My cousins came down to Utah from Florida for my cousins wedding which was way fun to see all of my family. For the First time ever my whole family traveled to Elsalvador where my mom is from. No kids came it was my whole family Steph, Emily, Elizabeth, Stevie and my mom and dad also my aunt Ivonne, Ena, Uncle Rolando, abuelita, and cousin Roland went. It was so much cauos just preparing for the trip. I started pumping breast milk and putting it in the freezer a month in advance, then I had to find babysitters for all of my kids. Paul took a few day off from work and my friends came through for me and took care of the kids. Most of the day I split up the kids so It would'nt be to hectic for my friends so I had bags ready for paul for each of the kids with clothing diapers, food and bottles. Also my niece tasha came up from st. george to watch the kids for a couple days. In Elsalvador We had adventure after adventure our flight left at midight and we got into the country around 11:00 am My grandma brought 3 suitcases and then everyone elses stuff we barely made it home we were so cramed in this tinny minni van that fit 11 passengers. The vans had no seat belts. So you the more people you can fit in a car the better. People rode in the back of trucks, or half way in vans sitting out of the window seal. And the driving was crazy no one followed the traffic lights and cars and buses would try to squeeze through the smallest spaces. We were scared for our lives every time we drove anywhere. We were able to see where my mom grew up and meet relatives we have never met before. We saw the first church built in elsalvador. The first night we got there my uncle who is in charge of getting the temple ready for the dedication gave us a tour of the temple. when you walk in to the temple there is a huge picture of Christ standing with two little girls about 8 years old. One of the girls is a nephite with white skin and the other is a lamanite girl it is the most beautiful picture. The temple had the country flower everywhere inprinted into the carpet and on the walls. My mom says they eat that flower cut up with eggs and it is really good. We were sopose to have tickets to the celestial room for the temple dedication with Henry B Erying but we told my uncle to late that we were coming so he said to get the temple two hours early and he would try to get us in. We got there before a ton of people they checked our tickets and we ended up going to the end of another line of people who had just got there I was so bugged we had gotten there before them and now they were in front of us. When they let us in to the temple we ended up very close to the front of in a cieling room right next to the celestial room we were so close. My uncle then started to squeeze in chairs and tried to get us in to the celestial room he couldnt be obvious that we were family so he said the first two rows then I need one person. He got all of us in except for my dad and my little brother. It was such a neat spirit to be in the same room as pres. erying. The whole room was in tears with spirit we felt. In one of the dedications Pres. Eyring stopped in the middle of the dedicatory prayer and said he felt he needed to say something and said that Elsalvador is named after the savior and is one of the most unsafe places in the world but from this country there will be many missionaries sent to Asia so spread the gospel. When I looked around me and saw the faces of these faithful lamanite people who are my roots and saw the look in my moms face and to know that these people have been waiting so long for a temple in their country and finally have one brought me to tears. At the end of the dedication they sang the spirit of god in Spanish and it felt as if we were in a different place and that we were so close to heaven. What an experience! I hope I will never forget the way I felt and how the spirit burned with in all of us that this was the true church.
I have found a new running partner to run with. I was usually a lone runner but have found social running tons better. A Lady in my ward named Becky Peterson has run over 20 marathons, she is 55 years old and we have had a great time training together. We have found others to join us from time to time, but people in Price do not like to run. I think it is the most unfit county in Utah. We trained together all summer and ran the Crandell Canyon Half marathon which was really fun and beautiful I got 2nd place and got a trophy. We ran the TOU in September and got rained on and hailed on for more than half of it. I had a cold the week before so struggled breathing. I wanted to run straight home if we had to endure running in hail that rips of your flesh for 4 hours, but it eventually stopped. I don't care how much you train for a marathon it is still very painful. We didn't do any down hill training so our legs were hammered after coming out of blacksmith fork canyon. While running with my legs cramping up I kept thinking why am I doing this? This is not fun! I couldn't wait to see my family they were waiting for us by Ryan's park in RiverHeights and My little sister Elizabeth joined us for the last 3 miles. Mile 19-23 were the hardest for me mentally there were so many switch backs before the park. I just wanted to run straight to them but every time we got closer the race would go the opposite direction for several miles than come back towards the park. I did better than the last marathon I ran I beat my time by 15 min. I was hoping for better but, oh well. I did it and it is done. I got 4 hrs and 15 min. In my pictures I look like I am about to cry, I am in tons of pain and another looks like I can barely lift my legs of the pavement and that is how it felt.
