MISSION REUNION TOPS EVENTS IN OCTOBER

Jacob and RaeAnn at our home
for dinner

On Friday, October 24, we had a mission reunion at our home.  Sixty returned missionaries showed up for dinner and socializing. This all came about after Sister Taylor (RaeAnn) and Elder Stebbing (Jacob) came up to dinner the first week of October.  After dinner we discussed the possibility of having a mission reunion since it would be another year before President and Sister Borders would be home and available to host a reunion.  RaeAnn and Jacob got real excited about the possibility of getting all the Moscow Mission missionaries together so that very night we set a date and decided what the Facebook Event posting should look like.  RaeAnn was in charge of inviting everyone and I was in charge of food and getting the senior couples on board.  With a little effort, all turned out wonderful.  The response was even better than we had imagined it would be so obviously it was a welcomed event.  

So grateful for their help in cutting up
all the vegetables for the haystacks.  
Sister Roper came later and joined in.

Sister Taylor and Sister Miller (Elyssa) and her husband came early to help chopped the vegetables for Hawaiian Haystack which was the fare for the evening.  Rice, chicken, ham, Chinese noodles, pineapple, mandarin oranges, green peppers, tomatoes, cheese, coconut, olives and two sauces were on the counter to choose in building each haystack.  Everyone loved the dinner even though many had to eat it sitting on their laps as we did not have 60 places at the tables for them to sit. Including ourselves, 4 senior couples were able to come.  Their help was so appreciated in bringing parts of the dinner. 

Sister Miller and her husband

Elders Marks and Bass

Elder Crawford

Elders Braun, Davis, and Jewkes

Elder Hoffman drove in from Idaho

After dinner, we called everyone together to explain the one planned activity.  Sister Taylor had everyone break into groups of about 10, go to various room in our home and video tape a message to President and Sister Borders. The beginning of a sentence each was to complete was..."Because of President and Sister Borders I...." Some videos were silly and some very serious but everyone participated and sent their love to the Borders in this way.  We had different kinds of brownies for dessert and then everyone stayed and visited as long as they wanted.  Some were still here at 10:30.  Elder Jewkes (Cache) and Elder Davies (Brandon) had long distances to travel so they spent the night. They watched 'The Coleville Miracle' before turning in for the night.  We had an early breakfast for them as we had to leave for a BYU football game by 10:00.  What a treat this whole experience was for us.  We loved seeing all our missionaries again.  

The whole group - such amazing men and women

Speaking of football....it is in full swing.  We attended three BYU home games this month. This year we splurged and bought season tickets on the 50 yard line in actual seats, not benches. It is a much nicer way to watch football.  Luckily, we won all those games which makes sitting through 4 hours of football much more exciting. BYU basketball started at the end of the month so we attended an exhibition game in the newly renovated Marriot Center. too.  

Other happenings included going to a football game of Jaron's. They lost their game but Jaron played very well.  He has tremendous hands and can catch most anything thrown to him. He reminds me of his Dad, Jon, when he was playing in high school. We enjoy going to our grandson's games as it gives us an opportunity to see them play and also to visit with all of Jon and Mindi's family.  We don't see them as often as we'd like although they do try and come up to Sunday dinner at least once a month.

Pizza makings all ready to be
assembled

Four days after our mission reunion party, we held a pizza party for our Primary class of 18 ten year olds. We had 7 boy and one girls come and they made their own pizzas and then we watched movies.  The boys went down stairs and watched 'Hoosiers' and Eva and myself stayed upstairs and watched '17 Miracles.' Everyone loved their pizzas and seemed to enjoy the movie.  We were sad that the other half of our class either forgot about it or had something else going.  We love our Primary class.

The boys

Eva - the only girls that showed up

Paul all ready for the
trunk and treaters

Dillon loves dinosaurs so guess what his
costume was....no surprise.

At the end of the month, of course, was Halloween.  Our ward held their annual Trunk or Treat in the yard of the Hinckley's. Dinner of soups and breads was served after which all the children went around to the different cars for a treat.  It was well attended and we enjoyed seeing our primary class all dressed up in their costumes. A great way to end a very busy month.

Chai 

Sweet Peyton with her brother

This month, I started Skyping Michael Afrika as his English Speaking partner for the BYU Idaho Pathway program.  Michael was one of our Young Single Adults in Russia. He was baptized while we were there and we became very good friends.  He needed a speaking partner so I agreed to do it for him.  Each week, on Monday at 2 pm (11pm Russian time), we skyped for about 30 minutes.  It was fun to talk with him each week about his studies, his family, and his life in Moscow.  I was sad when he sent me a message saying he had to drop out of pathway and go back to his home in Rwanda, Africa for a while.  I hope everything will be alright for him and that he will be able to continue pathway in the near future.    




October always brings with it General Conference and this conference was uplifting as ever.  We love having a Saturday and Sunday where we can just listen to our prophets and leaders tell us what the Lord would have us hear. Saturday night we invited Guy Blaine to our home to watch the Priesthood session with Paul in our movie theater and then have dinner afterwards.  We just had DeDe's tacos (chili over chips with all the trimmings) but it was easy and good.  We love visiting with Guy.  He loves to golf and had just returned from a trip to Scotland where his main purpose was to golf the courses there.  Fun and uplifting two days.





I have to include something about my broken toe that happened this month.  I was in Day's Grocery store helping a lady lift a heavy sack of flour into her cart. When I was done I turned around just as a store employee was wheeling a huge cart down the aisle. He didn't see me and ran right into my left foot. When I first glanced down at my second toe, it looked like it had been cut in half but there was no blood.  Upon a closer look, I found the toe completely bent over the larger toe next to it. I straightened it out and went about shopping. As the day continued, it got sorer and bigger so I decided to go to the doctor the next day to have it checked out.  After x-rays were taken, it was determined that it was broken. The doctor numbed it and tried to straighten the bone but he couldn't so his advice was to ice it and use lots of pain relievers until it felt better. He said it would take at least 6 weeks to heal. Even now it is tender and almost twice the size of the same toe on the other foot. That's probably what it will be like from now on.  At least I can now get on most of my closed toed shoes.  



October is a month of leaves falling and our yard had plenty of them. Jon and Mindi's children came up one Sunday and became enthralled with the leaves.  Carli and Jaiden took rakes and started piling the leaves up so they could jump on them.  The leaves finally ended up on the trampoline and the children had a ball crushing them while jumping.

Todd teaching Dad how to
use his new phone.  Thanks to Todd
who helped us both purchase
our phones.  

One last note:  Paul has a cell phone!!!! Wonders never cease.  When we found out that we could port our home phone number to a cell phone and then connect our home alarm system to a wireless unit, Paul could finally see the advantage of having a cell phone.  I have been after him forever to get one and now that is a reality.  He has come to find them quite convenient and is continually checking the stock market, emails, and sport scores.  I love him having one.  I thought it would be hard not having a land line but with the speaker phone on we can still talk with our children at the same time. It's a nice update into the 20th century for Paul.  

 Dad is hooked!!!!!!  
                  .......and I'm loving it!!!!!!



.................and thus ends another month.