Old and New Missionaries

The weekend in pictures...
Our dear friends Todd & Kristie own a furniture store, and every year they invite a group of friends down to the store for a party. Todd is THE KING of fun games, and this was one that he talked all the guys into doing. The guy in the middle is Greg, and Bruce was the one in the middle right before this. Thanks Todd & Kristie for a very memorable evening of laughs and friendship!

Rosa got baptized!! This is such a wonderful story. Her husband Leonel got baptized into our Spanish Branch about a year and a half ago. He was a great convert, but his wife had no interest. The Elders said she couldn't get past Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. About six months after Leonel was baptized, their only daughter Caterina got baptized. The family then moved to a neighboring suburb for work purposes. She started working for my friend Gale, helping her in her new business. Gale and her husband Dan befriended Rosa and Leonel, and their influence and guidance helped Rosa start reading the Book of Mormon. Within a few weeks, she asked to be baptized. There are many other people and circumstances that also contributed, but it's too long to tell here.

Suffice it to say that Sean, pictured above with Rosa and Leonel, drove up from Utah with his fiance, to perform the baptism. The Spirit was so strong during the baptismal service. I'm so happy for this family, and can't wait to be in the temple in a year when they are sealed!

After the service, the hermanas of the branch Relief Society put on a dinner for all the guests. It was SO FUN to sit around and talk to some of the Hermanos from the 14th branch again.

As I said before, Sean drove up with Heidi, and also Stetson and Whitney. I had at least two or three people walk up to me after the dinner and tell me how fun Whitney was. Rosa told me she thought Whitney looked like a "princess".

Stetson & Whitney and Sean & Heidi stayed the night with us. We came back to our house and had fresh apple cider (they even tried apple cider floats), talked and played a game.

While enjoying the cider, we heard a knock on the window, and came to see what it was. We found Jesse and Brighton outside on the roof doing a dance for us through the window. You can't see it too well here, but it was so funny I had to at least get an image to help me remember it.


We had no idea a year ago when Sean and Stetson were here serving in our branch,

that they would be back with a fiance and a wife exactly one year later!


These are pictures from this afternoon before they left.

Jesse gave a great talk on Service this morning in Church. Here is a good quote from her talk:

Elder Russell C. Taylor of the First Quorum of the Seventy said, "Some mistakenly think that a commitment to service comes after a great spiritual experience. This is like the man who is cold, standing before the stove, and saying, 'Give me heat, and then I will put in some wood."

At the end of her talk she told a story of service in our branch and teared up as she bore a very sweet testimony. I'm so grateful for a daughter like Jesse.

And here's the NEW missionary part. Our nephew Devyn has been called to serve in the Washington D.C. South Mission! We are so excited for him. He opened the call down in Provo.

Here is the video of his parents hearing the call over the phone.



We drove 30 min to Stephen & Kendra's just to be there for this moment! Congratulations Devyn!! We are thrilled that you are "going forth" to share the wonderful good news of our Savior Jesus Christ and his gospel.

By the way, Mary's blog is mjhblogger.blogspot.com. Check it out!

One quick thought on today's Relief Society lesson on the Signs of the Second Coming. I was struck today by the fact that we know the Church will be strong, so will always have a body of Saints that we can turn to and be with. We can go through anything, as long as we have each other and the guidance of the Holy Ghost and prayer! Put me in the wagon train with the Saints - that is where our family will be found. And won't that be great!

I'm so glad to have this venue to record all the amazing experiences that we have all the time. Moments of joy, laughter, love, light and smiles. And yes, challenges in between. But these challenges are dwarfed by the happy experiences.