Mission Photo, Senior Couples

Photo of our entire mission at the Christmas Mission Conference.

Janice doing her best to make French Toast, is was a bi of a challenge but she did a great job with the bread that she had!

Elder Alan and Rebecca Wilde and their friends Mecedes and Hugo. They are all assigned to help in the Paso Carrasco branch. The Wilde's also serve as Temple Missionaries. They were in La Paloma and came to Church. What a wonderful surprise and treat. We invited them to come to the house for lunch later.

Lunch with the Wilde's and friends

We went to the Montevideo Temple with the Taylors and Cox's. The Cox's are serving in the other Mission. It was great to get to know them a bit better. We had a great time at the Temple and then went out to eat lunch after.

Branch Christmas Photo and Baby Quilts

Picture of those members at Church December 26th. Hermana Lee wanted a group photo before she went home on the 29th of December. We wish her the best of luck in her new life after the "Mission"!

Ruben is going to be a grandpa! His daughter is having twins! Janice thought it would be nice to make the babies a quilt. So with a bit of creativeness she made it happen and Ruben and Hermana Kelly helped her.

We put together a make-shift frame and they tied the quilt in our dining room.

Ruben, Janice and Hermana Kelly tying the quilts

The finished product all wrapped up and ready to be given to his daughter. We traveled to Castillos to use Hermana Taylor's sewing machine to bind the edges. The quilts turned out great. They did a great job on them and the daughter was thrilled to have them!

Christmas 2010 in La Paloma

The La Paloma Branch's Christmas Party. We had a great time and the Spirit was strong!

Hermana Lee and Walton singing Oh Holy Night.

The food was great and the members stayed and visited and got to know each other. They had a great time.

Nelida showing off the pictures we gave her of her Temple trip. When she got married for time and all eternity. That was a great trip!

The Summer is here! The buses are beyond full. We ended up standing for the hour long trip to Castillos. We went to visit with the Taylors.

Our youth activities continue and the youth seem to have a good time and enjoy the activities and treats.

Hermana Lee showing Hermana Walton how to make an Ohio favorite treat. Buckeyes, they were great and we were really grateful that Hermana Lee was willing to share her prized peanut butter with us.

The finished results!!

A Christmas season guest at Ruben's house. He seen me coming and got away.......for a few days and then Hermana Hegerhorst.......got him!!!!

Janice decided that she would start early making cinnamon twists and make the dough the night before........this was the result the next morning.....the oozing dough was a mess!

The finished results, she gave this tray to Ruben for a big family party they had the 24th. At first they did not know what they were and would not eat them. Then one the young men tried one and then they went FAST!

We had Christmas eve lunch with Hermana Walton and Lee. We made homemade pizza and it was awesome!

Hermana Walton and Lee made us Christmas breakfast, scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, hash browns, bacon, fresh fruit, juice and they let us supplement it with cinnamon twists. Wow it was great!

This is our version of a Christmas Tree! The presents are set under a table with a nativity set. No these are not all our presents, they are for 5 people.

Herman Walton and Lee showing off the paintings that Ruben did for them. We gave them blank wood and they got to choose what they wanted hm to paint. Hermana Walton has a seascape with the Santa Maria Faro (lighthouse) and the Las Vegas Temple. Hermana Lee has the Washington DC Temple and the Columbus Ohio Temple.

Hermana Walton and Lee made up these stocking with all these goodies for Janice and I.

So far they have not been opened!

Ruben got some sugar free candy from Janice's Mom and Dad. He was thrilled to have it. It did not last long though!

Ruben is a HUGE fan of soccer and the team (National) he dislikes the most has the colors red, white and blue. Hermana Walton loves to tease him so she and Herman Lee gave Rueben a card from that team. If you will look close you will see that he would not touch it with his hands. He used is shirt to protect his hand from the "dirty" card. It was hilarious to watch. I am laughing uncontrollably in the background.

Ruben continues with the "dirty" card from the National team

Now he is happy, he has stuff with the colors of "his" team (Penarol). Black and Yellow

Showing of his new Penarol hat, he loved it!

and Janice love the Ferrero Rocher candies that Ruben gave to her

The Hermana's and Ruben getting ready to leave the house and go to work Christmas Afternoon.

We celebrated Christmas Eve by lighting sparklers

Mission Christmas Conference, Family Photo

The Rocha Zone rented a small bus to take us all to Montevideo (3 hours). We were all going to attend a special Mission Christmas Conference. For us and Hermana Walton and Lee the bus picked us up at 3:30AM and then went Rocha to pickup the rest of the Zone. 4 traveled from Chuy (2hours away) and 4 from Castillos (1 hour away) and 4 from Rocha and 2 from Lescano that had come the day before and spent the night with the Elders in Rocha. We then all proceeded to Montevideo. Before we all fell asleep on the bus we practiced "Oh Holy Night" that we would sing together as a Zone during the Conference.

