Gordon B. Hinckley

Gordon B. Hinckley
1910-2008

I have had many opportunities to share my knowledge of the sweet gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that we are children of a loving Father in Heaven that is aware of us and our needs. Feeling of this love can motivate us to do many great works! I am grateful to live in this day and age, with the power of God on the earth! With living guidence, not only on a personal level but on a world wide level.
I will miss President Hinckley and his strong, humble way of sharing his testimony and humor! How grateful I am to know that there is a plan after this and that our Happily Ever After comes not now but later! I thank thee O God for a Prophet!

“I have seen miracles in my time, my brothers and sisters. The greatest miracle of all, I believe, is the transformation that comes into the life of a man or a woman who accepts the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and tries to live it in his or her life. How thankful I am for the wonders of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! It is indeed a marvelous work and a wonder which has been brought to pass by the power of the Almighty in behalf of His sons and daughters”
President Gordon B. Hinckley
(Vacaville/Santa Rosa, California, regional conference, 21 May 1995)

still here

here a a few pictures of us and our surroundings! The First one is us with Aaron (see the very serindipitous experience below). A lady drawing up the Arc de Triomphe, that place is crazy!!!! It actually has a method to the madness of a LARGE round about..... but kind of comical to watch, oh and a word of advise DONT CROSS THE ROAD, if you wish to go to the Arc there are passages that go under the street!
Next, in front of the Hotel de Ville there is an ice skating rink and this little sledding hill set up! The kids looked like they were having a blast! While we are here I want to take Gio ice skating, he has never been!
See the picture of the street, I should have taken it at night, what a riot this street is! Every building is a different resturant, Greek, French, Mexican, Italian, Chineese ALL sort of food here! In front of each resturant is someone trying to lure you in with a good deal or showing you a plate of the food you will get, and they speak all sorts of languages too! Its pretty entertaining! (this is in the Latin Quarter just across from Notre Dame).
Concorde is a metro station, I was changing lines and when I arrived to wait for my metro i noticed the whole station was titled with letters and numbers, a giant crossword puzzle! I see TROUBLE, what about you?
Updates on us, we are feeling better. Giovanni has been inBrussels the past 2 days and I hung out with a new friend yesterday!Elaine. It was fun went to lunch, while i put in a load of dirty laundry (she has a washer and a dryer!!!!) we watched the Man who knew to little and started Walk the Line. I had a good time hanging out with her! Elaine and Richard are from Little Rock, Ark. and have been here about a year. Richard works for Brinks security over all Europe, and other parts of the world. We meet them at church here, there are a lot of americans. They have been so kind to us since we arrived! It has been a blessing to meet great people like them!
The apartment.... well the one I was counting on fell through and now we are waiting for the contract on another apartment to be sent to us. It seems harder then it should be to get into a place! We are well and I guess that is what matters most!

still homeless in Paris

so it's a new week and we are still hotel jumping! I was very optimistically hoping to be in an apartment by now. We have found one we are now jus waiting for the contract to come! In the meantime Gio and I have been feeling less then great. I had a nasty cough that is now gone and my voice is starting to come back, but yesterday Gio had a fever and is still pretty congested! As you all know life does not stop when youre sick, if anything you have more to do! Tomorrow Giovanni will head to Brussels for 2 days, then on Saturday we will both be headed back to Milan just for the weekend, (he will go through Brussels again to travel with some Delegates for a Forum happening in Milan). I need to download a few pictures here of fun things, maybe next time! hope everyone is having a great week!

just another day in Paris....

Giovanni is in London today, he took the Chunnel (a super fast train that travels from Paris to London in 2.5 hours) the train goes under the English Channel through a tunnel, this part is only about 20 minutes.... but yesterday Giovaani was pretty impressed with the idea that he would be technically travelling "underwater". We still have not found a permenant place to stay while here and have jumped to yet another type of hotel. I hope to get this resolved pretty quick!
A VERY Serindipitous thing happened to Gio and I the other day! We had just jumped off the metro on our way to see an apartment, and not only that but at the last min we got off at a different stop then we had planned and about 2 min later we walked into Aaron Hendrickson!! He is one of our friends from Milan that we never have the chance to meet up with due to Gio as well as his crazy schedule (he is a makeup artist and travels the world)! He had just finished working the Chanel show and was just killing some time. He came with us and when Gio left to go back to work Aaron showed me around a little! We went to some of the Vintage shops and searched through what Paris used has to offer!!! It was a great afternoon!!!! I dont think we could have even planned it like that!
Yesterday I read a little about the Eiffel Tower! I really learned a lot! Here, I will share a little.
History: In 1889, the first visitor to Paris Universal Exposition walked benath te "arch" formed by the newly built Eiffel Tower and entered the fair grounds. The Worlds Fair celebrated both the centennial of the French Revolution and Frances position as a global superpower. Bridge- bulider Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) won the contest to build the fairs centerpiece by beating out such rival proposals as a giant guillotine.
Gustave deserved to have the Tower named for him. He not only designed it, but he oversaw the entire work, personally financed it? and was legally responsible if the project floundered. His factory produced the iron beams, he designed the cranes and apparatus, his workers built it, and - working on a deadline for the Worlds Fair- he brought the project in on time and under budget!
The tower was nothing but a showpeice, with no functional purpose except to demonstrate to the world that France had the wealth, knowledge, and can do spirit to erect a struture far taller than anything the world had ever seen. The original plan was to dismantle the Tower as quickly as it was built after the celebration ended, but it was kept by popular demand.
To a generation hooked on technology, the Tower was the marvel of the age, a symbol of progress and human ingenuity. Not all were so impressed, however; many found it a monstrosity.
The tower was originally painted rusty red. (Since then it has been MANY colors inculding mustard yellow, the current brown- grey, it is repainted ever 7 years). The tower was built in 2years, 2 months and 5 days! Truely amazing!!!!

walking around here so many people have blue doors! I dont know why, but its kinda fun! The bulidings are beautiful and enjoyable to look at! Until we get out and about more you will have to be happy with these photos!

Giovanni and I have been in Paris 5 days now, and so much and yet nothing has happened all at the same time! Getting here was kind of interesting! We left Milan Tuesday night, the flight is normally only about an hour long, but there was a lot of wind in Paris and the surrounding area and we were not allowed to land anywhere around! We were directed to Brussels where we landed a few hours later (it’s not very far) we had been circling Paris hoping for an okay to land. The airlines provided a bus going to Paris, but Tiziana (Gio’s co worker also moving to Paris), Giovanni and I decided to sleep in Brussels and take a fast train the next morning so they could be at the office. All in all we did not sleep much and it took us two days to get to Paris! When we entered the train station in Brussels I remembered it from nearly 10 years ago with the family! It was a crazy flash back! Although we did not eat any Belgium Waffles for breakfast I did take a picture of the choices offered in the hotel vending machine!

The first few nights here we have done very little site seeing (but have walked by most major sites) and have focused more on finding a permanent housing situation while here…. Not the easiest of tasks! We have a few appointments in the next few days hoping that one will be a good choice, its too hard to live in a hotel!

We have eating some yummy things while here! Crepes of course! Tonight a warm goat cheese salad and French onion soup among a few!

This past week has been full of excitment for me! I took Natalie and Kennedy shopping to the two closest outlets to Milan!!! It is January and this means SALE time! The first day(Tuesday) of shopping we did not find much but the second (Saturday) we had more success! Although I must say that it was tiring! Giovanni was gone this weekend to Paris for a meeting as well as to check out some apartments I had found listed online. He returned on Sunday evening tired and ready to leave again on Tuesday. Today I have spent the day packing and getting some things cleaned up here around the house. We will be back again in 3 weeks for a few days and then Gio has another trip to New York! Always on the go here!
Yesterday I was looking at my passport, I realized it is a few pages short of being full! It will expired in August and I hope that it is pretty much full by then! I really enjoy travelling,and experiencing the magic of a new city or language. I found a great quote! "Travelers never think they are foreingers". -Mason Cooley When I go somewhere new I usually try to blend in, I am sure like most! I am not sure how well I will fit in in Paris, but I will be posting my fun adventures on here!

It snowed here last week! Giovanni and I were very excited! We could not sleep thinking about moving to PAris, and we heard some one on the street saying that there was a lot of snow. We did not know it was even snowing! We opened the window and I took this picture... it was 3AM, that is why it is so dark! The next day it was black and yucky... I miss the winters inUtah with the beautiful snow!
Tomorrow we will be in France, I will update asap!

Another Adventure!

Once again Giovanni and I will be heading off for another adventure! Giovanni is being sent by his work to Pairs for 3 months! We have to be there by Jan. 16th! So we have a lot of foot work to do finding an apartment and getting set up there! He will be working for the bids for the 2015 Expo (also known as World Fair) is the name of various large public exhibitions held since the mid-19th century. The official sanctioning body is the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), translated in English as the International Exhibitions Bureau (though sometimes rendered as the Bureau of International Expositions). BIE-approved fairs are divided into a number of types: universal, and international or specialized. They usually last between 3 and 6 months. In addition, countries can hold their own 'fair', 'exposition', or 'exhibition', without BIE endorsement.
Today, world expositions are the third largest event in the world in terms of economic and cultural impact, after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. They have been organized for more than one and a half centuries — longer than both the (modern) Olympic Games and the World Cup. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, in 1851 under the title “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations”. The “Great Exhibition” as it is often called was an idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, and was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. As such, it influenced the development of several aspects of society including art and design education, international trade and relations, and even tourism. Also, it was the precedent for the many international exhibitions, later called “World’s Fairs”, which were subsequently held until the present day.
Sometimes they build structures to promote their fair. The majority of the structures are temporary, and are dismantled at the end of the expo. Towers from several of these fairs are notable exceptions. By far the most famous of these is the Eiffel Tower, built for the Exposition Universelle (1889), which is now the most well-known symbol of its host city Paris. Surprisingly, some then contemporary critics wanted the tower dismantled after the fair's conclusion.
Most of this i took from the net, but at least it is some info on what Gio is helping with. The bid will take place the end of March then we will know what is in store for Milan!