Baby girl Emma

Just learning to blog from my phone.

Friday night, 17 March 2011

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Saw lots of green today. Last Monday morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow. Today the temperature was 78'. Try and figure that one out. Cost Dad $50 to fill the Camry with gas. Boxes are everywhere taped up. Suitcases ready to put in.

WE ARE COMING HOME!!!!!

See you soon.

More random pics. What would our mission be without telling you about Sister Gray. She is a sweet little lady who lives across the street, and she wanders into the office occasionally. We always hope that it is the end of the day, because she tends to stay for a long time! Today we were able to turn the lights out after about 15 minutes. She repeats herself over and over and over and it is hard to converse with her because she is aways repeating. But we love her. She takes all our empty Tootsie Roll and Red Licorice or any other plastic containers we have, home with her. I can't imagine what she does with all of them. Kind of scary to think about!

Last Sunday we were invited to the Gilmore's. This is Chuck's family in St. Joseph. This is Ann Gilmore, his Mom. She had quite a group over since she was serving Ruebens. Says that only happens about once a year. They were good. It was good to be in their home. There have been several missionaries who have mentioned the Gilmore's and our connection. They are good to the missionaries in their area.

Chuck's brother, Mike and his wife and kids were there.

Dad with Chuck's dad, Chet. How has he managed to keep so much hair on his head!

This is Chuck's sister, Chris and her husband Ed. Chris is so much like her mother it is crazy. They even sound the same when they laugh.

And I think this is little brother, Rick. I was shocked when I saw Rick. We met Rick when he was a teen or early 20's and he is all grown up and has grayed in the process. Has a 3 year old and when he picks him up from school, they tell the boy his grandpa is here to get him. He is not real crazy about that.

This is the Amish grocery store where I get the tiny animal crackers. Very unique, but so clean and organized and orderly. No fresh stuff though. These are jams and sauces that they have made.

More Amish groceries and these are mostly dried items. They are very self sustaining.

The price of gas at the QT and it just keeps inching up. Went from $2.99 to this in about 3 days.

We are being held hostage by the oil companies.

A cute little shop close to Liberty Jail. Does anyone know what a cooper is?

Our favorite Sisters at the time. You have met Sister Cleveland on the left and Sister Crapo is on the right. She has such a sense of humor. When she first came out, she made fun of her name and said she didn't care what we called her. But you say it Cray-po. She is from our area. Went to Olympus and know the Viets in our ward. They were at dinner the other night and discovered that Sister Crapo is friends with one of the Viet boys and Sister Cleveland dated that boy a few times. They were crazy nutty as they made this connection. We laughed a lot. They love each other so much and have had quite the experiences together.

Sister Bouy, Sister Crapo and me.

Me, Sister Cleveland and Sister Bouy.

Picture this! I come home from the grocery store and empty one of the bags and at the bottom of the bag I find THIS!

Do you see what I see?! Crunch and Clean tidbits to clean your cat's teeth. I could not believe it. At first I thought it was one of those free offers that you sometimes get at the grocery store, but I really think that the bagger forgot to put it in the last person's bag. He was probably as disgusted as I was. Got home and his Crunch and Clean was not there.

I have been cleaning and packing today. My last Saturday in the mission. Can't quite believe it but WE ARE SO EXCITED to come home. It is days now. Soon to be hours.

Love, hugs, kisses.

I'm back!

What a weekend. Elder and Sister Bouy left on Saturday at 8:45am, almost had an accident about two blocks from the apartment as the streets were covered with ice, but they did get out of town and went North and then West and the weather was beautiful for them all the way home. They should have arrived about 6pm on Sunday.

Going to the office was a bit different today. We are now the old folks at the office! Been there the longest.

OK, here are some more random pics.

You know my love of clouds. How do you like this pink and blue combination! Very nice.

This was a HEART ATTACK that the girls gave us on Valentine's Day. Sister Cleveland and Sister Juergens.

A tree at the Far West Temple Site. The thorns have been trimmed off the whole tree. That is Elder Waldron standing on a bucket to cut some thorns for us.

This is what the thorns are like. I am bringing some home.

