Category: News (Page 2 of 29)

Catching up is Hard to Do!

We have been in Edmond for over a month now and I have not taken many photos. Being a missionary is interesting. We have found that it is a lot like being newlyweds in that the apartment and furniture are much the same. I have added a few new things and will add a few more as we go. What you see is what was here except for the new mixer and shower curtain. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself:

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Living room

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You definitely needed to see a closeup of this 70’s couch. I’d love it if it was reupholstered in a current fabric.

Living room looking towards the kitchen

Living room looking towards the kitchen

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

My new toy!

My new toy!

The laundry room

The laundry room

The dining room

The dining room

The bathroom

The bathroom

Our Bedroom

Our Bedroom

The closet

The closet

The view

The view

Our other view

Our other view

We are working hard to figure out how the Lord wants us to serve while we are here in Oklahoma. The YSAs (young single adults) here are so easy to love. We are teaching just one class on Thursday nights down in Moore. We are alternating attending the University Ward in Edmond and attending the YSA Branch in the south stake. We also alternate attending their family home evenings on Monday night.

Centerville and the MTC

We spent the last week of May and the first week of June preparing for our mission. We flew from Houston to Salt Lake City on June 4. We spent time with Susan, Nicole, Cody and their children. We had a great time visiting with them. Nicole built a fire pit earlier in the summer so we had a fire a couple of nights and made s’mores. Susan had taken all four days off from work. Friday we went to Morgan to put flowers on the graves there, my mother, Art and grandmother. Then we drove up Ogden canyon to a restaurant called The Oaks. We sat outside right over the river. It was a fun time.

Dining on the river at The Oaks-Susan and Presley

Dining on the river at The Oaks-Susan and Presley

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Saturday we ran a few errands and later that evening we went to Little America for dinner. Susan and Nicole both said how much they liked eating there, but that it had gotten too expensive when they remodeled. I had halibut. Mom always had the halibut on Friday. We thought about her (Nana) and all the times that’s we had eaten there with her.

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Little America-Rick, Me and Susan

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Cody and McCall

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Zak

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Presley and Rick

Nicole and Harlow

Nicole and Harlow

Sunday we went to church and spent the afternoon visiting. Then we went to Farmington to put flowers on our dad’s grave.

See you next year!

See you next year!



Monday morning, Susan, Nicole and the girls drove us to Provo, to the MTC. They were all in tears as we walked away. It will be at least 18 months before we see them again. Nicole and Cody are such good parents. We enjoyed all the yummy food that Nicole made for us while we were there.

The MTC was a inspiring experience. I was quite overwhelmed with the Preach My Gospel week. I was having a hard time learning the order of the lesson elements and remembering the things I needed to say. We taught volunteer “investigators” Wednesday and Thursday. Things came together for me on Friday. We were paired up with another missionary couple and they were playing the role of a less active couple. During that experience I realized that I might have what it takes to teach. During the role play the sister began to cry when Rick asked her to read Moroni’s promise. I didn’t understand why she was crying because she was just acting. After we asked her and she said that at that moment she realized that this maybe exactly what the couple they were portraying might need. We were inspired as we taught and hopefully they will be able to touch the lives of that family and help them return to church.

Other MTC highlights were getting to see Julie Evans, one of my Tokyo seminary students, her mom Rika McIntyre, and her sister Erika and her husband Darin and their cute baby Aiden.

Rika

Rika


The firesides and devotionals were inspiring. We heard from Elder Quentin L. Cook and his wife, Sheri Dew and Elder M. Russell Ballard. One of my favorites was a video of a talk given at the MTC by David A Bednar, The Character of Christ.

This past week we spent Monday- midday Wednesday in CES training. We learned things that were more specific to our mission call. This morning we woke up at 4:00am and took the MTC van to the Salt Lake City airport to catch our flight back to Houston. We will load up our car tonight and drive to Edmond, Oklahoma tomorrow. I am excited to get busy. We will spend Saturday getting unpacked and set up in the apartment. I have already started my menu plan and grocery list for next week. I am excited!

