The last time we were here with Elder Alvarado, we visited Shemuel. He is 15 and running with the wrong friends and his mother is worried about him. At that time, Elder Alvarado found out that Shemuel liked to play soccer (football) but he did not have a ball. Elder Alvarado promised him that if he would go to seminary, he would bring him a football. We found out that his seminary class was not meeting regularly and Shemuel was still hanging around with the same friends. We invited him to come to seminary graduation the next night and he came. While we were visiting with Shemuel, Elder Alvarado sat down with him to teach him about the Book of Mormon. It is a sweet picture - neither of them knew I had a camera. Our trip was very successful. We were able to meet Brother Rappeleye (pronounced Rappley) who is Brother Alvarado's boss. Brother Alvarado is "brother" when he is doing seminary and institute business, he is "Elder" when he is doing priesthood business. He is in the 5th quorum of 70. We enjoyed meeting him and learning from him. The graduation in Suriname went better than it ever has before and we were delighted to have learned how to do it properly from Brother Rappeleye. We said good-bye to the Ibrahim family. They are quite capable of running the program. We love them and will miss them.
When we returned from our mission, we had a desire to visit with Joan's children and get reacquainted with our grandchildren. We began our trip in Reno and then took Nevada Highway 50 across to Parowan, Utah. One of the sights that we stopped to see is the "shoe tree". People have been tying their shoelaces together and tossing them into this tree for decades. The tree is all by its lonesome out in the middle of nowhere.
We began our trip in Parowan to visit Uncle Jack. He is Wayne's last surviving uncle on his mother's side of the family. We have visited him before and love to see him.
We had to go through St. George to get from Parowan to Las Vegas, so we called our friends, Kent and Chris Rhodes and arranged to have lunch with them. I didn't take any pictures!!! We got there a little early, so we visited the grounds of the St. George Temple. We met a sister missionary there who spoke French. It turns out that the church made a deal with the travel agents who book French people on tours of the US. They have to go through St. George to get from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, so the church has put French speaking missionaries in the visitor's center so that they can take a tour there. This young woman had met President Gamiette while she was in the MTC. We put that into the "small world" department.
When we got to Las Vegas to visit Brent and his family, it was hot. We sat by the pool. We got to meet our first great grandson, Nathaniel Mark Sollitto. We call him Nathan. He is a big hunk of a boy and into everything. It was a delight to be there.
When we arrived in Moreno Valley, we found that granddaughter, Lauren decided to marry her sweetheart, Eric Wood. It was a lovely day, the setting was beautiful and Lauren was gorgeous. They left the next day for their new home in Des Moines, Iowa.
Wayne wanted to see the town of Hyampom near Trinity Lake in Siskyou County (way up north). It is where his parents used to take him camping in the summer. It is exactly the same. Nothing has changed. We both enjoyed the drive and the views.
This is the oldest continuously operating Joss House in California. It was built by Chinese immigrants as a place of worship. It combines Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Inside there are shrines and people come to pay homage to individuals and principles that they believe will make them better people. The Joss House is in Weaverville.
