WHOOOO has an eye within?

Whoooo likes Harvest Day?  

 Our friends Elvia and Samuel welcome cooler weather and hours to reflect, when things begin to slow down for some!

A time for healing,  

 a time for counting and gathering sheep

And for hunting in the clefts of rocks...(or elsewhere)

Jeremiah 16:16 ¶ Behold...I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

(Who am I?  Starsky and Hutch?... a detective? No, a bear hunter!)

 Dad got lots of smiles and one scream, pulling out his catch from the back.

 For lifting a voice in song, even when we find ourselves in a provincial place...

(Did we tell you one of our students, Mahonri Moriancumr Montuy played the organ Sunday--with three congregational hymns, prelude and postlude, with poise, confidence, and precision, along with a talk--welcoming, celebrating the return of his brother Mormon from a mission to Colorado.)

Also, two single adults accepted and were in responsibilities to help in Scouting and teach the 12 year old boys, along with a visit from a beautiful family hoping to find a home in our branch--

we felt some brightly beaming Sunday.  

Monday, we visited our Branch President's Walnut Processing Plant (Andersen Nut Company)  

Large trucks carry and dump thousands of pounds of walnuts.

  
Which are conveyed into bins.

 Then cracked, shaken, shelled, and sorted.  

  

  

 The best of the crop is separated out with an electric eye which reminds me of President Nelson's experience as a medical student with the word "inoculate" or  a governing eye within. 

 Dad says to explain that this is the quality assurance stage:  Out of 100 bins of golden brown walnuts, one or two will be shriveled another one or two, dark brown.  

  Then the product is sealed, then sent out  

 domestically or abroad, each day--five loads of 43,000 pounds each.  Much goes to Israel, Germany, and Turkey, countries known to consume high quantities of nuts.  

Thursday, we celebrated the 43rd anniversary of a couple we love 

and visited a neighbor-driven food bank with a family who has a temporary job and temporary home.  Returning later in the day, I learned that every last bit had been shared with another less fortunate family, which humbled me.  

As temperatures cool and as we gather and prepare our winter store to dream of a future springtime, come the questions...  

How are we doing with our "eye within"?  

To what true principles are we holding fast as we assimilate, assess, sort, seal and send out? 

  

Grateful to be engaged in a bountiful harvest...appreciating brothers and sisters who invite our efforts forward.

Remember these babies? 

 

--We heard this past week, one walked seven steps and the other is scooting backwards...

  so it goes with us...some forward, 

                         some backward, ever moving!  

Here is a wave "hello" with a family tree from Italy of a grandson with gusto!

Blessings to you on this day of gathering!

This is what we celebrate (from afar) when our grandchildren gather...and when they walk in truth!

And Happy Birthday--to Patrick, Thomas, and coming up--William.