Laundry Day at the Woodbury's

It may seem funny to post a Laundry Day to our blog, but you have to realize we have been very deprived for two months or more of having to take the launry to a laundromat. I know this is not a deprivation, but a privilege of actually having clothes to wear that get dirty and all of that, essentially providing the services of laundering to make a little money from our filty clothes. However, this is not the case at this time, we now have a functioning washing machine and a non-functioning dryer(electric, that is). We have decided that the dryer will get hooked up in due time, when the weather turns into winter, whenever that may be.

The weather is quite nice for November, the evenings are cool to cold, but the sunshine during the day makes up for it. We have had very little rain and expect it will come soon, they say fall and winter are the rainy season, we will see.

I took some pictures of the trees here in Lawton and below is one of them, we took this one when we were running around in our van trying to find a hookup for our used dryer. The plug does not fit the wall socket, we bought a replacement plug but being novice electricians are unsure if we should attempt to change it over. In the mean time we are resorting to using our back patio. Oh didn't I tell anyone about our patio.

Off of our kitchen / dinette area is a door leading outside to the patio, which is a cemeted area the size of a small entry way. It is paved with cement and surrounded by a 7 ft wooden fence. I don't know if it is to keep us in or the neighbors from looking over to see what we are doing, they have the same size patio. We have a gate entry from the sidewalk running around the back to the other apartment, the gate is so we can take trash out instead of hauling it through the house.

Getting back to the laundry, we decided since it is so warm in the daytime, we can hang up our small amount of laundry on a weekly basis and thus save any costs of drying. This is starting to be a routine for me, washing and hanging out the clothes, then folding them and putting them away. Of course this means I do have to iron white shirts, they do wrinkle if you hang them up. The dry cleaning is easy, we have a cleaner pick up right close to our home, so suits and dresses are done on a monthly basis or as needed.

Oh, by the way, we thought you would enjoy the following picture. We have experienced several changes in the gas prices since coming to Oklahoma, but we know that anyone still paying high prices may not appreciate this one.

The price is now down to 1.97 at this store which is just up the street from our apartment.

By golly I think we have that problem solved, now where can I improve next?

November 2nd Outdoor Baptism

We have been having great success here at Ft. Sill with many non-members coming to our Church services on Sundays. We are located in the training area in the bottom floor classrooms of one of the barracks. Our attendance is usually anywhere from 75 to 80 members and 15to 20 non-members in any given week.

We have had several baptisms since our arrival as we mentioned in our earlier posts to this blog, but on the 2nd we had a special experience, our first outdoor baptism. The font we usually use has been leaking and now is under major overhauling, so we put off doing any baptisms. This would not do for one of our most recent investigators and he desired after waiting for several weeks to have the service performed out of doors if necessary.

Luckily there was a quiet and secluded place found within walking distance of the barracks and training area, only a mile and half walk down the road. Even though it was on the road, there is rarely any traffic since it is on Post and only military personnel use it on weekdays.

Below is a picture of the setting we were in for the Baptism, it reminded us of how the early Church members must have felt while performing the same ordinances in the beginning when the fonts were not built yet.

This picture was on the opposite side of the road from where we actually had the immersion of the convert.

The water was almost waist high just a few feet from the bridge abutments on the side of the creek.

There was some r-bar sticking out of the cement, but the surface of the creek bed was solid and provided good footing for the new member and his battle buddy.

The service went well and the water was cold, the spirit we all felt was very strong and wonderful. We know that the setting was unusual, but it felt so right, being there in the wonder of nature with only our little group and the Lord. We will never forget that feeling of peace.

Who knows we may have to do more outdoor baptisms if the font doesn't get fixed in the near future, we have about 8 or 9 more investigators who are ready to commit to moving forward waiting in the wings.

The last picture is of the same outdoor service with the missionaries and the new convert with his battle buddy who baptised him. This was taken just before they entered the water, and performed the ordinance. As you can see it was very warm weather for November at this time.

We are enjoying the Lord's work in this part of his vineyard, and pray that we can continue to have the success we have been experiencing. Watch for updates on a weekly basis to our blog, and register as a follower so we know someone is following our mission.