This is Elder Patterson. He is so great. Brings lots of laughter and fun to this mission. He can talk in all kinds of voices. It was always so fun when he called because he usually disguised his voice until I caught on. We shared an experience at a doctor's office with Sister Bouy and Elder Searle. You had to be there to understand, but we have laughed about it for months now.

Elder Beck has just gone home to Spanish Fork. Another delight. What a happy guy he is. He loved to be out in the far off places, in the country. He is a rodeo guy. First missionary we have heard of who bought a horse and sent it home while he was here. One day he took us to their car and there in the back seat was a racoon hide sitting on the seat and buckeled in with a seat belt. It was one he had found on the road and skinned it and did whatever you do to a hide to preserve it. Well, you would not believe the road kill around here. Racoons, opossums, squirrels, the list goes on and one. We will be going to a rodeo this summer to watch Elder Beck!

One of about 6 or 7 tablecloths that the Van Komens have had arriving missionaries draw or write or color on as a reminder that they were here. They are fun to look at.

Guess that's all for tonight.

Loves.

Tonight is just random pics. I guess I let this stress me too much. I start feeling like I need a certain amount of time to do anything on the Linde Line. Well, after all, it is just my ramblings and bits of experiences that we are experiencing out here. Well, it has been raining ice today. I tell you, the raindrops were bouncing off the car today. The rain actually came down as little frozen balls of water. And the ice on the car, well, believe it when you see those pics of ice storms. Now it has been snowing all evening. The snow came in nearly sideways and so it is blowing all over. Those pics tomorrow.

So here goes. Some of my favorite pics and especially favorite people.

This up above is Mick Jefferies. You know when Mick enters the building. He fixes things, cleans up after us, knows where to find anything, just an all around great person to have around and to be around. You know when he enters the building! His voice is easily identified. He is always laughing and ALWAYS has this big smile on his face. I hope you all have a chance to meet him. He says he will come and stay when he comes out to Utah.

This is Elder LeSuma. An outstanding missionary, gentle, sweet spirit. He is that.

Elder Morgan from Morgan, UT. He does not like to have his pic taken. I had to sneak this. Outside on transfer day as kids are meeting and then leaving. Another gentle giant.

Gosh, I got his twice! He would be so mad at me.

This is Elder Childs. The tallest missionary here at 6 feet and 8 or 9 inches. And every inch is special. He is from SLC. Went to Skyline High. Every inch of him is good. And Elder Struthers ran and jumped into his arms as they saw each other in the parking lot. Elder Struthers was headed home this transfer. He is not nearly as tall as Elder Childs, in fact, probaby a good foot or so shorter, but packed with goodness and he has a beautiful voice. We all went to the Community of Christ temple his last day and heard him sing. He is from Tucson.

Another tall Elder. This is Elder Allred and he is multi talented. Sings beautifully, plays the piano amazingly. In fact, he is a drama major and loves to be on stage. A great leader and fun to be around.

Elder Benson and I think from UT somewhere. It gets hard to remember where they all live. Unique about him--his parents left on a mission the same time that he did. They went to California and have returned home, but they had parallel lives for 18 months. Elder Benson plays the banjo and other instruments. A choice Zone Leader who has a beautiful attitude. So humble.

A couple of our favorite Sisters. Sister Cleveland on the left is from Cedar City. She has had cancer for several years and has a treatment every week. The first few weeks she had to rest after the treatment, but not any more. She just gets up and goes on with her day. It is quite amazing. Sister Juergens on the right believe that her cancer is all gone! We don't know that for sure so she will continue the treatments. Sister J. is from Houston, TX but is going to BYU and she has twin brothers who play football at BYU, but they are leaving for missions soon. These two have been in the same ward as us so it has been fun to be with them so much. They are like attached at the hip. They are truly sisters and shed a lot of tears as they were split up this last transfer.

Elder Diaz de Leon from Orem and Elder Thomas from Kaysville. These two are also in our ward and WOW! they are fabulous. They are the two Assistants to the President right now. AP's we call them. Will be until we are gone. Wonderful leaders. I do believe that Elder Thomas has a photographic memory. He has admitted to having perfect pitch. He plays the piano amazingly well and when it comes to everyday details like losing his keys and his phone, he is very good at. I have heard that people with minds like his don't do some of the little things very well. Elder Diaz is so organized and picks up the pieces and is able to go with the flow. You know nothing on the mission goes as originally planned. Elder Diaz just moves into a new gear with no thought about it. They work together so well.

This is where our KC Temple is at at the moment. It has been exciting watching it go up. You just cannot believe the excitement in the people out here. We are spoiled with being so close to more than one temple. You can feel the excitement around you. A bunch of us are already planning a trip out here next Spring when it should be completed.

Just because they look like twins doesn't mean that I needed to put them in twice!

Oh my. I can't get it right.

And this pic. Can some of you even believe it! I carry my camera with me every single day. I always have it with me. One night I came home and downloaded pics on the computer and then decided that I needed to go to JoAnn's for some yarn. I actually thought of picking up my camera, but then thought, I am just going to JoAnn's, no pics there. So I left it home. Imagine my horror as I walked down the aisle and loked up and saw this box sitting on the top shelf. It has significance for a sister-in-law, daughters-in-law, daughters and some nieces. So the next day, with camera in hand I went back to JoAnn's and stood in the aisle taking pics. A clerk asked if I needed help! No, not really.

Sorry.

Here it is again. I did forget to tell you something about it though. I got a call a couple days ago from someone who had been at the temple site. He was a Stake President and was just looking at the progress. Another man was also looking and they started talking. The second man said that he was one who had made the block that contained the inscription, Holiness to the Lord, on it and had come up from Tennessee to see it in place. The SP asked if he knew what the building was. He said no and so they had a talk about the temple. He then called me and gave me the referral for Harry Alexander in Tennessee. I entered it and then called the mission to explain who this was, so missionaries will be visiting this man soon. Things like that happen all the time. Peoples lives are changing because this temple is coming.

This is the quilt we made for President and Sister Van Komen. Each of the X's have four seniors names and home town on them. It was a fun project and we think turned out quite nice.

Elder Terrasas from Reno. I really wanted to get to know him the first time he came to the mission home, but for 8-9 months he served in Wichita. So we would see him at ZC and that was it. But two transfers ago he was made ZL and came to Independence. I am so glad. He is a wonderful ZL and cares so much for the Sisters. Very concerned about their well being. Yes, the Independence ZL have mostly Sisters in their Zone. They also think he is amazing. And another great thing is that he is a computer whiz. He has just installed four new computers in the office and he is the go to guy whenever we have a problem.

Elder Diaz de Leon. What can I say! He is great.

Believe it or not, this is the Book of Mormon in braille. Yep! And it only costs $5. Can you believe. Five big books that are about 18 inches wide.

This is a fast food joint out here and I just had to have this pic. It makes me sick every time I see it. Can you believe that they advertise Livers & Gizzards? Yuck! And people actually go buy them I guess. We have never gone there. But there was a missionary, Sister Balois from New Jersey who called us and asked if we would take her there on her last day. She was coming in from way out yonder and had to go there for livers and gizzards. We told her, sure we will take you! Turns out we didn't since she got here late and there was not time.

Elder Warner. He goes with Elder Benson. What a powerful twosome they are. I just cannot believe the wonderful, committed, gentle souls that are out here. Elder Warner loves the Lord and is a choice missionary.

Our girls again. Sister Juergens and Sister Cleveland. We almost do think that they are ours!

Another I like to claim. Sister Clark from Elk Ridge. I have seen so much growth in this missionary. She is just good thru and thru. Has just been moved to Liberty Jail where she is a Sister Leader. I love her.

All is Well.

This is the the quilt that Sister Bouy and I have been collecting for the past few months. Each time one of us would go to Wichita, we would have to stop in Emporia and pick up our monthly bag of fabric. We have it all collected now and are anxious to start. Even Sister Bouy, who is a seasoned quilter, says it will be challenging. It is to beautiful.

This is the center section. All hand done.

Another square with applique on it.

And still another.

This is kind of a pic of te whole quilt. Isn't is beautiful! I guess only if you enjoy quilting.

All is Well.