Week 49, June 25-July 1, 2018, SLC, Utah

One year ago today, July 1, 2017, we left our home and friends in Longmont, Colorado, and drove to Utah to begin the wonderful adventure that we have been on the past year! Our mission began on July 10 at the MTC in Provo, but we came a few days early since we rented our home starting July 1.

It has been an amazing year.  We fully expected to be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, now and for another six months, but here we are in Salt Lake City, Utah!  It all boils down to our strong belief that family comes first.  After our strong devotion to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, our family is our #1 priority.  We believe that through the ordinances of the temple, we can be with our families for eternity and that being said, we want our relationships with them to be more important than anything else.

Our 28th grandchild, Violet Joy, brought us back from Brazil.  She was born 11 weeks premature and we felt strongly that we needed to be here.  The church was completely supportive of these feelings and less than 48 hours after her early arrival, we were in our daughter Hannah's hospital room in Provo, Utah and the mission department was already working on our reassignment.  The rest is history.  We are happily serving here in Salt Lake City and we get to spend a lot of our down time with our family that either live close by or come here to visit.

I have learned to not take anything for granted.  I know from whence all my blessings come.  I praise my Heavenly Father and thank him every day for preserving little Violet's life as well as our sweet Hannah's life.  I thank Him for allowing us to continue our mission even though it looks a lot different than the one we were called to serve.  I am grateful for our family and all the love and support that we all share with each other.  I'm grateful for the miracles that preserved our little grandson, Jordan's life---so many miracles and tender mercies to be grateful for.

This week started with our mission conference on Monday evening.  It started with a mission dinner served in the Conference Center.  It was a delicious Cafe Rio style dinner.  Afterwards we had a wonderful presentation by our mission president, Pres. Fenn, on the Martydom of our Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.  They were truly amazing men who dedicated their lives to serving God, Jesus Christ and their fellow men.  I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and all he did to restore Jesus Christ's gospel to the earth and to translate and bring forth the Book of Mormon to the world.

The library is getting busier every day with summer in full swing.  We are seeing people coming in from all over the world.  Tour buses come to Temple Square every day and more and more people are seeking out their ancestors.  People really want to feel connected to their families and it's a beautiful thing to be a part of.

For our bulletin board change, my gals and I decided to keep up the tree and we loaded it with flags of all the nations of the births of all the missionaries on our floor along with their pictures.  We represent 19 nations!

Wednesday, we had a wonderful treat of going to the Utah Symphony with Eric to hear them play the complete score of "The Pirates of the Caribbean" while we watched the movie on the big screen above their heads.  It was fantastic.  It's pretty much my favorite movie so it was an especially special treat for me.  The main song from the movie is one of the first songs that Eric learned and memorized so it was special for him too.  The three of us had gone to see the Boston Pops perform the "Home Alone" score along with Nancy and Dale at the end of our mission so that made this special too.  It was a great evening!

This weekend we have had a wonderful visit from Mike's oldest daughter, Melecia, and her husband, Rhett, and some of their children.  They are in the process of moving from Pennsylvania to Chile where Rhett will be working on an assignment from Penn State University.
 

Aunt Melecia and Violet meeting for the first time

It is so fun to have family come to visit us on Temple Square.  There really is so much to do and see here.  We love sharing the little treasures people might miss with anyone who comes to see us.

Papa, Becca and Livi walking to Temple Square

This week's flowers are the gorgeous Hydrangea's

First stop, Family History Library

This is the beautiful ceiling above one of the fountains in the Conference Center.  It looks like a kaleidoscope.

After our fun on Temple Square, Joel and Erin had everyone over to their place for a BBQ.  It was such a fun and relaxing evening just enjoying good food and each other's company and a little music and a few backyard games!  Violet enjoyed everyone.  She was passed to everybody and she was very pleasant about it.  She's very social!

 
Our contribution--they were perfect...and to balance them off we brought watermelon!

 Today, we got to see Melecia's family a little bit more.  They came to our church and then we toured Temple Square a bit more.  We had a yummy lunch of french dip sandwiches at our apartment and then we said goodbye.  We will miss them while they are so far away but we are hoping to go visit them and we are so grateful for FaceTime--it really helps keep families close even when they aren't.

"God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again"