Two for Brazil

Weston landed in Brazil today, Now they have both of our boys learning Portuguese and sharing the great message of the Restoration and the Atonement of the Savior. We are proud of them and our prayers are with them ano all the missionaries all over the world. Th last two of our 10 children are now out of the home and launched into the real world,. Hopefully their wings are well fitted.
Dallas has been in Brazil now for 6 months and really loves the country, the people. (the food) the language and his work. Weston spent 3 weeks in the MTC in Provo and now will finish his training in the MTC in Sao Paulo.
Dallas serves in the Brazil Salvador mission and Weston is serving in the Brazil Vitoria mission. Brazil which is as big as the whole USA, now has 27 different missions It has 5 active Temples and one announced for the Amazon area. They have a great country to work in and the work is doing very well there.
Here at home we have begun to take a real interest in the country of Brazil and enjoy our findings. Dallas began serving in the :desert" and now is in the tropical area. it is beginning to be summer there while it is starting to be winter here. They are 5 hours ahead of us here in the Pacific zone (even one hour ahead of Melanie, our daughter, on the East coast).
It is interesting that the Amazon river in Brazil is the largest river in the world. In fact it is larger than the next 8 largest rivers in the world. It is larger than all the rivers in the US combined. 100 miles out to sea from the mouth of the Amazon you can still dip fresh water out of the ocean. It seems that the whole country is just full of interesting facts from Brazil nuts (after which the country was named) and sugar cane and beans and rice
Our Boys will love it all.

















Utah andnoew eill fgi

Empty Nestors after 48 years

November 16, 2011 Weston our 10th child entered the MTC in Provo Utah, still waiting for his
Visa to enter the mission field in the Brazil Vitoria Mission..
That means that after 48 years of marriage, we are finally in our home alone. Well...watching Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and Rifleman on TV and cracking walnuts wont be so bad.
Dallas is really enjoying his mission , also in Brazil (Salvador Mission). His first area in the state of Bahia was Petrolina, a city in the Desert, now his second area is in a town near Salvador in the rainy tropical part of the state. It is beginning to be summer in Brazil and it we got snow here yesterday. The first of the winter season .
Dane and Shira are still here in Ashland, Melanie is in North Carolina with her family. Tasha is in San Diego with her girls, Daisha and her family still wallow in historic Great
Briton. Tiana and family are headed for Tennessee and Nial and his wife just returned from a 7 month spree, gold mining in Alaska. Now with our Twins in Brazil, we can say our family is truly world wide. A great family!

Change of plans for Weston

Weston's Visa for Brazil did not come through yet so he was supposed to leave for the MTC in Provo tomorrow. This morning the Stake President called him ad told him that they had changed his date of reporting to the MTC in Brazil to November 16. Apparently to give the consulate more time to process his visa Lucky for me. I still have some things I need him to do for me before he is gone.

Final stretch for Weston now.. He flies our next Wednesday, but the Stake President called and said that hs Visa to travel to Brazil; did not come yet so he is headed for the Provo MTC to start with. There was a big meeting here in our stake center for all the missionaries here in the Oregon Eugene mission for which Diana prepared a big Vegetable Beef soup. She found that there was a missionary there who was called to Brazil and his visa hadn't come yet, just like Weston.
Weston spent the past week in Utah finishing his clothes purchases and attending conference in the Conference Center, then on up to Idaho to visit with Tiana and Hyrum and family. (I think he was really trying to avoid being a "slave" to his parents before he leaves.)
He gives his going away talk Sunday and then gets set apart Tuesday evening and then flies out from Medford Wednesday morning. Dallas has been in Brazil now since June (serving now in a town called Petrolina, in the Salvador mission) Weston's mission is "Vitoria"
Guess what that makes Diana and I then........."Empty" Nesters.
That is not nearly as scary as the thought that Kaylynn (now Muntifering) is pregnant and that will make us "Great Grandparents"....Mercy!
We were also glad to hear that Daisha and Edward finally got their offer on a new home acepted. It is a Baptist Church from the 1800's that was converted into a residential house in 1960. It looks pretty gool.
I hope soon to figure out how to inlude photographs along with the Blog. Then you will be able to see how "old" I am getting to look. Diana still looks great, but I have turned 72 and look like it too.

Is Summer coming to an end?

It is September 2011, school has started, the temperature is falling, and We just passed our 48th wedding anniversary. Dallas has been on his mission in Brazil now for over 3 months and Weston will be there on October 12, just 30 days away.
We hear rumors that Dane is going to be a grandpa, and his son Ammon is now married and loving it in Salt Lake City. Melanie and her family have withstood earthquakes and hurricanes in North Carolina and come through unscathed. Daisha is becoming more of a Brit all the time, while still speaking "American". Her Daughter though will not be anything but a true Brit. Naatasha will be a Phd and a lawwyyer as well before the next year is through. She and her two girls are loving it in San Diego... as we knew they would. Tiana and her family are trying to get used to having a medical man for a dad in the house back in Idaho. Shira and Sam have been loving their summer here in Oregon and Nial and Elle have been loving their two week long summer in Alaska. Dallas and Weston will have perpetual summer down near the equator in Brazil. But......summer IS coming to an end for us all .... except for the " Boys from Bazil".
Lets see what Winter brings.

Family visit

What a pleasant surprise. A volcano goes off in Iceland and Daisha and Edward Lanyon are stranded on Las Vegas and all flights home to England are canceled and so she calls and asked if we would mind if they came here for a visit till it reopened. Whoopee for us. Thanks for volcanoes. They were here from Sunday until Thursday and finally arrived back in London
Friday safe and sound.
Dakota has grown another foot or two and is now almost 6 feet tall. And little Tabitha won all our hearts. She is only 5 years old in her body but probably 10 years old in her mind, and a real sweetheart to all of us.
Great experience for all here.
It is becoming spring, but the nights are still cold and the days warm and pear blossoms out in great splendor.
Weston and Dallas will graduate from high school in a month. Weston is looking forward to another summer working on the coast renting and servicing sand dune buggies. Dallas hopes to get a job in Texas then both are looking forward to mission calls after the first of the year.

Christmas just past

This has been a fantastic experience this year. 31 of us, and of those there was 15 grandchildren. It is really the children that make Christmas the great happy time of the year.
We all had a great time also in Seattle last weekend at the wedding of Nial and Elle. It was Very nice and a big croud of both families made it special for everyone. Driving interstate 5 in the winter is always iffy, but it turned out sunny most of the way for most of us and not freezing at all. Past experiences have always made such trips questionable.
It was frosty here today but lots of family made it very warm for all of us.
Dane and Shira and the boys from here in Ashland. Tasha from San Diego, Daisha from England and Tiana from Rexburg Idaho and all their families make our family spread around, but all with much love for each other and so much fun for so many grandchildren who are close in age too.
It has been a very Merry Christmas even if Melanie and Nial were not able to be here.