Sept. 12, 2016
Dear Sister Kristina,
I was so happy to hear early from you this morning. You know me, I worried and prayed for you all week (I always pray for you so that wasn’t anything new), but I so wanted you to get back that love of the mission and the work you are doing and I was anxious to hear how your week went. Several people even mentioned to me that they were sending prayers your way when they could feel your struggles. Isn’t it wonderful to know how many people care about you and also how much they trust in our Father and know where to turn for peace.
Last week I got news that my Uncle Earl Kartchner passed away. He was married to Marr who is grandpa Trumbo’s sister. When I was young I used to go to their house in Salt Lake and stay with them so I was closer to these cousins than any other. They had 3 boys who were older than me and they were like older brothers that I never had and I always had so much fun with them and was really close to the second oldest, Steve. The oldest, Mark, died when he was 30 of Leukemia. It was a sad time, but at the funeral I was able to see his wife and two kids. I hadn’t seen her since they were first married. I was also able to reconnect with all my cousins who are all so old now. haha I drove down to Utah by myself on Thursday and attended the funeral on Friday morning. I walked into the viewing all by myself and realized that I didn’t recognize anyone except my Aunt. But eventually each one came up to me and it was great. All the old memories came flooding back and they reminded me of lots of things I had totally forgotten. My cousin Steve said being with me again was as if time hadn’t even gone by, but that he talked about me a lot in his family and all the fun things we would do. He said I was the only girl he ever let ride his motorcycle. Wow, I didn’t realize I had been so privileged. haha
My aunt Marr was so happy to see me because she knew that my dad wasn’t going to be able to make it. Also his other sister Carol was there and she just kept saying how great it was to see me again. Carol is the one who served her mission in California way back when hardly any sisters served. I decided that funerals are so motivating, to hear all the stories about a person’s life and hear all their children talk about them and what was important to them. Each cousin got up and shared a few memories about their dad and it was always something little, a time when they got to spend time with him, talk with him, learn from him. And the best thing is that those things are the things you get to keep with you through eternity and no one can take them away. My uncle was very brilliant in the computer field and was also an extremely accomplished violinist, so at the funeral they played a recording of someone playing a song he had played often and that brought tears to their whole family. Four of my cousins also sang a beautiful quartet and I had no idea that my cousin Steve had such a beautiful bass voice. I definitely had to tease him about that afterward. He said he only sang when people really insisted.
I went to the cemetery with them and since Earl served in the Air Force, they had a four gun salute which was cool.
Steve, Uncle Larry and Aunt Carol, Carrie.
Aunt Carol and Aunt Marr (grandpa Trumbo’s 2 sisters)
Afterward I stayed for the luncheon so I could visit with everyone. It really is a nice thing that the Relief Society does for families, cuz we were all so starving and it tasted so good. I told my Aunt Marr that I would come back to visit in October when we are all going down to Utah. She was excited about that and I look forward to talking with her.
The big plus side for me going down was of course being able to see Addie and Haylee. Haylee is changing all the time now and Addie is talking so much more. Haylee is a really easy going baby and the minute you start talking to her, she gives you a big smile.
Oh I miss her so much just looking at her picture again. I just want to hold her forever. I hope all you kids just keep having babies, because that will be so fun for me, Nana. Addie is so funny and has such a great memory. She of course thinks the Best Western is Nana’s house and asks to swim at Nana’s house. But when she comes up here, she knows this is Nana’s house too. What a fun Nana!!
She wouldn’t really hold still here, but she is wearing her Elsa dress and of course, you can see she still loves having a bandaid on. haha Also she got a rug burn on her nose, because the night before they had gone over to their friend’s house to watch a football game. They have a daughter Lucy that Addie loves playing with. Well, Lucy was standing on the third stair holding onto the rail and leaning backward when she accidentally fell down the stairs. Lucy quickly got up and pretended it didn’t hurt and make a little laugh. Well, then Addie said, “My turn!” since it looked like Lucy did it all on purpose and Addie threw herself down the stairs and ended up with this rug burn on her nose. Peer pressure, right….hahahaha
Here she is the next day and she insisted that Sarah make her hair like Anna from Frozen. She just loves everything about that movie. She said it’s her Anna hair.
We’re catching “hoppers” outside their house. We ended up with four of them!
It was a quick trip for me, but I really enjoyed my time away. It had been a tough week with Leah and it turned out to be a tender mercy for me. Leah is having a hard time “sharing” me with the Laurels and refused to even go into Mutual last week. That was so hard on me and I even thought maybe I should talk with the Bishop about changing my calling. But Leah’s counselor talked a lot about it with her and thinks this will be good for her to not be so clingy with me. I hope he’s right. :)
Yesterday was a wonderful day at church, at home and then at the youth standards fireside. Leah wanted to talk with me in the quilt room :) and among other things, she told me she feels she has a testimony that the church is true. She knew there was a God because of some experiences she’s had and now feels she knows the church is true. We had a great talk about looking forward, living in the present and only learning from the past. She says there’s things she can’t get out of her mind about her past but is repenting of them and I talked with her about why we need to still remember in order to learn, but that Heavenly Father would remember them no more. She wants to get back to the temple and says she will go into the Bishop next week so she can get her recommend. She talked about how much she loves being in the temple and the feelings she gets there. It was so wonderful to hear her talk like this. I can’t tell you how much that meant. Her struggle in life will be remembering her goals, remembering her spiritual experiences and remembering how good it feels to be in the right place at the right time with the right people. She has a good heart but so many physical/mental struggles. Line upon line, precept upon precept.
The standards fireside last night was wonderful. I hope that when you have teenagers you will be living in a stake where the leaders are as awesome as ours. The Stake Presidency here has a way of saying things so beautifully and right to the point and it is so helpful for us as parents and so caring for the youth.
Last night Alex and Savannah went to the 9/11 memorial site and also took the Staten Island Ferry so they could see the sites. Here are some of the pics from their adventures last night.
Also Sean shared this photo of their cat. They couldn’t figure out how she was getting up or down on the cupboards but were able to catch her coming down. They think she’s some kind of ninja.
Nikki is posting her birthday wish list so she’s getting all pumped up here. Can you believe she will be 15? She is doing really well in school and has started even doing some things with friends. She went to a birthday party at the Walker’s house over the weekend. She tried to back out at the last minute, but I made her go. What a mean mom making her kids go to parties and such. haha Christina Walker is coming home on Thanksgiving.
Well, I hope you have another wonderful week!! How I was feeling last week when I was worried for you, worried for Leah, etc reminds me of the scripture that I love, 3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. That is so true for me and I’m happy that you are filled with the missionary spirit again. Stay strong and now help others who need to know where to turn for peace. You can speak from experience.
I’m off to run errands with dad. He’s home this whole week because he is on jury duty, but his number didn’t get called today. Woohoo. Oh ya, you also got called to jury duty and I deferred it, but now you are called for the week of Dec. 5th. Something to look forward to. haha
Love you sooooo much,
Mom xxoo
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