Way to Go, Jacob!

What kind of Grandparents would we be if we didn't toot Jacob's horn a little bit? We are so proud of Beany for making the Murray All-Star little league team and playing his little heart out. You can read the details and see more photos on Shellee's blog. Good Job, Jacob!! We love you!

Monday, Monday

Some days are like this, even in Australia.
(crazy busy)

The Best Laid Plans....

So it's Saturday, our "P" day, and we made plans to go to a Huge Car Show called the "Greenwood Mile" in Seattle, which was set to have hundreds of cars on display, as well as an entertainment stage and vendors selling car stuff. We decide it would be best to go early, like at 9am, to beat the crowds. Then, the inevitable. Elder Wilson's phone rings, and it's the Zone leaders asking if he can go teach with them at 11am. Whatcha gonna do? So we say, fine, we'll just go at noon, after he's done teaching. So 10:30 rolls along, his phone rings, and it's another set of Elders who want to know if he can come with them at 1. I figure, what the hay, we ARE on a mission after all, so once again we adjust "the plan", thinking, okay, we'll get there at the end, in time to see the cars fire up and drive off. Sweet. Phone rings: it is a guy who wants to look at one of the NINE mission Corollas we have for sale at 2:30. Okay, we think, we may still be able to make the end of the car show. We load up the sunblock and water bottles and head to the rear Temple parking lot to meet the guy(that's where we keep the spare cars). 2:30 comes and goes, 3:00 comes and goes, I make Elder Wilson call the guy, who says,"oh, I'm running late, I'll be there in 20." Being the good sport that I am, I said, Oh, it's okay, maybe we weren't meant to go to Seattle today. (duh)Guy comes and looks at car, it's now 4:00. Phone rings, another guy wants to see the cars at 5:00, so that's that. We decide to salvage something out of the afternoon so we head to Pizza Hut around the corner, and grab a "ginormous personal pan pizza" for $5 and a salad, then head back over to the Parking lot to wait. and wait. Running late, guy will be there in 15. Phone rings, this time it's MY phone and (Elder)Trevor Gatenby is on the other end, calling from American Fork to say "hi". A welcome phone call to say the least. We really enjoyed him in the office and were sad when his 2 years was up. In the meantime, Elder Wilson is letting the guy test-drive all the cars because they can't decide which one they like most. Finally, Finally, they decide they'll take one, and maybe two of the cars, and we get to go home. It's 6:30pm when we hit the doorway. The good news is that I took the sweater I'm knitting for Sophie; finished one sleeve and got the next one 1/3 done while we waited. We took lots of pictures while we waited, and I've posted a few here. Other good news: Several of the investigators said they'll come to Church tomorrow. Keep you fingers crossed!

It had to happen eventually.....

Apparently someone was watching the first time we drove around the big city and wrote a book about it. That's just rude.

Elder Young and Elder Russell our O.E.'s

As you can see from the picture, Elder Young was unable to open his eyes for this photo as he's still in denial about having to work in the office with The Dreaded Wilson's... Elder Young is from Arlington Texas and I am doing my best to get him to say Y'all in all sentences. He has no accent whatsoever, and I am determined to have him talking like a true Texan before he gets transferred out of the office. It's the least I can do for his parents.

HA! You call that rain??

Just to show you what good sports we are up here in Seattle, we have decided to show you what a REAL rain storm looks like.

You say Good-bye, and I say Hello

It's transfer week again. Monday we say good-bye to a group of outstanding Missionaries, and send them home to their families. Our loss is their gain. A lot of happy parents out there, to be sure. We are going to miss them here in the Mission, we grow to love them in a hurry. Tuesday we"ll welcome 17 new missionaries into the fold. Elder Wilson gets to help pick them up from the airport, and likes to ask them, "How you doing, Elder?" in the hopes that one of them will reply "preety good?" just like in the movie "Called to Serve". He assures them they have just arrived at the best mission anywhere, and they are going to have the time of their life. It's our own circle of life, so to speak. So, you say good-bye and I say hello. Hello, hello.

Sunny Seattle?

Some of you have insinuated that we have stolen your weather. We do not have that kind of power. Welcome to Seattle. We don't tan, we rust.

Hidden deep in the mountainside

After several months on a waiting list, Elder Wilson finally realized his dream of holding the Gold Plates. He was able to borrow them by leaving a large cash deposit, and initialing next to the word "replica". He will be using them in his next Zone Training Meeting.
If you look closely at the characters, you can see the same ones on the Anthon manuscript, along with a small "L" and "W".
Upon further inspection, it was noted that the second plate contained the characters "another WASEA production" written in ancient egyptian also. It is a thrill and an honor to have these in our possession, even if for a short time. They weigh about 68 pounds, just as early witnesses testified, and they came wrapped in some sort of brown cloth. We estimate the value in today's dollars, with gold at $960 per ounce to be in the neighborhhod of 1 million dollars.
No wonder Joseph Smith had to keep them under wraps. We plan on doing the same.

The Gold (license) Plates

Elder Wilson aka Larry is always looking for ways to motivate the Missionaries into taking good care of their Mission cars. The cars are inspected at Zone conferences and notes made as to cleanliness, maintenance, and general overall condition. There was already a friendly competition in place where the cleanest car at Zone conference could win 'The Golden Hubcap' award. Larry decided to take it one step further, and in place of the Golden Hubcap, (which usually ended up in the winners trunk) he implemented "The Golden Plate" award, with a special "Gold Plate" being awarded to the cleanest vehicle at each Zone conference.(there are 4) Missionaries go after this award, and have even gone so far as to leave mints and candy 'incentives' on their front seat for the judges. One set of Elders even steam cleaned their interior to gain points. Car cleanliness has improved, and the missionaries love Elder Wilson, so it's a win-win. Now he's working on his lesson for the next Zone Conference in 2 weeks. I can't reveal it yet, but it's gonna be great.

Where are we?

Today it is HOT. RECORD. BREAKING. HEAT. IN. SEATTLE.

92 degrees is hot anywhere. But seriously, who would have thought it would get this hot here.

Maybe today was the first and last day of summer? No A/C in the apartment because it never gets hot here. Whatever.