Easter

April 12, 2009
Dear Elder Sean,

I'm sitting here listening to your brothers arguing about who should unload the dishwasher. We're making them work together and it's actually quite hilarious. Same old, same old.

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. I hope you did too. The speakers and the music in church really added to the spirit. In Sunday School, Mel Hugentobler gave his first lesson since Travis died and it was hard for him, but he did it and he did a great job. In RS Sister Gigi Davis had spliced together a DVD for part of her lesson and she put pictures to a talk given by Elder Enzio Busche given in a conference address. It didn't contain his whole talk and it left me wanting to hear more, so I'm going to look up his entire talk. Every sentence was so poignant and thought provoking. It was basically about how to be a valiant disciple of Christ, valiant being the key word.

Kirk went to church with us today since it's his last Sunday before he goes back to college. I wish the timing was different for him so he could be here when you get home. His last day of work is tomorrow. Travis said he'd be happy to have you work for him but he won't have openings until June. So you'll just have to keep that in mind.

Here are some questions we have for you:
While we're staying at the hotel, what kind of electrical plugs do you think they'd have? Just need to know if we have to bring converters, etc. We want to make sure the hotel has computer we can use too.
Is there any church material we could bring down for members that might be hard to get there?
Is there anything Pres. Olsen or his wife would like us to bring for them?
Is it humid there?
Do the women wear capris there when it's warmer or just long pants? I ask that, because in Samoa and also in the DR women rarely were seen with shorts or shorter pants.

Kristina won her first game of Lacrosse and loved playing. She has a couple games this week. Dad has 6 shifts in Weiser in July-yippee! Now we just need 6 more. Alex went to prom yesterday with Jessica Terry(she's the daughter of a girl that was in my ward in Orange-small world!) and said he had a really good time.

They rode tandem bikes to Julia Davis park and I met them there with lunch (sound familiar??). They met at our house that night and the parents came here and took pictures. Then after the dance they all came back here and watched a movie and played games. I'll send some pictures. This week Alex goes to Pascoe. He's very busy now especially as graduation is coming up quickly. Senior projects are on Tuesday. Dad's working a lot of shifts this month so he can get the time off at the end of the month, so he's gone a lot. He's getting ready for a youth fireside next week hoping to light a fire of missionary work in the youth and showing them how to prepare for their own missions. If you have any words of advice on what you wish you'd known or done before your mission, please share. Leah had a 3rd grade music performance with folk music this week. She dressed like a pioneer. She's also learning Book of Mormon Stories on the piano and she plays it constantly. Sometimes I actually have to go in there and ask her not to play it any more. Nikki is learning all about dinosaurs and I went into her class to help them make posters, start a small research project and make dinosaurs out of clay. They are in training for their pace projects. Nikki's dinosaur is the Iguanadon and she did a great job with the clay.

Grandma and Grandpa Thompson said they got a really nice letter from you. I sure wish they had the internet. There's so many things we could send back and forth to them, same with my parents. At least my dad has it at work. But they all send their love to you.

I spoke with Lori Hansen today. She said her son Derrik was really homesick in the MTC for the first week and had a rough time, but now he sounds amazing in his letters. So she's loving being a missionary mom. I told her it's the greatest feeling!

Aaron Anderson is hoping we'll some how get in touch with him while we're in Argentina so he can talk with you. We'll just get his email address and see what we can do.

Kristina just finished making a blood vessel for her project at school. She used beads, marbles and corn oil. It looks good. She and dad worked on it.

I've been teaching Leah to knit and she loves it. Now Leah is showing Nikki how and also her friend Olivia. Maybe she'll convert the whole third grade and the lost art of knitting will make a great come back.

So did Agustina come to church today? It's great to hear how powerful conference can be even for those not of our faith. As hearts are turned to Christ, I forget how many things are out there for people searching(Passion of the Christ, etc), things that are man's interpretations. It's been wonderful to see, at least here in America, how many members online have numerous links to church sites even when their sites have nothing to do with the church and make reference often to their faith and beliefs. Sometimes I'll just be surfing for something and will come across someone's blog or facebook entry that has links to lds.org or mormon.org or they just bear their testimony online. I put links on my own blog and am amazed at how many hits I get each day. Who knows how many of those have seeds planted in their souls now.

I hope you are happy and well and enjoying the end of your mission as much as you did the beginning and the middle. Each has its pros and cons I'm sure.

Have a great week. Share your testimony often. Only by giving it away will it grow larger.
I love you so much.
momxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxo