December 19, 2011
Merry Christmas Jared!
Last week was a filled to the brim with preparations for Christmas, mostly for our family party. Every year I vow to make it different, so I can enjoy this time of year, but it seems to be the same every season. I'm still trying to finish the quilt I am giving, Grandma asked me to make one for her, and Nichole needed help making one too. Marion wants to make one for a friend, and several other friends need help quilting theirs as well. I've worked more at Spanky's because of all the sick people, everyone wants their hair done for the holidays, and I haven't even started shopping. By the time Tuesday came, I could feel I was coming down with something. I quit doing all exercise and tried to get a little more rest. I ate lots of oranges and tried to make it go away. I just don't have time to be sick before Christmas. I did pretty well and ended up just getting a mild cold. Yeah!
The Mott party was pretty crazy! There are so many people. It is just wall to wall bodies. It gets a little claustrophobic with so many people, but we still had a good time. Of course, everyone is asking about you and wondering how you are doing. We got another really nice quilt this year, it's from Mark and Ruth. There were three missionaries there. One was from Washington. He goes home tomorrow. One was from Hong Kong and one was from Slovenia.
Sunday morning, My mom, Mikayla and I all went to Music and the Spoken Word, which was their Christmas special. It was AMAZING! I love their productions. We hurried home so I could sing in Sacrament meeting in a double quartet, a Capella. It was me, Tricia, Laura, Craig, Kris, Kay, Jake and Davie. We sang "Joseph, Dearest, Joseph, Mine". What a pretty song.
Kalyn did have her surgery. They did another news story on her. She did really well and looks great. Jeni is in Chicago getting treatment for her cancer. She is really positive about the outcome. Kaylene will get her tonsils out this Wednesday. I sure do work with a bunch of sick people!
This Sunday, we are only having Sacrament Meeting. It's at 11:00. You can call anytime after about 12:30. We'll be home all day. We are so excited to talk to you. If you time it right, you can possibly talk to your grandparents or Nichole. They are all coming down for dinner. Let us know about what time and we will be ready. I'm so excited to talk to you!
Be sure to tell us about your new companion. Where is he from?
Merry Christmas!!
Love,
Mom
Hey,
My new companion is Elder Long. He's from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. He's a really cool guy. The next six weeks are going to be fun. After we got put together at transfers, Elder Long and I met up with someone he taught in one of his areas. He lives Carmel, the really nice part of Indianapolis. We went to a great pizza place called Bazbeaux Pizza. It was us and about twenty other missionaries, plus one of Elder Long's former companions that came back to Indiana to visit. Elder Bair was there so I got to talk to him about what's going on in Plainfield. It sounds like for the most part, things are going really well there. Anyways, this guy paid for everybody. It was crazy.
After that, we drove the Spanish Elders' new vehicle back to them. They're getting a truck. The whole way home we listened to Christmas music. It was great. Elder Long likes a lot of the music I do.
We got to teach the Meeks this week. It was great. Almost all of them ended up coming to church too. This Sunday we had the ward choir's Christmas program. They did a fantastic job.
Well, that's all I can really think to write about. We had a lot of canceled appointments this week, but I guess that's what you can expect the week before Christmas.
Merry Christmas,
Jared
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Elders get a car for Christmas!
December 12, 2011
Dear Jared,
It's been another really busy week...'Tis the Season! I have had something every single night for the last 13 nights. This week the girls had their orchestra concert and Young Women in Excellence, Mikayla had a choir concert, we had a Bishopric party and our circle party. The two concerts were really neat. I thought they both did a great job. I'm proud of my girls!
Saturday night was Taylor's first date. For their day activity they went to someones house and made gingerbread houses, which I thought was a fun idea. Then it was time for the dance. They wore black and purple. He looked so handsome! Sally picked him up and they went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It is a super fun restaurant where everything is fondue. There is a burner at your table and you cook the food yourselves. It is really pricey, around $100 a couple, but a fun place to go, and the food is yummy. They said the dance was lame, so they came back early and crashed the adults party at the Ensign's home and played a few games with us. I think they had a good time together.
I am really looking forward to getting a phone call from you in less than two weeks.
What are your plans for Christmas?
I will be sending your Christmas package tomorrow so you should get it by the weekend.
Kalynn had her kidney transplant on Friday. I haven't heard how it went yet, but I will find out when I go in to work today. I'm guessing it went well, or I probably would have heard about it. You know that bad news always travels faster than good news.
Keep up the good work. I sure love you. Thanks for your willingness to serve. I hope that you are enjoying each day for what it is and that you are learning to love the people of Indiana. There is so much to learn from the people and the world around you. Take it all in and enjoy it all.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
We got transfer calls this morning. I am staying in Fort Wayne. Elder Marchant will be leaving though. This is like his sixth six week area. Poor guy. We also got the news that we'll be getting a full time car here! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We've had a really good week. We had a great lesson with the Rodriguez family. When we met with them this time they said that after we left last time they felt like they needed to shape up. So they've been reading the Book of Mormon and praying together and man, it's made a difference. The contention in that house is gone. We're getting really close with them.
Friday was a pretty busy day. We had our District Meeting, helped the senior missionaries move, and went to the ward Christmas party. The Christmas party was great. We invited a ton of people. Only a few of them showed up, but the ones that did had a great time.
We finally got some people to church too. The whole time I've been here it's been a huge struggle to get people to church and we finally got some here. Brother Meeks and his son and friend came. They all enjoyed it. Hopefully next week we can get the rest of the family to come as well.
We're not sure what we're doing for Christmas. We've had some offers for dinenr but nothing solid yet. We'll see.
Love you,
Jared
Dear Jared,
It's been another really busy week...'Tis the Season! I have had something every single night for the last 13 nights. This week the girls had their orchestra concert and Young Women in Excellence, Mikayla had a choir concert, we had a Bishopric party and our circle party. The two concerts were really neat. I thought they both did a great job. I'm proud of my girls!
Saturday night was Taylor's first date. For their day activity they went to someones house and made gingerbread houses, which I thought was a fun idea. Then it was time for the dance. They wore black and purple. He looked so handsome! Sally picked him up and they went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It is a super fun restaurant where everything is fondue. There is a burner at your table and you cook the food yourselves. It is really pricey, around $100 a couple, but a fun place to go, and the food is yummy. They said the dance was lame, so they came back early and crashed the adults party at the Ensign's home and played a few games with us. I think they had a good time together.
