More February News

We have been told that February is actually the worst winter month here.  This year it does seem to be true.  We've had two ward/stake activities, church last week, and one meeting of stake conference this week---all canceled because of bad weather.  These cancellations seem very unusual to us, because we don't ever remember church being canceled in Utah because of the weather!  Here they do have to worry about freezing rain, people riding buses, and the wind chill factor.  We've had below zero temps and some snow, but we've been warm and dry and cozy during most of it.   We did have one very slow, somewhat tense, car ride down some of the steep hills here that were covered in snow.  Luckily, Jim is a good driver.   I feel a little embarassed to admit that I haven't driven yet,  but it really takes both of us to navigate the traffic here--Jim as the designated driver and me as the designated back seat driver.  We think they have a way of hiding red lights, stop signs, and turn lanes here.  Pedestrians, on the other hand, end up right in front of cars without any warning at all!  We have come to the conclusion that maybe the kids here grow up playing in the streets-- and so as adults they aren't at all intimidated by traffic and they really do jaywalk right in front of moving cars!  Anyway, right now I am content to practice my back seat driving skills until the road conditions get better.

We are excited and getting ready to start teaching two

temple preparation classes on Sunday and another class for the Matembo family in their home.  This family is one of the most special families that we have ever met.  They originally came from the Congo, then lived in South Africa for four years where they were converted to the church.  They came to Pittsburgh in December shortly after we got here  They have been trying to adjust to life here as well as trying to progress in the church.  They speak Swahili, French---and some English. The kids are especially doing well in English.  It is such a spiritual and reverent feeling to be in their home and we are able to communicate quite well as long as we have a family group setting. This last week we gave the two youngest boys pictures to color of the temple while we talked.  They loved the coloring and they were both so good and reverent.

We had a great Sunday session of stake conference.   It was all on the subject of prayer and it was just so inspiring.  We took Sister Martin and her children with us.  Sister Martin has only been a member for less than a year, but she was asked to speak.  She gave a wonderful talk.  President and Sister Johnson also talked.  President Johnson talked about how all of us have fear (missionary or not) and the role of prayer and revelation in administering the affairs of all the missionaries.  Sister Johnson talked about examples of the Savior praying and mentioned that her brother in law was just killed yesterday in a snow mobile accident.  The stake president, President Peterson, gave great insight about what "real intent" means when we pray.  He said it could mean  "to take action steps".  He then gave examples from the life of Nephi about the many times that he used action steps along with prayer to exercise his faith.  His words were very powerful to us.  As with most church meetings---"you just had to be there" to get the full effect of the spirit, but we hope that we will long remember the words and feelings that we experienced.

We had a great visit this week with Peter and his mom.  Jim and the elders gave them both priesthood blessings since Peter just had surgery and his mom has many worries and stress.  She isn't even a member of the church, but requested a blessing of

comfort.  We've also had good visits with Charlette, Patti, Amiee, and Karen.
We had a spaghetti dinner with two sets of elders the other night and it was really good.  It is fun to cook for them--- and we never have many leftovers!  It fulfills a motherly need I have to feed people I guess, because I really do enjoy it.  I have been pulling out a few old recipes and learning some new ones.

We have also really enjoyed getting text messages, pictures, e-mails, and Skyping with our grandchildren recently.  It is so gratifying to see them all progressing and doing well with the new adventures in their lives.  I decided to start including an occasional picture or two of events that are happening at home while we are gone.  In January Carson became our second grandson to hold the priesthood.  He was ordained a deacon on January 15th and started to pass the sacrament soon afterwards.  He keeps us up to date on what is happening in the world of sports while we are gone too.  When we Skyped with him the other night he just seems so much older and is now taller than his mom!

We also got a cute picture from Heather showing a brand new accomplishment for Brynlee.  She learned to tie her shoes all by herself!!!  She is in her second year of preschool and is getting very ready to go to
kindergarten next year.  She keeps her whole family in line!  We also heard that she and Jenna orchestrated a 'Valentines date' this year for Mike and Heather---- complete with hot tubbing, movie and popcorn on Valentines night.  They did a very good and cute job of waiting hand and foot on the 'love birds'!

