Nate Cantrel

Good Monday morning Gayelinn, I shared with Robert my and your inability to feel God's love and yet our easyness in identifying his miracles in our lives. We walked/hiked down to the Virgin River beach and played in the sand for a couple of hours with Lydia yesterday. 1-What crazy mixed up parents we had. Dad served in two bishoprics in Sandy when I was a boy. Mom carefully read scriptures with us even when he was gone doing his bishopric's responsibilities. Yes, we read the scriptures together almost every night for weeks and months at a time. I find this so confusing! v

Good Monday Morning Jerry,  You and I know how hard it is to reduce!  Reduce eating, reduce weight. . . it is hard!  1- I did keto diet the first two weeks of December, but then the Christmas treats started. Did I want to miss all the Christmas treats? NO WAY!  So I patted myself on the back and said, maybe next time. 2-I have been porking out and fattening up.  I have been trying to psych up to reduce again. 3-Yesterday I thought and prayed about it after inspecting my naked self in the mirror before my Sunday cleaning bath. Not a pretty sight. As I dried off the most commitment I was comfortable making was to try.  Only try.  4-Last night when it was time to eat (night meals are the ones I never miss) I laid back in the recliner with food heating in the microwave and did some scripture listening and praying hoping to decide how to TRY right then.  I fell asleep. 5-I later went to bed and eventually took my food out of the microwave and put it back in the fridge.  I didn't eat!  Yay!  6-We'll see how I do today. v 

Thursday · 12:09 PM

Texting with Nate

Hello Nate, Uncle Vern here. I was alarmed when I saw a picture of your silver car being retrieved from a snowy ditch! Oh my crud!

What a wild decade you have had since we stopped writing each other. By the way. . . I still remember that you know how to use the semicolon! I have never learned how. ;;;;;;;;;;

Monday 2/26/24 9:33 AM

Good Monday Morning Nate! After writing to you in the boys home in Wyoming I hunted for someone else that might benefit from communicating by letter. Brandon Perry Smith attended my ward for a while and lived with his sister who is LDS. He served a mission in Oregon but was a special ed/resource kid all through school. His friend was into drugs and murder who had been sent down to Saint George by his parents to get him out of the drug scene in Ogden after he had been shot and left at the side of the road. My son Robert'82 remembers him attending singles ward and activities and showing off his bullet scars on his torso. I memorized the hymn "A Poor Wayfaring Man" all 7 verses decades ago and sang myself to sleep at night if reciting my memorized scriptures didn't work. Verse 6 talks about helping/visiting someone in prison. Brandon ended up in prison. The jail in Washington county is called Purgatory Jail and that is where he was housed for 6 years until his court case was settled. Then he went to Central Utah Correctional Facility. The violent druggy from Ogden was sent there and so they separated them by sending Brandon to a little used jail in Garfield county. It is located in the little town of Panguitch, on the north east slope of Cedar mountain where everyone around here and from Las Vegas goes skiing. Panguitch Jail doesn't allow letters in. Only letters out. That way they don't have to worry about drugs under the stamp etc.. Since he has been there I have been emailing him instead. I used to write once or twice a week and I really tried to lift his spirits and sent him my favorite conference talks with comments and everything but he was totally depressed. In Panguitch they allow the prisoners to own an Xbox! Ha! So I have had to look up all the best games for him so he would know what to purchase. So funny! 2- I have been a journal keeper since my mission. SWKimball told us to. But it matches my personality. That is one of the reasons it was easy for me to write to you. I write all the time at least in my journal every Sunday. It also gives me something to do when I get bored in church. 3- I write this to let you know where I am at and to invite you to leave me a marco polo or vmail. I would love to hear from you. Your Uncle, Vern

