This week started with an ice storm.. On Sunday I had to sit in my freezing car and let it warm up so I could put my trusty ice scrapper to work removing the thick layer of ice that was covering my car.. This Arizona girl is getting handy with many things here in on the East coast.  I turned out to be a beautiful day, sunny but bitter cold.. We had made an appointment to visit one of the sisters in the ward after church & decided to go with the Young Women's President Becky to 3 homes.  Becky needed to visit the girls & we wanted to get to know the families as well.   All three of the houses that we were visiting were in Amish communities and we saw "10" Amish buggies driving down the roads as we traveled.. I just love seeing them..

     The weatherman advised all to stay in on Monday morning due to severe ice on the roads, they had closed the government offices and the schools until 11:00 am. So we stayed put and made phone calls and talked to sisters and made appointments for visits later in the week. Tues. the apartment management said that all our apartments would have our quarterly visit by the exterminator and so we waited for them to come.. the time frame they gave us was 8 to 5.. We waited all day and no one showed. So while we were at home I worked on the cards for our 1st wards monthly card group that meets the first Tuesday of each month.  Sister Brown worked on mending the elders pants..

     Wednesday was our day at the temple and we now have a passenger traveling with us each Weds.  It is Kathleen Sponaugle, she asked if she could ride up with us and we thought it was a great idea.. She is excited to be able to go and do work while we are on our shifts..

 The holly tree in the Stevens yard, it was beautiful

Tina Stevens
     Thursday we visited 3 sisters from the first ward. Ann is a mom with 4 kids and is going to nursing school, it has been hard to schedule a visit with her, so we were glad that we finally worked it out.  We next visited Tina, she is a very talented lady. She teaches piano in her home and is taking guitar lessons. She is the teacher in our card group that we have each month.  In their front yard they have a holly tree that is huge and so pretty with the red berries on it.  I had never seen a holly tree before and so it was amazing to me.  Her husband is in the Air Force and holds the highest rank for an enlisted man.  He is the High Priest Group leader in the 1st ward and they are really so much fun. Our next visit was with Sarah.. she is a mom of 4 and her husband is in the military. They are moving to North Carolina in a few weeks.  We have gotten to know Sarah and her kids and they always run up and give us big hugs.  We will miss them. 

     On Friday we visited a cute little sister named Vera. She is a retired critical care nurse and was so much fun to get to know.  She came to church today for the first time in a long time and we were so glad to see her.  We stopped in at the bank on our way to our next visit and a woman approached me and said " well hello sister Harper, it's so nice to see you again", I didn't know who she was and she explained that she had been at the relief society evening meeting last week and really enjoyed our tasting demo.  She just started coming back to church and when I asked her if we could come see her she readily accepted our invitation for a visit. We then went to visit Ashley, who is a darling young sister who just moved back to Maryland from Utah.  She graduated in interior design and is currently looking for a job. She grew up here so it was really fun to visit with her.  One of the families in our ward own a health food store so our next stop was at Country Nutrition, we found some great things and they offered to order some dairy free things for me that I have been having a hard time finding out here.. On Friday evening we were invited to dinner at the home of the Morningstar's.. sister Morningstar is from Spain and met her husband while he was serving in the military there.  They live right around the corner from us and we love to visit with her.  The elders came to dinner also and we were treated to a wonderful meal. 
     Today was so much fun walking into church and being able to greet so many people by name that I met.. I really do love our wards and the friends we have made here.  I saw someone who looked like she was a little lost and stopped to talk to her.. She said it was her first time to our ward, that she had just moved here and so I introduced her to several people before church started and we sat with her.  We are going over to visit with her next week.. We took our day timers to church with us and made several appointments for next week.. yeah !  This evening we were invited over to brother Henrichsen's home for dinner, he also invited 2 of the sisters in the ward and his home teaching companion.  Brother Henrichsen lost his wife in December. When he called and asked us to dinner I asked what we could bring and he said just your appetite.  When we arrived the table was set beautifully.. We had a salad bar first, then salmon stuffed with crab, baked potatoes and peas.. and a fruit compote for dessert.. We were so impressed at his cooking skills.. After dinner we visited Rebekah and her family.  Her husband is in the army and is the equivalent of a senior special agent in the NCIS for the Army.  He had some great stories to share. They have 4 of the cutest boys and a baby girl.  We got lots of hugs and kisses and really helped with our grama fix.
      This coming week we have appointments set already for several visits and evening RS in 1st ward, the temple on Weds. so we should have a fantastic week..

 I saw this quote this week and wanted to end my post tonight with it:

What we love determines what we seek,

What we seek determines what we think and do,

What we think and do determines what we become.      

 Dieter F. Uchtdorf