August 19th

Tuesday, August 19^th,is the day the incoming missionaries arrive.  Because there were complications with the flights the Assistants and the President decided last minute that we would feed them at the mission office in the conference room.  It was pretty confused because we had not done it this way before.  But we dove in and were able to get them fed before they had to go to the Alamo.  Sister Slaughter was trying to interview them for their medical in the supply room and President interviewed them in his office.  We kept interrupting Sister Slaughter accidentally because people would need things in the supply room and I felt bad about that but she was very understanding.

One of the missionaries was delayed in Houston coming from the Mexican MTC so we thought that he would not be coming in until later and then all of a sudden someone from the airport called President and said that he was waiting at the airport in San Antonio so that was a tender mercy.

Elder and Sister Spencer came with us to the night dinner and went with us to pick up the Blanco BBQ for the dinner.  It was a good dinner and we finished up on time.  I spent the time making a green salad and then forgot to serve it so that was a frustrating moment when I realized that.  I ate a huge portion of cream corn because I was sure I might not get it again but I still had some for Joseph Slaughter who also loves it and was at mutual.  Things went really fast with two couples to help with the work.

Sara texted and wants us to meet her at school to take the kids to bingo and our birthdays because it is open house at the school.  It is hard to believe that school is starting already.

August 18 and before

Sister Spencer, Sister Presser, Sister Ferguson, Sister Williams

On Monday, August 17^th  Elder and Sister Spencer came in to mission today.  They are our replacements in the mission.  We met them (and their dogs) in the morning and then they went to get settled into their apartment.

I had to text Sara that we would be finishing Sammy’s quilt next week.  I had got so far behind in my work at the mission working on the quilt last week that I needed to get caught up for the Spencers.

Ciele and Nathan at Larry and Leslie's home

Sisters with Elders in the background

Nathan came home from his surprise visit to Marcy.  He is coming a week early so that is not a good sign for the relationship.  But Heavenly Father has told me that everything will be okay and so I am not going to worry about it.  I have a picture of him with Ceili that was taken on Sunday.  He was able to attend the welcome home for Maryn Jenkins, my niece that was in the Hawaiian Temple Visitors Center mission.

Sister Murphy, Sister Swenson, and Sister Montclair with Elder Butterfield in the background

Tuesday, August 18^th I started working with Sister Spencer and Elder Presser started working with Elder Spencer.  This is the day of the missionaries returning home dinner.  Normally we would not be involved but Elder Williams is still not recovered from his surgery and so we are going to help Sister Williams and her replacement Sister Ferguson.  I was excited to go to the luncheon anyway because there are a number of missionaries that I want to be able to say good bye to.  It provided a fun environment to get to know the replacement sisters coming in.

Elders that are going home

Because of the use of IPads in the mission the assistants used email for the first time to send out transfers rather than calling each person.  I wanted to attach the picture email that I saved but I cannot get it to be large enough to see.

Nathan wants to go to Bingo night so we contacted Sara to see if we could pick up the kids.  Nathan will have to find his own way as he will not let us drive him.

August 15th and before

We are at John and Judy's today.  We have had a relaxing day.  For the first time Larry got up earlier than me and talked with John and Judy for as long as I slept in.  When I got up he came in and we read scriptures and said prayers.

Jaron with his presents

We had a late brunch and Judy has gone all out to have the things for Larry's no carbohydrate diet.  So she had ham and eggs this morning.  She had chocolate milk for me so I was satisfied.

John is so much better as far a his diet is concerned.  He is eating better.  He has to go in for another biopsy on the 19th because they want to send a sample to another place.  They have determined that he has a tumor about the size of a pork chop in his lung and stomach area.  He is not feeling well though because he asked Larry if he would take him to the VFW to visit and then he backed out.  He is even feeling like he might miss his reunion in September after we leave.  But for now he is acting better at home.  He has hundreds of stories of his experiences in the military that I wish I had recorded while he talked.

Family Party

I worked on the blog today while we watched TV and talked during a John Wayne marathon and now we are watching a navy movie called "Bridge at Toko Ri"  He is great to comment on whether something is authentic or not according to his knowledge of the Navy and the boat that they were on.

