time… Encourage your children to invest.

2.He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers. One can buy many things with few savings. Encourage your children to start some kind of business.

3.He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha , that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence. Don't buy more than you "really need" and encourage your children to do and think the same.

4.He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him. You are what you are…

5.He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
Always think how you can accomplish things economically.

6.His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. Assign the right people to the right jobs.

7.He has given his CEO's only two rules: Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1. Set goals and make sure people focus on them.

8.He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television. Don't try to show off, just be your self and do what you enjoy doing

9.Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

10. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

His advice to young people:
"Stay away from credit cards & bank loans and invest in yourself and remember:
A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simply as possible.
C. Don't do what others say - listen to them, but do what you feel good doing.
D. Don't follow brand names; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on those things you really need.
F. After all, it's your life so why allow others to rule your life?"
The HAPPIEST people DO NOT necessarily have the ‘BEST’ THINGS. They simply APPRECIATE the things they have” “Let us choose a simpler and smarter way to live…

one more pic

2009-05-21T19:54:00.001-07:00

here it is

rainy day pics

2009-05-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

maybe this time the pics will load.

Rainy day in Gilbert

2009-05-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and family, Just thought I would add a few pictures that Bob took today. It has been overcast and rainy. We are dog sitting our "granddog" while the owners are on a fun trip to Hawaii so we were off for a walk at 6 a.m. while it is still cool. If you look closely you will see raindrops falling in the pool. As we left our home we noticed a new flower on the cactus at the beginning or end of the driveway (it depends on which way you are going).

The strawberry and rhubarb pie does taste yummy. Come on over, if there is any left, we will give you a piece. We also planted cactus cuttings today. Maybe tomorrow we will have a before and after picture to post.

May 09

2009-05-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite people died, Aunt Alma Ivy (nee Palmer) died on 23 April. We drove up to her funeral in Farmington, New Mexico. There was a big turnout of family and friends. Of course if you had 20 siblings, many of whom are still living there is bound to be a big turnout. Aunt Alma was Rose's father's sister. Our little Toyota Matrix still amazes us at how comfortable it is for long trips. We played hits from the 1950s as we traveled. It was a fun trip.

We manage to keep busy with our garden, home, and church activities. Bob is still working on getting his real estate consulting business started. He now has registered his LLC with the state of Arizona and obtained a business license from the town of Gilbert. His web site is: www.phxrecon.com. So far he has learned much about how to set up a business and the bureaucratic hurdles one encounters but not attracted any paying customers.

Our swimming pool has a rock feature and a water slide. The surface of the slide was so rough it was like sliding on sandpaper. Bob painted the slide with epoxy garage floor paint. Now the slide is super slippery. We spend time in the pool almost every day. The pool water temperature is about 82F (28C) and the air temperature has been as high as 104F (40C).

Some friends from the garden club were taking out a cactus patch to permit them to put in a rose garden. We helped by taking many cacti to put in front of our guest house where there is not much vegetation. We got ourselves thoroughly stuck by many thorns in this exercise. People who know cacti, handle them with tongs. We learned that putting Elmer's wood glue on the thorns in your skin, letting it dry and then pealing off the glue will get rid of the microscopic thorns you cannot see.

Sergio, our son-in-law's birthday is 17 May. We had dinner with the Beltran's last night at a very nice restaurant in Chandler, Arizona. We had not been in the Old Town part of Chandler in the evening before. There is quite a bit of night-life and all the palm trees are lit up with Christmas lights. It is very festive. We took Eve with us to the restaurant because she was staying overnight with us. She enjoyed dancing to the live music but was not interested in the excellent food.

Both of us picked up some food poisoning on 3 May. It really cleaned out our digestive systems. We are completely over it now and only have the memory to remind us of a very unpleasant few days. Rose lost 10 pounds during her ordeal. Note to selves: Don't eat chicken salad that has not been continuously refrigerated.

Rose has been going through the hassle of educating herself about health care options before signing up for Medicare. Dealing with the insurance salesmen who want to sell us supplemental insurance has been tedious. Bob now plans to cancel his Medicare Part B which he signed up for last October but which will not take effect until 1 July because he signed up too late. We plan to just stick with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

All in all, life has continued to be very good to us here on the Triangle Ranch. We anticipate some visitors in the next few weeks so we need to get some better air conditioning in the guest house. We have A/C from a window unit in the main room but the bed room has no A/C and may get a little warm unless we fix that potential problem. We probably will buy a portable A/C unit that will keep the bedroom cool when the heat it intolerable outside. Let us know if you plan to come for a visit so we can coordinate our calendars.

the Penny Story

2009-04-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

We received this and I wanted to share it with all.

A PENNY
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story.

Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the home of her husband's employer. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.

The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. Her husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.

As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant one evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment.. Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny. He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure.
How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?

Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.

A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?

"Look at it," he said. "Read what it says." She read the words, " United States of America ..."
"No, not that. Read further." "One cent?" "No, keep reading." "In God we Trust?" "Yes!"
"And?. . .." "And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin, I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him. Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray. I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!"

When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust," and had to laugh. "Yes, God, I get the message!"

It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient.

Thought for the Day:
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring. He sends you a sunrise every morning. Face it, friend - He is crazy about you! God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Bob's notes from the Priesthood Session of Conference

2009-04-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Notes from the 4 April 09 General conference Priesthood session

Boyd K. Packer: Joke: Young men look to the future because they have no past. Old men look to the past because they have no future.

Br. Packer spoke of the AARONIC PRIESTHOOD restoration. The AARONIC PRIESTHOOD includes the ministering of angels and the outward ordinances of the Gospel. He reminded us of faithful young men from the scriptures, including: Daniel, David, Samuel, and Joseph Smith.

In the early 1950’s J. Ruben Clark spoke to the Seminary teachers of the Church and admonished them to teach boldly to the youth. As a boy, PRESIDENT PACKER had polio and he still remembers dragging himself around his kitchen. He recovered fully while some children were obligated to use leg braces and crutches all their lives. He resolved to do the best he could even though he would never be an athlete.

He felt inferior and told a joke about a man who went to his doctor because he believed he had an inferiority complex. After a thorough examination, the doctor said, you do not have an inferiority complex, you truly are inferior.

DC 89 promises us blessings if we live correctly. There is no comparison to the blessings we anticipate as sons of God. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. We should respect our bodies. There should be no unworthy touching by us or of us. Pornography can destroy us. We should not tattoo or pierce our bodies. All bodies are stronger than evil spirits.

After his baptism, PRESIDENT PACKER resolved not to make mistakes. He quickly failed in that resolve. The Sacrament allows us to renew our baptismal covenants each week.

During World War II, PRESIDENT PACKER wanted to be a bomber pilot as his brother who was flying from England. PRESIDENT PACKER almost failed the entrance exam by one point but was given a second chance and passed when he could identify the common use of Ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol is used as anti-freeze and PRESIDENT PACKER had often used it while working in his father’s garage. College education is fine but we also need to learn practical skills to be able to help ourselves and others. Young men need to learn to cook, sew, and take care of themselves.

During World War II, PRESIDENT PACKER learned to live with uncertainty. Life may start with fun and games but it quickly changes to hard work and responsibilities. Learn to work to support your family.

This weekend four grandsons of PRESIDENT PACKER visited him. One to introduce his fiancée, two to announce their engagements, and one to discuss his mission call to Japan. Happiness is the goal of our existence. (At this point he brought his talk to an abrupt end.)

Bishop Richard C. Edgley spoke on disasters and how the Church quickly responds. When asked how we are able to do so much, Bishop Edgley explains we are prepared, well organized and our hearts are filled with charity. It only takes a few phone calls to get the massive relief efforts moving.

Today we are in the midst of an economic storm. Unemployment has touched each ward and stake of the Church. Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Elder Quorum Presidents need to respond. This is your phone call.

President Monson told a story of a small brother named Ed who thought he had the best calling in the Church. He was the employment counselor and was able to find work for 12 people in a year. In another story an expert auto mechanic named Phil was put out of work when his shop closed. His bishop and elders quorum president discussed how they might best help Phil. The thought he would do best if he had his own business. A brother offered an unused barn for a shop location. The barn was cleaned and Phil was set up in business. He quickly succeeded and moved to a better permanent location.

Employment specialists are critical callings at this time. Employment resource centers are available in many areas. Deseret Industries training centers provide valuable assistance.

Priesthood leaders should use the sisters to identify needs in their wards. Make sure the leaders know if you need help. Gordon B. Hinckley encouraged all to help and taught that there was enough talent and resources in each quorum to help each other.

When Brigham Young learned of the plight of the Willie and Martin hand cart companies, he directed the Church to go out and bring those people in from the plains. The next day wagons loaded with relief supplies were on their way. Now it is your turn. This is your phone call. Go help those who are struggling in the current storm.

Elder Claudio R.M. Costa of the Seventy quoted Gordon B. Hinckley from June 2003 when the Prophet said our primary responsibilities are: First, to our families, Second, to our Employers, third to the Church, and fourth to ourselves.

Elder Costa stressed the need for family prayer and Family Home Evening. Many schools schedule events on Monday nights and we need to overcome this problem because we need to have Family Home Evening. Our responsibility is to hold FHE. Each child should have a role in Family Home Evening and scripture studies.

Elder Costa told a story of a little boy who was sent upstairs to get his scriptures for Family Home Evening. At that moment there was a power outage. His parents called to him and told him to light a candle so he could come back down stairs. They further told him to be careful with the candle when he came down the stairs so he would not burn the house down. A few minutes later the little boy was seen carefully coming down the stairs, a candle in one hand and his scriptures in the other hand. When asked why he was carrying his scriptures, he replied that if he burned the house down he did not want to have to go back to save his scriptures.

Gordon B. Hinckley taught that we should be honest in our employment. We should not do Church work while on the job. Home teaching is our responsibility. Fathers should set a good example. PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON taught that we will influence others either for good or for bad.

Elder Costa told of a family in Sao Palo Brazil who had a handicapped son. They were faithful in attending church each week. They worked faithfully in the temple. PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON told us we should work without fanfare. Jesus taught, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light…”

PRESIDENT DIETER F. UCHTDORF joked he had struggled to find a good story to start his talk. He considered talking about animals, farms, nuclear power in honor of Elder Scott, pigeons, etc. But finally decided to talk about aviation, something he knows about. He told of a airplane crash in 1972 in the Everglades. The plane was perfectly capable of landing safely but the crew became focused on a burnt out little green light that indicated the nose gear had locked in place. While they were focused on the problem of the light, no one was flying the plane and it crashed, killing over 100 people. A 20 cent light bulb had distracted the people from more important duties. We need to stay focused on our important duties.

We should not be texting while we are driving. LDS have the Holy Ghost to guide them to stay focused on what is important. We sometimes fail to align our actions with our understanding of what matters most. We need to do a self-evaluation because sometimes even good things become obsessions and are carried to extremes. He specifically mentioned genealogy, the Internet, and gardening. We cannot ignore our children. Even Church programs can be carried to extremes. We need balance in our lives.

We live in an era of preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. Priesthood holders are trusted agents of the Lord. They must not be distracted from important things.

PRESIDENT DIETER F. UCHTDORF then related the story of Nehemiah from the Old Testament who received permission to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah and his followers returned to the ruins of Jerusalem and started to rebuild the city walls. Enemies tried to stop this work and tried to trick Nehemiah to come out to discuss the rebuilding with them. Each time they called to him, Nehemiah responded, “I am doing a great work, I cannot come down.” The work continued with the workers keeping their swords at their sides. In 52 days the walls were rebuilt.

What could we accomplish if we were fully dedicated to the work of the Lord? If every priesthood holder served with his full heart and refused to be distracted. We should remember Nehemiah and not be distracted from important things. We should say, “I am doing a great work, I cannot come down.”

President Eyring said we must be brave and bold in our Priesthood service. He spoke of the situation seen on battlefields when a soldier was wounded and the call was heard, “Man down”. Medics would rush to the scene to provide aid and evacuate the wounded soldier.

PRESIDENT EYRING talked about the events surrounding the event portrayed in the movie “Blackhawk Down” that happened in 1993 in Somalia. Two rangers (who he did not name) requested three times to be inserted into the firefight to aid their comrades on the ground. The two rangers finally received permission to drop into the fight and were able to save two men although they lost their own lives in the battle after their ammunition ran out.

The two rangers (GORDON, GARY I. And SHUGHART, RANDALL D.) Were awarded the Medal of Honor in which they cited for actions “above and beyond the call of duty.” PRESIDENT EYRING asked would they have considered it above their call of duty? We are now in a situation with spiritually wounded comrades and we need to move quickly, before the cry for medics.

We hear all sorts of excuses such as it is not my responsibility. The bishops are authorized to provide help but you need to find the lambs that you see are straying. Your priesthood includes a responsibility and a trust. You need to be like Jacob in the Book of Mormon who took the responsibility upon himself. All priesthood holders are obligated to help. PRESIDENT EYRING also cited Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 wherein it says that two are better than one because if one falls the other will pick him up. PRESIDENT EYRING warned that if you can help and do not, you will be sorry.

PRESIDENT EYRING admonished junior home teachers to get to know their families and pray so they will know how to help. He reminded us of the duties of a Teacher from D&C 20. You will know how and when to help if you are watching over your families. If changes are needed, the Spirit will guide you and blessing will follow. Teachers may touch the hearts and feel the Saviors gratitude. If young men are responsible for members of their quorum friends they will confide with them about dangers and steer them away. If they neglect this responsibility they will feel the pain.

PRESIDENT EYRING admonished us to pray for bravery in the Priesthood. We should be like the sons of King Mosiah. We should think of the bravery of Jesus who knowing the difficulty of his task said to the Father, “send me.” We need to make sure there is no one left behind.

PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON commented that Priesthood responsibilities are significant for both the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods. Harold B. Lee taught the Priesthood is the Lord’s troops against evil. Each Priesthood holder must be worthy and do his duty. He must accomplish the Lord’s work. With God on our side, we cannot fail.

The AARONIC PRIESTHOOD has a vital role each Sunday to prepare and administer to the Sacrament. When PRESIDENT MONSON was secretary of the Deacons’ Quorum as a boy he was called upon with no notice to account for his duties in a Ward Conference. He was very frightened by this assignment. We should go forth with the hope that is in us knowing the Lord will bear us up. We should have no fear.

PRESIDENT MONSON gave three suggestions: Study diligently, pray fervently, and live righteously. Study daily because there is no “Crash course” in learning the scriptures. PRESIDENT MONSON admonished us to become acquainted with the stories and parables in the scriptures. We should obtain and hold on to the “Rod of Iron”. He promised that if we study the scriptures we will receive power from God.

We should pray fervently. Joseph Smith’s first prayer was fervent and brought great results. From Adam to Jesus we can read of fervent prayers in the Bible. James 1:5 is about fervent prayer. Prayer is our passport to promises.

PRESIDENT MONSON told about a woman named Daisy Orgongo in New York City who spoke with the missionaries but then lost contact with them when her work schedule changed. Later she remembered what the missionaries were teaching her and she prayed fervently to find them again. She saw two missionaries as she was getting into a taxi but was unable to contact them before they disappeared.

At the same time, the missionaries in her area were looking through old tracting records and praying to find someone to teach. They found Daisy’s name and went to see her. She greeted them at the door with the words all missionaries love to hear, “Come in elders, I have been waiting for you.”

We need to live righteously. We should touch no unclean thing. We need straight talk. The priesthood humbles men. We must avoid evil. PRESIDENT MONSON told a story about a Utah marching band that was invited to perform in the Calgary Stampede parade. On the way the bus stopped in Cardston and the band was given sack lunches by the members there. One boy was not hungry so he put is lunch in the back window of the bus. The sack contained an egg salad sandwich. A few hours later the boy ate the sandwich and became ill. He was too sick to get off the bus in Calgary. Two of his friends who had recently received the Melchizedek Priesthood blessed him and he was instantly healed. The band won the first place prize. Priesthood service was given when it was needed because these boys were living righteously.

Be conscientious in how you study, pray, and live and the Lord will help you. Be as Joshua who said, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

More March pictures

2009-04-02T21:25:00.001-07:00

During March we had Bob's birthday and a visit from Virginia and Nick Wilson and Rosemary Dukelow. More pictures will follow:

Eve's party pictures

2009-04-02T21:18:00.001-07:00

Eve's birthday celebration

2009-04-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the recent past

2009-04-02T20:57:00.001-07:00

Max

That is snow, not blossoms on that tree.

Kelly deeply enjoyed her chocolate at the restaurant.

Ryan passed his purple belt test tonight.

Ryan on the SLC children's museum rock wall.

We are in Murray Utah

2009-04-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here is our input to the Dukelow family news letter that some of you may find interesting:

We are at the moment visiting the Gentrys in Murray, UT. We drove up from sunny Arizona on a two day trip. We got off to a late start Monday because Rose had a dentist appointment. We spent the first night at Page and came up Highway 89 the rest of the way. It was a very scenic drive. We woke up yesterday to heavy snow but it mostly melted by this evening. So far we have visited the SLC children's museum, had lunch at the Gormandie Restaurant in SLC (excellent food), and played several hours of Wii and Monopoly games. Today we visited Ann Palmer in the hospital in Provo. Aunt Ann just had her left knee replaced. Afterwards we saw the movie Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. If you liked The Incredibles, you will probably like Monsters vs Aliens. In my opinion, The Incredibles was a better movie. Today, the sky was black before the sun went down so we will be getting more bad weather tonight and possibly tomorrow. (In the grand Dukelow tradition I have now included geography and weather so books, animals, and personal achievements should follow.)

I picked up the book: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins but have not yet read it. There seems to be considerable pros and cons for this attempt to disprove the existence of God because it does not fit into Mr. Dawkins' interpretation of Charles Darwins' theory of the origin of species. After I read it I will tell you what I think. At the moment the most I can say is the book apparently causes some people to think. Others it causes to respond without thinking.

I am reading at the moment a very interesting book: The Great Theft, Wrestling Islam from the Extremists by Khaled Abou el Fadl. This is also a controversial book because the concept of Islam as a religion based on mercy, compassion and peace has been supplanted in many peoples minds with the concepts of violence, intolerance, and jihad. My opinion on this will also follow after I finish it. Some of the Islamic web sites believe the author should be killed so it may support Mr. Dawkins hypothesis that religion breed violence.

I have been regularly walking a big dog named Buster in Gilbert. Buster's owner is an older lady who fell and broke her arm. She is not able to control Buster and is afraid to walk him. Buster is a Canaan Dog, apparently pure bred' who was left an orphan when his previous owner died. I was told he was not well behaved but after a short review of basic commands he demonstrated he knows what is expected of him if the correct commands and proper guidance is provided.

One day the ladies of our ward organized to clean the home of a woman who was in the hospital. Her husband is handicapped. They have a little dog named Apollo who was rescued from the animal shelter a few months ago and is probably less than a year old. Apollo is a very loving dog and wants everyone to scratch his tummy. I offered to walk Apollo when I took Buster out for a walk so he would not be underfoot as the ladies were cleaning. His master correctly said Apollo did not know how to walk on a leash. As soon as we were out the door and on the sidewalk, Apollo braced his feet and refused to walk. He skidded along the sidewalk until we picked up Buster about 100 meters away. After he saw Buster walking, Apollo decided it was easier to walk down the sidewalk than skid so he also started walking. It was an interesting walk because Buster wants to pull if he is not at "heel" and Apollo wants to drag behind so I was in the middle of two dogs, one enjoying the walk and the other terrified of the exercise. I have not been back to walk Apollo. Buster's mistress told me at church that a man who looks like me walked by her home the other day and Buster thought it was me coming to take him out. When the man did not stop to take him for his walk, Buster sat at the front door and howled and cried inconsolably. I walked Buster the next day. I have walked Greta and Max each day and they seem to enjoy their outings. Neither of these dogs understand the concept of "heel" very well but they are good natured and just need some more training because they really want to please.

We had Eve birthday celebration (or graduation - as she termed it) last Saturday at the Triangle Ranch. Our big pool was too cold so Peter set up a small wading pool for Eve and Nathan and Susan to play in. It was a nice birthday party. The other grandparents, Orva and Terry were also there. Eve was radiant and bubbling over with joy. At the moment, Lydia is also a bit bubbling because they have just learned that Eve will no longer be an only child.

