Walstons in Egypt 2024-2026

  We have had a fairly busy last couple of weeks and our schedule is primed to get busier in the next couple of weeks and going forward. Here are a couple of things we have done and/or received. We had Wael again for dinner. He is our Syrian friend, who is extremely active. I was asked to be the travel coordinator for the FSY in March for our youth and adults attending. He came so we could call his children and wife, who are planning to attend. We hope there will not be a problem with visas. They may be the only members now in Syria. Karen and Amy Livingstone conclude their mission on February 3rd and we were given their window boxes and now have planted flowers in them. We enjoyed working with them for the last 3 1/2 months. This lady sits just off Road 9 making rugs. It is amazing to watch her. There are so many poorly maintained houses in Egypt. This house had its glory days, but looks like the Adams Family could be living here. The palm trees get trimmed so that it looks to me ...

  Here are a few random items over this past week. Above is some of the Arabic I am trying to learn. It is a very difficult language and I am learning very slowly. This is the main hall of the "Gathering Center" that we will be organizing and operating starting in 2 weeks. This will be a resource center for our poorer members and we will teach English, piano, cooking, and other skills here. We had a meeting to talk about the class priorities with the members and, of course, had to eat afterwards. Kathleen paid the final rent on our old apartment. It was 52,000 Egyptian pounds for 2 months. The new couple, the Phillips, will take occupancy of it tomorrow when they arrive and then they can determine if they want to find a new apartment. Our dear friend, Daniella, who is 9 years old made these for us and a note to both of us. We had their family here last night (Thursday) and after piano and English lessons. She and her sister helped cook pancakes with chocolate chips in them.  ...

We had permission from our Area Presidency to return to Utah and Seattle for Kristina Walston's baptism and Ander Walston's ordination to the priesthood. Most of our family was sick when we arrived and we complied and both of us got sick almost immediately. However, we were able to go to the temple twice with our daughter, Kristi, and her husband and do a number of other things while there. We went to the Luminary in Thanksgiving Point. This was Kristina's baptism. Her father, our son Ryan, baptized her. On the way back from Salt Lake City we were able to have a 10 hour layover and see our grandson, Anders, get ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood by his father, Eric. It was a quick, long trip and we were very tired, but so glad that we were able to see these ordinances.