Caleb is Here!

Our new grandson has arrived! Caleb weighs 7 pounds 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. He has some dark hair on his head, and I hear he looks a lot like his dad did a few decades ago :)

We are so thrilled and excited to have him here. Congratulations to all!!!!!!!

A New Countdown

So since we are now into double digits on our countdown to return home, I decided to put a little countdown gadget up. 96 days to go!

Precious Little Miracles

Maybe you can already tell

from the color of my blog title, but: Grandchild #3 will be a granddaughter!

We are so excited and can't wait to see her.

And in only a few more days we'll get to have grandchild #2

join the family - and this is a grandson!

I can hardly contain my excitement and joy to have

these precious little people with us.

a

"Having someone to love is Family.

Having somewhere to go is Home.

Having both is a Blessing."

a

SO TRUE!

One of my favorite times in Mexico

This picture is from last June when we all went to a restaurant called Rincon Argentino. It was really good food and great company. I love looking at this picture and thinking about what's coming up this summer! :)

Zone Leaders Council in March

We had the Zone Leaders Council this past week, and one of the activities that two Elders taught involved a "Guess Who" type of game. They brought several things for the Elders to wear to make them different from each other. They brought some mustaches for some of the Elders to wear, and then gave everyone a mustache to wear for the picture! How could we resist? Here's the result:

And here's how we all really look :) What a great group of Zone Leaders we have! They do a great job in keeping their zone running smoothly and moving the missionary work forward.

My Favorite Temple

This is the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork. It's my favorite. Our family got to be a part of the activities when they held the Open House and the dedication in 1996. It feels like "our" temple. I love where it is located, I love how it looks and I love the beautiful Spirit there. We are so excited that we will be heading back to this area in a few short months.

New Mission Presidents announced

We received the news that Robert and Patricia Hicken from Gilbert, Arizona are coming in July to take our place here. We got to talk to them on the phone for a little while last Saturday and they are so nice and super excited! They have six children - they are all married and out of the house. They also have 32 grandchildren with 1 more due in June (the day before the new mission president's seminar begins) We are anxious to help them make a good transition, and hope that they can make all their preparations smoothly. The Church News has all the new assignments online at ldschurchnews.com. The Hicken's biography hasn't been published yet, but hopefully it will be soon. We're so happy for them. They'll have a great experience.

I'm Going To Be A WHAT?.........

Luke is going to be a big brother!

Brandon and Camille gave me the green light to let the world know,

so this is a good way to do it. :)

Camille made this little sign for Luke's shirt to announce

their new baby coming in August! YAY!

We are very excited and can't wait to welcome grandchild #3.

Congratulations you guys, we are so happy for all of you!!!

Fifty Years Ago

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! Fifty years ago today they were sealed in the Manti Temple. Now there are four kids, four in-laws, fifteen grandchildren, one great grandchild and one more on the way (maybe more). Wow, they started something BIG :)

What a blessing it has been in my life to have you as my parents and teachers. Thanks so much for the many, many ways you support me in all that I do.

Sorry I can't be with you to celebrate today, but next year we'll have a party, OK? (I keep saying that :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Birthday Boy :)

It's Ty's birthday today! I hope it's a great one. Here are some facts from his birth year that I posted last year on his birthday, but since he was in Italy, he didn't see them:

President of the U.S.: Ronald Reagan
Vice President: George H.W. Bush
U.S. Population: 244,498,982
World Population: 5.104 billion
Average cost of a new home: $91,600.00
Average income: $24,450.00
Cost of a first class stamp: .22
Cost of a movie ticket: $3.50
Cost of a gallon of gas: .91
World Series Champions: Los Angeles Dodgers
Superbowl Champions: Washington Redskins
NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers
Wimbledon Champs: Stefan Edberg & Steffi Graf
Kentucky Derby Winner: Winning Colors
Best Film Oscar Winner: Rain Man
Doppler Radar was invented by Christin A. Doppler
Singing duo Milli Vanilli exposed as lip syncers
Hubble Telescope goes into operation
CD's outsell vinyl records for the first time


I hope you have a great day today Tyler; next year we'll have a big party, OK?
We love you!

