I was trying to edit a couple of posts, but I wasn't able to.  I wanted to add a picture of Andrew - DaMica's son, and a picture of me with Sister Lydia Rasmussen at the temple.  I wanted them in here, so here they are!  That's what you get to do when you are writing the blog!

He's a good looking young man!

This is from the Lehi's Dream night.  This is our "family photo"!  Britta is pretending to eating a piece of the fruit from the "tree of life"!

This is Sister Rasmussen and I - she is so pretty!  She has a heart of gold!

G'nite all!

We have had a couple of busy weeks.  Last Friday we took off from the office, as we needed to do some baking and getting things ready for our mission conference.  Modesto North Stake was having their Stake Conference, and who should be attending but Elder Ballard!  How COOL is that?!?   More on what he talked about later.

Sister Gelwix (Mission "Mom") asked Sister Morris and I if we would bake desserts for the Sisters Meeting after the general meeting.  Sister Gelwix provided veges and fruit and chips and we brought Lemon filled cupcakes, and "Samoa" Bars.  Like the Girl Scout Cookies, but in bar form.  They were really tasty, but I still like Brownie/Cookie bars Sister Morris found the recipe to best.  All are yummy for my expanding tummy!

We are continuing to help people at the office.  I don't like to call it "work", as that would be poking little teensies with needles!  and big teensies too for that matter ....
We had 9 people at the Career workshop~ that's the most we've had so far.  We've been on the mission for almost 3 months - that's amazing!  2-1/2 months for being here!  Wow!  Time just goes by so quickly.

Four stakes here in this area are my responsibility/stewardship.  I have found a few people in 3 of the 4 stakes that need help.  It's rewarding to send people ideas, job leads, or just to brighten their day.  These tender mercies add extra blessings to MY life.  I am grateful!  I started the 4th stake yesterday, and 3 people already have contacted me.  I hope to be open to the Spirit so I can help them as Heavenly Father would want me to.  It is so challenging here, with the unemployment as high as it is, for people to find jobs. 

There are jobs out there, but employers have the capacity to be choosey, and demanding, and the opportunity to wait until they find exactly what they are looking for.  People without any degree or training are struggling because those that do have degrees, are taking jobs they are over qualified for, because that is what is available.  I have been blessed to actually feel of the anxiousness people have in trying to feed their families.  This must have been what it was like during the great depression, but worse!  That is why I am so grateful when we CAN help someone.

I have been trying to be good about soaking my wrist!  Three minutes in luke warm water; 1 minute in ice cold water.  Two minutes in luke warm water; two minutes in ice cold water.  1 minute in luke warm water; 3 minutes in ice cold water.  It actually feels better afterwards, but is pretty painful during the 3 minutes in ice cold water!  I am only suppose to be on the computer for 20 minutes at a time, so I have to stop and will get back to it in a little bit.  Using the mouse hurts the most - which is weird.

 I have a 2-week reprieve.  I'm still suppose to do my therapy - soaks/ibuprophen/brace when on the computer/20 minutes at a time.  If it still hurts after the 2 weeks - I will go back.  I am really very grateful for the help I am receiving with this.  It's very kind of Brother Drysdale and his staff.  Bishop "Robbie" has been working the wrist over most of the time.  I'll see if I can get a picture of both of the PTs and post it later.

We spend our Saturdays, which is our P-day, doing laundry, going shopping etc. just like all other missionaries.  Sister Morris loves trying new recipes - I do too, but she takes it to an art form!  Sister Garcia let her borrow her Kitchenaid mixer, and then emails Sister Morris recipes she would like Sister Morris to bake for her.  (It was prearranged in the borrowing agreement!)  We were looking for 2 ingredients we had never heard of - Besan and Sorghun.  Sister Garcia asked that we make this recipe which is muffins.  We looked and looked all over WinCo (yup - there are a couple fairly close here) and could not find them.  Sister Morris looked online and found that Besan is a flour made from chickpeas or garbonzo beans.  Sorghun is made from something from South Africa.  Holly!  Do you know about this?  It is gluten free!  We'll have to see where we can get it to make the muffins.

Today wasn't as hot as it has been.  It was about 80 degrees around noon, and then it was hot later, but I don't know how hot, and now it's about 75 degrees.  I heard SLC was going to be about 100 - so sorry for you all!  We have a nice breeze blowing now - it feels good.  I moved my room around, just opposite.  The beds were closer to the door, now the dresser is.



It just feels better this way - funky sway!

Our manager at the office has applied for, and obtained a new job and promotion to Salt Lake City.  We will miss him a lot as he is a very nice, understanding, fun man.  We had a barbecue here at Britta's last night.  It was just suppose to be a summer barbecue, but as Brother Bret Ellsworth starts his new job in less than 3 weeks, it turned into a goodbye party. 

This is Sister Morris talking with Jared, Brother Bret's son.  Jared will be a Junior in High School in the fall.  Brother Bret is shown seated.  The Ellsworths have 2 other sons.  One is currently serving a mission, and the other is married, just within the last year and a half. 

This is Brother Bret's wife, Saundra, with their son.  This is the first time we have met Sister Ellsworth - and it may be the last!  We don't know - Hopefully it won't be!  Jared is a really nice young man.  He helped out a lot at the party.  He wants to be in the military, or a policeman.



This is Britta, the lady we live with, and the assistant manager, Brother Forest Addington.

  For some reason, Brother Bret was maning the barbecue at his farewell party - I told him to go socialize and tried my hand at cooking!  Dan - you will need to teach me how to cook brats - I'm not sure they were done!

This cake was delicious!  Britta bought it at a store called Von's.  It WAS chocolate with whip cream and fruit topping.  Of course there was only a little left, which was shared by those that live in this house!   Except Sister Morris didn't want a piece, so Britta and I split the rest.  Worth every calorie! We had almost everyone there - there were a few people missing, but we had most everyone.

I think I will be done for now.  It's late, (of course it is), and there's too much to add for any more tonight.  We will miss Brother Bret.  He has made a great impression on our minds and on our hearts.  I am grateful for all he has taught me.  He is a good man, and has a good family.  We wish them our best!

I am being neglectful of my blog.  We have many things to do and take care of, but I realized this is the only time in my life I will have as few things as I have right now, so I better get on the stick and keep this up.  Part of this is from last week.

Things are going well - it was really hot on Thursday, but cooled down to 95 Friday - busy all day long yesterday on P-day - helped with an investigator's kids today (11-12 year olds).

Sister Morris was able to scrounge a couple of bikes from the mission. So we have been out riding a couple of times - it's been fun! We have been exercising for almost one week straight - 2 different types of exercising - one inside, the other on the bikes! I can tell you from doing all those different exercises my whole arm feels like it's inflamed. I guess I need to do some more, and other types of, exercises - like the one's I'm suppose to do for my shoulder....

My wrist has not been getting better ~ frustrating little jerk! 

There's this really sweet lady, Lydia, from Mexico, married to a gringo - she has been so concerned about my wrist that she spoke with a physical therapist in our ward (member of the Bishopric). Before Sacrament meeting started, Sister Morris and I walked up to the front of the chapel to hand in our fast offerings to that same member of the bishopric, we didn't know he was the physical therapist (PT). After we handed them to him, he said someone had told him one of the sister missionaries had a back problem - (picture puzzled looks on our faces). I said no, but my wrist really has been bugging me.

He said let me see, and looked at it and said WHOA! (It has been quite swollen on the outside joint). He knelt down, and started moving my wrist around, poked here and there, and made me say OW a couple of times, asked if it hurt when he push here and there (guess what I said . . . YES!)  and said he had the same problem once. He told me to relax my arm, which I tried to do, then said he was going to pop it back in (????).  He moved it this way and that way, yanked on my arm, and it did pop a bit, wasn't too painful right then (and yes - we are standing at the front of the chapel while he's on the stand moving my wrist around).

He said it needed some work, and asked if I had fractured it - um - Noooo - but I told him it started hurting at home during the 'getting ready to leave stage', that it had been xrayed, etc etc. Then he something about treatments, and having to massage it even though it hurt, and that it would take some time to get better.

Then he said, "As you are a full time missionary, I will do it for free." WWWWHHHHAAAATTTT???? Totally unreal to me! Totally! Dan - did you find people would give you things, and do things for you for free because you were a missionary? That is just amazing to me. And here I was wondering how much it was going to cost, and if the PT Sister Lydia wanted me to go to took my insurance, etc.  I am just so humbled and so extremely grateful. 
Anyway, Lydia is going to call and make an appointment for me.  I guess I need to learn to let people help me; a hard lesson for me. And! my wrist is now killing me! The PT said it would hurt - he was right!!!!!!!!

We have 8 people signed up for our Career Workshop this week!

We have changed things around so Sister Morris and I are taking turns, one thing after another, learning to present each part so we will know it all. Hopefully I will be able to do as good a job as she does in some things!

Not much else going on - things are 'normal' for here! Love, Mom/Judy

06/10/12
This is this week! 

We went to Sequoia National Park - talk about way cool!  The trees were so massive and so impressive!  The two main trees we went to see are the General Grant and the General Sherman!  The General Sherman tree is the biggest in the world!  It's not the tallest, but the trunk is massive and it is very, very tall!  I took a video of it, and it was as if I were trying to do a back bend to film all the way to the top!  I love the mountain, and the smell of the pine trees - the Sequoias smell good too, but it is a different scent.  It's still woodsy and wonderful, just different from the pine smell.

This was a couple we met at the General Grant - why do you think I took their picture??!? 

They were very sweet!  It's always fun when you meet someone that's LDS!

Groovy hat, eh?  Anything to save a dye job!

 

This is a picture of the stump, and from the note above, it is massive in size!  It's hard to see where the stump is, but it's right in the middle of the picture.  Unreal!

 

 

This is the long shot of the General Sherman.

This is a picture of a momma bear up a tree - the ONLY reason I am close enough to take this shot is because she is up a tree!  As she started to come down, I started to get further away!  The reason I know she is a momma bear is because on the dry branch next to the momma bear tree is one of her two cubs!  There were supposedly 2 cubs, but I couldn't see the other one, and don't see it in this picture.  Now you know why I backed further and further away the closer she got to the ground!  Nothing more dangerous than a momma bear protecting her cubs!

I have been to physical therapy a couple of times this past week.  Sister Lydia took me on Wednesday, and Sister Morris took me on Thursday.  I can drive, but they wanted to do this for me, so I let them.  I will probably go by myself tomorrow and Wednesday, and from then on.  I am going to go 2 times a week until it is better.  The problem is the cartilage disk in the wrist joint was out of place, and the therapy is to retrain the tendons and muscles to not push the disk out again.  It absolutely kills!
Ice - 3-5 times a day - contrast soaks 2 times a day, exercises 2 times a day, other exercises 3-5 times a day!  I am allowed to get on the computer 20 minutes at a time, and wear my brace while on it, then off with the brace, and off the computer!  So I'm typing as fast as I can, so if there's mistakes, sorry!

We had the young Elders assigned to our Ward (Fresno 7th) over for dinner last night (Elder Berg and Elder Jensen), but as there isn't a Melchizedek priesthood holder in the home, we had our home teachers over too (Paul and Patty Betts).  Then tonight, we had Sister Lydia and her husband Lynn over for dinner.  We had Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup; Sister Morris made homemade french bread, and Britta and Sister Morris made fresh Strawberry-Banana pie - then add salad and cantaloupe for a wonderful meal!  Let me know if you want the soup recipe ~

We have our final class of Self Employment on Tuesday (been postponed a few times), a little helping at the Bishop's Storehouse and Relief Society on Wednesday, then go to the temple on Thursday, then the Elders are coming back over to do an "A-T-M" (awake the members) on Friday.  Saturday we are having a mission conference up in Modesto (2-3 hours north), where Elder Ballard is coming to speak with us!  Can you believe it?!?  Another member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!!  We are sooooo blessed!   It's been wonderful shaking hands with ALL of the brethren that have been here. 

We will have a "Sisters' Meeting" after the Mission meeting.  Sister Gelwix asked if Sister Morris and I would bring the desserts for the Sisters' meeting.  We are taking something chocolate and something lemon!  YUM!  We are also teaching the young Sister missionaries how to iron.  Combined, that will take most of the day!

Here is a picture of me in the apron the Primary gave to me before I left!  Isn't it cute!

 
My time is up!  Past up!  OOPS!  I hope all is well with everyone!  I will post a story of a missionary experience that happened yesterday, hopefully tomorrow!
I love you all - Time is going so quickly!  I am being blessed as I sojourn through this mission experience.  I am grateful for what I am learning.  Love, Sister Ure