I am really looking forward to getting a phone call from you in less than two weeks.
What are your plans for Christmas?
I will be sending your Christmas package tomorrow so you should get it by the weekend.
Kalynn had her kidney transplant on Friday. I haven't heard how it went yet, but I will find out when I go in to work today. I'm guessing it went well, or I probably would have heard about it. You know that bad news always travels faster than good news.
Keep up the good work. I sure love you. Thanks for your willingness to serve. I hope that you are enjoying each day for what it is and that you are learning to love the people of Indiana. There is so much to learn from the people and the world around you. Take it all in and enjoy it all.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
We got transfer calls this morning. I am staying in Fort Wayne. Elder Marchant will be leaving though. This is like his sixth six week area. Poor guy. We also got the news that we'll be getting a full time car here! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We've had a really good week. We had a great lesson with the Rodriguez family. When we met with them this time they said that after we left last time they felt like they needed to shape up. So they've been reading the Book of Mormon and praying together and man, it's made a difference. The contention in that house is gone. We're getting really close with them.
Friday was a pretty busy day. We had our District Meeting, helped the senior missionaries move, and went to the ward Christmas party. The Christmas party was great. We invited a ton of people. Only a few of them showed up, but the ones that did had a great time.
We finally got some people to church too. The whole time I've been here it's been a huge struggle to get people to church and we finally got some here. Brother Meeks and his son and friend came. They all enjoyed it. Hopefully next week we can get the rest of the family to come as well.
We're not sure what we're doing for Christmas. We've had some offers for dinenr but nothing solid yet. We'll see.
Love you,
Jared
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The SWAT Team in Action
Dec 5, 2011
Dear Jared,
What a whirlwind of a week...literally. Hahaha. Davis County had high winds, between 80-102 mph on Thursday. Amber and I started out our morning with our usual run, but the wind was so fierce, we decided it was foolish to continue and we cut our run short. I went home to get the kids off to school. The winds were crazy strong. The shingles were flying off our house like pancakes in a food fight. We watched the fence by the chicken coop start to sway. I ran to the garage for a drill and some wood to do a quick repair to try and save the fence, but it was too late. The fence was down before I found some screws.
I sent the kids to school, but Hallie went against her will. She was afraid of getting blown away. I dismissed her fears and forced her out the door. Luckily Becky drove her. Mikayla braved the storm and walked alone, enjoying the adventure. She witnessed a flying trampoline, fallen trees and other miscellaneous flying objects, one, which hit her in the head. Luckily it was small and no damage was done!
My plan was to head to Nichole's house to spend time with her and grandma but a few minutes after the kids left, the power went out. I didn't want to leave town, not knowing if the schools had power or not and honestly I was too nervous to get too far away from the kids because the storm was so bad. I tried for quite a while to call the school and see what was happening, but I couldn't get though. Finally I had Grandma drive me over there. Of course the school was dark and there were dozens of concerned parents in the office already. I decided to check the girls out of school and take them home with me so I knew they were safe. Taylor called and told me they had closed WX and he was heading home too.
We decided we wanted to drive around for a while and check out some of the damage. It was pretty severe. The Wilkins home had an enormous tree lying on their roof, the power pole by Moulton's house was knocked over, Aspen court condos had a tree down that blocked the driveway, Egbert's lost a large pine tree, there were fences down everywhere and hundreds of trees all over the city. There were roads blocked by fallen trees and other roads that were closed because of downed power lines. Robert Thompson's grandma's house caught on fire and is a total loss. The cemetery lost dozens of trees. I couldn't believe how much damage there was. I've never seen anything like it.
Brent and Dennis were out in the circle with chainsaws cutting up the giant tree between Wheelers and Devries that had come down. I will really miss that tree. I loved how many birds always lived there.
I called your dad once we got home and told him to start calling to get prices on shingles. He came home from work early to get things under control. The girls and I went to Nichole's house for the rest of the day. Taylor and dad stayed home, ordered shingles, worked on the Escort and helped Dennis hook up his new generator. Dad was allowed to plug in two things. He chose the furnace and the TV. Hahaha That night we sat in the dark watching the news to see how widespread the damage was. Three students at Weber State University were picked up by the wind and thrown. They were all in the hospital. Hallie pointed out to me that this was the reason she didn't want to go to outside this morning. Oops! And I told her that couldn't happen.
The power came back on Friday morning about 2:30, much sooner than I had expected. I thought it would be at least two days, instead it was less than 20 hours.
The new shingles arrived early Friday morning. Your dad, Taylor, Dennis and Uncle Dale worked all day long and got the front of the house done, just before it started to snow. Luckily it wasn't much. It cleared up enough to get back on the roof by 11:30 Saturday. We had another crew up there on Saturday, all the same guys plus Todd and Hunter Lundy. They got close to finishing, but the sun sets so quickly in December, they ran out of daylight.
Sunday morning came and the Stake President issued an emergency cleanup because there was a forecast for more high winds that night. Before 9:00 am, ward members were out cleaning up all the cut trees and debris from all the homes so it wouldn't be flying around in the wind. Taylor, Mikayla and I were out working along with dozens of others. Dad and Hallie went to church. They announced that there would be a special sacrament meeting later in the day for all those involved in the cleanup process and we were not supposed to fast. We took so many loads to the dump of trailers piled high with fallen trees. The line to get into the dump was ridiculously long. We worked for many hours loading tree branches on the trailers and taking trips to the dump. Finally about 1:30 we decided we had better go home and take care of our own place. Soon there was a crew on our roof. They worked in the freezing cold and snow until we ran out of shingles.
I have to confess that Sunday was a little emotional for me, seeing how everybody pitches in and helps out without even being asked. Everyone seems to really come together in time of need. There was a man up on our roof that I had never even seen before. It really choked me up. It's quite humbling to be the recipient of service. People are so generous when others are in need.
We went to the special Sacrament meeting at 4:00. People came in their grubby work clothes. We held it in the scout room. It was small, only about 30 members. It reminded me of going to church on my mission in a small branch. We had cookies when it was over.
After dinner, we (me, Nichole, Laura, Mikayla, Ben and Mariah) headed in to the conference center to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. My favorite talk was President Uchdorf. He is so endearing and always has such great, applicable stories.
Sunday night we snuggled in, prepared for another storm. When we woke up this morning, we realized it was a false alarm. There was no storm last night. Thank goodness!