Jaron with his cake or cookie

Judy fixed a wonderful dinner of Cornish Hens and Brocolli.  She is a great cook!!!She knows the art of presentation and serves things on the plate rather than family style most of the time.
 
On Wednesday we went into the office and worked in the Morning.  I tried to get the basics done before I went to pick up the kids to start a quilt for Sammy.  I was supposed to be there at noon but I had an emergency referral that I needed to get out and so I didn't get there until about 12:30 p.m.  I planned to take the kids to the Chick-Fil-A on 410 and then go to the JoAnn's that was right behind it.  So I took them there and we had a great lunch.  Sammy had a hard time getting full but we were able to finish with him not complaining. 

Friends party

Then we went to JoAnn's.  Sammy had said that he wanted an Angry Birds quilt or blanket.  When we got there there was no Angry Birds fabrics except for a Packet for making a 48x60 lap quilt.  I explained that it would be a small quilt like a baby quilt and Sammy wanted to to have a big quilt like David and Isaac's so he chose a Spider Man Fleece.  However there was not quite enough so I bought two pieces that made 5 yards and then we took it to seam it before we tied it.

I had borrowed Larry's keys because I could not find mine and then they showed up so I decided that we needed to go to the office to take those to him before we went to work on the blanket.  As we were going into the office Sammy was worried about it raining because he had heard it might rain and it was a little cloudy outside.  I told him I didn't think it would rain but after we finished in the office, and we were only there about 10 minutes,  we came out to a pouring rain.  I had told them that I would take them to the playground after we went to the office and I said that maybe they wouldn't be able to go to the playground.  Maggie said, "Why not?" I told her because it was raining.  She laughed and said that it would be fun to play in the rain.

What fun it is to be a monkey

We drove home and as we got closer to our apartment it had quit raining so we stopped at the Walker Ranch playground and played for a while.  I was glad that they have this cushion type material under everything as it kept them from getting muddy.

By the time that we got to the apartment I just barely had time to lay the fabric out and determine how to seam it before it was time to get the kids back to their home.

After taking the kids home I went to the office to pick up Larry.

Michelle at the entrance to BYU

After we had dinner I tried to work on the blanket to get it seamed but when I plugged the cord into the socket and the machine then tried to sew nothing happened.  I tried several things to see if I could get it to work but every time it just sat there and did nothing when I put my foot on the foot pedal. I finally decided that I needed to go to bed.

Daniel, Michelle and their family

Thursday I went into the office for a while to see if there was something that I needed to do and to drop Larry off.  I was hoping to get the sewing machine fixed that morning and talked to some people that said that they repaired Bernia's but then I felt like I needed to just call someone and see if I could use their machine.  So I called Teresa Johnson and asked her if I could use her machine to sew two seams.  She said that she would be home between 11:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m. if I wanted to come then.  So I thought that my troubles were over.

Michelle on the campus of BYU

We had an emergency referral asking for a blessing so it took me longer to get there than I thought.  When I got there Teresa showed me her machine and threaded it and said she didn't know much more than that because it was really her husband, Mark's machine.  I began to sew the one seam and it wasn't sewing right.  The thread kept breaking.  So I asked Teresa if she knew why.  She didn't seem to know why so I started thinking about what causes thread to break.  I looked at the threading and it seemed that it was threaded wrong according to general threading rules so I fixed that.  I also knew that the thread would break if the needle had problems so I looked through her sewing box and found a new needle.  Then I started to sew.  It was better but still not good but after looking at it I decided it would hold and just sewed the seam that I needed to do to secure the two pieces of fabric.  Teresa had already left to do her thing and I finished up by myself.

Cieli in her walker toy

While I was sewing a friend in the Woodlake Ward, Becky Vaudrin,  texted me that she had some clothes for Maggie if I could come and get them.  So I decided to go get them on the way to pick up the kids even though I was almost late to pick them up.  I put her address into the Google Maps and it took me almost there but then confused me about where to go at the end when there was two roads that formed a Y so I had to call again and find out how to get there.  I couldn't believe it when I got there.  She had probably 30 dresses and some shoes that she wanted to give me for Maggie.  After loading those in the car and talking with her for a few minutes then I went to get the kids and give Sara the clothes.

