Oh - this is a big, huge post!  Sorry!

09/16/12

Hi to everyone!  I know it’s been awhile since I last updated, but I’ve been out of town!  We have gone to Modesto twice for workshops (this is the 1st trip). 



 
We also went up to the Sacramento Temple on our 1st trip up to Modesto.  We had permission from President Gelwix to go outside our mission to go to the Temple there.  It is a beautiful temple!
 

 

 

 
 

 

 One of the Saturdays, we drove a young sister missionary up to the Yosemite ward/branch (?) so she could be at her 1^st investigators’ baptisms.  Two sons in one family were baptized.  It was so cute, because the younger of the two saw her walk in, and he ran to her and gave her the biggest hug!  Very touching!  I didn't get a picture!  drat!
 

This is a picture of someone we met at the baptism up at the Yosemite ward/branch.  His name is Chase Splan.   And this is Mrs. Chase Splan, as I don't remember her name.  He was a missionary “2 transfers” in front of Matt Belliston in the Italy Rome mission.  There have been several connections to the Belliston Family here.  Our former manager of the Employment office was in the same ward as Troy Belliston in Michigan!  Unreal! 

 
Marianne, I'll send it in a separate email to you so you can forward it to Matt.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Labor Day was good – we had a barbecue with some people from the office, and our friend, Becky, came as well.  We had “tri-tip”, a very nice piece of sirloin this area is known for, but happened to cook it twice as much as was necessary!  We weren’t told the correct information, so instead of a nice piece of beef, we had a tri-tip burnt biscuit!  We did have enough to feed everyone from the middle of the meat, but we know better for next time and will probably have it again sometime soon….. when we are home long enough to have a barbecue  …..  Britta went on a cruise to Alaska – she said it rained most of the time, but that it was so beautiful it was worth every drop!

 
 
 
 

 This is a picture of snow flowers.  It was taken when we went to the Sequoias National Park.  It had snowed a couple of days before we were there.  We saw these when we went over Memorial Day - they are so cool!   I finally downloaded Sister Morris' pictures from her camera.  There are pictures from when she first bought it, months ago! 

Last weekend was really busy.  We left for Modesto on Friday.  On the way up, we went searching for Sister Morris’ grandfather’s grave.  We had tried to find it on the trip back from our 1^st time to Modesto, just walking through a couple of the cemeteries, but were, obviously, unsuccessful.  Part of our workshop includes having a family crest.  Sister Morris asked her “family history” cousin if their family had a crest.  Her cousin sent some information about their family crest, some family history, and without knowing it, had, somehow, also sent a copy of her grandfather’s death certificate.  That was Heavenly Father’s hand in their lives.  Her grandpa wanted people to know where he was buried.  I saw the death certificate – it said Merced, CA which is on the way to Modesto. 

One of the parts that are Heavenly Father’s hand in this is that after the initial opening of the death certificate, Sister Morris could not open the copy of the death certificate again.  The cousin said the death certificate had never been found!  Sister Morris came home from that 1^st trip determined to find her grandfather’s grave.  She called the county up there, a funeral home, and also the coroner’s office.  She was blessed with a miracle in finding someone who was willing to do some research, and this person actually found the gravesite.  He was buried in a town by Modesto, called Winton.  The cemetery secretary was able to find the grave.  The gravesite in the cemetery registry did not have a name on it.  They didn’t know who was buried there – but they do now! 

When we got to the gravesite on the way to Modesto on Sept. 7th, we were shown where it was on the map.  After looking for about 5 minutes we found it!  It was a cement block with a raised circle with “B61” on it. 
 

 
That was sad, but Sister Morris’ grandpa has been found!  She is, now, trying to organize her family to have a headstone put on the grave.  It will be done before she leaves the mission in March.  We will help her make sure that happens!  Isn’t Heavenly Father wonderful!!!  It is amazing to me, though it shouldn’t surprise me at all, the intricacies of even the smallest of things in our lives that Heavenly Father weaves around us, through us, and through other people to make things & truths known; to have things happen for our eternal good.  How great is our God!

We gave the workshop on Saturday in Modesto, then came home Saturday night, and were very blessed to have a sister and her husband invite us over for dinner, the Rasmussens, then we arrived at home and started making 12 pans of granola bars for a 4-Zone conference that was being held as Elder Golden of the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy was touring the mission.  Wednesday, Sept 5^th, our mission president’s wife, Sister Gelwix, came and toured our office, then took us out to lunch!  How cool is that!  Lunch lasted for 3-1/2 hours!  No ~ we weren’t in trouble!  We just talked and had a great time!  Sister Gelwix, while there at Wendy’s, asked if Sister Morris and I would make some of the granola bars for Monday’s conference for a midway snack.  Of course we said yes!  We offered to make … well … 12 pans worth! We made a big variety!  It was a lot of work, but it was fun and they tasted good, and everyone seemed to like them!  I should have taken a picture of all of them!

Sunday evening we were invited to a Single Sister Missionary fireside with Sister Golden at the Mission Home which was very pleasant!  Sister Golden had us, each, tell where we were from, how long we have been out, and why we chose to serve a mission.  Then she asked what we enjoyed most about the mission.  It is ALWAYS fun to be with the younger missionaries and feel of their spirits!  The Spirit just seems to radiate from them.  Sister Golden is a warm, lovely woman; very kind and caring!  She told how she met Elder Golden, and all that happened leading to their marriage.  They are a devoted couple.  It was wonderful to be able to be with them.  They are from South Africa and have great accents too!

At the 4-zone conference we were spiritually fed, and had a great meal provided by the Fresno North Stake.  Monday night we had our Senior Missionary FHE, at the mission home again.  Sister Gelwix asked that Sister Morris share her ‘little miracle’ of her grandpa’s grave story.  Later, Elder Golden told Sister Morris that wasn’t a little miracle, but that it was huge!  She is grateful to know she was an instrument in the Lord’s hands in finding her grandfather’s grave.

Thank you to everyone for acknowledging my birthday!  I appreciate the cards and the Facebook comments.  It means a lot to me.  This is only the 2^nd time in my life I have been away from family and friends, and the 1st on my birthday, so having those remembrances was extra meaningful to me!  Thank you!  Thank you! 
 
 

 

Oops - left the 2nd one off by accident - it's the party dance card!

Sister Morris asked what kind of birthday cake I liked, so after having Happy Birthday sung to me a couple of times, we had some cake and ice cream at the office, and here at home.  YUM!    Jeremy Jensen, at the office, gave these hand sanitizing soaps - very thoughtful and considerate!  He's a good man - wonderful wife, and 3 young children.

Britta had come home from her trip to Alaska that day.  Here is a picture of the flowers she gave. 






Dan sent a necklace which is lovely! 








 
 
Sister Morris gave a day of service and a car wash!  Let me tell you!  It is SO dusty here - it’s always needed and as with everything else given, appreciated!  My mom gave me some money, so I'm on the lookout for something special.



 Our friend, Becky, gave a plant – a fern from her garden and her brother fixed it up real nice! 
 
 
 

She also gave a silver candle snuffer – if that’s what they are called.  It was very thoughtful, generous, and I am touched that she would be so kind to me.  

Becky’s birthday is Sept 14^th, so we planned to celebrate our birthdays’ together by going to a movie and out for dinner!  It was fun – we went and saw The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  I liked it!  It is a really good story!  We have been making a blanket for Becky, so thanks to Terrie Wright for her help – AGAIN!

 

Then, as we had some extra material, we also made some pillows for Becky for her birthday.  It took us FOREVER to choose the fabrics for the blanket.   

If you can see, the middle of the quilt is like reeds at the bottom of a stream, and the blues & greens are Becky’s favorite of all the colors of the ocean.  You can’t see the quilting, but we had the person program it like waves.  She really liked it!  We were glad!   I’ll try and get copy of the picture she sent.  She was going to take a picture of it, then her dogs jumped up on the blanket, so she took a picture of her dogs on the blanket, then she shooed them off. 

Britta is good to have Becky over on Sundays a lot of the time.  Becky is good company! 

We live in the boundaries of the Fresno East Stake, in the 7^th Ward.  The Stake has a Relief Society Christmas Choir.  The fireside to start that up was tonight.  From what I understand, Britta says it’s usually just the Relief Society, with occasionally a men’s choir, a mixed choir, or a children’s choir singing a couple of numbers.  This year the stake presidency has decided to change a few things about it.  The name will be the Fresno East Stake Choir; there will be other choirs from the Stake involved, and the young missionaries will be singing carols out in the foyer before the program.  The vision is to utilize to capacity the ability of music to touch peoples’ hearts, and have this event be a great missionary tool!  This choir has been singing for 30 years!  30 years!  Since 1982 - unreal!  That’s the year Jen and Justin were born!  (You all knew I was 9 when I had them, right?)  I’m so excited to be a part of it!  The theme is “Joy to the World” – a very fitting theme, I think –

I almost forgot this story.  While we were in Modesto the first time, just as we were leaving town, we stopped at a red light, and there on the corner, a person was cleaning out their landscaping of all these large river rocks.  Sister Morris is the world's best, for lack of a better word, scrounger!  She can find the weirdest things for very little money, or free!  She asked the worker what was going to happen with the rocks and was told they were getting rid of them and if she wanted any she was welcome to them.  Sister Morris got that "look" in her eyes, so I just turned the corner, drove into the parking lot, moved all of our supplies and suitcases to the back seat and we, in our dresses, put a ton of rocks in the back of my car.   This is about 1/2 the amount of rocks.   Yup - it was great.   0_0         Sister  Morris has enjoyed telling the tale, I can assure you ~
 

We put them in the flower bed at the office.  The picture is blurry but it was 9:30 at night by the time we got over to the office on Saturday night.  I was quite adamant about not driving to church with the rocks in the back of the car.  Go figure.




09/18/12

These fine looking young men were the missionaries from Britta's ward, until last transfer.  The missionary on the right is Elder Berg - a fine, young man, who was transferred last transfer.  We have had Elder Synder since then.  I will need to get a picture of him.  The other is Elder Jensen.  Elder Jensen left the mission on medical leave on Monday.  We hope he can be healed and come back.  These Elders were here when we arrived, so we are grateful to have been associated with them.  They are great!

Sunday night, one of Britta's dogs started acting sicker than he normally does.  This is Roady.  Roady lost 13 pounds since April, when we last helped Britta take both dogs to the vet.  Roady was not eating, his nose was dry, and he was really shaky when he walked.  I was concerned about him, and Sister Morris and I could see that he was having problems.  He had been really shaky for a couple of weeks.  We had discussed with each other the fact that Roady may not be with us much longer.  We really didn’t want him dying at all, but certainly not while Britta was gone! 



This is the stuffed saugage weiner dog Roady.

 I went outside to check on him and I couldn’t find him.  I walked around the yard a couple of times before I saw him under a bush.  I tried to get him out, but he wouldn’t budge, and I didn’t want to have to lift him up.  He was acting like he was going to die… I told Britta, but she didn’t know what to do, so I just sat out by the plant and reached in and petted, and patted his head.  Just when I thought “oh oh  - this is the end”, Roady stands up – climbs over the little brick wall by the plant and stands there staring at me!  I was like “WHAT THE HECK?!?”  I was glad he hadn’t died, but when he seemed like he was dying, then suddenly get up, walk over the little wall, and stand there, about blew me away! 

I went to bed after that!  I did expect him to be gone when I got up though, but there he was – not in good condition, but still there.  Britta took him to an animal hospital, where her vet practices.  They hydrated him, gave him some antibiotics, took xrays of him, did one or two other things I shouldn’t mention, but it was all for naught.  Roady’s kidneys were twice the size they should’ve been and were not working.  There wasn’t anything to be done, so Monday afternoon – Roady went home to Heavenly Father.  We aren’t sad for Roady – he can see again, and run and try to catch the squirrels.  We feel bad for Britta, and for Marley - Roady's brother.  It seemed to me that Marley was pretty sad tonight.

09/19/12

Another busy day – Marley barks at us when we don’t pay enough attention to him.  I think he’s lonely.  Sister Morris and I went to a Resume workshop tonight, put on at one of the county libraries.  We found we were doing things correctly, according to the presenter.  We wanted to make sure we were up to date with all the rules of thumb.    We had cookies to take over to the new neighbors, but they are pretty dried out, as they were made Saturday, so we had to sacrifice and eat them… oh sucks!  We did take a couple into the office.

President Gelwix has asked that missionary companionships set the goal of reading Preach My Gospel by the 24^th of December.  Sister Morris and I are trying to finish it earlier, as she will be going to Virginia the first part of November for a grandchild’s baptism, and we thought it best to have it done before she left.  It doesn’t really matter, but it’s worth a shot!

We were hoping the Brigham City Temple Dedication would be broadcast to our stake center, but alas, it won’t be.  I would have loved it, but I will just need to go to that temple when I get home.  For those that have asked, my release date is September 26, 2013, so I have another year.  Sister Morris’ release date is March 26^th, as hers is a 12 month mission.

There are 19 missionaries going home today.  I’m sure a lot of them are already home.  There were quite a few from Utah, one from Korea, one from the Philippines, a few from the eastern part of the country, two from Mexico – We personally knew a couple of the missionaries – one was our zone leader, and one was the first Coordinating Sister (like an AP, but over the temporal and emotional needs of Sister Missionaries), and we went on splits with her and her companion. 

Well – I guess I will need to finish this tomorrow or Friday pm, as we are going to the temple tomorrow night.  We have a standing reservation for Thursday nights.  We are trying to find a new/different sister to go with each week.  We are having a harder time finding someone lately.  Almost everyone we ask can’t go, or can’t go on Thursdays or whatever.  I am thinking of someone, but I don’t know if she can go right now.  Hopefully we will be able to find someone real soon.  Bye

09/20/12

Can you believe it’s already the 20^th of September?  In 6 more days, it will be 6 months on the mission for Sister Morris and me.  Unreal!  And I’m still alive!  Incredible!

Sister Morris prayed for us to find someone who could go with us to the temple.  I can tell you He answers prayers because we had not only 1 person, but 2!  There is only room for 3 patrons total in our pretty, tiny temple in initiatory at once, but!  Sister Morris sacrificed and went to participate in sealings.  We went to Rite Aid and had Thrifty ice cream afterwards!

09/21/12
I had another hair cut - see the one on the left side, above my ear.  Sorry - I'll be good.... tomorrow.  As my mom wanted to see the additional new hairstyle I received from Sister Morris, (who, without formal training, really does a good job), here is a picture of the side/back of my hair.  Sister Morris and I have had a talk about our definitions of short!

Things are going well!  I look forward to the time when I can say that all the time, but until then, I take the opposition in all things, rely on my Heavenly Father, and Savior, to save me when things are not well.  I am blessed abundantly by your thoughts and prayers.  I am so grateful to you for your prayers, as I am strengthened, and protected, and helped beyond measure!  I know Heavenly Father will bless you for praying for all missionaries!

I look forward to continuing to help Heavenly Father and His children as much as I can!  I figure, as I owe Him my life, and everything else, it’s the least I can do!  May our Father bless you all with those things of which you are in need!  Love, Sister Ure