This beautiful girl, Carrie Smith, formerly known as Sister Smith, came to visit with her parents.  She left the mission six weeks ago, and was returning to attend the temple with two special families she had helped in their conversion.  It made me weep to see her again because I love her so much.  She has wonderful parents, and it was so nice to meet them.  I can see why she is the person she is. President Andersen was not feeling well this morning so he was home in bed.  

Ok, so I haven't been really good at the posting lately and I was reading my last post focused on a miracle of the mission...well here is the latest miracle. Jed cut his hair!! This is a screen shot as we are face timing.  You can see my joy filled face (there is a huge smile that you can't see)!  It is no shave November, but I am overjoyed with the progress.  If I could add a hashtag it would say #theLordanswersprayers

Here is a news flash from Nashville!  Vance Child is getting married!!! This is one of the miracles, we feel, of our mission!  Can you just love the red hair on these darling boys?  I love! Congratulations Vance and Emily!

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Just in case ya'll want to know the best way to warm my heart... say "hey mom, we set a goal to go to the temple once a month. It's the 30th and we haven't been yet. Could you drop us off at the temple?"  That will do it every time.  I love that my kids would have a goal to go to the temple.  It is my very favorite place next to home.  

We had a wonderful time with the kids here in Nashville!  We were able to watch conference together and Kyle had a son to take to Priesthood session.  We ate some amazing food as always when you have Lindsey in the house.  They are so fun and ready to do anything.  They went on a little lunch cruise on the General Jackson, while I watched Gemma (she was thrilled to be able to take a long nap).  We had a great time shopping and the only thing that would have made this trip perfect would be if Grandpa would have been able to be with us the whole time.  He got home very late most nights, just as Gemma was getting ready for bed.  She was good enough to stay up and chase up and down the hall with him, running after balls and building block towers.  He is the best Grandpa any girl could every have.  We dropped them off at the airport at 9:30 and headed to the office to get ready to pick up the incoming missionaries at 3:30 and to start the craziness which is transfer week!

She started talking about blowing bubbles as soon as she got here.  She remembered from the last time she was here.  

Kisses goodbye to her grandpa

Gemma, Nick and Lindsey Scano in the Nashville Airport 

President Andersen and his baby Gems and of course Sister Andersen

We are so pleased to be this amazing girls parents.  We couldn't be more thrilled with her and her sweet family.  

It could not be just any horse!  It had to be this one.

As anyone can clearly see...we love each other!

Gemma with her favorite Grandpa who can read "Are You My Mother?" better than any other!
Love the look on her face!

Gemma down by the creek that runs along the back of the property.  

We stopped at the Opry Mills Mall and had our favorite "Sweet Ce Ce's" frozen yogurt!

We are so blessed that Lindsey, Nick and Gemma could come to visit!  Kyle had to do zone meetings so that he could show "Meet the Mormon's" to the missionaries and do a training.  I went to the airport and waited patiently for our sweet family to come.  I waited and waited and then finally got a text from Nick saying that they were in the baggage claim area.  I had waited at the wrong place.  Stink!  I hurried down the stairs to the baggage claim and here is the rest of the story!  I love this sweet girl!..and her parents of course.

On September 16, we had a wonderful senior out on the General Jackson, a river boat that runs the Cumberland river.  They have a lovely buffet lunch and a really nice musical show.  We had all of our senior couples there and had such a nice time.  We surly appreciate the work that these wonderful couples do in our mission.  They work tirelessly to bring less actives back into activity, find employment for those without jobs, take care of all of our cars, apartments and utilities, referrals, mail, and drive missionaries all over the place.  They help them with meals, laundry, counseling, companionship issues, investigator problems and concerns, and are just a wonderful substitute for parents and grandparents.  We are so grateful that they would leave their homes, pets, children, grand-children, great-grandchildren, friends, hobbies, and wards to come out here and build the kingdom of God here in the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  We LOVE them all so much!  

