Time is not flying for us, it is jetting away faster than we can keep up!

I couldn't believe how long it had been since I had posted, until I looked at a friend's blog and saw the link to us with a notation that it had been 1 month (+) since we had last added anything. And we really don't have that much of an excuse. We are busy with our mission, but not overwhelmed, at least not yet.

Our knee friend saw the orthopod and got 3 injections in his knee. He is loving life now with no pain.

We are currently working with a family that lives in a mobile home in Grantsville. They bought it "as is" and the "as is" is a collapsing roof. A contractor friend from our home ward looked at the roof and estimated it would cost about $2500 to repair the "dip" and resuface the roof. Max is going with a group of High Priests from the Branch on Thurs. to look at it again. One of the HP is also a contractor, so maybe we'll get a different approach to fixing the roof. We would really like to help this family. They have 7 children, 5 from her previous marriage, and 2 from this marriage. Shortly after we met them and started working with them, he got laid off. He can't apply for unemployment as he is undocumented. Also can't apply for job assistance at the State of Church employment offices. He has experience in landscaping and so is talking about trying to set up a business of his own doing that. They get no financial assistance from the prev. spouse.

We have a group of Branch members who are working on education issues, some doing ESL and some working on technical training or college. There are special programs and funds for Hispanic members and we are helping them access these funds.

We arranged dental care for 2 uninsured young men who want to serve missions. They are undocumented also, but the Mission Dept. tells us that they can still serve, they will just be sent to areas close by and will be sent out by bus.

We are getting ready to begin piano lessons in the Branch for members who are willing to learn so that they can play in church. We have a simplied Spanish hymn book as well as a lesson guide book. We were able to pick up 2 keyboards Sunday night when we were in SLC for a mission meeting. The keyboards are loaned to the students while they are taking the classes and then returned to us for the next group. I hope this is successful as I am kind of becoming the default RS pianist--mostly using 1 finger. I'm going to try to learn the songs from our simplified hymn book. I'm just waiting to get the songs for May so I can see what i can do.

We are gradually getting to know more members in the Branch and are feeling their friendship and caring for us. Our Branch President is excellent and we enjoy our association with him. We are grateful that we are able to serve this mission and pray every night that our health will hold up so that we can continue.

We have just realized that we can count on both hands the number of times that Logan (Melanie's youngest) will come to us on Wednesday and Friday mornings. During the summer she will stay home with her sisters, and in August she will go to Kindergarten. We will miss her. It has been so much fun watching her mature and grow up over the past few years.

When we look at our grandkids, we really realize how much older we are getting--they are all growing up so much. Pretty soon we won't have any little kids in the family. This Christmas I will make the last Raggedy Ann/Andy dolls for the grandkids we have now. WOW! Hope I can continue with that tradition for the gt grandkids.

Mission Updates

We are pleased with our mission work so far. We contacted our orthopedist (who did Dad's knee last year) and he was very agreeable to see our branch friend whose knee is "killing" him. The orthopod had previously seen this man for an industrial injury to his wrist or hand, and so was very pleased to see him again. Just talked to the wife. X-rays Friday confirmed arthritis as they expected. Dr. D injected his knee with the 1st of 3 inj and already Hector is feeling relief. Hurray! Hopefully the relief will be long lasting as they have no ins. since Gracie lost her job in Nov. when the company she worked for closed down.

We are working closely also with the family of the RS President. Her 2 boys want to serve missions, but are not documented. They can still serve but since they have no papers, they cannot fly and so will be assigned close by and will go to the mission by bus. Their immigration status will not be resolved as easily.

The lady who went to the shelter was "passed off" to Salt Lake missionaries since she is planning to stay in SLC.

The next family we need to track down, may be dealing with an ex-husband who is threatening to sue for custody (prob. to avoid paying child support). We are still trying to reach them to set up an appt.

Last Thursday night was the Spring concert for the TSP group. This is the Tooele Sign Pride club for the high school sign language students. This was Breanna's last sign concert and Emily's 2nd. Not being proficient in sign language, it is hard for us to judge their skill's, but they both did very well. Never seemed to hesitate or scramble for the next sign. Breanna and her friend Brianna do "Who's on First?" This is very fast paced as well as very hilarious. They keep up and do well. I keep suggesting to Bre that if she ends up having to go to SLCC next year, that she take all of the sign language classes there that she can so that she can certify as a SL interpreter. She could then, very likely, get a job at a 4 year college and work her way thru school.

Last Fri. night we went to Mapleton. Lindsey was playing in the orchestra for the school's production of Midsummer's Night Dream. The orchestra was quite good and we enjoyed the play. This was the first time we had been able to see/hear Lindsey perform in a smaller group--I think we may have been to one of her orchestra concerts, but I'm not sure. When you have so many g'kids performing, sometimes it's hard to keep track.

This past weekend was stake conference for our branch. So, Sunday, we went to conference. I am quite impressed with our Stake President there. He is a convert of about 30 years and now works for the Church architectural department--apparently working on temples.

After conference we went to our home ward block. We miss seeing our friends. Cynthia and Max left after the sacrament (he had to drive her home) as she felt pretty punk--sore throat. But I stayed for the whole meeting. The speakers were Br. and Sis Ursenbach who are long time temple workers and who have just been home for a year from serving as the Hawaii Temple President and Matron. Sis. Ursenbach knew my high school friend Yvonne Curnow. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher is part of their extended family and they know her well. My cousin, Dale Beecher, is in their stake and they see him periodically.

Today we plan to go to the local LDS Employment Office for a tour and orientation. Then we will arrange to take Gracie in tmo. or Wed. This mission for us feels like when Max was Bishop and I was RS President--except that we have a lot more to do than I did as RS President.

Overall, we have to say that we are enjoying our mission. It makes us feel good to be able to be a positive force in the lives of the people we work with.

The Ladle's are coming! Hurrah, Hurrah!

How could I forget the thing that has our whole family buzzing? This summer (August) is the 50th Wedding anniversary of Devin's parents, so they are coming to Utah! We are so excited. Devin will only be here for a short time, and his focus will be with his family, but we are hoping to be able to "steal" him for at least one evening so we can have a Newell family something or other also.

Kathy and the girls are planning to come in late July and spend 3 weeks here with us. The girl cousins especially are all excited to see Lauren, Lisee and Aunt Kathy again. We have moved our family camp out 1 week later in July so Kath and the girls can go with us. The timing was just right--it was about the only week in July that every family had open and McKenna and Peyton start school the following Monday since they attend a year-round school.

I looked and looked and finally found a group camp site still available. It is labeled as a Tent camping area. Since it is fairly close to Steve's, he tried to drive up earlier this week to see if the parking area will accomodate Mel and Curt's RV, Doug and Brynn's tent trailer, and Josh and Jamie's trailer/RV. However, when he went up, he could only go part way up the road and then got stopped by 12 inches of snow on the road. So, he'll try again in a few weeks and see if the road is open. We are so excited that they are coming. (We'll be more excited when they have their plane reservations!)

When we applied for a Mission Call, we felt like we wouldn't be able to go to Florida this year. (I wanted to go in August when Lauren turns 12.) After we got our call, we found that, as we hoped, rules are looser for our type of mission. So we won't have any problems with baptisms, missions "farewells"; baby blessings; birthdays, etc. So we could have gone in Florida, but the economy is dissolving my IRA and making us nervous. So we were ELATED with the Florida Ladle's plan to come for the Sr. Ladle's festivities. We are hoping, hoping, hoping that we get to see Mike and Annette also, as they are as dear to us as the rest of our kids.

Another quilt and mission updates

We hadn't gotten any assignments during February from our mission branch, so we put on another quilt. This one is for us. Max pieced it a year or so ago. We ordered extra wide backing fabric from one of my catalogs and didn't like it when we got it. But we finally decided that it would do--don't expect it to ever be put on the bed with that side up. We are about 3/4 done. It is looking great and we can't wait to get it off.

I meant to keep the posting more current. So here is a sort of update of our mission activity which I wrote on Feb 25th in an email to my sibs.

We have been to 2 sunday's of block meetings. 1st sunday, "sender" part of the translation machinery wasn't connected right, so no translation in Sac. Mtg. Last Sunday, everything was set up right and we enjoyed Sac. Mtg. 3 youth speakers all spoke about prayer--excellent talks. Actually I thought they were some better than the high counselor who followed them.

Sunday School and RS/Priesthood are hard for us because we don't know what they are saying. We can catch occasional words, but not really enough to know where they are in the lesson and exactly what they are saying. I told Max on the way home, that the hardest part for me, was not being able to make comments in class. Maybe eventually, I'll feel comfortable about just raising my hand and saying what I'm thinking. We try to be sure that we read the lessons ahead of time and have our scriptures/lesson guide/lesson manuals open with us, but it is still hard to know where they are.

Tonight we had a formal meeting with Pres. Gonzalez and our lead couple (kind of like district leaders, I think, for you former missionaries), Good meeting, but still no specific assignments other than a strong interest expressed by Pres. Gonzalez in the music program developed to teach hispanic members to play well enough to play simplified arrangments of hymns. Currently our branch sac mtg organist is a sister from somewhere in the stake who was called to be the branch organist. In Priesthood, they sing acappella; RS uses a CD; and the Primary President plays the piano for Primary.

We went to Branch council the 1st week after our training and almost the first thing that was mentioned was a need for us--a 13 yr old girl had had foot surgery the previous week and needed a wheelchair. That was easy--we had one in our garage and her dad came and got it after the block. I saw her tonight at the church (Mutual) and she said she uses it all the time at home. We were pleased that we could help right off the bat.

After our meeting, we were standing in one of the foyers talking with the new Elder's Quorum President. He is Puerto Rican, born in NYC (and that accent comes thru quite often in his English). When he first came to Utah in 1997, he attended Granger 10th Ward. So I asked him if he knew Christine and Mario Gonzalez (my sister). He said he did, but that he hadn't seen them for a long time. Hno. Santiago says that when he came to SLC in 97, there were 15 hispanic units. Now in the Salt Lake Innercity Project, there are 64 units--2 are Portuguese and the rest are Spanish. (And did I ever mention the newly formed Swahili Branch?)

We have high hopes for our mission. Pres. Gonzalez is a great man and a good branch president. He expresses his appreciation to have us in the branch, but as I said, no assignments yet. If they are not forthcoming, then our supervisor-people may pull us out of this branch and assign us somewhere in the SLC Valley. So, we are hoping that this official meeting with him tonight will start something.

We are working some on our Spanish, but haven't yet gotten to a set study schedule, so I know that we won't make much progress unless we do. Tonight, Pres. Gonzales gave us an MTC style book. We have Jamie's but this one looks a little different. The first pronunciation lessons went fairly well, but I'm stuck on the rolling r's--can't quite get it. Max has no trouble with that sound, but struggles to remember the vowels. I think I can remember the vowels easily because they pretty much sound like the Hawaiian vowels. Anyway, we're moving slowly, but with optimism. Nearly every week we go into SLC for some kind of training meeting--all aimed at hispanic needs and all very helpful.

Now, as of tda, March 6th--we have 3 pages of assignments/notes! I missed last Sunday (sick) but Max went to Branch Sac Mtg. The Branch Clerk gave him a 2nd hand assignment, so Max scheduled an appt with Pres. G for Wed. Night. He clarified that assignment and then went thru the branch list, giving us assignments for about 6 or 7 families. One is a sister who has left her husband and gone to a women's shelter in SLC. She doesn't speak much English and the Pres. is not sure exactly why she left--only guesses because of past history. We are meeting with one family tda at 5pm. So, it looks like we are finally "starting" our mission.

Max only went to Branch Sac Mtg. last Sunday so he could go to Priesthood Mtg in our home ward. He was being released Sunday as an asst. to the HP Group Leader and wanted to be there again. The Stake President was there and thanked him for our willingness to serve. Pres. Rockwell asked how the language was going and Max told him about some of our struggles, but then said that Pres. G had told us that apx 85% of the branch spoke English, so hope that overall we will be able to work well in the Branch. Pres. R was surprised that there were that many English speaking members of the Branch.

