Unexpectedly it took TWO of our orange suitcases left over from our mission to carry all we need for this trip of 8 months. We were packing for spring, summer, fall and winter. For some reason I had thought we could make it with just one medium sized check through! Ha! We will have to buy a used suit case if we plan to bring anything home with us which we probably will.
In the morning we will wash our sheets and towels and a little laundry so things will be clean and fresh when we return on New Year's Eve. It seems so strange to be leaving our house when we still have pictures sitting standing on the floor in the hallway and closets filled with things that need to be sorted. But we are ready to go. We are excited to go!
These past two weeks have been FILLED to the brim! It seems an eternity since I last wrote. But the days filled up as we tried to finish the last minute organizing in our home, taking a trip to donate items to the Deseret Industries, eye appointments to make sure all is well with Steve's new 'scleral lenses', chiropractor appointments to help us both get tuned up before we leave, hair cuts, a visit from our granddaughter and family, meeting with Steve's sister and Darris Williams who is a Welsh research expert to strategize for our trip, attend our Mission Reunion, listen to a FANTASTIC General Conference, meet with Johnny and Betty Leota, meet the family of one of our Tahitian missionaries, attend the baptism of one of our grandsons and host a family dinner so we could see everyone before we left, spend quality time with family, not to mention packing and preparing our family history materials. Thankfully most of the material is on the computer because we did not have enough weight space to carry a lot of papers or books. And then I had to spend a few hours on the phone and at the pharmacy trying to arrange for our medications and eye drops so we would have enough for 8 months. It has been intense!!!!!!
Conference which amazing. I felt so fortified. Things have been so intense and complicated for so many weeks and I loved that I could hear the words of the prophet and other church leaders which filled and soothed my soul. I was left feeling grounded and that things will be OK. My testimony was strengthened and I feel such gratitude. If you missed conference go to this link and watch on your own schedule. https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng You can even click on the link in the upper right side to choose your preferred language.
I am so grateful that we have a living Prophet to guide us.
It was our great privilege to visit with Elder Johnny Leota and his sweet wife and her lovely cousin after conference. He was our Self-Reliance manager on our mission and he also serves as an Area Seventy in Australia so comes to conference to receive instruction for his calling. We love them and miss them. We miss so much about our mission. We got a happy update on the progress of some of the stakes we worked with while we were in Sydney. EnglishConnect 3 is being piloted in Hebersham Stake which will be such a blessing. It brought tears to my eyes to hear a lot of good news.
The mission reunion for the Australia Sydney North Mission was lovely. It was just good to see many of the missionaries we had come to know and love. Even though we still have a hard time remember all the names. We remember the missionaries but struggle as always with the names! But that does not mean we love them any less. Anyhow it was amazing to see some who had been home for some time come to the reunion with their spouses and some of them even expecting babies. The Checketts are an amazing couple. They worked so hard as Mission President and wife and barely have gotten back into the swing of normal life before being called to be the New Temple President and Matron of the Rexburg Idaho Temple. After our years of being ordinance workers in the Vancouver British Columbia temple we know that the Temple President and his wife work Very hard. But what a lovely place to serve!
Our grandson served a mission in Papeete Tahiti which he loved. Then while we were in Sydney on our mission we learned that one of the Tahitian missionaries serving in Sydney had a family that knew our grandson who served in their home ward. Since that family travelled to Utah for General Conference we had the chance to get everyone together. What a delightful family and we had a lovely time visiting. It is amazing to know that there are good people all over the world who have testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As I sat in the chapel on Sunday I felt so emotional realizing that next Sunday we will be in Pontypridd for our church meetings. I will miss getting to know the members of our Grove 4th Ward and I am sure there will be a large turnover of people by the time we return.
This morning [Wednesday] we attended the Mt. Timpanogas temple. It was my plan to participate in sealing ordinances for several of my ancestors. By sealing I mean that ordinances would be performed to allow these people to live together forever, not just 'til "death do them part". But as usual the temple was very busy so we only had the opportunity to help 4 of my ancestors couples. It truly is amazing to see the temple so busy. It made me miss the Sydney Temple as we were able to attend there almost every Friday evening and were able to perform ordinances for many of our ancestors. It was a treat to see the beautiful tulips and daffodils on the grounds and to smell the hyacinths. We will bring the names of those ancestors whom we did not have enough time to help with us when we visit the temples in London, Preston, Freiberg, Copenhagen and The Hague over the coming months.
Our daughter brought our grandson over today so we could see him since he missed our family gathering on Saturday. And she sent confirmation emails to the many places she has helped arrange for our time in Ireland. She has arranged so many adventures for us over the 12 day time frame we will be there in September!
It is surreal that we are actually taking this trip. We have checked in, and printed our boarding passes. Our suitcases are packed and weighed to within 1/2 pound again.
So our adventure begins!
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| Our son designing a frame to hold our cell phones so we can take pictures of documents! We hope the archives will let us use it. |
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| We loved this visit with the Leotas!!! |
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| Such a great reunion! We loved our missionaries and hope we will have many more such reunions in the future. |
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| The two missionaries! |
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| The missionaries and their families! |
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| Sorry for the tilted view. This was a resource we found in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for Galmorgan. The people were taxed according to how many hearths they had in their homes. Most only had one but some had over 16. We still have to figure out which hearths belonged to which families of our ancestors. |
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| After meeting with Darris we took a short walk through Temple Square. The flowers were lovely. As we walked up to the gates we came upon 2 men taking photos of each other. We asked if they would like to be in a photo together, which they did. So we spent a few moments chatting and discovered that they were from Nigeria and had come over for Conference. The one brother comes every other year so he can be together with other members and feel that special Spirit. He says he works hard and saves so he can do so. This was the first time for his friend to come. Amazing dedication! |
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| Our son-in-law gifted us a cool light fixture which has 5 separate lights. It was a LOT of work for him but we appreciate it! |
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| This was our bunch gathering after the baptism of our grandson. He is a HAM! But I was pleased to know that we could have 24 people in our house - and it did not feel too crowded |
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