18 June 2017

Sofi was set apart as a full time missionary on Tuesday night.  This is a photo of her in the stake office.  Her photo will soon join the missionary board that's behind her.

We took Sofi to the airport Wednesday morning.  Four in the morning isn't a good look for anyone.

Goodbye hugs!

And she's off!  

We haven't heard from Sofi since she left, but a senior missionary texted us a photo of her, so we know she made it to the MTC.  We love her brand new missionary tag that's printed in Chinese.

On the other hand, we talk to Abe once or twice a day either by texting or with FaceTime.  He's having a fantastic time in China.  He gets back to his hotel about the time we wake up and catches us up on his adventures before he goes to bed.  

 So far he has visited Beijing, Xi'an and Yangshou.  This is a photo of Beijing from his hotel window.

Abe has been eating well for the most part.  His group ate dinner at a fancy restaurant the first night.  The soda bottles are unmistakable, even if you can't read Chinese.

 Maybe Abe should add frogs to the list of food he's allergic to.  He took this photo of a frog tank at the restaurant.  It sounds like frogs are a delicacy and hopefully too expensive for a student budget.

Back at home, Helen and Gibson finished 6th and 4th grade this week.  This is a photo from Thursday, their last day of school.

 

Helen has been working hard for about 2 months to finish the 7th grade math unit on Khan Academy before the end of school.  She completed her last mastery challenge Thursday morning before school.

Gib's battered homework folder somehow held together to the end.

A classmate's mom turned artwork from the students into pillows for each of the students to keep as a memory

 Brandan and Gibson helped at two Eagle projects this week and Gibson got to learn how to use new tools.  Here he is with a post digger making holes for an awning for a school snack shack.

 They also went back to the girls' camp to put finishing touches on the stage.  They swept sand between pavers to help the pavers stay in place and helped pour concrete as a border around the stage. 

 Here's a photo of Gib relaxing with Ike and Seth.  With the older kids at youth conference and two Eagle projects happening at the same time 40 miles apart, the younger boys had to step up.

The best part of the day for Gib was driving the camp golf cart.

 Service is easy when it comes with perks like this!