Easter and Conference weekend!

On Saturday afternoon, Cindy took us on one of her favorite hikes. 

We had a fun group with Robby & Chelsea and family joining us.

 Chelsea's mom, Lisa, and sister, Janessa, came too.  Lisa hiked the entire way, which was a big accomplishment after battling cancer for these past four years.  Way to go!

 I'm always a happy gal when Paul joins me on a hike.

 Elephant Rock

 Indian Paintbrush I believe.

 Top of the upward climb!

 Resurrection Moss...with a bit of moisture it turns green...the perfect plant to represent Easter.

 I loved watching Olive skipping along the trail.

 Jabba the Hut Rock?

 Scooby was a champ hiker.  Loved this view and the unique cairn.

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Good cell phone reception brought us the Priesthood session of Conference as we hiked along at the end of the trail.  Great messages in a beautiful setting.

 Thanks Cindy for once again leading us through beautiful vistas!

 Stephanie, Becca, Mikele and her roommate, Lauren.

 Mom loves surprises - you can see the twinkle in her eye!

 In my boxes of slides I was able to discover perhaps the one and only photo of Dad and Mom dressed as King and Queen Mosiah in the 1972 Hill Cumorah Pageant.  Thanks to Sharon for photo shopping in a night background of the Pageant.

 Happy Birthday luncheon at Kathy Karren's with Pat Gilson, me and Jerie Holley.  BFF!

 Nutella and strawberry birthday cake.  Thanks Becca!  So fun to be with our four eldest children at Market Street Grill for a birthday dinner together

Mother/Daughter Tea Party with our cute Activity Day girls and their mothers.  We used the glass tea cup snack sets dating back to the 1960s.  I guess I didn't store them all these years for nothing!

Tissue paper flower craft

Dear family,                                                                                         April 13, 2015

This week was a fun one. We continue to do a lot of service, especially since it's warming up...slowly. :) On Saturday we helped a less active cut tile for his bathroom, which was cool. We didn't have a wet saw, so we just made do. There were a lot of sparks and it was really loud, but it got the job done. We continue to work at the food pantry twice a week, and we are really forming a good relationship with the lady who runs it. She has invited us to her home for dinner, and she says she isn't in the gospel, but she loves us and knows what we do as missionaries is important. She always says she wishes more people would talk to us and get to know us. We're hoping to invite her to church sometime. She knows a few ward members, so we think it will be good for her. We also do service at Bethany Meadows, a senior living center here in Brandon. The last couple weeks we have been working on bringing patio furniture up from their basement to the residents. They all have small porches outside their rooms.

Our only investigator Mike has been slowly progressing. He is reading the Book of Mormon, and the last lesson we had with him, he said the closing prayer. We invited him to church, but he said he couldn't make it this week, but he wants to come next Sunday. We're excited to see him there. We also got a new ward mission leader, Brother Frolich. He is single, about 50, and he's pretty cool. We met with him on Saturday to get us all on the same page. 

Yesterday we were at the hospital visiting Adam, who got his legs crushed in a windmill he was welding, and we were talking about the bones he broke, and looked at the x rays, and my companion fainted! It looked like he just fell asleep, he slumped forward, and luckily Elder Nixon caught him and got him to the floor. So that was pretty exciting. It was intense to watch, but he's doing alright now. He says whenever he hears about bones breaking, his body shuts down. Zone Conference is next Monday, so I will email on Tuesday. Then the mission splits the next Tuesday. I'm excited to see the changes in the areas I will serve, and I'm hoping to see a tornado in real life. There are a lot in Nebraska and Kansas. Not much else cool has happened in the weather. It gets super cold in the winter, and it rains once in a while. It's kinda boring seeing flat land everywhere. I miss the mountains. That's it for this week, hope you have a great week!

Elder Ehlert

Spring Has Sprung!

 A fun part of our Sister trip in Arizona was to watch Wyatt and Jake play some ball.  They are two tall, polite and good-looking young men.

Sharon has discovered a hidden talent...poetry!  She wrote this creative poem to honor the wonderful sisters and brothers and other in-laws who have joined our family.

A new car has joined our fleet.  So exciting and so much more fun to drive than our Suburban.  Better gas mileage too.  Once again we learned some lessons about buying from a car dealership.  Thanks to Mark and Scott for their free consultation and advice.

 Becca and I volunteered at Ballet West in order to get four free tickets to their beautiful ballet, Swan Lake.  Taylor Swift rented the costumes from Swan Lake for a music video that is featured in the background.

 Paul kept waiting for snow in order have his 11 year old Scouts build and sleep in the traditional snow cave in the backyard.  With our extra dry and warm winter, they gave up and settled for a tent and a fire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows.  They are the "Cobra Patrol".

 An early Spring has turned our efforts to outside.  Here Paul is cutting down a neighbors cherry tree that is dead.  He and our newest house guest, Scott Christensen, are the ones working while Ben and I take pictures.

 Thanks to Becca's friend, Andrew, we have enjoyed some beautiful Spring flowers indoors.

 Two years ago, Paul, Stephanie, Becca, Daniel and I were enjoying a trip together in Europe.  We were hoping to see the tulip gardens in the Netherlands, but due to an extra cold Spring, the tulips weren't even out of the ground.  So, we visited Rothenburg, a quaint village in Germany instead where we bought this hand-painted hollow egg.

My intent was to try out this ceramic cookie mold for Valentine's Day, but it didn't happen.  So, this is to commemorate how I "LOVE" Spring!

April 6, 2015 Email from Elder Daniel:

This week has been good. We had an awesome time listening to Conference. For the Saturdaysessions we watched them at a less active's house and then did service. Priesthood and Sunday we watched at the church building here in Brandon. There were some awesome talks given, and I'm excited to read them again and to get more out of them. My new comp Elder Brownie has been out 4 months, and he's from Vancouver Washington. We get along pretty well. My district leader's name is Elder Zaw, he grew up in Thailand and went to West High in SLC. He is a Korean speaking missionary, which is similar to Thai.  For Easter dinner we went to a member's home, and her husband is less active. We were able to read about the last week of the Savior's life in the scriptures, and it is so amazing to think about Christ's love for all of us. I need that love and hope and strength. I was thinking a lot about Samuel on Easter, and I'm glad I have a picture of him with me. I'm so thankful for the knowledge that I will be able to see him, and he is not gone forever. I'm looking forward to the day we will all be reunited as a family. I am so grateful for this gospel, and for all that the Savior has done for me.

The mission split is exciting. It happens at the end of this month, and I will get another call letter in the mail. Not sure if it will come to you or me. I'm excited to go to Omaha and hopefully go to the temple more often than I would in this mission. A friend from high school is serving in that mission, so it will be sweet to see him and see how he is doing. This Conference I realized that since last General Conference I have had 5 companions. The last 3 have only been for one transfer. That was pretty interesting for me. That's it, hope you have a great week!

Elder Ehlert