Beit Emmett

Youth Conference

2012-01-17T10:55:00.001-07:00

Not much snow so far his year, which allowed Sarah to write a New Years greeting on our driveway in January. The rainbow platter is from our New Years day dinner. Cornish Game hens rounded out the meal. Will loved dissecting his bird.

Every other year our ward holds a youth conference. When I was bishop we decided to try January on the semester break which gives every student in the Nebo School district a Friday off. In the past we have enjoyed 2 1/2 days at Aspen Grove (cross country skiing, tubing, etc.), but this year budget restraints and a lack of snow brought about a change of venue. We held the daily events in out ward building and in the evening the 12 young men slept in the Emmett basement (it took some cleaning to get ready!) and the 17 young women slept in the Bowers basement down the street. The theme of the conference comes from Alma 37:6 which states: ",,, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.." On Thursday night we had dinner and played games. Friday (while I was teaching classes) they all went up to Solider Hollow for tubing. That night we had a fireside with Ben Knowlton, built a huge domino course all over the cultural hall floor (illustrating small things doing big things) and then we watched the movie "How to train your dragon." A fun movie that also illustrated the theme. Sarah is on the back row second from the right. I am on the second to back row first on the left.

Saturday we all visited the Art City Care and Rehabilitation Center. The youth were divided into groups of three (plus one leader) to go and visit with nine of the residents. They were to visit about their lives and about how small and simple decisions and choices had helped them along the way. It turned out to be a great experience. The youth learned a lot and the residents had fun talking about what it was like growing up, their families, decisions they had made etc. We ended by sitting on the cultural hall floor and sharing testimonies, experiences and lessons learned. (Final duty was to give the church building its weekly cleaning--all of the youth jumped in and helped and we were done in no time)

A farewell chant of emua--which means press forward. The back of the t-shirt illustrates the front formula: S + S = G. It shows a tree and roots then has in black and white these words: small + simple equals GREAT. On the E and T are a sun and a drop of water--illustrating the small and simple ingredients to growing a great tree. It is amazing to see the devotion and hard word of the Young Men and Young Women leaders (and their spouses) who cleaned homes, cooked food, organized great activities, designed t-shirts, took time off work, and helped the youth to have a wonderful experience.

Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

The start of the Christmas Posada at Aunt Anna's, with Joel as Joseph. The Holy Family goes from room to room searching for a place to stay but each Inn keeper (the aunts and uncles) give some flimsy excuse: "We have a wild dog in here." "I'm too busy reading the scriptures about the Messiah to help someone in need." "I have a growth on my head." "I'm not dressed (literally)." (photos by Chad, Text mostly by Sarah)

Cousin Katie as Mary and her "Donkey".

Will, a wise man was upgraded from shepherd to wise man. This is one of the first years the boys haven't been shepherds.

Finally some nice inn keepers who will let the holy family stay.

Most of the nativity costumes used in both families are a collection gathered over multiple trips to the Holy Land (red kaffiyeh), a trip to Morocco (blue and lavender robes) and even a few batik bathrobes from Indonesia (maroon and black above)

Grandma and Grandpa Tueller as the Kind innkeepers.

The nativity scene complete with a very holy angel choir.

The Holy Family

Reading Luke 2

The Angel dance, which was initiated as a family tradition last year, was not as sophisticated as last year, due to a lack of "angelic" music. This years performance was to rockin' around the Christmas tree"

The wave

Grandma Jean rockin.

Dancing Aunts

These guys weren't as enthusiastic about feliz navidad

Will at the gift exchange

Uncle Paul was dually abused this year, playing both a donkey and Samuel the Lamanite

Tracking Santa with cousins

Reading the Christmas story.

Christmas Eve advent candles. We enjoyed reading advent scriptures and singing Christmas carols for each of the four Sunday nights before Christmas. We used Eric Huntsman's new book "Good Tidings of Great Joy" as our guide and inspiration. Many of the photos in the book are from Chad Emmett's holy land journeys.

Marie with the latest addition to her angel choir.

Sarah looking through her two-volume Jerusalem blog-to-book book, which includes all of the Jerusalem blogs and additional photos.

Christmas morning

Will and his new watch

Joel checking out his stocking

Joel's new BYU poster, he's trying to cover up his whole wall.

Aebelskivers

Traditional Christmas breakfast: sliced oranges with powder sugar and Aebelskivers with homemade chokecherry syrup, raspberry jam, and strawberry jam or lemon and powder sugar.

Sarah participating in the Christmas night Extravaganza, she also sang 3 songs

Mother daughter duet

At Grandma Emmett's house: Cousin Michael as Samuel the Lamanite take 2 (prophesying in the Americas about the coming birth of Jesus), he only got straws thrown at him instead of Nerf Footballs

Will as a wiseman with his cousins

Mary and the Angel Gabriel

Joel posing as a donkey with the rest of the Nativity.

Sarah performing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Grandma Veara Fife hand tatted all of the snowflakes on the trees.

Watching cousins Emily and Jamie (draped in black) sing upside down. Notice the 50 plus ski boot Christmas stockings for every member of the John and Norda Emmett family.

Joel performing "Jingle Bell Rock" which he has memorized.

An early Christmas present

2011-12-22T10:25:00.002-07:00

The Emmett boys love sports, especially BYU football, and especially watching their second-cousin Riley Nelson play. Marie thought it would be fun for Joel and Will to meet their favorite quarterback so she called her uncle Rod Tueller (youngest brother of her father Blaine) to see if his grandson Riley would be willing to arrange a meeting. Rod called Riley and he agreed, so on Wednesday night he dropped by our home for a delightful 30 minute visit. What a nice guy. He focused in on all three of the kids finding out their ages and interests. He told them about what sports he played growing up (all of them, it seems), that he took piano lessons until age 16 (his grandma Nelson was a pianist), that he loved his mission in Barcelona Spain, and that he hopes to go to medical school (what a great example of living a good life). We also talked about the Tueller family (dancing of course was one of the topics) and then I explained how I went to Logan High with his mom Joni Tueller's older sisters, how I knew his great-grandmother Ida Schaub from the Logan 18th ward, how my parents and Aunt JoAnn were good friends with his grandparents Keith and Karma Nelson (my mom later told me that she dated Riley's grandfather Keith twice in college) and then we made the connection that Riley served in Spain with a Sr. Missionary couple from our Springville Stake who worked together at my request to find out the cause of death years ago of the daughter of a ward member who was living in Spain. A mission friend of mine Ralph Zobell, works for BYU athletics in media and publicity. I called him last week to see about getting something for Riley to autograph. Ralph came up with a media book and souvenir game program which Riley graciously signed. Joel spent the rest of the evening reading all kinds of details about BYU players, team stats, football history etc.in the media book. Marie made a batch of her famous scotcharoos for Riley to take home.

Merry Christmas from the Emmetts (ala Sarah)

2011-12-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

This isSarah, the oldest and only girl of the Emmett clan. You have probably beenwondering “why is Sarah doing the blog? I liked Chad’s informational andeducational blogs!” so I’ll tell you why Sarah is doing the blog. Over the past7 years my parents have only sent 2 Christmas cards. Exactly. This is notactually a blog… it’s an intervention! Yes. Mom and Dad, you have Christmascard problems and that’s why I’m here, to right the wrong! So Family andFriends sit back and enjoy. The first Christmas card in 3 years is nigh!(Narrated by yours truly)

Our Familyis doing fabulous! Chad isdoing very well in his career and has actually started to write his longawaited book (a history of the church in Indonesia). He was just called asteachers quorum leader and is having a great time learning how to shoot gunsand build rockets.

MeanwhileMarie has been living a life of leisure. On one Tuesday she managed to leaveand enter the house 8 times in a row to take us kid to various soccer/volleyball/ piano practices. Recently, she has also been knitting andcrocheting to her hearts content. Our house is now equipped with more (verywell knit) dish clothes than we will ever need. And Will is now sporting a pairof blue and purple slippers.

Sarah (13)is involved with choir, piano, cello, cross-country and many other involuntaryextra-curricular activities. Although her brothers arefootball-soccer-anything- with-a-ball-fanatics, Sarah only manages to get 20^thplace in a district cross-country meet. She still enjoys writing poems but hasyet to find anything that rhymes with orange.

Joel (11)is doing stupendously in all areas he is involved in. He scored a grand totalof 6 goals in his soccer season which is more than anyone else on his team.Joel also got his Webelos and Arrow of Light in cub scouts and completed hisfinal pinewood derby with a “groovy” metallic green car. He also succeeds inhis social life. Walking down the hallway many kids he does not know say hi tohim (a lot of which include girls).

Will (7) isstill as precocious as ever but amid his many strong-willed outbursts he stillfinds time to shoot hoops and kick anything that rolls. He is “the fastestrunner in the whole grade” and has many friend who he enjoys playing Wii with.

All and all2011 has been a marvelous year for the Emmetts and 2012 is looking even better(I’m counting on Disneyland).

So, did Ido well with the Christmas letter? Are you enlightened? Amused? Informed? However you’re feeling, I, Sarah T.Emmett on behalf of the whole Springville Emmett family would like to wish youa Merry Christmas! (And a happy new year).

Almost a "Blue Christmas" in Semarang, Indonesia

2011-12-01T15:49:00.001-07:00

Elder Chad Emmett (rear left) on Christmas Eve 1975 with the Suriyana Family.

My first Christmas away from home found me one latitude offfrom being exactly half way around the world. I was in my second month as amissionary in Semarang Indonesia (110° 25' 0" east latitude) which is8,916 miles away from my childhood home in Logan, Utah (-111° 50' 3" westlatitude). In the weeks leading up to Christmas I found little in a Muslimmajority country to remind me of my favorite holiday—I was in hot, humid, greenIndonesia with no chance of having amuch loved white Christmas. One day Elder Gary Stephens (also a Logan Highgraduate) and I happened upon a small Christian book store. We went in to lookaround and I was surprised to find a Christmas cassette for sale. Its titlesong was “I’ll have a blue Christmas without you” by country crooner JimReeves. There were no other choices and so it became my sole source ofChristmas music listening that year.

I'll have a Blue Christmas without you.
I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree,
Won't mean a thing if you're not here with me.

I'll have a Blue Christmas that's certain.
And when that blue heartache starts hurtin'.
You'll be doin' all right, with your Christmas of white,
But I'll have a blue, blue Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ln3kZU46Eg

For much of December it looked as if I would have a blueChristmas. Only occasionally did it ever seem like the holiday season backhome. On December 10^th two packages arrived from home filled withtwo Logan High Frisbees, boxes of Jello instant pudding and packages of Wyler’sinstant drink mixes. On December 18^th we visited the home of aChristian minister and were delighted to see a home decorated with Christmastrees, lights and candles. Interestingly, that same evening I noticed thatthere were colorful lights strung outside the central mosque which I happily tookas Christmas lights. I’m not sure why they were on display but in my journal Iwrote that perhaps Semarang’sMuslims were “catching the true spirit of Christmas.” Another night’s mindgames found me riding my bike in the rain and dark at 6:00 pm and being strangelyreminded of Christmas shopping along Logan’sMain Streeton snowy December evenings that also darkened early. Being the only person inthe branch who could play both hands of hymns on the tiny pump organ wasperhaps the best reminder of Christmas. I arrived in Indonesia only able to play a few hymns so most days I would fit in practice time to learn new ones, whichfor the month of December meant Christmas songs. I then played (some betterthan others) those newly learned hymns each Sunday in Sacrament meeting andduring Sunday School hymn practice.

The blue in Christmas all seemed to vanish in the final daysbefore Christmas as the four elders in our district (we lived in the upperstory of the house-turned church on Pekunden Timur Street) busied ourselveswith Christmas preparations. As a district we had decided to make someChristmas Eve visits and so we bought and wrapped present for three families aswell as presents to exchange between the four of us (I arranged for SisterSandra to buy a book for my gift to Elder Stephens since it was impossible forme to slip away and buy one on my own). I also used skills learned from myGrandma Fife during a Thanksgiving Day craft activity. I took a Reader’s Digestand folded down the corners of every page. When flayed out the magazine took onthe shape of a conical Christmas tree which after being painted green anddecorated with cutout paper ornamentsdidn’t look too bad. Two days beforeChristmas the branch put up a rare real Christmas tree, with lights, in thechapel/cultural hall/former living room for our branch Christmas Day party. Nextday while waiting for the other elders, I relished just sitting downstairslooking at the tree and listening to the Relief Society Choir practice singingSilent Night.