February

So far the month of February is moving along pretty fast and we have one different experience after another.  One thing that we are learning quickly is that no day is ever the same so it doesn't get too boring.

The days have alternated between single digit temperatures and up into the 40's and 50's---mostly cloudy but with a few sunny days here and there.  The building art at the right caught our eye and brightened up an otherwise dull kind of day.  It is on the South Side.

We have been trying to capture a lot of the interesting and positive scenes of the city, but there are a lot of pockets of run-down, bad neighborhoods.  One of these days we might show a few pictures of those areas too.... just to help our grandkids realize how blessed they are to have back yards to play in and a mom AND a dad.

We got kind of an interesting call from our Mission President last week.  He said one of the elder's moms called him to ask how safe our apartment building really is.  She said she had called to order pizza for her son as a surprise and when she told the pizza guy the address of our building, he said "What's a white boy doing in a neighborhood like that"!  The President has never seen our building or neighborhood and was really concerned to think we might all be in danger.  We kind of laughed and told him not to worry too much, but our area does have a bad reputation.  It seems that it was once the very wealthiest of all neighborhoods in Pittsburgh with names such as Carnegie, Mellon, and Westinghouse as neighbors.   In the 1960's the suburbs began to take over and in order to draw business to the area, a major redevelopment of the business district was undertaken.  It was planned badly and traffic was diverted from the area instead of attracted to it.  The closing of steel mills didn't help either.  Large beautiful homes were left in disrepair and made into apartments, crime dramatically increased and it became the worst neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

Over the last several years many major retailers have opened business in the area and there is a Home Depot, Target, and Google offices nearby.  There is a lot of new construction going on now and when we looked on the internet it sounds like property values are going up and crime is going dramatically down.  Anyway, we feel relatively safe, BUT we still don't walk outside at night around here!!---and we aren't sure if we can get a pizza man to deliver to us either!  Anyway, we think the President may be visiting us soon to check up on things.

We also had a very tender experience this past week.  We were in the middle of attending the Addiction Recovery meeting that we attend each week and we got a phone call from one of the families that we have been trying to help and support at the Children's Hospital.  Jessica and Mike have been at the hospital with their baby for the past seven months.  The baby has a heart defect and has been awaiting a transplant.  He was recently taken off of the transplant list due to another condition.  Anyway, they made friends with Teresa, one of the other mom's there, who also had a sick baby.  Teresa's baby died that day and Jessica and Mike were trying to comfort her and her friend.  They all stay close by the hospital at the Ronald McDonald house.  Jessica asked if we could come over and help.  We left right away and met them at the Ronald McDonald home.  It was such a sad and tender time for all of us.  Jessica and ourselves were the only members of the church in the group.  Jessica's husband, Mike, is currently taking the missionary lessons.  Teresa and her friend, Penny, both said they are Christian and they poured out their hearts and life stories to us.  It was just so sad and yet so comforting to have the scriptures in our hands, and to be able to read some words of comfort from Moroni Chapter 8 to them.  We explained the Plan of Salvation and we could see the yearning for hope in their eyes.  Jim gave Teresa a priesthood blessing.   It was a spiritual experience that I don't think we will ever forget.

Yesterday, we drove with Jessica to a little town in Ohio to attend the viewing of the baby.  There are two sister missionaries who happen to live right in the same town and on the same block as the funeral home.  This is amazing because the sisters cover a large area.  Anyway, we met them there with Teresa's permission and we were all able to visit with Teresa, her family and her husband's family from LA and Chicago.  Jim also had a nice visit with a woman there who was the Lutheran Vicar who was performing the funeral service later in the evening.  It was a good opportunity to share some light and hope and common ground with all of them.  We hope we were able to do that.  Teresa and the sister missionaries exchanged phone numbers before they left.

