A TRIP TO THE OKANAGAN

Here is Sue in front of Bridal Veil Falls just outside of Hope BC.  We were on our way to the Okanagan  Zone(we love all of these indian names) on a working vacation. We left on Friday and came back home on Monday after 800 miles of driving to Osoyoos, Penticton, West Bank, Kelowna, Vernon, Salmon Arm Kamloops, and Meritt. We were stopping in each of these cities to check on the missionaries apartments andvehicles. These are missionaries that we do not get to see very often because of the distance to the Mission Office.  It was educational and fun to see these young men and women in their enviournment...a lot like it was in our college years.

This is a picture of the stream that came down from Bridal Veil Falls. It was a 15 minute hike to the falls from the parking lot....seemed like a lot longer!  Our trip also included going to the Vernon Stake Conference where they were changing Stake Presidencies. Elder Oaks (Apostle) was there to conduct. It was wonderful to hear him during the 3 times we heard him address us...one of which was a private meeting on Sunday morning with the 20 or so missionaries in the Zone. We got to meet him and shake his hand. Awesome!

This is a tree growing out of the stump of a dead tree. With all of the moisture in the NW we see a lot of the beautiful nature that is like Oregon where we used to live and unlike arid Colorado where we now live.

While we were traveling we stopped at Elder McCullough and Elder Smith's apartment. They were the only ones whose apartment was clean and organized eneough to take pictures.  This one is of their planning  activities and schedule boards.  While all of the others had boards, they had trouble finding them in some cases.  The cars generally looked better than the  apartments.

Elders Zimmerman, Williams, and Dodge got dressed up in their mustaches to role play in their district meeting. They played the parts of hard investigators and missionaries who stand on a soap box preaching the Gospel.  Elder Dodge leaves in May and Elder Zimmerman leaves in June.  They have been great in their service and fantastic in thier stewardship