A Blast from the Past

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

On the 18th after I wrote, we saw the Harveys and Sister Lynn Hansen, all of whom went home this month. We've been asked to serve on the team that visits the missionaries before they leave to give them the checkout list of things that need to be done. Usually we just have those in West Temple Apartments, but we had the Roberts on the other side of the Conference Center and Siste Hansen at the Garden Apartments, so there was a little more to getting with everyone this time.

Thursday the 19th was mission conference and Elder and Sister Renlund spoke. She spoke about baptism for the dead and he spoke about God's goals that have not changed--gather scattered Israel, families are to be sealed in holy temples and help prepare the world for the second coming. Family history work involves all three of them. He talked about the parables in chapter 25 of Matthew--the 10 virgins, the talents and the sheep and goats. We don't know when the second coming will be, so we have to become and remain worthy. Readiness is earned drop by drop over time. In the parable of the talents we learn we are expected to magnify our talents--become the person God gave you the power to become. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, they are separated according  how they helped and served each other. We need to help those who are struggling. I thought he made excellent points.

We had our last Fireflies get together on the 23rd at Peterson's in Farmington. Their home and yard are really lovely. They had set up two big tents and we ate under those and played games out on the yard afterwards. It was really fun, just so hard to have the Petersons and Roberts leaving.

When we pulled up, Robert lifted the hood and took the brisket off of the manifold--of course everyone got a kick out of that.

People could bring their own meat or the Peterson's had hamburger and we had brisket. We also had potato salad, 7-layer salad, baked beans, corn on the cob and my chocolate cake--all sooo good!

Sister Isaacson and Sister Bileen--we added Sister Bileen to our group when the rest of  her group went home

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 Elders Lane, Wilson, Ruggles, Birch, Roberts and Peterson--such great guys

The next day we went to Richard's for our last reunion planning meeting. I think we were all feeling a little pressure about having everything ready for June 4th. We could possibly have over 100, though I don't actually expect that many.

Thursday I had a perm and I got to thinking about Aunt Gladys. We had seen a picture on FaceBook and she really needed a haircut and a perm. So I called Carolyn Atmar and made her an appointment. Robert called Arthur Ray to be sure she didn't have anything else scheduled that day and then called Jo to be sure she could take her. Her mind has slipped a lot since we've been here and it really breaks our hearts. She'll often call Robert 3-4 times within an hour--not realizing she's already called.

Friday the 27th was such a fun day. Will and Louise Jeter came by the library in the morning. Their son is getting married and all of the kids were here for the wedding. If I could have my pick of anyone from home to bring up here, it would certainly be Louise. She would be so great, like Owen, any place they put her and she'd love it.

Later, Charles and LouEllen Cryer came.  We didn't have nearly enough time together, but it was so fun to see them. We walked through Temple Square and over to the Blue Lemon for lunch. Everything on Temple Square was blooming and there was a lovely, cool breeze.

At the restaurant we ran into one of the Jeter kids and then on the way back to the library we ran into Amanda and Haley. I'd had Haley in sixth grade! So it was like transporting our Texas friends to Salt Lake--couldn't be more perfect.

              

We had a special treat at church Sunday. Elder Dallen H. Oaks and his wife attended our branch and spoke in Sacrament Meeting. She used the glove with the little pictures on each finger to explain how those are the parts that make up a testimony and he spoke on Acts.

After church we left on the long-awaited trip to Chesterfield. We went to Malad, which I'd heard John Williams talk about since jr. high. He went up there every summer to farm with his dad and I think maybe still does. It was so much prettier than I had imagined--almost reminded me of The Sound of Music with green, rolling hills and snow-peaked mountains in the distance.  We had reservations at a Comfort Inn in Pocatello. Richard and Carolyn stayed there and so did Judy and Lucky with her daughter Sarah and three grandkids.  We drove about an hour back to go to Chesterfield, so guess we wouldn't have had to stay up there, but it was a nice get-away.  Everything was much prettier than I expected. They've had so much rain this year that everything was green.  When we got there we saw the Conlins and they introduced us to some Tolman cousins--there are LOTS of those!

