This has been a good week for us. We have done a good deal of preparation for things happening later in the week. One of the fun evenings was Monday when we accepted a dinner invitation to eat with our stake president and his family. Following a delicious dinner, we talked about some of the scriptures pertaining to family history. Then we had a session on the computer, the youngest boy wanted to show us some of the names he had found and how he found them. He did it a little differently than we teach but his way produced results. As Elder Scott said recently, the young people will do much of the heavy lifting in this work. It is obvious that they are very well learned in the techniques of using the computer to find information, including learning the program that is developed for finding ancestors names.
Wednesday we held our final senior couples meeting with Pres. and Sis Hiers in Ogden. We will have one more "goodbye meeting" with them later in the month but it will be similar to a zone conference. We had some great training on how the keys of the priesthood are designed and delegated to help all of the programs of the Church, including missionary work run effectively.
Sundays are becoming perpetual meeting day. We attended three sacrament meetings yesterday and then we held a training meeting in the 13th Ward with four youth who have been called as family history consultants. The High Priest leadership also attended but they didn't catch on nearly as quickly as those young people. After dinner we each presented talks about family history and personal experiences from our families to a singles +31 fireside. Ruth gave those in attendance several opportunities to make comments or talk about some experiences as we encouraged to make a record of their lives. After the meeting, the coordinator said that was the best participation ever in their firesides.
It was a long but rewarding day.
Today is Memorial Day. We enjoyed it with family at the Payson cemetery where many of our ancestors are buried, here is Ruth's observation of the events of the day.
We had a great day with family in Payson, Utah. The trip home was very eventful, though, with two incidents. The first one was a stalled car on the freeway in the lane we were driving in. Dad did a miraculous swerve to the left to avoid a collision. Shortly thereafter we hit an object on the freeway and it took a big chunk out of our tire. We sat on the inside lane of the freeway with cars zooming by at rocket speed. We couldn't get out because we were afraid we might be hit by a car, so we called roadside assistance and waited quite a while until someone came in a tow truck to help us. We stopped down the road and bought a new tire and had it put on the car. We are now home and grateful to be home!!!! We are so very blessed!
One more observation, we sat on the freeway for nearly and hour. With all the cars zooming by, only one person stopped to see if we needed help. It was a young man, who was clean-cut and good looking; on a motorcycle who screeched to a stop in front of our car. He wanted to see if he could provides some help to us. We were surprised that until the road service truck was finished changing the tire there was not a highway patrol unit in sight. He stopped and asked us what happened. He told us he had no other reports of anyone else having a problem in the area so when we hit whatever it was, it must have flipped it off the freeway.

