When Natalie arrived back in town from visiting her family in Omaha for the holidays, we picked her up at the airport, took her to our house to feed her, and then drove her down to Provo where we dropped her off at her apartment, which was absolutely freeeeeezing!!! BRRRRR!!
Thankfully the only thing needed was new batteries for the thermostat.
Glen chose to forfeit attending a BYU basketball game so we could attend the wedding reception of one of our missionaries, Abby Ericksen.
Her mission companion, Sabrina Thomas, lined her up with her brother Neal, and now the two former companions are sisters-in-law. So fun!!
Another interesting missionary fact is Sabrina (in green dress below) took into her family as a sister another one of our missionaries, Catherine Niesporek (in red dress). Sabrina's whole family has embraced Catherine with so much hospitality and love.
And yet another missionary tie to Sabrina is that she married one of our missionaries, Jared Hickman (second on the left). So this little missionary group of Abby, Jared, Sabrina, and Catherine will be forever bound together through friendship and marriage. So cool!!!
I received this shocking news from my friend Chris. I noticed she and her husband Mark have moved from Providence (near Logan) to Preston, Idaho. We had hooked up with those two right before we left on our mission and haven't had any contact with Chris since.
It made me so happy to see she had sent a holiday update this year and then when I read what has been going on with her, I was heartsick to learn she has been going through breast cancer, has had surgery and will be receiving ongoing treatments.
I am anxious to talk to her and hear more about it and get caught up on other things that have been happening in their lives.
When Glen learned that one of his former peers and his wife have been called as mission leaders, they made plans for all of us to get together and talk about that and provide an opportunity for them to ask us questions. I sure know we had lots of questions when we were first called and had no idea what to expect.
Nadmid Namgur and Mayumi Namgur have been called to preside over the Mongolia Mission. WOW!!! That sounds daunting.
The good news is Nadmid is from Mongolia. Mayumi is Japanese, but they have already spent 4 years living in Mongolia, so it won't be a total shocker to them to live there once again.
They were telling us that their mission area is the size of 3 states of Texas. WHAT??!!?? That is an insane amount of land mass for them to oversee. It is the world's most sparsely populated country (according to Google).
When I asked about the temperature there, Nadmid said what people say is it is cold for a while in the summer months and the rest of the year is colder (-5 to -22 degrees, not counting the wind chill factor).
Once again we were giving thanks for our call to the California Carlsbad Mission where our mission boundary was so compact and the temperature was pretty temperate all year round.
They are a cute, young couple and will be taking their two sons with them. I just know their missionaries will love them. It was fun to get to know Nadmid and Mayumi that day.
There was more eating out for us that week. We usually go down to Provo early on a game day to have a pre-game meal so we can beat traffic.
This particular game day, the start time was 8:00 p.m. That is sooooooo late!! We decided we would eat at Chili's in Centerville early and then drive down to the game later.
We invited the Goldens to join us. Rebecca got Dallas a to-go meal since he was working that day. Look at the strategic seating arrangement with Glen on one end of the table and Brooke on the other end.
That turned out to be very advantageous (we hope) (fingers crossed) (and double crossed) after we heard the dreaded news about Brooke the next morning.
Rebecca shared this news with the family Sunday morning.
SERIOUSLY??!!?? Brooke was in the sick house for weeks as every other member of her family kept getting Covid and she never got it. NOW she has it???? What in the world??!!??
Since Glen did not get sick when I had Covid, we are hoping his booster pulls through for us, and we hope Brooke was far enough away from him that he won't get it.
Brooke isn't the only one sick with the dreaded pandemic illness. Jacob informed us of his family members who are now sick with Covid.
Luke sure gave me a chuckle over his reactions to the Covid-in-the-family news, and then later his own reveal. It would be interesting to know how many of them were actually sick with Covid.
Well we know one family who is not sick. Abe's family is back at Disneyworld getting their money's worth out of their season passes.
Ben and Haley are in Las Vegas doing a little gaming with Jeff and Sarah while Ben is there on a work trip. This is a heart-warming sight to see our children getting together and enjoying each other's company.
This is Jan Evans's birth month. Today is her actual birthday and we went to lunch to celebrate.
But never fear--there is more celebrating in honor of her before this month is over. Happy birthday, dear Jan, happy birthday to you!!! ( And many more...!!!)
