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.
