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
"We finally heard from Paul again. Three times in one week. One letter and two phone calls! Both your Mom and I have been quite worried about not hearing anything from Paul for several weeks. In fact, on Monday night in our Family prayer with those of you at home, I recall pleading he is OK and that we would hear confirmation of this fact soon. The next afternoon your Mom called me in Austin and read me a letter from him. I felt like it was an answer to a prayer. Some of the choice words: `Hello from Siberia again. I just want to start this letter explaining the mail system. It is not too reliable.' `Our new member program where we get one name a week. I thought a lot about it this last week. I just felt like I was asking these members to do something that I wasn't sure I would do. So I commited (sic) myself to do it. So I plan to send a name a week of friends I have for the missionaries to contact.' `Thank you for caring Dad but I am fine. really! When I submerge myself in the work it doesn't bug me I am too busy.' `love ya oodles, cmapeuwuha Hercom (:'
Then Saturday just as I was leaving to go to a PAIRS workshop he called for Mother's day with instructions as to when and how to call him at 6:30-7:00 on Saturday evening our time (6:30-7:00 Sunday Morning Mothers Day in Siberia). He only caught me because I came back in the house to get a notebook I forgot. I was more than surprised to hear his voice, and he could tell. Mom came over to the house, Roice had come home from Austin for the weekend with me, Rob, Sara, and I gathered around the speaker phone. It took a dozen tries and an operator to get through. The line was just busy because his companion was talking to his Mom. During one of the dial tones Rob bounced the basketball and broke the antique coat rack in the front hall. I bought the stuff to fix it later Saturday evening at the new Lowes store, but Rob and I haven't got it done yet. It is a pretty bad break. When we got through I asked for Elder Nelson, his companion said just a minute and it sounded like he was still asleep. It was a fun conversation. I won't remember everything, but I will write what I remember for Melanie, who was at work, for Ben, who was in College Station, for Rob, who left because he was upset about breaking the antique coat rack and mirror, for Sara, who left after a while with a friend, and for the rest of you who participate/read/trash these Thoughtlets.
When asked about the stores, Paul said there are no lines. He says the stores are different. They have meat cleavers and hang pig heads up in the main street. I told him he was just having an opportunity to sort of make up for missing out on Nelson Meat Packing Plant. He said he has promised Melanie to four of the missionaries there. When he needs a sweater or something he shows Melanie's picture and promises to set the elder up with her when they get back to the states. He has only got a couple of the letters sent to him. The first one he received was a postcard from Mrs. Olsen at Taylor High School. He hasn't received the mail Sara and Rob sent yet. He was surprised when we told him we have not received the mail about him being robbed yet. We jumped right on that comment. Turns out when they were out of the apartment, someone broke in and took about $180 in cash from him. He needs to replace his emergency money, and we will get some money wired to him this week. After a while he started to wake up. When asked what he wanted said to Kristina, he said `Hi.' Said because she is moving to an apartment he was not suppose to write her for a while. Said he has sent her several letters in one envelope. Also said he has written us every week, even though we haven't received the letters. The guy that built the handcart for the Mormon Trek to Utah lives in his area, and they hope to start teaching him this week. It was so good to hear his voice and to know he is OK. Siberia is a long ways away. As Roice gets ready to go to work for A.S.I. in Santa Monica, California, another foreign country, it brings out how nice it is to have letters, e-mail, and, of course, phones.
I remember when I was little both Grandpa Hafen and Dad used to get upset about the amount of time Grandma Hafen and Mom would spend on the phone. And they only lived in St. George and Cedar City respectively. I remember there was a three minute sand timer that Mom was suppose to use whenever she made a long distance call. I think it was Grandpa Hafen that instituted this device. When your Mom and I got engaged, I carried this same tradition over into our relationship. We would call once a week, and strictly limited our calls to three minutes. I would do that different if I could now. Especially, the time Marti called up after Grandpa and Grandma Sharp had had a particularly ugly fight. I wasn't very good at comforting, and guess I still am not, but I hope you kids will each make an effort to empathy, concern, love, and spending the time necessary to make sure someone doesn't feel alone. I'm not talking about myself right now, maybe your Mom, or maybe one of you needs the others to call and provide a bit of buoying up. Ben and Roice, I think Sara could use a little one-on-one from each of you right now, as an example. It will be worth the cost of the phone call over the time you have to be siblings. Phone calls are a good investment in relationship building.
Isn't it wonderful we have the technology which makes this possible. Think about how my parents at your age did not have access to phones most of the time, and how phones had not even been invented when my Grandparents were your age. What tremendous changes have occurred in such a remarkably short period of time. At the PAIRS class on Saturday, one of the participants started talking about a gross analysis of history (the dark ages, renaissance, reformation, and industrial age), and compared the cold war to the dark ages, predicting we are entering a new renaissance period over the next 20 years. Check out my version of this idea in stanza 2.III.A.46. in Prime Words:
Hope we all have a good week, and if we face a trial that we learn the lesson embedded in the trial specifically for us."