They're doing a great job of restoring the homes and other buildings. Many of the homes had descendants of the original owners to explain about the family and who originally lived there. We went in the Chester Call home, which is an ancestor of our Elder Stoddard at the library and we took pictures for him. We went in the Tolman home, of course, the post office and the Mercantile.

 The Mercantile was owned by a Barlow and Tolman and they were some of the last to leave the area because the store was pretty successful. They were situated right on the Oregon Trail, so did a lot of trading with the travelers coming through. They made friends with Chief Washaki and he seems to have convinced the other chiefs not to attack these settlers. That was a good arrangement. We stayed several hours. We bought a CD of pictures of the different homes and families and bought a book on Chesterfield that looks really interesting. I loaned it to Elder Stoddard--bought him a CD, but not a book.

On the way home we went through Preston, Idaho, so we called the Moser's. They were in Ogden, but said they were on their way home and that Ashlee was at the house, so go on in!  We had a good visit with Ashlee. She has signed her contract to return to her school next year. She enjoyed showing us the Moser's home, which is lovely. She likes hearts and birds and she has fun sayings scattered throughout. When they got home we loved visiting with them. They're just such good people. They wanted us to spend the night and we could have because Tuesday is our Pday, but we felt we had to get back because we needed to get ready for Matt and Meghan to arrive.

This is the view from Moser's driveway

 

Love this heart!

Robert got up Tuesday morning to download his pictures to Picasa and somehow erased them all, so he called a photo shop to see if they could be restored. We took it in and are hoping they were able to save the pictures.

Matthew and Meghan and Mason came in about 6:00. Mason has grown! He looks so big! It was so good to see them and visit a bit. It will be a busy few days.

April Showers Brought Beautiful May Flowers

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

We had three surprises on Thursday, May 5--one very nice, one delightful and one so very difficult. The first one was when Sister Isaacson came and said, "Come here. I have something to show you." David Peterson was at the library and he's from Henderson. He had taught her the missionary lessons 50 years ago! She and I put it together several months ago and Trisha found him and e-mailed him that she was on a mission here. So he'd called a couple of times and finally made it into the library.

The next surprise was the McCallon kids came into the library. They were all in town for Jacob's wedding and it's the first time they've all been together in a couple of years.  Megan looked beautiful and it was so good to see Matt and Kari and their cute Audrey. We had a good visit and took pictures.  Sister Thomas called us over after they left and said, "When you were taking pictures, I think your daughter was there. I saw a young girl with you." That could be. Sister Thomas sees people the rest of us don't see, and Katie would have loved to be there.

They had just left when we got the phone call that Billy Ray had passed away. That just seemed impossible and yet later it seemed o.k. He has been through so much in the last couple of years and missed Barbara so much. I can't imagine why he's had to go through the health challenges that he's had. It was so difficult for him to be disfigured as he was after the second surgery. He felt like he looked like a "monster", which he didn't, but it wasn't the same. He lost so much weight and just didn't have much of an appetite. I was so happy for the reunion I know they had. And I was so grateful he went just as he wanted to--he sat down in his chair to rest and then was gone. Reba told me later that he had gone to the temple and worked his shift in the laundry and helped doing baptisms. On Wednesday he mowed and weedeated our yard. He's been doing that since we left, even though we were afraid it was too much for him. But Matt had said, "Let him do it. He wants to." Then Thursday he got on his tractor and mowed his yard. Mike had called to check on him and he told Mike he was tired and was going in to rest. That's where Mike found him that afternoon, in his chair. We'll just miss him terribly when we get home, especially. He was such a big part of our lives and such a wonderful example of service to others. He and Barbara, for years after he retired, looked for something to do for someone else every day. We'll really miss them both.

On Friday we had dinner with Owen and Brenda at Crown Burger and then went to see their apartment. They looked completely moved in! We certainly weren't completely moved in by 6:30 on the night we signed our lease!  Their apartment is very nice and they loved the MTC. I agreed with what they said--the teaching part is a little nerve racking, but you still leave their with this wonderful memory of a wonderful experience.

