The Sun Sets On July~

The Month of July flew by, and I can't believe we are already into August. Sometimes, I wonder why time goes so fast these days. If I didn't take photos of events; I would be missing a lot of memories. 

Here is our sweet Great Granddaughter Myah's  4th birthday. It seems like I was just holding her as a new infant not long ago. She is the cutest little one. I love being around her. She is fun loving and has an endearing personality. We had fun going up to this birthday celebration. 

We had just finished a temple assignment and hurried up to Heber city to be with them all. They held it in a new Aquatic Center. We missed the gifts and cake but were happy we could spend some moments with our oldest son and his family with his oldest son's family. 

We were blessed to be able to have our Grandson, Michael fly here to be with us on the day before he was due to enter the Mission Training Center. I picked him up at the airport, and we came home and picked up my husband so we could go to lunch 
Then later in the afternoon, we took him to an endowment session in the Jordan River Temple. It was a delightful experience. We had a great dinner in the cafeteria there. They have an excellent cook there; the food was yummy! 
He stayed with us overnight. He had already been set apart as an Elder, so he had to have Roger and or Micheal, our son in law as a companion. 
His Uncle Burt and his family came by for a goodby moment too. 
We really enjoyed visiting with this spectacular grandson. We are so proud that he has chosen to serve the Lord on a 2-year mission for our church. 

 The next morning, he said his good-byes to our daughter and her family. We then took him out to breakfast and had a super enjoyable meal with lots of conversation. 
We then drove to the Provo Mission Training Center to drop him off. It really is a drop you off moment. You drive into an underground parking lot. We were met by a young Elder who was a host for gathering the missionaries. They quickly got his luggage out, and we said our final goodbyes. I was a bit emotional about it all. 
This part of taking your missionary to the MTC has changed a lot. It used to be that you brought them into the mission home and watched an introductory film on being missionaries and other instructions. We would then wait as they went out one door and we went out another. There was always a lot of emotion at this time. These young people are leaving their families for 18 months to 2 years. It is a significant commitment in their lives. We sent off 3 sons and 1 daughter on a mission, so I have shed a lot of tears at these goodby moments. 
I think dropping them off at the curb is a good idea; it's a little less emotional in some ways. 

We next took a short trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to see my Sister in law; Amparo. She is in the midst of fighting cancer. We had the best of visits. We were able to with her family and daughter Kathy, her son Gabe and his family and then her other son's wife Corinna and their daughter. Jonnie Cherie. Later in the evening; her son Gus and Vivianna came by for a visit too. It was a delightful trip. We stayed two nights and then left for home. Las Vegas was beastly hot; so we didn't spend a lot of time outside. I now remember why I wasn't unhappy when we moved from there.

While we were in Las Vegas, we decided to take a little bit of time and go to where we used to live. We took some fun photos of the homes we lived in and the elementary school that a few of our children went too. 
We left Las Vegas and went as far as Beaver Utah. We spent a night there. 
The next day we decided to go on a different rode and see my Aunt Alene who lives in Monroe. She seemed okay, and we had a fantastic visit with her. 

We had a surprise visit from a very dear friend, Ellen that we met when we lived in San Jose, California. We have kept in touch for many years, so getting to see her was a treat. 
She and her husband just completed a mission in Alaska. They were assigned to take care of the Church's youth camp for a couple of years. They loved that experience. We hadn't seen each other for over 20 years. Visiting with her was terrific. They presently live in Benton City, Washington. Her husband wasn't able to come so she was with her brother. It was great to meet him. 

Here's a missionary update on all of my Grandchildren that are now serving a mission. 

Here is our beautiful Granddaughter, Sister Workman. She is serving in the California Sacramento Mission. Her is some photos of her and different companions, some of the children she has been working with and also members of her missionary district. She is having great success and is busy finding, teaching and has some convert baptisms. She was working in a Marshallese Branch but recently was transferred and will be a trainer. She is loving every minute and learning so many good things. 

Our Grandson, Elder Williams is enjoying his missionary experiences. I love to read his updates. He has some profound, rich experiences. He has been having some great teaching moments and a couple of baptisms. He's in a hard area for doing missionary work. The Midwest is a problematic area for the weather; hot and humid and sometimes tornados and then frigid winters. Some of the Midwest is where our church was restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is a great deal of church history in these areas. He is blessed to serve there. He had a Great Great Great Grandfather serve his mission in that exact area.  He is in the Omaha, Nebraska Mission. As you can see he caught a big fish on his P-day. They do get to have some fun activities. 

Our most recent missionary, Elder Adamson is in the Provo MTC for 6 weeks. He will be going to the Spanish speaking, Lubbock Texas Mission. Elder Adamson will stay in the MTC longer to learn the language. He loves it. He told me recently that he believes he has been blessed with the gift of tongues. I think that is so awesome. I can see in his face how happy he is to be serving our Heavenly Father on a mission.
I am so proud of these marvelous missionaries and their desire to serve. They all have a deep love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they love teaching and preaching of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the Plan of Happiness. They love The Book of Mormon and always bear testimony of this marvelous book being their greatest missionary tool. Missions are such a powerful thing for young people of this age to do. They come home from these experiences ready to go forth in their lives with direction and abilities to start their work, education, future marriages and raise families.
Have a lovely Sabbath Day everyone!