Cousin Christmas X 2

Although we are in different states I think we are doing pretty similar things. It is crazy and noisy here but we are having fun(?), I'm not sure that is the right word. :) Disneyland was AWESOME yesterday. Tonight was the nativity story, the Night Before Christmas and matching pajamas. We tried to get all of the kids in one picture, but due to William's recent personality switch we couldn't manage it.

Cousin Christmastime Fun!

Ready for a ride on the Polar Express in their new pj's.

Ann & Scott and the five newest grandchildren, born between July & November.

Drew's Blessing

We wanted to let everyone know that we have chosen to bless Drew this Sunday in our ward. We meet @ 11:00 am and we will follow with a lunch at the Heber House. If you need directions give us a call!

The Newest McEuen

Russell Scott McEuen
11/25/2010
10:38am
7lbs 8oz
18.5 inches

Our little turkey was cooked and ready to come out of the oven Thanksgiving morning. Labor and delivery were practically perfect and so is he. We can hardly stop kissing his fat cheeks.

Our Last Update from the Missionaries

Probably the last update we'll be getting from our missionaries! We can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

---------------------

Dear Family and Friends,

It's coming! The Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd! We're excited, not so
excited, sad, happy, smiling, crying.......................this is
hard, easy, work, play, frustrating, rewarding I could go on and on.
The more things we've figured out the more we don't understand! But
"IT'S BEEN WONDERFUL".

Thanks to all of you who have called and written and blogged etc. It
probably seems like it has been a short time to those at home but your
notes and calls made our time here go by rapidly, especially when we
got discouraged. It helped to know there were people on our team
cheering us on.

We now understand why the elders and sisters use language about birth
and death when they talk to each other about where they have served,
and who they have served with, in the mission. Your first area is
where you are born and your trainer is called your father or mother.
Any other missionaries trained by the same trainer are your brothers
or sisters. At each zone or mission get together the first person most
missionaries look for is their parent and a lot of hugging ensues. The
area where you finish your mission is where you die. Well we don't
have a father or mother, since no one trains senior proselyting
missionaries but we were born and we will die in the Greenwood ward.
And they have definitely become our family!
With all the joy and pain that comes with being a family.

We have a great friend who has just found out he has liver cancer and
he only has 2 to 4 months left. He is a drummer in several different
kinds of bands and we became his groupies (sad looking groupies I
know) after we arrived here. He is a great guy, last week he took us
to dinner and in the conversation we were talking about his work as a
landscaper,(he'd been standing in a lake all day). He made us laugh
when he said he had somehow always known he was going to have to work
until the day he died and now he know that was going to be true! Great
Attitude.

We're looking forward also to attending the endowment and sealing of a
couple and their two 6 &7 year old daughters on the 4th of Dec. They
weren't active when we got here and we have made great friends with
the little girls (you know ruben). Last night we went over to their
new house (they did live on our street) to play Nephite fish and
Gadianton robber old maid. The two girls are so competitive it is a
fight but fun. We will be having Thanksgiving with this family.

I have wondered out loud (to those to whom I thought it might do the
most good) about the dearth of ward activities. Well we had an awesome
Halloween chili cook-off, carnival and trunk or treat! Then a Potluck
dinner two weeks later and the ward Christmas party which will be on
Dec. 4, two days before we leave. Now the parties are seeming to come
quick and fast and I ask someone how come so many parties all the
sudden. They just looked stricken and gave a funny laugh! Well now I
know why. Last Fri. evening the big potluck turned out to be a going
away party for us. BIG SURPRISE! We now have a beautiful scrapbook
with many pictures from the past year and every family and their
address. What a great gift AND
We have a new quilt with a block made by every family with their names
embroidered on them. We were kind of embarrassed, we love teaching
Gospel Principles and don't really mind giving talks when asked but
being made the center of attention is uncomfortable! WE also gave our
farewell talks last Sunday. It seemed a little early but this week is
stake conference and next week is a farewell for a full-time
missionary from the ward, the sunday before we leave on Mon. the 6th
is fast Sunday so it was last week or not at all. We've seen the ward
change while we've been here but we really couldn't tell you what has
changed, we have changed too, but I can't really figure out what has
changed about us. We do have a lot of new friends that is the biggest
change and we love them all, even though we are sometimes frustrated
with them.
'
No blog posts have been made in the last four months, at least not
from us so I'll list a few things that have happened and things we
have done.