During the Conference they took a break and feed us lunch. Here we have Elder and Hermana Taylor and Elder Caufield and Elder Hegerhorst eagerly awaiting lunch

This is a "Family" photo! These are some of our Mission Children that have lived in our home in La Paloma. Back row: Elder David Delbar, Michael Morrison, Bradley Caufield, Dan Hegerhorst.
Front Row: Elder Victor Bravo, Hermana Julie Walton, Brittany Lee, Raquel Espejo, Janice Hegerhorst. We are missing some of the early members of our Mission Family: Elder Parker Walbeck, Jorge Espinola, Hermana Synthia Smoot, Kelsey Orme. We have really enjoyed having them in our home and the Spirit the bring with them. They are GREAT examples of missionaries! Thanks for being part of our lives and mission experience!!

Teaching English and Birthday Party

Alijandra and Eloisa her daughter (4 yrs). Alijandra has been coming to the house once a week for a couple of months to practice and learn English. She is taking classes from a company in La Paloma and had a big test coming up. She past the oral part of the the test but did not pass the written part of the test.

Elizabeth had a 71st birthday party and she had some old hats that made there way around the room with various people trying them on. This is Hermana Walton modeling the black hat!

And here we have Hermana Lee modeling the white hat!

Ruben got into the show also, we have a couple of pictures of us getting into the act also but they will not make the blog!

I am teaching Ruben how to do a trick with a string. He practices and practiced and finally got it right! I was fun watching him try to figure it out, he was about to give up so I gave up the secret to the trick!

This is Elizabeth trying to help Ruben figure out the string trick. It was her birthday party and she puts on a great party with food, food and more food. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Elizabeth getting in to the hat modeling show, with Marisa watching in the background.

Our wonderful children and their families!

Jesica her husband Jeff and their boys Gavin 8 and Ryan 5.

Mitch his wife Cassie and their girls Lainey 6 months and Hallie 2.

Christina her husband Brian and their kids Jenna 1 and Logan 3.


We are so grateful for our wonderful family and for their support through the last 18 months. They have helped us to not miss the important moments of their lives even though they are so many miles away from us. We appreciate their love and support. We are looking forward to being together again in this new year 2011. We love you all!

We wish all who keep up on us through our blog and through email a very
Happy New Year!

Anniversary Getaway

This pictures are in somewhat of a reverse order. Start at the bottom and it will make more sense.

This is our guide showing us the old trees and how there are some trees that grow toward the sunshine and create really odd looking trees. It was quite interesting to see!

Janice loved playing with the little puppies.

In the afternoon we all loaded up and went for a tour of the ranch on the wagon.

This is the gate that leads to the forest with all the big trees and to the lake.

Looking from the house area that overlooks the lagoon / lake

This is a catus that is climbing up the side of the house and then spreading out. It is very odd to see a climbing cactus plant.

She is quite small compared to this HUGE tree / plant.

This shows the thick pulpy material that makes up the tree / plant. It is very different than a regular tree.

This shows the hollow part of the tree / plant

The "Taylors". They are serving as the Branch President in Castillos. They are the only other Senior Couple that is serving in our Mission at this time.

This area has a type of tree that is unique to this area of Uruguay. They can grow to be huge. The experts are divided between calling it a tree and a plant. The center of the the tree is hollow like a plant and the outer woody type material is not as dense as a regular tree. It is kind of a cross between the two type.

There is a courtyard between the houses that is covered in an arbor with flowers and grapes.

This shows some of the construction methods used to erect the houses. The stone was kind of a slate type rock. It was chipped out of some veins that run through the area. It was then transported to the the house area and cemented into place. A very hard and tedious process.

This is the view from the dining are to the lagoon.

Another part of the house that is for viewing only. It has some of the old furniture and artifacts in it.

These are some of the old artifacts that they have displayed in the house. From birdnest to armadillo shells.

These are some of the salads that we were served with our asado lunch. They tasted great!

Elder John and Hermana Alicia Taylor joined us for the day. We had a very relaxing day together. Enjoying the peace and quiet and the beautiful scenery!

This is the area they feed the guests an "asado" BBQ for lunch.

For our 31st anniversary we visited an old Spanish Military guard post outside of Castillos. It is located on the banks of a large lake called the Castillos Lagun. Sometimes during the year the lake is filled with salt water from the ocean. This is a view looking from the lake back the the house and barns.