Here is our little district group picture with our instructor. He is a history major with asperations as a lawyer. The people on the left are going to Mongolia, the ones on the right of us are going to Chile, and the people on the right to Omaha, Nebraska.
This is our intire class of senior missionaries. Three couples are going to Russia, three others to LDS vistor centers. The shortest Sister in the front is going to Macon Georgia and is from Germany. Here are some of our instructors. It is beautiful to see what a spirit they bring with them. The one is the middle has been a member 5 years and went to Houston, Tx. The one closest went to Russia. Sorry I didn't get any of the Sister instructors. They were amazing and beautiful. The one most impressive was a Sister from Hawaii who was half Hawian and Tongan.
We had the pleasure of walking up the hill to the Provo temple three times. On Thursday we were able to take in a session at 6:00pm.

We have just finished our training at the MTC after just 5 days. We will wait until tomorrow at 1:30 pm to take the shuttle to the airport and be off at 5:00 pm. We fly to Los Angeles where we catch a New Zealand Air flight at 9:30 pm. It will be a 12 ¾ hour flight. Our travel will take us over the international date line so I will miss Sunday and Fathers Day completely.

It has been a wonderful experience here to see that we really can teach and bear testimony. Our young returned missionary instructors have been so good and we so much enjoy seeing the Elders and Sisters. There are 1700 of them this week and next week they expect there will 2,200. They open doors for us and even on occasion take our trays to the bussing station. We are going to miss their exemplary looks, character, and enthusiasm. One evening we were doing our laundry and four Elders came up to us and began a conversation. Before they left they all wanted to bear their testimonies. It was great. They come here from all corners of the world. It is so fun to see South Americans coming to teach in the US, and Americans learning Spanish and Portuguese to teach in South America. The same is true everywhere.

We see in the cafeteria each day two identical twin sisters from Guatemala, dressing and putting up their hair exactly alike each day. They will be going to two different missions in the US. One Elder from Korea is going is going to California to teach in Spanish. I do have a question about that. Will he role his L’s since they don’t have an R in their vocabulary. It is inspiring to see what great strength this gives the church to have so many young people give up these years to serve the Lord. Another strength is the multiple languages we will have in the church.

Photo's of Amanda & Amie

We took Amie and Amanda to the Lehi Library where they were surprised that they have a 5th great grandfather, David Evans who founded Lehi. We took their picture infront of his statue
Infront of the Mt. Timpanogas temple

This is in front of the North visitors center in SLC

Some scenes around the Allen neighborhood

Judy and I took a drive around the Allen Neighborhood to give you a flavor of the ward they live in. At the top is a brand new Christian High School that can be seen for miles as it is on the top of a ridge facing west. It has a beautiful view of the rockies. The next photo is the playing fields which include, baseball, softball, leCross, soccer and in the fore ground football. The football field is not finished yet. Inside the buildings include an olympic size swimming pool and gyms.

The next picture is of some homes that can be seen from the road on the way to Chase's school and their church. The street scene is taken infront of Jenni's house. The large home is taken from the back side, as it is in a gated community. It too, faces the mountains and they must have some spectacular sunsets. The windmill is part of the original Highlands Ranch which is to be made into an historic park some day.

We are getting excited about this week as we leave on Thursday for Utah. We are now concerned with what and how much to take with us. The airlines are very picky about weight and size of luggage. Judy has been very good about finding out the details of travel, obtaining flights, rental car and accomodations.

Birthday Party

Judy has spent most of her time with the children. I have been working on floor projects in the house. This afternoon I went with Rob and his brother Jeff and shot Rob's shot gun at clay pigions. It was in part a gift to Jeff for his 35th birthday. For me it was a lot of fun and a large bruise on my shoulder. We each too 45 shots. In the evening we went over to Jeff's for desert and played some simple games. I didn't get pictures of our earlier activity but here are some at the birthday party.

Here are the children with their cousin Tanner who is holding a red balloon.
They are such hams. We have been trying to potty train the twins but as you can see they didn't even make it to the party so they are in diapers.

Memorial Day

This is the first year in many that we have not been able to go to our parents graves and decorate them with flowers from our yard. We were able to go on a picnic that was probably the coldest in our record book.

Judy and Rob's brother and sister in-law were basking in the beautiful cool weather on Memorial Day.

Rob with the twins enjoying the day.

Judy and Taylor waiting for cake that was topped with glazed strawberrys.

Jenni got a little close to the topping. I think she was licking the spoon.

We are excited because Judy has had success getting the twins to pee in the toilet. We have high hopes.

We just got word that our visa's are in at the missionary department so there will be no delays for our departure. We have made reservations to fly to SLC on May 5, where we hope to see family and enjoy the area before we enter the MTC in Provo.

Some Pictures

This is a shot from the upper entrance to Jenni's neighborhood. It shows what is left of the original Highlands Ranch, and how much higher than it is than Denver in the distance. I hope you can see the downtown buildings in the upper right.

Here is Chase with his new T-Ball baseball hat. I havn't seen him without it all daly.

Here is Zach on the landing leading to his parents bed room. On the left is their playroom and on the right is the hall leading to the three bedrooms and bathroom.
Here is a bull on the ranch with the rockies in the background. Sorry I didn't get the pictures a very good order.
This is the originall ranch house and out buildings, etc.

This is the entrance to the neighborhood accross the street from the ranch where the bull was standing.
Here is Chase sleeping with his soccor trophy. After his first T-Ball practice he asked where his new T-ball trophy was.

Latest Project

Thought you might like to see my handy work.

On the left is the step up to the bath tub. We are still trying to put that project together. I have to cut the lip off the step and then there will be some tile cutting to do.

Here is our oldest grandson Jeremy Hoagland, who will be joining the Air Force as soon as he graduates from Aloha High School in early June. We are sad that we will not be able to be there as we are very proud of him and want to wish him the best in his Air Force career.

Above is our littlest grandchild, Taylor. She is a lot of fun as is her twin brother Jesse (in the background). We are so glad to get to know them before we leave for NZ. All four of the children have been Judy's project and are keeping her very busy.

Jenni is getting some much needed relief from all her labors although there is still plenty for her to do. I have enjoyed going to the different stores with her as we get materials, etc. for the tiling projects. I have enjoyed this time with her as we talk in the car and while we work together.

The finished product, new AC grills

Here are some excerpts from Jack's diary. He spent nearly two weeks in Salina, Utah helping his brother get his recently purchased motel in better shape.

On Monday, April 21, Gary flew me to Salt Lake City, picked me up, and drove me to Salina, Utah where I have been helping get his motel into shape. I spent the first three days putting new cover grills over the air conditioning units (60 of them). It was a very difficult job for an old guy like me. I worked on my knees having some difficulty removing the old grills. They were fastened from the inside so I had to drill out the bolts. Some had outside screws and others (2 or 3) were very loosely attached. The person who measured did not measure all the openings so some openings were too small and others were a little too big. We had to cut the brick to make the small ones work and the larger ones just added to the difficulty. I attached the new ones to the brick by drilling six pilot holes and driving screws into plastic anchors. This created quite a mess which I had to clean up each evening.
Next I fixed old anchor marks in the bathrooms by knocking them back enough to make a small hole and filling them with chalk and then painting. I also put in new threshold rubber inserts in 20 units. Helped change a hose bib and re-chalked 12 bath tubs. I also put in several door stops.
On Saturday the 26th Loretta, Gary & I went on a drive down hwy 12 which is known to be one of the most scenic drives in the country. It was very nice but the morning was pretty hazy. We then went on to Bryce National Park which I found to be magnificent. We had a good trip together. I took lots of pictures.
Thursday, May 1, I finished up some of the work I was doing in the morning. I went to lunch with Gary’s contractor, Craig and his maintenance man, Chris. We had a good visit and I explained what I had done and what I hadn’t done so they could finish up. Around 2:45 Loretta took me to the airport. Gary thought I was going home on Friday and Loretta would only have to make one trip. He was wrong; he had made my flight a day Above is a shot from HWY 12 earlier so now she will have to make 2, four hour trips to the airport. They have to make another trip on Sunday when Loretta fly’s with their daughter Kelly to Texas.

This is my brother Gary and me at Bryce Canyon. It is the only time you will see me look taller than Gary as you can see the angle of the ground by the rail.

Saturday, May 3, I took Chase to his soccer game. He has a reputation of not running very much. While he did stand a lot, today he played a lot more. He even took the ball the length of the field and scored a goal, which amazed everyone. When he fell down he would just stand there until someone cleaned him off. Quite a four year old. This afternoon I got on the trampoline with all the kids had them all squealing as I bounced them around and tickled them. It didn’t take long to wear me out. The trampoline is set into a hillside so you can enter on ground level. I was sitting just outside the net opening and little Chase would come out every so often and give me a big hug and then go back in and jump some more. They can all just melt your heart.

First Report

April 17, 2008, Thursday
Some more info on the continuing saga of the New Zealand visa application. The Church travel office returned our applications because we failed to include three photos' each that needed over-signatures from the doctor, blood drawer, and the x-ray technician. There were also some other omissions I won’t go into. We hope to get this all done today.
This is a different community than we left in Salem. It is a town that has homes beginning in the 400,000s and up. They all have neighborhood fees that pay for common lawns and open spaces, playgrounds, and sports and fitness facilities. We have four fitness facilities to choose from. Each has its own advantage, such as the one we go to has a better indoor pool while another has a better outdoor pool. It is fun to watch the “beautiful people” do their thing.
The neighborhoods for the most part are very quiet except for the houses that butt up against the parkways. We hear no boom boxes or loud exhaust. While there are Asians living here everyone else seems to be European. They are not snobbish though, one neighbor parks his mazirotti in his driveway 24-7 and others park in the street just like at home. The only Hispanic’s we see are the cleaning lady, the landscapers in the back yard and the garbage men.
On the 11th Jenni & Rob left on vacation to Hawaii. Rob’s mother and Sister came from Utah to help us with the children. We took them all to church last Sunday (13th) and it went pretty well. That afternoon we went to Jeff & Chris’s to see their new home. Saturday I went with Rob’s family to a large sports outfitter in North east Denver. It was very interesting as they had some wonderful big game displays, furniture for the hunting cabin, etc. as well as large departments of various sportsmen’s gear.
Monday & Tuesday I went to the fitness center and worked out a short time. It is taking some time to acclimatize myself to this altitude. It is a very modern facility with new equipment. Much different than the “Golds Gym back home. I have gone three times so far this week.
On Tuesday we (3 children, GM Allen, Aunt Wendy, and us) went on a long hike up to a promontory at 6310 ft. That was a real feat for me as I am not used to this altitude. It was very warm and very windy and we all got sunburned. On Wednesday it cooled off and snowed 4”. I had to go over to the doctors office to get some more things done with regards to the visa and had to keep the slush off the windshield. The heat from the defroster burned my poor sunburned ears. What a climate. 80 degree weather one day and snow the next.
One interesting thing happened earlier. Grandma Allen and Wendy left for the temple around 12:45 pm and intended to attend the 2:00 pm session. About 5:30 I noticed they were not back yet and the temple is only 15 minutes away. I thought they may have wanted some time together and went for something to eat. Five minutes later she called. They were lost. I guess the snow had disoriented her. She told me where she was but I had no idea how to help her but fortunately my gps was in the van and I explained how to use it and 45 minutes later they were home.
April 18, Friday
I went and picked up Jenni & Rob at the airport. They were in pretty bad shape after an all night flight. Rob had to work this afternoon. We finally got word that our visa application was received and complete. That is a relief. It will take 3 weeks to get approved but if we have something they don’t like it may take as much as 6 months.
After Zach got home from school I took him and Chase to the park to play. Two funny things happened at that park yesterday and today. Yesterday it was cold but Zach still wanted to go to the park. The snow was melted by then so I said ok. After a short time I encouraged him to go down a slide. I was on the platform with him and he decided to go down one that was a curved covered tube. As I waited for him to come out a large quantity of slush preceded his exit. You should have seen his face and the squeal that came out of his mouth. That quickly ended that play time.
As we were leaving the park today Zach went to the rest room which is an outhouse type facility with brick walls and plenty of vents. All of a sudden you could hear in a very loud but on pitch voice, “Oh How Lovely was the Morning.” That is his current favorite song. Previously it was “I Believe in Christ”. Zach is 9 and suffers from Cerebral Palsy and Autism. He presents a lot of challenges but what a joy he brings.