Then Penny, Teresa's friend,  invited us to a luncheon at her church in between viewings.  They had decided to have two viewings separated by a luncheon and then a short service at 8 in the evening.  We attended the luncheon at a nearby church, we met the pastor and visited with the four ladies who prepared and served the luncheon.  It was very similar to our church funeral luncheons--ham, salads, rolls etc.--and the sisters serving would fit right in at Relief Society! They were all very friendly and warm to us and we took a tour of the church building with the pastor.

And so we will hope that seeds of the gospel and goodwill were planted that will one day grow.  Planting seeds.....that's what it's all about.

Time Flies By

We spend our weeks driving around the city to appointments, visiting members, going to missionary meetings, hospital visits, ward activities, grocery shopping and we fit in sight seeing where we can.  The weeks seem to fly by from Sunday to Sunday.
We were able to fit in a visit to the Frick Art Museum this week, but realize that we actually have lots of art to see as we drive.  The building art at the left is one of the first we saw when we came to Pittsburgh.  It is on the side of a building very near our apartment. It is so cool how it was made to look three dimensional.

Along with the art museum, we took a tour of the home of Henry Clay Frick called "Clayton".  Mr. Frick was one of the richest  men in the world at one time.  He was good friends and business partners with Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon.  It was very interesting to tour his home and imagine what the home and city were like during the "Gilded Age".  Pittsburgh was once one of the top six wealthiest, most influential cities in the world.

We were also invited to go to lunch at the home of the Hoskins again with the elders.  We went there on Christmas Day and enjoyed being with them.  Sister Hoskins is from Brazil and made a special dessert called "flan".  It's a little tricky to make it, but she said she has been doing it since she was 14 years old.

I asked her how to make it and so she spent a little extra time before lunch this week to show me how.  We served it last night for dessert after Sunday dinner with the elders and it was really good.  It is fun to expand our horizons a bit to different types of foods and culture.

We were also sad to have some of the Elders we have grown close to move on to different things this past week.  Elder Dennison and Bailey went home.  Elder Harper was made assistant to the Mission President and so he moved closer to the mission home and office.  He was delightful to have so near to us (in our same apartment building) and we will really miss him.

Elder LeBaron replaced Elder Harper. His companion is Elder Sorenson so we still have Elder Sorenson with us in the same apartment building.

One of Elder Harper's favorite things to do was come and relax in our apartment and take advantage of the comfy recliner that we have in the corner of the living room.  Elder's Sorenson and LeBaron didn't waste any time in taking over the recliner!


We have been so impressed with the caliber of young men and women who are serving missions here.  We get a weekly email from President Johnson and he sent a newspaper article about two elders in Hershey, PA.  It is quite far from us and we don't know the elders, but it really could have been written about any of the young men and women that we have met here.  Thought it was neat that they were recognized even though that is not why they did it.

Many are Cold....But Few are Frozen!

The winter is dragging on and all of Pittsburgh is cold.....but it is true.... few of us have frozen yet!

Actually, with our heated garage and the option we have to stay inside if the roads are too bad, life here in the winter makes other winters we have experienced seem a lot worse.  Today has been a 'snow day' for most of the city.  It has been snowing all day and we are supposed to get more tomorrow.  It happens to be our P-day so I have loved the cozy feeling of staying in the apartment and getting caught up on e-mail, the blog, and hopefully Family History before the day ends. We have a roast on the stove cooking for dinner tonight!

Jim went over to the church to play ping pong and basketball with the elders for a little while.  Hope he comes back in one piece!  We are having "our" 4 elders over for dinner tonight.  We think they will always be special to us because they helped us through our first few weeks here and we have had some amazing spiritual experiences with them.  We've also shared some really 'interesting' and funny moments with them.  Both the spiritual, 'interesting', and funny moments are just hard to put into words....or even capture in pictures.  Hope the words and pictures will help to crystalize in our old minds just a little bit of the joy and happiness that we have felt in serving our mission.

