August 9, 2015

We had a great week!  The Dieu’s (a senior couple) came into the office and we met them.  They have been in the mission field about a month, but we hadn’t met them before.  Her name is Sherry Dieu (but she says she isn’t the REAL Sherry Dew)  She says that everyone tells her she isn’t the real Sherry Dew (and that is because she isn’t)  The REAL Sherry Dew is the CEO of Deseret Book and is a very well-known author.  The Dieu’s have been married almost 2 years.  His first wife died and she (Sister Dieu) was divorced.  She knew his wife well, but hadn’t talked with him only in passing.  After he was a widower for a while he called her up and she gave her condolences and encouraged him that he would be alright.  He was more interested in her and she was very happy NOT having a man after her first husband (he must have been a stinker)  Well, he finally convinced her that he would like to court her and she told him that he would need to bring his’ A game’ as she was happy single.  He sent her an edible fruit arrangement that said, “Game On”.  The rest is history.  They are from Arizona/California.  They a very nice!  We had dinner with them at Red Lobster Monday night.

Dennis had a call on Thursday from the most remote place we have missionaries and they had been in a head on collision.  They were fine and the other man drove himself home.  The pick up was wrecked pretty badly and we don’t know what the insurance will say about it.  The airbags had deployed and the truck had been towed away.  We drove another car to them on Friday evening.  The senior couple from their area met us about ¾ of the way and we gave the car to them to take to the Elders.  It was a beautiful drive, bur we were both glad to be home later that night.

We were able to pick up Zach Gneiting and his mother, Gaylene from the hospital on Friday morning  and they stayed at our place while we went back to work.  We went over to the Sacred Grove after work and enjoyed seeing the Grove, the Hill Cumorah, and Grandin Press.  Zach was very tired and didn’t have much strength (he lost 13 lbs. during his almost 3 week stay in the hospital) and so Dennis was able to push him in a wheelchair through the Grove.  We had a good visit with them.  

At the Smith Log Cabin with the Millers, Gaylene, Zach, and the Merrills

Gaylene had flown to Rochester with an open ended ticket on Delta so she needed to get a flight home on Delta.  Prudy wanted to help with Zach’s flight and offered skymiles on United.  So, they were able to get flights that left within about 15 minutes and arrived in Phoenix about 10 minutes apart.  They didn’t say too much about it.  When we were taking them to the airport on Friday afternoon she received a text saying that her flight was going to be delayed about 1 hour.  She said that would probably make it easier because she needed to help Zach get through security because he didn’t have any identification (they had his birth certificate faxed to our office) and he was pretty weak.  THEN—a few minutes later her phone rang and we heard her say, “I would love that—yes, I want to do that.”  Well—Delta called her and asked if she had seen that her flight was delayed and would she like to get on another flight going to Phoenix—UNITED??  She would be with Zach and be able to help him all the way.  We couldn’t believe it, Delta never does that for people.  They don’t (usually) change airlines for people.  The ticket counter didn’t know the circumstances for her flight either.  We had just talked in the car about how ‘everything denotes that there is a God’ and we all felt such love from Heavenly Father for them.  It was a miracle!

Saturday we went to a few garage sales and Dennis was so happy to come up with this prize. 

It is definitely an antic, but it sure did work great.  It is really sharp and it took a lot of tall weeds down in short order. 

We went over to the Temple in the afternoon and did a session.  The Palmyra Temple is so quiet and peaceful.  There were only 8 sisters and 8 brothers in the session.  It is so calm there without so many patrons.  I hope that my parents will come here and do a session before we are through with our mission.  

Look who Janet Stucki found in Philmont at the Scouting Conference.  Small world isn't it?  I guess they had a great visit.

Janet Stucki with Judy Liffereth in Philmont (my cousin)

There are large fields of soy beans here and as we drive by Elder Merrill asks me if I can see any beans growing on them.  We stopped by one of the fields and he picked a few of the immature beans to see what they looked like.  

Edamome! (soy beans)

Funny:  Sister Long sent us a funny that says, "If a man says he will fix it. HE WILL!  There is no need to remind him every 6 months!