It has been too long since my last post. It seems like almost every minute of our time is needed to keep up with our responsibilities as managers of the employment center, and preparing our lessons for English Connect. However, we would not want it any other way. We have had so many rewarding experiences in both areas. We didn't think that we would be able to love the new people in our current English class like we did the ones in our previous class, but we definitely do. It is so great to look into the eyes of these people and see how earnestly they want to be able to speak English, and to have everyone's attention all the time. 

We now have 4 of our students that are attending Sacrament Meeting with us at the Spanish speaking ward. We are still teaching Abelardo English for two hours after Sacrament Meeting is over. He is a great young man and is studying in between classes to do the best he can to learn English. We had 25 people show up the last two classes in our 7 pm class. There is no more room for chairs. It is so great to see the room full of people eager to learn. 

This last week, we had a meeting on Friday with the head of the BYU Pathways program from Salt Lake. Along with him was the missionary couple that supervise the English Connect program for our area and the Missionary Couple that supervise the BYU Pathways program. The BYU pathways program has really grown and is changing constantly to better help underprivileged people be able to get an education. They are federally accredited with their program. They have a certificate program where someone the student takes one class at a time, and earn a certificate. For instance, someone from another country that is an accountant, but has no license or proof of their abilities in the U.S., can earn a certificate in accounting and get a job working in an accounting firm while they are taking their classes. I'm not sure without checking my notes, but I think each certificate takes 6 months to earn, and once they earn a certain number of certificates in that field of study, they earn a Bachelor's Degree. They can earn a Bachelor's Degree in as little as 3 years of continuous study. They have an anonymous  donor in this area that is covering the majority of the costs for the Hispanic students to the point that the BYU Pathways program is almost free for them. Here is a picture of the people we met with at the Employment Center:

We got together with the other Senior Missionaries last Monday for a dinner to celebrate Sister Triplett's Birthday. She has to be in her 80's and is the mission nurse. Here is the picture of our group at the Cotton Patch Restaurant:

Sister Triplett is the one at the far right hand side of the table in black. She is such a sweet lady. Velyn asked the housing coordinator for the mission if they had a recliner. She has been wanting me to get one because of my fibromyalgia but I didn't want to spend the money. Sister Triplett had a really nice one and she offered to let us have it. Before you think what a bad person I am for taking a recliner from a sweet little old lady, she hardly ever uses it because it is so big and she is so tiny. She had two other recliners built into her sofa that she uses. 

It really struck me that in this picture, the only person that was here when we arrived was Sister Triplett. Now we have been on our mission longer than all the rest of the Senior Missionary Couples in the mission. We are the oldie moldies. It just doesn't seem possible that we have been here over 10 months now. Our biggest concern is that the missionary couple that will come to replace us will be here at least a couple of months prior to us leaving so we have enough time to train them. The couple before us left in May of 2023 and we arrived in January of 2024. Fortunately, they had someone that could act as interim manager. Now, we do not have any Service Missionaries that would be able to serve in that capacity. We just hope that they can get a couple called and be here in time to get the necessary training so the center doesn't have to be closed. 

I think that I mentioned before that our lotion bill has gone up significantly, mainly because of my increased surface area. So, I started back on my Keto Diet several weeks ago. I have lost 9 lbs so far so it is going well. I found a Keto granola that I really I really like, only 2 grams of net carbs per serving. I was feeling like this was really great until I looked at the amount of 1 serving which was 1/4 cup! It is so ridiculous that I took a picture of how much 1/4 cup is:

I did learn though that 1/4 cup is equal to about 3 bites.  It must still be ok to eat more of it since I have still been able to lose some weight eating it. I only have 100 lbs. to go so it will be tough to lose that much by July.

Velyn's Sister and Brother-In-Law, Paul and Deana Day came to visit their two daughters that live here in Houston, Jana and Carly. We were surprised when they stopped into the Employment Center last Monday. We got to visit with them again tonight for awhile. It is always great to be able to see family. 

We have a really busy week coming up. We have Senior Missionary Family Home Evening tomorrow night, (Monday) and Velyn is supposed to take pumpkin pie. I wouldn't let her make her famous pumpkin pie because I know I couldn't resist it, so I bought some pies at the grocery store that I'm sure I can resist. Tuesday is our monthly staff meeting and luncheon and Velyn is going to make mashed potatoes for it. We are having a Thanksgiving Dinner for our luncheon. In a few weeks, it will be time for us to cook the whole dinner for the 25 people at English Connect. One Elder is allergic to dairy products, and two Elders are allergic to gluten so that narrows down what we can make. 

Well, I need to get busy on our English Connect lesson for Tuesday night. In case you can't tell, we are loving our mission and have already had more rewarding experiences than we could ever had hoped for.