Eli's Farewell

Jan. 29, 2012

Dear Elder Alex,

So today we all got up and went to the State Street building to hear Eli Erickson speak for his farewell. He had such a huge group of friends all there in the first two rows. It was nice to see so many there supporting him and the congregation went way back into the gym. He did a wonderful job. He talked about his personal conversion and he has never turned back from that. He leaves for the MTC on the 8th and will be serving in Peru. His whole family except his mom, Chase and Oliver were there. I'm sure that was sad for him not having them there. Jill is pretty messed up right now, but I was really hoping to see her there today. I talked with her mom and told her to send my love.

I also went to the 4th ward today for a Ward Conference. Their ward is really getting big. There are 5 wards that are getting split in a few weeks and they are one of them. We're also on the chopping block since our ward boundaries lie right in the middle of all the big wards.

I got a great night's sleep last night because our Women's Conference is overwith. Everything went well yesterday. Pres. Stafford was our keynote speaker and then they had 9 classes to choose from and were able to choose a total of 4 classes. Every class I went to was awesome. I asked our friends Grant and Carol Belnap, remember them, to be teachers. They spoke about emotional wellness. It's great since Grant is a psychiatrist and Carol is a sociologist. I loved their class. I'm going to send you our handout for the classes we offered so you can see what we did. The food committee also did a great job and the lunches were scrumptious. We even had mint brownies like the ones they make at BYU. So today after the ward conference my presidency and I met and started talking about how we can improve things for next year. Kind of went over the pros and cons of the conference. 

Glad you liked the pics of your companion. We got such a good laugh when we saw who Quigley was in the movie.

I'm glad you're enjoying Paducah. My quilting friends were envious when they heard where you were. They wanted to warn you about the huge influx of women who will be showing up there in March for the biggest quilt show ever.

Last night we went to Holly Campbell's reception and we found out that Jason and his wife had their baby yesterday too. Good timing.

The Thomas's have moved from the neighborhood. They are now living in Costa Rica. Hopefully he'll be able to make a good living there. He's building tree houses for a resort.

This past week I had a fun talk with my dad and it made me realize how great it is that he loves to talk and conversate.  I really enjoy my talks with him, his stories, his concerns and his views on life, love and politics. Never a dull conversation with him. I'm hoping you'll have that same gene. :)

Not too much to update on the family. Kirk is busy working at the mall and trying to get his applications in for Masters programs. Sarah is trying to plan a trip down here sometime in February. They're having a hard time being apart for very long now. Sean tried his hardest over the weekend to get Grandma Thompson to give away her VHS's, but was not successful. Kudos for trying. Kristina is somehow trying to squeeze school into her social life. She's having all kinds of planning meetings for her upcoming Sweethearts dance this next weekend-picking out a dress, planning a menu, the activity before the dance and after the dance, etc. Then 2 weeks later, there is another Sweethearts dance and she has a different date for that. 

Leah is totally a Young Woman now. She is looking forward to lacrosse in a few weeks and always wants to be doing something with her friends and always has a boy she has a crush on. Nikki is queen of the elementary school. She just gave a power point presentation in front of her class about herself. Kirk and I attended the event. She had the whole thing memorized, but because she was so nervous, she spoke very fast. Dad is working, playing, working, playing. His jobs keep us afloat and maybe even one day, we'll be better than afloat and we'll actually be ahead.

With my conference out of the way now, I may even make a new quilt this month. It's been a long time since I've created anything and I'm feeling the itch for it. I'm still loving watching 1-2 episodes of Psych each night. I'm almost to Season 4. You know I'm watching it a lot when I catch myself noticing little details everywhere I go. I made quite a stunning deduction today while at church just by some observations I had made earlier. I was quite proud of myself.

How's almost Mayor Robert Coleman coming along? Our ward conference theme is the Book of Mormon and it's amazing listening to everyone talk about its power in their lives and how more than any other thing they heard when learning about the gospel, the words in the Book of Mormon brought the conversion. I love hearing people tell about their personal experiences concerning the power of the Book of Mormon. I wish I could attend ward conferences all year long. 

