Elders McIntyre & Burgoyne rest from their labors of creating the Christus

We just finished listening to the General Women's Conference and I choose to be "glad".

Our first full day of Fall was delightful warm sunny day.  We went to an area near downtown St Louis where one of our missionaries, also an artist, was invited to participate in "Paint Louis".  This is a yearly event where a mile and a half of a flood wall near the Mississippi, invites artists to participate by expressing their artistic talents and literally paint the wall.  The participants come from many places; the artists next to the missionaries were from the Netherlands.  My favorite piece was, of course, Elder Burgoyne's depiction of the Savior.  Elder McIntyre is his companion and his dedicated helper.  It was great to be with these young men; they even let George do a little spray painting. 

View along part of the flood wall, with lots of artists working

One young man from Chicago was thoughtfully looking at his space to paint (the wall is at least 20 feet high and his area was at least 40 feet long).  He said he usually does illegal art and doesn't have much time to plan his work.  He said he was struggling with what to do, but by the time we left, his artistic block was replaced by some beautiful colors and developing shapes.

One of the paintings in Paint Louis

We then went to "The Hill".  This is an area of St Louis that is a "long-established" Italian-American neighborhood with lots of eateries and beautifully refurbished homes.  We met George's first cousin and his wife who live in O'fallon, Missouri.  Yes we ate Italian and have enough leftovers for a couple of meals.  We then walked to an Italian Bakery.  I purchased an apple strudel. . we'll check it out tomorrow.

Another artist displaying his talents; some used upwards of 40 cans of spray paint

We love the Office Sisters.  We start each day with a spiritual thought and prayer.  Friday, George and I left after our weekly office meeting with President and Sister Bateman, the office Elders and Sisters to do Apartment Inspections.  We visited some great missionaries and apartments.  Okay, I did not like the picture of Jesus painted on velvet looking over a truck rig.

Sister Slagel & Mower outside the Temple service entrance

The Temple is closed for a couple of weeks for cleaning and we went to help one evening this week.  Last time we cleaned crystals from the chandeliers.  This time we cleaned walls, toilets, and upholstery, etc.  We were pretty tired when we left.  

Primary children singing in the program

Last Sunday was our Branch Primary Program.  Ten children shared their thoughts on Choosing the Right and did a great job.  Later it was fun to call our grandchildren who shared their parts from their program earlier in the day.  

Putting their final touches on their work by adding mormon.org

We are thankful for this time of our lives!