Saturday we were so busy at the library! We always are on Saturday, but this just seemed more so than usual. I helped people one right after the other all morning. I thought, "I'm going to be exhausted by this evening!" We usually are, so that's nothing unusual. It was a good day, though.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I had flowers delivered to my door from Paul and Aimee--tulips! and a little box of chocolates.  I was so surprised to have them come on Sunday. It was lovely.  I enjoyed our meetings at church. Sister Klopfer gave a wonderful lesson on nurturing and used pictures of a darling bird family from their yard and how they so carefully care for their young and how we nurture others.  It was great.

 I loved having the elders and the Vaughns and the Downers for dinner--it seemed like the stages of my life--Trisha from grade school, David from when we double-dated in high school, Owen and Brenda from Robert's youth and then our young married years, the young elders from our mission here. It was just a nice cross-section of life for me.

We looked forward to the devotional Monday morning because Owen and Brenda would be introduced. They would officially be part of the mission! It was so fun to have them there. They went into the training zone that day.

On Tuesday, the 10th, we went up to Bountiful to see Bev and Paul. I wanted Bev to help me come up with some little stories for one of the games I came up with for the reunion.  She had brought up several boxes from the basement of family pictures and we went through those and shared stories and memories. We didn't exactly get to what I had hoped to do, but I loved the day and being with them. They fixed us grilled cheese panini sandwiches and yummy tomato soup for lunch.  Robert and Paul enjoyed visiting and we loved seeing the deer come down to feed, but Bev wasn't excited about it and has about talked Paul into putting up a fence in back to keep them out.  Robert and I loved watching them, but it's not our plants they're eating!

We stayed busy the rest of the week at the library. Saturday didn't seem as busy as the week before, but it was steady. Monday I helped a gentleman Robert had been working with and we merged some people. As he was getting ready to leave, I found out his daughter had served part of her mission in Texas--in Silsbee! and he showed me her picture. It was at the Houston Temple with Sister Williams and Debbie Childress! That seemed amazing.

We ate with Owen and Brenda after church Sunday and it was so nice to visit and hear about their week and share news from home.  We can hardly wait to see where they will be serving.  They went to the Church History Library and President Muldenhour told them they really want them to come there!

On Monday at the Devotional Robert told President Oliver that he wanted to lodge a complaint--he told them that he thinks President Muldenhour is praying for the Vaughn to go there and that's using undue influence. President Oliver laughed and said, "Duly noted." After the devotional, President M. told me maybe they'd have to arm wrestle to get it decided.  Robert things he'll ask Elder Yowell to stand in for him if it gets to that!

Yesterday we went to the DUP Museum. Trisha had told me that you can look on their website for the people they have stories about, give them a list of names, they'll pull the folders and make copies of anything you want.  I also found out they'll copy pictures and put them on a CD! I endedup getting $75. worth of those, so only had one story copied for 50 cents! The museum was great, though. Robert said it's one of his favorite places.

We went to Judy's granddaughter's wedding last night. We really enjoyed that. It was held at a place called LeJardin and it was just beautiful. There were only maybe 35-40 people invited for the wedding, but a couple hundred for the reception. We helped get the food set out and the people just kept coming. Two ladies from Judy's ward and about 4 young girls came to help serve and clean up the tables. They were wonderful. It was fun to see so many of the family. I loved it.

Pat Palmer called and said she was in town for a conference and asked if she could come and spend the night and we said sure, so came home and had a good visit with her--a busy, full day!

Robert got a blood test today to check his PSA level and I've made reservations for Chesterfield--lots of fun things coming...

May is here and Spring has sprung!

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

On April 13th, when I last wrote, we went to the temple in the afternoon and did sealings and I was able to seal John Turner's parents to each other (all of their individual work had been done, but they hadn't been sealed!) and then seal John to them. I had never before found people on one day and been able to do temple work for them the next day. That was very exciting. We also did sealings for like 10 other family members that I've been working on since we got here, so now I'm caught up on everything we brought and I printed out cards to start on some new people. I have to get them baptized and confirmed first, then we can start on the other work.

Robert had decided he wanted to feed our elders that we work with in the library, so he fixed them hotdogs, took Wolf brand chili, we got chips, etc. and Thurs. the 14th we fed about 20 or so of them. We love our young elders and it's fun to do for them.

We had our spring Hosting Zone party on the 16th. It sure was nice not to be in charge of it! Sister Price asked if we could be sure Sister Leighton had a way there, so we called her and walked across the street with her. She was perfectly lovely, as always. What a model to look up to. The party was fun. Sister Safford was in charge and she had a couple of men from her ward provide some entertainment--telling stories, playing the harmonica. It was good. The other branch had stake conference that night, though, so there wasn't time to sit around and visit and I missed that.

Elder and Sister Price and Sister Leighton

Sunday we got word that we have a new bishopric in Silsbee.  Brian Bebee is the bishop, Jordan Marcks and Johnny Brown are his counselors.  They'll be wonderful.

The Sorenson's invited us over for pie after church on Sunday and we had such s nice visit with them.

They're getting terrible flooding around Houston. The area around the temple was hard hit and they closed the temple for the week. The water didn't get in the temple, but the roads around it were flooded.

On Tuesday we had lunch with Carol and Bill Bridger. They were headed down to St. George, then on to Vegas and then to Arizona to see one of their kids. It was an anniversary trip for them. It sure was nice to see them and visit. They're great people.

 From there we went to Richard's in Bountiful and saw the park where we're going to hold the reunion.  Bev gave me some of the sheets from the last reunion so we can contact them and try to update the information we have on them.

Bev, Patty, Teddy, Caroline, Richard--partners in crime!

On Wednesday I got a hold of Jim Parkin and got Rheanna's number, talked to Linda Taufer Ziemer and then to Rheanna, who now goes by Lyn. I hadn't talked to either of those girls in probably 50+ years!  Linda is going to try to come and Lyn didn't sound like she could, but then I got an e-mail from her and she said she would try. I would love that. I can't believe how many of my cousins are gone already. It doesn't seem possible. And I'll be so glad for Matt and Meghan to get to meet some of them. I hate that my kids know so little of my family.

On Monday, the 25th we hosted the Fireflies (our social group) here in our social room and had a fun evening.  We had a "pizza" theme and had Hawaiian pizza, pizza supreme, salad, chocolate pizza, fruit pizza, veggie pizza. Considering I'm not really a pizza fan, it sure was good. Then we had Elder Roberts tell us about the research he's done on Sidney Rigdon. It was interesting. I always thought he was the scribe for Joseph Smith as he was translating the Book of Mormon, but reading the Book of Mormon is what converted him. I really enjoyed the things he's learned.

The Robinsons left the 28th. It's so hard to lose these people we love and have depended on.

Friday  my mother's day present came. I had found a beautiful picture of the SL Temple on sale at Deseret Book. I ordered it on Tuesday and it came on Friday. Robert hung it for me and it's a little much in this living room, but it will be perfect at home. I love it.

Robert fed the young elders again. He made barbequed chicken for them and we got the bread and chips and I made them a cake.  Elder Stewart came over the night before and picked up most of it and took it to his apartment for them to eat at the gazebo the next day and we took enough for the ones who were working and ourselves at the library.

Owen and Brenda came in on the 30th. They stayed Saturday and Sunday nights and went to church with us on Sunday.  It was fun to have them. It's like re-living our early mission days. I'm excited to have them come back Friday night for the move in and hear about the MTC. I hope they got to see David Chinn and can't wait to hear about their classes. They didn't seem nervous about it.

Monday I woke up really dizzy and worried that maybe my blood pressure was up. Robert took my blood sugar and it was 95, so that wasn't the problem.  It was better on Tuesday, but not back to normal, so I went to the clinic at the JSMB and my blood pressure was 125 over 80, so that wasn't the problem. She said it may be an inner ear problem that will be better within a week or two. I hope so.

When we went to the library Monday, Elder and Sister Disque came in! We had been told they would be back Wednesday, but Sister Disque said her husband said, "It's my birthday and I'm going to the library!" We were so glad to see them and have them back. We left at 1:00, on our lunch hour, and went to WalMart and got a chocolate birthday cake and had them write on it, "Happy Birthday, Superman". He loved it. Sister Isaacson and Sister Dick went to the Nauvoo Cafe and got him a creme soda with a "Happy Birthday" label. We could have done more if we'd have known they were coming, but they loved it anyway.

