Fun, Funerals, Work, and Memories

 These past two weeks have been very busy mostly with personal things.  The mission continues to go on and we have been doing Enrichment Training.  We do Classes daily at 10 and 1 and have had 70 to 80 missionaries signed into WebEx to learn.  I have been training Sister Sharon Boushley (Bosley) to take over the emails and handouts when we finish on November 19.  She and her husband will be great assets to the mission.  

We had two funerals that we attended virtually due to COVID. Debra's nephew, Darren Jensen, lost his youngest daughter, Mariah 13, and son in law Austin Jenkins 27, in a tragic auto-semi accident in Idaho.  How grateful we are for the gospel and the knowledge that life goes on and we can be together again in eternal families.  Austin leaves two little girls 3 and 1 and a pregnant wife.  They were all in the car but three survived and two did not.  It has been such a shock to Sherry and Richard and all of us

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How Temple Square looked when we went on our mission in 2019

How Temple Square looked when we left it the end of August.  It is good to know that it will look beautiful again.

I have been working on refinishing our porch swing and Bob has been working on THREE plumbing leaks and issues.  Luckily two have been outside with sprinkler issues and one under the kitchen sink with the RO unit.  It really is a blessing that we are at home and caught them quickly.  It could have been a real mess if they had gone on unnoticed.  

Bob's new replaced sprinkler valves in the backyard.

Debra's stripped down swing.  Still a lot of work to go.

Bob and his "man friends" went up to Strawberry for some ATV riding.  They took the Rim road and had a great day together.  It looks like our dream of land and a cabin in Heber Arizona has hit some seemingly unsurmountable problems with Navajo County zoning.  I am trying to let it go and move on.

On top of the Rim with the ATV's

Bob with two of his Men boys.

Tom Larsen, Bob, Gary Simmons, Steve Stuart, Jerry Bodine.

BYU played their first home game last night, October 24, so Shaylin got to finally cheer at a real game.  We went to Larsen's and watched on ESPN.  We did get two quick shots of the cheerleaders and got to see a quick flash of Shaylin.  Of course, she was the cutest cheerleader there. They won Texas State 52-14.  They allowed 6,000 tickets and spread them out, social distancing as it is now called.  Heather and Jacob flew up to watch her cheer, and are now back home in Mesa.  It is nice to be able to fly to such events.

Heather with Cosmo at the BYU game, cheering on the Cougars, or was it Shaylin?  

Shaylin  Mayhew at first BYU Football game.

Flyer Shaylin, high in the sky. It is hard to see her with the bright lights behind her.

When looking for newpaper articles for Family Search.  I found this of four of us Higginson kids.  It was in the Provo Daily Herald on October 30, 1961.  59 years ago,  I remember like it was yesterday.  We felt so "famous"  our pictures in the paper.  Elder Parker, our zone leader, called this morning and said it had snowed last night.  It made me think of our October snow and Marilyn MonSNOW.

Del Ray, Rosemary, Kraig, and Debra Higginson October 1961

General Conference, 10/10/2020, Winter grass, Garden, and Snowflake

 Our mission will be coming to an end in about a month, so our posts will also be coming to an end.  These past two weeks have been very busy as we did training for the  new Church Service Missionaries and the new Full Time Missionaries. Of course they are doing it all from home and we are doing it from our home.  It is really hard for us to sit in front of a computer for seven hours a day during training weeks, but the Lords work goes on, and we have some really great missionaries joining the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission. 

 A great break between the weeks was semi annual General Conference.  I look forward to them more than ever now as this world is in such commotion.  It is a good reminder that the Lord is never surprised by the goings on and is in control.  It is nice to also know that in the end the Lord wins and we are on His side.  Saturdays session was really for the world.  It was very much about loving our enemies, and obeying the laws, and how we need to unify despite our differences, and overcome racism.  All great teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ.  When we went on this mission, one of the most anticipated parts of it was to attend conference in person, but alas, both conferences have been "virtual" and on TV.  It was exciting to have announced a new temple in Lindon, Utah, my stomping grounds.  That is where I lived the first 5 years of my life.

The property we are hoping to buy in Heber is still in the air with some legal things that need to be worked out, but we are still hopeful.  We took a trip to Snowflake to visit with Valerie and Family.  They are such a cute family.  We worked on a house they are trying to finish and sell.  Bob finished up the electrical and fixed a few issues they had.  The whole gang went to dinner at Streets, a new and delicious restaurant in town.

Jay modeling a new funny hairpiece.  Thankfully it is not permanent!

Nathan Peterson dressed for work at Subway.

Aubrey, Nathan, Jay, Bob, Betsy, Debra, and Emily, October 9, 2020 Snowflake AZ

We went to our 46th Ward Sacrament meeting today and was so happy to hear Cade and Colby Ellsworth report on their missions.  Before we went on our mission we helped to drive them to their mission assignments at the Mesa ROC.  They both have Muscular Dystrophy and are in electric wheel chairs but better young men can not be found.  We love them.

We finished planting the garden and Bob scalped and planted the winter grass Thursday and it is already sprouting fine green grass blades.  The nights and mornings are starting to cool off and we can even open the house in the mornings and cool down to 68.  The days are still hitting 100 degrees but we should not have too many more of those.

Bob with new winter grass.  You can see the sprinklers going behind him.

We are watching Heidi's dog Zoe while they are on a Fall break trip with their kids.  She is a cute little dog.  

Debra with Zoe

We have enjoyed having Heather and Heidi come and do their practicing for EVMCO, East Valley Millennial Choirs and Orchestra.  It is online too but it is amazing to hear them continue to sing beautiful music.

Heather and Heidi virtual choir practice.  

Director on screen.  The twins on twin pianos!