More Family!!!

We enjoyed a wonderful few days with Mindy, Ryan and family.  They flew into Harrisburg and enjoyed a day at Hershey Park while we finished up with our Zone Conferences.  We spent the night in Hershey with them and the next day drove to Lancaster area to visit the Amish Country. 

            

           

We visited the two communities of Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse. 

                                           

After visiting the Amish we drove to Gettysburg and visited the Visitors Center and the Cemetery where the casualties of the Union Army are buried from that battle and where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.

              

                                       

We drove back to Pittsburgh and went to Wheeling for church on Sunday so they could enjoy a Wheeling experience and meet all of our good friends there.  They also had a Pittsburgh experience seeing the overlooks and riding the incline down Mt. Washington.

                                        

They spent a day at Carnegie Science Center and capped off their stay with a wild game of miniature golf at South Park.  We loved spending some time with them and being in awe of how big the kids have grown over the last 18 months.  Thanks to all of our family who have taken the time to come visit the mission.  WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Another fun visit from family

 

     

Casey, Lindsey, Carly and Holland came to Pittsburgh to see us. They only had to drive 2 hours because they moved this week to Cleveland, OH.  They moved to Utah just before we left on our mission and they moved to Cleveland just weeks before we move back to Utah.  Now we have a good excuse to come back and visit.  We had fun showing them downtown Pittsburgh and then a day in Wheeling.  We loved seeing them. Holland was born while we were on our mission so we had never seen her.  Needless to say, she wasn’t as thrilled as Grandpa and GG were.

                       

We got to take another trip last week to Kirtland with the Pittsburgh 2nd Ward.  It was fun to see again with new people. Since we had such a large group and were all LDS, we got to sit in the main-floor room where Joseph Smith received the keys from Moses, Elijah, and Elias and sing “The Spirit of God”.  It was a very spiritual experience.

                       

We made sure we made it to the John Johnson Farm this time.  We have run out of time on our other visits and never made it out there.  It’s about a 45 minute drive out of Kirtland.  We toured the farm with Sister Rosa, Marissa, Autumn and the Steffenhauers.  Elder Green caught a quick power nap before he had to drive us home.

                

We had another transfer this week.  It went pretty smoothly until Elder Penn pulled the truck and trailer into the church parking lot and caught one of the mission cars’ rear fender.  He was going home so he had his first car accident of his mission the last 10 seconds of his mission driving experience.  He is a former Fleet Coordinator and he was the only fleet coordinator who hadn’t had an accident after he got released.  I told Rod it stops with him.

Elder Coleman was taught how to knit by a member and he has gone crazy knitting ties and hats. They actually look pretty good.  Elder Glover is modeling his tie with Elder Heinrich admiring it.

Our time is winding down fast and we still have a bucket list of things we want to do.  I can tell we are going to have to come back and visit to get it all done. 

Memorial Day

              

              

Pittsburgh 2nd ward has an annual Memorial Day picnic at South Park in the East Rise Pavilion.  We ran to the office to get some cars ready to show and then went to the breakfast.  We have good friends in the 2nd ward now.  It was a beautiful day but hot and humid.

             

We got to see another Pirates game. This time with the Christensens.  It was their first time at a professional baseball game.  The rain came down in sheets for about an hour and then the game got underway.  The Reds beat the Pirates 8-1.  The temperature was warm so we enjoyed the rain up under the overhang of the deck above us.

              

                                                

We had fun meeting the Brenchleys in Somerset on Saturday.  They had come back to visit their daughter and family in Hershey and drove to Somerset to visit where they had served for a year.  They were staying at a B&B they had stayed at for the first two weeks in the mission field.  Carol, the owner, had become a good friend.  She shared with us her days-old baby skunk.  It’s name is Cush.  It’s mother had been killed on the highway and they had found the baby abandoned. She was deciding whether to keep it or not and get it de-scented.  It really was cute and cuddly.  Carol milks goats and makes goat milk cheese and fudge. She says her favorite is the cheese cake from goat cheese.  They raise chickens and have lots of cats too. Her B&B is beautiful and decorated with hedgehogs and porcupines.  WIsh we had known about this when the girls came here with us.

                                    

These are the Elders in our Zone and the ones we teach the Book of Mormon Class with.  Elders Mackintosh and Shumway are the Pittsburgh 2nd ward elders and the moving elders for the mission.  They drive the new Chevy pickup so they can get apartments moved in and out of.  Elders Deaton and Heinrich are the Zone Leaders and Elders Gerratt and Christensen are the APs.  We love them all.