Earlier this week, Grandpa went to Kansa City with Uncle Marion to another car auction. On Saturday, Grandpa called and told us to turn on the TV. They were about to go up on the auction block with the 1967 Mustang that Marion helped restore. The commentators were going on and on about how amazing this car was. We were all pretty nervous for Marion. Originally he had tried to get $210,000 for it. They had an offer of $180,000 and turned it down. They tried at a second auction (when Dad and Taylor went) and it was even less. This time, they started at $80,000 soon it was up to $110,000 but it started to slow. They removed the reserve, which means the seller just wants to sell, no matter what, and they will take whatever. All of our hearts were racing. The final bid was only $121,000. Marion was pretty bummed. He got a commission for selling it, I think it was 20%, so he didn't make as much as he could have on the earlier offer, and the owner was in to the car over $300,000 so he took a huge loss too. But it was fun to see the car on TV that we had seen sitting in his garage just a few days before.
Sorry for the really long letter. We are all doing fine, in spite of all that has happened, we feel really blessed that it wasn't much worse.
The Lord loves you. Keep your chin up.
Love you!
Mom
Hey,
Sounds like you had a pretty crazy week. The wind's always blowing here too. Not that fast, but it's cold. The wind just cuts right through you. We got a couple inches of snow on Tuesday and Fort Wayne was not prepared for it. There were sirens going all day from police cars and fire trucks. All of our appointments and a dinner got canceled that day. The streets were pretty flooded with water from the rain that came right before the snow. We got pictures of a street right by ours that had a few inches of water running down it. It looked like a river. It's warmed up here a little though in the past few days.
Saturday was pretty crazy too. In the morning we drove just north of downtown to try to contact some former investigators. There were a few police cars blocking off a street in the neighborhood we were in. The house we were looking for was right by where the Police were blocking off. We knocked on this family's door and the dad came out and yelled at us and threatened to beat us up if we ever came back, haha. As we were walking away a guy walked up to us and jokingly said "Hey, you guys should go and knock on that white two story house right there on the next street." It was right past the Police cars. We asked him what was going on over there and he told us that there was someone in there who committed an armed robbery and said he wasn't going to come out of the house alive. The Police had his house surrounded. We got back in our car and drove around the neighborhood to see what was going on. We saw about thirty Police cars, a firetruck, a SWAT team truck, A hostage rescue vehicle that looked a lot like the Batmobile in The Dark Knight, and some SWAT team members walking around the street with some huge guns that looked like grenade launchers. It was nuts! Of course this would happen on the one day of my mission that I forgot my camera at home. Oh well. Saturday was pretty eventful. We also found this awesome Mexican bakery that makes some delicious Mexican cheesecake. Mmmmmm...
We had a great lesson with a family we're teaching. At first we just started teaching the father, who was a less-active member. Soon after that his girlfriend that he's living with started sitting in on lessons but wouldn't talk. Now she's always excited for us to come over and we're teaching the father, the girlfriend and her two kids, one of the kids' friends, and one of the father's friends. So we're teaching quite the group now. The stake Patriarch is in our ward and is a ward missionary. He's usually the one we take over there. It's been great having him there. He's always got such great things to share. Last time we were over there he brought an old priesthood manual. (You could tell how old it was from the hairstyles of the people on the cover. I think the picture on the cover was Barry Manilow receiving the priesthood.) Anyways, he felt prompted to give this priesthood manual to the father. At church last Sunday the High Priest Group Leader got up in priesthood and talked about how He went to approach the member we're teaching about accepting home teachers. He not only accepted, he also wanted to become one. When we went back to visit them on Friday he also told us that he's starting to do Family Home Evening with his family and that him and his girlfriend just got engaged. They'll be getting married as soon as their finances are straightened out. He's also going to be talking to the bishop to get the priesthood so he can eventually baptize his family.
I love seeing what happens when the spirit prompts to do something and you obey those promptings. This family is doing great.
Love,
Jared
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| Flying Trampoline at Litster's |
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| Johnson's Tree in the Circle North of Us. |
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| In the Circle North of Us |
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| Wilkin's Tree |
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| Wilkin's Tree is the Sod Removal Service |
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| On the Wilkin's Home |
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| The Fallen Power line |
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| The Cemetery was not the Final Resting Place for this Tree |
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| More Flying Trampoline's |
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| Trees Blocking Roads |
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| Our Own Circle Bird Hotel Falls to it's Death |
A Great Thanksgiving
Dear Jared, November 28, 2010
This week was another pretty relaxed week. The kids had three days off from school for Thanksgiving. We ended up going to Uncle Marion's house for dinner. It was beautifully decorated and looked so fancy. Everyone on my side of the family, except Vance and his family was there, which is pretty funny because it wasn't even our turn to be with my side of the family. It just kind of happened. It was nice anyway. Grandma and Grandpa Wise went to Idaho to spend the weekend with Paul and Jamie. She said it was jut the four of them.
Friday and Saturday we did some early morning shopping and got our Christmas decorations put up. It looks pretty festive here. Monday we will go pick out a tree. The kids all want a tiny one again. They liked that.
Mikayla spoke in church Sunday and gave a really neat talk. I was so proud of her. She spoke on gratitude. I believe she has the gift of public speaking.
The missionaries stopped by here Friday night and challenged us to do our home teaching and to invite some non members to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional with us. We will invite Todd and Brenda Johnson. I am positive they won't accept, but it's worth a try.
Other than that, it's been a quiet, non eventful week. Tell us how your Thanksgiving went. Did you end up having two dinners?
Here is your quote of the week: When life gets too hard to stand, kneel.
Love you tons!
Mom
Dear Mom,
We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the whole day with the Spanish speaking elders. We started our day by going to the park for the Turkey Bowl. It was a little over 30 degrees outside. It started out with a huge group of people from the first and second wards and slowly as time passed by the people started leaving to have dinner with their families. We stayed for the whole time. We played for about four hours. Needless to say, we're all still feeling the pain. After the football game we went home, showered and went to a family in our ward to have dinner. The meal was awesome. It reminded me a lot of home. We had a nice smoked turkey and ham, and mashed (smashed) potatoes just like dad makes. and a lot of other good food. We played games like Foosball, air hockey, and darts with them for a few hours and left for the second dinner with a family in the Spanish branch. There were a ton of people there. I think most of the Spanish branch was at least. It was a lot of turkey with beans and rice. for dessert we had some awesome flan. We stayed there for a while and played pool with them. When we left there we went back to the family in our ward for some pumpkin pie and more games. We had a lot of fun.
