Visit to Heather and Ethan's

Heather and Ethan invited us up to West Bountiful to visit them one more time before our mission.  It is always fun to visit them and our grandchildren Brooklyn and James.

Because Brooklyn is 5 and James is only 20 months Brooklyn gets to decide what activities we do when we visit.  We arrived on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we went to the Salt Lake Hogle Zoo.  Don and I haven't been there for a long time so a lot of things have changed.  They now have animated dinosaurs throughout the zoo.  When they roared they would scare James.  James and Brooklyn really liked the bird show and the train ride.  James also liked all the monkeys especially the really active ones.

Then on Thursday we played at the park and on Friday we went to see the movie Cars 2.  James stayed with a babysitter so it was Brooklyn's special time.

It is nice to know we will see them again in August.  We will certainly miss them when we are in New Zealand.

June 21, 2011

Visa

When we got home the information was here for us to begin work on our Visa's.  First we had to go have 4 passport photos taken.  Then we started to fill out all of the forms.  We had two forms - one for medical and one for the actual visa.  One picture was put on the visa application and three on the medical form.  The doctor had to sign over the passport photo to verify that we were actually that person.  The lab and x-ray technicians also had to sign the photo.  The x-ray had to be read and the forms filled out before Dr. Tom Jones could complete the whole medical packet.  On all the forms the date was written day, month, year.  We had a hard time remembering this when dating the forms.

All was completed and we took it to the post office on Friday, May 20th.  We were a little nervous about sending our passports but we send it certified mail so we could check on it.  It was received by the travel departments the following Monday, May 23rd.  They will now obtain our visas for us.

May 20, 2011
USA  5/20/11
NZ 20/5/11

Hannah Sutherland's Wedding

After the blessing we went to Santa Cruz for Hannah Sutherland's wedding.  It was held at the Mt. Herman Conference Center.  It was held in an outdoor theater.  It was great seeing the Sutherland family again.

May 7, 2011

Jeanessa's Blessing

We went down to California for our granddaughter Jeanessa's blessing.  It was great to have all our children and there families together for this event.  Heather and Brooklyn and James flew down and so all of our children were there.  Jeanessa was so cute and the blessing was given by Kevin and then everyone went to Kevin and Jeanette's afterwards for lunch.

May 2011

Mission Call

Michelle Pack had set up a system on the computer so that all of our children could watch us open the envelope so we set it up for 5:15 p.m. at Michelle and Bryan's home.  Ronnie and Ferris also came and we contacted our 4 children (Kevin, Kirk, Heather, Kristina) and their spouses to go on line.  However, when Michelle turned it on they could only see a black screen.  So much for modern technology.  So we got our cell phones out and put everyone on speaker phone and then Don and I opened the letter together.  Imagine our excitement and joy when it read that we had been assigned to serve in the New Zealand Wellington Mission.  We are to report to the MTC on August 22nd.  Kristina was on the South Island of New Zealand for study abroad through Cal State Long Beach so Don and I went there before she came home.  However, we have never been to the North Island so we are excited to serve the people of New Zealand.  We will serve in the Family Records Preservation Department.  We will work from 8 to 5 and then do whatever the Mission President wants us to do.  We feel truly blessed.

April 2011

The long wait for the mission call

On March 14, 2011 we received a call from President Anderson and he stated that all the information was sent to Salt Lake.  We received an e-mail from Salt Lake a couple of days later saying it was received and that we could expect our call between 4-6 weeks.

Time passed and we were anxious to receive our call.  We waited patiently for almost 5 weeks and then we asked Bishop Kidman to check on it and he said that it had been sent at the same time as Alec Olmsteads and Alec had already received his call the previous Thursday.

Monday was Don's birthday and he was hoping it would come on his birthday April 18th.  No such luck.  We were unlucky again on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then our luck would change on April 21st.  Our mail usually comes about 2:30 p.m., but I decided to try it about 2:00.  The mail woman was there sitting in her car but the mailbox was empty.  I went to her car to inquire about the mail and she said she hadn't delivered it yet.  So the stalking began.  I went on a walk and came back in about 15 minutes.  She was still in her car.  Another walk and then when I returned she was gone.  I opened the mailbox and there it was.  I wanted to go home and rip it open but Don was golfing and we needed to make the arrangements so our children and grandchildren could participate when we opened the letter.

April 2011

Mission Paperwork

Everything is now done on-line through the church website and since Don and I are both illiterate about the computer we had to enlist the help of Amy Wixom's family.  Jake Wixom took our mission photo and uploaded it and then Amy and her daughter Kelsey and Brock came to our home and uploaded our driver's license, passport and health information.  Finally, it could be forwarded to Bishop Randall Kidman and President Hal Anderson.

February 2011

Mission Physical

We have started the process for our mission.  The first thing we had to do was have a complete physical and be updated on all our shots.  Dr. Thomas Jones did the physical and I passed but Don had a slight heart murmur and so he was required to have a stress test.  The results came back and they weren't satisfied with the results so he was required to have a nuclear stress test.  Thankfully he passed that one so we could now turn in our paperwork.

January 2011

Retirement to St. George

Well Don and I are now retired and have moved to St. George, Utah from Lancaster, California.  We decided to buy while the market was low (however, it continued to go even lower after our move) and then turn in our papers to serve a mission. It is now the summer of 2010 and the time has come to begin seriously thinking about the mission.  Don will turn 65 in April 2011 and going on Medicare so we have decided to aim for May of 2011 to be available to go.

Summer 2010

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