Zone Conference #2

Our second week of zone conferences started with interviews

at the Millwoods Stake building.

A few of our missionaires ride bikes, a very few, and this is the

first time I've seen them, so that's kind of exciting.  Beats walking!

At each of the six zone interviews, I set up my "olympic" rings

(they are actually frisbees, it's what I could find) I had to paint the

black one.  And I found the medal, it worked, and the flags again.

I made the flag colored donuts for each interview session, you can

see that they enjoyed them.

One thing I forgot, the sausage and hot mustard from Germany.

It was kind of tasty and hot.

The next day we met at the Riverbend Stake center for our next

combined zone conference.  And just before lunch they pitted

zone against zone in fishbowl.  Good luck!

Scriptures for 3 points, "sticks" on your heads to make it fair.

Elder's will try their hand at the cup stacking competition.

They had to stack the cups in a certain order, according to what's

written on the cups.  The first one to get them stacked correctly,

WINS!

Hymns for 2 points, Alec (Jeopardy)

Nice Shot!

I took this shot of the Edmonton Temple the day that we went through with Kerry and Tami.

I think it's a pretty good picture, if I do say so myself.  Looks as good as our

one on the wall in the basement in the mission home.  The flowers, and clouds and the sun

shining on the front, I think it's near perfect, for an amateur that is.  And this is the new

view with the addition they just built on.  Copies found in a local church distribution 

center, near you.

Hey Sparky!

We got our first week of zone conferences out of the way and then

we had a nice break with some wonderful visitors.  The Sparks

and Tanner Lemmon.

Meet our dear friends, Kerry, Tami and Tanner

Chris and I have known Tami for a long, long time and it is evident of

her friendship to take time out of their family vacation and spend

 some of it with us here in Canada.

I was so excited, I could hardly stand it.

We had such a great visit, we played games (I even beat Tanner

at speed, once), ate some yummy food (they cooked for us as much

as I cooked for them) and saw some of Edmonton.  We caught up

on lives back home, shared lots of laughs and shed a few tears.

It was beyond wonderful.

We all did a session in the Edmonton Temple.  It was very nice.

Kerry and Tami in our infamous temple stairs pose.

Then they took a picture of us.

Then a sweet couple offered to take a picture of the four of us.

It was all just grand, as Tami would say.

The very next day, we drove them around to see some of the local sights, 

we went across the many bridges and downtown and to the legislature 

building, what we so fondly refer to as

"The Ledge".

We've stepped inside before, long enough to get a drink, look around

the entry and sign the book, but we've never taken the tour.

Kerry wanted to take the tour, so we all agreed.

Tanner was especially thrilled, as you can imagine a 15 year old
would be.  He only wished there were a few more waterfalls
to look at along the way. ;)  I throughly enjoyed Tanner, he is
an amazing young man and I was very much impressed.

Above is a crest, if I'd really listened and payed attention, I

could tell you what it all means.  The lion and deer mean something,

the fortis on the lower left means stronger and the ET in the
middle, I think stands for the Edmonton Temple.  Pretty sure.

These are the doors that lead into something, I think its

where they meet to make laws and do their legislating stuff.

Beautiful wood work and marble.  As in any capital building they

brought in the best materials from all around the world.  Amazing.

They took us up into the loft area of the room and this was our

view from the other side.  Breathtaking stained glass.

These are the flags representing the areas of Alberta that participate here.

This was our sweet little tour guide pictured with Tami,

she really knew her stuff, we could ask her anything.

In fact, we had several questions, one of them being,

What is the queen's last name?  Have you ever thought about it?

They always refer to the royal family by title and first name.

Queen Elizabeth, William and Kate, Charles and Diane.

Elizabeth what?  William and Kate what?

Well her answer surprised us, they really don't have a last name,

the queen doesn't need one she said, everyone knows who she is.

True that, now you know.  It's simply Will and Kate.

Our time was short, but we tried to make the best of it.  We took them

to the mall so they could take in the grandness, then we deposited them

at the water park and let them play for a few hours.  We didn't feel like

we wanted to get in their way so we chose not to go, which was totally 

fine, we've been able to go with our family.  They took us to dinner one night

and cooked us Sunday dinner too, I've never felt so taken care of and relaxed.

We already had a assignment to speak in church, so they went with us and

met two of our fine missionaries.  They even found people in common

with one of the elders.  It was fun to have their support.  We are usually,

well always on our own.  It was nice to see familiar smiling faces in the 

audience.

After a few short days of playing, seeing, doing, eating, sharing

and just feeling loved, they were on their way.  Back home to Utah.

Thank you Kerry, Tami and Tanner for being such great people.

(Tami calls Kerry "sparky" hence the post title)

Zone Conference #1

Today we start all over again with zone conferences.

I decided to have a little fun with the missionaries and the upcoming

olympics.  The elders and sisters can't watch but we can have a little

friendly quiz about the past olympics.

Along with my quiz of olympic questions, I had printed up all the

flags that represent the countries our missionaires are from.

There are 12 countries our mission represents, not too bad.

I was more excited about my treats.  I bought mini donuts at the

store and decorated them in the olympic ring colors.

Then I chose various treats from some of the countries that our

missionaries are from.  Fortune cookies from Japan, did you know

that they are not from China, they are really not from Japan either,

they are simply made for American Chinese restaurants.  I picked

rice crackers from Hong Kong.

Tootsie Pops from the USA, Canadian maple leaf cookies

and did you know that granny smith apples were first

grown in Australia.  So much fun.

Pantry treats!  These are things from my pantry, extras that we 

aren't able to eat.  I bring them along and let the missionaries 

choose what they want or can use.  Works for me and they are pretty happy.

They usually find something there that they like.

Drayton Valley

Today we drove out to Drayton Valley, we've never been there before.

We are going to visit the sisters, take them to lunch and give them

some much needed encouragement.  

The city sign is very unique and decorated with beautiful flowers.

If they have time to bloom and fill in before the snow flies. 

There must be oil in them there hills.

And water fountains.

I love lilacs, I miss our lilacs in our yard back home.

This is the building in Drayton Valley.  It's a beautiful building

considering it's only a branch.

We are getting to see some amazing buildings and collecting some

great pictures to share and put in our slide show for the incoming

and outgoing missionaries.

We had a terrific lunch and visit with our sisters out there.

June Transfer Meeting

The elders keep getting taller and taller.

I gathered a few of them together just to get a look.   And these

are just the ones at transfer meeting.

I asked an elder to volunteer, just to demonstrate the actual height of their tallness.

 Then the packing and the repacking begins.

I am always amazed, where do they get these odds and ends?

Seriously, ninja sticks and potted flowers?

 Really?  Where are you going to put all this stuff?

Food I can understand, you buy it, you should take it with,

but flowers?  I'm just jealous, I can't grow flowers like this.

Someone's getting their exercise. 

This is a first, a bouncy ball, sent to one of our elders.

His family and friends signed it, stuck a label on it, threw a
postage stamp on it and shipped it off.

And it made it here!

Even though it's June, there's a storm brewin'.  

Big dark clouds coming our way.

Meet Elder Gardner and Elder Gardner!

The departing elders are packed and ready to go home. :(

What's the Date?

I came home from shopping today and found this,

what's the date?

oh yeah, June 9th.

June 9th?

Looks more like November 9th.

Edmonton Energy

A night out, yeah!

The Edmonton Energy is a semi-pro basketball team

and the Woodruff's were kind enough to get us tickets.

We met them and the Taylor's at the gym.  It was something different

for us, we loved it.  We haven't done anything like this for two years.

This player, number 20, was an awesome shot.  Nothing like

the "Jazz" games we're used to,  but then what is.  (jk)

It was fun to forget about missionary work for a minute, but just one.

Funny fact:  The visiting team only had about eight players, Elder

Woodruff told us that sometimes they won't let all of the players come

over the border, so they only play with part of their team.

There was an awesome drum corps all the way from Jasper performing.

They played several times, I wish they would have played more, 

they were very good.

It was definitely semi-pro, no question.

But they could play, take a look at the final score.