Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Year!!



January 1, 2014
A new year!  Today has been a nice quiet day….well, except for football games being on TV!  I did some laundry, paid some bills, and went for a walk.  Gary watched some football, and some more football!
I had no intention of staying up to welcome in the New Year…..I just can’t get off schedule anymore, or have a hard time getting through the day.  If I take a long nap to catch up on a day off, then I have a hard time going to sleep that night and then have a hard time getting through the next day….vicious cycle, so it’s better to sort of stick to my bedtime.  Anyway, I went to bed at fairly close to my usual bedtime, but got woken up at midnight to sounds of fireworks and people outside.  So, there you go…..so much for good intentions of getting a good sleep!
We have been on our mission now for 4 ½ months, which makes it about ¼ of the way through our 18 month mission.  I can’t believe how fast the time goes!  I don’t know if it seems fast to the kids and grandkids, but it does for us.  Of course, when we see the kids and how much they are growing up, that gets scary too for how fast they ARE growing up!  Emilie is getting ready to crawl.  Last time we were with them, she was about 3 weeks old, and now she is almost 11 months old.  By the time this mission is over, she will be 2.
When we arrived here, the Clayton’s had just barely passed their halfway mark….they had a poster on the wall sent from their kids and grandkids celebrating their “hump day”.  Now, their mission is drawing to a close very quickly….they are done in April.  President and Sister Watkins, our mission president, finish up their 3 years the end of June/1st of July.  Then we will meet a new mission president.  In April, 5 seniors are leaving:  Sister Chambers, who works in the employment office (her replacement arrives in March), Elder and Sister Hallman, who came on a 6 month mission will be done, and Elder and Sister Clayton.  It will be strange saying good-bye again to friends we are making.  The Clayton’s live in Idaho Falls, but when they get home, they plan on selling their home and moving to St. George as soon as they can.  They don’t want to be so cold in the winter any more.  Sounds good to me!  I have enjoyed not being so cold this winter.  Don’t know if Gary wants to give up winters, though.  He says he needs to be where snow is so he can use the 4-wheeler to clean out people’s driveways!
It was good reading Christmas cards and letters from everyone!  I hope everyone is okay with just reading about us on our blog.  It is too hard to write to everyone!  We miss and love you, but know that we are doing the Lord’s work at this time in our lives in this mission.  It is busy, but being busy, we realize how important it is for senior couples to serve to help the missionary program move forward.  There is a lot involved in the office.  We (the office couples) talk how it is so much busier than we ever imagined, and that no one would ever be able to comprehend how busy it is unless you are here.  Of course, maybe some missions aren’t as busy.  And this one may start to be less busy, as we have heard we are getting a couple of single sisters to work in the office this spring, so that will make it less stressful for all, I think. 
We love working with the people we work with.  We love getting to know the young Elders and Sisters.  We will love it when some of them come to see us in Idaho when we are all finished with our missions.  And, we know of at least one Elder who is planning on playing football in Utah when he is done with his mission, so we hope to go to some of his games! (Elder Pekipaki)
So, we now want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  May the Lord’s blessings be with you this year.  And remember, if you have done things in the past you regret, just push the reset button…..make changes for the better now!  We can’t change the past, but we can change the present.
Love to you all!
The Yearsley’s

No comments:

Post a Comment