luau

The Mission had its annual Luau last night at the Spruces Camp Ground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The reason it is called a Luau is because it is a chance for the Polynesian Sisters to share some of their culture. We had barbecued chicken and pork with all the fixings. Then some Watermelon and at last we had smores cooked over the campfire.

The sisters then danced some of their Traditional dances. We have Sisters from Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa and Tahiti. The dance program was completed the Sister from Nepal doing a traditional dance from her country. Her family sent her the costume. The event ended with a tug of war.

We had three Sisters ride up with us to the camp ground one from from Korea one from from Switzerland and one from Pennsylvania.

Mom took some more pictures of our apartment that she wanted to be posted.

Great Times

We are in Temple Square 6 days a week. It has been wonderful but really tiring.

We greet guests as they come in to the square at the South Gate, there is very little shade there, and I have to keep my suit on and be outside to talk to people as they come in. Mom sits in a air conditioned booth and handles the handouts and takes care of the phone. I brought two wool suits with me one black and one dark brown. So one of the things we have done is to buy me two light weight suits light grey and tan.

We take care of the Beehive house. We start the Tours by telling the story of the office and reception room. The dialog has to be varied so as to make the tours the Sister Missionaries ten minuets apart. This is great fun because some times we have to talk for fifteen to twenty minutes, when we have large groups as a Tour can not exceed twenty persons. Some times when it is slow we may just introduce our selves and send them on the Tour. Mom is doing pretty good now on telling some of the stories.

We take care of the Tabernacle. Greet the people as they come in and assist the Sisters on their presentations. They do a demonstration of the sound by dropping a pin up in the front and every one can hear it. We do a lot of mixing and talking about the church.

We help in the Family Search area. This gives Mom time to work with the New Family Search Program which is not yet available in Utah. The Temple Square Missionaries are given access to the program. We have found two names to do work for.

We are in charge of the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We open it up for the day. We then Start the movie after explaining to the people about it. The Movie starts every one and half hours so this can be a slow day.

We are in Charge of the North Visitors Center. Very busy time. We make sure that everything is working and the crowds are under control. There are two movies we start, Legacy and Testament. This is also a Theater that can show any of the movies plus the DVDs that the church has published.

We work at the West Gate where all of the Bus tours come. We make sure the Sisters with the right language skills are there to take the Tours. We also welcome people and help them by giving them Maps and Helping them under stand what they can see here.

The South Visitor Center is pretty easy as there is no Movie so we just try to keep things under control and answer questions.

We some times will be assigned for a week to Park City to work in the Family Tree Center there. The church has an Apartment there for the Senior Missionaries to stay in.

We will also we some times working at Welfare Square or the Humanitarian Center as there is Tours as both places.

We are busy, busy, busy. The Sister Missionaries are very special to work with there are 160 of them on the Square and they can speak 60 different languages. We have people from all over the World come here and it such a surprised to them to take on a tour in their native tongue.

We Come home at the end of the day and crash, but we love it. We get to share our Testimony often and answer questions about the church by people who really want to know.

We are here !!!!

We are now in the mission field. We entered the MTC on the 9th of June and spent much time Learning what Missionaries do. We learned the first three discussions Mom was really good,

Except some times She forgot to let me talk. We spent one full week and two days. The last

Two says were spent on how to conduct tours on Temple Square. There is a tradition that the Missionaries pose in front of a large map of world pointing to there Mission. So here Mom, oops, Sister Glad and I are pointing to the State of Utah. The food at the MTC was all right if you like to eat School Lunch for every meal. It was really great to be around all of the young elders and sisters that are getting ready to go.

The Mission President, Mike Stewart who I went through Jr high and High School with, wanted us to move down town Salt Lake. The first thing we did was to go apartment hunting. It was really hard to find a furnished apartment. We did not want to buy furniture and try to move it. we were very lucky to find some people who owned a Condo in the Zions Summit Apartment who wanted a set of adult missionaries to take care of it until they could move back to Utah. The apartment is fully furnished. We only just had to load our Clothes and some food into the car and move in. They are paying the Utilities and Condo fees. Plus it is only a block and and 1/2 from Temple Square. The Swimming Pool is great. The leather furniture and the large screen Plasma TV is wonder full. It has an Large bath tub that we have been using for a hot tub. Marlene used one Bathroom and I use the other.

The View from our Balcony is just unbelievable. We are overlooking the Conference Center and Mon was somewhat worried because Angel Moroni is looking through our window.

We will be in charge of one of the Sites on the Square each day and are to make sure that the Sister Missionaries are Safe.

Our Sundays start with Sacrament Meeting at 7:30 am with all of the mission 180 Sisters and 30 old folks. Then we go to Music and The Spoken Word. Today it was very special as they did a special program for the celebration of our country as the July Fourth is coming. They sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Then Priesthood and Relief Society and on to our assignments on the Square.

We are having a very special spiritual time and love every minute of it.

Mission Call

We got our Mission Call Wednesday the 4th of June. It was a little bit different than what we were inspecting.



We got a call from the MTC in the morning wanting to set up our housing for our time there. Mom told them that we had not got our Call yet. They said that they would call back in the afternoon after our call arrived. We both thought that there was something strange about this.



The call came in the afternoon and we got all the family together for the opening.

Dad opened the Letter. We were all excited Ben said "This is just like Christmas"

Mom read the Call. She said that she did not under stand where we were going.




Dad read it. We are to go to the Salt Lake City Temple Visitors Center Mission. What!!


Ben said "Christmas when you get clothes" We are to enter the MTC on this coming Monday.
What!!



We did not know what to think. Mom tried to put her best face on it.



We called the Mission President to find up what will be expected to do. We are to get an apartment in down town Salt lake Close to the temple. We will be working 6 hours per day. Our "P" day will be Saturday. We can travel up to 100 Miles from Salt Lake City. It is OK to attend Family events as long as they do not interfere with our Mission Service. We will be working at 7 different locations. Temple Square, The Conference Center, The Tabernacle, The Humanitarian Center, The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Temple Square Visitor Centers and a Special Family History Center in Park City. Their are 180 Sister Missionaries from all over the world who are serving in the Mission. and about 30 Couples.


We are getting more excited to go. The pluses are that we can serve a Mission and still spend time with our family. We will be working with lots of people who are interested about the Church. We do not have to tract. We can learn a lot about down town Salt lake city.
We do not have to sell our car, or travel a long distance from home. We can keep an active look at how Bruce and Tera are taking care of our house. We do not have to worry about keeping our Drivers Licence current or the regrestration on the car. We are planing on dropping by the house to pick up our mail once a week so we do not have to worry about a change of address. We can take a lot more stuff from Home to our Mission.

We also found out that there are two other couples going out with us at the same time, one of the three is the Plamers from Washington State. Yup they are some of or friends that served with us in the Nauvoo Temple Mission. What a small world this is.


We are packing now to enter the MTC this coming Monday. We spent most of the day yesterday buying new stuff that We are going to need on our mission. Mom and Terra had a great time.


P. S. Sunday afternoon is Calab's Birthday Party. Todd is bringing his new "Girl Friend" for all to meet. She is a 33 year old returned missionary who has never been married. She is a Dental Assistant, Just got her degree. Todd is asking all kinds of Questions, like "Do I get to take Her though the Vail. " He said that he asked Her what was her goal in life. She said "To get Married." More to come!!

Mothers Day

Mothers day was really nice. We had all of the Family come over to our house for a barbecue, Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. Mom got a dozen roses from dad. The grand kids + Todd played Frisbee in the back yard. Grandpa and Grandma were really worn out by the end of the Day. It was a loud and wonder full day.

Bruce has found a couple of jobs that he likes, working at homes to help children with mental or social problems. He has been accepted at the University of Utah College of Social work, they only except thirty five new students each year.

We worked most of the day yesterday getting the gardens in place. Bruce and Tara are planting a lot of vegetables, Tomatoes, Corn, Cucumbers, Zucnni, Pole Beans and Crook Neck Squash. I worked Planting the Flower Garden. It seems sad to be planting things that we will not see produce this year. The back yard looks good so far.

It looks like summer or something like it is on the way. It is suppose to be in the high eighty degrees by the weekend. We have got the sprinklers in place ready for the heat.

Graduation

Well the day has come. We went down to Snow College to be at Bruce and Tara's gradation. Bruce received his Associate of Science degree in Social Work and Tara two degrees in child care management a Applied Associate of Science and Associate of Science Degree. Bruce has been accepted in the College if Social Work at the University of Utah. They will be in our house while we go on our mission.

We have all of our papers done and just need to have the Stake President send them in. We are executed to go. Bishop Summers has come down with phenomena and so will not be able to interview us until Tuesday.

Mom is all excited about the Jazz going to the second round of the playoffs. She is not too excited about them playing the Lakers. The Lakers seem to have been able to handle the Jazz this year with ease.

Todd went on his first date since he became single. Marty set him up with a girl from his work. The girl is thirty five, almost ten years younger than him. It is good to see him moving on with his life. He has had a hard time adjusting to being single. He seems to be getting lots of free food from people who love him.

Bruce called and wanted to know if they could bring a Puppy when they come to stay at our house. Tara had a teacher at school that had a dog that she could not keep. When they brought the "puppy" It was a full grown German Shepherd Dog. It was suppose to have been to obedience school, but it must of flunked out because it love to jump up on people especially on mom. We have made it very clear that any dog at our house will be an outdoors dog, especially a big dog.

long time no write

We have been busy lately. We went to Snow College so Bruce and Tara could talk about us as a assignment for their Communications Class. That was on April 22. The presentation was well done. It was interesting to be in their class with all of the young people. We went to a Mexican Restaurant with them. We also drove the motor home to Fairview as it was a nice day. The weather has been really unpredictable lately. It storms one day and then a few days are like summer and it storms again. Yesterday it was 80 degrees so we woke up this morning to snow about one inch on the lawn. Snow on the First of May! It is suppose to be up in the high 70 again this week end.

We had a temple session on 24th with Melody and Marty. It was our Stake was our Stake Temple Day. We then had a dinner for our Stake at the Temple. It was special for the Marty and Melody to be in the Temple with us. I was able to have Melody in my initiatory. She looked so cute and it was a joy to be with her. We then went to a wedding reception for Allison's brother. It was a really nice.

Melody had a special gift for me last week. She came to our house and gave me my missing wedding ring. She found it in her bedroom when she was cleaning up. It had been missing for almost nine months when I was in my bedroom and misplaced it. How it got to be in Melody's bedroom in the real Question.

Allision has her surgery and is now home. She feel fine and will soon be able to do all she did before the procedure. She still feels bad about not having a belly button but will live with it.

Todd is excited because he has a date. Marty has set up him up with one of his friends from work. It is good to see Todd starting to get on with his life.

Bruce and Tara will graduate from Snow College this Saturday then up to our house. We are hoping that they will be able to stay in our home and take care of it while we are on our Mission. We are still waiting for our interviews so we can get our Call.