The quilt--how could I forget it?

If we knew how to include photos, and had a working digital camera, we'd show the quilt we just finished for Kathy's friend Tedra. Tedra was scheduled for a c-section yesterday, but apparently went into labor Sunday night and ended up with a 3 am section. Kathy reports that all went well. All is going well with the quilt also. Max finished the quilting yesterday (I was sick and couldn't help with the last borders). The machine side of the binding is on and it is sitting in my chair waiting for me to come do the the hand sewing side. We're waiting for confirmation from Kathy of the baby's name so we can do the label. Then it will be in the mail to Florida! The quilt is navy blue, dark red and white on white. The quilt is 4 large blocks-apx 15 in squares--2 are red paisley and white and 2 are navy and white. Borders are dark red and navy and binding is dark red. We think it looks pretty and hope that Tedra will enjoy it.

No, we haven't dropped off the edge of the world. We're still here!

Well, we managed to be set apart on Thurs, Feb 5th. Melanie, Josh, Doug and Cynthia were able to be there as well as some close friends from our Ward. Our Bishop gave us each beautiful blessings. This is one of those times when I wish that blessings could be recorded, like a patriarchal blessing, so you would have a hard copy to refer to often. I have comfort in the fact that my spirit also heard my blessing and will bring it to my conscious (or maybe even subconscious) mind when I need it.

We went to our training on Sat and Sun, 2/7 & 8. The Director of the Salt Lake Innercity Project is a very congenial man, Bro. Hodson, as is his wife. He has about 5 or 6 Asst. Directors who each supervise specific Stakes/Wards/Branches and certain area of support, such as employment, medical, website, etc. Each set of Asst Directors gave a presentation introducing their area of specialty. The presentations were well done and interesting. However, by the end of Saturday's session, we were all feeling like we were in an "information overload".

Wow! There is so much to learn and remember. They frequently reiterated their position that we didn't have to remember it all now, just remember that we had heard about it and knew where to find more info and who to call if we needed specialized information. We had a closing session Sunday with our Asst. Director, Bro. Ballstaedt and his wife, who are over the Spanish units. They also are very charming, congenial, and eager to help each of us be successful. We have another training session on Thurs. that is just for Spanish missionaries. They tell us that our needs, and, therefore, our resources are different from a lot of the ones that we learned about in our training.

Jamie gave us her Spanish textbook from the MTC and some other Spanish church books. Altho we are not required to learn Spanish, we are going to try to learn at least some.

I went to the library last week and got some Spanish children's books and also some phonics books for Logan. She wants to learn to read so badly. She is in a good pre-school program and is learning letter sounds and can read some words. Unfortunately, she hasn't been here since I got the books, so we haven't had a chance to try them. Maybe tomorrow.

Love to all. We enjoy reading your comments. it keeps us somewhat connected. Marcia

Mission Call and othe stuff

This last week we finally got our "call" letter from the Salt Lake Inner City Project. The letter pretty much confirmed what we already knew and included some suggestions for being successful missionaries. However, the letter stated that our application forms had been sent to the Church Service Missionary Office for processing and that shortly our Stake President would be notified that the call had been approved. At that point, our Bishop can be assigned to set us apart. So we're still a bit up in the air as to when this will happen. It is supposed to be before we go for our training, which begins next Saturday, Feb. 7th.

We FINALLY finished the quilt. It is beautiful and Cynthia took a few pictures. Unfortunately at this time, the only working camera we seen to have in the family is her 35mm, so cannot easily download a picture of the finished project. The owner and her husband were both home when we delivered it and Max says they were both very impressed by the workmanship. She plans to enter it in the Delta Quilt show,with Max's name as "quilted by". We hope to know when that quilt show is and see if we can go. Won't be sure of that type of restriction until we go to our missionary training.

Curt and Melanie took Breanna to check out CEU in Price Thursday and Friday. Haven't talked directly to Bre yet, but Curt says that she is thinking seriously about CEU, but also wants to go to SUU in Cedar. A lot will depend on financing I thing. We had the other kids Thurs nite. All went well until about 2:45 am Fri when Cynth and Kami came upstairs to tell us that Logan was crying for her mom. She wouldn't come up to us until Dad went down to get her. She snuggled in bed with us for about 30 min; stopped crying; but continued to fidget. Finally told us she needed Kami, so I took her back downstairs and she crawled back into bed between Kami and Hailey. Kami woke up enough I could tell her that Logan needed her, so she rolled over and put her arm around her and apparently they went back to sleep. At breakfast, all seemed well, but before it was time to go to school, Kami complained to her mom on the phone that she had a tummy ache. Melly says this has been a daily occurance and prob. is related to her ENT appt next week to talk about a tonsillectomy. I woke up with still some headache, so i fell asleep while the girls watched pre=school time cartoons. I gues Logan felt abandoned--I was asleep upstairs and Grandpa was finishing the quilting. By the time i woke up an hour or so later, she was very down and lonesome for her mommie. She was pretty droop all morning, didn't even want to play on the toy stuff at Carls Jr when we went for lunch. She ate good tho, and seemed a bit perkier. But when we got home and heard a message that Kami called an hr earlier to be picked up from school, she was much better. Grandpa picked up Kami and when they got together at home, both perked up considerably. Mel, Curt and Bre got home about 7 and all were happy to be together, except Emily who was still a bit cross from having to wake up when they got there.

Dad, I think, is downstairs putting on a baby quilt that we will do for a friend of Kathy's who is having another baby (one of those surprise! ones). This is should go quickly--we hope to have it done by next weekend--probably have a better chance of doing so if I go down and help. Love to all.

Update -- finally!

Somehow, our google password got screwed up and so we couldn't get back in to post. Finally, got it reset tonite, and wouldn't you know it--it didn't ask for a password this time!

Anyway, last Sunday, our bishop told me that our papers had gone in. Imagine our surprise when we got a phone call Monday night from the Director of the Salt Lake Innercity Project. I thought, Wow, that's fast! He called to tell us that we would be in training on Sat and Sun, Feb 7 and 8 and gave Max the details--where and when. He said that we would be getting a letter confirming our call. We already knew that the letter would be sent to our Stake Pres who would then forward it to our Bishop, who would then arrange to set us apart. Bro. Hodson said that we needed to be set apart before the training on the 7th.

In the meantime, our neighbors/friends/home teachers, the Pankratz', received their mission call. They have been called to serve in the Belgium Brussels Netherlands Mission. They are very excited as Vern served his mission in the Netherlands as a young man. He was our Bishop when we first moved here and is the one that called me to be RS President. They are friends of our friends from Cove Fort, Steve and Belva Gae Pratt. Vern went to high school with Pratt's in Moses Lake, Washington; joined the church a few years later; served a mission; and started writing to the sister of one of his companions. When he got home, he married her and they have raised 11 kids in a strong LDS family. We are excited for them. They enter the MTC in June.

Back to us: last night we got a call about 6pm from the Asst. Director of our "mission" (He referred to it today as the Salt Lake Innercity Project). Since we live in Tooele, he asked us if we would be interested in being assigned to a Tooele church unit. The unit is the Tooele 9th Branch, which is our local Spanish branch. We were taken aback a bit since we don't speak Spanish. I got dad on the phone also and we both spoke to him at some length. Finally, the decision was that we would think about it; attend their Sac. Mtg. tda; meet the Branch President and see how we felt. He did not think the language issue would be a problem.

We talked to Doug about it as he knows this branch. When it was first formed a few years ago, he was asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine class for a few weeks until they got organized. Now, he is the Stake YM Secretary, and so works with all the units in his Stake. He didn't think that the language would be an issue, but offered to meet us there and go to Sac. Mtg with us.

So, we went. Got there kind of early to try to meet Pres. Gonzalez ahead of time. No such luck. We sat on the back bench near a door so that Doug could sit with us whenever he got there. The chapel gradually filled up. We were greeted by one brother who we later figured out was the 2nd Coun. 2 or 3 others came and greeted us, but mostly we were left alone. I was beginning to feel sort of "outcast". We had a program and I was relieved to see that one of the speakers was an "anglo" so I hoped figured that we would understand at least one talk.

