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Last Sunday we went to Logan to Caitlyn's single's ward. They had a
parent's day. It was very nice. We had lunch afterwards of pulled pork
sandwiches, coleslaw and baked beans. The parents brought dessert. Caitlyn
played a violin medley of hymns and did a beautiful job. Her roommate of the
same name accompanied her. |
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Hyeji had a ballet recital. Roy and I
could not attend because I was in a sewing class with Christine (and
after I told Jieun that, she didn't call Roy) |
Yesterday, Nick told me the sweetest story about Effie. He said that he and Sara have been reading Grandpa Cook's autobiography and so the book was out on his bed stand. Effie picked up the book and said, "That's Grandpa Cook." He said that neither he nor Sara had ever shown her pictures of grandpa Cook or told her about him.
We have had an interesting experience these past few
weeks. I haven’t wanted to write any of
it in the newsletter because it has been negative and I try to keep the
newsletter upbeat. We have witnessed a miracle this past couple of days, so I
decided it was time to share (Most of you reading this already know a lot of
this story).
When Roy wants something done, he immediately sets about
doing it. He is not the kind to leave a dripping
faucet alone. When we were building our
home, the retaining wall on the west side of the house consisted of ugly,
crumbling, cement blocks. We should have
done something then, but we decided to worry about them later. About 3 ½ weeks ago, Roy decided it was time
to do something. He called a contractor
who builds retaining walls and had him come out to give us a quote. We agreed right then and there for him to do
the wall. Roy said that he had to first
talk to the owners of the property (not the renters that live there) and tell
them what he was going to do.
Well, the contractor came early the next morning and began
pulling out the blocks—before we’d had a chance to call the owners. (Michelle
and David) Sometime after the blocks
were pulled out, the owner’s daughter reported to her mother that there were
people on the property. She immediately
came down and started yelling at us for being there without her
permission. Roy very calmly told her
that we had meant to call her before the job was started but that the
contractor had jumped on the job more quickly than we expected. She didn’t care. He also told her that the wall—built totally
at our expense and on our property would increase the value of her
property. She didn’t care. If any of you have seen the property to our
west—it is completely undeveloped other than a 500 square foot shack that has
been there for at least 60 plus years.
There is a short cement driveway that we were planning on using to
remove the blocks from their property.
We had talked to the renters and asked them if they could move their boat
that has been parked there since the new owners bought the property, which they
did happily. Michelle told the renters
they had to put it back on the driveway, or else... After lots of accusatory remarks from
Michelle (Roy kept his calm) the work on the wall was completely halted. She was also disputing the boundary line
(which was established just a year ago when they bought the property) and was
asking all the neighbors whether the cement blocks were on her property or
ours.
We began praying at this time for the neighbor’s heart to be
softened toward us.
A couple of days later, after attending the temple, Jennie
called us and told us the owners were next door with the police. We headed home instead of running errands as
we had intended. Roy got out of the car
and began walking over to talk to the Michelle, David, and the police. There was also a daughter there who we
understood was originally going to live in the current house—after it was fixed
up (I think after they examined the house they realized there was no fixing up
this shack and that it would be better to let another daughter build a house on
it with her husband—keep in mind that there will be nothing done on this for at
least 3 more years).
Roy kept his temper as the daughter who has no ownership in
the property, said, “Here comes Mr. High and Mighty” in a mocking tone. He said to the neighbors that he wanted to
work things out. The policewoman who was
there said, “He says he wants to work this out, do you really want to put a
trespassing complaint against him?” I
think this made them too embarrassed to go through with that plan, so they did
not file the complaint. They did ask Roy
to fill out witness papers that would go on file with the police so that if
this couple decided to file a complaint later, they could.
During the next couple of weeks the dispute continued with
Michelle writing demeaning and accusatory texts to Roy (all of the texts used
the word arrogant). They also reported
us to the city (they wanted us to be fined for putting gravel on their property—too
close to the creek). The city man came
out and talked to us and told us that there was not a problem we weren’t too
close to the creek, but that if it rained heavily it would probably be good to
put sandbags around the gravel. After
discussing this with Michelle and David we were told that we were not
allowed on their property to remove the gravel, to place sandbags or for any
other reason. Then they said they
intended to call the EPA to report us.
The city man told us not to worry, that any complaint they made to the
EPA would come back to the state, then to the city, and right back to him.
We asked Michelle what it was they wanted from us. They wanted us to remove the bricks from
their property, going through our backyard (our side yard is too narrow) and over
the creek—which is pretty much an impossible task that would cause thousands of
dollars in damage to our landscaping. Also,
it is pretty hard to pick up bricks that weigh 2000 lbs. each and move them up a
3 foot change in elevation—especially without stepping on their property J A crane was out of the
question because of power lines.
Our contractor went to the owner’s home and asked them what
they wanted. He even offered to pay them
to use their land to remove the blocks.
It was the husband this time that laid into our contractor and refused
to comply with his request. Our
contractor asked him what he wanted of us.
His reply “We just want to make his life miserable.”
