27 July 2025

 On Sunday Gibson was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

Our stake president, Ryan Hungerford, set him apart. This is a photo with the stake presidency: President Hungerford, Brandan, Gibson, and President Idiart.

Sofi joined us by video call. We walked over to the temple after Gibson was set apart for a few photos.

Here's one with Adia.

Here's a photo of Gibson and Adia.

Dan and Martha left with Abe to drive back to Utah and Helen left with Lily. They caravanned together, as shown on this screenshot of their location somewhere in Nevada.

Gibson started home MTC on Monday morning. He has 6-10 hours of zoom meetings a day. He has two MTC teachers who will continue as his teachers when he moves to the Provo MTC. Gibson likes his companion and his district.

He gets regular breaks. On Monday he got lemonade at a neighbor's lemonade stand.

Cason left for the Mexico City MTC on Thursday so we woke up at 3:45 to see him off at the airport.

Thursday was also Gib's P-day. He only had a couple of zoom meetings scheduled. We finished up a little shopping and got a smoothie.

Adia brought over a copy of the Book of Mormon in Malay on which she painted a picture of the Singapore temple.

Andrea dropped off a snackle box filled with treats for Gibson.

On Friday the bishops and stake presidency join those at girls camp for a testimony meeting. Gibson and Becky tagged along and enjoyed the beautiful scenery as well as the testimonies.

In other news, we had solar panels installed on our house this week. It only took a couple of days for the panels to be installed and connected to our house. It will take a couple of weeks for the electrical company to switch the meter over for our house to begin using solar power.

Our house quickly has gone from begin very busy and noisy to quiet. Becky is taking advantage of the lull in activity to refinish our dining table and chairs. They are 20 years old. We like them, but the finish on the table was worn completely off in a few places. Not knowing what kind of finish is on the table, Becky decided to strip all of the pieces to bare wood and start over. The process took several long days of work.

Becky used a three step process. First, she applied a chemical stripper and then used a putty knife and wire brush to remove the finish.

Then she used acetone to remove the residue the chemical stripper left behind.

Luckily, the weather has been good for working outside.

This photo shows before and after. The next step is staining and finishing the table and six chairs. Hopefully that will be easier and more rewarding than the stripping process.

Brandan made pizza for dinner on Saturday. Gibson helped add the toppings.

Abe ran a 5K on Pioneer Day. The route started at the Rock Canyon Temple and ended at the Provo City Center Temple.

Here's one last photo of Elder Hull for the week.