G'bye Sister M. and Mail Shout-Outs

One of the hardest things about serving a mission is having to say goodbye to great missionaries we've loved working with and just plain loved!

Sister Mortensen is for sure one of our fave's. So kind and genuine, always willing to lend a helping hand, and always making us laugh with her very dry sense of humor.

 Because this wasn't the regular transfer she was alone on the bus : (

...and she looked like a deer in the headlights.

But we were all there to say our goodbyes, and

 we gave her a 7 missionary send off...

Sister's Williams & Bradshaw, Elder's Pettit, Sweeten, Ibarra & Turner

(Elder Williams is taking the picture)

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BIG ol' gypsy shout-outs to my sweet friend Becki Blackner, and to Mary VanDriver for taking the time to write us and keep us updated with the goings-on in the "outside" world. Seriously, we love you!

Our Third Companion

We have to pay tribute to our trusted 3rd Companion.  He (or she?) has been with us every step, or should I say all of the thousands of miles we have traveled on this mission.   He has been very reliable, rarely complaining and has suffered plenty of bumps, bruises. (see photo)

 We try to keep him happy, but often neglect him, such as letting him get quite dirty (see photos). 

But through it all, he has been a trusted, reliable 3rd companion, taking us everywhere we have asked him to go.  

He is often patiently waiting in the background as we attend yet another activity,  (See background)

 

 

Truthfully, we feel that the Lord has greatly blessed us with such reliable transportation on this mission, so this post is actually an acknowledgement of his hand in this blessing and an expression of gratitude to Him for answering many prayers to keep us safe.    So thank you!   And here's hoping and praying you can yet keep us going safely, all the way to the end.

Many hands make light work

One of the funnest things we get to do out in the mission field is give service. Monday morning we got an early call from a great family in the ward who needed help unloading a moving truck. Monday is our P-day, and there's so much to get done in a very limited time...not so much for us Sr. Missionaries, but the younger missionaries only have Monday to do laundry, write letters, check e-mails, go grocery shopping, and other tasks. So I wasn't sure they would want to give up that time to help. Boy was I wrong. They were all there with a smile on their face. As they jumped into action we made short work of emptying out that moving van! I love the missionaries we get to serve with.

Top row: Sister Mortensen, Ron, Sister Bradshaw, Elder Sweeten, Elder Ibarra

Bottom: Me, Elders Pettit and Turner

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The world has need of willing hands, and hearts that know and feel.

Come help the good work move along, put your shoulder to the wheel!

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To: legalron36 From: oahubaby60

Happy Anniversary to my kind, loving companion and my best friend.

XO~K.
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"In Friendship…we think we have chosen our peer. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances.
A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.” The Friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of others."
--C.S. Lewis
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Here's to a great 2014!

This has been a crazy first week of 2014. I love a new year...like everyone else, it gives us a fresh new start to be better at just about everything. We have our annual "purge the house of any leftover candy"marathon. This was especially fun this year because remember the gingerbread house I made with the sisters?



Well, before Christmas the guy who serves as Young Men's President spoke in Sacrament meeting and told about when he was a little boy his mother would always put a gingerbread house under the tree and then tell him not to pick the candy off of it. So he would lay under the tree and lick the candy on the gingerbread house, which I found hysterical. So last week while we were boxing up and throwing out, we decided to box up our gingerbread house with a little note that said "Dear Brother Harman, you don't have to lick it, you can actually pick it! Enjoy!" Then we took it to his house rang the doorbell and ran. They aren't sure who put it there, but we aren't even on their radar for this one, which makes it even more fun. I mean, who would suspect two sober and dignified senior missionaries, right?

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We attended a fun New Years Eve party at the Brinkerhoff's home out in Montezuma.

(we were home early)

 This is Brother Chamberlin, our ward mission leader. He's such a good guy.

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it!

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We had our good old reliable, unfancy, camera "misplaced" after a Christmas activity in Garden last month. I was so bummed, because not only did it have pictures that I didn't have loaded on my computer, but it also had 3 picture/card/ chip thingies in the little case, AND we have to have a camera, so we ended up buying a super cheap camera just to get us through the end of our mission and it takes super crappy pictures. Grrr! So if you think our pictures have a weird 'sparkly' look to them, that's why. Double Grrr!

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Last Sunday we had two baptisms, which was way awesome! (said in a sing songy voice) : )

Ron spoke at one of them, and I said the prayer at the other one.

12 year old Janeth and us after her baptism

 Nothing is more flattering than florescent lighting~said no one, ever!

Cute little Abbie Dameron (8)

What a great way to begin the new year!!

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