Bio of Jo Ellen (Corbitt) Guthrie

We have six children: Jamie – 22, Karin – 20, Andrea – 17, Suzanne – 15, Candace – 12 and Will – 5. Jamie is currently serving in the Texas Houston South (Spanish speaking) mission. She comes home June 16. She's having a great mission experience. Karin is in her second year at Eastern Arizona College, majoring in music. Andrea is a junior at Gilbert High School. Suzanne is a freshman at Gilbert High School. Candace is a nonverbal, autistic-like (for lack of a better description) 12 year old, who does 100 piece puzzles right side up and upside down, reads many sight words and is a fascinating child. Will is a special needs kindergartner who is charming, makes friends with everyone, loves life, and is loved (and probably spoiled) by 5 older sisters and his parents.

Dale is a pediatrician here in Gilbert and is our Bishop. I'm the 9/10-year-old achievement day leader in our ward and nursery coordinator for Home, Family and Personal Enrichment. Work is wonderful, hard, fulfilling, enriching and exhausting. I'm a fulltime mom for the last 17 years. Prior to that I was a legal secretary for about 10 years. Prior to my mission and following my mission, prior to my marriage, I worked as a secretary in Salt Lake for CES.

We are ASU fanatics (Go Sun Devils!), and attend all basketball games (including ones this year in Hawaii and the PAC-10 tournament in LA). We also attend football games, including one this year in LA against USC, where we got to fly with the team. I had an interesting missionary experience, sharing mission memories with Frank Kush.

I also enjoy quilting (not good at it, just enjoy it), family history, walking and working out with friends, riding quads with the family. Education: I did graduate from high school and am darn proud of it. I work with the special needs community in and around Gilbert, helping out in my children's classrooms, advocating for them, helping other parents work through the system.

Companions: Lynette (Prince) Wood, Christine Wangsgaard, Raquel Velasquez, Leda (Ramos) Lopez, BJ (Stonehocker) Shelton, Yolanda Lezama, Lesbia Zepeda, Anabelle (Flores) Garcia.

Areas served: Hatillo, Costa Rica, Escazu, Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Juan Diaz, Panama, David, Panama.

Dichos: Gringa, Fula, Macha (and I can't remember any more of those)

I was one of the four sisters (along with Lynette Prince, BJ Stonehocker and Linda Backstrom) who were robbed at "spoonpoint", just 3 days after I entered the mission field.

My mission experiences are rich in my memory (what memory I have left). When I entered the mission field, I had been a member of the Church for 3 years. I'm coming up on 29 years of membership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what a better beginning could there have been?

An interesting note to me is that our daughter's current companion is a not-too-distant relative of the missionary who taught and baptized me nearly 29 years ago. I'm grateful for the experiences I had and for those of you who had such a remarkable impact on my life. That would most especially include my husband - the love of my life, and a great Zone Leader!