Friend Times

Wednesday evening (March 8) we gathered in the home of Christine and James Smith with Katie and Brad Hillam and their son, Michael for dinner and conversation.  No photos which is a crime, because we love these sweet people.  Early on, Brad said, this feels so right and normal to be sitting together for dinner.  Yes, it did and I hope that we do it many more times in our lives.  We are blessed to have the Smiths and Hillams as friends.

Some background: 

Christine and James moved to Hong Kong for a 2 year stay from 1990-1992.  They left the same summer we did.  They had four children then and added one more in Hong Kong.  Their only daughter, Allison, was friends with Jessica.

Brad and Katie came to Hong Kong a bit earlier and stayed another year, I think, after we left.  However, they returned years later and lived another several years there in the 2000s.  They had two kids and added Michael, their youngest who also happens to have Down syndrome.

During the two years we lived in Hong Kong together, we frequently played games together---like often.  We loved being together.  We also did a few trips together including a dive trip to El Nito.  We have been blessed to know them and to hear about their lives since the time we shared in Hong Kong.  We have seen Katie and Brad a few times, but this was the first time in almost 30 years that we were together.

And it felt right and it felt normal---like no time had passed, even though we were aware that each of us have had struggles and challenges in the in between years.  Just three weeks earlier, after years of health struggles, James had to have his leg amputated to manage an infection.  Having James sitting in the wheelchair at dinner, laughing together and seeing the strength of their marriages was so inspiring. We are honored to be called their friends....now and into eternity.

Thanks, Christine and James and Katie and Brad for sharing lives with us!  You are the best!

May all of you who ever read this be blessed with such great friends.  One of the best parts of mortal life!

Back To Arizona--Valerie's Wedding

My sister, Valerie, became a widow unexpectedly back in July of 2020.  She was only 59 with likely much more of life to live.  While she grieved for the loss of her eternal companion, Lance, she moved forward in faith to care for herself, her family, and those around her.  She shared some of her thoughts, feelings, and experiences through social media and because of that and our private conversations, I know I am better prepared for the time if I am left behind by Gary's passing.  (I am older though so I should be first!) After 1 1/2 years as a "widow", she was called to be the Relief Society President in her ward and frequently has been called on to render comfort to others dealing with loss.  A role she is uniquely qualified to do!

One of the things that Valerie learned was that her mortal life did not need to be defined by widowhood.  She was still a daughter of God, a mom, a sister, a friend, an author...and so many other things.  She determined to move forward to become the person that God needed her to be, to serve, to grow, to change--so that when she and Lance are together again that they both will see the growth they have both made and stand ready to move forward into the eternities. And so she did (and continues to do)--

Playing 9-square at a church Singles Event last September (there only to support a friend who was in charge), Valerie "noticed" Austen Willcox.  Turned out that he noticed her as well--and it started interactions and conversations which finally led to their engagement and their wedding on March 4th outside in a grassy area of a Church building with family and friends present.  It was simple, sweet, and fun---all that they wanted from the occasion.  Another major life change---not one that Valerie expected and certainly not when she thought it might happen--but life is often like that as well.  All you can do is try to do and be what God wants from us.  For Valerie and Austen, this is the next step in their mortal lives and it is good!

A few pictures---

Friday night, we gathered with members of Austen's family for a dinner and games--

At one point, I reminded Gary that it was our anniversary and so we took a selfie.  Happy 45 Years for us!

How lucky I am!

Of course, 9 Square was played.  The Ipsons are big fans of this game and it was also how Austin and Valerie met so it was appropriate for the occasion.

Nearly Wed Game with prizes

The Wedding on Saturday afternoon in Mesa

All of the grandsons came in first with their white shirts and green bow ties

Then the granddaughters in their hunter green dresses

Valerie walked in with her oldest granddaughters but I missed the picture because of the tears in my eyes from the grandchildren.  They all did such a great job.

Valerie then hugged each of the granddaughters who had waited at the front (Austin had given fist bumps, I think, to the grandsons)

No pictures from me of the wedding but then the reception and dancing...

the cake eating

The first dance

The "Baby Shark" dance with the grandchildren--

It was great and sweet with many tender feelings of love.  It was perfect.  And personally, I think Lance was aware and approved of what was happening and has a greater understanding of the whole reasons for all of this.  Lance's mother and his two sisters attended the wedding which was so sweet.  I think we all felt and thought a lot about Lance this weekend but it was a positive, good thing for me.

