OK, here goes. First of all, Adrian I love the new wallpaper. You are right, it is brighter and more colorful or something. Thank you. I have had people tell me that I have a good camera, they like the pics I have printed and given to them. So maybe this shows off the pics better.

Well, it is Sunday night and we are a couple of miles from home at the Best Western. I woke up this AM at 4:30 quite warm and felt like I had a sore throat. I got up and gargled and just lay on the couch. Dad came out in a few minutes and asked it I was hot. YES! He turned the A/C down and nothing happened. This is 5AM. We tried everything we knew and nothing would happen. He brought the fan into the LR and lay on the other couch and we both tried to sleep. Finally about 7 he called Keven and reported our problem. Kevin came over and could not figure anything out and told us that with it being Sunday and Father's Day he could not do much and told us to go to a motel for the night. So we went to church, came home and packed up and here we are. I brought the computer, but forgot the mouse, so I have been using the little pad in front. Not used to it, so I quit reading your blogs because I double posted on Adrians, so erase one of those. So I decided to tell you about a very great baptism that we had instead of putting a bunch of pics in.

This story was written by Elder Whitworth, the Elder on the left who taught and baptized.

Lance Corporal Emanuel S. Sanchez, USMC, was coming home to Kansas City for a 30-day leave from active duty at Camp Pendleton, California. He had not informed his parents because he wanted to surprise them. Surprises are not uncommon in his life.

Lance Corporal Sanchez recently completed his second deployment in Iraq and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He'd seen his share of death, destruction, and sorrow in his three years as a Marine. As a 50 mm Humvee gunner he watched the lead Humvee two vehicles ahead of him blow up when running over a roadside bomb. His cousin perished in the explosion. Later, Sanchez received shrapnel wounds and was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries received in the line of combat.

When Sanchez arrived in Kansas City and tried to contact his parents he learned they had just departed for a weeks-long vacation to Mexico and would not return before his leave ended. And he had left his house keys in his locker back in Camp Pendleton. The surprise was on him. Sanchez contacted a friend from several years ago and explained his circumstance. His friend invited him to stay with him in his rental home.

With no family around, no vehicle, no parties or picnics or reunions to attend, Sanchez thought he had thirty days to kill. To alleviate his boredom, he fired up his laptop computer and began to surf the internet. It was going to be a very long thirty days.

An internet ad popped up mentioning something about a book called "The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ." Sanchez killed the ad. It popped up again. He glanced at it, and then killed it again. It popped up again. He killed it one more time. It popped up a fourth time.

This time Sanchez thought to himself, if this thing keeps popping up, maybe it's important enough to look at. So he clicked on the ad. He began to read a brief summary of the Book of Mormon and noticed a link allowing him to order a free copy. Not a bad idea, he thought, with thirty days to kill. He entered his information.

Less than 24 hours later, on a Saturday, Elder Whitworth and Elder Lynch, missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received a text message informing them of someone interested in receiving a copy of The Book of Mormon. They had been trained to follow up quickly on these requests, so they drove to the address in the text message, rang the doorbell and asked for Emanuel Sanchez. When Sanchez came to the door and was greeted by Elder Whitworth and Elder Lynch, he was pleasantly surprised to meet the two cleanly-scrubbed eager-faced white-shirted men just a few years younger than he. He was also surprised to receive so quickly his copy of The Book of Mormon.

The missionaries asked if they could sit down with Sanchez and tell him more about it and the message from God they would like to share. Sanchez invited them in. During their visit the missionaries were able to teach Sanchez the First Lesson. He received it hungrily and wanted more. The missionaries were eager to provide.

The connection between Emanuel Sanchez and the missionaries was immediate. The Holy Spirit bore its witness and Emanuel felt it. He accepted the invitation to attend church the next day.

Sunday morning, Sanchez arose at his normal 6AM and eagerly prepared for church. He carefully groomed his Marine Corps haircut, shaved his very dark heavy beard, cleaned and shined his patent leather dress uniform shoes, carefully pressed and donned his Class A Dress Blue uniform, ate some breakfast and sat down to wait for his ride to church. He thumbed through his Book of Mormon, reading parts the missionaries suggested, marveling at how the words resonated with him. He was excited to to go church.

April 18, 2010, Chapel Hill Ward was crowded and noisy as usual. The people were happy, friendly and warmly welcomed the handsome stranger in the Marine Corps uniform. Although Emanual Sanchez wasn't more than 5'6" tall, he stood out in the crowd. It was obvoius to all at church that he was a proud American serviceman. Many people shook his hand, asked his name, admired how sharp he looked, and thanked him for his service to our country. Sanchez appreciated the friendliness.

