January 2009

With the New Year have come some changes. Elder Hansen has been released from being in charge of the early morning Sacrament Meetings every Sunday. He is now one of the Assistants to the Director. He has extra meetings and problems to solve---so it really is demanding his expertise and good judgement. He will be of great help to the new Director who is arriving on the 20th of January. We have been here for over a year now so he really does have experience that could be helpful.

We have learned to love the Nelson's and it will be hard for us to see them go. They have been such good directors--but mostly they are good missionaries, and good people.

That has been one of the greatest blessings to me about the mission. We have been with the best, hand-picked people available to be our fellow missionaries and friends. I'm sure we will have some eternal friendships from this experience.

This picture is of all the missionaries we work with here. Of course, the young sisters get transfers every six weeks so some of them move around--but we often have them rotate back again. They say we are like their grandmas and grandpas---and we easily could be. We love them and try to encourage and help them all we can. They also help us in many ways, too.

December

I had a 'tender mercy' experience with my sister Gail in Inkom, Idaho. Alisyn and Anna went with me to go see her. She had cancer and was put on hospice. We arrived about 5:30 pm and visited with her long enough to tell her we were there and loved her and were planning to spend the entire next day with her. She was in a coma but I know she knew we were there. Gary asked us to go get some rock salt, since they had just had an icy snow that day. When we returned she had passed away---just a few minutes after we had visited her. I am sure she waited for us to come before she passed on. She was always good like that--trying to be good and serving everyone. Now this picture of all us sisters at her wedding with Gary in 2005 seems very appropriate. She is in white and is now 'our' angel.

December 2008

Here are two of my favorite Christmas decorations at the Visitor Center. The tree was decorated by one of the Stakes in St. George--there are four stakes who do it every year for us. We called this our 'star' tree. It is paper stars cut out of water-color paper--folded and sprayed gold. The little shepherd and lambs are so precious and seem to draw people.

The other is a nativity creation by one of our young missionaries, Sister Robinson. She drew and water-colored it and did the cut-out paper and set up the display. She is very talented and creative. I think the 'Mary' looks like Sister Robinson.

Christmas on a mission is so wonderful! I love the closeness you feel to Christ and really long to tell people about His love for each of us.

November

I see I have put these posts in 'upside-down' order. Maybe that's because I've been so long since I have 'posted' that I forgot how. Anyway, I want to add a picture from Thanksgiving. Alisyn and Anna came to Ivins on Monday and spent the days till Thanksgiving cleaning our house, shopping for the Thanksgiving meal---and even putting the final touches on the Brigham decorations. It was such a delightful time for us! Then Mike and his family, Erik and his family and finally Eric and Darrin and Darrin's brother arrived. We had such a good time visiting and eating. Elder Hansen and I still had missionary shifts to do--but they came to visit us when they could. This picture is Grandma enjoying a surprise visit with grandkids at the Visitor Center.

November 2008--continued

November was also when we began getting ready to decorate Brigham Young's Winter Home. Elder Hansen and I were in charge---so we decided to to decorate with a Victorian Theme---which hadn't been done before. It was extra work to gather everything and get it all in place, but, we felt good about the whole project. One of the great things we did was to make the Home smell like Christmas. I also loved the kitchen--we had it making and baking gingerbread men. The helper's room was making handmade gifts and Amelia's room was wrapping gifts. We had the extra bonus of snow for Christmas!

I believe this did help with the missionary efforts--many people were involved and brought their friends and family to Brigham's to enjoy the Christmas Spirit with us.

November 2008

November was a very important month for our family. Anna and Darrin were married in the Salt Lake Temple on the 8th with a reception in Lindon. It was so very fun to be with family and friends for this beautiful and important event! Senior Missionaries are allowed to go to immediate family weddings--so we did. Anna and Alisyn did all the planning and work to present the fun reception. The nieces and nephews had a special room with lots of things to do so they wouldn't get bored....they didn't. We took some of the breads, which were part of the refreshments for the reception, back to St. George and shared them with the missionaries--since they couldn't come. I highly recommend a Wedding while you are on your mission!