Another busy Sabbath day which we love!  We have had a very low key week this past week as I have been diagnosed with a right "frozen shoulder" and have had to slow down a bit so I was ready to get up and go today.  I had this about 10 years ago in my other shoulder so had self diagnosed earlier and hoped it would go away with some self prescribed exercises but to no avail.  Had to go to the doctor last week and he confirmed my self diagnosis and is sending me for x-rays tomorrow.  I have to lie on my back to sleep because it is so uncomfortable to sleep on either side.  I asked the doctor if I got a discount on my visit since I had already diagnosed myself and he just confirmed it.  :)  All he said was, "My, aren't you a funny little lady."  At least he didn't say "funny old lady" and I was thrilled he thought I was "little".   Speaking of old, John and I had our 47th wedding anniversary on September 17th and we BOTH forgot it.  Part of the problem was that we didn't know what day it was.  I mean, we knew what day our anniversary was we just didn't know that the 17th was this past Tuesday.  Thank goodness Heather keeps track of special days and texted us a Happy Anniversary.  We had gone out to supper that night before so we both just pretended that we did that to celebrate our anniversary.  I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with this good man for this many years.  We love growing older together and count each day as a celebration and privilege to still be able to kneel together each day and thank God for his many blessings.  I must admit that it is getting harder and harder to get up from that kneeling prayer position. We spend a lot of time just laughing at ourselves these days.  We can often be seen "high fiving" each other when we are on an extremely busy highway and make the right exit and our GPS doesn't have to recalculate.  We have become very attached to our new GPS and really consider "her" one of the family.  We are so grateful that we were born in this era and not in the pioneer times.  I really think we should start to say please and thank you to our GPS more often.  We cannot imagine where we would end up in California without "her" guidance.  I only had 9 teenagers in Sunday School so I felt like I had been given some sort of reprieve this morning.  I actually think 2 of them may have been listening because they asked a question that had something to do with the lesson.  Be still my heart!!  I really do love those crazy kids and hope they are learning "something" in class.  I had sharing time in Primary this morning and we had a great game on service.  We have 2 other American couples who are serving as service missionaries in the Marshallese Branch.  Sister Turner has made remarkable progress in teaching the Marshallese children appropriate church behavior.  It was a delight to be with them this morning.  We are whittling away at the new member lessons that we teach each week.  We go into members homes who have joined the church in the last 12-15 months  and teach them lessons about our doctrines as well as to help them understand how we do things at church.  For example, in our church we call the bread and water the "Sacrament" and other faiths call it communion.  They usually have some really great questions that we help answer.  It's been quite interesting some of the things that their friends have told them about "the Mormons" and then they ask us about them.  We are grateful that they are comfortable enough with us to ask us these questions.  Tonight was our last "Strengthening Marriage and Family" class in one of the wards.  We love to facilitate that wonderful class!  We have seen remarkable changes take place in the marriages of those who come to this class.  Sadly, there are some who still don't realize that it really, really pays to invest lots of spiritual, emotional and physical energy into your marriage.  What a difference it makes when spouses apply gospel principles to their marriage.  John and I have a very good marriage but we have never taken each other for granted and constantly look for ways to improve our relationship.  This class is a real blessing to us because we have an opportunity to refocus on important things in our own marriage while we help others do the same in their marriage.  We do a lot of role playing in class and it really is a hoot.  Everyone laughs together because we see ourselves in these different role playing situations.   We did 6 sealings and 2 endowments last Thursday at the temple and have rededicated ourselves to doing better at family history work.  The temple is only 30 minutes away (depending on the time of day) and a large Family History Center is also very close to help us with obstacles in our searching for our ancestors.  I feel badly that I have not been more diligent in doing this very important work.  The new temple film has deeply touched us.  It has helped me look at the Fall of Adam in several different ways that I had not considered before.  How blessed we are! We feel extra blessed because it appears that our neighbors
no longer have their 2 dogs who serenaded us with their barking for long periods of time each day and evening. (LATE evening!)    Hope all is well with anyone who reads our blog.