April 1-7, 2014

Spring has finally hit Philly, lots of flowers in bloom and the temp. is delightful. Soon we will be complaining of the heat!
  This was a super week, mainly because we enjoyed conference so much. We met at our little church and watched it with who ever came to church. Sat. we had about 14 there, then dad went back and watched the priesthood session.  Sun. we did the same thing only we had a pot luck lunch in-between sessions.
  The conference was simply wonderful!  It is just what we needed for a good shot in the arm. We had around 25 there, including two investigators. The one sister, if all goes well, is to be baptized next Sun.  Every talk was just for me, hope I can start doing better in a lot of areas.
  I have been fighting hives now for 4 weeks! I finally went to a Dr. and he has me on antihistamines and prednisone.  I hope it works.  So far I am still scratching, I don't know when I have had anything so annoying  I look like a monkey all the time.  I remember when you got hives so bad John, I sure didn't have enough sympathy for you then.
  We cleaned the church this week. The elders meet there often to study, email and just wait for other appointments.  It needs a good cleaning job a least once a week.
  Our Shaniqua is starting to get cold feet.  I don't know if we will get her in the water or not.  We keep praying for her and try to encourage her.
  Fri. we (5 senior couples) went to the DC Temple.  It was a wonderful experience. We got up at 5:30, left the mission office at 7 and drove for 3 hours.  Went into a session. What a beautiful temple. I had seen it before but forgot a lot about it.  It was so big compared to the one we are use to.  Dad and I were both surprised, we remembered all the dialog.  We then drove around downtown looking for "The Cheese Cake Factory." One of the couples wanted to go there so that took an extra hour.  After everyone ate their salad or sandwich (noone ordered cheese cake), it took us 4 hours to get home because it was after work traffic.  It was sure was worth it!!!!!
 All of you sound busy and happy.  We are excited some of you are on vacations, or back from vacations. We are so happy when you are together as siblings. Keep up the wonderful family unity!  We love and miss all of you a lot but we know this is where we are suppose to be.  Please all stay well and focused. We are so proud of each one of you.  Good luck to all the busy, busy grand kids, dance competitions, baseball, ending up another school year.  Being so busy is hard but it sure makes you focus in the right direction, keep it up!

We love and miss each and everyone of you!
MOM & DAD
GRANDPA& GRANDMA, PLUS GREAT
BROTHER & SISTER ARMSTRONG
KARL & JOYCE