We had a great preparation meeting today. Sister Romney, a single sister whom I have come to love and admire gave the thought. She told of a friend of hers who was not a member, but who was impressed with the standards of her member friends and was baptized on her 18th birthday. (her parents made her wait until then) She loved the church, married in the temple and tried to do every thing she could to be obedient, including family history work. She made a trip from her home in California to Salt Lake to visit the Family History library. She checked out a microfilm and started searching, but it appeared to be a blank tape. She kept rolling through the tape and finally found one entry, the women she was searching for. She went to the desk to get the appropriate card to fill out and the woman suggested that she fill it out right there. She said, "Oh I can just go back and do it from the screen. The women said, "It won't be there, that is a blank tape" The friend assured her that it was on the screen, but was told "It often is but it will not be there when you go back, that Is a blank tape." Of course she finished the work right then, and continued working very hard doing family history. Sometime later she was in an accident with a drunk driver. She said that just at the moment of impact, she saw a group of people in earlier period clothing standing around her. Even though she was injured, she survived what should have been a fatal crash. She said she did not know if those were people whose work she had done or ones who still needed her to complete their work, but it did not matter. She would continue to do all she could. What a great way to start out our day.

Two of our very favorite missionaries have gone home. They added so much to our cast and to the mission. They are from Canada and have always done everything the very best they could, with total cooperation and positive attitudes they will be greatly missed. They are standing in the bottom right hand corner. Elder and Sister Hardy, we love you!!!

We just returned home from a sociable put on by Vocal Point, an acappella group from BYU. They were great and after doing a medley of primary songs, several of them spoke to introduce the song they wanted to sing and we would join in for one verse. We were surrounded by lightning on the East, West, and North, but quite a ways away. With it on so many sides you would think it would come over us, but it did not. One of the guys in introducing his hymn gave a quote. I don't know who it was by, but I really liked it. "Life is not about weathering the storm, it is about learning to dance in the rain." What a great thought. We all have spots of bad weather in our lives. We need to learn not to just get through them, but find joy as we do. Thinking about our wonderful family brings me joy every day. We are so blessed to have the gospel and a living prophet to lead us. I know we can get through anything if we will follow the prophet and what we have been taught. Nauvoo is an unbelievable experience. Every day brings new opportunities and challenges. Love you all!!!!

Sunset will soon be over. It has been really fun, but it will be good to have a little more time. If this looks triumphant, that's the way we feel. We actually made it through the pageant season. Whew!!!!

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How many ways can you say thank you to our wonderful family for the good lives you live and for the inspiration you are to me daily. Having visitors here so much this month has been a tremendous blessing. Some of our favorite visitors......

I've been really bad at blogging lately. There always seems to be so much more to do than I have time to do. John and I have been working really hard on a new part for Rendezvous the last few weeks. We had our debut performance on Thurs. We had 4 daughters and 3 grandchildren with us that night. Our mission President and his wife and a visitor from the mission department in Salt Lake were also in the audience. That made my heart beat a lot faster that I would have liked. It went better than I expected. (still lots of room for improvment though) We have really enjoyed the many visits from family and friends. It has been wonderful to see you. We love you all!!