9-28-09 "Chocolate Soup"

I'm sorry to hear that you had to spend an entire day cleaning black paint off the garage floor. Yuck. But the moment I read it, it reminded me of a scene from Even Stevens. When Louis and Twitty are competing to see who can sell more chocolate bars, and Louis cannot seem to sell any so all his chocolate melts in the garage because Donny turns the water heater up super high so he can create a steam room in the bathroom, and all the chocolate comes seeping out like a chocolate river, (minus Willy Wonka, thank goodness). I hope it wasn't like that. Also, for future reference, chocolate chips do not stay chocolate chips when they are mailed to Texas in 100 degree summer weather. But at least Hershey's chocolate soup knows how to stay in the bag. Thanks for thinking of me. The cookies will be fabulous when we get around to making them--with some new chocolate chips.
Olympic news: No surprise that Bode Miller is tooting his own kazoo once again. Don't make me regurgitate the fact that, although you may be the "most decorated skiier in U.S. history," you were also a big flop at the Torino 2006 games. Medal-less, fan-less, dignity-less, Bode Miller (if I remember correctly) gave a sad interview from his decked out trailer (since he was too special to stay in the athlete's village, which is crazy since its one of the most top secret amazing place in the whole world: only athletes and occasionally Katie Couric get to go there!) all about how sorry he was for being arrogant. I also remember that he'd watched "Miracle" since his tragic demise and wished he'd had more of that attitude. Maybe this year he should watch it before the games. A. LOT. I don't begrudge the U.S. team for taking him back, but I just hope his head fits into his helmet at the top of the slopes. Also, how is the flying tomato gearing himself up? Has he had a haircut yet? Not likely, although I don't know how his helmet fits on, or even how he can see through that maze of red hair. I always thought Shawn White was some kind of American Weasely (sp? AHH! I've only been gone three months, and already my Harry Potter knowledge is kaput, Cassidy!) cousin, and his magic was what made it possible for him to do all those cool tricks. AND CHICAGO! Yes! I knew they were making a bid for the 2016 games, which I fully support, but I'm kind of nervous that they won't get it. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is also in the running, at least as far as I know, and I'm sort of guessing that if their proposal is even half good, they'll get them because the Olympics have never been held in South America. (Of course, they've never been held in Chicago, either...) Anyway, with America's kaput economy and almost total lack of government funding for Olympics, it would take Mitt Romney to pull it off. I think it could work.
To conclude the sports section, I begrudgingly acknowledge the loss of the U.S. Open by Roger Federer to Fernando del Potro. Isn't that the same guy that he wallopped in the French Open? Oh well. What's done is done. Now Andy Murray must feel really bad because he still hasn't won a Grand Slam title, and most of the other big name players I can think of have. Of course, only one of them has 15, but who's counting?
As far as your e-mail questions, first I want to say that you never have to feel guilty about taking too much time with your e-mails. Second, as far as I know, we are not supposed to send or receive e-mails from anyone other than family. Who's asking? And as far as printing them off goes, we go to several different places to e-mail. Some of them have printers, some of them do not, so that would be an off chance that I would get to read them all or even print them off. Thanks for the appreciation of the James Marshall story, but I must offer one small correction. His name is Charles. Did I write James? The saga continues this week. While I was on campus one day this week with Sister Lieber, Sister Davis and Sister Boren went to see him again, and he really had a lot of problems about preachers just preaching for money and everyone at his church arguing with each other and just plain not being Christian. So they invited him to church, and he was very excited to accept. Yesterday morning, there he was, thirty minutes early, all dressed up in a grey pinstripe suit, complete with waistcoat Cassidy, looking his best for the Lord. It was a miracle, and my heart just soared to see him. It reminded me of Remember the Titans actually, so it's funny that you bring up Gary Bertier. Remember when Denzel says, "If you don't have a suit, then borrow one from your old man... (etc. I can't remember it exactly, but it's when he first meets the team)" Never before have I seen someone understand so inherently the need to present ourselves well when worshipping the Lord. As I was sitting next to him in sacrament meeting, I was overwhelmed by his humility, especially for one reason. He can't read. Sister Davis and Sister Boren discovered that while they were teaching him, but sitting next to him while he tried to sing words to unfamiliar hymns... Oh, it just tore my heart out. Maybe because I've been reading since just after I started breathing I take it for granted--and now I know I do--but oh, my heart just ached. I wanted to stop the singing right then and do what they do in To Kill a Mockingbird when Jem and Scout go to church with Calpurnia. "Linin'," she calls it. Someone sings one line, and they everyone repeats it. But in any case, my heart soared to see him there under any circumstances. And the best coincidence? His brother, Joe, is a recent convert of about a year and a half ago. He now lives in Bryan, and is less-active, but it's amazing how family connections arise. This weekend we got the blessing of going with Pai-Shan to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. President Hansen gave us permission, and an engaged couple in the ward drove us, Jessica Beus and Spencer Behling. Jessica served her mission in Taiwan, so she often helps us with our Chinese-speaking investigators, and was instrumental in helping Pai-Shan. We had to leave at 5:30 in the morning because there were so few of us, but it was all worth it. Pai-Shan just radiates light. She loved every moment of it. Afterwards we stopped by the distribution center, and she was looking at everything eagerly as if she were buying the fruit of eternal life (which I know has no price, but certainly your first set of scriptures and hymnbook and Tabernacle choir cds are contributing to your enduring conversion). Oh, just so much light in her eyes! I'm super excited about general conference this weekend. The other sisters have a baptism on Friday night, and the university elders have one between sessions of conference, so between that and general conference it should be the most spiritually uplifting weekend ever! The Relief Society broadcast was great. We actually had another investigator come with us to that: Ira. She's learning slowly but surely, too, and I think she enjoyed the fellowship of the ladies at the pre-broadcast social. You were exactly right in saying I lit right up as Sister Thompson started talking about the Tube and "Mind the Gap." And I suspected that you would be delighted by President Eyring's words. Were you jealous of Sister Beck's still amazing hair? What do you think about the discontinuation of the title "Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment" in favor of the simple, straightforward, "Relief Society meeting"? And I was about to ask you what they called it before Enrichment, but then I remembered: homemaking. Thank you for both of the talks by Elder Holland. Amazing. His words are just so filled with wisdom. Yes, I did have the special privilege of being present for both of those talks. The Liberty Jail one was edited and put in a recent Ensign, but I think it loses a lot without the whole thing. And I just remember the "Remember Lot's Wife" one being exactly what I needed to hear at that moment--and it still contains wisdom for now. Lastly, in case you're wondering, I forgot to tell you last week about why our preparation day was moved. We had a special zone conference with Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy that day, so everything got moved around. There are more details in a letter, but that actually hasn't even made it to the mailbox yet. I'll send it today.

Love, love me do, and do mind the gap!

Sister Whitney Mikell Sorensen

P.S. In case you're wondering, you, too, can see the movie about the three witnesses. There's a whole set of Church History DVDs, which includes not only that fabulous creation but "The First Vision"--featuring Stuart Peterson--and "Zion's Camp"--featuring, I can only assume, the same wonderful movie I remember vividly from seminary years ago.

P.P.S. Last quick story. We are actually teaching someone now who lived in our same burned down apartment building. Through some service connections, we found her and she feels that God has guided us to her. We agreed.