Dear Elder Alex,
Just got home from stake conference...well, actually just finished eating after getting home from stake conference. Spiritually fed and temporally fed, always the perfect combination.
Last night our Saturday evening meeting was so wonderful. Every talk was powerful and I particularly love how plainly our Stake Presidency speaks to us, especially Pres. Shaw and Pres. Stafford. They never mince words and somehow manage to let us all know where we need to improve, yet at the same time they're able to say it in a way that never offends, just motivates. I'm looking forward to hearing from both of them this next weekend at our Stake Women's conference.
The big thing at conference today was that we got a new stake Patriarch, bro. Maylen from the 2nd ward. I don't know him, but I guess he's been in the stake and in the Eagle area for many years. They mentioned that he was even Bishop of the E2 ward many years ago. He's younger than Bro. Sorensen, but is not a young man. I've known for a couple of months that this was coming as Pres. Stafford confided in me at one of our meetings. He would always ask me how the Patriarch was doing, how the blessings were, etc. Except for a period of time when the Patriarch was very sick, his blessings were strong right up to the end. I typed his last blessing yesterday and I could hear a sadness in his voice right at the very end. That was hard for me to hear. He bore his testimony today and in it he had very sweet things that he said about me. I went up afterwards to give he and his wife a hug, and Jean was very, very tearful. He will still be able to always give a Patriarchal blessing to his literal descendants, so I hope he has an opportunity. I've typed a few of his grandchildren's blessings already.
They've asked me to continue typing for our new Patriarch. He's going to use a new updated recording device and he'll just send the blessings to me electronically. I'll miss picking up the tapes from the Sorensen's. I spoke with the new Patriarch today just before he was getting ordained. He's going to send me a tester tomorrow, then we should be off and running. I'm excited to work with him.
Randy Pinder came up to me and told me how awesome your CD was. He said to tell you that now he's paid the .99 for your single and he's expecting the full album soon. He said he was "blown away" by how you sounded and how good it was. He's jealous of your experience. Then today Aunt Nancy wrote and said that you should go on American Idol when you get home from your mission. I might as well sign on as your Fan club president right now. :)
Today our main meeting was all about missionary work and we even got to hear from one of our full time missionaries who has been in the Eagle area for 9 months. He did a great job and Pres. Stafford spoke very highly of him. It reminded me of how much one of your Stake Presidents liked you.
Here's a picture for you from last night. They all thought it would be fun to replicate your photo. At the time they couldn't remember what you guys were doing in your original photo, so they all tried to think what you guys were probably doing in your photo. Just a little off... :)
Anyway, they had fun doing it.
We had one day of massive snow this week and it was so beautiful, but it only lasted one day and with the help of rain, it quickly melted. Bogus opened though, so many people were very happy.
How is Paducah? I heard that Elder Rasmussen is in your zone, that's cool. How many stakes are in your zone? Just curious.
I've been very busy this past week with Women's Conference stuff. Our hardest decision is how many people we think might come and how much food to prepare, how many booklets to print, etc. I realize that's always a big question and you never know who or how many will attend something, but on the stake level, we could be off by a huge number easily. It's especially difficult because we've split the stake since last year, so we can't even go by last year's numbers. I'll let you know how everything goes in my next letter.
We also had our stake humanitarian work day. They are officially closing Homecraft at the DI in April. That's the place that took all the fabric donations and where they put together school kits, hygiene kits, etc. They want us to serve our local areas now and the church will be sending more money to areas in distress instead of supplies, so I'm really glad we started doing these humanitarian work days because everything we do goes to charity places, etc in our valley.
Dakota is in the MTC now and her first letter was good. She had a hard first couple of days, but then got past that and is enjoying the strong spirit that is there. Here's her address if you you'd like to write her:
Mailbox #107-0312
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604
Kristina is in the dining room with 5 of her friends planning the big sweethearts dance. Her group will have 12 people, so they're trying to get a limo from Ryan's lot or something big to hold all of them. I've decided girls take a lot more time planning dates and have a lot more details that they cover, and they do it well ahead of time. The dance isn't until the middle of February.
Kirk finally made his way home from Canada this week. Because of the big storm, his flight was delayed a day and it was still snowing a lot up north when he flew home from Spokane. He had a great time with Sarah and her family, played lots of games (they are a big game-playing family), took engagement pictures (Sarah's sister Renee took all the pictures). Here are a few they took:
I know...you're probably saying, ahhhhh as you look through the pictures. This is what love looks like. They would get married tomorrow if they could, so I know this is hard for both of them waiting for the visa. Everyone in the stake always asks if there is any news about the visa yet. It's going to be a big event when it comes through.
We just finished watching your companion's movie, Saving Sara Cain. Here's a fun line that Quigley said, "You should have stayed home cowpie." He says that just before he's getting ready to wrestle the Amish kid. Very funny. Here's some pics from the movie. The first one is right where he's making the cowpie remark.
This is where he'sWell, hope you had a great week and are getting to know your new area. Please send us your address so we can keep the mail coming. Be safe and stay true to what you know in your heart.
Love you,
Mom xxoo
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