AUGUST FLEW BY TOO FAST

July was crazy busy and August was no different. It has been just a blur as we have had so much to do....most of it due to this mission we are serving. 

The buses letting people
off to begin the tour of
the new MTC

At the first of the month, the new Missionary Training Center in Provo opened to the public for an open house. As missionaries, we were asked to sign up for a shift to help direct people through the tour. We volunteered on the 12th of August and were assigned to work at stations at the beginning of the tour. I sat at an outside door where those in wheelchairs or with strollers entered. I had to, then, direct them down the hall to join with the others from their bus. Paul was in the middle of all the action as he was to stand by the big world map near the cafeteria. He directed the people as to where to go but mostly he took pictures of people pointing to where they had served their missions. One of those pictures he took was of a couple a Moscow missionaries we had known when we served there. 

The Jordans both served in our Russia Moscow Mission

This motto is found on the back wall
as you enter the
learning center of the MTC

Earlier that month, we had toured the MTC ourselves to see the amazing additions made...incredible new classrooms with bright colors and lots of windows. The atmosphere was beautiful both inside and out. At a stop where we watched a movie, one of the sister missionaries said that "The Lord walks the halls of this campus." We wouldn't doubt it by the spirit we felt while there. We thought of Charlotte the whole time as she will be entering that MTC in November. She will love being apart of the feelings there in the MTC. 

The beautiful new MTC campus

We have been teaching Raleigh Glissmeyer to prepare her for being baptized on her eighth birthday. She had not been attending primary much so the bishop wanted us to teach her the missionary discussions - very elementary, of course. Her mother committed to take her to primary which is good for Raleigh. We were hoping the whole family would sit in on the lessons so they could gain a stronger testimony and begin to come to church more regularly but that didn't happen. Usually it was just Raleigh, with her mom popping in every once in a while. Raleigh was baptized on August 5th.

Elders Brister, Hill, and Baron

This month we have had quite a few changes in the elders serving in our area. We had a threesome for a while when Elder Brister joined Elder Hill and Baron. Elder Baron left for home and then Elder Brister was transferred the very next transfer as well as Elder Gorrido. We are always sad when elders leave us. Elder Shelley joined Elder HIll and Elder Phillips joined Elder Bautista. We feed these two sets of elders lunch every week and totally enjoy spoiling them with good food. Elder Hill used to be the one with all the compliments but now Elder Phillips out does him. Elder Phillips loves to eat and usually has at least two helping of whatever I fix. Elder Shelley, Hill's new companion, came directly to the mission field without going to the MTC. He is on a trial mission for 3 months to see if he can be successful. At the end of 3 months, if it is deemed right for him, he will go to the MTC and then out on a more permanent assignment. 

Elders Shelley, Hill, Phillips, and Bautista

After a lunch - to full to do anything but lay down

Also this month, there was a mission tour of a general authority, Elder Duncan. We were privileged to spend the day (8 to 3) with this member of the seventy. He spoke mainly to the younger elders and sisters and gave them some hints as to how to be more successful in the number of lessons taught. As senior missionaries, we gleaned from the spirit we felt just being in the presence of a general authority and the elders and sisters. One thing that we were told was that on average it takes 200 contacts world wide to get one baptism. In the Utah missions, it takes about 20 contacts for one baptism. In the Utah Provo mission, that number is down to 5 contacts for one baptism. President Hodgeman has been asked what the secret is to that kind of success and he attributes it to the senior couples. He calls us his secret weapon. That is encouraging...maybe we are making a difference.

The amazing elders and sisters of our half of the mission.
We were able to see a couple of our former missionaries and that was fun to catch up,

We started teaching a new family this month. Scott Parcell recently lost his wife to cancer and is trying to raise 3 young children on his own. He has not been active since he was 12 but now wants to do something about that. The ward has been so supportive of him, helping him get through this very tough time in his life. The Bishop suggested that we teach him and his children some family home evening lessons. He agreed that it would be a good thing for his family so we have been teaching them about every two weeks. Our first lesson was 'You are a Child of God' and our second lesson was 'Heavenly Father wants us to Obey.' We have learned that these little children, ages 6, 4 and 2, needs lots of activities to keep their attention. We play games, watch videos, and tell stories to keep their attention. The family seems to look forward to our visits.

