Oregon City, Oregon - Week 43 - October 22 - October 28, 2018

Fortunately this week wasn't as busy as the last two.

Dad helped Warren with his landscaping.  I made 20 pints of pineapple jam...and Camille helped me make the last three batches.



Thursday was the big dental open house at Terry Isom's clinic.  Jessica spent the day baking delicious treats for this reception and I helped her do all the things she couldn't do because she was baking.  We enjoy helping the Isom's because they are so good to everyone.  We got to eat a delicious dinner and then helped with the refreshments.



Friday was the VIP Breakfast at Gardiner Middle School which was honoring students who displayed Friendliness.  Shelby had been nominated by one of her teachers.  She told the audience an incidence of when she was trying to figure out a software program for the library when Shelby said, "Can I help you, I learned how to do this last year.  Do you want me to help the other students?"









Sunday dinner was a celebration for Abby's birthday -as she said, " this is my real birthday....last week was just a pretend birthday."



















 She is an exuberant six-year-old.

Oregon City, Oregon - Week 42 - October 15- October 21, 2018

The weather on Tuesday of this week was perfect - so perfect that children 'skipped' school and went to the beach...Canon Beach which is a good place for kids because the Ecola River flows  through the beach to the surf - - kids can play in water without worrying their parents.















While we were enjoying the warm sunny weather at the beach, we knew it was snowing in Astana and that the wheelchair training was happening all week long.  We were sad were weren't there to witness the fruits of our labors............but when we had to made a decision whether to extend or not so that we could be at the training, there was no SET date for the training and we didn't know if it would be weeks or months.........so we decided to return home at the end of our 18 months.



Our Young Volunteers helped out on the last day when the wheelchairs were actually distributed to some recipients.



Just a few pictures to give an idea.







Awards and accolades.



Because Ivan and family came to Oregon for our Homecoming, we planned for family pictures.














For some reason I don't have photos of Travis or Warren....sorry guys.



And all the girls went out to breakfast.





Friday night was a birthday celebration for October birthdays - Ivan, Renee, Abby, and Whitney

Guess who made the cake.



Saturday was Logan's baptism

















We had some special guests at the baptisms - the Mulberry family - Steve, Shelley, and Kle.  They are the parents and brother of Sister Mulberry who is still in Astana.  They live in Meridian Idaho and drove to Oregon City to be at our homecoming....and they cam the the baptism as well..and we went out to dinner at Buster's.





Sunday was the final hurrah of our mission.  We spoke at Sacrament meeting and had a fireside in the evening.  Both Dad and I gave talks which we had 'tweaked' from ones we gave as farewells in Kazakhstan.  The fireside was fun and well attended.  We did a power point for about an hour and then fielded questions for 45 minutes or so.  For me is was satisfying because a lot of people said that they were inspired by our mission.....and sometimes while we were in Astana, I wondered if what we were doing doing mattered very much.





We have kids over often to 'hang out'
Here Jude is working out.



And there are always art activities.