Elder and Sister Vann

This week started out slow and just got jam packed by the end.  Only 3 lessons to prepare and 2 talks (one for each of us).  So glad the talks are done.  They always seem so much harder to prepare.  Usually a person only speaks every couple of years in a ward for Sacrament meeting.  This is our 2nd talk since we’ve been here.  Walt informed me that in this ward, speaking every 4 months is the norm.  I have a feeling we will definitely get that.  Our talks did turn out well.  We both spoke on the temple.  The funniest story of the day, was my talk.  When Walt and I were hiking about on Friday (our P-day), he saw some little brown eggs nestled in the rocky soil.  He pointed them out and said they might be rattlesnake eggs.  In my talk, I was comparing aspects of our hiking in nature to attending the temple.  I mentioned all the small things we noticed, like tiny wild flowers, rattlesnake eggs, etc.  During...

Traveling This week doesn’t have a lot of details.  Almost three days were spent traveling from PA to WY.   Monday, Beth threw a Bridal Shower for Kate.  It was a lingerie party so there are a limited amount of pictures.  There were only 6 of us, but it was quite fun.  Beth did a great job!  We had plenty of food, fun, and laughs.   Kate's Bridal Shower Monday evening, Abe and Anya took us out to dinner.  It was a group of 13!!  Abe was smart enough to make reservations.  He asked us that morning whether we would wanted to go to El Sambraro or Olive Garden.  Walt loves Olive Garden, so that is what I suggested.  When Walt woke up, I asked him which place.  He looked at me like, Is this a trick question.  When we got there, they had the table all set up and salads already on the table.  I think it was only the adults that dove right in.  The kids all got Kids Menus which are actually like a...

The Family in front of the Philadelphia Temple This week was a mix of our two worlds - Pennsylvania and Wyoming (Mission and Pre-mission) Monday and Tuesday were total missionary work.  Both were filled to the max.  We were leaving on Wednesday to fly to Pennsylvania for Abe and Anya’s sealing in the Philadelphia Temple  I was a bit torn between leaving Wyoming and being home with the family.  We like having two sets of families. Wednesday we helped with the big lunch at the Senior Center - over 80 people.  We even got to see some of our friends from the Manor (where we call Bingo) there.  Then off to Denver to spend the night for our upcoming flight on Thursday.  Denver is 5 hours from Newcastle and we definitely didn’t want to drive 5 hours right before our 10 am flight. It was snowing as we drove there.   We had an interesting adventure along the way  We took a different way through Lusk than normal.  As we were...

The first half of this week, we shared with Kate and Drake.  They finished their semester at BYU around April 24th and are staying with his family in Minnesota until they are married in July.  We are exactly the halfway point between Provo, Utah and Maple Grove, Minnesota. Mount Rushmore Monday, we took our P-day and had plans to visit Mount Rushmore.  It was our first time, but Kate and Drake have been there before.  I am sure it wasn’t like the experience the 4 of us had planned.  We actually had 6 in our group.  While at dinner at the Willadson’s on Sunday, we shared our plans for Monday and they offered to take us up there; using their favorite route.  When we got up that morning, it was snowing.  We are beginning to think we see all the tourist places in the snow.  (Devils Tower had a blizzard during our visit).  That is Wyoming weather for you.  Always keep warm clothes in the car. The snow didn’t continue for lo...