A last word

When I reread my blog after finishing it I noticed that the date and time of my work was printed wrong by the computer.





I wrote this blog early today, Tuesday morning, December 23rd.





December 23rd is significant for other reasons also.





December 23rd is the Birthday of Joseph Smith Jr. He was born December 23, 1805.





December 23rd is also the day after BYU let out for Christmas break in December 1960.
I just tried to correct this shot


and make it vertical but I'm
not smart enough yet. That's why December 23rd, 1960 is our Wedding Day.





Today Elder Steenhoek and I have been married 48 years and are still very much in love!!!

A last word

The last Gift.

When I came to work yesterday morning there were still 17 young men who had not received any gifts according to our records. After the mail came 5 more had received gifts. The Assistants are having a meeting with the Zone Leaders today so they will give the gifts that just came in to the Zone Leaders who will in turn give them to the District Leaders who will in turn give them to the Elders who didn't have a gift. A sigh of relief at this point. I'm under such emotional stress about this. That left 12 without gifts. We in the office started calling the flats of each of the 12 Elders without a gift. We always asked for the companion of the minus gifts Elder.
Nine out of the 12 had received their gifts at their apartment address. What a relief. That only leaves us with three Elders who need a substitute Santa and we still have 48 hours to do that....
We can easily take care of that.

May your thoughts be of Chrit and his gifts to you!

Much love, Elder and Sister Steenhoek

Elders and Sisters at Zone Conference gettting ready to watch "Joseph"

Our Zone Conference was filled with spiritual highs.

The day began with inspiritional messages by President and Sister Bullock.

All of us then went to the Preston Temple to be fed a delicious Christmas Dinner.

The next event was doing a session in the Temple.

After the temple session we all came over to the Preston MTC and watched the marvelous picture of "Joseph". The picture you see is at the MTC. At the conclusion of the film President Bullock wished us all al Merry Christmas and gave everyone a Christmas gift. It was a CD of acceptable music to listen to. A profound day.

I met the sister that Cindy taught the Gospel to..Sister Durisova

It was such a thrill to meet Sister Durisova and know that she was here serving a mission because our daughter Cindy had chosen to serve a mission in Slovakia. It was a tearful time.

Singles Get-To-Gethers

Our Singles Get-To-Gethers have been very successful. On this evening we had 18 singles at our flat. Everyone had such a great time. Inactives come to the parties that don't come to church. Go figure. This picture shows four of our wonderful single friends eating dinner. We fed them a big dinner and you guessed it....this time it was Elder Steenhoek's roast dinner.

Elder Steenhoek serving in the Family History Center every Thursday from 5:00 to 9:00pm

Elder Steenhoek has helped so many people at the Family History Center and here at our apartment. He enters them on the New Family Search Program and then makes a hard copy of all the work that needs to be done.

I have put all of their materials into a 3 hole binder for them so they can thumb through it and see all of their work that needs to be done in the temple. Thanks to our son Dan who brought us 72 binders from the U.S.A. I have used 32 of them for Family History.

The ward Family History consultant is in

the picture with Elder Steenhoek. She is

very good and very dedicated to her calling.

My brother, Don Pearson, came to visit us.

Don and Hank are standing in front of the ferry boat that we went on up the Mersey River.

We had such a wonderful week end with him.

Natalia Whinnerah was baptized on Nov. 30, 2008

Natalia is a beautiful 9 year old inside and out.

We love her. Her baptism evening was very special to us.

Sorry it's sideways. I tried to turn it.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the President's home

All seven senior couples were invited to the mission home for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Sister Bullock is such a lovely hostess and the dinner was delicious.

It was a delightful evening of visiting and being thankful for all we have.

Transfer dinner at our home

These are the Elders in our District. We had lunch for them at our home after our last district meeting. All these Elders are the greatest.

We will still get to see them at Zone Conferences every six weeks and talk to them on the phone whenever they need us.

We have temperal blessings to cheer about

When we came to England the exchange rate was $1.86 to 1 English pound.
Now the exchange rate is $1.46 for 1 English pound. We save $.40 on every 1 pound exchange!!!