Eric by the incoming door for passengers arriving at the Garden City airport.
He spent all day with us on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November, then he had to fly out the following morning back to the Phoenix, Arizona airport. Eric is attending a professional pilot’s training school in Gilbert, Arizona for about 4 months and he could not take time to fly home to Ohio to be with his lovely wife and 5 beautiful children for only 2 days, so he opted to come spend it with us. We were so delighted!
On Wednesday night, he flew into the Garden City airport about 9:45 where we picked him up. After sight-seeing a few places that night, we went back to our small apartment where he had to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.
Our living room where Eric had to lay out a sleeping bag to sleep the night. He slept about where Elder Howlett is walking.
There was no room for another bed and no couch in our apartment, but since Eric is an experienced scout master who has spent many a night in a sleeping bag on the ground, it worked out well. Thankfully we were able to borrow a sleeping bag and camp mat from a good family in the Garden City ward of our church here in Kansas.
This was a fun photo shot that Eric took of the three of us outside our apartment. He took it holding the camera himself. Pretty good, huh! From left to right, Elder Howlett (Dad), Sister Howlett (Mom) and Eric Howlett.
The next day was a bright and sunny day. After preparing a turkey with homemade dressing, we took a little time to see a bit of the city by daylight. The “Kansas skyscrapers” (which are tall grain silos) were quite impressive in the downtown part of the little city, but Eric also enjoyed seeing a bit of the rest of the area.
Notice the tumbleweeds blowing across the road with the "Kansas Skyscraper" in the background.
In the afternoon we carved the turkey and saved the meat, then took the dressing, gravy and a couple of pies that Sister Howlett made with us to the Bart Hunt family home where we joined with the Curtis Taylor and Michael Archibald families to enjoy Thanksgiving together. It was a very joyful time and they heartily welcomed our son, Eric to the group. What a delicious traditional Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed with the usual Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, gelatin salad, relish tray, then pumpkin and cherry pies, and chocolate cupcakes to top off the dinner. It was so good to have such a wonderful meal with great friends and stimulating conversations.
After leaving the Hunt’s home we took Eric with us to visit three of our friends’ families there in Garden City. These friends are some of our Spanish-speaking ward members, and our son Eric enjoyed conversing a bit with them in Spanish because he learned to speak the language on his mission to Puerto Rico back about 25 years ago.
In the picture on the right from left to right is Daniel Meza, his mother Gabby Ramirez and his sister Janeth Meza, three members of one of the special families in Garden City.
We visited the Gabriela Ramirez Family, newlyweds Gill and Michelle Asebedo and our friend Delia Ramos. They are just three families of the many wonderful people we meet and work with here in Garden City, Kansas.
The next morning we took Eric to the airport again. This time it was gray and cold and it seemed to match our sad mood to say good-bye to our son.
This is the plane that Eric flew out on back to Phoenix.
But life must go on for him and us in our different assignments. Eric is working hard in the school but doing good and succeeding. We are trying to do well here too on our mission to these wonderful people in the Garden City Ward of SW Kansas. We’ll do our best to succeed here too.
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On 29 November 2011, Elder and Sister Howlett traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado where Sister Howlett was able to have an excellent surgeon, Patrick J. Sniezek, remove a skin cancer on her face. It was so good to know the "Mohs Surgery" procedure on 30 November, was successful.
Elder and Sister Howlett safely made it back to Garden City, Kansas that very night where she recuperated very nicely. Thanks to the Lord, they beat the eastward moving storm by one day and made it back safely without having to worry about bad weather while traveling.
President and Sister Anderson in front of the Christmas tree in their home.
Also many thanks go to President and Sister Anderson, our mission president and his wife, who let us spend the night at the mission home on November 29. It was wonderful to enjoy the evening with them and have a good night’s rest in their lovely home.
FYI: The "Mohs Surgery" is a process where the trained surgeon cuts out what he sees of the basal-cell carcinoma, then that part is analyzed under a microscope for an hour or two to see if there are normal cells all around the extracted area.
Sister Howlett with the pressure bandage after surgery.
If any cancer cells are found in any edges, they must go back and cut more from that area to get all the cancer cells, and then analyze the new extraction again and so on. Apparently the surgeon got it all the first try, then he numbed the area again and stitched up the deep inside skin, then the outside skin. It is a deep hole, and a very tiny "railroad" type of stitching to close the incision, but it seems to have all been done very well. Now Sister Howlett just needs to heal. Already she feels better and does not need the narcotic pain killer any more to dull the pain. Thank you for all your prayers and the Lord’s help through the blessing given.
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