Finally out of the hospital, Elder Holt and Elder Nelson

Again I was late and Sara was needing to go.  I took in the clothes and got the kids and we went towards the house. We went to Little Ceasar's by my apartment and got pizza.  Sammy wanted me to get them some cotton candy so I went into HEB to get that but they were out so after talking to several people about that we went home and ate the pizza and soda.  The kids were each trying to outdo themselves on how to irritate their siblings.  I was trying to lay out the cloth so we could get it ready for tying and after about 30 minutes of this I realized that this was not going to work with everyone there.  So after I finished laying out the fabric the way I wanted it I then packed up the kids to take home.

 In all the confusion I did not look at my cell phone.  When we got to Sara's house they were not there.  So we began to figure out what to do.  My phone had died and we didn't have a charger.  Some how we figured out how to get it charged a little bit with my portable one that I found in my purse.  When the messages came up Sara had been texting me that they could come and get the kids because they were out.  Frustration.  I started to try to text them and the phone died again but finally Sara and Kenneth came home and the kids were able to get in the house.  I went home one tired Grandma.  I think that Larry was working at the office during all of this.

Friday I was too frustrated to work on the quilt.  Sara had the kids that weekend so I just worked in the office until the afternoon when Larry decided it was time to leave for Kerrville.  During all of this Nathan was in Utah with Marcy.

On Facebook we later discovered that despite all of this fun we were having Michelle was graduating with her Master's degree from BYU.  She posted the pictures on Facebook, and we are so proud of her and all her hard work.  We hope that her family is as thrilled as she is.  That is a huge accomplishment when you have a family and are working also.

Jaron had his birthday on the 11th and we forgot but luckily he posted pictures so we could see the fun he had.  He turned 12 this year and is old enough to get the Aaronic Priesthood.

Elder Holt had to go home a while ago because he has cystic fibrosis and he got sick again.  Elder Nelson had to go home with a broken foot that needed repaired.  It was fun to see that they got together to go to the temple on Facebook also.

And of course Cieli is as cute as ever.  Love the pictures, can not wait to see her.

August 10th and 11th

Yesterday we really had a hard time getting going in the morning.  We finally made it out of the apartment at 10:15 a.m.  We went straight to Weight Watchers.  Larry wanted some help in canceling his membership and I weighed in.  I lost 1.2 lbs this week so I was feeling good.  After that we went to the house to eat lunch and then went to the office.

Larry had lots of things to do with the cars.  He needs to take the tiwis out of the cars that have come in but it has been about 102 every afternoon for a week and he can't work outside for very long in that temperature.

I worked on several things again.  I am trying to find the bad address referrals that have a phone number or email but it is usually a miracle if someone of those call me back.  One did today and she happened to be a member.  The name on the referral was her Uncle's but she said that he is in Phoenix so I told her to have him turn it in to the mission is Phoenix Arizona if he still wanted to have the missionaries.  It was weird because whomever had entered the referral had put that the person was 0-7 so I was expecting a child and it was a 40 year old man.

Ken Jackson had told me that Nathan wanted him to take him to the airport to fly to Utah so I was not surprized when Marcy texted me and asked me if I knew what Nathan was coming to Utah for.  He told her he had a surprise for her and she told him not to come unannounced but of course he did not listen.  She wanted mine and Kirsten's opinion so I told her to do what she had to do and be straight with him.  He called her later and wanted her to come and pick him up but they do not have an airport in Vernal now for some reason so he was asking her to come to Salt Lake City and pick him up.  That is a 3+hour drive and Marcy did not get off of work until 7:00 p.m.  So she told him to get a hotel and ride the bus out the next day.  I was fine with that.  She called and we talked for about an hour about life.  She finally hung up at about 11:00 p.m. our time so despite the fact that we thought we were going to bed early that did not happen.  I enjoyed talking to her though so I am not complaining.

