A Big Week for the Fosters

We have had a big week this past week starting on Thursday March 21st I drove to Idaho Falls Idaho to spend the weekend with my mom and sisters. We had tickets to attend Time Out For Women. It is a weekend just for women to be spiritual feed. We meet together and went shopping on Friday and then in the evening attend a session to kick off the weekend. Well around 4:00 pm I got a phone call from Spencer and his mission call had come. I was not there! The plan when it came was to drive to Niles, Michigan and surprise his grandparents who are serving and open the call. We'll here I was five hours away from them and they were ready to go. I was so torn wanting to be in both places at once. I spent the night Friday and went to the morning session of TOFW and then headed back to Montana. I arrived at 4:30 repacked my bags and we were on the road at 5:00. We drove all night and the next day. We arrived Sunday around 3:00 pm. Mikes parents were not home from church yet so we took a picture of us waiting on their front porch.



 
We checked into a motel room and texted Elder and Sister Foster telling them we had tried to Skype them and they weren't home to give us a call when they got home. We had just layed down to take a nap and they texted back saying they were home and they would give us a call. We quickly jumped back into the car and drove the mile over to there apartment. We sent them the picture of us on there porch and waited. Nothing happened. Kate then went and knocked on their door and waited some more. Long story short. They were very much surprised and did not recognize that the picture was on their porch. We visited for a while and they were ready to take us around and show us their mission. I had to speak up and tell them that we had one more surprise for them first. Spencer then pulled out the envelope and surprised them again. Spencer has been called to serve in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania mission. He will report to the the MTC on July 24. We are very excited and proud of him.

 We spent the next 6 days being tourists. That first night we got to see a little of Niles and meet some of the members. We had dinner together and then hit it hard on Monday. We went to Notre Dame and drove through the mission.

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Spencer and Levi built a snowmen in front of the Plymouth church. They had hopes that it would be a reminder for G&G but we got word today (Sunday) that it all but melted away. Tuesday the second day we drove out to see Lake Michigan and then headed to Chicago. We went to the top of the "Sears Tower" now called the "Willis Tower" Then we went to the National Field Museum of Natural History. We recognized it from the movie "Night of the Museum". We enjoyed the day but were exhausted.



 

 Wednesday March 27 we checked out of our motel and said our goodbyes. Spencer said goodbye to Grandma & Grandpa he will not see them for the next 2 years and 3 months.

 We drove all day and got to Nauvoo Illinois. The visitors center was closing in one hour and the little shops closed in 15 minutes so we went and saw the brick house and then watched a movie at the visitors center and got tickets for the evening play performance of Rendezvous that evening.  At the play the lead characters were a couple serving their mission.  They were from Rigby Idaho, Wayne and Mary Call good friends of grandma and grandpa Foster. The  next day we found out from other missionaries that they are part of the mission presidency.

Here is a few pictures of our time spent there.
 

 We spent all day at Nauvoo and then headed to Carthage Jail.

  Friday morning we spent sometime searching for Adam-Ondi-Ahman but it was worth the drive and search. We were the only ones there. It was a beautiful day.


  From there we drove to Far West and again had the whole place to ourselves. We were greated by two senior missionaries sweeping the salt off the sidewalks we visited with them for a few minutes and found out they were from Rigby Idaho. Mikes home town. I guess in all the shock I forgot to take some pictures but it was fun to see the cornerstones of the temple there. We then headed to Liberty Missouri and saw the Jail where Joseph Smith spent over 6 months and received many important revelations.

 

From Liberty Jail we drove to Independence Missouri and toured the visitors center this was our last major historical stop it was great. Here are few pictures of the kids just chilling in the visitors center.
 I am so grateful that we were able to take the time and visits these important sites in our church history. We had some great experiences and will not forget the spirit which we felt while there. The only thing that would have made it better was if Logan could have been with us. But he is having some great experiences in Hungary. Not far from Independence is the Kansas City Temple which was just dedicated last year. We made this our final stop of the trip.