Texas Dallas West

We have just completed our second week in the mission.  We have been learning the tasks along side the Stiloviches who will be moving to the North mission in a month. 

Both of them were gone on Thursday and Friday last week and we were able to handle things just fine.  We've been out to visit a few of the missionary apartments.  I don't think Elder and Sister Stilovich do that.  We moved a companionship of Sisters on Saturday and he had never been to their previous apartment.  It was dark and uninviting.  Their new apartment is bright and cheery!  With the creation of the Dallas North mission on July 1st, we will lose 37 apartments and gain 25.  We plan to visit all of those sooner than later.  We are finding that many of our Elders and Sisters do not let us know when they have a need for repairs until things are really bad.  I'm hoping to change that mentality.

We are really enjoying working with Elder Tom and Sister Darlene Beard.  She is the secretary and he is over the fleet.  I believe they will be our best friends for the next nine or so months.  We're having fun!

MTC Round Two

We began our second round of MTC training on May 4th.  

We were there for one week with Zerin Hoffman from our ward. We ran into him at least once each day.

One of the new things we did this time was meet with teachers who would be instructing us for our specific office training.  The man on the left is Ryan White who served in the Lubbock mission with our mentors the Balls.  

Our district consisting of Elder Wood who will serve in Croatia and the Snows who will serve in the London England mission.  Our afternoon teacher was Brother Brunjes.

The couple we were assigned to teach were the Christensens who went to serve in Kentucky.

Our morning teachers were Brother Kidd and Sister Bautista.

The iconic photo that every missionary needs.

We were able to go to the Mt Timpanogos Temple with 

We attended Sacrament meeting at the MTC and met up with Doug Holyoak.  We met him during our days in City of Joseph. Small world. 

Sister Hartsell was one of our teachers.  She served her mission in Virginia and knows Bennette and Ellen McGraw.

This is our group that were all in the second week of office training. 

We took the bus to the Provo City Center temple.

This is our housing group.

Ryan and his beautiful wife. 

We made friends with Elder and Sister Warnick.  He will be doing housing and she is the finance secretary in the Oklahoma City mission.

While walking to the BYU bookstore I got a call from Mary Warner asking if we were walking down Ninth.  She told me that they just passed us and were headed to the same.  They didn't know there was a distribution in the basement of the bookstore. 

The McKinneys from Kentucky met up with us during our second week in the MTC.  We served with them on the security team during the Nauvoo pageant.

Our experience was great!  Next time we serve a mission we shouldn't need to go back to the MTC to do the Preach My Gospel training since we've now done it twice.

 

Friends

We left for Salt Lake City on May 1st even though we didn't need to report to the MTC until May 4th.  We spent several days with Fred and Jane Mensel.  

We had the opportunity to have dinner together with the Crumps and the Nelsons on Sunday evening.  That was so much fun getting to catch up with them.  

We were able to meet up with Ferrin and Wendy Flanders at Olive Garden.  How we love those wonderful people that we rubbed shoulders with while we were serving our first mission in Nauvoo.  I spent a lot of time working in the paint shop with both Fred and Ferrin and enjoyed being with them then and now.  Their wives are such beautiful women and we love them equally.  

Forever friendships!

 

Eating Together

I asked Cami what she wanted for her birthday and she replied that she wanted breakfast out with the girls.  We didn't have much time to do this as she got home and we were leaving very soon after. We were able to get a Farm Inn breakfast on a Monday morning.

Pat needed to have a Culver's dinner prior to our departure.  Maybe someday, they will get our order right.  haha

I asked my siblings if we could get together for a meal prior to our leaving.  We were able to make it happen.  Kurt and Lori were so generous to treat us.

Eating together is great but spending time together is priceless!  I'm so richly blessed to have these wonderful people in my life!

 

Family is the BEST

We have the best family!  They love one another and are supportive of each other's children and us.

The Gourleys

The Fagerstens

The Fillmores

These cuties. Evelyn with Henry, Lydia and Eddie.