 I found a quote which I thought was perfect for the situation even though it wasn't a "favorite quote" of mine-  It said: "Love Is Never Wasted."  That is true--loving is part of who we are and what God expects from us.  He and Our Savior love us infinitely and we can learn to widen and love more fully and completely and generously than we have before.

Welcome to the family, Austin.  We plan to love you infinitely as well! Because love is never wasted.

Ten Worse and Best About Our First Mission

Over the past several months before leaving Salt Lake, Gary and I would comment on things that we knew we would miss when we were released and also things we would not miss.  Before starting off on our second mission, I decided to create that post.  Sorry it is out of order, but life is like that sometime---(although I am doing them in the famous 10-1 format, the order is probably not that significant)

TEN "WORSE" THINGS (THAT WE WON'T MISS ABOUT LIVING IN SALT LAKE AND SERVING IN THE HEADQUARTERS MISSION)

#10: Not having a bath that I could lay in comfortably especially when I was sick! (the unspoken sacrifice of mission life.)

#9:  Related to #10 but a daily annoyance--short shower heads.  Since we are tall and had our showers in our house placed higher than typical, it was an adjustment to use the shorter showers.

#8: The "8-4ish" Monday through Friday work schedule--I really hadn't ever  done that in my life except for the years I worked at the The Children's Center and I am not a fan. 

#7:  Although Salt Lake and the surrounding areas have so many great trails and hikes, I missed having easy access to open trails where I could walk for an hour and not worry about traffic or people or pollution.  I missed my Jenson Pond trails in Syracuse and never found a replacement and really didn't walk except to get places while we served.

#6: Wearing nice clothes on most days--missionary dress does include pants but I only had one pair of dress pants and couldn't find others long enough or appropriate during the 2 1/2 years.  So, I wore dresses on most days.  Gary was stuck in the suit-white shirt and tie look every day we served except Saturdays.

#5:  Noisy neighbors--Most of our time in Salt Lake, we loved our apartment living.  The last year, we had a group of young adults living next door---or at least hanging out late at night--laughing, talking, and making bumps in the night.  Livable at 10:30 but not fun at 1:30 am.  Fortunately, it wasn't every night....

#4:  Steep ramp out of our parking lot--fortunately it was heated so the snow melted quickly off of it--but during the actual storms, it was dangerous.  And even if you made it up the hill--the snow plows often left big chunks and piles of snow which required a running start to clear with our car. (See related issue #2.)

#3:  The hill up 1st Avenue to our apartment--It was steep.  If you walked with Jena, she frequently chose the longer way to State street and then through the building rather than climb the hill.

#2:  Exiting our apartment parking lot into the street on 1st Ave.  There was no good sight lines if there were cars parked along the street which was the case 90% of the time.  It was scary every time.

#1:  The west elevator in our apartment building--the whole time we lived there despite a variety of repairs on the elevator--if Gary, Jena and I were in the elevator together going up from P1 where we parked, it would stop with a bump at the 4th floor, indicated that it was experiencing technical details, open and shut the doors and then go to the 6th floor--every time.  The work around was to have an extra person or two in the elevator or to stop the elevator on another floor before the 4th floor--either way, we could go all the way up after the stop.  One repairman said it was a balance issue.  We tried standing in so many different ways with the three of us, but nothing worked.  Annoying!!! And it is the top thing we will not miss!

The "offending" elevator

TEN BEST THINGS THAT I MISS ABOUT SERVING AS A MISSIONARY IN THE HEADQUARTERS MISSION AND LIVING IN SALT LAKE

#11:  (Thought of one more after creating the list)  View out of our balcony apartment on the 6th floor of the Capital Building and the mountains. LOVED THAT!

an evening view

#10: Being and serving on Temple Square and the surrounding campus--Before, Temple Square was a tourist place where we took friends and family when they came to visit.  Now it is a "hometown" for us.  To walk those grounds even during reconstruction is a holy thing for me!  How I love it there!

#9:  Walking under Temple Square in the famous tunnels--I am geeky like that!

#8: "Lunch and Learns" where the staff shared about their research in areas of Church history worldwide--we have learned so many cool things!  Church History is AWESOME!

#7:  Lunches at the COB which often provided leftovers for dinner--a win-win!

