Don & Laura ***20 years*** and still in LOVE!

For our 20 year anniversary Don planned a fabulous little get-away for us! He is too Sweet! He arranged for my sister and her husband to stay with the kids while we were gone, THANKS SHALA & PAT! We drove to Las Vegas and he took me right to the Las Vegas temple. It is a beautiful temple and this was the first time we had been there.

Don got down on one knee and proposed to me again...with an amazing diamond ring! I said "YES" of course! The next day we went out to dinner at a 5 star restaurant, Craft Steak, then we went to a David Copperfield show, which was incredible! We had so much fun being away together, just the two of us!

This is me wearing my new 20 year anniversary ring! This is the beautiful fruit basket that was waiting for us at the hotel. THANKS to Don & Anna for all their help to make our anniversary so special!

We feel so blessed to have each other and to still love each other so much after 20 years of marriage!

FUN FAMILY NIGHT OUT!

DAVE'S FIRST SAMOA PICTURES

We got our first pix of our sweet, adorable, fabulous son, Elder Gage in Samoa!!!

We got a really long email from Dave this week. It was about 1 1/2 pages! But we are still anxiously awaiting his letter because it has a camera card in it. Not just any camera card but THE first camera card from Samoa!! So as soon as we get pix from Samoa we will post them.
Anyway back to his email, he said that it is so cool in Samoa because everyone there treat the elders like kings and everyone invites them in because they all believe that the missionaries are "disciples of Christ"! But everyone is also deeply entrenched in their own religion that they don't see the need to change. Dave said, "it is easy as a missionary to teach the general stuff that everyone else believes but I want to teach those issues, like a modern prophet, that really sets us apart". He has had a few experiences that have shown him that baptizing the world is not as easy as the MTC makes it seem. But he does have 5 baptisms coming up, they are just waiting on birth certificates.
He also said that he "is really going to miss Sili when I get transferred. I'm loving my study of the scriptures, but its hard for me because I love my studying so much, that I end up running out of time to study language".
We love Dave so much for serving the Lord! Keep praying for him!

more TN pix....

Happy New Year to all!! Here are some pictures from our fabulous trip to Tennessee!! We LOVE the Tennessee Lifferths/Zurawskis!!!

We got our first email from Dave the Monday after he got to Samoa, (Mondays are p-days). It was very short but good. He said "I'm showering out of a bucket and we have to cross the river to visit with members but I'm serving the Lord in a tropical paradise so it is all good"!
But we didn't get an email the next Monday so we were bummed. We thought it would tell us when and how to call him on Christmas. But....
HE CALLED US!!! On Christmas Day we were in Tennessee and he called on our cell phone. He called from a members cell phone (cell phones are very popular in Samoa). We got that cell phone number and called him back from my mom & dad's home phone,(THANKS mom & dad!!!) because my cell doesn't allow international calls. We talked for about 3 hours!!! HE IS DOING GREAT!!! It's all new to him and definitely taking some serious getting used to but "its all good". He lives in a small 20x20 shed behind the church. His comp is nice. The food is good but the same thing for almost every meal and got some tummy issues from that. He said he sent another camera card home, so as soon as we get it we will add pictures with more details.
It was so hard to say bye knowing we won't talk again until May. We cried and prayed for Dave after the phone call. WE are so PROUD of DAVE and we feel SO BLESSED TO HAVE A MISSIONARY!!!