Mission Goal: Stay Alive

Monday June 13, 2016

Elder Selman sent us some very sad looking pictures of Mason.  He's been sick this week.  It's the first time, this whole year, that we have heard about any sickness--and note, it did not come from him...

Hey mom, How's it going.  I'm feeling a little bit under the weather today. But I wanted to tell you about our week, it was super awesome. (This is from a voice recording, and he does not sound very good at all--but he doesn't tell us what's wrong, he just jumps into the description of his week.)

So, being the Mother, I wrote to Sister Searle to check on him for me, make sure he was taking care of himself. 

Dear Sister Searle, 

Elder Burk always sends a voice recording instead of typing--which we appreciate since we hear so much more than we would otherwise.  However, today, he sounded very sick, which is quite unusual for him.  And he hinted at having a high fever.  I'm not sure if it's anything to worry about, but being this far away, I would really appreciate someone checking in on him, to make sure he's ok.  And if he's not, that he's encouraged to get to a doctor.  He usually plays things down, but today I felt like it might be more than that.  So I thought I better write and see if more can be done to help him. *I'm a Mother...you know.  : )

Marilyn Searle	Jun 13
to me

Hi Sister Burk,

Just read your email.  I talked to Elder Burk this morning when we found out he was sick.  He had thrown up a couple of times and had some diarrhea.  I asked very specifically if he had a fever, becasue if they have a fever and diarrhea we get concerned.   He assured me he did not have a fever, so we told him clear liquids today, stay in and to call me if the diarrhea did not stop.   

I just spoke to him again and he assured me he did not have a fever.  He said he had not thrown up any more, and had not had more diarrhea since this morning.  He is weak I can tell, which is normal when they get the stomach flu here.   He and his companion were at a home evening.  I told him I would check on him in the morning.   You are right he does downplay things, which many of our great North Americans do, his companion Elder Selman is that way also.   We will keep and eye on him until we leave.

We have certainly loved getting to know your son, he is wonderful.  I can tell it will be hard for him to have Elder Selman leave and the big group of wonderful North American elders that are in that group.   He will be fine though, and it will give him a chance to develop his leadership in the mission even more.

I will send you an email tomorrow after I talk with Elder Burk and find out how he is feeling.

Sincerely,

Hermana Searle

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Marilyn Searle	Jun 14
to me

HI Sister Burk,

Just talked to your son, he is feeling much better, still a little weak, but feels like eating, so we will check on him again during the day.  Hope this will put your mind at ease.  Have a good day.

Sincerely

Hermana Searle

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Mc Burk <roandmich@gmail.com>	Jun 14
to Marilyn

Thank you for the update.  We are glad to hear he's doing better. 

He'll be happy when he can get back to work.

--------------------------

Two weeks later, this is all Mason tells me, a brief back and forth via email.  

Mom: How are you???? 

Mas: I'm pretty good. ive gotten sick a couple times on the mission but its just normal. i drug myself up and drink lots of water and im ok. ive never stayed in during a work day. 

Mom: Please define it more. What have you had-for reals: Regular yucky tummy? Flu? Have you had Zeka? Do you have parasites?  Tell me everything

Mas: jajajajja no i just had diariah. it means i ate something bad and then i got it out. 

Mom: Ok, so stick with bottled water and granola bars. Eat smart. Come home alive. Love you. 

Mas: iré y haré!  

--------------------------

I have gone this entire year, not worrying about him at all.  I've had complete peace about his call, and knew that whatever was going to happen was completely out of my hands.  But this week, I had a dream that Mason had called me, and was trying to break the news to me that something was wrong.  I woke up Monday morning, to the email from his companion  Elder Selman, with these very sad and pathetic pictures of Mason.  It was the first time I had a sinking feeling about him being so far away, and unable to do anything to help him.  It was not fun.  

When prayer is all there is to rely on, then that's what you do.  And heaven and I both know there was a lot of praying going on.  I was so grateful Sister Searle was there, and able to communicate with me regarding his welfare.  Let's hope we can go another whole year without any more sickness!

New Mission President

President and Sister Searle, from Burley Idaho

This week, Elder Mason Burk says goodbye to his Mission President, Kent R. Searle and Sister Marilyn Searle from Burley, Idaho.  He has been a wonderful President, and Elder Burk is very sad to see him leave.


