2009 Newsletter

2009 has been a wonderful year for the Brubakers. We have been abundantly blessed.

We were sad to see Richard’s mother pass away at the beginning of the year (on Pamela’s birthday). But through it all we learned a lot.

This year Richard finished a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Utah Valley University. He is very excited to have completed school and now spends his spare time fishing, duck hunting, deer hunting, and working with his father and brother on the family business. He continues to work for the Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute as a programmer/analyst and on electricity shopping alone he was instrumental in saving the state of Pennsylvania $8.6 million.

Pamela is still working on her Ph.D. This year she was able to present research in Boston, MA, and Messina, Italy. She finished all of her course work and plans to graduate from Penn State in about a year, after completing her comprehensive examinations and dissertation.

In September we spent a couple of weeks touring Italy. During this time we spent several days in Rome where we visited the Vatican and saw many ancient Roman sites, including the Colosseum. We rode the train down to Sicily where Pamela presented research at a religious conference on how the General Authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints use the scriptures at General Conference. She gave background and explanations on the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. We thoroughly enjoyed the Italian food and discovered that traffic in Europe is frightening. We would love to do more traveling in the future and see more parts of the world.

We have been busy this year serving in our church callings in the University Branch. Pamela is the Relief Society president and Richard is the Branch Clerk.

We also enjoyed having Richard’s dad visit us. During his visit we explored some of our favorite jaunts, including Philadelphia, the sacred grove (Palmyra, NY), Niagara Falls, New Jersey back roads, Hershey Pennsylvania, and Gettysburg.

After hiking Rickett’s Glen, Pennsylvania—a beautiful place with lots of small waterfalls—Pamela decided that we found the original Garden of Eden.

Christmas was spent in Utah where we were able to enjoy being with Pamela’s family. We ate delicious food, played fun games, and went ice skating with our nephews.

We are looking forward to this next year and hope to have just as many adventures.