On A Clear Day I Can Now See Forever

It has been another great week but the most important news is that the windows have been cleaned in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.....hurray! We can now see forever. We can enjoy the beautiful view from the windows we didn't get until we moved to this building in April. We were so excited to be out of the dungeon of the little basement room we were crammed into and to the wonderful digs of the 6th floor of the JSMB with windows all around us, but they were so dirty it looked like they hadn't been cleaned for many years....some told us 6 years. Well, we have since learned that the expense of cleaning the windows is planned for every two years and it just so happened that shortly after they were cleaned last time a rain and wind storm blew in and the raindrops were covered in dirt and the windows had no chance but to collect dirt for the following two years.

On a sunny day it was as if a film was put on the window and it was awful in the morning with the sun coming up over the mountains shining directly onto the window because all you could see was the dirty film.

This is what it was like trying to get a picture of the great view from the windows in the afternoon:



It is quite a big deal to get the window washers to rappel from the top of the building to wash each window. There was so much excitement last week that I'm sure the two men washing our windows felt like rock stars. Pictures were taken at each window, messages were typed up and taped to the inside to thank them, marriage proposals were offered.....(no, not really), but they were very much appreciated.




The before and after pictures below will show you what I mean:


The rest of the week was a normal work week. We are doing so well loading the Ghana and Nigeria records that we will be completely done with them in the next two weeks as planned. Our one young Elder whose parents are both from Nigeria was so excited to find a line of his family in the records he was loading. What a wonderful experience for him and all of us, finding our past.

Speaking of the past, I have enjoyed so much rejoining with friends from my past. Unruan (on my right in the picture) and Nuchanaad (on my left in the picture) have brought back to me memories of my first mission and the wonderful people I knew. Unruan was a companion of mine and together we taught the gospel to Nuchanaad. (Both of Nuchanaad's sons with her husband, Michael have been called on full time missions to Thailand. The youngest is still there.) I love them both and am so grateful for their love for me. It was a great end to the week.

The week actually ended with us helping Autumn and Derrick with Edison because they both were so sick. I am grateful that we were close by and could go and help them a little. It is so hard when both parents are sick and not able to take care of a little baby. It was a 24 hour bug, but it was brutal so we are happy we could go spend the night and ease their recovery.

This is what family is all about and I feel so blessed to have this family. This is what I can see clearly more each day, even without clean windows! Thank you Eddie! ^_^