We had almost come to the conclusion that we would just
leave the blocks there and wait until the owners sued us or made it easier for
us to remove the blocks, but Roy tried one more time to talk with them. This time they agreed that we could have our
contractor jackhammer the blocks and use a wheelbarrow to move out the debris—using
the 2 feet where the wall would go which was our property. When he was finished, we were to rake out the
gravel and lay sod (they had said earlier they did not want grass as they weren’t
ready to develop the property) to cover up any remaining effects of our
work. After discussing this with our
contractor, we agreed to do this.
What we didn’t realize was that our contractor had no
intention of jack hammering the blocks.
He felt it was a ridiculous request (which it was). So he showed up on Thursday and began
building the wall. As agreed, the owners
were there to supervise so that we only got on their property as needed. I stayed in the house so I wouldn’t be too
upset at everything that was going on. I
could hear yelling but I was hoping it was just the guys doing the work. I should have known better. Roy came home to check on things a little
while later and asked if I had been watching.
I said I was trying not to. He
said that the daughter—the married one who is intending to build on the
property, was out there swearing up a storm and accusing us of lots of untrue
things. He said that at one point the
dad actually turned to her and said that what she said wasn’t true. That was the first sign that his heart was
changing.
After haranguing our contractor and his guys for the whole
morning, our workers got fed up and walked off the job.
A little while later, Roy got a call from David. He was in a meeting so he waited to return
the call when it was over. He called fully
expecting to hear a barrage of complaints.
Instead David said, “I wanted to apologize. I think we misjudged you from the
beginning. I think it was your
contractor who was the problem.”
Roy was
flabbergasted. We don’t know why he had
a change of hearts (except it was an answer to our prayers). He may have decided if he didn’t give a
little, those blocks would be on his property for a long time, or he may have
realized he was being a little ridiculous.
Or, it may be that he didn’t believe us originally when we said we had
every intention of getting their permission but our contractor jumped the
gun. In any case, a great burden was
lifted.
David then told Roy that he could remove the blocks at his
convenience and use equipment on his property.
Roy asked him if he wanted to be present and he said, “No, I trust you.” Then he said, “
I see you are wearing a flight jacket, are you a pilot?” Roy replied that he is, and David said, “We
should get together sometime and talk about that.”
I am so proud of Roy that he kept his temper and never once
argued with these people. He disarmed
them from the beginning by not fighting back.
When Roy got home we knelt and thanked our Heavenly Father
for answering our prayers. We had truly
experienced a miracle.
On a more positive note: I guess our bishop has wanted Roy to serve in a ward calling for some time. He asked me a couple of times when Roy would be released from his YSA Stake calling. I said he was due to be released around April, but judging by the Stake President's personality and his "speed" in releasing other Stake leaders after the three years, I figured he had about another year. The bishop asked me, "How can I get him for a ward calling. I need him!" I told him that he would have to ask the Stake President of the YSA Stake. Apparently he did that. We went in for tithing settlement this past week and the bishop asked Roy if he'd been released--it's been no secret that he's been trying to get Roy back in the ward. We told him we had a meeting with the Stake President on Sunday, so he assumed the release and gave Roy a ward calling. He told us, "If for some reason you don't get released on Sunday you better let me know. 😉 This morning we met with the Stake leaders of the YSA stake. It has never taken so long to release either one of us before, but we were in the office with the stake presidency for 30 minutes. They were obviously disappointed to let him go. The president said that if it was for any other calling he would have probably bucked against it, but he felt strongly that the calling the bishop was requesting him for was where Roy needed to serve. The 1st counselor, President Whitworth, also said that it was hard for him to let Roy go, and President King said that the only reason he was agreeing was because he supported the stake president. They all said that they had learned a lot because of Roy's attitude toward his calling, toward service and his willingness to take on any assignment placed upon him. The words diligent and consistent were used several times in describing him. I love that about Roy. He loves to serve, and he is diligent and consistent. I know Roy has mixed feelings, but will be happy to serve where he is called. I know the bishop is so ecstatic he couldn't wait until Roy was released before extending the call. Roy told me not to let on to President Bouchard that he had a new calling already because it would really upset him.
As for me--I'm thrilled to have Roy back in the home ward because selfishly it will make my life easier. I will now be the one attending other wards and leaving him sitting alone from time to time. I am already fully engaged in my new calling. I even spoke in Stake Conference last night. (Saturday). It was a short-8 minute talk. The talk will be attached to the email telling you that this letter is ready. I was nervous, but I felt good about how it went. Roy gave me a blessing before we left to the meeting. It was only slightly scarier than speaking in Sacrament meeting because it was the Saturday night session--full to the back and through the first overflow. This will be a great calling for me to extend myself and get out of my comfort zone (I really like my comfort zone). I am already meeting lots of people and working on remembering names and faces.
As you can see, there's been a lot going on around here, but I haven't seen my grand children for a while, so I don't have many pictures.
I can testify that the Lord has been working in my life--first answering my prayers about what to do with my time, and then helping us with these neighbors. I am truly grateful as I write this. I know that the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I pray for spiritual experiences for all of you.
