Busy, busy

April 17, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

It's pretty late at night and I'm tired, so I may get up early and write a little more. Toni has been here this weekend. She flew up and went to a lacrosse ref certification camp and now she's here with us until Tues. Tonight we went to the Danny and Penny Rozsa's since it was Jake's farewell and lots of the Rozsa's were in town. It was a lot of fun visiting with everyone there and Toni was able to see them all too. I'll send pictures Monday morning.

Church was great today. The speakers in sacrament were so good, Bro. Childer's from the high council, his son Alex(12 yrs old) and a girl who just returned from her mission to Florida. She was an excellent speaker too. There was a very strong spirit in the meeting. Then in Sunday School, Bro. Randy Thompson taught and he always does such an amazing job. He just has a way with words and is able to bring out such good discussion and I love going to class. Then in RS, Susan Madsen taught the lesson on honesty and once again we had great discussion. Very uplifting 3 hours.

After church I went to find Diane Beagley because this is their last week in our ward. They are moving to Star, which isn't very far, but they've been in our ward so long and are very sad about moving. She was having a hard time today. We will really miss them in our ward.

This week I set up a web page on missionsite.com where I'm keeping all your letters and some of your pictures from your mission. That way, anyone that wants to can go to that page and look at any of your current or past letters and pictures. Austin and Cameron already have a site set up, and I finally got around to it. Once I set it up, it automatically links your page with anyone else who's serving in Nashville. I looked at the links and noticed one of my friends from California had a daughter serving there, but I think she was Spanish speaking. Her name is Sister Bounds from Orange CA. But then I also noticed she was finishing her mission this month, so now I can't even have you say hi.

We had a busy weekend. Nikki had her big concert on Saturday night at the Cathedral of the Rockies, I taught a class for Super Saturday for our ward RS on Saturday morning and I had fun with Toni on Friday. We're both helping my sister Jan get ready to go to quilt market in a few weeks, so we were busy with some projects we're working on. It's fun having Toni here and it makes me wish she lived closer to us.

Kirk is ironing out all the details of his internship to Uganda. He's leaving in just 2 weeks. It's hard to believe he'll be over in Africa. Sean should be coming home this weekend for Easter and then heading back to Provo for spring semester.

Tomorrow Toni is going to help Kristina's lacrosse team with their practice and teach them a couple new plays, then we're off to Leah's game down at Ann Morrison. Seems like we're constantly at lacrosse games these days. But now that the weather is warming up, it's much nicer to be at the games.

So how's Jerry Bowman doing? Did he ever read or listen to the conference talk you gave him? It must be kind of fun, or at least it breaks up any monotony when you travel and do splits with other missionaries. I'm sure every missionary has his or her own style of teaching, but the spirit can work through anyone's style if they know how to call upon the spirit and how to be well prepared before each meeting.

Here's something from sacrament meeting that I wrote down today: It's a quote from Elder Hales. "If you want to speak to the Lord, you must say your prayers. If you want to hear what the Lord says, you must read your scriptures." I loved that and it made me think. It might be something that would be helpful for your investigators especially if they have a hard time committing to reading the scriptures and only want to pray and get answers, or even vice versa.

Well, my eyes are stinging. It must be time to end the typing. We are all well here and we are working hard and playing hard. I love the feeling at night after a day of wonderful feelings, revelations, church work, family visiting, etc. There's nothing better than that kind of tired-a good Sabbath day tired.

I send you all my love, always. You mean the world to me.

Be happy, then help others be happy.

Love,

mom

XXOO

Mid April

Apr. 10, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

It was a good Sabbath here. Started with an early morning stake meeting, went to Sacrament where it was Derek Hansen's homecoming. You can tell he really enjoyed his mission and he's still an emotional speaker. Kimi Anderson was right there in the front row and rumor has it that they've been looking at rings together. In his talk he spoke of how each day, at the end of each day he would ask himself if he could see the hand of the Lord in anything that happened that day and inevitably he could, every day of his mission. I believe that to be true even when you're not on your mission. He also talked about when people are prepared and ready to hear the gospel, miracles will happen. He said to tell you hello.

