December 1 2014 Short Letter

Hello!

Unfortunately I do not have the gift of stomach...I got so sick lol (On Thanksgiving).  The food was good though.  I only have a few more minutes, so I shall just send you this picture....it is so cold.  Love y'all! Be good! Praying for you and baby brother!

November 24th Letter

Hello Parents!

It has been getting warmer here.  I know that you check the weather here everyday, so I was imagining y'all laughing when you saw that the highs the other week were 20 or 30 degrees.  I have never been so cold in my life.  Lewie has some pictures of the fountain at the park next to our apartment turned into ice. I'll have to get them from her and send it to you. 

We go around offering service all the time.  I think about that too when we ask; that they think we are asking because their yard is messy, but we just really want to help :) we have been telling people here that we really want to rake their leaves because we are both from Arizona so we don't have leaves there.  That's good that your hours are going up :) Do you still see Selena there?  If you do, could you tell her to write me.  She hasn't yet.  We are going everywhere for Thanksgiving lol.  We are just going to be eating all day.  I'm pretty excited. 

lol Thanks for messing with the Elders dad.  That probably made their day.  It probably will make it into their letters home too.  Sorry no one is coming down for thanksgiving :/ you could have the Elders over to help you with some of that Turkey :) 

Things this week have been crazy, as always.  Lewie took me to one of her old areas for P-day.  We went to a member's there and milked her goats...well tried to.  I didn't even want to touch them.  Alabama has made me realize that I am a city girl.  Then Wednesday we taught Molli.  Molli is from California and is here for school.  She was taught all the lessons in California and was really close to being baptized, but she went to another church and felt the spirit there and got really confused.  After we met her here she really liked us and the member we fellowshipped her with, so she started praying about being baptized again.  This week we went to see her and she was so excited that she had gotten her answer.  She built up this whole big story about how she had gotten her answer and Lewie and I were sure that it was going to be that she needed to get baptized...it wasn't.  We were so frustrated. Its actually kind of funny lol.  She's all about signs and how if God wanted her to be a Mormon He would let her know somehow...We met her, her best friend is a Mormon, the lady that just hired her is a Mormon, she just got an offer to play softball for a school in Utah.  How many more signs do you need?! lol We love Molly though and we are not giving up on her.  I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and I really do think he answered hers. Maybe she just isn't ready now, but He loves her and so we will keep working with her.  Then there's the fam-bam...they stress me out so much.  I always think about all the things that can go wrong with an investigator, but Sister Lewis loves them so much and they are her family that she has been looking for her whole mission.  I really don't want to see her get hurt if something doesn't work out.  The whole family came to church and they really loved it, but I don't think the kids understand that being baptized means being a member of the church as they still want to go to their "home church."  If all goes according to plan though, they are getting married and baptized on the 6th.  Then the other day Mario, our little Spanish recent convert who we cant understand, wanted to take us to eat.  We cant say no to Mario so we followed him to go eat...we ended up at a quincenera.  They were playing banda music and I apparently looked really tired. Lewie asked me if I was tired and I said that banda put me to sleep because I used to fall asleep to my neighbors blasting it...small Yuma joke.  Then yesterday I had to talk in sacrament...you know your talks are successful when you make all the old ladies cry.  Anyways that's how things are going here.  Just learning how to have hope.  That's what my talk was on actually, I'll type it up sometime and send it.  I'll send some more pictures now too if I have time.  I love y'all and am praying for you everyday. LOVE YOU! 

November 10th Letter

Hi mom! Sorry I'm on so late, P-days with Lewie are crazy.  Tell Grandma I found Sister Madden's son, a missionary out of her ward in LaMesa.  Also Tell her I told her I am praying for her and hope that she gets better soon.  Tell Mindy and Peter and the boys congratulations and that I like the boys new names...even though I might still be calling them Solomon and Vorjolo when I get back haha.  Things are still crazy here...I think it might be like that my whole mission...Lewie and I found a cat the other day. We named him carl.  He followed us all the way back to the car so we took him to get dairy queen with us.  We left him in the car but left the window open a crack while we went in to get ice cream.  We came back out and we couldn't find him but we could hear him.. We looked for a few minutes until we found him in the car next to ours. all the windows were closed and we couldn't get him out...we still have no idea how he got in there, but I miss carl.  Jojo got baptized this week too.  She is a really quiet girl whose dad comes to church every week, but isn't a member.  We don't really deal much with him for some reason, but we taught her. My brain gets so jumbled on P-days and I can hardly remember anything that has happened haha but everything here is good.  there are so many people in Cullman who are ready to hear the gospel and want to make changes in their lives, but getting them there is difficult.  Thank you for all the prayers! I will write more as I remember what all has happened haha Love you!!!

November 3rd letter #2

Hey mum and dad!  Sorry I haven't been able to write too much, but things have kind have been crazy here.  I hope Emmy and Katelynn have told you everything.  I might have to write a snail mail today to fill y'all in.  I have a new companion.  She is awesome! shes from Gilbert and is going home this transfer, so she said she want to meet you guys.  I will email more if I have time, but if not I'll have more time to write letters today. Alabama is freezing! Love you!

Sisters Butterfield, Ross, and Brunner stole my camera

Nov 3rd. 2014 Letter

Hello sister!

Halloween was kinda crazy.  It was freezing! Coldest I've ever been in my life.  We went tracting that day telling people we were dressed up as the Mormon missionaries...just kidding we are the Mormon missionaries.  That night we met with Molly, a girl from California who had taken the discussions before, but decided she didn't need to be a Mormon to be happy.  Sister Lewis a.k.a Lewie (new companion) and I talked to her for a little bit about I cant even remember what, probably because it was the spirit telling us what to say (that happens a lot) and now she wants to get baptized.  So yeah that was our Halloween.  What were all the kids for Halloween?  Lewie is legit.  She was totally patient with me when I was trying to introduce her to the area and made everything a lot better.  She is from Gilbert...her dad is the mayor.  She goes home this transfer though which is really sad since we get along so well.  She also plays rugby which is pretty legit.  So many miracles have been happening in Cullman.  Too many to count.  I actually might have to write you a letter later today to tell them all as we don't have much time on the computers today either.  Things are going great.  I tend to think too far ahead at all the things that could go wrong with an investigator though.  I just have to have complete faith that Heavenly Father is helping us with this work and that He knows more than we do.  Lewie wants to see pictures of y'all...she might go visit too when she gets home. haha I wish I could see Italia and all the kids.  They are growing up too fast.  The boys will go by new names?? why is that? Also! do you have mindy and peters address? maybe Michaela and luis' too? Sorry this letter is scatter brained...again.  Our p-days have been crazy lately.  She broke her shoulder?? How did she fall?  tell her I am praying for her.  Also! you could tell her that her friend's son who is in this mission is my zone leader.  And it is true, Lewie and I were just talking this morning about God's timing and trusting that He knows something we don't and that everything works out for the best in the end, so long as we are obedient and faithful. sorry again that this letter is kind of all over the place. just not sure how long we have today, but I will write a letter on all the mission happenings if i don't have time to write more.  Thanks for letting me know everything that's going on! Love you!

Oct 27th Letter

Oh no! sorry mom! I am alive though so that's good.  There have been no more tornadoes since Monday, so I think we are good for a while.  That night though Sister Pratt woke up yelling at me that we needed to get down stairs because there was a tornado...we live right next to the train tracks. She thought the train going by was a tornado.  The mission office watches the weather really closely though, so they will tell us when ever we need to go find a basement. 

Its crazy how frustrated you can get with others agency on your mission, but sometimes all you can do is plant a seed.  We did find a golden investigator this week though!  We were tracting and we knocked on Cheryl's door. We asked who she knew who would want to hear our message about Jesus Christ. She said her kids needed it. I wasn't sure what to do! No one had ever let us in through tracting before. We went in and started talking to her about her religious background. She told us she had read the Bible before and started describing how she had felt when she read it. She had felt the spirit while reading the Bible. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that she would feel the same way when reading it and that it would bring her closer to Jesus Christ. Her two children, just that week, had been asking about being baptized. We took that opportunity to ask them if they would be baptized and they said yes! It is crazy all the miracles I have seen so far on my mission. The rest of this week has been kinda crazy.  Sister pratt is getting transferred.  We both knew that would happen, but its still scary to have to introduce my new companion to the area on Wednesday. 

I can't wait to see the Phoenix temple! Did they tell you why they decided to put an oval font in it? I haven't even heard about that video.  This P-day has been crazy too, and I only have a few minutes, but I will be praying for Timmy and everyone.  I hope the kids have a fun Halloween take lots of pictures for me! Love you!

October 20. 2014 Letter

The temple is gorgeous! I'm so jealous! Thanks for the pictures :) I've just been staring at the drawing of it that they have on lds.org.  My week has been crazy! I guess I'll add some stuff that I forgot to tell you last week too.  All Monday we were camped out in a members basement because it was supposed to get really bad.  It never did get too bad, but I'll send you some pictures of the damage closer to our apartment.  We had exchanges with the STLs last week and that was really fun.  We had lots of really cool experiences too.  Like when sister McDougal and I were walking home from getting some addresses, we almost got hit by a car...Alabama has literally no sidewalks.  The car pulls over a little ways down the street and the lady gets out and starts saying sorry and telling us to be careful.  She realized we were the missionaries and starts getting really emotional.  Sister McDougal and I had no idea what was going on.  She told us that her cousin had just commit suicide and that the church had really helped her through that.  She was a less active member and didn't know how to get back to church.  We taught her some and set an appointment to come back.  I haven't been back because this was in Madison, but it was a really cool experience...then we had a sleep over and pulled pranks on each other.  The next day I went out with Sister Brunner.  She's legit.  Roll model missionary right there.  Anyways we went tracting and ran into a guy taking out the trash.  We tried talking to him to find out that he only spoke Spanish.  Sister Brunner tried talking to him anyways.  She was doing really well, but couldn't understand what he was saying.  I kinda could so I would tell her.  It was crazy how we both worked together to talk to this guy who didn't know English.  She would speak and I would translate.  We set an appointment to come back and teach him, so we will see if our Spanish skills extend beyond contacting people.  We had a lot of really cool experiences last week, but this week was kinda off.  Sister Pratt says its because we had a baptism yesterday, so the rest of the week everything went wrong.  We were out for an appointment about 20 miles away and had some time before hand, so we decided to go tracting...There is no off time apparently, just tracting time.  This guy we came across was interested so we set an appointment to come back.  His kids really liked us and were excited for us to come back and play.  We came back a few days later for our appointment and his wife answered the door.  She said they weren't interested and shut the door.  That wouldn't have been so bad had we not traveled so far to get there and had the two boys not run out after us asking why we weren't staying to play.  I didn't know what to say to them.  Then on the way back to the car, this car full of college girls yelled something at me that I cant repeat because I'm a Mormon.  I was somehow able to hold off the hulking out until we got back to the car and away from people.  That bothered me for the rest of the night though.  The next morning I prayed to get some answers and comfort in my personal study.  That day in my 8 pages of the Book of Mormon that we are reading together as a mission, I ready the story of Alma and how he was spit on by the people, but instead of being angry, he was sad for them because they didn't have the gospel.  It was crazy to get such a straight forward answer...I gotta go soon because we have a meeting early, but we might be able to get back on later.  We had a baptism yesterday!

p.s. if I don't get back on to email everyone else, could you send this to them.  Sorry I couldn't be on for long today.  Miss and love y'all!

10.13.14 Letter

Hello Mower family! I have heard that Arizona was getting lots of rain...right when I leave too. The weather here is crazy we have been getting huge thunder storms all week and are supposed to be getting tornadoes tonight.  I'll send you the picture of the one that was forming near our apartment last Monday...and the pictures of the hike we were taking while the tornado sirens started going off.  I wish I was there to see all those crazy storms with ya'll though. Thanks for being smart enough to pack hydro cortisone with me Emmy. I didn't think the bugs would be so bad here...they are. Sounds like ya'll got to experience your own little Alabama down there.

How are mom and dad doing? Is Brooklyn talking a lot more? Hopefully we will all get to skype together this Christmas. It's good that she still remembers me though, I miss the kids a lot, but it is good to hear that they are doing well. Don't let them get too old while I'm gone.

Conference was really good, it was crazy how fast it went by and how much you learn when you are really trying. The missionaries were the only ones in the chapel. We got to see meet the Mormons too. It was really good, but kind of cruel to show a room full of missionaries a segment on a missionary mom dropping her son off at the airport. How is "baby brother" by the way? Are you thinking any names yet? Poor Brooklyn I hope she isn't scared of girls wearing name tags now.  

I haven't sent any letters yet. It's kinda hard this week because the library is closed so I'm on an iPad. So emails might be kinda short and all over the place, but if I don't get it this week, I'll catch everyone up next week. It's definitely been crazy here. I love and miss everyone and can feel that I am in your thoughts and prayers. Ya'll are definitely in mine.  I have to try and write president now, but I'll get back on if I finish in time love you!

Greeeeen!

This is Joyce.  Joyce is legit.  She is always telling us stories about her kids and all the funny stuff she did when they were growing up.  She just had her son and daughter pass away, so we try to help her out.  She is my favorite crazy southern lady in Cullman.

Aaand then we ate fried snickers bar.  Alabama is heaven.

This is Tucker... he is crazy.

How to tell the missionaries are having a meeting.

Sister Brunner customized our name tags.

.... baby Nader.

We closed the door to our laundry room and the washer walked itself in front of it.

This is a goat... in a stroller.  Only in Alabama.

Hiking before the baby Nader.  "Twas crazy!

Oct. 6 2014 Letter

Letter From Mom and Dad to Sister Harris:

Hello Sister Harris

It's Saturday after 2nd session of conference. I went out in the front yard with mom and tried to do some trimming. the gas weed wacker flooded and wore me out trying to start it so I came in to shower and get ready for Priesthood. Last night mom and I went to the Fun Factory to try their new salad bar and ended up getting salad soup and splitting a hamburger. Eyes bigger than stomach. but it was good. I sitting here sweating on the keyboard so I'd better go clean up and get ready for PH.  Will write more tomorrow. Love you.

Dad

Response letter from Sister Harris:

Did you guys play any games at Z Fun Factory... is it still Z Fun Factory? Conference was really good, but the only session we watched with an investigator was of course the first Sunday session where they were talking about patriarchal blessings and the celestial kingdom...but it was good.  This has been a crazy week; very busy. Busy is good though right? I am still very much enjoying being a missionary, even at the times where is seems like we might not be getting all the results we want, like investigators keeping their commitments. I have especially seen that this week. With most of our investigators saying that they would try to come to a session of conference with us, but not showing up. If you were to stand at the very back of the chapel, you would be able to tell who the missionaries were. Just watch for the two girls constantly turning back to see who is walking through the doors. We worked all week to try and get our investigators to come to conference. Is it bad to pray for an investigator's plans to fall through?  Anyways this week has been pretty uneventful compared to my first couple weeks.  The elders we had in our area left so we had to take over all their people.  It was nice to be able to talk to other missionaries sometimes, so it was sad to see them go.  We did have to break into their house to get their area book though.  That would have been funny if anyone had seen us, a couple of Mormon missionaries, trying to break into a house.  Didn't you do that once? Its gotten really cold here really quick...I don't like it.  We had tornado warnings on Wednesday. I slept through it.  Anyways all is good here.  Hope to hear more from you soon.  Love you!

Sept. 29 2014 Letter

Letter From Mom and Dad to Sister Harris:

Hello Rebekah. Well your email finally got to us...the one you sent to Katelynn. She thought it went to everyone so didn't forward to us. We'll get it figured out. Oh for the good ole days of paper and pen. It sounds like you hit the ground running if you had that many adventures on your first couple of days. It also sounds like you're on foot/bike. We saw the pictures you sent of the apartment etc. Today was Fast and Testimony in our Ward as next week is General Conference. The following week is the Primary program so we had practice in Primary. I think every adult should have to spend time in Primary. Sure way to strengthen a testimony. The kids are great. Everyone asks how you're doing. I went to San Diego Friday night to go to my bosses birthday party then spent Saturday working at Grandmas. Things here are good, no changes. Mom has let the chickens run free in the back yard before planting the new garden. When she opens the back door they stampede to the door to see what she has for them. The chickens say they miss seeing you. The Bishop wants to know your favorite scripture for the plaque that goes in the missionary case. Let us know. The weather is starting to cool off a little bit. How's the humidity there? We check the wx report for Cullman daily to see the temp and forecast. We're glad to read that you're teaching some "gators". That always makes the day worth while. Keep up the good work. You, your companion and your investigators are in our prayers day and night. Let us know if you need anything. Know that all is good here. We are fine. The Gospel is True. Hope you get to see General Conference next week. Love you lots. Mom and Dad 

Returned Letter from Sister Harris:

Yes sir! We have a car and bikes, just because a lot of people live way out in the country.  lol I can imagine all the chickens rushing at the door.  Sounds like everything there is going well.  Its hard not being able to pick up kids, I wish we could do more with them.  Tell Bishop 2 Nephi 31:20.  Its actually not too humid here.  There are lots of bugs though...lots. Cullman also has the world record for most churches.  Could you tell in your virtual walk?  There are churches everywhere.  My companion is from Salem Utah. The members here are very happy to have a new sister from someplace that's not Utah.  She doesn't drink straight out of the carton, although there are times where I'm reaching for my Jesus the Christ.  I'm still getting used to the companion thing.  We tract...a lot.  I hated it at first, but now its easier.  Although yesterday we encountered a very...pleasant... gentleman while we were tracting. We didn't even have to knock on his door before he saw us and came running out.  He kept saying he could convert us if we would go home and study Colossians.  He said that it didn't say that we needed to be baptized and that all we had to do was accept Jesus Christ. I then replied yes sir, but have you read the rest of the Bible? Most of the people here are like that. I'm still learning how to deal with it.  You just have to love everyone.  Its been a hard week progressing with our investigators.  There are a few that want to get baptized, but it seems like there is always something in the way...mostly smoking around here.  We just keep working with them though :) that's Mario with the giant pumpkin.  He took us to the fair.  It was quite toasty.  That's an analogy we use.  It stands for thrive on awkward situations...the last T is just there to be awkward.  We eat a lot of toast around here.  But Mario is really nice...he just doesn't speak English very well.  Its a lot of smiling and nodding with him.  He is great though. 

Ironic

Another few pictures from Sister Harris.  Below you'll see her kitchen full of irony and outside her apartment building.  To send snail mail to Sister Harris please see her updated address in the sidebar to the right.  It will be updated as changes happen.

