It's All Good

Well, first some commentary.  Hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as we did -- it already seems like a month ago.  We watched some in Spanish and some in English, but Elder Holland's talk was definitely the high-light of the Conference for us.  He is so passionate about his subject and articulate in his delivery!  This next weekend we have our District (stake) Conference too -- it'll be kinda nice not to have to conduct or anything, though I do have to give a talk in the priesthood meeting and Mom's playing the piano in the General Session.  The presidency's going to be reorganized, which we are very happy about.  The outgoing president has been difficult to work with -- he even threatened to charge me with "apostacy" if I didn't disclose the identity of some members who had issues with him -- so he could "purge" them.  Talk about unrighteous dominion!!
Otherwise, the work is progressing -- slowly with little surges here and there, but still very gratifying to see the people try to embrace the gospel fully. 
Meanwhile, thank you all for putting so many great photos on the blog.  First, Baylie's family portrait -- those things are precious.  I'll bet it has been nice to have Jason home more too -- as long as it doesn't go on too long, right?  And Darek's marathon pictures -- number 2371 will be forever remembered.  By the way, who's that Freddy Krueger guy sitting on the other side of the bon-fire?  Do you realize that you actually look thinner in the finish-line pictures than in the before-the-race pictures? -- guess running 26 miles will do that to you.  As for the summer pics -- yeah, why don't you live in CA? -- so we can come visit you there.  Then there's little "blue buns".  Man, that's gotta be some sort of child abuse or something -- covering up evidence of the muchas spankins!
Beyond that, we're thinking a lot about our family of course.  Mom was saying the other day that it seems like we have a kind of symbiotic relationship going on -- we feel the power of your prayers in our behalf and you're receiving added blessings because of our missionary service.  It may not feel like it all the time -- things are still challenging (Garlan, Jason & others), but we feel like our whole family is being watched over and strengthed as we strive together.  We are really proud of all of you and the kind of people you are.  Thank you. 
Now for a couple of pics.

                

Well, I can't seem to get the other picture to upload so you get two of the same thing -- two guys cutting the grass in front of the vacant house across the street -- Mom couldn't stand looking at it one more day and since she doesn't have her own riding mower down here, she paid these two guys 20 pesos (about $4) to cut it down.  Looks great, huh! 
Well, we'll say adios, nos vemos por ahora.  Besos a todos.  Keep the pics and mensajes coming.
XOS,
Dad & Mom