February 1st and before

Hoping that I can get this blog updated today so that I am up to date.

I saw a miracle today.  David was so upset with his dad for taking away his Ipad for discipline that he purposely didn't wear a tie to church so he did not have to pass the sacrament.  When his Young Men's President offered him a tie so he could pass the sacrament he refused to take it.  It was a very frustrating moment for all of us.  Then during Relief Society they came to get me because they were setting David apart.  I was confused because he already had the priesthood so I could not think of what they would be setting him apart for.  When I got there it turns out that he had been called by the Lord to be the President of the Deacons Quorum.  He was pleased you could tell.

The Senior missionaries

 I was able to see the Bishop set him apart for this calling.  It seems he asked for me to be contacted before he was set apart.  Larry was also there and was able to participate as well as Nathan.  From that moment on for the rest of the day he was happy and obedient.  He talked to me about who he was thinking about for counselors and we gave him some advice about how to tell when the Spirit is talking to him. We had a fun conversation all the way home from church.  He played with the kids all afternoon and was generally pleasant. He even reminded me that I was supposed to give his Ipad to his mother when we took them back to her. I had been praying that he would be able to see that his father was not mean but just disciplining him for being belligerent and disrespectful. I was amazed at how the Lord accomplished that purpose for now.

A very blurry picture of Nathan and Larry, Antuars, and Williams

Today was Fast and Testimony meeting because it was the 1st Sunday in February.  There were many testimonies given about the importance of turning our will to the Lord.  I too bore my testimony of this as the Spirit bore witness to me that I needed to talk about what Elder Nelson had said in his talk on Saturday.

Greers, Sister and President Slaughter, Clarks, and Zirkles

When we got home we changed clothes and made hamburger for dinner and had fruit and chips with that.  I have decided that Maggie and Isaac do not like hamburgers right now because it doesn't matter how we fix them they do not want to eat them.

The kids then got out the life game and started to play that.  They have really enjoyed the Life zapped version that Maren and Landon got them for Christmas.  I worked for awhile on last weeks blog.  Larry went in his room to listen to music videos on his phone and Nathan just worked on something on his Ipad.  They played for a long time before they started to get upset with each other but they worked it out and then played some more and finally ended the game.

Garffs, Adairs, and D. Willims

President and Sister Slaughter with Sister Greer in background

At this point they wanted a snack.  Isaac wanted to make some big soft pretzels that we had found in the frozen food section at the store so I helped them make those.  They had to bake for a few minutes and so while that was cooking I started to make Maggie a S'more because she did not want a pretzel.  Of course everyone except Larry wanted a S'more after that.  So I made more S'mores.  We melted the marshmellow in the microwave like we figured out from Saturday.  When the pretzels were done Maggie decided that she wanted one too.  So I decided to cook them all because there were only two left.  So we make pretzels and S'mores for everyone and they all had a good time eating them.  Of course the S'mores made everyone messy so we had to get out the wash clothes and clean things up. I think those two things are the only thing we have ever made that all the kids liked!!

Antuars and M. Willims

Nathan is working hard to help Isaac earn his bear award in cub scouts before his birthday which is the 16th of this month.  One of the things that he needed to do was to play a game like Charades.  So we played Animal Charades where they had to act out an animal for everyone else to guess.  They really had fun with this.  You could tell that they had done this before and liked it.  We saw all kinds of exotic animals and even a few common ones.  My favorite was when Isaac lay on the floor and put all his arms and legs out spread eagle. His head made the 5th arm. He was a starfish!  Which I guessed by the way.

Isaac running in to the finish line in his box car.

About this time we noticed that it was about 5:30 p.m. so we had to take the kids home.  We hurriedly picked up things and then drove home with them.  It was a beautiful day Sunday, warm and in the 70's.

Isaac with his prize

Last Monday was fun because we got to go to the Senior Dinner that is always after Transfer week on Monday.  This time it was at a home.  The Clarks one of the missionary couples in our mission for the past two years that came from Idaho decided to settle in San Marcos and built a big home there to move into at the end of their mission.  They had us over to their home to show off their new home and to see us for one last time as official missionaries.  We took Nathan's ramp that he had a friend build but his chair kept hanging up on the threshold because of the piece that is underneath his chair to attach him securely in his van.  It was a fun potluck dinner and we had many good things to eat.  The main dish was soups and then we had other salads and desserts along with rolls.

Tuesday was a normal day.  We went to office, worked, went to lunch with Nathan, went back to the office, worked and went home for dinner.  Nathan decided somewhere in the week that he wanted to eat more vegetarian so we are learning to deal with that.

Wednesday we went to pick up Isaac and Samuel and Maggie at their schools.  Then we went to Subway to eat before Isaac had a box car race at Cub Scout pack meeting.  It was so good to have the kids for a few minutes.  But we had to hurry and Isaac just barely got there in time to race.  I was supposed to be in the Family History Center in case someone came but Larry took the key and went there and I was Isaac's pit crew.  The had to race three laps.  One the first stop at the pit we had to wring out a cloth and wash their face with that cloth.  The second time around we had to get them a small glass of punch to drink and they could not take off until they had drank it.  The third pit stop They had to take off their shoes and then pit crew had to get them a donut which they had to eat and then get back in the race.  Isaac was behind but on the last pit stop his shoes came off so easy that he easily got finished sooner and then he passes one person on the race and came in second.  I was so proud of him!  He got to choose from several prizes and he chose a whoopy cushion.  Sammy thought that was great and kept asking me to sit down on it so he could make it work and laugh at me.

We didn't have anyone show up at the Family History Center that night as well.  We were able to go home early then so we got to bed at a good time.

Thursday we went to pick up the kids and we got there early so we decided to help Sara and pick up the kids for her at the School as we drove by.  She did not like that.  Thought it was encroaching on her time and felt like Nathan planned it.  Which was not true.  We ended up taking the kids to their house and waiting for a while so that she could see the kids.  She still let them go early about a quarter to 6:00 p.m.

The kids had mentioned the night before that they missed cleaning the church and then the Bishop got on Facebook and announced that it was a church cleaning on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. so we decided rather than take the kids to Bingo night we would take them to IHOP for dinner and then to clean the church.  They loved it!!!

Friday night we had the kids at about 6:00 p.m.  Larry and I got off of work at the office about 4:00 p.m. and went grocery shopping so we would have some food for them as we had let the cupboards get a little bare.  We bought a pizza for that night and the kids enjoyed that with some sodas that they had then Nathan worked with Isaac on his bear requirements while the rest of the kids watched a movie or played on their IPads.

Isaac and Sammy were really excited because Nathan bought Sammy a refurbished IPad and gave Isaac his old IPad.  That way all the boys have an IPad to play on.  Sammy was pretty excited about that but then he didn't like the fact that it had to stay at our house.

Saturday we got up at about 7:00 a.m.  That gave us time to do all the rituals before we had to take Maggie to dance.  Nathan insisted that they all come but he would not let them take their IPads.  He wanted to show David a sex education movie while we were waiting by going someplace private.  David refused to go with him and got very belligerent and disrespectful so Nathan told him if he could not do what he was asked to do he would not have electronics all weekend. David just got worse so he sealed his fate.  I had Nathan's phone to take videos for him of Maggie's dancing so I did not get any pictures on my phone.  She is doing very well considering that she just started and many of the others started in September.

After dance we went home and fixed lunch for everyone.  We had planned to have a picnic on the patio of the pool where they have barbeque grills but it was raining so hard that it made it impossible to do that.  Isaac needed to pass off making food for a camp out.  We taught him how to make pigs in a blanket that he could have put on a stick but we cooked them in the oven.  Then we tried to teach them how to roast marshmallows over a burner on the stove but when one of the marshmallow's dropped and started to burn it set off the fire alarm so we decided that was not a good idea.  I knew that we could cook them in the microwave so after a little experimentation we made the rest in the microwave and made s'mores to go with the pigs in the blanket.  We had bought sodas so they had those and we had an indoor picnic.  It was fun considering the circumstances.  I think that Isaac really enjoyed cooking the marshmallows over the open burner because he tried it again several times and made himself three s'mores.

After that we had a friend of Nathan's from the ward, Thomas Myers, that came and stayed with him from 2:30 p.m. til 6:00 p.m. so we could go to a missionary meeting with Elder Russell Nelson.  The only reason that Nathan needed someone to be there was because the kids were there and the divorce decree says that he cannot be alone with the children.

