Zone-ariffic Adieux

“Shlawkee, shleckee, shlawkee.” Loosely translated that means “The gospel has been restored.” Or that is what we think it means.

You see, from time to time we are delighted when we have time to assist the younger missionaries with a discussion or two. This past week we sat in on a lesson by two sister missionaries who were teaching in Mongolian. In most languages, when people are having a gospel discussion, even if you don’t know the language, every once in a while you will pick up on something like “Christus” or “Josef Smit” or something that gives you a hint of what they are talking about. Well, apparently not in Mongolian. We sat through a 45 minute lesson and did not pick up on one single word. Zero, nada, zippo. They might as well have been talking about a Mariners’ baseball game.

However, even though we didn’t catch a word, the spirit was still there. You could still feel the spirit working through these two young missionaries to bear testimony of the truth to our new little friend from Mongolia.

This past week marked a milestone for us. We attended our “first” zone conference! What you say? Our first? Yup. Even though zone conferences are held every six weeks, we have our own classes and other obligations we have to attend to. But finally a zone conference was held on a day when we didn’t have any conflicts. It was great! Don’t get us wrong, we love our mission, but being Institute missionaries does leave you a little isolated from the other missionaries. So to have a chance to rub shoulders with a whole bunch of missionaries at one time was a real treat for us.

And can we tell you how strong the spirit feels when you are surrounded by 60 young, articulate, well-groomed, and excited missionaries who are singing their mission song, as fast, and as loud, as they can in a chapel? Okay, maybe it was because we were having visions of perhaps what it is like for an Anziano Thornton in Milan, Italy to be attending a zone conference and an Elder Thornton in Nairobi, Kenya to be attending one there. Yes, one “Senior” missionary couple got a little choked up just thinking about them while being surrounded by all those young elders. They are just so great!

And Elder & Sister Arnold, the visiting general authority & spouse, weren’t too bad either. Of course, how could Elder Arnold not be? He was raised as a fellow spud from Rockland, Idaho. Salute! And boy is he organized. We think he gets more accomplished each morning by 8:00am than what we do in an entire day. We still have so much to learn from others don’t we? What a good example he is to set such a productive pattern, especially for these young missionaries to follow and incorporate into the rest of their lives.

On yet another missionary front, we were invited to go see the Church’s property out on Vashon Island. The Church was donated a 100+ acre farm on Vashon Island which they are trying to turn into a camp. Anyway, there is a legal battle of sorts, so until everything gets settled, (its been years) they have a missionary couple whose job it is to be the caretakers of the farm:

It is hard to see, but this beautiful farm used to be a Morgan horse farm. Its right along a south edge shore of the Island. In addition to its beautiful wooded landscape, it also has beautiful views of the Puget sound. Anyway, the missionary couple spend most of their time just trying to keep the place looking like this. They do a great job. But they sure were glad to see us since they don’t get too many visitors. So if you are looking for a nice & quiet service mission, this might be just what you are looking for.

And speaking of visitors, we had a plethora (I just love saying that word) of visitors over the past two weeks.

First, we had the Dave & Lori Wise & family come for a day or two. They like to take their family on vacations that re-create history. This year’s trip was based upon Lewis & Clark’s epic adventure into the great Northwest.

And wouldn’t you know it? The Wises ran into the same problem Lewis & Clark ran into on their epic journey. That’s right, their alternator went out on their car. They ended up spending their first night sleeping in their car waiting for the mechanic shop to open up the next morning in Ontario, Oregon.

But, as Dave explained to their kids, that was the exact spot where Meriwether Lewis’ car broke down when he crossed the border into Oregon. Except, back in 1803, alternators were made much better so Mr. Lewis had made over 3,000 miles before his alternator actually gave out. Fortunately, his mechanic, by the name of Sacagawea, installed another and they were quickly on their merry way. And today, if you look real close at a Sacagawea dollar, you can see that alternator she carried in her right hand clear back to the Napa auto parts dealer in St. Louis so she could get a refund and pay for their entire trip.

A day later, the Wises did arrive. We met them at this historic Lightpost. Dave says the post marks the exact spot where Lewis told Clark “this is the spot President George Washington wants his library.” (or maybe Dave is getting this confused with “Lois & Clark?”) Anyway, that is how Washington University Library came to be around 1948. Oh, and if you look closely at the rusty, pointy, thing on the right, Dave also says that is where the next “national treasure” movie is going to have a major clue. There is a HUGE hidden vault of treasures right under that triangle.

And it is just by sheer coincidence that the handicap arrow is pointing directly at the point of Dave’s brain that stores all that accurate historical data. And as Mike is fond of pointing out, of course, the most important reason why anyone should study history in the first place is so that when you visit a historical site, you can go around correcting the tour guides.

Well we did have a little pity on the Wises. Since they spent all their money on an alternator, as missionaries, we thought the least we could do was take them down to Seattle’s soup kitchen so they could at least get something to eat before we sent them over to the homeless shelter for the night.

Don’t they just look happy? Or maybe Dave just likes to make people nervous by smiling like that.
Anyway, isn’t it just amazing how a little hot soup can melt away all your alternator troubles?

We then left the Wises in the good hands of the local authorities and wished them well until we meet again. Adieu, Adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.

(Okay, if you don’t know by now, Dave & Mike were college roommates and they tend to get a “LITTLE” carried away when they get together.)

After the Wises left, we then had another pleasant surprise. My niece, Rebecca decided on a whim to pick up my mom and drive up the Oregon coast for my niece’s birthday. As they traveled north, they dropped in to see us and we were able to take a day to visit Orca Island and such.

We just LOVE visitors. Especially of the Mom & niece variety.

We did run into a slight problem. You see, when we went down to the water, there was this little tiny island at low tide you could just walk out to.

However, the tide started to come in faster than we anticipated and, , ,

You probably guessed that the water covered the trail back and it got a little deeper than expected trying to get back to our car – whoops!

We then toured another island and ran across this beautiful garden many of you probably recognize:
We have annual passes, so come on by!

We then said our “good-byes” and please, “please come again.”

We then had our final surprise visit of the week. Mike’s niece, Joy & her husband Alex (and darling daughter Jacklyn) McClean swung on by for a quick visit. We were so really happy they did! They live in Rochester, New York and we have not seen them in years. So we were more than happy to give them a good old Institute and U-dub campus tour:
And so ended our week. We attended our normal 3 sacrament meetings today and now it is time to go for a walk.

It is summer here in Seattle. All but one of our summer classes end next week. We LOVE getting visitors!

So don’t think you are of any bother if you decide to drop on by!

Mike will be happy to give you the “real” Meriwether Lewis tour!

Until next time - Adieu, Adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Love,

Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton

Sweatin' & Solacing in Seattle

Bracing for Blastoff?

In the summer time, things are a bit “dead” around here. That gave us an idea. Why not go and work for the dead? (I know, we are just brilliant aren’t we?) So we got permission to go do temple work each Thursday this summer.

So, as usual, on Thursday we started to drive from the University area to the temple area in Bellevue. The fastest way to get there is by using the “520 bridge” over Lake Washington. It is actually a beautiful “floating” pontoon bridge that looks like this at one end:

And it looks like this as it spans over the lake:

Unfortunately, bridge traffic mostly looks like this:

Slows downs to screeching halts happen all the time.

As we made our way onto the bridge, some “mishap” at the far end of the bridge brought traffic to a complete standstill. Mike quickly applied the brakes to avoid what would otherwise be our 4-runner becoming “one” with the cars piled up ahead of us.

As we started our rapid slowdown, we heard a great tumultuous noise coming up from the rear. At first it sounded like a large semi-truck applying its brakes. A nano-second later, the sound turned into a ROAR and deafening high-pitched “SCREACH!!!”

We instinctively braced for impact. Frantically we stared into our rear view mirrors. Just how far back was that earth-VIBRATING Thunder coming from? Just how many cars were to be blasted off the bridge like falling dominoes? Un-nervingly we could not see our fate.

Then in a heartbeat - the maker of all our fears appeared. Streaming from our far right, only to be gone in an instant overhead, the Navy’s “Blue Angels” thundered by. They were flying really, really low over Lake Washington. Apparently they do this every year for Seattle’s annual “Sea Fair” event. You would have thought someone would have told us! And don’t you normally “see” the jets before you “hear” them? What is up with that?

Once we got our hearts beating again at a normal pace, we then drove the rest of the way over to the temple. It’s welcomed serenity was especially “calm” and “cool” considering Seattle’s current heat wave.



That’s It? Really - a New Record?

Our first fourteen years of married life finally paid off. How you may ask?

Well, for the first fourteen years (7 in a 2 bedroom apartment in Orem & the next 7 in our Provo home) we had no A/C. Since 90% of all Seattlites - our own term of endearment, like unto Mulekites, Lamanites, Nephites, etc., - since 90% of all Seattlies don’t have A/C, they are melting! But not us. Mike hasn’t even taken off his jacket – okay, that might be a little strange – but it’s kinda fun in a strange way to be here to experience the new all-time high in Seattle when it hit 103˚ on Wednesday! Whaa Whoo!

Okay, the “real” story is, the “Insty” does have A/C. So we have little complaining to do until we go home at night to our apartment. Then the jacket comes off (as actually so does most everything else, hah! Take that you monster heat wave!)


He knows why we are here

As mentioned before, over the past two weeks, everybody, the director, the full-time instructor and the secretary have all been gone. That has left us two little mice to run around doing most everything. But it has been good. Like we said, summer can be a little slow. Anyway, yes, it is fun to be teaching “extra” classes over the past two weeks. And, yes, it has been very rewarding to be teaching our own classes this summer. And, yes, it has been nice to have the time to do some extra gospel studying. But, sometimes the “other” experiences, the experiences that just happen because we are here, are just as rewarding (if only we had the patience to allow the Lord to His part.)

For example, we have been trying to give extra help to one of the Insty students by the name of “Will.” Will is a young man in his mid-twenties whose life changed dramatically about 8 years ago. (Will is very open about his life’s story, so we aren’t telling you anything he would not.)

As a teenager, Will went to a local Seattle area high school. He was a star on his school’s football team. He had lots of friends and dated lots of fun girls. He attended church regularly. When he turned sixteen, he was given a brand new pickup truck. For all appearances, Will seemed to have everything going his way.

However, Will was not happy. In fact, he was so unhappy that one night, while he was driving his new pickup down a lonely highway, he did something horrible. He suddenly punched down hard on the gas peddle. He then followed an urge and intentionally swerved right in front of an oncoming semi-truck.

But for the grace of God, Will should have died. Will intended just that. But he didn’t. In an instant, Will’s earth life changed permanently in ways he never could imagine.

Over the next 3 years doctors did their best to repair the damage done to virtually all of his organs. They also performed reconstructive plastic surgery. The doctors did their best, but his broken body would never be the same.

No more football. No more being able to drive. His “friends” and girl friends drifted away until there was none.

Will is still the same on the inside, but his brain is now slow to process thoughts. His speech is now halting and slurred. He is able to walk, but in doing so, his walk is very labored and slow. Doctors tell him he may improve over time, but it has now been 8 years.

Will continues to get professional help to assist him with his emotional challenges. But he still has “good” days and “bad.” Most of time, the wonderful students here try to help Will the best they can - with both his “good” and “bad” days. They know inside that broken body is a child of God. It is truly amazing to see how his fellow students render such respect and kindness to him.

Yet there are days, even weeks, that Will gets down. This past week was one of them. Will has been trying to find some part-time work to help him with his bills. The economy is slow right now, and that makes it even tougher for people in Will’s condition. For example, when he applies at Burger King, instead of the normal 5 or 6 applicants for a position, there is more like 20. Will has a difficult time competing with 20 others who are more physically capable. And of course, Will has the normal challenges of people his age. He worries about his “thinning” hair. He worries about whether he will ever get the chance to marry in this life, or for that matter, will he ever go out on a date with someone who would take him serious.

We try to help Will the best we can. Quite frankly, we don’t have answers to many of the problems he faces. But we are here to comfort. We share stories of the warehouse falling down and Mike breaking his leg and how just as it seems darkest, a light will eventually shine forth. We softly testify to him that he does not have to face his challenges alone. We re-assure him and testify to him of a kind and loving Father in Heaven who knows Will’s earthly plight. He has not forgotten Will. He has never given up on Will. Will is still here on earth for a purpose - a meaningful purpose.

By the time we finish most of our visits, Will is smiling. Smiling is something he still is so capable of doing that brightens everyone’s day. As he leaves for the day a little brighter – a little cheerier, we know it is not us who brings him hope. It is that wonderful Spirit of comfort. We likewise feel blessed just for having the opportunity of being here.

In closing, may we be so bold as to leave you our testimony. We know the great God of this Universe knows the plight of each of His imperfect children. He cares. He commands angels, both in heaven and on earth, to assist us here. We are never alone. You, and each of your loved ones, are not excluded. You are His. This we know.

Love,


Elder “Mike” and Sister “Jenny” Thornton