We are starting to get over the shock of living together 24-7.
Going straight from the working world into 'instant togetherness' has been like having a bucket of cold water dumped on us.....BUT we are making it, and are realizing it is just another adjustment of life.  At our senior conference we talked to other couples who seem to have had the same challenges that we have had.... and they still haven't strangled each other.  A little while ago we had an 'interesting' dinner with Charlette, one of the ward members, who seemed to want to strangle Jim for me!  She is the funniest, most interesting member we have met so far!

We have started to visit some members on the "South Side" of Pittsburgh recently.  It is an area of the city that is quite unique.  At one time it was called the Workshop of the World because it had so many glass, iron and steel factories.  It now has a flat area where there are stores and businesses, but the homes are mostly built on lots and lots of hills.  The hills are so steep that cars can't maneuver on them and so to get access from one street to another there are steps.....lots and lots of steps.  They even give the steps street names so it really complicates finding addresses....... even with the GPS.

On the way to a visit members homes the other day we tooks some

pictures of the South Side mural and some of the steps.  One set of steps is called "The Slopes" and there are 5,447 of them.  The neighborhood association sponsors an event called "Step Trek" in the fall where people climb the steps for either leisure or fitness and many of the homes are open.  We have heard there is a monastery at the top of the hill and lots of beautiful views.

Step Trek sounds like a fun community event that we want to get involved with and maybe see
if the wards want to use it as a service project to either get things ready or help at the event.  An interesting fact is that the steps of the South Side Slopes rise to 1,457 feet and the Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall.  Also the steps in all of Pittsburgh total 44,645 feet which is higher than Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina.  Like I said....lots and lots of steps!!

Our last P-day we went to a museum call the Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Museum.  It was very interesting and we saw so much history of the area as well as military history all over the United States.  They had a beautiful hall with the Gettysburgh address written at the front of the hall.  Seeing it written so large and in a quiet hall, all by ourselves, had quite an impact on us.

Missionary Work is So Awesome!

We had our first "senior couple" missionary conference last Saturday and it was awesome.  We met in our church building which is called the 'Oakland Building' and there were ten couples there.  It was so helpful to be able to meet and share experiences. It built our testimony of what a great work we are engaged in.  The Glovers did a wonderful job of planning the conference and they gave each couple a plaque with the definition of a missionary that we thought really sums up how we feel about the work that we are doing.

The names of the couples are from left to right:  the Glovers who were in charge of the conference and serve in a tiny branch  that the members call "a twig" in the town of Philipsburg, the Clarksons from England who serve in a ward near Gettysburg, the Swingholms who serve as Mental Health advisors to missionaries in 24 missions around the eastern United States, the Elcocks who recently became the new office couple, the Johnsons who are the Mission President and his wife, us--the only couple in Pittsburgh,  the Barneys who serve in a place called Hanover, PA, the Bentleys who are leaving soon and have served in the office and worked with missionary cars as fleet coordinators, the Thornes who are from Liberty, Missouri and are leaving soon after serving as the office couple, and the Bells who are also leaving and have served in Wintersville, Ohio which is actually a part of our mission.

It is quite sad that we have three couples leaving with no replacements in sight.  We have had several members tell us how much they appreciate the couple missionaries and that we should consider ourselves a "hot commodity"!  We hope that we can live up to the expectation and we so hope that we will get word of new couples coming soon.


We also had a neat experience with the small pamphlet

that is put out by the church called "My Family".  We visited with a sister named Karen who has been a member of the church for several years.  She is the only member of her family who is a member and has struggled at times to stay active in the church.  Recently she has been coming to church almost every week though.  We had the elders with us as we visited.  We  previously gave her the "My Family" pamphlet and were just checking back to see how she had been doing with completing it.  As we talked about her family she shared an experience of being with her sister when her sister passed away.  This conversation led to life after death..... which led to the idea of temples..... which led to the fact that she would like to work towards going to the temple herself!  It really gave us a glimpse of how important family history is in sharing the gospel with others and helping them progress.  Sometimes we feel a need to take a treat or a little something to people that we visit, but we think this pamphlet is better than any treat!

