Home Sweet Home

April 3, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

We rolled in back home a few hours ago. Dad and I went around to some friends and delivered avocados straight from grandma and grandpa's trees. Dad and Kirk picked hundreds and there were still hundreds left on the trees this year. I just made some guacamole. mmmmm!

I thought of you when the prophet announced a temple in Meridian. I screamed and jumped up. I was so excited to hear that news. It was totally unexpected but we had just been joking about getting another temple in our area, so it really came as a shock to all of us.

We had a fun time in Las Vegas, Utah, California etc. It was great to get your letter while we were in California. I'll attach a few pics with this email and maybe some in another. I hope some of your investigators were able to attend general conference. I thought it was a great weekend of talks. We listened to the last session in the car on the way home and I was weeping through Elder Scott's talk. It was so tender. There were so many talks I loved and I'm anxious to listen to them again. Dad said the priesthood session was great too, so I can't wait to read those talks. Did you happen to see Austin Smack singing in the Saturday afternoon session choir from Rexburg? They showed him quite a few times.

Did you ever come up with a Zone nickname? I thought Sons of Thunder was pretty good.

A few highlights from our trip. Once we got to California we checked into the Best Western right down the street from Disney. We were on the third floor so we thought, this will be great cuz we'll be able to see the fireworks from our room, but as it turned out, we were never in our apartment at that time of night. On Monday we went to the Winn (of course! this is our ritual whenever we go to California). We ended up going upstairs and going through all kinds of fun junk. Sean and Kristina found some sweet record albums from way back when and since they both have turntables now, that's what they wanted. Grandpa gave Kirk a bunch of his old cameras and even his old Super 8 video camera. Then we had lunch in downtown Brea and went to Jan's where we visited with Jan and Mary. David is working at the Winn until he goes back to BYU for spring semester. That night we drove to Long Beach and hung out in a few places until it was time to take Sean to the Long Beach airport. It was this little old fashioned airport that Sean loved because it only took 2 minutes from drop off until he was completely through security. He flew Jet Blue which he loved. That night we went to downtown Disney, shopped and watched the fireworks.

On Tuesday, we decided to hit fun malls-Fashion Island and downtown Balboa where we rode the ferry across. Leah and Nikki actually braved the cold water and went swimming. The water felt freezing cold, but it was a nice sunny day. Afterwards we went to Orange where Kristina went to lacrosse practice with Cami and McKenna-they are coaches of a team at Foothill High School. Leah and Nikki went swimming at my parents with Sarah, dad and Kirk picked avocados and we went to In n Out. We had a fun visit with everyone there at the Trumbo compound. Afterwards we met the Lutz's at a frozen yogurt place in Brea and came back to their house to hang out.

On Wednesday, we went back to the Winn to pack up our goodies and mail them home and then off to the obligatory mega quilt shop, and I mean mega. Everyone played hide and seek while I shopped. After a quick trip to Main Place, we spent the afternoon at the compound where my dad asked me to go with him into the basement. He wanted me to practice opening the safe! First off, grandpa couldn't even remember the combination so it took several tries, but eventually Kirk was the one who was able to do it exactly. So I may have to take him with me one day if I have to open the thing. We went through the contents and dad gave me one of grandma's diamond rings he had given her. It's one he bought for her when they went to Israel. That night grandma and grandpa took us to dinner at Soup Plantation, a buffet that the little girls were very happy about. Then we took a little side trip to the Block. The skate park was filled with some very talented skaters so it was fun to watch and the weather was wonderful for walking outside at night.

On Thursday, we were planning on getting Disney passes from Janet, but that morning she called and was sick so we made a plan B. We ended up driving to LA to the temple where we went to the new visitor's center. We watched a great movie about families. I'm so impressed with the church's media now. It's amazing. We went to lunch at Junior's, the Jewish deli that I'd always go to after attending the temple. I introduced the girls to the scrumptious Monte Carlo sandwich-the triple stacked french toast sandwich with ham and cheese, sprinkled with powder sugar and dipped in maple syrup. All 3 girls thought it was the best thing they'd ever had. (They kind of say that after every meal though :)

Then we went to the Santa Monica Pier which was a lot of fun to walk around. There were all kinds of street vendors and performers, lots of people. Then we sat in traffic and pushed our way back home to Jan and Jeff's where we met the Lutz family for dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the compound to say our goodbyes and I also had a present I wanted to give my mom for her birthday which is on April Fool's day.

Friday morning at the crack of dawn, we headed out of town and stopped in St. George where we visited with Allen and the kids for a bit. Then off again to Provo. I stayed up until 1am talking with Steve and Carolina-fun times.

In the morning we all had a great breakfast together, thanks to Carolina, then we watched conference in the basement. For lunch we J Dogged it. It's Steve's new best place and he keeps telling everyone about it as if it's a brand new place, but he just discovered it. Then we watched the afternoon session and took off for grandma and grandpa Thompson's after that. The men went to conference together and us girls hung out at home. Charmaine came up with us. In the morning we watched conference together and had a brunch-a baked french toast casserole thanks to Grandpa. At noon, we were off again and heading home.

That's our week in a nutshell. We missed having you there, thought of you often and the family was always asking about you and thanking us for sending your letters to them. I thought of you a lot during conference and I know how powerful all the messages are for you when you are serving your mission especially. It's true, like Elder Holland said, about listening with the spirit. It makes all the difference. I hope that's a lesson you will always remember from your mission. When the spirit is present, so much learning takes place and we rise to a higher plain.

Have a great week, Alex. Enjoy the work, the Lord knows where your next investigators are.

Love you,

Mom

XXOO