Sunday last was a full day. Following our Discovery Day program we came home and spent some time preparing our talks for Sacrament meeting. We were called late in the week by a counselor in the bishopric saying a family had called earlier and said they had some serious illness in their family and would not be able to speak as agreed previously. The counselor said after praying about the matter he was impressed to call us. We felt the blessings of the Lord as we prepared our talks and as we delivered them. Following our meetings, we were invited to that families home for dinner. They are a great family, and we enjoy the spirit we feel in their home.
  Monday we did service at the humanitarian center in the Hyrum Stake and Wednesday went to our district meeting as usual.
 We had a pretty normal week with good visits, lessons and some cancellations, which is all part of the work. One thing was different this week, we took all of Tuesday for preparation day and had some fun and relaxed. In the afternoon we went to the movie, "Once I Was A Beehive." It was really well done and uplifting. We went to Wendy's for dinner, and then to an Aggie volleyball match with Ruth's sister Jennette.
 We had been challenged by our mission president to give a five minute restoration lesson to four families and give them a challenge to pray for a missionary experience for five days and then check back to find out what experiences they had enjoyed. We were able to get all four lessons taught. No miracles yet to report but the challenge and opportunity is available.
  We have enjoyed several meals this week in homes of people that were very kind to us and we shared messages with each family. We have felt like maybe we should suspend our meal schedule but after discussion with our high council representative and ward mission leaders, they felt we should continue as previously outlined.
  There has been some sickness and challenges with our sister missionaries so they have been on frequent exchanges this past week. This means that we have had a lot of interaction with them and made many trips around the valley.
  Saturday was a day of great spiritual uplift. We had our first Logan Utah Mission Conference. Elder M Russell Ballard and Elder Whitney Clayton instructed us for about two hours on how we need to focus the minds of people on the Savior and be bold in finding wherever we go. Elder Ballard said he had never had anyone take offense at his invitation to hear more about the Gospel when he followed the principles outlined in Preach My Gospel. That is a great reminder to continue to study and be in tune with the spirit wherever we go. Most important is to continually ask if there is anyone that would benefit from our visits, even when you are turned down by someone you have invited to hear the message of the Gospel. The principle is, when you invite you trigger the right of agency in the person you invite to make a choice.

  Another week of tender mercies and exciting work for us. The first Sunday is always a long one because we start with an early morning (7:00 a m) with our stake presidency, high counselor, and sister missionaries. We then attended three ward sacrament meetings and our correlation meeting. Our sisters don't have a car so we usually end up taking them places but the ward members have been very supportive in helping them get to their appointments as well. We are continually impressed with the quality of our district meetings.One challenge is to continue to improve by asking for feedback at least once a day from your companion. The form of the feedback is what was done well, how can it be improved (no buts); then show forth love and appreciation for your companion.
 We have a challenge to present a five minute Restoration lesson to four families and ask them to pray for missionary opportunities. We are to check back in five days to receive their report and then report the results to our leaders. These reports are going to be collected and given to Elder Ballard when he comes later in the month.
  We have a new convert who had knee surgery shortly after her baptism. She is in a nursing home for rehabilitation so we went to see her. She was doing therapy the first time but we asked her if she needed anything and she wanted us to stop by her home and pick up her scriptures, yes. We took them to her the next day and had a wonderful discussion and visit.
  We had another discussion with a couple who are returning to activity. We discussed the Plan of Salvation and how it will bless each of us by recognizing how the plan was presented and how we accepted the Jesus as our Lord and Savior. His most precious gift to us in this plan is that we have our agency to make choices.
  When we went to the store to pick up some food we met a sister who used to be in our ward. She was divorced and sold her home and moved to a different area of the valley. She was just going home from work and she came right over to talk to us. She really needed a listening ear at that time because things have been really rough for her since she left our area. We talked and cried and tried to encourage her. It was a tender mercy from the Lord that we were there just at the time she needed a listening ear and some encouragement to carry on.
  We spent a lot of time preparing for our Family Discovery Day. Both of us had teaching responsibilities for that day. We were happy that there were about eighty people who attended the event and we had some good reviews given by class attendees. There were about 15 different classes offered and most of them had a pretty good attendance.
  Later, we went for a visit with a young man we have visited on a regular basis to encourage him to return to activity in the Church. There was a bonus on this visit. Following our visit we received a text from him, he had our calling card with our telephone numbers. He thanked us for coming and said it means a lot to him that we take time to stop by and visit with him. He said our visits have helped him think about many things pertaining to his life including the time he served as a missionary. He said he looks forward to our visits.
That was a totally unexpected response that was so much appreciated.

  Sorry about the last week. One thing after another came up and we just didn't get back to updating the blog. It is amazing how when we need to find opportunities to meet people that the Lord puts them in our pathway. This happens in the neighborhood or in a store where we have gone to shop for something we need.
  We had some great visits during the week. We had been asked to see a sister who has been diagnosed with tongue cancer. Being a nurse she was aware of the treatment regimen but she opted for the operation. The tongue is a different situation than most so following the operation, instead of stitching the doctors put leaches on her tongue to hold it together while healing. It sounds rather gross but it worked and she is healing quite well. Her ward family is really taking good care of her and she is so grateful.
  That week was transfers so we were asked to attend the transfer breakfast for our zone because the father in the home that had scheduled the breakfast was out of town. It was fun to see the excitement of the young elders and sisters as the transfers were announced. This first transfer was a nine week transfer to match our transfers with the assigned dates of new missionaries coming in and going home. This next week we are losing one sister and nine elders including an assistant to the president. As a result there has been several threesomes in our zone. It will be interesting on the next transfer because we understand there will be twenty-five new missionaries coming in, and only a handful going home. It is always exciting to meet the new missionaries that are transferred into our zone. We always enjoy the Zone study and training because the zone leaders discuss the expectations for the six weeks ahead and plan training to meet those expectations.
  We have been working with one young man in particular that we are so hopeful that will return to activity. He welcomes our visits and during that week we really challenged him to attend church meetings and to reestablish a practice of reading the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon.
   We are excited for our Family Discovery Day coming on Sept. 12. We hope to be well prepared and that we will have a good attendance from the area. There is so much new information and so many changes in Family Search that we hope people will be interested in learning about how to more effectively do the research of their ancestors.
  This past week was all a jumble because we had to change meeting plans because a mission conference has been announced for Sept 19th and Elder Ballard will be our visitor and speaker. As a result we had preparation day on Monday and a Zone conference on Tuesday. The Zone meeting training was great because it looks like the leadership has decided to get to the basics and so we talked a lot about basic principles of teaching and understanding that should help every missionary. We had several new couples in attendance and the schedule included time for the senior couples to have their own session. One of the big challenges is for each pair of missionaries to teach the Restoration lesson in five minutes or less, then challenge the people taught to pray for a missionary opportunity and the missionaries are to return for a report from the family in five days. The mission is going to record these experiences and give them to Elder Ballard as he comes for the mission conference.
  We had a wonderful opportunity given to us by one of our ward mission leaders. There is a young couple who wants to reestablish their church activity. We made an appointment and went in and taught them the lesson of Restoration. It was a special time for us and challenging because we are not well practiced in giving these lessons.
 We have had some wonderful member visits and meals where we have shared messages. We also had a couple of family history lessons with families who are wanting to do more family research.
  There are just over six months left in our calling. We we will hopefully be able to continue meeting with the good people of our stake and helping them to make progress in living the Gospel and learning about their ancestors.
 
   

    We have had a very nice week. We have had some wonderful visits and meetings. We had an early district meeting with our young missionaries on Wednesday and then attended a nice luncheon followed by a training meeting for the senior couples in our area. What a wonderful opportunity to meet with these good people who are helping the Lord to hasten the work of salvation with our brothers and sisters. One of the couples we had lunch with has just been called as a senior couple working in one of the stakes in the USU area. This couples son and daughter-in-law have recently moved into our ward. This is the couple Ruth and I stopped in to see and left the homemade pot holder. Well, the Lord has heard the many prayers for this couple and the ward mission leader reported today that the couple attended our ward meetings today. We feel very happy for the opportunity to be able to extend and invitation to the family and excited that they responded in a positive manner. We are spending a goodly amount of time preparing presentations for our Family Discovery Day coming up in September. Ruth and I are both going to make presentations and it seems like there is a goodly amount of interest in our conference. 

    Today was a wonderful day. We started the day early in a stake council meeting. We discussed at length a talk given by Pres. Benson thirty years ago called "Born of God." Bro. Peterson led the discussion and gave a wonderful, thoughtful insight on the importance of making spiritual changes in our lives so we can truly change our hearts to desire to do the will of God. We came home and traveled to Highland for the homecoming talk of Gabe Castleton who just returned from his mission in Mexico. What a choice young man and from all we can learn, he was a wonderful missionary and saw the hand of the Lord protecting him and helping him and his companions to bring many people closer to Christ. Many from the family and Kathy's family were at the meeting then enjoyed some of the afternoon with a wonderful meal at Chuck and Kathy's home in Highland. They have recently moved there from Alpine and they have a nice home and hosted a wonderful meal for all of us.

