Our Weekend with Elder Hales

Last weekend we were blessed with a once in a life time experience. We had an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ stay with us in our home, Elder Robert D. Hales. Sunday evening after a little walk around the block we decided that this weekend may have been one of the best of our married lives! It was so sweet and filled with our family and our values and beliefs and an APOSTLE. We will probably never be able to say that again. We feel so very blessed to have been in the presence of Elder Hales for the past two days. Dennis was his constant companion and really enjoyed that experience. To know that man is to love him. He has a very sweet and positive approach to life. Not one of us was untouched by his goodness. He complimented everything and made each of us feel like we were the most important person in the room. Chase really enjoyed him. They watched the last quarter of the Utah football game together and had a ball! Elder Hales is a HUGE football fan so he was definitely in the right house. His Stake Conference addresses were inspiring and uplifting. Saturday evening he taught about what we can do as parents to help our youth. He stressed communication and told us to NOT be afraid we will offend our children by asking them what they are doing with their lives. Today he spoke in depth about the Temple. He shared some great stories and then taught us from the scriptures. In five minutes he was funny then serious then deeply spiritual. We had never seen the humorous side of Elder Hales before and we enjoyed that but his spiritual side was what we will forever remember. At the conclusion of conference many people felt that they wanted to shake his hand. His health is quite poor but he was committed to stand and shake as many hands as possible. Afterwards he went into Dennis’ office and had to sit in a chair and rest a while. It really took a lot out of him but he wanted to do it and meet the members of our stake.

He was so very sweet to me. A more gracious person would be hard to find. Last night after the adult session of conference I got home after he and Dennis did. As I walked in the door Elder Hales shouted out “We’re glad you’re home!” He was just so sweet. He loved Chase and really engaged him in every conversation. I complimented him on his talk and he said, “I was just trying to follow up on what the others had spoken about.” I also complimented Dennis on his talk and Elder Hales said, “Isn't he a great speaker?” Always quick to compliment and build. He was easy to please and totally un-demanding. I worried about him but he was so grateful that he had been able to do all that he did. He hasn’t traveled much lately because of health concerns and this trip was something of a test and he was so thrilled that he was passing it! He said he is hoping they will send him on more trips after this. Most of us would think that if our health was failing we should just give up and stay home, but not him. When he is speaking he delivers a strong message. He is a great example of wearing yourself out serving the Lord.
What a glorious time we have had and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Alyvia Jade Danielson with Gramps and Elder Robert D. Hales

I'm pretty sure this is what Elder Hales is looking at in the above picture:

Jacob Todd , Luke Andrew and Nathan James Danielson with Gramps and Elder Robert D. Hales

We will never forget this amazing weekend.!

My Guys

There have been few moments when I have been more proud of my family than this weekend. Not in the sense of "they are better than anyone else" but instead more like, "we made it through Elder Hales visit without anyone burping, spilling, or throwing a tantrum" there was no fighting or arguing, no teasing things just went smooth, perhaps that is why we were so happy we were almost silly, and believe me once he was gone the teasing resumed as normal. Dennis and Chase serenaded Bekah and I with this little song last Sunday evening after

Elder Hales left! These two really enjoy each other.

Aprons

There is one thing about being the wife of a Stake President that I totally LOVE...well more than one but this one thing I totally love and that is the opportunity to rub shoulders with the wife's of the Bishops in our Stake. I don't get to do it as

much as I would like to but when I do

I LOVE it.

Once a year Dennis has a meeting with all of the Bishop's wife's (one wife per Bishop, that sounded a little fishy hahaha)! We also have Sister Haws and Sister Benson the wife's of Dennis' counselors come. Dennis usually talks to us for a few minutes and expresses his love and gratitude and we have a testimony meeting. It's awesome, and very spiritual. I love to make something for them because I know that it is not easy to be the wife of a Bishop and I want them to know how much I appreciate all that they do. Being the wife of a Bishop involves a lot of sacrifice. These women are awesome. This year I decided to make them aprons. Here they are!

Sabbatical

After a busy week at BYU for Education Week, which we thoroughly enjoyed we went to Salt Lake City to stay with Doug and Debbie and prepare for the next 80th birthday party! This is what the refreshments looked like...The Sister-in-law's AKA kitchen help!

Rhonda, Debbie, Denette and Bonnie

Denette, Don, Dennis, and Doug...the Fab 4!

Faunda and Ivan with their really tall friends...two of many who showed up that evening!

Dennis with Aunt Ina, we love to get to see her when we come to town, she is such a sweetheart.

After a week and a half in Utah we drove through Wyoming and toured Martin's Cove. It is very interesting. The Church has done an amazing job of preserving this church historical site. We heard lots of heart wrenching stories about the Martin Handcart company and what they did to survive. What an amazing place. The missionaries there were so kind and helpful, we really enjoyed the few hours we got to spend there.
This is the visitiors Center...everything was very green and lush around the visitors center.
After we got through hiking and sweating at Martin's Cove we got back in our little black Caddy and headed towards Denver and Jerry! It was so fun to visit her. One of the bonus' was that we got to see Bill and Tracee and their adorable kids. We went to a movie, went shopping, went out to dinner(s) went to one of Cody's little league games, went to church and had a fun family dinner on Sunday. We packed a lot into a short amount of time and it was awesome.

Here is Jerry and Nicole.

Saying Good-Bye is always the hard part!


Then we were off to New Mexico. We stayed with our dear friends the Bergstens and went out to dinner with all of our friends who still live there. It was great to renew old acquaintances and get to see our dear friends again. We all still look exactly like we did in 1988 when we first moved to N.M..
Vicki, Cindy, Kristy, Bonnie and MaryAnn

After all that fun it was time to come home! We drove home only to find out that we had missed a call from Church Headquarters while we were on the road. Dennis called first thing on Wednesday morning and was shocked and surprised to find out that we have

Elder Robert D. Hales
coming to our Stake Conference in 10 days. Normally we have gotten about a six week notice AND we just had Bishop Edgeley for our last conference. WE are so excited! What a great opportunity this is going to be!

That was the first leg of our Sabbatical!