Birthday Weekend

July 17, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
So how was your birthday week? I hope things went well, that you found lots of new investigators and that you enjoyed our little packages. Did you like anything in particular that we sent? We put up the birthday banner in your behalf and went to Harry Potter's last movie...it was good, but now it's all over. You still have it to look forward to.

We went over to the Billings' house tonight for a little get-together/game night. I realize you don't know them, but they are a fun new family from Chicago. They have a daughter Kristina's age and they are BFF's. Caleb Braithwaite came over too to join in the fun. Caleb broke his collar bone on the first day of EFY last week, some kind of wild and crazy get-to-know-you game. So now his dad is going to high adventure without him tomorrow.

Dad is sitting out on the back porch enjoying the evening air. That's one of my favorite things about the summer, sitting out on the back porch. I just realized that sounds like an old person type of thing to say. Oh well, I am who I am.

Virginia Walker called last week and I chatted with her for quite some time. She was fun to talk with and she spoke very highly of you, your character and your work ethic. She says she's known many, many missionaries throughout her years and has worked very closely with many of them and you are one of the best. So keep up the great work. There are more people watching you, your behavior, your attitude, your obedience than you will ever know. It's all part of being a disciple of Christ.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Lucas family from Argentina this week. They fly in Wednesday and will stay with us a couple of days. We have fun things planned with them including a low country boil with the Pinder family band playing. Randy served in Argentina so he's excited to talk with them and Heather also speaks Spanish. It will be a lot of fun. I'll report back in next week's letter about how it all goes.

Leah and Nikki had another week of tennis lessons. They are taking from Sally Larsen's sister-in-law and they really enjoy it. I think we'll do even another week of lessons in August before they head back to school. Kristina's having a rough time adjusting to life back home after the full fun schedule of EFY. She thinks we should have something going every minute. So she had a party here last Thursday night. They all had so much fun that they want to have a Thursday night party every week. We'll see about that.

Today they announced officially that our stake is getting split at the next stake conference which is August 13/14. I've known for some time, but of course had to keep it all to myself. They also announced a special meeting for 7 wards that will be having their boundaries redrawn. Star 1,2,3, Beacon Light, Eagle 8, 4, & 7. So it looks like our ward will be staying the same for now-we're happy about that. One of the 70 will be coming for the split. He's asked for a dinner between the Saturday meetings, so that falls on my presidency. We have some good food planned for that including something my first counselor calls "general authority chicken", a dish her mom used to make when she had to serve visiting general authorities. I'll be making fancy green beans to go along with it.

So when you get back there will be a completely new stake out here with a new stake president,etc. It's going to be quite the shake up for a while. I can't imagine starting a completely new stake and how much work that will take.

Today at church we found out that Mary Thompson was in a bad fire accident last night down in Provo. She and some friends went to an old mine or a cave or something where they were having a big bon fire. The guys she was with decided to add gas into the mixture and somehow where Mary was standing was a small puddle of gasoline. The fumes traveled right out to her and she was burned all up and down both legs. She is in the burn unit at the Univ. of Utah and will most likely be there for at least a month. We still don't know much of the details about the severity of her burns yet since it just happened last night, but our ward is praying for her. Bro. Thompson was at church and even gave our Sunday School lesson which was a beautiful lesson about the crucifixion of Christ. It was difficult for Bro. Thompson at times, but it was a very spiritual lesson finishing off with Elder Holland's talk about Christ which he gave in the April 2009 General Conference. I can remember when he gave that talk and how powerful it was. I'll send you a copy of that talk.

Kirk has been very busy setting up an eye/dental clinic. He says it's been a lot of work and is glad it's now over. He's calling tomorrow night so I'll get more details about his clinic then. But he sounds good, is completely over his malaria and is starting into his last 6 week session there. Tyler Yorgason is not going as he had planned, so I'm sad about that, but he couldn't raise enough money.

Also last week was Boise's EFY and the people making a DVD to show wanted to show cultural diversity in the US as part of it. So a guy came by our house and interviewed Nikki and Leah.

He asked Nikki what she liked best about living in the United States and she said, mashed potatoes and clothes. Leah said she liked the house she lives in.

So how is Franklin? Are you getting adjusted to the area, the people, your new ward? I hope it is all going well for you and that you are having success in finding people to teach. The young adults are usually a great missionary force. Ask them for friends to teach and remind them to invite their friends to all the activities. My young adult years were filled with many friends taking the lessons and me sitting in on them add my own testimony to that of the elders. I loved it and it was so easy to invite them to all our events. They were all looking for some direction in life.

I'm excited that you're singing Come Thou Fount next week at church. I love that song and wish I could hear you sing it, but I'll be humming it all day in your honor. It's one of my favorites!

Have a great week. Many many prayers are always coming your way.
love you,
mom xxoo