San Francisco!

Paul had meetings in San Francisco, so on April 30th we took a flight west.  Our first evening was spent exploring Fisherman's Wharf and of course eating clam chowder (some of us) and sourdough bread.

 A highlight of the trip was renting bikes for the morning and riding along the bay and over the Golden Gate Bridge.

 We made it back in time to the Wharf to catch a ferry to Alcatraz Island.  The weather soon turned blustery and cold, but this is a tour that was well worth the time and money spent.  Interesting to learn the history of the prison, but the views were breathtaking!

Part of the walkway up to the prison.

View of the San Francisco skyline 

 Alcatraz Island in the distance as we are returning to San Francisco

 Watching the Sea Lions on Pier 39 was so entertaining!  They started congregating there in 1989 after an earthquake hit San Francisco.  They number in the hundreds and up to 1,700 according to the seasons and food supply available to them.

 On Saturday, while Paul was in meetings, Stephanie, Becca and I hit the Open Air Market along the Wharf.  We tried some expensive apricots and empanadas and other ethnic foods from Argentina. Worth every penny!  I loved smelling the sweet peas in the flower stalls.

 We then bravely drove the rental car across town and walked a trail along the beach.  Beautiful!

 I took this picture to show how steep the hills were that we climbed getting to Lombard Street, but it was a lot steeper than it looks in a photo!

 One of the two windmills at Golden Gate Park

 If you look closely you'll see a small squirrel pausing for my shot on a bumpy, lumpy stump.

Two sisters at the Seven Sisters

 We strolled through Saks Fifth Avenue and gawked at the prices.  Mind bloggling that someone would spend thousands of dollars for what you can pick up at a thrift store or at TJ Max!  Help us solve the mystery as to why Becca's feet seemed to grow when she posed as a mannequin.

 My heart wasn't left in San Francisco...it goes wherever my daughters go, and my sons and my husband go and probably it's with each of you who are taking the time to read this blog.  What a great trip!


Dear Family,                                                          April 29, 2015
 New Mission, New Mission President!

This week has been pretty crazy. I'm emailing so late, because out p day was packed with service, and we were in Sioux Falls all day, then went to Luverne for dinner. Then Tuesday we were in Sioux Falls again all day waiting for interviews with our new president and meeting his wife and learning more about the Omaha mission. I'm now officially part of it. Mine was the very last interview of the day, so it wasn't super long, but both President Weston and his wife are awesome, and it's kinda sad I'll only see them one more time before they go home in July. Last week we were able to meet with Jaime, who is in Luverne, she is one of Jakki's helpers. We taught her the Restoration, and we're hoping to teach her again soon. Mike hasn't been able to meet with us the past few weeks, but hopefully we can get in with him this week. I still don't know a lot about the new mission, but I'm sure we'll continue to learn more in the coming weeks. Hope you have a great week!   

Elder Ehlert

Mom and Dad, thanks for sharing a bit more about your missions. I will definitely want to hear more about them when I get home, and I think it would be cool to have a night to go through everyone's mission pictures in our family and talk a bit about some of the experiences, successes, good times, challenges, anything. That would be cool for me to relate my mission experience to everyone else in our family who served, even if I did serve in the States. :) As for The Work cd, I have a copy of it on my usb drive, but I don't have a cd. It's good music, and the songs are pretty inspirational. I'm glad you got to hear some of them. 

New Days of 47 Royalty!

 The Royalty Pageant is a three day competition.  Here are the 2015 contestants just after a dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial building and before the evening program begins at the Conference Center Little Theater.

 Our outgoing 2014 Royalty were so amazing.  They worked as a cohesive team attending 80 plus events during their year.  It's always so hard to say good-bye.

 This year I was a stage hand and enjoyed getting to know many of the contestants back stage.  The most touching moment was to gather in a circle before the curtain went up, arms around each other and heads bowed to say a prayer asking that everyone would do their best and have a good experience.  Pioneer ancestors were proud!  Pictured are Denise Mathews the amazing accompanist and her nice page turner.

 Our first event was to speak at a Daughters of Utah Pioneers Company Seminar in St. George.  Our 1st Attendant, Christina, was in Europe so we took the Pageant's Miss Congeniality, Kassi Faulkner.  Queen Ethel and Princess Pam attended the meeting and the luncheon.  I loved having them there!

One of the first big thing to accomplish with a new group is to shop for three outfits:  formal gowns, western wear and business wear.  Then their formal portraits need to be taken to meet media deadlines.  Their western wear photo shoot took place at the Brigham Young farmhouse at This is The Place.

Pioneer Princesses!

Here is a Queen mother in the canine world.  Ruby, a Golden Doodle had 11 puppies with 9 living.  Can you imagine this crowd of large puppies latching on, or trying to?

 I would have been sorely tempted to take one home, but they sold for $1200 each and they were all spoken for within hours!

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

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.

.

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