Spring in the Desert means it's Memorial Season

Evan & I just before a well-deserved bagel break.

Springtime in the desert is the best time, and of course it’s Memorial Season as well.

Temperatures are in the 80’s and humidity is single digits.

Here in the Silverado Congregation, we have more than 100 territories, but a lot of our 120 publishers auxiliary pioneered (alongside our 14 regular pioneers) and we got all of the territories covered.

We enjoyed a special guest speaker, our former circuit overseer, Aurelius Ransom, who is now assigned to the US Branch with new responsibilities.

Unfortunately, we don’t enjoy the massive Memorial attendance that congregations in the “needgreater” countries experience, but we still had an attendance of 200 which is good for us.

It shows there’s still plenty of work to do in our territory.

Every Memorial, the Yellow Banks Rose in front of the house is in bloom.


 

Shirley & the sistahs doin' it for themselves.

It was great to have Br. Ransom as Memorial speaker.

Elder School in Vegas

After a year-long break for no particular reason, the blog is resuming. It’s so easy to just let life drift by and before you know it, years have passed. That tells me that before too long I’ll wake up one day and be heading off to the foreign field to serve where the need is greater. I just need a couple of more things to fall in line, but I see the goal right in front of me.

OK- so a year and half after Shirley’s heart-attack at the circuit assembly, she’s fully recovered and you’d never know it happened. So far those stents are holding and her heart’s pumping fine.

Manny & Jesse at Elder School

In February, Manny & I attended Elder School here in Las Vegas, which always gets the blood flowing. Hard to believe it’s been more than 5 years since I went to school in Patterson in 2009. Now the school travels from city to city and the 2 instructors (former circuit overseers) are permanently on the road.

There were about 30 brothers at the school and I’ve posted a few photos. There were many highlights, but the ones I’m most free to disclose have to do with food, which was lovingly prepared by various congregations.

These cool desks attach right to the seats and make it much easier to maneuver books & notes etc. They're used for Pioneer School as well.

Inside the Kingdom Hall before class

Can you believe it? Six (count 'em) SIX varieties meatloaf  on  Meatloaf Day.
                   Does it get any better than this?

                                    

I'm a salad guy, and we had some good ones.

More goodies

One day at break, we had this nice healthy shrimp & avocado dish.  Really tasty.

               

Dining table complete with table cloth.

Filipino+Korean Wedding=Partytime

Las Vegas is one of the few places in the lower 48 where you can schedule an outdoor wedding for February 9 and be reasonable certain that the weather will be mild and the sun will shine. (And people still say, “Why do you want to live in Las Vegas?”- as they shovel 6 feet of snow LOL)

And so it came to be, as I was privileged to officiate at the wedding of Nannette (age27, who I’ve known since she was three years old, and James, who I’ve known about a month).

Jesse and Nanette's parents, Manny & Sun Hee

Their union epitomized the melting pot that Las Vegas has become. Both were born in the United States and raised in Christian households, but James’ parents are Korean and Nannette’s father is Filipino and her mother Korean.

The Silverado Congregation has a long history with the Koreans, as they were a group associated with us for about ten years until they formed their own congregation. So there are a lot of friendships there.

Giving a wedding talk is always special, particularly when you’re close to the family. Nannette’s father is one of my best friends and we’ve serve together on the Elder body for many years. The couple themselves are both in full-time pioneer service and James is an MTS grad, so they may be moving around as he receives additional assignments.

The wedding took place in Las Vegas at Sunset Gardens, a self-contained wedding facility where the ceremony and reception can all be held at one site.

As always, the Koreans know how to host a party. There was music, dancing, joke-telling, videos, good food and great association. I don’t speak Korean (and neither does Manny, Nannette’s father, even though he’s been married to a Korean sister for more than 30 years), so most of the festivities were in English (just about all of the Koreans are bilingual) while reflecting aspects of Korean culture.

Here are some photos so you can see how things went:

Proud father Manny walks Nannette down the aisle

Giving a wedding talk is always a pleasure

You just can't beat February weather in Las Vegas

They can't wait until this talk is over

Ahhh... relief - we're married now!

Dancing with the Stars...

Live entertainment...

...not all of which I fully understood....

Jesse & Shirley get crazy
in the photo booth.

But it was quite a party!

A Wedding, an Assembly, and almost a Funeral

Even though 2014 is just getting started, we've already had enough action to make for a very memorable year. I can’t wait to see how the rest of 2014 turns out!

Stage at St. George Circuit Assembly

OK, Nevada Circuit #2 we had our two-day circuit assembly in St..George, UT scheduled for January 25-26. The drive is less than 2 hours from Las Vegas, so Shirley and I headed up there early Saturday morning.

Well, of course the Saturday session was great and afterwards we went out for our usual steak at the Texas Roadhouse and then back to the hotel.

So… Sunday morning Shirley says she hadn’t slept all night, and she felt nauseous like an elephant was sitting on her chest.

OK- so we packed up and headed back to Vegas and by 9am she was in the emergency room. After various tests and numerous drawings of blood, we were told that Shirley had had a heart attack and had two arteries blocked.

Unfortunately, there were no rooms available for about 12 hours, so we stayed in the emergency room until finally a bed opened up in ICU. Monday morning, she had her procedure, with two stents being put in her arteries.

Shirley all wired up in the ER

Nowadays, even though this is fairly routine, the technology is still amazing. A small incision is made in the groin area and a tiny camera is moved up to the heart and the stents are inserted. It takes less than an hour and there is no issue with blood.

So even though Shirley doesn't smoke or drink, is not overweight and eats healthy, her family genes let her down. I mean, 60 is pretty young to have heart trouble when you’re always been healthy. But her brother, sister, and parents had heart issues as well, so that’s where the blame lies.

Fortunately, after a few weeks of taking it easy, she should be able to resume her normal routine, and should actually end up with more energy after having her arteries Roto-Rootered to increase blood flow.

So that was the “almost a funeral” part of the post- emphasis on “almost”.

Actually, things turned out pretty festive as a number of the friends came by the hospital and brought food to the house.

A few weeks later, serving breakfast at the KH build

The downside?

We missed day 2 of the circuit assembly, but the brothers always make a CD so we’ll listen to it later.

And the wedding?

That's the next post.

Cowboys Take Over Sin City

Every December, Las Vegas returns to its wild west roots by hosting the 10 day “National Finals Rodeo” (NFR), basically the “Super Bowl” of rodeos where many hundreds of thousands of dollars are paid to the winners.

Shirley and I try to go most years. I’m a native Texan (Fort Worth) and we lived in Dallas before coming to Las Vegas. So it gives us a chance to put on our boots and cowboy hats and blend right into the crowd. Shirley’s a big horse person as well, and sometimes I think that smell of manure is like perfume for her. (or at least relatively pleasant)

For those unfamiliar with rodeos, it consists of 7 to 8 events derived from skills that were mostly required out on the range when cowboys worked the cattle ranches. I know that doesn't explain the bull riding, but I can only attribute that to boredom (“let’s get on a 2000 pound bull and see how long we can stay on”, or to the effects of alcohol.) At any rate, all the events are highly entertaining and the animals are well taken care of. Specialized rodeo horses and bulls are worth thousands of dollars and are key to a great rodeo.

In Las Vegas, the NFR is held at the Thomas & Mack area, which holds about 17000 people, and it’s sold-out well in advance. 

For 10 days in December, cowboys rule in Sin City.

CJ & Jesse contemplate the latest in Service vehicles

Bucking Broncos live up to their name at the NFR

You can watch the action close-up on the big screen

For ten days, dirt covers the floor of the Thomas & Mack

Any wild west show needs a stagecoach

Feeding the Workers at the Kingdom Hall Build

Like everywhere else, the number of Witnesses continues to increase in Las Vegas, and along with the increase comes the need for new Kingdom Halls as well as renovating the existing Halls.

Everybody does their part and recently the Silverado congregation received the assignment to provide lunch for the construction crew. This Kingdom Hall is in Henderson, NV, just adjacent to Las Vegas and was built about 25 years ago. With three congregations meeting there (2 English & 1 Spanish), it receives a lot of use and was starting to show some wear and tear.

So the Regional Building Committee decided the best thing to do was just gut the entire building and do a complete renovation. Of course, like all of our building projects, everything is done with volunteer labor.

We fed the crew hot dogs and hamburgers, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The photos tell the story.

Henderson, NV Kingdom Hall before renovation

 

Same Kingdom Hall being renovated

Barbecue is always an option with this cooker

Basic necessities, labeled for "Brothers" & "Sisters"

Rear of Hall under construction

Food tent is an essential operation

Stretch the muscles before cooking 100 burgers

Can you spot the 2 elders in their new outfits?

Mario models the latest in headgear

Preparing to serve the hungry workers

Oh yeah- this is the life!

Eating tent as a great place to relax

Just help yourself to the drinks

Dining al fresco, wintertime in Vegas

RBC equipment is always first class