Laurel Advisor

Aug. 29, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

Well, I taught my first lessons to the Laurels yesterday so I guess I’m officially a part of the Young Women’s program. I was a little nervous because I really didn’t know what to expect from a room full of girls that I don’t know very well. There are 17 Laurels on the rolls now and 16 regularly come. That’s quite a room full. I was worried that I might find myself focusing all my comments towards Leah, but that wasn’t the case at all, so I was really happy. I’m excited to get to know the girls. My lesson was on how men and women complement each other in their roles in the family. Most of them thought I had spelled the word wrong on the board so I was happy to introduce a new word to them. Here’s what google says it means “a thing that competes or brings to perfection. Add to in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect.”

We had a nice discussion on how we as women should complement the man we marry and how he will do the same for us and that’s what makes an awesome marriage. I talked about how our different roles are part of Heavenly Father’s divine design and it was not by mistake that He made man and woman and made them differently. I came up with a phrase:

Different roles, same goals. My main point was that if we are each putting Heavenly Father first in our lives, then we will be able to deal with any other challenges, trials or obstacles that come into the marriage. Heavenly Father will help us see each other through His eyes and those eyes are always filled with unconditional love. I also had a couple come in and talk about how their different roles have complemented each other in their marriage. They did a great job. Here’s kind of what my handout looked like, but not quite as cute, haha Sarah and I actually taught the exact same lesson yesterday so it was fun exchanging ideas with her.

After the lesson Allie Peery asked me for a quote that I had given from grandpa. I shared an article that was written about them in the Orange County Register back in 2004 when grandma was just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Here’s the picture that was in the paper:

Here’s the quote from my dad when they asked him how they felt about this challenge that was in their lives: “Actually, we don’t think much about it. We’ve always lived our life on a philosophy that yesterday is past and there’s nothing we can do about it, today is here and there’s a lot we can do about it, and tomorrow has too many uncertainties to worry about it.”

Also yesterday was Ren and Abbey Hansen’s farewell. They both sound so ready to go and it’s great that they get to leave together. Ren is going to Arkansas and Abbey is going to Texas, Spanish speaking. There was quite a crowd of friends at church. Also one of the sister missionaries in our ward sang “I Believe in Christ” and it was beautiful. She is leaving to go back home in 1 1/2 weeks and near the end of the song, she became very emotional. The spirit was strong. 

We had the sisters over for dinner last week. Dad was at work and I thought I had to cancel our appt, then remembered I could have sister missionaries over!! Yippee. We tried a new recipe that Nikki had had while in California. It’s now one of our favorites and we even had it again yesterday. It’s called Diablo Chicken. It’s kind of a sweet curry chicken. Yum One of the missionaries (on the right) even asked for the recipe so she could make it when she got home. :)

Last night we went to the Rhoton’s for a get together for their son, Mitch, who’s leaving on his mission. They were in the 9th ward, but now in the 1st ward. Dr. Rhoton is Leah counselor, so we are getting to know him and his family quite well now. Found out last night that his wife is an avid quilter, so now I have a new friend. You should see her quilt room. I have a little quilt room envy. The girls even think I should redo my room. She takes her girls on this sewing retreat in June to Cascade where they stay in a hotel, swim, eat, sew, repeat for a couple days and they want us girls to come with them next year. It was also fun seeing so many from the 1st ward last night that I haven’t seen in a while.

The girls both wanted to wear lava lava's to church and Leah even took her fan. We noticed when we go to the Samoan ward in Utah, a lot of the ladies carry fans.

Haylee had a big week. She started rolling over and she’s not even 3 months old yet. Not only did she roll over on her own, but then she rolled right back over and repeated it over and over. Kirk says she can roll all across the room. I’ll have them send you the video. Here’s a pic they sent me this week too:

Oh man I miss having her here and holding her!! I don’t get to see her again until October.

