new member night

Feb. 7, 2009
Dear Elder Sean,
I'm pretty exhausted. Just had a few families over, ones that are fairly new in the ward within the last few months. We also had Mylers and Crosgroves and the sister missionaries. We had quite a house full, lots of noise coming from the basement. I like getting to know the new families in our home since it's so hard at church.

Church was wonderful, I know I sound like a broken record, but it was. The 3 sister missionaries spoke and the last one told us about her conversion story since she is going home on Wednesday. An amazing story which includes her mother deciding to join the church while she's on her mission (Pres. Monson gave the sister missionary special permission to go home for her mother's baptism) and she also just got word this last month that her dad has decided to get baptized and he wants her to speak at his baptism on Feb. 21. And that's just a small part of her story. We then sang God Be With you Til We Meet Again as our closing song and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Dad was able to go to a great meeting yesterday where Elder Holland and Elder Costa were the main speakers. He was there from 1pm to 5pm and was very spiritually fed. I'm hoping he'll write you with some of the details.

It was also opening ceremonies for the Special Olympics here in Boise yesterday. Many families in our stake hosted athletes and everywhere we went in town, we saw them. Kirk has seen and met quite a few of them as they've come to the mall and gone to his store. Speaking of Kirk's work, he was told last week that he was the top salesman for the month. Can you believe that? Kirk, a salesman. Travis says they just love him at work and now because he's top salesman, he gets 5% of his sales as a bonus. This week Ian Johnson will be there signing autographs, so we're going to send some things with Kirk to get his autograph.

Also Kirk spoke in the singles ward today. I heard he did a good job. He talked about the power of example. He spoke with Tiffany Shaw who also spoke on the same subject. In fact, Kirk said she spoke first and had all the same quotes and stories as he'd written down, so when Kirk got up there, he had to wing it. I actually got to hear a little of his talk because dad called me at home and he let me hear it through his cell phone from out in the halls. I was very proud of him.

This week dad has a couple interviews, one with St. Al's and one with St. Luke's. So once we hear what offer if any they have, we'll have all the info from this part of Idaho and we'll have to make a decision-stay and work with one of the groups here or look elsewhere.

Also Alex should be hearing from BYU tomorrow whether or not he's made it in. He's going to be scrambling here to get everything in that he needs to graduate.

Looks like everyone in the family has seen Aaron Anderson except me. He got home a couple nights ago. He played basketball on Saturday morning with Alex and Kirk and their friends at the church. His homecoming is this next Sunday so I'll report to you next week about that.

How was your week? That was a wonderful story about Marcelo. We hope to see him here in Boise on a mission. We have a sister missionary from Peru here right now. I'm sorry you didn't have much time to write about Aurora's baptism story, but we're so happy to hear that she finally got baptized. We were praying for her. Remember to be patient with people as they ponder, and search and question the things you teach. Even though they may seem to know that what you are saying is true, it is a huge step and most times very life changing. Some of us recognize truth and act promptly, others of us are shy or reserved and walk gingerly through life making sure each step is secure, others act impulsively and follow the crowd. Sometimes the crowd is headed in the right direction, sometimes not. If Aurora wanted more signs, let Heavenly Father be the judge as to whether or not more signs are actually what Aurora needs. All you can do is present the truth, live the truth and let the spirit teach the rest.

Are you teaching any new families? Sounds like your schedule is always so full. As AP are you also assigned to any wards or is that left to the other missionaries in your area? We are definitely having a retention problem with our recently baptized. I don't really know what happens. I called the young man who was baptized a few months ago to see if he'd come over tonight, but I just had to leave a message. The sister missionaries even went by before coming over here and they said they could hear someone inside, but no one answered. The missionaries think his testimony is still strong but he is struggling to make ends meet being newly divorced and raising a 4 yr old. I guess he's been putting in lots of extra shifts at work to try to make it. I wish he'd just let those around him help. He doesn't have to do this on his own.

We've been having a bit warmer weather here lately and it's been nice. I can actually go outside with Roxy during the night and not get frost bitten. I'm sending a few pictures we took of Roxy and Barkley and the Klondike which took place last week. The men called Kirk the snow gopher because he really went to town digging and made the whole tunnel himself.


I'm holding a piece of cheese in my hand so I've gotten both their attention. Roxy's learning from the best! She's in full swing nipping, hyper puppy stage now. I make the girls take her out back and run with her (good for both of them) to burn off some energy. Can't wait till she loses all her puppy teeth though. I've got lots of scratches on my hands and ankles-not fun.

Dad says he'll write you during the week about his meeting yesterday so he can write clearly and with energy. He's really tired and has to get up early tomorrow. He sends his love and can't wait to tell you all about the talks he heard. He shared them with me when he got home and I loved hearing what all the leaders had to say about these trying times, about church policies and about the family.

Have a week of love (after all it's almost Valentine's), the gospel kind of love where every soul has great worth. Ask Hermana Lucas if there's anything she wants me to bring for her when I come. Everything's very accessible here, so I'd be happy to help her out.

Tell us about your new companion and how things are going in the mission. I love sharing and being a small part of your mission.
I love you very much and am so proud of you and your zeal for the gospel. I'm always here for you.
Love,
momxoxooxooxoxoxoxo