Andrew's temple date

What an ordeal it was trying to pick a day for Andrew to receive his endowments at the temple!

Due to Glen's busy schedule and things like the temple being closed the first 2 weeks of June, we were down to 4 days to choose from...and no matter which day we pick, there were problems for various family members.

We finally settled on Friday May 15th at 6 pm...the sad part being that Elder Bednar is speaking to the 18-32 year olds in Reno that night, so Andrew will miss it. :(

But we are still excited for him!!!

It's Des Moines, Iowa!

The clan gathered in for the big moment...


Does he look a bit apprehensive to you?


So relieved...to be going English speaking!

His papers had been sent in on April 12th.
His call arrived on April 27th.
He will be reporting to the MTC in Provo on June 24th.

His mission area includes a small part of South Dakota (where Glen had guessed) and an even smaller part of Illinois (where Hannah had guessed). His cousin Mindy will be moving to Iowa this summer while her husband attends school there. The Nauvoo temple isn't too far from there...

His mission president (who has been out almost 2 years...so Andrew will be getting a new president half-way through) is Gordon Lyle Talbot of Sandy, Utah.

We are so excited and thrilled!

Monterey Bay California

Eric took this picture of me at the Mission of San Juan Bautista. Do you like my green witch's hat?


Eric at the Monterey Bay aquarium.



Bubba Gump is a restaurant in Monterey with this cute bench in front.




The French class students in front of the Carmel mission (Presidio chapel?).

Eric and I went on a 3-day field trip with the French 3 & 4 class to the Monterey, California area. As part of our trip, we had a wonderful French meal. I tried escargot for the first time...I would eat them again. I also had French onion soup, steak and garlic mashed potatoes, and a wonderful chocolate cake that seemed more like fudge than cake.

We had a nice time. Came home at 10 pm and Andrew was already in bed (he got in yesterday afternoon some time) and he's still in bed now, so I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet. His mission call has not come.

The house is a mess, Alex has a fever and might have strep throat, and Glen will be gone all afternoon on stake business. Life as usual, I guess.

Mission Guesses so far

GP-South Dakota
BP-Portugal
AP-Australia (that's where I wanted to go!)
EP-Ireland
RP-Madagascar/San José California
HP-Illinois
AP-South America

GpJ-Florida (which is where GpJ was born)
GmJ-France
GpP-Uruguay (which is where I served)
GmP-Curitiba Brazil
UJ-Massachusetts
AM-El Paso, Texas

DP-Mexico City
JP-Peru
DP- Georgia
HP-Kentucky
BP-Paramaribo, Suriname
CP-Bolivia
JP-Scotland
AP-(who is currently serving in Lansing Michigan)-Argentina
AP-Kenya
MP-Madrid, Spain

DS-Indiana
PS-South Africa (or Ohio-which is where GmJ was born)
DS-(who is currently serving in Joao Pessao Brazil)-Sao Paolo, Brazil
ZS-Australia
JS-Australia

TL-Sweden
ML-Tonga
BL-Yukon, Canada
EL-Yukon, Canada
SB-Idaho
JB-Tupelo, Mississippi
JH-Sweden
TH-Odgen, Utah
HL-Argentina
AL-Austria

AP-Florida (my sister was born there)
CP-Texas
MS-Italy
JS-the bayou (I joined the church in New Orleans, you know)
BS-Ghana
MP-Hong Kong
TP-New York (which is where I was born...and my brother SJ)
MP-Chile
BP-British Columbia, Canada
MP-Minnesota

KJ-Argentina
GJ-Mexico
SJ-Paraguay (I had 3 companions from there)
BJ-California
JJ-Japan (which is where I prayed I wouldn't be sent)
TJ-Kazakhstan
BJ-Africa

Andrew's mission papers are in!

Andrew met with his Stake President on Sunday and his papers are in...which gives everyone about 1 1/2 weeks to put in their guesses as to where he'll be called.

I can't decide if this feels too unreal to even have a reaction...or is there just a hint of fear...and of course, excitement.

So, where in the world will Elder Perazzo be sent? (and I'm not talking about the Elder Perazzo in Michigan)

Happy Easter/Feliz Pascua

What a wonderful Sabbath day! The weather was gorgeous (sun was shining, sky was blue, and there wasn't a wind)...just the way Easter weather should be. It felt like "renewal" to me.

I really felt the Spirit so strongly in Sacrament meeting where we had some fabulous Easter talks. And then in my Young Women's lesson, I ended with the last 5 minutes of the Church's video The Lamb of God...right from where Christ dies on the cross to the end where the tomb is empty. I bore my testimony that the tomb was empty, Jesus lives, and this is His Church. I thought it went well.

Then I rushed off to the Spanish branch where I was to give a talk. I chose to use Elder Holland's talk "None Were With Him" from last Sunday morning's General Conference session. It is a wonderful, thought-provoking talk about the Atonement and how the Savior was slowly abandoned by those around him, including when the Holy Spirit withdrew from Him. Elder Holland begs us not to abandon Him and tells us that we will not be left alone. Here is a link to the text, if you are interested in his talk:

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-27,00.html

I used that for the first half of my talk. For the second half, I used an article from the Liahona magazine that I had kept since the beginning of my mission. The article is called "The Light Never Moves" by Spencer J. Condie (now of the Seventy). It starts off explaining a psycological experiment where a light is turned on and off in a dark room. The light appears to move due to a scientific effect (the autokinetic effect), even though it really hasn't moved. I'll skip the details that are given in the article and just say that the conclusion drawn from this experiment is that, "As we associate with others whose opinions differ from our own, their judgments often influence how we view things, and we, in turn, influence their view of the world." I thought it was really fascinating. The link to the article is:

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=399647f765adb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

I was pleased with how well the words flowed from my mouth...since I don't speak Spanish often, sometimes I have difficulty talking smoothly. But, for the most part, I don't think I sounded stilted and I think my accent was pretty decent. So I'm happy about that.

I'm not so happy about when I bore my testimony at the end...I hadn't written it out and I was having trouble finding the words I wanted and I was afraid I would make mistakes and wind up saying something wrong (like in John Groberg's story of talking about being an "outhouse" instead of a missionary... and my nephew in Brazil telling the story of the tortoise and the "poptart" instead of the story of the tortoise and the hare...or my missionary companion using the word for a part of the male anatomy instead of using the word for comb...). So I don't think my testimony was what I would have wished it to be.

But, all in all, I was glad for the opportunity and I hope the congregation got something out of it.

I rushed home after the meeting to work on Easter dinner...Glen had already put things in the oven for me, but I had a few last-minute details to take care of. I had invited a friend, Melissa, over to eat with us (the rest of her family is out of town). Now, Glen and I aren't the entertaining type...but it was really fun. Maybe it's because our kids are older now and it's less of a stress to have company that made it less frightening. We just may have to do that again real soon!

Playing Hooky

Actually, I don't really consider this playing hooky...we were having a family reunion. I consider that a valid excuse for taking the kids out of school.

My sister, 2 of her boys, and my mom are here for a few days. As the weather was nice on Monday (and not because it was Ryan's birthday though he certainly enjoyed the timing), we went to Donner Lake. On the way to Donner, we stopped off for a fabulous lunch at King's Buffet and then stopped at the Reno temple. We watched the movie about the Donner party in the museum and enjoyed playing in the snow a little bit.

We've been watching movies and just hanging out. It's been wonderful. Too bad they all have to leave tomorrow.

The kids at the temple

The Donner Memorial

Brrr, the water was cold