MTC Pictures

Sept. 22.2014 Letter

I got this one!  Alabama is legit.  Its green and it rains and everybody talks funny.  I'm in Cullman which is apparently the town where the KKK was founded so that's cool.  That's great about Cruz!  What made him want to start going?  Tell the young'uns to email me or write my new address is 301 3rd Ave. NE Apt. 2 Cullman, AL 35055.  I'll send you a picture of it.  My first day here was crazy.  First thing in the morning the relief society president calls and begs us to come to her CPR class because nobody showed up...so I'm CPR certified now.  Then we taught a lady named Nadine.  She was really cool and we talked a lot...southern women talk a lot.  At the end of our lesson though we asked her if she would be willing to pray and she literally spent 30 minutes planning out this prayer because she'd never prayed in front of people.  She had it all written down and everything.  She started praying by just reading what she had wrote, but towards the end, instead of just ending where she had stopped writing, she started asking that she would be able to gain a testimony and know if the things we were saying were true.  It was really cool to hear her say that after how nervous she was.  We spend a lot of time in the projects.  Its pretty sad seeing the people that live there that either can't get out of that situation, or choose not too, but the people there are nice.  There's actually a few people there that have committed to getting baptized, its just a matter of actually getting them to do it.  Then there's the recent convert, Mario, the first person who's accent I couldn't understand...he's from Mexico.  I think he might be from the same place that Luis is from.  Its still pretty hard to just go up and start talking to people.  I think the knocking door to door thing is a whole lot easier than that.  Most people here see us and first thing they say is that they already belong to a different church.  I had my first experience with those other churches last night.  So we were walking into the park looking for people to talk to when this group of people starts walking out.  They see us and ask if we are holy...I didn't know what to answer.  We just explained to them that we were missionaries and we were looking for people who needed service or prayers or were curious to know more.  That prayer thing got them and they wanted us to pray for them.  Which we did...but they wanted to do it in the way where you all stand in a circle and hold hands...which was weird, but we did it so we could get out of there and they would leave us alone...we thought.  After we said a prayer for them, they thought it was their turn and that they should pray for us....I have never seen anybody pray like that and I never want to experience it again...If I had ever had doubts before that this was the true church what ever they did just dismissed all of them forever.  It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced.  The guy saying it claimed to be receiving revelation that one of us had issues with our dad that we needed to resolve...I was trying not to laugh cause dad is pretty awesome and this whole situation was ridiculous, but my companion was scared that I was crying because they guy was right and I was gonna up and convert or something, but I was trying so hard not to laugh...Alabama is awesome.  Smoking is a really big problem here though.  One of the reasons a lot of our investigators haven't been baptized yet is because they can't quit smoking, but all of our investigators are great. 

Sister Harris Has Arrived

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Alabama Birmingham Mission

                                 

Sister Harris has safely arrived in the 

Alabama Birmingham Mission!

We are impressed with your daughter and want to thank you for all that you have done in preparing this wonderful young woman for her mission.  She met her new companion and traveled to her first area.

Attached are photos of Sister Harris, one with President and Sister Hanks and one with her Trainer, Sister Pratt.  She will bless this mission greatly with her enthusiasm and dedication. We love her and pledge our best efforts in directing her service here.

Sister Harris has accepted a call that will change her life and the lives of those with whom she is serving.  These first few months will be full of new and challenging experiences, and your support in the form of encouraging and uplifting letters will help her greatly.

Our greatest hope is that each missionary has a positive and growing experience, which will help give her a foundation for a lifetime of service to others. We appreciate the time you have spent raising your daughter to be such a responsible young woman.  We thank you for your willingness to share Sister Harris with us.

President and Sister Hanks

First "letter" home

 Hi Sister Harris

That sounds strange .  Are u used to it yet.  We saw your pic. with ur hair down  You looked so pretty.  we miss you , will b thinking about u .  Luv u 

Mom  (Sept 4, 2014)

RESPONSE from Sister Harris:  (Sept. 11, 2014)