A few Q&A's from Uruguay

I wrote and asked Ryan a few questions this past week and also about 3 weeks ago. Here are the questions with his answers......

Do you ride a bike, or how do you get around mostly?
I ride a bike and walk. We have some sweet bikes that are flyers and we get around quick.

Did your whole mission meet together for Christmas zone conference, or half
at a time, or how?
Whole mission at the same time...it was pretty killer

Does your church building have a baptismal font?
Yup :) We have a very nice chapel here in Trinidad. It isn’t too old either. Very classy

When you went to the temple, how many missionaries were there at the same
time? Did you listen in English or Spanish?
Still haven’t gone but it will be on the 20th and it will be in Spanish which will be awesome

Do they have eggnog in Uruguay, and if they do, have you had any? :)
Not in this neck of the woods they don’t :) I always just think of that priceless movie line in Home Alone when Marv says ¨American Airlines don’t fly to the promised land little buddy.¨ Not too much happenin down here with the Eggnog... (I don't really get this, can someone enlighten me?)

Do you know what kind of food is traditional for Christmas in Uruguay?
A beautifully cooked cordero (lamb)...Gaucho country :)

What is the policy for temple attendance in your mission?
If you are in Montevideo and are close, you can go...but being out in Rocha we can’t. If you’re close, you can do a zone activity. But with Argentina closed, the Argentines are coming over so its a little tough to make it, sadly.

Do you and Elder Fitzgerald mostly speak English together, or Spanish?
English in the house, Spanish in the streets. When we really need to communicate with each other we will speak in english, or if we have to get out of a lesson quick, and so forth :)

How are your shoes holding up? Which ones do you like the best?
Can I say all of them? and they are all holding up great. My hems of my pants have been coming out lately, thanks to the rain, but luckily I am a knifty knitter and can sew them back so it holds well.

Christmas Visit with Tyler

Ty came for a short visit for Christmas break.

We picked him up at the airport a few days before Christmas Day.

It was great to see him!

We took him to see the pyramids at Teotihuacan.

Here Ty and Russ are on the pyramid of the moon.


This is on top of the pyramid of the Sun.

I took the picture - I made it up to the top for my first time!




Ty took this picture to prove I really did make it to the top.

In the background is the pyramid of the moon.

We went over to the Visitor's Center for a visit, saw the displays and

Ty especially enjoyed the Walter Rane exhibit

We went to La Onda for tacos al pastor, gringas and

Delaware punch. (Ryan's favorite drink!)

We have a brand new Best Buy store near us, so we went over there to do some shopping and they had drums set up for people to try.

We talked Ty into trying it. He's still really good!

This is in front of the Aztec Calendar at the Anthropology Museum.

It's really dark because they don't allow flash pictures.

We went to Santa Fe mall and got to see Santa and a couple of elves

doing a little dance for all the shoppers. (I think this was a first for all 3 of us)

Miscellaneous Pics part 2

The church traded in the TrailBlazer for a brand new Toyota Sienna.

It had 30 kilometers on it when we received it. (That's only 18 miles!)

It has lots of great features, but the thing we love the most is the compass. In between the TrailBlazer (which had a compass) and this van, we had a loaner van with no compass. We got more lost one night than we had ever been.

We were roaming around the city for an hour and a half with no clue which direction we were going. We finally stumbled upon a street that was familiar to us and that's how

we finally made it home. A compass is an absolute essential in this city!

These are the current assistants -

Elder Fillerup from Arroyo Grande, California

and Elder Christensen from North Salt Lake.

We take the new missionaries to a restaurant called "La Onda" for tacos al pastor.
The tacos are really good and the missionaries love going there.
The office elders and the assistants go with us, too. It's a lot of fun.



This is Elder and Sister Bailey from Salt Lake. They went with us to La Onda the night before they returned home. They served a CES mission up in Pachuca for 18 months.

A few miscellaneous pics

This is an apartment building we pass by on the way to the southeast part of the mission. It looks like an abandoned building to me, but there are actually a lot of people living in it.

