Grand kids are the Best

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you will forgive me this week for focusing on our wonderful weekend with our kids, grand kid's, nephew and his darling family.  Don't get me wrong, we still conducted tours, attended all the functions at the Tabernacle and worked on lots of projects for the VC, but we were given permission by President Center and Elder Watkins to attend our grandson, Max's, baptism.  We worked our shift Friday morning at BY's home then drove to Las Vegas and caught a flight and flew home to Mesa.  We got their around 8:00 pm and went directly to the salon.  My hair was long enough for braids, not a pretty sight.  Kristi & Caleb flew in and joined us around 8:30 pm.  We ordered take out from one of our favorite restaurants, Oregano's, and enjoyed catching up with all the kids.  Everyone was jamming at Epic.  Saturday, we were able to attend the baptism, then join family and friends for a luncheon at Jodi and Eldon's.  Now there is nothing better than watching your grand children grow into great kids and we are so proud of Max.  He has memorized all the Articles of Faith, but he knows them so well that you can ask him to repeat any article in any order.  He is now working on the Family Proclamation along with reading the Book of Mormon.  For dinner, we went to our other favorite restaurant, Tia Rosa's.  My nephew Brett and his family joined us and I have a darling new grand daughter, Kylie Warnick.  She kept calling me grandma Dawna--I'll take grand kids any way I can get them.  But the icing on this cake was, Jodi and Eldon's announcement that we will be having #11 grand baby in July.  (Sorry Jodi if I've outed you)  Everyone cried----just saying---great day!  Then we jumped in the truck early Sunday morning and drove back to St. George for our 4:00 pm shift at the VC.  Such a whirlwind trip, but so worth complete exhaustion.

  

 We had a HI-BYE party this week.  We welcome Elder and Sister Durrant and Elder and Sister Clinger to St. George.  What a great group of people we have to work with.  What could be better than good food, good friends, and fun games.  As you can see, we had the "Best Thanksgiving Apparel" contest.  I'm sure all of you would vote for Bruce and me, even if your vote is just for Bruce putting the hat on.  Now all of these great people get to start the daunting task of decorating all the sites.

We start Monday morning and decorate a site each day until all four are done, as well as our shifts at the sites. Our shift at Jacobs last Tuesday was very slow, so I just started decorating and got it started.  When the Ercanbrack's came for the afternoon shift they put the trees up and decorated them so it's almost done.  Just a few garlands, bows and bells and its done. " And then there were three"!  I have spent the last month going through, throwing out, redoing and dreaming Christmas decorations for historical sites.  I will be very happy when this project is done.  I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to be sad because I wouldn't have any Christmas decorations to put up this year, wow, that's karma for ya.  But everyone is very willing to help, so it should go fast, if I'm organized.  HOPE SO!

Need to end this story.  We have leadership meeting at 7:30 am.  Where are the days when I could stay up all night and then work all day and not feel like my limbs are made of lead.

We send love to all, and wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  We have so much to be grateful for and we want you to know we are grateful for each of you.

Love,

Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister  

PS  Sister Watkins and I worked Monday afternoon going through some old decorations and came upon these beauties.  Stars made out of hangers and covered in pantie hose.  They made great earrings.  

JINXED

Dear Family and Friends,

Never again will I suggest we had a quiet week.  It has been non stop for the past 7 days. Yesterday we were up at 6:00 am left the condo at 7:00 am walked back in the condo at 7:00 pm and then had several collateral duties to take care of.  Went to bed at 11:00 and I don't remember closing my eyes.  I really think I jinxed our slower winter schedule.  But what a week!  

We had a new Sr. Missionary couple arrive and it just happens to be Susan Easton Black and George Durrant, who are now married to each other.  Along with their shifts at the sites, one of their collateral duties is a lecture series at the Tabernacle.  They will be presenting every Sat for the next 3 months.  The first month is about Joseph Smith, the 2nd is about Christ, the 3rd will be about Brigham Young.  The Sr. couples had a training meeting with them last Thursday and they did a run through of their 1st lecture, and it is going to be amazing.  We attended last Saturday with 560 other interested locals and visitors.  Our Director, Elder Watkins, is now making arrangements for a larger venue.  We are pretty certain that we will be well over 700-800 people in attendance by the time this is over.  Yea for us, I thought I had read and studied everything Brigham, and I can tell you, I don't know 100th of the information that is in Sister Durrant's little pinky. Pretty sure she has a photographic memory.  What a wonderful gift that she is willing to share with anyone who cares to come and enjoy.  Elder Durrant is a kick.  His quick humor and wonderful stories are fun to hear. We are truly blessed to be serving with them.

We had transfers on Saturday and our transfer meeting on Tuesday.  I can't believe it's so hard saying goodbye to these Sisters.  Those who are from a different country, we will probably never see again.  Sister Calves was returning home to France.  We love these wonderful girls and their shining examples.  We also had to say goodbye to another Sr. Couple.  The Collins were released and headed back to SLC.  They have a home here so we hope to see them often.    

Yup, as you can see by the picture its that time of year.  We are in the middle of putting up Christmas lights at the Temple, Tabernacle, and decorating all the sights.  I think I mentioned, that one of my collateral duties is to decorate all the sites.  I have been going through all the old decorations, throwing out, and creating new.  Bruce tells me I got this assignment because I have plagued him our entire life with putting up 9 Christmas Trees at our home.  But I don't think anything can prepare you for this assignment.  There will be 7 trees at the VC, 2 trees at BY's, 4 trees at the Tabernacle and 2 Trees and Jacobs'.  Then there are all the garlands, wreathes, bows etc., etc.  I get exhausted just trying to organize the Sr. Missionaries for their assignments at each site.  I'll send pictures.  (If it turns out cute.  If its ugly you won't see a thing)

We had a great surprise by Marlin Snider (our son-in-law, Eldon's father) stopping by and having lunch with us.  It was wonderful to be brought up to speed with all the Snider news.  Thanks Marlin.  We love visitors and hope to continue to see those of you who pass through St. George.

