Wander With Wayne

This Christmas was so very different than we’ve ever had. On Monday night, Tanner gave a great Christmas lesson for family home evening. We watched the new nativity video that the Church produced and discussed the events surrounding the birth of Christ. On Christmas Eve, we tried to keep some of our family traditions alive. With Kaneesha, Riley, and Brooks at their home, and Myranda in Slovakia, it left Noell, Tanner, and I with the infant twins and Dad and Mom. It was all nice and good, but didn’t have the same sparkle that exists with more of the family there. Tate and Dawson are a lot of work, so on Christmas Day we didn’t even begin to open presents until after 9 am (and it may have been closer to 10). Tanner had cooked a great breakfast and we enjoyed it, then we opened presents. That didn’t take long, as there were no gifts for the twins and few for the rest of us. Excitement picked up Christmas afternoon as Kaneesha and Riley arrived with Brooks. It was fun to see Brooks’...

This year has been very busy for our family (written Spring 2017). Tanner has been working hard to keep good grades. He also began playing tennis. Myranda has been keeping good grades while playing soccer and serving on the Hope Squad. Noell is in her final semester to complete her Bachelor's degree and has been student teaching. I've been rolling out changes from LDS Employment Services to LDS Self-Reliance Services. The change moves me from managing an employment center with hours from 8-5 to working with stake leaders with work most Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights. It's been a challenge to arrange when I'll work and when I'll have time for my family, my church callings, and personal time. It's been a difficult change, but I've loved the way this work is blessing individuals. Because of how busy things have been, we've not made plans for spring break. About 10 days ago we felt like we might go to Zion Canyon and hike Angel's...

Letter to Myranda: This weekend we went to watch Kaneesha in her stake Christmas music devotional. She sang in the choir and played a beautiful rendition of Carol of the Bells, with six hands (played by Kaneesha and two others). I’ll try to include an audio recording of her piano trio (she plays the highest part). While I loved Kaneesha’s piano performance, I can honestly say that I wasn’t very attentive to the other performances. I spent the entire time entertaining Brooks. He’d had enough church for the day and wanted to do other things. We spent most of the time in the hall walking, babbling, and playing at the drinking fountain. On Saturday night, Kaneesha, Riley, Brooks, Tanner, Noell, and I went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. With changes planned for the temple next year, we felt that the Christmas lights might be different next year and that it would be great for us to see them one last time before the changes. As always, we enjoyed the beautiful lights ...

Recently, I had a BYU student reach out to me to serve as a mentor for him. He served his mission in Poland about a year and a half ago and wants to work for the church in self-reliance. As that is my job, he thought I might give him some great advice. Actually, I believe I received better advice from him then I gave him. Here’s what I learned from him: During his mission in Poland, he helped set up and run self-reliance groups. He said they were very beneficial in bringing people into the church. After I shared some things about self-reliance, I asked him more about his experience as a missionary in Poland. Poland is next to Slovakia, and because Myranda will be serving there, I thought I might get some ideas of what he found beneficial as a missionary. He stated that Elder Neil Anderson spoke to his mission while he was there and encouraged the missionaries to focus on the younger generation. He said some tools that they accessed to bring people in for gospel discussions were: se...

This week we enjoyed Thanksgiving. It was so nice to be with family again. Before family arrived, I had an impression that I should spend some time whittling. Part of my time on Thanksgiving day I whittled a little Santa. I spent time eating, visiting, and whittling. This time, I didn’t visit as much with the family as I typically do. Most of the visiting I did was with the children who were drawn to my whittling... it was actually very fun. After Thanksgiving, Ken came to visit. He spent Thanksgiving with his wife, children, and grandchildren, then felt he should come spend some time with Mom and Dad. He and I stayed up visiting until it was after 3 AM. I really enjoyed the time talking with him. One of the things we discussed was finances. One of our old neighbors, and a friend of the family, David Cottrell has been a financial planner for decades. He is known for being very good. WARNING: THIS IS A BORING PARAGRAPH!!! YOU'RE WELCOME TO SKIP IT: David has helped Dad, Mom, Ke...