Our area was white-washed in June and we got a pair of elders and a
pair of sisters. That didn't last long before they sent the sisters to
babysit another companionship where one of the sisters was hurt. Those
sisters never came back and so for the summer we worked with just the
one set of Elders. Three weeks ago at transfers we got a new set of
sisters and one new elder, but kept the district leader that we got in June.
So our district is back up to full speed. We had no baptisms from June until
last week, but with these new missionaries the work is really
progressing. They have another baptism this Sat. and about 8 lined up
for the next week! We're praying for them! ALL of the missionaries we
have worked with here have been great people, some of our new best
friends.

When a zone has 16 baptisms in a month we get a reward and that reward
is a trip to the temple and dinner at the Presidents home. In July our
Zone had 16 baptisms and so in Aug. we all met at the temple. There
were so many of us that we couldn't all fit in the small rooms of this
small temple so some of the elders did baptisms. It was a great day!
We have very little social life in this mission and so events like the
temple trip are highly valued.

We have had one zone activity while we've been here and it was the
week of Halloween. Our zone got together at a stake center and we
carved pumpkins and the elders all played basketball and then indoor
soccer. I always thought that missionaries got to recreate every p-day
but this is the first time we've known them to play at all. There is
very little down time in this mission, it takes almost all of p-day
(they plan and study until 11 am) to do their e-mail, and buy their
groceries. The four of them usually come to our place for a couple of
hours and write letters make cookies and play a game, "Apples to
Apples" until we all go back to work at 5:30 pm.

At 5:30 pm on p-day (monday here) the fun really begins for us. We go
to Single Adult family home evening! Most of my new best friends in
S.C. are between 60 and 85. We have dinner and a lesson every Mon. but
mostly we laugh and laugh. We are going to really miss this group.

The missionaries have spent many hours and driven many miles
delivering media requests. You know from the public service
announcements you see on TV and the mormonads. We know these contacts
can yield much fruit but, since our delivery sheet goes back to 2004
and is 77 pages long it has also yielded many laughs. I've told you
before about the dirt roads, high weeds and missing houses well we are
still delivering to such places, also quite a few dead people, even
one self proclaimed prophet. A fire breathing prophet who was just
about to raise Mary Magdalene from the grave. Elijah J. Brooks by
name, lovely van hand painted with scenes of the apocalypse and
himself breathing fire. Our green missionary from Pinedale WY almost
hurt himself laughing. A couple of weeks ago as we drove up to a huge
field of trailers one of the elders ask Ruben what he thought and he
replied "I'm wondering which of these abandoned trailers we're going
to deliver to". I have a theory that drunk red necks watching TV in
the middle of the night are the people who call in for free books and
DVDs. I can't even compare some of the places we've seen to anywhere
I've been before! Some places we can only tell are inhabited, because
their meters are running. We have now driven about 20,000miles mostly
inside our ward and tomorrow we're taking all four missionaries out to
do it again! One of the goals is to get to the state line with Georgia
and take their picture in two states, half in their own mission and
half in another. Forbidden fruit, indeed!

South Carolina has been beautiful since the end of Sept. Before that,
June July and August not so great. Enough about that. Right now the
trees are awesome and the weather is too.

At the end of Sept. we took 3 days and went to Highpoint N.C. to the
furniture market. I wanted a new dining room table and I had always
wanted to go to highpoint. We had a nice little trip and found just
what I wanted and still had a day left and so we went to Winston
Salem. They have an old town area that is preserved as a living
history museum sort of like Nauvoo. You know I love those kind of
things, so we spent the day there. I had heard the name Moravian
before but I didn't know who they were. Well now I do, they settled
Salem in the 1750's as a refuge from religious persecution in Germany.
I loved that day.

Luckily for me our bishops wife left town for two weeks and got sick
for two weeks and I got to teach early-morning seminary. There are
only two students, one girl who is a senior in HS and the young man
who is leaving on his mission in two weeks, who comes to seminary when
he gets off work at 7 am, after working all night. They are studying
the D&C and it has been fun getting to know them better.

