Scott and I gathered with our children and grandchildren at The Inn At Owl Hollow, near Lava Hot Springs, ID. It was a beautiful setting for our family reunion.
It was a great occasion to have everyone there. Our thoughts turned to how blessed we are to have such a wonderful posterity.
Our son, Sam, our only boy, now has five brothers!
We were invited to Gladstone High School's last graduation ceremony. The campus will be converted into a middle school in the fall and all Gladiators will be attending Azusa High School.
This was our first experience of graduation on the beautiful, new Gladiator football field. All our previous graduations were held at Azusa Pacific University.
Scott served as GHS principal for fifteen years, retiring in 2016. One of his assistant principals eleven of those years was Sam Perdomo, who now is GHS principal and will guide the new Gladstone Middle School. Sam and his wife Teri, an art teacher at GHS, are beloved by the students.
Dick Hart was on the first GHS faculty when school opened in 1963, and was the first athletic director. Mr. Hart was the interim principal who welcomed Scott to GHS in 2001.
Shown below are the past and present principals who attended the graduation. (left to right) Sam Perdomo, Gabriel Fernandez-former GHS principal and current principal of Azusa HS, Scott Magnusson, Dick Hart.
Rosa Bullock and Anthony Contreras were two very successful GHS assistant principals.
JoAnn Gomez was secretary to Scott from 2010-2016. JoAnn made everything at GHS run very, very smoothly. She's currently principal's secretary at Azusa HS, helping with the schools' merger.
Phyllis Contreras, our legendary campus security aide, recently retired. Her walkie-talkie call sign "G-10" was retired with her.
Andrew Mendez, Azusa City Councilman, reminded Scott of their encounter when Andrew was a student in 2004. It was fun to see and hear how successful Mr. Mendez is.
To hear the audio of Mr. Perdomo's 3-minute recognition of the graduation guests click here or onto the link below. (Scott is recognized at 1:00)
Congratulations, final Gladiators, Class of 2023!
The scoreboard reminded us that this is a date to be remembered:
6/7/2023
Living in Duarte from 1983-2016, we walked, biked, and ran this trail along Royal Oaks Drive constantly. It felt good coming "home" and literally walking down memory lane.
Songwriter Janice Kapp Perry, sits at her piano in her home in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 20, 2004
Photo credit: Keith Johnson, Deseret News
I listened to Janice Kapp Perry this week as she was interviewed for The Church New Podcast. As I listened, I was reminded how much I love Sister Perry and how much she has touched my life. The Church News webpage says this about the podcast.
Janice Kapp Perry joins this episode of the Church News podcast to discuss the power of music, sharing her testimony of the Savior and the profound lessons she has learned during her remarkable and varied life.
Sarah Jane Weaver introduces Janice Kapp Perry for the interview with this monologue:
Janice Kapp Perry has composed 3,000 songs and hymns beloved by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her well-known repertoire includes Primary hymns, “A Child’s Prayer,” “I Love To See the Temple” and “I’m Trying To Be Like Jesus.” She started her music career later in life after two lucky breaks — a broken TV and an injury — took her from the sports court to roadshow music writing.
Her work has been featured in the Church hymnbook and Primary songbook and translated and sung around the world. From 1993 to 1999 she performed with The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, often singing her own music. In 2020, Brigham Young University conferred upon her an honorary degree, a Doctor of Christian Service in Music. Her acceptance speech, “Filling the World With Music of Faith,” was posted online due to the pandemic.
Janice Kapp Perry joins this episode of the Church News podcast to discuss the power of music, sharing her testimony of the Savior and the profound lessons she has learned during her remarkable and varied life.
You can listen to The Church News Podcast that I listened to this week by clicking here. (Be sure to click onto the 49 minute interview)
I first learned about Sis. Perry's life experiences by listening to an interview that was aired April 10, 2014 by the LDS radio program called Everything Creative. The website says this about the interview:
Janice Kapp Perry is our special guest for this episode of Everything Creative. She shares stories about how her music service began with helping those around her. The music spread to other wards and stakes and eventually was published in songbooks such as the Children's Songbook and even our LDS hymnal.
Click here to listen to the Everything Creative interview.
Through these two interviews and the videos below, I learned that Sister Perry is a very humble, inspired, and talented songwriter.
In Sunday School recently we discussed Jesus's parable of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-32) We were reminded of a modern-day depiction produced by the Church in 1990. This video was a family favorite as we watched it over and over again on our VHS player.
Usually when we think of this parable, we correctly celebrate the without-conditions, compassionate welcome of father to wayward son. However, there's another part in this parable Jesus taught--what of the other, "good" son? How do we all need the Savior?
The Prodigal Son is worth watching...and pondering. Enjoy!
These children's videos were posted on the YouTube webpage in 2016. I ran across the video of the Good Samaritan the other day and was happy to be reminded of these beautifully portrayed scripture stories through children's eyes. Enjoy!
You can visit the YouTube Children's Bible Videos channel by clicking here.
Our friends, the Gomez and Lopez families from Belize, came to Utah for their first time to attend the worldwide General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.
Also pictured are Derrall Adams and Forrest and Jolynne Flake
As soon as they arrived, they found out that Utah has been experiencing the most unusual spring weather. Just for the fun of it, I took a screenshot of my phone's weather app for Belize City and South Jordan for one of the days they were here.
Do you think they had to deal with any adjustments because of the weather?
They made a snowman friend while they were staying with Derrall and Julie Adams in Farmington, Utah.
The Monday after General Conference, we hosted a senior missionary reunion and dinner with our visitors. These couples who had served in Belize were: Acosta, Alico, Derrall and Julie Adams, Eric and Cheri Adams, Flake, Hintze, Jensen, Magnusson, and Sandburg—28 people in all.
These senior missionaries served in Belize over a period of time spanning from 2007 to 2019.
Thank you, dear friends from Belize, for making our gathering possible.
Leovany and Jenny Lopez, René and Nellie Gomez, and Cristy Reinoso (Cristy is a recent BYU-Idaho graduate)
Eric and Cheri Adams served as mission president and companion of the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission from 2016-2019, while Kai and Diane Hintze served from 2013-2016. I'm sure they had a grand time visiting about their service as mission leaders for Belize.
As the adults visited, the Lopez children were entertained by making Froot Loop rainbows.....
....and highlighting their names with colored dots.
An interesting outcome from the reunion is that we learned about a senior couple, the Sandburg's, who served in Belize a few years before we did. It turns out that Michelle Sandburg is a second cousin to Scott. They have a common great grandfather-George Martin Haws. A few days after the reunion we went to their home, visited, and purchased an autobiography written by her father.
We were honored to host the Gomez's in our home the next two days after the reunion.
René and Nellie requested to attend the temple each day they were with us. Since there's no temple in Belize, they have to travel 14 hours by bus to the Guatemala City Temple.
On Tuesday, we worshipped at the Jordan River Temple which is two miles to the east of our home.
The next day we attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple a mile and a half to the west of our home.
To learn more about Latter-day Saint Temples, click here.
It was a thrill visiting with the Gomez's and reminiscing about common friends and the time we spent in their beautiful country.
From this photo in our mission book, we learned that we have a common friend from San Ignacio: Lee, the proprietor of Helen Supermarket.
Below is a photo of Scott and René from one of our mission experiences in 2017. The entry from our mission blog: Our church's Humanitarian Program donated the funds to have library bookshelves constructed by the Belizean Mennonites for the St. Matthews Government Elementary School. Here, the elated school principal, Michelle Gordon, meets Paul Woods (center), church temporal affairs administrator in Belize, René Gomez (right), church public affairs director, and Elder Magnusson (left), first counselor in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission presidency.
For more photos and additional information about our Church's bookshelves donation, click here.
After the Gomez's left Utah for California, the Lopez family was hosted by several other former senior missionary couples. They had many exciting adventures from Idaho to Southern Utah's National Parks over the next two weeks. (You can visit the Lopez's FaceBook page to see their other amazing experiences.)
The day before the Lopez's left for home, we were able to be with them, the Flakes, and Jensens as we attended an Old Testament exhibit in Springville, Utah, the BYU Bean Life Science Museum with it's amazing animal displays, and tour the BYU campus complete with lunch at the Cougareat and a game of bowling.