Love, Jared
This week was another pretty relaxed week. The kids had three days off from school for Thanksgiving. We ended up going to Uncle Marion's house for dinner. It was beautifully decorated and looked so fancy. Everyone on my side of the family, except Vance and his family was there, which is pretty funny because it wasn't even our turn to be with my side of the family. It just kind of happened. It was nice anyway. Grandma and Grandpa Wise went to Idaho to spend the weekend with Paul and Jamie. She said it was jut the four of them.
Friday and Saturday we did some early morning shopping and got our Christmas decorations put up. It looks pretty festive here. Monday we will go pick out a tree. The kids all want a tiny one again. They liked that.
Mikayla spoke in church Sunday and gave a really neat talk. I was so proud of her. She spoke on gratitude. I believe she has the gift of public speaking.
The missionaries stopped by here Friday night and challenged us to do our home teaching and to invite some non members to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional with us. We will invite Todd and Brenda Johnson. I am positive they won't accept, but it's worth a try.
Other than that, it's been a quiet, non eventful week. Tell us how your Thanksgiving went. Did you end up having two dinners?
Here is your quote of the week: When life gets too hard to stand, kneel.
Love you tons!
Mom
Dear Mom,
We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the whole day with the Spanish speaking elders. We started our day by going to the park for the Turkey Bowl. It was a little over 30 degrees outside. It started out with a huge group of people from the first and second wards and slowly as time passed by the people started leaving to have dinner with their families. We stayed for the whole time. We played for about four hours. Needless to say, we're all still feeling the pain. After the football game we went home, showered and went to a family in our ward to have dinner. The meal was awesome. It reminded me a lot of home. We had a nice smoked turkey and ham, and mashed (smashed) potatoes just like dad makes. and a lot of other good food. We played games like Foosball, air hockey, and darts with them for a few hours and left for the second dinner with a family in the Spanish branch. There were a ton of people there. I think most of the Spanish branch was at least. It was a lot of turkey with beans and rice. for dessert we had some awesome flan. We stayed there for a while and played pool with them. When we left there we went back to the family in our ward for some pumpkin pie and more games. We had a lot of fun.
Love, Jared
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Twyla Gets Baptized
Nov 14, 2011
Hi Jared,
A few nights ago, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, there was a pan of red Jello sitting there with a note that said, "Will you please be a good boy and follow my Ten Commandments. By this shall man know ye are my date for the Christmas Dance.
1-Thou shalt have no other date before me
2-Thou shalt respond with great wisdom
3-Thou shalt honor thy date as a gentleman would
4-Thou shalt meet me in December 2011 for this occasion
5-Thou salt eat dinner with me
6-Thou shalt be honest with thy date
7-Thou shalt be wise :)
8-Thou shalt reply with a yes
9-Thou shalt wear something fancy
10-Thou shalt have more fun than ever before
Moses didn't get to free the children of Israel without a challenge to part the Red Sea. Now you must part the red sea to see who is asking you."
The jello was red. Inside was a note written in red ink that said "Sally".
Of course, Taylor had to respond with a scripture reference.
We got a Book of Mormon and altered one verse. They took the book to the Sunday night fireside. Your dad was the speaker. Towards the end, he asked for examples from the scriptures. Someone mentioned Nephi. He handed the Book to Sally and asked her to read 1 Nephi 3:7. She was a little taken back by the altered scripture, but thought it was part of the lesson. She read out loud " And it came to pass that I, Taylor, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which Sally hath commanded, for I know that Sally giveth no commandments unto Taylor, save she shall prepare a way for him that he may accomplish the thing which she commandeth him." I guess it got some good laughs. Now she officially has a date for the Christmas dance. Tee hee This will be Taylor's first date. Stay tuned for details, coming late December.
Here's a couple of jokes for you:
If you're not LDS, you belong to a non-prophet organization.
When the MTC was built in Provo, beautiful green athletic fields were planted so the missionaries would have a place to exercise. However, they were so inviting that BYU students were attracted there, and you would see BYU students out playing touch football, throwing frisbees, etc. on the missionaries' field. To deal with this problem, a large banner was posted, which read "Missionaries Only."
The next day, BYU students were out on the field, playing touch football and throwing frisbees. They had posted a new banner which read, "Every member a missionary."
We love you so much! Enjoy your week.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
Things have been going alright here. On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference in Peru, Indiana. It's a hour and a half drive from here. We all piled in the Zone Leaders' minivan early in the morning and left for the meeting. Zone Conferences are always fun because you get to talk to all the missionaries you've served around in past areas. I got to talk to Elder Anderson, my MTC companion. There were a lot of great talks given. I really learned a lot.
We've had some rough spots this week though. Jolene, one of our investigators got thrown off a horse and suffered from a concussion. She says she's really bruised and sore, but it sounds like she's doing better. Hopefully we can see her this week.
We've been teaching an eight year old girl named Twyla for the past couple of weeks to get her prepared for baptism. That baptism happened on Saturday. Her dad asked me to baptize her and my companion to confirm her. It was a neat experience. Twyla's dad is the only member in her family, but her whole family was there to support her. She's got a great family.
Brother Meeks came to Stake Conference this week! None of his family came, but it's still great. Hopefully we can get the rest of his family to church next week.
It snowed a little bit here on Monday. Thankfully none of it stuck though. I'm not looking forward to the snow.
Love,
Jared
Monday, November 7, 2011
The Gospel Really Blesses Families
Dear Jared,
I had an interesting experience with one of our foreign exchange students, Yui. The first day they were here, I sent the kids one by one off to school. As they left, I gave each of them a hug and said "love you", as I always do, and sent them out the door. When it was time for Yui and Ching to leave, I told them goodbye and waved to them. The second day they were here, after watching the kids leave, I said goodbye to them and waved. Yui asked if she could have a hug too. So of course I hugged them. On day three, they hugged me and said "love you". it was a little awkward, and I just said bye. The fourth day, as they were leaving and hugging I figured I might as well say, "love you too". They were a little giddy and really enjoyed the hugs. This became a daily occurrence. This Tuesday morning, I was driving them to the airport when Yui told me she hoped she could go home and get her mom to hug her. I asked her if they hugged in Taiwan, and she said no. THEY DON'T HUG IN TAIWAN! It just broke my heart to think that there is a mother somewhere in the world that doesn't hug her children! That is so sad to me.