The missionary going to Chicago is named DJ Harrison, his family
joined the church 18 years ago. When we arrived here his dad was in
the bishopric. His brother just signed to play basketball for the Y
next year. He was widely recruited at the schools around here and the
ward and his parents are relieved and excited that he chose the Y.
His name is Demarcus and the Harrisons are a great family. He is supposed
to be a great basketball player. We told his folks to let us know when
they are coming out to watch him play and we would drive up to the game.
It will be fun to know someone on the team.

Sorry this is so long, but it is mostly for me since I am a terrible
journal keeper! I have learned many new things serving a mission. The
most important is the Lord keeps His promises to his servants. Me, a
person who cannot remember the name of a person I have just been
introduced to, knows the name of every active person in the ward and
most of the inactive ones. THIS IS A MIRACLE! I've been blessed with
many opportunities to play the piano (poor listeners). The blessing is
that angels have assisted me every time, I really can't play as well
as I have been able to here. THIS IS A MIRACLE I have come to love an
amazing array of types of people, I'm able to just serve them and the
judgements disappear. THIS IS A MIRACLE. I could go on. Ruben has had
his own miracles he'll have to tell you about them.

Ruben has proof read this and passed off on it. We are under strict
instuctions from the PRESIDENT (a really nice, really tall man) not
to send any negative stuff home, especially on the internet. We go to
the President's home on the 27th to say goodbye and have dinner, that
will be fun.

I'm sure I've missed a lot but it would probably just bore you! We
love you and hope to see you all soon!

I really don't want to take off this tag, I'm afraid the miracles will
cease! love and hugs and kisses, THE MISSIONARIES

Family Fast

We wanted to let everybody know that Hallie goes in for surgery Monday morning. So we are planning a family fast for her this Sunday! Please keep Hallie, her family, and all the doctors in your thoughts and prayers!!! Good Luck this week Emily, we sure LOVE you guys!

This is going to be interesting...

this just in from honey & papa....

"in sept 2010 the c.r.i.t. (colorado river indian tribes) evicted bob
johnson and all related with the operation, including maintenance
workers. we are now under c.r.i.t. management. we have been contacted
and made aware of the take over. we have been instructed to send all
ownership, insurance, recent rent statements, documentation relating
to space #50. i have spoken with the c.r.i.t. office and informed them
of our current residency status and told them i will comply in jan
2011 when i have time to collect that information. they are looking
for management personal, office workers, and maintenance workers. need
not be native american! we will see how it works out before investing
big bucks for improvements.

honey and papa"

River House Improvement

Before

After

Before

After

I thought you would all be excited to see the NEW floor at the river house. Matt and the kids and his friend Bryan and his kids went down for Monday and Tuesday of this week with a couple of workers and redid it. They put new tile in the kitchen and hall and new linoleum in the bathrooms!!!

Halloween in Heber

Marci & Morgan's ward was so nice and let us all join them for a chili cook off.
Then the rain stopped just in time for trick or treating.
What a fun night. Happy Halloween!!!

Tori is in the Semifinals on Tuesday in SLC!

Tori's soccer team (Snow Canyon), made it to the semifinals in state for the first time this year! She will be playing this coming Tuesday (10/19) at 11am at Juan Diego High School. Please come cheer for Tori if you can!

Baby Drew

As most of you know by now, Marci had to have an emergency c-section in the middle of the night on Sunday (well, Monday morning to be precise). I'll let her tell the whole story when she's ready, but in a nutshell he was in distress and they had to take him immediately. By all accounts it was pretty traumatic, and not at all what you hope a birth to be like.

Bridget and I went to visit her yesterday and we got to see the baby before he was transported to the NICU at Utah Valley. He is a cute little thing, but it was heart wrenching to see him like that, and of course our heart went out to Marci who was not able to go with him to UVRMC and who is laid up at the hospital in Heber since she had a c-section.

I was able to take a few pictures with my cell phone of Drew and the crew that was getting ready to transport him. Morgan also texted me a photo of Drew after he was born (before they realized he was having serious problems breathing). I told them I'd post them so the family can feel more in touch with what is going on.

I can't wait to hold him once he's in the clear! It's hard going to the hospital and not being able to touch the new baby - I can only imagine how Marci must feel, but I will say she looked great for everything that had happened!

