On Friday morning when I walked outside a single duck came walking up looking for a hand-out and so I gave it a slice of bread. Since I have not fed the ducks for over a month, this one must have a great memory. Then it was back to serving in the office – my desk looked like there had been a yellow snow storm of post-it-notes. Sisters Stegelmeier and Herrera came to say hello and pick up some supplies. They are doing a great job in the Davie’s area.

  

Today was the first Friday of the month so that meant Zone Leader’s Council was held this morning at the Mission Home. Then about 3:00 most of the ZLs came in to pick up supplies that their zone needed. Elders Edwards and Osborn were the first to check in. Elders Torres and Beer build up a big stack for their zones. Some also had to pick up some bicycles, talk to elder Bare, and drop off baptismal records. By the time they left the big stack of Books of Mormon in English and Spanish were basically wiped out so Mary immediately order more.

  

I like to take pictures of missionaries at the office window.

  

Elders Gust and Skousen show off their best poses while elders Plowman and Shipley rest up after a mind stretching council. One of the things that everyone wants are chapel cards. Mary printed the sheets to order and then the missionaries had to cut them out or take the sheets to their zones and let the missionaries cut their own out. Elder Gust became a master chapel card trimmer…well at least he cut out a lot of cards.

 One of the perks of being senior missionaries is that you can ask for a few days off when family come to visit. Our son Jim and his family had made plans to spend a week at Disney World and President Anderson gave us permission to take three days to be with them. This was especially special for us because our youngest grandchild Colin was born after we were on our mission and so we had never been able to see him in person. Also they live in the Chicago area and so we do not get to see them as often as some of the other children and grandchildren who live in Salt Lake and Provo.

  

As I looked at the picture of the trolley and main street with the castle at the end, I realized it could have been taken 57 years ago when I went to Disneyland for the first time as a 17 year high school student!

  

Charlotte and Oliva liked to be with grandma and grandpa. One of the big things for the children was collecting the autographs of the Disney characters.

  

When we were waiting for the train to come in, a mother duck and 5 little ones came down the station tracks just when a train was about to come in. The station people hurried them along and they made it to safety before they were run over. When we were having lunch this adorable 14 month old walked up and seemed fascinated by Charlotte.

  

I took this series of pictures of Colin and his sippy cup! Good memories for sure

  

On the last day as we were getting ready to leave so we could make the 3 1/2 drive back to our apartment before it got dark, Olivia and Charlotte wanted to ride with us on the People Mover. After that we got lots of big hugs and Olivia did not want to let us go. On the way out I took a last picture of the castle. It was a cold day so Mary wanted to sit in the sun while we waited for the last bus ride back to our resort.

  

On Saturday the Waves invited a couple of food trucks to drop by at lunch time. Since we are great fans of the ‘Great Food Truck Race’ we went by to see what was being offered but did not find anything we thought was worth the prices. The favorite truck was the one serving snow cones or perhaps better to call them snow bowls.

   

On Monday I noticed that there was a line of 5 anhingas along the edge of the pool. The second one from the right seems to have been slightly out of sync with the others. When I got in the van to do some errands, I noticed that the odometer had turned to a perfect 40,000 miles and thought it was worth a picture. Sister Collins seems to be buried in boxes and the other mail that came in Saturday and Monday. She does a great job getting out the mail and writing welcoming letters to the new converts. She also goes out with her husband to find new apartments, clean out apartments, buy furniture and whatever else is needed to make sure the missionaries have safe and comfortable living conditions. They are a truly dedicated couple of missionaries who have been serving as service and full time housing missionaries for over 3 years.