4.20.26 The puppy. D.C. Tree. Home Day. Moses.

 Retired/Missionary Life. Sunday.

HAPPY SABBATH!!! Here! Have a Jesus Picture! He LOVES YOU!!

We started early this morning with a meeting with the leaders of our Congregation where we discussed the needs of folks and what we can do to serve them. Sacrament Meeting. Men's Meeting. And then Missionary Correlation Meeting. With eight of us missionaries here, we require some correlation!

Afterwards, we attended a picnic with the Congregation. Today we fasted together and we broke our fast together with tons of delicious food!

Back home: naps, reading and studying, watched some church videos, and an episode of Heartland.

Bonus:

- More baby pics of Frivvy. (His first day to go to work with us)

- A couple of huge critters at the Stewart Highlands.

- An incredible Palouse Sunset.

Enjoy!

Retired/Missionary Life. Monday.

Old people must eat. So, we planned out our chaotic week, made up yummy menus, created a meticulous grocery list, drove to Plummer, ate salads and played Book of Mormon Rummy at the Gateway, bought the groceries, walked on the wet Trail of the CDAs, filled up with kinda cheap gas, drove home, brought it all in, put it all away.

Evening was spent watching a prerecorded football game. The Cougs almost losing to the Vandals.

Later on, we joined a mission-wide Zoom meeting where we heard several departing missionaries bear testimony and saw pictures of the Presidents new grandson.

For fun, I included more baby pictures of Frivvy! His second day of work he kind of took over the office. He took charge of the shredding, managed the preparation of extensions from under my desk, and even went out front and greeted clients. One of our best employees ever!

And finally, is this the same elk that was in front of our game camera yesterday?

Enjoy!

Retired/Missionary Life. Tuesday.

Most of today was spent in our weekly missionary District Council Meeting. Each companionship takes a few minutes in front of the group talking about their successes and hardships and miracles and leading brainstorming on solutions to challenges. This is the awesome Spanish District, one of the most enthusiastic and energetic Districts I have ever been a part of!

Afterwards, we went to lunch with fellow missionaries and good friends, the Wildings. They are from Idaho Falls and split their time between the downtown Spanish Congregation and the Swahili Congregation. Great folks, and Hanna and him are related somehow.

We spent the evening doing our studies and reading and bribing our cute dogs to do tricks.

Retired/Missionary Life. Wednesday.

Today's exciting adventure included taking Gus to the Vet for his annual checkup. He's healthy and fine and energetic, but slightly overweight. We have had him on a diet since we got him and he is only down 3 lbs. The Doc prescribed a special weight loss dog chow for him. I hate diets and he does too.

We walked on the Centennial Trail. The river is crazy full and fast!

And we met up with the Missionaries that serve in our congregation with us for a dinner at Conley's. They don't get restaurant food very often and the Elder from Peru had fun trying to figure out what everything on the menu was.

Finally, I posted a bunch of pictures from last weekend's service project. All 8 of us missionaries spending several hours clearing a downed tree from a member's back yard. Service feels good!

Do you need service? These missionaries are ready to go! Just let me know.

Old people always need a day every so often when they just stay home and get things done. Today was that day.

Plus I could expound on the missionary serve from home vs serve out in the world somewhere. Serve at home has a lot of perks, like being able to have our dogs, see our grandkids, sleep in our own bed, relax in our hot tub...... But the downside is that if something breaks, WE have to fix it. We have a yard to tend to. And chores that must be done. Always. Anyways, serve from home missionaries like us seem to need a day at home to get stuff done too.

What I got done: I declared winter as officially being over! I put away the electric snow blower, the snow shovels, and removed the 600 pounds of sand bags from the back of our truck. I spent a lot of time dealing with the fact that our insurance company is refusing to renew our homeowners policy which will lapse in July. (Insurance companies no doubt are a thing of the devil......). I removed the snow blade and snow chains from the lawn tractor and successfully installed the mower in its place. Ordered tires, oil filters and a new battery for the tractor on Amazon. Also ordered yellowjacket bait. (I haven't seen one yet, but they will be here in swarms soon!) Ordered tick medicine for the boys because the ticks are out ALREADY.

And there's probably more, but that is enough of a list for now.

A critter also roamed across the path of our critter camera yesterday too. Enjoy the wildlife picture!

Retired/Missionary Life. Friday.

Missionary Road Trip/Temple Day!!

We traveled to Moses Lake to worship in the temple there as our Spokane Temple is still closed for maintenance. We enjoyed the beauty of the temple grounds and the temple itself and loved the feeling of peace and unity inside the walls as we worshipped together.

Stopped at Bob's Cafe for Book of Mormon Rummy (Hanna had absolutely no mercy today.....) and salads. And there we ran into Dena Billman. She's our daughter's mother-in-law (there is no genealogical name for this relationship, but there should be!) Always good to see friends/family!

Before hitting the highway back home, we went to that trail by the lake and hiked a bit. The boys loved that and saw several other dogs along the way!

Evening was spent doing our studying and reading and such.

Retired/Missionary Life. Saturday.

Today is our good friend, Ivan's, birthday! So we and our friends and compadres Wildings took him out to a birthday lunch at Casa de Oro. It was great catching up with him and he is doing well (especially now that he has tacos inside him!)

We then went for a walk on the Centennial Trail. I know you all want to see a picture of me and the boys, but I don't think Hanna sent it to me yet and it's late, so, perhaps tomorrow.

Back home, we did our studies, took a nap, and joined in on a Zoom lesson with the missionaries that we serve with as they taught a lady about the gospel and about families.

Finally, while you don't get any dog pictures, you do get some pictures of a family of deer that hung out at the Highlands and a dark appearance of another critter which Grok says is a buck deer but I say is likely a possessed demon.