Thanksgiving with our friends

On Thanksgiving we had a small gathering at Elder and Sister Stephens house. The Wolfleys were also going home for 6 weeks but not sure if they were coming back. They left all their stuff here and he said he would be back for sure even if Sister Wolfley wasn't able to return for medical reasons. So we had a nice dinner. I cooked the turkey with my stuffing and everyone else made good things to eat. Sister Stephens made carrot souffle which was amazing. I could have eaten that all nite!

 No meat rack for the turkey so I improvised.

Elder and Sister Stephens, me and Sister and Elder Wolfley. sister Bray took the picture

Thanksgiving at the Chappells

One of the counselors in our Mission Presidency is in charge of entertaining the Senior missionaries, that's us!. So they were so gracious to open their home for us for a Thanksgiving mini conference and luncheon. It was really nice! They have a large, tastefully home in the Woodlands area of Houston, up north. It was a pot luck except for main course which they supplied, lasagna from Macaroni Grill which was adequate. Everyone had a great time. We played a little get to know you game and President and Sister Mortensen gave outstanding talks. After I went to work at the temple and it made the whole day wonderful.

 Outside patio. The picture of the pool didn't turn out - next year

 President Mortensen and some of the other brothers in the home theater room!

Bishops Store House

Right next door to our office is the storehouse. Elder and Sister Sulin run it. They have rotating service missionaries that work with them along with volunteers from the wards assigned to assist on the weekly distribution day which is Tuesday. On that day the parking lot is FULL! They are great people and will be leaving from their assignment in February. He is an Ohio State fan but we get along very well.

 Elder and Sister Sulin

The Food Storage Center

I should have introduced the food storage warehouse first so here it is. The Halls from Boise man it along with the Simpsons who are local missionaries. This is where people come to stock up on staples for their food storage. Lots of cases of dry goods and for some reason these awful bags of Christmas cinnamon candy. We couldn't get rid of it fast enough, In fact it lasted until way after Christmas!

 Sister and Elder Hall

Thanksgiving!

Every year the building here has a Thanksgiving luncheon and this year was no exception. There was a ton of food. Sister Bray loves to cook so she made a fruit salad and our boss deep dried a turkey. There was also a roast, tamales, lots of salads and sides and rolls. Tons of deserts too. It was held in the food storage center so they had to move all the pallets out of the way and set up tables. Probably 30+ people came, wives, husbands and such and it was real nice.

 Deep frying turkey out back

 Elder Mathews, Sister Gaughan, Alex and Elder Gaughan watching the turkey cook

The Peanut Butter Factory

The back half of our building is the Peanut Butter factory for all the church. they make peanut butter 9 months out of the year. this year they are upgrading all the electrical before they fire up for the new year. Brother & Sister Wolfley from Oregon are the service missionaries there. Brother & Sister Hall from Boise came a couple of months ago but they are only doing a 6 month mission. There are half a dozen employees that run the cannery. Most of the peanut butter is for the church but lots of it is donated to food banks also. These are some pictures I took during the down/cleaning time.

Cattle!

Right down the street from where I live on the way to work is this pasture and small farm house with a field of produce and another of cattle. so odd in the middle of the city, very odd!