Busy Week

July 19, 2015

Dear Sister Kristina,

Time is starting to fly faster these days, probably because we have so many things we are doing. I took a quick trip to SoCal this past week and managed to get a lot done with grandpa. We had a meeting with the attorneys. Grandpa is doing well, but he's really starting to slow down. It's hard to see him that way. He always asks about you and tells me that he reads every letter.

While in SoCal I got to see Toni, Patrice, Sunny and Susan. The weather was wonderful as usual and it was even a bit humid, my hair got kind of big. haha Patrice and Sunny are living with grandpa, so I stayed at that same motel where we stayed for grandma's funeral. I have to admit, it was kind of weird staying in a motel room by myself…I much prefer my family around me!

On my way home to Boise, I flew from Orange County to Seattle, so I flew right over you!! It was very green in your area and it was so brown coming into Boise, but I was happy to be home.

I spoke with Sheila Hansen today about Michael. She said he's really having a hard time emotionally being home after 11 months. He's getting an MRI this week and he'll learn if he has to have surgery or not. If he does, he will need to stay home for another 6 months for physical therapy and he really won't be happy about that. I told Sheila that Leah and Michael can get together and play checkers or something. haha Michael is absolutely determined to get back out on his mission though. This will just be a bit of a trial for him.

Here are some pics that dad sent me while I was away. They always seem to have so much fun when I'm gone.

At the Village

At the movies

At the Village with the local police

At the golf shop with dad

I was driving by the temple and took this shot

My poor car is getting so old! haha

So this week we are going to Utah to celebrate Addie's first birthday!! She has the cutest personality and I can't wait to see how she is with her birthday cake and all her presents. Sarah's parents and sister Renee with her kids are all coming too. I'll be sure to take lots of pics to show you next week.

Today at church Justin Langford gave his farewell talk. Both talks today were on testimony and how to gain a testimony, etc and afterwards, Leah said, wow, those were such great talks. She said the same thing last week and I love that she's really listening now. She has been humbled a lot. I keep praying that her heart will continue to soften. I asked the missionaries if they would come over after we get back and have a lesson prepared for the girls in particular. The Samoan elder said he'd bring another elder with him that has come here straight from Western Samoa. He thinks that will be good for the girls. I just love the spirit I can feel around the missionaries. I know that you're carrying that same spirit wherever you go and I love thinking about it.

Tomorrow Leah goes to see her surgeon for the first time since the surgery. I'm anxious to hear how her bones are healing and I'm so hopeful that she'll be able to get a walking boot so she can move around a little bit. She's being pretty patient with her leg and not being able to do things, but I can also see her getting so bored lately. I totally understand that. It's a huge lesson for her and she knows the healing may take six months. Of course, I pray more fervently for her emotional health, that's what I think about every day. Thank you for your prayers.

I'm loving that dad is working closer to home now when he does shifts at Emmett. The girls and I try to get over there during his shifts and have a meal with him. He says it really helps break up his shift when we come and visit. He's working in Emmett tonight.

Today the Beehive advisor asked me to come into her class and share some thoughts about covenants made in the temple. Of course, I took our family picture when we had the girls sealed to us and I told them that story, but I also talked about how wonderful it is that Heavenly Father has us make covenants as individuals. We're baptized alone, we take out our endowments alone and only then do we get to kneel across from our husband and both make a covenant together with Heavenly Father. But it is up to us as individuals to keep those covenants, our moms can't do it for us, our friends can't keep them for us, but us alone with our Father. I talked to them about the linking of families and to picture a really big strong chain link and how strong that link is and that Heavenly Father will never break that link because He keeps His promises and wants us back with Him, only we can break the link by choosing not to live and keep the covenants we make. I haven't taught the youth for a long time and I really enjoyed it! Nikki's class has around 18 girls in it, can you believe it? Our ward has been growing this summer. New families I haven't even met yet.

Hope you have had some success with your investigators and that they are following through and showing up to church. It's such a change for them in their lives and sometimes it just takes more time than you think for them to feel comfortable enough to show up in a church all by themselves. If you're ever expecting someone on Sunday, be sure to tell at least one member so they can be on the look out too and be there to welcome them. I would love to have that opportunity.

Have a miraculous week, enjoy the beauty around you and remember to keep a good journal of your thoughts, impressions and things you are grateful for.

I love you soooooooo much!

mom

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Back to church

July 12, 2015

Dear Sister Kristina,

Well, it felt good to be back to church today. It's weird how out of it I feel when I've only missed one week, but I definitely don't like the feeling. Dad is working today, so I took both girls. Leah went in her wheelchair and at first she said she wanted to stay all three hours, but after sitting for about a half hour, she decided she couldn't stay that long. I was just happy that deep down she really wanted to stay. 