But he appreciated much more the words he heard, the music, and how he felt. Gospel Principles Sunday School class impressed him with the simpleness and clarity of doctrine. The teacher's sincere testimony touched his heart. Sanchez liked these feelings.

During the next week the missionaries contacted Sanchez every day and continued to teach him at every opportunity. They felt prompted to invite Sanchez to receive baptism once he came to know the truth of what they were teaching. He immediately accepted even though he had been baptized previously as a youth.

The ward missionaries and ward mission leader took Sanchez to the Independence Visitors' Center, and once again, Sanchez felt the impressions of the Holy Spirit. It all made sense to him. He understood the Book of Mormon. He understood about God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. He understood about Christ's church and about the apostasy and restoration. He was anxious to be baptized.

He went to church the next week and appreciated the same things he did the previous week. The missionaries continued to teach and fellowship as did members of the ward.

Saturday, May 1, 2010, Emanual Silva Sanchez was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder DJ Whitworth. He was confirmed in Fast and Testimony Meeting on Sunday, May 2, 2010, by David M. Hepworth. During the meeting, he bore his testimony, which was attended by a sincere, peachful spirit. On Saturday, Brother Sanchez had expressed a desire to bear his testimony as he'd heard other people do. Sunday morning was his first chace. the missionaries also arranged for him to attend the Mission President's Fireside at the Independence Visitor's Center Sunday evening and bear his testimony.

Near the close of the day on Saturday, Brother Sanchez told the missionaries his birthday was that day. Elder Whitworth thought for a moment and questioned what he meant, knowing that his birthday was really in November. Brother Sanchez laughed and said, "It's my spiritual birthday!"

During Fast and Testimony meeting, just moments after being confirmed, Brother Sanchez's cell phone rang. He had to carry it with him at all times because he is on active dury - although on leave. He stepped into the foyer to speak with his commanding officer. There was good news and other news. Sanchez was promoted that day to Corporal and was to be deployed to Afghanistan sooner than originally scheduled. After leave, he was to report to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, instead of Camp Pendleton, Claifornia, to prepare for deployment.

Brother Sanchez was invited to meet with Bishop Norm Messner, who discussed the Aaronic Priesthood with him. Bishop Messner determined that Brother Sanchez should receive the Priesthood and be ordained to the office of Priest the next Sunday. Bishop Messner also invited Brother Sanchez to personally attend the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Kansas City Missouri Temple on Saturday, May 8, 2010. Brother Sanchez was thrilled with these opportunities. He expressed a desire to go the temple before his deployment to Afghanistan and officiate in proxy baptisms for deceased members of his family, particularily for his cousin who had been killed in the Humvee in front of him.

Missionaries daily pray to be lead to those people who are prepared to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are always prepared for the opportunity, but when it comes quickly, they are amazed at the tender mercies of the Lord to them and to the people they teach. It makes them literally jump in the air and exclaim, "Oh, how I love missionary work!"

This was written by Elder Whitworth.

This story has affected the mission in very positive ways. It has been very exciting for me because I always text the referrals within 24 hours to the missionaries and tell them to contact immediately. This time they did it. I did get a call from a missionary who found a text message on the phone when he came into the new area, that was about 4 months old. That person was no longer interested. Everyone did what they were supposed to do in this case.

We have heard more about Elder Sanchez. He did bless the sacrament the next week in church and he loved doing that. He went to North Carolina and then was able to come back for the Memorial Day weekend to see his family. He went there and told his parents that he had joined the church and they would not let him in the house. So he went to Brother Hepworth's home and stayed with he and his family for the weekend. I have heard that his parents did finally ask him to dinner and he went, but I have no idea what happened there. I will let you know of further news. I did learn that he came back again and seemed to have some health problem and that might put him out of the Marine Corps, which he would be so happy about, because he wants to go on a mission in a year. Whenever he was in town, he went out with the missionaries every single day that he could. He is so excited about the Gospel and loves working with the missionaries.

It has been a wonderful story. We were at the VC fireside when he bore his testimony that Sunday night. He had been confirmed that day in Fast meeting. Here is one who was truly prepared and ready to receive the Gospel in his life.

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Another new day. This was a Saturday a week ago. Went with Sister Stutz and Sister Bouy to a craft show at the Vaille Mansion. There were over 100 craft booths and they had a little of everything. Then we went to a quilt show. Some beautiful quilts.

