No pics tonight. Just some thoughts that I want to write down because it was such a lesson for me. For years I have been wanting to recognize and acknowledge how the Lord is in my life. Am I making the decision on my own or am I receiving promptings in my decisions and choices. Did I decide to carry out that act of service or did I receive a gentle nudge or was I led there.

Well, out here on the mission I have learned just how much the Lord is in my life and I have learned to acknowledge that and give thanks to Him and then what happens is that it seems to make those promptings come even more. or am I just more aware now and finally giving thanks. There are things that happen all the time with missionaries that make you aware of how the Lord is blessing them and helping them.

So I have to share a sweet experience that really solidified my questioning.

I had stayed late at the office one night and in printing out referrals, I had a referral for the AP's who have a desk in Elder Bouy's office. I should have taken the referral and put it on their desk that night. But I didn't.

We had a missionary who was not able to fly out with the group because his parents were in the service and he was flying to Bahrain. There are only a few flights to Bahrain so he had to wait until a flight came up. He spent the night with some missionaries and they dropped him off at the office about 9 or 9:30.

The Bouy's were taking him to the airport at 10:30 and he just hung around the office for awhile. At one point he came out and shredded his medical insurance card and his food/incidentals card.

When I came in that morning my desk was still a mess with all the referral papers there from the night before. I had a few minutes before we started our scripture study to clean up my desk. But still didn't clean anything up. And after scripture study I just started into my work for the day and left my desk a mess.

It was time to go to the airport and goodbye's were said and off they went to the airport. About ten minutes later I suddenly just stopped what I was doing and decided that it was time for me to clear my desk. I picked up the paper for the AP's and walked into Elder Bouy's office.

On the floor by the chair that Elder Curtis had been in, was a red credit card. I picked it up and on it was ____ Curtis. Don't even know what his name was.

I immediately went to my phone and called the Bouy's. Where were they? I told them that I had found a credit card with Elder Curtis's name on it and I was sure he needed it. They were not too far away and turned around and came back and got it. Elder Curtis was very grateful.

Can you imagine that missionary all alone, flying to Bahrain, making a couple of stops along the way and losing his card and not even knowing it was lost until he went to his wallet to use it.

Oh my, I just sat at my desk with tears rolling down my cheeks and thanked the Lord for the order of events that day.

Yes, He is in our lives and wants to help us. We just need to live as we should, keep the commandments and the blessings will come. We don't even have to ask in most situations. He is just blessing us.

We have just returned from a wonderful President's Fireside at Liberty Jail. We have them once a month there and once a month at the Visitor's Center. Tonight's was super. Five newly baptized members bore their testimonies. One sweet sister from the Dominican Republic who couldn't speak English, so one of the Elders translated for her. All of them were 30 and up. They bore sweet testimonies about how the church has changed their lives and how happy they are. It is so great to hear from the new converts.

The Church is true. The Lord loves us and wants us to return to Him. We are blessed.

Surprise!
Just a pic of some of the country around here. It really is quite lovely and very green and enjoyable when the temp is in the 70's or even 80's.

This is a view driving along Lee's Summit, which is on the way to the Stutz's place. We have come to know this road quite well. But just beyond their place is this pond. You pass it on the right and cannot stop and so on the way back I had Dad stop on the other side of the street so I could run across and see the geese. There might have been 100 out there. I counted to 40 and quit and just estimated the rest. All facing in the same direction. You would have thought it was a line up drill for geese! Quite impressive.

A couple with their neck out of shape, but maybe that is like having your nose out of joint for us.

We picked up Sister Jacobs at the airport on Friday and drove past the KC Temple lot. We have decided that this is probably an elevator shaft. They are above ground. We are told it is supposed to be done next November.

This are the "in the mountain" offices, storage units, etc., etc. There are two places like this right close to us. You drive in and there are rows and rows of semi trucks lined up.

Drive right into one of these openings and . . . . .

. . . . you drive for miles through the mountain. They are limestone. and as you look down here you see the huge columns that are standing to hold the roof up I guess. They must have figured how big they had to remain and how close together they had to be, because they are tall enough that semi trucks drive right down these nicely finished cement floors and offices and storage and stores are all along the way. Semis backed into places to load and unload. The pillars are marked about every two or you would get lost. The road turns right and left and back and around. It is kind of a wierd feeling being in there. You would have to get used to it. We got a little claustrophobic in there and wanted out! But it was very interesting to see. In some places there was huge machinery that was digging more mountain out.

A semi parked and loading dock to the left of it.

Love you every day!

Today is 10/10/10. Fun day to have a baby! And soon it will be Megan who will have 12/12/12. We will have to plan something special. What do you do when your birthday is like that? Not a lot that can claim it.

This is finally the pic of the President with Elder Clayton on the left and Elder Thomas on the right.