It was strange but fun to sing the hymns in Spanish. We couldn't figure out which hymns they were ahead of time, but as soon an the intros started, of course we recognized them. Sang them in stumbling Spanish. The meeting was conducted by the 1st Coun., Bro. Beesley or Beagley--in fluent Spanish, of course. There were several other "anglos" in the congregation, but they all sat in an attentive manner and seemed to understand what was being said. After the opening prayer, the anglo speaker got up and conducted some business in Spanish. I heard the names of English wards, and he was apparently presented Stake business, because after he read a bunch of stuff, everyone raised their hands to sustain. Doug confirmed that it was high council Sunday, but this brother was the one i thought would prob. speak in English. Doug told us that the other speaker was the Stake Patriarch. So, we didn't understand anything that was said. We heard the word "testimonio" at the end of both talks, so we knew they were closing with their testimonies, but only caught a word or two that we recognized.

At the end of the meeting, we made a point to introduce ourselves to Pres. Gonzalez and told him that we would be his new missionaries. We told him we were apprehensive about the language, but he doesn't seem to think it will be an issue, as he estimates that 85% of his branch speaks English and the other 15% generally have someone who can interpret for them. We spoke with him just briefly about our schedule and arranged that as soon as we were set apart and trained, we would contact him for an appt to meet and talk about what he needs us to do. He did say that he would like us to come to Ward Council mtg.

So, my sister Tina's prediction came true! When we got up this morning to a snow storm, it confirmed that this was a good decision. We are glad that we won't be having to drive into Salt Lake City in bad weather.

We went to our home ward afterwards. Talked to our Bishop--he hasn't seen our call yet, but announced to the congregation that we had received a call for a service mission for 2 yrs and that Pankratz' had received their mission call. I had several people congratulate us and tell us that they would miss me/us while we served. So I hope that means that we have made an impact in this ward.

We're quilting like mad to try to get this quilt done before we start our mission. We have about 15-16 inches left, but that is more that it may sound like since there is so much quilting. We didn't quilt tda-Dad's fingers are really hashed and mine are close behind. We'll hit it again tmo and hope we can get it far enough along that I don't have to quilt so much on Wed and Fri when Logan comes to our house.

She's been pretty good about entertaining herself. She plays on the recumbent bike next to the quilt frames while she snacks and watches TV and talks to us in bits and pieces. Everytime she comes, she wants Mac and Cheese and hot dogs for lunch. I asked her Friday what she has to eat at Gramma Peg's. Her answer? Brocolli. She says that Gramma Peg gives her brocolli every time she's there. Mellie says that brocolli is Logan's favorite food. Funny how she never asks for it here. I think I'll offer it sometime and see what she says.

Love to all. Today was a bit exhausting. Came home from our church at 4; ate dinner and fell asleep until 830 ish.

We're under way- - -

We met with our Stake Pres. on Tuesday night. Apparently we were supposed to have our paper application filled out before that appt., but didn't know that. So, as he said, we'd do this backwards, interview first, paperwork last.

He started by asking if we had current Temple recommends and if we were still worthy to have them. He asked if we spoke Spanish. Then, he asked if there was anything in our past that, if it became public knowledge, would embarrass us or the Church if it became known while we were serving as missionaries. Mostly He just talked to us for awhile. He dug out the recommend forms; copied them and sent us on our way. He said that when we completed the forms, to give them to our Bishop who would sign them; give them back to him for signature; and he would then submit them. The actual call/assignment would come to him in a letter, which he would be required to sign. He would them forward it to our Bishop who would then issue the formal call to us and set up apart as missionaries.

So, we went home and filled out the form that night. The next day we both decided that we needed to redo them a bit neater. Dad downloaded the forms from the computer and we went to work. When I got to the box that asked for your membership number, I went to get my recommend out of my wallet and it wasn't there. I looked in my temple bag, altho the last time I used it was for a sealing only and didn't need/take my bag. Looked thru my wallet again; looked thru the purse that I sometimes use. Couldn't find it.