I've been talking with one of the ladies that cleans our house about the church, about family, etc. Her name is Maria.  I gave her a Book of Mormon(Spanish) a few weeks ago with my testimony in it. She said she really loved what I wrote. The next week she said she would have the missionaries come to her home. She told her husband and he's okay with it. I called the missionaries and they had an appointment yesterday with her if her husband was going to be home from work. I'm hoping to hear from them. I couldn't go yesterday, but hopefully on her next appointment I'll be able to be there. She wanted Kirk to be there too because Spanish is her native language and she has enjoyed talking with him here too. It's the Spanish Elders that I contacted. I'll let you know how things go there. She's always in my prayers. 

Well, that's about it. We have a box that's almost ready to ship out to you, so if you have anything you need or want, let me know and we'll slip it inside.

Have a wonderful week. Remember who you represent.

Love you,

Mom xxoo

Stake Conference

Jan. 22, 2012

Dear Elder Alex,

Just got home from stake conference...well, actually just finished eating after getting home from stake conference. Spiritually fed and temporally fed, always the perfect combination.

Last night our Saturday evening meeting was so wonderful. Every talk was powerful and I particularly love how plainly our Stake Presidency speaks to us, especially Pres. Shaw and Pres. Stafford. They never mince words and somehow manage to let us all know where we need to improve, yet at the same time they're able to say it in a way that never offends, just motivates. I'm looking forward to hearing from both of them this next weekend at our Stake Women's conference. 

The big thing at conference today was that we got a new stake Patriarch, bro. Maylen from the 2nd ward. I don't know him, but I guess he's been in the stake and in the Eagle area for many years. They mentioned that he was even Bishop of the E2 ward many years ago. He's younger than Bro. Sorensen, but is not a young man. I've known for a couple of months that this was coming as Pres. Stafford confided in me at one of our meetings. He would always ask me how the Patriarch was doing, how the blessings were, etc. Except for a period of time when the Patriarch was very sick, his blessings were strong right up to the end. I typed his last blessing yesterday and I could hear a sadness in his voice right at the very end. That was hard for me to hear. He bore his testimony today and in it he had very sweet things that he said about me. I went up afterwards to give he and his wife a hug, and Jean was very, very tearful. He will still be able to always give a Patriarchal blessing to his literal descendants, so I hope he has an opportunity. I've typed a few of his grandchildren's blessings already.

They've asked me to continue typing for our new Patriarch. He's going to use a new updated recording device and he'll just send the blessings to me electronically. I'll miss picking up the tapes from the Sorensen's. I spoke with the new Patriarch today just before he was getting ordained. He's going to send me a tester tomorrow, then we should be off and running. I'm excited to work with him.

Randy Pinder came up to me and told me how awesome your CD was. He said to tell you that now he's paid the .99 for your single and he's expecting the full album soon. He said he was "blown away" by how you sounded and how good it was.  He's jealous of your experience. Then today Aunt Nancy wrote and said that you should go on American Idol when you get home from your mission. I might as well sign on as your Fan club president right now.  :)

Today our main meeting was all about missionary work and we even got to hear from one of our full time missionaries who has been in the Eagle area for 9 months. He did a great job and Pres. Stafford spoke very highly of him. It reminded me of how much one of your Stake Presidents liked you.

Here's a picture for you from last night. They all thought it would be fun to replicate your photo. At the time they couldn't remember what you guys were doing in your original photo, so they all tried to think what you guys were probably doing in your photo. Just a little off... :)

Anyway, they had fun doing it.

We had one day of massive snow this week and it was so beautiful, but it only lasted one day and with the help of rain, it quickly melted. Bogus opened though, so many people were very happy.

How is Paducah? I heard that Elder Rasmussen is in your zone, that's cool. How many stakes are in your zone? Just curious.

I've been very busy this past week with Women's Conference stuff. Our hardest decision is how many people we think might come and how much food to prepare, how many booklets to print, etc. I realize that's always a big question and you never know who or how many will attend something, but on the stake level, we could be off by a huge number easily. It's especially difficult because we've split the stake since last year, so we can't even go by last year's numbers. I'll let you know how everything goes in my next letter.

We also had our stake humanitarian work day. They are officially closing Homecraft at the DI in April. That's the place that took all the fabric donations and where they put together school kits, hygiene kits, etc. They want us to serve our local areas now and the church will be sending more money to areas in distress instead of supplies, so I'm really glad we started doing these humanitarian work days because everything we do goes to charity places, etc in our valley.

Dakota is in the MTC now and her first letter was good. She had a hard first couple of days, but then got past that and is enjoying the strong spirit that is there. Here's her address if you you'd like to write her:

Mailbox #107-0312

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604

Kristina is in the dining room with 5 of her friends planning the big sweethearts dance. Her group will have 12 people, so they're trying to get a limo from Ryan's lot or something big to hold all of them. I've decided girls take a lot more time planning dates and have a lot more details that they cover, and they do it well ahead of time. The dance isn't until the middle of February.

Kirk finally made his way home from Canada this week. Because of the big storm, his flight was delayed a day and it was still snowing a lot up north when he flew home from Spokane. He had a great time with Sarah and her family, played lots of games (they are a big game-playing family), took engagement pictures (Sarah's sister Renee took all the pictures). Here are a few they took:

I know...you're probably saying, ahhhhh as you look through the pictures. This is what love looks like. They would get married tomorrow if they could, so I know this is hard for both of them waiting for the visa. Everyone in the stake always asks if there is any news about the visa yet. It's going to be a big event when it comes through.

We just finished watching your companion's movie, Saving Sara Cain. Here's a fun line that Quigley said, "You should have stayed home cowpie."  He says that just before he's getting ready to wrestle the Amish kid. Very funny. Here's some pics from the movie. The first one is right where he's making the cowpie remark.

This is where he's

getting pinned by the Amish kid. We enjoyed the movie. Very touching story. Tell your companion he did an excellent job.

Well, hope you had a great week and are getting to know your new area. Please send us your address so we can keep the mail coming. Be safe and stay true to what you know in your heart.

Love you,

Mom xxoo

Ward Conference time

Jan. 15, 2012

Dear Elder Alex,

So how is your new/old area-Paducah?  Is there a ward or stake in Paducah or how big is it? What's your zone like? Do you have some good missionaries you are working with and tell us about your new companion. Can't wait to hear what's going on.

Well, it's that time of year again-ward conferences. I love going to them and actually look forward to them so it's a good thing. I spoke in two wards today-Eagle 3rd and Eagle 2nd. Pres. Shaw spoke in the Relief Society also, so that was a treat. Our theme this year of the Book of Mormon and just talking about it brings such a strong spirit to the meetings.

I saw Sis. Goodwin today. She was asking about you, etc. Jamie told them that last week something big happened and it wasn't good and he didn't feel like talking about it, so he just sent a super short letter. That made his family very concerned, so I hope for their sake he writes something more this week.

Last week Dakota went into the MTC and she's on her way. She was nervous about learning the language, but excited to go.

Dad is at work today, so it's just me and the girls here. Kirk is still in Canada. I hope he's having a great time. Can't wait to hear his stories. All we know so far is that he went ice fishing and caught 2 fish.

We ran into the Jensen's last night and they said Jake just proposed to Kayla over the weekend and will be getting married in April. That seemed fast, but I guess it's in their genes. :)

I hope you enjoyed the nice comments about your singing from the Patriarch. Kristina got her blessing on Thursday night and it was beautiful. Since I typed it so quickly, she was able to get a copy of it already today. She said it was one of the most spiritual moments of her life.

I also sent your song to Aunt Jan and Aunt Maria who both said they just love listening to it over and over.

Kristina asked out two guys this week and they've both already answered yes. There's the church's version of the sweetheart dance and she asked Cardston Payne. He loves the show "24" so she asked him like a mission on "24" and he answered her in the same manner with a big pink Barbie car filled with candy and also with a fake bomb inside. The other dance is a dance the Purnells are actually sponsoring called Sweethearts Elevated.  Kristina asked Adam Guyman. He made two cakes, an X and an O and she had to plow through them to find her answer. I guess the school Sweetheart dances have really been going downhill. I'm on a committee helping with this dance too. It's going to be on the 3rd floor of a BSU building, two floors above where the other Sweethearts dance is going to be. Dad and I will the ticket takers.

