A Week of Hard Work and So Much Fun!

What a busy week we've had!  We worked so hard at the office with the many tasks we had to do-a missionary went home early, and a visa waiter left to go to Mexico, and we are getting three new visa waiters tomorrow, so I had a ton of paperwork to do to prepare for all of them. I'm also still preparing the paperwork for our huge transfer coming in three weeks, so I was a little brain dead from so many hours at the computer.  So we were pretty excited to have a little diversion this week--and it was a blast!

We had signed up to have the elders over for dinner on Sunday evening, and we were looking forward to having Elder Findlay and Elder West, who is a new zone leader and newly transferred in to our ward, with us.  Just a few hours earlier we got a text from Dave Longfellow telling us that they were here in Las Vegas!  We were excited to see them, so it worked out nicely that we could have dinner with them as well as with the elders.  We had a wonderful evening visiting with them.

And then after a hectic day at the office, we were rewarded by being able to meet up with our friends from the neighborhood--Doug and Shaunna McCleve, Dave and Vanessa Longfellow, Jack and Lonna Jeppesen, and Rand and Marilyn Meyerhofer (Lonna's brother and sister-in-law).  We ate dinner and then just talked and talked for a long time.  It was so so good to be able to hear what was going on in the neighborhood and  ward and to just be with them!  How we love them!  We had a wave of homesickness and really appreciated being able to see them.

 

And then after another busy day at the office we were rewarded by being able to go with Dave and Diane Lemmon to the UNLV basketball game and the Thomas & Mack Center.  We had been looking so forward to this!  Dave and Diane went all out for us and bought us this red UNLV jacket and red shirt that Glen and I are wearing.  She also got me a UNLV bracelet!  We were in matching attire and were STOKED to see the game!

They also bought us dinner which we ate in our seats (and our seats were so close--I've NEVER seen a college basketball game this close, and it was pretty sweet!) before the game started.

Just before the game started the lights went dim and as they introduced the team, they showed fireworks!  There was so much energy and fan support there we were just blown away.  The crowd was into the game the entire night. We had so much fun with the Lemmons, and it was just a magical night for us.

And then on Wednesday after a busy busy day, I was rewarded again by being invited along with Sister Black to go to Sister Macdonald and Sister Anderton's apartment for girls night out.  We had dinner there and then played games and it was SO MUCH FUN!  They serve at the employment center next door to us and they do such an amazing service there.  I loved and respected them the moment I met them six months ago, and it was so awesome to be with them.  We want to do it on a regular basis now!

Elder Fairbanks, one of the assistants, is going home next week, so this was probably the last time I would see him.  What a great missionary he is!  We'll really miss him.

Elder Vieira got a package from his sister in Portugal with two Milka chocolate bars, and he really wanted to give me one of them.  I protested and protested, but he would have none of it, so I finally had to accept it.  He is always so exceptionally warm and sweet to us when he comes into the office and always gives Glen a big hug--the only missionary to do that!  We just love him.

Left to right:  Elder West, Elder Peacock, Elder Vieira and Elder Findlay show us their abs routine that they do in the mornings.  Elder Findlay plays basketball for is university in Canada and he's pretty motivated to stay in shape.  They gave me a copy of their routine and I'm pretty excited to do it too.  They're all so awesome!

On Friday it was Elder Dana's birthday, so I made him this big cupcake.  He called in the morning and told us he was too sick to come in, so we thought we would just save it until Monday.  But some elders' car was towed and Elder Dana had to come in to the office to take care of it, but didn't put his white shirt and tie on, but we were still happy he came in, and then we surprised him with the birthday celebration!  He was touched and appreciative.  He's such a good man.

Then on Saturday Glen wanted to drive to Mesquite to inspect the missionary apartments of the missionaries who live there.  Boy, were we impressed!  These missionaries love serving in Mesquite and now we know why.  Their places were so roomy and nice compared to the apartments in the city, and they were all so clean and nice!  Here are Elder Edwards and Elder Dowuana-Hammond, the zone leaders.  We went to their place first and then they escorted us to the other three places that Glen wanted to inspect.

Elder Rumbach (from Germany--you can imagine how Glen loves to talk to him!) and Elder Giullian's place. They actually live in a member's home who is currently serving a mission and boy, was it beautiful!

Sister Garcia and Sister Hanson actually live in Bunkerville, just south of Mesquite.  They live in a casita and they just love it there.  It was so fun to see them!

Elder Lloyd and Elder Polanco also live in Bunkerville, but a few miles south of where the sisters live.  They live in the basement of this home and they take such good care of it.  We were so impressed!

After the four inspections, we were ready to eat lunch, so Elder Edwards and Elder Dowuana Hammond showed us this place to eat at the local golf course.  We had so much fun with them, hearing about their parents' conversions and what they want to do in the future.  Elder Edwards has already graduated from BYU and wants to go back to get his master's and pHd, and Elder Dowuana Hammond wants to go to medical school in the United States and then return to Ghana to practice medicine.  

After we finished lunch, we went to Vickie and Dell's house to visit and we had a great time with them.  What a fun and memorable day we had in Mesquite!  

Our Fifth Transfer

It's hard to believe that we have been involved in five transfers now--involving a total of 88 missionaries so far!  This transfer involved 24 missionaries, and we worked so so hard to prepare for them!  Glen started immediately after the December transfer to get ready for this one because it would involve opening nine new areas.  He had to go through the same process of opening apartments, providing gas/electricity, and furnishing them.  But we made it!  We are so glad that we have had experience now, because it gets harder and harder to open all these new apartments and we can do things so much more efficiently now.  It really helps that we know the wards and stakes better and we know the process that we have to go through.  Here's some of the transfer day that I wanted to record:

It took four vehicles in total to go to the airport to pick up the missionaries because there were so many.  Pres. Black took the truck, Sis. Black took her car, the assistants (pictured above--Elder Weekes and the brand new assistant, Elder Alford) took the van with the trailer full of their luggage, and Elder Fairbanks took the mini-van.  When there is a group this large, they do a "drive-by" the mission office to show the new missionaries where the office is.  We all come out of the office and wave and greet them.  The new missionaries always look so starstruck!  It's so fun to see them for the first time.

My portion of the orientation at the Alexander Building.  Glen has prepared a power point of his presentation, and it's so awesome!  He does a good job.  Sis. Conder also does a part of the orientation.

I order the pizzas and get all the things ready for the luncheon which is held after the morning portion of the orientation.  Sometimes Sister Conder helps me set it up.

I order several kinds of pizzas from Dominos and have fruit or salad and dessert.  The missionaries REALLY love the pizzas and they really need a break about now.  They get up at 4:00 a.m. at the MTC to go to the airport and fly here, and they're pretty tired.  It's so fun to talk to them when they're so brand new!

After transfers at the Alexander building, Glen and I had to go back to the office to get some supplies for some of the elders.  As we left the church to go, I said to Glen, "We need to come back to the church after we go to the office."  He said, "I was just planning on going home."  I said, "No, I just really feel that we need to go back to the church."  We were gone for 15-20 minutes at the office and then went back to the church where we found Pres. and Sister Black helping some missionaries with phones and other things.  They really needed our help, so I was so grateful for the prompting that we should come back.  No one else was there to help them clean up and lock up.  Then afterward we went to dinner with them. 

This is the transfer board, all completed after I had to redo every missionary's transfer card you see on the board.  The white cards are English speaking elders, the yellow are Spanish speaking elders, the pink are the sister missionaries, and the green are the visa waiters.The blue cards at the top are the zones, and a new zone was created this transfer, making a total of 10 zones.

It took me all week to finish the 140 letters that needed to be sent--the letters congratulating the missionaries on their new assignments (new assistant, new zone leaders, new district leaders, new trainers) and letters to the parents of those missionaries, plus letters to the parents of the new missionaries.  So much work!

I then give them to Mario, our wonderful mailman who I see usually twice a day.  He will deliver the mail, I then process it, and he will come back and pick it up so the missionaries don't lose time in getting their mail!  He's just so awesome.  When the new Ensigns come, (pictured on the counter ) I place them in piles for all of the 10 zones and then put them in bins where the zone leaders will pick them up and take them to their meetings to distribute to all of the companionships.

And we have already begun planning for the next transfer, which is the 5 week transfer--one week less than usual, (because of the shortening of the training at the MTC) and we will have 30 missionaries--a record--this time.  I sent an email to our stake members asking them for donations of dishes and other kitchen items and desks, tables and chairs, and couches.  Here is Bishop Larkin and his wife, Melanie, (who we just love) bringing lots of things to donate.  So sweet!

We need so many mattresses and furniture that Glen got permission to rent a huge pod--40 feet long--to store all the things in.  Some of the office staff thought we would never need one that big--but it was filled completely in about a week!  It's parked just west of the mission office in the back of the DI building complex.

It's so complicated to open it that Glen is the only one who knows how to do it!

Glen starts to put things into the pod.  We were able to get a few things from the school district donated--free!  When the mattresses were delivered and many other things put in ,including couches and tables, it completely filled it up.  I go to DI nearly every day looking for donations that have brought in that we can use.  And yes, we do actually pay for them with mission funds--something that the missionaries are so surprised with.  ("DI doesn't just GIVE that stuff to the missionaries. . ?"

More trips to Wal-Mart for supplies for new apartments!  

We worked 9-10 hours every day this week, but we were still able to go to the temple, and then Saturday night we were able to go to an opera called "Holodomor", which described the hunger killings in the Ukraine in 1932-33 by the Russians.  It was especially meaningful to us because Zena (pictured above) and also Valerie Chapman, who we have dinner with each month, both lived in the Ukraine.  It had many religious overtones and was so sad.  It was held on the UNLV campus.  We LOVE being able to go to these events here!  It really renews us for the next week.

We love the people here!

This has been such a busy week getting ready for the 24 missionaries who are coming tomorrow!  Glen was able to finalize the 9 apartments and get the gas and electricity ordered for all the apartments and get them mostly furnished. He was super busy all week and we often worked until 6:00 or 7:00. We weren't able to get as many couches as we had hoped, but at least they all have beds, tables, chest of drawers, supplies, and most of them have desks.  Maybe the missionaries will use their creativity to get couches or other furnishings that they need. 

Glen had an experience while he was delivering desks to an apartment.  While he was there for just that short amount of time to move the desks in, a man came to the apartment to replace the dishwasher.  Glen felt like it was a great blessing that he came at the exact time that Glen was there so that it could be replaced.  Pretty cool!

 I'm always amazed at the stories that the missionaries tell about how they went to some fast food place and a total stranger paid for their lunch because they were missionaries.  They talk about going to Wal-Mart and someone in the line pays for their things.  One set of missionaries even got new suits from a member in their ward who owns a shop!  The missionaries know they are very blessed and they're grateful for the members who give them so much.  Can you believe how nice people are?  We really do love the people here.

Sis. Black's father came to Las Vegas for a visit so she asked me if he could come to the office for a few hours to help me with anything I needed help with.  He's 87 years old and she needed to leave for a few hours, so she dropped him off at the office.  I decided to see if he could help me assemble the new missionary guidebooks for the 30 missionaries coming in February, and he said he would.  So I ran off all the copies (about 40 pages worth) the day before, which took me a few hours, and had them ready when he came.  And we were able to put them all together while we visited!  I was grateful for the help and Debbie was grateful for the opportunity for him to feel "useful".  It was a win win situation for all of us.

On Sunday we dinner with the Chapmans again.  We love them!  Seated at the table from left to right are Sis. King, Sis. Judd, Valerie Chapman, Elder Findlay, Elder Alford, Jay Chapman, Glen, and Zena.  What a lovely dinner it was, and the missionaries left a wonderful message about what Jesus Christ has done for us.  It was so good, and we hope that Valerie was touched by it!  We sure were.

On Monday night it was senior missionary FHE at the Blacks and Elder Dana and his wife were in charge.  He really wanted us to sing an old song he learned in his youth called, "Mormon Sunday School."  Glen borrowed a guitar from Nathan Jones and we practiced the song at home and at the office and Elder Dana was delighted that we would sing it.  It was so fun!  Sister Dana gave an excellent lesson about the new youth Sunday School program and it was so well done.  Plus we had a yummy dinner!

Our friends, the Trumans, were called as service missionaries to work at the Home Storage Center which is at the DI complex on Thursdays.  Can you even believe it?  We are both in Las Vegas serving missions!  So we are going to eat lunch together every Thursday, probably at the mission office, because it is so hard for us to get away.  It was the first time that Margaret had seen the mission office.  The missionaries in their ward just love them and they talk about them every time they come into the office.  Pretty cool, huh?

On Saturday night we had a RAGNAR get together at our apartment with our good friends from the ward. At Dianne Christensen's suggestion, we had a Cafe Rio potluck dinner and it turned out so yummy! We also watched the BYU basketball game.  It's so fun to have these friends who also love BYU sports! And---we're going to run the Las Vegas RAGNAR in November with them!  We just love them, so it will be so fun to be with them and continue our friendship after the mission.  They are SO excited to do it and had a lot of good ideas to make it fun.  They're pretty motivated, and this will be a good way for Glen and I to keep running and stay in shape, although our time to exercise  is so limited here.

Our bishop's wife emailed me and said the sweetest thing--she wrote, "I think you are an amazing Lady, and an inspiration and example for me of what I want to be like when we serve a mission. . . Thanks for all you do for our ward and especially for attending choir!  We need some fun singers and you fit the bill!!. . .You are the best Sister Missionary ever!"  Can you believe how sweet that is?  SHE is an amazing lady and we just love her.  We love the people here!  

Today we had an extra stake conference because we had Elder Ronald Rasband come who is the president of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy.  He gave such an amazing and inspiring talk about his experiences in Bosnia and Croatia where he was able to meet with the presidents of each country and explain to them our beliefs.  He talked to them about the importance of the family and the Bosnian president wept when Elder Rasband explained that we believe that families can be together forever.  He said, "My family members were killed in the recent war and that is the first glimmer of hope I have felt since then."  He also wept when Elder Rasband explained that couples can be sealed in temples for time and all eternity.  It was so touching, and his talk was mainly about families and how we need to focus our efforts on teaching and loving our families.  We were so grateful that we could be there--and what was awesome too was that when we got there, the Lemmons had saved us a place on a bench that was right between benches that had our missionaries on them, and the one in front of us, Elder Benioni and Elder Hoskins, had brought an investigator family.  They were a beautiful family from Mexico with four children, and it was their first time in church.  ALL of the children (ranging in age from 10 to a few months old) were so reverent throughout the entire two hour meeting that we were all amazed.  We met afterward and they were all so so sweet!  If they are baptized I told Elder Benioni that we wanted to be at their baptism!  He was so sweet to the family and it was evident that they loved him.  We love the missionaries here!

The Hand of the Lord

Transfers are one week from tomorrow, our second largest transfer in the history of the mission.  We were hoping that Glen wouldn't have to rent as many apartments as he did the last time we got this many missionaries (we were hoping that they could live with members here)  but that didn't work out, so Glen has been frantically searching for places for the missionaries to live.  What a search it is!  As of yesterday, (our p-day, but we worked about 10 hours trying to get apartments secured, furnished, and supplied) he only has one more apartment to secure!  The Lord has really blessed him to have apartments work out, and it has definitely been a labor for him.  

We talked about it early in the week and in our small way, we tried to compare ourselves to Nephi who was asked to build a ship.  We prayed that we would be given faith like Nephi had because we weren't building a ship, but we were helping to build a mission and we needed help!  Besides securing the apartments, we would have to furnish them, and since Christmas, very few usable furnishings were coming in to DI.  We were praying constantly that the Lord would guide us to a person or a place that could furnish us with chests, desks, tables, and couches. Glen had already worked out a deal with RC Willey for mattresses and bed frames that was a huge blessing.  Yesterday I felt that I should check on a hotel furniture liquidator and see if I could get anything.  What a blessing!  It looks as though we will be able to get the 50 or so chests from them at a very reasonable price, so we left there feeling grateful to see the hand of the Lord opening up ways for us to accomplish what we needed to.  Pray for us as we search for couches, tables, and desks!

