Big Day!

Saturday was an especially busy day for us, but a wonderful day full of spirituality, service, friends, and lots of fun. We met at the institute at 6:00 A.M. to head to the Detroit Temple to do baptisms for the dead. What was so amazing was all the kids that showed up at that time of day to go to the temple. I just can't say enough about how wonderful the young people are in this area. After the temple, we all had breakfast or an early lunch, at Bob's Big Boy and then back to the institute to change clothes and meet back there for the big "Helping Hands" service project. There was quite a group that showed up for this and we were all assigned to various houses to help. Our group did lots of weeding and the highlight was the bee attack. Craig still has a major swollen arm from his sting. Later that night I had the priviledge of attending the General Women's Broadcast from Salt Lake City. It was so wonderful and I took three of the young ladies with me. I love to go to this meeting with my daughters so I was happy to have these girls go with me. I especially loved the talk given by President Uchtdorf about the forget-me-nots.

All and all it was a great day and I think the best part of the day was getting to know these young people better and spending time with them.
Getting ready to go with our new "Helping Hands" t-shirts.
Jacob and Stacie
Abbey and Catherine

The menu from last week's Friday Forum

Reflections....

As we complete our first year of service as missionaries, it seems like a good idea to reflect on the past 12 months. Just getting our affairs in order to be able to serve in this way was something of a challenge, but with 4 large storage units packed full of our "stuff" and our home of 35 years leased out (actually we're now on the second lease of our home), we've spent fall, winter, spring and summer here in East Lansing. We are now heading back into fall, and the fall season is beautiful in Michigan. We will be here well into winter, and are scheduled to return home in March of 2012.

We were very excited to be visited by Tiffany, Eric, David and Grace. We all had a great time while they were here. We also were visited, and later able to visit, our friends Dean and Marjorie Cook, now Elder and Sister Cook, serving in Kirtland OH. They will be heading back to California in October.

Probably the most difficult thing of all has been being away from our wonderful family for so long. Every day we miss every one of our six children, three sons in law, three daughters in law, and 20 grandchildren. Thanks to Skype, Google Chat, and Facebook, we have been able to get some "face time" with them over the last year.

Despite the longing to be with our children and grandchildren, this has been and remains one of the greatest experiences of our lives. It has been a period of great personal and spiritual growth for both Karen and I. What a wonderful thing it is to get to know so many of these fine young folks, and have the privilege to teach them correct principles as taught by the Savior and the prophets through the restored Gospel. It is a bonus to be able to share with them experiences from our own lives that might help them as they face difficult choices and decisions.

Each day we learn new things. As we prepare for classes we feel the spirit of the Lord in helping us to prepare and understand that which we should teach. As we teach, we enjoy the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and truths in the classroom. I never cease to be amazed also at the things we are taught by the students as we learn of the challenges and successes in their lives. We are fortunate to have a very nice office in the Institute building, and there we have many impromptu discussions with the kids. They are truly amazing and we have made many great friendsips among them.

We truly do love those we are with here. I am reminded of the words of the Savior to his disciples found in John 13:35...

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."



Following are some photos with descriptions of some of our activities and travels in the last month....


Lancing "Lug Nuts" game. They are a AAAaaa (how many "a's" down to farm teams go?) team for some big league Montreal team. Fun game...we lost big time. We went with some of our friends. That's Emily, Klea, Justin, Clayton and Michelle sitting behind me.


Justin, Clayton and Klea.

Michelle

Family Home Evening activity - Watersliding behind the Living Center....so fast he's totally blurred!

Eric and I at the harbor in Saugatuk...a cool little town south of Holland.

Eric and Karen...we really had a great time when he visited over Labor Day weekend.

Now I'm really starting to miss sailing! This is the channel out of Holland Harbor.

The "Keewatin"... an early 1900's great lakes passenger steamship beached at Saugatuk.

Hey, I don't look like a tourist!

I'm pretty sure one of these signs must point the way to Half Moon Bay....

9-11 Display in front of our Stake Center...many American flags, very impressive!

School is starting at MSU...literally of thousands of bicycles on campus!

And it looks like the fraternity thing is getting into full swing....

The River Walk on the Grand River in downtown Lansing.

Our friendly "plant man" now has a new set of flowered eyes!

Truly amazing peacock made of greenery and flowers by the Horticulture Building. About 15' high!

Grand Haven, MI...Home of the annual Salmon Festival and Derby! Great Fun....

Stomping the grapes at the Festival...that's NOT us in the barrels!

Entry in the Salmon Derby. This one was about 19 pounds...the winner was 57 pounds!

Unloading boats for the Salmon Derby.

These hand painted "fish" signs were on all the street corners in Grand Haven for the festival.

And now, for an update on our Lighthouses....

"Big Red"... popular lighthouse in Holland, on Lake Michigan. Built in the 1870's.

Cleveland West Harbor Lighthouse on Lake Erie.

Muskegon lighthouses from the ship channel. The last time we were here was in winter with SERIOUS ice and waves! Beautiful in the fall.

Muskegon lighthouses showing connecting "catwalk" for winter access in severe storms.

Come Take a Walk With Us

It is unbelievable around here right now as the students all return to school. In the two huge dorms across the street from us hundreds, yes hundreds, of cars, U-Hauls, vans, and trucks are being unloaded with all the paraphernalia that a college student needs. I even saw a big white Wal-Mart bus that I assume was there to take the students back and forth to Wal-Mart to pick up those last minute details to outfit a dorm room. We have had a ton of kids move into the Living Center here this week as well so things are really lively. The start of any school year is lots of fun and there is always a bit of excitement in the air. We are thrilled to have the returning students back and are looking forward to meeting all the new ones. Fall institute classes begin this week so we are back in full swing again.
The woods behind our apartment sound like a full on jungle at night. The woods are beautiful and obviously home to all kinds of wildlife. From time to time the ward has a bonfire in a cleared area.
We try to walk nearly every day, and one of our favorite walks is through the various gardens on the MSU campus. The grounds were so stark and barren all winter that I could never imagine how much beauty was hidden beneath the blankets of snow and ice. The grass is so green and there are acres and acres of it everywhere. (They have some real serious lawn movers around here.) Flowers bloom everywhere and all kinds and many varieties and they are ever changing because of the seasons. We have adopted these gardens as our own while we are here and we love to check on them daily to make sure the gardeners are doing their job. Come take a walk with us through our gardens.

The entrance to the Children's Garden.

Peanuts growing

Entrance to the rose garden.

We see lots of these plants in Michigan.

Grapes



English garden

Radiology Gardens and our favorite place to walk.





This hibiscus was as big as a dinner plate.





The plant man!