Our Thanksgiving wish for all

“Over the River and Through the Woods” was a song we sang on our way to the Pyrah’s home every Thanksgiving day while we lived in Alaska. Friends were our family there as we lived far from blood relations. We cherish the friendships we have made over the years in the various places we have lived. It has been our blessing to have lived in many places making many friends.

Another song (hymn) we recall with gratitude is “Our Mountain Home So Dear.” This song can reference many things, our home in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming, the places we have lived, and probably more especially, the sacrifices of our pioneer ancestors and our parents. Their humble sacrifices made it possible for us to enjoy the blessings of the gospel in the heart of the Salt Lake Valley (and where ever we have lived). Through their sacrifices, some with their lives, we have been truly blessed with a testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice for us.

At this Thanksgiving time, we need to express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father, and to all who have blessed our lives, for all that we do enjoy and so often take for granted. Richard L. Evans said in one of his “Spoken Word” broadcasts: “Gratitude must be a living, moving, doing kind of gratitude, much more than a passing and perfunctory expression of appreciation.”

“If the day be sunny,
If the day be gray,
If you want to be happy
Give something away.”

A truly wonderful blessing in our lives has been the privilege of serving in the Idaho Falls Temple. We have been working there just over a month. What a wonderful way to spend a day serving the Lord. We are thankful to the Lord for this calling. We hope during your Thanksgiving celebration you stop to remember the true source of all your blessings. We send our love to all of you.

Things we love about Star Valley: Playing golf with the deer - they don't move when the balls come flying their way-(notice 5 balls and John in the background), The deer stealing the chickadees' food, and the constant companionship and begging of our winter friends.

After the return

Welcome home. Tessa and her family make the sacrifice to meet us at the airport at 11 p.m. at night. Way too early for the little ones, the youngest not even knowing us or remembering us but happy to see us anyway.
A trip with John's mom to visit Tyler, Julia and their children was a great opportunity to get a 4 generation picture.

We were greeted at our house in Star Valley Wyoming by 2 1/2 foot tall grass. Fun to mow and better to see the lawn had survived.

A trip to Alaska gave John and grandchildren a chance to go fishing.
It rained most of the time, the rivers were flooded, but one trip was fun/

Our hightlight was a camping trip to Mt. McKinley National park and a park shuttle bus ride to see the animals and the mountain, which peaked from behind the clouds occasionally. The park exhibit was fun and the kids enjoyed the opportunity.

Tessa and her family came to visit us for a few days. We sat on the deck alot watching the golfers go by.

Then the kids did their favorite thing and scoured the back yard and surrounding areas for golf balls. They managed to find over 30. Then we went on a day trip to Yellowstone Park to see the animals and Old Faithful. Saw plenty of buffaloes, deer, and elk. Old Faithful, though not as regular as it used to be was a spectacular sight.

John celebrated his 69th birthday while we visited Tessa in Provo.




As John loves fishing almost as much as he loves golf, we had to buy Sadie and Jessica fishing poles for their birthdays. This, of course, meant an afternoon practicing casting. Sadie's first cast caused John a little anxiety. Jessica next had her turn and everyone learned how to cast. A few roof tiles were caught along with some flowers in the neighbor's yard. Success.

With my brother and his wife just returning from their mission a few days before us, the siblings got together one evening to catch up on family events since our last get-together almost 2 years ago.

Here we are at the Bar J Ranch in Jackson Hole. A great comedy, cowboy routine dinner show. Brinton came to visit us during his break in school in the Los Angeles area.

Even the animals seemed to welcome us home. We have had severl mother deer and their babies come to rest on our lawn and even under our deck. They look at us for a while to decide if we are any threat and then go about their business of eating the tender parts of our plants.

A Fond Farewell to Bulgaria

OK, so farewells are hard on the emotions. Especially when everyone treats you as someone special and it feels awkward. Sunday was the day the branch put on a special meeting after the 3 hour block. Nina, the R. S. president and concert violinist, and Liana, a concert pianist played for us. Pacinka gave a short talk about how much they love their Sr. Couples, and then they presented us with flowers, an oil painting of the old town gate, and Nikolai Kalmandonski gave us a rug his mother made 40 years ago in the Bulgarian traditional style. I didn't think it would be this hard. Pleasant memories, wonderful people, beautiful country. Goodbye.
Below are just a representative sampling of the people we have grown to love.

Galia, from Pazardjik, YSA, Dreamed of her Grandfather going to heaven when 12, Joined the church 9 years later.

Zoi Palova, a personal physical trainer, RS counselor, good friend to all in Branch; one of the true rocks of the church in Bulgaria.

Pacinka Angelova, my good friend, wants to be and is close to being perfect . A sweet testimony

Elder Hannenin from Finland is representing all our missionaries in this picture. Love of the gospel and enthusiasm that radiates to all they meet.

Maria Stoyana, always has a smile and a hug, (as do all Bulgarians), showed from the beginning a love for us and a willingness to be our friend.

A professional concert violinist, Nina Kolumijan has performed for the branch and other groups on numerous occasions and never with sheet music. Our R. S. president, has a strong testimony and is willing to share her talents any time.

George Matikov always at church, opens the door welcoming us every Sunday, he cleans the flower beds because of his love of beautiful things, and wants the church grounds to be as beautiful as the gospel.

