My Letters to Sister Kristina: Sandy, Bountiful and a little bit of Samoa!

June 19, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

We had a full and fun day for father's day today and now I'm so tired, a good tired, of course. We started out at grandma and grandpa's ward for sacrament. Then right as Sunday school started, aunt Kathy texted me back letting me know when and where the Samoan branch met. She's out of town this weekend, but I had texted her earlier because I thought it might be fun for all of us to go there again, plus dad had never been.

So we left church and went to another sacrament meeting, the Samoan branch. The whole meeting had such a strong spirit. I'm telling you, this was the third time I've been there and every single time I feel such a strong spirit there. We sing in Samoan, the prayers are in Samoan, the announcements are in both Samoan and English. The talks were in English and the musical number was in Samoan. I found out later the musical number had been written by a member and performed by the relief society. It was such a beautiful Polynesian sing, nothing like you ever hear in our meetings. I loved it! The sister who wrote it also played the piano for it and sang along. A friend there told me the song was all about fathers.

At the Samoan branch-dad's candy lei

The talks were all so good and even the girls were talking about the talks afterwards, all of them about fatherhood, and all of them had great personal stories and testimonies.

After the meeting I went up to the relief society president whom I had met last year.She remembered us and gave me a big hug. We talked for a while and then she told me she taught Samoan dance classes every Thursday and she wanted Nikki and Leah to come whenever they were in town this summer. And she said she didn't want them to pay because she wanted to teach them about their culture. I started crying because that touched me so much. I had just told dad a couple days ago that I had this thought about the relief society president from the Samoan ward and how she wanted to help the girls understand who they really were and what their culture was all about. Then there we are today and she said that very thing. I couldn't help the tears and I told her how much that meant to me. We exchanged phone numbers so we can keep in contact.

In the meantime dad got a lei from one of the young sisters. It was a candy lei, so fun. All the men were wearing them.

Then we were getting ready to walk out to go home, but they said the branch president wanted to talk with us, so we went in his office with his two counselors. He just wanted to meet us, talk with us and get our stories. We told him about how we adopted the girls and our trip to Samoa. He told the girls that they must have very special spirits for something like this to happen to them. Then they told us some stories about Samoa. The girls told them their Samoan names, etc. I just wanted to be part of their branch! Leah says she would love to go there. I hope she gets a chance some day. Even the girls said they wished we could have stayed all three hours and you know what a rare statement that is from them, but we had to get to Kirk and Sarah's.

We had a father's day bbq at Kirk's. Dad grilled tri tip and hamburgers. I had a tri tip sandwich with avocado and it was delish! Grandma made shrimp macaroni salad that I'm still craving and Sarah made banana pudding since it's Kirk's favorite. We had a fun time sitting in the back yard and getting to hold Haylee and playing with Addie. We came home tonight exhausted.

We've been staying here in Sandy all week and been basically driving back and forth to Kirk and Sarah's. We went to a fun public pool yesterday, but we originally were trying to get to the lake, but it was too crowded. We've gone to the movies with Charmaine, out to dinner, lunch, etc. Frog food and waffles here thanks to grandpa. It's still weird that no one in the family lives in Provo and that you, Alex and Sean are not around. We face timed with both of them today though.

I've also been going with Leah to do Neuro feedback while here.

How was your father's day? Dad saw your sweet post on Facebook and loved it. It's still weird that can't call on fathers day. :(

I also just saw a direct message from Veronica about how much you meant to her. She wrote it a while back, but I just saw it and wrote her back. It was very nice.

Alex and Savannah at Coney Island.

We loved your video with your song. It was beautiful. You have such talent and so much talent all around you and I'm so happy to hear how often you share it. Music is such a great way of sharing your testimony and inviting the spirit. It sometimes can soften even the hardest of hearts.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. I miss you like crazy and love that I live in an age where there are so many ways to share in your mission experiences with you. I hope you feel of our love and prayers and hopes for you always.