Growth of the Church.

I was browsing through a 2010 Church Almanac the other day and was amazed at the growth of the Church in the area of my Mission. For just one example, in my last area I was zone leader in Trujillo, Peru in 1968.

Plaza de Armas, Trujillo

and our zone included Chiclayo also.

Main Square, Chiclayo



If I remember correctly it was 6 missionaries and 2 branches.

From the Almanac I count 5 stakes in Chiclayo and 8 in Trujillo identifiable by name. There is also a mission headquartered in Trujillo. When I was there, there were no stakes in the entire mission (Andes mission including Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia by the time I left.)

There has also been a temple announced for Trujillo, the 2nd in Peru.

Announcement: 13 December 2008

Construction Status

The Trujillo Perú Temple is currently in the planning and approval phase. No groundbreaking date has been announced.

Temple Design

Renderings of the Trujillo Perú Temple and site plan will be released once they are approved and become available.

Temple Site

The Trujillo Perú Temple will be constructed on a large parcel of ground adjacent to the beautiful Campo Eterno cemetery on the highway to Huanchaco. The temple was originally to be constructed on the site of the Trujillo Perú Primavera Stake Center.

Temple Announcement

In its announcement the First Presidency stated, "We are confident that this will be a blessing to the many faithful Saints in this and surrounding areas who have had to travel long distances to enjoy the blessings of the temple. We commend the Saints for their devotion and faithfulness, and are thankful for the blessings that will come to them through the construction of this new temple." The temple will serve more than 88,000 members in the region.1

Peru's only operating temple, which currently serves 115 stakes and districts, was dedicated in Lima by President Gordon B. Hinckley in January 1986. Members in Trujillo currently travel 9–10 hours by bus to attend the temple, which is exceptionally busy on Saturdays. Buses arrive from all over the country full of patrons, who contentedly wait outside the temple—sometimes for hours—for their turn to get inside to participate in sacred ordinance work.2

New Milestone

I promise I won't bore you with any more blogs about the kitchen until it is finished. We got the vent hood and the hanging rails installed this past week or so. This represents the last of the functional items to install. The rest is cosmetic.



Now all that remains is the decorative tile in the middle of the wall, the toe kick, the crown molding and the side moldings.

Who needs grass?

OK so I really do want to have a healthy turf but with the drought last year that killed all the grass and being occupied with kitchen this year, didn't happen.



Believe it or not there is little or no grass in this yard, just mowed the weeds.



Speaking of weeds, they grow bigger in Texas. We have tried to get rid of these but gave up this year and just let them grow.



Some of the weed could pass for flowers if they weren't so invasive and persistent





Maybe next year we'll get our yard in shape.

What will they think of next?

It's amazing to me the gadgets that people come up with using modern technology



Phazzer 3 Megapixel DVR Eyewear Sunglasses-Digital Video Recorder Eyewear - DVR300

For hands free recording use the Camcorder DVR 3 Megapixel Eyewear! These stylish DVR eyewear sunglasses have a built in 3 megapixel camera and DVR with micro switch controls right at your finger tips. This unique camcorder system will view and record what the user sees without wires and hands free. The audio is captured at a limited range, but is excellent for commentation done by the user. The primary use is to record video for winter and summer sports activities, school programs, family events, hunting and fishing and many other life experiences. The video is stored on a 4 GB Micro SD flash memory card. Play back is easy using your PC via USB or Flash Card reader and requires no additional software. SD Flash Memory Card adapter included.

Features
3.0 megapixels pinhole CMOS camera and built in stereo audio microphone.
Allows up to 4 hours of video recording per charge.
Polarized lenses to reduce sunglare.
Uses a 4 GB Micro SD Flash Memory Card
$199.99

EMTSEF

The ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair was held in San Antonio April 9th - 12th. It is the fair affiliated with the most prestigious fair, the Intel-ISEF, which is an international fair and will be held in San Jose, CA this year on May 8th - 15th.



We had 16 students qualify from the Alamo Regional Fair. Of those we had the 2nd grand prize, 2 firsts, one 2nd, one 3rd, two 4th and one honorable mention. They give one of each prize for each category except the grands which are overall. 3 students qualified to go to the INTEL-ISEF.



In addition there is the Siemens competition where we had 1 semi-finalist and the TJSHS (Texas Junior Science and Humanities Symposium) which feeds into the American Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. We had 3 students go to that this year.

In our local science fair at our school we had nearly 800 projects presented and over $100,000 in scholarships awarded. All freshmen and sophomores in the Science and Engineering Academy Magnet School are required to do a science project and all upper class students are required to do a research project of some kind. I will have a much larger role in coordinating that fair next year.

more catch up

Seventeen of our students qualified from the Alamo Regional Junior Academy of Science Meeting to go to the Texas Junior Academy of Science competition at Texas A&M April 5th-7th in College Station. I was appointed to take them. We went with about 4 or 5 kids from Health Careers and their teacher. There was one from Clark and one from Stevens that qualified also but they elected not to go.