From lds.org:  Kent Roland Searle, 60, and Marilyn Mitchell Searle, four children, View 2nd Ward, Oakley Idaho Stake: Colombia Barranquilla Mission. Brother Searle served as a temple ordinance worker and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, bishop, stake organist, ward mission leader and missionary in the Argentina North Mission. Farmer. Born in Burley, Idaho, to Raymond Clayson and Sharol Joy Searle.

Sister Searle serves as a temple ordinance worker and is a former ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, Blazer leader, Primary pianist and ward activity chairman. Born in Burley, Idaho, to Howard Cecil and Reva Banner Mitchell.

His new mission president, is John J. Gallego, who is a native from Colombia. He recently worked as the Bogota MTC Manager. 

President John J Gallego and his wife Patricia 

Here is some background information about him from LDS.org:

John Jairo Gallego Infante, 42, and Patricia Martinez de Gallego, two children, Alejandria Ward, Bogotá Colombia El Dorado Stake: Colombia Barranquilla Mission, succeeding President Kent R. Searle and Sister Marilyn Searle. 

Brother Gallego serves as a stake president and is a former stake presidency counselor, bishopric counselor, ward Young Men president, elders quorum president, and missionary in the Colombia Barranquilla Mission. Manager, Colombia Missionary Training Center. 

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, to Gustavo Adolfo Gallego Hoyos and Carmen Julia de Gallego.

Sister Gallego is a former Sunday School teacher, ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, and missionary in the Colombia Bogota North Mission. Born in Cali, Colombia, to Jehovah Martínez and Emma Trujillo de Martínez.

New and wonderful experiences come from change.  We have no doubt that Elder Burk will grow to love his new mission president, and gain insight from his leadership and teachings.  What a great experience he will have serving with him. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

LDS.ORG

Heyo

Monday June 27, 2016

Hola mis buenos amigos!

Right now our room has one room with a little air conditioner.  At night when I lay down, I take off the top sheet, and lay down on the mattress and fall asleep.  There's no sheet, no blanket, nothing.  We turn on the air conditioning, and everything goes black.  I fall right to sleep. 

In past apartments, or when I go on exchanges with other missionaries, most apartments just have fans. It's pretty much the same thing. I have a degree thing on my clock, and right now it says 96 degrees. It doesn't feel hot like 96 degrees did at home, it just seems normal. If there is a little fan, or something that makes air move, even a little bit, it feels fine.  My body seems to think it's just normal.  I'm a little worried that when I get home I may be a big baby about the cold. 

This week Harold, the one who got baptized last week, has been going out with us a lot.  We took him out all day long, to several visits, and met a lot of people.  He decided, all on his own, to go 'pass by people' on Sunday morning, (meaning he went and reminded them to come to church). It was pretty cool.  He's getting really excited about the work, and really wants to go on a mission. We're going to keep working with him, and help prepare him, so he can go serve the Lord on a full time mission. He gets the priesthood this next week, after his interview.  We're super excited about that. 

This week, on the church website, they came out with a new video about depression and mental health.  

Watch it here: Here.  I thought it was really cool to hear the testimony of Elder Holland. It says that 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental disease.  That is a lot.  But I believe it.  We see it everywhere here.  It seems like life used to be simpler--you work, you sleep, you eat, you play.  But today, there are so many distractions. There are too many opinions, and a lot of pressure from social priority--because of social media.  It all plays a role in how people view themselves, and compare themselves to others. We have to be really careful and aware of this.  There are a lot of people struggling with this. 

I was reading a talk today called 'Mental toughness' -or something else in English, that's just my translation, it was by Elder M. Russell Ballard.  It talks a lot about how we need to be mentally strong.  When we enter this world, we have our mind and our spirit. When we die, the body stays here. I feel like there must be a connection between the mind and the spirit that must be stronger than the body. Maybe that's our job, to master our minds, because they so closely affect our spirit.  If you put your mind to anything--You Can Do It.  

There is not a thing in this world you can't do if you have the mental determination to do it. It has a lot to do with our attitude, our habits, and our abilities.  God gave everyone talents. And he's given us all desires. If we combine our desires with our talents, we can strengthen our mind and it can overcome whatever challenges come our way. One of the biggest stumbling blocks we might face, is the temptation to excuse ourself or to complain. Excuses, complaints, pride, not taking responsibility, are things that will hold us back from meeting our true potential. 

We have to work on it.  Just like our muscles have to work at being stronger, our minds have to be strengthened too. I know a lot of people suffer from mental diseases.  We have met a lot of people here. I know what they are like.  Hopefully we can all learn to have compassion, and suffer with those people, and look for a way to overcome these problems.  The best way to do that is to stay busy with good things, and do all we can to understand the gospel--meaning God's Plan for you, the Atonement, and all that Jesus Christ has done for us. 

The video is called "Like a Broken Vessel" and can be found on Mormon.org.  Watch it.  If you broke your finger, you would go to the doctor for a splint to fix it.  If your mind is broken, you need to do the same thing--Seek out professional help.  It won't be as simple as a splint, but you can work at it, and there are people who can help. Look for others you can help.  I know God has all power and can do all things. I trust in Him. I know he will bless us, and I know he has the power to help us overcome hard things. Be happy!  There is so much good in the world.  Don't complain, don't make excuses.  Pray to God who has promised he will "Come unto you." 

I love you guys. I hope you're doing good!

Elder Mason Burk

Harold Ayala gets baptized!

June 20, 2016

Hey family, this week we were teaching Bro Harold Ayala.  He finally made the decision to be baptized! He was baptized on Saturday night.  It was super awesome.  There were a lot of people that came to support him.  He's 18 years old, and ready to get the Priesthood.

Harold's Baptism

We found him at the beginning of the transfer from the ward list.  We went looking for some addresses, and found Harold. From the first day he was super excited.  We looked him in the doorway, and he just smiled and told us to come in.  We walked in, sat down, taught him about the restoration of the church, gave him a Book of Mormon and from that day he has kept every single commitment we have given him. He has accepted everything.  He set his baptismal date.  He's read all of the passages we've assigned him from the Book of Mormon.  He's had good questions, and has never had any big problems.  He has come to church every week by himself. He's brought his friends, he's brought his family, and he's done everything he could. Now he's been baptized.

We are so excited for him, and the ward is so supportive and excited as well.  The Bishop has been talking to us and said that he's going to give him the Priesthood this next week.  Harold's going to start preparing for that, then the Bishop wants to call him as the 2nd counselor to the Young Men's President. So he's going to have a great calling, and be able to help do some great things here.

The baptismal service was really awesome.  There were so many people there for him.  We had a returned missionary from the area that baptized him, and has become his good friend. He took him to a couple of dances, so he's made a lot of friends in the stake.  There were so many members from all over the stake that came to support him.  The best part was that the members ran the whole baptism, FINALLY.  We've never had a baptism like that.  We have always had to do something. But this time, we told everyone he was getting baptized, and they just took over.  We cleaned out the font, but other than that, they did it all.  They planned the whole program, they did everything and helped him a lot.  It was awesome!

Elder Selman, Harold Ayala, Elder Burk

On Sunday, we went with Alexander, the Elder's Quorum President.  He's pretty funny.  We've been working a lot with him lately, trying to get some of the Elders going.  He's helped us a lot with the less active members, and investigators. So today we went to find his 2nd counselor who is currently less active. Whenever he comes to church, he's quite the jokester.  He's kind of funny, he served a mission, and got married in the temple, but he just doesn't come to church because sometimes he has to work, but mostly because he's just lazy.  So we went to go visit him.

Alex has been pretty stressed out running the whole Elder's Quorum by himself.  He's only been in the church for 3 years.  But he's rockin' it.  He wanted to serve a mission, but he was too old.  So, we work a lot with him.  We try to help he and his counselor plan things out. They didn't really understand how to do it.  So we sat them down and said, "Look you guys should have a meeting together once a week. Let's decide right now, when are you going to have your meeting?" Then the less active counselor, is like, "I don't know."  So I turned to him and said, "Ok, how about next Tuesday, here, in your house?"  Alex is like-"Yes! I'll come here." So we're like, ok, sweet.

We helped him pull out a piece of paper, and write everything down, Tuesday at 8:00 you two are going to meet here, one of you guys is going to bring food, and the other one is going to bring the list of companionships for home teaching.  Then you can both go through it together.  You can pick two companionships each week and go to visit them.  You can get them excited to do their home teaching. Once we explained what they needed to do, they started making goals and stuff, and it was awesome.  We're pretty happy for them. This should help make the Elder's Quorum a little bit stronger.

This week I was studying in John with my companion. In John 11 it talks about the miracle of Lazaras when he was raised from the dead. My companion pointed out to me how much it teaches us here about what Jesus really felt.  When he was in a different city, and someone told him he would have to go back to find Lazaras and help him because he was sick.  Then the messenger leaves, and Jesus turns to his apostles and tells them that they will go there right now, and help him. The apostles ask him why they should go back, they were just there. Then he explains in vs 11 why they need to go back.  It says, "Our friend Lazaras sleepeth, and I go there to wake him from his sleep." His disciples didn't understand that Lazaras was going to die. But Jesus knew that. And he knew they would get there late, but that it was necessary to go and help, in an answer to the faith of the people that were there.

So they go.  And Jesus and finds Martha there crying.  And he tells her that her brother shall rise again.  And she thinks he's just talking about the resurrection.  Then Mary walks out, and she cries as well. And it touched him enough, that he did what no one else would do, knowing what would happen.  In verse 35 it says, "Jesus wept." Now, I had never really understood this scripture before.  As a child in primary I knew this scripture just because it is the shortest one in the bible.  But I never understood its importance.

Jesus wept, not out of his own pain, but because of the pain of someone else. This is an example of real compassion. The word compassion, in the Spanish guide of the scriptures, says, "compassion is to suffer with someone else. " Jesus, in this moment, was suffering with someone else.  He could see that she was really in pain and he decided to cry with her.  He knew that everything was going to be alright.  He knew more than anyone else, what he was capable of doing. And that of course Lazarus would be resurrected like everyone else, but that in this moment he would also raise him from the dead.  But first, Jesus stopped and decided to cry with her--displaying for us what true compassion looks like.

Sometimes we can help people.  Sometimes we can come up with a solution to help people get over their troubles and their problems. But sometimes we can't.  From this scripture, we learn that what we can always do is to have compassion and suffer with them. That doesn't mean we'll always feel exactly what they feel, but we can try to put ourselves in their shoes.  We show them love by sitting next to them and crying with them.

Now let me be clear, I'm not a cryer--I haven't cried in a long time. But after reading about this story from the scriptures, I realize that this is something I need to better at, having true compassion for people in this way, and be willing to suffer with someone.  My first instinct is to look at someone and tell them to just suck it up.  But the Savior is teaching us that the best way is to suffer with them, is with patience and long suffering.  So when you see people in need, choose to suffer with them, and help them get through their problems. When we suffer with people, and have compassion for them, it shows them that you care, and that you are there for them. See how awesome the scriptures are?! That's why we're supposed to study them daily.

I love you guys, I hope you have a great week.

It was an Awesome Week

Monday, June 13, 2016

We took an early bus for 6 hours all the way back to Barranquilla for Leader's conference.

Leader's Conference in Barranquilla, Colombia

After the Leader's council we had a devotional by the new apostle Elder Ronald A Rasband.  He came to Barranquilla to talk about the temple and spoke at a devotional for all the members of the church in Barranquilla.  He didn't come specifically for the missionaries, but all the leaders were able to attend, as well as all the missionaries currently serving in Barranquilla. It was super cool!  

The Area President was also there.  The devotional was so great.  I received a lot of answers for myself. 

While we were there, we realized this would be the last time we would see President and Sister Searle.  It was super sad!  We all took a bunch of pictures with him, and with other missionaries who will be going home next month.

Elder Burk and President Searle

It seems like the whole leader's council is going to completely change over.  All of them are going home with the big surge of missionaries that came out together after the age change.  We are going to be left without a lot of leaders.  It will be tough.

Elder Wyat Selman and Elder Mason Burk

Elder Rusada sp? is an area authority from Peru, that spoke and has a lot of energy inside and is super awesome.  He taught us about the temple.  He listed 5 things we need to do to prepare to go to the temple.  He said a tradition in English means to turn in something.  I liked that.  They are things that we get our family to turn to everyday.  I hope that everyone can make these things a regular practice in their homes, marriages, and families. 

1. Put a picture of the temple in your house.  If it is hanging in your house every single day, you will make the goal to go there.  

I feel really good about our family that we've had that our whole life. 

2. Buy your own temple clothes, get them in a bag, and always be ready to go. In Barranquilla, maybe it will be hard for you to buy all of your temple clothes at one time.  So start now.  While the temple is being built, buy a tie.  Then buy your pants, then one sock, then another sock.  Work up to it slowly, until you have all of your white clothes and you are ready to walk into the temple of God. 

In Mosiah 13:30  It talks about remembering our commitment to God. 

3. Remember to do your own family history work.  Find names and be ready to go to the temple.  Yeah, well, this part I have not done so great on, but I'm going to do it more when I get home. 

4. Have a current recommend to go to the temple.  Keep it in a safe place so you always know where it is.  And then use it.  

5. Make dates to go to the temple.  Make dates with your spouse, with your kids to go regularly. Talk to each other and set up specific dates to go.  Where you guys live it is not hard to go to the temple--once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month. 

I would really like to invite my own family to do that.   Every Mom and Dad, that go to the temple together regularly and study the scriptures together every single day, will have their marriage change for good.

When Elder Rasband got up to speak, the spirit was so strong, and felt so Awesome! I wrote down so many things. I received a lot of answers to personal questions I had.  Surprisingly, I did not write down very much about what he said.  But I did write things about my life and what I need to change.  And I pretty much wrote a talk while I was sitting there.  

I was thinking about my future and what I wanted to do.  

The family is of the Lord--it is the most important school your children will attend.  

When we got back home, we were greeted with a lot of rain.  We are working with an investigator named Harold Ayala. He's 18 years old and has kept every single commitment we have given him.  From the first day we knocked on his door, he just looked at us and smiled, and when we asked if we could come in, he said, "Yes." He's listened to everything.  He loves it.  He's felt the spirit, and now he's getting baptized. He has his interview on Saturday.  We are so excited about that.  

We finally got a deaf class organized in church, so now we can get members to start learning signs and going out with them. And I almost gave a talk in church.  They asked me during sacrament meeting when someone didn't show up.  So I sat on the stand, and was ready to go, then they needed the meeting without me.  I had a great talk put together from all of my notes I took at Elder Rasband's devotional address in Barranquilla. 

Here are some pictures from my last area in La Playa.  The Elders there finished teaching some of our investigators.  They got married, and baptized.  I was so happy to hear about it!

The wedding of Joel Ospino and his wife Sara.

Omar Morelo baptized his sister Tatiana

"The rains came down and the floods came up..."

Huge Futbol game--with the Stake President, the missionaries, and the members

This week we got a call from Elder Miller, he’s a good friend, working in the mission office right now as one of the assistants to the President.   He called us one night to tell us the story of what happened to him last week. He went with President Searle up to a farm for a p-day activity, and they went hiking with a local.  The local said, “Be careful! There’s a beehive right there.”  He told them that they were killer bees.  Elder Hansen decided to be like, “Ahh” joking and screaming.  Then the whole swarm came after them.  They destroyed them. It put two of the Elders into the hospital. They had to get medicine to treat the venom.  Bees are apparently really dangerous here.  Especially killer bees.  Don’t play around beehives.

We had A LOT of rain on Thursday.  Here in Colombia, they missed the whole drainage concept.  Everything here in Valledupar is made out of cement.  Cement houses, cement roads, cement sidewalks, cement everything.  And there is no drainage underground at all.  There’s a sewer system underground that kind of works.  But when it rains, it comes down so hard, so strong, and so fast, that it just floods everywhere.  So all the streets turn into canals.  It was raining super hard.

We were in a lesson, then left, and we were drenched.  It’s constant rain like we had in Indiana, but there is no drain holes, no grass or dirt to soak it in, just concrete.  So it has to just drain out of the city.  We taught the lesson, then we left, then we got totally soaked, and went stomping through the rain.  It was so deep the water was halfway up our shins.  It was like walking in a big swamp.  We get to this part where 3 roads come together and dump all of the water into one.  We had to cross it to go back and check our house. 

The last time it rained this hard it clogged our back patio, and came into our house.  So we hurried home to get it all situated so we could go back out and work. When we finished, we went back out, determined to have one more visit before the night was over.  By this time it was 7:30 pm.  We left and we had to cross back over this river again.  It’s deep now, up to our knees.  And it’s a really strong current, like walking through the Boise river.  So we cross it and get to the other side.  We had two visits set up, both were very reliable visits too, that we knew we could depend on, so we wanted to get to them.

We finally make it to their house, and the first one is not there.  We go down the street to the next one, and they’re not there.   So we’re sitting there in the rain wondering what to do next.  Lots of things happen when it rains here--People rob each other, they get in crashes, people get hurt, people die.  All kind of bad things happen.  So we think, ok, both of these visits that we were super sure would be there, were not home.  We know God must want us to go somewhere. So we said a prayer, and we looked up, and not a single name came to our minds.  We couldn’t think of anybody. Absolutely no revelation. 

The only thing we both felt was that we should go that way.  So we went down the road, we took a right, we took a left, then we went straight, and we see a car down the road that has its blinkers on.  We said, let’s go.  So we start walking towards it, and a lady on the side of the road says, “Hi Elders.” So we say, “Hello,” and we went to shake her hand.  She introduces herself as Sister Molina.  She said that she is less active.  We followed her back to her house, we met her husband and her two kids. They moved from Rioacha sp?  It’s a really tiny town out in the Rahewa sp? A really dangerous part.  

We learned that they both used to be really active.  Her husband used to be the Elder’s Quorum President, she is super awesome and ready to be active. We learned that they had actually joined the church here, in our ward.  But then they moved, and had a lot of problems, then got divorced.  When they were separated, the husband got drunk and got hit by a car.  His leg is now super messed up.  It was HUGE, ginormous.  After the accident, they got back together, and then decided to move back here.  They had just moved back to the area two days ago.  She was praying to be able to get back in touch with the church, and help her family.  So that day in all the rain, we were led right to her.  She said she was praying that she would find a way back to the church, then she looked up and there were the Elders, right in front of her in the rain. She told us that is took God just 2 days and her prayer was answered.  So that was awesome.

They all showed up to church on Sunday—and we didn’t even have to remind them to come.  They are excited and ready to come back.  They have some repentance ahead of them, but they are ready to change and return to church.  It’s awesome to have experiences like this and realize that God is mindful of all his children, and when they turn to him, he will lead them back home. He knows who’s ready, and who is ready to help. 

By the time we left their house, it was really late, and we had to cross this river again. By the time we got there it was now waist deep—it was really fast, more like crossing the Payette River.  So we go up stream to find a way over.  There are people wake boarding in the river.  But it is super dangerous.  There is all kinds of stuff floating around in the river.  If a random tire comes floating down, it will take you out, and you’re gone.  And if you keep going down farther, you fall into the canal, and you’re done. 

We finally get to a place we can cross, it’s waist deep.  Then we found a guy on the other side, who looked at us and said, “I need help.”  We look down and he has a big scar/open wound on his foot and his foot is broken. He couldn’t walk.  So we had to turn around and help him cross the river so he could get to his house.  We start getting back to the house, and we see all these families waiting to cross the river.  All these high school age football street rats are moving their way to the side and say to us, “We’re here to help people.” So one by one they start helping people cross the river.  Elder Selman and I were trying to help people, but it was getting late—it was 9:20, and we’re supposed to be in the house by 9:30 pm.  And here come all these 16-17 yr old young men who take care of everyone.  They looked at us and said, “We’ve got it.”  I looked at them and thought of the pioneer story where the young men helped all the people across the freezing river.  It was a similar situation, only the Colombian version.  It was really cool.

Today, for p-day, we played a big futbal game with our Stake President, all the missionaries from our zone, and lots of members.  We had 2 full teams of 11, and almost a third team of subs rotating through the court.  We had rented a big huge field and had a super cool game.

I hope everything is going great with the new ward.  I have learned a lot about ward leadership on the mission.  Pretty much, everyone should just do whatever the leaders ask you to do.  God will bless you for being obedient. 

I love you familia! I hope everyone is doing great. 

Have a great week,

Elder Burk

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* Hey Mom, thanks a lot for you letter.  It’s so sad to hear about the passing of Brother Ipsen.  I’m so sorry for his family.  I definitely know the Lord cares about them, and that he is where he is supposed to be right now.  He was a great patriarch, and a great man.

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*That’s super sad for Aaron!!  Poor Aaron.  He’s probably never going to float a river again.  I felt so bad the first time we took him down Indian Creek, when we broke his canoe.  But Braden taking him this year, and getting stung by a bunch of bees…yikes! That’s not good.  Somebody needs to take him down a good river trip so he can have a positive experience and gain his confidence back.  Hopefully he’s alright.