You’ll laugh at this, but I’ve made a new deal with the girls to try and get them out of bed in the mornings on their own. The deal is they have to be up on their own without my help and upstairs ready to go by 6:40am or else they have to go to one class of Taekwondo for each time they don’t do that. Leah has stopped going to Taekwondo, refused to go in fact. It’s mainly because she has been out of it so long with her broken leg and now weight gain that it’s extremely difficult and not fun for her. Nikki now doesn’t like to go because Leah isn’t there, but I’ve insisted with Nikki that she go 2 times a week. So if they don’t get up on their own, Nikki will go 3 times in one week and Leah will have to go to a class. They have miraculously been up on their own ever since!! I told them that either they will learn how to get themselves up in the morning or they will be a blackbelt in taekwondo, either way its a win/win situation. They were not happy about it, but it’s working for now.

Leah has been sticking with her new exercise goal. Dr. Rhoton is helping her ramp it up and makes her report in after she’s done. Last night Dr. Rhoton got Nikki to commit to going to Taekwondo 3 times a week and exercising with Leah. I don’t know how he does it, but I love it. They both want to start playing rugby in the spring, so they have a lot of work to do. Not only is Dr. Rhoton a double blackbelt, but he’s a huge fan of rugby because his son Mitch played for 4 years and he has 6 adopted kids. It is not just by chance that he is in our lives.

I got a fun text from Michelle Ray last night that she had just face timed you!! I told her I was jealous, but so happy that you’re able to feel at home in your new ward. If her sister is anything like her, you probably had a fun dinner. Can’t wait to hear about your week.

We had our home teachers over yesterday (Ken Tanner and Dave Pattee) and they left us with a nice message. I really liked one part of it so I’ll leave that with you. When I was in RS and working with the women I could see that so many were worried about how their families would be together forever when members of their families were making poor choices in life. Here’s the quote from Pres. Eyring:

"For some, that eternal joy may seem a faint or even a fading hope. Parents, children, brothers and sisters may have made choices that seem to disqualify them from eternal life. You may even wonder whether you have yet been qualified through the atonement of Jesus Christ. A prophet of God once offered me counsel that gives me peace. I was worried that the choices of others might make it impossible for our family to be together forever. He said, “You are worrying about the wrong problem. You just live worthy of the celestial kingdom and the family arrangements will be more wonderful than you can imagine.” 

I loved hearing that yesterday. It’s such a great message of hope and love and I appreciated home teachers being there to share it with us. I’m going visit teaching today and I think I will share that same message.

I hope you have a week of thoughts of the Savior as you are His hands and mouthpiece to the people you come in contact with.

Love you forever,

Mom xxoo

Back to School

Aug. 22, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

 The girls have just gotten off to their first day of school. The house is fairly quiet except for Roxy and Eddy’s little footsteps, dad showering, Addie letting out little cries waking up and then going back to sleep. It’s all good. It’s so fun having Kirk and Sarah here and I’m going to be sad to see them leave later today.

We’ve had a fun weekend with everyone here. Kirk and Sarah showed up on Thursday night and we’ve been busy ever since. On Saturday we all packed a lunch and went to Eagle Island where we pretended we were at the beach. haha We set up a cabana for shade and even rented a paddle board. They’ve fixed up Eagle Island and it’s pretty nice now. There’s a zipline, a little store to buy things and rent things, a water slide, the beach and lake, horseshoe pit, bbq pits, lots of grassy areas and picnic areas. We had a fun time and Addie just loves the water. Sarah even let Haylee put her toes in the water and sand. Here are the pics:

Both girls tried to take Kirk down, but he managed to escape each time. It was quite the scene. haha

Haylee just happy to be going anywhere. She’s so cute and is smiling all the time now when you talk to her. When you talk with her she giggles and coos and even mimics your mouth movements. Such a sweety!

Addie loves being outside and loves the tramp. I took her into the garden with me to help pick and she loves the little sweet orange tomatoes so we stood in the garden and had a treat.

She also helped me pick flowers so we could bring them in the house and put them into vases. We picked black eyed susans and she calls them “susans”

Also on Saturday after we came home from the lake and rested, we took off again and went to the Western Idaho State Fair. We were probably crazy going on a Saturday night, but it was fun being there. We met up with Uncle Bill and Nancy at their booth. They were dropping something off and of course Bill had to stay there for a while so he could make sure things were running smoothly. I hadn’t seen them for a while so it was great talking with them for a while. Bill’s had some health problems lately, so it was good to see him busy as ever. He reminds me so much of my dad who just keeps going into work because he loves it. 

