Golfer Nani, Funks' New Home, Speaking in Promontory Branch; School Starts for the Excells

Nani came the other day to pick up a set of golf clubs Glen no longer uses. Now that she is retired, she is going to take golfing lessons and needed some clubs. 

While she was here, we ate a Texas Roadhouse take-out lunch. YUM!! I am so glad she came on a Friday when that restaurant is open earlier in the day.

Our missionary Laurie Masangkay Funk and her husband Kyle invited us over to take a tour of their new townhome in Bluffdale (same exit as the prison, which is becoming more and more familiar to us) and to meet their baby Adeline. 

Their home is beautiful. We were marveling over their large kitchen space. 

After the tour, we went to eat at Cubby's. Their baby kept looking at Glen the whole time we were together...until this precise moment when she couldn't take her eyes off me to look at the camera.

We have now been to the prison a fourth time. This week we spoke in the Promontory Branch. One of the new couples working in that branch, the Woods, are the aunt and uncle of one of our missionaries--Cassie Davis Peel. 

Cassie gifted us with one of her drawings that we have hanging in the basement on our mission wall. It is Glen's comment he would say every day to anybody he greeted, "It's another great day in paradise!" 

The first few weeks Cassie was home, she would send Glen a weekly text update and would include her take on his favorite saying like, "It's another 'grape' day in paradise!" They were always clever and made us laugh.

Glen sent her the photo of us with her aunt and uncle and included this greeting, "It's another great day in 'prison'adise." She said it made her day!

It really was a great day in prison. The Promontory Branch just got a new branch president. President Biddulph and his wife (on the right) were called the same time we were to be on the district council and now, just these few weeks later, he has been sustained as the new branch president.

This branch of the prison is for the inmates who are nearing the end of serving time and will be out soon. Not quite sure how soon "soon" is, but they are the ones who have hope of getting out a lot sooner than others. 

When I looked over the group of men seated in the congregation, the word that came to my mind was "potential." There is so much potential for those men to succeed, if only they will work hard and not go back to whatever habits or impulses or choices got them there in the first place.

One of the men told us his release date is in two days. That has to be a glorious feeling! We all just pray for success once they get on the outside. It is hard for them to make the transition to the outside world and to be able to be successful in not going back to prison.

The stand-out quote for me from the week before, spoken from one of the inmates in our branch was "Satan does my heart no good." That's quite profound and applies to all of us!!

Now on to some great news!! Great news for Sarah!! And for her boys!! 

School is now in session in Las Vegas. Hurrah!! Sarah was about losing her mind thinking she would have to homeschool again this year. 

The boys do have to wear masks, but they are able to attend a full day of school--unlike at the end of last year when schools opened up after the Covid closure and they were only going a couple of hours each day. 

While Eli (6th grade), Carson (4th grade) and Lincoln (1st grade) attend school all day, Jonah will go to preschool 2 1/2 hours each morning.

Sarah is looking forward to her quiet time during the day and I am sure the boys are looking forward to their time away socializing and learning and having a change of scenery after all those months cooped up in the house last school year.