Hi Everyone --

I guess it's been a long time since I've written. I guess that's what an "extended" vacation is all about!

We were able to pick up Brice from his mission at the airport in Cedar Rapids. He had an interview with the stake president at noon and then we went out to lunch for burgers. We whisked him back to Cedar Falls to get a TB test -- that's required by all returned missionaries. We spent the week shopping and visiting doctors and the dentist and visiting with old friends. Brice gave his "homecoming" on Sunday. It was really fun for Emily and Matt and Zach and Quinn to come up from Peoria, and Michelle and Ryan and Helen to come up from Omaha. Brice did an excellent job, even though it seemed to many that he had trouble speaking English.

We left for Omaha after church so we could overnight at Michelle's then catch our flight to Salt Lake City, Monday morning. Believe it or not, we actually made it. We had only a couple small problems -- Hannah left half of her clothes at Michelle's house, and Brice put his pocketknife in his pocket instead of his suitcase. We had to scramble at the airport to find an envelope, tape, and postage and send it to Ryan. He was excited to receive a pocketknife in the mail by surprise!

We made it to the Salt Lake airport and were heading to the baggage claim, when who should we run into, but Amber! Then we turned around and there was Grandma Johnson and Craig! It all seemed to run flawlessly! We got everyone and all the luggage into the cars and went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. We filled up their apartment! Grandma was such a good sport that week. Luckily she could go in her bedroom and close the door when she needed to.

We picked up Emily from the airport the next day, and the party was ready to begin. We got to meet Heidi Monday night at family home evening. She was a good sport about answering questions and meeting everyone all at the same time. That can be quite overwhelming! We were able to go to the Timpanogas temple for Heidi's endowment Tuesday night. We met all her family as well. Wednesday was the big day. I remember that it was HOT and SUNNY! We were all in the sealing room waiting, when Julia came in and said she had lost my mother. Back she went to find Grandma Wright. Apparently, she found Michelle and baby Helen and was enjoying them in the lobby instead of coming up to the sealing. Julia found her and brought her up and everything was wonderful. Pictures after on the temple grounds were beautiful. There was one snag -- the photographer showed up at the wrong temple. We waited a while and he finally made it.

Next on the agenda was lunch at the Olive Garden. We had reservations for 60 at 2:30 p.m. Unfortunately, there was a "Stamp It" convention in town and all the scrap booking ladies (17,000 of them) were everywhere and were hungry. Olive Garden did great and we had a wonderful lunch. We went back home for a quick nap and then down to Sandy for the reception. It was a beautiful setting in a greenhouse with lots of plants, flowers, and fountains. Heidi's mom did a beautiful job with everything and the food was delicious and the cake was awesome. Everything was just perfect. We even had friends from Waterloo come -- Richard and Loralee Bishop and their 2 kids, and Ken Moss with his family and David Moss with his new wife. Also Bonnie Swindler and her husband and baby came. It was really fun to see everyone!

Thursday we took Emily back to the airport. Everyone else just rested. It was a slow day. Friday we went to the airport ourselves to take off for India. Luckily we were on auto-pilot, or I don't think Hannah or I would have gotten on the airplane. We made it back safely -- it's really a long and tiring trip. I don't think I was very happy to be back, plus I had a very bad case of jet lag.

Everything here in India is about the same. We have 2 power cuts a day for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We don't have much warm water during the rainy season because we have a solar tank. Our internet has been behaving badly. Our computer had a huge "worm" virus and needed to be decontaminated.

We really enjoyed having Brice here. He just rested and read books and took it easy. We went out as often as we wanted to/could. I hope he got an idea of how India is. He was a good sport to go shopping with me every Monday. One week he said it was much easier that day. I asked him why and he said because there weren't so many beggars stopping us everywhere. OK.

We were able to play games, visit and just enjoy each other's company. Hannah did like having another student in Seminary -- to answer questions and give the prayer instead of her. We had some nice discussions.

This week Hannah came downstairs and said that the worst thing had happened. All her clothes were moldy and damp and stunk. She was very upset and Mary (our housekeeper) said that they all needed to be washed. That's a trick when we don't have power part of the day! Anyway, Mary has been busy washing all Hannah's clothes -- her room smells much better. Yesterday, Hannah decided to do a load with t-shirts and Captain Special. I know it was hard for her to put him in the washer. He made it through, but then she had to hang him by the ears on the drying rack. That was especially painful too. When I went up to bed, he wasn't there any more and I asked her where he was. She said she couldn't stand seeing him like that and that she took him down. I asked if he wasn't still wet, but she said he didn't get very wet at all and that he was dry. That means he didn't get very clean either!

This weekend is District Conference in Hyderabad. Elder Christoffersen was coming to be in charge. Dad has a bad cold and it's a good thing we didn't to. We are hoping for more than us at church today. We'll see.

I hope this is long enough and no one is actually bored by the length.
Have a good week. We love you!
Lucinda

P.S. There are more pictures of Craig and Heidi's wedding and our vacation on the top two links to the left.