Another Birthday Present!!

 ". . . and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord they God hath blessed thee."  Deuteronomy 12:7

It is a sunshiny day here in more ways than one--mail!  Oh, how I love cards, letters, and PRESENTS!  Knowing that a single card or small note can keep a missionary going for weeks, you can imagine when a package arrives.  Of course, it is a challenge to send stuff that can be used up and not heavy items that will create weight problems when returning home.  Hence, the practical items are just as exciting as anything else I could receive.  Here's a picture of what the Scadden clan sent today and you can see scripture ribbons, cards with the Savior on them (that can be given for birthdays, baptisms, thank yous, and such), and eye drops (since I couldn't find decent ones here).  I kid you not, I literally dance around all excited when I receive such bounty! 

The picture in the upper right side is of a 13 year-old granddaughter (we don't post names).  Even though we have discouraged sending anything because of the huge extra expense it is to mail stuff over here, some family members still cannot resist doing it.  They are the disobedient ones, but that is okay.  They can always repent.  LOL!

 

Here you can see the fridge magnet the two Scadden grandsons sent.  Under it you will see a picture of three more darling grandchildren that was sent earlier.  We have our family pictures mostly on the computer instead of the fridge this mission.  It isn't quite the same as having our fridge totally filled with a collage of family like back home.  Our fridge is so small there is  no way we could get every family group and grandchild on there!

 

 

District meeting today and transfers again (when some missionaries go to other areas), so we always take a picture to remember the great Elders we get to know.  Here represented are three from the U.S. (Texas and Utah), one from Germany (originally born in Africa), one from Finland, and one from Armenia.  No, my bangs are not really cut crooked, it is a bad hair day where it is doing what it wants.

One of two beautiful shrubs outside the meetinghouse where we met for district meeting today.

 

The other shrub had these lovely little flowers on it.