BEAUTIFUL ARIZONA

For people who live outside Arizona, they think of the desert as being barren. However, as you can see, even spiny cactus can be beautiful in the Spring. These are Prickly Pear blossom which come in many colors.

Yes, we have butterflies in Arizona.

These blooms are my favorite color -- but do not touch the innocent looking cactus. They will bite you--just like the scorpions that live in Arizona.

Even these tall and stately cactus have beautiful blossoms in the Sprint.

I, also, love the bonnets that grow on the top of Saguaro cactus in May.

I hope that everyone can see how unique the Arizona desert is -- it has a majestic beauty--not filled with lots of green trees and foliage but the desert is not sand and emptiness.

Enjoy my beautiful homeland. I think Liz did -- we also spent a lot of time watching good DVD's. It was fun to have Liz in my home.

VISIT FROM LIZ SWARENS

Elder and Sister Swarens served well in the Mozambique Maputo Mission -- they trained Sister Allred (now Porter) and me in Mozambique. Luckily Liz Swarens and I ran into each other at Church Education Week at BYU last August. We decided she should come to Arizona for a visit. She had never been here and I wanted to show off my special homeland--well, and to have her connect with others she served with in Mozambique. I did get some pictures of beautiful Arizona but forgot to take pictures of the people we visited. :-(

Here Liz is in front of a glass sculpture at the Desert Botanical Gardens in the Phoenix Area. Arizona did put on her beautiful face -- it was warm the day Liz arrived but the rest of the time the weather was perfect. The Gardens were in full bloom and we spent a delightful four hours looking at the beauties of the Sonoran Desert.

Visiting Teaching

Today I went Visiting Teaching with a sister who has been a member for a short time and a Visiting teacher for only a few months. It was a good experience for me -- I hope I was a good support for her. Her companion had to be out of town -- since I am a friend to them both -- I offered to substitute for my friend who would be away. This new Visiting Teacher -- did a good job. She had prepared thoroughly, had good notes, shared the message, and enjoyed visiting with the two sisters we went to visit.

I love visiting teaching -- the preparing (seeking enlightenment from the Lord), teaching the message, and visiting with the Sisters. I have included a picture of a sister, Sandra (she is in the orange blouse) that I taught while I served in Mozambique. She was in the center of the country of Mozambique and I was at the southern tip of this country. If I had gone to visit her personally (or face to face) I would have had to take a plane trip and then an eight hour trip by car. So each Thursday when I went to Matola with my missionary companion -- I would call Sandra and we would speak on the telephone.

My companion and I were in Matola where she would teach keyboard students from 4:30PM to 9PM and I would teach English from 6PM to 8:30PM. While I was waiting to teach English I would call Sandra and we would talk for about an hour. I also called Paulina in Angola and was her visiting teacher too. I love visiting teaching -- and these sister that I taught in Africa

Also, I enjoyed going to day with this new Sister and visiting two of the sisters in our ward. Life is good and I am grateful.

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Fun Weekend!

Writing this blog -- is like thinking out loud - to myself. No one knows I am posting again and I have no intention of telling anyone. Still, I had a good weekend and want to think about it.

See the innocent looking tree in this picture? It has inch long needle like things that cut up my body and makes me look like I have been in a fight with several cats--and lost. Well, I spent two days trimming it -- fortunately, my daughter, Liz, loaned me these long handle trimmers--they were wonderful. Now if the trimmed branches would have just jumped into the green recycle cans -- my life would have been perfect. However, there was a great self-satisfied feeling when the job was finished -- planting three pony packs of Vincas helped -- I love these little flowers and look forward to the joy they will bring me.

Today, made the weekend more than just fun -- today brought me joy. Our Ward Conference was a spiritual feast. Our Stake President shared a spirit filled message and then during our Relief Society/Priesthood combined session did a Q&A about our thoughts on April Conference. President Bradshaw has a way of making us all feel like we are family and just having a cozy family home evening.

So today was a wonderful daly -- and I am grateful!

Return to list of posts

Fun Weekend!

Writing this blog -- is like thinking out loud - to myself. No one knows I am posting again and I have no intention of telling anyone. Still, I had a good weekend and want to think about it.

See the innocent looking tree in this picture? It has inch long needle like things that cut up my body and makes me look like I have been in a fight with several cats--and lost. Well, I spent two days trimming it -- fortunately, my daughter, Liz, loaned me these long handle trimmers--they were wonderful. Now if the trimmed branches would have just jumped into the green recycle cans -- my life would have been perfect. However, there was a great self-satisfied feeling when the job was finished -- planting three pony packs of Vincas helped -- I love these little flowers and look forward to the joy they will bring me.

Today, made the weekend more than just fun -- today brought me joy. Our Ward Conference was a spiritual feast. Our Stake President shared a spirit filled message and then during our Relief Society/Priesthood combined session did a Q&A about our thoughts on April Conference. President Bradshaw has a way of making us all feel like we are family and just having a cozy family home evening.

So today was a wonderful daly -- and I am grateful!

My Excuse!

I have not figured out how to proof my blogs before I publish them -- so I hope you can figure out words that I did not catch -- I do spell check but in this last blog I typed hear instead of heart. Have fun--they are like little puzzles. :-)

Beautiful World

My hear is full today! I look out at the beautiful flowers, the blue sky, the cool mornings, warm (some say very warm) afternoon, but mild evenings -- and I know that I am very blessed.

Yesterday, I got to visit a friend and her one week old baby boy. I still, after all these years, marvel at new life. He had such sweetness -- his little stretching motions, noises, soft skin, peach fuzz hair, and tiny eyes that opened and closed as he tried to awake. It was refreshing to be in the presence of one who so recently left his heavenly home. Yes, I feel so blessed this day.
My citrus is almost gone -- Sister Swarens is coming to visit the end of this month and I hope to have a few grapefruit left on the tree for her to pick. My next door neighbors have visitors from Minnesota and their young son enjoys picking some of my fruit while he is here. (He can only reach the lemons -- but I give them some grapefruit and oranges.)

As I said earlier my life is full but very ordinary. I cannot imagine anyone being enriched by my thoughts -- still I share them with you. I got a new church calling on Sunday -- it entails a lot of office type work -- entering information on the computer and such. I do get to interact with eight Visiting Teaching supervisors -- however, I have never been very good at dealing with women. I hope none of them will be offended by my direct manner in speaking. Tonight my missionary companion and I get to visit with some of the new members in our ward -- it is always rewarding to share the gospel with others.

Yes, it is a good day and has been a good week. I hope everyone that I love and care about is having the same kind of week.