Acuzena

Happy belated Mother’s Day to our amazing mothers, aunts, daughters, and wife of our son!

At church Sunday, I met a beautiful young woman named Azucena, which I learned in Spanish means lily.  So here is an "azucena" for each of you (and for every sister, family or friend, who chooses to nurture.)

We are also celebrating a "Striking Sixteen" for our oldest grandson, and "Great to Be Eight" for another in the middle.  Congratulations...marking milestones.

 Apologies for last week. We had a mistaken idea of laundering, cleaning, baking whole wheat bread, catching up banking, and writing home.  But you have been moved back to front seat! 

Since we last chatted, our paths have crossed the doorsteps of some colorful characters

  

And springtime has sprung, 

inviting mourning dove songs to accompany early chapel visits. 

 

Seven senior couples gathered to wish well to a couple who has served in a little mountain village of just over 2,000 people.

                         Happy to get ideas from friends 
                    with a few more miles under their belt.  

Our Crows Landing Spanish branch president and his new wife 

kindly shared dinner in their beautiful home

 

and a beautiful woodcarving made from death masks cared for by his family (descendants of Samuel Smith, brother to Hyrum and Joseph)

Learning to look to see a heavenly hand each day...

 Grateful for beauty "all around" as we find love in homes of friends near and far. 

Happy Mother's Day...remembering 

Blessings to each of you!       

P.S. Lesson from Dad/Val: Case of the Misappropriated Toothbrush

Lesson for the week: I got up in getting myself ready,  in the dark of the bathroom, I grabbed a toothbrush to have clean teeth.  However it had a quite distinctive different taste….anxiously I now turned on the light only to find this was not MY TOOTHBRUSH, but the one that I had used to clean the gunk and grime out of a dirty window…yuk…YUK…hurry hurry…now what do I do…What would Jannette do?...oh yes vinegar…quick..quick..into the glass and..swish..swish…yuk²…quick...quick… clean water…ahhh!…better…there is still something further down the hatch… kind of Itchy..Scratchy…quick..quick round 2…more vinegar.. only this time…vinegar/2  (diluted with water) not quite so Yuk….traveling to church…I better pray… it would not be good to loose a missionary to a dirty toothbrush…the Missionary authorities would have a hard time explaining that to an 88 year old mother.     The lesson learned: Don’t keep your special cleaning equipment by your personal cleaning equipment…certain things can be confused!