This past weekend we also had guests from Hawaii. Bob and Sheila Woods and Sheila's aunt, Karie. We knew the Woods from our stay in Germany as they have children the same ages as ours. Karie has taught school for 42 years and is a real gem of a person. The Woods are thinking of moving to the Phoenix area after they retire from teaching high school in Hawaii. Bob is retired military so they want to live where there is a commissary. They own a house near Salt Lake City but have decided they do not like the cold and snow. We discussed real estate markets and places to live around Phoenix. It was good practice for my budding real estate consulting business. The Woods have been following our blog and were very impressed to see the Triangle Ranch in person.

There was great joy in the Gentry home this evening as Ryan has passed the tests to qualify for the PURPLE BELT in karate. He had struggled with his karate skills on several previous attempts. There is no social advancement in karate. Either you know the skills and can demonstrate them during the test or you do not pass.

We will probably be here in Murray until 10 April barring more severe snow storms and freezing cold that may drive us back to the sunny homeland sooner.

This is a good analogy to consider

2009-03-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is a good analogy.

ARE WE BECOMING A NATION OF WILD PIGS?

Catching Wild Pigs
A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

Keep your eyes on the newly elected politicians who are about to slam the gate on America.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"

Thomas Jefferson

place to look to see contents of bills before congress

2009-03-18T16:24:00.001-07:00

I, Rose, wanted to share this site with you in case you are interested in what the bills are before congress. You can do a line by line reading, if you want to, to see where the money is going from bill number 1. Go ahead and take a look at how Congress wants to spend money. It would be nice if the language was simpler. I can see why there are some members of congress who do not know what the bills even say. It's the staffers who do the writing, I guess, and they are probably lawyers.

http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action;jsessionid=270e613aa69bb36bfe95c618fb4f56d71bfa12ab0bf184c39320788fba8c8889.e38Kb3eQa30NbO0RbhqTchqLbNb0?collectionCode=BILLS&browsePath=111%2Fhr%2F[%3B99]&isCollapsed=false&leafLevelBrowse=false&isDocumentResults=true

I copied and pasted the above into the address space, seems rather long. It is the government printing office site. Anyway, you can read what each bill contains if you want to.

Another interesting site is
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress/?district=06&lvl=C&azip=85234&state=AZ from here you can find out your representatives and send them emails and tell them how you feel about different things, just in case you are interested in doing that.

I hope this helps you become more interested in the congress and what is being done in our country.

news

2009-03-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is Rose writing. I made a short posting and wanted to add the picture to each paragraph as I typed it but that didn't work so I have started this posting. This is a picture of Deneen's hot tub that she turned into a raised garden bed. We were there today on our garden tour. Vegetables look great, don't they?

Bob had a birthday recently and I made him a black forest cherry cake. It was really yummy. Our home teachers came that evening as did Lydia, Peter and Eve so we had a nice celebration.

Another picture shows Eve high on the ladder. She wanted to see what the oranges looked like when they grew so high in the tree. We have really enjoyed the grapefruit and oranges and are so happy that we can share them with family and friends. When Ann (my sister) came from Orem UT the end of January we sent lots of citrus to family members who live in NM and UT. It was great to have Ann visit and show off our house. We do love it here at the "Triangle Ranch". It really is resort living. So if you are coming to the Phoenix area, give us a call and come visit.

We have picked lemons from various people's trees and squeezed them so I have lots of lemon juice in the freezer that makes really tasty lemonade. Stacie, a neighbor, loaned me her juicer attachment that works on my bosch machine and it makes the work go really really fast.

We do have company coming next week. Rosemary, Virginia and Nick are coming from CA so we will have a dinner get-together with other family members in the area.

Then we will have friends coming on the 29th all the way from HI. It will be great to visit with them and catch up on old times (we knew them in Germany).

We will be making a trip to Salt Lake City, UT area the first part of April. We are excited to see family members and hopefully lots of friends too.

Notice our pretty almond tree all in bloom. Surely hope it won't be too many years before we get almonds off this tree. Bob has worked hard to get the garden to grow and we do have things coming up in the raised beds. Gardening in this soil is a bit difficult but I am sure we will learn as we continue to try new things.

We took the cover off the pool and we are just waiting for it to get 70 degrees so we can start exercising in it again. Hopefully by 28 March it will be warm enough to go swimming as we plan to celebrate Eve's 5th birthday with a pool and pizza party. It will be a special day for her as her other grandparents will also be in attendance as they recently moved to Tucson.

Last week we had an exciting week, at least for me, because we had a visit from Connie Giauque, she was a missionary in Hungary at the same time we were there. Then the next day we visited with an uncle and his wife that I had not seen since 1970. The next day we visited and had lunch with a high school friend, Betty, that I hadn't seen since high school days. I had heard from her or about her from an aunt from time to time but it was neat to see her again and to meet her husband. It is always rewarding to visit with our girls and their families who live here in the area. Bob's brother also comes by often and helps out with projects. It is good to be with family.

My goal is to visit all the women in our Windrift Congregation. I love to get to know people. Everyone has a fun story to share! So I have been making visits. I am the compassionate service leader for our church (ward). My job is to ask people to help serve others when there is illness, or some other need. I want to know the sisters so I will know who I should call when help is needed.

The last picture is a beautiful house that we drive by when we go see an aunt and uncle so we thought we would just share it with you. It is located in a lovely neighborhood that has its own landing strip for airplanes.

One other thing, I have forwarded emails about the political situation, social security and various other things and I know that I have not checked snopes.com but I feel the United States is in trouble. I think we all need to become better educated and we need to speak up for our rights and our freedoms or they may become limited. So much is going on in the world today and it concerns me. Somehow I need to make a difference but I am not sure how I can so if you have any suggestions of what I could do, let me know. In the future if you see an email from me and you are tired of getting them just quickly delete it and don't waste your time if it bothers you and then forgive me for sending it.

Garden tour

2009-03-14T20:29:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! This is Rose writing and I thought I would share a few of our activities with you. Today we went to two garden tours. It is fun to see how different and beautiful each of them are. Deneen's front yard is very colorful. Her HOA told her she had too many "weeds" in her front yard. Most of the homes in her area have rocks or gravel in the front, the side and in the back. She has that too but she also has beautiful wild flowers.

Barrett Jackson

2009-01-20T17:35:00.001-08:00

Bob, his brother, Walter, and Rose's cousin Richard Peine, went to the Barrett Jackson auto auction. They just went to look and did not buy anything. Later Bob learned that a 1976 Mercedes 450 SEL originally owned by Doris Day sold for approximately $8,500. It might have been the Mercedes you can see directly to the rear of the little green roadster. He was a bit disappointed because he could have bought that car. Many of the collector cars were auctioned for over $100,000. Maybe next year Bob can buy something at the auction. We all kept saying, "If only I had kept my...(fill in the blank)." If you double click on the photos they should enlarge so you can see the vehicles better.

It was a real treat to inspect the many cars with Richard Peine because he owned several Corvettes in the 1960's and 1970's. He also worked as a mechanic on hundreds of cars that were similar to those now being auctioned. He could recognize the motors and carburetors on the allegedly original cars and would point out where the original equipment was missing. Richard is standing in front of a black Stingray which is similar but not quite as nice as the one he once owned.

If you ever have a few hundred thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket and want to buy a collector car, Bob will be happy to accompany you to the next Barrett Jackson in Scottsdale. It will be a lot of fun.

Our Happenings

2009-01-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

First of all, we want to wish you a very Happy New Year! Today, Jan 20 was a historical day in our beloved country--A new president, the 44th was inaugurated! We watched the swearing in of President Obama. We are hopeful that this will be a good 2009. We approach this year with thanksgiving for all the blessings our Heavenly Father has given to us.

Bob continues to work in the yard. He has planted a variety of seeds in our raised garden bed that I hope you will be able to see in the pictures. Look to the left of the picture and hopefully you will see the raised beds made out of block. Also behind him are some more raised gardens that have not been planted yet. Of course you will see the big pile of dirt (17 cubic yards) that we had delivered to help with the gardening. We had another pile half that size delivered in Oct of last year.

We love the warm weather during the day and it gets so very cool/cold when the sun goes down. We are thankful not to be in snow.

We have also seen other people's gardens who belong to the East Valley Garden Club which we also joined. We enjoy seeing how people manage their gardens and we often bring home cuttings of various plants to add to our garden. We have been planting various cacti in the front and a few odds and ends in the back yard.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2008-12-07T21:33:00.001-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

As this eventful year winds up we want to wish you all the best during the Christmas season and for the New Year. We are now living on the Triangle Ranch. If you are ever in the Phoenix, Arizona, area please give us a call so we can arrange a visit. We keep ourselves busy by taking care of our house and our big property. We have lots of projects planned (writing stories, taking on-line computer classes, genealogy research, reading a book a week) and hope to get started on them no later than January 1, 2009.

Since most of you have been faithful readers of our mission reports and our blog we will not rehash old news but just give a synopsis of the past four months. We intend to keep adding to our blog so check it periodically.

We left Hungary on 20 August 2008 after a whirlwind tour of Central Europe with our daughter Gwyndolynn and her husband, Eric and Ryan and Kelly. We flew first to the Washington DC area and enjoyed meeting old friends. On 28 August we flew to Phoenix, Arizona. This was a memorable day not just because of our arrival but also because of a huge storm that blew down trees and power lines. When people ask us when we came to the area we use the storm as our common reference. We were attracted to this area because our daughters Rebecca and Lydia live here.

We bought a Toyota Matrix our first weekend in Arizona. We then started looking for our dream home and found it in the Triangle Ranch. While our home was in escrow we visited our daughters Laura and Gwyndolynn in Utah. We saw snow in Utah during the first week of October. We were still using our unheated pool in Arizona the first week in November. We feel blessed to be in a very nice neighborhood and members of a great congregation. Our oldest new friend is 92 years old and there are many other men who are much older than Bob. That makes him happy as he can learn much from this group.

Rose is up to her usual activities when we are in a new home. She has everything in the house organized and has met all the neighbors. She invited them all to our church’s Christmas program but only one came with us. We have a very sociable neighborhood, not too nosy but concerned about the others’ welfare. Part of this bonding may be due to the fact that all the 12 properties on our street use flood irrigation and we have to coordinate and cooperate to prevent water damage when it is our turn to irrigate.

We are healthy and happy to be back in the USA. We voted in the November elections and are anxious to see how the new administration works out the problems it will inherit. We are a bit anxious about the state of the US economy but are also fully confident in the promise God gave through the prophet Malachi as found in the Bible.
We have joined a garden club. We think it will really help us learn about what to plant and how to garden here in Arizona. It is fun visiting other people’s gardens!

We had a great event-filled year with no serious accidents, injuries, or illnesses. We are enjoying resort life living and only working when we want to. We have made many new friends but we want to keep our old friends (remembering the Brownie song) so we would love to hear from you by what ever means it takes, e-mail, phone call, postal service, runner, visit, jungle drums, etc.

We sincerely wish you all the best. We hope this Christmas season brings you peace and joy in your lives and that you are able to enjoy your family members. Families really are of most value and we are thankful for ours!!!

Love,
Rose and Bob

Ryan and Kelly

2008-11-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed getting to know our two grandchildren, Ryan and Kelly.

Eve loves water

2008-11-09T12:52:00.001-08:00

When Eve gets a chance, she loves to play in the water such as this past Saturday when they irrigated at her apartment.

Camping

2008-11-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

The weekend before we moved into our new home we went camping with our new Windrift Ward in the mountains near Payson, Arizona. We took our grand-daughter, Eve. It was a little cool but very pleasant. We got to know many of our new ward members. Brother Knight cooked our bishop a giant pancake.

New trees

2008-11-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

We ordered 10 fruit trees for our yard that were delivered on 27 October. Bob and Gary Brown dug the holes with the help of a big auger. Bob and Rose planted the trees. The new trees include almond, apricot, fig, peach, pear, plumb, and pecan. They are all growing nicely after two weeks in the ground. For those who may not know, Arizona has some of the most difficult soil to work with we have ever encountered. When the soil is dry it is hard as a brick. When the soil is wet it is similar to sticky paste. We ordered a big dump truck full of top soil mixed with mulch and manure to give our trees a better chance of survival.

Our new home

2008-11-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

We moved into our new home on 18 October. Bob's cousin, Bill Tryon, and his sons and a couple of room mates helped us load our belongings out of our storage unit into Bill's big trailer. We had arranged for our new ward to help us unload on Saturday morning at 10AM. Because Bill's crew worked so quickly and efficiently, by the time the ward help arrived there were only a few boxes left for them to carry into the house.

We bought some new furniture to replace that which we had sold before our mission. We also hung up several of our Afghan rugs.

After General Conference

2008-11-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

We had a little bit of snow on the mountains in Utah on General Conference Sunday.

On our way home we stopped in Blanding, Utah to visit Bob's relatives, Eva and Stan Byrd. They have some fancy quilts in their visitors center.

They took us on a little outing to see some cliff dwellings.

many pictures from October

2008-11-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

We attended our first Hungarian mission reunion.

Our new home is now under contract

2008-09-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

We finally were able to negotiate an acceptable offer for a very nice home in Gilbert, Arizona. It is close to a big park, close to an LDS chapel, and close to a Trader Joe's store. It is not as big as many of the houses we looked at, not as fancy, and most importantly, not as expensive. It should do nicely for us. It has a 3/4 acre park like yard with desert landscaping in front and luxury oasis in the rear. It has a detached 900 square foot guest house with its own garage. The neighborhood is very nice and several of the homes on our street are being renovated. The house we are buying has been renovated from top to bottom. We hope to have many visitors. Here are some pictures:

as you can see the paint choices are very nice

the tile, carpet, and stone work is top quality

House hunting in Phoenix area

2008-09-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Below you may see pictures of some of the houses we looked at. You will also see pictures from a birthday party we had with our girls and Natalie on the far right, our friend and realtor. Eve, our grand-daughter has her own picture.

hunting houses in phoenix

2008-09-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

This property on Jerome in Mesa has a barn and a 30 foot square sand box. It needs a pool but the price is right.

Rose and Bob received a fish pedicure while in Alexandria. Little fish nibbled the dead skin from our feet.

Our new car is a Toyota Matrix.

Phoenix Report

2008-09-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

We have been here in Phoenix since Aug 28 looking for a house to buy. Maybe we are just too picky. We have visited many houses and read on line about many, many more but have not found our dream house yet. We have made offers on six but apparently our idea of what a place is valued at and what the owners consider the value is different. We have had several counter offers but have not accepted any of them.

It is true, people become emotionally attached to their homes if they have put a lot of work into them and it is hard to face today's lower value. We have looked at the Maricopa County "full cash value" for the years 2007-2009 and we do not want to pay a lot more for a house now that will go down in value in 2009. Reminds me of buying a car and as soon as you have driven off the lot you have lost value in it. By the way, we did buy a new car - a toyota matrix.

We are busy busy busy and waiting for the day that we do sign a contract so we can relax a bit and catch up on visiting family and friends and maybe even read a good book.

We are adjusting to life in the USA. We do miss our handy green vegetable store in Budapest and the schedule that we maintained while on our mission. We continue to exercise by getting in the pool each morning and do water exercises along with throwing the ball for the dog to fetch in and out of the pool.

It is great to be close to Lydia, Peter, Eve, Rebecca and Sergio and to get reacquainted with them. Our oldest, Laura, came to visit from Orem last weekend. It was great to see her again. We hope to go to UT to visit family and friends during the time that our house is in escrow.

It has been enlightening to visit the different Wards/congregations around the Chandler/Phoenix/Gilbert areas. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true all over the world. I invite any who are not members to invite the missionaries over and learn about our doctrine.

I can promise you that you will find joy, light and peace in your life as you study the doctrines with a sincere interest and a sincere prayer.

love from us, Rose and Bob

Mission Officially Over

2008-08-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

We received our release from our mission from Bill Nixon, Stake President of the Mount Vernon Stake on Sunday, 24 August. He read us a very nice letter from President Gasser, thanking us for our work in the mission office. We met many friends from our prior residence in Alexandria. We were especially happy to meet with some of the people we home taught who welcomed us into their homes again. While we were standing outside the King Street Chapel, we met young Br. Szamosfalvi and his new bride. Br. Szamosfalvi is the son of Branch President Szamosfalvi of Miskolc, Hungary. It truly is a small world.

2008-08-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

The gardens at Nymphenburg, Ludwig's family home.

Ludwig's coronation coach, the larger of two gold plated rolling extravaganzas.

If some gold and ornamentation was good, more was better, and too much was just right for King Ludwig.

The weather finally turned nice, Saturday afternoon.

The dining area of the Victualien Market in Munich

More pictures from our final trip through Europe

2008-08-25T03:34:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the Linderhof castle

Ludwig and Sissy kitch

A Swiss Army knife that has no practical application.

Heidelberg to Neuschwanstein

2008-08-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

The legendary King Ludwig II of Bavaria built his fantasy castle called Neuschweinstein to attract Richard Wagner, the composer to visit. Wagner and Ludwig both died before that visit could be accomplished.

There is no view point where the Neuschwanstein castle does not make a good photo.

Paragliders soared above the castle like giant vultures on colorful wings.

Ludwig's parents had a castle, Hohenschwangau, just down the hill from Neuenschwanstein.

The people of Bavaria complained about Ludwig's extravagance in building his fantasy castles. Each year these castles probably bring in their initial building costs in tourist entrance fees.

We camped at the scenic Haide campgrounds on the banks of the Nekar River just outside Ziegelhausen near Heidelberg. Unfortunately, this same campground was used by youth tour groups who came in big buses. On our second night there, the young people apparently wanted to replicate the high-jinks seen in Spring Break movies and caused quite a commotion until early morning. The weather was uniformly cool and wet during this portion of our trip.

2008-08-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

View of the Heidelberg castle ruins from the Korn Markt.

Inside the beautiful Jesuiten Chapel.

A young entrepreneur converting childhood treasures into Euros.

The Alps near Fussen.

A narrow spot in a Bavarian village.

2008-08-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Heidelberg castle ruins

Rose at the castle

More castle ruins

The old city of Heidelberg.

The castle front facing the Nekar River

2008-08-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Deer in the Oftersheim forest.

Our old house at Mozart 22

The replica Roman ruins in the Schwetzingen palace gardens.

A huge carp waiting for a handout.

The mosque in the Schwetzingen palace gardens.

2008-08-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Our old neighborhood in Bonames.

The view from the end of Heinrich Berbalk Strasse to the Frankfurt city skyline. When we lived there only the Heiniken Tower and the TV tower could be seen above the trees.

Our old front door.

Walking out to see the pigs in the Oftersheim forest.

What it really means to live like a pig.

Moving on from Prague to Dresden

2008-08-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

We slept above the stable in Prague.

Fox Auto Rent van that we used and can highly recommend for travelers with families.

The rebuilt cathedral at Dresden.

One of the surviving pieces of Communist era artwork.

The Dresden opera.

More pictues from Prague

2008-08-23T06:20:00.001-07:00

The real Ironman

Narrow streets are common

The castle and the Karl bridge

The artistic stone work is impressive and can be found everywhere.

This is not a Holocaust memorial but sure looked like one from the distance.

Traveling outside of Hungary

2008-08-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

We left Budapest on 8 August on our way to Prague. We stayed in the guest house above the stables at Camp Darsus outside of Prague. We can highly recommend it. The camp restaurant is open for breakfast and supper. The food is great and cheap.

We hiked across the fields to the local shopping center.

Rose appreciated her rain coat.

Prague has many spires.

The tourist carriages came with their tops up.

Even the statues were feeling a bit cold and wet.

More travels with Gentry's

2008-08-23T03:46:00.001-07:00

Budapest's fantasy castle in the city park

Statue park

Expert riders at the memorial park horse show

The Danube at dusk from Gellert Hill

Auchan supermarket with 82 checkouts

Post mission travels with the Gentry's

2008-08-23T03:24:00.000-07:00

We ended our mission service on 2 August and spent the next 18 days traveling in Europe with our youngest daughter, Gwyndolynn, her husband Eric, and their children, Ryan 7, and Kelly 5. It was a great trip and brought back many memories. We rented a 9 passenger Nissan van with a diesel motor. We greatly appreciated the 30 MPG we were able to achieve traveling at autobahn speeds. Fox Auto Rental gave us the best deal we could find in Hungary and excellent service.

