Making Gold

A couple of weeks ago there was a President’s Fireside.  It is always a great meeting.  Recent converts speak, there are short Mormon Messages videos, music and of course the Mission President and his wife speak.  The missionaries come in from the back singing as they file up on the stand.  It is glorious!  The first man who spoke about his conversion story is from China.  Sister Xia, a Battalion Sister, translated for him.  It was very sweet.  The four Mandarin speaking Sisters, who all are Battalion Sisters, sang a musical number.  The other two speakers who were recent converts, were taught the restored gospel of Jesus Christ by Sister Dunaway and Sister Anderson, both Battalion Sisters.  They gave great talks!  All of them did a wonderful job.  There were musical numbers by the missionary choir and there was also a number by Sister Kennedy (another Battalion Sister!) who was accompanied by piano and violin.  She has the voice of an angel and it was so beautiful.

President Schmitt and Sister Schmitt also spoke, and their 7 year old son bore his testimony.  It was short and sweet.  It was a great evening and you could feel a strong spirit there.

The Battalion gets iron pyrite that needs to be pounded into smaller nuggets to put into the gold panning sluice.  Sister Hafer has wanted to learn to do that for a long time now.  Finally, this was the week.  Craig pounds the iron pyrite by the shed behind the parking lot.  To go there, the Sisters need to be with their companion.  Sister Hafer’s companion had no desire to pound iron pyrite.  It is a dirty job.  But Sister Martindale was excited at the idea.  So Craig took them both out to learn to make gold nuggets.  They had a great time!  It takes some practice to keep from getting the dust all over yourself.  I think they’ll want to get more practice soon.

The first Monday of the month all of the senior missionaries get together to have Family Home Evening.  February was our turn.  Since February is the month of love, that was our theme.  The Gospel is love and missionary work is love.  Perfect!  We asked Sister Kennedy a few months ago if she would sing that night.  We asked her long before she knew she’d be singing at the President’s fireside, but we were very happy to hear her both times.  Every couple had a part in the evening and I think it turned out nicely.

On P day this week, we took a very nice drive about an hour away to Santa Ysabel where there is a Julian Pie Café.  One of the other senior couples told us about it.  We split a piece of Mountain Berry Apple pie with cinnamon ice cream on top.  YUM!

We often hear navy jets here.  On our way to Santa Ysabel, two flew pretty close to us.  It is hard to get a picture with your phone while the car is moving, but I caught one before it sped too far away.

 

My fun cousin Jeff and his wonderful wife Janeen came to visit.  We had lunch together and then they went through a tour at the Battalion.  Craig arranged with the Sister who led the tour to have Jeff dress up like a soldier.  He was a very good sport about it.  We always love seeing family and friends!