More Snow!

Today church meetings were cancelled because of the snow! I can't remember that ever happening in Utah before. The Bishop and some young Aaronic priesthooe brothers came and shoveled a trail from the road to the back yard where the Echo is parked. They did in a few minutes what it would have taken hours for us to do! We did a terrible thing--we forgot Matt's birthday--so busy and caught up in our own doings. But we hope you had a great day and we will talk to you soon and there will be something in the mail too. I wouldn't mind this getting old time. In fact my body feels younger than it did a couple of years ago. But, losing my memory is a real drag most of the time. But, when I forget I'm getting up in years, that is nice. I'm going to stake choir practice in just a few minutes--conference is in a couple of weeks and it's snowing again. At the cannery on days during family canning I lift many cases of canned food on to carts so they can be loaded into cars. I have done it for 2 weeks now and my back hasn't hurt at all. Did you see Presl Hinckly's funeral? His saying I liked best was "It's a miracle!" There were many miracles in the past 13 years. Oh how I will miss him! Time to go. I love you all so very much!
Mom
Pap here---I measured, about noon time today, the depth of snow from this last storm and the data was ofer five and one hapl inches, and that was at noon time and here it is five thirty and it hasw been snowing on and off all day.
At about one thisw pm the door bello rang and I answered the call and was greeted by our dear bishop who asked if he and the Aaronic ph boys could shover out the red car we parn in the covered area by the shop. Naturally I did not refuse their help as the snow for a couple of days had piled up to nearly one foot and it was heavy stuff. I had driven back there this morning to break a trail but it was covered over and now we have a scraped/shoveled drive way back to the car and out to the street.
Thanks Jared, and any others, for calling Mat on his B-day--he naturally appreciated the time to visit with y'all.
Today has not seened like the Sabbath as our meetings were cancelled and no fast/testimony meeting which has improved sinceour dear bishop read them the 'riot act' last testimony meeting and explained what should be encluded and what to leave out and after he bore his testimony the saints who followed were more testimonies than sermond and travelog than since I can remember and I missed being reaffirmed that his instruction had beend accepted.
Love Pops, daddy, ole man et al

Too much snow

Especially for the Oakes folks living outside the snowy state of UT we have good news and some very cold spells to report.Yesterday the wind came up, yet the day was sunny, and was cold as could be- -it got down to 7 above last night and right now at seven-thirty pm it is bouncing around atg ten above, the wind blew out the pilot flame for the living room heater and try as I may I could not get it to stay lit long enough to start the heater heating co I went out to the shop and got my propane heater from there and lit it to warm the living room. Naturally with all the fierst wind--some places reported seventy mile per hour breeze---blowing the snow which lay on the ground softly from the last storm began to be re-distributed whereever the wind listed to take it. Bertween the front steps and the street we had a ridge of snow srift and thinking it to be soft when I went to post a letter to Krista I was surprised out of my wits- -there are less of them at my age than formerly--when I stepped up on the drift and it surported my weight and I walked across it as if it were a rock with a skiff of snow on top. A wierd sensation to say the least. We are heatinbg up the place tonight with hopes that it will not be too hard to stay ahead of the frigid outside which ahs a tendensy to seep in during the night. We set the thermostat on 66 and sleep snuggly in under the blankets. All our love to all of y-all and God bless everybody. Pops, daddy, old man et al

Thanks Jared and Krista for setting this up!

I finally figured out how to write and now you better watch out! It was great being at Becka's and having Matt and Reisers there too. Especially nice seeing our mostly grown handsome and beautiful and smart grand kids. We are so proud of them and love them dearly. Thanks for the food and hugs and talk and just being with each of you. We had dinner and played "apples 'n apples" with Nyleen and Miles and two other couples. It was at Nyleen's house and she did lots of work to make it special. That's how we saw the new year in. We wish each of you a wonderful new year, full of happy and healthy and wealthy and most of all spiritual blessings. What did you do on New Year's eve? If Matt stopped at our house on Monday we must have missed them. I would like to have visited some more with them. I'm going to get to bed earlier this year. That is my resolve and I have just been reminded of it and I must hurry not to be late. Thanks to each for the nice thoughtful Christmas Presents.
Much love,
Pop and Mom