What a month!

Wow!  What a month!  So much happened, and the time just flew by!

Once we got back from tending Kris's kids, we quickly got back to work and tried to catch up on our mission tasks.  Thursday and Friday (Jan. 21 and 22) we did apartment inspections on the Elder's apartments.  Friday night, the YSA 1st Ward had a "Rock Band" night.  Elder McGuire and I learned how to play 2 chords on the mandolin!  (At least we were able to participate that way!)  Friday was also spent shopping for food and cooking - because Saturday we were in charge of the luncheon for the regional Seminary Training Meeting (90 people).  Yikes! We serve where we're needed!

On Sunday, we attended both wards and I was in charge of the Linger Longer after church for the YSA 2nd Ward (usually theBishop's wife does that, but they were out of town.)

Monday, Jan. 25, classes started.  We prepped for our 10:00 am class (Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel), but no one came.  At 2:00, we left for Whittier for Elder McGuire's Uncle Paul's viewing. We spent some good time with Uncle Paul's son, Patrick McGuire, and were really glad that we  were able to do that.  I think he felt very alone, and has so little family now.  Tuesday, we had 2 classes, one at 3:30 (the Jesus Christ one), and one at 7:00 (Principles and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon).  Only one person came to our 3:30 class (Tom Sorenson, who is the brother-in-law of my niece, Angela), but we had a really good turnout to our night class.  Wednesday morning, we were prepared to teach again at 10:00, but still no one came, so our class is now formally cancelled.  Right after our class time, we headed to the airport again to fly home.

Now begins the home adventures!  The first day there, we went to the dentist for checkups and teeth cleaning.  Then, we headed to Kris's house to see that darling new baby Henry!  What a delight and a blessing!

Henry Owen Swenson, born January 11, 2016

That night, we spent with family in Kaysville.  We were able to stay at our house (love my bed!), and got lots of good entertainment from grandkids there!

McCoy, Brody, and Gavin showing us their HipHop dancing skills

On Friday, we were able to attend Kenslee's 4th Grade program, visit with grandkids, and Elder McGuire got a haircut.

Kenslee - using a costume from our "costume box"

Saturday was a crazy day!  It was snowing, so the roads were bad.  Despite that, we had an appointment at the Payson Temple at 11:00 for Henry to be sealed to Nate and Kris.  What a beautiful experience - I have never attended a sealing of a child to parents before.  Jacob, Emma, and Pete were in the sealing room too.  I can truly testify that Henry is a very special child, and is a very special gift to our family.  Kristina was literally glowing with joy.

Kristina and baby Henry, the wreath was given to her by the birth Mom

While at the temple, Julianne was having labor pains.  We went to Kris's house for lunch and the blessing.  Finally, we convinced her to call the hospital, and they told her to come right in.  So, we all headed to University Hospital in Salt Lake.  They determined she was in labor, and needed to be delivered (via c-section), but since she had eaten lunch, they wanted to hold off until 8:30 that night. We took kids home, and eventually went back to the hospital because she wanted us there.  About 9:00 she had a beautiful and healthy baby girl, named Olivia (Livy for short).  

Baby Livy

To top it off, Bob and Erica's littlest boy, Owen, had his first birthday that day (January 30).  So before we went to the hospital for Julianne's delivery, we went to their house for birthday cake. What a little doll he is!

Owen's birthday!

So the party continued! Sunday was Elder McGuire's 65th birthday. We had cake and ice cream at our house for all of the family that could make it.  We also had to speak in church (basically bear our testimony) and Elder McGuire taught Priesthood Meeting. We also went into the hospital to see Julianne and Livy.

Elder McGuire - Happy Birthday!

So at least Elder McGuire got a birthdate to call his own, because the next day, Feb. 1, we got a call from Billy about 8:00 pm to see if we could go tend because Jacee was in labor.  By 11:00, baby Strom was born.  So that was the third new little one for us.

Jacee and Baby Strom Kent McGuire

Wow!  After all of that excitement, we spent the next 4 days basically helping to tend kids, visiting new babies, etc.  Julianne and Jacee both came home on Wednesday.  And of course, the grandchildren LOVED to hang out at Nana and Bumpa's house - so it was a PARTY most of the time with more children running through the house than I'd seen in months!  Kris came up to visit twice with her kids.  So fun to see the babies together!

Livy and Henry

Strom

Cookie Decorating

Elder McGuire, doing vehicle inspections

Sunday we flew back to San Diego.  HATED to leave everyone, but anxious to get back.  We started right back with Zone Meeting Monday, teaching classes, starting our Temple Prep class (for the 2 wards), doing Missionary Vehicle Inspections (the last 2 Wednesdays), preparing our Forum luncheon, and going to the temple.  We also prepared dinner for both pairs of missionaries, along with some investigators. On Saturday, we held a cookie decorating activity for the kids at our apartment complex, and invited the missionaries to come.  

Sunday was a Special Regional Broadcast for the West Coast.  Wow, a veritable spiritual feast!  Then Monday night we "helped" with an FHE activity that the YSA 1st Ward sponsored.  It was a Valentine's Dinner - with a "speed dating" component.  They planned on a couple of other wards, approximately 60 people, and we had close to 100 people come.  Somehow, the food all stretched, everyone had so much fun, and some of the ward members even got phone numbers and dates out of it!  Busy though! (Thank you Kris for your Raspberry Chicken recipe!)

Elder McGuire grabbing a bite to eat when he had a minute

At the BYU/USD Basketball game

After a usual busy week, with classes, vehicle inspections, Temple Prep, and Forum luncheon, we treated ourselves Thursday and went to a BYU Basketball game held at U of San Diego.  Can you tell Elder McGuire is happy?

We also had a chance to see Elder Baloaloa on Monday.  We had a package to deliver to him, and so we met for lunch at a Filipino restaurant.  Interesting! So fun to see him!

Friday, we had dinner with the Senior CES Missionaries at Phil's Barbecue.  Afterwards, we went to the Grossmont Institute Building and made milkshakes, played pool and pingpong, and visited.  Pretty fun group.  We attended a wedding reception on Saturday for our ward members, Preston and Juana.  It was a true Mexican reception, complete with Mariachi band.  

Preston and Juana's wedding reception

Sunday was many hours of church, but a good chance to get back to meetings and planning.  The Mission President's Fireside was Sunday night - a wonderful chance to hear new convert testimonies and see many of the missionaries.  That always confirms how much we love this mission!

And so life goes on.  So many blessings, some of which I think have come about because of our mission and our family's sacrifice to have us here.  We know that even though we have a distance between us, there is work of an eternal nature to do here, and we are so grateful to be involved in it.  We thank our Heavenly Father every day for this opportunity. And we thank Him for the health, strength, and energy that He gives us in order to accomplish what we need to.  We know we are sustained by Him, and by your prayers.  Thank you!

What Happened to the Last Month?

January 20 - the last post; February 18 - today.  Boy it is really hard to post any more than once a month these days.  You would think we (a) busy (b) lazy or (c) hate to write on these things!  I won't reveal which of the three choices is accurate; you get to guess.  Prior to our trip home on January 27 we packed in a lot of things.  We fed around 90 seminary teachers on the 23rd with our new favorite sandwiches, ham and cheese with a special topping that makes your mouth water.  Those lunches are always busy, but this time it was less so than others because Sister McGuire came up with an easier menu to fix.  Even the cleanup was easier, which made my dishpan hands happy.
On Monday we went up to Uncle Paul McGuire's viewing.  We were really sad that we didn't make it up to talk with him before he died.  Luckily Jim and Shirley made it up while they were in LA and had a nice visit with him.  It was good to see Patrick.  I really didn't know him at all and it was nice to sit for close to two hours and talk with him and some others who came by while we were there.  Uncle Paul was a great guy and always had a smile on his face.  Their family has had a lot of challenges with many passing away within a short few years.
On Wednesday we flew back home for a 10 day stay with the advent of three new grandchildren.  We are blessed to have a mission president and institute director who are willing to work with us on such a momentous time.  The time back home seems like a blur due to the many things that were happening seemingly all at once.  On Thursday we went down to Mapleton to meet our new grandson, Henry Owen Swenson.  Such a cute little guy, and it so nice to have a new color to our family.  And look at the hair on that boy!

Proud grandma with Henry

On Saturday, the 30th, we were blessed to go to the temple and have him sealed to his new parents.  What a great and wonderful thing to witness as they laid Henry on the altar between his parents.  As we went over to Kristina's and Nate's home for the family meal, Julianne started complaining about contractions.  She would have liked to just not worry about them, but they kept coming, so pursuant to a call to the hospital, we were off to SLC and University Hospital.  Lovely Olivia Ricketts was born that evening.  It turned into a long day and she couldn't hold off for a few more hours so that Olivia (Livy) and I could have the same birthday!  Livy had some trouble breathing and so they put her on oxygen, but she used the time that Mom stayed in the hospital to get right off of it. 

Livy with oxygen

Finally on February 1, Strom Kent McGuire made his entrance into the world.  He waited until about 10 pm to come so Diana and I went over to Billy's house to tend the kids while he and Jacee welcomed Strom here. (Look at Diana's post for a picture of Strom because I didn't get it on my cellphone). I don't know why babies wait until a time when you end of losing sleep to make their appearance, but such was the case for our two most recent grandchildren.  So that makes 19 grandchildren: 7 granddaughters and 12 grandsons.
The rest of our stay was spent having fun with family.  Except for January 31 when the Bishop asked us to spend a few minutes in Sacrament Meeting talking about our mission and then the HP had me give their lesson on being a Senior Missionary.  A guy can't get a break even on his birthday.  Oh, yeah, I turned 65 that day.  You know, Medicare, Social Security, aches and pains.
We flew home on Sunday, February 7 and the next few days hit the ground running.  Zone meeting Monday morning and two FHEs that night, while trying to prepare for teaching.  Tuesday night it was Book of Mormon class again.  We were interested to find out that Elder Richardson who taught for us the week we were gone, mistakenly taught the old BofM curriculum, but we carried on from where we should have been.  On Wednesday it was back to car inspections for the missionaries which is really a lot of fun.  We get to interact with some of the senior missionaries and the work isn't hard.  That night we began our Temple Preparation class with three of the nine who we will be teaching present.  We will be teaching it again this Sunday and the rest will attend there.  Thursday brought a return to Forum lunches for us and then the APs for dinner along with their Chinese investigator, Xi (she).  Diana decided that the two in one day was not a good idea.  Friday came with a chance to do laundry and slow down a little.  We really have felt on the go since coming back.  Saturday we fed the ZLs with Jose, Anna and Martin.  One of the great things we do is get to know these investigators and hopefully make them feel a little at home.  Jose works for a solar company in sales and is working from here and Houston where his ex-wife and two sons live.  He has agreed to get baptized, just doesn't know whether to get baptized here or in Houston.  Martin is in diving school where they are teaching him to be an inspector of building materials under water.  He is coming along okay, but has a Word of Wisdom problem.  The last couple of days he has seemed more talkative and at ease so maybe he can progress.  In the meantime, Xi is a golden convert.  He will be baptized on the 27th.  He is a fine young man who is studying for a masters in computer science at SDSU.
Well here it is Tuesday and I started this on Friday.  The time sure flies, plus I am not very good at this.  The last few days was full of food (with the CES/YSA missionaries - too much food), grocery shopping, laundry, seeing Risen and a full day of Church. 
On Sunday we went to dinner at Bishop Goff's house.  They are great people and do so much for the YSA ward.  There are people like that all over the Church and we are lucky to be here meeting some of them.  A mission provides such a great chance to experience other people and areas and to serve.  As I listened to the President's Fireside on Sunday which consists of music by the missionaries and talks by recent converts, I was touched by how wonderful the gospel is.  It allows us to come closer to Christ and hopefully learn to be more like Him.  It is sometimes difficult to understand why people would not accept that opportunity in their lives, but that is what agency is all about.