They loved trick or treating! They thought is was so much fun. They really liked the dressing up part too. It was fun to watch them experience that. They were hoping to get to see snow, but they weren't so lucky. It was raining on the way to the airport. As I was driving home without them, it started snowing. They never got to play in it.
Thursday was the Young Women Regional Training. It was held in the Regional Center. It started out at 5:00 with a focus group of 16 Young Women that we had put together. There were two sisters from the General Young Women Board there, Sister Featherstone and Sister Ashton. They were so cute with the girls. They spent an hour with the girls asking them questions and getting to know them and the issues they face today. They did a great job! It was a neat, very spiritual experience. I was grateful that Mikayla got to be a part of it. Those women really emanate the spirit. I feel blessed to have been able to sit in on it. I guess they took a liking to Mikayla and Sally, because they asked both of them to come up on the stand and share their testimonies during the general meeting. They both did a great job. I was so proud of your sister. (They didn't know they had chosen my daughter.)
The General meeting followed. Sister Elaine Dalton, they General Young Women President was there. She is very personable and caring. She has a love for the Young Women and manifest it by hugging so many of them and being excited to greet them. There was a group of people from church headquarteres who were there and recorded part of the meeting from our building and sent the broadcast to other places. There were only six of us on the stand: Elder Summerhays of the Seventy, Sister Dalton, Sister Ashton, Sister Featherstone, President Terry and me. I was was so nervous when it was my turn to say the closing prayer knowing that it was being rebroadcast! Luckily I didn't pass out or go into cardiac arrest. The whole meeting was really neat and very spiritual and emotional for me.
Dad had his Birthday this week. The poor guy didn't even get a gift. I figured the new car would suffice, but I was going to go get a spare key (which cost well over $100) and wrap it up for him so he'd have something to open, but he got that for himself. I couldn't even take a Birthday cake to his work, like I have done in years past, because he took the day off. The two of us ended up going out to lunch together, which was really nice, but still didn't seem like a birthday celebration.
That night we drove to Weston to watch Jonathan in his starring role as the beast in Beauty and the Beast. He did a great job and it was fun to watch him. His eyes sure did sparkle at the end when he got to dance with Belle. He's such a cute kid.
We got home before midnight and I had had to be up at 5:30 to drive to Tooele for a Cub Scout event, PowWow, on Saturday morning. That was an all day thing. Thank goodness for daylight savings time, I got to sleep in Sunday morning!
Sunday we drove to Draper to see Hollie's baby, Lucy, be blessed. We had lunch at Marion and Karen's home afterwards. Mirranda was there with her boyfriend and Paige was there with her boyfriend. It's crazy to see all the kids growing up.
Tell is about your new companion. How did transfers go? Mirranda was telling me that there are three Elders in your mission that are from Tooele. Maybe you'll meet one of them.
Enjoy your week. I hope you see a lot of success and you stay warm. It sure did get cold here in a hurry. It was super warm on Halloween, but the day after, a cold front came in and it's been cold ever since.
We love you so much!
Mom
Hello,
I got my new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Marchant and he's from Las Vegas.
Elder Empey and I have been teaching a less-active member named Brother Meeks every week for this past transfer. At first it was just him, and then his girlfriend started sitting in on the lessons. She was in the corner and wouldn't really say anything, but every visit she started to open up more and more. Eventually, Brother Meeks started inviting his friend and his kids to start listening to the lessons, and it's been great. It has escalated into him, his girlfriend, a friend, and three kids sitting in on the lessons. Last week we had a great lesson with them. I think this is the longest it's ever taken to teach about the Restoration. We've been teaching it for the past four weeks. After we got done with the lesson and were out of the house, we started walking towards the car. He came running out and stopped us. He had tears in his eyes as he thanked us for coming over and teaching his family. He said his family has been a lot closer and loving since we started teaching. It really shows me how much the gospel really blesses families. I've seen a huge change in them.
I'm very grateful for the gospel in my life.
Love,
Jared
PS. Would you mind sending me a few things? I desperately need a new pair of Vans. The ones I have now are on their last leg. I left a practically new pair at home (the red ones) If they haven't been taken over, can you send them to me? Also, a hoodie would be nice...(size L) The last jacket I had was way too trashed to take out here, and it's getting a little cold in our garage.
I had an interesting experience with one of our foreign exchange students, Yui. The first day they were here, I sent the kids one by one off to school. As they left, I gave each of them a hug and said "love you", as I always do, and sent them out the door. When it was time for Yui and Ching to leave, I told them goodbye and waved to them. The second day they were here, after watching the kids leave, I said goodbye to them and waved. Yui asked if she could have a hug too. So of course I hugged them. On day three, they hugged me and said "love you". it was a little awkward, and I just said bye. The fourth day, as they were leaving and hugging I figured I might as well say, "love you too". They were a little giddy and really enjoyed the hugs. This became a daily occurrence. This Tuesday morning, I was driving them to the airport when Yui told me she hoped she could go home and get her mom to hug her. I asked her if they hugged in Taiwan, and she said no. THEY DON'T HUG IN TAIWAN! It just broke my heart to think that there is a mother somewhere in the world that doesn't hug her children! That is so sad to me.
They loved trick or treating! They thought is was so much fun. They really liked the dressing up part too. It was fun to watch them experience that. They were hoping to get to see snow, but they weren't so lucky. It was raining on the way to the airport. As I was driving home without them, it started snowing. They never got to play in it.
Thursday was the Young Women Regional Training. It was held in the Regional Center. It started out at 5:00 with a focus group of 16 Young Women that we had put together. There were two sisters from the General Young Women Board there, Sister Featherstone and Sister Ashton. They were so cute with the girls. They spent an hour with the girls asking them questions and getting to know them and the issues they face today. They did a great job! It was a neat, very spiritual experience. I was grateful that Mikayla got to be a part of it. Those women really emanate the spirit. I feel blessed to have been able to sit in on it. I guess they took a liking to Mikayla and Sally, because they asked both of them to come up on the stand and share their testimonies during the general meeting. They both did a great job. I was so proud of your sister. (They didn't know they had chosen my daughter.)
The General meeting followed. Sister Elaine Dalton, they General Young Women President was there. She is very personable and caring. She has a love for the Young Women and manifest it by hugging so many of them and being excited to greet them. There was a group of people from church headquarteres who were there and recorded part of the meeting from our building and sent the broadcast to other places. There were only six of us on the stand: Elder Summerhays of the Seventy, Sister Dalton, Sister Ashton, Sister Featherstone, President Terry and me. I was was so nervous when it was my turn to say the closing prayer knowing that it was being rebroadcast! Luckily I didn't pass out or go into cardiac arrest. The whole meeting was really neat and very spiritual and emotional for me.
Dad had his Birthday this week. The poor guy didn't even get a gift. I figured the new car would suffice, but I was going to go get a spare key (which cost well over $100) and wrap it up for him so he'd have something to open, but he got that for himself. I couldn't even take a Birthday cake to his work, like I have done in years past, because he took the day off. The two of us ended up going out to lunch together, which was really nice, but still didn't seem like a birthday celebration.
That night we drove to Weston to watch Jonathan in his starring role as the beast in Beauty and the Beast. He did a great job and it was fun to watch him. His eyes sure did sparkle at the end when he got to dance with Belle. He's such a cute kid.
We got home before midnight and I had had to be up at 5:30 to drive to Tooele for a Cub Scout event, PowWow, on Saturday morning. That was an all day thing. Thank goodness for daylight savings time, I got to sleep in Sunday morning!
Sunday we drove to Draper to see Hollie's baby, Lucy, be blessed. We had lunch at Marion and Karen's home afterwards. Mirranda was there with her boyfriend and Paige was there with her boyfriend. It's crazy to see all the kids growing up.
Tell is about your new companion. How did transfers go? Mirranda was telling me that there are three Elders in your mission that are from Tooele. Maybe you'll meet one of them.
Enjoy your week. I hope you see a lot of success and you stay warm. It sure did get cold here in a hurry. It was super warm on Halloween, but the day after, a cold front came in and it's been cold ever since.
We love you so much!
Mom
Hello,
I got my new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Marchant and he's from Las Vegas.
Elder Empey and I have been teaching a less-active member named Brother Meeks every week for this past transfer. At first it was just him, and then his girlfriend started sitting in on the lessons. She was in the corner and wouldn't really say anything, but every visit she started to open up more and more. Eventually, Brother Meeks started inviting his friend and his kids to start listening to the lessons, and it's been great. It has escalated into him, his girlfriend, a friend, and three kids sitting in on the lessons. Last week we had a great lesson with them. I think this is the longest it's ever taken to teach about the Restoration. We've been teaching it for the past four weeks. After we got done with the lesson and were out of the house, we started walking towards the car. He came running out and stopped us. He had tears in his eyes as he thanked us for coming over and teaching his family. He said his family has been a lot closer and loving since we started teaching. It really shows me how much the gospel really blesses families. I've seen a huge change in them.
I'm very grateful for the gospel in my life.
Love,
Jared
PS. Would you mind sending me a few things? I desperately need a new pair of Vans. The ones I have now are on their last leg. I left a practically new pair at home (the red ones) If they haven't been taken over, can you send them to me? Also, a hoodie would be nice...(size L) The last jacket I had was way too trashed to take out here, and it's getting a little cold in our garage.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Sad News from Home
Dear Jared, Halloween 2011
Last Monday, sometime between when I wrote you, and you wrote me, Steve Meske passed away. He was struggling to breathe so he called Michelle at work. She hurried home and tried to help him get more oxygen, but it wasn't enough. She called their home teachers so they could give him a blessing, but he died before they made it over. It has been a very emotional week. Michelle has been pretty strong, but I know that it has been so hard for her. She told me that a couple of days later, she was thinking of him, and she heard him say that he was happy and in a good place. This has helped her to feel peace and know that he is doing all right. She is glad that he is not suffering anymore and knows that she will see him again. It's just crazy how fast it happened. I went over last Sunday night and took them some dinner. He was sitting on the couch. He told me to come in and sit down and visit, which I did. We talked for about twenty minutes. He seemed to be doing alright. When I got up, I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. I had no idea this would be the last time would ever see him again. He was gone just a few hours later. It seems so surreal. The funeral was on Saturday.
I ran another half marathon this week.. This time it was for Amber Gibson. She just started running in June and we talked her into running the Halloween Half down in Provo. We trained faithfully all summer and fall and soon enough it was time for the race. There were five of us who ran it, me Amber, Laura, Sherisse and Sally. Amber made us all costumes and together we made a rainbow. I must say we looked pretty cute. About mile 11, Amber was getting pretty discouraged, but she hung in there and did not quit. It's kind of amazing when you accomplish hard things after you've told yourself so many times that you can't do it. She hung in there and met her goal. I'm proud of her. That is such a great feeling when you are done to be able to look back and see all your hard work and know that you've done something great.
Dad taught the fifth Sunday lesson in church yesterday. He did an amazing job, (like he always does when he teaches). it was on diversity and accepting other people and their differences. He just really brought it home with visual aids, class participation, poems and beautiful music. He really does have a gift to teach. I am so proud of him.
Mason Fenn got his mission call to Lima Peru.
Katie Brooks and Rebecca Johnson both had baby boys this week.
Mandy Wheeler is getting married to a guy from California, named Kevin. Your dad actually likes him and APPROVES! They will get married in the Spring. Wierd!
Saturday, Taylor was driving the Audi when some guy crashed into the side. Fortunately no one was hurt (but the car) and it was NOT Taylor's fault, so we should be able to get the car fixed with no cost to us. It's just a bummer that it happened to the only really nice car we own. Dad and Taylor were pretty bummed.
Wow! That was a lot of information this week. The most important though, is for you to know how much we love you, we think of you every day and pray for you several times a day. I am so proud of you! You can do hard things and not give up. Keep up the AWESOME work you are doing and tell Elder Empey goodbye and thank him for his diligent work and for taking good care of you for us. :)
Good luck with the changes that will happen this week. Happy Halloween!
Love you!
Mom
Hello,
Sorry to here about Steve. That's so sad. It seems pretty surreal to think that he's gone.
It seems like a lot has happened at home this week. We had a busy week as well. We're still teaching a lot of neat people and they're all progressing a lot. We've got a ton of appointments for this upcoming week. Me and my new companion are going to hit the ground running. We have two baptisms scheduled for the 17th of December.
We got transfer calls this morning. I'm staying in Fort Wayne, but out of the six of us here, only one other is staying. It's kind of sad, and a little scary because I don't know the area nearly as well as I need to. There are a lot more streets here than in Plainfield! It's a busy place.
We had dinner with a family on Saturday night. They're a young couple that went to BYU Idaho, and we were talking about music. Turns out they met at a concert in Kilby Court in 2008 and I was there for that show. Crazy stuff. The world's a really small place. Also, I found out two bands I like a lot broke up. Hearing that was kind of like a Dear John letter, but worse.
Our preparation day today is 1-9 instead of the regular 10-6 because it's Halloween, but Elder Empey is leaving at 1 so we're doing our email now, but I'll be staying with another set of missionaries between now and transfer meeting on Wednesday, so I should be emailing with them too later today. If you want, you can email me and I can send you another email.
Love you,
Jared
Last Monday, sometime between when I wrote you, and you wrote me, Steve Meske passed away. He was struggling to breathe so he called Michelle at work. She hurried home and tried to help him get more oxygen, but it wasn't enough. She called their home teachers so they could give him a blessing, but he died before they made it over. It has been a very emotional week. Michelle has been pretty strong, but I know that it has been so hard for her. She told me that a couple of days later, she was thinking of him, and she heard him say that he was happy and in a good place. This has helped her to feel peace and know that he is doing all right. She is glad that he is not suffering anymore and knows that she will see him again. It's just crazy how fast it happened. I went over last Sunday night and took them some dinner. He was sitting on the couch. He told me to come in and sit down and visit, which I did. We talked for about twenty minutes. He seemed to be doing alright. When I got up, I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. I had no idea this would be the last time would ever see him again. He was gone just a few hours later. It seems so surreal. The funeral was on Saturday.
I ran another half marathon this week.. This time it was for Amber Gibson. She just started running in June and we talked her into running the Halloween Half down in Provo. We trained faithfully all summer and fall and soon enough it was time for the race. There were five of us who ran it, me Amber, Laura, Sherisse and Sally. Amber made us all costumes and together we made a rainbow. I must say we looked pretty cute. About mile 11, Amber was getting pretty discouraged, but she hung in there and did not quit. It's kind of amazing when you accomplish hard things after you've told yourself so many times that you can't do it. She hung in there and met her goal. I'm proud of her. That is such a great feeling when you are done to be able to look back and see all your hard work and know that you've done something great.
Dad taught the fifth Sunday lesson in church yesterday. He did an amazing job, (like he always does when he teaches). it was on diversity and accepting other people and their differences. He just really brought it home with visual aids, class participation, poems and beautiful music. He really does have a gift to teach. I am so proud of him.
Mason Fenn got his mission call to Lima Peru.
Katie Brooks and Rebecca Johnson both had baby boys this week.
Mandy Wheeler is getting married to a guy from California, named Kevin. Your dad actually likes him and APPROVES! They will get married in the Spring. Wierd!
Saturday, Taylor was driving the Audi when some guy crashed into the side. Fortunately no one was hurt (but the car) and it was NOT Taylor's fault, so we should be able to get the car fixed with no cost to us. It's just a bummer that it happened to the only really nice car we own. Dad and Taylor were pretty bummed.
Wow! That was a lot of information this week. The most important though, is for you to know how much we love you, we think of you every day and pray for you several times a day. I am so proud of you! You can do hard things and not give up. Keep up the AWESOME work you are doing and tell Elder Empey goodbye and thank him for his diligent work and for taking good care of you for us. :)
Good luck with the changes that will happen this week. Happy Halloween!
Love you!
Mom
Hello,
Sorry to here about Steve. That's so sad. It seems pretty surreal to think that he's gone.
It seems like a lot has happened at home this week. We had a busy week as well. We're still teaching a lot of neat people and they're all progressing a lot. We've got a ton of appointments for this upcoming week. Me and my new companion are going to hit the ground running. We have two baptisms scheduled for the 17th of December.
We got transfer calls this morning. I'm staying in Fort Wayne, but out of the six of us here, only one other is staying. It's kind of sad, and a little scary because I don't know the area nearly as well as I need to. There are a lot more streets here than in Plainfield! It's a busy place.
We had dinner with a family on Saturday night. They're a young couple that went to BYU Idaho, and we were talking about music. Turns out they met at a concert in Kilby Court in 2008 and I was there for that show. Crazy stuff. The world's a really small place. Also, I found out two bands I like a lot broke up. Hearing that was kind of like a Dear John letter, but worse.
Our preparation day today is 1-9 instead of the regular 10-6 because it's Halloween, but Elder Empey is leaving at 1 so we're doing our email now, but I'll be staying with another set of missionaries between now and transfer meeting on Wednesday, so I should be emailing with them too later today. If you want, you can email me and I can send you another email.
Love you,
Jared
Another Baptism Date
Good Morning Jared, October 24, 2011
We've had another week of beautiful weather that I am really grateful for. It's been cool at night and warmer in the day. It is supposed to get a lot cooler this week, maybe even snow on Wednesday.
We are really enjoying Ching and Yui. They are so fun and are really trying hard to have a true American experience. They want to try everything and live just like we do. They are really excited for Halloween so they can dress up. It's really fun to see their enthusiasm. They cooked us dinner last Monday night so we could see what they eat. They did a good job.
I spent three more days this week at WoodBadge. Laura, Sherisse, Kay and Mike Zumwalt went too. We had a really great time. We camped with our separate patrols and did our own cooking. There are really some neat people out there, some who even live right by us and we don't even know it. Out of all the things I learned there, I'd have to say that my favorite part was meeting so many wonderful people. I guess you could say that it restores my faith in humanity to know that there are so many amazing people everywhere. These people donate so much of their time to helping other people raise their boys through Boy Scouting. They volunteer hundreds of hours every year and give selflessly much of their own resources. I guess this is why the church is affiliated with the BSA, because they have so many of the same values.
Steve Meske isn't doing so well. He has really gone downhill since you left. I'm pretty sure you will not see him again in this life. He is on hospice now, which is a company that does house calls for the terminally ill. They come in and administer drugs, help bathe and basically keep the patient comfortable until they die. It's tough to see him this way. He's a great man who has really turned his life around. We were talking about that the other day. He told me how grateful he is that he has cleaned up his life so that he is more prepared to meet God. Michelle is really struggling and does not want to let him go. It's going to be tough.