This is Elder Jensen. He is from West Valley and is deaf. He is our second Elder who is deaf and has a cochlear implant. You can hardly tell that he is deaf. He hears very well with his implant and his speech is amazing. He told us that his parents worked and worked with him to teach him how to speak. It is unbelievable how well he speaks. He also has two deaf brothers. Not as deaf as he is however.

This is Elder Beck. He is one of the happiest kids I know. Is never without a big smile oon his face. He is from Spanish Fork and this is him practicing his roping. He does rodeo and so we plan to go to a rodeo when we get home. He has made himself a head to rope. Has a name for it but I can't remember it. It is hooked to a large plastic storage chest. He also has a racoon skin that he skinned and preserved that rides along in his car. What a sweetie!

Have I told you how I love clouds! I really do. I think I have sent pics of clouds before. The clouds here are so different. Different shapes and kinds. It is fun. These three pics are all the same clouds just a few seconds apart. Sun is going down and colors changing.

Another different look.

And this is the last with the sun almost gone. Quite amazing I know.

Love you every day.

Hello and more frustration. I did an entry last night and it would not print out. I am still such a novice at this. And now I have just loaded these 5 pics and they did not come out the way I had planned. Crazy.

This is a pic of the President with his AP's. Elder Clayton on the left side and Elder Thomas on the right. Elder Clayton is going home in two weeks and I am nearly in tears right now. We get to know the AP's quite well since they are in the office quite regularly and we just happen to be in the same ward with them, so we see them at church and have them to dinner. Tomorrow night in fact. And I have not even thought about it. Whoops! What to eat. Did chicken enchiladas last time and they loved that. Anyway, I am going to find out when he will be talking in Sacrament meeting and it would be fun if you could go meet him. He lives in Provo just above the temple so I will let you know. Elder Clayton is from England and you occasionally hear his accent. It is so fun. And he is one of the happiest missionaries I have ever seen.

This was last Friday night. We got home from the office and I started the wash and at 7pm, Dad said, let's go find a high school football game to watch. So we drove to the nearest high school and here we are. If was fun to see. Still the same as at home. The kids don't come to watch the game, just socialize and the parents are there to see the game.

Fireside at Liberty Jail on Sunday. This is one of the newly baptized members. She had a very interesting story. Blind since birth because she was a small baby and under the lights and whatever happens with that. She had a 9 year old son and the two of them live together alone. He is a sweet boy. And then there is her dog. She has only had her a short time and loves her so. She has really changed her life. I got talking to her after the fireside and asked a lot of questions about the dog training. You know I thought about doing that when we lived in Pocatello. I think it would be a great thing to do. Any takers?

Lost my pic of the Pres and AP's and ended up with two of this. Go figure.

OK. Saw the pics of the hailstorm in Lehi. Here is ours. We went to te Harts to watch a BYU football game and it started storming after we got there. Dad went out and picked up this hail stone. It was nearly as big as a golf ball. and pure ice. We saw a pic on TV that showed an orange with hail stones all around it. Small ones and some that were bigger than an orange. It is unbelievable. Several calls on Monday reporting hail damage to the cars.

Don't know what I am doing any more. Will sign off and try again tomorrow.

Love you every day.

Just finished reading all the blogs, so I must add something about our adventure.
I guess it is just the fact that we work at least from 8 to 5 every day and I sometimes spend another couple of hours and then usually anywhere from 2-4 hours on Saturday. A week ago it was 6 1/2 hours on Saturday. I like to go over and get the mail out and then just start doing my other duties. By the time we get home at night, find something to eat, do an errand or two, go VTing, we just want to put our feet up and relax a little, fall asleep in a chair, watch SURVIVOR, and then trudge off to bed. It is quite a life!

Over Labor Day, we have what is called SantaCaliGon Days. That means Santa Fe Trail, California Trail, and Oregon Trail. Years ago they did historical things in remembrance of people taking off from here to head West. (They don't mention the Mormon Trail though) But now it is a huge carnival, craft fair, deep fried food fest!

The street that we go to work on was shut down for about 5 days. The downtown streets are all full or tents and food wagons and ferris wheels. Sister Bouy and I walked downtown on Friday when it started and enjoyed walking around and thru tents. You could probably buy just about anything you can think of that is at a craft fair only about 5 times as much as usual.

On Saturday, Dad and I went over and wandered for a bit and there were lines 20 people long to even get into the tents. Then it was just a mass of body movement pressed together. We didn't stay too long. Dad had to buy a funnel cake though. Didn't know what it was. Deep fried cake batter with a big blob of strawberries on top of it. We tasted about 1/4 to 1/3 of it and then found the nearest trash barrel. It brings thousands of people here and I was told is the biggest craft fair in the country. We would have liked a little more history and a little less crafts.

On Monday, Sister Bouy and I went to the Community Center to see the quilt display. I already know what I am going to do when I get home. Take a class in quilt making. I love them.

This quilt was all embroidered and then quilted. It was stunning. I could do that. I love to embroider and then quilt it.

This was a darling pieced and quilted jacket. Must make one of these.

This was very interesting. Looked like yo-yo's, only square, and then had a different old fashioned button in the center of each square.

This is just beautiful.

Another beauty. Appliqued and quilted. I want to learn to do this.

Can you believe the size of these little squares! It was unreal.

These are the Gunnell's. They left on Tuesday after Labor Day. We had a Senior Conference on Monday night and the President had asked them about the highlight of their mission. You won't believe this. It was coming to our study group at 8am each morning. Not that that is bad, but their job was not to be envied. They went around to 28 chapels in Independence and surrounding areas and took care of physical problems. Glued carpet down, hung cleaned drapes, switched out tile in bathrooms, etc. They put 17, 500 miles on their car (did get compensation for using their own car). They were happy to be going home. They live in Draper, so we are anxious to see them when we get home. Good people fulfilling their assignment.

We had a funeral that we took six of the sisters to last week. We were waiting for a couple of them when they found a butterfly in Sister Love's hair, and got it on their hand. Oh these sweet sisters are great.

This is Sister Lasalosi and Sister Howe communicating with the butterfly.

Darn, I have lost about 4 pics. Will try to find them and continue.

Friday night.....guess what!

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME..............Dad and I had been to one ballgame in St. Louis about 40 years ago and it was so boring that we left early. Well, here we go again.

Gotta have one of those hot dogs at the ball game. The first order of business. Only $4.50 for a short dog and $6.50 for a footlong. Outrageous!

Presenting the colors. My favorite thing no matter where it is being done.

I don't know what these guys are called, but they carried that hose all over so the lead man could spray down that beautiful stuff! The best looking dirt I ever did see.

The lovely scoreboard. We scored four runs in the 2nd inning and then 1 more in the 8th. Not enough to win the game.

Always entertainment going on. This was the Hot Dog Race. That is Relish in the lead, followed by Ketchup and Mustard bringing up the rear. They raced to the finish line. Couldn't really see where they were going.

Beautiful fountains with all sorts of water displays with different colored lights on them all the time except when they were playing ball. I think since the Bellagio started in Vegas, everyone has to do better with their water displays. I love it.

Don't know what they call this mascot. He is running around all the time. Patting bald heads, kissing kids, rolling over on the dugout roof, leading cheers, just one busy lion.

And he has that tail out back. Kinda cute.

Sing alongs with the words posted for you.

That hose crew out again. This time they are raking and smoothing out that beautiful red dirt.

And the Friday Fireworks display was amazing. Beautiful! They are coming up with more fantastic fireworks. One that looks like puffs of cotton. It was amazing.

And yes, there was even a baseball game going on. We really quite enjoyed it. It was a cool night where we even had to put on jackets at the end. Thankfully!

The huddle out on the pitcher's mound. There were several of these. How do we win this game? They never did figure that one out.

Yes, these are the KC Royals and they have a beautiful stadium.

The final score. Yes, under R, we had only 5 while for the Detroit Tigers it says 9. How did that happen? We went the Auke and Norma Hart. He is in the office with us doing finances, but we are in the same ward with them and have gotten to know them there. She has such a bad back that she cannot do a mission with him as they had hoped. She takes lots of medication just so she can be out of bed.

Hope you enjoyed your Friday night as much as we did. Mom and Dad

Tuesday night we had 'our' Elders over for dinner. I call them ours because we are all in the same ward. Those are usually the ones you have to dinner. But you can also have anyone who is around come to dinner. It is fun for us too, because these are the two AP's and so they are on exchanges a lot with other Elders, so often we have one of these guys and another Elder. On the left is Elder Clayton (from Provo, yes, he walked to the MTC since he lives just above the temple in Provo and also saw his Dad at the MTC since he works there). One outstanding Elder. He is from England and you can detect an English accent quite often. Elder Thomas is on the right and he is from Kaysville. Another outstanding Elder. We keep thinking that there cannot be any as good as those who just left, but WOW! these guys have reached new heights. Elder Thomas is such an organizer and a great leader. He stepped in and took hold and is such a great leader. They taught us a 1st discussion, actually asked if they could practice on us. The church is changing once again, the way that missionaries teach. It was just implemented in all the missions in August where our mission had a four day leadership conference. All of the zone leaders, district leaders, etc. 60 of them, were together and listened and practiced on one another about how to teach by the spirit.

So our Elders gave us a wonderful lesson and we pretended to be investigators and they just answered our questions. They bore their testimonies and then asked us to critique their lesson. I, of coarse, told them they were perfect, which they are. But we did talk about a couple of things that they thought they could improve on. Oh, they are good kids.

Of coarse, when I asked if I could take their pic just sitting there, Elder Thomas got a little crazy!

Oh, we love them.