Friday night Sarah took Kirk out for his birthday, so us girls all stayed home and played with Addie and Haylee. Sarah took Kirk to the Village where they walked around, shopped and had dinner at the Kona Grill. During the day everyone went to the park.

Church isn’t until one, so we had some time in the morning to play.

Yesterday was Kirk’s birthday so he requested taco ring. We actually ended up having to make taco rectangle, but it looked cool too. haha

 He also wanted an ice cream cake so we had that later on in the evening. On top of the cake we had one of those twirling singing light up candles. It’s almost like having a firework in your house. Nikki and Leah set it in the middle of the cake, then added candles all around the outside of the cake. Well, when they lit the it all, the twirling candle was so hot that it melted all the candles on the outside. It was quite the flame while we were singing to him.

Kirk also got his birthday card from you!!

We also managed to take some quick family pics before church. 

I have a new phone and we were testing out a new feature and didn’t notice until later that everything was backwards. :) At church we had fun helping with Addie and Haylee. Addie went into nursery and loves being in there. We hardly have any kids in our nursery, so she pretty much had the whole place to herself. I got sustained yesterday as Laurel advisor, so I had my first day in Young Women’s. Sarah went in with me too since she serves in her ward. She couldn’t believe how big our YW’s was. I had to do a little spotlight and tell some things about myself, then we went into the Laurels class where they have around 17 Laurels. Michele Tiegs is the president, but she was out of town, so Danielle Bingham taught the lesson. Danielle is now the Stake YW president so it was fun to have her teach. Leah was very happy to hear that I was called to be in YW, so that was good. I wasn’t sure how she’d react. I know most of the Laurels too so that will be helpful, but I felt like a fish out of water in there. It’s been a long time since I served in YW and when I walked by the Relief Society room, it felt weird not even going in there. I know I’ll get used to it, but right now, it’s odd. Now I go every Tuesday night with the girls too. The Laurels are having a swim party at the Langford’s, so that will be fun. I may have to pick your brain for some good ideas for lessons and activities, maybe some things that stood out in your mind.

There were 2 receptions over the weekend, but I had to miss both of them, the Peery’s and the Lamb’s. Dallin Larsen married Susan Lamb’s(my old RS counselor) daughter and Aaron Peery got married. 

How has Santa Rosa been treating you? Sis. Ray finally sent me some pics and tells me how much her sister loves you. I hope you’ve had some luck in finding new investigators. How’s your companion?  Tell her hi from the Thompson’s in Eagle! Are you still an STL? I hope you always feel our love and prayers for you and that you have a great week full of tender mercies and kind smiles. Kirk and Sarah and the girls send their love!

Love you soooooooo much,

Mom xxoo

Released...

Aug. 15, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

Well, I guess my release date came sooner than yours. Yesterday at Stake Conference I was released as Eagle Stake Relief Society President. It was much harder on my spirit than I thought it was going to be. I was feeling okay about everything until Thursday night when Pres. Stafford asked dad and I to come in and meet with him. I’ve known for some time that I was going to be released this weekend, but for some reason sitting in Pres. Stafford’s office for my last time, it all came crashing in. I have loved meeting with him every month, the conversations we had, the insight he always shared with me about everything. We would discuss every auxiliary, not just Relief Society and he would ask for my opinions. And I loved his wisdom. It was so easy for me to see why he was Stake President. He was very kind with his words about releasing me, very complimentary. In fact at one point he joked that I better watch out if he ever is made prophet because he would be calling to be the Relief Society general president. I had such anxiousness for a couple days, I would start crying just all of a sudden, etc and in fact I wanted to text him and tell him I didn’t accept my release (if that was possible). haha I was so uneasy that I finally knelt down and prayed for comfort. When I stood up I decided to write down my thoughts and testimony. I knew I was going to speak on Sunday and share my testimony so I thought I’d write it all down. I cried through all the writing, but right when I finished I had this great sense of calm come over me and all the anxiousness, the tearfulness left. I felt good about the work I had done and was looking forward to the future. It was a great answer to my prayer and I have felt that same calm ever since. I’ll send you what I wrote down in a separate email. When I got up in Stake Conference, I used it for reference but I truly said what was in my heart through the spirit. Later on yesterday my dad called me because he had gotten a call from his friend Stan Cameron who happened to be visiting the Camerons this week. He told grandpa that he had been at church and heard me speak and just had to tell him what a wonderful job I had done. I hadn’t even told grandpa that I was getting released, so he said it was a great surprise for him to hear from Stan and what he said. I guess you never know who’s in the audience.