Masen Thompson gave his homecoming report today and did a great job. Leah turned to me after he spoke and said, that was a really good talk. He made two good points that I was glad Leah heard: 1-we're only able to really change after we've had to struggle and 2-Heavenly Father is watching over all of us, but His timing is not always our timing and we need to trust in His timing. The girls and I talked about this after church. I shared with Leah my story of how I met dad, but it was like three years after I thought it was the right time for me to get married. It wasn't my timing, but the Lord's that mattered and when I look back now, He knew what was best for me. This injury to Leah's leg has been so painful for her and I really hope that she is now ready to learn from this. She has been so pleasant at home despite being in such pain.

Also today Grant Guymon spoke and he did such a great job. He's so sensitive about things and has a wonderful understanding of the gospel and experiences he's having. I told him afterward that he had a gift of being able to speak and share his thoughts and testimony.

The big shock came when we saw Michael Hansen walk in. He's home to have surgery on his ankle and can't go back until he's completely healed. I'll talk with Sheila more about it. I'm sure that's going to be hard for him. He was doing really well and p.s. Leah still wants to marry him. haha She just thinks he's the best and now Michael has a real love for the Polynesians from his mission. Who knows, right? I'll keep you posted.

I hope you have time to write a little bit more this week. I'm really anxious to hear how things have been going these last couple of weeks, with your new mission president, with your investigators, etc. It would be great for me to be able to get my mind on something else these days. I'm not a very good nurse-I'm not very patient. I'm glad Nikki is here to help me out when I need to get out. When Leah heals we are talking about having both girls sleep together and Leah thinks it's a good idea too. We may fix up the big room downstairs for them, but we'll see. Leah just wants to feel good-her leg and her mind. I wish her mind was as easy to fix as her leg.

Kirk and Sarah have been doing well and Sarah is having fun getting things ready for Addie's first birthday party. I told Sarah it's a surprise party for her since she doesn't even know we're throwing this shindig. haha Sean and Blair are busy making all those wedding reception decisions. Debbie and Blair are doing the most work. Nikki went over to their house the other day to make some desserts to test them out. She had a lot of fun baking with Debbie. Alex and Savannah are doing well and Alex is enjoying his advertising work. He's in charge of the twitter account for the BYU ADlab and loves it. 

I talked with Emily Hill and Reilly today and they both said to say hi. Emily is very excited about her mission. In our ward, the next person coming home is Blake Hansen. His parents are over in Italy right now picking him up.

I hope you are doing well and enjoying summer in Northern Cal. We're actually having thunderstorms in the afternoon here and I love it. Of course, I go out on the back porch and watch the rain come down. Tomorrow I'm going to Tracey's to quilt a small quilt for Addie for her birthday. It's a Minnie Mouse quilt. She just loves Minnie Mouse! Nikki is sewing a little fabric book for her. I'll take a picture of it when she's done and one of the quilt and send them to you next week. 

Last Saturday Nikki tested for her blue belt in Taekwondo and passed. Leah went to watch and support her. That's the one thing Leah is really going to miss for a while. When she gets into a walking boot, she's going to go back to Taekwondo and do all the upper body workouts just so she won't get too far behind. Also this coming week I will be in So Cal visiting grandpa. I need to take him to the attorney's on Thursday, so I fly down on Wed and fly back home on Friday. Kind of a really quick trip. Grandpa called tonight and always mentions how much he enjoys your letters. Grandma and Grandpa Thompson read your letters on Grandma's iPad!! 

That's about it for around here. We are well and it's good to be back home and to be healing. Thinking of you on your mission gives me such joy…I can't really even describe it, but it means so much and helps me when things seem a bit hard here. Keep up the great attitude. Look at your name tag often and always remember that your name is right next to Christ's name and that you're working together-you're never alone.

Love you soooooooo much!!

Mom xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Doing Well

July 10, 2015

Hi Kristina,
We had a nice couple of days with Sean and Blair here. It meant a lot having them here. Leah is getting better each day. We took her to the mall with us yesterday and we wheeled her in the wheel chair. We're getting good at that, ha ha It made her really tired, but I think it's important to get her moving around. She doesn't use the walker any more, just the crutches.
Mentally and emotionally she's doing really well. We talk about things every day and she says she hasn't had any depression at all. She's just anxious to get her leg better, but it's also very important that she learns about consequences. She talks about the lessons she's learned and is so open about everything and she also knows she has to earn everyone's trust back.

She asked for a blessing last night and Sean gave one to her with dad. Sean also gave me a blessing and then dad gave a blessing to Nikki. It was wonderful. The spirit was strong and comforting.
Thank you for your prayers. It means so much! I know you are blessing our family.
Have a great day! I love you more than you know.
Mom xoxox

Not your usual 4th of July

July 5, 2015

Dear Sister Kristina,

How are you doing? I've thought of you a lot this week and I need to give you an update on things around here that have been a little rough. First off, Leah is fine and actually doing very well. But late Friday night something happened and she got a bit down about something. She says now that she can't even remember what she was thinking but it felt like she was sleeping, so we're not sure about everything, but she went out on the roof to think and I didn't know it until I went to check on her. She said when we started talking to her and asking her to come down, she couldn't figure out why we were talking that way, why we would be so worried about her. This is where she felt like it was a dream she was having. In the end, she stepped off the roof to where dad and Nikki were standing and landed feet first and broke her right leg pretty badly. We all spent the night in the ER with her, then she got transferred downtown to St. Luke's where she had surgery yesterday on her leg and had a long rod placed in her leg to help it heal. She broke both bones in her lower leg. Because she went off the roof on purpose she's had to have psychiatric people talking with her and watching out for her, but her heart has been so softened by this whole thing. We had a wonderful talk tonight and it's almost like she's a different person. She keeps saying that she will never do anything like this again and how much she loves her family and how well she had been doing right up to that point (which is so true, she's been awesome). So that's why this whole thing was so perplexing. If it's because of a side effect of her new medicine, they will be switching it, and her Dr. will be working very closely with her. Leah knows that she needs to earn everyone's trust back and we have talked about trials in life and it's about what you learn from each one and how you change. 

Physically she is in a lot of pain and this is going to be a long road back to physical health, but I told her to take it one day at a time. She said she also has felt so much more love for dad because of this, that her heart has really softened towards him and she's so happy about that. We talked about how sometimes big trials can actually start us facing in the right direction.

Alex and Savannah drove up yesterday to be with us and especially to give some time to Nikki. They're leaving tomorrow night and Sean and Blair are coming in tomorrow night. Kirk and Sarah wanted to come up over the weekend, but I told them not to. Leah has chosen not to tell everyone what happened. She is just saying that she was out on the roof on the 4th and fell. It's her story, our private family story and I'm respecting that. The psychiatrist told us that's how we should handle it. But she asked me to tell you everything. In fact, just a few hours before the accident she had written back to you. I'm mailing that letter tomorrow.She really is doing well and I really believe she has a chemical imbalance in her brain that just needs to be corrected, but that it's not an easy fix. I also know that she is so willing to do what it takes to feel better. She will probably be coming home from the hospital on Tuesday. I'll keep you posted during the week if we have any other updates.

I'm sorry for that news, but really each day has gotten better and Leah has been in good spirits right from the start. She's so kind to everyone in the hospital, her friends have come to visit, etc. Strange as this may sound, this may have been a good thing to happen to her. I know you already do, but keep her in your prayers and she loves getting letters from you. Talk to her about your experiences and things you are learning. She loves that.

I don't remember much else about last week now…My mind's a little mush, but we've been doing little things each day to try and keep cool. It has been soooo hot here and I look and see how wonderfully cool it is where you are and I'm totally jealous. Not only does it look beautiful, but you have beautiful weather too!

I hope you've had some wonderful opportunities to serve this week. I can't wait to hear about your new mission president. Tell us all about him and his wife and their family. I know that Kelson Adcock came home last week, but I haven't heard any stories yet from anyone, just happened to see an Instagram post. I was totally blown away by Emily's mission call…I had no idea, but I'm so happy for her. I just can't say it enough, but you have such a wonderful group of friends, both in high school and in college.

Sean and Blair are moving along with all the wedding plans. It's fun to hear them talk about everything, finally!! Also Sean bought a new car this week. They both love it and it has a large engine, so Sean really loves it. I'll send pics.

Here are a couple pics from our week:

Sean's new car

Blair loves driving the new car

Sarah said she was in the kitchen and turned to do something, when she turned back she saw this!! 

Our 4th of July girl

In the hospital with Leah

Addie watching fireworks

Savannah braiding Leah's hair.

I want you to know that I have felt an unusual amount of peace these last couple days. There is no other source of that than my Savior and He hears your prayers for us, He hears our prayers and He knows our hearts and desires. He knows Leah's heart and she has the best family in the world. Our prayers are answered through each other especially in our own family and it's so wonderful to have the fullness of the gospel in our lives. It was not by chance that I got adopted by such awesome parents who love the Lord and passed that love down to me. It has been a gift from my Father and because I have been given this, I too must and want to give. Thank you for taking that love and knowledge and turning it into such a beautiful testimony that you now want to share with others. I don't think I'm expressing it very well, but sometimes there aren't words to share how I feel, but just know that I feel so blessed and am so grateful for so many blessings in my life. You bring me such joy!! Keep up the good work so others may feel what we feel.

Love you forever,

Mom xxoo