Monthly Archives: November 2011

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Posted on by
Reply

Elder Flexy 17:3 -email-

Mama,

this week has been a hard week elder r. got sick and had to stay in for one and a half days. it was bad i’m not good with sitting very much anymore. anyway we were supposed to have a baptism but he bunked it. but it will be soon. i hope all works out with the dog.

1-By the way, have you both been getting my letters?  1. yep all of them.

2-Alex, we mailed your Christmas package on November 1st. Let us know when it comes, please. 2. i have it thanks.

love, Elder Flexy

From Brett: The weeks just fly. I had to teach about the millennium from gospel principles, and I was concerned that I couldn’t use up all the time. But it worked out that I finished just as the second bell rang. It was just right. In other news Your sister went up to Logan to do baptisms for the dead with her friend Lexie and it snowed a foot while they were there. So Em called me and I took your mom and the truck to Logan. We were supposed to meet them at the McDonald’s but when we got there they were nowhere to be found. Your Ma called Em and she had missed the turnoff to Ogden so she ended up in Hyrum at that McDonald’s. I hate to think how far she would have gone if there wasn’t one in Hyrum. I drove Emily’s car and the girls went with Joy in my truck and we all lived happily ever after. I hope all is well I have to go Love you both, love Dad.

Baba,

I’m glad your still teaching often it helps you keep your knowledge of the doctrine. wow thats a good story at least she didnt slide in the snow or anything but thats good. well all is well here and we lived happily ever after.

Love Elder Flexy

From Riley: ok so i don’t know where to start…… so i came across a sweet old car that i am going to start building…… it is a 1973 vw fastback. its kinda crazy and kinda ghetto. BUT! i have faith that i might be able to bring it back to its former glory some how! nonetheless i owe kelsey a letter in the next few days and alex you are in large amounts of trouble as you have not written me a letter! brooo dogg you are slacking ! well life is great. janet says hi! (she is my girlfriend and is awesome) so yeah she will be around when you both come home so you can meet her! she is the bomb.com! well love you both! bee good! love rdogizzle! 

Riley

well my brother how many letters or emails have you written sense i left!….. my point exactly! but i’ll write soon i’m just too busy and tired to write. Love you man

Love Elder Flexy

From Emily: Dear my cute broth and sist! …..Note to self: Don’t shorten the words brother and sister! Anyway how are you guys doing?? I’m doing alright. Just plugging along but yeah life is still crazy busy! Today at church was so amazing and yeah well sorry I gotta run off to bed cause I’m pooped! But I love you guys! And I’ll write you letters! 🙂 I love you peace and blessings! Be good and stay strong. Love, Em

M

good to know your all right, i am too. love you.

Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

Posted on by
Reply

  “Let us not treat lightly the great things we have received from the hand of the Lord! His word is one of the most valuable gifts He has given us. I urge you to recommit yourselves to a study of the scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of the Spirit to attend you in your callings. Read them in your families and teach your children to love and treasure them.” -Ezra Taft Benson

—————————

“The Holy Bible is a miracle! It is a miracle that the Bible’s 4,000 years of sacred and secular history were recorded and preserved by the prophets, apostles, and inspired churchmen.

It is a miracle that we have the Bible’s powerful doctrine, principles, poetry, and stories. But most of all, it is a wonderful miracle that we have the account of the life, ministry, and words of Jesus, which was protected through the Dark Ages and through the conflicts of countless generations so that we may have it today.

It is a miracle that the Bible literally contains within its pages the converting, healing Spirit of Christ, which has turned men’s hearts for centuries, leading them to pray, to choose right paths, and to search to find their Savior.

       The Holy Bible is well named. It is holy because it teaches truth, holy because it warms us with its spirit, holy because it teaches us to know God and understand His dealings with men, and holy because it testifies throughout its pages of the Lord Jesus Christ.”                -M Russell Ballard

————————

What a blessing to have the scriptures in our lives. So many have sacrificed so that we can have the Bible. To see an excellent documentary about the coming forth of the King James- Bible, go here!

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Family History Friday: Stories about Grandpa!

Posted on by
Reply

My Grandpa is the second from the right. Very handsome!