This calling has been a wonderful experience and I enjoyed every minute of it even the hard parts. Then it made me think of you when you have to go through a release also and it will be in that same room with Pres. Stafford. I know that you too will have some of these feelings and many that I won’t even be able to relate to, but I also know that you will receive answers to your prayers to feel the peace and comfort and acceptance from the Lord about the mission you have served. It will be okay. :)

For now you have a lot of work to do in your new area and I’m excited to hear all about it. The girls told me that Sis. Ray showed them a picture of you with her sister. I haven’t seen it. I’m going to have to tell her to start sending me things. I’m glad you’re in a place that feels a little bit comfortable to you because you can hit the ground running. How’s your new companion? Tell us all about her and your new ward.

Last week when I was home all alone, there was a knock on the door and Jared Westerberg was standing there. It was like a son coming home! It was so fun to see him, his wife and two daughters. They were in town for a week. They seem like they’re doing really well, but they might be moving away from Colorado but just not sure where to go yet. He hasn’t really found his career path yet, so it’s been a bit of a struggle for them. 

So also last week we got the girls’ schedules for school. It starts in one week. They’re not really excited about it except Nikki says she wants to see her friends. I’m really hoping that Nikki will blossom this year with her friends and find some self-confidence to do things outside of the house and enjoy being with her friends. She’s excited about choir but for some reason it didn’t show up on her schedule so she’s very worried. I told her we’d get it fixed and to relax, but that’s hard for her to do. She’s still very determined to get into BYU Provo so she’s trying very hard to get straight A’s. Leah isn’t very excited for school, but it’s very difficult for her. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get all her accommodations straightened out so that she feels good in her classes this year. Her counselor that we go to see every week is furious about how the school has been handling her classes in the past and he’s going in with me to meet with a group at the school to get it straightened out. I’m excited to have him by my side to do the speaking. :)

Both Leah and Nikki are taking ASL this year and they are excited about that. Leah has a goal of playing rugby in February so she has been working out each day all on her own and I’m so proud of her determination. She has a long road ahead of her of getting back in shape, but she really wants this. Nikki also says she wants to play rugby, but she doesn’t want to work out. haha We’ll see how that goes. For now Nikki is continuing to do Taekwondo, which she is mad about, but I told her she has to do something physical. Leah’s counselor is also pushing her for more physical things and has asked her to go to Taekwondo for 6 more times before she tells him that she is going to quit. She is not happy about that, but we’ll see how it goes. I told her to just look at it as going to a workout with a personal trainer rather than Taekwondo.

We got to talk with all three of the boys yesterday. When I was talking with Sean and Blair, they wanted to know about how my release went and my speaking in Conference, etc and also wanted to know about my future callings. I told them that Pres. Stafford had actually asked if I would teach early morning seminary, but was concerned if the girls were able to get themselves to school in the morning without me, etc. We had a long talk about that and I told Pres. Stafford I would think about it. I really wanted to be able to teach because of all the great studying you get to do too, but in the end I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do a good job if I was worrying whether or not the girls were actually getting up and getting ready for school without me. They still are not able to wake themselves up and I it takes me at least 20 minutes to get them out of bed. So I won’t be teaching seminary this year, but it sounds like I will be sometime in the future. Then Blair told me that she had just received the calling the teach seminary in her ward!! She will be awesome and I told her I was totally jealous because we could have worked on things together. In Chicago they don’t have early morning seminary because the families live too far apart, so they all do it online. Then Blair calls each one every night and face times with them about the lesson. Every Wednesday night after mutual, they stay for an hour and Blair will also teach them there. I’ll be interested to hear how all that goes. She said it’s been a pilot program in the church up until now so she’s excited to learn more about it too. Sean is still financial clerk.

