MTC Days 1 & 2

We are rebels to some extent.  While other senior couples were getting dropped off we drove our rented car into the parking lot and walked in with no luggage to manhandle.  We waited in line for a while.  First we met a nice lady who checked our names off her list.  Then she pointed to a table 10 feet away and said the next lady would help us.  We took photos as she pinned our tags on our clothes.  That lady had our name tags and an envelope with four copies of our travel documents for next Monday.  Four?  I don't know.    Then she pointed us to the desk nearby where two young elders asked us something we don't remember - maybe if we needed a ride to the airport next week.  (We don't.)  Then they pointed us down four stairs to another lady who pointed us down the hall to where two ladies directed us into a big conference room.  All these people helping us HAS to have a reason!  I figure some doddering old senior missionaries must have gotten lost some time in the past.
  In the conference room we were introduced to our MTC presidency and heard from each of them.  They had some administrivia for us, and then we were herded to the dorm building where everybody but us will be staying.  We had two young missionary guides for this trip from  the room to the exit, then another pair to the next building, then another pair in the door to take us to our training room for the morning.  We got class schedules and some good direction.  We were assigned to a "group" of four couples.  One elder was assigned as group leader and we're supposed to report any problems to him, although he's just as clueless as the rest of us.
  For lunch we entered the big cafeteria where hundreds of young missionaries were doing what 18 and 19 year olds do with food.  Mass quantities.  For this meal we sat with other senior missionaries, even though we were advised that it's more fun to sit with the young missionaries.  The food was edible, good quantity, and unlimited ice cream.

This is lunch time.  The couple next to us are going to Hawaii to the temple, PCC and BYU-H.  She is going to be a wood carver!

  In our afternoon class we were assigned to trainers.  These are return missionaries, mostly women, who are paid teachers working part-time while attending BYU.  We have a group for mornings, and another for afternoons.  We met with our group.  Then each couple was assigned an "other" couple.  Other is from a scriptures indicating that we teach others.  Our others were couples in the group in the next classroom, which makes it easier to get together.  The reason for having an other couple is that we get to practice our missionary teaching skills on them, and vice versa.  We were assigned to Bro. and Sister Ashton.  My first impression was not great.  She is an incessant talker, while he is a clam.  But we chatted away for a while.  They did do one awesome thing.  The had us open up Family Tree and showed us how to let our apple phones talk to each other and show us how closely we are related.   Turns out Bro. Ashton is my 9th cousin via Mom's line, and Sister Ashton is my 10th cousin via Dad's line.  That was fun.
  We thought we'd be free to go back to the hotel for some alone time after our last class of the day, but we learned that the FHE that evening would be a film of Elder Bednar discussing attributes of the Savior.  A film recorded on a Sunday, Christmas Day, a few years ago,  A film that is only shown at the MTC.  We decided to stay for it, so we had more missionary food and then watched the film.  I'm glad we stayed.  It was a  very, very good talk with some great missionary insights. 
In the end, we got home late, exhausted.

Tuesday
  We stopped at the famous map of the World to get our photo.  It's not official, but EVERYBODY does it.

Today we had lessons from the Preach My Gospel bookl and learned how to talk to people and challenge them to do things that will lead to repentence.  Not "you did bad things" repentence", but "here's how we can do better" repentence.  This will lead up to us challenging the Ashtons to do something in that line.  Meanwhile, we learned the Brother cousin Ashton is a doctor who has served a previous mission as the Mission Doctor.  At the same time he learned that Liz has been assigned to be the Mission Nurse and has NO training.  He was appalled.  Next thing we know we were off in an office talking to a Service Director who coordinates mission medical people.  He showed Liz the computer program and files for Mission nurses and explained some of the basics.  She'll be getting some fast training as a result of it.  We had no idea how much trouble she'd have been in if Dr. cousin Ashton hadn't stepped in and helped.  We're having lunch with them tommorrow.
  In the evening we lost another free evening for a fireside that was rumored to have an apostle speaking.  Turns out it was Sister Sharon Eubank, 1st council in the General Relief Society Presidency.  Not an apostle, but she is an amazing person and gave a great talk.   Afterwards we went to dinner at Red Lobster with the Ashtons.  We are starting to be great friends.  We've pretty much agreed to go out of program from here on out and we'll just talk while ignoring the teachers when we get to engage our "others".  Oh, we are evil devils!

Last Steps

This last week was more relaxing than I thought it would be.  Liz started packing her suitcases a week before I wanted to even think about it.  Consequently she found that she needed more space than the 2 suitcases we had allocated ourselves,  So when I finally started packing I put most of my clothes in a suitcase and remarked that my clothes would easily fit in one suitcase.  I still had a lot of incidentals to go, but it meant that Liz used three suitcases.  As I gathered all my things I found that I had no room to spare.  We were both overflowing.  We had to jettison some things we wanted to take with us.  Example:  chocolate is available in Croatia but chocolate chips are not,  So I had three 5# bags from Sam's Club that I really wanted to take.  Nope - they all had to go.  I left my new-ish hoodie.  I left half my suspenders.  And so forth.  It took two days to get down to four suitcases weighing less than 50# each.  But due to Liz starting so soon, we were all packed and ready to go a full day early.
  We called Marti and Keith and went to dinner with them one final time, shedding some tears at parting.  We watched the rest of the Hill Street Blues (1980s TV series) episodes I'd bought.  And we had a relaxing day.  We sold our car to a nice young man from Phoenix and walked home.  Then Ruth came and got us to go to Nancy's house for dinner.
   Friday night:  Our Stake President came to Nancy's at 7:00 pm.  He set us each apart as full-time Missionaries, and gave each of us thorough, personal blessings.  He was awesome!  And then he interviewed us again for new temple recommends.
  Next morning our faithful Ruth got us and our dunnage to take us to the airport.  After all our sweating about getting our suitcases to just the correct weight, the guy who checked us in hefted each one and said they were good.  No scales, no mess, no bother.
  So now we are in our hotel room in Provo with our granddaughter.  We held our great-granddaughter last night and hugged her parents.  We;ll see them more this week because they had the good sense to live almost across the street from the Missionary Training Center where we will be in classes all the coming week before traveling to Croatia.

I put in this photo of our luggage at the airport.  Liz is at the counter getting our car for us while we are in Provo.  Four BIG suitcases, two small ones, two computer bags, and coats.

Last things

The time is fast approaching when we will head out for our mission.  One week to go.  We are beginning to do some things for the last time - some only for the last time before we leave for two years  - and some for the actual last time.
   Yesterday, Keith (my brother-in-law-in-law) and I went out to the ranch where we have hunted pigs for the past 15 or so years.  We took rifles, but it was more a nostalgia trip than hunting.  We saw some deer and wished them well.  We walked through the woods along the bank of Baker Creek down to where Moss Creek joins it.  Then we turned up Moss Creek and followed the woods along its bank to the edge of the property, where we turned back towards the truck. 
   As we walked I said something about having a lot of adventures out there.  Keith said his strongest memory is the day we were trimming tree branches out of a shooting lane and his appendix burst.  We didn't know why he was feeling so bad so suddenly, but we dropped our tools and I persuaded him to go home.  There I suggested he go straight to the hospital.  He wasn't feeling any pain - only sick.  Later his doctor said that I saved his life by getting him back straight away.
   So then I reminded him of the day he tagged along as I harvested honey from my beehives in the heat of summer.  With Africanized bees in the area now I had to wear a full, canvas suit, and the heat got me.  When Keith came back to where I was working I was sitting down and had no strength to get the final 30 feet to the truck and water.  He got me water and got me home.
   So, Yes, we've had some adventures.  But more than that we have many pleasant memories of seeing riotous wild flowers, turtles, butterflies, foxes, bobcats, skunks, armadilloes, black panthers, raccoons, opossoms, beaver, snakes, lizards, salamanders, road runners, owls of all sizes, buzzards, hawks, crows, cardinals, huge Texas millipedes,and many, many other creatures.  We've removed a lot of feral hogs, which is why the owner wants us there, but we've mostly just enjoyed being out there.
  As we walked, I found that Keith was lagging behind.  In the past, he is almost always in front of me, because he wants to cover ground while I want to look at everything as we go.  But this time he had tired.  I doubt we walked as much as 2 miles.  Many times we have walked five or ten times that far and loved it.  The fact is that both of us are getting old enough to find a hobby more sedentary than hunting feral hogs.  So this visit to the ranch was truly the last time.
  In the past two weeks, Liz had the ward sisters come help her pack up all her china and serving pieces into boxes.  We packed clothes we want to keep but not take to Croatia into boxes, too, and I shrink-wrapped furniture we want to store.  Then I had the brothers come help me put it all away.  The things that aren't affected by heat went into the attic, and everything else went into a big pile in the garage.  When Josh comes, he'll be able to park a car on one side, but his other car will have to go out on the street.  So, now the only chairs we have in our living room are folding chairs.
  Liz has her suitcases packed, but I am holding out for the last day.  Our taxes are done except for a couple of 1099's that will come after we leave. 
This final week before we leave will be filled with many other "last things", and we are very happy about it.

Talk to Frisco 5th Ward - January 26, 2020 - Missionary Farewell.

This is the talk I gave in church last Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020

Dobre Dan!  This means “Good afternoon,” in Croatian.   I can't say the R's properly.  My old tongue and brain just can't do it, although I have tried and tried.  Fortunately, we are not REQUIRED to learn Croatian.

  Sister Ashurst and I have been assigned to the Adriatic North Mission as Assistant Area Auditors , and as Member and Leader Support Missionaries.

A couple of weeks ago we were in Utah and were invited to the Church Office Building to meet with the church auditors and receive council and training.  One of the first things they told us was, “Bro. and Sis. Ashurst, you have been called as Assistant Area Auditors.   You have equal authority and responsibility to conduct and manage the audits of the church units in the Adriatic North Mission.”  This answered a question I had had.  Whether it was a priesthood calling, or a calling under direction of the priesthood.  We will both function under the direction of our priesthood leaders.

  Auditing is not so much about catching wrong-doers.  Many of the branch presidents and branch financial clerks are 19 and 20 year-old missionaries.  Our auditing function will be about discovering opportunities for teaching, supporting, and strengthening the branch leaders, whatever their age.  In a few cases we might have to report serious problems to our priesthood leaders, but it is not our job to confront, or address, or solve those problems.

==================================================================

We requested to be assigned to the Adriatic North Mission.  Liz’s father was born in Croatia, and our family has many Croatian traditions that we follow.  I personally, have been greatly influenced by her father in the way he approached his church and family responsibilities.   

He was determined that his children and grandchildren would remain close to each other, so that we would be formed as an eternal family here, as well as in eternity.  We follow his example in holding week-long reunions of our entire family every three years.  We make sure everybody attends, and participates.  We cook and eat meals together.  We have fun activities, but we leave time for visiting and bonding with each other, too.  One of the highlights of every reunion is the day we roast a lamb over a charcoal fire in the Croatian style, which takes almost all day.  The men cook the lamb.  Everybody else prepares the traditional foods, such as pogacha, Orignacha, Pedrobit, and Italian-style potato salad.  But we pass on the sarma that her father loved.

People ask us if it is safe to be in the Adriatic area.  The State Department says it is as safe to live in Croatia as it is to live here, in spite of the civil war of 25 years ago.  But really, why should we worry about that?  When Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah wanted to go to the Lamanites, was their safety the issue?  Well, yes, it was.  But it was not the big issue.  In Mosiah 28, we read about their request to King Mosiah. 

They asked,  QUOTE   “that they might impart the word of God to their brethren, the Lamanites—

2 ^aThat perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their ^bhatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.”  UNQUOTE

In the December 1991 Ensign, Elder Russell M.  Nelson reported on his service in Europe, including a section about Yugoslavia.  Please note that the former Yugoslavia is now six, separate countries, five of which are the countries which comprise the Adriatic North Mission.  The civil strife that led to the dissolving of Yugoslavia was about to become a civil war as he gave this report:

QUOTE: “President Monson dedicated this land on 31 October 1985, just prior to his call to the First Presidency. My first visit to that country as a Church leader was in April 1987. Elder Ringger and I met with governmental directors of religious affairs for Serbia and Croatia, as well as for Yugoslavia. Our interpreter was Kresimir Cosic, once a star basketball player for Brigham Young University. Brother Cosic had become a national sports hero in Yugoslavia.  Governmental officials confessed that they weren’t particularly eager to meet with leaders of the “Mormon” Church, but they were excited to meet Brother Cosic, whom they admired and watched regularly on television.

We now have a legally recognized chapel in Zagreb, and congregations in other major cities….. Earnestly we pray for peaceful resolution of the civil discord that besets this nation at the present time. So many choice souls reside in this beautiful land.”       UNQUOTE

Yes, many choice souls do reside in that land.  The church is still small in the Adriatic North Mission, but it is growing and we want to help it grow more.  The church now owns two chapels in the Mission and there are almost 20 organized units, most of which meet in rented buildings, and there are about 1400 members.  There are 64 proselyting missionaries in the mission and last year’s mission goal for convert baptisms was 64.  They exceeded that goal.

We have been assigned to support a branch in Croatia.  But Sister Ashurst and I feel very blessed to have our 2^nd missionary assignment that will allow us to travel throughout the mission as we perform the branch and district audits.  We will always have translators with us as we perform our duties, and we are thrilled to be able to meet and visit with member leaders in all five countries in the mission.  The missionary department instructed us to get a “large” passport book, because we will be getting stamps in our books as we cross each border.  I hope we can fill up those large books.

Returning to Alma and the Sons of Mosiah, 

QUOTE “And king Mosiah went and ^ainquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.

7 And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will ^adeliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.

8 And it came to pass that Mosiah granted that they might go and do according to their request.”  UNQUOTE

We too, will go,       and do.

This last week we spoke with President Melonakos and his wife about our mission, what we needed to bring, and some extra assignments they want us to accept.  We asked them if there was anything we could bring for them.  Their answer was, “More senior couples”.   We said we would try.

We ask all of you to visit churchofjesuschrist.org/seniormissionaries and look at the list of opportunities.  No matter your age, it is an eye-opening list.  If you are a senior, please consider applying.

And finally:  I ask that all of you will join us  in praying for the people of the Adriatic North Mission.    That they can forgive their fellow men of past offenses, that they can love one another, and that they may feel the spirit whispering the truths of the gospel to them.

And I say this…

Our mission assignments

Our mission President is David Melonakos.  He contacted me a few days ago to set up a time for a conference call.  Today we hooked up and he and Sister Melonakos talked to us about what assignments we will have during our mission, and to answer any questions we might have.
Of course, we are already assigned as Assistant Area Auditors, so we will have that work to do.  These other things are in addition to our auditing assignment.
    The brother I am replacing has been serving as the 1st Councilor in the Branch presidency, and as the 1st Councilor in the Elder's Quorum presidency.  President M. said they are discussing giving one of those assignments to a brother who has been a member for only a short time, but is doing well and would benefit from that kind of calling.  So my assignment will be settled after they make their decision and interview the brother.  I feel good about that.  My job is to support the members and the leaders in the little branch of the church there.  A calling like either of those is a great way to teach a new member how the church works, and how to grow into a spiritual man of God.
    Liz is being assigned a big responsibility!  She will be the 1st point of contact for any medical issues the missionaries in the whole mission may suffer.  There is a mission doctor, and a mission nurse, but they don't like paperwork, so Liz will fill the administrative role.  She will schedule doctor/nurse visits, coordinate with the insurance company, and make sure everyone knows what is happening.  It sounds like a very big job.
    And then there is an assignment for meals at the mission home.  We will be in charge of the meals once per quarter when the mission transfers take place.  Those are times when new missionaries arrive, old ones go home, companionships are adjusted, etc.  Lots of movement.  We will have another senior couple to assist, but we will plan the meals, buy the food, get it prepared, clean up after, put everything away, and find a home for left-overs.  Mission transfers will begin with the gathering of affected missionaries to the mission home (which has beds for 35). 
Day 1:  We will serve dinner that evening. 
Day 2:  We will put out a light breakfast for the departing missionaries who will be shuttling to the airport.  New missionaries will also be arriving and shuttling to the mission home.  That evening we will serve a full dinner for them. 
Day 3:  We will serve a hot breakfast to get their first day started, and a hot lunch before they head off to their assigned areas.  After lunch is cleaned up, we will drag ourselves home.
    There is one other thing.  We will be the mission historians and compile an annual history of what happens in the mission, including photos, testimonies, stories from the missionaries, etc.

So those are our assignments.  They also told us that we should take some time off occasionally to do things we enjoy, and see the country.  You can be sure we will do that.   Actually we had decided to try to do that anyway, so there you go.  We are in synch with our leaders.

Writing your Memoir

One night during the recent reunion, we presented "TED Talks".  I was hesitant to participate as I;ve never listened to them, or worried about them.  However, everyone else seemed to be excited about it and I decided to give one about How to write your Memoir.

I started by pointing out that I had just given them copies of Volume 1 of my memoir, which covers growing up in a small, Mormon town.  The project had taken me 15-20 years, and was a lot of work, but I learned some things as I went.

• You need to decide on your purpose for writing it.  Some examples:
• You might just want to tell your story.  I found it very difficult to pin down the sequence of events that happened in my life.  It might not be terribly important, but a story is most often told as a sequence of events leading to a conclusion.  Since I couldn't do that to my satisfaction, I gave up on a strict sequence and instead told my story by subject.  But you may want to use this approach, and many people do.
• You might want to teach lessons, based on lessons you've learned during your life.  I heard a talk recently expounding this approach.  The man giving the talk had decided to leave a book of stories from his life that could be told to children.  So his stories were fairly short and simple, and each story was followed by a lesson like you might teach in primary class.
• You might want to publish your memoir and make a million dollars.  If that is your goal you will need to apply some strict rules to your work, including making sure dates are correct, perhaps referencing them, and be very strict in getting it right.  You will need permissions from people you describe, especially if you name them.  I was having enough trouble just getting my story down on paper, so I didn't want that kind of  restrictions.
• You may be describing how your life fits into history.  In that case, what I just said about making money is even more true.
• Or you might just want your family to understand your life.  That is what I decided to do.  I wrote what I remember, knowing that my memories might not be the same as other people's memories.  That is the difference between a memoir and a history.  A memoir is what you, personally, remember.  A history is written with less passion and more academic rigidity.

• How to write a story (of any kind)
• Start!  The rule of thumb is:  Writer's write.  People who don't write aren't writers.  So get started.  When you are writing, don't worry about spelling, grammar, sentence structure, or anything like that.  Just start putting down your thoughts, gathering your stories.  I found that as I wrote I thought of other things to write, so I put what I had into an outline form and added ideas into the outline before continuing with what I was writing.  Later I expanded the ideas into the story.
• Write every day.  I've heard that advice often.  I try, but I fail most days.  They say set apart a time of day and spend some time writing every day.   I'm not that disciplined, so I decided to not have any guilt over it.  I wrote when I could and felt like it.  That's part of the reason it took me 15-20 years.
• Don't wait!  I had an interesting experience as I was editing and preparing my memoir for publishing.  I read things I'd written early on, and I had no memories of the story I was reading.  I still knew they had happened, but the actual memory was gone.  So when I do volume 2 of my memoir I won't have as much material to work with as I'd like.
• It helps to have a theme for your memoir - something to give it a structure so it doesn't become a bunch of random events.  I used a couple of gimmicks for this:  Early in the book I told about a horse who started stepping on my toe when I was saddling it.  I found ways to refer back to that several times during the memoir.  And the title came from that story.  Another recurring theme was what we called our animals.  That theme led to the ending for my memoir - another important thing to have.
• Get help when you need it.  I wasted a lot of time trying to find someone to edit my story.  Some were willing to do it if I paid them for their time.  The ones who didn't expect to make their fortune didn't have the time.  In the end, my overworked wife was my savior.  I couldn't have finished it without her help.

• Editing
• As I said before, when you write just get the story down.  But in the end you absolutely have to edit your story.  I edited my story over and over, and over again.  My spelling is pretty good, but my typing has deteriorated as I've gotten older, so that has to be fixed.  Sentence structure also has to be adjusted.  I write the way I think, which is also the way I talk.  Written things need to be written so your meaning is clear without voice inflection and body language.  So you use a different part of your brain when editing.  If you think of something to add to your story as you are editing, stop editing and switch into writing mode.  Just get it down and edit it later.
• Things to address during editing:
• Spelling - it's amazing that if you mis-spell a word you tend to not see it afterwards.  You need a fresh pair of eyes.  It took me a year or more for me to see spelling errors after I'd made them.
• Sentence structure -  I tend to write very long sentences.  I spent a lot of time getting a single thought into each sentence.
• Paragraphs 
• Grammar
• Get someone to go through it for you if you can, other people can be great helps.  But the final decision is yours.  Don't let anybody else write your story.  Stick to your guns and make the way you want it to be.

• Publishing your memoir
• You can use web-based tools to get your book into final form.  They will give you a book that looks professional.  They will also cost you the most to get it published.
• If you are going for the million dollars, and your work is actually valuable, you'll need to submit it to a publisher, get it accepted, and edit, edit, edit.  They'll have you traveling, doing book signings and other publicity stuff.  You might make a million dollars, but it will cost you a LOT of time and effort.
• You can use a word processor to format your own book.  You make all the decisions about how it looks, but it will be YOURS!  This is the approach I took.
• I wrote it using WORD.  I put the page breaks where I wanted them.  I added photos where they made sense.  I put in white space if I felt it helped with the story.
• When I was happy with the final product, I saved it as a PDF file.  That works pretty well, but it changed some of my page breaks, so I had to adjust and try again.
• I took the PDF file to Staples (just because they are near by) and had one copy printed on heavy paper with a coiled wire binding and clear, plastic covers.  I read through it and used a red pencil to do another editing round.
• I took my revised PDF file back to Staples and had them bind it into hard covers (a stock item) with color printing on pages with photos.  I also brought a file with a photo I hadn't included in the book for the front cover which had a recessed area for a cover page.  They cut the photo down to fit the space and glued it onto the hard cover.  I had them make 7 copies.  One for me and one for each of my children.  That is all the copies I intend to make.  It looks good and everybody was happy to get one.

Family Reunion

For the past couple of weeks we have been consumed with our tri-annual family reunion.  We drove our Subaru to Bernalillo (just past Albuquerque) on the first day and that was fairly uneventful in a good way.  Second day we headed up the mountain to Cuba NM and entered the snow band.  It gradually got worse as we went along.  By Dove Creek it was getting bad.  The problem was that we had full control in our excellent Subaru, but others didn't.  We saw lots of cars in the borrow pit.  We were held back by folks going too slow.  And then we came to a halt at "Hole in the Rock", where a truck spun out on a grade and blocked the road.  We were stuck there for about 1.5 hours.  Fortunately there is a rest area right there. 
     We got to Wallsburg shortly after it got dark and all was well.  People started arriving shortly  after.  As the house filled up, the small kids became a moving force.  At least three times they were all downstairs when the word came for them to come up for a meal or whatever.  Suddenly they were boiling up the stairs like fireants coming out of their mound after you kick it.  They just kept coming, and coming, and coming.
   Our kids did a fabulous job organizing fun activities.  Example:  we had a karaoke night.  Liz was excited by that one and she ordered costumes for us.  She got dressed up as Cher, with a long, black wig and a black sequin dress.  I got a hippy outfit, also with wig, flowered bellbottom pants and matching jacket.  It had fake mustache, but I forgot to put it on.  After we sang "I got You Babe", little Chase came towards us slowly, leaning forward while staring and finally said, "Grandpa????"  He was really confused, but he felt a lot better when I took the wig off.
    We had two nights of TED talks.  First for the adults.  My topic was "So you want to write a memoir?"  Liz presented good info on Religious Freedom.  Mark discussed metrics - how to measure things.  Angela gave a great talk on how to analyze plots of movies and books.  And so on.  The next night the teenagers and little ones took their turn.  That was fun too.
  There was lots of snow, so we had sledding outings.  And, of course, we had to shovel the stuff.  Friday was the big day where we roasted a lamb on a spit over a charcoal fire.  The food was amazing.  The lamb is a cultural heritage thing for us.  Liz's father was born in Croatia, in the former Yugoslavia, where roasting lamb is a traditional celebration feast.  We had it with Pogacha, Aurignacha, and salad.  We left out the sarma, and polenta this time, but there was plenty for everyone.  That night we had over 50 people eating with us.
What a wondrous thing to have everyone together for almost a week, and all were happy.