 We had the wonderful opportunity of attending the sealing of my Nephew and his cute wife, Jake and Tiffany Cook.  They met in St. George and decided they wanted to be sealed in this Temple. Good for us, we were able to visit with family.  We had pizza, pizza and more pizza.  They had a pizza party and ordered a few too many, but lucky for us, I didn't have to cook.  YEA for me!!!

We continue to try and enjoy the great out-doors of this beautiful part of the State of UT.  This week as you can see, we took a different mode of transportation.  Yes we are on a motorcycle, however, my mamma didn't raise no dummy.  The motorcycle isn't running.  I tried to do a "Hang Loose" hand sign and ended up doing "Go Toros."  (I am a fan, buttttt...)  Its a good thing I don't belong to a gang, I would get myself killed doing the wrong gang signs.  But don't you think I make a great "Biker mamma missionary?"  Can't you just picture us out knocking on doors on one of these bad boys?  We could appeal to a whole new group of people who might be interested in the discussions if we showed up on this.  (Just kidding)

We cannot wait to see the grand kids this weekend.  We will leave Fri, after our shift and drive to Las Vegas to catch a flight to Phx.  We will attend Max's baptism on Saturday, then head back to St. George.  I can't wait for hugs and kisses from all the kids.  I really can't believe its been over 4 months since we have seen them.  I could hardly go a month without heading to CA to see those boys, then hurry home to see our AZ kiddies.  They are such a joy for us and truly enrich our lives.

Need to bring this epistle to a close.  We have a program at the Tabernacle tonight so need to get on our way.  Things are going great.  We are busy sharing the gospel with anyone who is willing to hear.  We pray we have planted a few seeds that will bloom.

We send love to all, please be safe.

Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister 

Quiet Week

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week has been more quiet than any in the past 4 months. We didn't have any training meetings, Senior parties or Firesides.  Not quite sure how to handle all our free time.  HA HA HA

Both of us had great tours this week.  Bruce gave all the discussions to a couple from New Mexico.  He spent 1 1/2 hrs with them (which is a no no) because they had so many questions and were so interested in the church.  They asked all the right stuff and Bruce gave him his email address and they promised to read the B of M then contact him with any questions.  When they finished they both told Bruce that "this was one of the most interesting afternoon's they had ever had."  They both gave him a hug, then came down and gave me a hug.  We never know how these encounters will end up, but it is so fun when you talk to someone and you can actually see the light go on.  Our goal is to plant lots of seeds and to show others that we are not a weird cult who practices voodoo.

Our directors, the Watkins had a family emergency they had to attend too, which took them back to San Diego for most of last week so we were on our own.  What do Sr. Missionaries do when the boss is away?  Sleep in!  We are so boring.  We were still busy at the sites and gave lots of tours, but no extracurricular activities, besides the regular programs at the Tabernacle.  Last Wednesday we showed the original Phantom of the Opera which is a silent movie and then had one of our regular performers at the Tabernacle play the original score from the movie on the organ.  We had 219 people attend and they gave him a standing ovation at the end.  It was pretty cool.  He wore a cape and we put a green light on him, so kind of creepy.

The Sr. Missionaries made goody boxes for the Sister's at the VC.  We delivered them early Halloween morning and they were so excited.  They were pretty cute, if I don't say so myself, and we had some fun things for them.  It was great to see how happy they were.  We closed the VC early on Halloween so they didn't have to be out on the street with all the crazies.  We try to be so careful about the safety of these sweet girls.  I'm so grateful we are just support staff and not in charge.  I'm not sure I would ever get any sleep worrying about all the Sister's.

Bruce and I spent Halloween night with Dave and Marilyn Watts at Tuachan.  The Odyssey Dance Company performed Thriller.  We are not sure if we liked it or not.  Half of the performance was fun and great, but the other half was very dark.  One of the numbers they performed was "I saw Mommy Killing Santa Clause."  Need I say more. The dancers were dressed like Zombies and roamed through the audience throughout the performance.  But it is always fun to be with good friends.  

   

Then Saturday night we had tickets to a performance by Jim Whitter at the Cox theater at DSU.  He performed all the music of Simon and Garfunkel.  It was fantastic and I was in heaven.  I love Simon and Garfunkel and it was so fun to hear all the music.  It brings back such fun memories of the sixties (yes I can still remember that far back).

Our outdoor activity was a hike on the Chuckwalla trail.  For those of you who don't know what a Chuckwalla is, it is a cousin to the Gila Monster.  It was a beautiful day and the hike was ok.  Not my favorite, but just being outside and enjoying the scenery is wonderful.  Look for the rock climber on the cliff.  Hope you can see him on the picture.  I have a bucket list of hikes to do before we return home and I need to get my b__t in gear to do them all.  So much fun.

Well its time to get to another couple of assignments that I need to finish before our P-day is through.  We love and miss everyone and pray all is well.  Til next week.

Love, Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister

PS Happy Birthday to the best little Hockey player, soccer player and baseball player, Max.  We can't wait to see you and attend your Baptism.  Love ya buddy.