We are excited because we have been asked to teach a Temple Preparation class in one of our wards, so we hope that Karen can be a part of the class.  We have been reading over the lessons and we hope that the class will get started soon.

Sunday was our ward conference in the First Ward and our elders (the ones in our apartment building--Elder Harper and Sorenson) had a neat experience at church.  They met a young woman in the parking lot who was coming to church for the first time. It was our ward conference and President Peterson gave a great talk about the things we can share with others---prayers, example, warmth, means, time and the gospel.  He made the comment that we hear the statement about Hastening the Work in preparation for the second coming of the Savior, and we think we have a lot of work to do to make that happen---but he actually said that it is the Lord that is 'hastening the work' and we just have to be ready for it.  Anyway, the young woman who came to church was a perfect example.  She found a Book of Mormon in a Marriott hotel, saw advertisements on TV about the church, and went onto lds.org.  She became almost obsessed in learning everything she could learn about the church.  She finally got up the courage to come and see a real church meeting.  It was then that she met the missionaries before she even got in the door!

Winter Is Here

Well, winter actually came.  We thought maybe since we are in 'western' Pennsylvania that we wouldn't get as much severe weather.  December was really nice with some days actually in the 50's and 60's.  We went walking a lot and kept thinking winter here wasn't really too bad......Then January came and before we knew it, we were at minus 1 degrees with a wind chill of minus 17 degrees.
We are still REALLY enjoying our warm garage!....  and our warm apartment!  Our apartment is heated with old fashioned radiators and we love them.  They keep things really evenly heated and we've felt less drafts than we usually do at home.  So...instead of exploring Pittsburgh on our P-days we think we'll spend a few P-days hibernating in our apartment and enjoying the time to unwind and relax.

Today there was a forecast of 'freezing rain' so it was a good excuse to stay home.  We look out the window and the roads don't look too bad, but we've heard that it can be really deceiving.  Anyway it is a good chance to catch up on the blog, make appointments for the coming week, get caught up on paperwork, do laundry, finances, clean, and do food preparation.  Doesn't sound so relaxing after all --- but it's all good!

During the past week we have spent some time at the

Pittsburgh Children's Hospital.  It is a huge hospital. We're not so sure how it compares in size to Primary Children's in Salt Lake, but it seems like a REALLY good hospital.  We have become acquainted with three families there with children currently as patients.  One is a family who has been here for 6 months waiting for a heart transplant for their child.  Can't imagine how hard it would be to wait for 6 months!  Another is a family from West Virginia who have a 6 year old and a 10 year old daughter who are both here for gluteric acid imbalance (something we have never heard of before). The 10 year old is in intensive care, has been there for at least a couple of weeks, and she is VERY sick.

The latest happens to be a family from West Jordan who live on 90th South in the Welby Stake.  They drove from West Jordan to New Hampshire at the death of the husband's father to clean out the home.  They were driving back and their 3 year old daughter came down with RSV and bacterial pneumonia.  The dad had to leave to go back with the other four kids and the mom stayed here with the little girl.  She is in intensive care too, but she seems to be slowly progressing.

We hope that we can offer some help to some of these families.  The spiritual support of priesthood blessings seems to be especially appreciated.

We also went for a quick lunch this past week with "our" set of elders.  They said we had to go to "Primanti Brothers" for a sandwich to be true Pittsburghers!  We went, we ate, and we enjoyed the casual atmosphere,

but we must not be true Pittsburgers yet, because we didn't really enjoy the sandwiches that much.  The fries are actually part of the sandwich! --with a type of cole slaw to boot!  Very messy and tons and tons and tons of carbs---but thought our grandkids would like the sports decor of the place. Notice Terry Bradshaw's head on the wall above Jim.  He is still a hero here.  A new cultural experience!

2015 Begins

We feel excited and ready for the New Year to begin.  We finally feel like we are getting ourselves a little more settled and organized as far as planning our schedule and getting to know a few more ward members.  We schedule visits around ward council meetings, missionary correlation meetings, Addiction Recovery meetings, and district and zone meetings.  Then 7 or so meetings on Sundays!  Missionary work takes alot of meetings, but it is all worth it when we see someone new come to church or find out that someone has made even the slightest progress on one of their goals.
We have our first interviews with the mission president tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

The young man and his mother from Micronesia/Hawaii that
we have been working with are finally out of the hospital.  They are staying in a hotel for home health and outpatient treatment for another few weeks.  It was quite a milestone when he was discharged from the hospital. It will mean the end of our daily visits there---at least until we are assigned to someone else. It was definitely one way to get to know our way around at least one hospital. We will still visit the hotel and plan to be there to help them until they really go home to Hawaii.

Shortly before the New Year began we spent a couple hours of our Preparation Day walking through the Pittsburgh Zoo.  It is very close to our apartment and it was at least a little bit sunny and a "not too cold" day.  The zoo

seems about the same size as the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake except that Pittsburgh's Zoo has an aquarium too.  The aquarium doesn't come close to the Atlanta Aquarium in size, but they did have some really interesting exhibits that gave us good picture taking
opportunities.  There were a couple of unusual things we have never seen before.

Parts of the zoo need updating and the bear exhibits will especially  be undergoing major remodeling this winter.  We were glad that we made our visit when we did because the zoo will be closed for a couple of months.  The polar bear exhibit has already been updated and looked a lot like the one in Salt Lake with the polar bears behaving exactly the same way they do in Salt Lake.  They pace back and forth in a steady pattern.  We'll have to look that up and see if it is typical of all polar bears.


New Year's Eve was much quieter than what it usually is for us.  We are used to having many of our family together at the Oakley cabin on New Year's Eve.  Everyone ended up going to the cabin this year except Kent and his family in Atlanta and us here in Pittsburgh.  We did talk to Kent and they had some friends over to their house and had a great time.  We did "face time" with the kids and grandkids at the cabin and it was great to see them having so much fun even in 20 degree below weather.

For our New Year's Eve celebration we were invited to dinner at the Stoddards.  What wonderful people!  We feel like we have known them forever!  Brother Stoddard was just made the stake patriarch.  They have an old home that was built in 1840. They moved in when they were newly married and they have renovated and added on over the years as they raised their six children.  Their home actually reminded Pat of the Crowther's home in West Jordan.  We kept finding things in common with them and the real kicker was that they have a garden and a raspberry patch about the same size as ours!

Then on New's Day we were invited to the home of Sister Eldridge.  She has been cooking since she was 14 years old and loves to cook and also to feed the missionaries!  What a great combination!  We could not believe the work and effort she went

to in preparing a crown pork roast with all the trimmings.  And of course, everything was made from

scratch and totally delicious.  She warned us about her twice baked potatoes being 'killer potatoes' because they have 1,000 calories a piece!

She told us about her conversion story as we ate. We found out that it took her a year to decide to join the church.  Her story was like many others we have heard.  Most of the people we have talked with have said that they grew up with strong Baptist or Catholic roots.  They had Bible reading homes and as they studied it they realized that the restored gospel seemed to answer doctrinal questions that they have always had.  Sister Eldridge loves the elders and they love her.  She actually hasn't attended church for awhile though, but she said she planned to come Sunday and bear her testimony.

It was great to see her and her neighbor both come to church for the beginning of the new year.  She did bear her testimony and they seemed to really enjoy being at church.  Everyone was glad to see them there.

