January 27, 2023

Dear Family:

News:    It’s Cold!!! And it’s going to be colder tomorrow.  No snow, no freezing rain, just cold. It will be down to 24 degrees tonight and similar next two nights.  I had to break out my coat that I bought to visit Jackson Wyoming with Mike/Amy/and the family for thanksgiving 3 or 4 years ago.

BIG NEWS:  Tanner, Haley & Claire have arrived.  I visited them tonight in their new digs in Oregon City.  Tanner and Conner drove non-stop from Dallas TX to Portland in like 36 hours straight.  What you do for love!!  I watches Conner, Tanner, Haley, Mike and Amy work so hard to get them here, settled and home.  What you do for love!!!!    (YOU SHOULD SEE MIKE & AMY AND  GRANDDAUGHTER TOGETHER!!)

….and  We are playing musical couches at my house again.  The big brown sectional that started life in the game room  at the Schnell-Dougall-Grubbe house in Sherwood-moved to my house, back to Amy’s house, back to my house, and now it’s final resting place at Tanner/Haley’s house.  Heck it keeps life interesting!! Doesn’t it?

Brian’s birthday was last week, Cooper’s birthday is the 8^th, Clarke’s birthday is the 6^th and Megan’s birthday is the 21 – February is a good month.  I can hardly believe this myself, but I have no gigs in February.  We are moving away from Retirement Homes and going back into playing for dances.  It’ll take some time to make the transition.  It is my decision.  We weren’t making hardly any money at all playing for retirement homes.  We will now be playing for dances, corporate gigs and special events at retirement homes.  Nice!  I just have to get the new tenor sax player oriented and then we’ll be set.

I have found out that Carter can’t read my letters in the blog, so I will be including the body of the letter in the email until he returns.  I will also put it in the blog.  That way they will be there forever or until computers are replaced by something!!!!XXXXX  who knows.

I have talked to you before about my great respect and admiration for my ancestors who joined the church in the 1830’s.  It all started with a visit by Brigham Young to north Pennsylvania to the Campbell clan (who had emigrated from Scotland).  The Short family also lived in PA and were converted.  Both those families and so many more followed the Saints to Kirkland, Nauvoo, and then on to Utah.  We have an idea of what they went through because of all the stories that have come out of the pioneer experiences.   All those generations ago!  It is kind of hard to visualize all that they went through.  I remember as a little girl thinking how fortunate I was to be born in the covenant.  I didn’t have to go to find the church.  My ancestors made it possible as did my grandparents and my parents.  I have discovered in the last year since my 65^th class reunion, that I was proud to be a member of the church as a teenager.  Several men told me that they remember me talking to them about the church.  I didn’t marry my high school boyfriend because he wasn’t a member.  I also discovered that a few school mates who were in “Youth for Christ” thought I was a member of a cult.  I discovered at the 65^th reunion that those guys were born again Christians and I was discriminated against.    I was just so young and naïve that I didn’t realize it.

But in retrospect, I’m grateful for the sacrifices and endurance of my ancestors.  They experienced so many hardships, discrimination, trials of their faith, and just plain HARD WORK.  They were just ordinary people.  They weren’t Smith’s, or Young’s or high level Mormons.  They were just hard working people who worked on the Ogden Temple, or developed new areas as the request of the prophet, or men who served 6 month missions away from their families who had to fend for themselves.

“The path of the just is as the shining light.” Proverbs 4:18  -  President Hinckley said:  “It is goo to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future.  It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead.  It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but one of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries.  Their tremendous example can become a compelling motivation for us all, for each of us is a pioneer in his own life, often in his own family …..”

I appreciate his words.  I have these feelings and thoughts, but I have a hard time making it all sound compelling. 

We have all had to be pioneers – to start our families, to endure illnesses, to overcome horrific disappointments, to realize that expectations don’t always come out the way we want.  Some of us have had to start over again, in jobs, in marriage, in outlooks on life, in our goals.

I do appreciate my pioneer ancestors.  If they could do it, I can too.

I love you all.

Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, sister, Aunt Suzanne

PS - Everyone click reply to Carter and say HI to Elder Carter Schnell.  Sheri forwards his letters to me and he is doing well.