This is a quilt made of old T-shirts. Cute huh! I love it. So save your t-shirts and we can make a quilt out of them.

This is a wall hanging made of old hankies and doilies and one even had the bottom of a pillowcase in it. I have been wondering what to do with some of my Grandma Garrett's hankies. I may have found the answer.

Another quilt that I loved. I kind of go for the simple when I thing of making it, but I sure love the beautiful ones too.

Another hankie wall hanging.

This is a tree around the corner from us. We have watched these blossoms come and go. They are white and big and beautiful.

Here is the blossom opened up. It was hard to get on top of it since it is 8 feet up in the tree.

This is Sister Lee. She will be the new secretary in the mission. Elder and Sister Williams leave on the 5th of July. The other cheesy person is Sister Stutz. Get this! She walked into the office with a big shirt box, sat it on the desk and opened it. We laughed. The box is full of pens and maybe ten pencils. Some lady had brought them into the Employment Office where the Stutz work. She asked if anyone wanted them. She had picked them all up in her house and was cleaning it out to move or maybe just cleaning it out! I mean the box was full. Everyone had a chance to look through and pick out what they wanted. It was so funny. Some wanted fine point or medium point, blue ink or black ink or red ink, thin or fat. We had lots of laughs.

I guess the craziest thing was in wondering if I could find that many pens in my house! Collecting them all in one box was very interesting and then taking them somewhere so someone could use them. All kinds of people in the world!

Those pens are sitting on my desk and that is Dad sitting at his computer on the right top corner. He got his share of pens and went back to work.

TRANSFER DAY is here again! Only every six weeks, but it comes around often.

This is Elder Cisternas. We love him.

Elder Mapa and Elder Ti'i. (say it like T) Two great Elders. We love them too.

Transfer day and I don't know how Elder Eckern got in the middle of all these Sister's. He was enjoying himself. Guess he did it because he was going home the next day. His parents moved from California to Daybreak while he was gone. So he went home to a strange place. I told him he would love it! and enjoy all the green space, the walkways, the playgrounds, the skateboard park, since Mike Wonenberg had designed them! Yahoo.

Kids went home last Friday, but the rest of the mission just goes on. It is crazy how people leave so quietly and they are just gone. New ones come in and take their place and the work just goes on smoothly.

The Gospel is true and we are grateful to be working with these wonderful missionaries.

Loves and hugs to all.

Life does go on! We have been to a museum with Elder and Sister Stutz. We expected to see an Egyptian artifacts display. We were quite surprised to find a huge museum in Kansas City that is full of things from all over the world. We wandered around for about three hours until we could not wander any more. We are getting old!

This is one of the stained glass windows on display. Reminded us of a church we had seen in Paris that has the complete Bible in stained glass up and down all the walls. Quite amazing.

This looks like it is made of diamonds.

Here was the mummy. Preserved perfectly.

The beautifully painted box that the mummy would go into.

An absolutely beautifully carved wooden, I don't even know what it is called. But beautiful.

Full armor for man an horse! All silver.

Sister Stutz and I dressing like twins! It is not hard out here. Missionaries wardrobes are always quite similar. Only so many ways you can present black and white. It has become a little better with the summer where we have lightened up a bit. A touch of color in your shirt. So often you will see a companionship with black or yellow or pink. Everyone gets a little tired of their clothes.

This is Elder Espinoza. His brother drove him up from Little Rock, Arkansas. They were born in Honduras. Mom and Dad are still there. Big bro has served a mission and younger bro has been living with bro and wife. He wanted to serve a mission, but cannot fly, so did not go to the MTC. Just came here and did a couple weeks training with his companion and MTC videos. Can barely speak English. But what a sweet spirit.

This is Brother Jeffrey. There should be a video showing him. We alsolutely love him. He is so exciting to be around. He talks so loud and smiles so big and is so animated when he talks to us and excited about everything. He is so grateful for everything. He works mostly at night so we see him in the morning. He comes in and spreads cheer all around. This pic does not show his personality. His wife is in the stake Relief Society presidency. He is a wonderful. He came in last Friday to tell us he was flying to Las Vegas to pick up his father-in-law and drive back with him. He will stay with the family for awhile and then will drive back to Vegas. Loves Vegas for some reason.

This is Elder Hedger from Henderson, Nevada. One of the AP's and he went home on Friday. What a great young man. He has been a great missionary and will continue to be one.

Elder Glenn from Pleasant Grove, Utah, the other AP who also went home on Friday. We are going to miss these two. Wonderful and inspiring leader.

Loves, hugs and kisses.

Well, once again I messed up. I really think that I am too old to be trying all these technological instruments. I am OK with a paper and pen or pencil, point and shoot camera and push button telephone, but hand me a computer, cell phone, or fancy camera and they all have way too many buttons and way too many choices to make and way too many options in how to do it.

I had my pics on the desktop and put the first 3 in and they ended up already posted. Don't know why or how.

Didn't know if I ever presented my picture wall. Remember how bare the walls were... well I did not like it. The latest addition is just under the clock.

This is a closeup of the artwork sent to us by a sweet grandson, Izaak. I copied his name off the back and pasted it on the right hand side. He truly put his heart into it. We love it!

This is a China made quilted that I purchased at the Far West LDS bookstore when Linda and Fred came out to see us. I have that above our bed and it adds a little color to an otherwise white room. We laughed today as we read in MormonTimes the column written by Orson Scott Card. He was talking about the role of a husband. Trying to instruct young men in the church about what is expected. "...The trouble is that the whole point of dating is to find a mate. In the church, that means finding someone to be your companion longer than life itself." Wow, we really laughed when we read that. You really should read the MormonTimes. It has wonderful articles and stories in it. You learn a lot and enjoy every bit of it.

This was Dad out on the sidewalk capturing an injured bluejay. He brought it in and put it in a box and we actually called the place in Kansas City where they take birds and animals. We were going to take it there because we could not send it to Megan fast enough so she could care for it.

This is the first pic of the bird. He was just sitting out on the lawn in front and not moving. We watched him for 15 minutes before he finally hopped down to the sidewalk. I saw another bluejay coming to his aid and then a robin sort of dive bombed the helper, so he flew to a nearby tree and then two robins started attacking him. Truly going after him. So he flew away. Our little jay did not last for long. We were ready to leave and he had perished in the box.

This rabbit is out in front of our place and that is our car on the right side. Can you believe little rabbits around. We see them occasionally.

A week ago we drove to the Missouri River to see how much it had come up with all of the rain we have had. Dad just told me that it came up ten feet. I can't quite believe that. Seems like it would have flooded. But you would not believe all the rain.

Guess I am done. Dad thinks it is time for a walk. Sun is down, it is below 91 degrees and humidity is still high.

We will survive.

Oh, my. I cannot believe how long I have gone without any time in here. I don't know what is going on with me. Sometimes I think it is the computer. I know so little about it and realize that there is so much more I could do to make things more interesting, but then my life is quite low key right now. Kind of the same thing every day, but not really. I can't believe how often our days don't really begin until we get instructions from the President. Like last week he came into Dad and asked him if we could drive to Sedalia and pick up two missionaries and drive them to Marshall and then take one of the missionaries to the airport. He was headed home. We drove to Sedalia. A beautiful place with homes all in the woods or on the golf course. We drove up to Marshall and went in and left one there. This missionary apartment was unbelievable. It was spotless. We have heard a lot of horror stories, but this was not one of them. Elder Wilkes opened the frig and told the Elder that the middle part was his section. Clean, clean frig. He opened the freezer and I saw frozen chicken breasts lined up across the front. It was amazing. We left one Elder there and headed back for the Kansas City Airport to take the last Elder. Dad took him in and checked his luggage in. He had been here for 3 weeks. But he called his Mom on Mother's Day and she just cried and begged him to come home. He has only been a member for 15 months and no other members in his family. His parents were divorced and he actually helped to support the family. He lived with his Mom in California and his Dad lives in New York. His parents are from Mexico and I think his Mom just kind of got to him. Maybe he didn't want to be here either. You never know. Anyway, that was our day. We left at 11:30 and didn't get back until 5:30. Our days are varied, but the basic work is always there.

My last post was about going to Zone Conference. The Bouy's came with us and we stopped at a quilt store on the way and then on the way back. Sister Bouy is a real quilter and she ended up buying into this quilt. I took a bunch of pics for her. Isn't it gorgeous. It is some sort of Civil War quilt. I did my usual and just bought patterns!

There was a day recently where you could see a bunch of sights for $1 apiece. So we went with the Stutz's to the Truman Library. Here is Dad with one of his favorite people. Harry S. Truman. We went through the museum. These presidential museums are quite impressive.

Sister Stutz and I went to the Vaile Mansion. It is another amazing mansion in this town. Cost about $150,000 to build. They said it would cost 13 million today. It is quite amazing.

The tulip tree in the cemetary to the North of us. Have you ever heard of a tulip tree? They are real and quite beautiful. From a distance it just looks like two colors of leaves.

You have to get quite close to see the actual flower. Sister Bouy picked this off the ground so I could get a pic. So glad that we went on our way back to the office after lunch, since it began to rain that afternoon and it rained for days. It is quite amazing how long it can rain around here.

This is out in front of our office and that is Brother Eliason who is actually a paid employee. He takes care of the grounds here and there. He stops in the office to visit and when we first got here we met him. He was very hard to understand and I actually asked him what kind of accent he had. Well, come to find out he only began speaking about six years ago. I don't know all the details, but he did not talk for most of his life. He is very hard to understand, but we are getting used to listening and can understand him better all the time and love it when he comes in. He doesn't like his picture taken either!

The car in front of us. I zoomed in and got this pic. It is true also. We have met so many missionaries and other people and it is really quite amazing how blessed we feel when we hear their stories. Be grateful for what you have.

Short time today. See you later.

Here we go again. We are in a motel in Wichita getting ready for Zone Conference tomorrow at 7am. The Bouy's are with us this time since he has to hand out new phones and she has to see some sick "children" as she calls them. The nursing job is turning into one of the biggest jobs around. Me, well, I just came along for the ride!

All of the Zone Leaders and District Leaders were in the office yesterday after their morning of meetings at the mission home. We have started a picture wall in our little corner and have been putting pics of the missionaries who have come into the mission since we got here. It really helps us learn their names and the Elders and Sisters seem to enjoy it too. Well, Elders Benson and Clayson could not find their pic on our wall since they arrived before we did, so I took this pic of them and it will be on the wall next time they come in. Elder Clayson is from American Fork and he has challenged Dad in a racketball game. His dad is a champion player and has told him not to let the family name get tarnished! I will let you know what happens. Elder Clayson had dinner at our apartment one night and he reminds us so much of Brett that it is crazy.

This is Elder Zipf just off the bus. This is for his Mom. She has looked in on our blog a few times. We became quite endeared to Elder Zipf when we found that he was not writing his Mom as often as he should! Just kidding, but it has been fun to keep our eye out for him and visit with him at conferences.

Last Saturday I went with two other seniors to the Powell Gardens. It is 915 acres of gardens, some still undeveloped, but we spent nearly 5 hours there just wandering. This is the hot house where this orange tree is growing. There were banana trees, lime tree, tangerine tree,

and, you guessed it, a pineapple plant.

This is an apple tree that they are training along wires like you do grapes. Could not believe that an apple tree could grow along aa wire. And they were all over.

In this pic we rode an elevator to the top of an open silo. We could have climbed the stairs to the top! This is overlooking the harvest gardens. Looks like a quilt doesn't it! That is what they are trying to duplicate.

Here are closeups of the individual quilt blocks. It is so beautiful. Different colors of greens and whatever is in season, they give you a taste. We had two kinds of lettuce and some baby carrots.

Another small quilt block. Parsley, beets, lettuces, nasturshem (I know it is not spelled like that), carrots, strawberries, peas, beans, broccoli, (I can't spell tonight), etc., etc., etc.

There is this mostly glass chapel. There was a wedding going on just as we walked up to it. The bride and groom walked out into the rain for pictures.

This is the Living Wall and it goes on and on and on. It is beautiful.

There is a hummingbird sort of garden. Look at that! Oranges cut in half and on the hummingbird hangers. Hummingbirds there too.

I don't know how Elder Zipf jumped in again. Whoops! He was not at the Garden with us!

This is a ball made out of grapevines and then they have put plants in side and outside it. It looked cool and will bloom some day soon.

This pic is by Dad as we walked out of the VC fireside on Sunday evening. It was absolutely beautiful. Partly because it had been raining most of the day on Saturday! That is the stake center up the street from the VC where we are and then further up the hill is the mission office where we spend our time.

This was Monday night. We were invited along with the AP's to the Cook's house for dinner. Brother Cook is the ward mission leader and they had a wonderful dinner and it was also the AP's birthdays this week. Elder Hedger on Sunday and Elder Glenn the following Thursday, tomorrow. They are both 21. Get it!

These are the Cook children. I could not get a clear pic of them. They were on the move! Evan is the eldest and then Lillian and Sydney. Oh, I could not get enough holding and snuggling those little girls. They are all so sweet.

Bye now.