October 02 Greenleaf Post

Everyone,

September blew by... too fast. All is well on the Packer home-front and we are glad for the coming of fall. We have been busy harvesting (unfortunately we did not get it all in and we lost a lot to the freeze, lesson - next year either coop with someone who will harvest more or do a smaller garden. We had some friends from in town who shared our garden space since they didn't have any. They came and helped with planting and weeding, but didn't harvest much. It was sad to see so much go to waste. Lareen worked very hard at sharing with everyone we could think of, but alas we were unable to take full advantage of the bountiful harvest.

We did try to take advantage of opportunities to glean at the Church orchard here. We canned nearly 100 jars of apple sauce. Lareen also canned some peaches, tomatoes and variations on tomato sauces. I am grateful for a great spouse and help-meet who does so much for our family. When the Sister in General Conference (I forgot her name, but she was on Sunday and she was in the YW program) spoke about Latter-Day Women of Faith and how much they blessed the lives of those around them, I was grateful for a wife who I consider to be a Latter-Day Woman of Faith.

Conference was great, unfortunately I was in Maryland for the weekend, but my associate and myself were able to go to a stake center near Columbia MD to see the 2 Sunday sessions. I really felt bad about missing the Priesthood session, I look forward to that and unfortunately had meetings for work that night in Annapolis. It was also Jarom's 8th Birthday on Sunday. We had already had a party for him the week before when I was there, then on last Friday all of the Hansen cousin's came and played (no school), then Lareen took the kids to Weiser to watch conference with her parents. Then on Monday (also no school) Jarom got his first taste of wild (and we really mean WILD) calf riding. Grandpa Hansen had promised him this summer he would let him ride a calf, but every time we tried to get together either we couldn't do it or he was too busy with his Hay business. Anyway, the calf was a little too big and so the ride was very short, and Jarom is OK. Grandpa had the calf on a rope so it couldn't go too far and so he could control it after Jarom's ride came to an abrupt end. Jarom is not planning a career of bull riding after that.

Logan, Jarom and Hannah are all taking Piano lessons now. So we are spending a lot of time with piano practicing. On Sunday's we have mini recitals and Emma gets to join in with her renditions of fusion jazz (if you know what I mean- lots of chords with dissidence).

I was released from the Young Men's organization (much to my disappointment) and called into the Elder's Quorum Presidency again. Lot's of work to do in this ward. We have 30% activity rate and 35% of our HT list is listed as "DO NOT CONTACT". Our ward has a lot of good people, and many of them are in humble circumstances, so they serve well. When it is time for harvesting the fruit at the Stake orchard, our ward finishes our assignment early and ends up going and helping other wards (much more affluent and active wards) with their assignments. I shouldn't be proud, but I am proud to be a part of a good "salt of the earth" Ward.