While Glen was doing apartment securing yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart with a huge list of the supplies that we would need--vacuums (12), all kinds of cleaners, shower curtains and rods, toilet plungers, bowl brushes,  mops,  etc. etc.  My cart was completely overflowing and I hadn't gotten the vacuums yet.  I asked an employee if he had a big flatbed cart so I could get the vacuums, and he and another employee not only got the cart for me, but they put the vacuums on it and pushed it to the checkout counter and helped me put all the things on the counter, bag it, and push the carts out to the car.  Okay, just imagine--my one cart brimming over with bags and big squeegie-type mops sticking out all over, and a flat bed cart with 12 vacuum (in boxes)--how would it all fit in my car?  I said to the employees, "I'll just make two trips!"  And they cheerily said, "Oh, watch us--we'll get it all in there!"  And I watched in astonishment as they did--all of it!  The driver's seat had to be pushed way up as well as the passenger seat (which also was stuffed to the brim), but they made it! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, it was so amazing.  (I didn't get one because I was freezing to death, it was so cold!)  It was such a tender mercy, and I really felt the hand of the Lord helping me.  Glen couldn't believe all the things that were packed into the car when I got back to the mission office!

Another example of the hand of the Lord:  On Tuesday during our office devotional, a man rushed into the office with a long tan coat in his arms.  He handed it to me and said, "I just felt inspired that I should bring this over here this morning."  I thanked him sincerely, and he was gone before I could even ask his name. I knew that the missionaries wouldn't be able to use it because they have to wear dark coats, so I wondered what we were going to do with it.  On Thursday afternoon at about 4:00, a man came in who was looking for help from the transient bishop, and from his appearance, he really needed help.  He was shaking from the cold and told me that he had been to DI and found a coat and was wondering if the transient bishop could help him buy it.  I was devastated to tell him that the transient bishop's office had closed at 3:00--but then I remembered the tan coat in the back.  I went in the back to get it and brought it out to him and his face lit up like a little child seeing Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.  He put it on and it was a perfect fit, (it was fur lined and very warm) and he said, "This is the best thing that's happened to me.  God bless you, Sister!"  He left, rejoicing, and all of us in the office were rejoicing too, and marveling and what we had just been a part of.

On Wednesday, a package came in the mail at the office addressed to ME!  I couldn't believe it!  I opened it and it was this package of M&M's with peanuts--my favorite thing--with this sweet message on the front from Elder Parker and Elder Herlin!  Is that the nicest thing ever?  It made my day.

Then the next day a package came addressed to Glen and I and it was from Lindsey and Brandon!!  Oh, did that make our day!  It was chuck full of fun things that were so thoughtful.  It's amazing how a package can cheer a missionary up so much.  Thank you Lindsey and Brandon!

It came with this note from Lindsey describing the things that were in the package.  How we loved it!  That evening I was able to go with Sis. Carr and Sister Dewey to teach two families.  I just love going with them.  The first family that we went to have two sons, ages 11 and 12.  They reported to us that they had only missed one day of reading the scriptures during the past week and they loved it.  The next family Sister Carr challenged the 12 year old son to be baptized in February and he said he would try to be ready.  The messages these sisters shared with these families was awesome and the Spirit was so strong.  Missionaries are just so awesome!

We went to dinner with Jay and Valerie Chapman for Jay's birthday at an Italian restaurant.  So fun and so yummy!  What wonderful people they are.

It was our 39th wedding anniversary on Jan. 11th and Glen got me these beautiful roses!  We went to dinner and then saw the movie "Lincoln."  It was amazing!  What a fun anniversary.  It's so hard to believe that we've been married for 39 years and here we are on a mission!  It's so great to be his companion.  We really love that part of our mission.  What a great way to end our busy busy busy week.  

Happy New Year 2013!

I can hardly believe that it is already a new year!  "Time flies on wings of lightening; we cannot call it back" is so true!  As a family, we would always gather around the table and set new year's goals and resolutions every fast Sunday in January of the new year.  Some of our children would post their lists in a conspicuous place in their bedrooms to remind them of their goals and resolutions all through the year, and I loved reading them when I was in their rooms because it always inspired me to see what they were seeking to do and become.  I wanted to add some of the things on their lists to my own list!

This week as some of the missionaries have come to the office I have asked them if they had made resolutions, and most of them said that they had.  Some of them even shared a few of their resolutions and I was touched by them.  One said, "To be the best missionary I can be by using my time here wisely", and another said, "To be more like the Savior," and another said, "To love my family back home more."  

