The past week was one of recuperating from our Montana trip. We took our granddaughter Collette to Montana on Thursday the 7th to meet Grandma Pat and spend a week in Billings. Ruth's sister Jennette rode with us and after meeting Pat in Dillon, we drove through the Big Hole Valley of Montana to Hamilton and stayed the night with Jennette's son Quinton and his family. The next morning we drove to Kalispell to stay with our daughter Korinne and her family. Our granddaughters Bailey and Breanna took us and their brother Brayden to lunch .Korinne and the girls had been out picking huckleberries prior to our visit and we had wonderful huckleberry muffins and nice meals along with a good visit with the family.  On Saturday our grandson Parker from North Carolina came to visit for a day. Ruth drove with Brayden to Libby and pick up Parker. Parker has just recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes so we were anxious to spend some time with him especially with the new change of life he has been experiencing. We stayed in Kalispell until Monday morning when we drove to Butte to visit our son Ken and his children Katlin and her new daughter Gemma. Ken's other daughter Kylie who was there as well along with both of their boy friends.
While in Kalispell we had a call telling us that Grandma Pat's husband Preston had died. He had open heart surgery a couple of weeks before and seemed to be progressing. We were happy that Collette was there to give comfort and be with her Grandma Pat.
Following our visit with Ken's family, Ruth and I drove home which was a long drive from Butte, over six hours, but we were happy to get home.
We didn't get a lot of missionary work done during the week but George had one missionary opportunity with a new neighbor. The neighbor had purchased some trees and had planted two. The largest tree however still needed to be planted. George noticed the neighbor and a young daughter trying to dig a hole big enough to plant the tree and because of rocks was not making much progress. George went over to help dig the hole, and even found a pick at a neighbor's to help in the process. Once the hole was dug and the tree ball rolled into the hole, and it fit, everyone was pleased.
We also met with a family that had gone to the temple the week before with their five children. They are excited to see if they can find some of their family members that need their temple work completed.
We have a couple of young men we are working with and met with them during the week as well, trying to help them feel comfortable making commitments to attend Church meetings and be active in the Gospel.
On Friday we drove to Rexburg, Idaho to pick up Collette and had enough time to attend an initiatory session at the Idaho Falls temple. It was a nice rest and a fun experience to go to a temple we used to attend often when we lived in Montana.
Sunday the 17th of August we attended our own ward and spoke to the Primary children in sharing time about our mission. That is a neat experience for sure.
We had been announcing a special Senior Couples Fireside for the 17th for some time. The mission president and two area authority Seventy were to speak. We hoped there would be a good turnout. Well, it really happened, we were told that about 850 people attended the fireside and it was a wonderful meeting telling us of the need for seniors to participate with missionaries in "Hastening the Work of Salvation."