We’ve been looking forward to this evening for a long time.  John and I hosted our first Senior Missionary Reunion this evening in our back yard.  Friends started arriving at about 6:00 and stayed for the rest of the evening.  They didn’t want to leave.  It was wonderful.  We had a large group of missionaries, plus a few extras, like the Merkel family from Offenbach, who have moved to SLC for 2-3 years with his church job, Abbey’s parents came (they are going to serve in Frankfurt in September), Kurt Heiss my Grossgartach relation was in town from Atlanta and he came (he and his wife are putting in their mission papers in a couple of weeks and may end up in Frankfurt as an AMA).  So in all, about 70 were here.

We had J-Dawgs come to cater the dogs and everyone brought sides and salads and desserts and there was plenty of good food.

The evening was Really wonderful.  We had couples come from AZ, CO, ID and CA.  Everyone really made an effort to come.  There were very few missing, most who weren’t here are on another mission somewhere.  It really was amazing to see everyone.  I love these friends so much, I really do.  A highlight of this mission was having so many other couples with us.

The visiting and reminiscing went late into the evening.  Oh, what a joyful time!

There are 3 videos at the end of the pics you really won’t want to miss.

Here are 3 recordings of Elder Mark Andrus reciting some fine poetry he wrote and shared while serving in our mission: