Tis the season for...dinner guests

We've enjoyed hosting several dinners this month with some people we love. Early in the month we invited Andy's friends over to dinner. McKay just got back from Iraq where he has been serving as a Marine in his first tour of duty for 14 months. Taylor just returned from his mission to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Ron just returned to the area after going to music school in California for a couple of years. It was so wonderful to see these great young men and to learn about their experiences in different parts of the world. Each has had an experience that was so different from the others, but each experience seems to be tailor made for that individual. They've each grown and matured a lot.
We've had long ongoing relationship with these good women who are single. Rick has been the home teacher of Linda (standing next to him) for around 12 or so years. He has mowed her lawn weekly in the summer and shoveled the snow from her sidewalks in winter during all of those years. Each of our boys went with him to home teach when they were in the Aaronic priesthood, but now I'm his companion and I get to go with him to visit Linda. Marie was my secretary when I was the Relief Society president. I love this woman! She and Linda are good friends, so we invited them over for dinner tonight. Linda is an expert family historian, and she got us signed up on the new Family Search system on the Internet for doing genealogy work. Wow, what a program. We're excited to get going to learn more about this new tool for searching out our ancestors, and Linda is the go-to person who will help us.

Rick's brother Doug and two of his daughters (Hannah and Kate) came for a sleep over one weekend. They attended a BYU basketball game with Rick and then they went with us to the MTC the next day for church. They enjoyed going to our Spanish sacrament meeting and then eating lunch with the missionaries in the cafeteria afterward. Sister Harriet Uchtdorf was the teacher in Relief Society and Kate had the opportunity to go with me to that meeting. I love Sister Uchtdorf. She has a darling personality and she gave a powerful message to the sister missionaries.
Madison and Makayla came to visit us for two days last week. We enjoyed their visit and it was good to talk with Madison and to get to know cute little Makayla. Unfortunately Rick backed into Madison's car when pulling out of the drive way, but that misfortune turned into a blessing when our insurance company paid for the repairs within 48 hours by giving Madison a check to match the estimated repairs.
Sydney came over to hang out with us and we enjoyed a dinner of home made tacos one evening. I love my nieces and I love spending time with them when ever I can. I hope they know how much I love them both.


Another Sunday, we were able to have eight returned missionaries who served in Mongolia come to dinner. It was so wonderful to have them tell us about the missionary efforts in that great land and to also tell us some funny stories about Elder Andy. They ate a ton of food and it was satisfying to load them up with a good meal right before they headed into finals at BYU. They are great young men who served well and who are now getting on with their lives. It's an honor to rub shoulders with them.
Coming to town soon? Just let me know and I'll whip up some food. Come on over and eat and visit. Bon appetite!