Presidential Pitch

After 9/11, President Bush had the following experience about throwing out the first pitch at a World Series game.  This was game 3 and was in Yankee Stadium.

I recall the days, weeks and months following the terrorist attacks on our country in 2001, the people were united.  There wasn't a huge debate on which political party was right.  We were all focused on being unified.  How far we've come in 25 years.  It's sad.

George W Bush Presidential Library

A beautiful Saturday afternoon was the setting for us to go tour the George W. Bush presidential library.  

As hot as this place is, it sure was cold in that building.  Darlene says she has learned never to go anywhere without a sweater or jacket as Texans LOVE their air conditioning.  It actually felt good to get outside and warm up.

This statue of the two President Bushes is in an enclosed outdoor setting where it is actually warmer.  One of the men working there was sitting out in that area warming up.  He still had his jacket on.

This flag says,

"It is the American story...an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs.  That everyone deserves a chance that no insignificant person was ever born.  And this is my solemn pledge, I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity."

Inaugural Address - January 20, 2001

Pat got to sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.

He also sat in the president's chair in the Situation Room in the basement of the White House.  This room was the exact pieces of furniture (except for the president's chair as they don't want it worn out) that were in the White House. 

The TV screens are on the far side from the president's chair.

So early in President Bush's first term was when 9/11 happened.  This piece that looks like a sculpture is actually twisted metal from that day.  I believe it is from one of the Twin Towers.  This part of the museum gave me all the remembering feelings of that day.  Emotions came to the surface once again as I watched all of the footage from that day and the week following.

Spaghetti Bowl

Living in the Dallas Metro area had been quite an adjustment for us.  There are 8.5 million people living in this immediate area and more are coming all the time.  I see apartment buildings in various stages of building.  To put that in perspective, there are just under 6 million people in the entire state of Wisconsin.

It's no wonder there is so much traffic.  I've seen what I call Spaghetti Bowls of highways built above and below others.  So many roads going in different directions.  

On this Saturday morning the traffic was light.  Usually on our way home from the office at 5pm, we get stuck in slow traffic trying to merge.  Fortunately we don't live more than a few miles away from the office.  These pictures aren't even the worst of the spaghetti bowls!

 

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!