Family, Fourth of July, and Fireworks

Another very hot and busy week in Salt Lake Headquarters mission.  Sunday night President and Sister Fenn did Their farewell "WebEx" devotional.  We still have not met our new Mission President Steven Randall, but we hear great things about him.  We are having a Mission Meet WebEx on Wednesday.  These are certainly interesting times when we serve our missions by way of WebEx!
We helped our good friends Dave and Sandy Briggs pack their trailer and car and leave on Monday.  We already miss them so much.

Dave and Sandy Briggs heading home to Lovell, Wyoming. June 29, 2020.

Sandy and I went the Joseph Smith Building to turn in her paperwork and they had the chandelier lowered for cleaning.  What a site.

Bob and Debra after our farewell to the Briggs.  A walk always makes us feel better.

Valerie had surgery on July 1st after having it cancelled three times and becoming very discouraged.  She drove to the valley with her two daughters, Aubrey and Emily, on Monday.  She had her COVID test and saw her doctor in preparation for the surgery and then was told again, "no surgery".  Tuesday night at 10:30 she got a call from the hospital and was told they were going to go head with the surgery.  Finally she had her hysterectomy and was sent home after 4 hours?  Thankfully Heidi and Heather were there to drive her and help her for at least a couple of days. They had to drop her off and pick her up at the curb.  More COVID19 stuff.   She stayed at our home in Mesa until Saturday and then David took her home to Snowflake.  She is doing OK but hurting more than she expected.  They sure do things differently now than they did 45 years ago when I was involved in nursing.

Valerie masked and ready for surgery. July 1, 2020.

Heather, Jacob and family arrived Thursday morning at 1:15 AM and stayed with us for two nights.  It was so good to see them and visit for a couple of days.  We took a long hike in Memory Grove, City Creek Canyon, and around the Capitol  The hills around here can challenge even youngsters.  HA!

Beautiful view from 11,000 feet at Snowbird where the Mayhew's spent the day on Friday July 3.

Jacob and Heather Mayhew near the spot where he purposed to her 24 years ago.

Bob, Debra, Heather, Shaylin, and Kyen on our walk, with the Utah State Capitol behind us.

Debra, Kyen, Shaylin, Bob outside West Temple Apartments where we live.  This was at the end of our long walk. 3.5 miles.

Heidi, Wynn, and family joined us on Saturday the 4th of July for a nice walk around Temple Square to see the flowers and construction, or should I say destruction.  It looks like a bombsite.

Weston, Wynn, Alea, Heidi, Kyen, Shaylin, Heather, Jacob, Brenan, Bob looking East at the construction.

This is an older picture of what it looked like in January 2020.

This is what it looks like with the chapel portion gone!

Same view missing the chapel, and temple spires.

Workers cleaning the "teeth"of the auger drill.

The drill, it is huge.

Crane moving a HUGE generator.

Building on the north side of the temple being detached for demolition.

Even in the construction there are beautiful flowers all around the square.

Beehive House with the Hollyhocks and wild flowers.

Looking East to the Eagle Gate Apartments.  President Nelson's Apartment is on the top floor on the left side.

We did let our Zone Leader and Mission President know this week that we are going to finish our mission from home and leave Salt Lake August 15.  After much consideration, thoughts, and prayers, we decided to we could do everything from home that we are doing here.  We are going home at a very hot time, but we are going anyway.  I plan to continue the blog till we finish our mission in November.