I read again the wonderful Oct. 2012 conference address by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and loved what he said: : 

“One day we will take that unavoidable step and cross from this mortal sphere into the next estate. One day we will  look back at our lives and wonder if we could have been better, made better decisions, or used our time more wisely. To avoid some of the deepest regrets of life, it would be wise to make some resolutions today. Therefore, let us:

• Resolve to spend more time with those we love.

• Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be.

• Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances."

 I thought that what the missionaries shared with me was really in line with what President Uchtdorf had said.

I also loved what Joe J. Christensen said in the Ensign of Dec. 1994:   “We must not overlook the power that making good resolutions can have in helping make our lives happier and more successful—regardless of our past performance."  I was encouraged by that to make resolutions and goals this year while I am a missionary in spite of my sometimes disappointing efforts to keep resolutions in the past.  There are so many ways to improve!

We have been working hard to prepare for our next transfer in 2 weeks.  This week I was able to get 8 of the 9 zones on the transfer board finished as well as the transfer cards for the 24 new missionaries that are coming.  I also finished the four file folders for each missionary (a huge task) and nearly finished getting their  guidebooks ready.  There are three 18 year old elders that are coming in this transfer.  Then we learned on Friday that we will be receiving 30 more missionaries for our February transfer!!! We nearly died!  There will be only five weeks to prepare for this transfer since the MTC time will be shortened to two weeks (actually 12 days) starting in February.  After the February transfer the usual time between transfers will be six weeks again, thankfully.  This will certainly be our hardest transfer to date, and as I have talked to secretaries in other missions, it is the same for them.  We will surely need the Lord's help in preparing for these transfers because there will be so much to do.  As we were told in October after the announcement to "prepare for the tsunami", it is coming!  It's actually pretty exciting to be on the shores of the tsunami and watch it all unfold!  The missionfield is a pretty exciting place to be right now!

  

We were invited to a New Year's Eve party by our friends, Travis and Teresa Wilhelmson.  Our friends, Blair and Diane Christensen and Dave and Joni Robison were also there.  We had SO much fun talking and playing games with them!  We usually go to bed on New Year's Eve before midnight, but we were just having too much fun.  We also did a white elephant gift exchange and we really scored by getting a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory! 

Teresa had all these flavors to make Italian sodas--so yummy and fun!  We had a lot of fun treats.  My New Year's resolution to lose weight would have to start tomorrow.

On New Year's Day we had signed up for the elders serving in our ward, Elder Findlay and Elder Alford, to have dinner with us.  They are such awesome elders.  We made toasts to the new year, and after talking to them for awhile, they told us that it was a non-proselyting day for them, so we played "Mormon Mouthful" (the Mormon version of Madgab) with them.  It was so fun!

It has been a very busy week, and sadly I fell victim to the sickness that is going around and got a cold.  I prayed so hard that I would be able to continue to work, and the Lord really blessed me, as I was able to work every day.  I would come home exhausted and have to rest, but hopefully the worst is over and I will feel better this week.  The work goes on!  Hurrah for Israel!

A Very Merry Christmas

On Saturday, December 22, David, Juliann, Clarissa, Jared, Michelle, Siena, Turin, and Brockton came to Las Vegas to celebrate Christmas with us!!!  We were SO excited to see them and grateful that the weather had been favorable so they could travel safely.  Being here in Las Vegas for Christmas reminded me of the Christmas that we were in San Francisco  and I was 8 3/4 months pregnant with David and the OB told us not to travel to Utah for Christmas.  We were SO disappointed!  But it turned out to be quite a memorable Christmas, and I was sure this one would be too, even though we wouldn't be celebrating with over half of our family.  But oh, how wonderful it was to have them come and share a part of Las Vegas with them at this time of joy and gladness.  They brought the best presents of all with them--their presence!

Before they came, we got this darling picture from Jade--how we love getting these!

                           This one is from Siena--so so cute!  We love the details on these pictures!

And this one from Lindsey with her favorite Christmas traditions on it!  This one made me a little homesick.

On Sunday we went to our ward--the Buffalo ward--and it was so great to see the ward members come up and greet them and be so kind to them. We really do love this ward. Bishop Larkin and his wife Melanie brought over a case of oranges for us--so so sweet since they know we are only temporary and our records are still in our ward in Layton.  It meant a lot.

