Happy Birthday, Jena.....

and Elder Hall, Elder Miller (same day as Jena) and Elder Hernandez Rojas (later in the following week).

I had made plans with the YSA ward to have a surprise Linger Longer and have cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate Jena's birthday which was on Sunday this year.  That was all set (but turned out not to be a surprise as Jena heard me telling Jessica on the phone about it.)  She loved it!

Then, we all were informed about a stake missionary council meeting and all of the missionaries were coming into the evening meeting.  With two other missionaries having birthdays, it was an opportunity not to be missed, so I ordered a cake for the missionaries which we ate at a pre-stake meeting zone meeting. A lot of cake, but lots of fun for Jena and everyone else with birthdays.

YSA singing Happy Birthday to Jena

The YSA and the Sister Missionaries

The cake for the young missionaries

The birthday people-----

The poster here was signed by the YSA and the missionaries for Jena.  She loves it!

She loved her cool aunt shirt from Jessica and Elessia's family.

She said that it had been a great day for a birthday!!!

And is our custom, we also later in the week took Elder Miller and his companion, Elder Jensen, to lunch at at Mexican Restaurant in Greenwood where they serve....

Jena, Elder Jensen, Elder Miller, and us

And the next day on P-day, we took Elder Hernandez Rojas and his companion, Elder Judd, to dinner at the Pad Thai in Ft. Smith (They serve in Mena, but restaurant choices are better in Ft. Smith.).  The food was awesome and left a sweet taste in my mouth all evening.

us, Elder Judd in front and Elder Rojas

A fun week of celebrations in the Ft. Smith Zone!

Van Buren To Winslow Train Ride

For Gary's birthday on September 23, we headed up to Van Buren to catch their tourist train which goes from Van Buren to Winslow and back again.  We had a bit of an adventure getting there after making a wrong turn we got caught by ironically a working train on a different set of tracks which ended up stopping and blocking the road for about 10 minutes.  Fortunately, we had left extra time and still made it to our train station at the right time.

We, of course, were wearing our missionary tags and a couple stopped us by saying "We recognize those tags."  Turns out that they are the Andertons, who live in Paris, Ar, in the Clarksville Ward.  We had never met them but had heard about them.  They have a large pool which they share with the ward for activities and the missionaries had told us that they were very warm and friendly with everyone.

Brent loves trains so once a month they volunteer here on the trains which provide a brief history of the area as you ride along.  They have an interesting story.  They are from Utah and most of their children are married and live in Utah or in the west.  However a few years ago they had a strong prompting that they needed to move away from Utah.  They literally pulled out a map and started praying about where they should go.  Something about Arkansas pulled to them and they flew out to find a house and bought the one in Paris.  They came out a month later with all of their possessions and started looking for jobs.  They love it in Paris and plan to stay for a very long time.  What a great addition they are to their ward and to their new community.

The Arkansas-Missouri Railway---this is their passenger train which they run at special times of the year.  They also do deliveries of goods to factories along the same track.  It is a very local company as I understand it.  I haven't read the book yet we gave Gary for his birthday.

Typically later in October would be better for the changing leaves, but the green is still beautiful.

This time we got to glide under the freeway.  This is the underside of I-49.

More little churches along the way.

In the spring, this would be a raging waterfall.  We did see a number of streams with flowing water along the way as well.

Another small town of Chester.... 

We got to drive on three train trestles and one long tunnel which has no lights which was fun.

Inside the restored train car.  Our car was #105 and about 100 years old.

The restored Train Station where we started and ended our trip.

We are somewhat train geeks and we loved our trip on the train.  The weather was beautiful, the train wasn't crowded, and it had air conditioning--something added when they restored it, thankfully.  It was the perfect birthday event for Gary's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARY!

Thanks for sharing your birthday with me one more year and finally catching up

to my age once again.  I am blessed to share life with you.

Razorback Country

They take their Razorbacks seriously---you see them on cars and trucks, on license plates, on mail boxes and even...made out of hay bales....

And businesses use it as well.

 

A Free Friday

Gary was making a run with missionaries, so Jena and I decided to clean and reorganize the pantry and the kitchen.  We have been here around 6 months and have acquired a few more things that needed to have a real home.

Step 0ne:

Step Two:

Step Three...

and four....

And I finally hung the magnetic chalkboard above the sink for the grandkids photos.

Hard to believe, but sometimes it just feels good to clean and organize things even while serving a mission!