We left and went to the meeting.  We had to be there at 3:00 p.m. so that we would be ready if Elder Nelson came early and that happened this time.  Even thought the meeting was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m. he arrived at 3:15 p.m.  He asked to shake the hand of every missionary there and so we all were able to shake his hand.  He thanked Larry and I for our service and stopped to talk for a few seconds to each senior couple.  It was a fun experience.  It helped me to understand a little more fully how the Savior could have let everyone at the temple feel the prints in his hand when he came to the Americas.

Sister Slaughter was the first speaker.  She talked about the fact that we need to give a 110% on our mission.  She gave an example of a time on her mission when she had to give 110 % to learn the Mandarin Chinese language.  She always has a good spirit with her when she speaks and I know that she was a great missionary.

After President Slaughter spoke.  He mentioned that when King Benjamin had spoke to his people that they immediately felt joy in the atonement as recorded in the Book of Mormon.  He told us that we would find joy from Elder Nelson's talk.  He mentioned that the talk that Elder Nelson gave to the missionaries when he was on his mission as a young man changed his life. He told of how he had taken one thing from that talk that was the thing that he measured what he was going to do when he was making decisions for the rest of his life and he is still using it today.  He challenged us to do everything that we could to align our lives with Apostolic conversation.  He asked, "Do you believe in a way that will change your life and your whole mind.?"

Elder Nelson then had the Stake President of the San Antonio Texas North Stake, President Spendlove, to speak to us.  He was there because we were meeting in his building.  He asked?  What do I expect of my Bishops?  He quoted D & C 128:11 "Now the great and grand secret of the whole matter, and the summum bonum of the whole subject that is lying before us, consists in obtaining the powers of the Holy Priesthood. For him to whom these keys are given there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men, both as well for the dead as for the living."  He stated that our Bishops have no difficulty tapping into what needs to occur in their area.  Missionaries should be in ward counsels. They can learn there what needs to be done in the ward.  He said that he was going to ask his Bishops to work the missionaries hard. We need to work hard because mission is such a short time in our lives.

It is interesting to note here, we learned later that President Spendlove was just called to be the mission president for one of the Salt Lake City missions.

The next speaker was Elder Wright of the 6th quorum of Seventy.  He told the missionaries that they are so blessed to have President and Sister Slaughter for their leaders.  He said that it is so important to come close to the Lord on your mission.  The Lord looketh on the heart.  He quoted from the 10th Chapter of Alma verse 6 in describing Amulek, " Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges."  He said that we need to decide if we will respond when called.  He then mentioned that his father and he often rode horses and one time he put him on a horse called Cebu.  But Cebu would not be broken and quickly bucked him off and he was not able to do his work.  How does this apply to your service?  It is so important to be converted to turn our hearts to the Lord and be broken.  You cannot inherit the Kingdom of God with out the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  Mosiah 27:10 tells of Alma and the sons of Mosiah who had been taught the gospel but did not receive the call, "And now it came to pass that while he was going about to destroy the church of God, for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord, contrary to the commandments of God, or even the king"—Faith cometh by hearing the word.  Alma and the sons of Mosiah heard the word of God from the angel and were converted and turned their hearts to the Lord.  They became marvelous missionaries for the Lord.  When Alma was thown out of Ammonihah the same angel that had spoke to him earlier met him and told him to rejoice.  He might of thought what do I have to rejoice about.  The angel told him that he had been faithful in keeping the commandments of God since the day that he had first delivered them unto him.  Alma returned to Ammonihah and found Amulek who had been commanded by an angel to help him and this time he followed the command.  Amulek took him in and fed him and Alma blessed his family.  Finally he went with Alma to preach and does a marvelous job because he is converted.  His family rejected the gospel but he is able to be helped by Alma when he was rejected by the people for Alma took him into his home and helped him and strengthened him in the Lord.

The last thing he mentioned was some advice his brother gave him.  No one cares what you did in High School.  He said that many of us have accomplished many things in High School but right now no one cares what you did and you need to work with your companion to be obedient.

The next speaker was Elder Foster of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  He bore testimony of the calling of Elder Nelson.  He mentioned that he was also on a mission with Elder Williams that we work in the office with in the Texas South Mission about 45 years ago.

