28 Sep 2008

Sept. 28, 2008
Dear Elder Sean,
I thought I'd actually write you a little early today since I have a few quiet moments. I just finished having a cub meeting here and we've planned the next few months. Alex went to Mitch Bruneel's farewell after church today and when he got home he turned around and went to BYC and now he's over at Dallas's hoping to find a meal since we aren't eating for another hour or two. Dallas had lunch over here. They say they are trying to fatten up Dallas so he will be more appealing to the college football recruiters. I told Alex to watch it though since he'll probably fatten up faster than Dallas will.

On that note-EHS won again over Mountain View. BYU and BSU didn't play this week. Sorry I don't keep up with the pros.
At the EHS game Alex and his friends had a lifesize cardboard stand of Barrack Obama, the Democratic candidate, and they put an EHS shirt on him and ran through the stands. The students loved it, the parents tolerated it. One parent even threw a Sprite can at Obama. Several people came up and wanted their pictures taken with him. Here's a picture from the Statesman and you can see Alex in the bottom corner.



The political arena should heat up this next month, lots of good mudslinging coming our way I'm sure. I hate that part of politics. Let me know if you want an absentee ballot.

I went to the Eagle 2nd ward this morning to hear Madison Flake give his homecoming report. He looked great, a little on the thin side ( lots of walking I guess) and he sounded much wiser from all his experiences of the last two years. His testimony was strong and he shared many experiences. He also told about the things he learned from his investigators. I think we can always learn lessons from the people we come in contact with. It's just figuring out what that lesson is that might be the hard part. Madison said to say hi and wanted to know what you were up to. His mom has been the one who has coordinated the Eagle missionary newsletter, but now Mitch's mom is going to take over. She's going to try to include pictures too. So if you ever have any pictures you'd like me to put into the newsletter, just let me know. At the sacrament mtg, I saw Anderson's parents, McKell's, Frames, Jared Gooch, Goodwins and Shaws. There were quite a few young ladies there (of course). Wish I knew their names. The only ones I knew were Megan Guersten and Tiffany Shaw.

How was your week? Sounds like your zone is really doing well. The numbers that you cited last week, are those from one week's work or one month? Either way, they were impressive numbers. Sounds like the companionships are working well together. Did Juan Barrosa end up getting married and baptized? I hope you're taking plenty of pictures even though we don't see many from you.

It's great to hear that Elder Nelson is coming to your mission. Always a treat. We had General Women's Conference last night and it was wonderful. Elder Uchtdorf spoke and he was funny and so relevant. He talked to the women about being creative and how that is our gift. He said creating was just making something good where it didn't exist previously. Even something as simple as making someone smile who hadn't been smiling previously is creating something. He was very motivating and I was equally impressed with Sis. Beck's talk as well as Sis. Thompson's talk. Even though I was in my room watching it on KBYU all by myself, I felt the spirit so strongly. It never ceases to amaze me how many times the spirit will bear witness to me of Christ's divinity and the great majesty of His church here on the earth. It's truly a tender mercy of the Lord to be able to have those feelings so often throughout life if we are in the right place at the right time with the right people.

This past week we celebrated Nikki's birthday yet another time. This time actually on her birthday-Sept. 24th. She opened the presents from us when she got home from school. I sent brownies in to her class which she said they just loved and wanted more.

Alex is hounding us to put a radio in the Mustang. It needs to be drip proofed first. We need to get it ready for winter driving, so I may get it fixed so water doesn't drip into the car, then we can put a radio in it.

Kristina is turning into a teenager right before my eyes. She loves middle school, socializing, organizing parties here at our house, and I can tell she even has crushes on some of the young men. I'm not sure I like this, but I know it has to happen. But she's still so good about playing with the little girls. Right now they are playing with the walkie talkies (I just thought of Brian Regan's joke about those ha ha). I hope she never feels too old to play with Leah and Nikki. They just love her and she's a wonderful role model for them.

Leah is doing better in school. I still work with her at least an hour a day 4 days a week with this Learning Technics program. I can actually see some differences in her abilities so I'm happy about that. She's not so crazy about piano lessons (already!) but I hope she'll stick with it. Right now it's a bit of a battle. She loves art and is in an after school class each week which she loves. Her school teacher Mrs. Wheadon is absolutely wonderful, quite an amazing teacher and I'm so happy Leah has her.

Nikki is growing taller by the minute. I think within a year or two she will be taller than Leah. People get the two of them mixed up all the time (can't quite see why, but they don't live with them). Nikki's developed quite a vibrato when she sings now and it's fun to sit by her in church. She's still so funny and has some quick comebacks. She still has very tender feelings which can produce crocodile tears that melt me. She loves talking about spiritual things and has some very insightful observations. I'm constantly amazed at what she understands about the gospel. I think this is knowledge she came to earth with.

Well, I better get making dinner. We're having taco salad. I need to use as many tomatoes as I can since our garden is overflowing with them. I'm still making fresh salsa every 3 days. If I could send you a peach from our peach tree, I would. They are sooooo delicious and we've been giving dozens away. Last family night we peeled and cut them into slices and froze them so I can make jam later on.

The family is all well. Axel should be getting his release date soon. Grandpa Trumbo is still inventing things. He made a stage that rises from the floor for Steve's business (Noah's) and will be coming up to Utah next week to work out some kinks.

We are going to Rexburg this Thursday for the weekend and will be going to Yellowstone for a day too with Kirk and Rachel and also Mary. We will watch general conference in Rexburg. I hope you get to see a lot of the sessions. I'm looking forward to it.

Alex and Dallas just showed up and they are still hungry. I guess they only had muffins at the Yorgason's, so they are now really looking forward to taco salad. Have a great week, Sean. I think of you all the time and I'm so grateful we get to hear from you each week.
Be true.
Love you,
momxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo