April 19-25, 2010

The big news this week has been that airplanes began to fly again throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, so missionaries in Norway moved to their assigned new locations on Wednesday as planned and those who were being released actually got to travel home.  For us, it was to see Elder Bartholomew travel to Kristiansand to become a senior companion. Elder Tedrow arrived here at about noon to replace him. Elder Tedrow is from Springville, UT and his family is good friends with Stephanie’s parents. He arrived in Norway back in mid-February and has been serving in Stavanger.  Sister Engebretsen returned to Provo and home and family (arrived safe and sound but several hours late) and Sister West, from England came to replace her serving with Sister Molholt.  Sister West has been in Norway for about a year and has most recently served in Bergen after the first 4 months in Oslo. We were sad to see the “old” ones leave, but happy to welcome the new.

We have spent a fair amount of time this week with the moves.  President Johansen held a conference call with all the missionaries on Monday night at 10 p.m. and told them that the flights were beginning to occur, so he planned to go forward with the moves as scheduled (even though on Sunday morning he had said they probably would not be occurring until the new missionaries from the MTC arrived).  Sister Engebretsen had been assuming she had another month to serve, so had not been making preparations to go home.  On Tuesday night, we picked her and Sister Molholt up in the student housing area at about 9:30 p.m. and helped her get things packed.  We put her two large suitcases in the car and took them with us at about 12:30 a.m. and were to pick the sisters up again at 5 a.m. to get her to the airport.  At about 4:20, Sister Engebretsen called and said, “I can’t find my wallet anywhere, it must be in one of the suitcases.”  Nancy had packed the larger of the two and was certain it was not there, but Sis Engebretsen had started packing the smaller of the two before she finished, so she told me where it might be and I went to the car (it is now dawn at that time of day) and sure enough, it was where she said it might be—crisis avoided. We got her to the airport (no tickets on the way to Hell) and watched her through security then returned home for breakfast and preparation for the day. We spent the day as Sis Molholt’s companions.  We taught a young woman they have been meeting with for the past couple of weeks. Nina is a student and comes from Stavanger.  She is been coming to church and other activities and is very delightful.  After that, it was begin preparations for Institute dinner while Sis Molholt taught with some of the members as her companion.  After institute, we took Sis Molholt to the airport to meet Sis West on a 9:00 p.m. flight from Bergen. By the time we got back to our apt it was about 11 p.m. Having only had about 3 hours sleep Tuesday night, we were ready for a good night’s sleep. 

On Thursday, since the weather is much better now, we drove out to Meråker (about 1-1/2  hour out of town) to visit a member whom we have not visited for a few months, then stopped to visit another older couple on the way back to town.  They recently returned from their winter in Spain.

Friday was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk.  Nadia, one of our young adults, was enjoying the sunshine and reading.  So  we joined her on the bench and soaked up a little sun.

Friday evening we had a “cooking night” with the Young single adults and missionaries. They all like the chicken noodle soup Nancy makes (thanks to Stephanie for the recipe) so she thought it would be good to teach them to make it. She had all the ingredients in the kitchen, with instructions for preparation of each ingredient taped to the front of the cupboard doors. This way 2 or 3 could work together on each part and then put it all together to cook. She also had ingredients and instructions for rice krispie treats and 3 of the young men prepared them.  After the dinner was cooked, it was served and we all enjoyed a tasty dinner.  There were 26 present, including about 6 investigators. After dinner, they made dessert—ice cream made in zip-lock baggies—It was fun and tasty.  After all the ice cream had been made and eaten, they cleared the tables and set up the volleyball net and played volleyball.  The last of the group finished playing at about 10:30 and we went home happy and tired. The evening was a very big success!!

 Saturday was busy with sports with the young single adults, after which we took the sisters to visit a member who lives near us—Jan-Erik Carlsen—who was celebrating his 78^th birthday.  Nancy had made rice krispie treats, which has become one of his favorites.  Then it was back to the church to meet Terje Dorr so we could once again make a trip to the Trondhiem fjord for an “ice bath”. This time we were joined by Corrie, a young woman from the Netherlands who will be baptized next Saturday. She loves to swim and when I mentioned to her during the week that I had accompanied Terje there the previous Saturday, she said she would like to do that.  So like the tradition of diving into the Columbia on New Year’s Day, which started with Alison and I, this event appears to be growing.  I told several of the young single adults that we would go swimming in the fjord next New Year’s day.  After we came out of the water and had climbed the stairs up to the top deck, Corrie said, “shall we do it again?”  So it was back down the steps and dive in once more.

Saturday evening we joined the sisters as they taught two investigators—Torgeorge and Nina. We watched a church video about the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was very good and the Spirit was strong.  While Nancy practiced the piano afterward for a while, I vacuumed the building and then we headed home for dinner.  We had to go to the store for something and on the way passed a McDonalds. She said some French fries sounded good, so we got in the drive thru. They were advertising a new (at least to us) chicken, bacon and onion sandwich, which sounded good, so that was dinner.  We have stopped at McDonalds once before to buy a milkshake.  It is not something we do often, as a meal costs about $15.00 for each of us.

Today was a beautiful day (still is) with warm sun and a wonderful spirit in church. There were 81 people in church today, including 15 investigators. It is exciting to see the growth that is occurring here. When we arrived last fall, the attendance was between 40 and 50.  We feel blessed to be here and witness the exciting things that are happening with the church in Norway.  We have great young missionaries, supportive members and people who are interested in learning more about Jesus Christ and His gospel.

We pray that all is well with each of you.

Love,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/Nana and granddad

April 24th

Today sunrise was listed as 4:18am with sunset at 10:13 pm.  Our days are getting longer by 6 minutes a day.

Happy birthday to me - Alison :)

It is already April 20 here in Norway, so we want to be the first ones to wish you a Happy Birthday!!!  It hardly seems possible that it has been 31 years since you entered the world and blessed our family.  Now you continue to bless our family as well as your own and Jeff's plus many others whom you help and influence. April 20 is starting out as a pretty day here, but the clouds are moving in and it will be overcast for a period, but we are hopeful that the sun will come through several times throughout the day.  The weather changes here almost by the minute--sun, rain, cloudy, snow, sun, etc.  We can see it all in a very short period of time.

The airlines are flying again, so missionary transfers will be taking place tomorrow. We will be losing Sis. Engebretsen, which will make us sad, but we will be getting Sis. West, which will make us happy.  I will probably get to make several airport runs tomorrow to deliver and pick up missionaries. In addition to the sisters, Elder Bartholomew will be moving to be a senior companion and we will be getting a new missionary (came to Norway in Feb.)--elder Tedrow. His grandparents are good friends with Doyle and Carolyn Davis (Stephanie's parents). 

We have our district meeting today and then we will be teaching an investigator with the sisters later in the afternoon.  I think mom will be helping Sis Engebretsen pack tonight.

I assume you have seen the blog video of my dip in the Trondheim fjord.  It is not as much fun as diving in the Columbia and swimming to shore. There is no good shore to swim to at this location on the fjord--just a wall.  

We enjoy seeing your pictures and comments on your blog. Your children are growing too fast!! We love to hear Abby talk when we Skype. Hope you are feeling good still and staying healthy.

Here are a couple of photos of mom playing "bump" with the missionaries for P-day yesterday.

love and Happy Birthday.

mom and dad

Sjobadet

Here are pictures of the diving/swimming area

DIP IN TRONDHEIM FJORD-PART 2

Last Sunday I overheard a conversation between Harald Myhren and Terje Dorr, in which Terje said something about having taken an "ice bath" in the fjord. I asked about it and he said he goes to a place called "Sjøbadet" where one can get into the fjord. I told him to call me next time he was going and by the end of the conversation, we had agreed to meet at the church at 2 p.m. the next Saturday. At the appointed hour, we met and I changed into my swim suit, sweat pants and a sweat shirt and the three of us (Terje, Nancy and I) drove to the closest place we could park. He said one used to be able to park right next to the dressing rooms, but they are now building a new road between the fjord and the train station and it is necessary to walk about 300 meters to get to the bathing area. The walk was on a narrow path between the construction and the train tracks, up a ladder to cross the road construction, down a ladder on the other side, then along another narrow walkway between the road and some buildings, around the side of the bathhouse to the swimming area. There are change rooms, a large deck area with a diving board (about 10' above the water) and 2 diving platforms about 15 and 25 feet above the water--we did not use either of these. There was also a set of stairs going down to the water--we used these. The bottom stairs were in the water about waist deep. When we got to that point, we stepped off, getting our whole body under the water, then came back up the stairs to make the journey back out. It was fun, but not as fun as diving off the dock into the Columbia. Terje said the sea is still about zero degrees Celcius, so it was cold and I was glad we did not dive off.

