Melodie's Homecoming

Melodie spoke at church today to share some of her mission experiences with our ward. 

A lot of our extended family was able to come join us as well as some of her mission friends. My mom and brother seeing me take a selfie of Peter asleep next to me, with Natalie resting on his leg. He looked so cute in his little blazer!

I taught Gospel Doctrine today, so it was fun to have Corey's parents and my parents and siblings join us in our class discussion there as we talked about Joseph of Egypt. Everyone knows his inspiring story, and I was excited that those chapters fell on the week I was teaching, since he has been a favorite of mine since 2017 when it helped me during a stretching time. He represented the second E in my Jewels acronym when I gave a talk and I want to be like him in my trials, which are much smaller by comparison. Anyway, so that was fun to teach and have them in the class. After church we all came back to our house for lunch and a nice visit. We ate and kids and cousins played games. 

Adults visited and that was fun. Joseph was sharing some parts of the story of his and Hyrum's cross country trip last August. Joseph has lost his debit card in Guatemala, and Hyrum left his in a gas station at the beginning of their trip, so they were surviving off cash Hyrum had from the $1000 dollar deal. When they were leaving Nauvoo, they decided to just drive all night through Nebraska and get home rather than spend any of their limited cash on a hotel. They kept themselves away with some carbonated drinks and by singing their lungs out. My favorite part was how they would let their imaginary audience know what a special event they were about to enjoy: "Joseph and Hyrum!!! One night only!!" 

 

It was funny. Good times. I thought Mel had some pictures with her companions who came to church, but instead she sent me these pics of her at THEIR homecomings. Mel with Sister Jenkins -

And Sister _____.

(Sorry we didn't decorate for you Mel! I didn't know I was supposed to/should have/could have til I saw these pics! It didn't cross my mind.) And we've learned that Mel likes to wear unmatched socks.