Dear Elder Sean,
Thanks for another wonderful letter. You sound so good and very happy and very anxiously engaged in good causes. All those go hand in hand, of course. How great that you get to travel around and see so many people you've had previous contact with. We're still very sad about Fernando not getting his act together yet. When Nikki heard that she was sad. For some reason she has made it her personal mission to pray for Fernando every night since day one. You better believe that Heavenly Father knows who he is since he hears about him from Nikki every day. I'm expecting to see Wilky here on a mission in a few years though.
How is the family from Peru, the Villegas family? Thanks for getting the complete Holland talk to us. I've only listened to a few tracks so far, but that's because it was a hectic week. I've put them all on iTunes and will put them all on one CD so it will be easier to listen to. So, did you have your mission conference already? I can't wait to hear all about it. How often do you get to have an entire mission conference? That seems like a rare thing or maybe not in your mission.
I will email Hma Carranza with some new photos this week. In the package we sent last week, I sent some music for Marcela Lucas. Hope it's not a problem for you to get it to her. I thought it would be easier to send it in a package rather than try to email something. We are sending off another package tomorrow and then one more in about a week. Tis the season!!!
We had such a fun Thanksgiving this past week. Steve and Carolina came with Kassie, Dakota, Gio and Jen. They left their new little puppy, Tofu, at home. Carolina really didn't want them to bring their dog to our house because he's so hyper, so I told them how territorial Barkley is and how he tends to eat small vermon (they didn't know that he's just about 14 years old now, deaf and blind). So when they showed up here and saw Barkley, they kind of laughed at his sorry state. We bought a couple doggie outfits to put in the game of greed to help make up for their missing their "son".
So here's a pic of our dinner before we devoured it.
And here's Alex on his double date playing wii in the family room. Watching them dance was very entertaining. Dakota went with Dallas and Alex took a girl named Dana Rasmussen.
Here we all are just before Steve and his family take off back to Provo.
Kirk and Rachel got here last Saturday and stayed the whole week. This is her third trip to our house now and I still can't tell if things are progressing or not. She's very quiet, coupled with Kirk's quietness, it's downright hard to tell what's going on. But they seem to enjoy each other and we all like having Rachel here. Her dad played football for Utah State and she's very athletic herself. She's majoring in Biology with a teaching degree and hopes to teach high school biology and coach basketball. They only have 2 more weeks of school, then they are both off track until April. So we'll see what happens then. We'll keep you posted.
Gio and Jen are doing great. They are a lot of fun to be around. Jen really brings out the best in Gio. He seems so happy. Jen graduates in April and until then Gio is working for NuSkin in Provo. He'll try to find a "real job" when Jen graduates.
Steve is still busy with Noah's. They just opened a new one in South Jordan. He managed the building site there. Now they are looking at building one in Denver so Steve may have to be on the road. Axel comes home Jan. 8th from his mission. He sounds so good in his letters and is really enjoying being a Chinese speaking missionary in Paris now. He's had so many more contacts and investigators and baptisms. It's really lifted his spirits. Dakota is a senior in high school and is hoping to take her swim team to state this year. Kassie is also on the team, but doesn't quite enjoy it the same as Dakota. She is just swimming because Steve told her to. I got to talk with Isaac through the computer while he was at work. We just used gmail audio. I told him how much we missed him here at Thanksgiving. I think he was missing being here too. He's keeping busy working for a computer company during the week and teaching at the American school on Saturday. He hasn't been able to finish his classes to graduate from college yet, but he hopes to. He lives a very different lifestyle over there in Barcelona and it's very evident Satan has a hold of him, but I told him I loved him and missed him. It's important for him to know that his family is always here for him.
The little girls were in heaven having Jen here. She did their hair, painted their nails, etc. They pretty much followed her everywhere and she was very patient with them. Kristina loved having Kassie here. They even went running one night and totally enjoyed it. Alex and Dakota buddied up and Kirk and Rachel double dated with Gio and Jen one night. Dad and I took Steve and Carolina to Rembrandt's one night for hot chocolate and an eclair. I told Steve he'd love it because it was just like a big living room with nice comfy couches. We had a fun chat there. We also made a brave trip to the mall on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I have never seen our little mall so crowded. The Trumbo's didn't think a thing of it, but it was really strange for the rest of us. It was fun seeing Uncle Bill and Travis there too. Their stores were doing good business which was good especially considering the current state of the economy.
We watched BSU cream Fresno State with the Trumbo's too. Since Steve seemed to be getting into the game, we picked him up some little blue and orange things from Travis's store. Steve said he'd like to see BSU play BYU. That would be a good game.
Also this week Derrick Hansen got his mission call to the Mexico Leon mission. He doesn't leave until March but is very excited about it.
It's hard to believe that it's already December. If time seems to be going too fast for you too, just take a moment and take a mental picture. I can't remember if I already told you that, but that's what works for me. I actually have some pretty vivid pictures in my mind because I made it a point to take a mental picture and hold onto it. One picture of you that I have is that day in high school when I made some treats for you to take to school and I had stayed up pretty late to finish them for you and found them still on the counter when I got up after you'd already gone to school in the morning. I remember feeling so stupid for taking so much time to help you out and feeling like you didn't care at all. Then to my surprise you showed up at lunch time to pick up the treats. You didn't need them till later in the day and hadn't wanted to take them so early in the morning. I remember I started to cry for being so foolish to think that you didn't care, my feelings were so tender at the moment, and then you reached over and hugged me. That hug meant so much to me. It's just what I needed at the time and I have that picture forever etched in my mind. Be sure to take some mental pictures of your own that with some things, events and people in your mission. You'll be glad you did.
Have a great week. Your zeal is contagious and it makes me want to be better. Thanks for all you do and who you are.
I love you.
momxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxox
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