Our First Christmas

Christmas on our mission has felt different---but very good---this year.  We enjoyed spending time with ward members, the other missionaries, and then Skyping on Christmas day with each of our children and their families.  It was a sweet experience for us to open gifts via Skype with each family.  Mike and Heather's family did a Nativity play also. They did several different scenes over a few days so everyone had more than one part, then they emailed it to us.  So fun to watch!  Besides the '12 Days of Christmas' gifts and memories that Jared's family sent, we had other special gifts sent to us from others in our family. It was always fun to see a package at our mailbox.







Our "Christmas card door tradition"

at home turned into a "Christmas card wall" here.  We sent more cards than we have ever sent before and it was fun for us to get lots of cards and pictures in return.  It sure reminded us of how precious our family ties and friends are to us.

In previous years we remember feeling a little emptiness at times when we just seemed too busy to really appreciate the quiet beauty of the season.  We still got busy towards the end, but keeping things simple, and concentrating on visiting and serving others was so refreshing.  We were able to get our few gifts and Christmas decorations done very quickly and things put away in about an hour compared to a whole day or so at home. What a relief!!  Substituting a poinsettia for a tree might not be such a bad idea!

On the Monday night before Christmas we went on a "date night" to Phipps Conservatory to see the Christmas Lights.  It is a beautiful botanical garden where they have garden displays both inside and outside.  We walked around and saw all the Christmas lights that were put up everywhere indoors and out.  It is a different experience for us to pay to see Christmas lights.  We think we have taken Temple Square for granted all these years!

On the 23rd we were invited to a ward members' home for a holiday party for many people in the ward who were not leaving town to see friends and family.  As we were visiting, we made another interesting connection!  We met the Liu's who are second generation Chinese members of the church. He is from Texas and she is from Taiwan.  He is a student at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) and she is teaching school.  We found out that Sister Liu actually taught in the Chinese Immersion program in Jordan School District before they moved to Pittsburgh.  We were especially interested in that because our granddaughter, Kennedy, is in that program also.  Anyway, as we visited with them, Sister Liu shared how satisfying it has been to have some of her students being sent all over the world as missionaries

who are speaking Chinese on their missions.  She mentioned Singapore, Hong Kong, and even Canada.  We then mentioned that we have a "grand nephew" (Jim's brother's grandson) who is serving in Canada (Mandarin Chinese speaking).  She got a big smile on her face as she looked at our last name on our name tags and she said "He was my student at Herriman High School"!  It is definitely a small world!

On Christmas eve we were invited to a "chili dinner" in the area of the mission where some other senior couples live who work in the mission office.  When we got back from dinner, we gave the Elders who live in our same building a call.  They had two other elders in our district staying

overnight with them.  They asked us previously if we would have a "Christmas Eve program" with them.  We were delighted to say "yes"! They came down in PJ's and with their blankets, and they had a program all planned.  We talked about feelings about the Savior, watched "He is the Gift" video and had pumpkin pie with them.  It was wonderful to do things with them that we were all missing doing with our families at home.

We found out that the elders had spent the earlier part of the evening decorating their van with removeable car paint that said "Merry Christmas" and "He is the Gift". Then they drove around downtown Pittsburgh shouting "Merry Christmas" to everyone.  They had a ball and we had fun listening to how excited they were.

They said many people waved and and yelled "Merry Christmas" back at them!

We invited the Elders to our apartment on Christmas morning for our traditional 'breakfast casserole' and we also had 'monkey bread'.  Then we opened our computers and Ipad for them to Skype with their families.  Christmas Day and Mother's Day are the only two days of the year that the younger missionaries can Skype or talk on their phones to their families--- so they were really excited for the opportunity.

Besides all of our Skype fun on Christmas, we were also invited for Christmas Day dinner to the home of the Hoskins.  Getting to their home was an adventure in and of itself.  It is at the top of the steepest hills we have been on in Pittsburgh so far! Sister Hoskins is

from Brazil and is an excellent cook.  She made "flan" and "made from scratch pumpkin pie" for dessert that was heavenly!  It was interesting to talk with them and get to know them. They also invited a brand new set of Elders to the area and Brother Lewis from the ward.

More People and Places

Last Preparation Day we took our own little walking tour

around part of the city.  Parking in the city is almost always a challenge, but our church building provides a perfect parking spot and we have several great attractions close by.  We walked to the Cathedral of Learning (for our second visit) and took an audio tour where we could see more of the nationality rooms.  Many different nations were represented and since the students were on Christmas break more rooms were available.

We also walked to St. Pauls cathedral which was VERY beautiful.  We are loving the stained glass  in so many of the churches and homes.  We have learned that the reason we see so much  artistic glass work is that the very first glass factories were located here along the rivers.  Seems glass is made from sand, ash, and coal--something we had never thought much about before.  There are

large, very ornate churches on many of the street corners and the thing that always stands out to us is the stained glass windows.  We also visited Heinz Chapel which is just next to the Cathedral of Learning and saw more beautiful glasswork.

We also walked past one of the most prestigious computer engineering schools in the country---Carnegie Mellon.  Many of the members of our wards are students at this school.  We sometimes feel a little intimidated when they try to tell us what they are studying.  Their explanations go right over our heads!!  They tell us that they are really just a bunch of nerds---- so we are getting along fine with them!!


It is also really interesting to drive around the city and see artwork done on the sides of buildings.  It's surprising to look up and see the whole side of a building painted in a beautiful mural.  There is plenty of graffiti in the city and many pockets of rundown ghetto type buildings.  The murals in many neighborhoods, and also the renovation going on in alot of the old homes, is evidence of the city's efforts to revitalize many of the areas.  We have been impressed with the efforts we have seen.

We have had an amazing family history experience with a sister named Martha.  She has VERY interesting life story that has been featured on "60 Minutes".  If anyone is interested, you can Google "Martha Curtis" and see it.  Anyway, the sister missionaries (Sister Toupin and Sister Rock), that we became so attached to in just one month, have now been transferred.  We are so sad---but know it is probably for the best.  Before they left, they introduced us to Martha and we did what we could to help her get her family history organized and connected on FamilySearch.

We feel like we are really beginners ourselves in a way, but we did the best we could---- and we must have had a lot of extra help from above---because it connected beautifully and she went right to one of her pioneer ancestors. She read a journal from her great grandmother to us out loud and it touched all of our hearts deeply.  We are still meeting with her---- and hope to keep helping her and learning ourselves.

We are also starting to go on more and more visits to the elderly widows and single sisters in the wards.  This has really been enjoyable for us and it is so interesting to hear their life stories and feel of their strong testimonies of the restored gospel.  Two of the special sisters we visited this week were Karen and Callie.  Karen has been a church member since 2003 and is coming to church every week now because some church members are giving her a ride.  Buses don't run here much on Sunday and so it is very hard for some of these sisters

to get to church.  We are also starting to help Karen with family history and she is working on the "My Family" book.

Another fun thing about our church building is that the Institute of Religion for students at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon is located in the lower level of the building.  It has only been open on a part time basis, but the institute director talked to all of the missionaries  and asked us to help take shifts during weekday hours to keep it open more often for students to come and hang out. He wants the students to have a place to bring friends. There is a pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, kitchen and other classrooms.  Jim loved playing ping pong and pool with the Elders after district meeting.  Pat even joined in as we played a game of "around the world ping pong".   It will surprise everyone in the family, but Pat actually ended up in the "final three"!  It's probably no surprise that Jim's competitive nature got him into first place in "one on one" competition with the Elders.  If it sounds like bragging--we are.  At our age we need we'll take what we can.

Then on Sunday we attended our second baptism.  We have been present in Patti's home on a few occasions as the elders taught her lessons.  She has an energetic little son, Elijah, and it has been wonderful to see her take this important step in her life.







We also found another really nice park where we can go walking.  It is called "Frick Park" and is located in the Squirrel Hill area.  We have heard that this area of the city was once the wealthiest neighborhood in the country.  It is quite a large park so we are excited to keep exploring during our exercise time and on our Preparation days.