Sunday, April 28 Our busy week started with apartment problems for Jerry. After apartment inspections he had tons of repairs to report and get fixed. Then an elder called reporting fleas in his apartment and bites all over. The week was spent in fumigating the apartment one, waiting for the next hatching, then fumigating again. Poor elders were bitten all over. Good thing one is strong - he leaves in June for BYU football, but that just meant there was more area to bite on him. Then when that was being fixed another set of elders had their apartment complex catch on fire and they had time to get their things and get out and the apartment received water damage. There is always something to deal with. I only had strange referrals - one that kept calling from the State Mental Hospital and one that wanted to have the missionaries come over to discuss some points in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants - which usually means they want to bash. The missionaries called afterwards and said it was quite the strange conversation but they are taking him to church today. This will be interesting to follow through. Then another missionary came into the office wondering how bad he really looked. It seemed it went to a college barber school for a hair cut and the lady forgot to put the guard on the clipper and zipped right through the side of his head. He had a freeway look. He said she started crying and apologizing and wanted to give him a total buzz, which he knew was not mission rules. So we just left. We sent him to a professional and told him to tell her to just try and even the sides and leave it at long as possible on the top. He is so cute and was so worried. He's one of my favorites and I wanted to just cry with him, but he came back after the cut and looked presentable and in two weeks it will probably all be grown out. I'd show you his picture, but I'd probably embarrass him so you'll have to wait to see him in my scrapbook. Now for the positive. I went to Enrichment meeting at our ward's Relief Society and learned about cutting knives - shape, size and usage. Then we cut and made pico de gallo. I took it on Friday for the missionaries to try with chips. It was a little strong, I thought, but the missionaries will eat anything. Then the ultimate was Friday night when Janice Kapp Perry came to put on a fireside in Lakewood Stake and the Trotters invited us to go with them. They are the MLS senior couple in Lakewood. What a fabulous fireside. She is a marvelous lady with abundant talent as you all know with 10 of her 1,500 songs in the Primary Children's Songbook. She had us sing with her and she sang personal songs she had written to us. She also sang in the Tabernacle Choir. She said some ideas that I need to work on. "You don't need to have a beautiful voice ... we should have something to sing about. Make the music simple, the words simple, but the message profound." Her goal in writing songs for the Primary is that Primary songs should come back to children when they need them. When it's set to music - it goes deeper. Look for her latest song in the last couple of Ensigns called "The Voice of the Spirit." They performed it that evening with flute and cello accompaniment. We were there early and she visited with us and it was so fun. She's also a sports jock and it was so funny to hear about her love of anything sports related. I'll post a bad picture of Sister Trotter and me with her. Then the Trotters and we went on a driving exploration of the Peninsula. I learned the entire peninsula is called the Kitsap Peninsula. We had been half way through it, but went to the top to a town called Point Gamble. What a beautiful picturesque place. It's at the point where the Hood Canal and the Puget Sound meet. It was once a Mill town for lumber. The homes are Victorian and now mainly shops and restaurants. I'll include some pictures. It's a National Historic site and mostly used for biking, kayaking and camping. Then we drove back through the Viking town of Poulsbo to the Bainbridge Island - very touristy with a ferry there that connects it to Seattle. We just sent the sisters there to open the area up and we saw them doing their job. All was very pretty and it was a great day with milder weather. This coming week is Temple Days for the missionaries. We will take them up in three groups - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with buses, lunches and visiting. They love going to the Temple and will be in a session of all missionaries. We get to do one session and then carrying food and supplies the other days. Will report next week with, hopefully, good pictures. Love you all and miss you. Hope called me to say our tulips looked beautiful in our yard. Drive by and enjoy for us.