The Sound of Lawn mowers

    Yes folks, this weeks installment is entitled the sound of lawn mowers because that is what we hear these days nearly every morning. Now that spring is here with warmer temperatures these people have to mow weekly and barely keep up at that rate. They mow almost straight up vertically on the hill sides and down in the hollers. Some lawn businesses really have some fancy and expensive equipment, sit down, ride on the back, some can cut a huge swath at a time. It's really very serious stuff to keep all this green managed. That probably is not very important but quite interesting.
   Our Pathway class is going great.  These are dedicated young people that work hard and want to get going with their education. We have  7 in our class and there is another class in the building of  30 and above that has about 15 in their class. They have their own local missionary couple ( they live at home in the area) that run that class. However they were out of town this week so Pat and I ran our Institute/ Pathway class as well as Elder and Sister Mazon's class. It was difinately a tag teem situation but we got it done.
   We've had our first round of sickness. Pat was sick with a cold then I got it. Not fun. We've learned that it is much better to be out and about serving than to be holed up in this little apartment. We are doing better this week.
   I taught two quilting classes to the ladies in the ward. We had about ten people that wanted to learn how to make a baby quilt so we had an 11:00 AM class and a 5:00 PM class to accommodate schedules. There are many agencies that baby items can be donated to. One of these is called Lilly's House which is a place for crack babies as well as other addictions. It really makes me sad to know how many drug related issues there are in this area. I'm happy to get to help even if it is in small ways.
    Our Self-reliance initiative in the stake is at the halfway point, six weeks done. Some of the groups are moving along nicely and others struggle. This first roll out is a good learning experience for everyone. As a stake only three wards are involved in the program. Pat and I will be going to three more wards next month to present it to their ward council. And then we will have the devotional where people sign up for a class if they want to. Other folks will be helping with the remaining wards or branches. This initiative is being rolled out now in Tucson.
    We love reading the great missionary letters. We have such fine folks representing our family, out to do the Lord's work.
    We love you and miss you all.
Almost Heaven, Traynors