Mother's Day

Happy Birthday Brandon on Thursday!

Dearest Family,

Thank you for all your kindnesses to me this weekend. We appreciated your calls, cards, visits, and dinner at Kristilyn's. A special treat was the tour of Kansas City from the Roberts. Check out this link--it is delightful. http://brandonandmelody.com/mothersday.htm. We love the photos from blogs!

I'm training a full time missionary for these two weeks from Alpine, Utah. She worked in the Timpanogos Temple for 11 years and we're having a good time together. John trained a church service volunteer last week and this week is training someone from the Orem Digital Processing center. Everyone has a special responsibility for which they receive special training but their time with us is individualized help on their own personal history. John is really enjoying being a missionary. He works very hard but doesn't get stressed out. He commented that sometimes it feels like he's a bishop again trying to encourage people to try new things then seeing their satisfaction as they accomplish hard tasks. He's such a good teacher and has marvelous skills. He has been assigned to do the security backups for the zone.

John and I did sealings at the Jordan River Temple on Saturday. John is kept very busy preparing lessons for SS and Institute but this is his last week for institute. He has really enjoyed it. Even though there are a lot of people in our mission we know most people by face because they spend so much time in our zone. We enjoyed a devotional today by Russell D. Stay, Directory of Family History Information. That department is divided into two parts--processing names for the temples and providing information for everyone in the world to find their ancestors (partnered programs like the indexing program, Ancestry.com, etc). The church spends $100 million dollars a year not including all the donated labor from missionaries, volunteers, etc. It is the link in the three-fold purpose of the church the vitalizes the other two and is high priority for the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve! John sang with the Men's chorus last Friday and this morning and they sounded wonderful.

It is especially interesting to walk around Temple Square this week because they are taking out the fading tulips and spring flowers, replacing the mulch and soil, and bring in hundreds of new plants. It is an amazing process. They do it bed by bed so only a small portion of the gardens is ever disrupted. It has been interesting to see the huge vaccuums scoop up the petals from the tree blossoms that sometimes cover the ground. There are also large scrubbers to keep the sidewalks and plaza areas clean. We note the people in hip-high wading boots scubbing the reflecting pool and fountains. It is an fascinating to see how much work goes into keeping Temple Square so beautiful. Incidentally, they do not save the tulip bulbs or perhaps other plants from year to year but mulch them then sterilize the mulch so that there are no viruses passed along from plant to plant.

Our hearts and feelings have been close to Neal, Katrina, Daniel, and Anna these days. A tender mercy was that they were able to attend church in their own ward together on Sunday. The bandages had come off Anna's head and they were told not to put anything on it again. They did not shave her scalp to insert the tube but carefully cut a horseshoe shaped piece of her scalp, folded that back, inserted the shut tubing through a hole in her skull, then carefully stitched back the skin. A thin scab had formed and will keep out the infection. The only visible sign from the outside is a bit of matted, curly black hair. It is good to have a normal-looking 2 month old baby doing all the usual things. From now on, every sign of progress is greeted as a miracle, not just the normal course of events. Katrina had a very long list of people to call today to make appointments and to obtain documents from. They hope to get Anna on Medicade as their secondary insurance but that requires a social security number and birth certificate, neither of which are supposedly available until after the adoption is completed. They will return to the hospital in one month for a follow up CT scan and an MRI also, if necessary. We are especially grateful for the blessing Tracy, one of Neal's colleagues who has a son with a similar limitation, has been in mentoring and guiding them through this difficult time. She made three trips to the hospital in Buffalo to be with them and help them. Fortunately, they have the same neurosurgeon-specialist. Neal is busy with finals and graduation. Daniel continues to spread sunshine.

Have a wonderful week. We love to hear from you and appreciate so much your attentiveness and concern toward us and toward one another. I cherish your association.

With much love,

Mom and Dad Rogers