Yesterday morning Kyle and Jacob James came by. Robert had baptized them in Pahrump about 34 years ago. We had a really good visit with them. They were adopted by the James family in Utah when they were about 15 and 17, which is highly unusual for kids to be adopted at that age. What a difference those good people made in their lives. These two boys and one of their sisters have all gone on missions, furthered their educations and are wonderful, contributing members of their communities. They said their dad was a counselor at the Y when he was fairly young and he just has a "heart for boys." It was so touching to hear them talk about him and what they've done with themselves.

We went back to the Church History Museum yesterday and I got to really look at the pictures. They're beautiful.  I really wanted to get the girls something for Mother's day and decided on a necklace with a tree charm and a family charm on it. I got them in the mail this morning. Hope they make it there by Saturday.  Trisha called and she and Dave are coming up Friday for a week. I invited them to have dinner with us Sunday as we're feeding the missionaries. Owen and Brenda will be here, so there will be 8 of us. I think it will be so fun to have these long-time friends of ours (I won't say "old") meet each other along with some of our young elders. It's Elder Yowell and his companion who are coming. It should be fun. It's supposed to rain this weekend. Hope it's just off and on.

A Huge BREAKTHROUGH!!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Yesterday was such a big day for me! About twenty years ago, when I finally obtained a copy of the Turner family history that my dad's cousin, Herb Turner, wrote in 1942, it began with my great-great grandfather, John Turner, who was born in 1813. To quote Herb, "Of his parentage and early life nothing is known. In 1829 he came from Rockingham county, Virginia to Fairfield County, Ohio." Handwritten in the margin was a note that James Turner was the first Turner to settle in Rockingham County and that he had two sons, James Turner 1810-1860 (married Margaret 1812-1893) and John Turner 1813-1843. I've never been able to get back further than John and his father James.

A couple of years ago I was working on the Mason line and received an e-mail from a Kathy Buckmaster, who was also working on that line. It turned out that she was not related to the Masons, she had a neighbor who was and Kathy was helping her. We ended up talking on the phone MANY times and Kathy was much more knowledgeable in Family Search and genealogy in general then I was or am or will probably ever be! She lives in Ogden and came to Salt Lake last summer after we got here and I got to finally meet her. We planned to go to the Ogden Temple one day and Kathy said she would love to go with us.

We called her and set it up for yesterday and she met us and went through with us. It's a beautiful temple and I would definitely have gotten lost without her.

As we sat in the celestial room for a few minutes I prayed about going to the Family History Center and finding those who were ready for their work to be done. After lunch in the temple cafeteria, we went to the FHC where Kathy works 4 days/week. It's so big! It used to be a stake center and just has rooms and rooms and rooms. Kathy teaches Family Tree classes in a room with 17 computers--that's like here in Salt Lake! I was so amazed.

We sat down to look at this Turner family and Kathy said, "Why don't you do some work on the brother, James? He seems to have stayed in Rockingham County his whole life. We found him on the 1850 census and the 1840 census, then Kathy looked on FindaGrave and BAM! There he was with information about his wife, his father, the title of a book and the author! I was wanting to jump up and down and shout! She looked up the book on FamilySearch and it's ONLINE!! I downloaded all 300 pages to my flashdrive and can't wait to start going through it. This was a FIND that was pure GOLD. I've been so excited I can hardly stand it.

We looked for Robert's Ruggles line brick wall and didn't have any luck, but I was still very excited. We left and went by the Ogden DI, with no wonderful "finds" and headed to Bountiful. I got a black skirt at the DI there. I already have two black skirts, but one is long and the other is short and this one is in-between, so I NEEDED it!

We came back to SLC and got our groceries. Robert decided he wants to do a hotdog lunch for the young elders on Thursday, so we got all the fixins as well as what what we need to make dessert for the Hosting Zone party this coming Saturday. It's a busy week.

