Missionaries from Georgia That We Serve With

Unlike our earlier mission, we are serving with other missionaries whom we know from back in Georgia (we did serve with the Cornish's in the Caribbean, but he was in the Area Presidency, so it wasn't quite the same)

We have known Linda Remund for nearly 30 years.  She moved into the Snellville Ward after we did, Her oldest son Matt is the same age as Brittany, so they would play together sometimes.  Linda was already serving in our zone in Self-Reliance, so she welcomed us to our new world.  She will go home the end of June.  

The Savoldi's who are from Marietta worked on our temple shift.  They have previously served missions in Albania, Italy, and here on Temple Square.  When they learned where we had been called and to serve in Interpretation, they knew exactly what we would be doing.  So we were very pleased when they were called here in November.

Dave and Linda Ellefson lived in Lawrenceville Ward for a number of years before we moved to Sugar Hill.  They are such great people.  By the way, they joined the Church up in Brittany's area, so we had a double connection with them

And it has been so special to be serving again with the Cornish's who were in the Caribbean when we were there.  Elder Cornish is now the Assistant Church Historian, and they have an apartment just east of the Church Office Building where President Monson, Elder Oaks, and Elder Hales also have homes.  We have been blessed to hear Elder Cornish speak several times in our meetings.  But we only have a photo of Reid, who is able to serve a mission here as well, working in the Church History Library and also in the Temple.  Such a sweet, energetic young man!

Valentine's Day and Rob's birthday

I love my dear husband so much!  He has done such fun things through the years for Valentine's Day and this year was no different.  I love my Valentine.

I made him an egg with a hat on it, cutting the bread into a heart shape. 

 And he danced my the cutest Valentine's Dance while he sang.  

No woman is more blessed than I am!

That evening, our Mission Zone was in charge of a Tri-Zone Social.  We held it in the Relief Society room of the JSMB with a lasagna dinner, including mini cheese cakes for dessert.  I had made red velvet cupcakes for everyone which were part of the centerpieces.  We had a great speaker from the Self-Reliance department come speak to all of us about the great things that they do.

We went down to Heather's the Sunday afterward to celebrate Rob's birthday with Heather and Bryan and their families.  She had decorated everything so cute and even had meat loaf and chocolate cake- his favorites.

This cake has a magic candle on it.  When you light it, sparkler flames come out.  Then the petals open up and it spins around playing "Happy Birthday."

Grace enjoying her dad's lap.

All the kids living here were there, and he was so thrilled to have been able to hear from each one of the kids who wished him a happy day!

Snow, Glorious Snow!

One of the best parts of serving this mission here in Utah is the snow that we have been able to enjoy lots of this winter!  There are just not words to say how wonderful it is, and I can’t get enough of it.  While others have complained about the snowy winter, it has been so fun to walk to work in the morning wearing my boots and being surrounded by snow!   So this post is just photos of snow all over the valley.

Bert's house one snowy morning!

Our car on a snowy morning!

Bert's and Chris' lovely backyard!

More snow!

View towards east mountains from COB

Mist on the snowy mountain

More of those clouds

Downtown Salt Lake

Rob Spends the Night in the Hospital

The second Sunday night of January, we had an event and were at the COB from about 3 until 9 pm.  On the way home, Rob pulled over and asked me to drive, telling me that he couldn't see anything in the bottom third of his vision.  This was similar, but much larger, to a visual loss that he had two years before, but which went away.

The next day, he visited the mission clinic, and they made an appointment for him with a neurologist in two days.  Anyone who has had to get in to a neurologist knows that usually it takes months to get in, but they had a cancellation.  Tuesday afternoon, we had Elder Bridge and Bushman, who we serve with, to give him a blessing.  Elder Bushman did not bless him that he would recover, but that he would receive the proper treatment (I didn't really like that - I wanted him to be healed...)

Dr. Evan Black saw him on Wednesday morning and scheduled him to have a CT scan on his carotid arteries and a MRI on Friday at LDS Hospital.  When Rob had those tests, they told him that he would get the results in about a week.  We left the hospital, heading down to Provo to help Bryan with his home remodeling.

