When Nina’s shift ended at the Idaho Falls Temple at about 7:30 pm on Saturday, we decided to go to dinner in Idaho Falls before heading home. Our original choice was Olive Garden, but when we got there we found that the wait was going to be quite long. That’s a fairly large restaurant, but apparently also quite popular on a Saturday evening. So, we went up the street to our standby favorite, Applebees. We had a nice dinner and drove home. We had left at 10 am to drive up to Idaho Falls and got home just after 9 pm. A nice eleven hour day.

I addition to spending some time in the Temple on Saturday afternoon, I also visited a friend who is incarcerated at the Idaho Falls Community Work Center. He’s serving a two-year fixed, ten year indeterminate sentence for grand larceny. We had a nice visit. He is having a difficult time and dealing with some depression. The enormity of what he has done and it’s affect on him, his family, and his future is weighing very heavily on him. I can only try to imagine what that would be like. In that circumstance it is very easy to become convinced that you have no worth and that there is little, if any hope for the future.

Of course, his crime is bad. Many people were seriously hurt, some financially, some emotionally. The consequences will be evident for the rest of his life. But, there is always hope and there is always a future. My heart goes out to him as he battles through this current circumstances and begins to position himself to come back from this situation and make a future for himself. We all have serious shortcomings. Mine just happen not to be criminal.

Ta ta for now!