It was interesting trying to keep 17 kids in line by myself for 3 days and 2 nights away from home in a hotel. Unlike most science fairs they do not have a board to display their project but it is an oral presentation. They each have 12 minutes to present and 3 minutes for questions from the judges afterward. The first day is a preliminary judging and the 1st place winners from each category present again the next day for the final judging.



We had 3 first place, 5 second place, 5 third place and 1 honorable mention. (Only one of those pictured is a first place winner) One of our 1st place winners won 3rd grand prize in the final judging the next day.



First place winners qualify to go to the AJAS (American Junior Academy of Science) held in conjunction with the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) meeting in Washington, D.C. That is not a competition but a good learning opportunity. Grand prize winners are given a cash stipend to help with travel expenses.

ISWEEEP

Its been a while since I posted. For those, if any, who wonder what I have been up to and exactly what I do for a living these days, this is a part of it.



This is a picture from outside my hotel room in Houston on the 24th floor of the Hyatt Regency downtown. April 14th thru 19th was ISWEEEP, an international science fair sponsored by the Cosmos foundation. They invite kids from all over the world and pay their expenses to come to Houston and present their projects related to Energy, Environment and Engineering. I took 6 kids from our school.



One morning at breakfast I sat with a group from Kyrgyzstan and I complimented a couple of the girls on their mastery of English. They really dis speak well. On the last day out in front of the convention center they came up and handed me this hat and asked if I would like a souvenir of Kyrgyzstan.



They encourage kids to wear traditional costumes from their countries and have a flag show as part of the opening ceremony. One kid from each country brings the flag of his country to the stage. Afterward they had a country singer perform.

Of the 6 from our school, 2 won gold medals ($1000 cash prize), 2 won bronze medals ($250 cash prize if I remember correctly) and one got honorable mention. They also took the kids on field trips to NASA and to the Houston Zoo. One of our students parents who is a bowling coach at Holmes High School arranged for our group to go bowling one night. First time I have been bowling in many years.

If anyone would like more information or pictures or videos they can go to the website.

weeds or flowers?

One persons weed patch is another's flower bed. Between the drought last summer that killed off all the grass and the copious rain this past winter, we had a bumper crop of weeds in our yard this spring. I was out mowing down some of the weeds the other day and decided I'd better leave these, this being the Texas State Flower and all. There were only a couple of blooms then, but they have really begun to bloom now. I didn't get them all in this shot either.

Things I hope you will teach my grandchildren

I have been reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was free on Kindle. He expressed very well in his philosophy of life a concept that I have always thought if understood and applied would do more to induce people (especially the youth who are more likely to chafe and rebel at being restricted) than almost any other to keep the commandments.

"In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine; that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity.”

It is interesting that the style of writing is reminiscent of the Book of Mormon. The long complex sentences being one of the things that make it difficult to read. This was written in the mid to late 1700s not many years before Joseph Smith was born and the prevailing style of writing was probably very similar in Joseph Smiths day.

Correction

The portrait artist was Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) an American painter, soldier and naturalist. He is best known for his portraits of George Washington. In January 2005, his full length portrait of "Washington at Princeton" from 1779 sold for $21.3 million dollars, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait, according to Wikipedia.

SAMA part 2

OK, here's the rest. First a portrait of an Indian (native american) chief. then the Chinese pieces. I'll let them speak for themselves.

SAMA

In case anyone is still checking my blog after so long a period of inactivity, I will post some pictures of our field trip today. Unfortunately, they only allow photos without flash and I only had my phone to take pictures anyway so they are not of the highest quality. I was helping to chaperone the Latin students on a field trip to the San Antonio Museum of Art to experience some of the Greco-Roman culture. Since they didn't have anything specific for me to do, I pretty much just toured the museum. They have the largest collection of Greco-Roman art in Texas and probably in the Southwestern US. Here are some of the things that caught my attention (mostly not Greco-Roman).

This was in the modern collection


This was in the Southwest collection, I believe.


You would have to see this one in person to get the full effect. It is a huge very ornate carved wooden desk in the Mexican collection. A close up of the top below.


A huge (about 12' tall) very ornate painting of the famous Virgen of Guadalupe also in the Mexican collection.

Another view to try to get the whole thing in one frame. The long candle holders on the sides were at least 6' long.

Unfortunately, this is not a good shot. It is a relative of ours (on both Suzanne's and my lines) from the European collection. A member of the English Royalty or Nobility. I dont remember her name now.
A French desk (Louis IV era) from the European collection.


These two portraits of husband and wife by the same artist (Charles W. Peak) are the most life-like I have ever seen. He even captured the glistening from the moisture around the eyes. Unfortunately you can't see them very well in these photos. The other portraits looked flat and lifeless by comparison.

I will post some from the Chinese collection in another post.

