7 June 2011

I had the best surprise this past week.  I was on exchange with SisterP from Leeds that morning.  We’d all just got to the South VC basement and SisterP had two things to tell me.  1) We were scheduled for a motorcoach in half an hour (Motorcoach: a scheduled tour with 25+ people from a tour bus).  So we had (for me) and unexpected group of 24 people, who turned out to be a mix of Chinese/English speakers, and only 9 wanted to go with the English speaking tour.  2) There were two people upstairs who said they were from my Ward.  SisterP had mentioned she was about to go on exchange with me, so we’d probably see them.  Bless her.  They hadn’t given her their names, so I had no idea who I would see when we went upstairs.  You can imagine the glow, grin and (near) gallop once I saw it was them.  Don and Terry Tenney!  It was so good to run up and give Terry a huge hug.  So good.  (It was so very special having Terry pick me up at the airport and spending some time together before she dropped me off at the MTC.  No one I would've rather been with, other than my parents.)  We only chatted for maybe 2 minutes, but it made my day and it still puts me in a good mood to think about it.  I don’t even remember why they were in SLC.  But I mentioned their calling as Temple President, teased Don about having kept up on his Spanish (he has, apparently), talked about when they would be leaving, and then basically we hugged and left to wait for our motorcoach.  I talked about them all day.  I think poor SisterP knows everything she could want to know about Don and Terry.  (We were on exchange for four hours, so there was plenty of time to tell stories, extol their virtues, etc.)  I think that was the same day we ran into the Oswalds, but I didn’t write it down.  SisterP was in that MTC branch, too, so it was really awesome that we were together when we saw them.  The Oswalds were my favourite at the MTC, even tho’ I LOVE the Millers.  We were only with them a couple minutes as well.  They were with a bunch of kids and grandkids.  I had met a couple at the MTC – they’re the cutest, sweetest girls.  They had done some sort of YW walk from Draper Temple to SLC, I think.  So weird to see Br Oswald in jeans!

Thanks to my sister for the temple cards.  If you have any for baptisms, that would rock!  My companion really wants to do baptisms, but I think we can go only if we have family names.

Gotta get back to The Work,

Love

Sister Clayton