On his mission he had an experience where he met a Baptist Minister who was working in his town.  One of the people that he worked with was contacted by the minister and was having a hard time choosing which way to go.  They asked the minister if the people would be lost if they did not hear him preach.  His reply was yes.  The investigator told them that they knew that the the church was true because we want to save all people.

He declared that this is your day, this is your time.  You are enough. He quoted D & C 31 where the Lord tells Thomas Marsh, blessed are you because of your faith in my work.  He goes on to say, "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.  You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned. Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live. Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them."

He then said, Begin with the end in mind.  Revile not against your companion. It is the same work on both sides of the veil.  Your job is to help them see and be converted.

After this it was time for Elder Nelson to speak to us.  He began by telling the missionaries thank you for being worthy to serve.  He told them that they chose the best missionaries to serve in the United States.  He admonished those who speak English to teach it to their companions.  He said that President Hinckley demanded excellence in his own speech and he was always polishing our documents.

He then decided to tell us a little about the way things are organized in Priesthood.  There are 8 quorums of the Seventy.  Quorums 1-2 are general authorities that help the Apostles and assignments throughout the world as designated in Section 107 of the D&C.  Quorums 3-8 are area authorities and are responsible for a certain area.  Elder Foster is a general authority because he is in the 2nd quorum.  Elder Wright is an area authority because he is over the area including San Antonio.  He is in the 6th Quorum of Seventy.  The Stake Presidents hold the keys for missionary work in their stake, even over the full time missionaries.  Missionaries need to be a full purpose missionary.  That means that they are able to do several things.  The Mission President is in charge of assignments that are given to the missionaries.

He told the missionaries that they needed to make their companionship work.  On your mission is where you learn to get along in marriage.  Follow your mission presidents example and look for someone who loves the Lord.  If they love the Lord first they have a bigger capacity to love you.

He then asked for questions.  The first Question was:  How can you be patient with change but not tolerate sin?

Change is what you pray for.  We are to call all people to repentance!  Change is a commandment of the Lord; change your attitude, change your mind and several other things.  We encourage change.  We are born totally selfish and need to work to being selfless.  Change we pray for and we work for.  We should not tolerate sin but we should love the sinner.  Don't waste time doing what you did in the past.  You are of the lineage of responsibility and we need to change and overcome our sin.  He quoted from Abraham 3: 23-24 "And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;"  He pointed out that we were among those noble and great ones that were called to be the rulers because we were good and we have a responsibility to become the kind of person that the Lord can use.

Question 2 :  How do you know when it is adversity or if you need to change?

Why would Heavenly Father allow Satan to be part of things.  Because we have the chance to change from Heavenly Father.  That is why we are teaching that opposites are needed.  He quoted from D&C 101:3-4 "Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewel. Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son."  He also mention the story of Gideon in the Bible where the Lord had him pare his army down to 300 to show him that the Lord could fight his battles for him.  This is a pattern that the Lord uses.  He wants us to see that with his help we can accomplish anything.  There are many examples in the scriptures: Sarah having a baby at 90, Mary having a virgin birth.  Why does he do that?  To teach us that if we will do our best all things are possible.  In Exodus 3:11 it says, "And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"  Often we say "Who am I?" Part of the process of growth is to do the things that we think we cannot do with God's help.  You are among the noble and great ones.  Even before you were born your received your first lessons and prepared to come forth to the earth.  Everyone knows their family.  You need to be prepared to help them with the Family History Consultants.  Their ancestors are praying for you to meet their family and convert them so that they can get their work done.

This pattern of using the unlikely is one the Lord uses to accomplish his purposes.  When Ezra Taft Benson was called as President I was assigned at the first meeting to open the countries of Eastern Europe that were behind the iron curtain.  At that time it seemed like an impossible and overwhelming task.  But by praying and working with the Lord I was able to accomplish that. You need to know how extraordinary you are.  Pay attention to your patriarchal blessing to see what the Lord has promised you.

When your leader see your communication will they have a smiley face or a frowny face?  When you see something that is our of order instead simply criticizing have a recommendation to make.  Learn from how he responds.

We are thankful for you.  This is the greatest organization of all the world.  I bless you that you will feast on the word that you will shine like a beacon on a hill and that you will continue to preach the gospel after your missions.

