Welcome to the Training Zone. These are two pictures of the missionaries in our Zone.  When the new missionaries come in each month we all line up and shake their hands as the walk down the hall.  It is a big welcome party.  We have about 30 missionaries in our Zone.

This is Lacey's little boy Tyler.  We were able to attend his 2nd birthday party.  It sure is nice to be close to some family.  He is a funny little guy.  Happy Birthday Tyler.

 

One day when we were walking back from lunch we met these two ground works.  They were putting this white plastic over the pansies they had just planted.  This will protect them from the winter cold.  It really looks like snow.

How do you like this?  Our first snowfall.  We got about a foot of snow.  This is the view from our condo.  The State Capital is the center of our view.  The snow only lasted a few days and then it was gone.  I told Elder Danielson that if this is as bad as it gets I am O.K.

My poor little statue was covered in snow.  It was piled on her back.  It looked like she was carrying a heavy load.  I think she is beautiful dancing in the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



They final event for October. HALLOWEEN

 

Halloween

 

 

Liz made soup and we enjoyed it in these beautiful pumpkin bread bowls.  It sure was a wonderful Halloween evening in Utah.  This is one of the benefits of serving a mission in Salt Lake. You don't have to miss out on the grandkids.

 

 

This is our little cowgirl and Oscar her dog.  We spent Hallowen with Randy, Liz and the kids.

Here is Preston looking scary.

We even had some fun in the Training Zone.  This is Elder Kuchar our zone leader and sister Pethel the zone leader's assistant with green spider webs on her desk.

 

 

 

 

Last spooky week in October

After training our new missionaries, we go with them for a temple session.  In October the Salt Lake Temple was busy with the Temple Presidents.  So we all packed up in 8 church vans and drove to the Jordan River Temple.  Dad was one to the drivers.  He helped everyone into the  van.  It was a wonerful experience.  My deaf student did not attend with us because of his special needs.

 

These two scarecrows were sitting in the lobby of our condo.  They greeted everyone when they entered the building.  Aren't they cute.  Sometimes I can't help snapping a picture of fun things.

 

This is an unusal picture.  Dead trees on the ground with lights on them.  The next day the dead trees were standing up tied to a post.  Strange to have dead trees pretending to be real on Temple Square.  Next month when they are turned on I will send another picture.

 

Here is a small glimps of the some of the lights.  This was taken on our way to work at 7:30 in the morning.  They were testing the lights and we happened to catch it at the right time.  What a beautiful place to work.  Is anyone jealous yet?

 

 

First week of Oct

This was Scary!!!

Here we are after we had to give our three minute talks for Monday morning devotional.  All new missionaries have to tell about themselves.  You have to read your talk and if you go over 3 minutes they flash a card at you.  It sure felt good when we were done.  The Thacker's had their turn the week before us.

 

 Finally we are not the newest on the block.  This is our second Aloha party where the next group of missionaries join our branch.  This group arrived in October.  Every other month we get new ones.  On the odd months Thacker's get a new group added to their branch.


 This is very odd!

 

 

Oh no!!

What happened?  They cleaned her up.  One day she was beautiful with flowers growing all around her.  The next day there was dirt.  A few days later we walked by and they had planted pansies and there were tulip bulbs spread around to be planted.  I am sure this will look spectacular in the Spring.

It just get any scarier than this.

 

The Big Day

This was a big day for me.  I was finally ready to train my first full time missionary.  I was so excited until they told me my student was deaf.  They were sure I would do just fine.  What a way to start off training.  He was wonderful and it ended up being a very spiritual experience.  It seemed there were angels whispering in his ears.  Of course I could not have done it without the translators.    His name is Elder Williams.  In the picture below is his wife who is also deaf and the two translators in the middle. Don't laugh we do have a lot of walkers, canes and motorized wheelchairs in this mission. What can I say we are all seniors  We had such an enjoyable time during the two weeks of training he gave me flowers and a card to say thanks.  I almost believes that I can learn his language.  I will always cherish the time that I was able to teach him.

 

 

 

Below is Dad with his trainee Sister Chamberlain. He was such a great trainer that she ended up in the training zone with us. Yeah!we are not the new ones any more.

 

 

 

 

If you look hard at the background you can get a peek at the zone.  Everyone sits at computers with a trainer and learns how to source and prove their genealogy.  Below is the Aloha Party with a skit making fun of the Training Zone.  Every missionary can relate to this because they all have for the two week training.  It is very intense and creates lots of memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spooky, Scary and Special events in October

It's scary up here. This is a picture of our condo from the top of the Church Office Building.  It is the perfect location for us.  We live on the 6th floor and the Thackers are on the 10th floor.  Talk about being spoiled.  There is an indoor swimming pool and tennis courts.  Who could ask for more.  Being a missionary sure is tuff.

 

Party Time!!

The mission had a big celebration to honor those that helped with indexing the 1940 census.  We had a big pizza party for lunch.  They divided the mission into 3 different days.  It takes a lot of pizza to feed 1200 missionaries in the mission.  They also gave us a commerative coin that was made for each of us.

 

Look at all those boxes

 

 

 

 

 

S

A special Sunday dinner with a few friends in our zone. It was a huge feast.  In the front on right was my trainer.  She is a great friend.

The two guinea pigs.

My first students.  Doesn't look like we are having fun?

 

 

 

Training Zone trip to Brigham City Temple.  This is a great group of people to work with.  They come from all over the world to serve here. 

 

Dinner with Brenda & Stacey Sommers

A visit with Laurie LeDuc. Thanks for the visit.

 

Here we are with the Taylor's.  They have been so kind to us for bring us our things we left behind.

We shared a lovely evening with Sue Ann Hathaway and Christina. We went to our favorite  Ice Cream shop.  It sure was good. 

 

The end of September Joan and I spent our time together at the Womens Conference.  It was a lovely evening and we felt blessed to sit at the feet of the Prophet.

 

 This is my beautiful statue on Temple Square.  She reminds me of the many years I spent teaching.  I will take a picture of her each month so we can watch how her beauty changes from time to time.  The flowers have grown at least a foot or more since we came in August.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were walking through the campus (Temple Square) headed home for lunch.  We saw the flag flying at half mast.  It was a patriotic site.   Niel Armstrong the first man to land on the moon had died.  It caused me to reflect on July 1969 the moment he set foot on the moon.  I was in Utah at my cousin Bennie's house.

 

The Big Popcorn Pop

 

Lauren is carving a pumpkin and keeping herself busy.

 

Great job Randy.

 

Elder Danielson and I helped Randy and Liz at a Harvest Festival.  We popped kettle corn from 3 to 8 pm.  There were so many people wanting popcorn we could not keep up with it.  The evening was a big success and we all went home tired.  For us it was a big adventure.

 If you are wondering what we do for fun on the weekends you don't have to think about it any more.  We spend a lot of our Fridays hanging out with the Thackers.  We went to a Patriotic Program at the Tabernacle.  President Monson was there sitting in the audience with us.  This was a nice surprise to sit so close to him.  After it was over we went to the visitors center and thought this would make a nice picture for all of you to enjoy.  This is the best Mission ever.

 

 

 

 

 

End of September

Elder Danielson is so handsome standing with the fountain behind him.  The fountain goes off when we are walking home for lunch.  It is in the shape of the temple.  I marvel at this beautiful site.  I am truely in a little bubble surrounded by all good things.  Everyone says it is the Celestrial Kingdom here on earth.

This is a picture everyone needs to see.  Trudy came and visited us.  This is the first time in our married life she has come to our home. We loved the visit and plan to see her more often since she lives here in Salt Lake.  It is nice to be so close to family.  Thanks Trudy for the visit.

 

Dad finally got his new bike in the mail.  It was a big hassel to pick it up.  UPS lost it.  When he did get it he quickly put it together and was off for a spin.