Spring celebrations

 For the past 16 weeks, Carl and I have been  super busy -- finding, furnishing, and moving stuff into 16 new missionary apartments. Call it "pre" and "post" March madness.  This is all part of a huge wave (or Tsunami) of missionaries flooding the earth due to the recent change in ages that they can serve. As a result, all missions have enlarged their missionary forces, and 58 new missions have been created throughout the world. We've been riding the wave, paddling furiously, and are just now approaching some calmer waters. Thankfully, we've had a few occasions, to kick back, and catch our breath a little.

Such as, taking the time to celebrate Elder Gurr's  20th birthday. He came out not too long ago, and is part of our Brockport "family" (the elders and sisters who live close-by us)

left to right: Elder Wilcox (Idaho), Elder Gurr (Arizona), Sister Hawkes (Utah), Sister Johnson (Colorado), Elder Robertson (Utah), Elder Hill (California)

Easter weekend came at the chilly end of winter. We had a nice ham dinner with our little missionary "family". We are all "homeless", in a far-away part of the country, but felt a lot of joy in celebrating this special time of year together.  We are out here because of our love for the Savior. We celebrate His triumph over death and the grave.

The food and plates have been cleared away for the encore--our traditional Easter  bunny cake, which Sister Hawkes and Johnson decorated.



Next came General Conference -- a whole weekend to recharge our spiritual batteries! Also, another occasion to enjoy a meal together. We enjoyed our traditional "potato bar" dinner, following the Sunday afternoon session of conference.

from Left to Right: Elder Gurr, Elder Wilcox, Elder Robertson, Sister Johnson, Sister Hawkes, Elder Hill, and Casey R., a  fairly recent convert in our Brockport Ward, who will be attending BYU in the Fall (her last conference with us!)

Everyone ate up all the food, and are waiting for the traditional Conference dessert to be served.


On April 9, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary by going to the Palmyra Temple.  After that, we spent some time in the Sacred Grove, where the trees are still bare, but the first flowers are beginning to bloom. 

That  evening, we  were going to celebrate at a great Italian restaurant in Rochester, but instead headed out to Buffalo to pick up Philip, who flew in for free at the spur of the moment (the perks of working for an airline).  The next day, Philip joined us for a morning of specialized training with 4 zones of our missionaries and got to hear and meet our awesome mission president, Jack Christianson. Then, we had lunch in Niagara Falls at Buzzy's (New York style pizza and real Buffalo chicken wings). Before taking Philip back to the airport, we took in the sights at Niagara Falls. It was freezing cold and rainy, but Philip wanted to take his jacket off for the photo.

That was the icing on the cake, to have a visit from a bona fide, real flesh and blood family member!  Hope some more are able to make it out for Hill Cumorah Pageant this year.