Another good week, we have now just eight months left in this calling. It is going quickly and will be here before we know it. With the mission split July 1 and transfers this week, there will be a lot of new things to get used to. It will be interesting to see where the missionaries are assigned this week and there are quite a few new missionaries reporting.
 We have had some good visits this week, Maybe because we are entering the "older" time in life, we enjoy visiting with people who usually don't have a lot of contact with people outside of their family. Some of them are rather lonely, especially when a spouse has died and family are not living close.
 We had a send off meeting with Pres. and Sis Heirs on Wednesday morning. They and the counselors and wives gave their talks and testimonies. It was a special occasion for all of us. We will miss their leadership and are looking forward to meeting our new mission president. Prior to the general meeting, we had a senior couple training that was very enjoyable, Pres. and Sis Heirs came in and talked to us for a short time.
 On Wednesday we had three generations of one family in the stake center family history center. There were two parents, their daughter, and a granddaughter. They were all doing a different phase of  family history and we were quite busy for a couple of hours trying to answer questions and help them find information.
  One sister we finally were able to meet with has had some health problems, including an operation. She doesn't get out very much and really appreciated our visit. Another Sister is over ninety and lost her husband several years ago. She lives in her home with a son who takes care of her. She is a neat lady. Another sister in the same ward has had some health challenges as well as the deaths of several family members, including her husband over the past few years. We felt very good about our visit. She is very much into family history and that brings her some opportunity to keep busy and feel somewhat connected to her family and gives her good feelings.
 Friday we ended up taking the sisters to Farr West for an exchange. We had some business at the mission office so we stopped there for the last time. We found out from the staff there where our new mission office will be in Logan. That will be exciting to not have to go to Ogden so often. However, the southern boundary of the Logan Mission will go to 17th Street in Ogden.
 When we returned to Hyrum, we attended a barbecue for the single adults in our Stake. They had a nice attendance. Ruth and I went with committee members to make invitations so it was fun to see those people and others at the event. They had a nice meal and a fair turnout.
 Saturday was a family day. We had Kaylene, Ron, TeTe and Hallie come to the house for barbecued hamburgers for lunch time. Hallie and TeTe have four of Te Te's sister's children staying with them so it was a fun time. We purchased a canopy toward the end of last summer so we were able to get some use out of that during this time outside. It was a little tricky to get into place, but with some help of a neighbor girl, we got it figured out.
We then went to Salt Lake for a wedding reception. My sister Lavon's granddaughter was married earlier in the day in the Manti Temple. The reception was nice and Lavon, Nick, Elizabeth and I were able to attend. Since we didn't stay too late, we took the opportunity to stop by and see Ruth's sister Catherine and talk with her and her husband about their recently completed mission; they served the same kind of mission we are serving.
  Sunday was a day of meetings and phone calls. We attended the fourteenth ward for a returning missionary report and then we attended all of the meetings in our ward. We also had a young man who recently returned from his mission in Pennsylvania. Both meetings included some nice tributes to Fathers.
In the course of the day, I found out that a neighbor was quite ill and we decided to go make a visit. He is the father of a former neighbor of ours. He had a stroke about ten years ago which left his left side paralyzed. During warm weather, he would use his walker for support and take a walk around the neighborhood. We hadn't seen him for a while so we wondered about him. We had a good visit, at first he said he was dealing with some things but was keeping it to himself. As we visited with us he told us he had been diagnosed with stage four cancer in his right hip and was in hospice care. He has a pretty negative attitude about some things but he thanked us for our visit and for being his friend.

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” ³⁵
This quotation came to me very strongly as I thought about our stake conference yesterday. There were wonderful talks and discussions about enriching our Sabbath day observance and the importance of the sacrament. This work is progressing and we are feeling the weight of hastening the work of the Lord. We have some days that seem to be more productive than others, but we are feeling the press of time. We have just over nine months left on our calling and we have many things to do. Shortly there will be some changes in our mission because the new mission president will be here in just over two weeks. Transfers are coming in just ten days and those transfers will determine which mission our young missionaries will serve for the balance of their times in the field.
Last Monday we attended our son-in-law; Ron Jensen's fathers funeral in Clifton, Idaho. Henry Jensen was a good man and he and his wife had seven children, all about a year apart. The children were raised in the Gospel and are good and thoughtful people. All of the children and a couple of grandchildren took part in the services. It was a fitting tribute to a good, hard working, gentleman farmer who died while saying his prayers in a facility in Preston.
We had one of those memorable visits when we returned from the funeral. We called a sister who is nearly ninety years old. We asked her when a good time would be to come and visit her, she said, "right now." So we drove over and she talked to us how much she loved the Lord and her family. Then she said how much she appreciates the young men who deliver the sacrament to her each Sunday. The last Sunday she told us how one boy rode his bike as he balanced the sacrament trays. She doesn't feel like she has done all she needs to do in life but we assured her that taking care of her family was of utmost importance, What a sweet spirit we felt as we visited with this dear sister!
After dinner we had a great time teaching family history to a young family with four children in our own ward.
On Wed we had a visit scheduled and we wondered about the children. They had a son 18 and one four. How we enjoyed that visit! The older boy has his mission call to the Philippines, and will be leaving in about a month. The younger boy was inquisitive and bright. We had a great time talking about how family history can be an asset in missionary work and talked with the family about some ideas on researching and finding stories about their family.
Thursday we drove to Pleasant View to pick up Sis Frazier from an exchange, then later had a great dinner with a family that we had shared a dinner with about a year ago. It was a fun visit, the children were excited about discovering family information and see how they had matured. Their mother is the Primary president and their father is on our high council.
After dinner we split up and went with counterparts in the stake single adult committee. We brethren made several visits but found only one person at home. Ruth went with the sisters and they found four people home and invited them to a barbecue coming up next week.
 Friday we spent a lot of the day working at home. Ruth had tried to download some video for our visits on her computer. She downloaded one item that brought an avalanche of garbage with it and basically crashed her computer when she tried to clean it off. With some help from our son-in-law Sid, we have pretty much gotten things back to normal. When we called to verify our dinner for the evening, the sister said, "This will be your favorite meal." When we arrived she had prepared a meal of burgers and salad. The burgers were from a recipe of her grandmothers called apple burgers. The patties are made of hamburger and sausage. Then topped with fried bacon strips, apple slices, Dijon mustard mixed with honey and served on a thin bun like a pita pocket. Wow, what a meal! The three children were a delight and excited for the booklets and coloring pages we left with them.
Saturday we spent a lot of the day on the road. We were on our way to Eureka to a memorial for our sister-in-law, Carole Ann Castleton who died last week. We couldn't go past Eagle Mountain without seeing our grandchildren. Keith was working and some of the children were busy with other activities. We had a good visit anyway and then headed out for Eureka. It was good to see the four children and their families. They put on a nice meal and some good memories were remembered during the memorial. The family had good support from people in the community. It was good to be there to support the family. Gloria and Royal were in Italy on vacation, Elizabeth and Harold were in Washington with family so that left Chuck, Lavon and George to represent the family. Of course Nick was there with his children.
 Sunday was our stake conference. Priesthood leadership meeting was a different format. Several brethren were given scripture references when they arrived at the meeting and asked to lead a discussion on the topic of the scripture. We had a discussion on the importance of the sacrament and the atonement of Christ, the importance of fasting and prayer, how the Sabbath day can be a delight, obedience.
Our general session was held in three different buildings including the stake center. The topics were changing our hearts, fasting and prayer, following our Savior, and Keeping the Sabbath Day holy.
Following a delightful dinner with a member family with four wonderful children we attended a musical fireside presented by our young elders and sisters. They had asked several recent converts to bear their testimonies and they were wonderful. What a full day but a wonderful day.

  We have had a great week. Our sisters needed a fair amount of help and we are always happy to provide assistance to them. We have had some great visits with members, some active and some not so active. The neat thing about teaching family history is that everyone has an interest in their families and what has occurred as well as what is happening now. Some are interested in doing some research and finding opportunities to do temple work for their families and some are not quite in that position. Nevertheless, we try teach them to the level of their current interests.
 Our District meeting this week focused on our testimonies. We had a spiritual time sharing testimonies in differing circumstances and trying to invite the spirit into each situation.
We stopped in the afternoon to talk to a sister who struggles to get to church meetings. She said she felt like she had a good relationship with the Savior and didn't always feel a need to go to meetings.
After we got home, we talked about her attitude and the next morning I sent her a text telling her that the most important reason to go to church on Sunday was to partake of the Sacrament. I was sad that I didn't think of that while we were in her home.
One of our ward mission leaders had arranged to have us go on visits with him on Wed. night. We dropped in to three families and found two of them available for visits. Our first visit was to a Primary teacher in the ward. Her husband is active in scouting and we went with the idea of talking with her husband about the next ordinance for him. He does not hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and so hasn't been able to take his wife to the temple. He was at Weblo scouts making rockets however. But we had a great visit with the sister. She was out four wheeling about three weeks ago and had an accident where she was thrown off the machine and really did a job on her right wrist. She has had some surgery and may have to have more but she seems to be recovering. She had knee replacement surgery a few years ago and was so happy that her knee was not injured. She told about the wonderful feeling of comfort she received following the accident and was so grateful for that power of the Holy Ghost she felt. She is sad because she has to make sure her arm and wrist are not re injured and so she is unable to teach her Primary class. It was an unfortunate accident but a testimony builder for both of them.
The second visit was to a lady that has some health challenges. She claimed that Sunday is a family day. Her family usually gets together so she doesn't want to leave them to go to meetings. The ward mission leader picked up on that right away and explained the importance of attending meetings to have the opportunity to partake of the sacrament.
  We had some good visits on Thursday. We visited two active families and left messages. One fellow lost his wife about five years ago. Even though he was surprised with our visit, we could tell he enjoyed having someone stop in and visit him. He is obviously lonely, event though he stays busy and is active in the church. We went to see a mother and daughter and found no one home but the neighbor recognized us and came right over and told us the mother had been admitted to a Salt Lake hospital for some medical problems and would be gone for a while.
We then went to our stake family history center and met with a mother and daughter by appointment. The daughter found some good information. I was trying to help the mother on her family line but I am not as good a helper as I would like to be. However, we found some information that changed here attitude from "I really don't enjoy this" to "That's great, let's try it again next week."
   We spent a goodly amount of time on Friday preparing our Sunday missionary class and helping the sisters. One visit was to a boy, Coltan in our ward who is getting baptized on Saturday.We are excited, the boy is eleven and his mother is showing a lot of interest, the father; not so much. Anyway, the baptism was wonderful and the mother even bore her testimony and also invited us to come and help here do some family history research.
  Following the baptism we attended a birthday party with a fellow and his family that used to be neighbors. It is a family we became close with. They invited us to a temple session but we missed that to attend the baptism. We did go for a barbecue luncheon. Last year I think we went to three sealing sessions in a row when this couple was in the same room with us. We really think highly of them. Shawn is crafty and made some silver looking sunflower pins or tie tacks. The message attached is a sunflower always follows the sun, and we should always follow the Son.
 Sunday was what has become a normal Sunday lately. We started off early with a missionary meeting with the stake presidency, we then went to a sacrament meeting, and then we went to our own ward where Coltan was confirmed. We also had two baby blessings. The building was packed, nearly 300 people in attendance. Unfortunately, about sixty percent were ward members, the others were visitors. The Stake President attended and he was impressed. We had a wonderful opportunity to stay for the whole block in our ward. We stopped at the house, grabbed a bite to eat and then went to our missionary correlation meeting then on to our final member missionary class. We had a wonderful turnout again and had some wonderful participation in discussions about how we could be missionaries and how we could use family history, visiting teaching, and home teaching as tools of invitation and activation. After our class we had our sisters at the house for a weekly correlation meeting because they have interviews with the mission president on Monday.
