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

Sisters!

 Arizona in the Winter!  On our first morning there, Pam and I couldn't wait for fresh OJ, so we put coats on over our PJs and went out in the rain to pick oranges from the Rogers' tree.  Rain? We were surprised too!

 It rained for the first three days that we were there, but it was a nice change and added beauty to the landscapes.

 On Saturday we stopped at a discount tile store and then headed for the Superstition Mountains.

 Saguaro Cactus...it takes 70 years of growth for the first arm to form.

 Take out the cactus and you could imagine Ireland...beautiful!

Singing in the rain!

Our destination was Tortilla Flat, a remnant of an old west town and stagecoach stop since 1904 on the historic Apache Trail.  We ate at the Saloon.

The pork shanks were delicious.  The wallpaper is an estimated $80,000 worth of real dollar bills from tourists all over the world.

 A fun day!  Fudge and ice cream made it even better.

 Of course quilting fit into our schedule.  Sharon demonstrated her machine quilting pattern of hearts and flowers.  Pam is giving it "a Go".

On a sunny Monday we headed to the Gilbert Himtorical Museum.  On display was an authentic REO Speedwagon fire engine.

 We were thinking that the Model T was something that Grandpa Warner and Grandma Lua might have driven around Nephi in and the covered wagon?  Our brave pioneer ancestors.

 We joined several lovely volunteer women to help with a bit of stitchin'.  These quilt tops have been on a 3 year waiting list and all proceeds fund the museum.  It was fun to help a wee bit.

 A picnic at South Mountain, the largest municipal park in the state of Arizona.  Unfortunately the buildings were closed because of lack of funds.  Maybe they should set up some quilt tops!

 Happily the trails and beautiful scernery was open to be enjoyed.  Here is Arizona's state tree, the Palo Verde tree.

 Some cactus aren't beautiful, but these two women are!

A big "Thumbs Up", even though I am just holding Sharon's water bottle.

 A view of Phoenix in the background.

It wasn't all play as Sharon put us to work!  It still felt like play.

Sunday morning we were surprised to see fog.  After church, it was all gone and the sun came out to stay.

 I was grateful for the Family History instruction that I received from Sharon's friend Diane Miller and of course the family experts, Sharon and Pam.

 It was fun to have some of the Rogers gather to help us celebrate Sharon and baby Hayes's birthday.

 S'mores in the backyard made it really seem like a season other than Winter.

 Lyla and Grady lounging around and enjoying the sunshine.

 We dressed unintentionally as sisters for church, all in teal.  I love these two beautiful women!  Thanks for your great hospitality Kim and Sharon.  We'll be back!

Elder Daniel

                                                         Elder Ehlert with baby Cami

January 7, 2015

Well, I was transferred, so the last couple days have been mainly packing and visiting members and others saying goodbyes. We taught Skyleur on Sunday, so that was good. Her baptism is January 17th, so I'll miss it, which will be hard, especially since she wanted me to be the one to baptize her. I am now in Luverne, Minnesota, a town of 4000 people. I went from the furthest west in the mission to the furthest east. We cover the part of Iowa that is in our mission too. We have a lot of small towns we cover. Monday we drove to Gillette, then to Rapid, then spent the night in Rapid. Then the next morning we loaded up the trailers and vans with missionaries, but we needed more room, so my stuff and another Elder's stuff was put into a Chevy Silverado, which they told me to drive from Rapid City to Sioux Falls, which is a little more than 4 hours. That was kind a fun, I just followed the transfer train. After arriving in Sioux Falls, I put my stuff into our truck, and we drove back to Luverne, which is an hour from Sioux Falls. It was a crazy couple days, but I'm here now. My address is

109 East Luverne Street #330

Luverne, MN 56156

Hopefully all is well there, have a great week!

Elder Ehlert

January 12, 2015

Luverne is a cool place. It's pretty small, and we have only 3 families here that are members. We live in an old school building that was turned into apartments. It has a gym and stuff in it still. It's pretty cool. We cover the Brandon ward, which just recently became a ward from a branch. It is a small building, with only an assembly hall instead of a chapel and gym. The assembly hall is used for pretty much everything. There is also a small library, primary room, relief society room, and that's pretty much it. The church is in South Dakota, 20 minutes away. There are actually 3 sets of missionaries that are assigned to the area. Us, the Brandon set, and a set from Sioux Falls. I'm not sure why there are so many, but the work seems to be progressing.

We don't do a lot of teaching here, we have scripture study every night at a member's house, she has palsy and is in a wheelchair. One of her helpers/workers is a less active member and she stays for scripture study, so that is really good. We spend most of our time tracting. We have 2 investigators, but my companion has never met them. He has tried to contact them multiple times, but they aren't ever home. My companion is Elder Rucker, and he's only been in Luverne for one transfer.

The biggest news right now is that with the new president coming in July, they are splitting the mission. We knew this would happen soon, but before now, it was just rumors. Three stakes will be taken out of our mission, Gillette Wyoming, Casper Wyoming, and Sioux Falls South Dakota. We will be getting a new stake from Montana. The mission headquarters will be changed to Bismarck North Dakota. As of now, I'm not sure which mission I will go to. I could stay in the North Dakota Bismarck mission, or go to Colorado Ft. Collins, Montana Billings, or Nebraska Omaha. If I stay in Luverne until they split, I will most likely be in the Omaha mission. We will see what happens with that, and I will keep you posted on the changes.

That's about it for me, hope you have a great week!

Elder Ehlert

Happy New Year 2015!

 On January 2, we were happy to host the baby blessing of James, baby boy of my niece Alison and her husband, Collin Allan.

 Alison's Mom and Dad, Janice and David Larsen, joined us from their mission in Puerto Rico via skype. Janice is Paul's sister.  What a great way to bring in the New Year!

 On January 9-13, Paul and I had a get-away to Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday and to undergo a Time Share Presentation, which was about as bad as undergoing a medical procedure.  It was still worth the trip though!

 We enjoyed a trip to Red Rock Canyon about a 1/2 hour drive outside of Las Vegas.  Here's a great pictograph site showing different hand prints, "painted" on the rock.

  This was me jumping for joy to be on a hike with Paul.  :)

 Look closely to see an example of petroglyphs which are carvings in stone.

 We loved this creative Cairn and the polka dot rocks which marked the trail well. 

 Such interesting and beautiful landscapes.

 On Sunday afternoon we visited our niece Amy Larsen Eddington, husband Tom and three of their four beautiful children, Logan, Matthew and Courtney.

  The Las Vegas Temple is situated beautifully in the foothills northeast of Vegas.

We had the grounds all to ourselves on a beautiful and warm day in January.  Selfies aren't so flattering or maybe we're just getting oldish looking.

One of the highlights of the trip was to spend the afternoon and evening with my cousin Jerry Haslam and his wife Wendy.  We walked a lot of steps taking in the sites.  This is the Chinese New Year display at the Bellagio.  We also took a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the Vegas lights and the fountains below.

 My group of Activity girls had fun creating their own sock snowmen.

 They also helped to assemble 42 craft kits of the same project which were delivered for patients to make at Primary Children's Hospital and Shriner's Hospital.

 After returning home we celebrated Paul's 61st and Ben's 26th that next Sunday.  Grandpa and Grandma Ehlert, Niel and Andrew, the Stephensons and a couple of Mikele's roommates joined our party.

I love these two men and count myself lucky to have them in my life!

Daniel's Christmas

Dear Family,                                                   December 23, 2014

This week was a pretty cool one. We did a lot of tracting using the He is the Gift approach, and that took up most of the time we had. We also got a tree from the food bank, so we set that up and put our packages under the tree. We didn't have lights or very many ornaments, so we got creative. Hopefully later I can send a picture.

We are still working with Skyleur and she is going to Utah for Christmas with her fellowshipping family, so that will be cool. We have had a lot of fun helping the ward members with different Christmas activities and lots of caroling. Last night we sat on a trailer with hay bales and were pulled around the ward singing Christmas carols. Most of the carolers were ward missionaries and recent converts. It was awesome.

We had a lot of deer meat this week, one was in a spaghetti sauce, and others were in steak. I am sure I have had it a lot since I have been here, I just didn't know it. It is really good! I have always wanted to try it, and last night's dinner was amazing! We had deer steak and cilantro lime rice with an oriental cabbage salad. It was sooo good! I had 2 or 3 helpings, even though I am trying to lose weight. Haha.

Last night we had the opportunity to help the bishop take gifts around to members who were struggling in the ward. We had kind of an Angel Tree idea with a tree outside the chapel with names of people who need gifts. The bishop asked us to help him deliver these gifts under the guise of "running into Santa" and "Santa has so many places to go this year, he is using some missionaries to help him deliver gifts" It was a great thing to help with.

We also had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles class for the first time since I have been here, because brother Doyle was sick, and brother Bujans was taking care of his sick kids. We talked about Christmas, and asked about everyone's "most memorable Christmas" Brother Katschke talked about his, when he was in school with his newlywed wife in California and the church asked the members to donate enough money to build the Newport Beach temple. He said they didn't want to donate a few dollars, but they wanted to make it a sacrifice. They didn't get anything for each other as gifts except for a painting of what the Newport Beach temple would look like. That was awesome for me to hear, because that temple will always have a special meaning to me because it was the first temple I ever went inside and did baptisms for the dead.

That's pretty much it for this week. Hope all is well, and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Elder Ehlert  

  Looks like a missionary tree!

  Matching Christmas sweaters.

Come July Daniel's current mission will be divided so he'll need a new t-shirt.