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Hey, it's 3 months till Christmas!  No, no no!  'Course, not a lot we can do from here...we've heard they don't do Halloween here but they do something called the "Pumpkin Walk" down the main drag. Pictures to follow...I hope.

So, had an eventful week.  Tuesday I managed to catch my middle finger on my right hand in the pulley of a windmilling exhaust fan at the temple, ripping off my fingerprint and most of the pad of the finger.  I haven't found it yet and don't think I will.  It makes typing this pretty difficult, to say the least.  Also, injured one other finger so my right hand is limited in how I type for a while.  I'm on Norco but that is like glorified Tylenol so I haven't been too impressed.  It still hurts a good portion  of the time. I guess if you do something stupid, you need to pay the price.  Oddly enough, I didn't break any of the finger bones so I was pretty pleased about that.  I kept the majority of the finger in tact.  I haven't had any kind of an accident in a long, long time so this is pretty rare.

We have been trying to see if we could get into a plastic surgeon but mostly getting "no" for an answer as to being seen.  The door to do any skin grafts is rapidly closing and despite efforts by everyone, it looks like that is simply not going to happen.  I tried another doctor today and they just said not this week or next and we're talking hours worth of driving to get there.  And this last one was one that had agreed to see me earlier...odd.  So, the one doctor's assistant that I did manage to see on Thursday said it would scar over and be OK but just look scared and disfigured.  Well, it'll give me something to remember Nauvoo by.  It'll be numb but it'll match the one on my left hand.  No biggy.  I mean, really, how long do I really have anyway?  It'll be fixed in the millennium, right?  I do get a lot of sympathetic comments from the late night janitor gals, though.  If I bring cookies...

On another subject entirely...We have a couple that is serving here with us.  They are the sweetest pair you can imagine.  The other day another sister missionary told a story about Elder Jenkins.  You need to get a picture of him first though.  He is about 85 (I thought you couldn't serve as a missionary past 80 but, apparently, you can).  He "shuffles" when he gets around and he does a mean shuffle getting from place to place.  He is always in motion going places and he serves the best he possibly can.  He seems to always be at the temple since I seem to always see him there.  He is very patient and always has a mile on his face.

So, the other day he was chastised by a much less patient temple worker about some minor "offense" he had done in the ordinances of the temple and, as you know, it's important for those of us that work in the temple, that we are as perfect as possible when we do things.  Brother Jenkin's response was not what you would expect in today's world but one of a humble servant of the Lord.  He simply said, "I will try to do better".  I know what my response would have been, the Natural Man taking over, but he sets such high bars for those of us that work in the temple to follow.  To be humble and patient with others and to remember how we should react to these kinds of situations.  God bless you, Brother Jenkins.

Sister and Elder Jenkins.  They are such great examples for the rest of us "youngsters" to follow.

  BTW, the nurse just called and I have an appointment Oct 8th to have my finger looked at.  The surgeon wants it to heal a bit before he does any work on it.  I guess that will hafta do, ya think?