New Angel in Heaven

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to express myself. I got an email late last night that my mission-mom Sister Connie Farnsworth passed in her sleep yesterday.

We have known she's been fighting cancer for over 9 months. President has been amazing in emailing all of us and keeping us up to date on her condition. She stayed around months longer then any of the doctors predicted. For being such a petite lady she's one of the strongest women I know.

She was the mother of 13 kids. Served as a mission-mom in Ecuador where she had a hard time with the language, but we never heard her complain. She also served in the temple presidency at the Hermosillo Mexico Temple, where President said she had a higher calling of being the gardener, which she loved. They also served for a long time in the Mesa Temple.
Every time we would see her in the mission she would always have a huge smile and treats. She was so perky and remembered so much about all of us and truly loved every missionary and person she came in contact with. Seeing her stand next to President was always so cute - she was barely 5' and Pres was 6'5" (guessing), he was always attentive to her and made sure she was taken care of before he went on to anything else.

My favorite memory of Sis F, was my last night in the mission. There was a large group of us going home, mostly Elders. After dinner and our final interviews where over, there was 5 of us "Hermanas', going home together, so we got to have a slumber party with Sis F. We stayed up for hours talking, telling stories, giving recipes everything. She was so excited to be able to not have to worry about her Spanish. Pres had to come make her go to bed, and so we could get a little sleep before our very early flight. She was so cute that night.

I know that her family has been prepared for her to go. They even had time to put together a cookbook of her favorite things, (that we should be getting soon). They are all so close, and reading about her last week in emails and blogs has shown how much they loved and honored her.

I wish that I could have been closer to visit them more often (they live in AZ). I saw her about 2 years ago, for an impromptu reunion. It was like being a missionary again. We knew who was in charge. They are both amazing people and I know that their testimony, lives and examples helped strengthen my own. I'm also happy to know that there is another angel on our side in Heaven that has passed the test.

Love you Sister Farnsworth - Miss you!
www.conworth.blogspot.com her family blog

Jordan River

Our last stop of this day was to the spot where they believed that Jesus would have been baptized. It is called Yardenit, and is a popular place for groups to go to be baptized. There was a group there getting baptized. The priest would put his scarf on their head and push them under 3 times. We weren't quit sure why. It was really cold water and kinda stinky area (farm right across the river)

It was a really pretty area though.

Capernum

Capernum is on the north end of the Sea of Galilee. This is the city where Peter lived. They have built a round church that is completely suspended over the "house" that might have been Peters.
The Synagogue is being rebuilt and would have been where Jesus would have worshiped.

On the Sea of Galilee

We then made our way down to the Sea of Galilee to chatch a boat ride to the south side to get to the place that we are having lunch.

This was the boat ramp. The sea is shrinking because of the drought that has been going on for years.
There were several carved stones that lined the walkway down to the shore

On the boat the crew hoisted the US and Israeli flags together, and we all sang the National Anthem.
Once we were out in the middle the capitan killed the engines and we sang several songs including Master the Tempest is raging.
The seagulls followed us out and flew along side us in the breeze.
It was a perfect day to be out there. Clear and calm, really pretty.

Lunch was at a seaside restaurant. We sat along the edge to watch the fishermen and the 15 cats that were everywhere.
It was the normal selection of starter food. cabbage, pita, humas, etc.
We had our choice of a meat kabob (which turned out to be a small ground beef patty), or the "Peter Fish", this is the popular fish that is found in the sea, and that was most likely caught by Peter. Gregg Stowel was sitting next to me, and his fish talked and danced, and was named Henry. It was so gross to look at but he ate the whole thing... go Gregg.... RIP Henry

Mount of Beattitudes

I was just going thru my journal and realized that the posts I've already made are off... I was doing it during my lunch at work. So I'm going to change how the rest are posted.
12/7/09 - Korizam was actually our first stop this day.
Next stop was the top of the Mount of Bettitudes where there is a church built on the site that Christ would have given his sermon. We had several people from our group read all of the Beattitudes.
I think that the highlight for the majority of the group at this stop was finding a consession stand with ICE COLD Diet Coke... sad but true

Day 3 - Tiberias

Here is our next waterside hotel.... we didn't complain one bit. The sea of Galilee is smaller then I imagined and really pretty.

This is the first day of visiting ruins of ancient cities.... This is the stuff that I loved! seeing what has been found or still standing after 2000+ years.... AMAZING!

Nazareth (Day 2)

End of day 2 we ended in Nazareth. Sunset on the hill (that I forgot the name of). Very busy town, not the quiet village Mary & Joseph grew up in.
The church built over "Mary's House" is new and really pretty. Not as overly done as other churches I've been in.

Day 2

After getting a little sleep (we did at least lay down I think). We head north along the coast to Caeseria (ancient port) and Haifa (modern port). We then we went to the top of Mt Carmel (which is a really long range) and looked out over the valley of Armagedon.

I told you I'm slow.... Day 1 in Israel

(click to enlarge)

Here is some pictures of Day 1 of our travels.
We had a 8+ hour layover in Atlanta and a very nice southern gentleman that I work with offered to take us around Atlanta for a few hours to break up the wait. We went to the Varsity for lunch (Mom said it was the best grease she ever ate). Then we went to the World of Coke... very cool place.
Then it was on the flight for 10+ hours... it wasn't as bad as we were imagining, room to move around and stuff to do.
We arrived just after sunset and headed south to drove thru the town of Joppa where Jonah was eaten by the whale. Then it was back north of Tel Aviv to Netanya - a little coastal town, to check into our hotel for the night.... we couldn't complain about the ocean view - Amazing! You forget how much you miss the ocean when it's over 12 hours away.

I'm a little slow

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve Breakfast... Everyone enjoyed homemade waffles before heading over to Harrison's for the rest of the days activities. I love the picture of Claire "posing" with her banana...

The final activity of Christmas Eve was neighborhood sled pulls by Uncle Dennis and Mike. They kids had a ball and were all completely frozen, only a few bumps. Matthew and I got a ride home, that was enough for me without having better snow gear.... maybe next year.

New Years' Eve. Matthew had planned a very nice romantic evening for us. (this was supposed to be the night he was going to propose). We got downtown early and walked around temple square to see the lights. We saw bag-piper group at the JSMB, they were loud and cool. Then it was our time to have dinner at the Roof. Very nice and couldn't beat the view. Our final activity was a carriage ride at midnight. It was very fun, but also VERY COLD. It was the best New Years' I've had, hoping that it'll be a sign for a very good year.