  Sorry we missed a week but Friday last, we left for Montana to visit with some of our family. The beginning was a little scary, we were approaching Smithfield and at Hyde Park lane and Hwy 91 a Pathfinder blew through a red traffic signal and hit a pickup truck which pushed the truck into a Ford car that was in the turn lane to go South. No one was hurt badly but since we witnessed the crash, we pulled over and waited for the police to come and give them our report. Fortunately, that was the only incident for the trip and not an omen of things to come.
We drove to Butte, MT and stayed the night with Ken and Sheri. Katlin was there and her cute little daughter, Gemma. It was great to see them and have time to visit. Gemma has grown so much, she is now over a year old and just as sweet as one could imagine.
On Saturday we drove to Helena to see Korinne and family. They were just unloading but had most of the large furniture in place. Their home is beautiful and the view is really special with Hauser Lake  and the surrounding mountains in the background. Sid barbecued steak for dinner and it was warm outside so we ate on the patio.
Sunday morning we went to sacrament meeting in Helena. As we arrived a fellow came toward us and said, "I know these people." It was Chuck's friend Brent Wilcock from when we lived in Billings. We met one of their daughters and had a great visit with them.
Korinne was trying to empty boxes and get things into place so she pretty much did most of the work but we helped as we could. Tues. afternoon Sid went to a conference in Great Falls but then drove home because Bailey and Breanna were coming to stay over night on their way to Atlanta where Bailey has a job, They were driving Bailey's car and then Breanna will fly home the end of this week.
They made the long trip and arrived safely, with only one speeding ticket.
Ruth and I took Brayden out to Arctic Circle on Tues night then we returned home on Wednesday.
It was great to have a little break but now it's time to get back to work.
  Transfers happened the day we returned home so we had a new sister, Sis Frazier with Sis Sekona. The elders were transferred from the other Hyrum stake so they are now covering two stakes. We didn't get a lot of work in for a the rest of the week but we enjoyed meeting with families and had great dinners and visits.
Saturday we had a wonderful day as we attended the temple with a newly activated member for her endowments. She has had some real trials since making the decision to become active and just really was thrilled to be in the temple. Saturday included a visit with our high councilman and the sisters to determine how to best handle the work in both stakes.
  Sunday was a marathon day. We had a stake council meeting that started at 6:00 am,for two hours; then we went to three sacrament meetings and our correlation meeting and dinner with a neat family. We followed that by attending our stake seminary graduation.
Two of the sacrament meetings included returning missionary reports. The first one was a young lady who was just a little girl when we first moved to Hyrum; the family is Warner and we were in the same ward. Jayme just returned from the Cebu Philippines East. She was there when an earthquake hit and then following the earthquake, a typhoon. The typhoon went over the area she was in but devastated some of the other island areas. The earthquake was taxing on the people and it sounds like she spent most of her mission providing service in trying to help the poor people rebuild their homes and their lives. The second meeting was a returning Elder whose parents invited us to dinner early on in his mission. He obviously learned a number of life lessons and really has a strong testimony of the Gospel now. Our final sacrament meeting was in the 3rd ward. We chose that ward because that is the ward Sher has been attending, she has moved into another home now and will be attending another ward. The family spoke of their experiences of learning together. After the meeting we met the father and he thanked us for coming to their home in the fourth ward and inviting them to church. He said that started them on the pathway back to activity and now they seem pretty well involved in their ward. It is great to see that we have had some influence with our work.
This is the Lord's work, and we are thrilled to be a part of it. The Lord is truly hastening His work. The time is going fast. We only have ten months left in our mission call.

 Monday we didn't have any appointments so we decided to take the opportunity to spend some family time. We went to American Fork to see Suzy Castleton in one of our favorite plays, "Little Women." We were pleased to find out that our granddaughter Jessie worked back stage during the production. It was a wonderful performance. Keith and Caroline also came and watched the play. We went to Keith's and stayed overnight, had some time with the children before we returned home on Tuesday. Our Sister Hadden is going home soon so we had scheduled a dinner with them at Texas Roadhouse. While there we saw another sister companionship from our zone. Ruth went with one of the  sisters to an appointment to talk about family history.

Wednesday we were able to find a couple of people home before a visiting teaching appointment meant we needed to be home for a while. We had some good visits and then a family history visit that ended up at the stake center because the couples computer wasn't working very well. 

Thurs was a different day, but we were able to find a few people at home. We had probably the most different dinner appointment that we have had in our mission. The family has leftover night on Thursdays. We had chicken, pork chops, pasta, zucchini bread, and home made peach smoothies.

Friday night was a special evening. We had a Melchizedek priesthood preview for prospective elders that included several young men who are preparing to go on a mission. There was a good mixture of older and younger men and some wives and children. The children came to sing, which really added to the meeting. The talks were wonderful. A former counselor in our stake presidency who is also a seminary teacher gave a wonderful presentation about what the priesthood is and why it is on the earth. A former less active brother who had recently received the priesthood and taken his family to the temple gave a wonderful testimony about the blessings he and his family had received as he progressed in his activity and the priesthood. There was a Primary age group that sang a couple of numbers and then a member of our stake presidency gave a wonderful testimony about the blessings available to those who accept the priesthood. Following the meeting there was a pie social. It seems like the consensus was that it is something that should happen on a regular basis. 

Saturday we attended three baptisms. Two were from our ward and the third was a young lady that the sisters have been meeting with for some time. She finally decided she wanted to be baptized and there was  wonderful support from family and ward members.

Sunday is always a good day, we started in the morning meeting with the sisters and the stake presidency. They are so desirous to have the work of salvation move forward; we talked about several ideas of how that will be done best in our stake. After attending two ward sacrament meetings we visited some people that have just been called as ward missionaries and then met with a family in the stake center to try to find names to take to the temple. It is always fun when they find people and this was no exception. They and we were thrilled for the experience.