I talked to Richard and he has made arrangements for a Bountiful Park near them on June 4th for our cousin reunion. He also scheduled their club house, so we can go from 9-9 if we want to! Doubt that we'll go that long, but it'll be good to have an inside and an outside place just in case the weather is crazy. I also talked to Judy about the Chesterfield Memorial Day get-together. I'm getting very excited about all of this and the calendar is really filling up.

Last week Robert decided he wanted to get a Superman cape for Elder Disque. He had a light stroke and was back at work in two weeks and Sister Disque said, "He thinks he's Superman." So we went to Zurcher's, the party store and couldn't find an adult-sized cape for a reasonable price, so we got a red tablecloth and a Superman light. We took it in last week and he loved it!

Robert also gives Sister Isaacson a bad time about her "pink hand" pointer that she uses all the time in the library. It's become the thing she's known for and it gets lots of laughs. So Robert told her he was going to make her a bigger one and this is what he came up with:

Sister Isaacson is on the left and Sister Price (one of our zone leaders) is on the right. We love them both!

We fed the elders last Sunday. We had chicken left from when Ed and Debbie were here and we had frozen it, so it made the lunch pretty easy. I did rice with vermicelli with it and pineapple upside down cake--not bad!

Monday was busy. We had the devotional followed by the team meeting for those who do the apt. check-out. Then in the afternoon we met with Pres. Larson for our interview 4 months before we leave. It's hard to think that's coming.

Monday was also the Aloha dinner. If we had not extended, this would have been our Aloha Farewell and I could hardly stand the thought of it. I am NOT ready to go!  It was so hard to see the Robinsons, Sister Reuser, our Roberts and Petersons up there. They latter two came out with us. It's been almost a year! How is that possible?  Poor little Kara Robinson broke down and just sobbed! It was already hard for her mom and then that. I wanted to just join them. The entertainment was a trio with two violins and a piano--very lovely. They played several patriotic songs and several old favorites--beautiful.

Today we're going to mission conference and then going to do sealings after that. We haven't had our whole Wednesday Temple/Research Day for a couple of months, but we have it today, so we can do sealings with our branch this afternoon. I'm looking forward to that.

More Fun...

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

What a busy two weeks! On the evening of the 20th we fed the missionaries and one of them is from Henderson (but really Green Valley, not the Henderson I knew). He's the one who's right at 7 ft. and I call him Stretch Armstrong. He has the longest arms and legs I've ever seen! Robert claims he only weighs 120 lbs and I'm sure it's more than that, but he's definitely all length and very little width. He has such a hard time being still, constantly in motion. We'd heard him play the piano before the Monday devotionals and asked him how long he took lessons--from the time he was 5 until he graduated at 18. He must have dozens of classical songs he can just sit down and play with no music. He's an amazing kid. He and his companion work in the vault. He said most of the time he doesn't have to get on a step ladder to reach the highest shelves--I can understand why!

On Monday the 21st we had our Fireflies get together with the Italian theme--always good, always fun. Sister Isaacson had a game for us. She said the logo or catch phrase of a company and we had to guess the company. There were bunches I didn't know, had never heard of, but I won one of the prizes for knowing among the most. I can't imagine how she ever came up with most of them.

We planned to go to the temple on the 22nd for Katie's birthday. We've done that for several years. But shortly after I got up that morning it started snowing big, wet flakes! I really didn't want to walk through the snow even though the temple isn't far. But we weren't sure about parking underground and just decided to walk. It all went fine. There was a lady in our session who seemed to be in awe of everything around her. I thought maybe it was her first time in the SL Temple, and someone else said maybe she was seeing things that we weren't--could be. We ate at the cafeteria and then went to the library for our afternoon shift.

Thursday evening of that week Ashley Hillin came and stayed with us. Her cousin was getting married on Friday. It was fun to visit with her. She really likes her school, her kids and her principal. It was fun to hear her talk about school. Didn't make me want to go back, but helped me have some good memories.

We worked on Saturday and I didn't have tickets to the Women's Broadcast, but decided I could go to the stake center across the street instead of to ours. I really enjoyed the broadcast and the videos and the music. They talked a lot about volunteering and especially helping the refugees. "What if their story were my story?" is pretty thought provoking. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to leave your home land and go to a place with an entirely different language, food, culture. Ashley mentioned having quite a few migrant children in her class and how some of them are never talked to or with and certainly not taken places, so they don't have the experiences to fall back on that other kids have.

