Brooke and Chris, the ex-husband, and Svetlana

Photo credit to Brooke's son who loved being the photog

It was so fun to have Brooke and Chris Zollinger stop by our house one afternoon on their way back to Utah from California.  We had lunch and a great visit, and it was great to catch up for a bit.  Brooke has the exact same Honda van that we have--same interior and everything.  As they drove away, Hartman said, "Why are you letting them take our car?"  We really love them that much!

 I snapped a picture without Brent knowing...we were invited to a birthday party before a baptism later that day of a great lady and her three daughters who live in our ward.  They have bonded with us, and asked Brent to baptize all of them. (They were the ones at our house for a lesson the night Raegan was in her car accident). This is their dad/ex-husband who lives in Spring Creek, and who did NOT like the idea of some other guy baptizing his kids, even though he's not a member of the church.  He ended up cornering Brent at McDonalds to have a nice long discussion about the gospel and the priesthood, and was finally okay with Brent performing the ordinance.  I was proud of Brent for explaining our beliefs and the importance of baptism to this guy.  He's planning on being baptized as well sometime in the future.  And I didn't even get a picture of Amber and her girls!  I'll have to...they're great and SO excited about the church!

This is another amazing lady on her baptism day. Her name is Svetlana and she's from, you guessed it, Russia.  She's the greatest!  The Sisters in our ward met her on our street at a friend's house but were disappointed that she lived in a neighboring ward.  They still got permission to teach her, and asked me to go along.  I could tell from that very first lesson that she was golden.  Her husband is not thrilled, but she is strong.  She really is thrilled, this is just the biggest a russian smiles I think.  I had to send this picture to our dear Sister Purcell who found her and taught that first lesson so she could see what came from her labors.  I've loved seeing Svetlana at church and activities and her baptism was a spiritual experience.  The church is growing in Elko!