We Are Back With da Island Hangover

We are home from a fantastic week on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Mark and Cathy invited us to spend a week at their time-share with them and it was everything we thought it would be.

Beautiful blue water, temperature in the low 80's and a slow pace of island life. We did many fun things which I will post about this week.

We are experiencing what I call "island hangover" or sometimes known as vaca hangover. Our reality isn't that bad but we're trying to get our mojo back. We came home to a yard that needs major attention, laundry that needs to be dealt with and an empty refrigerator. Not too bad, we can handle it because we are all together again. Murray, Me, Emma and the $#%*! dog, Rusty. There really is love at home.

More details to follow.

The Best YM/YW

We have a fantastic group of teenagers in our ward. When they get together they have a ball goofing off no matter the activity. Last night I invaded their movie-night domain at my house and snapped a few pics. The guy in the upper pic trying to pose the other guy's head, sent his mission papers in 2 weeks ago. He still wants to have fun with these kids. The girl sitting on the end of the sofa is a Moroccan exchange student with a family in our ward for 1 year. She is Muslim but participates in our church more than some of the members do. She goes to seminary every morning, wants to go to EFY if an extension to her 1 year exchange program is approved, and bears her testimony that she believes our gospel is true. Her exposure to the church began the first week she was in our country. Last summer the YM/YW had a Book of Mormon read-a-thon. Come and read the Book of Mormon non-stop for 2 days. Of course there was a slumber part sandwiched in between the two days of reading. They sat in a circle on the floor and took turns reading 10 verses at a time. She told me her experience learning the gospel started that day when she decided to go the the read-a-thon (her first week in America). Exchange students are given the choice to attend church with the host family or not. She chose to come and hasn't missed on Sunday or Mutual activity.

Fellowshipping efforts have helped activate several "lost sheep". How do you explain teenagers like these? I used to teach some of them in Sunday School class and left class scratching my head wondering about some of them. But all for naught, they have matured and turned into fantastic young men and women. I am just lucky to have a 13 year old daughter who brings these kids into my home for a movie night.