At Steve and Carolina's

June 26, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

So here we are in Utah for the weekend and right now we're at Steve and Carolina's. Sean's laughing at me because we've been sitting in the living room having a birthing discussion with Laura and all of a sudden I said, I need to write Alex. Fond memories almost 20 years ago. I still can remember how sad I was to have to leave the hospital without you in my arms. I guess I was a bit traumatized.

We went to Charmaine's ward this morning mainly because she had the latest ward. We got back home so late last night (around 2am) from the Manti pageant. Charmaine's ward is quite interesting. It's mainly young married couples with tons of small children. It was the largest ward relief society I've ever been in. The ward has 2 elders quorums, but all the women are in one room. It was a wonderful lesson. When it was over I turned to the sister next to me and said, "I always learn something new in every relief society lesson." And I really mean that. I think back in my life and so much of what I've learned about the church, about being a mom, taking care of my home, preparing for the future, etc are from being in Relief Society. I've also learned a lot from listening to what the other sisters say in their comments during the lessons too. So much of my testimony has been gained from being a part of relief society.

This afternoon we had lunch here at Steve's. Today we had all of us, Steve and Carolina and their 2 girls, Axel and Laura and their 2 in-utero girls, Charmaine, David Lutz and his girlfriend, Serena. We've been having fun, typical Uncle Steve type conversations all afternoon.

Yesterday we spent the day in Manti and along the way we made some stops thanks to Charmaine's local knowledge. She knows the land quite well. We met up with Dr. Moss and his family at the pageant. The pageant was a lovely show. It could use a new re-write or two, but the sheer vastness of the whole thing was impressive and the most magnificent part for me was being able to sit there right at the foot of this beautiful temple on a hill. I'll send some pictures next week when we get back home and download them.

The day before we drove to G&G Thompson's and along the way we stopped first in Twin Falls and looked at the actual Twin Falls. However, now there is only one fall. The other one got dammed up for electrical power. We also stopped in Layton to see Tracey Long Braithwaite's parents. I was very close to them growing up and I wanted to visit them in their home. Turns out they live in this absolutely beautiful site with a creek running through it. Her dad is an architect and designed and built their home. It's kind of a frank lloyd wright style home. anyway, it's really cool and I loved being there and being able to see it.

Now Steve's talking so loudly because he's upset at how many hours they ask doctors to work. I love it when the conversation gets so lively.

Tomorrow we drop off Kristina at EFY for her first EFY experience. I know she's going to love it. In fact, I know she'll love it so much that we'll hear about it for quite a while. I'm sure you remember how many new friends and stories you came home with. I'm excited for her. She and Mallory Moss are rooming together.

After we drop her off, I'm going over to Help International, the place that hosts the internships that Kirk is doing. I need to talk with them about getting some little dresses made from pillowcases sent to Uganda. Then we'll treat Sean to a lunch and take off to Sandy to spend the night with the Thompson's again. I hope we'll be able to meet up with Tani and his family too.

So how has your week been? I've been thinking about your mission president and how he's getting ready to leave. How does that transition take place, do you know? Does he stay there with the new one for a few days or does he just take off and let the assistants ease the new one in? Just curious.

Tell me a little about your new area. Do you have a car, foot, bike? Who is your companion/s? Where are they from, etc? How many wards do you cover? Who are the investigators you're working with?

Tomorrow morning Carolina, Dakota and Kassie are leaving for Spain. They're then flying to Rome with Isaac and Carolina's brothers and sisters. They'll be in Spain for a month or so.

It's definitely summer time here. People going here and there. I hope you are well and busy and happy. We pray for you always.

Have a great week and I always pray that you'll have many opportunities to share your testimony each day. Tell your investigators that it's ok to "believe" something is true, then act on that belief until one day they will "know" that it is true. It's always ok to believe until we know.

Love you much,

mom xxoo

Daddy Day

June 19, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

I can't wait to hear how your week went in your new area. We've got you all pinned up on the map in your new area. Looks like you went south of Nashville this time. I actually have heard quite a bit about Franklin. Lots of times when I've mentioned Nashville, people tell me that the place to live is Franklin and that they have good strong wards there too. If it's one of the wealthiest places around, you may have your work cut out for you as far as investigators, but maybe the members will be a big help to you.

Dad had to work last night, so his Father's Day has been full of drifting in and out of consciousness. He said Mel Hugentobler had to wake him in High Priests cuz he was making too much noise. :) The girls and I managed to smuggle a brand new grill onto the back porch last night so he was loving cooking steaks for dinner today.

I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure out a way to convert a ppt into a dvd so I can just take the disc and play it on the tv at church. It's all because I made a ppt with music and so it won't convert everything over. I'm going to just play the ppt which I burned onto the dvd and play the music from my ipod in the background. Good enough! I have a meeting with the ward humanitarian leaders on Tuesday, so I just wanted to let them see my vision for our stake having a humanitarian work day once a month on a stake level. I'm hoping to get them excited about the project and the music is key. We'll see how it goes. BTW, my big old antique iPod died a couple weeks ago. So then I thought, I'll just borrow Alex's iTouch until he gets home. But then I remembered that my speakers don't charge it, so that was a pain. So then I bought new speakers that charge it, and if it's okay, I'm using your iTouch in my quilt room. I just can't enjoy quilting, etc without music and I only put 1 playlist (maybe 2) on your iTouch.

We heard from Kirk earlier. He's been busy meeting with an optometrist and a dentist and will be setting up an eye clinic with a tooth clinic. This next week he has to meet with groups and ask for money. That's probably hard in Uganda. He went whitewater rafting down the Nile last week, so he's obviously having a lot of fun too.

Sean starts summer semester tomorrow. He had dinner with G&G Thompson and Charmaine today. He finally took out the niece of the Cameron's last week. He said he had a fun time, but she's leaving for China for a month to teach, so I guess any second date will have to wait.

Kristina had a great time at girls' camp last week. Here are a few pics from her adventures. Their theme was Hidden Treasures and they did all their activities helping the girls find their hidden gifts and talents and abilities. They even rappelled down a 120' rock cliff and Kristina was the first one off. There were lots of rattlesnakes there too and they even killed one, skinned it, cooked it and ate it. Kristina is the one on the left just about to go down.

Leah and Nikki finished their first week of tennis and they love it! They have lessons next week too and now they want to sign up for more tennis throughout the summer. I'm pretty sure they'll be ready to take you on by the time you get home. Leah also finished her week of art lessons. She says she still wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.

I forgot to tell you a funny story from last week. During the last week of school, the elementary school had a field day and one of the events was a strength event. Nikki signed up for it. She said she didn't really know what it was going to be. The kids were asked to carry buckets on each arm and the teacher added weights to them. Then they had to carry them around a track. Slowly each kid dropped out with the amount of weight, but no, not Nikki. They just kept adding more and more weight until she had 50 lbs in each hand and she walked around the track 4 times. The kids started yelling for her to stop so she did, but she said she could have kept going forever. Nikki won the contest as the strongest person in the elementary school! She's so funny.

I loved your Mustang story last week and grandpa got a kick out of it too. It was great to hear that Ifeanyi got baptized. Sounds like he'll be a great member.

In our RS lesson today, we talked about obedience. Susan Madsen gave a great lesson. I know that we can't expect miracles in our lives if we are not willing to obey with exactness. Russell M. Nelson said, "obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles". This was from a devotional he gave at the MTC recently and I thought you might like the quote.

Have a great week. We will be in Utah the end of this week taking Kristina to EFY. She's been practicing a dance with Mallory all week for the talent show. They're very excited. So we'll take pictures and write you from the road.

Thank you for bringing such a powerful spirit into our home. You're always in my prayers and thoughts.

love you much,

Mom xxoo

Eagle Fun Days

une 12, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
Eagle Fun days, you can't beat that for small town fun. We had excellent weather the whole weekend so it was very enjoyable going to downtown Eagle and walking around. On Thursday last week, dad hired Jared to be his son for a day and he worked in the yard all day. Jared lost his job at Scentsy and since school is out, his wife Kendra is not working any more. It was fun having him here. Then in the afternoon Sean all of a sudden just drove up into the driveway. He had the weekend off and decided to surprise us and come home. I think he secretly just wanted to go to the Eagle parade or maybe he just wanted one of these turkey legs that the girls devoured.

So while he was here, we caught up on some movies, Thor and Super 8. They were both very good. Friday night we walked around downtown Eagle and Saturday, of course, we went to the parade after a lovely morning of working in the yard and garage. I thought we were out of the wet zone, but obviously that was not the case but the water felt good.
Saturday night we went to Brittney Stafford's wedding reception. Lots of people. It was great seeing everyone.

The girls are officially out of school-Kristina did well on her finals, except math which she seems to be giving up on now, Leah officially graduated from elementary school, Nikki is excited to move up to being a senior in her school, and now the constant barrage of "What can we do?" begins. Leah starts art lessons tomorrow which will be great. Then Leah and Nikki are taking tennis lessons starting on Tuesday through Meridian Rec. Also tomorrow Kristina takes off for girls' camp and she is very, very excited to go.

Last Thursday, Sally Larsen took Leah and Nikki with her girls to Wahoo's for the entire day and then they went to Chuck O'Rama for dinner. Sally knows their sweet spots. She has always been so kind and generous to the little girls ever since we first adopted them. Sally and her sister used to call and ask if they could take the girls out with them all the time. They also brought clothes over for them when they first got here. Sally totally understands both of them and is just constantly saying how funny they are, especially Nikki. She loves her one-liners.

Today Kristina spoke in church on family history and genealogy. She did a great job, wrote the talk herself and even spoke just from some notes. She's growing up... Someone in the ward thought she looked just like Kate Middleton (Princess Kate). Our choir sang a beautiful arrangement of Secret Prayer.

So you're feeling a little heat and humidity there, eh? Ah, I remember that well, too well. Every picture in the South of our family that was taken in the summer shows my red face. Remember the iced bandanas we'd wear around our necks, ok, maybe that was just me. Just desperate attempts to keep cool. If I were to move to the South again, I would definitely get a house with a pool. I hope you are finding ways to keep hydrated and cool.

Dad and I went to Josh Gilman's farewell today. He spoke on the spirit of Christ and you can tell he's ready to serve a mission. I know it was a hard road for him and I'm proud of him and the work he has done to get to this point. In his ward there was a couple visiting from Knoxville, TN. They said they go to Nashville often, so if they do they under command to find an Elder Thompson. In fact, you would recognize him because he's Brother Irwin's brother and he looks just like him and speaks with an English accent.

Dad says to say sorry about his letter this week. When he addressed it, he accidentally put the wrong zip code and it just got returned to us. So it will be coming next week.

So hopefully you'll be reporting to us that Ifeanyi got baptized and that all went well for him.

How was the temple? Did you go with the whole mission, or ZL's or what? We are getting kind of sad here that the Boise temple will be closing in just a few weeks. We've been so spoiled having it close by. First we get the news that they're building a temple in Meridian, then we get the news that beforehand, you won't have any temple near you. I'm sure it will be a fun event when we rededicate it though.

Sean just called and when he got home today, his 911 training group took off to Goshen, Utah where the church is building a Jerusalem set for church movies. Sean said it was pretty cool. You look down the street one way and you see Pilate's residence and you look the other way and you see Harod's palace. They've built all the landmarks of Jerusalem in one place and he said it was pretty awesome. He wasn't allowed to take pictures, though, so I don't have any to share. So far they've made one movie there, The Good Samaritan on lds.org. He said they have about another 100 planned.

Dad's working a lot this week, so I'll be doing a lot of chauffeuring around town, especially with Kristina gone. I love having a licensed driver back in the house again. I hope you are doing what you can to help Pres. Hutchings on his own next transfer home. I saw your new mission president and his wife in the Church News last week. I'm sure they're getting pretty excited.

Have a wonderful week. You know there's not a day that goes by that I don't think of you and pray for you. Work hard so you can always look back knowing you gave it your all. It's a great feeling.

love you,

mom XXOO

June 2011

June 5, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

Well, here we are again. I don't know about you, but my weeks seem to be flying by lately. I guess it's been cuz I've been pretty busy. Loved your Panda picture last week. I guess that's what inspired our Sunday dinner today of orange chicken, spicy chicken and egg rolls and rice. It was quite a rich meal, but Leah and Nikki couldn't get enough especially since it was Fast Sunday and they had suffered for so long beforehand.

Kirk called today and yesterday. He sounds good and he's still really loving it in Uganda. Sounds like he's working pretty hard too, lots of physical labor. He called today to give me his list of classes that he needs to get signed up for for Fall semester. He's going to be out of touch with society for a week while he and his roommate go off and live in a really remote village and teach the people there about nutrition and hygience, mainly just common sense things, but he says they all really need some help in that area. So today he met with his Ugandan Bishop and got his ecclesiastical interview submitted (which he had walk his Bishop through since he'd never done one before). So I'll be signing him up for his classes this week.

Sean also just called and he's keeping pretty busy with his job. He's been working some night shifts lately, so I think he has a little more empathy for dad. He's still in the training phases but almost done with it all. Today he couldn't wake up with his alarm and his roommates didn't even bother trying to wake him and ask him if he was going to church. By the time Sean woke up, it was 11:30am and he had to scramble and just find another ward to go to. He wasn't very happy with his new roommates.

I heard from Kristina who heard from Scott who was there because his sister was there that Dayna got married this past weekend and had her reception. I was kind of sad that we didn't even get invited. I would have loved to have gone. There are going to be a lot of weddings in the next few weeks. A lot of it is because the Boise temple is closing in a month, so I think there are a lot of couples scrambling out there.

I went to Living the Legacy academy on Friday. They held it up at Glenwood this year so it was nice for us not to have to drive as far. My presidency and I spoke to them Friday afternoon outside. I started them out by playing the numbers game to loosen them up a bit. It was fun seeing them laughing and getting into it. Then we read them this poem that my counselor changed the words to from Dr. Suess's Oh the Places You'll Go.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to great places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the girl who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up colleges and jobs, and maybe a travel place or two. Look ‘em over with care. There’s always BYU.

About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. Maybe all you’ll want is a white wedding gown. Or a “Sister” missionary tag to pin on your dress. Whatever you decide, you’ll know what is best.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just trust in the Lord. He’ll tell you what to do.

When you’re alone in a strange place, and you’re feeling down, a Relief Society President will make sure you’re found. You’ll get visits and lessons and activities too! With all of these great things, you won’t have time to feel blue!

Oh! The places you’ll go! And the people you’ll meet. Don’t sit around waiting. This life can’t be beat!

And in all that doing, don’t you forget, that Relief Society is the best - On that you can bet!

It’ll teach you things you never thought you could do, and the sisters you meet, will become best friends too! They’ll support you, encourage you, and cheer you on. You’ll be ready for anything….C’mon, bring it on!

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(99 and ¾ percent guaranteed)

Girls, you’ll move mountains!

So, be your name Eldridge or Cameron or Smith or Shumway, you’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

After the poem which of course we read with Dr. Suess hats on, then each one of us spoke for a little bit. I basically welcomed them to RS and talked about what they will bring to RS, their youth, creativity, sensitivity to the spirit at such young ages, their technological savvy and how all these gifts came with them and are to be used to build up the kingdom at this time. I also talked with them about committing to always making an effort to be a part of RS no matter where they live and no matter how long they live there. I gave an example of a sister in Augusta who came to us when I was in the RS presidency there and even though she was only going to be living in Augusta for 3 months, she wanted to know if there was anything she could be part of or help with in RS cuz she knew she probably wouldn't even get a calling living there for such a short time. She could have hidden out and taken a vacation from church duties for 3 months, but she made such an impression on me and I remember thinking that I wanted to be just like that. That sister had a lot of fun with us in our activities, etc for the short 3 months she was there and I'll never forget her example. So I promised the Legacy girls that if they would put forth an effort and be actively a part of RS all throughout their lives that they would experience a rich, full, charitable life one that they could never experience in any other way.

We really enjoyed being a small part of Living the Legacy.

Is Ifeyani still progressing towards baptism. That was cool that your President was there to help set the baptismal date. Are you able to keep in contact with all the people you've had a part in baptizing thus far? I'm just wondering if they enjoy being able to keep in contact with the missionaries that were so much a part of their lives.

Here's a pic of Nikki. She got her haircut last week. It was back down to the middle of her back again. I can't believe how fast her hair grows. She's loving having it shorter though because it's so much easier to take care of.

Dad is working in Mountain Home tonight. He hasn't had to work on Sunday for a long time, so I know he wasn't very happy about it. We missed him at church. I know he has to take his turn though in covering the ER on the weekends.

Leah got a special award at her 5th grade graduation. Only 4 kids got it and it was for hard work and extraordinary improvement throughout the year.

Kristina is in the middle of finals. I helped her study for her Spanish final last week and she said she did really well. She'll be happy when Wednesday is finally here and they're finished. Can you believe she's going to be a sophomore?

Our weather is finally warming up here. Actually went up into the 80's the last couple of days, but we're supposed to dip back down again this week. Of course, I wouldn't mind at all if it stayed in the 70's all summer. I'm all for that. It's been nice sitting out on the porch at nights again, that's one of my favorite things to do here when it warms up.

I hope you are well and of course happy. Your excitement about the gospel, about people and about the work you are doing is very contagious and I enjoy the boost I feel every Monday when I hear from you. Here's a quote I made a note of that I heard from BYU Women's Conference last month. You have proven to be someone who is steady in small things over time, so I thought of you:

"As you and I become increasingly steadfast and immovable, we are less prone to zealous and exaggerated spurts of spirituality followed by extended periods of slackness.

“A spiritual ‘spurter’ is one who is given to short bursts of spectacular effort followed by frequent and lengthy periods of rest,” he said. While “a big spurt may appear to be impressive in the short run, … steadiness in small things over time is far more effective [and] far less dangerous and produces far better results.” Elder Bednar, BYU women’s conference 4/2011

Keep up the good steady work of the Lord.

I love you,

Mom XXOO