Final Farewell to Reed Lynn Rasmussen

This is perhaps the hardest post I have had to write. After the prior posts you can see that my dad became gravely ill, with a failure to thrive. He finally was able to pass through the veil, join my mother who passed away 18 years before, and finally be free from a body tired of life. What a tender mercy though that he would now be free. 

I weathered my mothers passing, without someone by my side. Serving then as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I rejoiced in having the power of the Holy Ghost help me immediately during that hard time. I had the same tender mercy now, but I had an additional blessing...Heather! I was so happy she could come with me, and with some friends that were so generous to help with the kids, we boarded a plane again and went again 7000 miles home. 

After arriving and being sweetly picked up by the best mother in the world we made it to our hotel for some rest. The next day we attended the family viewing service, which was very very special. We spent the entire times sharing stories, which thanks to my aunt's and uncle's I was able to learn things about my dad I never knew. 

The next day was the funeral...a very hard but happy day. I was asked to give the eulogy, which I spent hours trying to write. I had three versions prepared, and knowing how vital it is to prepare very carefully, but deliver very carefully. It was an honour to me to share my testimony of my dad, which I did with as much humor, honesty and humility as I could. My dad had many imperfections, like I do, but looking like him, speaking like him, and thinking like him, I was honoured to stand for and behalf of him to address his life. Paris Cluff gave the talk to the plan of salvation, doctrinally sound and well done. I was especially happy to have Brandon there with me. As the only other person in the family who has worn the uniform of the Air Force, I was honoured to be our blues together to honour our dad. Brandon joked about how tight it fit now - haha! Mine fit fine!

Heather was so amazingly supportive during this time. She was able to see her family who also came to support me in all of this. Lisa came all the way down from Idaho just to see Heather, which was very special.

At the conclusion we made the way to the burial plot. I am frustrated that he was buried across town from where my mom is, and not buried next to her but with Lydia's plot. Not cool in my mind but what I can say, she took over everything.

Brandon and I decided ahead of time to render our final salutes to my dad. This was so hard for me to do, and made everyone cry. I have never stood with Brandon like this before, and although he always hints about how bad he is, he was wonderful for me in this moment.

We went though the final procession, and then my uncle Richard dedicated the grave of my father. I loved being around so many men of the priesthood, and knowing I was one of them. I were two uniforms in my life, one for America and one for my Savior Jesus Christ. 

One thing that bummed me out was that my little brother Darren didn't make it. I will only go as far as that, but I loved seeing my siblings!

When all was said and done there were a few things Heather and I wanted to do: Cold Stone and Cafe Rio!!! So we needed a little bit of some pick me up, so off we went to brighten the moment with some ice cream.

Every time Heather and I go back to Fresno we revisit a sacred place, the Fresno Temple! The temple is a very sacred place that heather and I were sealed for time and all eternity, and here coming home to Fresno means coming home to the Temple that has brought my family the opportunity to be together forever. We did an endowment session with Lisa, Mom and Dad and Grandpa Taylor. It was fun sitting next to Grandpa Taylor because he is so deaf he just talks at normal levels in places where you are supposed to whisper!

We went out to lunch after together, which started our whirlwind tour of spending every moment we could with family. From restaurants to houses, to night time chats, it was moment after moment of making the most of what matters most: family. Elder M. Russell Ballard said: "That which lasts the longest is the most important," and these final concluding moments were just that - amazing family moments.

Yes those are Root beers!

This weekend was a sacred moment, traveling the world with my best friend to celebrate a man that I owe a life time of help. I love my dad, imperfections and one arm in all, and I was honoured to not only show my gratitude for him, but my testimony of Jesus Christ, his perfect role in peace in our lives, and his complete success in overcoming the sting of death. I hold to that promise, and try to live worthy of the woman by side that I have been blessed for sharing eternity with. Thank you Heather for your tender support this time!

Little A's Baptism

Little A made the decision to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  In our religion, we believe that children become accountable for their actions at the age of 8.  Children who have turned 8 can choose to be baptized or not into the church.  Little A was so very excited to be baptized.  She ended up waiting a month to get baptized trying to work out scheduling with family that was trying to come to Korea for her baptism.  Unfortunately our plans kept changing as we are moving to Germany, and our original plans to go home to the States between the move just didn't pan out.  Little A was baptized by her daddy.  Kevin holds the proper authority and priesthood from God to be able to perform this sacred ordinance.  It is so wonderful having an amazing and worth husband, I sure love him!  And you can tell by her smiles that Little A loves her daddy too.

While we were waiting for the program to start, Little A was so excited she couldn't even stay in her chair.  She kept jumping up and was simply so excited she said she felt like she was going to burst.  We decided to have her baptism directly after church, hoping that we could get as much of our church family to come support Little A, since the only family member that was able to come was her cousin, Talia.  Grandma and Grandpa really wanted to come, but we just found out that my dad's cancer came back, so due to his health and mom needing to stay with him, they were not able to come.  

Little A had a beautiful program! She asked Talia to give a talk on baptism, which was amazing by the way.  She also asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and she asked her sisters to play their instruments while she changed after being baptized during the intermission.  Big Sis and M&M practiced hard and played so beautifully.  After her baptism, she changed into her special Korean Handbook, which is the traditional formal dress of Korea.  She really wanted to wear it since she was baptized in Korea.  She was so happy.  Little A was confirmed a member of the church by Kevin and she received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She was all smiles.

We had such a great turn out.  Almost the entire ward stayed for Little A to be there as her church family.  She had all her friends there and felt so loved and special.  She is a special little lady and I am so proud to call her my daughter.  I love you Little A.

Namiseom Island

We took a day trip to Nami Island with Talia today.  I have wanted to go to Nami Island since we went to Petite France and Garden of the Morning Calm a year and half ago.  Nami is a half moon shaped small island that was formed as a result of the building g of the Cheongpyeong Dam.  The Island has the grave of General Nami who led a great victory in the 1400’s, which is where it got its name.

The original plan was for Kevin and a Talia to zipline onto the island and for me and the kids to take the 5 minute ferry to Nami. However, when Kevin went to buy the tickets for the zipline, he found out that there was a 3 hour wait, so we dropped that idea (and saved about $140) and we all took the ferry together.

The ferry was packed with people and took only a short 5 minute ride across the river to the small half moon shaped island.  The ferry had a bunch of flags from all over the world.  Nami is considered its own country and even has its own currency for purchase, if you so choose.  

After exiting the ferry, we leisurely walked through the island in search of the bike rental shop.  On our walk we passed cute sculptures and outdoor exhibits. One of the exhibits was to promote reading and huge book covers were lining the walkway.

We passed by a beautiful lotus garden sans the lotus since it was not the flowering season.  The pond was filed with huge lily pads with a bridge to cross right over the pond.  I can only imagine how crazy beautiful it would be if there were thousands of lotuses coming up throughout the pond.

The coolest part about the island is that there aren’t any telephone poles or anything to distract from the beautiful trees and natural feeling of the island.  They built all electrical underground to help maintain the peaceful beauty of the island.  There are so many rows of different variety of trees all around the island to include chestnut trees, cherry trees, white pine and more.

As we were walking around, Kevin saw a group of people all with the same breed of white dogs, and he was laughing and laughing about it.  He keeps saying that it must be the White Dog Support Group.  But seriously, there were so many of the same dog that it was beyond coincidence and was  just crazy, so naturally we told the kids to flash their blond hair and dimples and ask if we can get a picture.  This was only about 1/8 of the dogs that we saw in the group.

There were art exhibits all over the island, one was a sign that was welcoming us to Nami, and had countries from all over the world.  I was wearing my ‘I love Canada’ shirt and the sign on the welcome sign also said I love Canada, so we all jumped in and got a picture.

We found a large picnic bench and decided that since we only get bikes for rent for an hour, we should eat first so we don’t have to use some of the paid bike rental time to stop and eat.  There were grass fields and picnic benches all throughout Nami, so we found one of the bigger ones in the shade by the playground to enjoy our lunch.  We brought lunches with us for this very purpose, so we were excited to find a perfect spot.  The kids played in the playground and on a tree swing which was right by our picnic bench.  We chose the perfect day to come since the sky was a crazy beautiful blue, air quality was green and perfect and the weather was a perfect temperature of not too cold and not too hot.

We finished eating and playing then went and rented our bikes.  Kevin, Monster and I rented a family bike, while the other four had their own bikes.  It was perfect! The paths were all dirt paths and there weren’t too many crazy hills, with most of it being pretty flat.  We enjoyed spending the next hour going all the way to the very north of the island then making our way around the perimeter.

The quad bike that Kevin, Monster and I had was quite a work out.  The bike was heavy and of course, only Kevin and I were peddling while Monster enjoyed the ride.  There were definitely a few times that we were huffing and puffing while Monster. was just laughing and loving the ride.

As we rode all around the island we really enjoyed all the trees.  There were so many groves all over the island of as many trees out could think of.  It was so nice that we had bikes to take us all around, because there is absolutely no way the little feet of Monster and Little A would have made it very far around the island.  But since we had bikes we got to see all the tree groves.

There was a man made waterfall in the middle of the island that we got to see and enjoy. We also saw the river from the north side of the island.  We were able to park our bikes and take a little hike along a bridge to look out over the river.

We only had about 15 minutes left on our bike rentals, so we decided to take a ride all the way to the south side of the island.  The kids were still smiling and loving their bikes.  We were so proud of Little A because this was the longest and most rugged path she had ever ridden on up to this point.   She did such an amazing job on her bike and never complained. I bet having her amazing cousin with her helped a lot.

We reached the south side and were greeted by three huge piles of rocks and a picnic platform.  We rested on the platform and took some pictures with one of the piles of rocks. Everyone was pretty tired by this point and we had promised ice cream cones, and the kids wanted to cash in on our promise.  We rode back to the bike rental and returned our bikes.  The ice cream was next to the bike returns, so we enjoyed some shade and ice cream as we rested our legs.  We made our way back to the ferry.  It was such a nice day on Nami Island, I'm really glad we came.