We visited the Communist Statue Park, the Opusztaszer National Memorial Park, Lake Balaton, Prague, Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, Schwetzingen, Oftersheim, Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Munich.

This is the famous Budapest children railroad.

Chair lift from Janos Hill

Ryan calculating the age of a young victim of the Nazi horror.

The Roman ruins at Obuda.

beautiful flowers

2008-07-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Marta brought this beautiful bouquet of flowers one evening when she came for Family Home Evening. As the red flower dies it turns black but remains on the stem. It was so much fun to watch the white buds open. You cannot see all of them in this picture but there were quite a few. Surprisingly the flowers lasted more than a week. I do not remember seeing flowers like this in the States.

The sights of our neighborhood

2008-06-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

Some buildings in Budapest have no plaster damage. Most are losing some plaster such as in this picture. We are getting cable TV installed on this street so the satellite dishes may become rare. Many windows have flower boxes.

This car was rear-ended about six months ago and parked where it still sits. This is a free parking area, otherwise it would have been fined a huge amount for remaining on the street.

If you park too close to the building and do not leave room for the people to walk this is what will happen to your car. What a job to remove the car from the parking space!

Across the street from the mission office is a shop that sells curtains.

Notice the parking fee machine.

What we see on our way to and from work

2008-06-07T04:10:00.000-07:00

This postbox / stationary store is just below our apartment. The blue box with 3121 is a parking fee machine. Diligent parking guards patrol the street and will instantly issue you a $8 fine if you leave your car without paying the parking fee.

Some shops have their steep entrances on the side walk.

Telephone booths such as this one are rare since everyone seems to own at least one cell phone.

Further down our street are many small shops, including a tailor, a wine merchant, two jewelry shops, a travel agent, a veterinarian, an antique shop, a leather shop, a store that sells art supplies, a photo processing store, a Chinese clothing store, a defunct bar that is for sale, and the entrances to the apartment houses above these shops.

Wedding

2008-06-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

The groom is our landlord, Molnar Zsolt, a lead singer in the Budapest Opera. The bride is Yvette, a set designer at the Opera House.

Zsolt is about 6'5" tall. Here the happy couple is receiving congratulations from their wedding guests.

We traveled to the wedding on this streetcar.

This is the sign designating a street car stop. One needs to be able to understand the simple schedule posted under the sign to successfully use this form of public transportation.

Whips

2008-06-07T03:42:00.000-07:00

Whipping is a favorite activity of LDS missionaries in Hungary on their preparation days. To make the whip crack loudly takes some skill and much energy. Many missionaries take whips home as souvenirs. The handles of the whips can be very ornate.

Sometimes the whipper snapper gets tangled up in her whip.

These guys are really proud of their whips. They massage them with oil to keep them limber and use special natural cord for the tips so they will crack with a loud bang.

Ferry cross the Balaton 17 May 2008

2008-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Herend world famous porcelain

2008-06-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Pecs

2008-06-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Noemi and Imre went with us to Pecs.

Kakasd and Pecs

2008-06-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

This strange town hall in Kakasd caught our attention the first time we saw it. It is even more unusual inside than it is outside. The village of Kakasd prides itself on its handcrafts, quilts, and folk dance group.

More city pictures

2008-06-01T08:33:00.001-07:00

Budapes city life

2008-06-01T08:28:00.001-07:00

Just so we don't forget all the familiar scenes in and around our city.

Eszterházy Palace near Vienna

2008-06-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Eszterházy family was very rich. How rich? They had too much money to count so they built several huge palaces in Hungary and Austria. The palace we visited near Fertod is a bit run down even with renovation but still very impressive. Please note the unusual topiary garden which mainly consists of hundreds of huge conical juniper trees.

Gödöllő castle and a picture of Joseph Smith

2008-06-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Gödöllő castle was the favorite Hungarian residence of Empress Ezerbet (Elizabeth), Queen of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. It is about 20 miles East of Budapest in the hills. Ezerbet loved the Hungarian people and in turn they loved her. She was also known as “Sisi”. When Ezerbet died, her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph lost interest in this property. It fell into disrepair but was later renovated. Today it is quite nice and it is a favorite tourist site.

Senior Couples

2008-06-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Overlooking the Duna (Danube)

People

2008-06-01T07:32:00.001-07:00

Here is Elder Dukelow in his office and in his Hungarian vest. Elder and Sister Dukelow in front on the Stake Center, Tihany Ter in Pest. The Hajnoczy Jozsef Mission Building along with senior couples and elders. Picture of Joseph Smith by Andrea, Senior Couples farewell dinner.

Visegrad

2008-06-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

We drove past the Visegrad castle on our way home from Esztergom. The houses on the hills are weekend houses.

yet more pictures of Esztergom

2008-05-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

more photos of Esztergomb

2008-05-31T13:11:00.001-07:00

here are some more. Hope you enjoy them.

More pictures of Esztergom

2008-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry these pictures are not matching the wording. I will keep working on it and maybe I will get it right.

Our visit to Esztergom

2008-05-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

One Saturday afternoon the office Elders and the Assistants went with us to the town of Estergom to see the big cathedral. It was very impressive. Here are some pictures we took that day. We saw several weddings, a decorated wedding car, a beautiful horse and carriage, a little red "train" that would take people around the town, a man playing flutes and he even had bells on his shoes to add to the music. We didn't climb the stairs to the top to look over the town but the Elders did and said it was a magnificent view. As you look across the river you can look into Slovakia. As we drove back we could see the big fortress of Visegrad. It was a nice outing.

2008-05-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

more and more photos.

2008-05-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

It is about 230 kilometers between the two cities so there is lots to see. This time we took the southern route.

Pictures from Szombathely to Budapest

2008-05-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

May 25 drive from Szombathely to Budapest

2008-05-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Mission Report May 23, 2008

2008-05-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

We have had a lot of sandwiches lately as we have been doing a lot of traveling on the weekends. Also we eat yummy cowboy cookies, carrot and sometime celery sticks, sometimes chips and almost always a snicker bar (we share one). If we are really lucky we get sliced apples too. Thanks to the Ballentines who left us their small cooler we can take enough for Sat and Sun so we don’t have to buy food on Sunday. We do like to go to dinner on Sat night. Until last night, we had not been out to eat since the 11th of April when we went with the departing senior couples (Lows, Giauques and Ballentines).
We were at Elder Dukelow’s favorite restaurant in Szombathely, Vadaz (the hunter). Sister Dukelow had breaded salmon with parmesan cheese on a bed of penne. Elder Dukelow had marinated venison cutlets smothered with at least a half pound of black berries in a thick sauce topped with orange and apple slices. A dozen little potatoes croquets were arranged around the perimeter of the plate. Ummm good!

Our good friend Kati Gyore made a visit to the USA and went to the Library of Congress. She brought back a slide show of the wise thoughts that are found in many places on the walls inside this building which she refers to only by its formal name, “The Jefferson Building.” We spent several hours discussing her visit and the remarkable thoughts she found. Kati has passed her English proficiency test and hopes to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia. It would be an understatement to say she is smart.

Elder Dukelow was called to be the first counselor in the mission presidency on April 9. True, it is only until Aug 1 but he can do a lot in those few months to help President Gasser and President Borsos. We had a conference in the West for the Sopron, Szombathely and Papa branches. It was a lovely day and each of the members of the Mission Presidency spoke. Elder Dukelow gave his talk about the Mormon concept of happiness in Hungarian and the people still marvel that he can do so well. We will have a conference in Miskolc on June 21 for the branches in the east: Nyiregyhaza, Debrecen, Eger and Miskolc. Another conference will be held July 27 probably in Dunaujvaros for Pecs, Szeged, Szolnok, Kaposvar, and Békéscsaba.

Sight seeing
We have decided that since time is slipping by extremely fast and we have not seen very much that every time we go to speak in a city, check apartments or any other kind of meeting we would allow ourselves an hour or two more so we can see something of the places we have been visiting for various assignments. Also we have our Saturdays scheduled so that if it is free we will go see something on our list. Usually that is only the first Sat of June and July. We are also going to try to do the bi-annual audits in July so the new office couple, COULD IT BE YOU, will not have to worry about it the first month they are in the office. That means we will be traveling to almost every city in the mission and we just might get to see something we have not seen before. We will be posting pictures so you can see what we are seeing.

Many missionaries buy whips in Hungary to take home as souvenirs. Some missionaries become very proficient in cracking their whips (they call it whipping) and can produce very loud noises that sound like gunfire. It is great exercise and much safer than playing soccer. Some whips are fairly simple affairs and others are very elaborate with many fancy decorations and carved handles. Elder Dukelow now owns five of the latter which he plans to take home for his sons-in-law and grandson. The longest of these fancy new whips is 6 meters (26.5 feet).

Phone exchange
After a two year contract with Vodafone it was time to get a new contract and new phones for all the missionaries. We tried without success to get a better deal with a different vendor. Speed is not a virtue with the Vodafone people here. Patience is the name of the game. Finally, 60 new phones were delivered and then the real fun began. Rule was if you didn’t turn in your box, your charger and the old phone itself---no new phone. Some didn’t think we were serious about the rule and we still have their new phones in the office but maybe they are really smarter than we think. One problem with the new phones is that they come with built in games and the BIG BIG rule is that you cannot play the games as a missionary as it is a time waster. We tried to remove the games from the phone but Vodafone said it is NOT POSSIBLE. Elder Dukelow threatened to check the phones when we inspect apartments and if there are any scores on the phone he will take the new phone and give them back one of the old phones.

Our emerging branches continue to make good progress. Békéscsaba is leading the pack and had 49 people at one meeting. Their average attendance is above 30. Kaposvár is close behind and averaging mid-20s every Sunday. Szolnok, which opened in January 2008, has been having over 20 people in their meetings but they had two member families already inside their area. The missionaries in these tiny branches wholeheartedly follow the counsel of President Hinckley to give everyone a responsibility. When we visited Kaposvár a couple of weeks ago we found that the investigator who normally leads the singing was not there. She had gone on a trip with a chorus but she had asked a friend to lead the singing for her. That young woman who was attending for the second time did a very professional job in leading our singing. Every time we visit one of these emerging branches we come away buoyed up by the amazing spirit we find there.

