Sun. Oct. 7, 2018

General Conference

I LOVE General Conference !  There have been many new additions to programs and challenges given that are exciting.  I am so grateful for a living prophet, Russell M Nelson, and his vitality and  challenges.  I intend to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year as well as incorporate his other challenges in my life.  How about you ?
 We went for a walk this past week and found these.  They are pecans from a tree that grows beside the Brick yard.  What you see all over the ground are the green things like in the top of the picture.  When they are ripe, you can just break that open and the shell is inside (middle picture).  When you break that open, the pecan is inside.  We ate it and it was really sweet !  Much better than the ones that you buy in the store but they are abit more work !!


An interesting thing happened on Thursday.  Jim was working on the fence at the Wilford Woodruff home which is on the main highway through Nauvoo.  A car stopped to ask for directions and as Jim walked up to it, the lady (passenger) said, "Paxman!?  Is your name Paxman?  We are Paxmans too !!!"  They are from St. George, UT. and had just driven into town and were looking for directions to some of the sites.  Jim invited them to come for supper later and we got to know them.  Bill & Sally Paxman.  The ancestor link for Bill and Jim went back to Jim's great-grandfather and his brother.  Small world!  We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and enjoyed our visit with them.  We took them around Nauvoo and helped them decide what to see on Friday.  Friday evening, we got back together again at the local hotel for the buffet and as we were walking out, two ladies were walking in and the younger lady did the same thing.  Turns out that she is a daughter of a cousin to Bill so he was able to visit with her.  Crazy....that our name tags have done.   Never had that happen before....most people here just try to ignore you when they see that you are a missionary....haha!!

 Happy Thanksgiving !!

We count our family (immediate & extended) as our greatest blessing!  This is even more meaningful to us because of the gospel promises that we can be an eternal unit. I am so grateful for the happy relationships that we share with all of our family members.  Know that you are thought about on a daily basis and we are happy to brag about you to anyone that is interested !!  We have also found many friends here that add to our forever list.  We hope to see some of them after our service has ended here.  
    Our week has been satisfying and busy.  I think that the miracle of a mission is that you go to bed each night exhausted and wake up in the morning ready to go again.   Hope you all have a good week and feel satisfaction in your daily pursuits.  Love you all !!

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