My son-in-law commented after we sent our family this photo: "That's a great action shot! I don't know how you were calm enough to pose for a picture with all that going on behind you."
We had a big snow day here in Utah this past week. It was the biggest snow day we've experience since we moved here from California 6 years ago.
You can see looking out of our bedroom window that Scott is standing in thigh high snow as he is removing the snow from our window.
We live in a HOA where we are blessed to have snow plow service provided to clear out the snow from our community roads and driveways. There is only one problem. The snow plows come when the snow plows can come. The demand is huge when the whole valley is dumped with snow.
We had committed to bring my brother to the airport the day after the big snow dump. We had to leave before snow plows could come, so we had the pleasure of clearing the snow out of our driveway.
Isn't the sky beautiful?
Isn't the snow plower handsome?
Success! 💪🏼
The highlight of our snow experience happened at the end of the day as we watched the Granger High School principal share his snow day experience on Youtube. Mr. Magnusson was happy to say that he never experienced a snow day at Gladstone High School.
You can also watch the video on YouTube by clicking here
Scott's mother, Marian Magnusson, was laid to rest today. Funerals are for families. We were blessed to be with all of our children for this special occasion, along with some of their spouses.
A slide show panorama of the life of Marian Magnusson, 1926-2022.
Click onto the arrow to watch and then bottom left hand corner to enlarge the video
Marian Andrew Magnusson, 96, of Orem, UT, passed away peacefully on December 25, 2022 of causes incident to age. Born on May 2, 1926 in Portland, OR, to Walter and Florence James Andrew, she had an older brother and a younger brother and sister. As a youth, she navigated the public transportation of Portland day and night to get herself to school, jobs, and church located distances away. She later said this helped her confidence and self-reliance.
An expert typist and stenographer, Marian worked for Bethlehem Steel Co. in Portland following high school as a secretary for four years during World War II and during the post-war years. Her experiences at work built her resolve to continue living correct principles. She planned to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but when the missionary age for sisters was raised to 23, she enrolled in BYU instead. Marian worked continuously as a secretary on campus and in industry to support herself at BYU. She loved learning as well as the entire experience in Provo, and valued her relationships with her roommates that became lifelong. During her fourth year, she was introduced by a mutual friend to George Magnusson from South Gate, CA, with whom she shared a class. They were married in the Logan Temple on June 1, 1951. The closeness and quality of their relationship was unique.
George’s career in high school education took the couple to southern California, where they lived in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and later in Torrance. Marian was a devoted support and home manager for her very busy husband.
Firm in her faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, she served in the Relief Society as a counselor and secretary, ward Primary president, counselor, secretary, and teacher, Cub Scout leader, and clerical assistant in the Los Angeles Temple office. She assisted in the open houses of both the Los Angeles and Mount Timpanogos Temples, later serving in the baptistry in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.
In January 1989, George and Marian were called as the first mission president and companion of the new Utah Provo Mission. Following their mission, they moved to Orem where Marian served as treasurer in their home owners association, and transcriber to the stake patriarch—George.
Marian loved reading biographies, American and Church history and gospel subjects, textiles, sewing, home decorating, wood furniture finishing and re-finishing, and visiting historical sites. A favorite family vacation was camping in Yosemite National Park. Since childhood she had a love for the Oregon coast and enjoyed getting away there with George.
Facing multiple episodes with cancer and injuries, as well as supporting her husband as he ended mortality in 2014, Marian cites 1 Nephi 3:7 as helping her “pull through a lot of tight places and challenging assignments.” She always maintained her positive attitude about life. She was a genuine friend, perceptive, and an interested listener to all she met.
She is survived by their four children: David (Aliece), Scott (Kathleen), Karen (Stan Albrecht), and Eric (Caralee). Grandmother to 25 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren, Marian always had a warm heart, welcome home, and something tasty for her posterity.
The family extends their sincerest gratitude to Covington Senior Living in Orem for all the wonderful care and friendship provided.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, January 10, at Sharon Park 2nd Ward, 225 E 200 N, Orem, UT 84057, at 11:00 a.m. Friends visited with the family from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. prior to the service. The service was live streamed at www.walkersanderson.com. Interment was at the Orem City Cemetery.
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