CONFERENCE TIME, REUIONS

Dear Family,

Conference week was great!  It is also a time for reunions and many visits as people come from all over the world to attend General Conference.

We had  little flash missionary reunion at our chapel.  David Wirthlin called and told me about a special West German Missionary Reunion held in our meeting house.  I promptly announced it on Facebook so that as many are here could come and hear President Uchtdorf and Sister Uchtdorf speak to all former German speaking missionaries.  Here is our Munich-Austrian group that occupied two rows in the chapel.  So fun to see them as we have not crossed paths for some time.  Sister Uchtdorf spoke on behalf of all the converts brought to the Church by Missionaries in Germany,  Switzerland and Austria expressing great gratitude for their efforts.  She spoke of her mother's conversion and how upset her Oma was with their baptisms but finally over the years, at age 72, the Oma was baptized saying if her family went to Heaven, she wanted to go to the same heaven.  This was a great event.

Larry and Madeline Manwarig came to Conference a stayed with us.  We have a great m with them; Larry and I share common interests and tastes.  We took in the "Little World" Chinese food dive on 13th and State which is one of his favorites.  I do not go frequently but when I sat down, the owner asked,"Steamed clams?" "Oh yeah" We went to the Jordan Temple together as well and just had a great time chatting and visiting.

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We had a visit from Mirja Balhorn who came from Germany.  She was one of our sister missionaries, lives in Hamburg and works as a dental assistant.  She brought her cousin as well.  She filled us in on what is going on in the mission field.  They  now belong to the Berlin Mission

My sister in law, Laura, came with Ralph, his wife and Andrew, their son.  They also had tickets to Conference and it was fun to visit and get caught up with them.  Laura now lives with Ralph's family and Ralph moved to the Tampa, Florida area.

Our own missionary group from the 1955 - 1958 era had their last reunion,  The group is thinning out as we all get older.  Here is my first companion and Trainer on the right, Albert Perschon (Nephew to President Perschon, our Mission President)  We started in the Altstadt of Bern. We were transferred  Zolikofen shortly after the dedication of the first temple in Europe, We had a lot of success there.  On my left is Elder Benson; we share the same great grandfather Leopold Wirthlin.

We had our traditional Father's and Son's get together after General Priesthood meeting.  This year it was on television which was a departure although when in Austria, I encouraged the sister missionaries to sneak in at the back of the room to watch it.  Priesthood meeting was great!  After I had roasted a boneless rib roast and had Mom and Madeline Manwaring watch it.  It was the most perfectly cooked rib roast that I can remember.  Present were Doug's sons, Nate, Spence and Tommy, Mike brought Joseph who kept good notes and could answer all questions about the talks, John Hickey came with Joseph, Scott was there as were the Manwarings.  John came with the best cheesecake desert. John slept over and we babysat the boys as John and Kaley attended Sunday session with special seats from Elder Anderson.

It was a memorable conference and we felt great joy in seeing everyone again.  We go to St. George next.

Love, Mom and Dad