October 2012

To begin this exciting month of travel and activity, the news of Monica and Adam expecting a GIRL to be born in February was paramount. We waited for the announcement and were delighted with the news of a new grand-daughter.

The beginning of the month we drove to Utah to attend General Conference. On our way we stopped to visit with Elder Astle who recently got back from Mozambique.  He is one of the last elders we served with before we left almost one year ago. It is hard to believe time has passed so quickly.

As always, we stayed with Josh and family in Layton, Utah. I was able to accompany his scout troop on activity night. Danielle helped Dawn with her Relief Society work.

Before the conference we were able to play golf with Angie Bytheway, Dawn’s cousin, and visit with Holly and her family. Brock is doing well. Thursday night we had our Maputo Mozambique Mission reunion. There were many of the missionaries we served with in attendance. Also, every mission president to Mozambique was there: Spendloves, Packards, and Wallaces. It was good seeing all of them and particularly to visit with Chanizi living in Washington, DC now. She is the adopted daughter of the Spendloves.

Friday was spent shopping downtown SLC and golfing with Angie. Friday night we drove to Orem, Utah to attend the reception of Jennifer Godbold. She was recently married to a man from Nigeria, Africa. He was very handsome and very nice. We were so happy for Jennifer.

The Mision Presidents

 Dawn is crossing the walkway across the road to our apartment in SLC. We stayed at the University of Utah Guest House on the old Fort Douglas campus.

 Josh and his family at Heritage Village at the historical park across from Hogle Zoo, "This is the Place" monument.

Next to temple square 

Just outside the Conference Center

Halloween is filled with pumpkins on our steps! Along with many other decorations for this exciting holiday.

Then Sunday we were at the Conference Center early to find a seat in the balcony. We were so delighted to be there with 30,000 others. We were fortunate to team up with the Ross’ and there grand children upon leaving.  They were with us in Mozambique. They had served previously before we arrived in the mission. He also served as a sealer in the Johannesburg temple speaking Portuguese.

Life continues at a very rapid pace for Dawn, because she is the Relief Society president with many challenges ahead of her. Each day there are families to visit and assist. We have presented our mission experiences at a fireside at the church in October. I doubt many will ever want to go to Africa after we talked about the rigors of the mission. However, we have met the Metsteins in the Idaho Falls temple and asked them to sub for us when leaving for India in November. They were missionaries in Africa before serving another mission in Canada. We met them in the MTC. These are the folks who love to serve. I would love to go on another mission. Right now we are enjoying serving in the ward and stake as well as temple ordinance workers each Tuesday at 5:00AM each week.

Golfing with Woody and Julia is always enjoyable. We had our year end golfing outing last week. We went to Heise Hot Springs golf course and the weather was delightful. Now that we have snow on the ground, golfing has virtually ended for the season.

Max Bennett and I about to ride!









Dawn coming up the trail at Harriman Stake Park

One other adventure we were able squeeze in before the snow falls was a trip with Max Bennett to Harriman State Park. We rode with him for 15 miles on our mountain bikes around the rivers and lakes filled with ducks, geese and swans. We saw eagles (golden and bald) along with thousands of ducks. It was chilly and rained slightly but what a great trip before the beginning of winter. We hope we will have enough snow this year to ski the same area.

Halloween is the next celebration. Our house is decorated with all kinds of fall reminders. There are pumpkins on the steps out front and there are many goblins inside, sitting on the tables and stands in the front room.

We are in our last stages of preparation for our excursion to India beginning the first of November. We will be gone for two weeks. Our friends the Nebekers are meeting us in SLC to spend two weeks in Nepal and India. I am looking forward to the trip because the weather will be more desirable.

September 2012

This is the month of the beginning of the fall weather for Idaho. We can feel it in the mornings on our way to the YMCA at 6:00am. It is dark and cold. The VW has a limited time before being put to sleep for the winter months ahead.

We have had great weather for the State Fair in Blackfoot, Idaho. Julia, Woody, Val, Dawn and I went down on Seniors Day and enjoyed the exhibits, animals, and food. We met Daryl Peterson and his wife Barbara while in the commercial building. He has Lou Garrick’s disease and in poor health. It was such a treat to see him and he had saved photos and news articles of my dad.

The week of the fair was very busy for Dawn and I. We are ordinance workers in the Idaho Falls temple. The first week of September is designated additional Saturday assignments, so we completed 5 shifts in just over one week. We normally go to the temple at 4:30am on every Tuesday morning. Add to that two Saturdays back to back, we were very busy.

This is the time of year we get ready for the cold months. The hot tub has been drained and covered. The camp trailer has been cleaned and shrink wrapped and covered with a tarp for winter. Also, I cleaned and covered the bar-b-que until next spring. The Toyota and VW are going into storage soon.

One unusual event occurred this past week. Our ward party was held at Kate Curley Park. A genuine Luau with Kailua pig and all the pineapple you could eat came together Friday for an outstanding party. Even the weather cooperated. It was remarkably warm, just like Hawaii.

Our garden is hoping for one more week of warm weather just to ripen the tomatoes. We are planning to can salsa from our garden.  We have canned picked beets and bread and butter pickles from our garden. We have restocked our food supply for the coming months. The drought in the Midwest will drive up the prices on grain and meat products this year. We really need moisture for the crops and to extinguish the forest fires burning throughout the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Unbelievable damage has occurred to our forested areas in the western part of the states.

Fall is here following Spud Day at Shelley, Idaho. Every year there are more and more people waiting in line for baked potatoes. There must have been over 8000 people wanting to get a potato to eat. We left early because there was not room to stand. When I was young it was such a wonderful day to spend with friends. We competed in the potato picking contests, went to the movies, and of course, enjoyed the famous Idaho baked potatoes.

Fortunately, we met Daryl and Barbara Peterson at Spud Day among the hoards. He had several pages of history on my father, Benton Carl Russell. Also, he gave us many photos of Benton and a history of his drowning. It was all very appreciated.

This month closes with memories of warm and wonderful days. However, each day was filled with smoke from the fires in the mountains near Stanley and Salmon Idaho. Many fires were started by an electrical storm in June and have burned throughout the summer. Not only in Idaho but also California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon, the fires have raged throughout the Northwest. We are hoping and praying for rain to come. It would be the only hope of extinguishing the wildfires.