 We returned home for our missionary correlation meeting then went to a meal in the First ward where the parents had invited three children and their grandchildren for dinner, some of them live in other cities. Following dinner Ruth and I were asked to present a home evening lesson.We talked about our physical and spiritual bodies which makes up our souls. We eat food every day because we are reminded by thirst and hunger the importance of satisfying this need. On the other hand, we often overlook the need for our soul or our spirit to be fed. This is accomplished by prayer, scripture study, attendance at church meetings and pondering the things we learn through each of these experiences. We are composed of a body and soul which is our spirit. Both of those components of our make up need to be fed so we can be alive and vibrant. 

  We are so grateful to have such good nutrients for both our body and our spirit.

  The week just before school starts is a tough time to catch people home. We have had a good week however as we were able to find some people home that do not have children and some that we had appointments with that welcomed us into their homes.
  Last Sunday we had a great meal and appointment with another family that had previously lived in our ward. They also invited a friend who has recently become active in the church to have dinner with them. This sister has just moved close to our church building but is just across the street that makes the boundary between our stake and the Hyrum stake. We had a nice dinner, shared a message and found some information about the new ward the friend has just moved into.
  We had a dinner the next night with a family in our own ward. This family has four children now. The children are bright and delightful to be around. The parents are excellent examples of people who teach their children correct principles and the children make decisions consistent with their teachings. We gave a message and had some fun activities concerning family history. The mother made a comment on Facebook that the children really enjoyed our lesson and were working on their My Family books that we left with them.  We really enjoy the excitement that is generated when we talk about starting young to keep records, pictures, and stories of their families and ancestors.
 We met a couple of new families in our ward and enjoyed those visits as well. It is fun to meet these people. Of course, Ruth crochets when we are traveling in the car and makes hot pads. A strategically placed hot pad often opens up conversations that sometimes would not happen without them. It is just exciting to welcome people into our neighborhood and invite them to join us in worshiping the Lord in our chapels.
  On Thursday evening our daughter Korinne came with her son Brayden for a visit, primarily for George's birthday.Friday night  we went out for a wonderful Mexican dinner, thanks Korinne, it was delicious. Saturday we were up early and went to Eureka. Every year the town celebrates Silver Days and several of the family decided to celebrate George's birthday while the celebration was going on. We drove out and insisted we stop at the parade gathering place. I refused saying we needed to go to downtown so we could watch the parade. At that point Ruth informed me that I was going to be a participant in the parade. Elizabeth drove her hard top convertible and Nick sat on the trunk and I in the passenger seat and we threw candy to the children along the parade route. They put a big sign on both sides of the car wishing George Castleton a Happy Birthday. Following the parade and having lunch at the city park, we had a birthday celebration at the Memorial Building with cake and ice cream. All of George's siblings were there with their spouses; Keith (who along with Nick planned the party), Kaylene, Ron, TeTe, Hallie, and Collette were there as well as Korinne and Brayden; and JaNeel(Nick's daughter and her family). We had a chance to visit and enjoy the cake and ice cream. It was a full and fun day by time we drove back to Cache Valley.
  Today Korinne and Brayden left for Montana, we went to meetings in our own ward and enjoyed all the meetings with our friends in the ward. This week was a mixture of missionary activity and family celebration which was all enjoyable.
We were happy to be with family and spend some valuable time with each of them. Thanks to everyone for making it a special time for all!

  This has been a week of contrasts. One day we find a lot of people home and another day we find so few home. One of the funniest things of our mission happened toward the end of the week. We had an appointment and then decided to go to the Logan Tabernacle for a concert that had been heralded as a great evening of sacred music. The concert was all it was advertised to be but the aftermath was the funny part. It had rained some during the day and it was lightly raining as we hurried to get to the concert to hear as much as was left because we knew it had started earlier than we could get there. As we departed the Tabernacle the rain was coming down hard. We didn't take an umbrella or anything to shield us from such a downpour. As we started for the car, not only was the rain coming in torrents but the sprinklers had turned on and as we walked up the sidewalk to get to the car, one sprinkler hit us full force, almost knocking us down because it was an industrial sized sprinkler head that rotated into our pathway. A couple following behind us just began to laugh as they had avoided the sprinkler and we had not. We avoided one more sprinkler on the way to the corner but we were soaked to the skin. We finally made it to the car and drove home and made hot chocolate even though the temperature hovered around 70*.
  One of the sweetest things during the week was being invited to dinner with a family that has nine children and expecting number ten. The evening was quite nice and we sat outside and enjoyed a home cooked meal of baked potatoes, meatloaf, and beans from the garden. We shared a message from Pres. Monson about "What Matters Most."Among other things, he says, "Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved."  The sweetest thing was as we were ready to leave one of the children asked, "Mom, can we have the missionaries come and eat with us again? We sent a letter of thanks to the family and the mother responded with thanks for us coming. She said every once in a while something comes up in the family and she asks, "What matters most?"
  We have had a great week of teaching. We enjoy visiting and teaching every time we can. Some of the visits are more like home teaching visits, which is fine with us. Several of the people we visit are older people and sometimes lonely. They appreciate our visits and our message. We feel good when we share a message and leave with a prayer and blessing in their homes.
  We really had a busy day today. We started with a ward council meeting this morning and then went to two sacrament meetings. Following our missionary correlation meeting this afternoon we had dinner with a family that used to live in our ward while I was Bishop. The children are growing up and quite enjoy having us come and talk with them. We then took one of our young missionary sisters to a ward teacher improvement meeting where she gave a great presentation on how to set the stage for people to feel the spirit of the Lord and then help them identify what they were feeling. She did a great job in explaining the concept.
  On the way home I turned on the radio and heard Bro Newell's thought from The Spoken Word. He was talking about finding happiness in life. He said, someone once observed that the most happy people are not the ones who have everything they want, but those who want everything they have. That is something we should all consider as we try to find happiness in each of our lives.
The greatest source of happiness in this life is to devote our energy in learning about the great blessing of Jesus Christ and what he has done to make it possible for our lives to be happy.
Have a great week!

  We have had a great week! We made a ton of visits and taught as many lessons as we have every taught. We love visiting the members of this stake and their families. We know so many people that sometimes we don't remember all their names but we love being in their homes and making friends and sharing Gospel messages. We recently found a video called "Daily Bread-Patterns" Elder Christopherson talks about the Lord providing daily sustenance in the form of manna for forty years as they wandered in the desert. Then he reminds us that we also need daily sustenance for our spirits. This is done by prayer, daily scripture study which truly transforms us. When we go long periods of time without food our bodies reminds us of this lack by feelings of hunger. The lack of spiritual sustenance is more subtle but very real.
  We have loved sharing this video and talking with our people about how they can feel the hand of the Lord in their lives as they feed their spirits. Then we ask them to share this food with others whom they meet.
 One of our highlight times this week was a neat experience. We saw a brother we know as we went to the stake center for a meeting. He said he noticed we had been trying to visit with a neighbor of his, he also home teaches this sister. He told us she will not answer her door, however, she walks her dog and cat around the neighborhood quite regularly and to walk with her and talk during the walk. We would know when she was walking when we see an SUV in the driveway because her daughter normally comes and walks with her. Well we had a rare prep day dinner and we had another appointment following dinner. However, we were in the neighborhood where this sister lives and as we left the meal appointment, we saw this sister on the sidewalk walking her animals. Even though we had an appointment, we took the opportunity to approach the woman and walk with her around the neighborhood, when her daughter arrived a little later, we excused ourselves to go to the next appointment. Wow, the Lord can surely arrange things when you have faith and want to do His will.
 One of the people we met early in our mission has been in the hospital with pneumonia. We visited his wife and then the next day we went to visit with him in his room. He seems to be doing better and may come home later in the week.
 Friday night were asked to usher at the Martin Harris Pageant. This is held every other year in Clarkston in North Cache Valley. The pageant depicts Martin Harris' involvement with Joseph Smith and the publishing the Book of Mormon. It was done well with the exception of a few mishaps with the sound system. It was well done. Two of our church leaders were in attendance. Elder Allan Packer and his wife and Elder Golden. Ruth was on the right side of the entrance to the seating and was able to shake hands with Elder Packer and his wife.
  Saturday we attended the baptisms of seven children of record and meet their families. This is always a special experience. This morning we attended Stake Presidency meeting to discuss our work and then attended three ward meetings. Our evening meal was with a faithful family who has two sons who just returned from missions and a daughter who just completed her application and interview today so she will soon be assigned a mission and reporting date for training.
  We love the work of the Lord! We enjoy meeting and teaching as well as sharing experiences with our younger missionaries.