May 30, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,

Can you believe that we are already two months into our mission?  It has been a whirlwind of learning, memorizing, dancing, singing, praying, fasting and everything else that goes into  making this mission one of the miracles that have happened in our lives.

We are much more capable in the sites now as we teach and bear testimony of the early saints that lived here in Nauvoo.  I told Dave the other day that this feels like our home now.  We get up in the morning and choose of of our three pioneer outfits and off we go to the sites and do all the other things we are asked to do.

Many of you have been asking about our dog, Murphy.  We know that he is only a dog, but the hardest thing about coming here was leaving him.  He went into kidney failure the week that we arrived here in Nauvoo.  This has been the only drawback to being here as I felt I had sacrificed him and should be there to help him through this horrible thing he has had to endure.  Our friend, Marquita, who is watching our home and him has had to do much more that she expected or was prepared for. She has done a wonderful job of feeding him, medicating him and getting him to the vet for tests and procedures.  We have been praying for the miracle that he might get better enough for us to get back to him.  Every week his numbers seem to get worse, but he was eating and drinking and happy, so we didn't want to make a poor or hasty decision about him.  On Wednesday, our vet called and she said that she had wonderful news. His number have come down dramatically in the past week.  This is the first time they have come down since this whole thing began. except when he was on an IV in the emergency room.  We have heard of Nauvoo miracles and I have come to believe they are true.  We keep praying for him and Marquita as well as for so many of our other friends and family who need special blessings and miracles in their lives at this time.

We are busy learning "Thomas and Elizabeth" in "Rendezvous."  We have had two practices on the stage and then we will do it once a week with two performances on that night.  We hope that some of you can come out and see it.  We also do "Sunset by the Mississippi" twice a week.  It is a really tiring mission as you are so busy both day and night but everything is so worth it.

We just love it here.  We are making so many new friends and leaning so much about ourselves.  There is a spirit here that you will not find anywhere else.    You have to come here to feel it.

Kendra will come in July and we are hoping that Trevor and Michelle can come, too.  Derek is moving to Washington State in August.  They visited here in April.  We finally got within 6 hours of them and then he got transferred.  He will not be in a non-deployable unit when they move, so we are grateful for that.  We are praying that they can come here one more time as they would enjoy the shows and more things for kids to do.  Gavin and his family will come next summer.

This mission is much, much more that we ever hoped for or anticipated.  It is just wonderful!  We are so happy and so busy and learning so much.  It has changed us forever.
We love you all and miss all of your smiling faces.