Family stories always contribute to how we feel about those we love, it gives us a sense of appreciation and love for what they went through in their life and how our life seems better for it. My dad, thank goodness, has always been a storyteller. He has not only told the stories, but he has written them down. Here are a couple of stories my dad wrote about his dad, my grandpa. I never knew him. He died when I was just five years old, he lived far away, so I never had the opportunity to get to meet him. I feel like I know him though, because of my dad. Here are a few of my dad’s stories:

“I had some good memories of Dad and of some of the sacrifices he made for his family. I can remember as a little boy in the late 1930s the effects of the depression were still very much apparent. They were hard times and Dad just made enough money each day to take care of the expenses of the day. There was never any extra and so each night after work Dad brought home the groceries that Mom made supper with. In the wintertime it was especially hard. Dad would have to walk home from work at the cleaning and tailor shop where he worked and stop on the way to get a few groceries. We lived about a mile west of town along highway 10. I remember as a child along with some of my brothers and sisters scratching the ice off the inside of the window so we could see out and then pressing our noses against the window to see if we could see Dad coming down the highway. Minnesota winters were very cold and when Dad walked in the door he was quite a sight. The cold wind would cause his eyes to water, but because he had groceries in his hands he couldn’t wipe the tears from his eyes and so they would form icicles on his eyelashes. His nose too would run and icicles would also hang from his nose. Mom would have her wood stove all fired up to cook one of her wonderful suppers out of the simplest fair. They were difficult times but I have a lot of fond memories from them.

Dad had given me a little hatchet so I could chop wood for the wood burning stoves while he used his big axe. One day my hatchet came up missing. A few weeks later I was at my friends home (Jimmy Hanks) playing, and I saw my hatchet. I picked it up and was going to take it home and we scuffled over it so I pushed him down and headed for home. He was crying and yelled after me saying “I stoled if from you and you can’t steal it back.” I can remember that as if it were yesterday. We were only about four to five years old at the time. I have often wondered what ever became of him.

I can also remember when a big rooster wandering around the yard decided that I must have been a threat to him and came after me and knocked me down and was on top of me ready to peck my eyes out. Just before he could, Dad came to my rescue and grabbed that big old rooster and threw him straight up into the air. As a little boy I remember laying on the ground crying and scared one minute and the next minute seeing that big old rooster flying through the air. Dad saved me.”

Thank you, Daddy, for recording stories for us to enjoy!

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

“My Ears Are Going Crazy!”

Posted on by
Reply

My darlin, Brett was the scout master for years.

In case you don’t know what that means, it means he met with all of the Boy Scouts in our neighborhood at least once a week to work on merit badges. Not only that, he would camp once a month with them on a Friday night to Saturday, and he would spend a week every summer, using his vacation time from work, to go to scout camp with the boys. He always seemed a little stressed about it, but I also know that he absolutely loved it.

On the way to camp one year, they were all talking in the car about what they were going to do once they arrived at camp.

Alex said, “My ears are going crazy, because I’m hearing such good stuff!”

He was so excited to get to camp and have fun, he could hardly wait. And that’s exactly what he did, have fun!!

What a cute kid!

Gratitude Footboard!?!

Posted on by
Reply

My sweetheart and I made this darling

message board.

It is attached to the wall by our back door. We took an old foot board that went to a twin bed, cut off the legs and painted it antique white with chalkboard paint on the middle of the panel.

I love it!!

                                       It’s a great place to put a seasonal message,                                             a wonderful thought, or an “I love you” to a family member.

We had to find some studs to anchor it to the wall, because we plan to use it often for hanging coats and such. I thought is turned out cute!

 

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

Posted on by
Reply

Hermana Kesley 9:4 -email-

Dear family,

This week was pretty good. It flew by so fast! Sister Q. is going home next Tuesday. 🙁 I think I will probably cry. Yesterday, when we were in Relief Society, Sister Q. got up and bore her testimony. While she was up there, I started thinking about it, and realized that once her mission is over, she won’t get to do the things we do everyday anymore. Then I started thinking about when I am going to have to go home, and it will be really hard for me. And I started to have a little tear, but it went away really fast. I’m getting to the point where I want to be a missionary for the rest of my life, and I don’t ever want to stop doing this. 🙂 But I know there will be a point when I will have to go home, and live real life again.

Anyway, these are some things that happened this week.

Monday: We had two great family home evenings. One with some new investigators we have (there names are A. and M.), and the other with some investigators we were teaching for a while (M. and G.), but they weren’t progressing before, but then they randomly came to church (I think I wrote about that before). Anyway, they were super awesome! We are way excited for them. We are hoping that the Family Home Evenings helped them out, and that they learned something new.

Tuesday: We helped A. and M. move out of his sister’s house to an apartment. It was pretty cool, because we had a member with a truck come and help us, and him and the investigator hit it off pretty good, so now he has fellowship! We are so excited for that.

Wednesday: We dropped one of our investigators, J., because he is not progressing. We were sad, because we have taught him for a very long time, and have gotten really close to him. But we received an immediate blessing, because one of our other investigators that we had kind of dropped, but told her to call us when she wanted to learn more, called us literally two minutes later. It was amazing. Sometimes, we have to tough things, but just around the corner is something better. We also taught this kid, A. He is 17, and is super involved with his church, but when we taught him about the Book of Mormon, he was super excited about it. He told us was going to read it, and told us that if he knows that this is true then he will get baptized again (he was baptized when he was a baby in the Catholic church). He also said he will have to share this with everyone. We were way excited about that. 🙂 Hopefully, he will be a missionary in a couple years. 🙂

Thursday: Today, I was sick like Sister Q. was last Thursday (kind of). I never threw up anything, but my stomach was super upset. We aren’t really sure what was going on, but it has been passed around to like all the missionaries in our district. But I think we all over it now. We went to Young Mens in the evening, because we took A. to introduce him to the Young Men leaders and all the other guys. He seemed to like it, but he is super quiet, so it was hard to get him to talk to anyone. But one of the Young Women has a crush on him, so she will definitely fellowship him. Ha ha! 🙂 🙂 P.S. Mom: I’m glad you had a great birthday! 🙂 Sorry I couldn’t do anything really for you. 🙁 But it seems like you got pretty well taken care of. 😉

Friday: We met a really cool girl tracting, but because she is english and single we had to give her to the Singles Ward sisters. 🙁 But it’s okay, they’ll take good care of her. Later on, we drove the bike elders to dinner, and we were discussing how the other elder who drives the other car is kind of a crazy driver. I was like, “Aren’t you glad I don’t drive like Elder E.?” And they were like, “Yeah. In fact, you drive so good, that we are aren’t even wearing our seat belts right now.” And I was like, “What?! Put them on!” Those crazy elders. 🙂 They want me to get my driving privileges taken away.

Saturday: We set up an activity (kind of like a Family Home Evening), with some of our recent converts and investigators, and it turned out to be a bust, because only 1 recent convert came, and she only came out of pity for us. 🙁 It was sad, but we’ll probably try again another time to do it, but let more people know about it.

Sunday: So we had a baptism yesterday! It was the most stressful baptism I have ever had. It was for an overaged child (a kid who is above 8 years old and hasn’t been baptized yet), and he had to get baptized 3x! Two of the other elders that are serving in our ward were supposed to be the witnesses, and the step dad of the kid was baptizing him wrong, and they didn’t catch it. After the actual baptism, they pulled the plug for the font, and we grabbed the elders and were like, “We have to do it again. He didn’t do it right.” The elders stood in the hall talking to us for a while before they finally talked to the dad, and we got the font refilled, and did it again. It was so crazy. We just had to laugh, so we didn’t cry. It was so not fun. But it is over now, and he is baptized for real, so we’re good. 🙂

Mom: I really like the story of the ten virgins. I actually have like an insert that talks about that and how the ten wise virgins weren’t being selfish when they wouldn’t share their oil, they just couldn’t  because spiritual preparedness can only be gained over time through reading the scriptures, praying, and coming to church. I’m not sure if it is the same one you had, but it’s really good. Sometimes, I wish I had it in Spanish though so I could use it as a spiritual thought at dinners and stuff. But yeah, that is a good story.

