Children.

Sweet tiny Natasha!

I have heard it said that,

Children don’t care how much you know, 

until they know how much you care! 

I have found this to be true even with older kids. When my children are struggling and I just want to fix everything.

I tell them all of the things I know about how to fix their problems.

Really, what they want is to know that I am there for them, loving them and caring about them. If they want to know how smart I am, they will ask.

Chubby Plastic!

This very handsome young man is my son.

He has worn glasses since he was in 1st grade. I remember the first time we went to the eye doctor. After, we began the process of picking out glasses. We saw glasses that were plastic and looked pretty durable. I said, “Those look good.”

Riley said,

“I don’t want those! Those are chubby plastic!”

For many years, he wore glasses that resembled Harry Potter’s, wire rimmed and roundish lenses.

Then out of the clear blue, one day, he got new glasses. Guess what they looked like? Chubby plastic. They are cool now. Don’t they look nice? What a handsome dude!

I’m glad he changed his mind about “chubby plastic”.

 

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

Hermana Kelsey 10:2 -email- 

Hello family, How are y’all doing? I hope things are going great for you. I have a pretty great week. We had a baptism on Saturday! Her name is S___. She actually tried to cancel her baptism like an hour before, but we went and talked to her and she went through with it. It was seriously one of the most stressful situations I have ever been in. Every time we have a baptism, it is very stressful getting ready for it, but this one was even more so than others. I am going to attach a picture of her, her two daughters and Sister A. and I. 🙂

In other news, this week we had lots of stress! We were running low on miles, because it was the end of the month, and so we were trying to figure out how to get work done, and still not go over our miles. So we tried really hard not to, but we still did…and then we found out that we actually had 50 extra miles. So we didn’t go over anyway. So that was good.

Thursday: We got to hold some tiny puppies, and we wanted to keep them, but we aren’t allowed to have pets, so we had to leave them there. And it was even harder because they were FREE!!! But oh well.

Friday: I went to ZMCs where they train the zone leaders about how to be better leaders. And apparently they only invite sister missionaries if they are going to be training…so I might be training next transfer. :$ I’m not sure how I feel about it. I felt like I had prepared myself to do it last transfer, but it is really scary now. But the Lord knows best, so I’ll do what he wants me to do. I also got to see Sister V., who I met in the MTC, and she is super duper awesome! So that was really cool.

Okay, so to answer your questions…

1. My companion is from Lindon, Utah.

2. Things are going good. We get along well, and we can be very open with each other, so that is good.

3. She has been out for 6 months, but she speaks spanish very well.

4-How often do you feel the spirit in a day? 4. It depends on the day. Sometimes a lot, and other days not as much. It also depends on if we did all the things we are supposed to do in the morning. Sometimes if we aren’t obedient it is harder to fell the Spirit.

6. No we don’t have to talk to a certain number of people, but we are supposed to talk to everyone we see, and we have another goal to get 6 new investigators in each work.

7. Sometimes we do tracting, but it’s not all that useful, so we try to get referrals from members and other missionaries of people that are actually interested. Also, we stop by people who used to be investigating to see if they are still interested.

8. I am serving in a ward right now.

9-Did you open your Christmas packages? (Alex) if not, don’t till Christmas!! 9. Did you send me a Christmas package? Or will you? I’ll probably get it today if you sent it already.

10. We will try to talk on Skype on Christmas, because we have a member that has Skype, but I think that we have to get permission to do it first. So probably I’ll just be calling with our phone here.

11-What can we do in our lives to feel ready for the second coming of our Savior?11. The typical answer we usually tell people is praying, reading the scriptures, and coming to church. If we are doing all of those things, well, and keeping the commandments, we will be spiritually prepared for whatever will be coming in the future.

That is so cool Chad is home. Does he seem different than before? It is true, our time will come. And you will get two of your kids back within a couple months of each other! 🙂 And it won’t be very long from now. It feels like a long time still, but it’ll go fast.

Dad:

I’m glad you enjoyed the creche. We had something kind of like that here, but I don’t think it was as great as the one back home. There were a lot of really cool nativities though. We went to talk to the people that came in that spoke Spanish, so it was fun.

Hmmmm…that’s weird you saw Fred. I was actually talking about gymnastics a lot lately, so that is kind of weird. Also, I’m glad Scott and Stacy’s house is okay. 🙂

Emmysaurus Rex:

Hey buddy…so I never wrote you a letter last p-day. Sorry!! And I probably won’t write you a letter this week either because p-day is almost over…but I will write you one and send it and tell you all kinds of fun things that are happening and crazy stories and stuff. So you can look forward to that. But I’m glad you are doing good. I’m just telling you right now that turning 18 and graduating from high school will not make your life any easier. Things will just continue to get harder. But with hard things comes good things too. So that is good news. 🙂 🙂 But yeah, I’m glad things are good for you. 🙂 I better go now.

I love you all!!!

Love, Kelsey

I’ll be home for Christmas, just you wait and see

I’ll be home for Christmas…if only in my dreams. 🙂

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Elder Flexy 17:5 -email-

Mama, this week has been good we have had lots of success.

we had a drunk baba come to priesthood, it was pretty funny but one of

the other member babas kept him quiet. but it was funny.

1-Where are your companions from? 1.virginia

2-How are your companionships going? 2.great i get along with him really well.

3-How long have your companions been out? 3.six months.

4-How often do you feel the spirit in a day? 4.it depends

5-Are you teaching anyone we can pray for? 5.yep N___, F___, Z___.

6-Are you required to contact a certain # of people a week? 6.nope, but we report on investigators found in the week.

7-How do you contact people? Tracting? Street? 7.tracting mostly

8-Are you in a ward or a branch? 8.branch, it is very small probably should be a group.

9-Did you open your Christmas packages? (Alex) if not, don’t till Christmas!! 9.yep, sorry i was out of toothpaste so i opened it.

10-How are we going to talk on Christmas? Skype? 10.hopefully skype, but i’ll let you know.

11-What can we do in our lives to feel ready for the second coming of our Savior? 11.repent and keep strong in the faith and prepare physically.

love you mom -Love Elder Flexy

Baba, wow thats sounds cool about the creche thats always cool. ya and the

story of the lady cross stitching. thats cool that you saw fred i hope

all is going well for him. but life is great. just plugging along.

love you -Love Elder Flexy

M, your doing fine i went though the same thing but your gonna be fine. i

love you sis. -Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

“This is the day of our mortal probation. We might compare our eternal journey to a race of three laps around the track. We have completed the first lap successfully and have made wonderful progress. We have started on the second lap. Can you imagine a world-class runner stopping along the track at this point to pick flowers or chase a rabbit that crossed his path? Yet this is what we are doing when we occupy our time with worldly pursuits that do not move us closer to the third lap toward eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
-Joseph B. Wirthlin
Hope your Sunday was the Best!! Love, Joy

Family History Friday: Collectables #4 Grandpa Bill

I have several things in my home from my maternal grandpa, Grandpa Bill. For some reason, maybe it was all the cool jobs he had, or the things he collected, but the things I have from him, I love to display around my home and yard. 

An old skeleton key! When I picture him using it, I have to smile.

Grandpa was a railroad switchman! This old lantern has seen better days, but I still love it. I also have some other things I will post later.  The neat thing about these items is that I think about Grandpa Bill whenever I see them. He passed away about 20 years ago. I miss him, but he is still part of my life, because I have lots of reminders of him.