President and Sister Andersen

President Andersen, Sister Godfrey, Elder and Sister Johnson

President Andersen

Elder and Sister Bird

Elder and Sister Hansen

Elder and Sister Huntzinger

Elder and Sister Bolos

Elder and Sister Johnson

Elder and Sister Aina

Elder and Sister Fattic

Sister Crawford and Sister Dunn

Elder and Sister Dunn

Sister Godfrey and Sister Johnson

President Andersen

President and Sister Andersen

These are some of our beautiful sisters from the Paducah and Hopkinsville Zones.  We had such a great conference with them.  

I make this great missionary a nice meal...and this is what he does to it before he can eat it!!  I'm thinking his mom must make a lot of casseroles. We love elder Fore

We were invited to Fairview to sing at Nature Fest.  We brought 16 of our finest to sing from the Madison area.  Elder Alarcon was so good to organize the missionaries and the music.  We picked them up in Madison and drove to Fairview and hour away.  When we got there, we learned that we had been given the performing time.  We weren't singing at 11:30, but 1:30.  We went down to the booth that the Fairview branch had set up and got everyone hooked up with surveys to have people at the fair fill out.  We took some too.  It was a challenge to get anyone to fill it out for us.  We finally got one guy who said he would.  He was there with a booth for the Chevy dealership and we started talking about cars, specifically Cameros and Corvettes.  He was very nice.  Here's hoping that the missionaries will be able to meet with him and his family.  We didn't have a large audience, in fact there were President Andersen and I and maybe 3 others.  Oh well, it was a great day with the missionaries and we live and learn.

Elder Sandlin and Elder Green

Elder Peery and Elder Adams

Elder Alarcon, Elder Jimenez, Elder Womack, Elder Spiker,  and Elder Moeller

Elder Alarcon and President Andersen

Elder Hohneke, Elder Black, Sister Dansie, and Sister Cruz

Elder Hohneke, Elder Black, and Elder Moss

Sister West, Sister Penrod, Sister Williams, and Sister Rawlings

Elder Black, Elder Hill, and Elder Nimmer

Elder Alarcon

Our missionary choir singing at Nature Fest in Fairview September 13, 2014

I have been so worried that I had lost these videos.  I found them tonight on my phone and decided that I would hurry and post them so that I will have them forever.  This is Elder Roger Rodak.  He work as a Secret Service Agent and protected several Presidents of the United States.  He is able to take down these young missionaries before they even know whats happened.  He will be a hero of ours forever.  We sure do love and miss him and his dear wife here in the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  Here's to you Elder Rodak!!

For some reason I can not get this second video to turn due to my inexperience.  This is Elder Byington"s happy dance!  He is giving a lesson and some of his students get it more quickly than others.  He used to do this at random times, like after he knocked on the door while waiting for us to answer.  Now that he is gone, we are grateful that we have these memories and videos of him.  What a great guy!  

These are our newest missionaries to the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  They arrived Monday August 25, at 3:30 pm.  We were so excited to meet them and to welcome them to the greatest mission on earth.  

From left to right back row: Elder Jaden Roney, Elder Blake Casey,  Elder Reese Rasmussen, Elder Scott Wood, Elder Andrew Blazek, Sister Machel Andersen, President Kyle Andersen.
Front row: Sister Bailee Blake, Sister Mikala Dent, Sister Tia Miller, Sister Celeste Thomas

Elder Lovell and Elder Tagaloa

This is our new missionaries singing to the Lamberts at the head of the table.  They sing to the tune "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" but the words have been changed.  They sing: It was dinner time in the home today, and we were all hungry.  But thanks to the Lambert family, we're filled with energy.  We will go and serve the Lord now, we will work and teach and preach and serve, we will visit your referrals now.  We shall thank you Lambert family!
Brother and Sister Lambert prepare and serve the dinner for the new missionaries coming into the mission.  We are so grateful for them and the wonderful support they are to us.  They are wonderful examples of Christ like service and love.  Thank you so much Steve, Sheri and Andrew.

These are our four spanish speaking missionaries who had a delayed flight.  They arrived at the  home around 9:00 pm.  They were served dinner, had their interviews with President and I and some training from the office staff and then we got them settled into their beds for some much needed rest.

From left to right: Sister Whittney Dansie, Sister Maranda Sorensen, Sister Alexandria Gamble, Elder Wyatt Black