Big Meeting Follow up Email

Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 2:43 PM
Subject: RE: James Sorensen passing away
Thanks Leon. We will miss Mr. Sorenson very much. It will take us several weeks here to know what's happening in the short-term. I appreciate your good words and I've passed them on to the family.

Sincerely,

Don Wallace


From: Leon Crowley [mailto:transmissionexch@qwest.net] Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 10:40 AMTo: Don WallaceSubject: James Sorensen passing away

Don,

I am so sorry to hear about Mr. Sorensen's passing away. I had no idea that he was not in good health. He looked older the last time I saw him than he did a few years earlier when he took us for a tour of the Nauvoo temple stone work and oxen, but that was to be expected. I hope his suffering was minimal. He did a lot of good along his life's journey. If you have an opportunity to express our sympathy to his family, Linda and I would appreciate it.

Thank you for your help,


Leon Crowley

44 and sprinting forward

On the 17th I took the day off and mother and I spent the day together. We slept in and then went out to breakfast at Village Inn. After that we wen to the Fashion Place Mall and looked for a new pair of black dress Sunday shoes. I couldn't believe how hard it is to find a nice pair of dress shoes. It is amazing with all of our technology that we can't make a nice looking dress shoe as comfortable as the new tennis shoes. Most of the shoes that they represented as dress shoes looked like old pilgrim shoes and were so ugly I wouldn't try them on. I finally found a pair that I would wear at Nordstrums. I was glad the pair I liked and fit the best were half the price of the rest of the shoes there. Mother wanted to get us new pillows and we were walking by the select comfort store in the mall. We went in and checked out there pillows and they had us lay down on their beds to try out the pillows. They were the contour style pillows of different heights. We tried several and then had them save the ones we liked the best and left and went to the My Comfort store across the street to check out their pillows and beds. They're the store that sells the Intelligell mattress. They had the contour pillow made of the Intelligell material and it has an air bladder that you can adjust to what ever height you want. They had us lay down on their bed and try out their pillow. I almost fell asleep instantly. I had to work at not falling a sleep as we tried several variations of their mattress. Needless to say we bought a new mattress and box springs. We can't pick up the new mattress until Monday or Tuesday. I am so excited to get a really good nights sleep. We then went to the temple and had dinner and went through a session. What a wonderful day!!!!!

The 19th we had a funeral and viewing at 9 AM of a friend that I had done business with for years. His company did all of my towing for years until he retired. He (Loey) had married LoMona who had been married to my priest quorum advisor (Lowell) before my mission. Lowell had also been our Home teacher when we first got married and were living in California. Also he was one of the few that came to the temple when we were married. He died very young. He went to Denny's for breakfast one morning and sat at the counter and ordered his food and then put his head down on the counter. When they brought his food he was dead. I also taught their oldest daughter Cindy in early morning seminary when we were first married. It was wonderful to see their family and renew that association. We saw several others that had lived in our Ontario ward. It was wonder to see these old friends and see that they were still solid in the gospel.

The evening of the 19th we gathered all of our local kids and their spouses and ate dinner in our basement. We had a wonderful ham dinner with mashed garlic potatoes and special green beans and green salad. Everything was wonderful except the rolls we bought from the Lion House bakery. They had to be a week old and were terrible. Mother is going to get a hold of the manager of the bakery and get our money back. We also had pie for desert. One was a chocolate cream and the other a very berry. After dinner we showed the DVD that April made for me a couple of years ago for Christmas of the old 8 mm film movies we had taken. We laughed a lot. After that we shared memories of growing up in this family. We laughed even more.. I laughed so much the back of my head and jaw muscles ached. It was so good to be together as adults and not have the distraction of the grandkids. You know that I love them, but occasionally it is nice to have just the adults.

Yes it is a new year

Sorry that it has been a while since I have made an entry. We are on the new early schedule at church 9 til noon. After priesthood and relief society we (mother and I) hurried into our classroom and stacked up all of the chairs accept for the few for our class members. We taught our lesson in grand style and ended our class with prayer and then finished stacking all of the chairs and rushed into sacrament meeting. We enjoyed a nice fast and testimony meeting and after it was over our relief society president came up to me and asked if I remembered that we had changed meeting schedules and that we were on the early schedule. I replied well of coarse I remembered I was here on time. She said that the first ward relief society president had contacted her and said that they had no chairs set up for their relief society meeting. Then it dawned on me what we had done and was I embarrassed. I'm sure that none of you had any adjustments to your new schedules.

Item 2: It is our 44th wedding anniversary on the 17th of this month. We thought it would be great if our kids and in law kids could go out to dinner together with us on Saturday the 19th. Not wanting to exclude any but not wanting to burden any. We would love to gather all local for sure. As a side note on our anniversary, Uncle Eldon called me this morning and asked what year we were married. I told him 1964 and he said good I only have 6 more years to live and then I can pass the sun dial on to me. He then reminded me that Uncle Ariel gave my dad this sun dial on his 50th anniversary and had that engraved on the sun dial and then dad had it engraved for Eldon's 50th anniversary and he said that I was the next in line to be married 50 years and that he wanted our family to have it and that it had a better chance of staying in the family and continue to be passed along. It really touched me. He said that he now has something to really live for and look forward to.

Item 3: Family vacation this year? I love Pineview and yet it is so convenient that some have not given it the commitment we would like so we can all be together. This last year we seemed to get people in shifts. If we can't commit to a week then lets settle on the length of time that we will all be together. We have three families that are going to be moving this summer. Les and James and Tiff and Ryan and James and DeDe will all be moving this summer. Is this summer going to be impossible to plan a family vacation together? Now is the time to reserve space if we are going to do it and get the best spots.

Item 4: Family gift exchange? Some have suggested that we change the rules for our gift exchange. I have enjoyed it the way it has been but if we need to look at it and make some changes, I would like some feed back. I am also interested in the the grand kids input.

Item 5: We have not heard back from DW for JS but just think it has been the holidays. We will keep you posted as new developments occur.

Item 6: If there is no response to any of this 08 is cancelled.

The Big Meeting

Monday mom and I met with D W. It was a good meeting and we expressed that we were interested in selling our property and he confirmed that J S was interested in purchasing it. We talked that we needed to agree upon a price and he has ordered a comparison appraisal of our property for a starting point to nigociate a price. He felt that we could reach an agreement that would be acceptable to both of us. He sent me a carbon copy of the request for the comparison appraisal. We will meet again when that comes back and then the real nigociation will begin. I expressed that we would need probably a year to move and he made a note for himself that we would need a year or two. He didn't think that would be a problem. I have met with my accountant and will meet with J C tomorrow and take council from him about this whole process. Jim has bought and sold a few businesses and may have some good council. We thank all of you for your fasting and prayers. We know the Lord is mindful of us and we trust that he is involved with this process and that the best situation for us will be the outcome. Please keep us in your prayers. (Pray big)

Grateful for

I am grateful for parents that loved each other in their less than perfect state. I am grateful for parents who loved me and my siblings. I am grateful for a the values I learned as I grew up. I am grateful for a mothers gentle and loving care especially when I was sick. I am grateful for a mother who made efforts to be at my crossroads daily. To know how to plan and just happen to have a piece of her homemade bread coming out of the toaster as I flew in the house after school and spent a few minutes with me to connect. I grateful for a Dad's good example of hard and honest work. I am grateful for his willingness to let me learn and his encouragement to dig into things that I didn't know about in his wrecking yard. I am grateful for the only key to the house that I was given was the one that went through their bedroom. Because of that I knew that I had to report in after every date because I had to go through their bedroom. I am grateful that it kept me honest and helped me avoid a lot of bad situations. I am grateful for the blood lines I was born through. The Crowley blood, the strength of character, the pride of carrying that name and the doers that they are. I am grateful for a grandmother that treated the word "can't" like a swear word and wasn't allowed to be said. I am also grateful for this grandmother who was determined to teach me how to be a gentleman. I was invited to her home often for "Tea" (we really didn't drink tea) but for me to learn how to eat and sit properly and how to dress properly and what silverware to use and in what order. She took me for a yearly pilgrimage to the local men's store and bought me a Sunday outfit. Suit, white shirt, tie, shoes, socks, and when I was old enough to date a white dinner jacket, pleated white shirt, cummerbund bow tie, cuff links and studs and patent leather shoes. I was taught how to properly escort a lady and to properly sit her and how to get her through a door and into a car properly without awkwardness. I am grateful for a grandfather that gave me a $100.00 bill when I was fourteen and said "If you never spend it you will never be broke" . I am grateful for that because it has helped me not to spend money just because I had it. It was always viewed as if it wasn't there unless it was a real emergency. I am grateful that I grew up in Southern California when I did. It was so beautiful then and such a wonderful place live.

These are just a few reandom memories of thing I am grateful for.

Gratitude

Gratitude is an attitude.

Gratitude is the lubricant of life. It makes life run much smoother and quieter.

Gratitude is the magnetic field that pulls people together.

Gratitude is the magic tool that can repair any marriage or relationship.

Gratitude can bring sunshine into a dark room.

Gratitude can defuse an explosive situation.

Gratitude can germinate the seed of trust.

Gratitude in prayer is the expression of the souls sincere desire.

Bishopric change

Change is good and yet sometimes it brings other challenges. Mother and I pondering possibilities were comfortable with many if not most of the possibilities for bishop and had no problem in our minds of sustaining them. But what a challenge if someone is called that puts on a good show and yet is not what he tries to present. We know things that are going on with a possible candidate that are not right and yet no great sin has been committed. We would be expected to sustain him. I then thought what if I was asked to be a councilor to him. What would the Lord expect of me. Should I in the privacy of the stake presidents office share my feeling and concerns and knowledge of what is going on. If I was called to be a counselor should I not say anything, accept the call and do all I could to serve the members of the ward.

I know the Lord is in charge and works through his servants here on earth. I also know that there are some that can deceive even the very elect. I know the Lord allows some things to happen that the judgements of God might be just. I know that I must trust in the Lord and realize that He is in charge and that His Will will be done. I am glad that I am not going to be the next bishop. I am hoping that we won't get a call Sunday morning to meet with the Stake President, I am not feeling physically up to being a counselor.

Mom and I have been praying for President Riddle and his guidance in choosing the new bishop for the fifth ward. We need to let everything else go and trust in the Lord that He will give the fifth ward who we need.