4 Wheeling

Can you even imagine Connie and I 4 wheeling and ATVing?  Me neither!!  But it was fun and we road like 26 miles in each direction.  We were gone for a long time and saw alot.  The weather was great and it was a little scary.  But we were with Keith and Vickie and Kent and Sue-- great time.

IT's ALL ABOUT THE VISITORS

We have been here in Gilbert since March 1st and have had people here all of the time.  We love it.  Mom Earl and Grandma Jones came with us after our 3 weeks in Mazatlan and our return to Moses Lake and then Utah for C.J's funeral.  Mom Earl has spent time with her sister Norma and we have visited with the Pikerds, Jeannie Leavitt, Lori (wife of Dusty Leavitt) and Lori Nelson Worsley.  Kent and Sue Adams came at the beginning of the month and have been our liberators.  They have cooked, cleaned and fixed everything in sight.  Plus we have gone to the temple together, gotten up and walked in the mornings and just generally had a delightful time with them.  Then Justin came for one night and Isaac and Linh came through for a short visit on their way to San Diego.  We ate a couple of times with Steve and Renee Coombs and then Dick and Sandy Merrill (Plus we have seen them a couple of times in the temple) and we have been with Keith, Vickie, Davey and Danny Cutler almost every day since we have been here.  We have been eating all together most nights.  We also had a visit from Jerry and Deanne Anderson, Loris Anderson and Ronda Bruce.  What a wonderful retirement this has been thus far.  We are looking for Cali and her crew next month plus Kaelynn and her group on their way to Disneyland.  We are buying beds, blankets, sheets and pillows like crazy.  WE HAVE ROOM, COME VISIT.

5 Brothers in Mazatlan

 Much better when the girls are added. 

Congo Connie

This is the first time in a long time that we had all five brothers together, along with mom, all of Jeff's children and their spouses or special friends, Justin, Angelique, Dougie, Marion and Savana Jones, Grandma Jones...In short it was a real party.  We loved it.  Most played a lot of water volleyball.  We all ate alot and enjoyed the best weather ever.  I could get used to this retirement thinig.

BACK IN SLC

We had all of our family except for Mike, Allie, Kyle and Justin, (plus Grandma Jones, Keith and Vickie) at the Salt Lake City Airport to see us come in back home. Nothing compares to coming home to family. All of these pictures are on Ashley's blog. Thank you family. We just finished the most wonderful church assignment we have had to date.

Interim President

Calvin and Gayle Clegg have been approved by the first presidency to be the interim president of the MTC. He was a mission president in Portugal and she was a counselor in the general primary presidency of the Church for 6 years. They were missionaries here in Spain at the time of their call. We know them well. He was FBI for many years in South America and he was missionary companions with President Donald Tenney, our temple president and Charles Eberhard one of our temple missionaries. Small world. This is our final MTC post. Connie is a little trunky. I am a rock.

All About Eating

Starting at the left: Jona Neidhard (teacher) can eat more than any human I have ever met. Sister Dremeaux is going to Paris, Miguel Motta is from Portugal but served in Paris and is a teacher. Christian Bruno is our other Italian teacher. ME: old, fat and tired. Elder Aldo Pauari from Tahiti gave me a necklace that I can just barely stand up under. When he hugged me the shells crashed into my chest and almost punctured my lungs. Elder Curzola is from the north of Italy on the border with Austria and goes to Rome. Christmas in the MTC is about letting the staff and cooks off and having Pres and Sister Earl do all the cooking, cleaning and all that other stuff. This is very nostalgic because that is what it is all about at home too. We did crepes for the 24th, and we did a full on turkey dinner for Sunday the day of Christmas (we invited the Ebys, Eberhards and Pres and Sister Tenney). For the New Years weekend we did Dominos pizza and then on Sunday Fetticini. We stayed up until midnight although it was hard to find things to do. One week left.
OH YES, go cougs.

Hot Fudge Tuesday

Some of our teachers and leaders: Efrain Lopez, Manuel Arjona, Brian Pickup, Christian Bruno, Mikel Lizzaralde, Daniel Esposito, Eva Suarez, Soraya and Josefina Martinez, just some of our teachers receiving and enjoying a mug of hot fudge sauce for Christmas. We were going to Cadiz for a couple of days, but with the news from Isaac and Linh and just being overall a little tired, we decided to stay home and make something for the people here, thus the hot fudge. Last week Jeff, Lisa, Kevin and Chase Fairchild came to stay a day or two and we had a good time with them. We have less than 3 weeks left and we are ready to come home. We have just three missionaries here in the MTC and our classes are held in our apartment, as the big room is being remodeled. The classes are more like FHE (however without the treats and frequent trips to the restroom). We love our friends here and we love the missionaries but we have been away from home now for 4 years and hopefully someone will be glad to have us back in the States. To us, our dedication to the work of the mission of the church is bigger than anything else. Only our love and dedication to each other comes close to that. We trust in the plan. Otherwise Christmas makes no sense and has no purpose.