the first born in the wilderness

well i finally have a moment to blog again.  i am thinking it may take me all year to get through this tribute to my mission companions but i think it would help make it a great year.  most of my pictures from my early mission are on my parent's computer so this is the only one i could find of me and my trainer, sister jesica lopez from argentina.  this is the traditional "generation picture."  sister glancy was sister lopez trainer, sister lopez trained me, and i trained sister mckay (stay tuned for a tribute to her later on).  i can't think about sister lopez without thinking about love and service.  there was not a day that went by when we were together that she did not serve me.  and she had such a intense love for everyone we met and taught.  God knew what he was doing when he inspired President stewart to put us together. she has such a big heart and was a hard worker.  i used to tease her that she used to teach in her sleep.  i would wake up in the middle of the night to her saying something like, "Heavenly Father loves you, yes."  i eventually took after her months later when i was in montana i started teaching in my sleep.  i guess it runs "in the family."  i will always have a special place in my heart for sister lopez.  i wasn't good about showing that appreciation while we were together, but i hope she knows how much i love her.

since the mission, my sweet jesica is now married and has a little baby (pictured below) that i refer to as my baby sister.  jesica refers to me as "her first born in the wilderness."

cactus and palm trees, all in white, second parents

i was so excited to olivia (aka prochazka) sent me a message on facebook telling me that she was going to be in phoenix for a conference.  remember that last march she was our tour guide in switzerland when we surprised simoncini at her sealing.  she spent so much time with us so we wanted to show her a good time here in phoenix when she came even though we only got her for a few short hours after long days of conferencing. 

when i was thinking about what we should take her to see, i had remembered on the mission her talking about how cool she though the mesa, az temple was.  it isn't like most other temples because it doesn't have an angel moroni on it.  anyway so i knew that would be one of our first stops.  we went to the temple and found some cactus that she thought was so cool.  she loved seeing the palm trees and the cactus. 

i also wanted to hike camelback with her since i think it gives a great view of the city.  too bad we took a wrong turn on our way there so only made it about half way up before we decided to turn around so we were walking down in the dark.

there is nothing like friends from the mission.  i truly believe that you always have a special bond with mission friends because of the things you go through and experience together.  i has seemed that this has been mission friend month.  we started off the month with one of my companions weddings.

 
a few of the other sisters from the great montana billings mission drove down from utah to be there.  so i got to spend time with 2 companions that day.

these last couple days we have spent with blake's mission president that were down visiting friends.  what amazing people.  we got to go to dinner with them and another missionary that served with them as well as his wife.  then the next day the went to blake's seminary class with him and then we went to lunch with them and spent some more time with them.  i loved being with them and feeling of their spirit and their love for the Lord, the gospel, and for blake.  we unfortunately didn't get any pictures but here is a picture from their mission. 

blake and i both loved our missions and the people we served with.  and we very much love when the come visit so we can spend time with them and be reminded of the many miracles that we witnessed together.