The BYU folk dancers came to Budapest and danced along with the Hungarian dancers. Surely was noisy with all their stomping, tapping, slapping legs and the Hungarians singing that sounds more like yelling. Actually that may have been the Serbian dancers doing at least one dance. Many church members came and enjoyed the event. The BYU dancers are always so happy and so friendly. They really know how to mix with the crowd. The BYU musicians are a remarkably gifted group who could probably go on the Grand Ole Opry without changing much that they do on stage.

Last year the mission bought three new Opel Corsas. We basically had two choices, Skoda Fabias (a VW made in the Czech Republic that looks suspiciously like a little Suzuki) or Opel Corsas made by General Motors in Germany. We had to special order our cars because of our fleet manager’s requirements to try to make the cars as safe as possible for our missionaries with automatic transmissions and electronic stability controls. Now we have car problems with these Opels because the device that prevents one from shifting into reverse while driving has failed twice in one car and once in another. It prevents the driver from shifting at all. Irritating!

We had an interesting incident of Police harassment in Oroshaza near Békéscsaba. Here is the slightly modified e-mail report Elder Dukelow filed with our legal assistance office (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

Dear Br. N- (this is Elder Dukelow writing)

The problem of police harassment of missionaries has surfaced again in Hungary. This time it appears an individual police officer in the city of Orosháza is trying to expel our missionaries from his city.

On 14 March 2008, Police Officer Gabor , stopped Elders Moore and Carlos as they were walking down the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor asked what they were doing in Orosháza and the missionaries explained they were looking for people interested in hearing their message about the Gospel. Officer Gabor took their personal information. He asked where they lived and the missionaries gave their current address which at that time was in Békéscsaba. Officer Gabor told the missionaries to return to Békéscsaba and not to come back to Orosháza because they were not wanted in Orosháza.

On 9 May 2008, Officer Gabor and his partner Officer Norbert stopped Elder Moore and his new companion, Elder Irish, as they were walking on the street in Orosháza. Officer Gabor reminded Elder Moore he had been ordered not to return to Orosháza. Officer Gabor said he would now arrest the missionaries for harrassment of the people. Elder Moore explained they were not harrassing anyone and were not bothering anyone as they were just walking on the street. Elder Irish is a fairly new missionary with very limited Hungarian language skills.

Officer Gabor told Elder Moore and Elder Irish he was giving them each a 10,000 forint fine (approximately $60) for littering. If they refused to accept this fine they would be place in jail, fined 300,000 forints ($1,800) each and probably deported from Hungary. Elder Moore showed Officer Gabor the document prepared by our legal advisor that explained their legal status in Hungary. Officer Gabor without reading the document said this paper was meaningless because it had no official Hungarian stamp. Officer Gabor ordered the missionaries to produce their passports which they did. Officer Gabor took down their personal information. He then issued them both the littering citations and told them to sign the form which they could not read. They protested they were not littering but just walking down the street. He warned them if they refused to sign the forms they would have to go to jail to await deportation. Both missionaries signed the forms.

Officer Gabor then asked where the missionaries lived and they gave their current Orosháza address. Officer Gabor asked how long they intended to stay in Orosháza and Elder Moore explained he would be there until he returned to the United States on 11 June. Officer Gabor said this was the wrong answer. They had until 6PM on 9 June to pack their bags and leave Orosháza, otherwise he would arrest them, put them in jail with a 300,000 forint fine and see that they were both deported. Officer Gabor said he would come by the missionaries' address on the morning of 12 May to make sure they were gone. They did not see Officer Gabor on the morning of 12 May.

Following this encounter with Officer Gabor, the missionaries called their landlord, Szakó József, a retired Orosháza police officer and explained what had happened to them. Mr. Szakó József said they should not have signed the form prepared by Officer Gabor because they thereby acknowledged they were guilty of littering. Mr. Szakó József said he would call the Orosháza police captain and see whether he could straighten this matter out. Mr. Szakó József called the missionaries back and told them to go to the police station on the morning of 13 May (12 May being a holiday) to speak to the police captain in person.

As senior office missionary, Elder Dukelow also advised Elder Moore to to to the police captain on Tuesday morning and explain what had happened. I further told Elder Moore not to sign any document he could not read or understand. It would be better to go to the police station to sort the matter out. Elder Moore acknowledged he had made a mistake in signing the form. Elder Dukelow told Elder Moore there is probably a provision in Hungarian law for dismissal of a fine imposed after a coerced admission of guilt.
Any help, suggestions, or guidance you can give in this matter would be appreciated. While we acknowledge that many of the best missionaries throughout history have spent time in jail, we would prefer it not happen to our missionaries if we can prevent it. On the otherhand, we have no intention of abandoning our efforts in Orosháza due to the actions of one police officer who appears to be upset that we are working there.

Sincerely,

Elder Dukelow
On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 10:20 AM, Hungary Budapest Mission > wrote to our legal assistance advisor:
Dear Brother N-,

Elder Moore and Irish went in and talked with the chief of police, Cz- Péter, this morning in Orosháza. Mr. Cz- apologized to the missionaries for the conduct of the officers who had harrassed them, and told them that these officers had been talked to after Mr. Cz- had been notified of the problem by the missionaries' landlord. He then told the missionaries that they did not have to pay the fines, and the fines were invalidated.

So, it looks as if the problem has been completely taken care of, and action is not required.

Thank you for all your help in these matters,

Elder S- (Mission Office Secretary)

Elder Robert C. Oaks of the Seventy came for a visit and training in April. He is a retired four star US Air Force general and told some remarkable stories as the helped the missionaries gain a better understanding of their responsibilities. We greatly enjoyed his visit and anyone who wants copious notes of the training can write back and get them from Elder Dukelow.

Just before we left on our mission we sold our residence in Alexandria. We purchased a condominium at River Place in Arlington as a rental property with some of the proceeds from the sale. A few weeks ago we had a mortgage scare. Our daughter, Gwyndolynn, who looks after our real estate interests reported she had received a letter from the bank holding our mortgage saying we were in arrears and in default on our mortgage. This was pretty upsetting because our property managers had been paying the mortgage payments regularly from the rent they receive. We called Carol Martin, the loan officer at Acacia Federal Savings Bank, who had worked with us to buy this property. She remembered us and helped us get everything sorted out. We hope our excellent credit rating survived. The bank assures us it was their fault and everything was fixed but we will not know for sure until we apply for our next loan.

We have been having nice weather for the past few weeks. We get some rain but mostly at night. Our days have been mild and sometimes warm. Of course the warm weather means short sleeve for our elders and short skirts for the non-missionary young ladies. We will skip the specific details because we know children may read this report.

In the 1950’s the Readers’ Digest published a joke about a woman who had visited Kansas. Upon returning home to the East Coast the lady remarked how interesting it was to see the many “concubines” working in the fields. As we travel the secondary roads of Hungary we often see well dressed young women standing at intersections in the middle of no where. Elder Dukelow’s first impression when he saw the first one almost two years ago was to stop to see if this person’s car had broken down but then he realized she was just pursuing her profession. Since these ladies take their positions in such remote locations one has to wonder: Who drops them off? What security measure do they employ? Where do they keep their water or lunch box? Are they forced to do this?

Several more pictures

2008-04-12T03:06:00.001-07:00

Spring day walk in the park near our apartment

2008-04-12T02:56:00.001-07:00

Pretty white blossoms.

Hollókő

2008-03-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

The first below picture is looking up at the Hollókő castle wall. At the bottom of the pictures is an explanation of what you are seeing.

Hollókő more and more pictures again

2008-03-24T14:25:00.001-07:00

Hollókő more and more pictures

2008-03-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hollókő more pictures

2008-03-24T14:22:00.001-07:00

Hollókő pictures

2008-03-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Easter Monday Seniors visit to Hollókő

2008-03-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

On 24 March, Easter Monday, the senior couples of the mission visited Hollókő in the northern mountains of Hungary. It was a cold, wet, snowy day. We got the van stuck for a few minutes trying to turn it around. Sister Dukelow slipped and slid her way through the town on the old rock streets because of the slush and flat soled shoes. We hiked up to the castle and enjoyed the views. The castle was built in the 13th Century and has been partially restored to make it safe for tourists. The town was full of visitors expecting to see the traditional Hungarian Easter festivities. Due to the inclement weather and the outdoor stage being covered with snow, they moved the colorful and energetic folk dancing inside where only about 120 of the thousand visitors could see the performance. The shops and street vendors did a brisk business. Lunch was a disaster. The weather cleared up in the afternoon and we enjoyed a sunny drive home to Budapest.

March pictures

2008-03-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

The church is in the village of Kakasd. The artwork and push-ups are from our talent show. The statue of King Matthew and the Fishermen's Bastion are from our beautiful 15 March day.

17 Mission Report or 15 March catch-up

2008-03-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

March 15 we walked to the castle area. That means walking uphill, walking around the castle city, looking toward Pest from the Fishermen’s Bastian where we could see the beautiful Parliament Building. Today is Hungary’s national holiday so there were large groups of protestors at the Elizabeth Bridge that Elder Dukelow could see using his binoculars. It was a beautiful blue sky day! Just the kind we like!!

At 4:15 p.m. Andrea and her 12 year old daughter Laura came to visit us. Andrea joined the church in December of last year. She has had a real struggle with several different aspects of her life but it seems she has turned the corner and things are going better for her. She seems happier today than she has for a while. It was a good visit.

Just as they were leaving we received a call from a missionary telling us he needed the PUK code so that he could use his phone again so we went to the mission office, took the phone card with the PUK number out of the safe and he is back in business. The reason why this is important is that tomorrow morning the transfer calls are made and he wanted to be able to receive the news via phone and not have to wait until church time to find out if he or his companion is going anywhere.

Some of you have heard already but we will add it here. Elder Dukelow is officially 65 years old and it was a good birthday celebrated with pineapple upside down cake made by Sister Dukelow and a lovely restaurant dinner with Elder Dukelow’s tutor and her husband. It was fun to get the e-cards and other e-mail wishes. THANKS!

On Feb 8 we received the Schnebly couple from Mesa, Arizona. Sister Schnebly was born in Hungary and is a fireball missionary. They were so anxious to get out and get to work that they refused the offer of President and Sister Gasser to stay a night in the mission home before they left for their first assignment. They are now living in Gyor and visiting the branches in the West side of the mission.

On March 4^th we gained another new senior missionary couple, Brent and Nan Gudgell from Bountiful. YEA!!! They stayed with us 3 nights before they headed to the city of Debrecen where they will work at starting a mini-outreach program. We do have another senior couple, the Giauques, in Debrecen but they leave April 12. The President didn’t want to leave this congregation without a senior couple so there is a bit of an overlap. (We still need more senior couples. Encourage your friends, neighbors and family to put in their applications to go on a mission.)

This is one of the few months when we have only traveled one weekend. It has been a nice rest but Elder Dukelow will speak in church in the Hungarian Ward tomorrow and Sister Dukelow will speak in English without a translator in the International Branch next Sunday.

Tomorrow the International Branch Relief Society Sisters will have a pot luck luncheon after their meetings (about 3 p.m.) in honor of the organization of the women’s society in 1842. That is a lot of years!

Friday night the Buda Ward had a talent show. It turned out quite nice. Several of the performers focused on the Hungarian theme in honor of March 15, the national holiday commemorating Hungary’s failed attempt in 1848-1849 to free itself from the rule of the Hapsburgs. Elder Dukelow performed. He played his one inch harmonica. The tune he selected was Polly-Waddle-Doodle. The people loved it. We also head a reading of Kipling’s “how the camel got his hump.” Two people brought their paintings and their handwork for display. Sister Dukelow’s talent was on the refreshment table in the form of cowboy cookies. The missionaries from the office did a four man push up display. Maybe we will include a picture of it.

Audits are done and sent in to the people in Frankfurt. Yea! Yea! Elder Dukelow did a good job doing all those audits.

As we mentioned in our last report, one of the senior sister missionaries, Sister Ballentine, compiled all the single sheet music of translations of our children’s songs that she could find from around Hungary and organized them into a children’s song book. She had copies printed at her personal expense and gave two copies to each branch or ward in Hungary. This was not the official translation of the church’s songbook but the ones various people have done because they wanted to teach the primary children the lovely songs that the children in America had to sing. It was a big success and 100 more copies were printed and paid for by the individuals who wanted them. There is a need for these books. The children of Hungary need to be singing. If anyone who reads this has a video, preferably a DVD, of a Primary sacrament meeting presentation program and would like to share it with the mission - that would be wonderful. The Hungarians do not understand how children can put on a program. They are getting the idea now of singing for the program but there is more to be done.

We are excited to report that Szolnok, a city opened last transfer is doing great. There were two strong member families who find it closer to come to this town than the one they were going to so it will really strengthen this branch- to-be. They have a nice meeting place for Sunday meetings. President Gasser fears it will be too small too soon.

Kaposvar is really blossoming and it is so exciting to see their new rooms fill up with members and investigators. We had a chance to go there last month. What a wonderful feeling we felt.

We are opening up a new city, Oroshaza, which is in the southeast of the country. The Elders have an apartment and are looking for a place to have lessons so that they can teach those who are prepared to hear the message of the restoration. Satan is also busy. The police stopped these Elders and told them to go back to the city where they were staying. (They were with some other missionaries in Bekescsaba for a few days until they found their apartment.) We are legal here in Hungary and as long as the missionaries are acting appropriately they have every right to preach the gospel here. They have already had several programs (appointments to teach). Yea!

Another town, Bekescsaba which was opened January 2007 has outgrown its meeting room so hopefully a contract will be signed soon so a larger place is available. The people are accepting the gospel and this emerging branch is growing quickly.

We do have two small branches that need priesthood leadership so recently, Eger and Papa, had branch presidents that were called who live in different cities but they are willing to accept the call and commute to their congregations and I am sure they will do their best.

Utilities are getting more and more expensive. We are finding that landlords want a one year lease now and they want more money for the monthly rent. The government is getting strict on collecting taxes. Owners have to pay 25% of the monthly rent received to the government. Many people are still trying to figure a way out of not having to pay that tax and they keep coming up with different plans. Probably all of them would like to get their rent in cash and then there would be no paper trail but we cannot do that.

Employment is a strange thing too. A person is hired and goes on the payroll for 100,000 HUF (approximately $600) per month but then they are paid in cash maybe another 20,000 or 30,000 HUF or more per month. That way the business only has to pay social security and health insurance taxes on the 100,000 HUF but sadly when the employee retires he only gets retirement pay on the 100,000 not on the money that was paid to him in cash. People cannot get mortgages to buy real estate because they cannot reveal their true earnings. Recently they voted that they do not want to pay college tuition and a co-pay fee when they go to the doctor. Where do they think the money comes from to pay for these doctors? They cheat on taxes and they cheat on each other and then they wonder why the European Union will not let them join the monetary union.

This is Elder Dukelow writing now. All the above was from Sister Dukelow.

One of the least favorite parts of my job as senior office elder is reviewing telephone bills of the missionaries. Some have a difficult struggle keeping their calling habits under control. President Gasser sent a strong message about phone usage to all the missionaries and I am happy to report that we had only one companionship that will have to pay excessive phone use charges for February. They will pay approximately $15.

I wrote a new bicycle policy for the mission since we only have bikes in a few places. The mission bought eight new bicycles in the Spring of 2006. However, because the missionaries did not have to pay for them they basically destroyed them. With my new policy, each missionary who rides a mission bicycle will rent it for approximately three dollars a week and pay for any repairs needed when he leaves the area. I hope we build a small savings from these rental fees so we can purchase new bicycles to replace the two year old ones that are pretty worn out. One missionary called me asking for new bicycles because he and his companion paid approximately $35 in repairs in the past week. I told them we had not yet acquired sufficient funds to purchase new bikes for them so they should ride gently for the next few weeks. I did note them for the first replacement bikes.

Car maintenance expenses still astound me here in Hungary. We normally pay approximately $100 for an oil change for our cars. Fortunately we only need to change the oil every 20,000 miles because of the synthetic oil they use. Two elders called me this past week because the lights went out on their car and replacing the bulbs and fuse did not seem to help. They took their car into the dealer and paid almost $100 to have three bulbs and a fuse replaced. I don’t know what the missionaries were doing wrong when they tried to replace the bulbs but that seems like expensive repairs for a simple job.

We are in the process of renewing our mobile phone network contract. I asked for bids from the three major cell phone companies here in Hungary. T-Com, the former Hungarian national company, did not respond. Pannon called me back and said they do not provide network contracts to churches. So we are waiting to see what Vodafone does and hope it works out in our favor. Vodafone has strange customer service but their cell phone coverage is good and reliable here in Hungary.

If you are curious about what we had to eat at my birthday dinner; we at chicken, turkey, duck, and hare. It was all good. Our guests Gergely Noemi and Imre have a cute tradition. They each order separate meals and then half way through the meal they switch plates. Apparently they do this all the time. Noemi started with duck and Imre with turkey. After the switch, Noemi asked if they could switch back because apparently her duck was better than his turkey but Imre said he was enjoying the duck also. I gave Noemi a piece of my hare which was very good and she enjoyed it. Imre is a cautious eater and normally sticks to very standard items, e.g. chicken or turkey. I offered to order snails or frog legs as an appetizer but they both recoiled at the thought of those items. Some people just don’t have much adventure in them when it comes to meal time.

The weather has been cool and rainy for the past few weeks. We had a big wind storm two weeks ago that blew away some signs and scaffolding but no major damage. This same wind storm caused considerable damage in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The trees are now budding, the forsythia is in full glory, and Spring is certainly just around the corner.

The fashions are also changing with the weather. We are seeing short skirts and bare tummies more and more. Most ladies are still wearing jackets and high heel cowboy boots with very pointed toes. The standard 10 foot long knitted scarf seems to predominate in young people’s fashion. Quite a few people also wear Burberry plaid scarves. The neo-Nazis have no sense of color and wear only black leather jackets and baggy black pants with cargo pockets. How dreary.

We really enjoy reading the Ensign church magazine when we receive them. In the past we have always received a big box with enough copies to give one to each missionary and still have some left over. We just received the special March edition on Christ but only 65 copies. Now missionaries who never cared much for reading the magazine are anxious to see who gets to read this beautiful edition because there are only enough for one for each companionship. We did not receive January or February Ensigns at all. Somehow the distribution center in Frankfurt forgot us on these editions. We hope to later receive the President Hinckley supplement also.

We have been trying to exercise each day to stay healthy. I normally do 120 pushups in four sets of 30 each morning, the first 60 with my feet on the sofa to make them a bit tougher. Last week, Elder Sears, one of the fittest missionaries and I had a push-up contest. I started and did 48 and stopped thinking I had done 50 because the counter was not counting out loud. Elder Sears then did 50. Then Elder Sardoni did 55. I guess the next time I will have to just keep pumping them out until I cannot do any more instead of quitting when I think it is a reasonably high number. Or, I could go last and see if I can out do the young men. I wish I would have done more push-ups when I was on my first mission as a young man. I think it would have helped my attitude.

We are thankful for your love and support. We appreciate every prayer when you ask for a blessing on the missionaries. We know it is only through your faith and prayers that we stay safe, healthy and productive. The Gospel is true.

Love to all

Elder and Sister Dukelow

meals

2008-02-03T10:49:00.001-08:00

Roast duck on stewed prunes with home fries, fried eggplant with chicken on a bed of lettuce, Chicken and pineapple with rice

People mentioned in our reports

2008-02-03T10:39:00.001-08:00

Modern building

2008-02-03T10:33:00.001-08:00

This is the building where Nuskin and Tahitian Noni have their offices.

Hungarian washing machine

2008-02-03T10:30:00.001-08:00

2008-02-03T10:29:00.001-08:00

more pictures

2008-02-03T10:28:00.001-08:00

Explanation....

2008-02-03T10:15:00.002-08:00

Dear Readers,

we had many people commenting on prior mission reports so we decided to post them all here in one spot. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to sort these reports so the oldest are at the bottom of the queue and the most recent ones are on top. So what you will see is the report we wrote today, 3 Feb 2008 and then 14 old reports, followed by some pictures and report number 15. We hope you can sort this out if you need to. Otherwise we hope you enjoy reading the reports in whatever order they come.

