The Wedding

Thursday, February 27, 2014

We left early Monday morning, February 17 and drove all the way from Sierra Vista to Provo, Utah to stay at our daughter Kimberlee’s home. It took us about 13 hours driving. It was a beautiful day, the roads were very good and we had a very nice trip. I do think that I am getting too old for these marathon drives however. We spent Monday night and Tuesday morning at Kim’s place. Our grandchildren were happy to see us and we were excited to see them. We got to spend a few hours playing with, reading stories, and enjoying them. Tuesday morning after we got up, we were just puttering around the house when our little Evaleen, who just turned 4 years old, came up to me and with a very serious tone said, “Grandpa, you're not wearing your badge.” She was referring to my missionary badge. I repented right away and put it on. It is amazing how observant our little children are. It taught me a wonderful lesson about always being on my best behavior and being a good example at all times and in all places. People are aware of who we are and expect certain behavior, this applies whether we are a missionary or not.

Tuesday, we drove to Logan and spent some quality time with Grandma Jane and my sister, Linda. Both of them seem to be doing well. Wednesday we drove back to Salt Lake City in a driving snowstorm. It reminded me why I like winter here in Arizona. Wednesday evening we went to dinner with Amy, Christian, and Christian’s parents. After a wonderful dinner and some visiting, we went to a temple session in the Jordon River Temple. That was our temple when we lived in South Jordon many years ago. Thursday and Friday were spent helping get ready for the wedding. RoLayne spent most of both days with Amy while I tried to stay busy fixing a few simple things at Lisa and Eric’s place.

Saturday was the big day and it started early. The wedding was at 9:40AM at the Salt Lake Temple. Christian’s great Uncle who is an emeritus member of the Seventy married them. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Newlyweds coming out of the temple

All our relatives at the temple

 

Our Children and the new husband

 

Bride and her Grandma

The ceremony was followed by pictures next to the temple and a wonderful luncheon provided by the Lawrence family.

Amy, Christian, his  parent and brother and sister at the luncheon

 We were excited to have all our children and grandchildren in town for the wedding and reception. The reception was held at a beautiful reception center and was to begin at 7:00PM. By 6:45, people were lined up so we started the reception line early. There was not a break until almost 9:30PM as people stood in line for up to an hour to see the newlyweds. It was almost overwhelming. We had a large group of relatives from all sides of the families as well as friends we have not seen for many years. It was wonderful but very tiring.

Our Children, Spouses, and Grandchildren

Sunday, we got up and attended sacrament meeting with my aunt and uncle that we stayed with. We then had a nice lunch with them and went to Lisa’s to watch Amy and Christian open presents. People were so generous and they were so pleased with everything that they got. For those who may have sent a card or gift to Amy’s address and had it returned, there was a problem with the Post Office not recognizing their address as it is a new basement apartment. They now have that problem fixed, so if you want to try again, they should receive your card or gift. The most exciting event of the day for me was when I slammed three fingers in the car door. Oh, did that hurt. I am fine, but will probably lose a couple of fingernails. Other than that small event, it was a marvelous week. We left Sunday afternoon and drove to St George, spent the night, and then drove on to Sierra Vista on Monday. We arrived home about 8:00pm tired, but happy and grateful that we were able to be at the wedding. I will update you all on our missionary activities during my next blog entry.

Willcox, Arizona

Friday, February 14, 2014

Well, Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone and Happy Birthday to our son-in-law Dusty. Wednesday, we drove to Willcox, Arizona to finish our vehicle inspections. The St David Zone was meeting together in Willcox so we felt it was a good opportunity to inspect all of  the vehicles in the zone. As we arrived in Willcox, we once again ran into our mission president. If you remember from last week’s  post, we bumped into he and Sister Killpack in the visitor center at the Mesa Temple. I guess they were at the Willcox meeting to conduct interviews with the missionaries. We completed our inspections and decided to take a little time to see the sights in Willcox. Now, if you are not familiar with this small town of about 3,900 residents, it seems that it is home to the oldest store in Arizona, or so they claim. 

Arizona's oldest store, open Thur, Fri, Saturday

Historic Downtown Willcox

It is also the birthplace of Rex Allen and they have a museum for him here. It started as a railroad town and I suppose it has not grown too much since then. It is named after a general named Wilcox, who stopped here for a short visit. The town council voted years later to change the spelling to Willcox,

Museum

Elder H and Rex Allen, forgot my mandolin

Huge Tree in Railroad Park, Historic Willcox (note railroad to right comes through town)

I do not know why. We did have lunch in a railroad car restaurant named the Big Tex BBQ. The food was really quite good and the atmosphere quaint.

The Restaurant

The Smoker next to Big Tex BBQ

Inside the Big Tex BBQ Retaurant

This trip was probably the highpoint of our week. It has been a slow week. We will be leaving for Utah on Monday to attend the wedding of our daughter Amy. Needless to say, we are really excited about that. We plan to try to drive all the way to Kim’s place on Monday, if the weather is good and if I can hold up to drive that far. We will then plan to travel to Logan to visit Grandma Jane and Linda on Tuesday. We will return to meet Christian’s parents on Wednesday. The wedding is on Saturday at 9:40AM in the Salt Lake Temple with a luncheon and reception to follow in the evening. After church on Sunday, we will start our journey back to Sierra Vista to resume our duties.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

We had a good day today. We got to meet a new soldier who has arrived. One of the soldiers who got engaged over the holidays had his fiance there today as she is visiting for the weekend. We also said goodbye to the wife and daughters that we were just getting to know. Their husband/father is graduating March 6 and we will be gone until just before graduation and the wife is driving to California to visit family this week. It is joyful and sad to see the soldiers that we have gotten to know and love graduate and leave. We are so happy for them, but we will miss them. Well, we are packing up tonight and plan to leave early tomorrow for Utah. Hope to see many of you soon. To the rest, we will post again when  we get time.

