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.