Paper bag puppets to help the children know they are each a child of God

Some of the items Charlotte was able to purchase
for her\mission

Other things did happen this month that did not revolve around missionary work completely. One of the best things was that Andrea and Charlotte stayed with us during Education Week at BYU. They found time to shop for shoes and a coat for Charlotte's mission as well as be spiritually fed by the uplifting classes they attended on BYU campus. We were always grateful when they shared their experiences with us at the end of each day. One special thing took place Monday night while they were here. We teach Bret Tandy and his son, Josh, every Monday night in our home. We invited Charlotte to join us as we taught a lesson on the Book of Mormon. Charlotte was amazing as she added to the discussion and bore her testimony. We got to see first hand what an amazing missionary she will be. Josh was very impressed, too, with this beautiful young future missionary. 

What we saw without glasses

On that same Monday, the solar eclipse happened. We didn't notice much difference here in Heber other than it got a little darker for a few minutes but nothing spectacular. We realized, later, that to see anything you had to have purchased the special glasses for viewing the eclipse. Many people traveled to Idaho where the eclipse would be close to 100% total coverage. Thanks to Ed and Debbie Richards we got to see a video that showed how dark it got when the moon covered the sun. They said it got colder, too. Our neighbors said it was worth the drive and the traffic to be apart of this natural phenomenon.   

What the eclipse really looked like with special glasses
and if you were in it's direct path

So our Utah family could see Andrea and Charlotte, Jon's family and Todd's family and ourselves met at Pizza Factory in LIndon on Thursday night. It is always so fun to be together as a family. The conversation is always delightful and the joy of being a family evident. 

Of course everyone was curious about Charlotte's mission call to Pennsylvania as well as her recent car accident. A picture of the car she was driving appeared on Facebook but not a lot of information so we all wanted to know what happened. We are so glad that Charlotte was not hurt, nor was anyone else.  When you look at her car, you realize this was a wonderful tender mercy for a future missionary.

 

This month BYU footall season began with a game against Portland State. It was at 1:30 on one of the hottest days of the summer - at least 103 degrees in the stadium. We wondered how the players were even surviving in their pads and uniforms. The audience was miserable. Luckily we sit on the West side of the stadium so by half time we were in the shade which made the game bearable. We kept wondering how the spectators in the rest of the stadium were faring. Kailee's mother and sister left at half time because of the extreme heat. Her mother is a die hard BYU fan so it had to have been unbearably hot for her to leave. After the game, we went to Todd and Kailee's to eat their smoked brisket off their newly purchased smoker grill. It was delicious.

Paul all ready for the season

This was also a month of birthdays and weddings. We attended the wedding of Mark Mauzy's daughter where we saw a few of our Spokane friends. Carol Mauzy was there as well as her daughter Kim. Arlene McComas was there as the other grandmother. It was good to see old friends.

The next wedding we attended was for one of our missionaries - Elder Eliason. We worked at Jon and MIndi's during the day, changed clothes and headed up to Salt Lake City to the reception at the Lion House gardens. Elder Eliason was glad to see that we had made the effort to come. We took the Park City way home so we could check out the new Mod Pizza there. YUMMY!!!

Birthdays included Carly, Taylor, and Todd. We took Carly to lunch at Cafe Rio. It was her third birthday meal at Cafe Rio. She insisted that she loved it and that was where she wanted to go, again.

Taylor is a little harder to get together with so we just sent him a check. He stopped by one day after his work in Park City so we got to see him close to his birthday.

For Todd's birthday, we had dinner on Sunday. He requested a ham dinner for which I was glad. Kailee's whole family was in town and they all came to dinner. Ham is an easy dinner for a crowd of 14. Of course, we had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen for dessert. 

Aria is afraid of the lighted candles since she burned
her fingers on her candles when she turned one.

The last thing we did in the month of August was can peaches. We bought 4 boxes and canned 41 quarts. We wanted to get our peaches done before Deon and Gary came to town to can peaches for themselves and Dad and Mom....and that's a story for September.




And then there's Aria....


We are so glad to live close enough to Todd and Kailee that we can watch little Aria grow. We swear she changes every week and each time we see her she has learned some new skills. This month she began to count. One Sunday, Kailee had given her some small pieces of cheese to eat. After eating one, she began to place each piece of cheese on the counter as she counted it, starting with one. She ran out of pieces of cheese at number six, at which time, she promptly asked, 'Where's seven?'  We think she's a genius, but of course, so are all our grandchildren.

Her new thing is playing pool on top of the pool table. She loves trying to knock the balls into the pocket.

ets.