#6:  I will miss frequently seeing President M. Russell Ballard on Sundays on the way into our Church.  He attended the ward right before us and we often passed in the hallway or elevator.  Over time, he would greet us--once pointing out that we were "later than normal" when we were behind our usual schedule.  A couple of times, he shook our hands and shared a few words.  These were tiny little moments but they were sweet and meaningful to me.  I miss them but know I will think about them each time he speaks or is quoted by others.  What a loving, humble servant of God!  (Highly recommend reading his recent biography.)

#6  Working with our two mission presidents and their counselors and wives.  How lucky we are because we know and have served with President Steve  and Sister Kathy Randall, President and Sister Unger, President and Sister Sherrill, President and Sister Parker, and President and Sister Larsen--our first mission presidency and the different counselors and then President Doug and Sister Erin Holmes, President and Sister Jackson and President and Sister Faerber--our second mission presidency,  

#5:  I will miss doing oral histories of mission leaders and my life has been changed because of those experiences.

#4: Serving as zone leaders together.  While it was the hardest part of our service--oral histories are a picnic compared to that--it was a very choice and rewarding thing to do together.  I don't need to do it again, but so glad for those 28 months of service in that assignment.

#3: Being surrounded by the awesome missionaries and staff in the mission and in the Church History Library--especially those of the Collections Zone, the other zone leaders in the Church History Library and the staff in the Archives and Area Support part of the library

#2: Being a missionary and wearing the tag representing our Savior Jesus Christ.

#1:  I will miss knowing that I am where I should be, doing what I should be doing--and that it was part of His plan from before the worlds were created.  Actually, I have felt that feeling many many times in my life--in fact, it has often been the focus of my life--to be found doing what He wants me to do.  But serving as a called and set apart missionary in the place where you know you should be--is incredible!  And frequently during the past 2 1/2 years, the Holy Ghost has reconfirmed that truth.  For the past 2 1/2 years, we were serving the Lord right where He wanted us to be.  I miss that!

And to wrap it up--I will say that the Best Things far outweighed the Worse Things!  We were so blessed.

Giberson Gatherings

All of my siblings came to Mesa for my sister's wedding.  That was an extra bonus treat since it wasn't possible for us to visit all of them during our month between missions.  I didn't take many pictures unfortunately.  Here is one that the photographer took.

Back: me, Todd, Mike, Rick and Scott
Front: Robin, Austin and Valerie, Lynette

I think it made our parents happy for us to be together again!

Mike and Andi live about 45 minutes south of Valerie.  Todd, Lea and their three youngest children drove over from Austin, Texas.  My brother, Rick, flew in from Dallas.  Scott flew in from a business trip in Washington, DC...and Robin and Lynette flew in from Amarillo.  

Everyone was suppose to arrive by later afternoon on Friday, but it didn't work out that way.  Poor Robin and Lynette flew to Dallas Thursday evening to catch a flight to Mesa.  Their flight was first delayed but then they loaded and told us that they should arrive in Mesa around 1:15 am.  So we all went to sleep thinking they were on their way.  The Dallas area was experiencing bad weather most of the day which impacted the flights and also crews.

When we woke up, we discovered that they were still in Dallas in a hotel.  They had sat on the plane for about 3 hours before they finally decided that they couldn't fly that night and unloaded and rebooked the flight.  Robin and Lynette don't fly much but they advocated for themselves and the airline arranged for them to stay in a hotel until their next flight.  Linda (Rick's wife) was able to run over and take them some lunch and drive them back to the airport for their flight.  Unfortunately, they had to go from Dallas to El Paso and then to Phoenix but they finally arrived around 8:30 pm Friday evening.  In a piece of (odd) luck, Scott had missed his plane and had been put on a later flight which arrived about 7:30 so he was there to pick them up in his rental car and bring them to our rental that evening. It was great to see them and to know that we were all in the same town.

Other than the wedding, Karla had also sent some of dad's things which she no longer needed to be divided between us.  Some of us looked through the stuff on Saturday before the wedding and then we all gathered on Sunday for dinner--at Valerie's house since she had the most space.  And we got an extra bonus when she and Austin stopped by to eat with us before leaving for the airport and their formal honeymoon.

Dungeons and Dragons figures that my dad and mom painted for their group game nights.  Most of my brothers played with them at some time or another and it was fun to listen to them check out the familiar pieces.

Dad's stuff---but how sweet the memories to see, touch, and talk about many of the items we found.

Games under development

Game rules and other development materials....These went to Todd who has interest in game development

I can't believe I didn't take pictures when we were hanging out at Valerie's.  Not only did we eat dinner (including some great smoked beef that Mike had done), we also talked and played games with each other and some of Valerie's kids and grandkids until later that night.