Mado's Baby Blessing

We will be blessing the last of the triplets this Sunday in Sandy, at 11:30! There will be a lunch afterwards at our place, let me know if you can come so we can have a count for food!!! Thank you, hope everyone can make it!

Parker's Baptism

Parker is going to be baptized this Saturday, September 11 at 4:00. The Stake Center is at 6601 W Twain Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89103

After the baptism we will have dinner at the Teeples. We would love it if you could make it.

Double Blessing

Isabel and Evelyn are both going to be blessed this Sunday, September 5th

in Heber in my parents ward at 9 am!

Lunch will follow. See you there!

Something for everyone

Mom, have you seen this on your mission? It's both a baby chair and a teething ring.

If you watch this and aren't deeply touched you might be a robot. It's the best video I think I've ever seen the church publish. I remember hearing this story on the news and feeling so deeply sorry for this man. He's amazing.

Fasting for Hallie

I just wrote a long update on my blog if you want to know exactly what is going on (not that I really know myself). She might not have moya moya, but something more rare and not easily treated. It feels like we are starting over from square one. She will start more testing next week on Tuesday and we'll go from there.

Instead of leaving ourselves open to the possibility that I could go into labor on Monday or Tuesday which given my luck lately would be exactly what happened, we are going to be induced tomorrow. At first I was a little devastated, this is NOT how I imagined any of this going down. Could there be a worse week in my life? And then to have a baby during it? I can hardly wait to meet this new baby, but to have all the rest of this weighing on my brain at the same time is just torture. I stay sane in my hope that at some point we will get some GOOD news. If things go well tomorrow, that would be a start in the right direction.

This Sunday is fast Sunday and I am asking anyone who is able, to fast on Hallie's behalf that the doctors can figure out what is going on as well as how to help her. I know there are precious few friends and family out there who aren't pregnant or nursing, but anyone who can, I would REALLY appreciate it! Love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAPA! WE LOVE YOU!

Letter from Mom & Ruben

Hi all you interested parties,

Missionary work has continued since our last official post at the end
of APRIL!!!!! I kept thinking it hadn't been that long since I sat
down to write, but sure enough it has been.
We have managed to stay pretty busy. We finished giving after baptism
lessons to all of the people we had on our recent convert list. At
least the ones we could find that haven't gone back to their old
churches or been antied. We have a couple of young families we are
trying to work with right now. They both have agreed to have us come
but they can't quite find the time to fit us in. I'm thinking of just
showing up about 7:30 in the evening with some dessert and trapping
them. The fathers in both families have been baptized in the the last
couple of years but never progressed in the priesthood and we really
NEED priesthood members under seventy-five in the Greenwood ward.

Elder Garnica is still the ward mission leader. I guess the stake
leaders told the new bishop to release him and get a ward member but
now they have backed off since they can't even find enough men to
staff the rest of the callings. I'm pretty happy about that 'cause we
teach the Gospel Principals class and I enjoy doing that a lot.

We are still driving back and forth to Greenville for all Zone get
togethers. It is fun seeing all of the Elders and learning about how
mission work is done. On Tues. we all got called to repentance in no
uncertain terms, actually in a very loud very stern voice by our
president, President McConkie. That was new and different. We are
not being obedient to our 30 min. lunch rule. During some of the
training I get bored because very little of it relates to what we do,
so I take my KINDLE (the most awesome invention of the 21st century).
I guess the President noticed me reading it and later challenged me,
asking "what were you reading in the last meeting?" boy oh boy was I
happy to report 'Temples, Where Heaven meets Earth' by Truman G.
Madsen". I dodged a bullet there, what if I had been reading one of my
extra curricular books! I would have been embarrassed!

You all know that Grandma and Grandpa Miller and Ann came to visit us
in May. We played hooky and went to Charleston for a day and a half.
What an interesting city with lots and lots of history. It was
founded before New Orleans, in 1670. So there is revolutionary war
history and of course the civil war started there. We toured the city
in a horse drawn bus, rode a boat out to tour Ft. Sumter and went and
toured a working plantation (sort of). We also ate in two great
restaurants, one famous for its fish and the other for barbeque.
What we do in the west is called grilling. Bar-b-que and grilling are
completely different cooking methods, I never knew!

