Good morning from the City of Trees as they call Sacramento. Darn it's only going to get up to 78 degrees this week! Ow, that was a dig for our friends outside of California wasn't it! I will repent later. But nice weather doesn't make me immune from getting a cold. All stuffed up sitting here today. I've been enjoying riding my bike in the early morning hours before we get started for the day of visiting people. I've steadily been building up my distances one trip at a time. From 20 miles, to 35, then 52, and then last week 65 miles round trip. There is this beautiful American River Bikeway that meanders over and along the winding river. From our apartment to the end and back will be about 80 miles so I hope to accomplish that on one of our P-days (Personal Days) during the next few months.
      This past month my eternal companion and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. I don't know of a better place to do so than where we are and what we are doing right now. We will likewise be here for our 47th and when we arrive home in 2014 we will be 69 years old! Now that is scarey, but I feel the hands of time are only going backwards while we are here instead of forward. Sherrie/Mom and I have always gotten along well in our marriage, and that's not to say that we haven't had disagreements along the way, but we've always worked on resolving them as we go. I've still got my checklist that I need to improve on. As a flawed and imperfect man I have been blessed to marry a wonderful woman who has less imperfections than me, but together we are striving to be a perfectly smooth rolling stone one revolution at a time.
     The three of us (John, Sherrie and the Lord) are together 24-7 now and the spiritual change is a marvelous change to describe. It is such a peaceful and united feeling that we share. Speaking for myself, little spousal irritants that might have bugged me before don't even surface now. More than ever now I see the wonderful qualities and capabilities that Sherrie has especially in working with people. She can make any "grumpy" or downhearted person smile and feel the Spirit of the Lord. Together we have been able to see not what people are today but what they will become yet in this life or the next. As was said recently we've learned to "first observe, then serve" when working with people here.
      In closing, I've been reflecting more and more on what it means to me to be a Christian, and how I am doing in my quest to follow Jesus Christ. I feel that is an ongoing process and as my testimony of the Savior increases through service to others my testimony of Him grows more each day. As was recently said by David A. Bednar "Our testimony of the Savior is a point of departure not our destination".

Take care,

Elder/Dad Downs