Week 27 - October 29- November 4

Monday morning, as Elder Koberstein and I walked in the dark over to the Joseph Smith Memorial building for our morning mission devotional we trudged through piles of fallen leaves.  It was fun to kick them as you walked.  After the devotional I wanted a picture but the grounds crew was already busy cleaning them up.  Notice the tree with light stings on its trunk.  The ground crew is preparing for Christmas all ready.

When my sister and her husband invited us to live with them after we received our mission call, I was excited because I would once again have the opportunity to play this antique Hale family piano.  It was in my childhood home and I was given piano lessons but never willing to practice enough to learn to play simple church hymns.  It was purchased by my grandparents in the early 1900's so their children could learn to play.  My father used to entertain my siblings and I by playing church hymns we knew.

Elder Koberstein and I decided that Saturday, maybe one of the last good days, to bike City Creek Canyon.  The canyon offers more than 1450 vertical feet of climbing in 6.8 miles from Memory Grove in Salt Lake City to the head of City Creek.

We biked six miles up the canyon and then turned around because it was getting late and cold.  We were not sure how much farther it was to the springs head.  Maybe someday we will make it all the way.

The ride was beautiful with City Creek often right at the roads edge.

 This is the station at the end of the road cars can drive on.

It is a beautiful ride up to the evergreen pine trees from the valley floor.

This is the City Creek water plant in the canyon.

Elder Koberstein taking a break on the constant gradual ride up the canyon.

The road gets narrower but is paved and without cars was plenty wide.  It was a fun ride, just wish we had a little more time.  The coasting six miles down to the car was very cold.  As I returned to the car Bonneville Blvd gate was closed, the smaller pedestrian gate to the right and left were open.  I miscalculated my speed and hit the ramp wrong and took a spill.

Thankful it was not worse, though I am sore with a large bruise on my chin and a sore, not but broken left arm. The heater in the car was welcome on the ride back to Bountiful.

THOUGHT FOR YOU

"If you think the Church has been fully restored, you are just seeing the beginning.  There is much more to come." -President Russel M Nelson