We visit the Church's print shop.

One of the interesting things we were able to do with our MTC activity group was to have a special tour of the Church's print shop.  It was so interesting all that goes on there 

Receiving instructions

These are giant containers of ink that is used for the printing.  

A giant roll of paper that is attached to the machine below to print the Ensign magazine

This is the whole process of printing scriptures  using one of rolls above.  After it is printed, there is a machine that folds each section and prepares it to be sewn together. 

These gold bars are rubbed along the sides of the scriptures to gild the edges.  They even stamp out sacrament cups.

Duncan's Ordination and Baptisms with Clay

June 10th was Duncan's birthday and that meant that he was able to be ordained by his dad on Sunday afternoon.  We have only been able to attend a few ordinations for our grandsons, so this was a privilege for us.  

It was so great being able to attend this along with Ingrid, John's mother, his bishop (of course - on the back row), his young men's leaders and the Deacon's quorum president (on the front row).   

A hug from his mom!

And hugs from Nana and Bapa.

The family (minus Elizabeth who was nanny-ing in Connecticut.  

Then the next Saturday, we were able to take Duncan and Clay to the temple to do some family baptisms for the dead.  It was so special being able to be with Duncan the first day he did baptisms and to have Clay join us.  Afterwards, we went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast!

Missionaries and others who we are serving with

One of the best parts of this mission and our previous mission in the Caribbean is working with such wonderful fellow missionaries.

In Interpretation - the Bushmans from Joseph City, Arizona, and the Bridges from Greenville, North Carolina. .

Here we are at a Christmas party at Sead's house.  His wife made ethnic Yugoslavian food - so good!

Getting everything set up for a training Saturday.

Margie Owen was in charge of testing.

Sister Bridge took care of the sign in table.

Sister Bushman took the interpreters' photos - she also took a myriad of other photos in and around our mission which she shared with us.

In our zone, besides the Bridges and the Bushmans, there are the Sparrows in the Military Relations Dept. from Fort Collins, Colorado; the Claysons in the Badge Office from St. Angelo, Texas;  the Nimers in Church Service Missionaries Dept. from Fresno, California; and Elders Pavone, Martin, Tripplett, Tilley, Larsen, and Hansen in the Security Department (not showing).

 And we couldn't forget dear Elder Herbert Klopfer who Jill knew growing up in Ensign Stake, who was our branch president when we first got here, and who not only serves in the Music Department, but also plays the piano every day in the cafeteria.  It is such a treat to be entertained by such a talented musician who plays Broadway show hits, lovely hymn arrangements and classical piano pieces.

The Flowers on Temple Square

Flowers on Temple Square

One of the loveliest parts of our mission is walking through the Temple Square area surrounded by beautiful beds of flowers that change from season to season.  Even in the dead of winter when many beds are covered with white plastic which looks like snow, there are pansies peeking out here and there.

Although there are professional gardeners, of course, a lot of the planting is done by volunteers.  Bert has told us that a number of years their stake has been assigned a certain Saturday to bring their youth down to plant flowers in the spring or bulbs in the fall to come up the next year.  In between each season, the beds are totally cleaned out a readied for a new set of flowers.  The colors and combinations make them even more stunning.

In addition, just within a season the plants are changed.  They never let them look dead, but a raft of gardeners are out there every day, cleaning out old ones or changing the whole bed.  As the season continues, new blossoms appear as well.

Memorial Day and Partying at JD's

JD and Monica were so kindly willing to host a pool party at their home on Memorial Day afternoon.  Their indoor pool is really a hit with the kids.  Everyone helped on dinner, and then the kids all played away.  Such a fun time!

Duncan and Heather

Bapa, the camera man

Clay and Caroline enjoying the water.

Grams (Chris) and Gramps (Bert) making ice cream cones for everyone.

Great pool with loads of room for four families.

Emily and Chris, having a very serious discussion about something...

The cousins, Bryan and JD, hanging out. 

Memorial Weekend Checking Out Bear Lake

 At Adam's request, we made arrangements to take a little field trip outside of our mission boundaries to visit Bear Lake and where we will be staying on our Family Reunion.  So we left bright and early on Saturday morning and drove first to Logan where we met the Despains from our last mission and had breakfast at Burger King.  By the way, they have good breakfast there!  It was a lovely day, and we were so happy to have a little break from our busy schedules 

Then up Logan Canyon to Bear Lake.  The lake was covered in mist as we viewed it from the summit.  It took little while to get to Falcons Landing.  The GPS had us turn by the Fish Haven cemetery which began to lead us up a dirt road on the side of the mountain.  We decided turn around to return to the main road and then found the official entrance just a little farther down the road.

Here is the view of the house that we are renting.

There is a clubhouse and here is the great pool - there is a hot tub to the left.

A tennis court with a basketball and paddle ball courts on the right.

Afterwards, we checked out a fun Mexican restaurant Cafe Sabor in Garden City on our way home. .

Mother's Day in Atlanta and Utah

After an early wake-up on Mother's Day after Alex and Charlotte's reception the night before , we dropped by the parking lot of the Sugar Hill Ward building to give hugs to two of my friends from the ward there, and then on to Clay's and Amie's for Church and the rest of our stay.

Matt and Tana had given me yummy Almond Rocher candy, a Happy Mother's Day balloon, and a sweet little African violet in a cute pot.  I actually boxed up the violet in a plastic bag and put it in our luggage, and it traveled home just fine, so it now sits on our window sill.  Clay and Amie gave me a boxed set of DVD's for the series "Victoria" which we have enjoyed.

We had lunch with Clay's family and then Rob was able to take some photos of them in their pretty backyard afterward.

It was sweet to be able to take a photo of their saying family prayers.

Amie made some wonderful bread which we all gobbled down.  

Before they left to go back to Virginia after the sealing,  Brittany gave me 
a cute gratitude picture which looks so cute with my little yellow bird.  

There was a rainbow over the mountains on the 21st when we celebrated
 Mother's Day in Utah the next weekend.  

Heather kindly hosted us at our dinner including hers and Bryan's families.

Adam gave me/us a wonderful set of photos of their family that mount on the wall.

Ben and Bryan gave me Amazon gift cards which I used to get a great computer case, and Heather gave me some Mac makeup and dark chocolates.

Such a wonderful time for a mother...