Dear Family, Earlier this month, precisely 15 years, 2 months, and 29 days after Crystal and I got into the business of being parents to teenagers, we finally left that chapter behind by celebrating Grace’s 20th birthday. We marked the occasion (sort of — technically we were a week early) by driving down to Lexington,…
Author: Timothy Willis
On flouting open container laws, quality time with Mom, and testing the boundaries of church music (vol. xxix, no. 2)
Dear Family, For Christmas, I gave Crystal one of those overpriced “Adventure Bucket List” things they sell on Facebook to people with no impulse control. Maybe you’ve seen the ads. It’s basically a box of 50 large scratch-off cards — kind of like the lottery tickets they sell at gas stations, except instead of winning…
On surgery, bodily functions, and how my oldest daughter finally married a returned missionary (vol. xxix, no. 1)
Dear Family, On or about Wednesday, January 8th, Hannah married Emma Porter during a small ceremony in their apartment in Orem, Utah. I never expected I would devote the first sentence of two consecutive monthly letters to announcing the marriages of two of my daughters, but here we are. Until relatively recently, I never expected…
On too much food and not enough tables (vol. xxviii, no. 12)
Dear Family, Sophie married Luke Wonnacott shortly before noon on Friday in the Washington D.C. Temple. The rest of the month is kind of a blur. It’s New Year’s Eve and I don’t have a lot of time to write, but let’s see what I can remember. Apart from being a last-minute addition to the…
On being grateful in all things; e.g., the benefits of being Roland Kent’s sister, sharing Thanksgiving with (most of) my daughters, and the very most fun I’ve ever had directing a choir (vol. xxviii, no. 11)
Dear Family, Crystal learned this month that if you need a good spine surgeon, it’s really helpful to be Roland Kent’s sister. If you are a faithful reader of my letters (and have a good memory) you already know that Crystal’s back surgery last spring — performed by a surgeon more conveniently located to us…
On other people’s health challenges, Hannah’s new job, Boo at the Zoo, and an evening with Renée Fleming (vol. xxviii, no. 10)
Dear Family, Hopefully all of you have learned by now that if you don’t want the details of your latest health challenges chronicled on the internet, then you’re probably better off not sharing them with me. I have genuine concern for how you’re doing — and I’m actually good at keeping secrets. But you have…
On being waterproof, geeking out on hymns, and trying to relate to people with no memory of 9/11 (vol. xxviii, no. 9)
Dear Family, Riding my bike to work in the rain multiple times this week brought to mind a cherished childhood memory that I sometimes wonder whether my mother remembers the same way I do. The distance from my childhood home in Moorestown, New Jersey, to the middle and high school I attended (the two schools’…
On marital smugness, Hawaiian vocabulary, and a panic attack at 8,000 feet (vol. xxviii, no. 8)
Note: For the latest from Sophie (including her rhapsodic musings about Riga, her harrowing journey from Latvia to Utah to Alaska and then back to Utah, and her always-exciting adventures working at the BYU Bindery, read here. For an account of Ari’s summer as a counselor at Science Camp and Adventure Camp and dealing with…
On the blessings of family and … I forget what else (vol. xxviii, no. 7)
Dear Family, One of the downsides of writing a letter at the end of every month is that important events at the beginning of the month tend to get short shrift, if not forgotten entirely. This is definitely shaping up to be one of those months, especially since almost all of this letter is being…
On geography lessons, engagement, the kindness of strangers, and why music makes me cry (vol. xxviii, no. 6)
Dear Family, Sophie is back in the former Soviet Union. Two and a half years after having her time in Eastern Ukraine cut short by the Russian invasion, she got herself into a BYU study abroad program to Latvia for the summer. For reasons you might have to be a former missionary to fully understand,…