St. George and Arizona to Visit Family and Friends

On Thursday, April 26, we headed down to St. George and spent that afternoon and night with Janet and Lynn Snow.  Janet took us to see the Jacob Hamblin home, Brigham Young’s winter home, and the visitors center at the temple.  We had dinner with them at their home. 

On a bench outside the Jacob Hamblin home, we skyped our stake president, President Galt, and he released us from our mission.  We will have an official interview with him next month. 

The next morning, we joined Valerie and Curtis Mahon for breakfast, and then they took us out to the Mountain Meadow Massacre sight which was very moving.  

We reconnected with Snows for donuts and another picture.

After lunch, we went to David and Debbie Wonnacott’s home (David is my cousin).  

They had my other cousins, Linda and Dahlen Hall and Laurie and then Uncle Bill and his second wife Ginny joined us for dinner.  Uncle Bill didn’t quite remember me, but it meant a lot for me to see him, probably for the last time. 

Saturday, we headed on down to Maricopa, AZ, where we spent the night with our dear DR friends, Vicki and Chuck Rucker. They were some of our dearest friends on that mission. 

Monday, we headed up to Phoenix to have lunch with my cousin Deanne and her husband Bill.  I haven’t seen her since my father’s funeral in 2004, and I don’t remember seeing Bill since their wedding reception when I was a teenager!  They took us to a Mexican restaurant and then back to their house where Deanne showed me Grandma Wonnacott’s school notebook and some photos I hadn’t seen. A very nice visit.

We then went to Joann and Rick Decker’s home – Jaclyn’s parents.  That night we were with Jaclyn’s parents, Rick and Joanne Decker.  They took us to dinner at a very good Italian restaurant.  It was so good to visit with them, especially about Ben and Jaclyn. 

On Tuesday, we went by the Mesa Temple and Family History Center and ran into Edith Haws from the DR.  So good to visit with her (she and Wallace are hosting a dinner at their home on Wednesday night for some other missionaries and us.)  The next day we met with some women who have an impressive company which prints illustrated stories of family histories.  We might use them to print the stories that we want to do for our family - We will figure things out after we get back to Georgia.

That night we went to Sydney and Vance Lee’s home, from this mission.  We then went to Sidney and Vance Lee’s (friends from our recent mission).  They have an interesting home which includes three laying hens (a black and white French hen which lays pale green eggs, a South American hen which lays dark brown eggs, and an American hen which lays light brown eggs). 

Wednesday, we joined Karen MacLaurin.  We had lunch at a fun restaurant and then joined the Ruckers at the beautiful Gilbert Temple where we did a number of sealings. 

  That night we joined other DR missionaries at the Haws’ house – Edith and Wallace Haws, Marilyn and Leon Button, Mary Lou and Dick Roberts, and the Ruckers.  It was so special to just visit with those dear folks again – nearly five years!

Thursday, after spending the night with Karen, we drove to Rob’s brother Dan’s home and spent the night.  Rob was able to record Dan’s history for him. 

So many places and friends last week – we were in 7 beds over 8 days!

Good By to Our Mission

In the weeks before we were released, we tried to just store up all of our favorite memories.  

We had lunch with our dear friends the Bushmans.

We were able to attend a wonderful devotional with Elder and Sister Oaks 
We were able to hear the mission choir sing again.

A last interview with Pres. and Sister Fenn.

We gave the prayers at our last mission Monday morning devotional.

On Wednesday, they had a farewell breakfast for our zone.  It was fun to see a number of people from our zone who I had served with when I was working in the COB.

They even brought Dunford donuts as part of breakfast!

It was so hard to say goodby to these sweet people. 

The brothers who Rob worked with gave us a sweet goodby as well, including a lovely Christus statue.  

I then went to my zone and they said goodbye to me and shared a book with me which included messages from my fellow missionaries.  I had brought in Dunford donuts on Tuesday with bookmarks that I had made and gave out to my fellow missionaries with individual notes. 

I have been so blessed to serve with such wonderful Elders and Sisters, and these last five months have been particularly wonderful. 

Our farewell lunch from the mission presidency was held at noon.  

Sister Bollinger, who was in our original MTC group, was also leaving.  She is the second on the left.  Her 80^th birthday was on Thursday, so we gave her a little towel as a gift.  She is such a sweetheart!

We were released and on our way to St. George and Arizona. - new adventures begin.

Rob's Reunion with his Yalecrest Ward Sunday School Class

Rob received the idea in the night (as he often does receive inspiration) that he should plan a get together for his Sunday School classmates when they were in high school.  His idea was met with tremendous excitement on the part of his old friends, and they planned a great event!

It was held at the Yalecrest Ward Building as a brunch one morning.  

Boyd Paxton & Kathy Willis White in the projector room above the cultural hall.

David Solomon & Rob in front of David's home.

Richard Elggren and Robert Fowles

Boyd Paxton and Steve Rumel

Mac Oswald

David Solomon and Rob Peterson

Jane Anderson Rideout, Nikki Booth Ramjoue, Kathy Willis White

Ross Bowen

Ken and Robin Ann Thurgood Macey

Mary Maughan Elggren

Randy Harmsen and Robert Fowles

Memorabilia

Rob Peterson and Wynn Sterling

Kathy Willis White and Katherine Little Kunz

The group with spouses

Just the class

Rob with His Brother David

One of the great blessings of this mission has been Rob's being able to spend part of nearly every Saturday with his brother David who has Lewy Body disease.  At first, he was still living at home with his wife Judy, but then he had to be in an assisted living center.  And just recently he had to move to the Memories part of the center because he can no longer care for himself.  It is so sad to see this happen to him, and it has been so hard on Judy, who had to care for her first husband for a number of years before he died from cirrhosis of the liver.

Here are some photos of things that they have done together (they are in earlier posts as well).

A visit to Macy's at Christmas time.

They made a visit to a park which has been the farm of 

Brenneman Barr Bitner, their gg grandfather.

David got an infection and spent a horrible night in the hospital.  

He hasn't quite been the same since. 

We had him to dinner one night which was so nice.

Cute boys!

Another time they went to the Mall and bought hot dogs.  

David's 79th Birthday Party

We went to David’s on Tuesday to celebrate his 79^th birthday.  He has gone down quite a bit over the last few weeks.  It has been a surprise, but not totally unexpected.  It has been so great that Rob has been able to spend so much time with him while we have been here.  

Here we all are with Judy and her daughter, Carolyn, Bizzy, and Suzie with her Rich.

Our little card and a picture of him with Rob.

Sweet Judy whose birthday was the day before.

Suzie and Bizzy

Carolyn and Rob