What a talk!

Jan. 23, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
We got the email the other day with a copy of Jessica's talk in it. Thank you for sharing that. I read it right away and I couldn't believe how powerful it was. It made me cry and I hope I get the chance to meet her one day. Our ward conference theme is the mission of the Savior and I may use her example in some of my talks.

Glad to hear your interviews with the President went well and that you are 'on the boat'.

We had a nice week. Dad had a few days off so it was fun to hang around with him. Kristina made it through all her finals and did well. She's signing up for EFY this week and will be rooming with Mallory Moss and going to BYU-Provo. The little girls were out of school on Monday and Friday, so they didn't do much during the week at school needless to say.

Got an email from Cameron this week that he broke his nose and he sent a picture too. Here it is:



The office elders were in the van going to dinner and the elder in the front seat threw an apple back at Cameron in the back seat and it actually broke his nose. Must have been quite the throw! Anyway, he actually has to have surgery on it this week, but he'll be having it in Mexico so I'm pretty sure he'll have a new Mexican nose now.

I had 2 more ward conferences today. I sure enjoy going to them. We were at the Eagle 5th and Eagle 7th wards. Jenn Black, president in the 7th ward, talked about prayer and asked why is it that when we are young our testimonies about prayer always have to do with things that are lost. She said in Primary whenever she'd talk to the kids about praying, their hands would all go up and they all would have a story about how they lost something, prayed about and found it. She was very funny about it, but said even now her first tendency when she loses something valuable is to drop to her knees and pray about it. Then she talked about Luke 15 which is a whole chapter of scripture about things that are lost. She did a good job.

Also today my favorite talk was given by Bishop Hoopes of the 5th ward. I ended up taking notes because it was so good. He talked about how there were so many people who followed Christ when He was on the earth and they followed Him because basically He performed miracles. He healed them and He fed them. Bishop Hoopes said, "Who wouldn't want to follow someone like that?" But then he said, Where were the throngs who followed Him when He stood before Pilate, etc. Then he went on to talk about what kind of disciples are we. Are we just "feed me, heal me" disciples of Christ? It was excellent, one of the best talks I've heard in a long time and really made me think.

I'm learning a lot from all these ward conferences. What a privilege.

This coming week I'll be spending a lot of my time getting ready for our big Stake Women's Conference next Saturday. Here's a flyer for it(can't remember if I sent one to you already):


We will have 4 sessions of classes so the sisters can choose 4 of the 8 classes offered to go to and with Pres. Stafford being our keynote speaker, it should be a wonderful conference. This is the first time anything like this has been done in our stake, so I'm real excited to see if the sisters like something like this. So far we hear that lots of people have signed up to come. All our teachers are from our own stake except the Peaceful Journey class that will be taught by a social worker from LDS Social Services. There are so many little details putting something big on like this, so that's what me and my presidency will be working on this week so things will go smoothly.

So how was your week? Did Liz and Kris make it to church? How did Michael do with his reading assignment? I was also happy to hear Jaclyn got her scriptures. I hope Samantha does well in basic training and I hope she's able to be strong in the gospel even away from home.

How's your companion? Remember the words of your President and the commitments he asked you to keep. He sounds like a wise man and you know he's inspired to say the things he does to you, so trust him and continue to work hard. Stay patient. Nothing drives the spirit away faster than ill feelings towards another person and without the spirit, your teaching will be for naught. In my talk that I give at ward conference (which I'll send you a copy of this week), I talk about how in a marriage relationship it's so easy to see faults, but that fault finding can become addictive and will eventually destroy any relationship. So try hard each day to find something good or positive in your companionship. It may sound hokey, but it's a powerful tool. Hopefully by now, you've found some common ground to work with.

Kirk and Sean got new phones this week, smart phones because Verizon was having some pretty nice deals-buy one, get one free and $20 month versus the $30. Probably trying to drum up business right before the iPhone is released. They're both very happy with their new toys, I mean phones. Dad and I made deals with them about their social lives. Date each week or I take the phone away...oooooh, what a mean mom!

I was trying to think about how you could ship "the present" home. You should just stop by the post office and pick up one of those flat rate boxes. They're free to take home. You don't pay until you ship. That way you could pop "it" into the box at some point, seal it up and then just mail it. I was thinking about it the other day when I was in California.

Well, everyone is doing well. The dogs are both lying on the floor next to me, Nikki and Leah are cracking me up with some of their food creations now. They say they want to open a restaurant together, but what they want to do in the restaurant is carve potatoes into cool shapes. Not baked potatoes, raw potatoes. They went on and on about the different shapes they could make like a row boat, etc. Sometimes it takes all my energy to try and keep up with their trains of thought. Sean is still loving his Arabic class and is planning on doing an internship in Egypt in a few more semesters.

All the missionaries from our ward, area sound like they're doing well. Even the McCauley's are getting used to living and working in minus 37 degree weather. Except their eyelashes keep freezing. We have such wonderful examples of people all around us. Pres. Shaw was asking about you.

Keep up the hard work, Alex and stay true to all the covenants you've made. The Lord is depending on you and is using you for His work in the Marion area. Sounds like you have met some pretty amazing people there and those new members like Jessica will eventually be strong leaders, modern day pioneers in their own families and great disciples of Christ to many more people.

Love you much,
mom
xOxO