Arizona Phoenix Mission / Taylors: August 2015

New Branch Assignment at the MTC " MOLTO BENE!!"

Well, President Taylor is not one to toot his own horn so I will. He was recently made Managing Editor of the Deseret News! He is perfect for the job...but it also means MORE MEETINGS and less ability to get home to Provo from Salt Lake in a timely manner for the rigorous schedule of an English Branch President at the MTC. In an English unit, we get new missionaries weekly which means being there one extra night each week.

So, the Presidency of the MTC has moved us to a new branch: ITALIAN and ROMANIAN. This way our assignment is all day Sunday and Tuesday evenings as usual, but not as many Thursday evenings. A bit more doable for a busy NOT RETIRED family. We have found that most of our counterparts at the MTC are a bit older and retired. But we LOVE being a bit younger and with the experience of our mission to bless the missionaries lives as they come through the MTC.

So, here is our new branch!

Elders Whitaker, Chugg, Wilkinson, Blackwell, Martin and Reyes.

Elders Bertoldo, Whiting, Chilvers, Bourne, Spencer and Brown.

Elders Bruggeman, Farnsworth, Sisters Tingey and Nelson, Elders Houseman and Pyper.

Elders Simonsen, Grover, Sisters Sirena and Conde, Elders Thompson and Liu.

It was polka dot day...and I did not know it, but happened to wear a dotted dress. Pretty fun!

We love our service at the MTC! These young people are really amazing! It has been fun to see the process from the very start, knowing somewhat of what they are looking forward to out in the mission field!
We know they are going to where the Lord needs them! We know they are loved by their mission president and wife! We know that this Gospel is true! We know that it blesses families and is worth the effort that these missionaries are putting forth.

Late June-July APM RELATED ACTIVITIES

I guess we have been SO BUSY that I have not had time to blog! As many of you know, we still serve at the Provo Missionary Training Center in a Branch Presidency.

At the MTC, we sometimes run into friends! Here is SISTER HIXSON, sister to our own Shelby! She was in our branch at the MTC heading to serve in California and is a fantastic missionary! Love that girl!!

We got to go see Jennifer Bruckman Kleckner at her BABY SHOWER! Oh the fun things that being mission parents involve! I mean that seriously! She was adorable with her baby belly and John Deere theme shower!

Our JUNE APM DINNER GROUP!! Front: Alex and Andrew Pehrson (well, they are engaged)
Back row: Nick Cardoso, Nathan Hughes, Landon Bangeter, Andrew Marble, Michael Kellett, Becky and Caleb Crockett and baby Hazel, Amy Falke, Dani Robinson and Sarah Neary.

We had a great time eating and visiting...didn't want it to end!!!

This is to show proof that I am trying to get caught up on over 3 years of scrapbooking!

Here is when my dear friend Dana joined the Church in Phoenix! I am now officially into the second year of our mission in scrapbook years :)

We sorta LOVE visits from RM's!

Here we got a two-fer! Heather Hale and her friend along with Camille Brown!

We laughed a lot if you can imagine that!

And our JULY APM DINNER GROUP!!

Jacqueline Barlow, Paige McAllister and her friend Steve, Nolan Blackhurst, (who showed up in Natalie Daytons ward at BYU) Jenny Greenwood, Natalie Dayton, Lexie and Shae (Pickett) Morgan, Us, Arianne Holmes, Breyton Barber, Sarah Jenson, Dax Gerber, Lynne, Emily Walker and Jessica Turner.

Last weekend was Curtis Brown's reception after his temple sealing. His bride Anne was beautiful and they look so happy!

We have some lighting issues on the next couple photos.

Bradley Knabe brought his wife Michelle to meet us! They are just perfect together! We had a wonderful visit!

And last night we attended the reception for our own Ethan Jones! Today he married his sweetheart Morgan in the Brigham City Temple

We enjoyed visiting briefly with them and with his family. We love to meet family of our missionaries!

WE LOVE YOU ALL! Looking forward to many more interactions in the future!
Contact us to join a dinner group, a hike or to just stop by for a visit!

DONUT FALLS APM HIKE JULY 2015

July our hike was planned by Andrew Pehrson and his fiance, Alex. They arranged for us to hike DONUT FALLS in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

L to R: Jenny Greenwood, Arianne Holmes, Me, Jesus Castro, Maria Garcia, Alex, Andrew Pehrson, and 2 of Maria's friends from her YSA.
As we hiked the trail we came to this intersection...no markings at all and two very probable paths. So, as in the poem, we took the "road less traveled by" since it was leading UP. It was a nice trail, but led us away from the sound of water...so we ended up backtracking to make it to the BOTTOM of the falls. The other trail may have led us to the top, but we will save that for another day :)

We came to the bottom of the falls and realized we would be hiking up the middle of the stream to get to the top. FUN!

It was such a beautiful day, we were up for the challenge! And we were glad we came early. It was actually freezing cold when we arrived, but warmed up nicely!

The entrance to where you can see the falls come through the hole in the rock is up at the top and takes some climbing to get down into. Jenny and I check it out!

We were warned by THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE to watch our heads when we went down in. I don't know if you can see where my hand is holding jagged rocks here, but Andrew found them...WITH HIS HEAD!

Luckily, Maria had a bandana and we got him tied up for the rest of the hike!

You can see this is not a mere flesh wound. He ended up with 6 staples!!