Sunday morning Ed and Debbie Hoke were in town and wanted to go to church with us in the Joseph Smith building, but we were invited to Judy's for lunch at 3:30, so we went to an earlier sacrament meeting and not our branch. We went to 18th ward and it was a good thing we got there early to actually sit in the chapel and not the overflow.  There were 4 members of the 70 there, our stake president and one of his counselors. The meeting was good and the surroundings were beautiful. I was glad they got to attend there. I stayed for our Relief Society at 1:00 because I always enjoy our meeting. It was different to walk home alone. It's amazing how few times I've been alone since we've been here. Made me realize how strange it must be for our young missionaries when they get home.

Loved going to Judy's. All of her kids were there, some of Lucky's and many of their grandkids. I was having to work to keep everyone straight. I know Judy's kids, but not her grandkids and didn't know any of Lucky's. When we first got there, Judy was in the kitchen, finishing up the cooking. As she was dishing food into serving dishes, I noticed that she has several dishes like I love that look like various vegetables and I commented on it. Of course when I was there several years ago I noticed that she and I both like roosters, although she has way more than I have. Then we got upstairs where the tables were all set and on the big table she had the same brightly colored checked table cloth that I have from Mexico! I just couldn't get over it--not from WalMart or JCPenney, but Mexico! I got it on the cruise we went on down there with Matthew and Meghan. Judy gave me a hug and said, "We must be sisters." O.K., there's a teary moment. We really enjoyed visiting with them and the food was yummy--ham and funeral potatoes (Utah's famous) and fresh asparagus and rolls--sooo good. She had a cake with strawberries and I took the angelfood cake with pineapple and banana filling. It seemed to go well.  Before we left, her daughter Michelle and her husband Henry (who's from Samoa) said they have to roast a pig before we leave and they're planning it for the 4th of July. That'll be fun.

Ed and Debbie came back in Monday evening. He had been shopping, so we had their luggage to bring up and their groceries. I'm always so tired on Mondays. I guess it's because we get up and leave earlier than usual. Robert had fixed a pork loin in the crock pot and some potatoes, so we were glad dinner was ready.

I wasn't sure what we would do on Tuesday and then realized Debbie lived up here for years, so asked her for suggestions. She took us to Lehi to the Roller Mill place and we bought cookie mixes in cute flowered bags--loved that. Then we went to eat lunch in downtown Lehi at Porter's Place, which was started back in the 70's by some of Porter Rockwell's descendants. It's kind of like an old western saloon atmosphere--wooden floors and walls, old pictures on the walls, etc. It was full of atmosphere and I loved the menu, thought they should sell them. The soft drinks had cute names like "Snake venom." Robert had a buffalo burger and I had a French dip sandwich. It was a fun place. They're moving to Nephi in June. Hope it'll be as fun a place as this was. Then we went to American Fork to a candy factory called Peppermint Place. They have a glassed-in room where they were decorating things to go on the candies and we could watch them. It was a neat store from suckers to dipped chocolates. In the back they have a section with "overruns" that can be bought for $5-$10/bag, whereas the candy up front is like a $1+ each. It was a fun day. I enjoyed it. She had wanted to take us up the canyon to see this great waterfall and look over the valley and see several temples, but as we came out of Porter's it was snowing! So we decided the visibility wouldn't be great. They left the next morning.

Friday was April First and Paul decided to play a joke on Matthew. It looked like this:

He bought $120 worth of foam peanuts and filled Matthew's car with them! Meghan filmed him when he went out and saw it, so he said she was in on it and she needed to be the one to vacuum it out. They emptied a bunch of it into a big lawn trash bag and then he took her car to work and she went to the car wash. I guess the guy at the car wash ended up helping her and got a big laugh out of it all!

Friday Dave and Trish came in. They stayed at the Plaza, next door to the library. The only good thing about that was that they had parking at the hotel and we hadn't asked for it far enough in advance here, so that would have been a major issue. They came in the library and spent quite some time. It was fun to have them. They took us to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I've always heard of it, but haven't been there and it was good.  Saturday morning we had 4 tickets for Conference because Bishop had sent them to us, so we got to go together. It's so nice to just walk across the street. The weather was beautiful and there were LOTS of people out. It's so good to be there in person even though we still actually watch it on the screen because we were so far back. But the atmosphere is wonderful and we loved it. We came back to the apt. for lunch. Ed and Debbie had brought us two briskets from home because we've had such a hard time finding them here. Robert cooked one of them because Dave still talks about Robert's brisket up at the cabin years ago. After lunch they wanted to run some errands and we stayed here and watched the second session on TV. I really liked Neil L. Anderson's talk about the kids in Africa who were watching through the fence and they opened the gates and let them in and he likened it to many kids who come to church by themselves, either because their parents are inactive or because they're non-members, but they're often "on the outside looking in." I got emotional listening as I remembered my days of being on the outside, wanting to be a part of it, wanting that "picture perfect" family. I told Trisha about it that evening and she mentioned that Dave had been that way too and those who had been there for him--his bishop and his YM leader. I told her that she and her family had meant so much to me at that time. Those are very poignant memories for me. That evening she and I went to Deseret Book while the men watched the Priesthood session here. They have quite the event with singers, authors signing books, etc. I didn't know anything about it, but can now say "Been there, done that, check." Don't know that I'd do it again. It was crazy crowded. But glad to have done it!  We decided to walk back to the apt. and started across temple square just as the session let out!  About 20,000 men coming toward us as we headed back. We were swimming upstream. It was an amazing sight.

Sunday morning we had tickets from the library to go the session and we were down front on the far right corner where we were in October. The good thing is that's where all the general authorities come in the door and we got to see them. President Monson is showing his age, but seemed stronger than he did in October. He announced four new temples. You could hear the gasps from different ones in the audience. I know there were people there from some of those countries, maybe all of them--Ecuador, Brazil, Africa and Peru I think. Robert's right shoulder was really bothering him and we decided not to use the tickets we had for the afternoon session--we gave them to Elder and Sister Smith (from England) as we left.  It was good in the afternoon to watch it and be comfortable in our chairs.  I told Robert that Monday morning I wanted him to get pictures of my favorite flower bed on Temple Square because it's so beautiful now. It's hard to have a favorite when it's all so beautiful, but it's yellow and orange California poppies (or that's what it looks like to me) and I love them.

Loved the devotional on Monday--there's always laughter (President Oliver conducted and he always makes us laugh) and usually tears. The stories are so touching. It's often hard for the single sisters to talk about their husbands without a few tears and many of the missionaries have had some amazing experiences.

Yesterday after we got groceries we decided to find a "hand" (like the foam hands they wave at games) for Robert to make Sister Isaacson a bigger pointer. We looked for Academy on Google and there was one in Murray--about 25 miles from here, but it was a beautiful day, so off we went. When we got there it looked really small. We went inside and Robert asked them about it. The guy told him, "You must be looking for Academy Sports and Outdoor." They're further south. We'd come 25 miles south! The guy said,"Like Texas!" I think he just recognized Robert's accent, but they're not the same store. He directed us "across the street" to Dick's. We didn't find Dick's, but we went into Zurcher's and found a hand. Honestly, his crazy ideas.

We decided to head up the canyon before coming home, so we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We hadn't been there before. Solitude and Brighton ski areas are up there. We saw a sign for a little store and Robert wanted a bathroom and I wanted something chocolate, so we stopped. It was closed. We headed back toward the car and a man was emptying trash. We asked him if there was another store nearby and he asked if we were hungry. We said, "Just for a snack." He said, "Come inside." He handed us two plates and said, "We have some left." It was barbequed chicken breast, salsbury steak, mashed potatoes and peas! There were two more plates full of salad. It was really good. There were still a few people here and there. As we got ready to leave, Robert went to thank the guy and said, "Did we come in on a family reunion or something?" The guy said they had just done a photo shoot for a film and they had fed the cast and crew. We have no idea of what the film is or who was in it, but I guess we ate with some of them!

There are skiiers coming down the mountain, but it's hard to see them!