Hayden's reunion...

After Hayden gets off the plane at 6:30 pm on Thursday, we will be meeting at Steven and Shannon's for soup and bread sticks around 7:30pm.  Your invited to come welcome Hayden home.  Paula

Deep breaths...Elder Webb's Last Letter in Hungary

No cold sores or cankers!  that is my new motto!  i am doing really well.  i just finished reading all of my last emails and i am getting really excited to come home and see all of you again!  i hope that all goes well and that everyone doesnt get too excited.  i am not that exciting of a person:)...keep in mind i am going to be really tired....oh well i think i am going to be excited no matter what.  if its possible i would like some fireworks go off when i come down the elevator.  i have looked forward to this week for a long time and now i get to experience it all minute by minute.  i hope i can make the best of it.  i have a few things that i have to go buy then i can get my stuff all packed up and ready to go.  i have a few programs scattered throughout the day tomorrow so that will keep me busy.  i have had to say goodbye to all of my friends here for the past week so its been hard and good at the same time. i will never forget about all of these people and what they are doing to come closer to God in their lives.  i hope they can continue on in their efforts.  yesterday i talked in church for the last time and i talked a lot about how my family has been blessed and how i have been blessed by living according to the gospel.  i feel really blessed to know that no matter how long i have been gone that is still going to be the same when i get home. i really enjoyed the meetings yesterday as a result of 4 of our investigators coming to church.  that made me happy as we have had an amazing pick up of good investigators within the last two transfers.   i am happy that i am leaving this place better that i found it investigator wise.  ok my dearest family...i need to go but i dont feel bad about this being short due to the fact that i will see you all on thursday....that is going to be one long day:)  what an amazing week this will be.  i miss you all and am excited to fill this (family) void in my life.  i love each and everyone of you!

ps.. the castle was sweet!  i will show you all the pics this weekend.



love webb elder  soon to be the infamous hayden

THURSDAY!

Update!!! Hayden's arrival time has changed...

Elder Hayden Webb's arrival time has changed due to a lay over in Atlanta.  He will be arriving at Thursday evening at 6:35 pm at the SLC airport. Paula  208-300-0550

Tribute to Grant Clegg

In this week's Caribou County Sun (minus the pictures!):

W. Grant Clegg Turns 80

The descendants of Grant Clegg invite all friends and family to join us in wishing him a happy 80th birthday on April 4th.  Grant lives in the same house where he was born back in 1929.  He married Zan Christensen in 1954 and they have 10 children, 48 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.  Grant graduated from Grace High school and attended Weber College.   He was also an accomplished and adventurous pilot and as a teenager  was the youngest licensed pilot in the state of Idaho.  Grant served in the Western States mission in Wyoming and South Dakota.  Later, he was drafted into the Korean war.   Grant has worked two jobs most of his life: a day job, and as an after hours mechanic on the family farm. 

Grant also worked for the Grace School District, Central Farmers mine in Georgetown, El Paso (now Agrium) and over 20 years at the JR Simplot Mine in Conda, Idaho.  His early career work with maintenance on massive earth movers, scrapers, and bulldozers prepared him for later work on kids go-carts, snow mobiles, motorcycles, a made-from-scratch farmhand and his preferred mode of transportation today, a garden tractor. He still keeps his tools close by for adjusting a carburetor or dishwasher.  His favorite tenet of wisdom is, "the job isn't over until the tools are put away."   Always an active and faithful member of the LDS Church, Grant continues to bless the lives of those around him with generous love and acceptance.  He is an example of continuous learning with interests in geography, current events, politics, and scriptures.  In addition to his family, his loves have been mountains, music, and regular journal writing.  To our Dad and Grandpa, wishing you many more memories to come!

Peter's Week

Hi All,

It's been a good week for the most part.  Just beavering away at work on documents that outline what we do and don't do well.  Bosses are were all out of the office so I'm pretty productive.  Scouting for Food bags passed on a cold Thursday night.  Friday night and Saturday worked on the airplane.  I think the fumes are pretty potent from the chemicals! (read the instructions and they aren't toxic.) But a fun weekend as I got to see Steve's family and Dan's family and Kent's family and Frank's family... me and Steve went for a scooter ride.  Watched a little of Gavin's soccer game.  Me Frank, Melissa, Sophie, Gavin and adorable Drew went for a burger at Dyllins.  Very pleasant day.  Still working to get the tanks on the plane cleaned out so we can re-coat them.  Not going as fast as desired but it's still fun to work on the plane in that nice hanger.  Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Peter

[Fwd: Steven/Shannon032509]

Oi!

Fun day. We went to a wedding at Bountiful temple. It was a couple
Shannon lined up. Mr Mac (clothing store dude) did the sealing. Then
we raced to the airport so that Tyler/Jordan could see baby Talmage for
just a few minutes. Ashley, Brandon were on the way to Lewiston and had
a stopover. What a blast!!! I'm officially an (over)enthusiastic
grandpa. Here are some bullets of family happenings;

*Allyse and Jamie both made primary elections for student body
officers....both are in plays.
*Jamie's one-act play one region and is going on to state. She was
awarded best actress at regions.
*Spencer is studying? to finish off the semester in BYU Hawaii. If you
hour by hour detail of his life..go to facebook.
*Jordan turned 12, was ordained an deacon and promptly announced he was
busy every Friday with friends. From crayons to cell phones in one day.
*Tyler turned 9. He's a rock star in guitar class. He hears the strum
pattern once, then it's stuck in his head for good. I have dexterity
measuring in the high 5th percentile (nationwide). Takes me twice as
long to get the fingering.

That's all. PS. We had a fun 24 hours going to Idaho over the weekend.
Thanks again, Mom, Dad, Kent, Mignon, Don, Greshen for fantastic
hospitality and food. And Joe/Kai for entertainment. If you duct tape
a powerful magnet to a fishing rod, you can reach down pull out that
silverware. Then again plastic forks work fine, too.

Peter's Week

Hi All,

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote.  I know you've missed hearing from me but not as much as I've missed hearing from you!!!!! Write more!  There are things going on that we should all be reporting to keep us up on each other.

Was wonderful to have Mother here for a couple of days.  We got to visit and she got some rest but also had a chance to spend time with family.  We had a wonderful experience attending the stake conference where Shane was put in as president and Elder Bednar spoke and set him apart.  Was great to have Mom here for that and our prayers are with the Littlefields as they embark on another mission of sorts. 

While Mom was here, we went to Pep Boys and I bought a $12 plastic rear view mirror to replace the one on the Cadillac that was attacked by one of Don's trees.  It was roughly the same size but a different color and I just drilled a couple of holes and stuck it over the foam rubber that was left from the old one.  Very functional and effective but not aesthetically pleasing (a real replacement was $500!).... Dad would be proud!  I also made brownies in a pan that was too shallow (see pic) and tested the smoke detectors...they don't work!

I've also been driving my new car and enjoying it very much.  Last night, I drove up to Bountiful and on the freeway, got 34 miles per gallon.  It may not look (see pictures) like it's green but at 34 mpg, I have a lower carbon footprint than driving the truck!  Speaking of the truck, we had a scout camp out to the Sand Dunes. Good times and it was such nice weather.  We played our version of Frisbee golf.  We all had golf clubs and balls and a frisbee.  We would throw the frisbee and then hit our golf balls to it.  Of course there was fire (see pics) and when I got back the truck was FULL of candy wrappers, granola in the seats, airsoft pellets (from shooting cows and signs with slingshots on the way), and empty drink containers. 

Work is interesting this week.  It looks like we may merge with a company in Wales, UK which gives us some new market opportunities.  I think it will be good overall for the company.  Rumor is with the merge we need to cut another 15% of the people.  My boss think's I'm safe so that's good.  I know I'm ok for another month as they need someone to communicate all that we have in the way of product and I'm only one of about three people that know. 

Well, I hope you are all doing well.  Looking forward to seeing Don & Greshen and kids soon as haven't seen them for a while. I'm also excited to see Dad's new bicycle!

Love,
Peter

Webb Elder's Highlights

----------  the have the pics are from my bedroom window and the one of the tower is from the street that i always street on.

-highlights of the week
-conducting in church for the last time in hungarian.
-having my apartment checked and passing.
-watching the first missionary from this city give his departing testimony
-zone leaders giving a really good training on enduring difficulties to find elect
-talking on a three way with the remainder of my mtc district on our two year mark.
-thinking about burning my nasty suit i got at the DI for my two year mark
-reailizing that i didnt have the energy to burn the suit
- having 14 finds...good solid number
- baking a carrot pinaple cake for that missionaries going away party
- seeing substantial progress in our investigator with a bap date.
-hearing that tomsic and rasmussen called the house:)
- watching my muscles get bigger in preperation for returning home.
-running 5 out of the 7 days in the week
- weighing in at 202 without clothes
(wow those last three were really worldly and not important...we'll just say they are facts:))
- hearing that i might have a new pen pal in spain(connections through my companion)
- having a new investigator tell us that she can feel gods love for her
when she reads from the book of mormon.
- teaching a bunch of little orphan kids that swearing is bad and that they need to set an example for others at the orphanage.
-  it feeling like spring
- me realizing that my mission is coming to an end (bitter sweet)

ok my family that was my week. i am sorry for the shortness of the letter but im getting pressure from the others to go eat some lunch.  i love you all. next week my email will be pretty short as we are going to a castle and i need to keep it short so that we can have enough fun:)
i love you all! thank you for the letters

The Wonderful News Explained

By popular demand, I'm back.  It's Jessica.  With hopefully a better announcement than the last one. :)  Its long though, so if you're not interested, by all means, don't read it. :)

So lets see...let me tell you about the guy I'm going to marry.  He was born in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada on January 14th, 1982.  For the first few weeks of his life he was referred to as "The Thing" until it was decided that he would go by something more specific: Clayton Charles Merkley.  His father (Al) is from Edmonton, Alberta and his mother (Jeri) is from a small town outside of Billings, Montana.

He grew up in Canada, planting there, somewhere between the age of 2-5, the dream of joining the military.  At ten they moved to Orem, UT, buying a house just down the street from Peter.  Peter could tell you much more about those subsequent years than I could.  In 8th grade he decided that his post-high school destination was West Point, NY.  He was accepted and attended there for 2 years before taking leave to serve a mission in Ukraine. 

When Clayton and I talk mission stories, you would think that we had served in the same mission.  Cultures, languages, and foods were almost identical.  Okay, so languages not so much.  He speaks Russian, I speak Lithuanian.  No relation, except for the word for "pancake".  Not so useful.

After his mission he eventually got back to West Point, where he graduated in 2007.  (He credits that day as being one of the all time greatest days of his life to date.)  To celebrate that event in June of 2007, his family held a BBQ in their backyard.  That required that he come over to Peter's to borrow chairs. :)  That's how we met for the very first time.  Peter decided to invite him over for Thai food after that, and our hope was that Anna and Clayton would "hit it off".  That didn't work out so much, but it did open the door enough for Anna, Clayton and I to become pretty good friends before I took off.  We went hiking together, chummed around at Singles Ward, mixed drinks, ate food, the usual.  There are lots of juicy details I could share here, but we'll save those for the wedding...keep you in suspense for a little bit.

Clayton finally stalked me down in October of 2007.  He got my email address from Peter and wrote me for the first time on November 14th, 2007.  I wrote back that week, and we then proceeded to write to each other almost every week for the rest of the mission.  What an interesting way to get to know the guy your going to marry!  Clayton played what I feel was a key role in my mission...he represented a source of hope as he related directly with the complications of my mission.  He was funny, witty, insightful, honest, kind, flirtatious, the works.  Ulitmately, I discovered over time that he was a source of joy to me.  And lucky for us, we have the whole thing documented!  Maybe you'll get to read it someday.

Since being back from the mission, we talked about every other day on the phone until he came home on February 15th.  I had myself all geared up to find him repulsive or to find him to be a complete stranger to me.  What I didn't have myself geared up for was the option that he really was exactly what I believed him to be....my joy!  Little suspicions and promptings that I had been gathering up for the last year and a half began to be validated one by one.  Again...more juicy details will be revealed later. :)

Now he's gone again, but we've still been so blessed to be able to communicate quite freely.  Oh yeah, you want to know where he went?  Back to Baghdad.  He's been in Baghad for a year now.  It's been a life changing experience for him, and he will be so happy when it's over.  I can talk to him sometimes twice a day on the phone, and daily through chat and email. 

He's going to be back in the States in the beginning of June, just in time for the ultimate celebration to be held on the evening of June 12th in Peter's backyard... in preparation for our marriage, which will happen the following day (June 13th) at the Draper Temple.  The final celebration will be on June 27th at our house in Raft River.  Whew.  How fun will this be! Save those dates.  You're going to formally invited to them eventually....come to one of 'em, all of 'em, none of 'em, you choose.

Oh my, this is long.  I hope it does the trick. :)  Clayton and I will be around Utah/Idaho for the couple of weeks we have before heading to Germany in July, where we plan to be for a few years probably.  So plan to have a place to stay in the heart of Europe when you come...we're close to everything there. 

Okay...enough of this.  Questions?...call me.  Ideas?...call me.  I would love to hear them.

