We Are Here!! Life in Guadalajara!

We have arrived!! After a wonderful five days of MTC training where we feasted both spiritually and physically, we packed our bags and flew south to rainy Guadalajara, Mexico!  We spent last evening with the outgoing mission president and his wife and much of today getting unpacked, and learning our way around the city.

And Wes is having to get used to being on call 24/7 (with the phone ringing very frequently) while I have been praying no one will call me with an illness until I learn the language and get a nursing degree.

In the meantime . . . here are a few pictures from the past twenty four hours!

Here we are with all our luggage at the Phoenix Airport with our 8 suitcases. (Four of them were mine:-)

And here we are a few hours later,  meeting the outgoing president and the office staff.

Dinner at the mission office with the staff.

A picture of our new house. The previous one was over 40 years old and so the church just bought this one--three days before we moved in. They did an amazing job getting it livable before we arrived!

Here is my "office"  (I don't really have any where to put all my study materials, computer, teaching supplies etc, so I plan to take over the kitchen.

And here is Wes' office--taken from the family room. It has some really nice built in bookcases across one of the walls.

And here is the view from one of the balconies. We have two balconies. One just has a viewing area and the other has a table and chairs for eating. We may just eat our breakfast out there every day for the next three years. :-)

Okay--here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past week as well. Doesn't she look so cute!! I am so glad she is here with us in Mexico!

This is from our setting apart with Elder Oaks and Elder Gonzales. We had all of our children there and my parents. It was a very sweet experience.

And I just love this picture!! All six of the grandbabies--in a circle of Love!!

Yes, I had to go off and leave these two little guys!! So sweet and precious.

Our four generation picture on the day of Emmitt's baby blessing.

 I miss them all! But tomorrow we go to church and then Monday we start regular missionary days. We are looking forward to that!

Love to you all!

The Twins Are Here!

We have left Arizona! We actually left on Monday and have been staying in Utah this past week. Our main reason for leaving early is because . . . Kristen went from this . . .

to this!  5.12 and 5.14 pounds of joy!!

 After a five day separation during a NICU stay, they were finally reunited, and apparently glad to be so!! No matter how far a part we put them in the crib, they manage to wiggle and wiggle until they are next to each other. SO CUTE!!


I am totally in love! And Grandpa is pretty proud too!!

We have been having so much fun holding the babies. But truthfully, it breaks my heart to think about leaving them.

Still, we are grateful we have this week to be with them, since doing so brings . . . great joy to my journey!

Ten Days and Counting!!

In just ten days we will pack up our few belongings and head to Utah. We speak in church on June 10 and the next day we leave.

While in Utah we will pick up our Mexican Visa's from the consulate (Hooray!! They came on time!:-) help take care of Kristen and her twin babies that are expected to make their arrival any day now, bless three grandsons, go to the temple with a daughter for the first time, celebrate (a few days early) our 30th anniversary with our children, be set apart for our missions by Elder Oaks, and attend four days of mission president's training . . .

And then we will come home, spend the night and fly out the next morning to begin our mission.

So I cry a lot. Not the bawling your eyes out while curled up in fetal position in the corner of the room type of crying. Just the kind where your eyes fill with tears and then spill down your cheeks. I cry when I am eating lunch with a dear friend for the last time in three years, I cry when I am boxing up cherished memories. I cry when my daughter calls to tell me about her doctor's appointment and I know I will miss out on the first three years of her children's lives. And I even cry when I am at the store and a clerk asks me if I want to join their reward program and I have to say no because I am moving out of the country.

But, all my tears aside, we have had some very good things happen in our family this past month.

1. Michelle graduated from High School. She was 11th in her class and so got to sit on the front row. We are so very proud of her and know she will have a great time at BYU in the Fall (hopefully not too great a time though, as we do expect her to maintain those high grades! :-)

2. Michelle also was asked to speak at seminary graduation. It is nice that neither Wes nor I are involved in the seminary program anymore so our kids can speak without it looking like nepotism. :-) She did such a great job!! It was fun to hear her, and we appreciated all the family members who came to support.

3. And in other big news . . . our daughter Kathryn received her mission call to the Guatemala City North Mission! We are so excited for her!!  She enters the MTC on October 3, so she will be able to spend a couple months with us in Mexico before she leaves. I am so happy for that. A fun "coincidence" is that her former roommate got called on the same day to the same mission and they enter the MTC together. How nice to go on a mission with a friend!!

4. We have been able to spend some sweet time with good friends and family members. I have been "collecting" mental memories these past six months to take with me. I am grateful for the love and support of so many. Having such dear friends and loved ones here at home makes it hard to leave, but on the other hand,  I have realized how blessed we are that we have people in our lives who we love so much!

And of course I know that the next three years will bring many more wonderful people into our lives that will bless and enrich it and so I am looking forward to that . . .

Now if I can only finish getting the house packed up! :-) (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Susan for your help yesterday!)