Farewell Firesides for the Bennetts

President and Sister Bennett will be leaving the mission the first of July. Saying goodbye is an ongoing effort on their part as they travel the mission branches one last time. They will put on over 4000 kilometers going to all of the branches. They have invited the Senior Couples to go with them to the major branches. Along with the Bennett's, the Jewell's, who are the office couple, and the Andersen's (CES) are also leaving within a few days of their departure. So, in effect it has been a goodbye tour for the Andersen's and Jewell's as well. We have been to Varna, Burgas, and Plovdiv so far, and have yet to attend the farewell for Sofia. In the picture below, President Gancho Pasev of the Plovdiv branch is presenting the Bennett's a farewell gift of flowers and a picture of the city of Plovdiv's most famous spot in Old Town. In Varna, the branch presented all of the couples with flowers. It is an Eastern Europe tradition to present flowers at all special occasions. Below pictured from the left, E/S Andersen, E/S Jewell, E/S Mace, E/S Jorgensen, Pres and Sister Bennett.

The Burgas branch is extraordinary by Bulgaria standards. It is the only branch with more than one or two youth. Here we have four, and they are very involved in Branch activities. From left Elder Andersen, Andrei (non member), Acen, Borislava (non member), Sister Andersen, Gergana. Andrei and Borislava don't yet have permission from their fathers to be baptized, but it is a definite they will be baptized when they turn 18 in about a year.

This is Rose country. World famous for their rose oil and rose perfume. We stopped at a field just before the harvest, which takes place in about a week. The roses have to be harvested in the morning and must be completed within a week or 10 days.

Unique to Bulgaria is the way they take care of illegal parking. Here a "spider" truck lifts a car that has been parked in a bus zone. We were in our hotel in Varna looking out at the sea and their olympic size swimming pool when we saw this happening. The owner will have to pay about 35 lev to get the car back. That is about $28. We had to retrieve our car once and learned the hard way to be careful where you park the car. The sidewalk is usually a safe place to park.

Unfortunately, the sidewalk is not a safe place to walk, and crossing the street for a pedestrian is a life threatening experience. We won't go into detail as to the safety of cars on the roads. As our time in Bulgaria quickens to its end, we can honestly say it has been a great experience.

Bulgaria is Blooming

It is graduation time, and we are traveling once again around the country to hold fireside/ graduations for those branches that have youth and YSA who have completed the course. Varna had 2 Graduate with four years of Seminary attendance - Iva Kostova and Radi Hristov. Iva was our chairperson for our Youth Conference, with Radi helping. Their teacher, Sister Neli Mihalova is between Iva and me. She is serving in her home country as a missionary and doing a wonderful job. In Burgas we had 4 student, Gergana receivied her third year certificate with 100 %attendance. Andrei, an investagor, received his 1st year certificate and Acen, his first year certificate in Institute. Another investigator, Borislava, received a certificate of participation as she started in February to attend church

For those in America it is hard to comprehend how difficult it is for these kids to attend S/I. They are unique, and they are very few in number. But when they get a testimony they are solid as rock in their dedication to the church.

Varna and Burgas were the first to hold their Graduation/Temple Fireside activities, so we took advantage of being in our favorite places in Bulgaria - the Black Sea. Beautiful weather and fair seas gave us the opportunity to take a little P-day trip to a remote northern sea coast historical site called Kaliakra. There is a legend that when the Ottoman Empire had control of Bulgaria they were going to force 40 young Christian virgins to marry Ottomans, kind of like slave wives. These 40 refused and the legend says they tied their hair together and jumped to their deaths at Kaliakra. The cliffs and rocks below suggest that instand death was their fate. The poppies are in bloom everywhere, lining the roads, scattered throughout the fields, and making the whole area very colorful. Along with lavendar, the air is field with wonderful smells.

John is standing about 200 feet above sea level

The wind, which blows frequently along the coast carved some wonderful arches in the sandstone

We didn't take the steps to the sea, the sight was spectacular from above.

YSA and Youth Conference at the Black Sea

President and Sister Gibbons of the Eastern Europe Area Presidency

Line Dancing with Sister Cox from Star Valley, Wyoming - a local gal.

John and Henry enjoying a reunion at the Restaurant. Henry was our CES Coordinator when we served in Latvia. Now he is Eastern Europe CES Coordinator living in Moscow

Building Bible Sand Castles. Below the kids are enjoying a bit of free time before scripture study and prayer and lights out.

Life has been revolving around the conferences and now we will get back to our regular CES duties. It has been quite a merry-go-round: exhilarating and exhausting.

The Black Sea Conferences

These past 2 or 3 weeks has been very busy putting together the final touches for the youth and young single adult conference held on the Beautiful Black Sea. Iberostar Hotel complex gave us a good deal with all you can eat buffet bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a 4 star resort right on the beach. The young people loved it. The pictures only tell a small part of the story. Our good friend who is the CES Coordinator of all of Eastern Europe, Henry Kosak and our immediate supervisor, Igor Poddubny were there to provide learning experiences for each group. Elder and Sister Gibbons of the Eastern Europe Area Presidency attended and gave us all excellent council to make our choice now, so that when tempted we will already have made our decisions. Missions, marriage, temple marriage, etc were part of the goals we should be making.

Building Bible Sandcastles. The youth and YSA were given the challenge to make something that represented stories from the Bible.

Good friends were made. Ayre and Sevda with the Jorgensens, Andersens, and Sis. Mace.

The youth took a Flight 409 Simulated crash that lead them to the 3 degrees of glory, where they were instructed in the entrance exams to each of the kingdoms.

Young Men and Young Women had separate lessons from the Bennetts and Gibbons on proper behavior and etiquette.

Lots of pictures but they still do not tell the whole story. The testimonies of the participants were increased as hearts were touched by the love they felt and the lessons they heard. The food was great; could not have put more into their stomachs as we fed their spirits as well to capacity. What a great opportunity to share our weekend with the wonderful youth and young adults of the Bulgarian Mission.