An important quote guiding my current study of D&C 76

While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and parental regard…He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men…

-Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 218.

Backyard buddy

Paige’s little boy loves to be outdoors. During their visit, we spent evenings in the backyard catching bugs, studying the I-spy quilt, and holding his hand as he walked around. When the crew arrived to take down our old fence, he and Richard spent some time watching the process. Later, when telling us all about it, he imitated the sounds of the fence crashing down. Who needs a lot of words when you can imitate the sounds of tools and workers so well?

Those tiny moments together this week amount to more than most events of my life.

Getting ready

We’re getting ready to entertain two young families with babies. Paige and her family are coming, and Celina and her young family are coming to stay with us. Celina and Paige became friends 19 years ago in Arizona and have remained close. It’s time for their little boys to meet. I am populating shelves with toys and books in anticipation. Hooray!

Emoji time 🔥📖🦸🙏

We have a good conversation with Mark on a video call each Monday and he is happy and busy working in the mission office, assigned to travel logistics. There are lots of train tickets to purchase and coordinate in the mission. He gets to leave the office every day to contact people and teach, and he loves living in the city and being so close to the temple. The mission office has a good atmosphere since it is a consecrated place, and he enjoys his connections with missionaries. He serves each week as the pianist in Primary in his ward.

His weekly emails are basically brief statements punctuated by emojis. Here is a small collection of fun lines from his emails from the past few months:

Do-si-don’t do that, elder. 🕺(Reflecting whether missionaries should have accepted the invitation from older ladies to join in the folk dancing at a ward activity.)

I’m trying to make Mexican food in Danmark; it’s me against the world with their spice selection though🧂🧂

Sisters had a baptism yesterday. I got one days notice to play music for it, but as a wise philosopher once said: “Sometimes if you do a job bad enough you don’t get asked to do it again.”🐅

I made pickles for our zone pday and everyone ate them. Before I got any.😒

🖥🔥💳☢️😨It’s going well.

With transfer news we had to hit the office for 11 hours to crank out the fastest ever travel plans💪

Elder Harris moving in on Thursday🕶🪇

Alma 32 keeps coming in clutch with lessons so shout out Alma the younger. Always worth [a] read, but so is the rest of the book.🪇

Jane Eyre movie marathon

Something I like to do is watch different movie versions of my favorite books. Recently, I viewed four Jane Eyre films. Only one was for the big screen and the rest were television miniseries adaptations.

Here is the order that I rank them. I would enjoy watching all but the lowest ranked one again.

4.

I am sorry, but this 1997 version was horrible. One pitfall of this bad Jane Eyre adaptation is that Jane shows little intelligence or competence.

3.

This was the 1983 adaptation. Timothy Dalton is an excellent Mr. Rochester. The filming feels dated and limiting, almost like a stage production. Both leads are believable, even while being a little old fashioned in their style of acting.

2.

2011. Cinematically gorgeous for the big screen, many shots had such beautiful composition that they looked like subjects for paintings. It has a wonderful cast, but since it is the shortest adaptation, some important pieces in the story are overlooked and the happily ever after is artistic, but abrupt.

1.

2006. The chemistry between leads is so good. Toby Stephens shows a unique vulnerability and humor, and he’s the first Mr. Rochester that I actually like. The person who recommended this version to me said that you can see why Jane Eyre fell in love with this man. This screenplay shows best how Jane’s difficult past helped her become morally strong and kind. There are many things to love about this one.

Young Men Camp 2025

Group shot (photo taken by Richard)
The poof of life photo he sent me after a hike in the heat. 😎

Our ward had back-to-back youth camps this month. Busy. Richard is the only Ross man left at home to go on high adventure camps and I miss seeing our boys in photos with their dad on these trips.