We are also posting many pictures at this time that may be out of sequence.

love to all
the dukelows

16th mission report

2008-02-03T10:15:00.001-08:00

We had a quiet Christmas and New Years. Santa found us and left quite a few nice things under our two foot tall artificial tree. The Hungarians traditionally buy their trees as late as possible and decorate the tree on 24 December. About the first week of January we started seeing used Christmas trees along the sidewalks. Some were pretty sad, Charlie Brown style trees, others were huge. Some trees had all their needles and others had none. The later in January the trees were put out the fewer we saw with any needles. It appears that tree stands that hold water are very rare in Budapest.

Last year we basically had no winter weather. This year is making up for last year. We had snow in mid-November and a heavy snow in the first week of January. The heavy snow was followed by a weekend with freezing rain. That ice caused the English speaking branch to cancel their services because the folks could not get their SUVs out of their driveways in the Buda hills. Cars were not the only things slipping. We slipped and slid on the sidewalks going to work. Very few people here cleared their sidewalks or put out sand or salt. Sister Dukelow took a nasty fall on Monday, 7 January hitting her nose against the corner edge of a building. She looked like she had lost a fight for several days as her eyes turned purple. The scratch on the right lens of her glasses still remains.

The Hungarian Immigration Office finally granted Sister Dukelow an extension to her visa. She can now officially stay in Hungary until 11 September. We plan to end our mission on 1 August because our daughter, Gwyndolynn, and her family are coming to tour with us after our mission is over. Hungary has instituted a new system for visas that will mean our missionaries should only have to register once and not have to return to the registration office three or four times during their mission. We hope this works because we lose many missionary days each month waiting in the immigration office for our paperwork to be processed. The Chinese are the largest foreign minority in Hungary. Chinese people are often in the registration office with us.

We started doing the financial audits of the mission branches early and have finished three so far. Our first audit was in Nyiregyhaza in the far eastern part of Hungary. We stayed at the Corvin Mátyás Hotel there that has a medieval theme restaurant with armor and crossbows on the walls, and serving wenches wearing thematic costumes. Our room had one big window above the bed that was basically a skylight. Above the window was a huge sycamore tree. We woke up to church bells at 6AM (they must be on the early schedule with bishopric meeting and ward council prior to their other meetings.) The bells apparently also woke up all the crows in the city because for the next twenty minutes, there was a long procession of crows flying over our hotel window. It was quite an unusual way to start the day but appropriate as corvin means crow or raven.

Sister Dukelow spoke in Sacrament meeting on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel and explained how to use that chapter including keeping a study journal to develop Christ Like Attributes. She challenged the members to purchase a copy in the next three months, read it and decide on a virtue to start working on. It was great that so many had seen and knew what Preach My Gospel was as they were asked to raise their hands if they knew the book. She shared with them what value she was working on. She also gave examples of people she knew who possessed that attribute.

Elder Dukelow also talked on Preach My Gospel using Elder Kopischke’s general conference address as a basis. Elder Dukelow explained how the first missionaries went out using only the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost as a guide. Then 120 years later, a Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards gave our missionaries an organized way to preach the Gospel. The missionary work started using a number of memorized lessons shortly there after but spreading the Gospel became almost like selling washing machines. Today our missionaries are expected to live and study so the Holy Ghost can work through them as they teach concepts found in Preach My Gospel as guided by the Spirit.

One of our senior couples, the Ballentines, took on a big project of reproducing the Primary’s Children’s Songbook in Hungarian. They received help from people all over Hungary who translated the various songs. Sister Ballentine also made a cross reference index so a person could find the songs in English and Hungarian as well as the music on the Songbook CD. Then they compiled the book and had copies made at their own expense so every ward and branch could have two copies. The Hungarian saints love this song book and want more copies. Unfortunately, the Saints in Hungary have been given almost every Church book they possess so the thought of purchasing a Church book at their own expense is quite foreign to them.

In the past year a group of bi-lingual Hungarians led by Gergely Noémi, Elder Dukelow’s tutor, as an initiative project have produced several very nice translations of Church books. You can read all about it at www.cumorah.hu. They have published Lectures on Faith, Lucy Mack Smith’s History of Joseph Smith, and Talmage’s Jesus the Christ. They are now working on Miracle of Forgiveness, Articles of Faith, and Standing for Something, among other projects. Since these books are also being published at their own expense, they cannot just give them away and the Saints in Hungary are interested but not buying the books. If anyone has a good solution to the problem of how to market such Church books without violating the Church’s policy against supporting commercial endeavors, we would welcome any suggestions.

Our next audit trip was to the far western part of Hungary where we checked the books in Sopron and Szombathely. We then stayed the night in Szombathely and spoke in Church the next day. The talks were essentially the same as in Nyiregyhaza. This was the first time we had driven to these towns; always before we took the train. One town we passed through was named Farad, a curious name because in Hungarian it means tired, in German, bicycle. We will post pictures taken on our ride home on our blog.

We continue to have good turnouts at our bi-weekly mid-singles Family Home Evenings. We even have a couple of young single adults who join us. The discussions are usually very interesting. We have one sister who is quite provocative and outspoken in her opinions. It livens things up quite a bit but sometime she also is a bit too forceful so we need to make sure everyone knows a person has the right to their own opinion.

Sister Dukelow has been generally healthy for her entire mission. She had a slight problem with her digestion system last year at this time but this year, so far, so good. She did have a cold and stayed home one day to rest. We try to exercise each day, get enough sleep, and eat a balanced diet plus one candy bar, Snickers or Milka, each day. We understand that other senior couples also follow this same pattern and also eat one candy bar a day. It appears to be a good thing because we are all healthy.

We continue to work with the two new members we helped bring into the Church, Laura and Andrea. Laura has had some health problems and being the only American in a remote area on the Balaton is a challenge. Her Hungarian is not good enough to allow her to enjoy the local church meetings so she looks forward to coming to Budapest and meeting with the International Branch which speaks English.

Andrea is also doing well at the moment considering all the trials and turmoil she went through to come to her decision to be baptized. She now says “our church” instead of “your church” as she did previously. She is now working for an Israeli firm and wants to learn Hebrew so she can do a better job. Andrea’s mother, Rose, and her daughter, Laura, may also join the church. They really enjoy meeting with us.

We and the other senior couples conduct inspections of the young missionaries’ apartments every six weeks. Most of the times we find the apartments in good shape as they are suppose to be. Some times the young folks get a bit lax and need to be gently admonished which is usually all it takes. Rarely do we need to charge them for damages they caused to their apartments. Putting tape on walls is still the biggest problem. The young people need to hang their pictures and don’t want to buy picture hangers so they tape their pictures to the walls. When the tape comes off, the paint and plaster also comes off. Repairing an apartment after it has been used by tape happy missionaries usually costs us several hundred dollars.

On 26 January we had a branch presidents’ social. Unfortunately only four units were represented due to other commitments. We had a good time and went out to eat at a nice restaurant, Remiz. Sister Dukelow had fried eggplant with chicken. Elder Dukelow had an exceptionally tasty roasted duck breast on stewed prunes. Sister Gasser was not happy that she did not get to cook the meal but she was a good sport about it. She cooks the most delicious cinnamon rolls every day when she and President Gasser are doing interviews of the young missionaries. President Gasser complains good naturedly that she will always find time to cook cinnamon rolls but lacks time to prepare him a sandwich so he makes one himself.

On 27 December we received 13 new missionaries and this week on 5 February we will receive another 13 new missionaries. That means that one fourth of our mission will either be brand new or here for less than two months. It is a real challenge for President Gasser to find the right people to train all these new folks. The last group was full of great potential and we hope this next group is the same. It makes a world of difference in Hungary if you can speak some of the language and have the right attitude.

Another note on the weather: Although we have had winter weather in January, we have also had mild days with temperatures in the mid-40s Fahrenheit. Of course when it gets warm outside, our apartment becomes unbearably hot inside. We just open the windows and don’t complain.

The passing of President Hinckley is a momentous occasion in Hungary because he is the only prophet most of these people have ever known. The funeral was broadcast via satellite to the stake center and other large chapels around the country. We watched it at home over the internet. Many of our newer members did not understand why we were not sad at the death of this great man. We explained that we firmly believe his spirit is not dead but just gone on ahead of us to a better world.

January was also a busy month because Elder Dukelow was in the middle of finding two new meeting places for our new congregations in Kaposvar and Szolnok. The Kaposvar congregation had outgrown its initial space and now has over 30 people attending each Sunday. Szolnok had its first meeting today and had 11 people in attendance. We decided to find a nice place for the Szolnok people to meet from the beginning as we believe it will grow quickly in the next few months. Kaposvar struggled for almost a year before it finally got going and some of that may have been because they met in a small room on the third floor of a rear building. Their new place is on the main street, one flight up, and much nicer and larger rooms. The Kaposvar people are ecstatic.

Just to balance out good news, we have two cities in Hungary where the police believe that missionaries are not allowed to randomly knock on doors. We have had a legal opinion on this topic two or more years ago that said as long as we are polite there is no law against such activities. We are hoping for a similar legal opinion quickly.

To finish up the report, we bring you some notes on cars and phones. We had one phone stolen in January. Ironically, the same apartment of sisters has now replaced its phone three times in one year. Their first phone was destroyed when they spilled soup on it. The next two were lost to pickpockets. We also had one other phone destroyed by missionaries who thought they could repair the on-off switch with a steak knife.

Our only car accident in the past five months happened on an icy day when our missionaries stopped at a red light and the car behind them did not. Very minor damage but it will cost their insurance approximately $500 to replace the fiber glass skirt under our car’s bumper.

Not an accident but an unnecessary expense happened when our missionaries in Szolnok decided to use their car, a small Skoda similar to a small VW sedan to move their 30 new chairs from the store to their meeting place. The store was going to charge them about $25 to deliver the chairs. They took out the rear seats from their car and in the process jammed up the seat belt retractor. The repair on the seat belt cost $50.

Tonight is Superbowl XLII. Live broadcast time here is midnight to 3AM. Elder Dukelow is hoping for a replay on Monday evening. If not, maybe next year.