April 13th to April 19th, 2015 Rain, Rain and more Rain.

Last Sunday afternoon, after posting my weekly blog we got a huge rainstorm. The wind blew, we had thunder and lightning, and even hail mixed in with the rain. The street in front of the house looked like a river, while talking with Emily Rogers (grand daughter) on Skype we heard a really loud crash of thunder, the windows of the house lit up and out went the power. The lightning must have struck pretty close! We found flashlights and were settling in for what we thought might be a day or two without power when the lights and internet both came back on. We were grateful and spent the evening visiting with other family on Skye. Modern technology is so wonderful, it is so good to get to see and talk to family, we feel like we are still connected and part of your lives, what a blessing it is to live in this day and age!




Rain Sunday afternoon from our front door.

Monday we did normal Monday stuff, shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc. and then I made cookies for the fireside at  the Pavey's. (The cookies turned out really good, peanut butter and nutella, the recipe is from Six Sisters and I highly recommend it.) We also had a good old fashioned barbeque, we used President Atkinson's grill and we had burgers, fries, potato salad, baked beans, lemonade, and watermelon. It was almost like being home! It is such a blessing to have such great people to work and play with, we have really grown to love the Presidency of the temple and the Mission and the other missionaries and enjoy the time we spent together.

After we ate we loaded into several cars and went to the Pavey's, they have a beautiful home and a yard that anyone would envy! So many flowers and bushes were in bloom and it was such a beautiful evening as we sat on the back porch for Brother Pavey's presentation. We were just really getting going good when the wind came up and the lightning and thunder started and then the rain, as heavy or more so than the night before, we had several umbrellas and  by using the umbrellas and going a couple at a time we all got inside fairly dry along with the video equipment and computer and the cookies and cake. We were barely inside when the power went out. The Pavey's live in a gated community and our vehicles were inside the gate, no one knew of a way to open it without power so we were stuck and contemplating a sleep over! Instead we ate cookies while Brother Pavey finished the first part of the presentation using the laptop and then President Atkinson ordered a couple of taxis to meet us outside the gate (his wife had to get back to take her medication). A few of us left while the others waited for another cab and the lights finally came back on, allowing them to leave in President Madsen's car. The next morning Pres. Atkinson went back for his vehicle.
 We are hoping to get a copy of Brother Pavey's presentation on a thumb drive so we can show it when we get home, it is fascinating and he has put so much effort into organizing all the information. So much great information about the Book of Mormon and the lifestyle and history of the time Lehi's family left Jerusalem. All in all we had a great evening and a bit of an adventure, the Pavey's were wonderfully gracious hosts and it was great to get to know them and their daughter Angie and her little boy a little better.

This is our group in the front yard, notice the blue sky and sunshine, weather changes fast here.
Brother Pavey is directly behind me and his wife is in the orange dress.

Another great week in the temple, Saturday was our biggest day of the week, we were expecting 6 busses and ended up with 9, one group had reserved for 3 busses and showed up with 6. That made for a lot of people to try to get into our little temple, we had well over 300 people, generally each group gets to do at least two sessions, these groups got to do one and some of them had quite a wait, they were all so patient and kind, the shortest distance they traveled was six hours each way, some of them much farther to attend the temple. They will do it again in 2 months! Such faithfulness!!! During the day some 3100 ordinances were completed, 16 members received their own endowment for the first time and at least 4 families were sealed together for eternity. What a beautiful day!!!   

Ross had one experience that we want to share, he was the director of baptisms for the day, a group came in late, there were 3 women in their 30's,along with the youth, they were recent converts who had come for baptisms. While waiting for officiators to come Ross visited with them about the baptistery and the importance of the work, he then noticed an older man come in and as he went to visit with and welcome him, he was again explaining about the font and mentioned how beautiful it was, the brother (again a recent convert) said "oh I can't see, I am blind." Ross felt bad, not realizing his disability and apologized, then asked him how he felt to be able to be in the temple. He said it was wonderful and not to worry that he could see it all with his spiritual eyes. They helped him change and two young men helped him into the font, as he came out he was weeping tears of joy at being able to be in the temple. What a lesson for us to think about, being more attuned to seeing with our spiritual eyes. As we studied John chapter 9 in Sunday school today, this experience helped us both to understand it so much more clearly, this is about Jesus healing the blind man, as our spirit is awakened and we learn of Him and recognize Him as the 'light of the world' we too can say as the healed man "whereas I was blind, now I see." 

Happy birthday today to Beka, and later this week Happy birthday to Abby and Zoe, 2 of the 3 most beautiful 17 year olds we know! We hope you all have wonderful days and everyone treats you like the princesses you are.
We love you all so very, very  much and hope you have a great week.