Returning Home, for a visit

Meeting Lyla Brynn Francis

Happy Thanksgiving! With everything we have been blessed with we would be ungrateful servants if we did not begin our update with what we are thankful for. We are thankful for family, and the opportunity to have visited with them for almost two weeks. We are thankful for this beautiful granddaughter that we were able to see and hold. We are thankful for all of you and your friendship and all that you do to strive to follow Jesus Christ. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of Argentina in the Resistencia mission, and for this specific time to work with all the wonderful people in Ibarreta, Formosa. Most importantly we are thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice and resurrection. And for His great plan of Happiness that provides a way for us to be reunited with our families once again and to live with them for eternity.

Grateful for all the family and friends that came to Lyla's baby blessing.

Thankful for beautiful sunsets and all of God's creations

Thankful for temples. We were able to attend the Saratoga Springs temple twice during our trip back home.

Thankful for these two special people and the opportunity to return home for a visit

Over the past month we have been busy, and yet not busy. It is an odd statement but those who have served missions may have had similar feelings. On November 10th we had the blessing of being able to travel to Virginia and Utah. The travel back to the United States was brutal. Because Ibarreta is so far away from everything our trip began with a 4-hour drive Saturday afternoon to Resistencia where we stayed for the night. We were able to do some shopping and eat some really good burgers. Sunday morning, we woke up early to be at church by 9:00am. After church, our mission leader Sister Barlow (wife of the mission president) invited us to their apartment for lunch before taking us to the airport for our 2:30 flight to Buenos Aires. After a short hour and a half flight to Buenos Aires we were met by a church driver that took us from the domestic airport to the international airport about 45 minutes away. On the way we were able to make a stop to visit Bill and Carin in Buenos Aires (Martha's brother and sister-in-law). They are serving as missionaries in the area office of the church supporting the church's humanitarian aid efforts throughout all southern South America.

Our visit to Bill and Carin's apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo.

After our quick visit, only about 20 minutes, we took off to the international airport for our 9:00pm flight to Virginia. It is an exceptionally long overnight flight of 10 hours! Exceedingly difficult to rest or sleep on the plane.

On the plane

Our stop in Virginia was to watch Luke run a half-marathon for Salt Lake Community College. He has been running on their cross-country team this season and has enjoyed every moment. His coaches and teammates have been great friends. We spent one night in Richmond, VA to be able to watch him run. We also visited a few of the sites in the area.

Luke with some of his teammates

Luke about 10 meters from the finish. He passed that runner right before the finish line. Great job Luke!

Such a beautiful park new Richmond. It felt like fall all around.

After the race

The Richmond Virginia temple

Temple garden

In front of the state capital in Richmond

Virginia State Capital

George Washinton statue

Downtown Richmond. A very lovely city!

After a little more than 24 hours in Richmond we were off to Orem to visit Lyla and the rest of our family. It was a bit surreal to be back home, although it is hard to say Orem is home because we have not really lived there but our family is there and so we call it home. Hacienda Heights will always be our home! We miss all our friends and family back in California.

Mt Timpanogos in Orem/Provo

View from Eric and Ashleys' home. That's Orem and Provo on the other side of Utah Lake

Taking Ace on his daily walk to the park by our house in Orem

We arrived in Orem late Tuesday evening and our first stop in the morning was to Eric and Ashley’s house to see Lyla. Wow! What an experience to see your first grandchild. It’s still unbelievable to think we are grandparents, that’s something for old people. I guess we are now officially old. We loved to see and hold Lyla. We could have spent our whole trip holding her! We can’t wait to see how much she is going to grow in the next 8 months before we see her again.

Obligatory grandparent photo dump of the cutest granddaugher. Can't get enough. And cannot wait until #2 comes in May.

Also, while in Orem Jacob and Ana did a gender reveal party. That’s right! Grandbaby number two is on the way, coming in May. They are having a little boy. It was so much fun to stay with them in the house. We hope we did not impose too much on them. We are so excited for this addition to their family and ours!

It's a Boy!

Congrats Jacob and Ana!

Of course, we also spent time eating at all our favorite restaurants before heading back to Argentina. In n Out, Chik-fil-A, Rancheritos, Brick Oven and enjoying some donuts from Krispy Kreme. Most of all we miss good Mexican food. Not a lot of spicy foods in Argentina. We brought back a few things with us and the most important was some taco seasoning mix. We asked the young missionaries in our area what they wanted from the U.S. and almost all wanted taco season, and of course some American candy like Sour Patch Kids.

After the long trip back, we arrived in Ibarreta to find it was still here, and still hot as ever. It has been 100 degrees for a few days. This is becoming the norm. December, January, and February are the scorching summer months with most days at or above 100 degrees. We are looking forward to it, not.

Before we left the branch was preparing for the primary children’s program in church. Martha helped them organize almost all of it but then we left for our trip. Once we got back, we followed up to see how preparations were going. They had done assignments, but no one was ready to lead the music. So of course, Martha stepped up and took it over. It was a great program. Most of the kids who participated are from the colonia of Ensanche Norte and Brian had to drive 12 people in or little pick-up truck from the colonia to Ibarreta, about 5 kilometers.

Martha leading the kids in hymns

Our tiny group of Primary children

Today for Thanksgiving we are planning to make some thank you cards to deliver to a few of the church members to help celebrate Thanksgiving. And maybe Brian will find a football game on YouTube (yes, we watch illegal streams of American sports).

Tomorrow, we have our English class and are preparing to celebrate a Friendsgiving. Martha brought a few things from home to make her cranberry marshmallow salad. She calls it “fluff.” We also tested some hot apple empanadas to simulate an apple pie. We made them last night and they turned out good, very tasty. We will make more tomorrow for the class. It will be a fun class!

Well, that’s about all we can write for this post. There are so many more things that have happened, but it is difficult to remember everything and write everything in a blog post. Maybe we should try more frequent posts!

We love you all and hope you can enjoy each day in gratitude for what God has blessed you with. Remember to treat each other with love as Christ has commanded us to love one another as He loves us.

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