dead clock battery

 Monday, 2/12/24 Hello Brandon, I just emailed you. Hope you are doing well. I texted a huge long letter to both Michael’92 and Louis’80 about our family dinner at Sandra’s. How better to share than to write. That way 1-I get a copy, 2-I can connect with them at their convenience, and 3- They get feedback on everything I think is important. :)  So fun. tyhf for this technology! @ Have you ever felt that February is love month?  I haven’t. There were a couple of times in my life that I have felt that December was wonderful love month. Rand & Shirlee Packer are giving us a little credit card every week that shows pictures of love.  This is a new experience for me. When I think of February 14 I think of obligation, chocolate and flowers and maybe a card.  Maybe someday I will be like Rand & Shirlee and feel like spreading love. @ At the Bird’s yesterday I took them a little domed container of popped wheat. Surprise, surprise. . . they returned the ones I gave them last month. One was half full.  Nathan said Pearl still crunched on a few. So we exchanged. Yep, this makes me smile too. tyhf for congruency.  @

2/22/24 Hello Brandon, Here’s an observation I just wrote my youngest son, Michael: Good Thursday noontide Michael!  When Robert said "Hey" when we were sitting on the sandy beach next to the Virgin, Sunday. . . My dog, Hace, turned around and went to him. Robert doesn't like the imposition of dogs!  He pushed Hace away. . .   So I have noticed that when Robert gets home from work his dog Hitch jumps up on the entry bench and sits and wags his tail. That is how Amber has taught him to ask to be pet. Robert fulfills his obligation by petting Hitch while he counts to twenty and then he says, "There, you're done."            How are you getting along with your puppy?  v

2/25/24 Hello Brandon! Jesse Smith’s birthday is Tues 2/27 and he will be 47 years old. Do you write him for his birthday? _____ He plans on spending the day in the temple. Pretty good guy isn’t he! I made a place so I could sit with him in priesthood. We walked home together. When he was younger he did 40 sessions in the SLtemple in 6 days, not even eating lunch. Very impressive! You can tell which direction his heart is facing. I suspect that your heart is facing the same direction. . .  Here are our text messages: Friday · 7:15 PM\I’m back!!! At Katrinas for about a week for a Temple vacation. Did Initiatories and then three Endowment sessions today.

v-You are so cool!\Great job!\Love it.

 

Sunday 10:32 AM-I'm not sure what time wards start here! Got here before 10:30 and a Sacrament meeting was already going! Church site says 10:30, being 9 am last year!

Silly story: Karl Paxman was our EQ instructor today. He used his finger to write on the monitor/white board.  It was visible and so good. Nice and wide letters. Ryan & Josh make sure the microphone is checked out from the bishop’s office so Karl can wear a lapel mike and we can all hear. He said a cute thing today. “Can I have someone read this chapter about Solomon because my voice puts everyone to sleep.” I was a little wired up today so I made loud short comments now and then. I was sitting at the back so I gave Karl the T sign with my hands at noon. Time. After 2 more minutes and he was continuing on. . . I stood up and walked over and took the stopped clock off the wall. K-”Does anyone know what time it is?” Others- “Yep, it is past time.” So he closed. ha! 1- He must not have known why I was making a T with my hands. . . if he even saw it. 2-By standing up and pulling down the clock it made him ask. Ha!  

     Sandra told Brice that if he would coach Andrew’s soccer team she would do all the admin stuff. There weren’t enough coaches for the teams. Andrew might not have been able to play. Brice said, “Yeah, like when am I going to find the time for that?” and Sandra pointed out that they will be able to pick practice times that work for them.  So they had a practice yesterday and did not spend long gardening when they came over. I borrowed Jim’s lawn mower and mowed my towering weeds while they were here. I asked Sandra if it would be OK since her kids are sensitive to loudness. Plus she told me she doesn’t like the fumes. She thanked me for checking with her. I explained I have a hard time getting motivated to do yard work and their visits help motivate me. I sent them home with a bottle of apple juice. Last Sunday I sent Robert home with 20+ bottles.  Poor guy had to carry them all in the house by himself. And they have 15 steps in front of their house.