Trondheim Fjord

Last week at church I overheard a conversation between Harald Myhren and Terje Dorr, in which Terje said something about going to an "ice bath" in the fjord. I asked if he went in the fjord this time of year and he said, "yes". I asked where and he replied to a place called "Sjøbadet" (sea bath). I asked when he would be going again and he said "Saturday". So I told him I was interested and to call me. We made arrangements to meet at the church at 2 p.m. on Saturday. At the appointed hour on Saturday, we met and I changed into my swim suit with a pair of sweat pants and sweat shirt. We (Terje, Nancy and I) then drove to a location near the place where he goes. He said you used to be able to drive right up to the small house the swim club has on the fjord, but they are now building a new highway that goes between the fjord and the train tracks, so we had to park (in a no parking area--but he put a note on the window saying "we are at sjøbadet. Went there at 2:30, shall be back in 30 minutes") The note must have worked, as I did not get a ticket or get towed. We had to walk about 300 meters, going down a small path between the construction area and the railroad tracks, climb up a ladder on one side of the new road surface and down on the other side, then again down a small path between the construction and a few buildings, then finally came to the bath house. There were dressing rooms to change in, a large deck area, a diving board about 10' above the water and two diving platforms about 15 and 25 feet above the water--we did not use either of these. There was also a set of stairs that went down from the deck to the water--we used these. It was not like diving into the Columbia River, as we just went to the bottom of the stairs (which was under water). At this point we were about up to our waist in wate, then sat down and submerged the rest of our body in the water, came up and climbed back up the stairs to change. The wind was blowing and there were white caps on the water, but we did not swim away from the stairs.

April 12 - 18, 2010

Attached is our update on activities in Trondheim for the past week. It is starting to look like spring--depending on when you look outside. It can quickly turn from warm and sunny to cold, windy, rain, snow or whatever else can come from the sky. so far we have not seen any ash falling.

The exciting thing this week has been the eruption of the volcano in Iceland which has grounded all planes in northern Europe.  We have not seen any other impacts—no ash on the ground, no dark skies—but for the missionaries who were going to be flying various places, it has been a rather large impact. This coming Wednesday (April 21) was to be “transfer day”.  Note the word “was”.  There were 7 missionaries in the mission scheduled to fly home on Thursday (April 22), one of those being sister Engebretsen who is serving here in Trondheim.  She got a call on Friday evening from one of the zone leaders telling her that all flights in Norway and other parts of northern Europe were cancelled as of Thursday morning and there was no scheduled time to resume flights, so her return was delayed for at least a week.  Other missionaries who were to be transferred to other cities from where they are currently serving would be traveling on Wednesday to their new cities and there were 5 new missionaries scheduled to arrive on Tuesday from the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  Now none of this will be occurring until the air space opens up again.  In priesthood meeting this morning, the counselor in the branch presidency who was conduction asked if there were any announcements and I told him that Sister Engebretsen would not be going home this week due to the volcanic eruption. He said, “the lesson today is on ‘Prayer works’ and we have just seen that—we did not want her to leave, so the Lord caused the volcano to erupt.”

We spent about an hour on Tuesday afternoon with the sisters out contacting people on the streets in town. We don’t do much of this and never on our own, so every once in a while they decide we need to experience street contacting and ask us to join them for an hour or so. It was a nice sunny day for most of the time, with occasional sprinkles, so it was a nice day to be out.  However it was not very productive as we only got one phone number to call back to a man from Yemen. 

We spent time visiting a few less active members of the branch, had a good family home evening meeting on Monday evening.  Sister Hansen, whose husband does the cleaning in the building baked a very tasty cake for the single adults as a “thank you” for the work they did the previous Friday evening in cleaning the building. We also had a well attended dinner on Wednesday evening before institute class.  One of the missionaries, Elder Bartholomew, cooked dinner for Wednesday evening—a tasty stir fry.  We shopped for the ingredients and he and the other elders did the preparation.  The remained of the cake from Monday was enjoyed after dinner on Wednesday.

Thursday evening the Relief Society had a scrapbooking evening which Nancy attended. She did not do any scrapbooking, but just enjoyed the time with the sisters and showed off her family pictures.

Saturday was to be the baptism for Corrie Dam, a young student from the Netherlands, but she decided on Wednesday evening to put it off until May 1 so her parents can come from the Netherlands to be a part of it.  We are excited that her parents desire to be here, as when she first discussed it with them a couple of months ago, they were very opposed to her joining the church.  At first her father was going to come on Friday evening because her mother had to work this weekend. Then she suggested that if they both wanted to come, she would put it off until both could be here. The earliest time they both could attend was May 1, so she told them she would wait. We told her she was inspired because if she had gone ahead with the baptism on Saturday, her father would not have been able to fly so neither of them would have been here. Corrie and the sisters came here for dinner on Saturday evening (cooked by Corrie), then we had a good discussion on the topic of the Godhead.  We have enjoyed watching the change in her over the past few months as she has gained a testimony of the gospel and has made the decision to be baptized. She is a lovely young lady (not to mention a wonderful cook)  and we are pleased to have her joining the church. She is a great addition to our group of young single adults here.

The other excitement this week was that I found a man in the branch who likes to take and “isbad” (ice bath) by getting in the fjord in the winter.  He told me he had been in the fjord the previous week and I told him to call me when he was going again, so we made arrangements to meet at the church on Saturday at 2 p.m.  We went to a place called “sjøbadet” (sea bath), a swimming area in the summer, complete with a diving board about 10’ above the water and two diving platforms at about 20 and 25’ above the water—we did not use either of these. There was a set of stairs that went down to the sea, with the bottom few steps under the water. We went down the stairs, then ducked under the water and climbed back up the stairs.  It was cold (Terje said it is still at zero C), but now I can say I have been in a Norwegian fjord. This summer I have a commitment to teach some of the young singles how to water ski.  Here is a picture of Terje Dorr and I preparing to get wet in the Trondheim fjord (that’s me on the left). Not a typical missionary activity, but this is not a typical mission. (pictures are in the previous post)

There were 72 people to church today, down from the 90 who attended last week, but still an improvement over the normal attendance. We are hoping this is the beginning of a good trend. It was exciting to see two of our less active young men in church today and we are hopeful they will continue to feel the spirit as they come and desire to be active and enjoy the full blessings of the gospel. The missionaries continue to have 6 to 8 investigators in attendance each week and it is exciting to see them as they begin to feel at home in the church. 

As I looked around the chapel today in Sacrament meeting, I reflected on the first time we attended here in August. We were asked to bear our testimonies and as I looked over the congregation, there was only one face that I recognized, that was Terjy Dorr, a man who had helped us when we stopped in Trondheim for church in May 2005 for a short while.  Today as I looked around, I could call everyone by name and had good feelings about our interactions with each of them.  Some are members and some are not, but we have grown to love them all and feel very much at home here.

Today was our fast and testimony day, as we had general conference on the first Sunday in April and last week was our branch conference. I was surprised when Nancy got up and bore her testimony in Norsk.  She is doing well with the language, but does not speak it much, as almost everyone speaks English with her, so she does not feel the pressure to speak Norsk.  I am proud of how well she is doing and the contributions she makes to the branch. After the branch conference last week, President Johansen said, “I had 4 people tell me to make sure that I don’t move the Sorensens”. It is nice to hear those things, but we know that it is the Lord that makes things happen, not us and we are pleased to be fortunate enough to be here in His service.

Sending our love to each of you,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad

A DIP IN TRONDHEIM FJORD-APRIL 17, 2010

I finally found someone who likes to get into cold water, so he invited my to join him today for a dip in the Trohdheim fjord at a location known as "sjobadet" (sea bath). We had to take a long walk (about 300 meters) from where we parked the car to where we entered the fjord, but finally arrived. I will post photos so you get a better idea of how it looks, but the water was COLD. Terje Dorr (the man I went with) said he thought the water was still at zero degrees centigrade. After getting in, I think I agree--it was colder than the Columbia. Anyway, now I can say I have been in a fjord.

Happy Birthday to......Kraig?? :)

Today I celebrated Kraig's birthday by taking a dip in the Trondheim fjord, since he was kind enough to ski for me on my birthday. Here are a couple of pictures of Terje Dorr and I preparing to dip into the fjord. I have posted video on our blogspot. Mom was the camera man and did a good job. Those who were with us in Norway in 2005 may recognize Terje, he was the man who helped us get set up for church in Trondheim and let us know when the cab was there to take us back to the boat.