Alex and Savannah sounded good. She’s been gone a lot these past couple weeks as she’s been holding camps in Las Vegas and Denver. Today she’s flying out to Utah as a surprise to her family to be there when Cade gets home tomorrow. (So don’t say anything. haha) She flies into Salt Lake and aunt Kathy will pick her up and she will stay with her. Then on Tuesday she will just show up at the airport. I wish I could be there to see it all!! She’s staying there until Sunday. In the meantime, Alex is now done with his internship at the Ad agency. So he will spend the week interviewing for jobs within his same agency but with different groups who have different clients and with other agencies in New York. Can’t wait to hear what he gets.

Kirk and Sarah surprised us with the news that they will be coming here to visit this Thursday and staying until Monday!!! I can’t wait to have them all here and I’ll be getting the house ready for them this week. Kirk said that’s what he wanted for his birthday which is on Sunday.

Today I’m going to the Stake Center to help with the Stake Young Women’s project. Tracey got released yesterday too since she is now in the Star Stake, but she already had this planned and had asked for my help. We are teaching all the girls to sew by making easy quilts that will be donated to the refugees here and to homeless shelters. This morning we help all the Beehives, this afternoon will be the MiaMaids and tomorrow morning will be the Laurels. I told Tracey that it was only appropriate that we both got released on the same day, but I was sad that she wasn’t even there at our Stake Conference. The new Stk YW president is Danielle Bingham. She will be awesome. The new Stk RS president is Diane Bryson and she will also be great. Diane was so prepared to just get released so this came as a big shock to her and she kept telling me that she wanted to tell Pres. Stafford no. But she has great counselors and they will lift her and be there for her. I’m meeting with her this week to help her out and get her oriented. They also released Heather Pinder as Stk Music Chairman and called Val McCauley. 

When Pres. Stafford was asking me about doing seminary, he told me that my Bishop was very anxious for me to be back in his ward because he had a calling for me. Well, shortly after this, the Bishop called me in and told me he heard I was available. Oh no…He called me to be the Laurel advisor and wanted to make sure it would be okay with Leah being in there with me. He said there were 15-18 Laurels besides her and really felt strongly about me in this calling. They were changing the whole YW leadership. Michelle Tiegs is the Pres, Cheryl Goodman is 1st couns (she is new and from california and I just love her, so outgoing and funny), Christine Langford is 2nd counselor and Emily Mecham is secty. What a fun group! I’m excited to be in with them and hopefully Leah won’t be disappointed that I’m in there. They won’t be calling me until next Sunday (so another secret you have to keep :) I’m going to have to brush up on all my YW stuff. I haven’t been in there forever.

So as you can see, you can never just sit back in the church and start to feel comfortable. It all gets mixed up and changed and I’ve learned that it’s always good even though it may hurt for a bit. 

I talked with Melanie Cameron this week and got Claire’s cell number so I’ll be in touch with her about housing for BYU. Also I made the reservations for us to go to New York after you’re home!! I’m excited about that. Dad says he’s waiting to hear back from you about what you would like concerning us picking you up, how many days you’d like us to be there, etc. I know it’s a ways off, but we have to make these reservations now to get the good prices. Dad heard from Camilo yesterday and it’s always fun to read his broken English texts!! Can’t wait to meet him.

I hope you have a week of hope and tender mercies. We had a beautiful talk about tender mercies at Stake Conference and I see them in my life all the time. Thank you also for your prayers. I feel your love and support and it means so much to me. 

Love you,

Mom xxoo

Grandbabies...aaaaah

Aug. 8, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

Seems like we’re getting to know that road from here to Bountiful quite well and it actually seems like it’s getting shorter. haha We had a great time last week and no matter where we stay or where we are in the valley, we always say at least once a day, hey, let’s go up to Bountiful and see Sarah and the girls. We don’t care what they’re doing, we just like to watch them, play with them and be with them. 

We left early Sunday morning and we got back here Friday afternoon. We were home for a couple hours, then dad and I took off for a date. We had tickets to go see Rodrigo y Gabriela at the Morrison center. I love their music and was so happy to see that they were actually coming to Boise. They put on a good show and are AMAZING musicians. It’s just the two of them playing their guitars the whole time. Whenever I hear their music come up in the car when I’m driving, it puts me in a good mood, but now when I hear the songs I think about how great it sounded in person and that’s how I want it to sound in my car now-like they’re sitting in the back seat. haha

Last week is kind of a blur since we were on the road. We stayed the first two nights right in Bountiful at a motel right close to Kirk and Sarah. Kirk took off on Monday morning for Denver for some training with his job. We babysat for Sarah during the day while she went to a doctor’s appt. It takes four of us to babysit 2 kids. Afterwards we went over to the Bountiful cemetary to find my grandparents gravesite. My grandma Trumbo (grandpa Trumbo’s mom) was born and raised in Bountiful so that’s where they are buried.

