Sunday, November 25, 2012

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.
 
 
 
 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

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?
 
 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

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.
 
 
 
 


 
 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

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.