Big Game Hunters

It's been a while since we've written.  Last Friday night we went to Dave's house and watched a new movie called "A Father in Israel" which Dave is trying to decided whether to distribute.  I liked the movie although it's not really a theater type movie.  Nan was honored at BYU on Saturday, many friends and family came to commemorate her efforts.  It was fun to see so many old friends. Michael made arrangements to work from home this week and has been busy with several projects. In the evenings we have kept him busy going to all the kids events.  It's really nice to have him here. We have kept him busy with something every night.  Monday we had Family Home Evening, Tuesday Cami and Kayla had a spring concert where they played "Incantation of Dance", a festival piece, both of their sections playing amazing solo's.  Wednesday Michael went to Young Women's with Cami and Kayla were they played games about how well they knew each other.  They lost out on the final round when the question was "what music do you listen to most often?" Michael said "his kids" and the girls guessed he would say "Sting".   I took Paisley to Freshman orientation at Timpview and we had a good time looking around.  Thursday Paisley played in a regional basketball tournament, her team lost but we were glad they made it that far.  Today Kayla had a track meet and we missed watching her run.  Tonight both Cami and Kayla are on a Morp dates. Merrily took Cami's group pictures. The rest of us went to the school with Alyssa for a school activity.  It was a good week to be home for Michael.   Well we hope you are all well and we are grateful to be apart of such a wonderful family.

Happy, wonderful news!

Clayton and I have set a goal.  We're engaged!!!  Look out for June 13th! 

Dearest Family;

    We are sorry to be such deadbeats the last few months as far as the newsletter is concerned but we are very grateful for those of you who have written and posted pictures.  It really means a lot when we don't seem to get out and around much this winter.

    February has been fairly eventful though.  We so much enjoyed our reunion at Uncle Nathan and Aunt Sydney's though it was supposed to be in Eden but due to weather and other circumstances it worked out better in Preston.  They had a surprise birthday party for Grandpa with a cake and 80 words, one for each year, that describe him.  Uncle David gave him the dvd  'Saints At War in Korea" and we ended our day by watching it. All in all it was fun to catch up on all the nephews and nieces. 

    We have enjoyed so much all who have come to visit and am just waiting for someone to come share our new waffle maker I bought to use at the reunion! 

    We went Home Teaching tonight to Brother and Sister Jenkins but are missing Sister Kingsford.  She went on her mission on Wed. to the Family History Center.  She said she was just going home as that was where she was born and raised.

    The house is coming along.  The kitchen cupboards, countertops and fixtures, bathroom vanity, shower and toilet all in place.  Hopefully this week will decide on the floor coverings for porch, kitchen, laundry and bathroom. 

    I was getting myself so worked up about the economy ect but then listened to the devotional last Tues. Professor Bahr gave these guidelines making me feel much better.

1. Use God given resources to seek solutions.

2. Recognize and take advantage of opportunities

3. Share with those around us

4. Trust in God and He will bless us.

    Maybe I will make waffles and sell them or-----give them away!!

            Much much love to all of you, our dear dear family!!!!! The Grandparents!

P.S. We are so excited and happy for Jessica!!

   

Talmage pics...

Peter's Week

Just wrote in my journal so won't go into too much detail about the week.  At work, calling it the return of the Taliban.  The execs supposedly let go are moving back in and exerting control.  You just can't make this stuff up!!! So entertaining and dramatic that any other job would just be stultingly boring! Fun day today as I played piano for Primary.  I bit off more than I could chew and discovered that yesterday morning when I started through the list of 12 songs and realized they were not hymn-like and at a much snappier pace.  Had it pretty well down with melody and an occasional chord but then at the opening, the song leader threw in another one that he printed off the internet plus one from the book.  All in all, it went well and Mathias Hulme, who is the most accomplished piano player in primary, said I did very good.  Fun. 

Nice ride...

[the rental I'm guessing...] "Cool, huh?" - Janet

Hawaii Pictures from the lovebirds...

Heya Cleggers... Megan writing here to update y'all on the grand adventures of mom and dad on their romantic 20th anniversary trip. I cheated and simply pasted the email they sent me :) Here is what masha said... Hi everyone!  Here are some pictures from our first day.  It is so beautiful here!  Someday we'll bring you guys :) [Megan: Erm... I'll keep that in mind ;) ] Some explanation of pictures: In the ocean you can see a sea turtle lifting his head up to get a breath of air.  In another picture I'm running from a plant because I went to stand by it for a picture and put my hand into a huge spiders web - Ahhhh!  Then dad took the picture.  The last is a picture looking out our window at the hotel - so pretty!  We are off to church right now.  Megan, how did playing the organ go? [Megan: mmm... no comment.]  I'm sure you did great.  I'll probably call to find out in a little bit.  We miss you guys, but [Megan: i sense emphasis on the "but"] are having a BLAST here!  Love, Mom and Dad There it is :) Here at home not much is going on... Grandma Burr is staying to tend the little ones and keep an eye on the rest of us i suppose. It's only been three days and i really have to admit that i miss em'- it's quite a different story without them here. Hope everyone is doing well- HI! from everyone at the Benny household!