BRADFORD FAMILY NEWSLETTER – June 2023

DALLAS AND MARGIE BRADFORD

Dear Family:

This will not be much of a letter, but for historical purposes, we will send this to the family.

We are writing this letter while docked in the harbor at Vienna, Austria. We leave in the morning for Bratislava, Slovakia and disembark the next day in Budapest, Hungary, having started the trip on June 22 in Prague, Czech Republic. We will send more about our trip in next month’s letter. Jay and Karen and their family on the “same” trip this same week, but they started in Budapest and disembark in Prague. Our children have had some fun interacting with each other and trading stories and experiences of the same cities that we will be visiting.

But our big news this month was the marriage of Tyson and Jordan on June 8 in the Bountiful Temple. Because both of them live in Idaho, their “big party” was in Idaho, but there was a nice luncheon in a local stake center following the sealing. We did not go to the reception in Idaho. We also enjoyed having Tyson and Gavin here early in the month when they were here for a concert at the pavilion at the Great Salt Lake. And this week, many of the female cousins in the area are at our home for a cousins gathering just like they did many years ago when we would have our “cousins camps.” But this one is just with the girls. It will be fun to learn about their experiences.

We’ll write about our trip next month.

We send out love to all of you and trust that all of you are doing well.

Dallas and Margie

KENT AND KAY BRADFORD

Dear Family,

In early June we went to Minneapolis to be there for Brooklyn’s High School graduation party. It was a wonderful party. It was almost as involved as a wedding reception. They has a very large water slide (about as tall as a one story house). The food was wonderful and a lot of ward members and friends were there. Brooklyn’s friends had their graduation parties as well. So we spent our time going from one party to another.

We were home for a few weeks then we went to the beach. I am writing this letter from our beach house. We are here for two weeks! The weather has been fabulous so far. We have rented another home close to us to accommodate all of us. We are invited to come to beach with Kevin’s family in August so we get to come again.

The weather has been wonderful so far. We are grateful that we all get along with all. It is nice that the cousins can spend with each other.

Love Kent & Kay

HENRY & TRUDY BRADFORD

Dear Bradford Family,

It has been such a beautiful month, June 2023, but the beautiful temperatures have been abruptly turned off and tonight it is hot as a pistol out in our garage, with “warmer” temperatures to come.  We only remark on that, because it seems newsworthy everywhere else, but no one ever says, on network news, “Today, in Logandale, Nevada (or Moapa Valley) it was 113-116 degrees!”   Honestly, we have enjoyed an exceptionally mild June, punctuated by rain storms from time to time.

Bonnie and Thomas drove down with six of the kiddos to spend a day or two on the way to their “surprise” trip to Disneyland.  They told the kids they were going to spend a week at Grandpa and Grandma Bradford’s so when they arrived and unloaded the van, the girls came in pulling suitcases and bags and every needful thing for the week.  They went with us to church Sunday, June 4th.  In the afternoon, Henry had the privilege of giving Alexis, Chloe, and Adam their patriarchal blessings.  It was truly a sweet experience for us.  Later, Bonnie and Thomas called the children together and told them something had come up and they were going to have to leave first thing in the morning.  So, they were to get their bags packed and be prepared to leave.  The room became very quiet, and their were some questions and concerns from the kids.  Bonnie let it go on just long enough, and then added, “Because we’re going to Disneyland!”  Lots of screaming, and jumping up and down followed - it was fun to be a “fly on the wall.”

Many thank-you’s to Jay and Karen for letting the Stringham family come to stay during their exciting trip.  The kids went to the beach and had three Disneyland days.  Sarah got to hug Micky, Minnie and Goofy and, as far as I know, they all had plenty of fun.  It was such a special thing for their family. 

Henry has made a flag box for Abbie’s grandfather-in-law, who passed away this month.  He was a veteran and the family was presented with a flag, but they wanted Henry to make the box to hold it.  He has never made one before, and maybe this will be the only one.  Something new for him to work on, anyway!

Sister Kennedy Bradford has returned home after her eighteen months of missionary service in the Lubbock, Texas Mission.  Patrick sent a ZOOM link so we could hear her speak in sacrament meeting, but it never connected.  We were pretty bummed. 

Sister Jessica Bradford was able to help with the open house of the Helena, Montana Temple.  She called me a few days before she went home to Stevensville and told me what she had been doing.  It was a wonderful experience for her, and the temple is beautiful.    She said they were only expecting about 10,000 guests to come, but about 30,000 had been to see the temple. 

Sister Sophie Fullmer is in New Zealand.  She is just beginning her mission in that far-away place, but she seems to be having some good experiences, so far. 

This has been an especially busy time for Henry as, during June, he has given nine patriarchal blessings.  That is two every Sunday except for June 4 when he gave three.

We are looking forward to our own family reunion in a couple of weeks.  It will be held in Pine Valley, just about thirty minutes outside of St. George.  It will be the first time we have been all in one place (more or less) since July 2020. 

Henry has had a terrible sinus infection/head cold/ allergies/cough.  Not sure what exactly is causing this misery, but he is treating himself for everything in that list, just in case.  Sometimes he feels okay, but it has gone on so long that he is worn out from it, I think.  Hopefully, it runs its course sooner rather than later, because he has a full calendar!

Happy July 4th to you all!

Love,

Henry and Trudy

JAY AND KAREN BRADFORD

Did not submit letter.

DONALD & SUE BRADFORD

Did not submit letter.

DALE AND BRENDA BRADFORD
Dear Family-

We were in Ohio for all of June, it's been a fairly cool June, so we've enjoyed the yard and being outside.  Last night, the Priests of the Ward came and opened up the pond for the summer, which just means it was the first pond party.  Dale has a new calling as Priest's quorum advisor and it was fun to get to know them a little better.  His specific assignment is to help them learn how to teach a real lesson rather than  just reading it.  Our Ward has a really nice group of Priests, so it should be a rewarding experience.

The first weekend of June, we were invited to attend the Columbus Temple rededication in the Celestial Room.  This was compliments of Aaron Jenne, Matt Beecher's best friend.  He is  the Secretary to the Quorum of the Twelve with specific duties to attend to President Ballard. It was so kind of him to think of us.   Aaroon introduced us to President Ballard outside the Temple and we had a few minutes with him. I don't understand everything in the Temple, but I do feel the spirit there and we were blessed by a strong portion of the spirit at the rededication.

The speakers were wonderful,  President  Ballard repeated a family story involving a newspaper article and the Logan Temple a couple of times, but gave nice remarks. His dedicatory prayer was powerful and included references to the Kirtland Temple; the first Temple in Ohio  However, I think the highlight of the meeting was the choir.  We knew a few in the choir and the accompanist.  They were magnificent and added such a beautiful feeling to the meeting.  They reminded me of a sweet experience from years before. 

Years ago, I was in our Cincinnati Stake Young Women's Presidency.  We planned a Youth Conference to take our youth to the Kirtland area to visit the church history sites.  In those days, groups could arrange to use the Temple for meetings if the time was outside of the hours of their regular tours.  We arranged to have a testimony meeting beginning at 7:00 am to conclude no later than 9:00 am so the Community of Christ could prepare for their day and their tours.

In order to get the youth up and out of the college where we were staying and to the Temple by 7:00 am, we told them we would be fasting breakfast that morning.  For the most part, they were wonderful and thrilled to have an opportunity to be in the Temple for our testimony meeting. We, Stake Leaders, were so grateful to be in the Temple with just our group.  We had a glorious testimony meeting with so many youth wanting to bear testimony, that we had to cut it off at 8:45 with more youth wanting to share.

As part of our preparations, we had arranged for a youth choir; youth singing, youth leading, youth playing the piano.  We had heard their rehearsals and quite honestly, they were bad-really quite awful.  We prayed for a miracle and hoped their preparations were enough to warrant at least a pleasing sound.  Their assignment was the closing musical number of "The Spirit of God." 

After such a great testimony meeting, we were worried that the spirit would be broken by off-tune and off-timed music.  They started to sing.  The pianist was a half a beat slow and the singers seemed to be searching for some note they could hit with consensus.  It was ragged and strained through the first two verses. And then the miracle began.

They started the third verse of the hymn, and the Temple was filled with amazing, full, rich music.  It was spine tingling, powerful and unbelievable.  There are four choir sections in the chapel of the Kirtland Temple.  Our youth choir was using one of the choir corners in the front, so we had two sections behind us. The music was so convincing,  I remember turning around to look into the back choir seats to see if somehow another choir had slipped in.  The spirit of God was in our midst, the spirit of God was burning in the hearts of every person in that room.  We all felt it, we were all changed that day as we were blessed by heavenly voices filling the temple with music.  Our little youth choir gave all they could and the difference was made up in a way that could only be described as miraculous. 

