40 years

May 22 2017. So 40 years ago yesterday Sister Edwards and I were married in Cardston , Alberta, at the temple there. My how time flies. Now we are senior missionaries, have 15 grandkids and spend much of each day contemplating our illnesses. Just kidding on the last, who has time? We celebrated our day with 21 over for our Young Adult dinner, they surprised us with a house plant and a box of chocolates and tried to surprise us by hiding in the stair well. My, how we love all these people. One said he had been praying for two weeks for lasagna, and then we cooked it for him. It really hit me in the teeth yesterday while sitting at the front in Sacrament meeting, how much I loved these people and how very much we will miss them all. It is immensely sobering to realize how this has all occured, that it has occurred with service, and that is how the Savior loves us as He has given us the ultimate act of service, the Atonement. So a good marriage does involve a lot of service, usually more on the part of a wife. I hope our contribution has been fairly equal. Just goes to show that 2 very different people can love each other and make a great marriage. Deb and I are and have become very different people, but we believe the same, we love each other and our family and we love God. It all works, and we are thankful for 40 very good years. Anyway, I wax philosophic. Our week began with a rescue of sister misionaries in a village late Monday night, after they missed the bus. At 10 at night we hit a monstrous pothole in the dark, shredding one of our front tires. This borrowed car also had suspension problems, so we had a dark tire change, a donut tire to drive slowly home, and a car change the next day. We have our red Opel back and the other is still in the garage. Oh, and shredded means shredded. Tuesday we picked up our partial replacements, the Godfreys, from Logan Utah, who will take over part of the Cooleys responsibilities and our Young Adult responsibilities. Wonderful people, and we spent part of the week orienting them to a stange new world. Tried to go to Balti this week, Deb got very ill on the road and we aborted that trip after a few stops along the road. Darn stomach bugs. Thursday we met some real nice people with the sister missionaries, teaching English and gospel, Doina and friends. One of them , a fine young Baptist mother, takes care of a lot of young children who have no food or parents to take care of them; she is a remarkable person who shows true charity to those truly less fortunate. We promised to return and learn more of what she does. There are some real good people in the world. We were there 2.5 hours with lots of great discussion and teaching.  We had a frisbee golf game Friday night, a lot of people in this world have not learned how to throw a frisbee, and while watching is amusing, it can be dangerous. And now for the weather, wet and continuing to rain. And thunderstorms. And I got a mosquito bite, there are far fewer of those here in Moldova, I had one bite all last year. And now a few pics.

Mission picture from last year, could not remember if I ever got a copy before.

Dinner at the Edwards- from L Chiril, sticking his face in, Big Chiril, Elder Forsyth, Eric and Elder Godfrey

Sister Godfrey and Caroline Brinkman, an ex missionary visiting. It was great to see her, one of our favorites

Iulia at the sink, where she loves to be and Victor, who has come out a a shell and is now a loud teenager

From L , Jacob Johnson, an ex missionary, Mihai and Zlata

Far right is Tolio from Balti, visiting. He is a gem and a very deep thinker

A couple of pics from helping Regina Patis, a Dutch charity. Elder Vashchenko and Eder Housington doing mattresses

Missionaries attending to Attends

FHE, with Elder Welling and Sister Dusenberry posing

Sister and Elder Godfrey at their first FHE

Tatiana and Sister Langenstein in the forest, where we played Frisbee golf.So it was a good week, mostly, except for the illness and the shredded tire. which were dehydrating and deflating, respectively.