7 Days for the Price of One

Monday, June 25, 2018       Dad and Mom’s 65th Anniversary

Miracle #1  We chatted with David and Danielle first thing this morning and were so relieved to hear that their shredded Kia tires had held out, and that they arrived home safely Sunday night.

Miracle #2  The next day when Danielle was driving Lucy to school her tire blew on Whoop-Up Drive.  No one was injured!

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

We will never forget this AMAZING experience!! About eight forty five each morning, in our large conference room, we stood as President Russell M. Nelson, President Dallin H. Oaks, and President Henry B. Eyring arrived and took their places on the stand with the twelve apostles, all  sitting in order. This morning we sang with gusto and feeling ‘Now Let Us Rejoice,’which was followed by a mixed MTC chorus of 16 sisters and 16 elders who sang ‘Lead Kindly Light’ 

President Eyring our first speaker taught us:

  *It is not what we have that matters but how our hearts have changed. 

*Banish moments of doubt…we are never alone…saved by the scriptural assurance that 

Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost will go with us. 

*Remember the Lord of the vineyard laboured with them.

How can we be finished our Mission Leadership Seminar already?! This morning  we were up by five thirty, showered and down with our luggage to the Residence by Marriott parking meeting spot by seven fifteen. Our shuttle had us up to the MTC in about seven minutes, and we were early for the breakfast buffet which for Mission Presidents, is not in the original cafeteria…Three beautiful six story air conditioned buildings have recently been constructed making the MTC complex massive! All our meetings and meals have been held in these state of the art buildings. Even with all the construction of new buildings, they have maintained the immaculate, manicured lawns with knife edge perfection, trimmed shrubs, and colourful flower beds. My favorite was the hedge of lavender which greeted us along the building we had most of our meals. Who knew BYU had a ‘gourmet arm’ of their Food Services? Presentation was gorgeous, and flavours delightful….and now we are back on strict portion sizes…DIET time! 

At about eight thirty pm, our MTC Greyhound bus brought about fifteen couples back to the Holiday Inn Express here in SLC where we will stay until early Thursday morning when another shuttle will deliver us to the airport for our flight east.

Thursday, June 28. 2018

Our adventure has begun!!!! We were up just after five this morning, showered, packed and repacked our bags, had a quick Holiday Inn breakfast,  were picked up by our shuttle service on the nose of seven thirty and were to the SLC airport by seven forty five. We thought we had repacked so efficiently, and redistributed the weight, but we should have left my heavy suitcase heavy, and not redistributed, because they ended up charging us $100 for each of our three barely over 50 pounds suitcases…oh my!!! Fortunately we know this will only happen once!! 

Yesterday (Wednesday) was wonderful!! Richard and I were to Mr. Mac about nine am and bought crisp, white short sleeved shirts - and are grateful to know he is equipped to survive the Halifax summer heat!! (haha) We sent his original on-line large short sleeved, home with Brad to distribute to anyone in need! 

Brad and Caylee picked us up shortly after our shopping, and we were thrilled to spend our first P-day with family exploring the pioneer ‘This is the Place’ park.  Great fun with Brad, Caylee, Berkley, Walker, Hudson, Sadey and Porter, Brendan, Megan and Macie, Aaron, Jennie, Isabelle, Luke, Max, Charlotte, Jane and Peter, Mark, Brittney, Briar, Dottie, and Vimy.

Jennie had booked Timpanogos Cave tour times so we headed to Mt. Timp next. What an incredible workout…with the 100 degree heat, and the steady climb, my fitbit showed a sustained heart rate hovering around 150, and I was sure I would either throw up or pass out; neither of which happened. In a very long exhausting hour we reached the caves. 

Mark, with only one bar on his cellphone received the exciting email that he had been accepted into the faculty of education at the U of L starting in September!!!  Miracle #3!!! 

After an hour in the caves, we were all tired and hungry, but Briar, Dottie, Vimy and Macie were especially so. Our descent down the mountain was quick, and we were all ready to get food, and head to Rosenthal’s for a swim. Mandy Bullock had arranged for us to finish our evening in her brother and sister in law’s (David and Denise Rosenthal) pool. We all loved cooling off, and unwinding!!  Vernon and Janet were there too. Just before leaving Denise asked if we wanted to go inside and have a family prayer, which we did with Brad offering the heart felt prayer, praying for peace and safety for all of us. He expressed gratitude for Richard and I, and for the faith that we had been blessed with from both the Hamilton and the Low families. We were in a heap of tears again as we hugged and bid our dear ones farewell. Oh my goodness…I keep thinking we are going to do this…we know we can, we know we can…  

The four hour flight to Boston was lovely…skies below were almost totally clear so we could see beautiful mountains, prairies, and great lakes far below. Arrived in Boston around 4:30 and because of rainstorms in the east,  planes were grounded for awhile which put us into Halifax about 1 am. President and Sister Pratt were patiently waiting for us and drove us to the Mission Home.