This was more than 20 years ago, I still have youth, now adults with children of their own,  who attended that Youth Conference come up to me and say, "Do you remember that day in the Kirtland Temple?  Do you remember the music?"  Just last week, we were with one of the Stake Young Men's leaders and we were reminiscing and he said one of the most spiritual events of those years was the angel choir in the Temple that day. As we sang The Spirit of God at the rededication, all those beautiful feelings I had in the Kirtland Temple flooded back into my soul and filled me again.

Another Ohio Temple, another choir, but the same joy and spiritual glory again.

We had another event which affected the rest of the month.  I was meeting a language student at the Cincinnati Art Museum downtown, 2 1/2  weeks ago. Unfortunately, as I was crossing an intersection on a green light, a woman blew through her red light going about 45 mph and broadsided me.  There were no skid marks, so she was obviously not looking ahead.  She plowed into the front end of my car which caused me to crash into a car going across on green in the other direction..  Amazingly, we all walked away.  My car was totaled, but kept me safe.  I was banged up and bruised up and needed stitches in my knee where my knees hit the steering column.  It could have been so much worse, I'm still recovering, but am almost back to full strength.  Obviously, I needed a new car.  After weighing our options, I got another Subaru Outback.  I was going to be one of those Subaru drivers who drive their cars to 250,000.  I was on my way at 170,000 and the car was still running great.  I hope my new car lasts as well.

Two important reminders from the crash: ALWAYS wear your seatbelt,  It kept me secure and kept me from hitting my head.  Second, if you're the first person going through on a green light, always check to see that the other direction of traffic has stopped before you proceed.  A hill blocked my sight of vision and she was going so fast, I didn't see her coming until she was right on top of me.  I'm grateful for guarding angels who watched over me.  Maybe, my sweet sister Jane, who was killed in this exact type of accident. 

Dale has a knee replacement scheduled for August 10.  His right knee has gotten so bad that it has to be done. Hopefully, the operation will help with his mobility.  Before that, we're all headed to North Carolina the middle of July to enjoy a week at the beach with everyone.  We're excited to have everyone come.  It's a fun tradition. 

Hoping you're all having a wonderful summer.

Brenda and Dale

ELAINE & VAUGN HUNTSMAN

Dear Family,

It is so crazy to me how fast the days and weeks fly past!  Feels like Memorial Day was just last week??

We did a lot of driving and watching grandkids this month.  Mbuyu (our bonus daughter and Yuyi’s sister) asked if we would be willing to watch their five children while they went on a 10 year anniversary trip.  We agreed and spent June 13- June 18 taking care of their kiddos, ages 8 ½ , 6 ½, 4, and twins who were 22 months old.  Let’s just say they kept us on our toes all day long.  The twins are BUSY and ALL boy!!  They climb on everything, can open doors, and go non stop.  We survived and had fun with them.  Mbuyu and Noah went to Florida and had a great time!   We got home on Monday, June 19, and Lisa, Ryan and girls arrived at our house about the same time as we did.  It was now their turn to go on their 10 year anniversary trip. This time we only had three cute girls to watch and they are much calmer.  We also had a lot of fun with Olivia, Afton, and Emmie!  Lisa and Ryan went to Northern California and visited the Redwoods and other sights in that area.  They also went deep sea fishing and caught a lot of fish.  Lisa and Ryan are moving out of their apartment in Casper and into a townhome so we drove their girls home on Monday, June 26, so we could help them prepare for the move. We are now back home and Michelle and children arrive from Pittsburgh on Monday night, July 3rd.

With my calling in Primary (1st Counselor), I’m over the activity day groups.  This month we took them to Maple Dell Camp up Payson Canyon.  Maple Dell used to be a scout camp but now they just do one day long camp type activities for Primary groups and Cub scout groups.  We took 50 kids (and 12 leaders) from just our ward ages 8 - 11 years of age!  Since Olivia was here and she’s eight, she got to go with me.  She had a great time!

One interesting thing that we had to do this month was have a radon mitigation system installed in our home.  Neighbors of ours had done radon testing at their home and it came back high, so we did a radon test at our home and it also came back high.  We did a second test which came back even a bit higher. So wanting to be safe we had the system put in.  The levels have dropped now which makes us happy. 

With all of the traveling and watching grandkids we were still able to serve in the Bishop’s Storehouse and the Temple.  We enjoy these times when we are serving others.  Not much else to report.  We are basically healthy and are doing well.

Sending love to all of you,

Elaine and Vaughn