I'm getting used to it...I actually kinda like it. If I ever get discouraged I just look down at my name tag.  I've got a couple names I've got to live up to on there. I figured I would do my hair for the first day since I would probably be too tired to do it any other time, which is true. President Workman wasn't kidding when he said he wished he could record the departing missionary's testimonies and compare them with their testimony when they returned.  My testimony has grown more in this week at the MTC than it had in a long time.  I have a new hunger for knowledge and the spirit that I have never felt before.  I feel like this mission is just as much for my full conversion as it is for the people I will teach.  Even with all I've learned and felt, the MTC has still been a struggle.  It's set up like dorm rooms and I'm too awkward to be in such close quarters with so many girls, but I'm getting used to it.  My companion, Sister Smith, is very nice and supportive, but girls...girls are loud and late...to everything.  There's a reason most of my friends were boys growing up.  In all seriousness though, I am so blessed to be in the district that I am in.  There's Elder Baily.  I call him my seminary for dummies because he can tell me where anything is in the scriptures and always suggests scriptures to help me or my investigators.  Elder McClain is hilarious and always has a funny story to tell.  With all his antics, his knowledge of the scriptures is amazing.  For example, Zechariah 2:6 and 1:8 are about Santa Claus.   Seriously...read it.  Sister Merrium is also a great listener and has helped me through my home sickness and doubts.  She's going to be relief society president one day.   Then there's Elder Cannon.  He reminds me of Garrett.  We've got about 10 Elders and Sisters in our district and they've all become great friends.  We all head out in just a few more days and I'm really going to miss them.  We're already planning on getting back together when we all get home.  Even though they have helped me so much with all my struggles here, I wish I had a phone so I could just call dad and ask him to help me with certain investigators.  Dad knows how to answer every question with the spirit.  Then there's times when I'm home sick and I just want to call mom to calm me down.  But since I can't do those things, I have to rely on the Lord.  Thankfully He loves us enough to help us. Because "compared to God man is nothing; yet we are everything to God." I hope everything there is going well.  Tell me everything! Also, thank Wendi's mum for the jacket.  I have really needed it...Utah is cold. 

I will write probably in a couple Mondays since everything is still wonky with the P days.  Love you all! Be good. 

PS What is grandma Geissler's address? 

Waiting for a Jet Plane

It wouldn't be an adventure without delays, right?  Everyone arrived at the airport with plenty of TSA time.  It began when "someone" didn't know where to park.  I guess they mean it when they say "restricted".  Once arriving to check in luggage we were all inundated by overly zealous Delta employees all to happy to help.  They arranged us for a group photo then ushered Rebekah to the luggage weigh in area.  Once all reunited we took the escalators up to the security checkpoint where we had to say our goodbyes.  A few tears were shed, but I think Rebekah was more nervous than anything about traveling alone for the first time.
We wished her well and sent her on her way.  The kids wanted to watch the planes for a few minutes so we tried to figure out which plane was Rebekah's.  After awhile we decided it was time to let go and start the waiting game.
We waited and waited to hear of her arrival in Salt Lake, but instead found out her plane had been canceled due to an oil leak.  She finally was rescheduled on a new flight that eventually got her to her destination 4 hours later.
Cousin Wendi found her at the airport and rescued her and fed her.  Thanks Wendi!

Procrastination

Nothing like waiting till the last minute to pack!  Rebekah spoke on Sunday in church so family congregated in Yuma to wish her well.  We didn't see much of her because she had a line of people to say her goodbyes to.  She is pretty popular you know...  We all kept asking when she was going to pack and she assured us she would get to it.  I guess two hours before you have to leave town is as good a time as ever.  While running back and forth to the laundry, she tossed things into her bag.  I'm not entirely sure all of it was even clean.  As she packed, it became apparent that she was still needing a few things from her list of packing.  I got a list started and it got bigger and bigger.  I think it is safe to say that Rebekah doesn't sweat the "small stuff".  All finally got stuffed into bags and we set off to get her set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Pray for her companion to have patience and lots of it!

And in case you are wondering... this is all from my perspective... and if Rebekah wants to give her part of the story she'll have to add it later.  Until then you are stuck with me.  :)  - Emmy

I Love to See the Temple...

On Saturday Aug. 9th Rebekah attended the Gilbert Temple for her first time.  It was a special day.  Mom thought it was weird seeing Rebekah all dressed in white, because it made her look like a bride.   It was a great day spent with family.
If one were to ask Rebekah about her day, I think she'd say she wished she used the bathroom before the session began.  She said it was hard to focus when you have to pee.  Oh the insight!