Fun day!!!

 

 

I finally found someone who likes to get into cold water, so he invited my to join him today for a dip in the Trohdheim fjord at a location known as "sjobadet" (sea bath). We had to take a long walk (about 300 meters) from where we parked the car to where we entered the fjord, but finally arrived. I will post photos so you get a better idea of how it looks, but the water was COLD. Terje Dorr (the man I went with) said he thought the water was still at zero degrees centigrade. After getting in, I think I agree--it was colder than the Columbia. Anyway, now I can say I have been in a fjord.

A DIP IN TRONDHEIM FJORD-APRIL 17, 2010

Spring is coming

At least that is what the calendar says.  Someone forgot to tell the sky, as it is snowing this morning!! Hopefully it will not stay on the ground (or anywhere else), but it does remind us that we are a little north of the equator.  The days have been lovely and we are beginning to see green show up on the hillsides and a few buds beginning to appear on trees and bushes.

We were told yesterday that our new car should be at the dealership in Oslo the week of April 26. We plan to drive down to make the swap, but will probably not get around to doing it until the first week in May.  Hopefully the snow in the mountains will be gone by then, as I have already removed the snow tires. Hopefully the snow in the valleys will be gone by then also.

Life is still good in the Norway Oslo Mission. The young missionaries are bringing some good young people to church every week and they teach a lot of lessons.  We think there will be several baptized in May.

Love, 

mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/grandma and grandpa/nana and granddad

Iceland Volcano eruption - April 15, 2010

You have probably heard that there was a large volcanic eruption in Iceland earlier today.  We have not seen any effects of it here, except there are no airplanes flying anywhere in Scandanavia, Great Britian, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, several large airports in Germany and France have closed also.  Fortunately, we were not planning to fly anywhere in the next few days. One of the women here is leaving tonight on the train to go to Drammen. She said it was fortunate that she had bought her ticket earlier, as the trains are all sold out now.  Watching the news on TV reminded us of the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980.  

It has been raining off and on all day today, fortunately we chose to walk up to the store this morning when the rain was "off". We even got a little hail and snow, but it was nothing that stuck.  The hill out back is almost all brown now, as is the soccer field below the hill.

We are not being affected by the volcano, except for those who want to fly anywhere. All airports in Norway from Trondheim south are closed.  We don't see any ash falling from the sky--just rain and snow.  The Trondheim airport was open for about 6 hours yesterday (Friday) morning, but you could only fly to places North of here.  All of the major airports in Europe are closed--London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, etc. So even if you could fly out of here, you can't get anywhere.  Sister Engebretsen was scheduled to leave here next Wednesday to return home, having completed her mission, but she was told last night that her departure will be delayed for at least a week--could be longer, depending on when they open airports and get the crowds who are now stranded, out. She is on a bit of an emotional roller coaster as you might imagine.

We won't be going anywhere by train for a while either, as all the trains are booked.  Transfers for the missionaries should be occurring on Wednesday next week, but that is delayed also, as they have to fly or take the train. New missionaries should be arriving on Tuesday, but they won't be able to travel from the US because they can't land in Norway or any of the places in Europe where they would normally transfer.  I can't imagine what it must be like in the MTC travel department, with all of the missionaries who are scheduled to leave next Monday to various parts of the world which require a transfer or stop anywhere in Europe. They are stuck in Provo and there will be new missionaries arriving there on Wednesday scheduled to occupy the rooms these missionaries should be vacating.  As one broadcaster said, "it lets those of us who run our lives on plans and schedules know that the earth has its own schedule."

The eruption has resulted in some beautiful pictures. Here is a link I found to a Time website.

 

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1982747_2126388,00.html

 

Love, 

Mom and Dad/Gerald and Nancy/Nana and Granddad/grandma and grandpa

 

April 4-11, 2010

Congratulations to Dallin--a big "16" drivers license and all.  Happy birthday to Kraig this coming Saturday!

Greetings to all from Norway!

Another fun-filled and interesting week in Trondheim is quickly coming to a close. Spring is still very much working its way into the country, as we continue to have temperatures in the mid 40’s to low 50’s. It is amazing what long sunny days do. 

On Monday afternoon, we, along with the missionaries were invited by one of the members to workout at a gym near the center of town.  Since Monday was “2^nd Easter Day” it was still a holiday in Norway and the gym was allowing members to invite those who are not members of the gym to come in free and use the facilities. We enjoyed about an hour on the various exercise machines and did enough that we all felt the effects on Tuesday.

Our Family Home Evening Monday evening was a discussion of conference talks, led by Sister Engebretsen. There was a good group (13) present and it was interesting to see what people got out of the talks. Some picked up on things totally different from others, I assume because those were the things that had greatest meaning to them and applied more to their life situation. For refreshments Corrie had made a lemon cheese cake, which was more like a lemon meringue pie. I told her that after the Mississippi mud pie and apple pie she had made last week and now this, I needed to see if I couldn’t find a grandson who could marry her so I could continue to have her desserts for the rest of my life.  Unfortunately, there are none who fit her age (25).

We had some good visits with members and investigators with both the elders and sisters during the week and enjoyed feeling the spirit that influences these people to continue to study and pray about the gospel message.  Institute class on Wednesday evening was well attended and Nancy’s beef stew (Stephanie’s recipe) was enjoyed by all. 

On Friday evening, the young adults and missionaries all met at the church at 6 p.m. to do some cleanup in and around the building in preparation for the branch conference that would occur on Saturday and Sunday.  We had 20 young people there and they were amazing. They cleaned all of the chandeliers (10), taking off the bottom “bowl” from each, washing them, cleaning inside and on top of the fixtures and cleaning the covers on the wall sconces. It had been a long time since cleaning of this nature had been done. We had two large ladders in the chapel, with one person up and another down doing the washing of removed parts. To get the ladders in place, it was necessary to move some of the benches out of the chapel to the cultural hall and move others around to get ladders in the right places. This made it easy to vacuum the carpet in areas where it was otherwise difficult. And since we were moving benches, they were all cleaned thoroughly also.  Another group of 8 were outside raking leaves, picking up the debris of winter, cleaning gravel (used to improve footing on sidewalks and driveway) from the winter, pulling weeks, etc.  Another group was cleaning the kitchen—stove, top of cupboards, etc.  They worked hard for 2 hours and got a lot accomplished, then as pay, we brought in pizzas and pop.  Having worked so hard, they were hungry!! We had 8 large pizzas and I think there were only 2 pieces left.

On Saturday morning, there was a group of 10 back to play floor hockey in the cultural hall before the conference meeting began later in the afternoon.  We picked up President Johansen at the airport at 9:30 and brought him in to the church so he could join the branch mission leader in visiting with several members in their homes before he started meetings at 4:30.  Sister Johansen had to be to a women’s conference in Oslo in the morning, so she did not arrive here until 6p.m. but was present for the last half of the evening meeting which started at 6.  We heard good counsel from President Johansen and his 2^nd counselor, Pres. Berg as well as the mission Relief Society President. The meeting was well attended by members and investigators and all were spiritually fed. 

The Johansen’s spent the night with us and Sister Johansen was not feeling well (flu like symptoms) when they retired for the night. She felt worse when she woke up this morning, but was able to eat some waffles for breakfast before Nancy took her to the airport to return home while Pres. Johansen and I went to a meeting with the missionaries and branch mission leader.

I had suggested to Pres. Johansen that it would probably be good if he could meet with all of the new converts and investigators during Sunday school time, which he agreed to do.  There was a large class—27 people in attendance and he led a good discussion. There were 6 young women who were here on a school assignment, to learn about our religion and they enjoyed the whole class, plus the sacrament meeting.  There were also 7 investigators in attendance, so he had a good opportunity to encourage those who are investigating the gospel. 

We normally have between 50 and 65 people in attendance at Sacrament meeting. Today there were 90. It was impressive to see that the whole chapel was full.  Again, we enjoyed good messages from the mission presidency and the branch President, President Paulsen. We feel so blessed to be here with these good people and working with so many fine young people. Corrie has decided to be baptized this next Saturday, so that has made the past few days and the coming week very exciting. She is studying microbiology at the university and wants to be a pathologist.  She comes from The Netherlands and is a very sweet young woman (plus being a great cook).  It has been exciting to watch her as she has received a testimony of the gospel and has become good friends with others in the branch.  We are looking forward to next Saturday!

We are reminded daily of the great love our Father In Heaven has for each of His children.  We also have great love for each of our children and grandchildren and are very happy with each of you.

Love,

Mom and dad/Gerald and Nancy/Grandma and Grandpa/Nana and Granddad