Happy Birthday, Ellie

Dear Ellie,

We can’t believe that you are now 6!   

You are a sweet and most wondrous 6!!!

Have a fun day today.  We love you.

Grandpa and I want you to know that you have taught us of the “good, bright, hopeful things of life” and of “the wonder of being alive.”

 

It is Spring here and the peach blossoms are out and we have many avocado trees

We have just found out that avocados are really a berry that grows on trees.  We learned that (and about fig trees) from Ana (91 years old) as we walked her home from church.  We walk up a steep street and down a steep street and around a steep curve and she would point her cane to the peach blossoms, the fig growing and the arbol de palto with the palta (avocado) now growing.  She has a Christmas cactus blooming that she started from a small sprout.  With her cane she tried to knock down a geranium start growing on a high wall so she could take it home.  She taught us of the wonders of the world too! 

The figs and the avocados are growing

The ice cream men hop onto the buses at the stops and try to sell their chirimoya ice cream bars - which we haven’t tried yet, but many people choose it over the other choices.

They say the chirimoya doesn't taste very good if you eat it plain,

 

 And a member in our ward is selling lúcumas (from a tree in her yard), which are also used to make desserts.

 In this October General Conference, President Uchtdorf told a story about an 11year-old girl named Eva who spent the summer with her Great-Aunt Rose.   Eva did not want to go, but then she was glad she did. 

This is what Eva learned from her Great-Aunt:

It is fun to read your scriptures out loud, and her Great-Aunt Rose when she read them “…sometimes made comments like ‘Oh, he shouldn’t have done that!’ or ‘What wouldn’t I give to have been there!’ or ‘Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard!’ ”

Great-Aunt Rose knew Heavenly Father “as a friend.”

And every evening as the two of them knelt by Eva’s bed to pray, Great-Aunt Rose would say the most beautiful prayers, thanking her Heavenly Father for the blue jays and the spruce trees, the sunsets and the stars, and the “wonder of being alive.”

The daisies are saying their prayers when we go to work in the morning

And when we come home, they say "welcome home"

   

Grandma likes to "snap" the snapdragons and is amazed that everywhere lilies grow

The nasturtiums flourish on the sides of hills and we don't know the name of this little bell flower

This "helicopter" tree was at the Temple in Santiago as also these beautiful shrubs

To be happy!!!  Her Great-Aunt had a picture on her wall that she gave Eva when Eva was older which showed a happy girl (wearing a pioneer hat skipping along a path).  It reminded her of the trials the pioneers endured and who said,  “but with joy wend your way….”

  

President Uchtdorf said, “God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy!  So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter.  When we love God, we want to serve Him. We want to be like Him. When we love our neighbors, we stop thinking so much about our own problems and help others to solve theirs.”

Happy Ellie and her new haircut

Great-Aunt Rose taught Eva about Faith, Hope and Love.  

President Uchtdorf  said in his talk, “As you walk along your own bright path of discipleship, I pray that faith will fortify every footstep along your way; that hope will open your eyes to the glories Heavenly Father has in store for you; and that love for God and all His children will fill your hearts.”   "A Summer with Great-Aunt Rose", President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency General Conf October 2015

We are so blessed to have such wonderful children and grandchildren.  We are so blessed to have the Gospel in our lives.

...thou shalt be like a watered garden,

 and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isaiah 58:11