Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

          Happy July 24^th, Everyone!  The Utah people, we assume, had celebrations of some kind.  It is a good time for us to reflect on the rich heritage of generations of pioneer grandparents  in our family who made unimaginable sacrifices and paved the way for us to enjoy so many, many blessings.   It’s a week-end that is too busy for reading histories, but maybe when your schedules settle down a little you could take some time to share a few stories with your children about their pioneer ancestors. 

          There were a few English-speaking people in the temple today and one was a young woman from Utah.  She wanted to do baptisms.  She was here with her family doing service—again, dental service.  She is a dental hygienist and is visiting and working in a clinic here assessing needs for materials, supplies, etc. for a week.  The she will return home, collect the needed supplies, and return to Tegucigalpa with them.  She was in her early twenties and was able to join a group of young people who were doing baptisms. 

          Glade and I assisted a North American couple in two sessions today who were from Grantsville, Utah.  One of their daughters works for Delta Airlines and gets free airline tickets for them.  They are on a journey to visit and participate in as many temples as possible—Tegucigalpa was number 109!  They just finished Central America and the lady said that the easy ones are all done.

          They just fly stand-by knowing that there may not be a seat for them, but they seem unconcerned and just go with the flow.  They don’t make any reservations and just look for accommodations on the fly and rent a car when they arrive in an airport.  They have been to some scary places in the middle of the night, but seem to have guardian angels to keep them safe.  If they can’t get on a flight to the destination they had in mind, they just choose someplace else to go and wait in line again until they get two seats and then they are off!

          These two pictures are of a grounds keeper who is weed-whipping the steep lawn on the North side of the temple.  I really thought it was just a weed whip like we use at home, but it actually uses a small blade—about ten inches long—that looks like a lawn mower blade.  There is no way a lawn mower could be used on the hills here, and these men get really good at cutting the grass in even sweeps and making it look good.

          Again, Happy Twenty-Fourth!  I’m sending you bunches of love!! Miss you!

It's hard to see him, but there is a man weilding a weed whip next to a tree in the center of this photo.

There he is!  It doesn't look very steep in this photo, but it is steep.  These guys must have strong muscles in their arms and legs.  They work on one section or another all week long--at least several days each week.