Busy, Busy

Saturday, February 08, 2014

We just returned from a trip to the Mesa temple today with the soldiers. It was a really long day as we left at 6:00AM and returned about 6:00PM this evening. We were hoping for a large group to travel with us, but, the army had other ideas and scheduled some training for most of the soldiers. We did have 4 soldiers who attended the temple and two come with us who are not members, so we still count it as a success. Those who could not attend the temple went to the visitor's center and seemed to enjoy themselves. As we were walking through the visitor’s center after the session, we bumped into our mission president and his wife. Glad I sent him a text to let him know we were leaving the mission today to take the troops to the temple.

Soldiers that went to temple. Two on outside front row are not members

This post will be short as we have another long day scheduled tomorrow. We have our normal meetings at the Huachuca Ward as well as the servicemen group in the afternoon. After we feed the soldiers, we will head to Tucson for an Addiction Recovery Training meeting. I expect we will not be home before 10:00PM. I think I am getting too old for this pace, but it is very rewarding.

This week we started inspecting vehicles again. We will try to finish up before we head to Utah on Monday, February 17. I think we are planning to drive to the wedding at this point. We are getting excited to see family and attend Amy’s wedding.

We had a good night at the Coffee house activity last night. We fed more than 300 soldiers. It was nice to mingle and chat with them. 

Sunday, February 9, 2014
We just returned from Tucson where we attended a regional training session for the Church's Addiction Recovery Program. We are considering starting a program on post for the military folks. It was really inspiring to listen to some of the success stories coming from folks who work the program in South Arizona. We had a long but enjoyable day today. The soldiers gave some great talks in Sacrament meeting and we had a really good attendance. I think I will keep it short and close for tonight. We understand that our hometown Vancouver has been experiencing some rather severe weather. In fact we heard that church was cancelled today so it really must be bad. We hope you are able to weather it OK. The forecast for Sierra Vista tomorrow is for clear skies and 75 Degrees.....Sorry.

Babies and gunfighters

Thursday, January 30, 2014

We had a wonderful Group Conference last Sunday. There were several visitors from the stake, including the entire stake presidency. They sustained a new assistance group leader to serve with Brother Kovacs. His name is Brother Gonzales. He is still active in the Army Reserves and serves as a full time civilian working for the army. I think he is going to be great. His wife is really sweet and is from Columbia.

New Assistant Group Leader and his wife

I noticed the soldiers already making a connection with him on Sunday. Outside of Sunday meetings, the soldiers really cannot associate with permanent party military folks other than their instructors or those in their chain of command. We hosted a baked potato bar after the meeting and the stake presidency all stayed along with our young FT missionaries. All in all, it was a great day.

Stake Presidency enjoying Lunch with the Soldiers

This week has been about as routine as a week could be for us. We had no inspections scheduled but we did stop and visit the new mother and baby on Tuesday. RoLayne got to be a grandma for a little while and hold a new born baby. That was probably one of her highlights of the week. 

Sister Heninger with Baby Isla (pronounced eyela)

Yesterday, President and Sister Killpack attended our district meeting. I think they had some interviews to conduct. It was nice to have them there. The new District Leader, Elder Chamberlain did a nice job of conducting the training session.

Today, we had some free time so we took a quick drive over to Tombstone to check it out for a future visit with family or friends. It is only about 18 miles from Sierra Vista. It was the first time we have gone there since we have been down here. It was kind of funny, this burly gentleman with a big bushy beard stopped us on the street to talk. I wasn't sure if he was a homeless person looking for a handout or one of  the locals. As it turns out,  he is the blacksmith in town and is a member of the church. He said that he is a ward missionary and often accompanies the Sister missionaries at night in Tombstone as they are not allowed out alone after dark. I wouldn't mess with him. We also talked to a couple of other folks who stopped us on the street. Just as we were headed back to the car, we spotted the sister missionaries from St David. They were headed to an appointment with a member of their ward, a sister Judd. They cover Tombstone as part of their area. It was interesting to bump into them. If any of you come to visit us, we will take you to Tombstone. It is worth an afternoon to check out the shops, see all the period dressed folks, and take in the shootout at the OK corral.

Stagecoach is more than 150 years old, or so they say. And I thought I drove an old vehicle

Not sure if the mules are 150 years old, though they acted like it.

 RoLayne had an interesting experience last Sunday. There is a family that moved into the ward named Pettijohn (not sure about the spelling). Anyway, the wife is from the Tri-Cities area so RoLayne thought that she might know our daughter-in-law's family. As it turns out, she did not. She asked how long we have lived in Vancouver. When RoLayne told her, she asked if we knew Jeff and Terri Johnson. She also said, Heninger, that name sounds familiar. Before RoLayne could tell her that our daughter used to baby sit for the Johnsons and was very good friends with them, she said, “Lisa Heninger” You're Lisa’s parents! As it turns out, she is Terri Johnson’s younger sister and said she was their kid’s favorite aunt, except that they liked Lisa better. It was amazing that she knew Lisa and again shows how small the world of the church is. Even with 16 million members, we are always bumping into someone we know or who knows someone we know.

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Well, today was another good day spent with the soldiers at the Fort. This weekend we are headed back to the Mesa Temple with the soldiers. We will try to give you a report next time. We hope that you are all well and enjoying your lives.