                                         

Elder and Sister Neal just arrived this week and are from Nampa, ID.  They are our new CES couple.  They are going to be loved by the young adults.             

We love all of our missionaries and are happy to be serving in the mission office and getting to know them all. 

More family, Yay!

We loved having Tyson and Jamie come visit us in Pittsburgh.  They are the first family to visit since we moved to Pittsburgh from Wheeling.  We miss our family so much and love when they can visit.

             

              

We saw Pittsburgh from all three overlooks.  Fortunately it was good weather and only rained occasionally.

                                      

We took what they call the “Just Ducky Tour” and learned a lot about the city of Pittsburgh itself.  They have taken WWII amphibious machines and turned them into tour busses. We drove around down town Pittsburgh with a tour guide, learning about it’s history and buildings.  Then we drove right into the river and toured the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers for a bit.  The funnest bit of information I learned was why Pittsburgh is so crazy to get around in.  We were told that two different engineers planned the city. One started from one end and the other started from the opposite end and worked towards the middle, never thinking they would meet because there was a hill between them, but over the years they have dug out the hill  and it is now Grant Street.   There really is no rhyme or reason as to why the streets run like they do. 

              

We took another day and drove to Kirtland, OH and toured the Church history sites.  There is such an amazing spirit at the Church sites and we loved visiting with the site missionaries who serve there.  One of the couples was in the MTC with us, the Symes, and it was fun to catch up with them.  Jami had never been to Kirtland and it was fun sharing it with her.  Kirtland is about 2 1/2 hours from Pittsburgh.

             

We drove to Wheeling and showed them some of our favorite places and they got to meet some of the people we grew to love so.  That evening we went to a Pirates game. It was free T-shirt night so we all got our souvenir Pirates shirts.

We really enjoyed playing hooky from the office for a couple of days and loved having Tyson and Jami come experience some of our mission with us. 

Flat Stanley comes again

We had Flat Stanley come visit us again.  This time Easton sent him to us.  We got to spend time at the office, he went to primary in the Pittsburgh 2nd ward, he helped with a service day at the church and he got to see the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Denver Rockies. 

              

This time President and Sister Topham went to the ballgame with us.  We got rained out on the Monday night game so we got to go to a Wednesday day game instead.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  President and Sister Topham have taken Flat Stanley touring around the mission also so they were quite familiar with him.

              

We had a ward service day and Flat Stanley got to help Elder Green vacuum the building.   He also went on team-ups with Elders Mackintosh and Huber.

               

He visited with Elder and Sister Bowcutt in the office and got to be the fleet coordinator for a day. 

                                      

He also got to say good bye to Elder and SIster Marshall as they were leaving the Mission to go home to Cortez.  We are really going to miss them.

                             

We  enjoyed another trip to the Washington, DC temple with Brian and Amanda O’Connor from the Ward.  Brian’s mother, Theresa Schieffer, was there to receive her endowments and it was fun to be there with her.  She’s become a good friend.  We are enjoying our service in the Mission Office, doing what ever we can to help the mission work go forward. 

More new missionaries

With the new changes for Senior Missionaries, we have been getting more couples here in the mission.  This week the Abbotts from Yorba Linda, CA arrived and will spend 6 months in Lock Haven, PA doing MLS.  There youngest of seven sons is serving his mission so they decided to serve while he was.  They wanted a Pittsburgh experience before they took off across the state so we took them down town to see the sites and then out to dinner with the Bowcutts.  It was fun to talk MLS with them since we had spent a year doing that in Wheeling.  We are so excited for them.

            

Last week we got to take a drive to Punxsutawney, PA to take a new car to some elders.  We met the Mudgetts, the Senior Couple serving there, and had lunch with them and the elders and took a tour of the city.  It’s a quaint little town that used to have its own branch until they combined three branches to form a ward.  Phil is, of course, the celebrity there and we got to see him and all the statues they have of him. 

              

He actually lives in the city library and comes out once a year to see if he sees his shadow or not. 

                                        

Our cute AP’s, Elder Hatch and Elder Christensen, brought us dinner one night at the office when we were working late.  They had made chicken noodle soup that was delicious.

           

We also had a lovely dinner at the Mission Home hosted by President and Sister Topham.  It was for Elder and Sister Marshall who are going home soon.  The Christensens and the Bowcutts were there too.  The advantage of working in the office is being able to associate so closely with the Tophams.  They are wonderful people and we have learned to really love and appreciate them.  We know what ever work we are called to do helps the Gospel to be shared.  We are grateful to be serving our Savior at this time and in this way.