So last night I went to the church during the ward recommend time to report a lost recommend and start a new one. Our bishopric arranges for one of them to be available on Wed. nite from 7-8 pm for interviews--no appt needed. I got there at the same time another couple from the ward arrived--just at 7 pm. No counselor in sight. A few minutes later, one of my visiting teaching sisters came in also for a recommend. Still no counselor around. About 7:15, Aaron knocked on the Bishop's door. He was there, but in an interview. So we all waited. About 7:30 the couple went home to put kids to bed. Jen and I just waited it out. Finally, about 7:50 the Bishop came out, very apologetic. I went in; told him my plight; gave him our forms; and went thru the drill to get a new recommend. We talked for a few minutes about the mission. He is excited for us and gave me some counsel. He is good about followup so i am sure that the President will have our papers very promptly.

We have no idea at this point how long it will take for the call to be processed. We suspect that they go thru pretty quickly as the need is apparently high, and the prospects and low, or at least lower than the need. So we will just wait and see. We are still pumped about this and are anxious to proceed. We are quilting nearly every minute we can to try to get this quilt done.

Wow! You can teach old dogs new tricks.

I have thought for several months that Max and I should set up a blog since I enjoy the ones we read so much. We expected that our sweet daughter-in-law Linnae would have to do it for us. So I was very surprised when I got up this morning to find that Max had figured it out and built one for us. We think this will be a good way for us to keep our family, and perhaps friends, up to date on what we will be doing the next while.

We have just accepted a call from our Bishop to serve as service missionaries in the Salt Lake inner-city area. This will be an ideal arrangement for us as we get to come home every night and sleep in our own bed! An added plus is that it means that no significant arrangements have to be made for Cynthia, and this is a mission we can easily handle financially. Tonight we meet with the Stake President and then we will have a bit more info hopefully as to what will be involved. We do know that the mission is 24 months and that we will not be attending our home ward on Sundays during that time. We understand that we will be assigned to a specific ward/stake and will likely spend our entire mission in that ward. It appears that we will report to the local Bishop/Stake President rather than the Mission President, but expect to learn more during the training that will be provided.

We are excited to serve a mission and are pleased that our kids are excited for us also. We think that we can help however we are asked.

We have heard anecdotal reports from some of our kids who have known persons who have served this type of mission. Doug says that we likely will see things we had never seen before, esp poverty. But all other reports are that the missionaries really enjoyed their service.

Our main challenge at this time to get ready to serve, is to finish quilting the quilt we are doing for a local lady and fixing the floor in the hall bathroom. We may have to finish the quilt to finance the floor.

The quilt is beautiful, but much harder to quilt that we had anticipated. She gave us a cotton batt which is very thin (maybe 1/4") so we expected it to quilt like "butter". Not so. The fabrics she used are broadcloth but heavier in weight as is the backing. We are struggling to quilt it but it will be beautiful when finished. We are about half way through. Max quilted alone all thru Dec, but once the Christmas stuff was done, I started helping, so it is moving a bit faster.

The bathroom floor is something else. We had to pull up the carpet as Coco, our cat, kind of ruined it during her last few days. The linoleum underneath is a mess and the subflooring looks kind of iffy in a few places. Hopefully the boys will be able to come help once we figure out what needs to be done.

We have had Logan with us on Wed and Fri morning while Melanie works. She is such a delight and we hope that we will be able to continue this even after the mission call starts. We enjoy being in the same town as Melanie and Doug since we get to see their kids often. We only wish that we had the same contact with Sean, Josh, Steve and Kathy's kids. We had hoped to go to Florida again this year, but may not be able to do so--not sure yet how this type of mission works.

We have 3 granddaughters to be baptized this year. Hopefully, we can attend the baptisms since they will be 2 in the SLC area and 1 in Tooele. We are a bit concerned about whether we will be allowed to go to Mapleton to hear Ryan speak in Sacrament Mtg. before leaving on his mission this summer. We know that it will all work out for the best and if we have to miss a few of these events, it will be OK.