From Brett: Now for my side of the story, Joy went to dinner with her dad, the day before her B-day and during that time I called family and friends and made a plan for 7:00PM. I dropped off a key at Cederlofs. We both worked on the tenth. We drove to Bella’s (cause it is close and we didn’t have a lot of time) I could tell your Mom was expecting friends to meet us there. She looked a little dejected when she realized it was just going to be us. So we ate but didn’t talk too much. (my shrimp and crab chimichanga was delicious, and filling) Our waitress wasn’t the greatest but got the job done eventually. We finished eating at about 6:35 and needed to kill about a half hour so I ate more, very slowly. Then I said I needed to go potty which I took my time doing, then I slipped outside and called Chad and asked how many people were there, he said about 12 so I told him we would be there in about 10 minutes. As we drove home we were passing our house and Dustin H. was walking and your Mom said, “Is that Dustin? I said I don’t know and rounded the corner then your mom says, “That looks like my mom and dad’s car (parked by the mail box)” I said again, “I don’t know.” I opened the door and we walked into the kitchen and there on the hutch was a large pink cup of water (it turned out to be Wendy’s) and Joy said, “Who’s is that?” “Idk”.  We took a few more steps and Joy saw people and they yelled, “Surprise!!” Even after all the clues, she had no idea. It was really funny. As it turned out there were about 25 people (quite a few showed up while we were driving home) Guess what your Mom wanted for her birthday? give up? To be able to park the van in the garage (I wish she would have said a thousand dollars it would have been easier! just kidding) Riley and I got some stuff moved and got the van in. Not much other news this week. Oh I get to teach Priesthood next week, they must be desperate. Anyway I gotta go Love you both have a great week Love DAD.

Dad: Ha ha! Wow I can’t believe you did that. And that Mom didn’t suspect anything. 🙂 You must have done pretty good. 🙂 But yeah, that is way cool. I’m glad there was a good turn out. Ha ha. I also like that she wanted to be able to park her car in the garage for her birthday present. Oh, by the way, when I get home, the present I want is a massage for my last two birthdays. 🙂 That’s it. 🙂 But yeah that’s awesome.

Riley: Did you get my letter I sent? If you did, I am expecting a reply in the next week or so. Otherwise, I am going to be a little upset.

From Emily: Hey my cute missionaries!! Life is good and all it’s been a crazy week but I’ve had so much fun and I just wanted to say thanks for working really hard and doing such a great job I know the Lord appreciates you guys and all you do. It takes a lot to spend a whole two years or year and a half out of your life to just focus on other people in the Lord but really what else would be more productive?! I think it’s amazing and know you guys are making the most of it. I hope you guys are happy and doing so good cause I wouldn’t want anything else for you two! Anyway today we had a meeting after church about family history and how we as youth need to get more involved I think it’s very cool. But yeah I’m so sorry this was short, but I better stop cause it’s getting real late and I gotta wake up for school tomorrow like good girls do! 🙂 Anyway I love you guys though and hope you have such a great week! 🙂 Keep your head up cause there’s not a better place for it!! Aww… I’m so happy! K well I love you guys so much! Peace! <3 Love Emily, Em

Emmysaurus Rex: It’s true what you said about about spending a year and half on a mission is the most productive use of your time. I don’t think anything will ever seem as worthwhile to do in my time after the mission, since I have done this for a while. But seriously, I would never take back my decision to go on a mission, if I had the chance to do it again. I am so thankful for this opportunity I have. But anyway, how is school? And work? I hope things are great for you. Are you dating anyone right now? Man, I really think you are going to get married before I do. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I just think that is what is going to happen. 🙂 Anyway, I gotta go now. Later!

I love you all! Be good. Love, Kelsey  XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Posted on by
Reply

-Flexy at Camp Loll, Wyoming 2003-

Elder Flexy 17:2 -email-

Mama,

this week was a good week we are making progress in the area. but i’m glad you had a good birthday. we had a district conference and president vonstetton came it was really good. its nice to see him more often. well i’m learning a lot from the other guys in our boarding we have a four man bourding so thats always fun. but ya we are having a baptism this week should be great i will be performing the baptism for N. but life is good. love you

Love Elder Flexy

 

Baba,

nice work on the party dad that was a good play!!! but i’m glad all is going well. i’m glad that lots of people came to the party to help mom be ok. i’m glad your still in love with each other and will be forever. all is well love you

Love Elder Flexy

 

M,

i’m glad your growing right up i can tell just from your emails that your progressing. Love you

Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

Posted on by
Reply

Idaho Falls, Idaho -Temple

Speaking of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Dallin H. Oaks said, “What if the day of His coming were tomorrow? If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow-through our premature death or through His unexpected coming-what would we do today? What confessions would you make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgivenesses would we extend? What testimonies would we bear?

If we would do those things then, why not now? Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained? If our lamps of preparation are drawn down, let us start immediately to replenish them. 

We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming. And the preparation most likely to be neglected is the one less visible and more difficult-the spiritual. A 72-hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but, as the foolish virgins learned to their sorrow, a 24-hour kit of spiritual preparation is of greater and more enduring value.” Conference Report April 2004.

 Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy