cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner
"What a great week. Monday I was suppose to have Federal Jury Duty, but it was postponed until the week of June 23rd. I went back to Dr. Oley, and the prognosis for my shoulder and arm look pretty good, even if it still hurts. Monday afternoon was spent at Interactive Interpretation and Training plotting the first maps of material flow through business systems for the State of Utah as derived from a CD Phone Directory (I didn't mention in my note about going to Utah to see Paul off to Novisibirsk [http://www.walden3d.com/1997/9710.html], but my friend Bill Bavinger has been doing some information mapping for Mike Leavitt, Utah's Governor. I will talk about this more when the results are more complete and conclusive.) Tuesday was spent getting ready to go out to Utah with Bill Resley (a friend from Mobil, Landmark, and who was later a consultant I worked with in London and now Houston). We were paid a little bit to fly out to Provo to do some consulting for The Covey Leadership Center. I flew to Las Vegas Tuesday evening, after going on Stake Missionary splits with the missionaries and teaching a young widow who is carrying her first child, then to St. George Wednesday morning.
I spent most of Wednesday with Mom, who is now at Porter's Nursing Home (126 West 200 North, #6). Here attitude is remarkably good: `They have good food, it is extremely clean, and the attendants are very kind.' She doesn't like the `noise during the night,' but she said she is going to be ok. We went out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant on Ancestor Square. When we were in the restaurant I called Grandma Hafen on the cell phone and Mom talked to her for a while. The meal was very nice. Mom is very excited about going to the SUU Centennial celebration this Friday, where President Bush will be speaking, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will sing, and there will be a lot of other activities.
After lunch I went over and visited Grandma Hafen. She has been doing a wonderful job putting together copies of her personal history. I have arranged with her to get a copy for each of you kids. I think you will really enjoy it, if not now, certainly when you get to be my age. She showed me the pictures and some of the stuff she has added. For instance, when she was called to serve a mission, she really didn't want to go because she was dating Roy Lundgreen in Cedar City. At the dinner table, `Pappa and Mamma Morris' were telling her she was going to go, and that she really needed to clean up her language a little bit. She said she looked down at the table and said, `But I have to let a little `shit' out every once in a while.' At which, Pappa Morris, whose mouth was full of dinner, laughed, sending food all over the table, said, `I certainly hope so my dear girl, I certainly hope so.' Considering how conservative St. George is, Grandma Haven is a little worried about some of the stuff she has written. But she stressed she is not a hypocrite, and I certainly can vouch for that. She even let me help her put labels in some of the folders she is putting her history in. After we talked a while, she agreed to let me take her over to see Mom. They had a great visit. I'm not sure I will share all of her stories with you kids, but it was a real hoot to listen to the two of them. She is glad to have Mom in town and would like to visit more often, but the cab is too expensive. Katherine, if you have some time some day I think you would enjoy the two of them a lot, and you can reach my Grandma at 673.2383.
When Grandma and I were talking, it came up that she had given her set of missionary scriptures away. So on the way back to her apartment we stopped and bought her a new set. I dropped her off, drove up to the airport, turned in the car, hurried through security, and stood looking at the beautiful view towards the East across St. George towards `Grandma's mountain.' On the other side of the black ridge and at the back of the Washington Field is a beautiful anticline with the spectrum of Southern Utah colors. I called Grandma on the cell phone and she said the name of the mountain is Shinobki (she wasn't sure how to spell it). It was the mountain the Indians used to send smoke signals up from. It has Grandma's favorite colors, and looks like cloth that she would like to weave. As I looked at the hill, listened to her joy in having a set of scriptures again and being able to look up things she had been thinking about, my heart was full and there were tears in my eyes. I wish there was another way to provide the help my Mom needs now. But it was nice to remember all Mom accomplished before the stroke 12 years ago, how well she has been considering the seriousness of the stroke, how full Grandma Hafen's life has been, how despite the circumstances and the pain and anger that sometimes comes up how well they are both doing, how proud I am to be their descendent, and how much I love them both. My feelings gave me hope for how you kids will see me.
When I got to Salt Lake, Bill was waiting for me. Although he is not LDS, it turns out he is interested in genealogy. So we went to the Genealogy Library and I left him for a couple of hours while I went next door to the Salt Lake Temple and was proxy for Bernhard Windisch, who was born in 1700, in an endowment session. What a wonderful doctrine it is that we can help those who didn't have a chance to choose whether to accept the gospel in this life or not, by performing vicarious ordinances like baptism and the endowment for them! Bill and I made a brief tour of temple square, had a quick meal at the J.B.'s on the corner of West and South Temple, and drove to Provo. The first day it looked like we were not getting our message across about the importance of building a common language in order to build a company information infrastructure. However, the second day, thanks largely to insights and a view of what we were trying to say which was passed on to our host by Roice Krueger, we got the message across. The Covey Leadership Center is merging with the day-timer company, Franklin-Quest. The information map of their operation we helped them start to build will empower all levels of their organization, provide a sense of ownership to everyone who uses the resulting internal Internet (Intranet), allow them to document best practices and truly implement dynamic continuous improvement, and make a significant difference to the way they do business.
Maybe I am still just a farmer, but this visit was really exciting for Bill and I. We have been working on these ideas for several years. When the light goes on in someone else's head, and they see the value of a new idea, it is like seeing a seed sprout in a field of wheat. As the Covey Leadership Center implements these ideas, it will naturally flow to Franklin-Quest, and the 9 companies Franklin has purchased over the last few years. We anticipate within a couple of years these techniques will be being passed on to all of the Covey-Franklin customers. The implications for changing business are even more significant than having had an opportunity to participate in changing the way every oil and gas business in the world looks for oil and gas. I am really not very excited about the obvious rewards that will accompany making this kind of a change, other than the fact it will allow me to fund some of my other ideas. But, in the same way the emotional child in me lives and reacts to all of the possible negative consequences a poor choice someone I love makes as if it had already happened, the positive side of my being was truly touched by what happened in Provo this week. In my mind it was as if the tree had already grown and delivered a bounteous harvest of a most delicious new kind of fruit. To top it off I got to see Roice Krueger for the first time since Dad's funeral, and Eric Krueger for the first time in a couple of years. Welcome to this mailing list Eric.
Then to end the week in the same upbeat manner, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday in a relationship workshop called `Pairs.' It was the first time since Corvallis [http://www.walden3d.com/hrnmen/1997/9715.html] I remember doing something like this instead of attending church meetings. You kids at home know I have gone to four of these classes over the last month or so, but this was the first of four weekend workshops associated with this 16 week course. It is really good, and I recommend it to everyone. In fact, I will probably provide you each with a ticket to attend one of these courses as a wedding gift. I wish I would have known about it and taken it 14+ years ago, but hopefully you will each appreciate my continuing efforts to strive to improve relationships. I hope you all have a great week."