Mission Update 4/28/2024

 This has been a week. Thursday evening, after several months of being on hospice and a week of going downhill rather quickly, my father, Norman Davis, passed away.  So, we spent Friday and Saturday in Logan preparing for a funeral, cleaning out his apartment and so on. We'll spend more days this coming week up there with the funeral being on Friday. We are so happy that he is back with my mom who he missed ever since she passed away two years ago. 

From Gary: Family is everything!  Norman and Kris had two amazing daughters and now have 11 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren!  They were lifelong active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and served in many calling along the way.  They loved the outdoors and passed that to their posterity.  We are eternally grateful for the knowledge we have of the great plan of salvation that helps us know Norman and Kris are together forever, and that we will see them again!

Earlier in the week we managed to get some missionary work done with several interviews, meetings and so on. A new semester has started with Pathway so we are getting those cream of the crop students who are proactive in getting their endorsements done. It makes for easy and wonderful interviews. 

We went to the Ogden Temple this week again and we always feel so at home there. We loved the flower gardens, so amazing!

Early Thursday morning we picked up our daughter in law Jane (Adam) and grandson Calvin up at the airport. Jane came out for her sister's BYU graduation. They spent the day with us and we wandered through the gardens on Temple Square and went to the Church History Museum before we took them down to Provo to meet Jane's family. 

Friday morning we woke up at our hotel in Logan after a completely exhausting day on Thursday to this beautiful view. What a great reminder of why the funeral this next week will be a celebration, not a time of inconsolable sorrow.

Logan Temple From our Hotel Room

We knew when we came on our mission that Norman would likely not live long enough to see us come home.  We are grateful to have been called to a mission close enough to be able to visit him multiple times each month and share our mission stories with him.  He sometimes seemed to miss having us right up the street, but he always cheered us on in our missionary work and really appreciated our visits.  There is nothing that brings us closer to God than the passing of a loved one.  We feel the veil is very close and have feelings of being watched over by those who have passed on before us.  Until we meet again dear Norman.