  We feel ever so strongly about the importance of our work. We sometimes run a little short of energy by the end of the week but the Lord is good to us and gives us strength and stamina that helps us meet the next day with desire to do the work.

  This was a different week but we did get some things done with missionary work. Tuesday we took our sister missionaries on a little adventure. We stopped at Apple Spice for lunch, then stopped at the pajama factory, then on to Pepperidge Farms for goodies, and finally to Casper's for ice cream.
We then went to our granddaughter Hallie Ler's high school graduation. She has worked hard to accomplish that goal this past year. We are proud of her for her dedication and persistence.
  Wednesday as usual was District Meeting and then Ruth took one of our sisters to Pleasant View on exchanges, and brought back another sister to work here.
  Thursday was another happy time. Our granddaughter Collette had an award assembly at Fast Forward. She had perfect attendance and a 4.0 for the year for which she was rewarded and recognized. She really enjoys her experience there. She really struggled before in school, but now she is really making things happen in a good way for herself . Through her counselor, she has already had some inquiries about colleges that she may be interested in attending. Ruth helped a sister scan some things into Family Search, she has met with her a few times now and is making some progress. We had a nice visit and dinner with one of our Relief Society presidents and her girls. They are delightful. This sister was born and raised in the Santaquin area and we had a good time talking about people we know or knew. We had an appointment with a member family in a neighboring ward. They had forgotten about the appointment but we were met by their two year old son who acted like a long lost friend. We were welcomed and had a great discussion about family history.
Friday we spent time fine tuning our Every Member a Missionary class material, then met with our sisters at our stake family history center. One of our sisters really wanted to learn how to do research so we spent some time showing them Family Search. One sister caught on quickly and went to her tree and found some names that needed temple ordinances. She was really thrilled. The other sister found some family connections but there were not many records available for the  area she needed.
 We made a couple more visits then our dinner appointment turned out to be at McDonald's because the sister had forgotten the appointment. We then visited a couple that has previously served a senior couple mission and was very happy to discuss several aspects of missionary work.
  Saturday we went to the temple with a sister who just recently joined the church.She is committed to getting to the temple as often as possible and we are happy to encourage that for her.
In the afternoon we attended a birthday party for a little neighbor boy who turned one. We taught his parents the Temple Preparation class. It was a fun party and he was very excited.
Then we stopped in and visited with a less active brother who was kind of cool to our first visit but he really opened up and told us he had served a mission in Argentina. He has recently found some of his companions on Facebook and had talked to the Weblos leader about his nine year old going to scouts and maybe becoming interested in being baptized.

  This was a sad day in the Church and our family. Elder Perry of the Council of Twelve Apostles passed away after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer recently. His cancer was very aggressive and took him quickly. He will be sorely missed because of his upbeat attitude and wonderful stories
Later in the evening, our sister-in-law Carole Castleton passed away in Lehi. He had been sick and in a nursing facility for quite a while but we didn't know her condition was terminal. Fortunately her children were all able to be there and spend some time with her in her final day. We will all miss her.
 Our big day was Sunday. We began the day in a stake council meeting at 6:00 am. The presidency is trying to focus on the things that matter most and we had a great discussion of what that focus should be. There was a wonderful spirit there and the agenda for upcoming stake conference took shape during that time. We had agreed to speak at the 10th Ward sacrament meeting about family history and temple work. It seemed like our talks went well, we are always happy to see the friends that we have made in that ward. We had a break and then in the afternoon we taught a fifth Sunday lesson to the combined priesthood and relief society in the 13th ward. We followed that with a wonderful visit with a less active family in the 14th ward. We had a great discussion about their family's history and presented them with My Family Books and some challenges to look into some of their family tree and see what has been entered.
Following our correlation meeting with ward mission leaders, we held our first Member Missionary class in the building where our home ward is located. We had great a great attendance of about forty people including our stake president and most of his family. The class seemed to go well and we are looking forward to our second class next Sunday.

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.