I Wait for My Visa

Please Register for My Blog—You will be notified by email whenever I add a new post. See upper right corner. Please email me at patnewsom7@gmail.com and let me know if you are following my blog and what you would like to learn about. This will help know what to blog about.

 I Wait for My Visa

July 18 to 24, 2013

Our wonderful classes at the Mission Training Center lasted nine powerful days. The teaching was excellent and the spirit was strong. It was a wonderful experience. The last class was July 18 and I was supposed to leave for Fiji on July 20, but my visa had not arrived. My companion and I were finally able to travel on Pioneer Day, Wednesday, July 24^th. It was a fitting day for I felt like a pioneer traveling to parts unknown to me out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Elder and Sister Walker and Sister Limburg and I all point to our destination: FIJI! 

While I waited for the visa, I returned to Laura’s home in Provo. I went to the Timpanogos Temple with Aaron’s mother, Karen Nielson. It is beautiful inside: mainly white and lots of light coming through the windows. 

Chandy and Dave had come to Provo to see me off and visit with family. On Friday, July 19^th the Nielson and Bair families and I all went to a cute little Pioneer Village in Provo. We all had fun learning about pioneer life. It was the first “outing” for little Violet. She is a very content baby.

We all went to “school” and the grandchildren lined up for their “lesson”.

Each child had to read wise sayings from a little primer book. It is Brooke Bair's turn while Tessa and Ashlyn Bair, and Jane Nielson listen.

Then it was “play” time. Laura and Tate squared off for a stick pull. 

Laura won the first round, but Tate prevailed thereafter.

                                     Grant Nielson made wooden men walk up the ropes.

This is how pioneer children learned to milk a cow.

Elizabeth Nielson was pensive—who knows what a three-year-old ponders about? 

The outhouse, complete with a stuffed mannequin doing his thing, was not fully appreciated by granddaughter Ashlyn Bair. Tate Bair, Jane Nielson, Brooke Bair, Laura and Aaron Nielson look on.

They all had fun in the covered wagon.

Front Row: Tessa Bair, Grant and Jane Nielson, Brooke Bair.

Back Row: Tate and Brig Bair, Elizabeth Nielson, Ashlyn Bair 

The afternoon was spent playing at a park with the splash pad being the main attraction. 

Tessa Bair, Grant Nielson, Tate, Brooke, and Ashlyn Bair, and Elizabeth can all be seen having fun. 

Ashlyn, Brooke, and Elizabeth shiver together in a big beach towel.

All the grand kids show their “attitude” while posing for a group picture. 

Laura with sweet Violet and Chandy relax on the lawn—respite while the dads shepherd the children.

My second Pedicure: My foot is in the black sandal and clockwise from there are the feet

of daughter Laura Nielson, niece Ryn Paxman, granddaughter Ashlyn and daughter Chandy Bair.

We all had fun at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. Brig Bair is catching up to cousin Elizabeth Nielson in height. She is seven months older. Tessa Bair and Jane Nielson compare them. 

 Grant and Jane like to climb on the rocks. 

 

So does Tate. Here he is halfway to the top of the falls. 

 

Watching the fish is fun for Tessa, Elizabeth, and Brook.

My Final Goodbyes to Family

July 24, 2013

I took one last picture of the family who were together in Utah. No photo shop here—just wiggly kids. 

Here I am with nine of my fifteen beautiful grandchildren. I miss them so much! 

I came down with a nasty sore throat and head cold the night before I left. Chandy and Laura were my angels who helped me pack and then drove me to the airport. Bonnie Paxman, my dear sister-in-law, came to say goodbye. She brought me chewing gum that saved my ears and head from exploding on the three airplane landings: Los Angeles, Nadi and Nausori—both in Fiji.

Here I am with all my luggage—enough stuff to last me 18 months. 

Have passport—will travel. Sister Limburg and I are ready to go. 

She and I became good friends when I moved to Murray, Utah from Chicago when we both were ten. We have kept in touch over the years at high school reunions and through Christmas Letters. Our husbands both died of cancer. She went on two missions with her husband to Guatemala and Chile and invited me to be her companion for her third mission and my first mission. What a great idea!