Life is good when you're busily engaged and having fun... Lots of     comings and goings

My son Marc and family live in Daybreak, part of South Jordan, Utah.

It was a beautiful, clear but chilly day. The lake is artificial but perfect for boating, walking around, and for the water fowl.

            They live very close to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

       My grandaughter Evie, all made up for her dance competition.

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Every Tuesday I enjoy the Mission Training Center choir, part of the devotional where the missionaries hear inspirational talks from church leaders as part of their training. Most still do 2-weeks online training before they arrive for varying lengths of time depending on language difficulty. I help facilitate the interpreters, some of whom are pictured below, interpreting Tagalog, Cebuano, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Tongan, ASL, Mongolian. We find other languages as needed by the missionaries who arrive without strong English. They are all wonderful! BYU finals ended today so many are leaving for now, at least. 

In the center is the Spanish coordinator Herbert Moscoso. Coleman Stanger (left) is getting married next week and Alondra is off to study abroad at the BYU Jerusalem Center. She will meet organist Jim and Deanne Welch (music and tour leaders there) just home to Provo for BYU graduation this week of their son Jameson and wife Erika. We miss all those who leave. But wonderful new interpreters will come! The photo below is misplaced! My daughter Emily and her family and their friends had a Jerusalem Center tour conducted by Jim and Deanne at Christmastime, as part of their fabulous Holy Land trip. Jim Welch is in the center back.

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Due to chilly weather we moved our Relief Society and Young Women's brunch from our outdoor pavilion to Cyndi Ellis' home across the street from our chapel. Above are Liz Hansen, Ann Olsen, Whitney Larsen, Stephanie Collette, and Cyndi.  About 80 sisters attended.

Our Relief Society (women's organization) presidency: Jana Deucher, Ann Olsen, Stephanie Collette (president), Kathleen Patterson

Stephanie gave a short lesson on mangrove trees symbolic of our need to protect, support, root, enrich, teach, and love one another.

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My grandson Nick and fellow missionaries work hard but still have time for fun (at least on preparation day), in Baltimore, MD. He says the Spanish is coming along poco a poco. They appear to eat well! Elder de Schweinitz on the left (above) and at the top of the pyramid.

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I really enjoyed seeing a photo sent by my friend Rafaela Toledo (center in blue) on her 60th birthday. I served with most of these wonderful brothers and sisters in 2014-15, in the Guayaquil, Ecuador Temple. 

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The talent in Provo is incredible.The very ambitious, beautiful musical

comedy Big Fish, put on by Timpview HS, had an amazing large cast of singers, dancers, actors, very innovative sets and very ambitious beautiful choreography. Big Fish (tales) is about what's real and what's fantastic, what's true and what's not true, what's partially true and how, in the end, it's all true. The reconciliation of the father-son relationship between Edward and William is the key theme in Big Fish.

 On the right is Eva Deans, once a little girl in Palo Alto, and now in    my ward! In this crazy, confused world we live in, it is inspiring and reassuring to see so many strong, bright, good teenagers and the wonderful parents who are raising them. Our future is in good hands if we can only work out some of the huge challenges we face as a nation and as a world. We mustn't give up hope in each other. May we look to our God and try harder to emulate his attributes and discover the beautiful plan He has for each of His beloved children. I appreciate the role each of you has played in my life and I love to hear from you and see you if you come this way!

It was great to see my friends Ken and Sue Allen from Palo Alto a while ago and again recently. Please come to Provo!!

ParkPark

Spring, where art thou???

When it's cold outside and the world slumbers, what is better than a nap with a bearded dragon?  Grandson Aaron has a whole reptile zoo upstairs in his bedroom.

                                 Snow can be dreary or glorious!        

             It helps a lot when the sun comes out and the sky is blue!

 Emily's (left) psychology research assistant, Parker Gardner (pictured with his parents, who came from their church assignment in Hong Kong), gave a truly spectacular senior violin recital. BYU, purported to be one of the top three universities in the US for performing arts, is filled with talented students.

       I love the BYU Ballroom and Latin dance company: the music, costumes,  choreography, and dance, all are outstanding! Curt and Sharon Holman, head artistic directors and costume designer, are in my Provo ward. The company will attend the famed Blackpool Dance Festival (founded in 1920 and considered the "world's first and foremost festival for dancing") and compete in the British Formation Championships (held every 3 years) on May 31st and June 1st, 2023. After a Church history tour and visit to the Lake District, and a brief stop in London, they will head to Brussels, Belgium, to perform for ambassadors and dignitaries of the European Union. In 1971, BYU BDC became the first American team to win the title. I especially loved the "Carmen," "Sound of Music" dances. Photo of finale.

                                                                  

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I enjoyed an Easter walk with the Taylors. I needed an arm to lean on in order not to sink knee-deep (like George, behind) and Andrew (emptying his shoe) in the soft snow of Vivian Park in Provo Canyon. There was a huge avalanche on March 10 that closed the highway through the canyon, and evidence of many smaller ones, which continue. We should be preparing for flooding of the Provo River near us with the heavy 2023 snow melt.

Family Easter gathering at the Taylors' after the egg hunt. The only 

ones missing were Neil and Anne, so we called to sing Happy Birthday (53!) to her in Vermont.

                  Below, Hannah, Fernanda, Marc, Emily

Plastic eggs filled with scriptures and small symbols of Easter (cross, rock, etc.) for the children to share, created by Julie.

Aaron accompanies Julie as she sings an Easter song she wrote. Beautiful!!

It was fun to watch Ming Lu 's very clever, beautifully done, short video "Frog Hat" featured in Provo school district arts festival

Also fun to watch my grandsons John and Luke who came to Timpview HS in Provo from Skyline HS in Millcreek to play Lacrosse. The next day the temperature dropped 20+ degrees. Is Spring ever going to stay?? It is great to see children and  grandchildren developing skills and talents and enjoying life.

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I feel blessed to have made so many friends and to have met so many people who have inspired me throughout my life. Hank and Colette Taylor (my friends and neighbors in Palo Alto) came to Utah to celebrate Colette's 90th birthday with their large and wonderful family who mostly live in the Provo area.

Every day I reconnect with someone! In my small Italian class I discovered yesterday (our last day of classes for the term) that one of my classmates is the grand-daughter of friends I made (and keep in touch with) years ago at Stanford, Paul and Joyce Smith, who live in Illinois. At our orientation for the new term of ESL, I discovered that our new teacher (Karen Knight Cushenburg) grew up around the corner from my house in Palo Alto. Almost all the morning staff are from the California San Francisco Bay Area! Small world!

Our good friend Peter Weiler (an old neighbor in Palo Alto) is recovering in the hospital from Covid, with the help of his daughter Britt. 

And, of course I love my new friends and new church congregation. We are blessed to have the LDS Church's general young men's president Steve Lund in our ward, and just called 2 weeks ago, my neighbor Tammy Runia, as a counselor in the general Young Women's presidency. We have so many wonderful leaders to help our youth (and all of us) in these challenging times.

I hope you are well and that there is an abundance of daffodils, tulips, and blossoms where you live. Here in Utah we are waiting for those tiny green tips to emerge from the cold ground. Where are they?

There is hope!