Yakima 2nd Ward’s 60th Birthday Party!

This evening our Yakima 2nd Ward celebrated it’s 60th Birthday! We’ve been hearing rumblings about this party for a long time. We were excited to go. Sister Thayer and Sister Castle met us on our way in. We quickly learned that it was a 50’s party, and a very very fun one! Former ward members came from far and wide. We got to see so many dear friends. Our 4 Yakima 2nd Ward missionaries joined in. We had a such a fun evening!The menu was really fun–50’s foods featuring burgers, hot dogs and even green Jell-o!Bishop Button and his beautiful daughter:Former Bishop Christensen:Then we had a fantastic program:At the end, they showed the top 10 highlights of the Yakima 2nd Ward’s History:We seemed to get stuck on #9, as they showed lots of photos from the mission and our wonderful missionaries. Here are just a few:Jim Tree was our Master of Ceremonies:Pres Byers, from our Stake Presidency thanked us for our service and made us all cry. Then our Yak 2 Missionaries said a few words of love and thanks as we celebrated the birth of our WYM 3 years ago.Sister Paige Trump Barbour was visiting with her family, and she represented the Returned Missionaries who have served here:Beth Kecskes said a few words, as a new member, baptized in 2016, here in the Yakima 2nd Ward:Then Jim and Judy Thompson added their thanks and presented us with several lovely gifts from the members here. Oh, we love these dear friends.It was a sweet and tearful time with all of these friends. Oh, how we’ll miss them!

We also had 2 of our returned missionaries–Elder Steadman and Elder Colunga–drop by. They are here for a couple of weeks, taking a road trip. It was great to see them too!Elder Smith and Elder Van Dyck:Sister Trump:Sister Trump’s family from Salt Lake City:And then we all got ready for a group photo, which was like organizing missionaries at a zone conference for the group picture!I’m sure someone important will post the final product!Then desserts and visiting and music and dancing for the young at heart.It was a pretty perfect birthday party with dear friends. We love them. We love this ward. We love our missionaries. We love Yakima.