The other missionary who reported today was in the Eagle 2nd ward-Jordan Potter. Kirk went to that meeting and said he did a good job. Still the same old Jordan, outgoing, friendly, never worrying about what people think, but a little more mature.

I went to a wedding shower for Lindsey Roberts (cousin) this past weekend. She said to say hi. It's still so funny to me that she's marrying Dustin Hadfield. At the shower I saw Penny Rozsa and their son Jake is having his farewell this next Sunday. He's going to the Washington DC mission. They're having lots of family coming in to town, so I'm hoping we get to see most of them.

Also today the exchange student who's living with the Purnells got confirmed a member of the church. Yesterday she was baptized. She's from Peru and the Spanish speaking missionaries help teach the lessons and also gave her her blessing today. The Elder told me it was his first time giving a blessing. I told him it sounded very nice to me from the little bit I could understand.

We also have another lady in our ward who's taking the lessons. She lives in the house at hte corner of the McCauley's lot. She's so fun to have in Sunday School and Relief Society because she always participates and is so excited to hear anything new. I'm sure she'll be getting baptized soon.

This past weekend was the open house for the new church building on Floating Feather in Star. I was in charge of the refreshments, so it was fun to be there. 16 non members(that we know of) showed up, some pastors, city council members and 2 or 3 left with Books of Mormon and wanting to talk further with the missionaries. One of the biggest impacts of them was the room where they were showing Mormon.org video messages. Several people were very touched by those. Another person(less active for several years) felt the spirit so strongly in the chapel that they were motivated to talk with the Bishop and return to activity. So overall it was a wonderful evening. The building is like a mini version of our building and now the Beacon Light ward and the Star 2nd ward meet there.

Dad's having a meeting with the the homeowners with the VP and secretary right now. Fun, fun. He's been working a lot of hours lately and it's really wearing on him, so I'm thinking he should cut back a bit. There seems to be a lot of work in Ontario, OR and only one doc on at a time, so it's a tough shift when he's out there.

Kirk is busy getting ready to go to Uganda for the summer. He's going there to do his internship for BYU-I and he'll be going with one of his roommates so it should be pretty fun. They will be working in a small village helping a dentist and an eye doctor and running clinics there. He's leaving May 4th and will be gone until the end of August. Dad is really wanting to go there and visit while he's there, but we'll have to see what else is going on this summer.

Sean is taking finals this week and then he'll be home for a week or two and then back to Provo for Spring semester. I'm hoping he gets a job for the summer, but who knows. His track record with jobs is not the greatest.

Kristina is pretty busy with her lacrosse season now and her team is undefeated so far, even beating BK, the big whigs in the lacrosse circles. She's really hinting heavily about getting her license now. She's had her permit for 8 months but hasn't done a lot of driving, so now she's volunteering to drive all the time. We're even getting the tires fixed on the Mustang and she's anxious to drive it around town. Actually, I could really use another driver around here especially with Kirk leaving town.

Leah is also busy with lacrosse and getting ready for ISAT's. We're helping her study fractions, etc but she doesn't understand it, but we're helping her memorize things. Her friends are starting to go into Young Women's now and she's anxiously waiting for her turn in November.

Nikki is Nikki. She's a bit of a drama queen lately and I'm hoping it's just a phase. She's still very funny and Kirk's always laughing at stuff she does. Her singing is getting better and better and she loves it. Cooking, eating, singing, cooking, eating, singing. etc, etc.

I'm still high from General Conference. I'm watching reruns on Tivo and I had a really nice talk with Pres. Stafford this week at our meeting about different aspects of this past conference. There's a lot to study from the talks and I'm looking forward to it. The word on the Meridian temple at this point is that they don't have the land purchased yet, but it will probably take 3 years for it to be complete. It's just fun and exciting news here.

I've been busy helping Jan get ready for the next quilt market which is in Utah in May. There are so many details to work on. It's fun, but it's a lot of detail work. I'm also trying to come up with fun games to do at the Living the Legacy. They've asked me and my presidency to come up and do a little something. I have some fun ideas thanks to my many years of hearing what you guys did at your academies.

So how are things going for you? Kirk occasionally tells us that he makes a comment or two on your Facebook. How are things going there? Since it's a pilot program, I'm wondering what your opinion of all that is. I'm so impressed with how technologically current the church is, they really seem to have their fingers on the pulse of things and I'm continually amazed.

Not much else going on here. How are your investigators coming along? What do you do as a Zone Leader? Are you training, motivating or what? Do you get to see Jaime Goodwin very often?

I'm excited to hear from you-as usual :) Here's a scripture that made me think of you today.

Moroni 8:3.

I love you,

mom

XXOO

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

In California

Mar. 27, 2011
dear elder Alex,
So I'm sitting here in our best western motel room with my iPad on my
lap,the girls are fighting over who gets the top bunk bed(yes,we
actually have bunk beds), Sean and dad are watching espn,and Kirk is
texting someone. Same old vacation stuff. We left Friday afternoon and
drove to Utah where we picked up Sean from the airport where he was
leaving his car so he had something to drive home Monday when he flies
home so he can get back to school.
We all spent the night with grandma and grandpa and charmaine came up.
In the morning after a tasty waffle breakfast we took off for Vegas.
We stopped along the way in st.George and saw Tyler and the kids and
also tyler's fiancé. She's a girl he met at a Mexican club. She
doesn't speak any English so we didn't have a big conversation with
her, although I did try a bit(you know me and my baby spanish). Tyler
is still going into the navy next month but is hoping to get married
in the fall. His fiancé is not Mormon but has started taking the
lessons. We'll see how this turns out. Allen and Lisa were on a
painting job so they couldn't meet us. We'll see them on the way back
up to Utah.
In Vegas we went to the Lion King at the Mandalay Bay. It was
awesome. The whole thing was a visual treat and so creative and we
had great seats. We stayed outside of Vegas in Henderson and we went
to church there this morning. What a great meeting this morning. The
theme was missionary work and the speakers were so good. A woman in
the ward spoke about her experiences being part of Gladys knights
traveling choir, a choir she just at the last minute decided to try
out for. She thought it was just for a choir for a special fireside
but it turned out to be a choir Gladys was putting together to go on
the road and do missionary work through music. She related a couple
miraculous experiences. One is that a woman she roomed with was
anxious to go to mobile Alabama where she had previously served her
mission, but she had been having a difficult time in her life lately
and was lamenting the fact that she didn't even think any of her
missionary work had made any difference in anyone's life. She was just
feeling down about a lot of things in life and really struggling.
While at a fireside in mobile, they had just finished performing and
the local stake president announced the closing prayer saying that
this brother was the first African American to have received the
Melchizedek priesthood. The man came up to pray, but then said he
felt impressed to share his story before he prayed about how 2angel
sister missionaries had changed his life many years ago when he was a
pastor of another church. He not only joined the church but also took
most of his congregation with him as they also joined the church. He
was still being a great missionary today as he was responsible for
many of the people who were showing up to these firesides and he was
even renting vans to take them all over the south to the different
firesides. The speaker's friend realized as he was talking that she
was one of those 2 sister missionaries who had taught him many years
ago and she immediately felt a spirit of renewal in her soul which she
had been badly needing.
This was just one of the miraculous stories that she related. Then
she sang a song which means a lot to her and has become a way for her
to share her testimony.
the next speaker introduced an idea to the ward. They will be
fasting for forty days as a ward starting April 1. They have a sign
up for families and 1 or2 families will each take one day during the
forty days in which they'll fast for missionary experiences and
opportunities in the ward. Then every Monday night they would like
each member of the ward at 8pm to have a kneeling prayer where they
will ask the Lord for missionary opportunities specifically in their
ward. I just thought it was an awesome idea. He said fasting without
the prayer is just starving. Then one of the elders closed the
meeting with his testimony. It made me want to be a member of their
ward!
Then we drove to southern California to our hotel. We then went to
susans for dinner and games. Grandma and grandpa were there, Toni and
her kids all came over, along th jan, jeff, Mary and david, also my
brother david and his kids, and Maria and James and Hudson(he's
pulling himself up on things now and almost walking). I'll send
pictures next week since I'm not at home.
How has your week been? We got another letter from Wendee Truman with
some pictures. I also ran into Seth millers dad this week and he said
Seth is doing well in Canada but he's freezing and has a lazy
companion so he's struggling a little right now. Kirk got rear ended,
so I had to take his truck into treasure valley collision for an
estimate.
Can't wait to hear about your new comp. From what you've told us
about elder McDermott he'll make an excellent AP. I hope you are
doing well and working hard. Dad sends his love and we'll be sending
some vacation goodies to you in the mail. Everyone here asked about
you and said they love getting your letters each week. Keep the faith
and expect the miracles.
I love you very much,
Mom
XXOO

Cookie penance

Mar. 20, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

First off, happy spring! We are definitely looking forward to some better weather here. It's been a bit crazy and a very wet March. Wet being everything from rain, to sleet, to hail, to snow.

Sounds like you are doing well and acclimating quite well in Goodlettsville. (BTW, the American Idol girl from Goodlettsville got voted off last week) We were rooting for her, but she wasn't quite the same caliper as the other contestants this year.

I have to say that I was very moved by just a small portion of your last letter, in fact it brought tears to my eyes. It was your story about when Elder McDermott took his phone out of his pocket and said he needed to call Stacy and how the timing for that was most assuredly a strong prompting from the spirit. Stacy's got to know from that that Heavenly Father is very aware of her, her trials, her desires, etc. What I also learned from that was how easily Elder McDermott received and acted on that prompting. What you guys do each day to spiritually prepare yourselves, i.e. gospel study, companionship study, prayers, fasting, strict obedience, etc. reaps such immense blessings and the most powerful of all those blessings is being able to have the spirit as a constant companion. What I've been thinking about through the week is that we can all have that same blessing. We don't have to be full time missionaries to experience that. I'll admit it's tough when there are so many worldly endeavors pulling at us, but the preparation for the day is the same and should be the same. It's given me so much insight into who I am and who's work I always want to be a disciple for. It's very motivating, so thank you for sharing that in your letter.

So today I had to pay penance for something I did a couple days ago. I got a call from someone who's name I won't divulge, but he wanted to have a few minutes of my time to sell me on a multi-level marketing opportunity. Red flag! But he's a friend, so I listened for a bit and then told him I didn't want to do something like that, I'm not a good salesman and with my current calling in the stake, I didn't feel it would be appropriate either. So he eventually understood, but still sent an email with info, called back again, offered to have me just try the product in case I'd like to order it and then asked if I could give him just a name or two of someone he could call. I had already said no to him about the company, so I thought maybe I'll just give him one name. So out came Myles McKell. I didn't think much about it. Then my friend called back a couple days later to get Myles' phone number. Now I was stuck and I had to give it to him. Not 5 minutes later, the phone rings and I look to see Myles McKell calling me. I thought, oh no! Then I answered the phone and I started laughing so hard that I could barely talk, I was laughing so hard I was crying(you know how I get). Myles said, "You can't even talk about this, can you?" He was teasing me of course. I told him how sorry I was that I had sold him out. Myles hates multi-level marketing as much as me, calls them all Ponzi schemes and gets calls all the time, so he was able to hopefully say no firmly although he's not sure the message got through. I told Myles that I owed him one and we just had a good laugh over it.

So today I made some cookies and attached a paper that said "Ponzi Penance" and took it over to the McKells. Dad went with me and Myles laughed so hard when he saw it. We ended up visiting with them for over an hour and we had a great time talking and laughing. Myles is like a brother to me and I love having him here in our stake. So remember cookies always seem to soften the blow.

BYU is now in the final 16 after a great win Saturday against Gonzaga. They played the best I've seen them play. Kristina had Scott Beckstrom here to watch the game with us. They have become good friends, but I'm hoping that's all it is. Don't worry, I'm keeping a close watch on this.

This past week I spent in several doctor's offices, not fun. Nikki had an ear appointment. Looks like she has to have tubes put back in her ears again, they are just not healing properly and it will cause hearing loss if we don't do anything about it. The same doctor took a look at my vocal chords too. He said they looked good, so I need to drink a lot more water and keep them hydrated especially while singing or when I'm speaking for a long time. I tried it today at choir and it helped a little, but I still went a little hoarse. I think it's the dry air of Idaho that's doing it. Then I went to the hand surgeon so he could look at my finger. It's not healing because there's still some gauze in the wound. So he wants me to soak my finger each day in soapy water and scrub it to see if it will help. If it doesn't, he's going to have to numb up my finger and do some aggressive scrubbing and possibly a little cutting, cleaning out the wound so it will then heal. Having my finger hurt all over again does not sound very fun to me, but I'm very tired of it not being healed yet and I'd like to use it. I'll keep you posted.

This week Kristina has a couple lacrosse games and a choir concert. Nikki and Leah had a choir concert last week. Leah and Nikki both go to ward choir now, but somehow I think it's just because there's always treats there for whoever comes. We sang If You Could Hie to Kolob today and it was kind of a miracle that we were able to pull it off. It wasn't the easiest to sing.

The Pinders spoke in church today and they did a great job. I could listen to Randy Pinder speak every week. He's very funny, very real and then can also be serious when he needs to be. I loved both their talks today on agency. Sis. Pinder introduced me to her mother-in-law as the one who has a son in Nashville. Sis. Pinder is just dying that you get to be there and they would love to get there especially while you are there.

We got the letter and pictures from Sis. Truman. It was so good being able to see you in action, so to speak. She's so nice to send those to us and we really appreciated it. I wrote her back, and I'd love to get to know her better and keep in touch.

Kirk just got home from a trip to Rexburg for the weekend. He had appointments with his school counselors about his major and getting ready to start an internship, etc. He also had a couple dates, which is always good. So he'll decide this week about an internship in Uganda.

Uncle Steve called to let us know about an opening in the BYU health dept. for a doctor. His friend who is a doctor there hasn't advertised the job yet, but said if dad was interested he'd like to talk with him. I don't think this is the time to move and dad's still pretty happy with his jobs in Mountain Home and Ontario, but some of the benefits sure sound good (like free tuition for all our kids!)

I hope your work is going well there, that Stacy (hopefully baptized by now) and Rick and Jerry are all moving forward. I hope your zone is working hard, enjoying the hard work and learning how to stay close to the spirit. We learned in RS today that if we don't respond to the promptings of the spirit in our lives, then the next time the spirit speaks to us, it will be even harder to hear. So learn to listen and to act.

You're an awesome example of faith and good works. They go hand in hand. Keep sharing your testimony and your sense of humor-they also go hand in hand. My prayers are always with you, my heart is always with you.

love you much,

Mom

XXOO

Family Movie Night

March 13, 2011
Dear Elder Alex,
We just finished watching some home movies--very funny. You were aloud and crazy kid! Then we watched some of my family movies, the Trumbo's. Also very entertaining. Then right in the middle of my family when I was young, Grandpa Trumbo's mission video comes up. He was quite the outgoing missionary. He was very animated and it was fun to see him in France.Here's a picture of all of us with my Grandma and Grandpa Hawkes.
That reminds me. We got some short videos from Cameron this week too. They remind me of the ones we'd get from Kirk, just short and sweet and funny. I'll try to send one to you so you can see him in action.
Dad's working in Ontario this evening. I went to the Eagle 4th ward today and it was our last ward conference. I won't know what to do with myself going to our own ward each week. It's probably changed a lot since I've been gone. I had a nice visit with Brian McCauley today. He said he's never going back to building again so now he's training to do some kind of speculating financing, blah blah blah, something I don't understand. I sat with Bro. Kofoed too. Shalese is the chorister for the ward. All is well in their ward.

Tonight they dedicated the new building inour stake, the Floating Feather building in Star. The stake is getting very large.
Kristina's lacrosse season officially began yesterday. She played in 3 half games and won 2 out of the 3. BK beat them. We sat by the Viehweg's and every single one of their kids(I think) was there. They were all home for Jessica'shomecoming. She just returned from Malaysia last week.
We've all been glued to the TV this past week with the tsunami news from Japan. Katie quickly posted something on facebook to let everyone know they were safe but sure felt the impact of the earthquake. David sat at home watching the news and was wishing he was back on his mission. In fact, he talks about possibly going back. We'll see what happens.
Leah is loving her lacrosse team. I'm not sure when her season begins. It will be fun to watch her play. She's busy working on her Pace project for school which she presents this Friday. She's also loving playing the piano lately. She's slowly turning into a young woman right before our eyes. She definitely looks and even acts like she should be out of Primary now.
Nikki on the other hand is quite at home in Primary and loves going to Activity Days. She's mastered all her multiplication tables now and is working her way through division. Telling time or estimating time still makes absolutely no sense to her though.

Kirk is going to Rexburg this week to meet with one of his counselors, go on a couple dates and make some decisions about his internship. One of his roommates wants him to go to Uganda in a couple months to do an internship with a dentist and an optometrist. If he wants to go into optometry, it would look good on his transcript. We'll see if this happens.
Sean is doing well at school. He still loves Arabic and middle eastern studies. He made wild rice soup bowls today for a group of friends and they had a soup bowl picnic outside. It's getting warmer slowly but surely.
We had ups and downs with BYU this week. They played New Mexico Friday night and Jimmer broke Danny Ainge's all time scoring record by scoring 52 points in one game. It was awesome to watch, but the game was close and it was a nail biter. Then yesterday we went to Campbell's to watch and have a bbq and they got slaughtered by SDSU. It was painful to watch. So now they're in the #3 seed for the tournament next week.I keep busy each day even though think I just sit around and eat bon bons. Hmmm, those sound pretty good right now. I just got a call from a sister in the Eagle 5th ward and she was just called today to be the new RS president. So they released Julie Rasmussen. I'll miss working with her, but I look forward to meeting someone new. So I made an appointment with her for Tuesday to go and orient her. Today I went to the Hale's house in the Eagle 3rd ward where I oriented Sis. Hale as the new RS president. I'm not sure if you remember her, but she works in the front office at Eagle Middle school and has worked there for years. So withmy RS work, there's always something going on. This week we're working on an activity for the girls at Living the Legacy where they've asked my presidency to come up and speak for a few minutes to the girls, then have them do some kind of activity. I'm thinking of calling Pres Shaw and getting some ideas from him for some bonding acitivites.
I'm also spending a lot of time scanning my old photos onto the computer. Here's a couple choice ones:1. Steve and Carolina, the dating years
2. Me with my personal binky
3.Grandma and Grandpa Trumbo, me, Scott and David on the day we took out our endowments.

So how was your week? Has Rick Salazar progressed? How did your week of sacrifice go for you?

Also, what did you decide about your torn suit? It's kind of weird that just last week I was helping an elder here with his torn suit too.

After you mentioned Due West and the guy in your ward, I looked them up on iTunes. I hadn't heard of them before but from reading about them they sound pretty successful. I listened to a couple of their songs and I liked the messages they were getting across through their lyrics. I really liked the song, I Get that All the Time. I'm not big into country music, but I really liked that one.

I hope Stacy is doing well with her quitting smoking. I will pray for her.

My prayer for you is that you'll always have many opportunities to bear your testimony. It's the most powerful way for the spirit to testify. Also I hope you are using your music to testify and your sense of humor-all of them gifts you've been given.

I love you much. Have a miraculous week!
love,
Mom
XXOO

March on

March 6, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

How's it going? Seems like I do this every week, but I just got off the phone with Sean. He usually calls me every Sunday evening. He's doing well, did well on his mid-terms and is looking for a new place to stay in the fall. He and his roommates want something different, cheaper and most likely a house. The Cameron's (Kelly and Melanie) want to set him up with their niece who just returned from a mission. Sean agreed to the set-up. Woo-hoo.

We had low country boil tonight and it tasted good. I can't believe how many shrimp and sausage the little girls ate. They loved it---of course. Then we watched family movies and we all had good laughs. We watched the one when we went to pick up Kirk from his mission, the one where we go to California for Maria's wedding and the one where Kirk and Sean are 3 and 1 years old.

This week went by pretty fast. March is in full swing. I had my monthly ppi with Pres. Stafford. We discussed ward conferences and the single adults of our stake. We also had to live through the news that one of BYU's starters got kicked off the team for honor code violations. We were in shock. They had just received the news that they were ranked #3 in the nation and then this blow. The next day they had to play New Mexico at home and it was a sad, sad game. They lost. But luckily yesterday they redeemed themselves when they played Wyoming for their last game and won it 102-68. It was a beautiful blowout. It will be interesting now to see where they rank, but ESPN and all the sports networks, USAtoday, etc have been commenting, writing and reporting on what happened. For the most part, people are very impressed that BYU would stick to it's principles even with so much on the line in the basketball world. Honor seems to be the latest buzz word in all these articles. So I thought I should make some t-shirts and sell them that have BYU's colors and say "Know honor, know BYU" Don't you think that's great. Ok, so you've probably thought I've lost it, but I think they'd be a big seller.

Also in basketball, Mountain View(isn't that McDermott's school?) won the state championship against Centennial.

Tomorrow Leah starts her first lacrosse practice. She's very excited. Nikki is not going to play this year because of her scheduling conficts, but I actually think it will be best for her to wait until she's 11 like Leah. Kristina is in full swing with the high school team and loves it. She considers it a personal victory that she didn't throw up after the first practice like some of the other girls.

I'm still pretty busy with typing patriarchal blessings. There's been a little run on them lately and I've been typing 3-4 each week. I've now typed over 500 blessings!

Monday was Dr. Suess's birthday which I'm sure you were fully aware of, so here's Nikki as Cindy Loo Hoo (once again). She loves being Cindy.

Dad is putting in more hours at work this month so he can take off the end of the month which is spring break. Looks like we will go to California for the week and see my family. Also last week Roxy got sick, stopped eating and was throwing up, so after a trip to the vet, found out she had some kind of virus and needed 2 days of IV fluids. After the first day, they let us take her home, but she started picking at the IV tubes which they left in her leg, so she had to wear the cone of shame. It was sad watching her run into things with that thing on. Even that didn't work too well though. Eddy chewed it off the first time, then Roxy managed to get it off her head 2 more times until we got smart and tied it to her collar. Then we realized she couldn't fit in her kennel with it, so at night I took it off. The next day she was back in to the vet for more fluids and today she seems pretty much back to normal.

We got a letter from your mission president this week too. It explained the whole facebook assignment and then he sent an attachment which was what you guys got that has all the rules and procedures for it. It was really interesting. I sent a copy to our stake presidency just so they could read through it and know what's going on. They've all been asked to establish a facebook account by the area seventy. Pres. Stafford is dragging his feet about this assignment. Technology is moving so quickly these days. The church has been doing an incredible job keeping up with all the resources and integrating them into every part of what we do. We've all been asked to make a profile on Mormon.org and to add several links to new websites which the church has recently established to our own websites, blogs, etc. I've added a few, including yours on to my blog. It's amazing how much information the church has been getting out there now. It's wonderful to be part of this, but it's also scary to see how much anti-mormon stuff is out there. Opposition in all things...

Jan and I are starting to get ready to go to spring quilt market in SLC in May. She's been feeling better and wants me to go with her like I have in the past. I'm looking forward to it and she has lots of new patterns to present. I love that it's in SLC. Makes it easy for both of us.

Jan Leifson is our new choir director in the ward. She bribes us to come out by making treats each week. So far, it's working quite well. The word is spreading. We're such a simple people. We're working on a nice arrangement of I stand All Amazed and If I Could Hie to Kolob. But after I sing for just one hour, my voice goes hoarse and it actually hurts to talk or sing. It's really aggravating, so dad says I need to get into an ENT to get my throat checked out. I also need to get into the hand doctor because my finger still has not healed completely and still hurts whenever I accidentally bump it or use it. I think I've been patient long enough with it. So I may have to break down and make some appointments for myself, not my favorite thing to do.

How was the work this week for you? How is the zone leader calling coming along? Is it something you enjoy? It was great to see the picture of Thomas after his baptism. Have you been back to teach Ifeanyi? What kind of name is that?

Also, did you get much flooding in your area? I hope the rains have subsided now. We are enjoying nice almost spring weather again. It feels so good. I hope you are enjoying full, hard-worked days. They are the best. It's something you should always remember in life, the great feeling it is to work hard each day especially when you are working hard at making others happy. Always a good night's sleep after days like that.

We all love you very much! Seeing you in the family movies made us laugh, made us miss you, but also made us proud of you. You're a great son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin.

love always,

mom

xxoo