At Last

I have to start off with an apology. I have tried to post a blog each month and even if today is still August, it’s the last day of August.

I have too many pictures again, maybe and I don’t know in what order they will show up when I post, so I’ll just do the best I can.  We had a great sadness in our ward in August with the passing of Elder Thomas Bennett.  One of the pictures was from Elder Bennett’s funeral folder.  I probably should have done a post just on him because there is so much to tell.  Maybe I will do that after we are home.  The group of Elders and sisters picture was taken at the cemetery.  They have red ties on because Elder Bennett loved red ties.

My childhood friend and her husband came to visit which was such a treat for us.  They weren’t here very long, but I’m grateful for whatever time I can have with my sister.

I guess you can see that there is a picture of us as well.  And also, a picture of us with our Mission President and his wife who are Idahoans just like we are.  I picked a few pictures of some of our regular candidates just for our benefit as we look at these pictures in the future.    The girl pinning up pictures is the daughter of one of our candidate friends.  Lots of people bring in their children to our office.  I have coloring books and crayons to entertain them and then I pin their pictures up for all to see. 

You may wonder why I put up a picture of grass in the back yard.  Well, it’s just about a miracle, but Elder G. was determined to have a nice back yard instead of just dirt and he succeeded.  Attention any Arizonians, it can be done.  Also the cucumbers are a foot long or more and we are getting tons of them. Never have had such huge cucumbers.  I think they think they’re zucchini squash.

I’ve been making afghans for some of my friends, but have just ran out of time to do more even though I would like to do so.  Should have thought of it sooner.

The mother and son are special to us because she works in the adjacent office in our trailer and her son is a very special cancer survivor.

Next week is the fair so I’m hoping to get some good pictures at the fair for our September post.  Love to all.

Family Visits

		July, 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We’re half way through July and have had such a wonderful time already.  We had two baptisms, a ward family home evening, visits from our son and his family and our daughter and her family.  Also took a couple of pictures of two of our regular candidates that I don’t want to forget.  There will be more pictures of people who come in our office a lot and have become dear friends in August and September blogs.  I threw in a picture of a real Navajo taco.  The girls speaking at the microphone is dressed in traditional clothing for the ward home evening.  One of our ward members had her family there from Florida.  They are Cubans and speak Spanish, so she wanted them to meet the ward members and that they introduce some of their traditions to her parents.  It was a wonderful evening.  Her father later took the microphone and said, with his daughter translating, how much he felt at home on the reservation and how he and the Navajo people are the same, they are brothers and sisters, and that he would be very comfortable living with them on the reservation.  It was a very special moment that I will never forget.  I don’t like to use names on our blog, but I must tell you the name of the little girl ready for her baptism by her grandfather.  Her name is Primrose.  It took a little getting used to, but now I just love it.  Her grandmother is named Rosemary.  You’ll notice at the other baptism a mother and daughter and what a wonderful pair they are.  I spoke at their baptism and the daughter never took her eyes away from my eyes during the whole talk.  She and her Mom are really awesome converts.  Notice our sister missionaries.  We are so happy to have them here.  The Elders didn’t know what to think at first, but the sisters have won them over.  We dearly loved having our families here!!!!!!  We have missed you all so much and having them here helped give us the boost we needed for the closing stretch.  I think they enjoyed being here and we enjoyed having them here.  We have our Career Workshop tomorrow and next week we have a Zone conference and then it will be August.  The time is just flying by.  Have fun in July!

Graduation Time

I’ve got so many pictures on this post, I hope I can describe them.  At the top are pictures of two kids in our ward who have been very special to us.  Their baptism was postponed several times, but the great day finally arrived and we were so happy for that.  Both of us had the privilege of speaking at their baptism.  There are a number of pictures of graduates.  When someone graduates from 8th grade, or high school, they get quite the celebration and well they should.

Next are pictures of our ward campout.  The road getting into the camping spot was treacherous, but it didn’t last too long. I was impressed with the great meals everyone was cooking with steaks, fry bread, corn and other things.  I didn’t see anyone doing hot dogs, but of course there was the universal camping dessert, smores.  There was a meadow and a small lake not far from the camp.  One of the points of interest was a poor young cow who had apparently given birth and then abandoned her calf and was suffering from her uterus trying to come out.  The owner finally came along and took care of her, although we don’t know what happened in the end.  He was going to use sugar water to try and lubricate the uterus so it would go in and stay in.  Sugar?  Clive called our daughter-in-law vet for advice, but under the circumstances there was nothing we could do.

The picture of the couple standing at their pickup bed is our Bishop and his wife.  She is wearing a pink t-shirt.  Most everyone stayed the night, but we didn’t for a couple of reasons.  One was the the elevation was 10,000 ft. or higher and it was really bothering Clive.  He went straight to bed when we got home.  The other reason is I didn’t want to get that cold.  We had friends with an extra tent and sleeping bags, but cold, not for me.

What looks like another picnic is a celebration for the high school graduation of twin grandsons of some friends of ours.  I didn’t get pictures of the graduates because they were late for the party, but I did get a good picture of their little Navajo great grandmother and their grandmother, who is wearing the pink apron who, by the way is the sister who made the jingle dresses in a former blog.  You might also notice our son-in-law sitting at the table with the grandmother and her sisters.  He happened to be visiting us that Sunday and will be here again for the next 2 Sundays, which is a great blessing for us.  He spends the week days helping his parents build a house.  The live just shy of 2 hrs. south of us.

  And last but not least we have pictures of the Elders the night before transfers and of course the picture of us with the transferring Elder.  We love our Elders and are happy to say that we now have a set of Sister missionaries.  I’ll for sure have a picture of them in my next post.  They are the first Sister missionaries on the rez for many many years and all are so excited to have them here.

We’re doing fine, although I think we are getting more creaky every day.  We blame it on the lack of humidity.  Isn’t that what turns grapes into raisins?

  I just noticed that I said nothing about the boots.  It isn’t a very good picture of them, but they are the traditional footwear when wearing traditional clothing.  A number of the graduates who didn’t wear traditional clothing did wear the boots such as the graduate in the pink dress with Clive and I at her sides.  Her feet are in the pictured boots.

Love to all….enjoy June