The first family we visited on Christmas Eve was a poorsingle mother and her daughter Augustine. They were not yet baptized, but theyattended church each week. They lived on the outskirts of town in a small housewith a dirt floor. They welcomed us warmly. We gave Augustine a wrapped bag ofcandy and cookies. Her eyes lit up at such a simple gift. They were happy intheir humble circumstances and I left feeling humbled by my life of plenty.Next stop was the family of Koes who spent most of his days living at thechurch where he worked as the church janitor, night watchman and clothes washer(for the elders). He and his wife and their two young children were members ofthe church. They lived in a one room house which barely held all of us. Theytoo were happy and welcoming in their humble circumstances. We held a familyhome evening together and then we presented the family with a gift—a large tinof mixed varieties of butter cookies in which we had hidden 25 new one hundredrupiah bills (400 Rupiah = $1.00). It wasn’t much money to us, but to thefamily it represented more that a week’s income.

For our final visit Elder Stephens and I went to visit theSuriyana family. They were our golden family (parents and six kids) all set tobe baptized on December 27^th. Also in attendance were an aunt and uncle, cousins and friends so it wasquite a gathering. We held another Family Home Evening filled with reading theChristmas story from the Bible followed by singing--most touching to me waswhen the mom and her four cute daughters sang “Away in a Manger” in Indonesian.For an activity I taught them all how to make six pointed snowflakes which soondecorated the walls of their home. After a prayer and refreshments, wepresented our gifts—a Logan High Frisbee, a Bible (with photos of us inside),my small homemade Christmas tree and a sack of candy and cookies for each ofthe children. Once again eyes lit up at such a simple gift.

Brother Suriyana is behind the home made Reader's Digest Christmas tree, and some of the snowflakes we made. Sister Suriyana is in a yellow kebaya.

It was a long bike ride back to our home that Christmas Eve.There I ended the day by playing some Christmas hymns on the pump organ,writing in my journal, reading the Christmas story in Luke and Matthew and thenkneeling in personal prayer. Excerpts from my journal entry for the dayinclude: “This Christmas I have truly learned the importance and blessings ofgiving. It feels so good to know I was able to help somebody and brighten theirChristmas season. I am truly blessed….[A]s a missionary I have had more time tothink about Christ and the real meaning of Christmas. I have felt His spiritthis day before Christmas.”

Christmas day was full of good food, including a specialbreakfast, delicious raisin cake and cookies delivered by Sister Adams--anAmerican member in our branch, and an early dinner of sweet and sour pork at arestaurant in Chinatown with Sister Meyer and children who were visiting from Jakarta. That evening weenjoyed a wonderful Branch Christmas party complete with singing, scripturereading, a manger scene by the primary kids, and a visit from Santa Claus(Elder Blazer). We then hurried over to an investigator family for a special FamilyHome Evening and more food. We ended the day with an exchange of gifts betweenus four elders.

To this day, whenever I hear “I’ll have a blueChristmas without you” I think of Semarang Indonesia andmy first Christmas away from home. There was little that year to remind me of atraditional Christmas back home, but there was plenty to remind me of the realmeaning of Christmas.


Sister Sandra and her three children in front of the real live Christmas tree.

Bapak and Ibu Suriyana with their five daughters at their baptism two days after Christmas. Two older sons were baptized a month later. Elder Stephens graduated from Logan High School the year before me.

Thanksgiving into Christmas

2011-12-01T15:27:00.001-07:00

For Thanksgiving many from the Emmett clan gathered at the home of Bob and Annie Emmett in Highland. The cousins enjoyed playing back yard soccer before dinner

Two Wills: William Blaine Emmett holding William Jameson Emmett son of his cousin Brian Jameson Emmett

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove to Salt Lake City to delivery some fleece blankets to Primary Children's Hospital for Sarah's service learning class. We then visited the wonderful lights at Temple Square. The big red tree is a Cedar of Lebanon--that was brought from Lebanon to Utah years ago as a seedling.

A large Polish Nativity. The photos of the lights were all taken without a tripod. I just held my breath and hoped for the best

Sweating in a Sweat Lodge

2011-11-19T10:30:00.001-07:00

Recipe for how to have fun, sweat and freeze all at the same time

1. A few days before sweat lodge / Finnish Sauna event travel to Utah's black rock desert to gather some black basalt rocks.
2. Make sure to be working with other Young Men leaders who have all of the necessary gear you may not have.
3. Meet at 5:00 and finally depart at 5:30.
4. Bring along four adventuresome, willing-to-work young men.
5. Ignore weather forecasts of snow arriving by 6:00 or 7:00 pm.
6. Pick up two Papa John's deep dish pizzas en route.
7. Drive up Diamond Fork Canyon to pre-selected camp site (tested last year in the first annual Finnish Sauna) that has a big fire pit and abuts a cold stream.
8. Place a dozen basalt rocks in the fire pit then build a big fire on top. Keep fire well fed so that rocks are soon enveloped in hot coals.
9. Light the charcoal and once hot start cooking the pizzas in a dutch oven.
10. Send the young men creek side to build the dome shaped sweat lodge out of three long PVC pipe and 6 re-bar stakes which are covered by an assortment of tarps tied together.
11. Stand around the fire eating cookie dough (from Papa John's) while tending the fire and waiting for the pizza.
12. Eat the pizza--the first just right, the second with a burnt bottom (it gives it that extra tang).
13. Change (in the cold dark) into swimsuits and water shoes.
14. Pull the red (literally) hot rocks out of the fire, put into a large galvanized steel tub and carefully carry the tub down to the lodge.
15. Pack three leaders and four boys into the lodge. Sit on buckets or stools. Use water bottles to squirt water on to the hot rocks.
16. Watch hot steam rise from the rocks filling the tent and fogging up glasses.
17. Stand up to feel the greatest heat.
18. After about five minutes (we were not trying for any records or for any heat induced religious trances) of heat and extreme sweating, all run out of the lodge and go lay down in icy Diamond Fork River. Screaming is allowed.
19. Run back into the lodge and warm up in the steam.
20. Repeat steps 15-19 two more times.
21. Return to the fire to warm up and change clothes.
22. Dowse the rocks in the river for five minutes thinking they are now cooled only to have them continue to steam once placed in the back on my Subaru.Transfer the rocks to the back of David Lange's truck so that I can see to drive.
23. Take down the lodge and clean up camp.
24. Load up cars at about 10:00 pm just as the first flakes of snow start to fall.
25. Drive very slowly down Spanish Fork Canyon in two inches of fresh slow and big white flakes blowing steadily and blindingly into your windshields.
26. Keep drinking lots of water to re-hydrate after all of the sweating.
27. Shower and climb into bed feeling amazingly alive and happy for new adventures

.

Volcanic Utah

2011-11-16T16:16:00.001-07:00

Tuesday I didn't have a class to teach until late afternoon and so Maire and I decided to do some geography field work. The Young Men of the Spring Creek 18th ward are planning a sweat lodge (aka Finnish Sauna) for this Friday night. They did it last year and the rocks they used would burst and shatter when sprayed with cold water to make the steam. Apparently volcanic rock (basalt in particular) does no burst as readily and it holds heat better. So, when a call went out from my fellow YM leaders for basalt, I decided to see what I could do. Little did I know that 90 miles southwest of Springville, just ten miles west of Fillmore (the one time capital of the Utah Territory) is Utah's Black Rock Desert. It has plenty of black rock basalt. it also has some great volcanic landscapes.

We climbed to the top of Tabernacle Hill.

An ancient volcanic cone (I believe) in the distance.

From the top of Tabernacle Hill looking south you look down on a collapsed volcanic crater with new cone in the center.

Looking NE across the rugged, lava flow terrain toward Fillmore at the foot of the mountain range

The Subaru Outback did a great job negotiating the rough road. Marie only got a little nervous.

Ball games

2011-11-16T16:00:00.001-07:00

Will is a happy player in the municipal junior Jazz basketball program.

Few rules exist for this age group. It is OK to travel, double dribble, make fake jump shots, etc.

Will loves to block shots.

Leaning back to make sure his shot goes in. It did!

Sarah helping the Young Women of the Spring Creek 18th win their first round in the regional volleyball tournament.

Sarah in the SJHS newsletter

2011-11-10T22:14:00.001-07:00

Student’s Create a Periodic Table of the Elements

by tiffanie.miley | Thu, 11/10/2011 - 12:29

Mr. Dahl’s fifth-period class in front of the periodic table the students created.

Attributions: Cassidy Bowers, SJHS Staff Writer

In Mr. Sam Dahl’s science class at SJHS, the eighth-grade students made a periodic table of the elements. Mr. Dahl assigned elements from the periodic table to the students, and the students went to a computer lab to research their assigned element. Darien Karren, a student in Mr. Dahl’s class, said, “The funnest part was getting to draw and getting to color the element cards we made.” The students were also able to make more element cards for extra credit.

Mr. Dahl said, “I don’t have a periodic table in the classroom besides in the text books. Then I thought why not just have the students make one? It seemed like a fun way to learn more about the periodic table.” The periodic table in Mr. Dahl’s classroom is on a big bulletin board. The element cards that the students made are a half a sheet of paper folded in half. On the front of the paper it has the atomic number, the atomic mass, which state of matter it is in, and of course the name of the element.

Mr. Dahl said, “The most difficult part was doing the research to find the uses of each of the elements and some of their properties. The rest was easy.”

The periodic table the eighth graders created was very successful. According to Mr. Dahl, it turned out great! The students did a really good job making the cards, and he plans on doing it each year from now on. Creating the table was a good experience for the students to more about the periodic table and the elements.

http://sjhs.nebo.edu/node/553

Making Quilts for Primary Children’s Hospital

by tiffanie.miley | Thu, 11/10/2011 - 12:15

Allyson Smith, SJHS Staff Writer

Sarah Emmett and Kelty Cope, eighth graders at Springville Junior High School, are making fleece quilts for Primary Children’s Hospital. Primary Children's is a hospital that specializes in helping really sick children.
According to Mrs. Adrienne Murray, service learning teacher, Sarah Emmett and Kelty Cope are in charge of the quilt making for Primary Children’s Hospital.

Sarah Emmett said, “When the children from Primary Children’s Hospital come out of surgery, they have a blanket, and they will feel special, and think that someone made this blanket just for me.”

Memories of Cambodians

2011-11-07T12:49:00.003-07:00

This semester I have been teaching the geography of Southeast Asia. It is a fun class. Rather than have the students read a boring text book I have then read four much more interesting books: Krakatoa by Simon Winchester; From the Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thee; Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor; and Iraq, Terror and the Philippines' Will to War by James Tyner.

Last week we discussed Survival in the Killing Fields--a moving autobiography about a MD who survived the genocide of the Khmer Rouge and then later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of New York Times photographer Dith Pran in the movie The Killing Fields (worth watching).

I then shared with the students photos and stories of my experience working with Cambodian refugees in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC 1984-85. I even read excerpts to them from this essay I wrote shortly after moving from Maryland to Chicago in 1985. These two years of church service were as impactful and rewarding as my two years serving as a missionary in Indonesia.

AnotherHome

ByChad Emmett

Thesmell of the stairwells was familiar, but not pleasant. The penetrating aromaof spices and filth reminded me of mission days in Indonesia. This, however,was not Asia, but rather a crowded apartment complex in the Washington D.D.suburb of Chillum. I had just been called to serve as the assistant coordinatorfor the Southeast Asian members of the College Park LDS Ward and it was myfirst night visiting the members. As I followed the missionaries that rainyFebruary 1983 night from one apartment to another they just smiled as my sensesadjusted to the unfamiliar surroundings.

Chillumwas the first home in America for many of the Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnameserefugee families arriving in the Washington area. It seemed as if each of themany three story buildings in the complex housed at least one apartment full ofAsians—usually two or three families or up to ten people per two bedroomapartment. The apartments were cheaper than most and therefore attracted amixed assortment of residents, mostly refugees, immigrants and low incomefamilies all struggling for a start. The crime rate was high necessitatingdouble patrols of county police, the swimming pool had not been filled foryears and liter and broken glass covered the remnants of lawn turned to dust bythe pounding feet of countless playing children. I could see that Chillum wasnot a place I would want to call home.

Ihad recently moved from home and schooling in Utah (I was 27 years old and hadrecently graduated from BYU with a MA in International relations) to a suburbanMaryland apartment complex which was much nicer and about 25 minutes fromChillum. I was just getting settled in the singles ward when I was called toserve in the rapidly growing and understaffed Asian Program.

Drivingwas to be my first and never-ending assignment. Few of the members in Chillumor other similar neighborhoods had cars. Public transportation was limited andalso expensive for the large families on low incomes so ward members would taketurns helping transport the Asian members and investigators to church meetingsand activities. Each Sunday morning, cars and highly prized vans would pullinto Chillum’s central parking lot while the missionaries would round up thegrowing flock. Cars were viewed not by make, but how many Asian members theycould carry. When necessary my tiny Toyota Tercel could carry six Asian adultsor up to ten children.

Duringthe ten minute drive from Chillum to the chapel I would try to teach a littleEnglish, learn a few Cambodian or Laotian words, practice a primary song withthe children, visit with those who spoke enough English, or just try to learnnames. One Saturday, while driving the Im family to their Baptism, I was proudto be able to learn the names of five daughters – Rom, Ry, Ran, Run, and Rith.Matching the names with the faces, however, was a continual challenge.