Some other words and phrases I have learned, in the grocery store I
was directed to the buggies. Grocery carts to you! And one day I got
on an elevator at the hospital and one of the riders looked at me and
told me to "mash the button" blank stare from me until I finally came
to and realized mash and push mean the same thing. If someone tells
you to 'cut it off,' that means turn off something. And if they say
"Cut off the hose pipe" that means turn off the hose, not get a
hacksaw. And you didn't know I was learning a foreign language, did
you?

One Thursday I got a message from John Emmett. I thought that was a
little strange until I listened and found out he was only sixty miles
away in Augusta, Ga. We went down on Fri. morning to have breakfast
with him, and He treated us. Nice to have nephews with employment!
We are perfectly willing to drive out of our mission to see relatives,
come on down. We stayed in Augusta for a couple of hours to see the
town. This is the location of the Masters Golf tournament, but you
can't catch more than a glimpse of the golf course they play it on.
It is a very snooty place!

Now I am going to let you in on one of those super secret gospel
legends you have never heard of, and yet your very salvation MAY
depend upon knowing this. You have heard of the Olympic Organizing
Committee, the O.O.C., I know. But are you aware that there exists a
Celestial Kingdom Organizing Committee, the C.K.O.C., and it is not in
SLC as you might suspect it would be. Now I have your attention,
don't I? It has been organized right here in Greenwood S.C. Surprise!
There are five or six women here who can tell you exactly on which
level of the Celestial Kingdom you will be assigned, depending on
which transgressions of the culture of the church, you may have
committed. Culture and doctrine seem to be very mixed here and despite
my best efforts to teach the difference I'm not having much success.
Wearing pants to church (very low level), men wearing facial hair or
colored shirts to church (oh, oh) drinking caffinated beverages (my
particular downfall. I know I am going to have a lot of friends and
family on the level I have been assigned to). In fact the mission
president mentioned the "blue shirts of apostasy" just the other day!
In case you're wondering about your level, "its a secret". I only know
mine because one of the secret sisters was so shocked by my
transgression, she blurted out my level when she caught me red handed
filling my cup at the diet coke dispenser when out to dinner with the
single adult family home evening group. Right there in front of her,
I didn't even try to hide it! Really the members here are so great
and so generous with us. Sometimes I just have to laugh at some of
the stuff people believe about Mormons, even the members. No wonder
the non-members have some strange ideas. (I know, I know, the whole
family knows I'm probably not going to make it anywhere near the
Celestial Kingdom anyway! Boy do I have the C.K.O.C. fooled. I tried
to tell them I'm not nearly this nice in my real life, but they won't
believe me, and assigned me to a level I could never have made if they
knew the real me). One nice thing about leaving home, you can be
whoever you want to be, no baggage!

Last week-end I used some of my skills from my former life helping to
put on a wedding reception for an older couple. The groom is from
this ward and the bride used to be. He didn't realize until she moved
away how much he liked her. So now they are married and he moved to
where she lives. They came here the day after their wedding in the
N.C. temple. She had informed one of her friends here that they were
coming to visit and would like to have a reception. My friend, the
member they told is eighty and having health problems, so I told her
we could do it, I would help her and the Relief Society Pres. pitched
in too. It turned out well, about 30 people attended and the bride and
groom seemed to have a good time. (another tip from the field, if
someone plans and puts on a free reception for you it will be
appreciated if you say thank-you and help clean up.) Poor Elder
Garnica, he was the only husband of the three women so he did all the
tables and chairs.(while the groom moved from chair to chair trying to
stay out of Rubens way) He wishes I would quit volunteering! Anyway,
now I am famous for cheesecake, it was totally worth it.

Last week our district got whitewashed! (all of the elders got
transffered out at the same time, FYI) One of them was quite
disobedient, and our district leader couldn't seem to motivate him to
improve so they all left. We really liked them all and will miss
them. We are sort of tickled because the naughty one is now in the
mission office with the President! The elder is a great gospel
teacher but couldn't find the energy to keep the rules about working
and being on time etc. I'll bet that gets fixed!

