Crazy Ward Party

Feb. 8, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

How has your week been? At our ward party on Saturday, which I’ll talk more about later, we sat with the Ray’s so she was showing me an email she got from her sister where she had mentioned you and the wonderful things your Stake President was saying about you, etc. It’s so fun to hear things randomly like that. She even had a picture of you and Sister Nelson.

The girls are off to school and it’s quiet here, so it’s a nice time to write. Church yesterday was wonderful. The testimonies were great, Sunday School was awesome (Bro. Riggs teaches now, Lauren’s dad) and Shannon Thompson gave a beautiful lesson in Relief Society. I needed all of them and I soaked it all in. Dad had to work, so that’s always a little harder on Sundays for me. So here’s the quote from RS that I just loved and it’s from Linda S. Reeve’s talk from Oct. 2015 conference:

"Understandably, many have expressed that our Father’s promised blessings are just “way too far away,” particularly when our lives are overflowing with challenges. But Amulek taught that “this life is the time … to prepare to meet God.” It is not the time to receive all of our blessings. President Packer explained, “‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line belongs in the third act, when the mysteries are solved and everything is put right.” However, a vision of our Father’s incredible promised blessings must be the central focus before our eyes every day—as well as an awareness “of the multitude of his tender mercies”10 that we experience on a daily basis.

Sisters, I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?”

That was powerful to me yesterday and it really helped me later on when Leah had a meltdown. It takes so much energy on my part to help her, to know what to say, etc and sometimes this trial feels overwhelming, but the last line of that quote kept popping in my head and helped me keep going.(now I’m crying..) Anyway, that’s why it’s so important to be at church each week, to be in the right places at the right times with the right people. It puts oil in your lamp to keep going and thoughts in your mind as the spirit reminds you of what you know.

Okay, now on to the other crazy things…our ward party last week was so funny. It started out just like most other adult dinners. Each table had a host and a theme, holiday theme. Ours was Easter and Sheila and Scott Hansen were the hosts. Sis. Huckvale decorated most of the table and it was beautiful. We had to wear bunny ears all night though, haha. Then the food we had all had a chocolate theme to it. Our salads had a light dressing with another chocolate ganache dressing over the top. It actually tasted soooo good. Then our chicken and potatoes had a chocolate gravy on top, again, very tasty. Then for dessert we had chocolate mousse. The dressing and gravy were firsts for me. Sheila had made them. Everyone else’s tables were decorated so cute-New Year, Christmas, 4th of July, Mardi Gras, Halloween, Valentines, Birthday. Then each table had to have an activity which should involve most everyone. Ours was the Bunny Hop dance. So there we were with a long line of people all dancing the Bunny Hop. It seemed like it went on forever, all that hopping on a full stomach. Nothing like a little aerobic activity after a big meal. Christmas table had us all sing a Christmas song of our choice and they would judge our performance and the winners got a tray of brownies. We won!! Woohoo. We sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, including the first part with all their names. We tried to be very animated. I guess it worked.

Then the birthday table had a water balloon toss. Bro. Mecham was leading the way but unbeknownst to him, the line of people had all agreed to throw the balloons at him on the third toss. And I mean they really threw them hard. Balloons and water went everywhere. then some balloons didn’t break, so people picked them up and starting throwing them across the room. It was like the men turned back into scouts again. haha Then someone threw one near the Christmas table and it broke one of Sis. Brown’s nice goblets. The glass went shattering on the ground. BUT, did that stop the throwing, NO. Then one came flying across the room towards me. I started to duck, but it glanced off a man who was at the next table, that broke the balloon and the water came flying out towards me. I was laughing and couldn’t believe how funny it all seemed. Then one table had us to the Hungry Hungry Hippos with people where your spouse lays down on a wheeled crate thing, balloons in the middle of the room and you have a laundry basket to gather as many balloons, then your spouse pushes you to the middle to gather and then pulls you back to empty them out. So funny. We took videos of Debbie and Tom and sent them to Sean and Blair. We also played name that tune-TV tunes from the 60’s and 70’s. Then they had a big TV screen, a video camera and one man in the middle with a flashlight. They turned out all the lights and said when the flashlight was on you, we were having a kissing cam. I know you’ll say yuck, but Bro. Mecham came up to us afterwards and said we were the most passionate couple. hahahaha Some people just gave a peck kiss, but no, not dad of course. That’s what I love about him that he’s still so passionate with me after all these years. I’m a lucky girl.

Anyway, as the night went on, it just got wilder and wilder and the next day at church, of course, some of the testimonies had funny comments about the ward party.

At first, we weren’t even sure if we’d make the party because yesterday afternoon we took the girls to see the Piano Guys at the Morrison Center. It was part of their Christmas present. It was a great concert and the girls loved it. Nikki just had to buy a signed poster afterwards and Leah had have a T-shirt. It was good music and very entertaining too. We have one of their CD’s, but I’m sure we’re going to be downloading lots more of their songs now.

The girls got your cute little letters this week. Nikki got hers first, so we thought you just sent something to her. Then Leah got hers the next day but it was in a plastic bag that the Post Office had put it in. I guess because it was so small that they had a hard time stamping it and you could tell. But they both made it!! Such a cute idea. Of course, Nikki is totally into folding paper, so she wants to make a lot of them.

This Friday we’re taking off to Utah to go celebrate Grandma Thompson’s 90th birthday. We’re staying at Stave and Carolina’s, but they’re not going to be there. So next week I’ll write you from Utah and send you lots of love from the family there.

Dad wants to know if you could hear the cheering from the Super Bowl from your place! People around here were pretty much for the Broncos so they are happy.

Also on Saturday Nikki went for her red belt testing. She passed and did a great job. Now she’s at the same belt as Leah and Leah still is not well enough to keep up with Taekwondo and she’s really frustrated about that. I feel so bad for her because she’s the one who really loved it. Nikki doesn’t really care if she gets a black belt or not, but Leah really wanted it. Sometimes the consequences of our decisions really mess up our lives. I hope Leah will be patient enough and still want to go back when her leg finally heals. She tried going back a couple weeks ago, but she said it hurt too bad. We’ll try again later I guess.

Can’t wait to hear from you today. I hope your week was wonderful and that you had lots of opportunities to share your testimony. Thank you for your sweet and powerful example to all of us!

Have a great week.

Love you,

Mom xxoo