Anotherassignment was to organize summer activity nights in the park and wintervolleyball nights—complete with two nets running from hoop to hoop in the cultural hall. The Chillum childrenand youth were delighted to get out for an evening and enjoyed sharing that funwith their non-member and recent immigrant friends. Members from the singlesward would often help drive on activity nights. They patiently endured drivingmultiple trips to and from the mob of children waiting in Chillum’s parkinglot. When finished even the most hesitant of drivers would smile contently,with many asking when the next activity night was so they could help again.

Baptismswere help almost weekly and soon the ward was unable to sufficiently meet theneeds of the Asian member so a separate branch was formed. I was called to bethe second counselor.

Asmembership grew so did the needs. About half of the branch members lived inChillum which had a constant influx of refugees coming from the camps inThailand. Many nights after work were spent gathering and distributing clothingand furniture to members and their recently arrived friends.

Onenight a good brother, who owned one of the few pick-up trucks in the stake,helped deliver donated beds and furniture to the bare apartment of a recentimmigrant family. While resting I motioned for him to peek in at the fourchildren sleeping peacefully on a blanket spread across the hardwood floor ofan otherwise empty room. Obviously touched by the experience, the owner of thetruck volunteered its use for what was to be many future hauls.

Therewere many different reasons for visiting the members in Chillum; providingtransportation to Sunday meetings, activity nights, branch parties andbaptisms; teaching English to adults and tutoring youth; delivering furniture;home teaching; visiting members; or walking the young women to their apartmentsafter late night stake dances.

WhenI returned home to Utah for Christmas vacation I had been serving with theAsians for eleven months. It had been a busy time and I was looking forward toseeing my family, skiing and resting. The two week absence and the comforts ofhome made me almost forget Chillum.

Afew days after my return to Maryland I set out for Chillum to help one brotherprepare a talk and a sister to prepare a prayer for sacrament meeting. As Iturned on to familiar Chillum Heights Drive, I unconsciously began to smile. Ihad recently visited my childhood home and then returned back to my comfortableapartment, but driving into Chillum that day, almost one year after mymemorable first visit, felt more like coming home than the two previoushomecomings. I was amazed at the feelings which had developed. I started tolaugh as I drove into the central parking lot thinking I must be crazy to findjoy in returning to run-down, impoverished, crime-ridden, pungent Chillum.

ThenI reflected on all the experiences, both good and bad, which I had had servingand associating with the Asian member in Chillum. I had relished eating foodsimilar to that enjoyed in Indonesia. I had laughed at the crazy Kung Fu moviesthe kids loved to watch. I had found beauty in the walls decorated year roundwith Christmas tinsel, plastic flowers, pictures of the temple and the Savior,and paintings of their homelands. I had delighted when slides of fruits commonto Indonesia and Cambodia formed an unspoken bond between non-English speakingparents and me, all of whom knew how delicious the tropical fruits were. I hadsmiled when grandmothers acknowledged by bow and formal Cambodian greeting (jimbripsua)with a bow and a smile. I had felt proud when mothers mastered basic Englishskills. I had sorrowed for the extreme suffering they had all experienced inSoutheast Asia and for the struggles they were now encountering in a newcountry. I had feared for the members knowing that there had been recentmurders, rapes and robberies in the neighborhood. I had beamed when a widowedmother of three darling girls said her first prayer in English at churchfollowing an evening of coaching from her daughters and me. I had nearlylaughed out loud when the front row of eight year old Chillum boysspontaneously broke into applause, followed by the rest of the congregation, atthe conclusion of a beautiful Sacrament meeting musical number by the visitingHigh Councilman and his family. I had also chuckled when, after months oftrying to get the Priests to wear ties to church, one Priest finally came outto the car wearing a tie for a Saturday youth hike in the mountains.

I hadenjoyed the often chaotic volleyball nights and ward parties. I had feltsatisfaction in knowing families had sufficient clothing and householdfurnishings. I had known sadness in hearing unkind remarks about the new Asianmembers from non-Asian members and I had felt frustration in recognizing somany spiritual and temporal needs with insufficient resources to draw upon.

Throughthe months I had given what little I had—time, interest, love and a smallcar—and in return I had reaped great joy. Chillum and the crowded apartmentsfull of brothers and sisters I had come to love had become another home tome.

Halloween

2011-11-01T11:54:00.001-06:00

Joel as a reprise from Jerusalem as a Rubik's cube, Sarah as a character from Percy Jackson--her favorite book series, Will as Manchester United soccer star Wayne Rooney, whose name is on the back of his jersey that he got in London. Sarah decided she was too old to trick-or-treat this year so she stayed home to hand out candy. Joel and his friends willingly let Will tag along with them.

Will's design--fangs and a scar over his eye.

Yuck

Sarah installed the braces

Sarah's eight grade social studies project. The creative daughter of a geographer.

Below is my Saturday and after school project--digging up globe willow roots. I bought my first axe to hack through the many big roots. Last Saturday I planted a new October Glory maple tree with bright red leaves near the stump. Next Saturday I hope to rent a stump grinder to finish off the globe willow.

Notch Peak

2011-11-01T11:37:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago the Teachers, Priests and their leaders in our ward drove out to the western desert past Delta for hike up to Notch Peak. This was the sunrise from our camping spot.

Notch Peak is far behind and above this sun-lit peak.

Three young men/scouts and three leaders went. I was worried that I might not be in good enough shape to make it to the top but there was no need to worry. From the beginning it was evident that one of the young men was not up to the whole climb so two of us leaders let him set the pace. We made it about 2/3rds of the way before having to turn around so we would have enough time to get back to Springville by dinner and evening work time. The other three made it all the way up and down in six hours.

I used the slow pace to find pine nuts (most had already fallen out of the cones and been consumed on the ground by rodents and insects) on the way up and to harvest a few dozen sticky cones for future eating on the way done.

One of the larger pinion pines along the way. We have a pinion pine in our front yard. Each year it produces cones with nuts, but with no meat inside. I have since found out that pinion pines need to be at a higher elevation to be able to produce non-hollow nuts.

The view of Sevier Lake to the east. This is as high as I got. I missed seeing the bristle-comb pines near the summit.

The hike was up through this shaded, pine covered canyon.

Wonder what snapped this big tree in half? It was a beautiful day and a great hike. I think I may like my new calling working with the Venture Scouts.

Dreams

2011-10-16T22:01:00.000-06:00

Here is a poem Sarah penned tonight. It is entitled "dreams" and is based mostly on real dreams she has had lately.

A polar bear was chasing me,
and then I had a cat.
Then I kissed and hugged some boys,
I wore a stupid hat.
I was a monkey, I was my friend,
My life came to a sudden end.
A spider bit, I skied a lot,
I fell into a chocolate pot.
Prince Harry and I went on a date,
I went to school and came in late.
I called the queen, I tried some veal,
Thank goodness that my dreams aren't real!

I think she is a Shel Silverstein in the making. Maybe that is because I sometimes call her "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, would not take the garbage out."

Fall fun

2011-10-12T17:22:00.000-06:00

Following a cancelled-because-of-lightening soccer game for Joel in Sandy, we enjoyed a visit to the September 11th memorial where a vast lawn (this is only one half of the flags) covered with one flag for every person who perished on September 11th. Very impressive and very sobering.

Sarah decided to join the Springville Jr. High cross country team. She has practices after school and meets on Thursdays. She isn't the fastest, but she finishes every time in fine form. Here she is running at Mapleton Jr. High

Will running along as Sarah reaches the finish line

Joel and his friend Daniel giving a cheer after receiving their Webelo badge and their Arrow of Light Badge.

Pine Wood derby

Another meet in Payson.

Will's final soccer game. Getting ready to throw in the ball soon after scoring his team's only goal.

I helped host Indonesian guests at the BYU Law and Religion Symposium. Theses two men are the General Chairman (Dr. Said Aqil Siroj on the right) and General Secretary (Marsudi Syuhud on left) of Nahdlatul Ulama-- a Moderate Muslim organization in Indonesia that has 71 million members. NU's former chairman was Abdulrahman Wahid who after being elected President of Indonesia invited President Hinckley to visit Indonesia--which he did. They were missing rice and so I took them for Thai food along with five Indonesian speaking students.

Marie has been busy this year. She, along with a thousand other Relief Society Sisters in our Stake, hand crafted hundreds of items to donate locally and around the world. Marie's contributions include: piecing and quilting a wall hanging for an orphanage, binding a baby blanket, and crocheting a tropical sore (leper) bandage, a cancer hat (already being used by a cancer patient in our stake) and a premie hat.

Joel has been playing club soccer with HC Storm this fall. The team's first win came with the help of this goal from Joel. Breaking Away.

Dribbling in for the shot.

In it goes. GOAL.

Joel is an enthusiastic, happy player.

Last night a praying mantis laid its egg sack on our front porch. Here it is secreting a foamy egg filled substance row after row by moving its abdomen back and forth. In the spring hundred of tiny mantises will emerge from this protective Styrofoam type enclosure.

Thoughts while riding my bike

2011-09-27T12:57:00.001-06:00

This morning on my bicycle ride (I sure am enjoying my new Globe Daily 3 bike) to work (it has been a few weeks since my last ride due to a bad cold and the need to hurry and drive to many after school events such as scout meetings, soccer games and cross country meets) I got to thinking about the up coming ski season (a cool crisp fall morning naturally instills such thoughts). This is the year that 5th grader Joel gets a Ski Utah Passport that allows him to ski for free two times at each ski resort in Utah. Instead of getting discount tickets at Solitude like we have in past years, I am thinking we will follow Joel to as many ski resorts as we can afford and find time for this winter.

This all came to me while peddling up Ironton Hill on U. S. 89 and thinking that I was not in that great of shape. I then thought about dad (he passed away one year ago today) who for most of his 83 years would also think seriously this time of year about starting his pre-ski conditioning. More often than not that conditioning ended up resorting to the last resort which was getting into to shape for skiing by skiing. Dad's efforts to get in shape to ski were often a bit more challenging given that fact that most every body part and appendage of his at one point or another was the cause of a visit to the emergency room or doctor's office. It all started as a young boy when he pushed a bean in his right ear which lead to the life long bother of being deaf in one ear. It then proceeded to such ailments as near sightedness (I like him am prone to looking over the top of my glasses to read the fine print, even with the help of bifocals), whacked off finger tips, knee and back operations, heart by-pass surgery, prostate surgery, and finally melanoma that spread from his neck to his abdomen and finally to his brain. Through all of these health challenges dad never gave up. He was always ready to drive or fly to the baptism or wedding of a grandchild, he served faithfully in whatever church calling he was given, he was still involved with various civic duties up to his final weeks on earth and if there was snow in the mountains he would get up fours times each week and go skiing with his friends and family.

Dad skiing with Joel and Will (his first day skiing at Beaver Mt.) in 2007.

I then thought about how I need to be more like dad. How I need to just keep trying, no matter what challenges life brings. I need to keep trying to be a better husband and father, to do better in my church callings, to find more ways to serve others, and to patiently endure health challenges.

When I first started teaching at BYU, the Daily Universe would highlight the favorite scripture of a student each day in the paper. Over the years I noticed that one scriptures stood out as the favorite. It is found in the Book of Mormon, 2nd Nephi chapter 31 verse 20: "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." I too like this scripture.

Riding a bike is a good reminder to me of enduring to the end. When I was four or five and we were living at 152 West Center in Providence Utah, Dad tried to teach me to ride a bike. I had inherited a red Huffy hand-me-down from Bill and Bob. It had already seen a few mishaps as evidenced by its flattened fenders and the misshaped basket. Dad would take me up to the corner and get me settled on the bike and then run with me as I began to peddle down the gentle slope of the side walk. He would then tell me he was letting go and that I was to keep peddling and steering. For whatever reason I was severely bicycle challenged and every time he let go, I would wobble and weave and then crash onto the lawn. I would try again or run into the house crying depending upon my mood. Dad and I never gave up. We tried my kindergarten year and my first grade year, but with no success and many more falls. Then after a summer move to Logan and the beginning of my second grade year when I had just turned seven, I finally got it. I climbed on my bike and started to ride!

A few days later mom asked Bill and Bob to ride down to Safeway to buy some groceries. I begged to tag along. Mom consented and off I went peddling hard on the Huffy to keep up. As we headed west on 500 north I noticed two brothers fighting in their front yard. The older brother then picked up his younger brother and started carrying him toward the ditch of flowing water. Would he throw him in? I kept watching to see the outcome. Unfortunately I did not keep watch in front of me and I crashed into the back of a parked car. My mouth hit the handle bar and my front tooth chipped. It was a humiliating ride back home, with the peace of chipped tooth safely stored in my cheek so that perhaps it could be glued back on. Not.

Bikes were a boy's best mode of transportation and so I kept riding. I soon graduated to a green three speed Schwinn. I rode my bike to after school Primary, to Little League base ball games down by the High School, and to the fields north of town to watch Frank and Paul Stewart shoot field mice with their pellet guns (no guns in the Emmett home). Some days my friends and I were even able to ride all five blocks to the Jr. High without putting our hands on the handle bars.

When Bill left for his mission in Kentucky and Tennessee, I inherited his blue 10 speed bike. It was that bike that I would ride to early morning drivers ed. during my sophomore year. On a sunny March morning I headed to school along Fourth East past the temple and down the Boulevard. As I approached the intersection of Main and Center streets I moved into the crosswalk on the south side of the intersection. As I rode westward through the intersection on a green light a man driving eastward on a green light started to turn south just as I entered the south bound lanes. Apparently the rising sun was in his eyes and he did not see me. I saw him and remember squeezing my brakes hoping to avoid a collision. It didn't work The front of his turning car hit me broadside breaking the fibia and tibia on my right leg (a compound fracture) and then catapulting me up and over the car. While flying I remember thinking that I was going to land and get road rash on my hands and elbows and that I would be late for drivers ed. I got more than that. I came down head first and put out my left hand to break the fall. It broke my fall, and broke my wrist. Passing cars stopped to help, an ambulance was called, and school buses passed by with fellow students craning their necks to see who was lying in the intersection. With a cast on both my leg and arm I was unable to use crutches and so I spent the next few months doing school work at home. Eventually the arm cast came off and the full leg cast was replaced by a walking cast. I was then able to go back to school and when summer came I was even able to begin riding my bike, walking cast and all. I wouldn't turn 16 until September and so without a driver's license I had to get back on and ride.

The aftermath of my 1972 bicycle crash.

Doing my band homework.

The next three years, included riding my bike up steep 6th North to USU, were without mishap. It was a good thing I kept riding, it kept me in shape for two years of daily bike riding in the congested streets of Indonesia. There I had plenty of opportunities to get back on and ride. When I tipped over in the flooded waters of Semarang, I got back on a rode (read that story at: http://www.mission.net/indonesia/jakarta/stories.php?sID=854). When my black Phoenix bike got stolen, I climbed on the back of my companion's bike and rode along. While doing so my foot slipped off the wheel hub (where I had positioned my feet in hopes of sparing my achy sit down by absorbing the bouncy blows of the rough road) and into the spokes where my right shoe flapped like cards clipped with clothes pins to the spokes of kids bikes in the 24th of July pioneer parades. When a pot hole masquerading as a puddle gobbled up my front tire and sent me flying forward landing on all fours, I got back on and rode. I rode through the heat and humidity of the tropics, through the rains of the monsoons, and through the belching exhaust of bemos, bajais, cars, vans, buses and trucks.

Through all the years I have kept riding. I have ridden Moab's slick rock trail and porcupine loop with my brothers and as a bishop with the Young Men in our ward. I have navigated the streets and lake front of Chicago while attend the University of Chicago and then riding to and from my first teaching job at DePaul University. I have lobbied UDOT and Springville and Provo cities for wider shoulders on U.S. 89 for my 6 mile, 30 minute commute to BYU. Bike rides with the kids are my current favorite. I may never ride in LOTOJA with my brothers, but I will continue to keep on riding. Dad never gave up and neither will I.

Soccer, Salsa and Wind Caves

2011-09-06T12:06:00.022-06:00

Will's first soccer game was played mostly in the rain. He scored three of his team's four goals. There was a rainbow overhead for most of the game. Back at home this was the view of the rainbow.
This was a dancin' Will after the game. He scored two goals in his next game and then in his third game he scored the only goal of the game
Will taking control of the ball far down field
Dribbling toward the goal
passing the last defender
After checking out where the goalie was, he side swiped it in the other direction and into the goal.
Last Saturday Marie and I chopped home grown tomatoes for some serious salsa making.
19 pints.
For Labor Day we hiked to the Wind Caves up Logan Canyon. Grandma Emmett age 84 made the 2.6 mile round trip hike. It is a steep climb up with switch backs. Glad it was a cloudy day.

Looking east up Logan Canyon
The wind caves are on the farthest rocky outcrop.
Looking south across the canyon to the Crimson Trail that runs stop the cliff face

End of Summer

2011-08-22T09:43:00.022-06:00

The first day of school in the Nebo School district today brought an end to summer. Sarah is entering eighth grade.
She did not "stick" the landing on this jump photo. I think she was thrown off balance by her bag of school supplies--mechanical pencils, magnets and art work to decorate her locker, filled-out forms, notebooks etc.
Joel begins fifth grade. His fall will be very busy with twice weekly club soccer games.

Will begins first grade. Will excitedly picked out his new shoes a few weeks ago, but was not able to wear them until today. Marie is wondering what she is going to do all day without any kids in the home.

A few activities from our end or summer fun included a father and sons campout up Diamond Fork canyon. Marie packed multiple changes of clothing for the boys only to once again learn that boys don't change clothes (except maybe to sleep) when they camp. She also was kind enough to pack combs for the boys! :)
The morning hikers from the Spring Creek 18th Ward.
The Wanrhodes unimproved campground was great fun. It had a steam for falling in, forests for exploring and hills for climbing. It also has a large meadow for tent pitching and cattle grazing and pooping. After our hike some real live cowboys herded some cows down the canyon.
We were even treated to an unscripted bull fight.
We all went to a delightful performance of The Sound of Music at Sundance. The audience even got to sing along on some of the songs. Last week I took Sarah to a performance of Aida (a Scera production at BYU for education week). It was a first for both of us.

For her 13th birthday we went swimming with cousins at Veterans Pool in Provo (Sarah decorated her own cake). Two days later Sarah took two friends to Color me Mine where they each colored pottery to be glazed. Sarah decorated a bright cheery bowl for her morning cereal. Yesterday at church Sarah was set apart as second counselor in the Beehive Presidency and I was sustained as the new assistant leader for the Teachers Quorum/Varsity Scouts. Webelos was nice while it lasted.

Jaredita Foundation

2011-08-19T10:50:00.008-06:00

Three years ago I helped found a non-profit organization that helps Indonesian children and young adults get an education. The newsletter below tells you all about it. If you are in a position to donate please go to http://jaredita.org/ for more information. There you will find a link to pay by Pay Pal or a mailing address to pay by check. You can click on each page to make it easier to read.

Globe Willow

2011-07-27T11:43:00.018-06:00

Back in the fall of 2007 when Will was almost three, I took these two photos of him climbing in our backyard globe willow tree. I took them to remind me of an idyllic afternoon of a dad playing in the backyard with his happy son.

I planted the globe willow along with many other trees in the fall of 1998 just a few months after moving into our newly built Springville home. The globe willow was Marie's choice. Over the years this fast growing tree has provided delightful back yard shade for playing and for family gatherings. Above Emmet and Tueller relatives gather in the shade of the tree after the November 1, 2008 baptism of Joel.
Here Will and friends enjoy some December sunlight as they swing from the globe willow branches at his fourth birthday party in 2008.

I have always been surprised at how few tress our neighbors planted when we all landscaped our homes back in the late 1990s. Most of the trees they did plant were quaking aspens and almost all of them have since died. The dearth of climbable trees has made our tree a favorite for the neighborhood kids. One of Joel's friends holds the record for highest climb. Since the tree was now so tall we told him just last week that he could no longer climb so high.

For Joel's seventh birthday party friends engage in epic star wars light saber battles.

Earlier this month, Tuellers gathered in the shade of the globe willow to rest and cool off after the Fourth of July parade. On Tuesday July 26th I was at the stove cooking a cheese omelet for the kids while a sick Marie was in our bedroom taking a nap. The kids were at the dinner table enjoying the first round of omelets. Suddenly violent winds started to throw backyard branches every which way. Then the east half of our Globe Wilow came crashing to the ground. The kids screamed and then Joel and Will started crying. Their beloved playmate was destroyed. Luckily the fallen part of the tree did not fall on our bedroom or on the garden. It fell neatly onto the center of the lawn with no collateral damage.

For years I have been threatening to get rid of the tree. It shades the vegetable garden, it drops dead branches all year long and its big roots are up above the level of the lawn. Each declaration of intent to chop it down is met with a chorus of complaints form the kids. So I made a promise not to cut it down as long as they continue to enjoy climbing it branches and swinging from its limbs. In the meantime I continued to lob off branches (two last Saturday with my trusty hand saw) that over hang the garden while letting those that shade the lawn grow at will. I have to confess that I secretly hoped (but never prayed) that one day a heavy snow or big wind would bring the tree down, that way the kids could only blame Mother Nature. Last winter a smaller globe willow down the street spit in half from the snow, and I was jealous.

The stump of the tree was weakened by the burrowing of grubs (the fat white guy above). Instead of solid wood, the central trunk was filled with sawdust. This fall we'll have to plant another tree--one that will grow not so tall and not so wide.
Sad Will.

Northern Utah Staycation

2011-07-22T10:18:00.043-06:00

Last Tuesday we headed out for a fun three day vacation in northern Utah and a little bit of Southern Idaho. First stop was Antelope Island. We first stopped at the visitor center. The swarm of brine flies and a past smelly stop at Saltair a few years ago was enough to convince the kids they didn't want to go for a swim/float in the Great Salt Lake. Instead we drove south to the ranch while looking for buffalo. We saw one in the distance on the drive back. The mountains of the Wasatch Front are in the distance across Farmington Bay
Initially the ranch was owned by the LDS Church with earnings going to help the Perpetual Emigration Fund.
It was then privately owned up until the 1960s when it was abandoned.
It is now a sort of living museum about early 20th century ranching. There were no takers for real buffalo burgers at a restaurant on the island so we headed back across the causeway for cow burgers at Wendy's. Luckily there was a Thai restaurant next door for dad to order from.
Next stop was the Golden Spike National Monument at Promontory Utah--30 miles west of Brigham. The trains are functioning steam engine replicas of the Jupiter--coming from Sacramento and the 119 coming from Omaha.

This is where the Golden Spike was driven on May 10th 1869 linking the continent via Railroad.

The 119 chugging away.
The RR track heading West where many Chinese coolies helped lay the track and blast the tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We drove through Brigham City where we bought Grandma Emmett some Almond Cream candy from the Idle Isle. We also got to see the newly placed golden Angel Moroni atop the under construction Brigham City temple. Spent the night at Grandma Emmett's.

Next morning we headed north through a green, beautiful Cache Valley with Grandma and occasionally dad providing a great guided tour of all sorts of fun info. We passed the busiest Lottery store in Franklin (frequented by many a Mormon from non-gambling Utah) and then Whitney the home town and burial place of Ezra Taft Benson. We detoured in Preston past the High School where I student taught back in 1979 and where the movie Napoleon Dynamite was set. We then headed east via Emigration canyon (the trail of the Lotoja race) up and over into Bear Lake Valley.
We stopped in Paris (named after a man named Perris--who surveyed the town. The US Post Office thought the person requesting a post office had misspelled the name so they used the France capital spelling). Marie's great-great grandfather Jacob Tueller and her great grandfather Christian Tueller, along with several of his brothers were the Swiss stone masons mentioned in the above sign who did the stone work on the Paris Idaho LDS Tabernacle.

It is an impressive building from the 1880s. A son of Brigham Young was the architect and he used a popular design of the time--three distinct towers.
The red sandstone was hauled from a canyon 18 miles away on the east side of Bear Lake. In the winter the stones were hauled on sleighs across the frozen lake. It took a few years to get permission from headquarters in Salt Lake City to build the tabernacle so while waiting the townspeople stock piled stones and timber on the tabernacle block.

Like the Salt Lake Tabernacle the roof was in the design of an inverted ship hull. All of the interior is original--over 100 years old. A very impressive building.
Behind the pulpit area and underneath the pipe organ there is a small room used for prayer meetings and council meetings. I remember meeting in a similar room in the Logan tabernacle when dad was called by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley to be a member of the stake presidency. Our nice guide told us that many well known church leaders had sat in this chair as they met prior to Stake Conferences. She would not name names lest we turn to idolatrous worship, but I'm sure Joel (above) and Sarah (below) are sitting in the seat where many prophets and apostles have sat.

On the southwest end of town we visited the Paris Idaho Cemetery where many a Tueller are buried including Christian and Jacob. Of the four people in the photo only Will does not have the middle name of Tueller.

Grandma Emmett knew that her great aunt Elizabeth Caldwell had married a Wallentine from Paris. What she didn't know was that they were both buried in Paris, until she found their tombstone. Elizabeth was 13 when she crossed the plains with the Willie Handcart Company with her widowed mom Margaret. Her younger sister Agnes is the mother of Veara the mother of Norda the mother of Chad the father of Sarah, Joel and Will.

Next stop the Garden City cabin of Tom and Donna Nielsen where we joined the Tom Emmett family for an afternoon of fun. Every summer during my childhood I would spend a weekend at this cabin with my friend Kirk Nielson and his family.
Sarah and cousin MacKinley.
Cousins playing badminton.
Golfing into the lake. Thanks to the Nielson grandsons for sharing their many golf balls. The level of the lake is way up--back to the level I remember from my childhood.
We found several water snakes in the reeds along the shore. Sarah thought they were very cute and fun to play with. We also saw frogs and a muskrat.
We stopped at LaBeau's for Raspberry shakes then climbed up the switch backs and down a beautiful Logan Canyon to Grandma's house.

Here is a story I wrote about driving down these hills into Garden city back in the 1960s: One of my best friends growing up in Logan, Utah was Kirk. His father Tom was a gruff brick mason who built a family cabin on the shores of Bear Lake. Once a summer, Kirk would invite me to spend a weekend with his family at the cabin. I remember one summer driving to the cabin in the family station wagon with Tom and Donna, their teenage daughters Tana (my piano teacher) and Teri, sons Kirk age ten and Greg age 8 plus pet dog Bing. We left Friday evening and began our hour drive through Logan canyon. Once over the summit we began our descent into the Bear Lake Valley down the winding switchbacks. I was in the far back of the car with Kirk. At one point we realized that Tom was pumping the breaks, but nothing was happening. Then he started to down shift the car but we still kept picking up speed. The breaks were gone! In one last attempt to stop the car, Tom pulled hard on the hand break which broke off into his hand. I can still remember looking forward and seeing Tom with the break handle in his hand and no breaks or gears to stop the accelerating car. Coming up in a few hundred yards was a sharp 90° turn to the right. The turn skirted a steep drop off. If we didn’t soon slow down we would for sure go flying off the drop off—most likely to our deaths. Before we had too much time to panic or think of our impending death, the car all at once jerked off the road to the right and up a gentle incline full of sage brush along a seldom used jeep track. The car soon rolled to a stop and we were safe. Later Tom told us that over the years as he drove through the canyon and down the switchbacks he would take note of side roads and turnouts with the specific intent of knowing where he could turn off in time of danger. He had noticed the jeep track on previous trips and remembered it in the midst of dealing with brake failure. Tom had planned ahead and then followed that plan to save his family. Tom and Kirk then hitched hiked down into town where they borrowed a pickup truck to then come and retrieve the rest of us. Us three boys all happily volunteered to ride in the bed of the truck, but Tom and Donna said it wasn't safe so all seven of us and the dog Bing crammed into the cab of the truck. As we headed down the rest of the switch backs, Bing started to pee. Teri thought it was Greg shooting a squirt gun and told him to quit. Greg denied doing such a thing. It was then that Teri figured it out that the water was coming from Bing.

Historic Chairs in Grandma's front room. On the left is a chair from the theater box of Brigham Young that was purchased from a granddaughter of Brigham Young. On the right is a chair carried across the plains in a handcart by Margaret Ann McFall Caldwell, mother of Elizabeth and Agnes. After a day of pulling the handcart, Margaret loved to have a chair to sit on. Much better than a rock or log or snow.

Our final day included a driving tour of Wellsville and Hyrum Dam until the 11:00 opening of the Jensen Historical Farm--Western Historical Center. The kids got to milk a cow, gather eggs, see a blacksmith in action, learn to wash clothes and tour a 1917 house.

They also learned about beaver trapping and got to try their hand at tomahawk throwing.
Sarah bought Will a coon skin hat. We drove home that afternoon so Joel could be a ball boy, along with the rest of the boys on his HC Storm soccer team, at the final BYU men's soccer game. Will and I went to watch.

July

2011-07-08T10:56:00.012-06:00

The Tueller clan at the Provo Freedom Festival parade. I arrived at the parade route at 5:20 am to try and get a good spot, but I was 20 minutes late for anything with shade. Thank goodness for clouds for the first half of the parade. Also thanks to Grandma Emmett for providing the three quilts that helped me stake our claim.
Post parade relaxing in our back yard.
Evening Real Salt Lake soccer game--a first for the Emmett family.
Thirty Tuellers attended including Marie and five of her nine siblings.

Next day the Krumpermans, the Emmetts and Aunt Rachel enjoyed the Alpine Slide in Park City.

Summer Fun

2011-06-28T16:09:00.016-06:00

Marie taught Sarah and cousin Emma how to sew a dress this summer. Pretty cute.
The garden. Thanks to Bob for tilling it.
Joel at Camp Jeremiah Johnson learning about geology. I like my calling as Webelo leader.
Careful you'll shoot your eye out.

Having fun jousting
Robin eggs in our burr oak tree.
On Saturday the 25th we had our first ever yard sale. Our neighbors across the street were having a huge two day sale, but we opted to keep ours small. My policy was to keep selling until there was no more shade. We made $100 all of which will be donated to the Jaredita Foundation to help educate children in Indonesia. http://jaredita.org/

Sunday evening we had Suleiman from Oman come to dinner. He is a friend of a friend who came to BYU to study English for 8 months. He goes home in August and has never been up into the mountains so we took him to see Bridal Veil falls.
The Provo River is full and fast. The kids (Will in particular) were under strict orders not to go anywhere near the river.
We then drove up to Squaw Peak for a view of Utah Valley.
Will with Mt. Timpanogos in the background.

Sarongs and other fun

2011-06-06T12:32:00.030-06:00

Yesterday after church I decided to pull out a sarong to relax in. I used to wear them more often, but it has been years since I last wore one. The kids were intrigued. They all wanted to try one one. We pulled out a box of Indonesian clothing and soon we were all having fun dressing up.
As missionaries in Indonesia we came up with many ways to wear them, including a ninja style as modeled by Will. Will's blue-green sarong is one I bought on one of my first days in Semarang. I wore it (at home) every day of my mission to and from the twice a day mandi (dipper bath) and as a way to cool down in between and after hot days of riding bikes. Sarongs are very functional. If you get cold you can wrap up in them. You can sling them over your shoulder and carry a baby or fruit or anything else in the pouch. If you are back packing through Asia you can use it as a sheet to sleep in. And if you are wanting to swim on a beach in Bali and there is no changing room, you can use the sarong as a changing booth--works quite nicely. The four members of the Semarang Jalan Jambu District getting ready (in 1976) to do a presentation about Islam to the Central Java Zone conference. I am wearing the blue-green sarong that Will is wearing above.

Will started t-ball last week. He is a happy player.
Last Saturday we attended the wedding of my niece Molly Emmett and Austin Seawright in the Provo Temple. Lots of snow on Mt. Timpanogos for June. The Emmett (my brother Jake's family) and Seawright families. For more wedding photos go to the Emmettville blog using the link on the blog side.

Waiting for the backyard reception to begin at my sister Mary's house
We all had fun dancing.

Ancestors

2011-06-03T16:20:00.018-06:00

This past Memorial day we were able to visit the graves of many ancestors on all sides of the family. On Monday we visited the Logan Cemetery where Emmetts and Tuellers are both buried. Marie and her parents Blaine and Jean Tueller surround Joel. Blaine's brother Ben and his wife Elaine are on the right. Elva and LaMont Tueller are the parents of Blaine. LaMont descends from Swiss Tueller converts to the Mormon Church who helped build the Paris Idaho tabernacle. Jean parents are Heywoods and are buried in Panguitch Utah.
Elva Carlson Tueller's parents are Anna and John Carlson. They were converts to the LDS Church in Sweden. They met on the boat while emigrating to Zion in the 1880s.
My father John Emmett passed away last September.
His parents are Henry Roland and Harriet Dudley Emmett. Both descend primarily from English families
On Sunday we visited the Brigham City Cemetery. My mother Norda Agnes Fife Emmett's parents are Veara Southworth and William Shumway Fife. Grandpa Fife served in France in WWI
Here is Norda surround by her five sons (daughter Mary could not make it), their wives and most, but not all of their children and grandchildren.

Sarah Emmett at the grave of Adam Jolly Fife and Agnes Shumway Fife--her great-great grandparents and the parents of Norda Agnes Fife Emmett's father William Shumway Fife. Agnes Shumway Fife's mother was Sarah Jardine of Clarkston, Utah. Sarah Jardine and her sister Agnes Jardine were the polygamous wives of Charles Shumway II. Sarah named her first daughter Agnes in honor of her sister-wife and Agnes named her first daughter Sarah in honor of her sister-wife. Sarah Jardine Shumway (buried in Clarkston) is Sarah Emmett's great-great-great grandmother. Charles Shumway's mother Louisa Minnerly (the fourth wife of Charles Shumway Sr.) is the distant descendant of a Montauk Indian chief's daughter from Long Island who married a Dutch settler.
Adam Jolly Fife's parents Adam S. Fife and his wife Comfort Jolly. Fife's come from Scotland where there is a county named Fife (home of St. Andrew's golf course). My name Chad Fife Emmett is very geographical. Chad is a country in Africa, Fife a county in Scotland and Emmett a city in Idaho.
Veara Southworth Fife's mother Agnes Caldwell Southworth was a nine year old girl who crossed the plains from Scotland with the Willie handcart company. She ran after one of the relief wagons until the driver finally gave her a ride. Read more about it in the middle of this April 2002 general conference talk by Gayle Clegg: http://lds.org/general-conference/2002/04/the-language-of-love?lang=eng&query=Agnes+Caldwell

Agnes married Chester Southworth (Mayflower descendant) and they had 13 children. My grandmother Veara was the 13th child born just a few days before Agnes turned 49.

Agnes walked to Zion with her widowed mother Margaret Ann McFall Caldwell. This is the back of her tombstone (I thought I took a photo of the front). Margaret amazingly got herself, four children ages 9-17 ,and a single young woman safely to Salt Lake City pulling a hand cart through the early snows of Wyoming.

Chester Southworth is buried in Gridley California but his parents Chester Sr. and Mary Byington are also buried in Brigham.

We also visited the graves of many other relatives in the Brigham Cemetery. One of those worth noting is Agnes Caldwell's brother Thomas who married the daughter of President Lorenzo Snow. Thomas, who was about 16, broke his collar bone early on the trek westward and was unable to help his mother pull the hand cart.
You can see Thomas' name half way down the list of all of Pres. Snow's extended family that are buried in Brigham. He and his wife had twin boys named Sylvester and Sylvanus. Thomas passed away while the boys were still young.

End of the School Year

2011-05-20T15:18:00.013-06:00

Joel running in the Hershey track meet.
Will performing at his pre-school end of year program and graduation.
Line-up of pre-school graduates.

Will's kindergarten play in which he was one of four tigers acting out the children's book"The Story of Babaji" (which was once know as Little Black Sambo)
Last week while I was still at home recuperating from surgery, Marie thought it would be a good idea to get a basketball standard for the kids, so off we went to buy and then put together this happy addition to our front yard.

The Springville Jr. High orchestra concert. Sarah plays the cello.
Sarah is nearly hidden third person in on the second to last row of cellos. (click on the photo to get a better view). You may not recognize her without her glasses--she got contacts last month.

Easter in Spirngville

2011-05-20T15:17:00.000-06:00

Ready for Church on Easter Sunday. Our Easter decorations include a crown of thorns from Jerusalem, a model of the Garden Tomb and eggs from Krakow Poland.

Ben, Courtney and cute Clara joined us for church and dinner. They didn't tell us it was their anniversary. All of the Lundbergs also came for dinner, but I forgot to take photos.

Spring Break in the Pacific Northwest

2011-04-22T11:44:00.059-06:00

Sarah showing her model of a cell created for her science class. She and all the kids are doing very well in school, but were in much need of a break--particularly from nightly math home work for Sarah and her tutor Marie.

Marie also keeps busy keeping Will entertained with worthy projects when he is not at his twice a week morning pre-school or his afternoon kindergarten class. So when my annual geography conference was scheduled in Seattle the same week as spring break we decided to make it a family affair.

We drove to Boise through rain and snow on Friday afternoon after school was done for all of us. Next morning we stopped at the Oregon Trail Center outside of Baker Oregon where we enjoyed walking along part of the actual trail where there are still wagon ruts among the sage brush.
Next stop Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
Not too many migrating Salmon in the fish ladders
This part of the dam is where the turbines generate electricity.

We then visited a Salmon fish hatchery.

Next morning after attending Sacrament meeting in the Kelso Washington Ward (thanks to the LDS Church web site for showing us time and location) we visited the Mt. St. Helen's visitor center and then we drove to the Olympic Peninsula where we enjoyed a wet stroll on Ruby Beach

We all had fun collecting some smooth stones

Next morning we drove along the Hoh River to the Hoh Rain Forest. We experienced rain at least part of every day of our 10 day trip. You can see the new snow higher up on the mountains.

It hailed as we walked through the rainforest. The ferns were already matted from a recent snow storm.
Nearly fourteen years ago Marie and I walked this same trail on our honeymoon.
Amazing what fourteen years can bring!

This row of trees has grown up along the nourishing environment of a felled, decaying tree.

