20 Jul 2008

July 20, 2008

Dear Elder Sean,

We got your test letter yesterday, so it took 8 days exactly to get to us. Have you gotten anything yet from us. I'm hoping these dearelder letters get there weekly. It was very fun to hear from you even though it was just a short test letter. We are all back together again here. This past week has been quite the whirlwind for us. Kristina left early Monday morning for her first girls camp. Hey Sean Grandpa called Mom so I'm taking over her letter and she will write another letter later tonight. I wrote you a letter when we were up at Deadwood this last week so I'll try and get it mail tomorrow with some goodies from the family. We had a busy but successful week last week. I left Tuesday afternoon for Girl's camp and spent that night with the YW of the ward. They went to a camp just above Garden Valley along the South Fork of the Payette. IT was a nice old style church camp and I had fun with your sister Kristina and the YW of the ward. They are a great group and Kristina fits in well with them. Wednesday around noon, I left their camp and went up Scott Mountain Road to Deadwood to get a camping spot for the YM. The old blue truck looked like the Beverly Hillbillies with all of the gear I packed in but it purred right up all of the steep climbs. When I got to Deadwood all of our old camp sites were taken so we went to the first campground called Riverside and took up 4 spots at the end of the campground so we were pretty alone. We did our standard food fest with a little twist; I did a low country boil for them Thursday night and cooked a whole pot full of food and then dumped it out on the table, southern style and they all ate it. I had to show most of the YM how to peel shrimp but they all seemed to enjoy it. We cleared out the west side trail around the lake and then the YM and Trevin rode it on their mountain bikes the next day. It took us 6 hours to hike the trail and do our trail repairs we did ( cut trees out from across the trail and built log bridges across all of the creeks except for one that was too large and too deep) but it only took them 2.5 hours to ride the trail on mountain bikes. Trevin said the ride was worth the trip up the mountain. Brig Starr came up again this year and he took your bike for the trip. This year your bike did not send him flying over the handle bars so Brig does not have any bad road rash to heal up. Mom is back so I'll let her finish up her note and I'll send you a snail mail letter this week. I love you and miss you but I know you are having the high adventure of your life! LOve Dad. Hi Sean, I'm back from talking with grandpa. He said to say hi and figures if you haven't gotten his letter by now, it must be lost. So he said he'll write another one. I hope he does. Anyway, Brig flew in here on Tuesday and we had a birthday lunch with him on his work break at Costa Vida. Then dad took off for girls camp. I helped Alex and Brig get ready for high adventure and they took off on Wed. Dad just met them there. On Thurs, Kristina came home and after her band practice, us girls all took off for Idaho Falls. We had fun touring the temple there, the mall, meeting Mary at her quilt store where she works in Rigby and then meeting with Kirk and Rachel (yes, he's still dating her and it's getting a bit more serious). On Saturday, Kirk checked out of his apt and said his goodbyes with Rachel as they went out to breakfast, then Kirk met us in Idaho Falls and we caravaned home. Rachel is getting her knee operated on this Wed and will stay in Rexburg the whole break so she can recuperate. Kirk is going to try and go for a weekend to see her. How has your week been? It's weird asking that now and realizing I won't be getting an answer to that real soon. I haven't heard anything from Hma Paez. I hope she's doing well. How are the Gonzalez family? Are you teaching any new families/people? The stake is still having a TV fast and its going well. We are quite the game playing family now. Tonight we had the Westerberg's over. We played games and had ice cream. We sat on the back porch and had a nice talk with them afterwards. It was fun having them here. They send us Jared's emails each Monday so at least we have something to read. They're a wonderful family. Jonathan Loosle reported his mission today. He looks great and sounds like he learned a lot from his missionary experiences. He asked about you. I can't remember if I told you that the Flakes have moved to Utah. They finally sold their house, so Madison will be coming home to a new home. We'll try not to move before you come home. If we do, it's because we got an offer we couldn't refuse. Dad has lots of fun pictures from high adventure, so we'll have to send them the old fashioned way. Their t-shirts this year were really cool. The Purnells drew them and hopefully dad has enough that we can send you one or at least save one for you. This weekend the stake is having its Pioneer Day festivities. You probably don't do much celebrating of that in Argentina-then again maybe they do. I think dressing up like pioneers can be done in any country and their heritage is a part of us all no matter where we live. I better get this sent. It's got a deadline and I'm only allowed so many characters. Can't wait to finally hear from you. I've been thinking a lot about you as I've been reading in Alma about the sons of Mosiah and their missions. Sometimes there was hardly a soul that would listen to them, but they knew their message had to be shared whether it was accepted or not. I don't know if you feel that the people you are trying to teach are a bloodthirsty and stiffnecked people (maybe some days they seem that way), but I know you share the zeal and confirmation of the spirit that the sons of Mosiah did and know that what you are doing is part of the Lord's plan and that it must be done in order to bring about the fulfillment of His promises and that it will ultimately help usher in the coming of the Savior in all His glory. My prayers and thoughts of course are always with you. Keep the faith, share the hope and spread the charity. I love you, momxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoox