Trip Heroes!

There are advantages and disadvantages in traveling with a group.  One of the advantages is all of the wonderful people you meet and get to know a little better!  Just looking around the first day on the bus, I thought everyone looked pretty ordinary just like us.  I am always amazed when I get to know people--everyone has a story and when you get to know someone you see them in a whole new light!  They are not ordinary but true life heroes!   Here are some of the people we met and learned about:

• There were two recent widows traveling together.  One was a convert and had been married three times.  She lost two of her husbands to unusual types of cancer--one having to do with his cornea and another had a salivary gland cancer that spread to his brain.  The other woman's husband died of a chemotherapy overdose.    Her husband was being treated for cancer with high hopes of remission when the nurse made a mistake at one of his infusions.  He died a very painful 3-month long death.  Heroes!

• We met a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and his wife.  We asked him lots of questions about getting into the choir and the commitment it requires both from him and from his wife who is not in the choir.   She is a Church widow whenever her ward meets in the morning, and it's hard to go on trips and participate in other events because of his schedule. This trip was for her.  I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and they are two more heroes!

• We had dinner with a couple who have a goal of trying to visit every state Capitol.  They were able to cross Montpelier, Vermont off their list on this trip and have visited over half of them so far.  They also serve as Church service missionaries working from their home in St. George and helping with missionary apartments, and car and bike repairs. Heroes!

• I saw a woman and her daughter and the woman looked so familiar to me.  It turned out she is Anne C. Pingree who served in the General Relief Society presidency under Bonnie Parkin.  Her husband died this year but in the late 1990's they served as mission president in Nigeria.  One night over dinner she shared some of their African experiences which were amazing!  She also gave a lot of service while she served for 5 years in the presidency and has spoken in General Conference! Another hero!
  

• Two couples it turns out came on the trip because they are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversaries. For one couple it is the 30th anniversary of their sealing as they were converts after they were married.  They joined early in their marriage and raised all four of their children in the gospel, and they all served missions and all married in the temple.  The couple themselves are temple workers and have had many ward and stake leadership positions!  Heroes too!

• I talked to a woman on a bench who needed to sit down for a few minutes like I did.  I asked why she and her husband were taking this particular trip.  It turns out her husband had served his mission in New Hampshire many years ago and had always wanted to take his wife to see the fall  colors there!  And on top of that they had always wanted to visit Kirtland.  They served a mission in Illinois and at the end of their mission they had scheduled a few days to go visit Kirtland before returning home from their mission just in time to get to a grandson's baptism-- a promise they had made to him before they left.  But there was a problem at the end of their mission, and the mission president needed them to stay a few extra days and so they had to skip their trip to Kirtland at that time.    Missionary and grandparent heroes!

• There was a older-than-most-of-us couple we met the first day.  They have served a couple of missions and given much family and church service.  But what impressed me the most about them was that they were always smiling!  And they were both a little feeble, but they were loving every minute.  Way-to-age-gracefully heroes!

• And finally there were three single women traveling together. When I had a conversation with them I learned that they had all three served a Senior mission in Germany and that is where they met each other!  They have stayed in touch and got together to do this trip with each other.  Aren't they awesome heroes too?!