Skunk lilies were in bloom. Marie thinks they are appropriately named.
That afternoon we drove to La Push where we explored Second Beach.

The weather was ever changing.
Notice the lone seagull perched on the rock.
Playing with kelp.

Marie and Will negotiating the drift wood and stream. Will took a face plant fall onto the rocks while climbing through a lengthy stretch of drift wood. On our hike back to the car, Marie tumbled off the muddy trail into these bushes. I was bringing up the rear after taking a few last photos on the beach. From down the trail I heard her calling for help. I hustled up and pulled her out.
We stayed two nights in Forks Washington. None of us knew it was the setting of the Twilight books and movies. On our second night in town we took a tour of Twilight sites using a map we picked up the first night at a pizza place where Twilight stars had dined. The local tourist information shop not only directs tourists to the rain forests and beaches but also to favorite Twilight sites. It also notes via the white measuring stick the twelve feet of rain Forks gets each year.
Tuesday we headed east to Seattle. We stopped at a glacier carved Crescent Lake for photos and some stone skipping practice.
In 1962 my parents took us four boys on a trip to the Seattle World's fair. While in Seattle we took a ferry ride to Victoria British Columbia. From left to right: Chad, Bob, Bill and Jake
A favorite photo of us in a life boat plugging ears when the ferry horn sounded.
Forty nine years later a new generation of Emmett children rode the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle.
Beautiful Seattle sky line from the ferry in the middle of the Puget Sound. In 1962 the Space Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Now it is only the 5th or 6th tallest building in Seattle.
Looking back at the snow capped mountains of the Olympic Peninsula.
On Wednesday (and Friday) I attended sessions at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Marie and the kids joined with Marie's sister Jeanne and her four kids for a trip to the Seattle Zoo. Thursday, Marie and the kids drove in to meet me for a classic day of Seattle touring. We visited Pikes Market.
Had lunch at a Malaysian restaurant in China town.

Then visited the Seattle Center (site of the 62 world's fair). We all enjoyed the Star Wars exhibit in the Science Center. We also visited the butterfly room and watched the Imax movie Born to be Wild.

We then braved the rain atop the Space Needle

Six year old Will in front of the space needle. I was six too when I went to its top. To end the day we had fish and chips and clam chowder down on the wharf.
We drove to Boise on Saturday where we stayed with a mission buddy and fellow general conference interpreter. Then on Sunday after attending a Boise Ward we drove to Twin Falls where we stopped to see the new temple.

And then stopped to look down on the snake River gorge. No Evil Kennievel trying to motorcycle jump over it. A great trip. Hard for all to go back to school on Monday.

Scripture Charades

2011-03-21T22:26:00.005-06:00

At Will's recommendation, we had tentatively planned to go bowling tonight for Family Home Evening, but since Joel stayed home from school with a bad cold today, we figured bowling was not the best activity. Instead, we played scripture charades. We began by singing Book of Mormon Stories and then everyone was given 5 minutes to come up with actions and props for two scripture stories. We then took turns acting out our stories. At the end of each charade, everyone wrote down their guess as to what the story was. When all ten acts were completed we totaled up the guesses to see who did the best at guessing.

Will acted out David and Goliath using a realistic sling from Bethany and then the Book of Mormon story of Ammon cutting off the arms (with a plastic sword--but he also considered using a light saber) of the sheep rustlers.

Joel acted out the story of Alma the Younger being struck down by an angel for three days and then waking up and going on a mission. His prop was a hand printed missionary name tag: Elder Joel Emmett, Zarahemla mission. His second story was also about Ammon fighting off the sheep thieves only with a different sword.

Our thespian Sarah acted out the story of Esther. She alternately played the roles of the king (with a crown) and Esther (with a shawl) and even wicked Haman who was put to death by throat slitting in the end. For some reason I thought she was acting out Salome dancing for king Herod followed by the beheading of John the Baptist. Her second story was King Benjamin climbing a pretend tower to deliver his famous sermon.

Marie acted out Samuel the Lamanite preaching from the city wall (the coffee table) and then the wicked folks of the city shooting arrows (she used a bow as a prop) and throwing stones (using foam balls that were gathered up at the end of the SLC winter Olympics closing ceremony) at him. Her second story was Daniel in the Lions den complete with a very sweet and not-hungry-at-all stuffed lion. Will happily figured out both of these stories.

I acted out the story of Jericho. I marched around the room seven times. On the seventh time around I pulled out my bugle and blew the walls down. The final story was that of Peter's vision of the unclean foods from Acts. I pretended to sleep and then in my dream a dish cloth filled with a stuffed Piglet and a stuffed red lobster (unclean foods to Jews) came down from heaven. I then pretended to be Peter preaching the word of God to gentile Cornelius in Caesarea. It was a fun evening. Everyone had a great time. Chocolate chip chewies (with nuts!) for the treat.

Boys will be boys

2011-03-07T15:08:00.012-07:00

Saturday the Emmett Boys went to the final regular season BYU basketball game. Jimmer and the rest of the boys did not disappoint in their victory over Wyoming. Joel loves watching BYU play and even Will (attending his first BYU basketball game) got into the fun of watching all of the 3-pointers. The boys joined the Cosmo club (dad payed $40 each) for the season which gave them a t-shirt, tickets to two football games and tickets to five basketball games. We shared most of the basketball tickets with Joel's Webelo den two weeks ago when nine of the boys attended the Colorado game.
The student section was almost as fun to watch as the BYU team. They are well choreographed with chants, dances, waves and cheers.
For half time Joel got a $3.50 Sprite and Will a $3.50 ice cream (the worst part of BYU athletics are the expensive concessions!) Joel also got a #32 Jimmer t-shirt.
Celebrating BYU's conference victory
That night Will took a bubble bath in the big bath. Such a fun-loving, happy little boy--but not always so.
Last Monday we had a FHE evening lesson on the fifth article of faith. Marie's visual aids were still on the easel the next morning when Will got upset at his mom for not letting him do something (a week later and no one in the family can remember what the restriction was--but most likely something about wanting to play the Ninetendo DS or watch TV ) and so kindergartener Will, who is just learning to spell, expressed his frustration with his mom's rules with the above statement (translation: Will doesn't like Mom)
Last month we had this family photo taken at a stake family history extravaganza.

From a facebook post yesterday: "While reading about Jerusalem in the Book of Mormon for family scripture study tonight, Joel came up with an entertaining, random thought: "Wouldn't it be fun to play hide-and-go-seek in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." T'would indeed."

Many, many BYU Jerusalem students "Liked" this status update.

Piano recital

2011-02-28T16:20:00.004-07:00

Joel playing at his February 26th piano recital. The second song he plays is the theme from "Mission Impossible"

Skiing at Solitude

2011-02-22T16:04:00.023-07:00

So far we have been skiing at Solitude seven times this season, plus two after-Christmas days at Beaver Mountain. Our President day ski trip was quite memorable. It was a bumper-to-bumper drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Apparently we were not the only ones excited to ski on two feet of fresh snow and under blue skies. When we finally arrived the Moonbeam lot was full and people were having to park out on the main road (the canyon was eventually closed to any more cars). They were allowing drop offs only. I drove into drop off Marie and the kids only to have one of the attendants motion us to a just opened parking spot just three short rows from the lodge. Sweet! We have never parked so close. It is nice to get lucky once in a while. Marie and Aunt Anna then spent the morning trying to find parking for Anna's car. Meanwhile. The rest of the Emmetts plus Aunt Diane (the curly red head above) and Uncle Lant (visiting from Boston) and cousin Emma (in helmet) (from Provo) enjoyed some wonderful skiing.
Many of our earlier ski trips this year were snowy days. One day it was very icy caused by unusual January rains the day before. A few of the other days were very windy. This day was none of those. It was perfect.
A few weeks ago I convinced Will to try skiing without his edgy wedgy that holds his tips together. He could do it, but it wore his legs out, so after a few runs we put it back on. He is much happier skiing with the additional help. He tells me when he is seven he will take it off.
Joel and Will following Aunt Diane.
With each ski day Joel has gained confidence. Here he is contemplating leaving the packed run for some of the powder.
He is now in the process of learning that going from hard packed to deep powder tends to stop the skis while the skier maintains his forward momentum.
This results in a soft fall into fresh powder. Fun!
Sarah did her best to keep up with cousin Emma.

The run after Joel's powder fall, Sarah and Will wanted to give it a try too.

Riding up the lift with dad.
Relaxing after a great day.

Nativities

2010-12-31T11:52:00.038-07:00

We love nativities. We are up to about 60 in various forms. This Jim Shore nativity was a gift to Marie on the December birth of Will six years ago.
The afghan depicts the three wise men who "came bearing gifts" if was a gift years ago from my sister Mary. We have a small pillow nativity plus two camel pillows--one from Jerusalem and one in red from Dubai. The newly hung "paintings" represent our sacred place wall. On the left is a 1930s photo of the temple mount and the old city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives--with its shepherd and olive tree. In the center is a wooden mosaic of the Logan temple. While serving in Indonesia in 1976 I commissioned a man to make it using two photos I had of the temple. It cost me $25. On the right is an Egyptian papyrus showing the final judgment and entering into the presence of the god/king.
The painting of the Wellsville Mountains and Cache Valley was commissioned by my dad. The six children all got a reprint for Christmas a few years ago. The wooden German nativity is from Rothenburg when I went to visit Bill and family. Irish nativity in green--a gift to Marie who was born in Ireland. And a nice illustration of Mary and child from a children's Christmas book--a gift to Marie on Sarah's first Christmas. The red tapestry is from Bethlehem last year.
We bought shelves this year to hold more nativities. This shelf includes gifts from neighbors, a Venezuelan nativity (front right) from Marie's sister Jan and the center nativity made from clay pots by Sarah under Marie's direction at an activity day two years ago.
This porcelain nativity was a gift from my parents years ago. The angels were Marie's first angels. She now has many more.
Three different olive wood nativities form the holy land. I bought the front one on my first trip to Bethlehem in 1979.
On the top shelf is a hand-painted-in China nativity ornament (from Pier One) and a Greek Orthodox icon of the Nativity from Athens.
A bamboo Indonesian nativity from Marie's sister Jan--who lived with her family in Jakarta for 13 years.
Marie's first nativity is in the center.
Marie and I bought this olive wood nativity on our first trip to the Holy Land in 1997.
Marie stitched this ornament for me as a Christmas gift about three years before we got married. We have many other nativity type ornaments on the tree--shepherds, sheep, camels, wisemen, small olive wood nativities, angels, stars.
An Egyptian nativity in Coptic Christian style from Marie's parents who while serving as mission president in Greece were also tasked with over seeing church units in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
An Amish wood cut nativity bought in Arthur Illinois and a Christmas gift from my brother Jake. The flight into Egypt is on papyrus and was a gift to me from our Egyptian guide Ahmed last year in Cairo.
Arnold Frieburg's three wise men.
A wood burned nativity from the Munoz family.
A Carl Bloch painting
Jerusalem tile and Jerusalem mosaic.
Sarah's art work age four.
More of Sarah's art work--age five. One of my favorites. One of my Mom's favorite nativities is a clay nativity I molded and painted for her in fourth grade (is it still legal to make hand made nativities in elementary school?).
Shepherd and sheep from Jerusalem
Armenian tile from Jerusalem
Marie's hand stitched Christmas stocking
Tiny match box nativity hand made by Sister Spencer and given by her to Marie last year at a Relief Society gathering in Tiberius.
Chilean nativity given to us by the Munoz family--friends from the Spring Creek 18th ward. The camel pitcher behind is from Bethlehem.
Marie's Christmas present last year. A hand made Armenian pomegranate Nativity from a nice shop just inside Zion's gate in Jerusalem's Armenian quarter.
On the left a Puerto Rican tile--a gift to Marie from a student years ago. We bought the blue glass nativity on our honeymoon in Victoria British Columbia. Marie made the white tile nativity at a Relief Society event.
A Mexican nativity from my 1993 trip to Mexico
On the left is Marie's Christmas gift this year--a Delft Nativity that Sarah and I bought for her in Amsterdam this summer. Marie bought the Russian nesting Nativity in Bethlehem last summer. I bought the Polish nativity on the right in Krakow back in about 1995,
An angel choir made of bamboo in Indonesia.
Marie's angel wall. Each year I try to give her an angel or a nativity.

Our fresh cut Christmas tree. It is decorated with dozens of white snowflakes hand tatted by my grandmother Veara Fife. During her 90's she made hundred of these snowflakes--each is unique.

December

2010-12-31T11:26:00.035-07:00

We had lots of fun this December. The first weekend was a BYU weekend. On Friday night Sarah, Joel and I enjoyed the BYU combined Choirs Christmas concert. It was fun to see and hear many of our Jerusalem Center students. Saturday morning we went to the annual faculty and staff family Christmas party in the Wilkinson Center (where Joel and Will made BYU ornaments) followed by Christmas shopping in the bookstore. That afternoon we all enjoyed the BYU Folk dancers' Christmas around the world. I was a two time dancer in Christmas around the world while working on a master's degree at BYU. That night we all went to the geography department Christmas party at at BYU lodge up Hobble Creek canyon.

Joel (standing) reciting his part at the Brookside Elementary Christmas program. The students sang Christmas related songs (some even Christ related!) from around the world.
Joel and class playing the ukulele.
For Will's actual birthday two friends came over for some creative star wars playing before they all went to afternoon kindergarten. That evening our family enjoyed a birthday diner at Brick Oven.
Later that week other friends joined Will for more celebrating at Jump On It.
Wall to wall trampolines--they had a blast.

Ward Christmas breakfast and nativity. Joel is a wiseman.
Will with a brown Jedi style shepherd's robe.

Our family was one of many who did not win the lottery for the annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with David Archuletta. My sister-in-law Lorie however was much luckier. She submitted requests for every place of residence of her married children and was able to score 20 tickets!. In November I drove to Smithfield (two hour drive) after work to show Holy Land/Christmas slides to her Relief Society. Lorie's kind and gracious thanks to me was four tickets to the concert and a David Archuletta Christmas CD. Sweet! We left Will in the care of Grandma Emmett (who came to stay with us for the weekend to hear us all speak in sacrament meeting) and the rest of us drove to SLC for a great event.

On December 23rd. We hosted an Emmett family visit to the BYU Museum of Art for the wonderful Carl Bloch Exhibit. We then had 35 of the clan come over for a dinner of Grandpa Emmett's famous curry.

Christmas Eve at Aunt Anna's
The tradition is to have a Mexican meal followed by a Mexican posada where the holy family goes from room to to room seeking lodging only to be turned away by many flimsy and humorous excuses.

We then listened to Grandpa Tueller read from Luke 2.
Then Aunt Diane (visiting from Boston) entertained us, along with Sarah and cousin Emma, to her traditional angel dance!
Marie with four of her seven sisters.

When we got back to our home I read a childhood favorite to the children. This was a present to the Emmett children in 1958 from my Grandma and Grandpa Fife. My mom still has the original. I have a reprint that my parents gave to all of us in 1987. Dad would read from this book every Christmas eve. Its text is the Luke and Matthew accounts of the birth and childhood of Jesus. One of my favorite Christmas books.

The illustrators (Maud and Miska Petersham) traveled to the holy land in around 1930 so all of the art work looks very real from the Palestinian robes and kafiyyehs to the domed roofs, stone arches, limestone hills, red anemones, sheep and camels.
Waiting to go out and see what Santa brought.

After opening presents we went to my sister Mary's for a traditional Emmett Christmas breakfast of Aebelskivers and sliced oranges with powdered sugar on top. That evening all of the Tueller family came to our place for a nice spread of Chinese take out. We ate it while watching the last 15 minutes of the Christmas Story where the family goes to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. After dinner lethargy kicked in.
Aunt Diane surprised our kids with great gifts including Joel's Celtics shirt.
Next day after church we drove to Logan for the Emmett celebration. We started with a nativity.
Followed by a talent show and then community singing.

Next day 33 Emmetts descended on Beaver Mountain for a great day of skiing. All six Emmett children were there with many of their children and one grand child. Sarah, Joel and Will did great after a year hiatus from skiing. We all missed Grandpa Emmett. He loved days like this--the whole famdamily skiing and lunching together.

Halloween

2010-11-03T16:32:00.009-06:00

Family Home Evening pumpkin carving

Last year we made our costumes from whatever we could find, this year we took it easy and bought them (except for Sarah who used hand-me-downs from mom). Both boys were very excited to buy their costumes when they saw them in the stores. They are perfect fits for their current stage in life and interests.
Joel's football was kept inflated with a constantly running battery operated fan. He thought the Kick Me sign was cute, but some kicked too hard.
During the fall semester in Jerusalem, Will gave super hero nicknames to many of the students. He claimed "Batman" for himself. Two of those students dropped by before trick-or-treating to hang out with their favorite five year old.

Homecomings

2010-10-08T17:28:00.006-06:00

The flight home was long but pleasant. We arrived on Saturday afternoon. Ben and Courtney did a stellar job of keeping our house and yard in good shape. On Monday we drove to Logan to see my father who has been dealing with melanoma for the past few years. While in Jerusalem we learned that the melanoma had spread to his abdomen and then later to his brain. We consider it a tender mercy that he was still up and about when when we returned. Jake was in town from Illinois so we held a special Family Home Evening Monday night.

Mom and dad with their six children. It has been 18 months since we were all together. After a great dinner, Jake gave mom a priesthood blessing and then I gave a blessing to dad. It was a very tender moment. There was no promise of healing and long life, but rather of peace, comfort and not extended suffering. Afterwards dad expressed his love to all of us--which was almost the entire family. Only a few were not able to attend.

Later that week Marie's sister Jeanne and family came for a visit. Our kids had fun playing with their Tueller cousins for a few days.
Back to school. Sarah started seventh grade at Springville Jr. High.

Joel off to fourth grade

Will starting afternoon kindergarten
On Labor Day we drove to Logan to visit Grandpa and Grandma. In two weeks dad had weakened quite a bit. Each of the children took a few mementos from their year abroad for a special show and tell. Joel showing an alabaster obelisk from Egypt.
Will showing his olive wood cougar from Bethlehem.
Sarah showing her ancient clay pot handle that she discovered at Tel Azekah.
For my birthday we went to the first half of Will's soccer game and then to Joel's pinewood derby.
His car--Lucky 13--got second place. We were all happy that Joel's friend Colin got first place. For the past year he has been battling aplatsic anemia.

September was full of twice weekly soccer games for Will and Joel. Both did very well given the fact that they often played soccer in the gym with the BYU Jerusalem students. Most Thursdays I drove to Logan to visit mom and dad.

On Monday September 27th, I got a call at school that dad was not doing very well and would probably not last long. I canceled the remaining 40 minutes of my political geography class and hurried home while Marie went to get the kids from school. We arrived in Logan in time to see dad and to express our love to him. We sat around visiting and remembering. At one point the children and Marie sing "I know that my Savior loves me" which they had learned in Primary this last year and which Joel and Will had sung the day before in the Primary program. Dad had been unconscious and unresponsive for the past two days and so we were surprised when Bob and Mom noticed tears on his cheeks. He then opened his tear filled eyes and gazed upwards. Then after a few delayed breaths his spirit departed his worn out body. It was a peaceful, tender moment.
On Friday October 1, Dad/Grandpa was buried in the Logan Cemetery. We will miss his regular comments on this blog. He was a wonderful man and a loving father and grandfather. He and mom came to visit me in Jerusalem in 1982 and in Nazareth in 1989. I am grateful for happy memories of many happy times together. All of the grandchildren know the answer to the hard question: "Grandpa Emmet loves me." How grateful we are to know that dad's earthly departure is not a permanent separation. We know that the resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem two millennia ago blesses all of us with the gift of eternal life and the opportunity to live together as eternal families. We look forward to that happy reunion.

Last Days

2010-10-08T17:27:00.005-06:00

Our last week was full of fun activities. Marie's sister Diane (above), her husband Lant Pritchett, their newly released missionary (India Bangalore) son Luke (above), their daughter Hannah and her husband Mike came to visit for a week. On Sunday we took them to play the carillon at the YMCA in West Jerusalem. Diane, who is a high school music teacher, was moved to tears by the experience. We then went to visit Bethlehem. Here in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity is a photo of where the manger was located. Behind me is where the star marking the place of the birth is located. The Pritchett's are an adventuresome lot and so they wanted to go find Bansky art work on the wall. Here our children pretend to help a Palestinian girl frisk an Israeli solider. Behind this portion of the wall is Rachel's tomb. I like the sentiment of unzipping the wall. When then visited some of our LDS friends in Bethlehem. Hannah's (in red) husband Mike (far right) has been growing a bread since their wedding last September. It was touching and humorous when two of the Bethlehem children thought Jesus had come to visit them.
We will miss visiting our Bethlehem friends.
Monday and Tuesday were the last two days of student field trips which follow the steps of the last week of the life of Jesus.
The view from the interior of the tear drop shaped church of Dominus Flevit (Jesus wept) across the Kidron Valley to where the temple was located.
Jesus wept for the iniquity of the inhabitants of Jerusalem which he would have gathered as a hen does her chicks. This mosaic is on the altar of the church.
Brother Manscill finishing up his on-site teaching in the Upper Room. My class of students are waiting to join together for some hymn singing.
That evening we were told that the new play ground was ready for its ribbon cutting. Center director Eran, who made this his personal project, really wanted the playground to be finished in time for the Emmett children to cut the ribbon and try it out. Marie and I like to think that our mostly well behaved children are the reason for this amazing addition to the Jerusalem Center.
There were three ribbons to cut, one each for Sarah, Joel and Will.
There will be 11 children in the center the next academic year so it will be well used.

The playground is located just below the 1st level and is hidden from view from the Arab neighborhood across the street by a new limestone wall.
Next day as we traversed the Old City I enjoyed seeing the Ramadan lights and decorations--very Christmasy.
Marie and the kids took the Prichetts to Hezekiah's Tunnel and then joined us for singing in St. Anne's Church. Another hit with Aunt Diane. Marie with her friend Malak Sharaf. Malak has been the office administrator at the center for over 20 years. I first met her in 1988. She is good friends of my Aunt JoAnn. Her son Nabil has two degrees from BYU. Nabil and I were both authors of essays in BYU Magazine that highlighted Mormon -Muslim similarities. http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=1288

Last night on the seventh floor balcony.

A favorite end of semester activity is playing in the piles of blankets and pillows placed here by students so the wonderful staff at the center can get them washed and ready for the next group.

For our final day we decided to visit a final few places. First stop- Ammunition Hill the site of a decisive battle in the 1967 battle over Jerusalem. It was a Jordanian fortification on the northern perimeter of the city that was captured by Israeli troops.

We then were successful at finally getting into the Russian Orthodox Church in the heart of the Russian compound. This was a Red Russian Church (Bolshevik backed) while the churches on the Mt. of Olives were White Russian.
I took a few interior photos before a priest reminded me that photos were not allowed. Sarah had also reminded me, but I pretended not to hear her.

Just outside the church is a large pillar that was carved for Herod's Temple. It cracked during the process and was not used. This area was one of the main quarries for the temple.
Walked along Jaffa street where after one year little progress has been made on completing the light rail.
Our last felafel on Ben Yehuda Street. We then returned to the Center to finish packing our bags.
I then slipped out to take some followup photos of the Pisgat Ze'ev area. I have been taking photos of the growth of Jewish settlements in the area northeast of Jerusalem since 1989. It is amazing to see the changes. The latest addition to the geo-political landscape is the wall dividing the Palestinian refugee camp of Anata from the rest of Jerusalem. I'll add photos like this to my geography lecture photos of an Arab family in front of their destroyed homes and a sequence of photos showing the rapid expansion of these controversial Jewish neighborhoods/settlements.

Driving back to the Center I took this photo while stopped at a stop light. We saw this exact view on our drive into Jerusalem 360 days earlier. For unknown reasons we call it the pencil sharpener. Brother and Sister Manscill drove the five of us and all 20 of our bags in the nine seater van to Ben Gurion airport for our 11:30 pm flight. We arrived 3 1/2 hours before our flight. We had hopped that a Friday evening flight might mean a less crowed airport because of the Jewish Sabbath. There may have been fewer flights that night, but security was more backed-up than usual. The initial screening as we got in line resulted in a #2 sticker on our passport which means we were not much of a security risk. Those with high numbers and special blue and yellow stickers (people traveling alone, people who have visited Arab areas, Arabs etc) were pulled out of line behind us and moved forward for luggage x-raying. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting in a line which was not moving for us, the kids' patience started to wear thin and we started to worry about making our flight. Marie finally asked one of the security women if we could move up and have our bags x-rayed. She came back with her superior who asked me the usual questions: why are you here, where did you go, did you pack your bags, did you accept any packages etc. I answered truthfully to every question. Then to our surprise she let us skip the backed up x-ray machine and proceed directly to check-in. Never in my many trips in and out of Israel have I ever experienced such a thing. Hallelujah! I'm sure it helped to be traveling with three children and that we had all been in and out of the country several times before. As we passed the place where many people had to open up their luggage for further inspection we noticed many who were pulled ahead of us still enduring additional security checks. We got to our gate just in time to board. We all slept well and then enjoyed some movies--the kids were happy to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid--we took this series of books with us to Jerusalem and they were re-read many times during the year. Marie's Parents, sister Rachel and my brother Jake met us at the SLC airport and transported us (in three cars) to Springville. Jake and I arrived first. The Baltes kids were anxiously waiting on their front lawn for their absentee friends to arrive. Soon Rachel pulled up with Sarah, Joel and Will. As they spilled out of her car the street erupted into screams of joy followed by hugs of happiness.

Mural Painting

2010-09-18T22:03:00.022-06:00

Each semester the BYU students get involved in a number of good service projects (I keep hoping they will reinstate past projects that were more people oriented like visiting orphanages or volunteering in schools). When possible the Emmetts like to join in--most often helping with assembling hygiene kits. One afternoon we joined in and helped paint murals on the wall of the kindergarten classroom at the Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children on the Mt of Olives.
The hallways are lined with murals created and painted by students from past semesters.
The fall 2009 semester mural.
The winter 2010 mural (showing two of four panels depicting the various landscapes of the USA).
Amy and Blake did a great job at designing the mural and painting the base of each animal.
Our kids each teamed up with a student to decorate one animal.
Joel worked with Mike (who is also a talented organist).

Will did dots with Scott.
And Sarah worked with Gretta--who is a great cellist. She is one of the reasons Sarah is now paying cello in the seventh grade orchestra.
The monkey artists at play.
The mural after the first cohort of animal decorators.
We returned a week later to see the completed work of the other groups.
The mural starts with a child at a desk drawing. He obviously has quite an imagination.
The names of all of the student participants and Emmett children are included in the mural on the spines of the books at the bottom.
Very impressive.

Monastery of the Cross

2010-09-18T21:56:00.012-06:00

The Monastery of the Cross is located in West Jerusalem near the Knesset and Israel Museum. Once upon a time it was far from the city of Jerusalem and its protective walls so it necessarily is very fortress like. Its claim to fame is the site where the tree was cut for the cross of Christ. The monastery was at first Byzantine (destroyed by the Persians) and then Georgian (as in the Caucasus Mountains not SE USA) but as the Georgian Christians lost power and influence the Greeks then took over control.
It was once bustling with many more monks than the few who inhabit it today as evidenced by this once-used large dinning hall.
The entrance to the church within the monastery.
The open doorway to the left of the iconostasis leads to a tiny chapel.
It is on this location that the tree grew. The commemorative murals tell an interesting story.
When the three heavenly visitors came with good tidings for Abraham and Sarah (hiding behind the tree) they left their three staffs. Abraham then gave the three staffs to a fleeing Lot (with two daughters) with the command that if he wanted to find favor with God he should take the three holy staffs to Jerusalem and plant them.
Lot did as he was told by uncle Abe. The three staffs were make from cedar, cypress and olive wood. They were watered with water from the Jordan River. The three staffs grew into a single tree.
That tree became the cross. Believe it or not.

Jaffa/Tel Aviv

2010-09-18T21:26:00.014-06:00

We started out our year in the Holy Land with a trip to the beach so we decided to end our stay with a second trip. Our first stop was the ancient port of Jaffa. The Catholic Church is dedicated to Peter.

It was here in Jaffa that Peter has his vision of unclean (not kosher) foods descending from heaven. He was told to eat the food as a heavenly way of teaching him that the gospel was now to go forth to the gentiles, starting first with Roman Cornelius in Caesarea.

The narrow walkways of the old city of Jaffa descend from the church down to the harbor.

I wonder if the whale that swallowed Jonah smiled when he swallowed Jonah.
After a lunch of hot dogs or shwarma we headed north to adjacent Tel Aviv for a fun few hours at the beach. Jaffa is in the distance.
The beginning of our majestic sand drop castle.
The Mediterranean Sea was a perfect temperature. After so many great days in the fresh water afternoon waves of the Sea of Galilee we were all some what troubled by salty waves.

Oh We're from Nairobi

2010-09-14T14:20:00.004-06:00

Each semester the BYU students would hold a formal talent show in the upper auditorium and then an informal talent show in the forum. Our formal talents are few and so we opted to always participate in the informal talent show. This is a video of our winter semester performance (we did the same thing all three semesters). Notice Will's peace sign at the end. We choreographed our number during a Family Home Evening fall semester. Everyone helped with ideas. During our first run through when it came time to lift Will up on my shoulders, I accidentally stepped on the back of his pants so that as I lifted him up, his pants stayed down! Will's initial reaction was that it was no fun to be up in the air pant-less, but it wasn't long before he, along with the rest of us, could laugh as his costuming mishap.

Bethany

2010-09-13T16:50:00.025-06:00

Bethany is the first stop of the last two days of field trips that re-trace the events of the final week of Christ's life. The Arabic name for Bethany is al-Azariyah which is the Arabic derivative of Lazarus. The Roman Catholic Church pays tribute to Bethany's most famous residents: Mary, Martha and Lazarus. I really liked the interior of the dome with its golden mosaics of birds in flight. The church also had great mosaics of Bethany events:
Jesus telling Martha that Mary, who chose to listen to Jesus rather than busy herself with household duties, had chosen the better part.
Martha learned her lesson. Next time Jesus came to town it was she who hustled out to meet him. At that meeting Jesus told Martha that he was the resurrection and the life. Jesus then raised Lazarus after four days in the tomb (Jews believed that the spirit lingered near the body for three days, so Jesus waiting to raise Lazarus on the fourth day showed that Lazarus was most sincerely dead).

Sandwiched between the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches is a mosque. It sits atop the tomb of Lazarus. Anciently the entrance to the tomb was from the east near the church, but that entrance was blocked with the building of the mosque so now the entrance to the tomb (by the orange sign) is from the north and down a long uneven flight of stairs. Jerusalem Center colleague Kent Brown always tells the students that he feels that this really is the tomb!
Descending into the tomb Inside the tomb. The small entrance leads out to another chamber and then up the stairs.
"Sarah, come forth!"
"Joel, come forth!"

"Will, come forth!"
During winter semester a baby bird fell out of its nest and into the courtyard of the student apartments one level below us. The students tried to feed the bird and keep it warm. They named it Bucket. Our children went to visit the bird. Then after a few days it died. A few days later I accidentally left my anti-melanoma wide-brimmed hat in the church at Bethany on the field trip. Later that day I return to the church in a hired van along with Will to retrieve my hat. While there we took a few minutes to visit the tomb of Lazarus. I was trying to explain to five year old Will about Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. I wasn't sure if he was understanding that through Jesus we all can live again. I told him how Jesus had called to dead Lazarus to come forth. Will has not experienced the death of anyone he knows and so I latched on to the recent death of Bucket the bird to explain that Jesus could make Bucket live again. I knew that Will understood it all when a few minutes later from the depths of the tomb he exclaimed: "Bucket, come forth!"

The care taker of the tomb owns a souvenir shop that sells wonderful David slings. He always demonstrates how to sling a sling by sending two stones flying off into the distance. He then says with a smile that he sent the two stones flying in that direction because that is where his wife and mother-in-law live.
The correct hand position. The one string stays attached to the middle finger while the thumb and pointer finger let go.
The street running in front of the tomb, the two churches and the mosque has been repaved and upgraded thanks to a USAID program to improve the tourist infrastructure in Palestine. It is a nice good-will out-reach program. Too bad more tourists don't make it to Bethany. Once upon a time many tourists/pilgrims and all of the BYU students would come to Bethany and then climb up and over the Mt of Olives to Jerusalem just as Jesus so often did. Unfortunately, the wall now prevents that walk. Less than a 100 yards from the tomb the wall separates Bethany from Bethpage and Jerusalem. To reconnect with the path Jesus walked now necessitates a 30 minute circuitous drive that includes going through the relatively new tunnel under the Mt. of Olives. When the wall was being built, a vigilant congressman familiar with the pilgrim route coerced the Israeli government to put a gate in the wall for the pilgrims to use, but as far as I know tourists have never been able to use the gate (seen above).
The gardens of the Catholic church are very well cared for. We always sit under this grape arbor to remember the Biblical accounts associated with Bethany. The arbor is also a great reminder of the allegory of the True Vine. "I am the vine, ye are the branches"

Armenian Quarter

2010-09-07T15:30:00.028-06:00

Early in our stay in Jerusalem we stopped at an Armenian pottery shop to look around. It was just across the street from the main entrance (above photo) into the walled Armenian Quarter. In the past visitors could just walk into the quarter and explore, but now a guard limits visitors to just the Church of St. James. I mentioned to George the shop owner about our desire to see the quarter and he offered to take us for a visit any time. We never got around to arranging that visit, but when some adventuresome summer semester students expressed interest in visiting the quarter I sent them to George and they arranged a visit. And so one afternoon about forty students and the Emmetts met at George's shop for a tour. George was out of town and so he arranged for his brother who just returned from living in the US to give us the tour.

The main church of the quarter is the Church of St. James (the brother of Jesus)
The squat steeple of the church rising over the main courtyard of the quarter.
This decades old photo shows the same courtyard full of Armenians. Armenians were the first nation to convert to Christianity and they have a long history of residency in Jerusalem--thus they have their own quarter. The population of the quarter was bolstered in the early 1900s when survivors of the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks in Eastern Anatolia found refuge here.

Years ago I spent some time in this library (with Armenian publications and newspapers from around the world) interviewing a historian of Armenians in Jerusalem.

A gathering hall for clerics. Zion's gate and the walls of the old city in the distance.
The courtyard of the seminary where Armenians from around the world come for training

One of the seminarians
Mary and Jesus Armenian style

Most of the quarter is filled with Armenian institutions, but there are also residential areas and homes tucked away behind doors such as this.
I am always impressed with the 2-3 story high grape arbors that are found in homes of the Middle East. Families can sit on the flat roof tops under the shade of the arbors.

Will enjoyed exploring the doorways and alleyways of the quarter, but he also enjoyed persecuting the resident ants. Earlier in the year I forbade him from the wanton killing of ants so now when he is bored with our touring he corrals and captures ants, of which there are always plenty. He is dressed in his souvenir Netherlands soccer jersey and shorts. In and around the quarter you can see these posters reminding visitors of the Armenian genocide. Hitler once said that Germany would be able to exterminate the Jews because of the indifference of the world. After all, he said, "who remembers the extermination of the Armenians." Over 1 million Armenians perished as Turks killed them and forced them from their homes into the deserts of Syria where even more perished.
We all then walked over to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to visit the Armenian areas. While George's brother (I forget his name) made arrangements with a priest Sarah watched prayer candles.
In the Armenian Church of St. Helena a side door leads down to some cisterns, ancient steps and a hidden chapel. I had never been in this part of the church so I was excited.
The chapel--which Armenians believe is located along the route Jesus trod to Calvary.
This is a 5-6 century drawing of a fishing boat.
Looking down to a more ancient level of Jerusalem to what the Armenians believe is the path Jesus trod to Calvary.
We the climbed to the Armenian gallery which is one level above the entry level and just across the entry from Calvary. Centuries ago the Armenians lost control of Calvary to the Greeks and Latins so this is as close as they can get.
From the Gallery there is a nice view into the Greek Orthodox controlled Katholikon.
Priests pound on these boards to announce the beginning of services.
The adventuresome BYU students and our nice Armenian guide. A few days latter I visited their pottery shop and bought a nice ceramic pomegranate.

Christmas in July

2010-09-07T15:10:00.008-06:00

Sarah, Joel and Will were asked by the students to participate in their shepherd's field nativity program. They were to accompany the shepherds as sheep (although independent minded Will maintained he was a donkey). I joined in to help shepherd the sheep. Our tails were made of my socks.
Crawling on all fours was not that comfortable given the abundance of rocks and thorns. The students got a kick out of the one black sheep.
With Bethlehem in the distance an angelic choir sings 'Glory to God". Notice the security fence slashing diagonally up the slope. It separates Bethlehem from the Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Har Homa.

Mea Shearim

2010-09-07T14:53:00.027-06:00

In July before our Galilee trip we ventured forth one Friday morning to explore Mea Shearim, the oldest orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. The entrances to the neighborhood remind all visitors to respect their standards of modesty. We tried to comply--Sarah wore a sweater over her short sleeve shirt.

Orthodox Jewish families tend to have large families as evidenced by the laundry on the lines and the many children playing in the streets.

The neighborhood has many synagogues and yeshivas (religious/theological schools).

Notice the sign on the right that sates: "We mourn the 62 year existence of the state of Israel."
Many orthodox Jews reject Zionism (Jewish nationalism) and the establishment of the state of Israel because they are political movements and not religious movements. They feel that Israel should be a religious state established under the guidance of God.

This sign condemns Israel's attack on the Gaza Flotilla.

Located adjacent to Mea Shearim is this round Ethiopian Church. Last fall priests from this church issued complaints to the government in hopes of stopping Jewish residents in the area from spitting on priests as they come and go from the church.
Mary and Jesus, Ethiopian style.

Just outside the church was this old advertisement from Passover. The help is to come in and clean your house of any trace of leaven/yeast.
A little bit closer to the old city is this Russian Orthodox Church. It was at the heart of the Russian compound which was built in the late 1800s to accommodate Russian pilgrims. Part of the compound (on the right) is now the main jail of Jerusalem.