Saying Goodbyes

We were invited to a dinner with some members from the Pittsburgh 2nd Ward at the Diffendafers.  Those who came were the Christensen’s, Browns, Burnetts, Sister Gray, Brother Smith, Elder and Sister Christensen and us.   We left early to attend the baptism of Brother Bugher. 

            

Elders Lovejoy, Huber and Shumway all taught Bob the gospel.  His sweet mother, Phyllis, has been a member for over 40 years and and had been trying to get Bob to accept the Gospel.  We were blessed to be there when he did. 

              

We took the AP’s, Elder Gerratt and Elder Christensen, out to dinner at Al’s since Elder Christensen was being transferred.  We have worked closely with them in the office.  Elder Gerratt and Elder Collier are now the AP’s.

We had dinner in Wheeling with the Olivers and said our goodbyes to their family and Tom and Dottie. We love our Wheeling friends so much and will really miss them all.

            

The 2nd ward had a farewell party for the Browns after church and kindly included us in the farewell.  We have a lot of good friends we will miss here too.  Sister Schieffer has been especially close to us since we went to the DC Temple with her when she received her endowments.

We have been blessed with so many good friends in the Wheeling and Pittsburgh 2nd Wards.  It’s hard to say goodbye.

We keep working and playing

 

                                       

Terry and Marilyn Lotz came out to Pittsburgh to see us for a few days.  We were able to arrange things at the office to show them around the area.  We made it to another Pirates game where the Pirates lost to the Giants; there first loss in 10 games.  It was hot and humid and we were glad we were not in the sun. 

              

             

The next day we visited Falling Waters, the creation of the architectural genius Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was given to and is preserved by the Pennsylvania Preservation Society and is in really good shape for an old home build over a water falls.  It was a second home for the Kauffman family, early retailers from Pittsburgh.  It was a 2 hour train ride from Pittsburgh and a year-round retreat from the pollution of the city.  Much of the home is cantilevered over a water falls.   It was fun to visit with Terry and Marilyn. 

             

              

That evening we drove to Wheeling and were able to show the Lotz some of our first area.  We were invited to dinner at the home of Chuck and Patty Wylie along with the Allens and the Barkers.  We had a wonderful evening having our two worlds meet and listening to the Wheeling friends recount their conversion stories.  We will always love these dear friends.

We are very grateful to Terry and Marilyn for taking the time out of their busy week to come spend a few days with us.  We are experiencing many “lasts” as we prepare to wind down this mission adventure.  We have seen many tender mercies in this work and have enjoyed this opportunity for service in the Lord’s vineyard.

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.