Babies are a blessing

We had two new granddaughters born since we came on our mission. Amber and Chris were blessed with Shelby Elizabeth and Heather and Bryan were blessed with Alexis Bryann (pronounced like Breann). I was able to be there when they made their first appearance in the world. What a miracle!!! Thank you my sweet daughter and daughter-in-law for inviting me to participate in the 'miracle of miracles'.......birth. Both of these new babies were blessed on the same day in the same ward (Heather's) and all of our children came out to Utah for the blessings. It was the first time our family has been all together for years. It was wonderful. We spent 2 days together as a family and had a ball. We ate, laughed, ate, joked, ate, held babies, ate and ate some more. Ron and Brynn took some wonderful family pictures and I will post a few of them next time after I get them. Aaron's family and Jeremy's family spent the following Monday with us touring temple square, Welfare Square, Humanitarian Center, the observation deck of the church office building and much more. The following Monday Ron's family spent the day with us and we did a lot of the same things. Summer, Tyler and Josh spent Sunday night with us while Ron and Rachel took a break and spent the night at the Holiday Inn (which Amber helped them get!) I was sad to see them go home but I am thankful for the time we had together. My children and grandchildren are the light of my life for sure.

Now this is living!

I thought you might enjoy seeing our 'missionary apartment'. It's a very large apartment. In fact, it's the whole top floor of a two story building. The building was built in 1940. That may answer the question as to why it does not have a dishwasher (except Mike) or cupboard doors that actually stay shut (although the warped look does add character to the kitchen) or why the floor is multi-leveled in places and why it's hard to put pictures up because of the concrete walls. Other than that we love it!!! It's very large and clean. The furnishings leave a little to be desired but they do give us something to talk about. If it hadn't been for the generousity of Mikes mom and our son Chris we would have almost no furniture at all. The dishes were definitely a "no go". There was no way I would ever drink out of the multi-variety of cups/glasses or use the silverware that was left behind. After a few trips to WalMart we were set to go and have been very happy in our 'home away from home'. We have even had guests stay with us. Come and try out our 'dormitory'. It had 4 beds and 2 dressers in the room. The only problem we've encountered is that we have something I'd never heard of before: a Jack and Jill bathroom. It's one bathroom for the whole apartment that has a door on each end that opens into each of the 2 bedrooms. With just Mike and I living here it's fine. When someone else joins us we need to make sure we don't accidentally walk in on them. So far, so good! Anyway, enjoy the pictures of our missionary apartment. Oh, one more thing, it used to be the home of 6 sister missionaries so we also have the plus of having 2 refrigerators in our kitchen. We've never run out of space in the refrigerators yet!

Our Mission Begins.....

Now that I have successfully completed my initial blog I will try to 'stretch' my talents and add a few posts to this blog. I really feel like I should start back at the beginning of our mission. We were called to serve in the Salt Lake City Utah Temple Square Mission. We entered the MTC on March 17, 2008. Two of our very close friends, Owen and Joyce Bae, were entering the MTC the same day we were so they invited us to stay at their home in Orem and go together, which we did. We had a wonderful time at the MTC, learned many things about going on a mission, and enjoyed the spirit of the Lord which prevails there. We watched as approximately 2000 young missionaries came and went during out 10 day stay. My nephew, Brian Fisher, even entered the MTC while we were there. What a fun surprise to greet him in the front foyer. Here are a few pictures of our time in the MTC. The first one is the morning we went in, next us pointing to our mission assignment on the map. The next is Joyce and Owen, our good friends. The last two pictures are of our MTC teachers and our MTC Senior Couples Class group. I hope you enjoy them.