We were all together for Eli's baptism, our farewell talks and it happened to be Eloise's first birthday.  How I love all the faces in this photo.  

We are so blessed to have children who love God and want to serve Him.  We are blessed to have all of these fine people living so near us.  Most people don't have such a blessing. 

This photo makes my heart very happy!

Ice Storm x2

The snow had barely melted when we got rain.  Of course the rain helped bring down the enormous piles of snow.  But then, freezing rain on April 2nd and again a few days later. 

Limbs came down from the white birch.

A few came down from the pine and then more and more came down with the second storm.

The ice made for some interesting and beautiful scenery.  Still, I'd rather do without it. 

I don't know how much seed the birds could get out of the feeders.  I'm thinking they probably needed to break the ice before they could get to the seed. 

I don't believe there was anything not covered in ice.  That included power lines.  How grateful I am that we have a generator that works!  We were able to have heat and power our internet, TV and fridge.

I had a lot to clean up when all was said and done.  Pat and Jacob hauled away more than one trailer load of limbs.  I cut them up and Tom and I stacked them for removal.

One of the prettiest things I observed was this little bush at church.  It was covered in ice and the red berries stood out against the crystals.  It was so pretty in the sunlight.

I don't need to do another ice storm.  I've had my fill for quite some time. 

 

March Blizzard

March 15th and 16th brought us another blizzard like the one we had eight years ago.  This time we didn't get 30+ inches of snow but we got at least 24 inches.

The wind blew very hard blowing all that snow.  

Because Jacob's car was in the driveway, the wind blew right past it and cleared a part of the drive.

But that same wind made quite a drift in front of the garage.  That was fun getting the snowblower to move that!

A view from another angle.

By the time the snow was finished, Mr. Skinnylegs was covered.  Only his legs remained visible. 

The driveway was cleared more than once and the birds were looking for anything they could find.

Using the equipment that the Transit owns, Pat brought home a loader and moved the snow from in front of the house, in back of the house, cleared the alley and moved some snow from in front of the neighbor's home too.  Donna Cerveny called and asked if he would come clear their driveway.  Unfortunately, he got off the side of the drive and buried the machine.  Scott came and together they got him our.  The next day, Scott took the smaller machine to clear his parent's drive and he got stuck while backing out of the driveway.  What a few days we had!  Glad that doesn't happen often.

 

Cenote

After Chichen Itza and lunch we stopped at a cenote.  I had never heard of such a thing and it was a sight to behold!

This very, very deep underground lake.

We had to shower before entering and wear a life jacket as they aren't really sure how deep it goes.  Don't bring anything that you can't afford to lose if you drop it.

The long hanging things are roots from the plants up top.  Don't hang on them.  They are not for playing "Tarzan."

The water was cool.  Steps led to a platform where a person could jump off into the water.  I feel the need to do that but of course Pat did.

What an adventure!

 

Chichen Itza

We went on a second adventure.  This time to Chichen Itza.  It was a couple hours to get there but so worth it!  

Heber was our tour guide both to Tulum and again today.  Antonio was our driver both days.  He doesn't speak English so we used a translation app to communicate. 

This place is amazing. These Mayan people did not have modern technology but they used the sun.

At the bottom of the stairs are snake heads.  On the Spring equinox people come by the thousands to see the shadow of the corner of this "pyramid" so see the seven triangles connected to the snake head.  It happens for several days.  But, there is only one day in the year when all eight triangles are visible.  That day is April 6th!

The temple is actually at the top of this edifice. 

On the back side of the pyramid are the original steps.  All the other sides have been rebuilt. 

Excavation shows just how far out this edifice actually came.  

Heber was so kind as to take photos of all in his group.

There was so much more to see.  The world is divided into three categories and it is everywhere.

It was a hot day and I was thankful that Heber took us early and when we did stop, if there was shade, we were in it.  

When we were finished, we went to eat at a quaint place that was buffet style.