April 10, 2012

Thursday was the memorial service for Chaya Hafen. It was really beautiful. She has left a big impact on her family and ward members.

On Friday night we went to Detroit to the temple. We had Sister Hilde Hammer with us. She is awesome. We were standing outside the temple taking photos when I looked up and saw Elder & Sister Hubbard, missionaries serving a mission in Detroit, who were in the MTC with us. We followed them across the country in November. They are from Couer d' lene, Idaho. I yelled out, "Idaho people!!!" and went running over. Sister H said that they had been talking about us and wanting to see us before they go home. (They are serving a six month mission. They are farmers and have to get home to get to work.) We were all in the same session, and because we were there early, we were able to visit for a while first. She squeezed my hand and said, "This is a tender mercy." I felt the same way. It was a cool session. We had thirty four people from our ward in the temple.

Sunday was Easter. We had a huge crowd at church. In my optimistic way, I am going to plan on that again next week . It sure would be nice.

We went to the Quintano family's home for Easter dinner and held a family home evening lesson for them. They are very gracious.

From my journal on Monday:

Today we got up and headed to Grand Rapids. We wanted to be there by 9:30. We had been told that the best time to see the butterflies at the Meijer Gardens is from 9:00 to 11:00. The trip was pretty uneventful. Everything is getting green and the flowering trees are in bloom.

The Meijer Gardens are wonderful. Mr. and Mrs. Meijer donated one hundred thirty two acres to a group who wanted a city garden. He  had also begun collecting sculptures and gave them to the garden. There are over eight hundred volunteers who work there. I do not know how many full time employees there are.

The bulb and perennial garden was filled with daffodils and tulips. There is a cactus garden. It had really cool cacti from all over the world. The plants I liked the best were from Africa. There is a “meat eaters” garden. They were really neat. I have never seen plants like those. They do not feed them. The plants lure bugs in the way they would in the wild. We took a tram ride around the gardens. The sculptures were interesting to us. I was amazed at the international variety. They were from Poland, England, Wales, Russia, USA, and others. We saw interesting sculptures by an artist from Montana…Debbie something…She began by taking walks and bring back interesting pieces of wood. She designed horses out of scraps. Then she cast them in bronze. She also made horses from scrap metal and cast them in bronze. They were covered with patina to make them look like wood and scrap metal. Interesting! There was a nice volunteer who took an interest in us and showed us some Chihuly glass that had been on display last week. She spent a lot of time telling us about the building, etc.

Devil's Tongue (This smells like sewage & it carries clear across the room.)

cacti

Grandma Stephens had this kind of cactus on her patio.

meat eater

Chihuly Glass

Chihuly Glass Chandelier

Chihuly Glass

Elder H's new best friend...who needs Alaska???

DaVinci's horse

Note the name of these tulips!

Of course the highlight for us was the butterfly/tropical garden exhibit. Butterflies were everywhere. We were glad we got there early, because before too long school children came in for field trips. There was also a tour group of people in wheel chairs. I loved that. I was glad to see these ladies out and around.

But I saved the best for last. Today Sandy Cooper set her baptismal date. She will be baptized on April 28th. We are extremely happy. In the meantime, she and Joe need prayers for help in their efforts to stop smoking.