Dear Breanna's Cat...

One day after Breanna left and Addie did not, we came home to find this note and pile of cat goodies.

Since you may not be able to read the little card, here is what it says:

"Dear Breanna's Cat,

Recently I have learned that you will not be leaving any time soon.  As you may have noticed, I am not too fond of your kind.  This in no way is your fault, simply due to past experiences I keep my distance.
Included in this note are items you may enjoy.   I hope you like it.  I'm sure you are a great cat...
However, our relationship will need to continue the way it has.  This was simply to let you know it's not you personally...just your kind.  Good luck in all your endeavors.
                Elder Austin Bartleson
P.S.  If you could try not to scare me anymore when I come over, that would be great."

Elder Bartleson is one of our Assistants and is pretty afraid of cats.  And you know how terrifying Addie is!!!  Well, she does rush around the house sometimes at night, but other than that, she is so mellow it is funny to think anyone could be afraid of her :)

He still comes over, and we let her walk around...cat therapy, we call it!

TRIP TO GRAND CANYON BRANCH/ ROUTE 66 9/13

This month we had our first chance to get up to GRAND CANYON VILLAGE for Church!

We had hoped to get up there and when we saw that we would be in Flagstaff on Sunday, we worked it out to come up the day before, go out with missionaries at night and then spend the night so we could head on up to Grand Canyon Village to meet with the branch up there.

 The Branch meets in the building in the park called "Shrine of the Ages."  It is an interesting stone building that houses any denomination that can come up with a congregation.
In the past, they have had larger groups, but they have a small branch that is thriving!

It was Branch Conference so there were Stake visitors as well, so that was really a treat!

 We were delighted to see our missionaries, Elder and Sister McDaniel, serving in their Branch and doing a GREAT JOB!  They are so loved up there and are the perfect fit for the job!  It was a rainy day, but had absolutely POURED the evening before at a Branch activity!
 We came down from the Park and went through Williams, AZ, and drove on historic ROUTE 66 for a while.

So, what do you think Carter???

Pretty cool that Grandpa and Grandma drove on...

ROUTE 66!!!

For those of you who do not know the connection, it is famous from the Disney film CARS!

The song even says "Flagstaff, Arizona" in it.

We also saw some railcars from the GRAND CANYON RAILWAY.  GCR.

Apparently they have a neat winter train ride with hot cocoa etc. sort of like the Polar Express that they do to Heber, but this goes to the Grand Canyon from Williams, AZ...anyone want to come along??
We are loving getting to know even more of AZ.
Thanks for letting us share!
WE LOVE YOU!

SAN ANTONIO MISSION PRESIDENT SEMINAR 9/13

Each September and April the North America Southwest area of the Church holds training for the Mission Presidents and Wives in that area.  It is a highlight of our year!

This September we flew to San Antonio to meet our group.

The first day, we traditionally go to the temple, and it was just a beautiful experience!
For one thing, we treasure each trip we get to make to a temple...but to be there with missionaries of any sort, is really special!

Once inside, we have no tags to say who we are, we are all servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, helping others to come unto Christ as we serve in the temple.  But is is always great to remember those covenants that we made to obey commandments, and even greater to reflect on how much we continue to be blessed as we try to follow Him.

 That evening, we had a nice introductory dinner where we all got to introduce ourselves to new Mission Presidents and Wives, and got to mingle with our presiding authorities from Salt Lake.

This year, our authorities included, Elder and Sister Andersen from the Quorum of The Twelve, Elder & Sister Callister, Elder and Sister Foster and Elder and Sister Teh.

 That night, we had time for a walk around the area.  We had explored it the day before, so we knew how to quickly get over to the Alamo area.

It was rather charming at night, and not so hot as in the day.

 We walked over with some old friends, I say old, because they came out to serve the same year we did!

Presidents Pingree, Taylor, Killpack and Durrant!

And Sisters Taylor, Pingree, Killpack and Durrant.

 The next day we spent in training meetings all morning, started off with doctrinal training, which sets the stage for everything we learned the rest of the Seminar!  What could be better than things like
FAITH
OBEDIENCE

 We had dinner in a private room at Casa Ria near the Riverwalk area.  Perfect in every way!
And I loved speaking Spanish with the Maluenda's!  They are great!

 After dinner, we were taken on guided river tours by riverboat.  Two great LDS members were our tour guides and did such a good job!


We were staying in Marriott tower to the far right in this photo...there are two right by each other here.

 The whole Riverwalk area is really taken care of beautifully, and we really loved this little trip.

There was interesting architecture, and up close, really old and charming!

 This little river changes elevation, so in order to make it function, they have a lock and dam partway up to get you up to the next level.

You can see the other boat going in, the doors closing...

 ...and the same when we got in.  Then up the water level goes til you can continue on your way!

 At the end of the line, President Taylor tried his hand at steering the boat...good thing we were stopped at that point.  But he is hoping for a tip!

 We got a photo with the Callisters at one of the stops...they are delightful people!

 There was great artwork all along the river at different crossings.  This one had large fish that lit up at night.

This bridge was also famous for having bats that fly out at night in a swarm.  We waited a long time that night with no luck...

 So, we walked a couple miles back up there the next night just to try our luck and got to see them.
They did not come out all at once, but in a small stream, but it was still cool!

OK, this really did not turn out as a video...but it flips through shots as I filmed...

By the way, I learned how to say BAT in Spanish from the Maluenda's...
MURCIELAGOS!

The Gospel is true.  Serving a mission is the most rewarding thing we have ever done.  We admire those that come to teach and train us so much!  We get a strong witness each time we are with them of the truth of their message as well as the power of their callings!
Can't wait to hear them again at GENERAL CONFERENCE IN OCTOBER!!!

Trip to Prescott- 8/31/13

 It is rare that I have something to post that is not totally mission related...and this is a half and half.


But since it involved 4 wheeling, I thought I better get it out there!

 Aug. 31 we had a YSA Conference to present at so we went up the night before and spent it with our dear friends the Williams who used to serve with us in the Mission Presidency.

Unbeknownst to us, they had two 4 wheelers, so we got up early that morning and went out on a ride by Thumb Butte.

 It had rained the day and night before, and was just hazy when we went out...and started raining about as soon as we got back home!

 It was the perfect way to start our day up there.
It was a beautiful drive, and we just love being with the Williams!

 After breakfast, we loaded up and went to set up our classroom for our part in the all day YSA conference for Young Single Adults from Prescott, Flagstaff and even Phoenix Valley.
you can see they had a really big group there.

 The keynote speakers were Sister and Brother McConkie (General YW Presidency)
and they did a great job together.  They had served as Mission President and Wife, so it is not unusual for them to be speaking together yet again.

 Our class was on how to share the Gospel using online tools.  We showed some good clips and hopefully made it fun for them!

This age group has so much potential to share the Gospel!
We all do...but this group is so comfortable with tools and have so many activities and such that they can invite to, that it is particularly productive.

I don't know if any of our family that read this are on facebook much, or have a blog...but try inviting someone to something if you do...or share something inspirational that they can actually act on or ask you about.  Give it a try!

LOVE YOU!

Braden Was Here!

We walked into Scott's office in the Mission Office and saw this note...

I wonder who wrote it...

Oh, if we could only leave it up for the next 10 months that we are here.  But I imagine it will be erased sometime, so I thought I better get a picture of it.

We hope that the missionaries don't get wind of the nickname..."Scotters"  They would be all over that!

Every once in a while we use the voice activated auto-call in our mission vehicle just to hear Braden chime in as Scott was recording his name into the bluetooth...you hear Scott say "Braden" and immediately after, you hear Braden yell "Jimmer" from the backseat.

It makes us laugh...but gets us a little emotional as well.
He is away, but not forgotten!

DANA'S TEMPLE TRIP

It has been a year since our dear friend Dana joined the Church.
It has gone SO FAST!
 She has been preparing to attend the temple.


It was very exciting the day she got her recommend!

We then made plans to go the following week.  The goal was to go before Elder Vaoga went home from his mission.  He was one of the special missionaries who taught her.

The day of our temple trip was...well, interesting.  First, when I picked up Dana to take her to the Church Distribution Center before the temple, we got there in perfect time and it was CLOSED!  Not so perfect.

 But, we made it work and in the extra time we had, we stopped to visit Inga, a very special person to Dana who lives very near the temple.  It had been a couple years since they had seen each other, so we had a nice visit.

 Then it was back to the temple and this is Dana outside as she prepared to enter!

We loved our experience with many friends as we served in the temple.
We were surrounded by many, many of our ward family and it was such a special experience.




It was seriously one of the busiest days at the temple we have ever seen.  The temple had been closed the previous two weeks...and there was a new film in the temple instruction that people were excited to see.
It made for everything running very, very late!









While we were doing endowment sessions, Breanna and Aaron were doing baptisms for the dead.  Ed was with Elder King at the Visitor Center and nearby.  We all got together afterwards, it was about 10 by this time.  They had to be very patient waiting for us!



I drove Ed and Dana afterwards and Scott had the rest.  We got a call from Scott partway home telling us they were out of gas and stranded...so we had to find a gas can and then fill it to take to them, taking about 45 minutes or so.  This made it even later!

 We had planned to go to IHOP to celebrate...just not at MIDNIGHT!

 We were all a little stir crazy I think.

But, we will never forget our experiences of this day and night!
GOOD TIMES with people we love!

Braden's Provo Friends 8/13

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL THE PHOTOS OF OUR TIME TOGETHER

 The week before Braden left on his mission, we had some of his Provo friends come down to spend some time in Arizona with him.

First, Aaron drove down with him from Provo.  We took him hiking in the AZ heat and he was a great sport.

 Then a couple days later Fanga flew in and joined us.  We took a different trail so he did not miss out on hiking either.  You can see that it was overcast that day, really nice and unusually cool.

 The boys had fun experimenting with a cholla cactus to see if it would really jump at them.  No luck.

 Men in thought...

 After our hike, we stopped by the Phoenix Temple site to show them our temple.

 Another day we went to downtown Phoenix to the Science Center that is really fun.  We could not resist this shot of Braden by something that had the word "Poop" in it.

 We tried to build some earthquake-proof buildings...but they all fell apart when it really shook.

 They used pressure to puff up some vapor from this vortex thing.

 And they had fun projecting themselves all warped.

 This interesting wall dropped the bits of color and you could stand and "catch" them.  Aaron's hat looked really neat as he held it up.

 And Fanga lay on a "Bed of Nails!"

All the boys tried the mind game where the calmest one could make the marble roll towards the other player.
These two were in a dead tie for a long time!

                                                                                  Good Question!

 Wheelchair races!!!

Take a look at the poster of the Sesame Street characters next to the boys...and they look just like our boys!!

It was really fun having Aaron and Fanga come see us.  Made us feel a bit more normal before Braden left.  We have appreciated good friends over the years.  THANK YOU FRIENDS!  We wish you the best in all you do!