An Unexpected Journey!

I'm starting this blog with the exciting events of this last weekend, then I'll go back and recap the last two weeks! We knew that of the possible duties of an Area Medical Advisor is to help missionaries that are having a serious health crisis to get home when necessary. If it is an Elder then John would go solo, but if it is a Sister Missionary, then we would both go. It is certainly something you don't look forward to because it means that a missionary is suffering and can't complete his or her mission, but we are available if the need arises. We got a call on Saturday evening about a sister missionary up in Ft. Worth that would need us to accompany her to Salt Lake City, so we quickly packed our bags and prepared for the trip. When we saw the flight itinerary and that we would need to overnight in Salt Lake City, we decided to try to get to Provo for a quick visit with our mothers! It is convenient that they live in the same assisted living facility, but we would need the flights to be mostly on time to make it happen.

Leaving Houston, we captured some of the beautiful green that surrounds us even in winter.

We made it to Salt Lake City, got the cute sister missionary delivered to her parents before dashing to Provo in a rental car. These cute mamas of ours were sitting right by the front door as we arrived at 9:00 pm. 

It was so great to hug them and visit with them. We all kept saying, "I can't believe we are sitting here together!" 

The drop in temperature was shocking! It was a balmy 72 degrees when we left Houston and it was about 32 when we landed. We had our heavy coats and gloves in our bags ready to put on. The next morning the lows were in the teens - and we felt it!

We sure miss these beautiful snow covered mountains!

While we were waiting at the gate for our return flight, we saw a big group of missionaries walk past. Of course we had to find out where they were going! Some were off to Colorado and some to New Mexico full of enthusiasm and I am sure also some butterflies. 

Ok, now I'll back up and talk about the last two weeks. One of our neighbors has a Harley Davidson Motorcycle that John noticed when we first moved in! It is usually covered but we have talked to our neighbor about it a few times and who has generously offered to let us take it for a spin. We haven't yet, but since it was out this time John got to sit on it and start it up. Whenever people who know us well ask John if it hasn't been a sacrifice to leave his beloved Harley behind and shave every day he says, "Hey, at least I'm not leaving behind my pregnant wife, children and farm!" That puts it right into perspective. The sacrifices we are making are so small compared to those that our ancestors made.

Once a month our mission has what is called a "Mission President's Fireside." They are the best and we are so excited when there is one close to us. This one was exceptionally good! Several recent converts are asked to speak about their experience of finding the gospel and their conversion. It must be frightening for some to get up in front of a chapel full of people and speak for the first time, but they do such a great job. The spirit is always powerful! There are usually a pretty good group of people there who are currently being taught by missionaries as well. The brother with the microphone is a counselor in our ward bishopric and volunteered to translate from Spanish to English for several of the speakers that evening.

 These cute sisters sang and it was beautiful. Then the mission president gives a short talk and they always manage to keep the time right at one hour.

Twice a year the missionaries get to attend the temple and since it is out of the mission boundaries they need rides there. We were excited to go with Elders Riley and McBride form our ward!

Elders Garcia, Riley, McBride and Caswell all serve in our ward and we have grown very fond of them!

Las Hermanas Gutierrez and Reynolds, also of the Greens Bayou Ward. We are blessed to have 3 sets of great missionaries serving in our ward.

Elders Garcia, Caswell, Riley, McBride and Davis!

The Summerwood District posing with a new member.

I just love how much fun missionaries have together. Elder Garcia is on the ground setting up his GoPro for this next shot - (I tried not to worry about his suit!)

What a great bunch of missionaries!

When we moved into our apartment, we had an older recliner and a modern style futon sofa in the living room. John always felt guilty claiming the recliner but he quickly grew fond of it. So, we started looking for another recliner or love seat recliners and we couldn't pass up this one we found at Costco. We could not have gotten it into our apartment ourselves without risking serious injury! Thankfully these great young elders live nearby and were willing to help us on their lunch break.

They are always looking for service opportunities, right?!

This sure is comfortable at the end of the day!

It's crawfish season and our local grocery store has been having them available on the weekends - I hope we haven't missed it! (Actually, I would rather have shrimp, but the little spicy corn cobs and potatoes are delicious!)

I have mentioned before that our ward knows how to have fun together, but this was a new one for us. They throw a great party to honor returning missionaries and we were so impressed! Ward members helped with the food, but the family went to a lot of work preparing a video slideshow with photos from her mission and they gave everyone the opportunity to fill out a card in order to ask her questions about her mission and future plans. 

This is Hermana Borja, she served in the Utah Orem Mission!

It was a lot of fun including great food! (some of which we couldn't even begin to guess what it was!)

The next day we attended a baptism, which is always great!

A cute member of the bishopric was taking photos and he really wanted us to get in a photo. He doesn't speak English well enough for us to tell him that we really didn't have anything to do with it other than making the program, but we had met the new family at the ward party so we just jumped in for a photo. Such a cute family!

Pizza lunch with the Elders - always a good time!

We tried to capture us as we prepared our weekly missionary health report which we complete and email to Elder Weatherford Clayton on Sunday evening. He is the member of the Seventy in charge of missionary health for the entire church. We try to do what we can during the week but there is always some more to add to the report at the last minute. I can't imagine Elder Clayton reading and responding personally to every report from every mission in the church, but somehow he does it! We tell him about any missionary that has gone home early and why, all ER visits, hospitalizations, surgeries, accidents or injuries or other serious health concerns. We collect this information from the ten missions we cover and then send it in. 

On Monday we drove to the Houston Mission for our monthly Health Council, and they were having a farewell party for two missionary couples and one of the young missionaries who has been an assistant to the mission president. It was fun to get to know some of the senior missionaries there better. 

It's always good to see Elder and Sister Mecham, they were in the MTC with us and are over the peanut butter factory which is right next to the mission office.

We met these elders at an orthopedic surgeon's office in downtown Houston. John had reviewed the disc from the MRI of Elder Boam's knee, so we delivered it and then John went in with him to hear what the doctor had to say. It sounds like he is going to be able to avoid another knee surgery for now.

We got to celebrate President Hewlett's birthday with all of the office staff and the AP's -

We love these people! This mission has been such a great opportunity to meet interesting people and learn from them. It is also fun to get to spend so much time together and to focus on things of eternal importance. We highly recommend it!