Sister Ballantyne in Singapore: May 5, 2013

Mom: People in humble circumstances are often very teachable and looking for respite. I'm glad things are going well and that you have a baptism coming up! I have had a few tender mercies in the last month or so: Michael's papers are going to the next level (the Stake President), Binghams are coming to help us pack, and I'm needed in our new ward. I prayed that Michael would be able to get his papers moving. He had his interview with the bishop after church. Michael's interview with President Christensen is on the 15th unless Pres Christensen calls sooner (he may). I prayed this morning in my own prayers that I could get motivated to pack, since we have about 2 weeks before I want to be gone. After Sunday School, Sister Bingham came up to me and asked if her family could come over and help us pack for the Family Home Evening activity. Of course I said yes. They should be here between 5 and 5:30pm tomorrow. When we visited the River View 4th ward they had some very talented people doing amazing things in the different meetings. Then we found out that it was not the ward we would be going to. When we visited the 5th ward, I was needed to play the piano in Relief Society -- both times. I asked the Relief Society president about a Facebook page and if they had thought of doing that. Today I got an email from her asking for my ideas on that once we get moved down there. I'm glad we are going somewhere that I will feel like I can be a part of the ward and that my talents can be shared.

The Dream Lifter in the picture looks kinda like a beluga whale, only lots bigger. It's used to carry jet engines that Boeing installs in some of their planes. There are only 4 in the world (and not for sale) and two of them were there, side by side, when we went on our tour. If you want to buy a 747 it will cost you about $393 million and has a backlog of about 3-7 years.

We had our concert a week early. NNU changed their commencement exercises and didn't care that we had already reserved the auditorium. It was really fun! Now Linda can relax a bit and get her new house organized and cleaned. They moved to Weiser to a house they had built. I got to talk to Nathan and his only son, John, last night. Michael might be going on his mission about the same time John will. He hasn't turned in his papers, from what I gathered, yet. Nathan went to India on business and was able to get a suit custom made in 3 days which only cost him $47! I'm going to see if he can get us the info so we can get Michael some suits made that way. Michael's kinda small and will be really hard to fit, I think.

The cold nights are done with for now. It's very comfortable during the day now and not too bad at night. We fasted for rain today because, like usual, we're in a drought here. I'm going to pack my heavy robe so I'm showing faith that it's now going to continue to be summer weather.

I got a new phone, gave Dee Dee my old phone and got Resa a new phone. I killed two of my new phones because they cannot be charged by anything other than a Samsung charger. It gave ma message that said the universal charger I was using was not compatible with the phone and killed the charging port.

I have to go back in Monday to get a third one. In the mean time I'm using Dad's old Razzle as my phone.

I guess Resa is not doing very well. Her memory is going and she's falling a lot besides having major tremors throughout her body. Mom is going to be switching apartments next month to get a little more space, a two-bedroom apartment with the entrance in a courtyard instead of being right on the sidewalk. It has a view of the common areas which includes a nice pond and the pool. It should be nice not having her bedroom in the dining room. And Resa will have her own bathroom in her bedroom.

The sketch I did was of a tiger cub that Karlene was also sketching. We'll have to send you her tiger once I get my phone replaced. We say that we have a dog disguised as a cat since Alex does so many things that are more dog-like than cat-like.

Crookshanks was on death's doorstep. I guess he wasn't happy in that position because when I got back from Seattle I found a dead gopher on the porch. I knew Alex wasn't going outside because we don't let him out. As long as Crookshanks was happier going outside we let him outside every now and then. I tried that and found another gopher on the front porch which Crookshanks asked to go outside after he caught and promptly ate it, except for 1/2 of the head. He's also started eating, very timidly, the dry food again. He still is quite grumpy but I'm not doing anything else about him for now.

I'm planning to be gone by the 20th of May to be permanently out of this house and on the way to Draper with the last of our stuff. Dad may not be able to Skype with us next week and may not get to write this week. I think he's driving today. He's on his way to Pennsylvania again. His test to get out of training went well but the tester nit-picked it to death and didn't pass him. He'll have another week or so on JD's truck.

Michael: The papers are progressing, and I'll be preparing to go on a mission and when we get to Utah I'll be looking for farther employment. So how was trackting in Malaysia.

Karlene: I was freaking out because of the way most of the people looked and partly because the wall covered in gum... YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had my last rehearsal with Linda now lets see if i bawl during the concert.

Here's a picture of the gum wall she couldn't stand. Mom

Faline: I'm not really wanting to move right now and I'm not happy about it. I do like cats. I would love to go there! We're packing this week. This Sunday we are going to Grandma's for the family get together. This is probably the last time I will get to play with Whitney for a while. I had a good time at the concert last night!