Now we have two new sets of missionaries. One companionship are
sisters! The ward is very excited about that, they still talk about
the last set of sisters who served here and that was 5 years ago!
Sister Tiechert is from Mackey ID. and Sister Jepson (she's green) is
from San Jose, CA. Yes! Sister Tiechert's great-grandmother is the
artist who did so much of the church art that we use in our buildings.
Elder Garbrick from Roseville CA is our new district leader and his
green companion is Elder Nelson from Pinedale WY. ( Sister Tiechert
and Elder Nelson both grew up on cattle ranches!) Our last bunch of
missionaries were all kind of quiet and not to outgoing. That is not
going to be a problem with this bunch! I expect baptisms will pickup.
(Elder Garnicas ears were tired after driving Elder Garbrick and
Sister Tiechert home in the truck from Greenville) These two
missionaries are already having quite the competition.

As you can tell, we are having our share of challenges and more than
our share of blessings. We love being here, we love serving the Lord
(although we know we are unprofitable) we love each other and we love
and miss all of you!

By the way! The letter writing contest was great! We received lots of
letters and I got lots of birthday cards! BUT, two of my
grandchildren didn't write, honey and papa are sad about that. They
can redeem themselves in July, the 22nd is Papas birthday and it is
awesome to get cards and letters. So ALLIE AND GARRETT
REPENT!!!!!!!!!!

Contest Winners

Tori grand prize over 15, Cami grand prize over 12, Kate grand prize
over 10 all received $15 gift cards to Coldstone
Parker grand prize over 7 plus prize for first letter received
$15 gift card to Coldstone
plus $5
Andrew, Margaret, Paige and Anna grand prize winners
all received TOY STORY coloring sets


Love to all of you, THE GOSPEL IS TRUE
HONEY AND PAPA, KATHY AND RUBEN, ELDER AND SISTER GARNICA


PS new names, just in time - LOCDOGG, CHARCIE, DAYLIAHA, ZAVIES

Birthday Video for Honey

I did a little birthday Q&A about Honey and Papa with Maggie, Paige and Anna while we were in California. Some of the answers are hilarious, some are very sweet, and some make no sense whatsoever.

Carol Ann

ruben's mom passed friday evening. she had been battling cancer,
losing weight and growing
weaker. i am enclosing the following addresses.
thank you, honey and papa

ruben and aga garnica
1235 appleton st.
long beach, ca. 90802
310 291 4805

lyle and marlena shore
23738 pennsylvania ave.
torrance,ca. 90501
lyle's cell 310 480 4025

renee and al priester
1658 palomar drive
san marcos,ca 92069 760 215 9027

Showing signs of her age...

here is the lastest from the deep south. yesterday your mom fell while walking up to an appointment. she has a scraped knee. twisted ankle, sore wrists. and numerous aches and pains.

please post.

rub aka elder garnica

Letter Writing Contest

ATTENTION ALL GRANDKIDS (MOTHERS PLEASE READ TO YOUR CHILDREN):

HONEY IS STARTING A LETTER WRITING CONTEST. THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

AGES 5 AND UNDER CAN SEND HAND DRAWN PICTURES, CRAYON, COLORED PENCIL,
ECT, MOTHERS CAN HELP WITH LETTERING, NAMES AND SUCH.

AGES 5 AND OVER MUST HAND WRITE THE LETTERS.

HONEY WILL BE THE SOLE JUDGE AND HER DECISION IS FINAL.

PRIZE OR PRIZES WILL REMAIN A SURPRISE, AND WILL BE AGE APPROPRIATE.

CONTEST WILL START JUNE 8th, HONEY'S BIG 60 BIRTHDAY.

GET READY AND START WRITING, GOOD DRAWING AND WRITING TO ALL.

SEND TO: HONEY GARNICA 139 RHETT COURT, GREENWOOD, SOUTH CAROLINA 29649

Spring in Heber

Grandma's tulips are blooming...

and the house gets some TLC from Jason.

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Hope you had a happy birthday Morgan. We sure enjoyed the chicken parmesan dinner Marci & Beth made.

Witches of Oz

Just a reminder to those who can make it...

You are cordially invited to
UP WITH KIDS! production of

The Wonderful WITCHES of Oz!
starring...