Then the phone rang, and Dr. Black was on the phone.  He said that he wanted him to go to the St. Marks Hospital and get checked in for further tests.  Rob asked him, "When?", since we were heading down to Bryan's.  Imagine our surprise when the doctor responded, "Immediately."

So we drove to the hospital, and I dropped him off.  By the time, I was parked and had come in, he was up in a room.  Over the next hours, they performed a number of tests.

Here he is in bed.

He was just lying there comfortably while I full of concern and turmoil!

Rob had dinner and then Ron and Carolyn came by to see him.  I had been unable to sleep the night before for some reason and had been up since about 3 am, so I returned to Bert's to spend the night - Rob was okay, and I slept much better than I would have in a chair in his room.

Over the course of less than a day, he had, besides the CT scan and MRI at LDS Hospital, seen a physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist, and had an EKG, besides bloodwork. We were fortunate to be at St. Marks which has a been diagnosed as a stroke center of excellence.

We learned the MRI showed that Rob had had a number of little strokes, and the doctor wanted to address those immediately.  We also learned, by the way, that we should have immediately gone to the ER when he had his initial vision loss.  The doctor put him on a stronger blood thinner and after about a week, his vision returned.

Because Rob wasn't immediately healed, we had followed through on the problem, and he found a great doctor.  We felt so grateful that we had gotten him in to the doctor, and that they were able to correct or alleviate this happening in the future.

Helping at Bryan's house

Outside in the driveway looking in at his packed garage!

Besides fun get togethers that were mentioned in our last post, we have had a number of other times helping Bryan with work on his house. We started right from when we arrived in Salt Lake and finished up in January.  I have never seen such a transformation of a before and after house!  Bryan has such vision combined with Emily's skill in just adding the right touches. We were so grateful that we were here to help a little.

Here are some photos of one day when we were working there.

Okay, so I just have to stand on this stool and reach up to the light box , right?

 Rob went across the living room and put wood screws in the joist every 6" to keep the floor from squeeking before they put down the carpet.  Quite a project!

Clay calibrating the thermostats

Our Department Moves to the COB

M-1 (I know, it sounds like a James Bond movie) a restricted floor in the Church Conference Center has been the home for the interpreters since they left the basement of the Tabernacle in 2001.  As we have mentioned earlier, there were booths set up for 54 languages.  Because the space is often left empty most of the time, "higher powers" felt that this area should be vacated and used for offices. The top two floors of the Church Office Building had been in minimal use, so they were remodeled starting in September and were ready by the first week in December. 

So right after the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional on the 4th of December, we came to work in jeans and began the move.  All of the booths had to be cleaned out of supplies, and cupboards had to be emptied.  The physical move wasn't too bad because we were able to put most things in a Church van to bring to the COB.

Here is the beginning of the demolition

  The new offices are wonderful and will be better for various events.  Security had to be provided for interpreters to get in to the COB, mostly after hours, and the badges and photos took a lot of work.  But all was ready by the beginning of January.

Here is one of the new halls with the interpreter booths

Our new desks - it is so nice that there is a space between them so we can see each other

Here I am, all settled in

Here is Rob on his side

 And look at all of the great views that we have during the day and during the night - so beautiful.  We feel very fortunate to have this wonderful place to work.

South, viewing the city

East towards the Wasatch Mountains

Temple Square from way up high

Birds-eye view of the Conference Center

The city at night while we were having one of our interpretation events

The Capitol building on the north

New Years Day with the Family

Sunday morning we met Clay and family at the Tabernacle to watch Music and the Spoken Word.  With all the singers in their family, they really appreciated it.

We then parted and went to our Sacrament meetings.  And then all re-met at our place for a New Years Eve Buffet (as in Christmas Eve Buffet but on a different holiday :-)...) 

Doesn't Bert's and Chris' door look festive?!

 We had pigs in blankets, spicy meatballs, egg rolls, cranberry eggnog (Heather's favorite), and a Jubilee ice cream roll (like we used to get at Friendly's back in Dayton) for dessert.  

That was followed by some individual talent presentations and just general visiting and fun.

Bryan's family sang a funny song about Peanut Butter and Jelly

Talent included Clay's family making a human pyramid

and Kendall balancing a spoon on her nose!

It was just such a great way to begin the new year with our family in Utah plus Clay's.