We went to sleep and then about 12:20 a.m. Maren called and was all upset because Nathan had called all of the brothers and sisters that were at her house for a get together trying to get someone to pick him up because he could not get a hotel and he was at the bus station where he had purchased a ticket.  She felt awful because no one could work out anything for him and she wanted to know if she was bad for not going to get him.  I told her that if he was in the bus station he would be okay and it might be good for him to learn the consequences of coming to Salt Lake for a surprise.  I guess that I am hard hearted but he should have planned on someone to pick him up as it is not just a matter of driving your car to pick him up and he is pretty resilient, I knew he would be okay

So this morning I was a little tired but not like yesterday.  I actually slept pretty good after Maren's call.  We made it to the Office by 9:15 a.m.  The Williamses were right behind us so we had devotional and then we left for the last zone training with Hill Country Zone at Bulverde.

They asked me to go first this time for some reason and so I thought I was doing well until I looked at the clock and I had taken 45 minutes.  But Elder Presser adjusted and so it worked out okay but I felt bad.  Again the IPad I was trying to use would not bring up the website that I needed to show them so I just had to verbally tell them what I was trying to help them find for information.

We picked up another car to bring back to the office and then we drove to the apartment to eat lunch.  When we arrived at the office Sister Williams was in a panic because she had 3 sets of missionaries waiting to see Elder Presser and he was not answering his phone because he left it at the apartment. So he spent the next hour getting them in the cars they needed to be in.  And he tried to get some more tiwis in the 103 heat today.

I worked on referrals, phone calls, IPad problems and putting away the Book of Mormon order that I got last week.  It has just been in the middle of the floor in the Supply Room.  We were hoping the cleaning lady will vacuum there if we moved it to the sides.

Driving to the temple I read Elder Presser an article by a Stephen Webb who is a teacher of philosophy and religion at Wabash College.  It talks about how after he read the Book of Mormon he realized that the Mormons are more Christian than many of the Christians. It is titled Mormonism Obsessed with Christ.  It is an interesting article.

We left about 4:45 p.m and went straight to the temple for the 6:30 p.m. session but I guess straight there is not so straight if you stop at McDonalds for dinner.  Then we went to the temple.  Sister Williams was there tonight too with some of her Seminary Students that she taught that are going on missions so it was good to see them and her.  We had a good session.

We read scriptures on the way home and looked at some of the Bible Videos on lds.org on our phones.  They are so good.  We are learning so much about the New Testament right now and it is amazing all the good things that are there.  We have used David Ridges commentary on the New Testament and the Institute manual of the Church  It has been so helpful to understand the Cultural practices of that day that are tied to the comments in the Scriptures.

 So now I am trying to update some of the blog but this is as far as it goes.

August 8th and 9th

I had a hard time going to sleep last night so when the alarm went off Larry got up but I just rolled over and he let me sleep until almost 8:00 a.m.  We ate, read scriptures, said our prayers and then Larry went to the mission office to work with the Assistants.

Larry worked on recording the mileage, tiwi number, vin number, license plate number, amount of fuel for each car.  Then they decided which vehicle still needed to be pull from the fleet.  They have to pull 14 cars from the fleet by August 19th which is the next Transfer.  Then he put all the mileage log reports into the computer and then filed them.  He had milege reports for 90 cars so it took some time to do this.

I worked on cleaning our bathroom in the morning.  I was frustrated because I worked through it all and then realized that I did not have my active link on so even thought my body knows I worked I get no points for it.  HaHa the things we stress about.

I worked for a while on the blog and got things updated until the 7th and felt good about that.  But then Larry came home in the afternoon and I felt like I needed to quit for a while.  We needed to work on our finances and budget.

I spent the afternoon working out how many bills that we had and where we were in our check book.  It felt good to get it figured out but it was frustrating how tight we are.  But I cannot complain.  The Lord has blessed us abundantly with the finances we need on the mission.

After that Larry and I went grocery shopping and then read. prayed and went to bed.  I felt really good though because I had set three goals of what I wanted to accomplish and had accomplished them.  That does not happen often for me so it was very satisfying.  I felt like Heavenly Father had really blessed me.

Sunday we slept in.  We  went to church and Nathan and the kids were there.  I finally remembered to bring the the backpack I have with drawing paper and pencils and so the kids were really good.  Maggie started to go to sleep at the end of the Sacrament meeting.  So I woke her up and went to Primary with her until she woke up.  I was excited though because she finally told me that she would be okay and so I was able to go to my class for the first time in a long time.

On the way out of church the person who drives Nathan told us that he was flying to Utah the next day.  But Nathan never told us about that.

After church Nathan invited us over to the apartment to access the stuff he wants to send back to Utah.  He is going to pay for us to rent a UHaul to bring it back from our mission.  We looked at that and helped the kids change and then Larry took them back to Sara.  Unfortunately there is not room for all of our grandkids here and Larry and I in our new car so I stayed with Nathan for a few minutes until Larry took them home.

Nathan was a little irritated with me again so I was feeling frustrated so after we ate and read scriptures and had prayer we were about to go to bed and a person I called a few days ago returned my call.  Mark Lynn is a person that I know who's wife had the same type of stroke.  I asked him if he had any problems with his wife getting angry with her stroke fully expecting him to say no because I have had such a positive picture of him and his wife.  He asked me to describe what I meant and so I told him about the struggles we have had with Nathan and vice versa and he said that he was also a mental health worker  and that in his experience anyone who has a stroke goes through a period of anger and he said that both his wife and he went through it because there is anger about the changes that a stroke brings into their life and the things that are impossible to do after the stroke.  I felt such a relief.  The spirit has been telling me that tNathan's anger is not me but it was like a ton of bricks was lifted from me but I also had a lot of remorse for all the times I had got so angry at him.  He gave me some suggestions about how to get more help and then I was impressed because he told me call anytime.  I was so excited that I texted Nathan and Marcy about it and looked for the groups that he suggested on Facebook and joined them.  I suggest if you are concerned about helping Nathan in any way that you find out about some of the groups there.  I wish we had the time when we came down to do more to studying about the effects of stroke and how to help Nathan but we did the best we could.

August 7th

Larry and I stayed up a little late looking at things on Facebook last night after the debate so when the alarm went off we rolled over and waited for the 7:00 a.m. alarm

Today we had to go to Austin for Zone trainings.  When I put the address in the Google Maps I was surprised to find out it is less time to the Austin Building than to the Oak Hills building even though Austin is further North.  Elder Williams says that it because we do not know how to get there without GPS. HaHa

We were distracted for a few minutes with Facebook but we finally got going and were glad it was not so far because we left about 15 minutes after 9:00 a.m.  Larry drove and I told him about comments on Facebook about last night’s debate.  I just started that for a few minutes and the next thing I knew we were in Austin.  We were excited to find out that Ben Carson had increased his following by 230,000 on Facebook last night and He had 400,000 tweets about him on Twitter during the debate.

We went in and listened to the Zone leader training again and were amazed at the wonderful job they do.

Larry went first and showed his videos and then I went.  The website on the IPads I wanted to talk about was up and functioning until just before I went up but then of course it decides that it is not accessible.  So after trying two times to get it up I just described it like yesterday.  The Sisters today thought I was a hoot so it makes it easier to present if they get your jokes although most of my jokes are just things I say that I learned from Dad.

We went to “Jack in the box” to get lunch because it is Larry’s favorite.  I like it now too because they have some good salads but until this year I really did not understand why Larry liked it so much.

We went back to the office after that.  We got there in good time and had time to do a number of things.  I had several referrals waiting for me to put in.  Sister Williams is such an angel to take over that part of my job when I am gone.  I got more things accomplished but still left with several things waiting.

Larry spent time going over the vehicles that he is going to sell.  He has a lot to do with cleaning them out and getting them fixed before they sell.  He also needs to take out the Tiwis and send them back to the Church’s vehicle department.

Elder Williams wanted me to go by the Salado Springs Apartments that are close to ours and drop off a lease agreement and a check to hold it for the Spencers so we left about 5:30 p.m. and came home.  We made dinner read scriptures and other things and finally went to bed

August 6th

Well we spent time tonight watching the Republican Debate with our Neighbors, Susan and Rudy.  They live next door to us and we have had enough discussions that we knew that they are conservative so we asked if we could come over and watch with them because we gave all the TV’s back to Nathan so we would not have to pay for TV service because we do not watch TV that much.  It was fun to spend time with them.  Susan is as Conservative as Larry so we had some of the same opinions.  Larry was impressed with Dr. Ben Carson whom I have always liked so I was glad about that.  I thought Donald Trump turned some of it into a circus with his answers.  I was surprised by Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush who did better than I expected.  It was a good look at everyone but I also still like Scott Walker.  Larry was leaning toward Cruz but he wasn’t very impressed with his performance.

Nathan called at 2:00 a.m. in the morning.  He and the kids had flown in about midnight after having problems with his chair all day as it did not want to hold a charge.  Apparently they had a problem getting him home from the airport but thought that it would be okay once it got plugged in.  I guess that he was still up or got up for something and he moved away from his regular IPhone and could not move the chair back to his phone.  He has a Phone watch type thing but it only had my number and Kirsten’s and Marcy’s in it so as I was the only one in Texas he called me.  I told him that I would come and help him but he said to call someone that was closer so I called Ken Jackson.  Brother Jackson has been a Saint to help him and he lives in the same apartment complex that Nathan lives in.  I don’t know how he felt about getting up at 2:00 a.m. but he has always said that he does not mind helping Nathan as he often thinks about how he would feel if the situation was reversed.  We owe him so much for his help.

Later in the morning Nathan again asked for some help getting to his manual wheelchair from the electronic one as it was not working by texting on our group text.  Sara was not awake I don’t think, after the late night with the kids, but I texted him and said I would come on the way to Austin if he did not find anyone.  I suggested he call Ken again so I guess that he did as he said he was okay when I called before we left for Austin.  I hope he can get the chair fixed soon.

We had to go to Oak Hills Zone Training today in Austin.  I worked on the blog while Larry drove there as it is about a 2 hour drive and I was behind on Monday and Tuesday.  I didn’t finish it but it is mostly complete.  

It is so fun to be with the missionaries and to present to them.  They are always interested and they work so hard to see that what you teach is implemented.  Some of them also think that I am funny just by what I say.  I enjoy talking to them because they are so positive and so willing to learn.

We had to pick up a truck to take to the mission office as part of the cars that we are eliminating from the TSAM fleet.  I let Elder Presser drive the truck as I did not feel like driving a truck even if it was automatic.

Elder Presser, Sister Presser, Sister Marble

We went to Torchy’s Tacos to eat for one last time probably.  The Assistants said that they have a secret menu and that one of the items is called “The Missionary”  So I tried it.  It was really good,lots of pulled pork with a fried corn tortilla inside a flour tortilla and some special sauces and avocado and onion.  They said it was sweet pork so Elder Presser did not get it but it turned out to be mellow seasoned pulled pork.  As I do not really like sweet pork I was pleasantly grateful.

I drove back to the office in silence and prayed and planned what I needed to do when I got back to the office.  Larry listened to a mix of songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We got there about the same time.

Larry inspected each of the cars to get all the junk out and did a body work inspection when we got back.  He has to worry about whether they need oil changes or body work done before they are sold.

I had an order of Book of Mormons that were arriving just as I got there.  I made some phone calls and worked on some referrals and baptism but I decided that the first thing I had to do before I did anything else was print out the referral records for each area for the zone training that we are going to tomorrow in Austin.  I was glad I did.

Elder Tews and his family with Elder and Sister Presser

Elder Austin Tews came with his family about 3:30 p.m. so we spent a lot of time talking to them and taking pictures with them.  Elder Tews really looked good in his civilian clothes and his family seemed really fun to be with.

My phone died so I did not get Susan and Rudy’s reply so we checked with them when we got home.  They were excited to get together so we went in and fixed dinner and read our scriptures then because we knew the debate would get over late.

We spent the two hours during the debate at Susans and Rudy’s and then came home and went to bed.