Spring Is Here!!

Hello to All,

Spring has arrived in St. George with all the beautiful trees starting to bloom and the weather turning to the perfect temperature - - -78 degrees, along with all the tourists, French, German, Danish, Korean and Chinese.  And then there are all the families escaping for Spring Break.  I told you in an earlier post that St. George is the center of the Universe.  We are seeing more guests each day at the Historical Sites and Visitor Center.  Today at the VC we had 3 buses - 2 French and 1 German. One French group took 12 Books of Mormon and the German bus took 3. 

We are very busy at the sites and need to eat our Wheaties each day to climb those "Steep Historical Steps" over and over again. On Saturday at Brigham Young's in a four hour period we gave 20 tours, so I climbed those steps 20 times.  You would think I would have buns of steel, but no that hasn't happened, but I can climb them without feeling like I'm sucking air from a plugged straw. This is one memory of our mission I won't forget soon.

Along with all the visitors and beautiful blossoms that have arrived, our allergies are in full bloom as well. Usually, Bruce is the one suffering, but something in St. George isn't agreeing with me. We are sneezing, wheezing and wiping runny noses all day long.  We are not the only ones, about every Sr. Couple is carrying around a box of Kleenex and complaining about the pollen.  I guess beautiful green trees, bushes, grass and flowers come with a price.----ALLERGIES  (yuck)

The past two weeks have had there ups and downs.  Our wonderful friends, The Watts, lost their daughter to a battle of melanoma on Wednesday, March 11th.  We were able to attend the funeral on Friday.  The service was beautiful and the flowers were unbelievable.  Andi had her own flower and event business and just had the artist touch for beautiful arrangements and her employees did not disappoint her with their works of art for the service.  Andi and Kati were the same age and born 1 month apart in Logan. When Kati was 8 weeks old and Andi 4 weeks old they both contracted pneumonia.  They were in the same hospital room under oxygen tents.  For 10 days, Marilyn and I watched these little girls struggle to take a breath.  I cannot imagine how hard it was for Marilyn and Dave to again, watch their baby girl struggle for life.  We love the Watts family and pray they will find peace and comfort knowing their girl is in the arms of Heavenly Father. How grateful I am for the Plan of Salvation, God's plan of happiness for each of us.

Well---Bruce couldn't wait any longer for a toy he has wanted since we arrived in St. George. This past p-day he finally went and bought an ATV or 4-wheeler or UTV or whatever they call them.  His friend Roger had just bought a new Kawasaki thingy and told Bruce about it so Bruce got busy and went and picked one out and brought it home.  He's very excited to start riding the trails and spends hours on the computer looking at Google Earth for his new playground.  We are taking it for its maiden voyage tomorrow morning and then taking the Clark's on our p-day this Wednesday for our first day trip.  We are probably crazy, but he's as happy as a kid in a candy store.  Now I really do need to go out and buy camouflage and then we can go to Duck Days and fit right in. (Duck Creek here we come)

I had the best surprise on Friday.  I received a text from two wonderful friends from Mesa.  Leila Scurr and Bonny Drain stopped by for a quick hike in Snow Canyon.  I love it when friends stop by and I get to hear all about what is happening back home while hiking in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.  Oh What a Beautiful Morning!!

On that note, we miss you all.  We think of you each day and pray all is well.  Remember - be safe.

Love,

Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister

PS Happy Birthday to our spunky, adorable Lilly who turned 8. 

Glorious

Dear Family and Friends,

This is very dangerous to write this tonight.  It is very late and I am very tired, however if I don't get this done another week may fly by and I run the risk of not remembering what happened yesterday, let alone 14 days ago.  But as my really close friends know, when I am tired I have a tendency of saying very inappropriate things. But here goes.  Close your eyes if you see anything sketchy.

This has been a crazy two weeks.  It started out with a snow storm on Monday, February the 23rd. Bruce got up and ready for his early morning meeting with Elder Cleverly and opened the door to the white stuff.  He called to me to come see and as soon as I saw it I threw some clothes on and grabbed my camera.  By the time I got out the door, Bruce was picking himself up off the pavement. He was moving very slowly and was soaked.  The snow was wet and slushy, the kind that makes it impossible to walk on.  Well long story short, he cracked a few ribs, plus was badly bruised.  Lots of pulled muscles as well.  After X-rays he's now on pain pills and not laughing, coughing or blowing his nose.  Hopefully this will be a better week for him.  The weird thing is, his counter-part, Elder Clark, fell about 1 month ago while hiking and broke 4 ribs, pulled muscles and hurt his hip.  I guess Bruce didn't want Elder Clark to feel lonely.  Elder Cleverly better be very careful with both of his Assistants on pain pills, who knows what they will do or say.

But my snow storm was glorious.  I drove to the Visitor Center and there encountered the Sisters who were in heaven.  Several of them had never seen snow before and couldn't believe their eyes. Sister Clark from South Africa ran out in her pj's and made snow angels.  She came to the center soaking wet, but didn't care.  I lined them up out in front of the Temple and took pictures. I had the Sisters who have never seen snow raise their hands.  I posted this pic on Instagramand they loved every minute.  I then drove to the Tabernacle to get some snowy pic's and there met a reporter for Fox news.  He interviewed me and said it would be on TV that day.  It aired at 12:00 pm, 4:00 pm, and 5:00 pm.  He said it would be on at 9:00 pm but all they showed at 9:00 was me taking pictures of the Tabernacle and not from my best side. (yes it was my behind)  My 3 minutes of fame not so famous.  But I did have a wonderful morning taking pictures of red rocks with white snow.  It was Glorious.  

 We took the Clarks' to Kanab to Julie Roger's art studio on Friday, February the 27th.  If you haven't seen any of her art work, I strongly suggest you go to her web page and take a look.  It is glorious.  It is very different for an artist who paints religious figures.  Her paintings are very impressionistic with bright colors.  I am totally in love.  I purchased two of her paintings and I could have purchased a lot more.  I just may have to buy a few more before I leave.  We had a wonderful day with Julie and her husband. She is a remarkable person who is so talented and so willing to share her talent with all.  Plus we loved being with the Clark's on this field trip.  I'm not sure if I have written and told everyone that Elder Clark was in the mission field with Bruce way back in the 60's. Who has served two missions with the same missionary?  Bruce and Ron, that's who.  "Small World!!"

Both Bruce and I had great missionary moments this week.  We are both working with people who are investigating the church.  Bruce received a referral and has been working to get the missionaries who live by him to visit.  I gave a tour to a gentleman by the name of Mark along with his two children.  I showed them "Gods Plan For His Family" and he wept through the whole thing.  He has been baptized but didn't realize what was still available for him.  He didn't realize he could have the Priesthood or go to the Temple.  I am in contact with him and arranging for the missionaries to re-establish contact to teach about the Priesthood and Temple ordinances, plus teach his 12 year old son.  He just kept saying, I want this, I want all of it.  So excited for him and his little family.  Glorious experience

And then there is P-Day.  After meeting my sister, Julie and her husband Ken for lunch on Thursday, we took off for Arches National Monument.  Very last minute, but what a day. On Friday morning we started out at Arches and hiked to Landscape Arch, then to Delicate Arch, and onto Double Window Arch.  There are over 2000 arches in this park and I want to see all of them. We then headed to Dead Horse Point.  This is the park with the big Horse Shoe bend in the Colorado River that has been in every National Geographic picture of the Grand Canyon.  It is simply Glorious.

Then Saturday, the sun came out and the snow melted and I looked out the window and what did I see, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"  Couldn't resist taking pictures of the beautiful blossoms that are appearing all around town, but these of the Temple are truly Glorious.  (shamelessly pitching David Archaletta's beautiful song)  

So this is the end of my Glorious two weeks. (except for Bruce's ribs)  My hope for all of you is that you have a Glorious day, week and month.

Sending Love to all,

Bruce and Dawna

Elder and Sister

PS Happy Birthday this week to our handsome, funny, strong grandson, Oliver.  We so miss our grand kids and want all of them to know how much we love them and pray they will be safe.