This month, we were saddened, as a family, when we received word that my sister Sonnie's husband, Jim, passed away. We had all known that he had been ill for a while but we didn't understand the severity of his condition until he was helicoptered to a hospital in Denver, where he passed away. Sonnie had been his caregiver for a couple of months and was somewhat relieved that he was not longer in the discomfort he had been experiencing. Jim's brother passed away in February and, since then, Jim had been quite despondent, losing all hope of returning to health. 
Most of my family rallied to the call and quickly made arrangements to be in attendance at his 'Celebration of Life.' Sonnie was quite touched that all but two of her brothers were in attendance. Dad, at 101, was not able to make the trip but was there via Facetime. Deon and Don flew in, while Ed and I drove in. We all stayed at the Best Western in Buena Vista, Colorado.
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| Ed and Debbie's brand new car after hitting a deer just 3 miles our of Buena Vista. Too sad. |
The funeral was perfect for Jim with lots of Scottish music, tributes by family and, even, bagpipes playing at the grave site. It was, though, devoid of any gospel teachings of the blessings of the eternities. Sonnie and Jim dropped out of church activity several year ago and turned to a combination of religious beliefs and nature to find peace. After the services at the mortuary and grave site, we joined the guests at the historic Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort for lunch and a dip in the hot springs. It was a perfect ending to the celebration of Jim's life. We said good night after a delicious dinner at a local restaurant. The next morning, we purchased a $100 gift certificate from a local nursery for Sonnie with the idea that this Spring she could pick out a tree or plant for her yard to remind her of her family's love for her and Jim. Again, Sonnie was very touched by our thoughtfulness. At about noon, Paul and I had to say goodbye to begin our 8 hours trip home to Heber. We were all glad we had made the effort to be with our sister in her time of need.
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| Sonnie talking to Dad via Facetime just before the funeral started |
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| The flower arrangement sent from our family It was to represent the 'sunshine' Sonnie could find with her family |
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| Brothers and Sisters together after the grave site service |
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| A military send off for the service Jim rendered to his country. |
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| Complete with a 21 gun salute |
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| Dinner with family at a local restaurant later that night |
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| Lunch with the family at an historic spa resort |
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| Just before we left, we all drove to a beautiful spot along the river for some photos |
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| The family |
On a happier note: We receive word that Charlotte, having been cleared by counselors and medical doctors, heard from the mission department. She will be returning to the mission field in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania the day after we are released, April 25. She will be meeting up with a group of elders and sisters from the MTC going to her mission. We are so excited for her to finally be out serving where she has been called and where she has desired to be for months. She agrees that this time at home has caused her to be even more dedicated. She will be a better missionary because of this experience.
At the first of the month, we celebrated Kailee's birthday. They came up for Sunday dinner and I fixed her favorite meal - teriyaki chicken and fried rice. Instead of the birthday cake, I made a lemon cream pie as Kailee loves all things lemon.
Olivia also had a birthday this month. We were unavailable on her actual birthday so we arranged to take her to lunch a week early. Her choice of restaurants was Texas Roadhouse. She loves the ribs there. She is a darling young women and it was good to be with her one on one, for a short time.
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| The last missionary planning calendar we'll use |
As for mission news....this month we passed our one month to go mark. We will be released on April 24th. Not that we are counting or anything!!! It has been a busy month, especially the week we prepared for Zone meeting. This month's zone meeting was full of new things, including teaching the members of our zone how to use Facebook as a missionary. I showed them how to send a message to a specific person, how to share something that has been posted, and how to post something new on their own. During the month, I collected a few inspirational messages so I could use them in this presentation. Since our mission focus for the month was the Book of Mormon chapter in Preach My Gospel, we presented the instructions for marking Books of Mormon to give away to those they are teaching. What we presented was very well received. Our objective is to make sure everyone goes away from the meeting with something they can use in becoming better missionaries. We think we succeeded.
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| One of the many quotes I saved to post on Facebook |
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| Elders Finch, Geddis, Hernandez and Brassa |
We were especially glad when all the young elders who meet with us regularly on Tuesdays, survived transfer week. We were surprised as two of the elders have been here for quite a while. We love feeding them each week and are always saddened when they are transferred out of Heber.
One of the elders, Elder Brassa, often talked about how much he loved and missed the raspberry/blackberry pies from back home. At one of our lunches, I made his favorite pie for dessert. He was thrilled and has already suggested I make another for them one before we are released.... and I probably will. We think our elders are the bests.
As for a mission miracle - for several weeks, we have been praying to have one more opportunity to teach the Preach My Gospel lessons before we are released. Bishop Roney, from the Old Mill 1st Ward, helped our prayers be answered. He approached us one day and told us about a middle aged brother who had just married a very active sister in his ward. This brother did not have any priesthood and the bishop was anxious to ordain him to the priesthood. It was decided that we would make arrangements to teach the Preach My Gospel lessons so he would have a strong gospel understanding before receiving the priesthood. We were thrilled and have so enjoyed teaching him and his bride the first three missionary discussions. We will continue until we have completed them all. We will, then, turn them over to the senior couple in the North Stake. This couple will be moving in a couple of weeks to that stake.
One the sisters we teach, Jessie, was arrested during this month. We were saddened but knew we needed to show her our support. We found out when her arraignment was and made sure we were in attendance at the court house. When she saw us she was thrilled that we were there. On the following Friday, we picked her up and took her to lunch. We wanted to have a chance to talk with her. She explained that the police came to the house looking for David, her boyfriend, and arrested her because there was drug related items in her bedroom, which she shares with David. It sounds like a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We hope things will work out for both her and David. It's amazing how we have come to love the people we have taught on this mission.At the end of the month we had a houseful of guests. Vlad and Olya Bolashov and their little girl, Elisa, came to spend the night with us on the Thursday night before Easter and General Conference. They are our friends from Russia. Vlad is going to school at BYU Idaho to finish up his degree which he started with us doing Pathway in Russia. They were in Utah to attend General Conference and to visit friends. We were glad they included us in their list of friends to visit. We enjoyed catching up on all the happenings in their lives. They spent the night with us and we fed them breakfast of sourdough waffles. They left about 11:00, just in time for us to make it to our district meeting.
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| Loved this picture |
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| Baskets full of Easter treats! |
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| All set for a yummy Easter dinner |
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| Of course, the Millars can't come to Heber without a trip to Dairy Keen for shakes. |
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During the month, these pictures were sent to us by Jon and Mindi. They opened their home to Jaron and his date for a morning breakfast before a day of activities, culminating in the prom that night. We were so glad they shared these with us.
On March 29th, Dad turned 101!!! The family members in the area took him and Mom out to dinner. It was great that Dana was in Bakersfield visiting her Dad and that Don flew in from the funeral so he could be there to celebrate with Dad, too. It's at times like this that we are jealous of those who live close to Dad and Mom. We wish we could zap ourselves there for these special occasions.
Now for Aria -
We only have one picture this month. Aria loves playing school in our little school room downstairs. Olivia and Carly introduced it to her and now, every week she is here, she wants to go down and play school with her Mom or Dad. We love that the school room is still getting good use by our grandchildren.
