Turkey, Family, Friends, and Rummikub

By Rodger Dean Duncan

It seems that life's most beautiful moments accelerate and slip beyond our grasp just when we want to hold onto them for as long as possible.

That's how we feel about our mission. We've met and worked with so many wonderful people. They've been kind and generous to us. Fortunately many of them promise to visit us at our home in Liberty, Missouri. We will hold them to those promises.

We always take one serious photo and one goofy one. We'll let you decide
if this one is serious or goofy.

This past Monday evening we drove 90 miles to the north to the mission home in Colleyville. There we spent a great evening with our mission president and 16 other missionaries who have completed their missions and are heading home. We don't leave until December 14, but we were invited to attend this farewell. After a tasty dinner of Texas barbecue (what else?), we sang hymns and had a testimony meeting. The latter revealed in living color the amazing spiritual maturity of these young people. We will miss them. And we think they'll miss us, too.

What would a family celebration be without Kermit?

Thanksgiving

We spent two days of Thanksgiving celebration at the home of my sister Patricia and her family in Terrell, Texas, about 30 miles east of Dallas. It's always so fun ... and caloric ... to visit there. It's like being at an upscale spa, complete with entertainment (especially when our nephews are there).

Visitors

We loved having a visit from Brent and Helena Knapp and their lovely daughter Ava. Helena was a member of the BYU 40th Ward when I served as bishop about 20 years ago. She and Brent are also friends of our daughter Rachel and son-in-law Kirk. In fact, it was Helena who introduced them. Thanks to Ava for decorating our mini Christmas tree. Didn't she do a nice job? Her reward was a Kermit cuddle.

Is it our imagination, or are stake presidents getting younger
these days?

Friends Forever

Did you ever meet someone and just know from the very beginning that you'll be lifelong friends? That's how we feel about Chris and Amanda Price. Chris is the (relatively new) president of the Waco Stake. He and Amanda are a treasure to us, both as friends and as fellow workers in the kingdom.

Last night we drove down to Temple to enjoy a delicious dinner with the Price family, plus games of Chicken Foot Dominoes and Rummikub. (Our grandchildren will be happy to hear that for the first time in my life I played Rummikub.)

We love to see strong young families like the Prices who are so devoted to the gospel. Chris and Amanda and their children Cody (left), Mason, and Kylie promise to visit us next summer in Liberty.

Opinion, Please

Don't you think Brent Knapp and Chris Price (above) look enough alike to be brothers?

LeaderSHOP for Saints 

In our next blog post we'll report on the December 5 LeaderSHOP for Saints that we've organized for the Waco Stake.