Nicholas McEuen

as the Scarecrow

Saturday, May 8th, 10:00 a.m.
Bonneville Junior High School

5330 S. Gurene Drive (1660 E), Holladay
(from 1300 East, go East on Spring Lane which is about 4900-5000 S, then go south on Gurene Drive)

Admission Free
with your generous canned food donation for the Utah Food Bank!

Most Recent Letter from Honey & Papa

Family and friends everywhere,

We're continuing to find plenty to keep up busy here in South
Carolina. Plenty of inactive and recent members we are trying to
teach and run down, plenty of great missionaries to work with and
plenty of nice active members to associate with.
We just returned from senior single adult home evening which we attend
almost every Monday evening. They are a fun bunch. Sometimes we get
to laughing and stay a couple of hours. Three of the women, two 80
and one 77 are having love life trouble, who knew the challenges of
senior citizens, I never imagined. The seniors fix dinner every week
except the first of the month when they go out. There are several
regular brothers and sisters who attend and they have a short lesson.
They say they need me to play the opening and closing songs and
tonight I was ask to give a lesson on what we learned at our meeting
last Sat. morning with Elder Neil Andersen of the quorum of the
twelve. He and Elder Gonzalez of the presidency of the Seventy met
with us. I don't remember ever meeting a general authority before,
they talked to us about death, sort of a strange subject for 19 and 20
yr olds. It came up because one of the elders little brother had
passed away that morning and Sat. was also the funeral of Elder
Bangerter a former 70 who's grandson is serving in our mission. With
driving to Columbia for the meeting that took up most of the day.
Today Ruben and I did our laundry and then I suggested we drive around
and take pictures of the car washes here in Greenwood. There are two
full service ones but the others just make me laugh. Honestly there
must be 10 bucket and hose car washes, and they are usually busy. Guys
sitting around on folding chairs next to a bucket with a hose near by,
waiting for customers.
Two Sundays ago we got a new bishopric in our ward. This was very
exciting because the former Bishop had served for over 7 years. Every
organization except the R.S. is also being reorganized and Elder
Garnica is officially now the Ward Mission Leader by assignment. The
new bishop is a convert, not originally from this area. He is the CF
O of a hospital near here. But both of his counselors are local men
and one was the former Ward mission leader, so we're hoping when
things calm down to have a little more help from the leadership of the
ward.
Tornado season is gearing up. There are tall towers all over the area
with sirens that go off. We have discovered that the safest place in
our apt. is our master closet. Luckily is is pretty big if we have to
spend much time in there. There was a tornado watch Fri. night in a
small town 15 miles from here and one of our senior sisters lives
there. I ask her tonight if she slept in her bathtub again like
during the last tornado. She said no, but that when the siren went
off it scared her and she jumped out of bed, got tangled in her sheets
and fell on her face. She told her son he doesn't need to worry about
the tornado getting her because she is going to kill herself first.
Last weekend we attended a community concert in the park evening. One
of the men in our ward plays in a local band and we went to support
him. The band was great. Then a couple of nights later Ruben wanted
to go to the local cruise night. It was interesting, there were some
nice cars but the entertainment was the best. An Elvis impersonator
and belly-dancers. It was a first for us. We've been to a lot of car
shows but never with entertainment like this. The impersonator is a
14 yr. old and his parents and grandparents etc. were all there and so
very proud. Sometimes all I can do is shake my head! Really who
wants their son to go around pretending to be the old fat elvis?
Scott continues to be our best in-law, no one else communicates much
with us. All letters cards and pictures are hanging on our walls.
All pictures from junior members of the family and some from little
children in our ward are hanging on our walls. Please send more
decorations!
We love you all, honey and papa

P.S. Update on mceuen name suggestion list. This one just in today
from one of the elders in our district. (we were playing games today,
p-day)
ready for it?

AMBROSIAN I think this one has possibilities, how 'bout TRIFLE, CHEESECAKE ETC.
just use your imagination!

BYU Graduation

Thanks to our family who came from far away to be there and to share this special day with Kurt! After the ceremony we went up to Heber and had a yummy lunch, thanks to everyone who helped with that & for all of you who came too! We had a great day, we were thankful we went the day before to do most our pictures around campus because it was raining and cold after graduation! It was a long, but fun & perfect day!!! We are so proud of you Kurt, way to go!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!