On Sunday evening, we got together with our dear friends, the Trumans, at their daughter and her husband's home, Carolee and Jared Frost, for dinner.  It was awesome to be together and see their other children who had come to Las Vegas also, Kim and Stephanie and her husband Brock. Our families have had such good memories together over the years. We had a great time.

On Monday morning we went over to Jared and Michelle's hotel and swam in their indoor pool, which was WARM!!  It was fun to see how much Siena and Turin had improved in their swimming skills since we saw them last at the Tanglewood pool.  It was so fun to play games with them in the pool.

Later we went to the Bellagio hotel to see their Christmas display, which was amazing.  It was SO crowded--we learned that there are a LOT of people who fly to Las Vegas from around the world to celebrate Christmas here.  We also went outside to see the Bellagio fountains and then walked over to the Paris hotel and ate at a crepe restaurant and had French pastries--yum yum!  Fun fun!  The kids were such good sports!  Then David, Juliann, Clarissa, Glen and I, went to the south end of Las Vegas to see Wendy, Jeanette's oldest daughter who had recently moved here.  Jeanette had sent with Wendy some Christmas gifts for Clarissa that were incredible and so thoughtful.  It was fun to see her.

We then had our favorite Christmas tradition--the acting out of the Nativity.  We have been doing this for about 32 years, using about the same script and adding a few props or costumes each year.  We rotate the parts, and this year Michelle and Jared were Mary and Joseph and Brockton was baby Jesus.  The story of the Nativity never loses its impact for me, but rather increases each year. It is marvelous to me that the Son of God would be born in such humble circumstances.  We ended the Nativity singing one of our favorite Christmas songs:  "Heavenly choirs must have had children singing along as they came to the earth.  Jesus I know loved little children, so I imagine they sang at His birth: Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise to the Lord, praise to His Son, praise to the Lord, praise to His Son." 

  Siena and Turin then left healthy treats out for Santa. 

Our three little lambs--Siena, Clarissa, and Brockton.  Having grandchildren there for the Nativity and for Christmas day made it so special! 

 Siena and Turin were so excited to open their gifts on Christmas morning  and it was so fun to see them.  When Turin opened his ripstick, he said, "I told Santa I wanted a giant candy cane and all he got me was a ripstick!"  We laughed so hard!" 

Glen really spoiled me this Christmas and one of the things he gave me was a new CAMERA!!  I was so excited!  My camera  was officially broken  and I had really missed it.  Glen got some things he really needed too.  

Juliann made me this darling pillow and crocheted the stockings  for the newest members of our family during the past year.  Can you believe she has crocheted one for all 25 members of our family?  What a labor of love!

After all of our Christmas festivities and lunch,  it was time for them to go back to Utah, and we were so sad!      

We didn't want Christmas to end! Here we are in front of the building where we live.  Can you believe some of the trees are still green?

We stopped at the mission office since it's right on the way for them to go home and gave them a tour.  Thank you so much, David and Juliann and Jared and Michelle, for coming!  You totally helped us to have a very merry Christmas.  We love you so much!

CHRISTMAS DAY was so special though we were miles from home. Whisperings of the Spirit tell us we were  not alone. The gifts we enjoyed from those we hold dear Has kept our thoughts close and helped us feel near!

The next day we had to be at the office at 8:00 and we got another Christmas surprise--Rand and Marilyn Matthews stopped in at the office!  We have loved them for over 20 years and it was so fun to see them!  We really appreciated their visit.  

And now it was officially time for us to get back to work, and there was a LOT piled up for us to do!  It took me 2 1/2 hours to do all the mail and packages!  But I'm so excited, because the transfer board is nearly half done and now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel that it will actually get done.  I also had another tender mercy--I couldn't get a certain document on the computer to work--a document I have had trouble with ever since we got here.  I have asked others to help me with it without success, but on Thursday Elder Weekes was able to fix it and show me what to do to fix it when it won't work--HURRAY!!  Maybe now I can get things done to get ready for our big transfer in just THREE weeks.  Missionary work moves forward--Hurrah for Israel!