It comes to an end

Our last birthday celebration.  Elder Kearl and Elder Holt turned 21 on the same day.

 

Our landlords, Kaldip and Balbear.  They were so great.
 

Paul made Elder Boehmer a certificate for being the Supreme Assistant Vehicle Coordinator.  He used to kid him all of the time about earning his certificate.
 

The Merciers and the Boehmers serving our farewell dinner at the Tillman's home.
 

We had a final testimony meeting with all of the returning missionaries.  We are all going home on July 4th.  Going on a mission was one of the best decisions we have ever made and we are so glad we had the experience.   We loved all of the senior missionaries that we served with as well as the young elders and sisters. We were so fortunate to have served with two great Mission President's and their wives.  We served with President and Sister Nelson for the first six months. The last year we served with President and Sister Tilleman.  Our lives have been GREATLY enriched and our testimonies have grown.
 

As soon as we got home, we rushed off to Disneyworld with the entire family (17 of us).  Here are all of the grandkids.  Kelle made the cute shirts.
 

Kelle, Cory and Stacy in their matching outfits.
 

BACK TO THE REAL WORLD.  IT IS GREAT.
 

TIME IS SHORT...WE ARE ON THE BOARD!!!

We are returning from our Mission back to Colorado on July 4th. Of course the nation is celebrating with a HUGE fireworks display in honor of our return...HA HA! Every 6 weeks or what is called a "Transfer" we post the pictures of those who are being released from their Mission Call.

Twice a month we have someone come in to clean our office so here we are on the off Monday cleaning up the mess ourselves.  Paul is missing from the picture because he got the BIG assignment of taking out ALL of the garbage to the dumpster clear at the end of the very long parking lot.  They didn't think they needed a picture of the hardest working Elder in the bunch.

The Senior Missionaries got an Ice Cream Cake from the Marble Slab for the "Father of Our Mission"...President Tilleman.  He likes ice cream as much as we do.....UMMMMMMMMM!

For Father's Day we decided to have a picnic at the park across the street from our apartment.  Above are the Hardings (Jay and Bonnie) who replaced the Lewis.  The are from Salt Lake.

Here are the Boehmers (Lela and Butch) who are from the Cardston, Alberta Canada area.  They are helping out in the office a few days a week and doing leadership and member service in the Vancouver Ward. They are taking over our apartment when we leave.  Right now they are living in their trailer which is parked in the church parking lot.

The Jones (Kelly and Janet) are above and also from Colorado...the Longmont area.  They are going to be replacing us in the office.

And finally, here are some of our friends that we see at the gym when it opens at 6 AM every moring.  We have had a lot of fun sparing verbally with them....the exercise routine wasn't that much fun!

Cory's Visit

After hearing how much fun her sister had while out here visiting, our youngest daughter, Cory decided to abandon her poor husband for a week and come visit. We were thrilled that she could come, we'll find out how Adam felt with the three kids when he wakes up from his coma.

Here she is arriving at the TINY Bellingham airport

Cory and Kelle both typed lots of baptisims for me, and are way faster than I am. The joys of growing up in the age of computers.

Cory and Paul at Tsawwassen Beach

On the last day of her trip we decided to go to Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. It was her favorite place that we visited, and was just beautiful. This was the last place on my "bucket list" for Vancouver.

On duty, even on p-day. He's on the phone with an elder who lost his car keys.

The bridge. Good thing none of us were afraid of heights, it was a long way down and the bridge was swinging when we were out in the middle.

Elder Honey leading the train

 Cory was amazed by how huge the tree trunks were...big enough to fit her

Standing on a foot bridge with "twin falls" behind us . It's incredible all the different shades of green that we could see. It was green and green and more green.

The Home Stretch

As we are looking down the home stretch of our mission we have been so greatful for all the fun we have had, both with young missionaries and with the other senior couples. The Lewises returned home May 23 and the Joneses and Hardings have come to the office in prepration for taking it all over.

This is in the park directly across the street. Elder and Sister Harding have just arrived from Utah and we are enjoying a Mother's Day lunch.

 The "Colorado Crew"

Elder & Sister Jones are from Longmont, CO and will be taking our place when we leave in July. They will be AWESOME

President getting ready to sign Elder Tippetts' release letters

We took the gang to show them the town of White Rock. A cute seaside town not far from us. Also, notice it's a "Shadow Day" (the sun is shining)

The mighty senior elders holding up "white rock" Hard to tell, but it's not all that large. The bulk of the rock can be seen in the picture.

Not a shadow day...in fact it's pouring rain. This is picking up Nanette and Jeff from the skytrain so they could visit us for a night. They decided to get off their Disney cruise a night early just so they could see us.

The returning elders crammed into a van for a temple trip

Reminders of home...these are the first missionaries since we have been here that have come from Colorado. Now there is us, the Jones' and these wonderful elders. Both Elder Lindemann and Anderson are from Castle Rock. Elder Anderson is a little concerned that he'll miss the sun!

Singing Happy Birthday to Sister Lewis and Elder Jones, they were born the same day in the same year.

President Traxler?!? President Tilleman forgot his nametag and had to borrow Paul's. Hope nobody looked too close.

SPRING IN VANCOUVER!

At the end of April, we went with Jay and Pam to the beautiful Minter Gardens. All of the flowers had not come out yet but below are a few of what we saw.  Vancouver with all of its rain is the perfect place for vegetation but it tends to cause people to rust.

These are like the flowers we have in front of the church.  We have no idea what their name is but we liked them anyhow.

Here is Sister Sweetie enjoying nature!

Clear and Pure from the mountain tops.

Yellow smiling faces.  Sue's mom would have rooted these up along with the dandalions.  She hated yellow anything including roses!

The 4 Muskateers

These are some of the Cherry Blossom trees in the park across the street from our apartment.  They have hundreds of these planted and they are some of the first things to bloom in the spring.

The following week-end was our "field trip" to the Vancouver Aquarium.  This is the first time that we have visited this because it is expensive but also one of the top 10 places to see in Vancouver.

The Young Men and Young Women in our Ward are having a fund raiser for their summer camps.  They are having dinner and a silent action.  Sue won a 2 foot chocolate bunny at Chewters Chocolate Factory and we are donating it to the auction.  I (Paul) wanted to eat it instead....kind of an indication of which one of us has the purer heart!

You may kiss the bride!  This is a wedding picture from President and Sister Tilleman's wedding.  Sister Tilleman is the grand-daughter of President Benson who is the other person kissing the bride.

Elder Hanny between his two Korean speaking companions...Elder Miller (left) and Elder Hatch (Right)

Does it really take 6 Korean Elders to wash one car?  Not really.  They all came into the office to wash the van, trailer, and the cars we have for sale.

After washing the cars they continued on to spiff up Elder Kim.  He and his wife, Sister Kwon, are from Korea and came here on their mission which is VERY UNUSUAL.  They can only speak Korean so it is very difficult to communicate with them without one of the Korean speaking Elders being with them.  They are great and very brave and dedicated!

Sue and I were invited to speak to 2 classes at the Richmond Christian Academy.  After two initial interviews with tons of questions, we were invited to come to the class to present the Plan of Salvation and discuss the difference between our faith and the other Christian faiths.

These are the grade 12 students from one of the classes that conducted the interviews.  Tim (group leader), Britney, Ryan, and Josh were very kind and appreciative.  They gave us orange pop and a muffin.  Tim kept saying....no caffine...no caffine!  He is from China and has only been here for a year and a half and he speaks excellent english.

Sister Webster and Cho (who is new) were helping put Chinese Books of Mormon away.