I wasn't going to post again until we were in Africa, but we are still here in Utah. We're starting our 8th week as full-time missionaries. Still no word on our visas. Should we shoot for St. Patrick's day? We continue to study "Preach my Gospel" and go to the temple as much as we can. Bruce and I had the privilege of sealing my 21st great-grandparents from England, a lord and lady, born in the 1130s. Well, I guess 5 months isn't so long if they had to wait until 2023 for their temple work to be completed!
We received our church computers and camera for our missionary job and historical record. The I.T. guys had a bit of trouble setting up Bruce's new computer. Somehow, three different alias for Bruce's administration log-ins were made. They called in all the "big shots" in the I.T. dept. at the church office building to straighten it out. I think someone else was making sure things worked out (see photo below...)
We met Kaitlin Greenwood, our administrator for Special Projects. We found the department to pick up our cameras and laptops in Salt Lake.
We also received our official visitor temple trailer sign:
Sunday it snowed 20 inches (yes, we measured) in Mendon, Utah. The temperatures really dropped to below zero. We really want to be in Africa to enjoy that sunshine! Ian, our son, went around and dug everyone out and cleared all the neighborhood driveways with the skidsteer. He spent about 5 hours; our church was even canceled, which is rare in Cache Valley, Utah. 
Thank goodness we have this little helper or we would've been snowed in! Thanks, Rocky!
Rocky and Rigby Anderson, grandma is practicing her photo shoots on unsuspecting subjects!
We love having Ian and Rachel and their boys with us. They are "putting" up with us for an extra month. Our home is so organized due to them and Ian is a great "I.T." guy! Rachel is the best mom and it's fun to wake up to the chatter of little boys. Every morning I get a little knock on my bedroom door; I open the door to find Rocky waiting with a handful of books for grandma to read him a story. How my heart melts!
Saturday, January 28th, our cute little Max, Hunter and Katie's son, turned 3 years old. Unfortunately, he was sick and this grandma came down with a bad sinus cold, so no party. We really love all our grandchildren and are grateful for this extra time with them!
With the extra unplanned time here, Bruce and I have spent the last month going through boxes of old photos of the kids. We have organized them for each child. I got a little behind at scrapbooking the kids' photo books once our third, fourth, and fifth child came along. There was a period of about 8-10 years when I took lots of pictures but didn't have time to make books. It's been fun going through hundreds of photos and organizing them into years and piles. It's brought back great memories and reminded us how much fun we had watching our children grow up. Then we spent 4 hours scanning all the photos at the family history library on their photo scanning machines. It's super slick, and now we have computer files of thousands of scanned photos! It will make organizing and making photo books super easy now. I recommend it to anyone; plus it's free! I've turned the photos over to my children and my dear daughters-in-law to do the rest!
"Musare zvankanaka" or goodbye in Shona until we are in Africa, hopefully!
Bruce and I went and met the temple construction missionaries at the Syracuse, Utah temple last week. It's really nice there are so many new temples going up in our close proximity. Brian and Sandy Everett were so helpful to show us their trailer and tips and tricks for the job. Elder Everett is a retired temple architect, who really knew the process. It was fun to get more ideas to use in Africa.
Syracuse, Utah Temple under construction
I also spent over an hour video chatting with Sister Colleen Stratton, a temple construction missionary serving in the Ivory Coast. She is doing both the Ivory Coast temple and one in the Philippines. She coached me on how to make files and play catch up on the construction progress for the historical record. Since the Zimbabwe temple was started in April 2021; I'll have some catch-up to do with the history and construction progress. We are able to get on the contractor files now and see hundreds of photos they've filed since 2000 on the beginnings of the construction. It looks like the Zimbabwe temple and complex is about 1/3 completed already. There is also a stake center and patron/missionary housing on the site we will be helping with. Thank you so much Sister Stratton for your kindness and help in figuring out my calling.
Zimbabwe Temple Progress as of December 2022
We skied Beaver Mtn. 2 weeks ago, with our mission president's approval, by the way. The slopes were great and we got in 16 runs that day. The snow was awesome! I'm sure we were the only skiing missionaries on the planet.
We try to find service and also fun every week. We were able to help teach some beginners the basics of skiing up at Cherry Creek resort for a few hours. Then we skied a few runs but the visibility was so poor we left early before we injured ourselves! Thanks to Dale Hansen for inviting us to help and get another ski day in.
On Feb. 1st, my daughter, Elise turned "26" years old. Yes, my baby girl is a mature, beautiful, grown-up mother of her own. I'm so proud of her! She continues to bring us joy and happiness. She is so organized and disciplined with Aria's diabetes and scheduling everything to keep her blood sugar in check. What a blessing Aria has in a mother like Elise! Nick is also such an amazing husband and father. I'm so grateful for all my children. It's so rewarding to watch them all be such amazing parents.
With the extra unplanned time here, Bruce and I have spent the last month going through boxes of old photos of the kids. We have organized them for each child. I got a little behind at scrapbooking the kids' photo books once our third, fourth, and fifth child came along. There was a period of about 8-10 years when I took lots of pictures but didn't have time to make books. It's been fun going through hundreds of photos and organizing them into years and piles. It's brought back great memories and reminded us how much fun we had watching our children grow up. Then we spent 4 hours scanning all the photos at the family history library on their photo scanning machines. It's super slick, and now we have computer files of thousands of scanned photos! It will make organizing and making photo books super easy now. I recommend it to anyone; plus it's free! I've turned the photos over to my children and my dear daughters-in-law to do the rest!
