Mission Update 11-24-12

Dave's Blog

Mission Update 11-24-12

Hello from Rockville, Maryland where Mary and I are serving in the Washington DC North Mission.  I have collected a few pictures that I thought might be interesting to some of you.  They start with the most recent and go in reverse sequence.

Thanksgiving at Ben and Sarah's.

We celebrated Oliver's birthday on Thanksgiving Day.

Of course he loved his present from Grandma and Grandpa

Earlier in the week we help host a dinner and training for newly arriving missionaries.

Mary helping the President's wife, sister Matsumori, to prepare the dinner.

Last weekend Mary hosted an activity for senior missionary couples at Mount Vernon, Virginia, home of George Washington.  What a beautiful spot overlooking the Potomac River.

Rachel visited us before that.  Her trip was a birthday present from Jeff(without the kids).  Here she is in Clyde's Tower Oak Lodge Restaurant, a pretty unique place.

With some neat props

Each booth in the restaurant has a separate outdoor theme.  This one was fishing.  We took this shot just to make Jeff jealous back home with the kids.

Rachel, Ben, Elsa, Amelia, Sarah, Oliver, Mary, and I spent a day at the Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.  What a gorgeous place with acres of gardens, flowers, fountains, and other features.

It was the Chrysanthemum festival at the gardens.  These are all mums growing from a single stem and trained to this pattern.

Some of the flowers were exotic and gorgeous

Even the leaves were beautiful.

They had acres of gardens indoors.  It was all funded many years ago by the DuPont family.

Dan and Michelle visited us at Halloween time.  Here they are at the Cabin John Regional Park in Potomac, Maryland, which is fairly close to the mission office where we serve.

Sarah met us at the park.  It was a little nippy, but we had a good time.

Especially Jacob

And Elsa and Jonah

Halloween night was fun.  Grandpa's costume was ready to go, but alas the wig belonged to Elsa, and she did not see the humor in it.

Fall is a fun time to go hiking.

The colors are gorgeous around here in the fall.  

This is a shot from the temple grounds.

 Here is a shot from the other direction.  I think the Washington DC is one of the most beautiful temples in the world.

We took in the last game of the regular season for the Washington Nationals in the cheap seats.  They lost but nobody cared because some other team lost and they made it into the playoffs anyway.

Besides, the hotdogs and snacks are what you go for anyway.

Our October Senior Missionary Activity was a BBQ at the mission home.  This is our Mission President, Pres. Matsumori cooking the chicken.  I finally learned how to BBQ chicken (boil it first).

We have the missionaries over for dinner frequently.  This is Sister Black with Sister Brown and Sister Bleasard.

I deal with all the cars in the mission.  This is a picture of one I was getting ready to sell (it sold).

Here is our niece Jenny and her husband Mike Morris with daughter Jane.  We visited them at their home in Arlington, VA, just West of DC.

Aunt Diane Wood was there visiting from Arizona.  Brent did not come.

Margie (Mike and Jenny's daughter), Amelia, and Elsa had a great time dressing up.  

Here we are. We are having a great time on our mission.  It is filled with a lot of work.  But as you can see from the above, we have a lot of fun.  We love the missionaries and the opportunity to help them and work with them.  We hope all is well with each of you.  We pray for you often.  Our mission is about half way through so we will see you all soon.

All our love,

Elder and Sister Black

(Mom and Dad)

 (Dave and Mary)

P.S. I close with some recent candid shots of some of our precious grandchildren

                   Jacob                       Jonah                       Lili 

                                                         

                                        Amelia                          Elsa

     Anna and Isaac