My Dad William Evans Woodbury

Tomorrow, November 8 is a day that makes me think of my dad. He lived 77 years 3 months and 28 days and tomorrow I will have lived 77 years 3 months and 28 days. It is strange that I have thought about whether I would live longer than he did. We are the next generation and our kids will be the next generation and they will live longer than we do if things go the way it has for the last 100 years. Except for my brother Garth who died at an early age of a year and a half of a childhood sickness, all of Dads kids lived longer than he did and I am the last to reach his age. His children lived long lives, Ione to 95, Evans to about 88, Errol over 80 Rulan even though paralyzed the last 10 years from an accident over 80 and MaryLynn is still alive at 82 so it is not surprising to me to be where I am.

Below is a picture taken in 1948 or 49 of the High Priest Group on a picnic in Huricane, Mom and Dad are in the 1st and second row toward the middle, she has a floral print dress on, and Dad is in front of her with suspenders and no tie, he is holding a cob of corn.

Dad and Mother had a tough life in the early 1900s, Mother was a stay at home mother and Dad would never have considered her working out of the home. I knew as I grew up that when I got home from school she would be there, usually with something good cooking, bread, pies, cakes, donuts and other goodies. Dad taught school for 25 years then when Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats came into power the spoil system gave him the job of Postmaster in our little town of Hurricane, Utah which he did for about 30 more years before retiring when he turned 70 years old. Life and inflation have changed things. The last year he was Postmaster he earned almost $6000 and although not much looking at the world today, it bought a lot in those days and they were very comfortable, not rich but comfortable.

I grew up as an only child after MaryLynn married and moved to Santa Clara. The older kids always said I was spoiled but of course that is not true.

Dad and Mother had many friends and I enjoyed when they would have someone over to play Rook and they would let me play a hand or two with them.

During my Junior and Senior years at Hurricane High School, Wayne Hinton was elected to the Utah State legislator and Dad taught his math and science classes while he was in Salt Lake City.

Dad was really a great teacher. In my tenth grade we had an algebra teacher that did not know what he was doing and Dad would teach me at home and then I would teach the other kids. If we had not had that connection I think most of us would not have learned algebra. Many of the kids that took classes that he taught said they learned more from him than the regular teachers.

I just got an email from Victor Hall, who grew up next door to us and was my really close buddy, even though he was 4 years older than me. Victor moved back to his old homestead in Hurricane after he retired as a teacher and principal in Las Vegas area and we stop and remember old times. In the email which I will quote you can see what my Dad meant to people, gruff when postmaster but soft and gentle in life.

Victors email which exemplifies all that I loved about Dad.

"Your parents were certainly exemplary people, a fact I took for granted all my early years.
Will had a sharp manner of speaking and a lot of kids were afraid of him. Clark Campbell, for example told me he always hated to have to ask help concerning mail etc. Leon really liked him as a teacher. The fact that my own knowledge of him was gained there at your house where he always seemed mellow took precedence over everything else. Once when quite young I overheard him tell somebody, "Of course we have playing cards in the home. My children and their friends are here playing where we can watch over them." "Now that's the way to think about things" I thought to myself. My only complaint was just when we had a street game going great he would decide Marylyn had knocked the boys around long enough and would call her in. She would be sorely missed. You may already know this story; Sometime in later life, he bought the home across the street where Leon Isom had lived probably so he could control who could live there. Later he sold it to Glenn Stratton, as Glenn had finally decided he wouldn't be sullying the family name by moving into the South Ward. When Strattons get ready to make a move, they MOVE! Your Dad left for the Temple on morning and the old shack was there as usual but when he returned, the old house was gone, a basement had been dug and footings etc had been prepared. It was just more than Will's old brain could process. He sought out poor Glenn and unloaded mercilessly for what seemed at least an hour. Well, Glenn somehow made it through the night in spite of all his guilt and remorse feelings. Of course your dad was there the next morning apologizing profusely and expressing deep chagrin that the sudden change had affected him so. I'm at the age where I can easily emphasize with your father. I'm well aware of somewhat similar but less dramatic events in my own life."