Jill's 70th Birthday!

On December 11th, I turned 70 years old!  That is just amazing to me!  Mentally, I feel about 42, so the fact that my body is a bit older is hard to get my head around...

The day began with Rob's making me wonderful scrambled eggs (he makes the best ones!) and ham, in a butterfly-like design.

 Then my sister Joy, along with my brother Bert decorated the front porch!

I had lunch with two of my childhood friends, Karren Kelly Hammer and Irene Larsen Bole - they have been such great friends through the years, and I am so grateful that we are still great friends! We went to a restaurant called the Blue Lemon across from Temple Square.  Besides buying my lunch, Karren also gave me a darling bracelet.

That night, we met Bryan and Heather's family at Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants!

Catherine and Duncan

Clay and Caroline

Heather and Elizabeth

Emily and me

Bryan and Grace with me.

Heather and John Morgan

Us!  Don't I have the best looking husband in the world?!

Lots of candles on the cake (and they were re-lightable, which is why I am laughing here.

Grace and Clay gave me a lovely poinsettia.

Bryan and Emily gave me a stunning necklace called The Phoenix, 

plus a note about why I represent a phoenix in his mind. 

Chocolate truffles from the Nemelkas - I love those dark ones...

And a beautiful blue sweater from Heather.

And candy from the 60"s which I shared with everyone...

A lovely, soft plaid scarf from Brittany - I love plaid!

Opening up 

Ben's gift! - A print of the Bethlehem which I can't wait to frame for next year!

And Rob's gift!  I have wanted a domed little cake plate for sometime - 

again, some decor for when we get back home.

Rob also gave me a wonderful book that he put together About Jill, which included special facts 

about me and my growing up.  Matt and Adam had gone in on it as well. Things I like, colors, etc.

So fun!

Hugs from Clay!

And Grace!

Along with dinner and everything else, Heather brought a giant bouquet of balloons,!

Clay and Ben gave me gift cards to Amazon. I was also able to talk to all of my kids - that made things even more special!  

And the next Saturday, my sisters-in-law took me to breakfast and gave me gifts as well.  

I was just overwhelmed by all of it.All in all, it was a great birthday! 

I am so blessed by my family and friends...

My New Assignment

In November, I was transferred to the Training Zone where I help to train new missionaries to our Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission.  Housed in the JSMB, all new missionaries go through the Training Zone for either one week (CSM's) or two weeks (full time missionaries).  I work with such wonderful people and it has been a great treat, especially because I have learned so much about Family Search!  I hope when we get home that I have a calling that involves doing just that! 

Sister Cason

Sister Tolman

Sister Fullenbach

Sisters Thomas and Jones

Sister Walton

Sisters Fielding and Tripplet

Me with my flowers

Jann Solomon who we knew in Ohio

The Rogers

Such sweet sisters!

New missionaries working hard to complete the training modules.

Rob doing Capstone training.

Sweet Sister Hoagland is in charge of all training materials. 

Lynn and Melody Clegg who are in charge of Enrichment and Capstone.  

Elder Clegg prepares the most inspiring morning devotionals. 

The Strokas have been in charge of the young elders' training  

Elder Unger works with the young elders and 

Sister Unger helps Sister Clegg with Capstone and Enrichment classes.

Sister Woodward, President and Sister Thornock 

(he is the counselor over our zone), and Sister Pierce.

All the lovely women that I work with- Sister Walton, Triplett, 

Fielding, Hoagland, Jones, Clark, Tolman, and Thomas.

Elder and Sister Woodward

The Curtis' who were in the office, but were assigned to the Madison Ward with us.

Note:  Missing pictures of  Hales, Thompson, and Sisters Kay and Clark

Visits with our Dominican Missionary Friends

We continue to enjoy times when we can be with some of the missionaries who served with us in the Dominican Republic.

We were able to travel to Morgan, Utah, to see Scott and Kathy Rees.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer after they returned, and it has spread to her brain.  We were so glad that we took an afternoon and brought them dinner and visited with them.  They are such great people. The chemo seems to be working for which we are so grateful!

And then Cozanne Wallace had a group of us to her home the first Saturday night in Huntsville for a night of music.  It was a lovely evening with harp and piano and a guitar sing-a-long.

Here she is with her granddaughter who played the violin for us.

The Freestones were the MTC President the second half of our mission.

The Schmidts served in the West Mission office and Sister Hyde worked in the Temple.

The Despains worked in the Temple as well.  He plays the guitar and they both sing.  They led us in singing a number of wonderful Christmas carols.

Here is the whole group!  There were others who had planned on coming, but illness kept them from attending.

Here we are with happy Christmas sweaters!