Pops & Grammy

This year, 2011 has brought so much joy to us! We are now officially Grandparents to 3 beautiful babies! Joelle and Mike were blessed to have their sweet twin baby girls in May and Hilary and Brian had their handsome boy in June. Alia, Elsie and Legend have provided so much happiness to our family already and we love them all so much! As you can tell...our hands & hearts are full with these sweet grandbabies!

New Pictures from Samoa

Elder Williams' Mission will end in about a month. He should be coming home next week but he's extended his mission. We are going to pick him up in April and we are so excited to see in person the islands and the people he loves so much! Here are some pictures he has recently sent home.

Earthquake and Tsunami

Pictures of Missionary house on Savaii that was taken off it's foundation spun around and moved from the tsunami...with missionaries inside! They were all safe and unharmed.

Just when you think life is going pretty good...you get news of an 8.3 earthquake and tsunami hitting where your son is serving a mission! It was a tense few hours but once we got the news that all missionaries were safe and accounted for, our hearts could rest and we knew that all was well. A few days later we got a camera card with pictures of some of the damage that occurred in Savaii. The earthquake was just as intense but on the island where our son Elder Williams is serving but the tsunami wasn't as fierce and didn't cause the damage and fatalities as the other islands. It did destroy a Missionary home, the poor Elders were inside when it was lifted off of it's stilts and spun around and moved! Also a mission van was detroyed when it was taken by a wave and a water tower crashed on it. When the earthquake happened our son was notified that he should get all the missionaries and evacuate to the mountain and to stay there. He stayed overnight up in the mountains and when he came down he was able to call home and let us know that he was fine! It was wonderful to hear his voice! We feel very relieved that no missionaries were hurt during this but our hearts and prayers are still with the people of Samoa and Tonga, where the devastation and destruction took it's toll on villages and families.

End of Summer

I cannot believe that the end of summer is already here. We've had a great summer and thought we would share just a few photos of what was meaningful to us. We had a short trip to Rexburg and Yellowstone with some friends this summer and also Joelle and I bottled 44 quarts of our salsa, we will do another batch in a few weeks. Henry and I love sitting outside most nights watching "our" hummingbirds. We've even named them. And our sweet lab Reno is always so fun to sit with! Life is great!!!

More Pictures of Samoa

This I believe looks like the typical Missionary apartment and beds, send good sheets with you sons!

Missionary Fale behind the Church.

Recently I have been in contact with a couple of families whose sons have just got their calls to serve in the Apia Samoa Mission! How exciting. I've gone thru my pictures again and I'll post some of them here that may be helpful showing where Missionaries typically live and show off how absolutely beautiful the islands of Samoa are! The picture of the little white house with the blue foundation is what I would say is the typical accomodations of Missionaries in this mission.

I do have to say that the Missionaries are very well taken care of in Samoa. The people there are very humble and the give the best they have to the Missionaries. They are fed very well and watched after.

I'm so grateful to have a Missionary serving the Lord right now. It's has been and is continuing to be such a blessing to our family. I look forward to our emails from our missionary each and every Monday!

Latest Pictures from Samoa

Here are some great pictures of Elder Williams. He had a couple of baptisms last week and here are the photos he sent home.

Some more pictures from Elder Williams

Yesterday I got some more pictures from Elder Williams, serving in Samoa.