Elder Dallin H. Oaks comes to Eagar, AZ!!!

Last Saturday Sept. 14th we had a special multi-stake conference right here in Eagar, maybe because we have a huge dome that holds 10,000 people!

 We had Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the Lord come!  He came with Elders Heyman and Anderson. They all brought their wives!  President Oaks held a special leadership training before the conference started.

 At 4:00pm the doors opened to let everyone in! Chad and Luann left at 2:30 from Snowflake to get here by 4! They saved us a seat because BYU was playing USC and it went into overtime!!
We WON!!  30-27!
 Elder Oaks was president at BYU so he's a fan!

The 7 stakes invited were - Eagar, St. Johns, Show Low, Snowflake,  White Mountain, Centennial and Silver Creek.

Sister Kristen Oaks gave a wonderful talk. She is so bubbly and excited about the gospel. One of the things she said, "It is consistent, repetitive, holy behaviors that will shape us into children of God". She said, "If you want to know the truth, you have to pay the price." 

President Oaks seemed more relaxed and very personal than he looks on TV. He asked us to increase our faith and trust in the Savior. He said, "Consider all that has come to us in the last 18 months. There is a hastening of the work". 

It was a wonderful, amazing conference. Our kids were little the last time we had a general authority come to our area! It will probably be a long time before one comes again!

More Trip fun! The Great Smokey Mountians National Park and BYU-TENNESSEE FOOTBALL

 Gatlinburg, Tennessee is the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Its also the biggest tourist town I've ever seen! So much to do and see! Our day didn't start until after 11am. We enjoyed sleeping in and then getting a great breakfast!

 Mark got peach crepes!

 I got delicious french toast.

Then we were off to explore the National Park. This park gets over 11 million visitors a year! It sure is beautiful! We hiked 2.5 miles one way to see Abrams Falls. It was hot and I got all sweaty, but it was sure pretty!

We crossed at least 3 of these narrow log bridges- cool!

 We packed a little picnic lunch to eat once at the falls! We wished we would've worn swim suits, a lot of people were swimming!

 Abrams Falls

Then Marks plan was to make it to Clingmans Dome, the highest peak in the Smokey Mountains, and hike up to the top to watch the sunset! We made it just in time!

 At the top is this tower so we could see a panoramic view!

It was windy and cold up on top!

Our second day in the Smokey Mountains we got a little earlier start because we had breakfast at the cabin.

 

 The plan for today was to hike to another waterfall, Grotto Falls.

Luckily, this was a much shorter hike! Only 1 1/2 miles.

 It was fun hiking and running into lots of other BYU fans who had come for the big game.

 The trail was shorter, but all uphill getting to the Falls.

MADE IT!    Lunch time!

 

 

Going back was much easier- all downhill!

Then we drove on a one way little road all through the park and saw lots of interesting things, like this really old water trough that was used to take water to a wheel that would power a grinder of some kind.

After hiking to the Falls we went back into Gatlinburg and rode the tram up to the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America. Skybridge is 680 feet across and 140 feet above the valley floor.  It was a little scary for me, but really amazing too.

 

 

When I thought it couldn't get any scarier, we then had to walk across glass!! Looking straight down!!

 The view of Gatlinburg from on top!

Then we had to hurry and drive to Knoxville, TN about an hour away so that Mark and Dad could go to the BYU- Tennessee Football game! Holly and I dropped the guys off and we went to a movie! ("Overcomers") So good!

 

The Tennessee football stadium holds over 90,000 fans!

And it was packed!!

 

 That's lots of orange!!
These were HAPPY BYU fans when we won in 2nd over time!
29-26  GO COUGS!!

 Picking them up after the game took hours! All the roads getting back to where they were, were closed! Holly and I went around in circles trying to get to them. They had to sit and wait for us!  It was about 12:30am when they opened the roads up. 

The Tennessee fans were in shock! Reed said that the stats show that a team that is on their own 20 yard line, with 16 seconds left in the game has a 96.6 chance of NOT winning!  And we DID!!

By the time we got back to our B&B it was after 1:00am. We had to get up at 4:30am to be at the airport by 5:30 to catch our flights home.  The lines were long and the car rental place was closed! 
BUT-  We all made our flights, just barely!!
IT WAS SUCH A FUN TRIP! Thanks Mark for inviting us!

A FUN TRIP WITH MARK & HOLLY Sept.4th-8th.

Mark invited his Dad (&me) to go to the BYU- Tennessee game on Saturday Sept 7th in TENNESSEE!! Mark made a whole vacation out of it!  We were gone 4 days and did lots of fun things!

Right before we left LaVerl was doing some yard work and 

got stung by a wasp!  He's allergic, it swelled up huge!! 

 We left on Tuesday Sept. 3rd. We stopped in Show Low and ordered all the Trex for our deck!! Then on to Mesa to stay with Lisa because we had to get up at 4 to be at the airport at 5:30am.

(A terrible 'selfie' at the airport!)

 We met Mark & Holly in Atlanta, GA at the airport. Mark rented a car and then we went to a real 'soul food' restaurant called

the Busy Bee. We were the only white folks there!!

Then we went to find our AirB&B. Mark found this really cute little house. We got ready and headed to the Atlanta Temple!

 Afterwards we went to a Thai place to eat! I was still full from lunch but the food looked delicious! Ice cream afterwards!

We went across the street where they make ice cream on a flat frozen plate and then scrap it off in a roll. YUMMY!

 

It was the end of a great day! We were all glad that we lost 3 hours in time, because midnight felt like midnight when really it was only 9 our time!

We spent Thursday Sept 5th doing some fun things in Atlanta.

 They have a very large Aquarium that was built mainly to hold 3 huge whale sharks that are not whales or sharks, but fish!

 
 

We saw some unusual and beautiful creatures. 

Like this dragon fish!

 
 

 

 Next we went to the Football Hall of Fame. It turned out to be really fun! It was all inter-active. We registered when we came in and got an electronic badge that activated screens when we came in the room that displayed our favorite team!

 Lots of good quotes from great coaches.

 It closed at 5pm, then we were off and headed to Gatlinburg, TN.

It was a 4 hour drive to get to our next AirB&B.

 We drove up and up on a very windy road, but finally made it and were in bed about midnight. It was another great day!