Trip To Dallas

A week ago I was in Dallas for a very special occasion. My dear friend Eden went through the temple... I met her almost three years ago while serving as a missionary in Texas. It has been a long haul since then but what a glorious occasion it was... I forgot to bring my camera so I dont have too many pictures and some of the ones that I do have did not turn out that great but here are a few pictures of the weekend...

Here are somethings that I got to do as well but do not have pictures:

-Visit with Britney Becker and have breakfast at Sonic... I had the sunshine smootie, YUM! While there I see a car pull up and I recongnized Sister Vanderpool, a women in that ward... It was coeincidence because the last time I ate at that sonic was with her... Random.

-I also got to visit two wonderful family... Amanda Robertson and her boys Leisin and Kasel... and also Andre and Lori Otano... What fun...

-I got to see so many wonderful people (Huntsman's, Brassfields, Janis's, Titensors and more)at the temple as well as at church... including Sister Stevens (whom I served with in Coppell, where we met Eden)

Last but not least was Sunday in Weatherford... So in September of 2007 I got called to my last area on my mission in Weatherford and Mineral Wells, Texas... What a great place. It was so different then my previous two area and there was one small challenge. They had been made a stake the year before but did not have a building big enough to be their stake center... But then something terrible happened, or so it seemed. Their church building burnt down. The members had to drive an hour and a half or more to attend church... Missionary work was hard but we worked harder... We held a special sacrament meeting in the home of a member in Mineral Wells (a smaller town) west of Weatherford. Sundays were a day of driving or riding for us. I came to love the people and their dedication. They were humble and showed so much compassion for eachother. Although their church burning down was sad, it was a blessing in disquise. When they became a state they were told by Salt Lake that it would take 8 years to build a new church (Stakecenter) in that area, but with the burning of their own church, they were able to be looked at to have a building be built sooner. So this weekend while I was there was the dedication or actually their stake conference in the new building, I think the dedication is this weekend. It was so neat to have an oppurtunity to be there and celebrate in their joy. I was able to see some wonderful people whom I love. My mission President and his wife were also there and spoke and it was fun to see them. They had been down south of the mission over the weekend and had it not been for the stake conference I would have not been able to see them. They did not know that I was there and afterwords walked up and suprised them. It was super fun... I love love them... So below are pictures of their new building... YAY