This is a street in the worst part of our mission and the city. It's called Chimalhuacan. Not pretty.

This lovely lady is one of the "Katarina's" that are all over the place for "Dia de los Muertos" or Day of the Dead, which is November 1st and 2nd. I think maybe they should call it Night of the Dead because they stay all night in the cemtery from the 1st to the 2nd. They decorate the cemetery using orange marigold flowers and the favorite foods of the people that have died. I don't think it is connected to Halloween, but the orange and black color scheme is the same, and the skeletons kind of fit in with that, too.

I'm not an animal lover, but I do feel sorry for the dirty little dogs running all over the place. It makes me wonder what they did to deserve a life like this.

Time Flies!

200 days to go! We've been gone for 896 days and have 200 more to go! There is so much to do and not a lot more time to do it. We'll keep on going - but when the time comes we'll be ready! :)

Zone Leaders Council for December

The 2 Assistants and 16 Zone Leaders are here again today for the consejo. They came in from their areas last night and slept in the lower level of the mission home. We have 20 bunkbeds downstairs, and only two bathrooms. Pretty tight schedule for showering!

Last night they ate 7 pizzas and drank 18 bottles of caffeine free diet Coke. This morning they were joined by the 5 secretaries and for breakfast they had six dozen eggs, 100 slices of bacon, 1 gallon of refried beans, 150 tortillas, 25 containers of yogurt, and 25 sweet rolls. They washed it down with 3 gallons of juice.

Today for lunch they'll have 50 portions of milanesa, a mountain of mashed potatoes, and about 1 1/2 gallons of gravy. Also one very large bag of mixed vegi's and 6 large cans of fruit cocktail and 8 loaves of french bread. They'll have water to drink, (we go through about 60 bottles of water) and about 6 dozen homemade cookies for dessert (the senior sisters over at the visitor's center helped me out with these!). They also went through 40 juice boxes, 23 granola bars, and various other things I send with them for the trip back to their areas. Missionaries are always hungry!

It is a great meeting though, el Presidente's favorite. They meet together to discuss the direction of the mission, and plan the training for the coming cycle. These missionaries are the hardest working elders we have here and they do a great job.

Next time they will meet at the stake center by the temple. There is much less travel for them, and they also only have lunch together on these days. It is much easier for me when they meet at the stake center since they eat at the MTC cafeteria, (I do provide some snacks, though) but I enjoy having them here - they are a wonderful group of missionaries.

Since we only have four more consejo's before July 1st, two will be here, and two will be at the stake center. Hard to believe the time is going by so fast!

Happy Thanksgiving

Before the day is over I just wanted to say how thankful I am for the many blessings I have. I'm sure I couldn't ever name them all.

It has been a blessing for Russ and I to be here in Mexico, and serving with the missionaries here. We've learned so much and had so many wonderful experiences that have affected our lives. We've associated with some wonderful people - it's amazing how kind and helpful everyone is to us. The missionaries have been great - and they keep us on our toes. We never get bored!

We have also learned how very much our wonderful family means to us. Although we've been apart for quite some time, we feel very close to all of you. We feel your prayers, your love, and support as we continue to serve here. We could not do this without each one of you. The emails, pictures, letters and phone calls mean so much. I'm thankful for family blogs, too! It really helps to be able to see what is going on back at home.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day, and I must say that we are looking forward to next year's Thanksgiving day very anxiously! Love to all of you.....

It's a Boy for Chad and Joey!!!!!

So Russ said girl and I said boy - and I was right! We are so excited and happy to hear the great news about Chad and Joey's baby - It's a BOY! Not really a big surprise to me :) Everything on the ultrasound looks great, and we'll be so thrilled to welcome him here to earth at the beginning of April.

Chad and Joey - Congratulations on your new little son!

We love you!!!

Happy Birthday B

I've been waiting for the perfect day to post this picture and I think this is the day. Ryan created this masterpiece before he left for Uruguay. He made me promise that I wouldn't post it until he was gone. :)

I want to tell Brandon "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!" You are a wonderful son, and you have a beautiful family. We are proud of you and love you very much. Have a great day!!!!

Love,
Mom and Dad