Christmas

The Saturday before Christmas we took  two sisters from our ward to Snowflake Temple where the sister on the left received her own endowment and the sister on the right was her escort.  It was a wonderful experience for us all and so in tune with the Spirit of Christmas.

We had stockings for the Elders on Christmas Eve, but the really super part of the evening happened before the stockings were passed out.  We all took turns reading the Christmas story from Luke and then each Elder and both of us bore our testimonies concerning the Savior.  Of course we opened and closed our little devotional with prayer and sang Silent Night before the closing prayer.

I do believe we will forever fondly remember our trip to the temple with those dear sisters and our devotional with the Elders on every Christmas Eve that comes to pass in the years to come. 

Thanksgiving/Halloween

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Our ward had a fun Halloween party so I included a couple of photos from that event.  Most of the seniors in our district had a nice Thanksgiving together so I threw in a few pix from that very fun feast.  The snow pic was the first and last snow we’ve had so far.  The moisture must all be going north because it sure isn’t here in the Southwest.  I have my usual Elder’s photos.  The guy with the red tie and the cowboy were both leaving us so I had to have a photo to make note of our good wishes for them in their new areas.  The Elder by the pumpkin is an Idaho boy who started his mission here.  He’s learning fast and doing a great job.

We had a scare a couple of weeks ago when Elder G. had chest pains and thought he might be having a heart attack.  After further tests at the cardiologist’s office it was determined that he had a great heart, no problems.  What a relief.  My bp has been up a bit so a doc in Gallup doubled one of the many pills I take.  I’ve just got to quit having so much fun.

We had such a wonderful trip to the Snowflake Temple recently.  We took one of the sisters in our ward with us and just very much enjoyed getting acquainted with her.  She sure is an inspiring person.  I’m glad she went with us.  I didn’t get a picture of her at the temple because I forgot my camera.  She called Elder G. two nights ago to asked him for a blessing because her son was being admitted to the hospital and today was flown to Flagstaff for surgery.  We are so concerned for her for her son.

I wrote up a program for a Christmas fireside which included a lot of music from choir, primary, young men and women, RS, etc.  I was thinking of it for a fireside.  I guess it could be for a program along with a ward dinner, too.  We’ll see.

Elder G. gave me yesterday, Thanksgiving Eve, off from our office so I could cook.  It was the first time in 8 months that I played hookie from the office. It felt so good to just be home and do housewife stuff.   Not that I don’t enjoy working in the office, but I did enjoy the break.

There are so many lovely people here and we know we’ll  be home for the holidays next year, so don’t be concerned about us. We miss all of you very much, and love you dearly, and yes, I get homesick, but it would be a shame to miss this experience because we wouldn’t be ‘home for Christmas’ so to speak. 

Hugs and kisses to all…………….

October

Sorry about the scrumble of photos if that’s a word.  I’ll try to sort them out.  The top row from left to right is a picture of the senior couples in our Zone.  We just had a Zone conference in Gallup on Wednesday which was really awesome and very uplifting.  We had to close our office that day which was a concern, but we only have 4 Zone conferences a year and they mean a lot to us.  The next picture is a picture of our dear friends, the  Landvatters who we miraculously met at our trip to Chaco Canyon…more to follow about that.  And the third photo is a fun pix of Elder G. reading the scriptures to the Elders and chastening them a bit.

Second row and third rows of we and some other senior couples and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.  I included the dish of cookies because one of our senior sisters made them without flour just for me.

The middle photo in the 4th row shows our friends and their son and daughter-in-law and us after a chance meeting, neither of us having any idea that the other couple was anywhere near Chaco Canyon.  It was such an awesome experience to turn around and see our lifelong friends.

The last picture in the 4th row looks very smoky and that is because of so many candles being blown out by the birthday boy.

The fifth row shows an Elder who likes to secretly switch tags with Elder G., and who up to now has never been caught committing the crime.   And then we again have Elder G. on the phone being wished a happy birthday.  The next photo is a close up of a Navajo pattern in the material I used to make a little blankie for the upcoming birthday boy.

Last of all a photo that requires no explanation. 

Our friends left this morning.  It was so wonderful to have them here.  Love to all from the mission field where love dwells.

Surprise for Dad

Many thanks to Dee and Sharol for bringing dad a surprise birthday present last weekend.  Dad had admired Dee’s bike one time and mentioned that he would like one also.  Uncle Dee then made it a mission to find such a bike and over a period of time searched and searched until he found just the right one.  And then, he and Sharol make the trip to deliver it.  What a brother and what a sister!  It is very hard for Sharol to travel, but it was so wonderful to have them both here.  Thank you so much.  Thanks also to whichever of our kids contributed to the purchase as well.

While here Dee and dad joined our two sets of Elders on a service project. The Elder with the cowboy hat said,”he’s your brother?” with a tone of unbelief when he met Dee who is 6 ft. tall.  We’re used to that aren’t we Dee?

The Fair…and other things

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It was great to have Ron here for a visit, but boy were we surprised when he drove in pulling a trailer.  I was so excited for Cathy and the rest of the family.  What fun they will have!

The other pictures show how the road to the fair is almost as fun as the fair and people set up their tents and other means of camping all along the way.  It took us about 45 minutes to drive from our house to the fairgrounds a distance of about 3 miles.

  I had the great privilege of meeting the last surviving Navajo code talker who was in the group of 29 Navajo solders who created a code based on their language.  There code was never broken by the Japanese during the Pacific part of World War II.  I shook his hand and thanked him with tears in my eyes.  He is 91 years old.  

I am so glad I caught these pigeons on camera this particular morning.  They have been resting in our tree for a little while almost every morning all summer long.  This particular morning they just looked so beautiful I thought I’d see if I could get a good photo of them not knowing they wouldn’t be back again until next summer.

You might notice the two photos I took while we were at the rodeo.  We were an hour late so were up in the nose bleed section, but they do show the way the area looks beyond the arena.

Late Summer

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Thought you might like to meet Lee, the old cowboy sitting on our front porch.  As Sr.  missionaries we are restricted from giving rides, food, or money to anyone and there is even a sign to that effect by our front door, but…….there is a problem here.  Elder Grimmett, who likes to keep rules, just couldn’t bear to send Lee away hungry, so Lee ri;ngs the bell, sits himself in a comfortable chair and waits.  Sure enough Elder Grimmett makes him a lunch and this happens several times a week.  

The monsoon season is demonstrated in several of the photos showing the heavy rains, mud everywhere on the rez as you can see on the Elder’s pickup and our back yard.  We had one exceptionally bad storm that produced marble sized hail.  I have before and after pictures of our garden…lush before the hail, destroyed after the hail.  However, at this posting our garden has come back in many ways.  You can see how it pocked the vegetables, but the plants rebounded and we are having good produce now.  However some of the plants were late in recovering so there won’t be time for the winter squash to mature or the melons, and the cucumbers and tomatoes were ruined.

We have permission to take members of our ward to the Snowflake temple so will be doing that once a month from now on.  Our first trip was very enjoyable as you can see from the photo.  We will be going again next Saturday. 

The photos with the Elders is a farewell pix, they were being transferred.  The baptism pix are members of our ward. The young man with his little son has adopted us.  I think he and the little guy will be our Sunday dinner guests from now on. 

The picture of Elder G. on the roof is him fixing a hole up there.  The wall picture shows containers on the floor catching the rain and the mirror on the wall shows the job all finished.

We were excited to have our son-in-law come visit us.  He is coming again this coming weekend.  We can’t wait to see him again.

We are doing great.  We love the people we meet every day, we love our ward and our new friends.  We love the missionaries young and old, and we love our little blue house.  On the other side of the coin we miss our family so very much, but we feel their prayers and love and count the  days until we are in their midst again.