On Conference weekend, it was relaxing and exhilarating.  So much good stuff.   We just need to keep working at keeping our attention riveted on Jesus Christ.

 It was beyond thrilling to be here when a temple in Bentonville was announced.  We've always lived by a temple so we don't know what it's like to yearn for one.  The people here want a temple so bad.  We've heard them talk about it ever since we got here.  We've heard many times that there's room for a temple by the Stake Center.  I don't know if that's where it will go, I'm just saying it gets talked about all the time.  So when that announcement was made, I about flew right out of my chair.  Good thing I wasn't at the church. We are so glad we were here to experience that feeling. It was worth a whole year of tiredness.

The weather has cooled off considerably so we are hoping the leaves will start to change now.  I've started wearing the pants I've been collecting.  We're actually getting just a little bit of color in the leaves, but still a ways from  a spectacular display.

We got some new senior missionaries and we are so happy to have them.  They moved into a missionary apartment in Houston.  They've been cleaning the apartment and it was so funny to get texts from her throughout the process.  There were 5 crockpots there, 3 irons, 2 rice cookers.  They probably didn't even work.  Good grief!  They filled up their truck with miscellaneous junk. Now maybe they have room to live.  She said, "We've never experienced a missionary apartment before!  Wow!"  Missionaries are certainly funny!

As you may know already, I love the pictures missionaries send me when they get something new.  Here's a couple of sisters who I've been nagging to call their landlord and get the dishwasher fixed.  They also got their carpet cleaned this week.

This is our secretary, Sister Dodds, with Elder Vanderpool.  This coming week is her last week and we are all so sad that our team is breaking up.  We will miss her so much!

 Thursday we had a very sweet morning.  We had a missionary go home early for health reasons.  He has served faithfully and felt bad about going home.  His missionary companions drove him to Bentonville so we could take him to the airport.  We were outside loading up and they were all having a hard time.  They all hugged him and then they asked if we could pray together before he left.  So we stood outside in the parking lot in a circle and one of the missionaries offered the sweetest prayer for the Elder that's going home.  We could feel God's love for him.  He has tried so hard.  So glad to be here for these kinds of experiences.

One day this week a bunch of us drove to Fayetteville in the mission van to pick up 8 new cars and 3 new trucks and bring them to Bentonville.  We dropped them off to get trailer hitches installed, then they go out to missionaries. Lucky!

Elder Johnson went to the airport again this morning while I lounged around in bed.  I love Saturday mornings. 

Earlier in the week we went to Tanyard Creek for a walk.  Wow, there was so much water there.  No playing on the rocks when there's that much water.

Results of the flooding

I'm including a picture of my friend LuAnn and her mother, Mary Lou Jones, and daughter, Christa. I don't know if I spelled her mother's name right.  LuAnn's mother died last week.  I know how that feels.  I love this picture of them!

We love serving a mission.  We wish we could stay for ever and we wish we could go home tomorrow.  We continue to be blessed with miracles that help us do our work.