Obviously I do not know shorthand so there is much that is left out.  Also I felt that the spirit was bearing witness to me of many things that cannot be written. For the first time I understood what it means when they say in the scripture that words cannot be written to describe the feelings that we felt. I hope that writing out what I did take notes on will help someone to understand his words and change their life for better.  I know that he is a prophet of God.  He is sharp as a tack at 90 years old.  Much of what he said was much more complicated that what is indicated here.  It was a wonderful experience for me and I was so grateful to have the opportunity to listen at his feet.

January 25th and before

This weekend we did not have the kids.  It is pretty quiet around here when they are not here.  But it is nice to have a weekend to recuperated from things.

Sacrament today was on the Godhead.  Brother Emmett reminded us that we can only know the truth by the Holy Ghost.  A young couple in our ward spoke.  They took their teachings from the new youth curriculum.  They were both good talks.

Sister Crawford first mentioned that we must be like Alma and ask God if the things we learn are true. She talked about the Who, What, When, Where and Why of the Godhead. The First Article of Faith States, "we believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost".  So the Godhead is three separate beings God the Father and Jesus his son have a body of flesh and bone.  The Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit so that he can dwell in our heart.  The when is that they are Everlasting and Eternal.  Where are the Godhead.  God himself spends his time going about in the Heaven.  Jesus works on earth as well as in heaven.  Omnipresence is achieved through the Holy Ghost.  Why do we have the Godhead, they work for the immortality and eternal life of man.  Jesus was the needed sacrifice to bring us home to our heavenly father.  The Holy Ghost will teach you all truth.

Brother Crawford talked about how the scriptures can help us to have a testimony of the true nature of the Godhead.  If we study, read the scriptures we can learn the true nature of God.  He talked about Ether Chapter 3 as an example of how the scriptures can help us to understand the nature of God.  Jared prayed to be preserved by God from the effects of confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.  The Brother of Jared was able to see the Savior hundreds of years before he came to the earth because of his faith despite the fact Jesus was still a spirit at that time.  The scriptures also teach us that we are made in the image of God.  Moses saw God face to face, saw that we are in the similitude of our Father, saw the world and all the creations of God.  He then concluded that we are nothing compared to God.  Then he also was able to discern the difference between God and Satan because Satan has no Glory.  Joseph Smith had a similar experience.  God came to him in his glory with his son so we could know what we worship.  Doctrine and Covenants 93 talks of the things that John saw in vision and reported on the character of Christ.  In other words we must study the scriptures and keep the commandments to know the mysteries of God.

Obviously it is easier to listen and take notes when the children are not there.  We also had a great lesson in Relief Society about the power that prayer can have in our lives.  It made me realize that we needed to have more prayers as a family and with the kids and that could help with some of the problems that we face when we are together.  Larry and I say our couple prayer but we have not been so good to include Nathan and to have prayer with the kids when they come.

In the afternoon after dinner I just worked on the blog until it was caught up until the 19th.  Nathan was talking to Marcie and Larry has found You Tube Music Videos for Sunday afternoon listening.

This week was transfer week.  Tuesday we were in the office while the Williams went to feed the outgoing missionaries.  About noon I realized that a missionary that was leaving for home had ordered some name tags and I had not got them ordered.  So I had to go up to talk to him to figure out what needed to be done.  I lost a couple of things that I wrote down in Hawaii and this was one of them.  After that I went to feed Nathan before I went back to the office.  When I got back to the office Larry had gone somewhere so the office had been closed for a while.

Tuesday nights we were planning to watch Bones for a while before we went to bed. But then we remembered that it was Ward Temple Night that we had been planning for for some time.  Larry and I were headed grocery shopping when he remembered.  So we shopped faster than usual.  When we got home Nathan was talking to Marcy on the phone but we got him dressed and were still there on time.  It is an 8:00 p.m. session so we were able to make it but it gets out late also.  Every night this week we only got 6 + hours of sleep so we were pretty tired by Friday.  Usually we do not tolerate this amount of sleep well but the Lord has been blessing us to have the energy to do the work he has called us to do.

Wednesday we were responsible for feeding the missionaries coming in.  They have decided to meet for lunch at the Stone Oak Chapel for lunch as it is the closest to the Temple.   So they take the missionaries to the Temple for pictures and then they come for their late lunch.  The missionaries that come in from the Mexico MTC don't come in until about 3:40 p.m. now, so we just fix lunches for them and they eat on the way to the Alamo to pass out Book of Mormons.  We were supposed to have lunch ready for them at 2:00 p.m. but they didn't even come in until 1:30 p.m. and it took them longer at the Temple taking pictures so we ended up just sitting at the church for about and hour waiting for them to show up.

We were able to go back to the office for about an hour after they ate and we cleaned up.  We had to go and get the materials we needed for the next mornings orientation so we would have them.

We went to get the food from Blanco BBQ about 5:30 p.m. and then we headed to the president's home to get the dinner ready for 7:00 p.m.  It was really good barbecue this time and I was proud of myself that I didn't go over my points to far.  But we were late doing dishes because I didn't notice that the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes and so I basically started that and then we had washed the dishes but at least we only had 16 come in this time and not 33.

Elder Nelson with his bike

Thursday for Transfer day we have to be there about 2 hours before we usually get to the office, at 7:30 a.m. for the orientation meeting for the new missionaries.  We got up and did our usual rituals but for some reason we lost time again and we just barely made it in time for us to speak and the President, Elder Williams, Sister Williams all speak before us.  It was a rainy day and so it was crazy how wet it was that day and it was also cold for San Antonio.

Elder Presser, Elder Nelson, Sister Presser

Isaac and David and Sammy at Bingo night

One of the Elders was a missionary from Heber who had been converted by my cousin's family and lived with them for a year and now he was in the mission field.  It was fun to know we had a connection and we took a picture of him with his bike and with us so that they would know that he got here.  I posted that on Facebook. His name is Jayson Robert Nelson so when I first saw the picture I wondered if he was related to Robert Nelson in Vernal.

A worker who always brings us our sodas early with Nathan and Isaac

We attended transfer meeting at 9:00 a.m. and enjoyed that.  It was a rainy day and we found out that a missionary had parked his car in a handicap zone when he got home and had had his car towed so after that meeting Larry had to work on getting the car back and paying the fine because the Elder was transferred to Austin area.  He was very apologetic but it cost him 210.40 for the fine.  He paid Elder Presser back later.  I worked on the office work.

Maggie and Nathan

We went to lunch and then came back and worked. Nathan came to the office with us so that we could leave from there for Wounded Warrior Bingo night.  Just before we were getting ready to go home about 4:30 p.m. the transport truck came to pick up a car from Elder Presser.  I decided that he was inspired not to go to the Austin transfer meeting because he had those two things that he had to be in San Antonio to do.

David, Sammy and Larry

Thursday night we went to Bingo night with Nathan and the kids.  We had a good dinner but I ate too many desserts.  But for the first time in our time here I won a bingo game and got a prize.  I actually got a $50.00 gift card to Target so it wasn't too bad of a gift. Because I won the 2nd game and it was raining we didn't have any reason to stay because if someone in your family wins then no one else can win that night.  So we decided to go to Target and see if I could get a skirt or a blouse or something.  I couldn't find anything at the Target in Converse except a scarf but it gave us the extra hour with the kids and then we took them home.

Friday we slept in some and then didn't exercise so we could leave earlier.   We basically worked at the office that day.  Larry had to take back the van and trailer we had rented.  We looked forward to having a weekend to do what we wanted.  We realized that it was Larry's Sister's Birthday on Saturday so we decided to go to Kerrville and take her and John out to dinner for her birthday and probably for John's also because we were not so alert when it was his birthday.

Saturday we slept in until about 8:00 a.m. and then I worked on the blog until we needed to go about 3:00 p.m trying to get it caught up because I was a month behind.  Then we went to take a car to the Bulverde missionaries.  We thought that their apartment would be closer to Bulverde but it turns out is was in San Antonio just east of the temple.  We traded them cars and then we went on to Kerrville.  We hadn't planned to take Nathan because we had to drop off the car.

We had a good night talking to Judy and John.  Judy wanted to go to Billy Gene's one of our favorite places to eat in Kerrville.  Of course we had to have turtle cheesecake for dessert.  Judy and John wanted something else that they said was seasonal so they ended up having turtle cheesecake also.  We had a fun time talking with them but decided not to spend the night this time because of church and having to take Nathan.  I also wanted to finish the blog.  When we went to church and it was so inspirational I was glad we had made it back.