Back home from Salt Lake City and Ready to Get Busy -

We had a whirlwind couple of days in Salt Lake City and I am definitely ready to get on top of things here on the home front. It was good to meet two more of Alyssa's former missionary companions, Emily Olsen and Christina Early who are now attending BYU. We also got to do a delivery to Arminda who moved to Salt Lake City from Portugal recently. She and her husband Tom are expecting a baby girl in February. What a delightful woman! And her two daughters Vanessa and Nadia are every bit as beautiful as their mother. I marvel at how well they are learning English. Thanks for the bolo Arminda. A visit to the Petrie's was delightful as usual with yummy soup and bread and fresh peaches to boot. How we love this family. Unexpectedly Great Aunt Jessie and Kathy hadn't left for Canada yet and so we were blessed to have a little more time with them. (The time at the wedding was limited.)

Amazingly we did accomplish all of the "need to's" and now Alyssa has her temple clothes, a cute new outfit and new skirt and we were able to run all of the errands (which were many including purchases and gift deliveries) for those left behind in Portugal. Thankfully Zion's Bank was able to do currency conversion and we were able to find exactly the shoes one of the sisters wanted Alyssa to buy for her. Alyssa was particularly happy to find a Hindi bible for a friend whose current bible had a mix of Hindi and Sanskrit which made it difficult for her to understand. Now Mandeep will have a bible in her native tongue to enjoy. Alyssa was also able to get a Hindi Book of Mormon for a man who is Hindu that she met on one of her flights home. We covered a lot of ground for a 24 hour period of time. We were grateful Claigh was also in Salt Lake for business so we had a nice hotel room to crash in.

Sadly, even though I did remember to bring the camera, I forgot to get it out and take pictures. :o( There was just too much packed into a very short time but the memories are wonderful.