We took Addie with us for the afternoon and went to Fashion Place mall. She’s so fun to take places and so easy going. We brought her to the hotel to swim too.

She loved Bath and Body Works and was going around trying all the testers and some that weren’t testers. haha So I bought her a little stawberry smelling hand sanitizer-she’s the official hand sanitizer girl at her house. Whenever someone comes over, she gets the big bottle and brings it to you so you can put it on your hands before you hold the baby. I also got her one of those little brushes that looks like a compact. She just kept holding them and saying “Addie’s” “Addie’s”

Here’s a pic of her at the Container Store where she found a little table just her size with paper for coloring and crayons in the drawer. She sat there for a long time while we shopped there.

The next day we babysat just Haylee while Sarah took Addie to her first dentist appointment. The only reason she took her to the dentist was because her pediatrician was telling her that Addie shouldn’t be having a soother any more and that her teeth were getting pushed forward. But the dentist said it was no problem and that she was still young. So Addie gets to keep her soother, but just at night now. Her dentist was dressed up in a costume to help the kids feel more relaxed, but I’m thinking that would be scarier. haha She came home with a balloon and a new toothbrush and was happy (probably because she heard she got to keep her soother).

 

We also went to Ikea to let the girls pick out a large photo for their wall in their room. We painted the one wall and moved the furniture and thought we’d let them pick out something together, that they both agreed on for their room. They have been having such a difficult time lately getting along, so we thought a change of scenery might help a little. Here’s what they picked out and it looks great:

They’re still going to add their own touches around the room too.  This is the room before the picture.

When Leah came home from the hospital and saw her room, she was really happy about it. Nikki loves it too.

We went to lunch with Sarah and the girls one day and Nikki decided to get in the play place with Addie. Addie was laughing at Nikki trying to fit through everything. I’m sure she must think she has the craziest Aunties.

While in Bountiful I also wanted to go try find my great Aunt Grace’s (grandma Jo’s dad’s sister) old house. I remembered it being such a fun unique place when I was young. Well, they have turned the house into a museum now so we were able to go through the whole thing.The man who first owned it, Thomas Whittaker, was friends with Queen Victoria and got most of his fruit tree starts from her. The whole yard was filled with fruit trees and and that’s where they had come from. After the Whittaker family sold it, there were a couple families who owned the home and my great aunt and uncle were one of them. When my mom and dad got married in the Salt Lake temple, they went over to her house afterwards for a lunch and they had their picture taken in Aunt Grace’s home in their wedding clothes. You’ve probably seen the picture of them standing in their wedding clothes. My mom wore a dress from Aunt Grace. I just loved my great Aunt Grace. She taught me to crochet and she loved watching sports. She was always active and I loved being around her. When grandma Jo’s parents got divorced, she kind of became my mom’s second mom, so she was kind of like a grandma to me too. Here’s a pic of us in front of her house. It used to have a lot more trees in front, big willows. I’m so happy I stopped by there and took the time to find it.

On Wednesday and Thursday nights the girls went to a Samoan dance class. It was so awesome and the they loved it. I can’t believe what a great workout it was too. They were totally sweating afterwards. Leah in particular really loved it and I could tell. Aunt Kathy came too so it was fun seeing her.

Here the RS president, Fina, is introducing the girls to the class. Fina really wants the girls to know about their heritage and I love that.

On Thursday afternoon we all went to Top Golf, our favorite new place. Mary and Brian and baby George came with us. Addie even tried golfing. We’re usually up on the upper tiers, but it was good we were on the bottom so we didn’t have to worry about Addie falling off.

We also went to Steve and Carolina’s one night and sat out on their deck and talked until late in the evening. It was so fun catching up with them and what everyone’s doing. Since we’ve had grandbabies, we rarely go to Provo now. Once you start living there again though, I’m sure we’ll be going there more. :)  Axel has a new job in Salt Lake City, twice the money and more work, but they want to be able to start saving money. Kassie and Marc are having fun being parents. Their little girl is so cute and always smiling. Marc and Steve are busy with work at Noah’s and they have even started a new business that manages the Noah’s properties. Dakota and Downing were there that night so we got to visit with them. Dakota is almost done with nursing school and she wants to work at a nursing home for older people. She has always loved that. I think Downing is almost done with his degree too. They are living in the basement at Steve and Carolina’s now because Steve has rented their other house. Dakota and Downing will be moving into an apartment in September.

On our last day there, poor Addie fell while she was running and singing “Let it Go”. She was also wearing her Elsa hair that we had given her. Very cute, but Sarah heard her fall and start crying really hard. Sarah was feeing Haylee, so she had to put Haylee down, who then started crying hard. Sarah said when she got to Addie and Addie turned around, Sarah gasped when she saw her. Here’s the pic:

I would have gasped too. It was soooo large. But it actually went down fairly quickly and 2 days later, this is how it looked:

Not bad, huh?  Little kids heal so quickly. She didn’t even get a black eye from it. Sarah still doesn’t know where she fell or what she hit, but it must have been a door or edge of a wall or something. 

Well, we are enjoying our time now watching the Olympics. The girls are pretty much glued to it. Leah is trying to watch all the girls rugby she can because she is planning on playing rugby for EHS next year. On Saturday we went to Ann Morrison park where they were having a tournament and watched EHS play. The girls on the team saw Leah watching and yelled to her that she better be going out for the team this year. So she went over and talked with them. I’m so happy she has this goal because she’s trying to exercise, lose weight and work on her cardio on all her own. She is very motivated. 

It was good to be back at church in our own ward yesterday. We ran into the new ward that has been formed in the Star Stake. They meet right before us and now half of the old 9th ward is in that ward. It’s called the Park Lane ward. The other half of the 9th ward is now in the 1st ward which is weird because it’s Canterbury and Colony and right close to us. Our ward is continually growing and there are so many new families, I don’t know very many of them yet. 

I’ll finish with a few thoughts from our RS class yesterday. It was from April Conference, Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk “He will place you on His Shoulders and Carry You Home”.  It was such a good talk and it was great to be able to discuss it as a group. The part that I shared with the girls when I got home was when he said, “If you cannot say you know God is there, you can hope that He is. You can desire to believe. That is enough to start.” Leah struggles so much with faith and I just wanted her to know that she can just hope first and the faith will come later. Just hope that God is there, hope that the Book of Mormon is true, hope that what Joseph Smith said he saw, he actually saw, etc.  Leah said she liked that. Just to hear her say she liked it meant a lot. Line upon line, precept upon precept….and much patience as a mom. :)

I’m excited for your upcoming transfer and to hear how things are back in Santa Rosa. Heavenly Father needs you there and you will find out why as you have every other step of the way. 

I love you so much and your faith and example means the world to me. It always brightens my day. Keep up the good work, the hard work and the fun work and represent well.

Love you very much,

Mom xxoo

Back on the Road

July 31, 2016

Dear sister Kristina,

Well, here we are again back in Utah. I'm not complaining about it though because we get to see Addie and Haylee more and Haylee keeps changing so much. Even Addie is changing a lot because she is talking more and more and says such cute things.

We left early this morning and picked up dad from mountain home, then we stopped at Kirk and Sarah's and picked up Nikki. Then we took off fairly quickly and went to the Samoan branch. Once again it was just an amazing meeting. The spirit is so strong there and we always feel so welcome. Today was a missionary farewell for the granddaughter of the branch president. She's going to Canada. The talks from everyone were wonderful. They spoke of choices in life and I was really hoping Leah was listening. We stayed all three hours and the girls went to their own Sunday school class and young woman's. Dad and I totally enjoyed our Sunday school class and our combined meeting.

In Sunday school we were studying alma 30 which is the story of korihor, the anti Christ. He spent his time trying to convince many of the non existence of God. Many believed his words which happens all around us in the world today. But I loved where the people of Ammon didn't fall for him at all and just immediately took him and bound him up. They probably didn't fall for the deception because they had lived that life before they were converted and immediately recognized the life they wanted to leave behind, in fact they had covenanted to leave it behind. Their covenants meant a lot to them.

So then our teacher who is half Caucasian and half Samoan told us of her nephew on the Caucasian side. He grew up with strong lds parents and family. She said when he was 16 he decided he didn't want to be part of the church or the family and he just left. They didn't see him again until he was 21 when he returned with a fiancee. The aunts the a bridal shower for her and at the shower they found out that she was an exotic dancer. That didn't go over well with some of the aunts, but the wedding went on as planned. Six months later, the wife who worked at night dancing was home during the day when sister missionaries knocked in her door. The sisters said they were very thirsty (it was super hot) and they also wanted to share a message with her, so she let them in, listened and agreed to come to their church on Sunday. She went to church and was baptized the next Saturday. When her husband heard what she was doing, he couldn't believe it, but did not stop her. 

Six months later, he started coming to church with her every Sunday. Six months after that they went to the temple and six months after that he was called into the elders quorum presidency and she was called to be young woman's president. When the young woman complain to get that they don't want to keep all the rules of the church, she shares with them that she has lived both ways and how much better her life is now living within all the guidelines of the gospel.She is like the people of Ammon who learned through rough experiences that the way of the Lord is the way of peace and blessings. The aunts now all absolutely love this woman who came into their nephew's life. :)

I will recount this story sometime with Leah. She has such a hard time with the church and wants her "freedom". She just can't understand how the guidelines and commandments actually give us much more freedom in life. They give us a path to follow instead of wandering through the chaos of life.

I also loved hearing that these sister missionaries were led to her and despite her being an exotic dancer (which was the reason she was actually home during the day, ha ha) that didn't phase the missionaries. They bore witness and let the spirit do his job.

After our meetings, the girls were both very happy and loved being there. We went to grandma and grandpa's for a Costa vida dinner.

Leah and Nikki are going to the Samoan dance class this Wed and Thurs where the RS president teaches. They're nervous about it, but I'm excited for them.

Leah came home from the hospital last Monday and has been much better this week, not perfect, but much better. She has so much more energy. She hasn't slept once during the day which is totally different for her. She has been fairly pleasant, talks with us and others, likes being with us while we run errands, and seems happier. She's scared of feeling the old way and I can understand that, but so far so good. She even came to me and said she's like to go out for the rugby team at school so she's been exercising every single night, walking and running on the treadmill. You have to believe me when I tell you how different that is from her behavior these past four months. I'm proud of her.

Nikki had the greatest time with her aunts these past couple of weeks. Jan said she was so helpful with everything around the house, loved doing everything and loved telling stories. Jan wants her to come back next summer again. Nikki made jewelry for all of us and Leah had actually bought a necklace for Nikki. Before the hospital, Leah was actually hating Nikki, (her words) which made me do sad, so I was so happy when she said she wanted to buy something for her.

Tomorrow we're babysitting Addie and Haylee while Sarah goes to a doctor's appt. Kirk is going to Denver for a couple days for training with his work, so we'll be helping Sarah with things.

We had a fun RS meeting last week where we had a speed dating type thing to get to know other sisters in the ward. It was a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time getting to know a new sister in our ward. They moved here from thousand oaks California.We're having a lot of move ins. And now the 9th ward is officially out of our stake. Very strange still. The guymans have moved out of our ward. Things just keep changing. I'm trying to keep up with everything.

I'm excited to hear about Nathan's baptism. How did he feel? We're there a lot of members?

I'm happy having dad here with me for this little vacation this time, and having Nikki back with us and having Leah feeling much better. My life feels like a roller coaster sometimes, but you know me, I may scream a lot on the roller coaster, but I always have a good time! :)

Hope you have a beautiful week and be sure to notice all the evidence of God's existence. It's everywhere you look just like Alma testified.

Love you very much,

Mom xoxo

The girls room newly painted

Dad and Leah enjoying a dinner of crabs

Haylee with a combover...We like her hair better when it's sticking up. haha

Addie at a little class given at a local park

here's a couple pics. We took Addie for the day and this pic is in the container store at the mall. It's a little desk with paper on top, so she loved coloring: