We think that the mission papers have been turned in for about 2 weeks now. We continue to let people know that we are going to serve again. We want family and close friends to hear it from us before the rumors start to fly. With that in mind, we headed to Burley on the 4th to have brunch with our El Salvador Mission Family.
The Gibbons and the Petersen's are very special to us. We wanted to be sure that they heard about our mission from us and not someone else and word will soon be spreading around the temple so they needed told now. We met at Perkins in Burley for Brunch
President and Hermana Petersen will be moving to Saratoga Springs, Utah in two weeks to live with their daughter. They will be missed here but thankfully they will be well taken care of by loving family
We serve with the Gibbons on Wednesday evenings and we will sure miss that special association with our Brother and Sister!
Our Ma and Pa from our El Salvador Mission They are such great examples of service and dedication. It is hard to see the effects of age but that is part of life.
On the 12th, our choir again was given the privilege of singing a special number at a special Stake Conference with Elder Anderson of the Seventy presiding. It was a very special meeting and the choir sang beautifully and added so much to the spirit of the meeting. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to direct this choir.
That evening we headed to Twin to attend Chandler's Eagle Court of Honor.
Three boys all received their Eagle this evening
Chan with his parents
Dad pinning the Eagle Badge on Chandler's shirt
Mom putting on his new necktie and then the dreaded----
Mom hug!
Tracy crashed on his mountain bike on Saturday and has torn the ligaments in his shoulder.
So proud of this fine young man. He is growing up into a polite, respectful man.
The three Thompson Eagles We just need Nathan here and we would have all of our eagles
Two very proud grandpa's
Grandparents Thompsons and Roberts
So thankful that we could be here for this event
Ashton is getting close to his Eagle also
On the 13th we met up with Kurt and Linda for dinner at the Pizza Pie Café. It was the first time that we have eaten there. Not too bad except it is a smorgasbord so of course we ate way too much. We had a nice evening talking about our mission and where we think we will be serving. As this is our third mission and Lon served in Colombia as a young man, we really feel like we will get to go to Colombia and open the new temple in Barranquilla. We just have to wait and see---
Beth Jones passed away and I was asked to play for the funeral. Her grandson played the violin and I had to accompany him with a piece called "Consider the Lillies of the Field" My piano part was almost all 16th. It was the hardest piece I have played in a long long time. I am very rusty at the piano but I really practiced this and we did pretty good. He played perfectly and people didn't notice my mistakes. So thankful that I could do something to honor Beth. She is a long time family friend. She was my primary teacher and she also taught each one of my children. All of the prelude music that I played was primary music to honor her years of dedicated service in the primary.
We headed to Island Park on the 16th. We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there with Frank and Pauline Price. Frank owns property there and has his campers set up all summer so we took our camper up and parked on their property. Luke and his three kids came up on Friday night. Morgan is 5'6" and is in the 6th grade. She takes after her mom. Kinsey and Gus are third grade and kindergarten and take after their dad. Kathy and Kent Williams also came up and camped with us.
Luke, Kathy and Kinsey trying to assemble a bean bag game and Gus has the directions and is studying them.
Morgan and Kinsey playing the game
Luke finally came over to help get the game together, but Gus always had the piece that they needed. That boy was into everything all the time
Gus made a gun out of some of the pieces of the game
Then he used another piece that looked like a wrench to actually take off the wheel cap on Grandpa's tire. One day, we could hear Gus screaming for help but we couldn't see him anywhere. It sounded like he was in his camper so I ran inside. In the front bedroom, there is a trap door that you open and you can drop your dirty laundry into a basket. You can open a door on the outside of the camper to remove the basket of dirty clothes when you get home. Well, all I could see were two feet sticking out of the laundry shoot. I told the others to open the door and there was Gus, upside down in the basket and stuck in the shoot. We all had a good laugh but Gus wasn't so thrilled about that little adventure.
Frank has a nice shed between he and Luke's trailers
And had his grills set up so he can cook inside if the weather is bad and not have to cook in the trailers
Frank's trailer, Luke's Trailer and Luke's in-law's trailer
They have water, sewer, and electricity
We parked at the end
Kent and Kathy parked to the east of everyone at the end of the road
Lon and Pauline
The weather was so nice. It was so much cooler than at home and we really enjoyed it
On the bridge
We went driving in the evenings to try and see some wildlife, but the only thing we saw was a fox back in camp. That was very disappointing.
Lon, Kent, Luke and Morgan took a ride on Saturday
Sunday afternoon before we left we had to take the 4-wheelers down and get them gassed up
Luke with Gus, Morgan, Pauline with Kinsey and Lon is paying for the gas
We attended church in Island Park, had lunch and loaded up and headed back to Frank and Pauline's house to spend the night before heading home on Monday. It was a very relaxing weekend with lots of good food and good company. Frank's health is better but he still needs his cane to get around safely and is still in a lot of pain. Pauline is an angel. She takes such good care of him. Sure wish that we lived closer to them so we could do things together more often.
Monday morning we headed into Idaho Falls and had brunch with Deloy and Lorna Roberts, from our Guatemala Temple Presidency. We told them about our pending mission and had a good visit. Then on home. George called as we were about home and we headed there for supper of fish and grilled squash and potatoes. Cecelia Worthington also came over so we had a nice visit.
Tuesday and Wednesday were our usual temple days then we loaded up again on Thursday for a camping trip with George and Kim.
On our way home from Idaho Falls we stopped at Walcott Lake to see if that was a good place to camp or not, NOT. The people were parked on top of each other. It was very nice with nice bathrooms and showers and grass but just too many people too close so we headed to Salmon Falls Reservoir instead.
definitely no grass here! The smoke was bad from all the wildfires in the area
We got the trailers parked, had a sandwich, and Lon and George headed to the water. George's boat is still down so they had to use Lon's canoe. It is quite a job getting George in that little canoe.
The water is down a lot and the fishing was not good. That little dark spot in the water about in the middle of the picture is George and Lon in the canoe.
Friday afternoon Craig and Robbie came into camp to fish with us. Robbie got out of the truck and looked around and said, "Where are the pine trees" I don't think that she was overly thrilled with this camping site. The three men headed to the water to fish for a few hours and again the fishing was not good. We are not allowed to have campfires now because of the wildfires all around the west but enjoyed an evening of visiting by flashlight. Saturday morning everyone but Kim and I headed to the water to try the fishing again. I think they only caught 3 fish each day but they had fun in their boats. We headed for home about 6pm. It was a lot of fun but looking forward to a shower!
Sunday after church Shayla, Ryanne, her friend Rivers, and Gideon were at the house when we got home from church. Ryanne's car broke down and Gideon is buying our Toyota Corolla from us. We didn't want to just leave it sitting for another 18 months and it will be a good car for him. We decided to sell it to him early as they are down to only one car and with work and school that is very hard. Gideon was so happy he just couldn't quit smiling. We all had lunch together and they headed back to Boise with Gideon driving with his Mom and Ryanne and Rivers in the other car.
Gideon is such a wonderful, polite, hardworking young man. He has worked washing dishes all summer to earn enough money for a car.
One proud new car owner!
We stopped to pick up the mail after our Tuesday Mid Shift at the temple and there it is -- the big white envelope from church headquarters! We think that we will be one of the last to get this big white envelope in the mail as the church has announced that from now on they will be emailing the callings. We arranged with the kids to facetime from Tracy's house at 8pm and we will open it all together.
As Lon opened the call and I looked over his shoulder, we were both so shocked by the first line that we both just kind of stared at the page before we could read it to the kids. We had just expected to be going to another temple to serve that we had not even thought about anywhere else.
"You are called to serve in the Chile Santiago East Mission as member - leader support missionaries. You are to report to the Provo, Utah MTC on the 5th of November"
Wow, what a surprise. We had been planning what "white" clothes to pack and now we have to completely rethink everything. We kind of drove home in a daze but we know that this call has come from the Lord and we will serve Him with all our hearts. I guess He wants us to grow. Another temple mission would not have been a challenge but this one will definitely keep us on our toes. It is a bit scary not knowing exactly what we will be doing or where we will be living but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have been called by God to serve in Chile so we will go forward with faith knowing that He will be there to help and sustain us in this calling.
The little black dot is Santiago, Chile
We started our shots on Wednesday and talked to Dave Wilcox, our insurance man on Friday to get things rolling for our health insurance. We now have a target date and lots of items to check off on our checklist to be ready by the 5th of November. As we learn more about Chile, we are getting excited about our new adventure and pray that we can accomplish the work we have been called to do. Our Heavenly Father loves us and we are in his hands. Two months will go by fast as we prepare for our departure to Santiago, Chile!
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