I guess the school dance has never even been sponsored by the school. It's a multi-school dance sponsored by the Daughters of Job. No one can even find someone to contact from that group and they don't really monitor the dances at all, thus the big problems. So Sweethearts Elevated is being advertised as a clean dance, no dirty dancing, lots of fun, etc. It's actually been attracting the attention of non-members too.

So any way Kristina will be attending two dances in February and is very happy about it. But she's running out of money fast, so we'll see how long this goes on. 

Kristina have finals this week. This semester has gone by so fast-at least for me. Sean's into his new semester and will be in a new major program called History Teaching. When he finishes, he'll have a teaching certificate and actually be employable. He says he may teach high school while he's working on his PhD and the teaching degree will give him experience that he'll need.

This week I'm busy with our upcoming stake humanitarian work day. I like working on things that will be going to places in our area. My presidency is also very busy with our upcoming Stake Women's conference at the end of this month. We have a lot of little details to work on. When we get our booklets made, I'll send you a copy so you can see all the classes we're offering, etc. We are offering 9 classes and you get to pick 4 to go to. I'm excited about each one of them, so it's going to be hard to pick, but I'll probably try to skip around into each of the classes.

I hope you know what a gift it is that you have such a positive attitude. I hear so many moms talking about their missionary sons struggling with the day to day grind. But that's life even after your mission and it's something you need to learn to have a positive outlook about things or life will weigh heavy on you. It seems like that's a lesson you learned even as a little kid. Stay close to the spirit (prayer and scripture study) so you can be led to those who need an uplifting hand or a kind word in life. You can be a wonderful instrument in the Lord's hands.

Take care of yourself. Hope you're staying warm. It's so cold here, but no snow in sight. Send us your address when you get a chance too.

Love you,

Mom xxoo

Dakota's farewell

Jan. 8, 2012

Dear Elder Alex,

We just pulled in to the house, back home from our trip to Utah for Dakota's farewell. It was a quick trip but very fun, of course, very much worth it. Dakota did a great job with her talk today. She will be a wonderful missionary. She said she was so nervous up there that she didn't have any saliva in her mouth and she started twitching her ring around on her finger while she was talking and then her ring fell off onto the pulpit. The nice thing is she said she wrote her whole talk while listening to your song you sent me. I sent a copy of it to Steve and Carolina. She just loved it and will be taking it with her to Croatia. Everyone sends their love to you.

I'll send some pics from the weekend. After Dakota spoke, they had an open house with tons of food at the house. I've never seen so many single guys all congregating in one place. I think there were only 2 girlfriends there of Dakota's and about 30 guys.

Toni came up for the weekend, so she came with McKenna (who has now moved up to Salt Lake with her boyfriend), Patrice, David and Selene came(they appear to be getting more serious), Allen, Lisa, Jesse, Malcolm and Maggie, Lindee, Charmaine. Dakota has never looked more beautiful than today. She's going to have to fight off the Croatian guys in the midst of trying to teach the gospel.

Laura and Axel's little twins are getting bigger but still seem so small for 4-month olds. Having twins seems like a lot of work too, but if anyone can handle it, it's Axel and Laura. They love being parents and their little girls are so cute. It's fun having 2 of them so more of us get turns holding the babies.

Kirk had to stay home because he had to work and since he's leaving this Wednesday to go to Canada, he couldn't ask for any time off. So he and the dogs had a lovely time home alone.

Saturday morning we woke to about 4 inches of snow. It hadn't been in the forecast so it took everyone by surprise. But everything looked beautiful and it the first snow we'd seen this season. Early in the morning, me and dad, Steve and Carolina and Dakota went to the temple first thing in the morning. I really like the Provo temple. Then dad and Allen went to G&G's house to look at some water damage that took place so Allen could put together a bid for doing repairs. They had a water leak from the upstairs guest bathroom down into the basement bathroom as well as into the hallway and partway into the basement kitchen. They are just barely getting their upstairs kitchen all fixed up and now they have to work on more areas. They could really use some updating, so in the end it's a good thing.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a BYU basketball game. This new league they're in seems way too easy and it was an easy win over USF. The biggest cheering we did was in the end when there was only 10 seconds left and in order for everyone to get free yogurt, BYU had to score 80 points or more. They were at 79 with 10 seconds left,  and in the end they scored and the place erupted as if they had just gotten into the sweet 16 or something.

