Last Sunday night we were in Topeka doing a Mission Presidents Devotional. Once a month Mitch and I plus the two assistants go to a different city and put on this meeting. The missionaries bring investigators and then newly baptized converts are asked to share their testimony and conversion story. This was our first devotional and what an amazing experience it turned out to be. It started with Mitch sharing his family's conversion story and talking about the Joseph Smith story and showing a few clips from the Joseph Smith movie.  6 new members had been asked to get up and bear their testimonies and what a treat it was to hear their stories! These people came from all walks of life. One was a college student from Africa, a high school student, a young woman who had been homeless for a while, a woman who had dated a member and found out about the church, a young man who had been in jail and didn't have much of a relationship with his family, and then the last one was a young man who made meth, used meth, sold meth and fathered a child at 13 years of age. Each had their own story to tell and yet each of them came to the same conclusion and that was to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They all spoke of the faith and peace that came with joining the church. The Spirit was strong in that meeting and I know there were some investigators who became even more interested in finding out what the church is all about. It was a real spiritual high for those of us who were in attendance! It is so amazing to see how the gospel changes lives!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was spent with Mitch interviewing all the elders and sisters from the Wichita and Derby zones. This was pretty much an all day event that went from 10 in the morning till about 5 in the late afternoon. I know Mitch really enjoyed the opportunity to speak with each of these missionaries on a personal level and I must say, I am impressed with the energy he had to do that day after day. I know he was exhausted every night and on top of doing that he had to read letters from all of the missionaries in the mission. They write him every week and there's about 170+ missionaries right now. I took the opportunity to visit with as many missionaries as I could too. As they waited to go in to visit him I got to talk to them for a little bit. They are such a wonderful group of young men and young women giving their lives to the Lord for 18 months to 2 years! I love them all!

We had all of the senior missionaries that serve in the office, 3 couples and one sister, come to our home for dinner on Tuesday night. We had so much fun visiting and getting to know one another better. They are such wonderful people and I'm so thankful for my friendship with them. They have helped to make my mission experience so enjoyable and I love being at the office with them. Also Tuesday night Kasey and Kenzie were flying in to spend a few days with us. They were supposed to get here at 10:15pm but their plane had mechanical trouble and  was delayed a couple of hours. They were going to have to stay the night in Denver and were told there were no more hotels available because there had been some bad weather and the planes had all been grounded. Lucky for them and for us their connecting flight was also delayed and they were able to make their flight here. We picked them up at 1:30 in the morning and even though it was late we were so happy to get them here with us.

Even though Mitch was busy we would go to the church where he was interviewing and stay for a while and visit with the elders and sisters. Then we went to some sites in Wichita like the Nifty Nut House, Hurts Donuts, Keeper of the Plains etc. On Friday we took our PDay and went to Hutchinson, Kansas to the Salt Mine. It starts with a ride in an elevator going 650 feet down through the ground. In the mine there's a museum and a little train that you can ride and other tours that you can take. It's pretty fascinating and a little scary being that far down in the ground and when the lights are turned off it is pitch black. We got to pick some salt rocks to bring home which I had the girls take back to the grandkids.

Sadly on Saturday we dropped the girls at the airport at 1 p.m. and they flew home. We had such a fun time with them and it was such a pleasure to have them here! After dropping them off, Mitch and I drove to Guymon Oklahoma to meet a new senior couple that was arriving that day. It's about a four-and-a-half-hour drive. The Walkers are from Weiser Idaho and they are fantastic people who will be such a support to the Sisters and Elders in Guymon and such a support to the ward. We were very impressed with them. We took Elder Wallace and Elder Winegar and sister Filigrana and Sister Wadsworth along with the Walkers to dinner at Hunny's BBQ. The food was really good and the company was even better! We feel like that area is in good hands with these wonderful valiant people. We drove back to Liberal Kansas which is about 50 minutes away to stay the night and then on Sunday we attended the ward there in Liberal.