JUST A LITTLE GOOD NEWS

Well it finally came---that large white envelope that you "fear" to open.  We got our mission call to serve in Frankfurt, Germany in the Centers for Young Adults and will be leaving in February .  We are not certain at this point what our responsibilities will be--supervising one specific Center or supervising many Centers as they have discussed both options with us.  Whatever it will be, we are very excited and can now start learning German (yea right).

Karli was happy that the departure date was AFTER the baby , and so are we to have a little spoiling time.  

Life is so good and we feel so blessed to be able to serve again.

CALIFORNIA...and then some.

Fall is such a beautiful, peaceful time of the year.  Those beautiful earthy colors are my favorite.   We have seen some amazing color changes in the local canyons this year.

We spent the past week in California--first a quick but fun stop with the Cox's.  Always fun to chat, enjoy Becky's yummy cooking and do some shopping.  While in Tulare we met up with Allan's former office staff for dinner.  It was so good to see all those wonderful folks again.  They are such great people and we share very fond memories.

We spent a very busy and fun week with Aaron, Deb and boys.  We had some special time with each boy--going to lunch, for donuts, volunteering in their classes, soccer practice, and movie night (on the wide screen I might add)--yea Aaron!

We could REALLY not get enough of Reid.  He is the cuddliest and most adorable little guy and loved Grandma to hold him.  Yipee!

We went to Farmers Market in San Luis to enjoy the food and festivities as well as a great day at the park by Morro Bay and even had a few moments to can some yummy peaches.  Life is never dull at the A2 household and we are always sad to leave those active boys.  Thanks Aaron and Deb for a fun, fun visit!

THIS..AND THAT..AND MORE

Wow, what a busy and fun month this has been.  We have had so many visits from dear Indian friends the past while.  Three young women have come to the Provo MTC to begin their training and one fine couple have come to begin their studies at BYU Idaho.  It is so great to be in a location where we can "meet and  greet" and renew friendships and learn about our common friends in India.
First meet Pinto and Saritha.  They were married in Bangalore shortly after we began our mission and we became instant friends as they taught Seminary and served in the Branch there.  They set the example for all the members with their priority to quickly travel to Hong Kong to be sealed.  They both worked extremely hard to be accepted at BYUI , raise the money and earn scholarships.  We are so proud of them.  And they were quite the "celebrities" when they went to church with us.

Next arrived Shyamala who is going to the Philippines.  She and her sister were great friends in Bangalore 1st Branch and we had such memorable experiences with these 2 faithful young women.   Here is another example of great sacrifice and desire to make this mission a reality.  Shyamala arrived early enough to spend the afternoon on Temple Square where our "daughter" Sister Sundaram, who was overjoyed to see her Branch friend and gave us a grand tour!

It is such a blessing for us to be able to "relive" some of our fondest moments from India with these amazing young Indian saints.

Last weekend we had a pretty incredible experience as we went with Karli to support Chris in his Lotoja ride.  If you think 200 miles is a long ride in a car, try to imagine doing it on a bike in 1 day through some very steep mountains!  Each feed stop we were so excited to see Chris ride in to offer him encouragement and a array of rather disgusting energy foods.  He accomplished an amazing feat to reach the finish line in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Saturday night.  One TREMENDOUS CONGRATULATIONS to you Chris!!!

And Allan and I "TRY" to keep up with some of the fun going on with the family and grand kids.  The past week we got to see Mr. Bullet Ryan play soccer, celebrate Ame's 8th birthday at her "Fashion Party" and watch Jake play incredible football.  How we relish all these fun times with our family.

TRIP TO CANADA

We just returned from a great time in Canada with Allan's family.  Grandma Asplund celebrated her 90th birthday so all the family and many people from their little community came to her party.  We were so very happy that all of our kids made the HUGE EFFORT to come and be part of the celebration.

Allan has 7 sisters and 5 brothers so it was quite the group.  The party was held at a large park/museum that one of Allan's brothers sponsors and it was a terrific place for kids with old tractors, a horse drawn school bus , old school, jail and trains.  I think everyone had quite the entertaining day and Allan's mom seemed very pleased with all the friends and family that came.

                                        Some of Grandma Asplunds beautiful granddaughters.

The grounds and fun attractions at this part/museum were a photographer's paradise.  We took several family pictures which I will post at another time but the grandkids provided grandma and grandpa with a gaggle of pictures.

The grand and great granddaughters sang 3 of Grandma's favorite songs for her and Ame preformed some serious hip shakin' .

One of the days we all went to a farm and through a really fun corn maze.  It was rather interesting trying to keep 24 of us together and not loosing kids in the corn.

Perhaps the grandkid's favorite activity was riding horses at Uncle Mark's.  There were kids and horses everywhere for several hours--don't know who tired out first !

We are so thankful for this wonderful time with all of our family together.   We cherish the occasions which bring us closer and hope there will be many more to come.

FORMER FRIENDS CROSSING OUR WAY

We have had some interesting renewed friendships lately.  A couple of months ago while scheduling a trip with LDS travel one of the agents asked me, "how old is your husband....is he from Canada.....did he serve a mission in Scotland??"  Well Dave was a missionary who Allan greatly admired  and has had no contact with for 55 years.  To make a long story short, he has written a story about his life growing up in a polygamist family and escaping entitled Be Still My Son that is really inspiring and well written.  We were able to hook up for dinner this week and had a marvelous time getting to know him and his cute wife.  It is so interesting how our paths intersect with former friends.

And another friend  emerged from India.  Preetha was one of our best Seminary teachers in Bangalore and was trying to make the dream of serving a mission come true when we left.  She accomplished that goal and received her call to Fiji.  Yesterday we got to pick her up and deliver her to the MTC for language training.  She is not only a beautiful young woman, but has overcome much as do all those dear Indian saints and is so eager to serve the Lord.  We had a grand (but short) reunion.

We had a special date with Ame and Kaipo to celebrate the beginning of their new year of school.  Lunch was yummy but  our conversation with those two cuties provided quite the entertaining afternoon.

Our stop at Kohls also proved to be fun and hilarious as they picked out and paraded their new school duds.  We love the individual and personal times we are able to have with our grandchildren and adore each of them for the unique, cute, loving and genuinely GOOD little people they are !