The fruits of my labor

I love to can. I find it very relaxing to me. I know you are thinking what a crazy woman, canning relaxing? Well, yes, peaches are my favorite mostly because of the ease. Blanch, cool, cut/peel -that usually happens at the same time.
Diane taught me how to can the first year that Brain and I were married. I went to Cheryl's house and learned how to do peaches and pears.Later it was salsa (I think the recipe was Grandma Sarah's) I was hooked. I found it so neat that I could do this that I went straight to a lady in my wards house and asked if she wanted my left over peaches to can. She told me that she didn't know how to can and had been praying to God to send her someone to teach her this art. Then that day I show up to teach her and I had peaches too.

Since then I have been the "teacher" to many. Just this year it was my sister. She shared her garden with me and I shared my knowledge with her.

I have made the salsa for a great friend of mine every year but this one (spending 5hrs with Baby G is more important than spending 5hrs making salsa for a great friend). The salsa is a favorite in the ward salsa contest, I call it "A-ward winning"! Maddie says "mommy you make the best salsa ever". I have to agree, no pace here.

It feels good to have this stash in my cold storage ready and waiting for the cold months of winter (even if I am stingy with the pears) It also feels good to know that I have good foods to feed Baby G when he is ready for them.

Thanks Diane for being my teacher, with this one thing you have blessed many.

Grandma Sarah

Grandma Sarah or mom to Richard, Robert, Diane, and Mary would have been 97 years old on September 21. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you.

New great-grandchild

This is from Richard and LaVina. Gene's daughter Jenny and her husband Nate had a son born on Sept. 8th at 6:00 pm. So we have a new great-grandson. His name is Jonah Kenneth and is doing just fine. This is Jen and Nate's second child. Apparently, Brock likes his little baby brother a lot.

Elder Scott

Missionary comp with a Jewish Rabi

This is part of the letter that we just got from Scott last Monday.

My companion is Elder Wigington. He is from North Carolina and has been about for about 11 transfers. He was called Spanish speaking; butfor the first third of his mission, he was put in the English/Hebrewspeaking program. Hebrew? You might ask. Why does he speak Hebrew?
Well, he used to be a Jew, of course! Elder Wigington joined the Church about 29 months ago. Thirteen months after his baptism he entered into the MTC. He is quite remarkable but still has a lot of his little Jewishtraits.

Elder Wigington was actually going to school to become a Rabi; andwhile in the MTC, he received his certificate of completion. So, I amcompanions with a Jewish Rabi. Who would have thought? He got an awesomescholarship for $450,000 at the school he went to and had been offered a

job that would send him to California to be a Rabi there. The job paid $270,000 a year and included a house, cars... pretty much everything but his cell phone bill. One day he was coming home, and he heard a lot of noise coming from his

neighbor's house. He was upset because he had to get up at 4:30 to make some bread or something for the Sabbath, so he went over to the house to give them a piece of his mind. When he walked up to them the first thing that popped out of his mouth was "Do you need some help?" They said, "Yes," and they also happened to be members of the church. The Elders were there helping and asked him two questions: "Where do you get you authority? and why was Malachi the last prophet?" Two questions that hecouldn't answer. He called up his head Rabi at his school and asked him; and apparently, he told him that he had authority because he was a scholar and Malachi was the last prophet because the Jews fell away from the truth. The missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon which he flung into hisroom; and later he walked in and saw it opened up on his bed facing him,so he started to read; and he read something that was identical to something found in the Talmud, (the law of the Jews). It was in Mosiah chapter 3:9 (I think), then he realized that if you take the Hebrew characters that mean Jehovah and re-arrange them, it spells Jeshua,which is the Hebrew name of Jesus. He was shocked and fell to his knees

telling God that he has always been trying to get close to him, and heneeded to know NOW if Jesus Christ was the messiah.

At that moment he knew without a doubt and hasn't looked back since. His family pretty much disowned him. They kicked him out of their house, and he lived with the missionaries for 10 months. His parents write him still and love him, but things aren't the same as they used to be,
obviously.

That, in a nutshell is my companion. Ta-dah!

Mission call

Aunt Diane and Uncle Frank are going to the Argentina, Buenos Aires, North Mission.
Frank will serve as the Country Director of the Welfare and Humanitarian Office and
Diane will serve as the Assistant Country Director of the Welfare and Humanitarian Office.
I'm really proud of my sister. She was very excited when she called with the news. The family got together and they opened the call tonight at 8:00 P.M.

Congrats to the newly called missionaries.

Look at the newlyweds on their wedding day. A lot has happened since then. Diane and Frank have raised six fun, close-knit children, have become the grandparents of 15 (?) and are now going to Argentina to be the Country Directors of the Welfare and Humanitarian Office. Congratulations!

Old family pictures

Diane had some slides scanned recently and I've enjoyed so much looking at them. I may have seen them years ago but if so, I've forgotten so it is like looking at pictures for the first time. I'll send more later. We are all beauties! What do you think?

I think Cheryl's Rachel looks so much like Diane in this picture.

Wahoo I can post

Thanks Aunt Mary for explaining how to post info & picture's on the blog. I really enjoy coming to see what others have to say and look at the family pictures. I didn't mind it private it really was not that big of a deal to sign in every time and I like the fact that the sick-o blog lurkers are not able to check out my kids on line.
Life has been really busy and lacking in sleep for me lately. After the adrenaline high of having the baby and then the sleep deprivation, we are getting things back in order. The Chiclets are off to school now and I find that I miss Maddie something fierce. She is such a great help and loves her little bro immensely too. Bai looks like the cat who swallowed the canary when she hold him. So after crying for five months after the shock(and trying to ignore it) of finding out that we were going to have a new one in the house again I don't know what I'd do with out him here. He just fits and God knew what he was doing by sending him nine years after the last.