2010 Thanksgiving

Today we are grateful:

Richard & Grandma going on a mission
Tom's humor
Heather's caring hands taking care of Celia
Peter's graduation
Kate's addition to the family and employment
Nick's return from a faithful mission
Bryant's health and service in the mission field
Becca's opportunity to dance at BYU and receive an education
James being the greatest only boy at home and his athletic ability
Marc's "do it yourself" attitude
Ange's new J.O.B. and ability to still serve her family & community
Meg's transfer to the U and great experience she is having
Daniel's senior year and ability to apply for Higher Ed
Amy's "Mimo" abilities and despite a loss being able to take it graciously
Heidi's good humor and attitude
Celia's health and job
Emma's helping hand and artistic ability!
Sam's fun loving attitude and athletic ability
Jeff's ability to love his sisters, daughters, and wife so well
Jen's ability to represent all the ladies in this family with athletic ability!
Emilie's big sister attitude and beautiful hair!
Ada's fun spirit and help with Sarah
Sarah's hilarious personality
Rich's job, being all our bff, staying up late, loving our favorite Katie Shmo, being so fun!
Katie's "second mom" to all the grandchildren, staying up late with us, just a perfect Shmo Princess!
Eliza's great big sister and great friend way
Joseph's quiet personality and loving way
Nicholas's hugs and kisses
Jacob's spunky attitude and cute soft cheeks!
Will's being the last one of us and so darling!

So much to be grateful for!

Elder Blair

It has been said that a first impression is everything. Having been to several job interviews lately I have come to find how true this is. The past weeks has had lots of ups and downs. However, I am glad to report that my first impression of Elder Blair is a great one! I had the blessing of going up with him on Saturday November 20. It was great to see him. It was the highlight of my week! I was an hour late. I thought we were meeting at 4pm and it was actually 3pm. So I am afraid his first impression of me might not have been a good one. We had a great time together. His companion elder Johnson, while a little slow for us Blair’s, is a great companion and is helping Bryant learn and grow in ways. Bryant is the driving force in the companionship. His language is coming along well and he has a great vision on how to help more souls come unto Christ.  

We had dinner with an amazing family from Guatemala. They have a little girl who is 3 named Jenny. She always tells the missionaries to love their moms and say hello for her. She is a great missionary and tells all her friends about how they need to pray before they eat. Of course Bryant spends his time convincing her that he is the best.... if you have ever been around a child and Bryant you know exactly what I am talking about. We taught several people during the night. Of course it was raining and several appointments weren’t home. Because they speak Spanish they can’t go door to door. They rely heavily on referrals and street contacts. They said they give away tons of great investigators to the English elders since they can only teach the 1st lesson in English. While he does have his hardships he was very happy and upbeat. I gave him a sweater, gloves, and a hat - Wednesdays high is 17 degrees and we are to get 10 inches of snow before then. I figured he will need it. When his visa comes in he will return them as well give me his coat and a suit (maybe).

It was great to see him and a blessing I was able to work with him! He is a great missionary and as long as he has his health he will continue to work miracles and be a great missionary for the Lord. We had fun in the snow and cold together. Keep up the good work Elder Blair! 

(The picture is of the Guatemalan family and his companion as well as Elder Blair and me)

Posted by Pedo

Alex Boye

Tuesday night we had a joint RS Mtg with 2 other wards.  We had arranged to have Alex Boye come as the speaker (singer).  I was a bit nervous, as I have heard mixed reviews about his talk, but I must say he was outstanding.  He talked about the power of music, did some singing and then shared his conversion story.
He grew up in London, England.  He was a 16 year old kid, living with an acholic uncle because his parents were divorced and gone or died (don't remember).....He worked at McDonalds and his boss (a large black man) was a member of the church.  Alex was very testy, always getting into trouble, yelling at customers, fighting with other employees.  He was just an angry young man.
His boss, for some reason, continued to put up with this always suggesting that he come to church with him or to a church activity which only made Alex more angry.
One day the boss asked him if he would like to meet some American girls......this caught his fancy.  American girls were about the best thing going..........so that night when he returned home from work, there were 2 sister missionaries waiting for him.  He invited them in.....called all his friends to share the big news that 2 cute American girls were in his house.  Soon the house was full of his friends and his status soared!
He continued to invite them just to get to know AMERICAN GIRLS.  One day they told him about life after death.  That was too much and he challenged them......How do you know?  Have you ever died and come back? 
And then one of these sisters looked him in the eye and said, "I am 21 years old and I have left my family, my friends, my cute car, my school, my warm house, a mother who takes care of me, and everything else that is dear to me and I have come here for 18 months because I want to share what I know.  And one of those things is that I know there is life after death!"
He weeps as he recounts this powerful moment of testimony from a young 21 year old girl.  Within weeks he was baptized but when his uncle found out, he packed up this belongings, threw them on the street and told him never to come back.  Poor Alex was confused and devasted.  Here he had embraced the gospel and this was his blessing?????  He was 16 years old and did not know he had a ward family with a bishop who could help him so he wandered the streets, homeless and hungry and cold.  He finally found an old abandoned car that he crawled inside and began to read from his little B of M.  Answers came thru the scriptures  Over time things got better.  He then served a mission, now lives here, is married and has one child.
His music was beautiful!  I am hoping that when we return he will still be here and we can have him for a family fireside!
Anyway, I thought of Bryant who is now testifying of truths that only come by the spirit.  I thot of Peter and Nick who have set the standard of missionary work in this family.  I love missionaries and am so grateful to be in a family who loves and lives missionary work.  I feel blessed!

Halloween 2010 with the Bensons

Sorry it's a little late, but these are some Halloween pictures with the Bensons!

First of all, our friends made some Halloween cupcakes for us. Look how cute!

little witch cupcakes

This is Samuel with his Halloween costume on. He was a Wheaties box! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of my costume, but I was a vampire!

~Emma



Mediterreanean Trip 2010

                                               Bougenvilla at the Sea of Galilee -- reminds me of Hawaii!

When I was young, I longed to see the world.  Well, guess what?  I've seen it!  And when I stepped off the plane Friday night, I vowed I would never get on one again.  Flying is not what it used to be.  We were 28 hours getting home (with no sleep) and have paid a price -- tired, sick and out of it, but when this severe jet lag wears off, I know the highlights of the trip will surface.  And there were highlights.  Here are a few:

In honor of Grandma Barnes we said "hello to Shoo Shoo".  Check out the good looking leg.  I had a skirt on and frankly it was a miracle that I was able to stay on at all.   One more reason I am so happy to not be a camel riding nomad.  This is Cairo at the Pyramids.  The place is full of shisters.  This guy wanted $10 for the pix he took.  We were told it should be $3 so I began to yell "NO" to him.  My cries brought a policeman who asked what the problem was.  He made the guy give us $5 back!.  They say that sometimes they hold you ransom on the camel and will not let you off unless you pay $100!  Such a corrupt place!

Another photo of the Cairo pyramids.   They are really quite a site!!!

One of the ancient Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The crowds were horrendous but we found a few quite moments in the Garden.

When you read the New Testament about the Savior going to Capernaum you begin to understand how fare the distances were between towns and how dusty and hot the roads must have been.

The filth and squaller of Egypt was almost unbelievable.  This is a little river that ran thru Cairo.  Note the garbage floating in the water.  Everyplace looks like this -- garbage, filth, people pushing and driving like maniacs.  At one point two cars crashed into each other but then just drove away.  It was like the dodgems at Lagoon.  Cars going in every direction, driving with their horns.  The lines in the road were just for decoration.  Crazy!!!!!

Don't know how this pix of MPH funeral got in here.  Remember this is my first attempt!
But this pix is of an island off the coast of Venice, Italy called Burano.  It was such a beautiful little place -- know for it's Italian lace.  Note all the difference colors of row houses.  Everything about it was charming!

All in all the trip was good.  Good people, and great sites, just a bit long!!!

Sooooooooo glad to be home!

Kath

Our freeway crash

If you haven't heard Daniel & I got in a pretty awful wreck tonight.

We were driving on the freeway about to merge onto the one to go to LV/Provo

(like I know what it's called...either I80 or I-215?)

We were almost to the loop, it was about 5:15 and traffic was starting-

we slow down and next thing I know...

crash

I don't remember much just serious pain and not really know what was going on, I couldn't breathe and was gasping, also was drenched with some water bottle that exploded.

(I thought it was blood!)

Daniel was driving and I was in the passenger seat.

I don't think I could have done it without Daniel, he was just next to me saying:

 "Megan you're ok, you're fine, breathe, it's ok."

I finally sort of came to and tried to call our parents, finally Daniel had to do it.

Our airbags deployed and the seatbelts saved our lives!

Thank you Marc!!!!

Come to find out it was a 16 year old in the car behind us (a HUGE tahoe)

The force she hit us with caused it to be a 6 car collision, so 4 cars in front of us were rear ended.

It's amazing there isn't a cut on our bodies

(definitely a lot of bruising!)

I was super shaky when the paramedics came over and they tried to take me in an ambulance.

Learning from my own Grandmother, I said: "HECK NO, those are way too expensive!"

It's a miracle we are alive with this type of wreck, and the fact that we weren't even hurt is amazing.

We are truly blessed & watched over.

RIP Sylvia

off to the junkyard...