HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLEE and Goodbye Bella!

Monday, Aug 3rd

THOUGHT:  "CHARACTER IS THE REAL FOUNDATION OF ALL WORTHWHILE    
                                    SUCCESS"                  John Hays Hammond                        

Today has been a do little day!  We went for a walk, bought some tomatoes and worked on our projects.  We left home late afternoon to drive to the MTC for a couple of reasons.  First Elder Porter is leaving for Washington DC at 2:30 am on Wednesday so we wanted to say goodbye to him and take one last pic.  Also Dr & Sister Gill who are the dr and nurse at the MTC are leaving to go home on Wednesday as well!  We are so sad to see them go.  They are from Portland Oregon so I am not sure we will ever see them again!  We missed FHE with our group, which is frustrating cause the Whiteheads (our mission president) did it with their daughter and 5 kids that are here visiting.  This is the daughter whose husband dropped dead of a heart attack 6 weeks ago.  He was 40 years old!  Oh my this has been devastating as you can imagine.  The lesson I have learned is - enjoy each day because you never know when it is your last.

Elder Porter and Elder Bono.
Elder Porter is having an eating contest with his trainer.
Guess who won!!

Elder Porters district!

My missionary hug for Elder Porter!

Us with the Beechers.
They are a fantastic couple that are
the psychologists at the MTC.

Us with the Gills!

Tuesday, Aug, 4th  HAPPY BIRTHDAY  KAYLEE!!!  Now I have 2 - 12 year old granddaughters.
LUCKY ME!!

We had to hurry and call Kaylee this morning because she is headed up to girls camp for the week with Rachel.  They will have such a blast.  Rachel has planned some fun things for Kaylee's birthday. I can't wait to hear about it when they get home!  We had another "no sick missionaries" day!  This always makes for a slow day, but I guess we have to be happy there are no problems in the country today!


Wednesday, Aug 5th

Today was a very nice day.  We took the Griffins up to the church camp - El Guarda so they could take more pics and do a video with the kids up there.  It is so beautiful and green and sunny up there. I love going.  It makes me think of our stake girls camp up in the beautiful mountains in Utah.  The kids were having little conferences so they weren't out and about like last week but it was still fun to be there with them.  We stayed for lunch ! YUM!  We had a dried up slice of ham, mashed potatoes with tortilla chips crumbled on top!  Poor kids!!  But, I wouldn't want to feed 1,000 kids 3-4 meals a day for a week so I won't complain!
The traffic was bad driving back into the city so we were starving when we got closer to home.  We stopped at a mall by Costco and went to P F Changs for dinner.  It was the Griffins anniversary so we did have something to celebrate!!  That was the best decision we made all day!  I took so many pics last week at El Guarda that I didn't take any today since Sister Griffin was there and she took a ton!


Thursday, Aug 6th

THOUGHT:  "HEAVEN GOES BY FAVOR.  IF IT WENT BY MERIT - - -
                           YOU WOULD STAY OUT AND YOUR DOG WOULD GO IN!"    Mark Twain 

Today was another mellow day.  When we are not traveling it gets pretty slow moving around here, unless there are sick missionaries or the mission presidents need help with something.  Not too many sick missionaries today.  We were able to go pick up Sister Griffin at the hospital again today.  She went in this morning to get her stints out.  Hopefully she is done, done, done with all of her kidney stones and issues.  This has been one long month for her.  She feels good now so upward and onward!
We stopped at Quiznos for lunch on the way home and then wandered through Michaels.  It is pretty much the same as in the states with a Mexican flair!  We watched the first Republican debates on TV tonight.  There are so many people running for president.   I don't know how anyone will be picked!
We got a call from Angie about Bella.  She has not been doing good at all the past few days so her time on this earth is coming to a close!  Sad!  Sad!  Sad!

The last pic of Bella out in the grass!
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” – James Herriot

Friday, Aug. 7th  Bella - we will always love you!

Today was the day!  Bella couldn't hold on any longer.  Angie took her in and had her put to sleep!  Bella tried to be strong for the past week, but it was time today!  I am going to miss that dog!  You never think of saying goodbye when you bring the cute, cuddly puppy home.  Bella was born on the day my dad died and we brought her home on Kaylee's birthday so she is the one that named her Bella.  She got a lump under her arm about 5 months ago and it finally took her today!  Cancer even takes the dogs!  I feel bad for Abby - the poodle.  She has survived my dad, my mom ( Abby was her dog), Libby - our golden retriever, us leaving on a mission and now Bella!  I hope she makes it for another 9 months till I get back.    Losing Bella will be very hard on her.  They were always together. Greg had to go to the new mission president meeting for the day so I have been home alone all day.  This definitely hasn't been one of my best days on this mission!  I guess I should just think about how good Belly feels now that she can run and play again!
We had our new mission president seminar in Mexico City Friday - the 8 new presidents met in the Marriott hotel at the airport for a 6 hour seminar.  I was invited along with the church legal representative and head of church security.  It was great to finally meet the 5 from outside of the Mexico city area.  The first part was a question and answer session and after lunch the focus was on working with stake presidents in the "work of salvation" as opposed to missionary work - in other words reaching out to inactive and working on retention with ward leaders.  They also went through the Mexico area plan for 2015 and focused on using the fast as a tool in missionary work.  It was a wonderful "eye-opening" meeting for me and I got to talk one on one with most of the new presidents about their health concerns.

                     “…love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kabil Gibran

My last farewell pic of Bella on the way to the vets!
I love you Belly!!!

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” – Roger Caras