Richard and I took a quick tour around the lovely home, and fell into bed. A short night!! 

Pratt’s were back the next morning at nine, along with our movers who I might add did a great job not forgetting, or breaking a single thing! President and Sister Pratt spent about three hours orienting us….and…YES we are overwhelmed with the magnitude of this new calling!! Oh my goodness there is so much to remember!! After our orientation at the Mission Home we headed to the Office and were introduced to our amazing senior couples who do such a great job running the mission; the Jacoda’s, the Priest’s, Sister Arnold - our nurse, and the Boyle’s. The lunch staple at the Office are Subway sandwiches, and it was fun to interact with our new friends!

We stopped at the mall which is a block from our home and got supplies like shampoo, Bath and Body plug in room refreshers (our home does smell a bit musty/mildewy).  We both inherited new mission phones so we also purchased cellphone covers. 

Our new office friends joined us for a Costco lasagne/caesar salad, and garlic bread supper at the Mission Home. The windowed dining room is a dream with a massive table, lovely stocked china cabinet, and a sideboard filled with cutlery for 40! The table is massive but we couldn’t quite fit 15 folks around so set up another table at the end of the dining room.

Joanne our helper is so wonderful, and is just like Dora or Esther…she is a worker, and helped prepare, serve, and pretty much did all the clean up. She is worth her weight in gold. We are the sixth mission president she has worked for. I hope I don’t work her too hard… she is a lovely  endowed church member, but her husband is not active….YET!!!  She said several times…just tell me what you want me to do.  We are finding it a challenge to get unpacked since we have been on the go every waking hour, and that is why this report is taking forever to finish. I will try to get a bit more written tomorrow. Sorry it will seem like a book when I finally get caught up…You actually do not even need to read it…..it will be our mission journal…

Monday, July 2, 2018

Happy 13th Anniversary David and Danielle!! Hope you had a wonderful day - we did leave a message on David’s phone!! You were probably at the Whitbeck party in Raymond..and maybe at the fireworks!!

Our bed and breakfast in Yarmouth was five star…a two hundred year old restored Victorian home that Brenda the owner said was built by a sea captain. It had fallen into major disrepair so she spent three years totally redoing it, and she was a purist doing everything topnotch…lovely room, and wonderful breakfast.

Our trip from Darmouth through the verdant Annapolis Valley, along the Harvest Highway, the  Evangeline Trail and the Miners Memorial Highway was breathtaking. Verandah bedecked farmhouses were around every corner, and I wanted to stop at every one….I can’t rave enough about the incredible scenery we loved! Massive old barns with stacks of hardwood firewood accompanied every beautiful home, and often there were sweeping perennial beds with blooming peonies, rhododendrons, stately delphinium and sometimes a perfect vegetable patch too. We passed through many quaint little towns all with at least one church, and often two or three, and many had wonderful old cemeteries adjoining - so European..And,  it was laundry day so many, many homes had laundry drying on the line…(Jan you would fit right in!!!)

Even with the gorgeous scenery we are seeing, and loving, can you guess what the best part of our driving has been???I’ll tell you…it has been listening to YOU read the BOOK OF MORMON to us. Oh how we love that gift…I hope we have thanked you all enough for that perfect Christmas gift. Know that we will enjoy that for the rest of our days!!!

A big shout out also to our missionaries….who we love!! It has been such a thrill to meet Elder and Sister Livingstone, Elder Kearsley, Elder Layton, Sister Degraffenreid, Sister Hawkins, Sister Soucie, Sister Swenson, Elder Henstra, Elder Fullmer, Sister Cahoon, Sister Davenport, Elder Juaroc, Elder Gessel, Elder Doucette, Elder Jones, Sister Barlow, Sister Green, Elder Williams, Elder Williams(they are companions!), Elder Bringhurst, Elder McArthur, Elder Clark, and Elder Call. We spend about an hour with each companionship in their home or apartment…first we get to know them, then President Low takes each missionary into the other room for a bottlebrush interview, while I get to visit with the other missionary in the living room. It is so fun to get to know them!!! All our memorizing names and faces really did help!! We know this is where we need to be. Dad has already given blessings to several who needed extra help. 

AND NOW Iam going to try and transfer this letter from pages into my email….I sure hope I do not delete it!!

Sorry for the gaps in days…I still intend to record more feelings, and experiences from the MTC, but I think I will just record those my journal!

I’ll send this off with much loveXOXOXOXOX Richard and Gayle, Grandpa and Grandma

CTR Choose the Right and Current Temple Recommend (David Boucher) Keep Smiling!!!