Pictures of Brasilia

A couple of weeks ago we took two sisters who where going home to take pictures of Brasilia. So we took a few at the same time. This is the senate the dome and the congress the bowl and the office building in the middle. It is very pretty.

The next picture is the cathedral of Brasilia. It is very modern as is the whole city. The third picture is me inside the cathedral with a few friends. Fourth me on my knees, this was very hard I guess I needed to be more humble. The last picture is of the Brasil flag. It is huge you can see how big it is in the picture of the congress. Sorry but I can not seem to get these pictures in the right order but I think you can see what they are.

Piranha

We have in the ward a young man Issac Kain, who works for the American Embassy. He is 32 years old and was called to be the Elder's Quorum President. He is a very nice kid and I quite like him. Last week we took a pair of sisters who were going home to his house for dinner. While there I saw a fifteen inch piranha in his house. He told me he got it in Manuaus and that he was going to Manuaus the next week. Well he brought it back with him and I now have a 15 in. Piranha. Way cool. And now for the rest of the story. Our bishop has been having problems with depression and has not been out to church much in the last year. Some of it has been he had to work on Sunday but a lot of it has been depression. The Stake President knew that something had to be done but told us in High Priest Group that Salt Lake was taking a long time approving the name. They had to wait. Well last Sunday the whole Stake Presidency was at our meeting. Word was out that the name had been approved and we would get a new Bishop. Everyone was guessing who it was going to be. My bets were on the High Priest Group leader. He also works for the American Embassy. The church does not like to make Americans bishops but it has been done in the past. Well the time comes for the Stake President to call the new Bishop. He names Issac Kain, our young Elder's Quorum President. Everyone was shocked. Not that he was not worthy, but that he was so young and had just been called to be Elder's Pres. He got up and said that he was the last one who he would have thought of. But he is a good young man and will do a good job because he is so humble. I am really looking forward to his being Bishop. The Stake President said that SLC had turned him down because he was an American, and so young. Well the Stake President held his ground and SLC approved. We have such a good Stake President. While I talked to the Stake President I asked him if he had heard any thing about me, he stated that he had not. But it was also announced that a temple will be built in Manuaus. That is great.

Nathan's Birthday

The last born. We were at St. Marks hospital for Nathan. Mother was having a hard time, with the birth. Then by inpiration the nurse took Mother's blood pressure, (I never remember a nurse doing that before) and it was sky high. I remember the doctor saying the had to stop the labor, until Mothers BP came down. While I was in the room with them when Nathan was born I did not really see him being born. I was busy trying to keep Mother calm, so her blood pressure would not come back up. Nathan was the first baby where Mother had any drugs for pain. All the rest of you were born with out drugs. After it was all over the Doctor came to us and said we had better not have any more kids or JoAnne could die. He said she came real close with Nathan. So that ended our child bearing days. What a joy it was for me to have all you children. While it was very important to be there when all of you were born, the most important thing was to be with you as all of you grew up. I hope I have done a good job being your father. I think of all of you every day. And have your whole lives. Your welfare was the most important thing in my life. We pray for each of you each day by name and for each of your children by name. I LOVE YOU ALL
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Gideon's birthday

Gideon was born during conference. In fact he was born during GBH's talk. We were in the new birthing suites at the hospital. It was like giving birth in your home. The delivery roomed looked like a regular bed that converted to a birthing room in minutes. We were only in the hospital minutes with Gideon. He was after Amy our second fastest birth. He had a special spirit about him as a baby, and todderler. He was always talking to me about when we were on a mission in Brasil. It was kind of weird how much he knew about Brasil. We had a hard time coming up with a name for him. We went weeks before we could come on a name. Finally the OB GYN doctor told Mother how about Gideon? we both like the name, and he had a name. A woman in the ward after we named him told me that she did not like the name Daniel. That seemed a little strange to me, but years later Bishop Peterson called me to be a concilar in the Bishopric was her son and lived in Canyon Rim ward when Mother was a young woman. I love you all.

Jethro's Birthday

Jethro was born in SLC at the university of Utah hospital. We had just come back from Missoui broke and so we went to UofU. It is a teaching hospital so there were hundreds of interns there to attend the Birth. It was quite different from the small hospital in Missouri. Jethro was born with a little breathing problem. He breaths like I do heavy. So they took him to Baby ICU for care before we could hold him. I think it was the strictest hospital we had been in. In a few hours he was back with us and all was well with him. He was such a cute little baby. We named him Jethro after Reuel in the OT. Exodus 2:18 and Dean after his grandfather J. Dean Gerstner. Mother was having a hard time producing milk and he nursed the shortest length of time of all you kids. Once he got on the bottle he became a little ball. He was so cute. I love you all.

George's birthday

George was also born in the same hospital that Rebekah was born in. This time though the regular doctor was not there. He had a fill in. George was born I think in the middle of the day. When he was born I could see that I had my first boy. What a joy for me. I guess we broke the mold with George because all the rest of the babies were boys. I was so happy. We named him George after my father and Benjamin after the last son of Israel in the OT. I of course had to do things right and on the eighth day we had him circumsized. I was there to watch it and it was very interesting thing. They put him on a little board, that had been cut so his legs would be spread and the stapped him and and did the deed. He was not very happy about it, but it was over in a few minutes. The doctor was not a rabbi, but if I had known one I would have had him do it. I love you all.

Rebekah's birthday

I had planned to do one child a day, but I am going to go ahead and do more each day. We were living in Missoui when Rebekah was born. I was sure that Rebekah was a boy. We still had to wait until the birth to find out. Our doctor's office was about a half an hour away from our house. It was down a dirt road and over a creek. We were living in a trailer house when she was born. It was again early in the morning when we arrived at the doctor's office. He had about a two or three room little hospital at his office. Before Rebekah was born it was the Doctor, Mother and me. The nurse had not arrived yet. As she was born remember I was sure by revelation that she was a boy, the Doctor said she was born without a penis. All I could think of was that he was deformed. It did not enter my mind that it was a girl. I was crushed. But since I was the only one there I had to weigh, do the foot prints, and clean her up all by myself while the Doctor was working on Mother. It took me a long time to get over not having a boy. I did not feel like blessing Rebekah until about two months later. But Rebekah made up for her "rejection" of her father by being the best baby we had. She slept through the night from almost the first night, and would lay in her crib until we came to get her in the morning. What a joy she has been in our lives. The cutiest thing was the way she would suck her thumb. She would put her thumb in her mouth with the palm facing up and play with her eyes with her fingers while sucking. She loved her thumb. In fact she was quite old before she stopped sucking it. I love you all