November 8 – December 18
Holy Cow - MY BAD!!!!! I KNEW too much time had gone by between my journaling, but I didn't realize it had been this long! I remember when Gregg went to England, he promised that he would write home every week, even if it was just a short note. He kept that promise! One time I remember getting a post card, but it was something so I didn't worry. When Lynzi went to Peru we got an e-mail every week, and a few times, she could send it to the school and if I was watching I could get it immediately and write back to answer/ask any questions. That was awesome! OK - here's the difference. They had a P-day once a week where they were assigned to write home and do their own journaling. That's good! I'm not complaining, because we have 4 hours of research time every week where we can do our own personal research and write letters, etc. We ALSO have one T & R (Temple and Research) day each month where we can do the same, but we're asked to attend the temple also. That's an awesome day! While we were training, we took our T & R day for those 2 months. We were able to attend the Salt Lake Temple, Jordan River Temple and also the Logan Temple. I know I've written about that. Welllllllll - since we've been doing all our changing back and forth, and learning about what we're doing, and trying to learn on the job, we haven't had a T & R day or a research afternoon since. When we were called back to the British Isles, President Stalvey made it a point to tell us to be sure to try to get away to do our own research and attend the Temple. We've done sealings in the SLC Temple, but have done 0 research! There are a few reasons. 1. We've been trying to learn our new jobs, and there hasn't been a day that there wasn't something very pressing we had to accomplish so we couldn't leave. And - - - 2. If we had left, we wouldn't have been available to take care of some problems that arose while we would have been gone. We're hoping that in January we'll know enough that we can take a day and be confident things will go well while we're gone. We're supposed to go the first Thursday of each month - so I guess we'll see.
We have actually gone out to dinner a couple of times this past week because the Bailey’s are leaving. On Saturday, we went to McGrath’s Fish House. It was really good food, and going with Bailey’s and Hunsaker’s was really fun too. Both couples are leaving the British Isles, the Baileys are going home and the Hunsakers are going to the Mission Office. I’ve already mentioned that. It’s not going to be the same without either couple, but losing both is really sad!
Things are going great in the British Isles. We're still loving being back and working with all our friends there. We're getting a new missionary couple on Monday. They are the Partridge's, from Rexburg, Idaho. Their son, Don, was at the Playmill with Tami for a few years. I think they'll be an asset to our floor. We also have one other couple, the Moore's, who are CSM's and would like to go full time. They've served another full time mission somewhere in the world, but they live here so would like to stay here in Salt Lake and be full time. That would be amazing if they are able to do that because they would already be trained and could just go straight to the floor helping patrons. The Gilbert's are leaving in February so it's important to find someone who can take their place, both as assistants and also to be in charge of scheduling the morning prayer meetings and also the inservices and labs. They do a great job of that.
OK - what's been going on since last I wrote! LOTS of things. First of all, Haydn had a birthday! It was his 12th birthday so he was ordained a Deacon and now passes the Sacrament! We were able to travel to Star Valley for that weekend so we could be there when that happened. It was fun to get away from SLC, but even more fun to see the family and have some fun with them. We left on Friday after work and came home Sunday after church. It wasn't a long trip, but very worth while! Haydn is a very kind and sensitive boy and will be a wonderful Priesthood holder!
The next weekend was Thanksgiving! Tami and her family came to SLC, Heather and her family had to stay in Henderson because Tyson was in a HUGE football tournament there. Gregg and Marthea had to go to Mar's family's for Thanksgiving. Brooke and her family came to SLC, and Lynzi and Ron were planning on dinner with us. Several months ago we took David Larsen to lunch for his birthday, and during the conversation, I told him that he needed to come to Thanksgiving with our family. He immediately said he'd love to so we were really excited about that! When he asked where we were going to do it I told him our apartment, and he said, "You should come and do it at my house! I have a big house!" SOOOOO - we did! We all cooked something different, piled it in the car, and converged on David's house! (Tami and her family even stayed there for a couple of nights. He has 6 bedrooms and it's very nice!) Anyway - Deacon wasn't feeling well, so Lynzi and Ron decided to go to Ron's house for dinner. Brooke had taken Deacon to the doctor and he was on an antibiotic, but only for a few hours, so they were concerned about Michael getting whatever Deacon had. I can't say I blame them. So - it was Tami's family, Brooke's family, us and David. We had a great time! After dinner we put most things in bags or storage containers so David could have LOTS of left-overs. He has a big theater room so we watched a movie and then played games. It was a great day. We're still trying to talk him into going up to the cabin for a few days around Christmas time. I’m SOOOOOO mad that I didn’t take my camera so I have no pictures of Thanksgiving Dinner!
She's not one to hold your hand and stand by you, and there were so many beautiful things to look at she wanted to run to each of them to see everything! That was a worry because I was afraid she was going to get lost! All was well however, we saw a LOT and they were beautiful. After we finished, we walked home and had hot chocolate. We watched the story of the nativity at the end, and when it was done, Norrah looked at me and said, "Grandma, my heart is so happy I think I need to cry!" I don't know if she'll remember, but I had the opportunity to tell her that she needed to remember that feeling because that was the Spirit telling her what she had seen was true. I told her to always remember how she was feeling so she would recognize the Spirit when she felt it again. What a great experience for her and an opportunity for me! I'm grateful for that.
I had to include this picture. As we were going into the tabernacle, to warm up, Haydn looked up at the organ and said, "Hey - that looks just like the picture that's on the front of the hymn book!"
I LOVE my grandkids!
A few nights after all this, we went to dinner with the "fab four". We went to a place called Dodo's. It was named for the Dodo bird. Who knew! I thought a Dodo bird was just a pretend bird so someone could use the slang, "You dodo bird!" I don't know why we always take pictures of everyone each time we go out, but it's kind of a tradition that we do - so here it is. As you can see, we have great friends here.
No comments:
Post a Comment