Saturday, July 27 We had a nice Saturday after a horrendous week. It seemed many of the missionaries had problems: Started with a sister and an appendectomy, then an elder ate peanuts and went into allergic shock and had to be ambulanced to the hospital, then another has bad asthma and we had to go check out the apartment for mold - yes, a lot was in the bathroom so Jerry had the manager fix every thing, then a sister's brakes didn't work on her bike and she crashed and was banged up with 30 stitches in her behind, then an elder had to go home, one of the senior couples had a heart attack and had to go home - was that enough? To top if off we had the devastating news of Jeff Pryor's passing. We talked to Shelly and were amazed at her strength and the things that had been happening to uphold her. We assured her that we would be there for her when we got home. We will look more closely and go more often through the fence to her back yard to see everything is going all right. Jeff was a quiet but giving and caring man who affected and helped many people. He will be missed. Then we got word from Greg that one of McKay's friends had drowned and that Blake had flown over the handle bars of his bike and broke three bones in his arm. I think that has been a record for a terrible week. It had started so well with our high councilman talking in Church. He is Elder Oaks' son and gave a great talk on obedience. He said that obedience brings blessings...strict obedience brings miracles. You could tell that he was his father's son, but he had hair. He also told about his third great grandmother who said when her family was called to settle Castle Valley, Utah, "What Da.... man would send a woman to live there?" I'm afraid in my low moments I've said the same thing. She repented and I have been doing better too. Had a busy Monday e-mailing all the parents of the missionaries about the new directive of no back packs - only shoulder bags. McKay had been told and left his back pack home and took a should bag. (By the way, he is doing great and is a District Leaders and can pray in Japanese all ready.) Many were concerned about riding bikes with shoulder bags. I guess time will tell. We are going to have a bike safety course in the mission with the accident and the new rules. Well, back to today. We went to the glass museum in the morning. Tacoma is known for their glass bridge and glass blowing. I'll include a picture of the fountain there. Then our Stake put on Pirates of Penzance. They did a fabulous job - what great voices and the sound system worked so well we were able to hear everything. A number of people in our ward here were in it. I'll included a picture from that too. Hope this week is more calm with sadness down. We keep all of you dear friends and family in our prayers. We all seem to need more and more. Love, Carolyn and Jerry