Jan 1 to Jan 17

The first half of the month was a fairly busy one filled with lots of activity outside of our office duties.

President and Sister Johnson came to our District Meeting.  This was the time for individual interviews with the President.  

Elder Clarke, Sister Clarke, Elders Richens, Holley, Hunter, Walker, Ibarra, Chaifin, President Johnson and Sister Johnson.  This was our last meeting with Elders Richens and Holley who were transferred to another area and Elder Hunter who was waiting for his Visa to come through.

We meet at the same time in the same building with another District and so between interviews Sister Caanan and I prepared lunch for all the missionaries and the Johnsons.  They always appreciate being fed.

Elder Clarke took Elder Hunter and Hatch to the airport a few days later,  Their Visas came through and they are now in their originally assigned area, which is Argentina.

The next day we took Sister Mackelprang to the airport to return to Enoch Utah, her hometown.

Elder Clarke accompanied Elders Halls and Ibarra on a teaching assignment.  They live near the incline up on Mt. Washington and so when he picked them up, he did a selfie with downtown Pittsburgh in the background.

Just thought I would throw in a picture of what I work on occasionally.  I am doing a wooden spool quilt.  All I need to do is add the borders and it will be ready to quilt on my new machine that is waiting for me back home.

Friday night game night with the Young Single Adult Ward.  I was teaching them to play Mexican Train.

You can't really tell how big this pizza is by this picture but just think about the fact that that is a 2 liter bottle sitting there.  Could not believe how big it was.

The kids had fun trying to figure out how to do this trick.  They were ready to pull out the chairs before they were in the right position.  I was sure they were going to end up on the floor.

After we finished our game of Mexican Train, the kids decided to use the dominoes in another way.

On Sunday we had a Linger Longer.  Theme for the lunch? Favorite cereals.  It was a really big hit.

Enjoying all that sugary cereal.  At least they added some fruit to make it a little healthy.

On January 16th we had 15 new missionaries arrive and 1 returning Elder who had gone home to have knee surgery.  So glad he was able to return .

We did training for the newbies the next day.  When missionaries gather you always have to have lunch for them.

On Saturday the 23rd we attended two baptisms.  The first was for Jackson, on the right, who is amazing.  He just walked in to church several months ago and has been meeting with the missionaries ever since.  He has taken his time to get to this point but what an amazing testimony he has.  His baptism has to be the most spiritual I have ever attended.  I am sure that Andre playing his violin contributed greatly to that spirit.  James , on the left, baptized Jackson.                                         

After Jackson's baptism we went to a Peruvian restaurant with the Bushmans for dinner.  Brother Bushman had forgotten his glasses and so he borrowed his wifes.  You can't see it that well but they are chartreuse on the front and white with pink polka dots on the sides.  Quite styling.

After dinner we headed back to the church for another baptism.  We are teaching English to a Mexican family and their daughter was being baptized.  The room was full of Ward members and friends.  There was a small contingency of English only people there so Elder Ibarra translated for the speakers.  I was so impressed that they had several children give the talks and Joanna's brother and sister gave the prayers.  The family served dinner after but we were so full we just headed home.

I mentioned we are teaching the Reyes family English.  We have gone for a couple of weeks now to their home.  We are trying to do 2 nights a week.  As they have been doing this they have mentioned it to others and it sounds like we may have a few more joining us.  Next week we will start teaching Monday and Friday nights at the church where we hope to pick up a few more participants.  The program we are using is called Daily Dose and is one the Church recommends. It is an interesting way of teaching but we have been having fun with it.  It is a good thing that the Elders start out with us each time though because the Reyes' speak un pocito English and we speak even less Spanish.  The interesting thing is that Bro. Reyes works in a restaurant around the corner from his home where no one speaks Spanish.  We asked if his children speak both English and Spanish.  The answer is yes but the children will tell you they do not like to speak Spanish.

As we get more and more involved with things outside of the office we are enjoying our time here more and more.  This next week will be a very busy one as we travel to 3 Zone Conferences.  I am doing the food at all 3 and so it should be an interesting time.  I will be sure to post lots of pictures next week.