Adam Ellery

Ellynn, I hesitate to interrupt all the good news about baby Adam...but I've been wanting to post a few things about Adam E. (I wanted to say my Adam, but I know better. I have to share.)

Adam is so happy as a homeless man. He really hopes to survive the winter out here (doesn't it look like the moon?). He's been working from noon to midnight, driving to this spot a few miles from the plant, and sleeping in his truck. He's convinced that he cannot be seen from the road and will not be discovered in this location. As far as I can tell, he has two plans for surviving the winter out here: a) find a cave to sleep in (honestly, he has been looking for caves on his morning runs), b) drop a camper out here and snowshoe in when the snow is so deep he can't drive his truck. He spends a lot of effort in making sure he gets a shower every day. He just bought his third camp shower at an REI garage sale and it is funny to see how excited it is about it. He wrote me an email and said that he showered that morning and it was only 48 degrees. When he comes home, he claims to take cold showers so that he won't get soft.

Aside from telling you all about his showering habits, I also wanted to include words from a letter he recently received. A few weeks ago he stopped to help a friend of Meagan & Cory's, Shane Hall. I'm trying to figure out how to word this to make the story less complicated...Shane and his father, Tim, were in Colorado on a 9 day bow hunting trip (hunting for elk). In the middle of the trip, Shane (a trained EMT) got really sick and self-diagnosed himself with appendicitis. They left their packs and rushed to civilization to medical help. Shane is ok, but the packs were 9.5 miles back in the wild. It wasn't too much out of Adam's way to meet up with Tim and hike in & out to get the packs. Adam didn't have the right clothes or food for such a hike, but being Adam he did it anyway. Here is the letter of appreciation from Tim:

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built." Eleanor Roosevelt
Hello Adam. Not only was your recent experience on the Flat Tops Wilderness a character building experience, but it also showed the true measure of your character going in. There are few men who would have volunteered to help a complete stranger by walking 13.5 hours in the cold freezing rain over rough steep country carryng a heavy pack suffering physical pain not complaining and end the ordeal in a positive frame of mind. It's difficult for me to find the correct words to express my gratitude for your enormous outpouring of yourself to come to my aid as you did. For without your unselfish act I would have suffered much and taken three days to do what we did together in one...I'd like to express my heart-felt thanks for all that you did and to your family for allowing you the time to be away. You will always be remembered.
I couldn't help but tear up when Adam read this to me. I wanted to share it with everyone. "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto [Adam]..." (Alma 48:17)