Thanksgiving week

Nov. 23, 2008
Dear Elder Sean,
Just finished playing Apples to Apples Junior with the family and somehow it turned into monkey in the middle, so the girls are having a hard time calming down after that. They are in bed on the landing and I can hear them from here. Rachel and Kirk are here now so it must be the official start of Thanksgiving week.

Steve and Carolina get here on Wednesday. We'll be sure to take tons of pictures and video for you. Then we'll be sending off your Christmas pkg this weekend.

How are you? Your last letter was amazing and it was so fun reading about your daily activities. You are so busy, but it's all such great stuff. I hope your investigators are still progressing well. I'm so happy that you're recognizing the miracles that are taking place around you. They happen after the mission too, but sometimes they are hard to see unless you keep yourself in tune. I need to share with you something that Lindsay Gill said in her homecoming talk today. She went to Sweden where most of the people are atheist now, but she was still able to have lots of spiritual experiences. Now that she's home she was telling Pres. McCauley that she still had such a strong desire to pray in Swedish and to keep reading her Swedish scriptures. Pres. McCauley so wisely explained to her that because she had so many spiritual experiences on her mission that it was natural for her to go back to Swedish where these experiences took place. He said it's where she's spiritually comfortable and knows how to feel the spirit. He said it was her spiritual language. I know that Kirk has mentioned that same thing and could totally relate to what she was talking about. My spiritual language is completely English because of my own experiences.

It's wonderful to know you have such a great bishop to work with. I know that he truly sets the tone for his ward. Getting 15 investigators to church for the Primary program is amazing. We didn't get that here. You mentioned something about a blessing from the Bishop, I hope you are feeling well physically. I haven't checked with you on that lately.

Well, football was definitely the talk of the weekend. Eagle went to Pocatello for the State Championships. The hype was fun and they even got a police escort out of town. I happened to be on State Street when they went by! But, the game was sad. They lost 28-7. Dallas had a hard time, in fact they all did. But Dallas is taking it kind of hard and feels very responsible. I wish he could see how proud we are of him instead and how much fun the season was because of him.
Yesterday, BSU won 41-24 against Nevada and then immediately following was the big BYU/UTAH game. Utah won it fairly easily, but for a while it was close. It was 48-24 and mainly because BYU had 6 turnovers in the game. Utah really did outplay them though. With Utah winning, that doesn't help BSU at all too.

Yesterday Aunt Patrice got married to Dennis. They had Bishop Cowdell (Orange 3rd ward bishop) marry them in our church. I was happy to hear that's how and where they were getting married. Wish I could have gone. They went to Catalina Island for their honeymoon. Jeff and Jan called me from their car afterwards and I had to give Jeff a play by play commentary of the BYU game, definitely not as easy as it sounds. Then when he finally got home, he immediately called back because their power was out! He's a big fan so this was not easy for him. He eventually found an internet stream to listen to.

Dad is working tonight and also Tues night. He's had quite a few night shifts this past week. All this so he can have off the rest of November. I can't remember if I told you that we're not frying turkeys this year. We're going to try brining the turkey instead. We've heard such good things about how moist and tasty brined birds are. So we actually start the brining process a day or 2 beforehand. We'll give you a report on this years' test. Alex is not happy that we're breaking tradition, but hopefully the proof will be in the taste.

The federal prosecutor in the case dealing with the Samoan adoptions called the other day. The case is still not over. They really drag on. They are coming up with a better idea for punishment rather than sending all the parties to jail for years and years. I'm happy about that. I never wanted to see any of these people go to jail even though they broke some laws and were shady with some things. The prosecutor wanted to know how I felt about this and I told him that I agreed that going to jail did nothing for the real victims of this crime, the children. The birth parents were told by someone working for the adoption agency that the children would be coming back to them when they were 18, but all the birth parents now know that adoption is forever. Only one birth family asked for their child back, but then changed their mind. The prosecutor said that most of the birth parents actually admitted that they were told the children were coming back to them but that they were also told by the attorneys at the time of adoption that the children were not coming back. All of them still wanted to put their children up for adoption and I've since found out that the girls' grandfather strongly felt that putting them up for adoption was the best thing for them and had a strong say in what they did. Their grandfather was one of the only members of their family who was active in the church. He has since passed away.

Anyway, the prosecutor is going to Samoa next Saturday and said he'd take letters and pictures with him to each birth family, so I spent some time today getting a letter ready. I asked Sister Aleki if she'd translate it for me, so she's doing that Tues on her P-day. Their birth cousin Tani's mom, Paula, is also sending a letter here for Sister Aleki to translate. I'm very anxious to hear his report when he gets back. I don't think she's been able to read any of the other letters I've sent since they were all in English. Leah looks just like Tani's birthmom, in other words, she looks just like her aunt. Nikki looks like her birth mom. I feel a connection to each of them that's hard for me to explain and I hope to be able to meet them someday. But I also understand if they don't want any contact. It's a difficult situation.

Here are some missionary tips for the week:
1. Floss
2. Eat a piece of fruit each day.
3.Place church books in local libraries. If church books are already in the library, make sure a current local mission phone number is written on the inside front cover.
4.Always lock your car or bike, even if you'll be away for only a minute.
5. With your companion, select a key word for the day that must be worked into door approaches.
6. Always try "one more door."
7. Wash the dishes before going to bed.
8. If it's OK with the bishop, greet the members of the ward as they arrive at church.
9.Create an exercise program that results in a cleaner apartment (for example, waxing the floor.)
10.Never refer to a baptism as anything other than a baptism (such as a "dunking").

We had wonderful talks today on gratitude. How can I possibly thank my Heavenly Father for everything that came to my mind about what I'm grateful for. I am nothing without Him, but everything good with Him. I see His hand in my life, but I need to work on seeing it more. When I have a grateful heart, I see His handiwork everywhere and that's my goal. Thank you for being such a wonderful son and such a valiant member of the church.

Have a miraculous week, but more importantly recognize as many miracles as you can.
I love you,
momxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxox