Mini Vacation

Feb. 6, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
Well, we just got back home from our mini vacation to Utah. We had a lot of fun, but it was pretty quick. We left Thursday morning and went directly to Salt Lake City to the Gateway where we walked around for a little bit. Then we rode the trolly to temple square where we toured the visitor's center where there is a new temple display. It was really nice. We took our usual temple square pictures and then had some dinner at the Lion House. Aferwards we went to the Church History and Art Museum. They had some really good displays. I loved the display of Primary children's art, some of the best pictures they've received that they usually put into the Friend magazine. Some of them were so funny. The girls loved the Latino display which had lots of interactive things. Here are some pictures.







Then we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent Thurs and Friday night with them. On Friday I took Kristina down to Provo to meet with my cousin Jay and his wife Theresa who own a beauty school. I picked up Sean there too and we got the grand tour of the school. Kristina is even more excited about going there now and wants to graduate early from high school so she can get there. It was fun seeing my cousins again.

Thursday afternoon we did a little shopping in SLC and then went to Sean's mission president's house so we could chat with them for a while. Just as we were leaving, one of the Elders Sean knew from his mission, a guy from Argentina, showed up with his family. Sean was so surprised and thought he'd never see him again since he lived in Argentina, so it was a fun surprise.

We all went out to dinner with grandma and grandpa and Charmaine (Golden Corral, woohoo!) and then some of us headed to a mall afterwards to walk off the meal. On Saturday we headed down to Provo to Steve and Carolina's. Carolina and Kassie were across the street having a Book of Mormon marathon. They started listening to Book of Mormon tapes on Friday around 4pm and went til midnight. Then they got up at 6am and went all day Saturday finishing the book around 7pm. It was a Mutual activity. Steve took us across the street to see them all in the middle of it. There was a large living room full of young people with their Books of Mormons open and an extremely fast talking guy on an iPod. They sped up the speaking in order to get through the whole thing in 2 days. There was tons of food sitting around. Carolina said the whole ward took turns dropping off food for the kids and leaders. After they were done, Carolina said she may not read scriptures again for a few days. I'm not sure that was the outcome they were hoping to get from that. She said at least they can all say that they've done it. Not many people have read the BoM in 2 two days, so she's right there. Kristina says she wants to tell her YW leaders about it so that maybe they'll do it here.

Saturday afternoon we went to the BYU/UNLV game. BYU won easily. It was a fun game. We were in the nose bleed section, but it was still fun. I got to meet up with Tracey Braithwaite's parents at the game. They have season tickets. It was sooooo great to see them again after 35 years. They both had tears in their eyes and I told them I was back in their lives for good this time. They said they considered me their 5th child and I used to call them mom Long(their last name is Long) and Papa Long and they were so happy to see me again. I will definitely be keeping in touch with them.

We stayed the night at the Trumbo's and had a fun time chatting with Steve, Carolina, Axel and Laura Saturday night. We went to church with them the next day and then had Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and Charmaine. We left for home after the meal. I'll send more pictures in a separate email.

So I'm anxious to hear how your week went. Dad said to tell you Green Bay won the Superbowl, but you probably already heard that. I hope Josh will be able to get over the loss. How is he doing otherwise? How did your ....Fifth Grader... game go? I'm kind of hoping you'll stay there one more transfer just to keep things going with him, but the Lord knows best.

Did you ever get a date set for Kris to be baptized? I hope you were able to keep up with the missionary work despite some of the bad weather that went through your area. I love that picture you sent with all the snow. For some reason I never thought you'd see that much snow in your mission.

Other news from our area: Josh Gilman got his mission call this week!! He's going to the Argentina Cordoba mission. Can you believe it? Sean is going to talk with him when he comes home even though he doesn't even know the Gilmans. Josh leaves the middle of June. He's excited about his call.

Well, that's about it for this week. Everyone we saw asked about you and said they loved reading your letters. Keep working hard and pray to see everyone you meet as the Lord sees them. It will greatly enrich your vision of the work you are doing and the people you are meeting. Have fun!

Love you much,
mom
XXOO