So the girls are in bed and I'm sure will have a hard time waking up tomorrow for school, but being with family this weekend was worth any lost sleep or time at school. Dakota is a beautiful example of Mormon young woman, so out-going and fun to be around. I hope she rubs off on our girls.

I hope all your parties last week were fun. Are you back into the swing of things? How's Laura doing? Did she get baptized? Can't wait to hear your news.

Have a great week and I hope you've made some new year's resolutions. I've been working on a couple and love the feeling of the new year. I also love that we are studying the Book of Mormon in gospel doctrine now. I'm going to make a new reading goal for the BoM. I love reading it in a relatively short period of time. Somehow that really makes a difference for me and I always receive powerful re-confirmations about its truthfulness. I'm looking forward to those same feelings and many new insights. One of the speakers today talked about meeting with Jehovah's Witnesses during his mission and how they would ask questions but then they'd be very combative about every answer they gave. One time when they were having a meeting with them, they took a sister with them, and right while they were being extremely argumentative, she suggested that they just start reading directly from the Book of Mormon. So she turned to 3 Nep 11 and started reading very calmly at the same time the JW was arguing and trying to make some point. He all of a sudden stopped talking and listened. The speaker said the whole spirit in the room changed and it became so peaceful. The JW later told them he had felt the same peace. There really is a power that comes from the book. Enjoy sharing its message and its power.

Love you,

Mom xxoo

Just in Case

Jan. 2, 2012

Dear Elder Alex,

I thought I'd send a quick note to you just in case you actually have time to check your email, but not write an email. Thanks for your letter yesterday. It caught us off guard, but it was great hearing from you and hearing you had such a great week. I'm sure you'll love working with your new Bishop too.

As I write, I'm having Sean and Nikki bring in the totes so I can officially take Christmas down. I love it and I hate it. The house always looks so empty for a couple days afterwards. But I'm ready to move onward and upward. Well, actually a little downward too after I looked at the scale this morning. Yikes, so much sweetness over the holidays. But I have a plan and am anxious to drop some pounds.

Kristina had a New Year's bash at our house, so dad and I stayed around. The Hugentobler's came over and we played games. Sean went over to Jared's and Kirk skyped the new year in. 

Kirk and Sean both spoke in church yesterday! What a treat for a mom and they did a great job. They both spoke basically on making good choices and they made excellent points in their talks. It's also a treat because this year in gospel doctrine we get to study the Book of Mormon, my favorite, can't wait. I get re-converted every time I read it. As a kid, I heard about people reading the Book of Mormon several times and I just couldn't understand how that would make any difference or how that could even be interesting the second time, but I should have had more faith in my elders. They knew whereof they spoke!

Dad's at work today and he had lots of good days off last week. We got caught up on our movies, our pilgrim sandwiches from Port of Subs, thanks to a Christmas present of having Netflix (at least for 30 days-I haven't decided yet if it's a good thing), I've been watching every single episode of Psych! Kristina is watching it also. I'm totally hooked and watch at least 2-3 episodes every night and I'm still just now getting into the second season.

I have to thank you again for my wonderful Christmas present. I love listening to it. I let dad share it with a few close friends so they could hear you(Mylers, Pinders, Leifsons, McCauleys, Jensens). Dustin Simpson wants to know what arrangement you used and loves it! I sent it to the Winn for grandpa to listen to and Patrice wrote me back and said it was the most beautiful thing she'd heard and that she set it on a loop to hear it over and over again in the shop! That means a lot to me to have my sister feel the spirit through your music.

Sean goes back to school tomorrow and then this weekend we're off to Provo to Dakota's farewell. Can't believe it's already time for her to leave. 

I will pray for Laura this week for strength to overcome any addictions and be prepared for baptism. Hope you had fun at your New Year's parties, set some new goals for the year and spread the good news through word, action, and song.

Love you,

mom xxoo