Interesting information on the Hulets

I found some interesting information in a blog about the Hulets.
This one shows the Native American ancestors which are disputed by others. It also has histories of many of the Hulet ancestors.

Hulet line

This one has a video of the Charles Hulet farm area and the Sylvanus Hulet grave headstone in Ohio. (Click on the First LDS Member
link)

Gardner Blog

How Many of Me?

Our librarian at work is always sending out links to interesting web sites. This is one she sent today.

www.howmanyofme.com  

Did you Know?

• There are 2,626,763 people in the U.S. with the first name Richard.
• Statistically the 8th most popular first name.
• 99.77 percent of people with the first name Richard are male.

• There are 141,834 people in the U.S. with the last name Lawrence.
• Statistically the 219th most popular last name.
• Famous people with the last name Lawrence:

• • Brian Lawrence
  • Francis Lawrence
  • John Lawrence
  • Marc Lawrence
  • Martin Lawrence
  • Quentin Lawrence
  • Ray Lawrence

There are 1,211 people in the U.S. named Richard Lawrence.

Letter

It has been quite a while since I posted anything. I started to post an old letter that I found among Grandpa Wilkinson's things from William Wilkinson last week. I am not sure how he is related. I wanted to post a transcript with it but I found that my eyesight is not as good as it used to be and I couldn't get it all transcribed in a reasonable time so I will post it anyway and maybe we can make it a group effort. Anyone who is interested can add to what I have. This is what I have so far.

Old England
Cawthorpe, Novr 15, 1853

My Dear Brother, Sisters, Nephews, and Nieces,

With great pleasure I have again written a few lines to inform you that I received your kind and welcome letter of the 22nd of September and myself and family were very glad to hear of you and yours being thankfully well and we hope this will find you all still in the enjoyment of good health. I feel truly thankful to our Heavenly Father for his preserving care over me and mine to the present moment of time and that through His mercy I am ___________ to say we are all in good health for the present. And I think I shall not be wrong in saying all our relatives are tolerably well. I have not heard anything to the contrary lately. I was over at Birmingham and .........

Living room

Its been so long since my last post, I thought I would let you all know what has kept me so busy. I have been obsessed with getting the living room done before school started so we could get our furniture off the patio in case it ever rains here again. (Actually we got 1.5 inches at our house last week the day we got the last of the furniture in, thank goodness.) Here are a few pictures of the almost finished product. I still have to put in the trim (stair nosing and transitions to the tile floor in the family room), replace the closet and pocket doors and put the mirror back up.

For those who remember what the living room was like, this is the area were the half-wall was that we removed. (notice the open closet without a door)



This one gives an idea what the ceiling looks like after we scraped the popcorn off and re-textured, thanks to Jenny's technique and Janet's help.


The floor is a bamboo laminate. We decided to go with that rather than the vinyl plank we were planning to use. Finishing up the details on this and the laundry room/downstairs landing will occupy my spare time for the rest of the year. We also need to get an area rug and window curtains/drapes.

New York

I had a great time in New York last week. Got to visit with Jenny and Nina and some of the in laws and with Spencer, Lila and Miriam. So far I have seen Miriam at yearly intervals. Nina wanted to do everything with Grandpa for the first 3 days or so and then the novelty wore off. She is learning about family relationships and enjoyed telling me that I should tell my daughter things. One of her little friends from the neighborhood stopped by when we were outside and the topic of who I was came up. She said O he's just an old grandpa.

We had fun going to the zoo in Rochester and Stony Brook State Park for a picnic and playing on the playground. It was a welcome break from the heat wave here in San Antonio. For most of the time I was there it was cool and rainy and every thing is very green as opposed to hot dry and brown here. One would think we had moved to Arizona or that Arizona moved here except the humidity is higher. This is our 5th day in a row over 100 for highs and the 11th day over 100 for the month. It's usually not this hot even in July and August. Average high for this time of year is about 10 degrees cooler.

Still Alive

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would let everyone know I am still alive. My summer has been busy so far. It's surprising how much time and attention one tree falling in the front yard can occupy. I spent the first week of summer break attending continuing education seminars and hauling off tree limbs. We called the city to estimate how much they would charge to haul away the debris and they wanted about $200. Since I have a broken down old pickup and a little time off, I decided to do it myself. Turns out when I started digging through the pile that the guys we hired to cut it up also left another tree on the curb along with ours. This is the wimpiest of the 8 loads I hauled away to the brush recycling center



and this is the pile of chunks that are bigger than the recycling center will accept (nothing over 6" in diameter). They will remain in our driveway unil it is our turn for brush and large item pick up again (sometime in Sept - Nov). The fine is something like $2000 a day if you leave stuff on the curb when it is not your turn.




The big chunks from the live oak tree that they left along with ours were hauled away by Carolyn's (Suzanne's boss) husband for firewood.

No one wants our tree for firewood because chineese pistache is a relative of poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac and the smoke and fumes from burning it are irritating to those sensitive to the poisonous plants.