Scott and Todd and his family headed back home to Texas in the afternoon.  Rick was able to gather with some old Amarillo friends that evening as well.  It was a good time to be together.

Then Rick left yesterday (Monday) and Robin and Lynette flew home today (with a much less exciting trip although they haven't landed in Amarillo yet!)

Robin and Lynette at the airport in Phoenix

Until the next time...I love you all, Gibersons!

Road Trip-March 2023

I love road trips and I am excited about what we have planned---if the weather cooperates.  We will see how it goes...

First is our trip to Mesa, Arizona, to my sister, Valerie's wedding to Austin Willcox!

We left Thursday morning and the roads were clear although evidences of the recent snow storms were evident along the sides of the roads and on the countryside.  We were very glad we had waited a day to start.

On the road ..without needing permission from our
mission president to be out of the 60 mile range of our mission

And sitting in the Wendy's for lunch in Beaver, Utah, who did Gary spot but (Sister) Judy McKee.  She served in our mission until last September.  She is from Centerville, Utah and was heading down to visit her brother in Kanab.  She is putting in papers to serve a second mission right now.  It was fun to catch up and we took this picture to share with other missionaries who knew her.

Since Gary was doing most of the driving, I took more scenery photos than normal.  I love the patterns of red rock in southern Utah and northern Arizona---

and the unusual shapres....

The world is a beautiful place and traveling the roads reminds me just how pretty everywhere is.  We are lucky to live in a place where it is safe to travel between places and there are roads which make that possible.

Snow in Arizona as well.

We stopped in Flagstaff for the night.  They had had 24-31 inches of snow in the storm on Wednesday.  The roads were clear but the parking lots and side streets still had lots of snow.  This is heading out of Denny's after dinner.

The morning view out our hotel window...there was a beautiful "picture" of a train on the track half way up the mountainside.  However, I enjoyed it and forgot to take the picture until too late.

Blue skies and fluffy white clouds...and warmer weather ahead.

We decided to stop for a quick car wash before going to Valerie's and for some reason, we got a free car wash...and we weren't even wearing missionary tags.

Not snow this time

We arrived....and let the parties begin......

Goodbye, Institute!

One advantage of the bad weather and our delayed start was that Jena got to attend Institute one more tie.  She had gotten chips to share with her classmates for the previous week but the weather was terrible and she couldn't go to class. She was happy that she got to go and say goodbye to her teacher, Cameron Halverson, and other students...and they loved the chips.

He invited Jena to come back same day and same place when we complete our mission to Arkansas.  She would love that even if he "makes" her write too many notes or read too much during class.

On To The Next Thing

My dreams for sleeping in after our mission didn't work for Monday morning (February 27) as Jena had an early doctor's appointment about 30 miles north.  Then I dropped her off back at our basement apartment and headed down to Provo to attend Ben's last clinical and to take him on an overnight visit.

With some creative thinking on the part of the USH staff, Ben came home with us for an overnight visit and then we were able to take him to the CRU (Critical Recovery Unit) at Davis Behavioral Health on Tuesday morning for his step-down into the community.

Ben did great at the clinical and has been so happy about being discharged back to the CRU. 

Kory Camp (administrative social worker), Ben, Dr. Kent Roundy

We spent our time together taking care of some errands including getting him (and Jena and I) haircuts-

The highlight for him was to finally be able to eat at the Asian Buffet in Layton for dinner.  He has been talking about that for weeks.

Ben and Jena after eating yummy(ish) Chinese food

It was good to spend time with him. I so wish that I could remove this burden from him but grateful for his goodness and hopes and dreams and for all of the people that support us while on this journey.  We have been so blessed with great doctors and support people who also care about Ben.  Dr. Roundy and Kory are two examples and two of the best.

I checked him in and then we were off moving boxes to the storage room and running other errands. Tuesday afternoon, the weather reports were grim for Central Utah so we decided to postpone our trip to Arizona by one day....which was a good thing because it allowed us to take care of some glasses repairs and other little details.

We also took some time to play a couple of card games...and Wednesday morning I actually slept in until 9:30 am.  (I know that isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but it felt so good to sleep well and late---it is a treat to me in a weird way.  I blame it on years of early morning seminary and lack of sleep during the school week.  Saturday mornings were always a treat. Gary doesn't get it either.)