God Bless Friends

 We have had the opportunity to catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a long time. We enjoyed an afternoon with the Turners who just returned from their mission to Boston. They served as records preservation missionaries, which means taking images of genealogical records. Although it isn't an exciting assignment, I really could see us doing that someday. I love family history!


How I love Mike and DeeAnne Brown! They were friends of my parents before I was even born. They were in the San Diego 12th Ward many eons ago when my mom was still a new convert. Soon they were fast and forever friends. DeeAnne was my temple escort in Provo when I received my endowment in 1989. What wonderful saints! 

I didn't grab a photo of meeting up with Becky when we stopped by for dinner in Saratoga Springs. This photo is from the day when my sister married her brother. I think we were 11 years old, wearing GunneSax dresses our mothers had sewn out of brown broadcloth. There is a Harry Potter scene that takes me back to this dress.

We had a wonderful visit and I got to see her dad, Ted, and reminisce with him about the idyllic childhood we enjoyed. Becky has been through at least 5 of the biggest human stressors in the last year. But she is faithful and trying to keep everything from falling apart. Sometimes life throw things at you so fast, you don't have a chance to breathe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

General Conference

Image
I love that Conference is broadcast in Quichua for the Otavalo saints. We were able to watch every session in the comfort of our apartment. My favorite message was given by Elder Robert M. Daines. His talk about being face-blind was so touching. The quote that I researched immediately was, "A few years ago, I got a calling I didn't feel up to. I awoke early, nervous--but with a phrase in mind I had not heard before: that to serve in this Church is to stand in the river of God's love for His children." A wonderful blog post from Faith Matters tells the story of Elder Daines becoming a stake president in Palo Alto. He was currently working as a law and finance professor at Stanford University. In his first address to his stake he said something similar: Think for a minute of your favorite story of Jesus. What is it? You show me your favorite store of Jesus and I'll show you a story of Jesus reaching out to and loving someone on the margins of society, someone who w...
Read more

A Week at the Temple

Image
 We returned to the Quito Temple for a week of worshiping and recharging. The temple has a split schedule (or a siesta schedule) so they open in the morning, close for the afternoon, and then reopen for the evening. This means we can attend an endowment session and then an extra ordinance before leaving for lunch.  On Monday we arrived about 4pm and went to the Scala Mall for dinner. They are adding a 4th floor, so in the 6 weeks we have been gone, they opened the new food court up there. It is an exact replica of the 3rd floor. As you look across the open area of the mall (with its tarp roof), you can see where the 3rd floor was open. We would eat KFC there by the windows. Today we are enjoying McDonalds for the first time in over 2 years. On Tuesday-Friday we walk up from the Scala Mall on this wonderful ciclovia. Some of its largest trees were blooming with huge yellow flowers. One of the most popular restaurants in Cumbaya, El Palacio de la Fritada, is always busy. I order...
Read more

Our new favorite place

Image
 Papo's is our new favorite spot to eat. They always give you lots of food and it's delicious. I was starting to feel a cold coming on, but it was still nice to go out and eat. We picked up some of these fried bananas on the way out of Quito and they were the most delicious snack I've had. I should have bought more. They were only $1. Crunchy, sweet, and delicious. In the middle of our trip, we hit a pothole and got a flat tire. Right in the middle of the Andes. Luckily, Paul found a bus stop to pull over into because there are no shoulders on the road. He put the spare on and we drove the 100 miles home on it. And it wasn't raining. What a blessing!
Read more