What I Love: Special Edition.

I love missionaries.

I was a missionary.  Ben was a missionary.  A lot of people I love were missionaries.  

Today we watched General Conference (which is LDS speak for the twice a year conference when the entire church comes to together to listen to Prophets and Apostles).  It happened last weekend, but here in Sri Lanka, we watched it this weekend.  

In General Conference, it was announced that the missionary age has changed for both the young men and the young women.  It is now 18 for young men (formally 19) and 19 for young women (formally 21).  

It is very exciting.  

Two of my younger sisters, Paige and Taylor are now preparing to go on missions.  I am so excited for them.  

Going on a mission was one of the best thing that ever happened to me.

I was told that the peace sign in countries besides the US of A can be bad manners, so I apologize.  To me, it is something my mom has always done, and it makes me smile.

This is the day I came home after 18 months on a mission.

This is a picture of some of the missionaries I worked with on my mission in Rochester, New York.  This was in the Sacred Grove.  I am in the front row with the red shoes.

Ashley, we look so young.  :)

My brothers - Michael and Allen, when Allen came home from his mission- he went to Missouri.

My sister, Jodie also served a mission in Ventura, California- I wish I had a picture.

This talk from General Conference tells a little bit about what missionaries teach, if you are interested.  A really great read.

A little note to those who are not LDS (Mormon).  Missionaries are usually really far from their homes and their mothers, and so if you see them, offer them a drink or something.  I bet it will make their day a lot better.  They are usually pretty awesome people.

Church Adventures.

Sunday we had to go to a town called Negombo for church.  It was a meeting for all of the congregations that meet here in Sri Lanka.  

In order to get all of the church members to the meeting, our branch (congregation) rented a bus.  Boy-oh-boy were Jack and Thomas excited to ride a bus.

It was a long day.  We left our house at about 8:00 am and didn't get home until 5:00 pm.  It was nice, though, to see other church members from around Sri Lanka. 

 Besides a MAJOR meltdown by our precious Jack on the ride home, the day went pretty well.

I am grateful that one of the constants that we have had is when we move somewhere, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is there.  The church is a big part of our lives, and so it is really wonderful to have it wherever we go.

Little Things.

On our way to church this morning, we discovered our car tire had a bolt in it.  We had a choice, go before/during church to get the tire fixed, or wait until after church to fix it.  I told Ben that we needed to go to church, and we could fix it after.

That is what we did.

After church it took us awhile to find a tire store that was open and didn't have a three hour wait.  We ended up finding a little place that could fix the car immediately, and it only took 20 minutes to fix.  The best part, they didn't charge us to fix it.  It was our shining miracle of the day.  We got to go to church, and we didn't have to pay to have our tire fixed.  Life is good.