It's been a whirlwind adventure since our mission farewell Sept 27th.  Our four Phoenix children and families came over after the 

Sacrament meeting for one last get to gather: 

Andrew, Rand, Julie, Kara, Leslie and Deirdre.

Joyce Broderick, Julie's Mom was also there with Leslie & Hugh.

Pretty hard to corral the grandkids for a picture

Some of the girls were cooperative: 

Susie, Sophie, Kirsten, Clara, Megan and Agnes

Oakely and Gavin

 Time to be silly

Wed. morning Sept 30th we packed up and our good friend Paula James 

got us to the airport for our 

1pm flight to SLC

We were picked up by my dear friend from jr high, 

Anne Bradshaw shown here with her husband Jim.

The next day Anne invited two other friends, Carolee Strong and Holly Staples

 to join us and we had a delight day

reminiscing old times.

Fri evening was the Ugandan Mission reunion at Pres. Jackson's.  We hadn't seen both the Wests since they lived below us in Jinja the first summer we were there.  They came over as

unofficial humanitarian volunteers 

Another first was seeing the Vans again.  They were so much fun in Jinja as we struggled over how to teach English in Njeru and Iganga

Fun to see a missionary that served in Jinja who is here in America studying

Sister Jackson was such a lovely hostess.  It rained so we all ended up in their lovely home.

Us outside with President Jackson after the rain

For the next two days we listened to LDS General Conference with my sister Jane and her husband Jan in Riverton, Utah

They hosted a good-by party with our relatives in Utah: my mother's siblings and some of the cousins.  Glen & Carol Howlett, Elaine Puckett, Jim and Lois Scott and Bryce & Sandy Howlett

To surprise us Leslie also joined us.  Didn't get a picture of Ashley & Paul 

or Cindy, Chuck and Angela

Jane drove us down to the MTC Monday morning the 5th of Oct.

 I wasn't suppose to take a picture in the missionary couples training room.  

They didn't tell us till after the first day.  

We sure appreciated their taking us in and the lovely 

time in their home to enjoy conference.

 So much enjoyed the couples we got to know in our little group.  

The Johnson's will be serving as full time missionaries in their 

own stake in Brigham City,  The Prince's will be PEF in S. America 

and the Rosses will be MLS in Florida.

Everyone takes a picture pointing to their state or country.

While taking our map picture three sisters arrived who are learning 

Romanian and will be serving with us in 5 weeks.

We had an evening free so met the Findlay's at the museum then for 

dinner at the BYU Creamery 

We're guessing who will be taller than their mother in 18 months. 

This is the picture we'll gauge by

Bought a half gallon of their delicious ice cream and had to 

eat it all that very night.

The four couples introduced before along with our morning trainer.

Same four with afternoon trainer, Bro Nelson who has the

same name as Elder Nelson.

Enjoyed an evening with Uncle Bryce at his Utah home along with his

Wife Sandy and Aunt Elaine who also lives in Springville.

Fun Dinner with another couple from Uganda that we hadn't

seen since they left Jinja summer of 2013, the Ballstaedts.  

The Bartons, a couple we met when they served in Mbale put the activity together

We've done a lot with them the last two years since our

first mission.  Such fun memories.

Brother Steve Brown was our chauffeur.  It has sure

been great to have family and friends willing to get us

around.  Not having a car is something we're not used to.