Return(ing) with Honor

Adam Forsyth, the 74th missionary currently serving from the Bloomington Utah Stake and the oldest of Steve and Tina Forsyth's 9 children, leaves for the MTC on Wednesday, May 27 to serve among the population of more than 65,000 Hmong in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. Many Hmong living in Minnesota - considered to be the center of the world's largest urban population of this Asian culture - are said to be wrestling with issues of identity as they struggle to maintain ties to the past and seek to thrive in America. The Hmong people have their own language with a variety of dialects, so Elder Forsyth will be learning a foreign language while he serves in the heartland of America.

Kristen Oviatt, third daughter of Alan and Trudy Oviatt, is a fourth generation sister missionary who followed in the spiritual footsteps of her mother Trudy who served in the Sapporo Japan mission; her grandmother Gertrude Neal Wilsted who served in the Central States mission; and her great-grandmother Myra Matilda White Neal who served in England and Germany as one of the church's first sister missionaries. Kristen "returned with honor" on May 7 after 19 months in the Munich, Germany / Austria Mission. Now this 22-year-old has her eye on the next of her life goals to complete a Bachelor's Degree at BYU with a major in U. S. History and a minor in German. After graduation she will work towards the completion of a Master's - even a doctorate - in German. Her career goal is to teach!

On a beautiful Mother's Day Sabbath, members of the Bloomington 7th Ward enjoyed the unusual - but happy and spiritually uplifting - experience of saying goodbye to Elder Adam Forsyth and welcoming home Sister Kristen Oviatt.