Here are some photos from the MTC:

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We had all of our classes in this chapel just north of the MTC. We got there through a gate in the fence from the MTC.

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We attended a session in the Provo Temple. We were married here almost 40 years ago.

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My first encounter with this fragrant tree. I think it’s a Russian Olive tree.

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The building with the window at the back of this photo is where we stayed.

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Cycling Missionary Statue

 

Day 54- Truck Driving and a letter

Today my friend Dee sent me a link to a blog written by my friend Marilyn. The blog title is Running with Cancer. My heart is so sad…too many friends with cancer. I wrote Marilyn a letter right away. She is very courageous and is working really hard to beat this and get well.

Later this afternoon I got to drive a brand new Nissan pickup. The mission just got it and I was helping Rick get a car that needed body work to the shop. He asked what I wanted to drive and I said the truck. It was a powerful little thing and I had fun driving it while Rick drove the damaged car. Having fun driving really doesn’t seem like it should be counted as service.

Day 54- Happy and Sad update

So remember that letter I wrote to Ardeth Kapp on Day 18 ? Well she wrote me back! Such an unexpected, but wonderful surprise!

Remember my message to my friend Nancy on Day 26 ? My heart was so sad when I learned that my friend passed away on January 14, she was only 54.

Day 53- More Cookies

Cutler’s is a sandwich shop in Centerville, Utah that I like to visit whenever I am there. They have great sandwiches, soup and best of all cookies. They make several different kinds but I am partial to their sugar cookies. I found a recipe for them from a woman who lives there and attended a class the owner taught. I was really hopeful that they would be the same. Sadly, they were not. BUT… they really are good sugar cookies. I frosted and decorated and delivered some to Kristina (who also loves Cutler’s sugar cookies) and took some to Family Home Evening last night. They were a hit. I love sharing my baking!

Day 41- Long ago

When I was in high school I met a girl named Jackie Hugie. I didn’t know her well and she moved away. When I got to BYU she lived in my dorm and on the same floor. We got to know each other a lot better and we even lived in an apartment together the next year. After that we lost contact until today when she found me on Facebook. She found me through a mutual Japanese friend, so amazing. I wrote to her today to find out what she has been doing all these years. One of the best parts of this project has been connecting with people I haven’t been in contact with for a long time.

Thoughts on compliments…

Friday when I was walking into the grocery store a woman stopped me and complimented me on my haircut. I smiled and thanked her. It made me smile since it is not really a haircut, although I did get it trimmed around the edges last month. It’s just me recovering from my baldness. Her compliment made me feel good. I mentioned this to Rick and he suggested that I should give out compliments as part of The Birthday Project. This is such a great idea.

I have never been very good at accepting compliments. I will not be doing that any more and plan to give out compliments on a daily basis.

Update-

If you are following The Birthday Project you may want to scroll back to see if I have added anything. I am trying to make up for some of the days that I lost over the holidays. Today I just added Day 30 and 32, although today is day 39. Now, I’m only 6 days behind…I can catch up!

Day 38- Cookies

Today I decided to make cookies for delivery tomorrow. I’ll be dropping some off to a new family in our ward and also give some to the missionaries for take home bags when they come to dinner.

Day 37- Not a thank-you note

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Several years ago I ran into my second grade teacher in the Salt Lake Temple. I was amazed how much she looked the same after all those years and that I recognized her. A month or so ago I saw a woman in the Houston Temple who looked really familiar. I saw her name tag and realized that she was one of my high school art teachers. Today when we were on our way to the temple I realized that since it was Saturday she might be working again so I decided I was going to talk to her. I saw her as we were going into the session, but that wasn’t a good time to stop. I saw her again when we finished and stopped to talk for a minute. I told her that I had been one of her students and how grateful I am for the positive influence she was in my life. I told her that I remember her being young and very cool. So today instead of writing a thank-you note, which I have become very good at, I actually thanked someone in person! I smiled a lot on the drive home.

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