For us, it's life here as usual. School, work, cleaning, homework. Nothing new. We are definetly being watched over. In fact, life seems so good right now, that it scares me a little because I know it is just about our turn for a big trial. I just keep praying to be spared a little longer. :)
I feel so blessed to be your mother. You really make me proud. Keep up the good work and always look for the good in everything around you, and be thankful for it.
I love you!
Mom
Hello,
We've had a great week. It's been busy. I've just got another week with Elder Empey before he flies home. I won't even see him for half the week though because we'll be on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and the Spanish missionaries.
We've had some awesome lessons this week and we were able to set a baptism date of December 17th for Chris. He's a really awesome guy. He just got married to a member last week and now he's taking the lessons. He's got a lot of real intent. You can tell he's doing it to find the truth, not just doing it for his wife. He's had a lot of really cool experiences that have shown him that this is the way to go. It's really neat talking to him.
Hope you're having a great week, and thanks for the package.
Love,
Jared
We've had another week of beautiful weather that I am really grateful for. It's been cool at night and warmer in the day. It is supposed to get a lot cooler this week, maybe even snow on Wednesday.
We are really enjoying Ching and Yui. They are so fun and are really trying hard to have a true American experience. They want to try everything and live just like we do. They are really excited for Halloween so they can dress up. It's really fun to see their enthusiasm. They cooked us dinner last Monday night so we could see what they eat. They did a good job.
I spent three more days this week at WoodBadge. Laura, Sherisse, Kay and Mike Zumwalt went too. We had a really great time. We camped with our separate patrols and did our own cooking. There are really some neat people out there, some who even live right by us and we don't even know it. Out of all the things I learned there, I'd have to say that my favorite part was meeting so many wonderful people. I guess you could say that it restores my faith in humanity to know that there are so many amazing people everywhere. These people donate so much of their time to helping other people raise their boys through Boy Scouting. They volunteer hundreds of hours every year and give selflessly much of their own resources. I guess this is why the church is affiliated with the BSA, because they have so many of the same values.
Steve Meske isn't doing so well. He has really gone downhill since you left. I'm pretty sure you will not see him again in this life. He is on hospice now, which is a company that does house calls for the terminally ill. They come in and administer drugs, help bathe and basically keep the patient comfortable until they die. It's tough to see him this way. He's a great man who has really turned his life around. We were talking about that the other day. He told me how grateful he is that he has cleaned up his life so that he is more prepared to meet God. Michelle is really struggling and does not want to let him go. It's going to be tough.
For us, it's life here as usual. School, work, cleaning, homework. Nothing new. We are definetly being watched over. In fact, life seems so good right now, that it scares me a little because I know it is just about our turn for a big trial. I just keep praying to be spared a little longer. :)
I feel so blessed to be your mother. You really make me proud. Keep up the good work and always look for the good in everything around you, and be thankful for it.
I love you!
Mom
Hello,
We've had a great week. It's been busy. I've just got another week with Elder Empey before he flies home. I won't even see him for half the week though because we'll be on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and the Spanish missionaries.
We've had some awesome lessons this week and we were able to set a baptism date of December 17th for Chris. He's a really awesome guy. He just got married to a member last week and now he's taking the lessons. He's got a lot of real intent. You can tell he's doing it to find the truth, not just doing it for his wife. He's had a lot of really cool experiences that have shown him that this is the way to go. It's really neat talking to him.
Hope you're having a great week, and thanks for the package.
Love,
Jared
Following The Spirit
Hello Jared, 10/17/2011
Another week has flown by! It seems to be going crazy fast.
KSL did come to Spanky's on Monday. They stayed for two hours to get a lot of footage. Kalynn did a good interview. The story turned out nice and I even made my television debut! There I am in the background just working away. I hear they are going to follow her into surgery and do a full story about the outcome. She goes in on Tuesday for the surgery.
The Reich's came home from their mission in Peru. They spoke in church yesterday and gave a fantastic report. They told us how poor the people are there, how they had to baptize in the ocean and how many people joined the church while they were there. It was a really neat meeting. Even Taylor and Mikayla paid attention.
I spent three days last week up at Camp Tracy for a Boy Scout leadership training, called WoodBadge. It helps to train leaders to teach and strengthen the youth. They divided us up into patrols, six in each one. In my patrol, one guy grew up in Vernal, graduated from Uintah High, and knows some of my family. Another guy, in his twenties, served his mission in New Zealand, like dad. One lives in Draper and knows Marion. Another served in New Zealand, but was much older, come to find out....he was your Dad's mission companion! And a guy in the patrol next to me lives by Uncle Vaughn. Just goes to show, you should always behave. You NEVER know who you're going to run into. It has been interesting. I will go back this week for three more days, so it has been really time consuming, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Just as I suspected, the boys have been going through fuel like there's no tomorrow. When I got home Saturday night and got the report of what happened while I was away, the girls told me they ran into the Clayton's at the gas pump. Interesting, since they just filled up right before I left two days before. Taylor happened to mention that he and Dad went and got a pizza for dinner. He didn't bother to say where. Come to find out, they went to Bear Lake to get the pizza. Seriously? But wait...there's more. They found a little straight road and dad let Taylor "open it up". You guessed it. Taylor got his high speed record...107! These boys should not be left unattended. I'm not sure what to do, knowing I will be gone for another three days. "When Mom's away, the boys will play." I may have to hire a nanny to keep the boys out of trouble!
We got two more foreign exchange students, Yui and Ching, from Taiwan. They are really cute girls and speak English quite well. They are happy and excited to be here. They are going to cook dinner for us tonight. They are most excited to see snow and to experience Halloween. It's cute to see how excited they are.
I hope you got your package. I know it's not much, but I didn't really know what to get you that wouldn't be a headache to carry around the rest of your mission. If you need or want anything else, just let me know. I hope you have a great birthday! If you were still in Plainfield, I would call Sister Melton and have her bake you a cake, but since I have lost my only connection, you are out of luck. I thought about sending one, but that seemed disastrous. Just know that we are thinking about you, praying for you and wishing you a super HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
One year older and Wiser too. Happy Birthday to you!
Love,
Mom
Hello,
All our hard work from last week has paid off. we had a really busy week. It's a little bit sad though. Elder Empey's travel plans have been finalized. He's traveling down to the mission home on Halloween day and flying home on the 1st.
I got some news from Elder Bair in Plainfield today. On my last night with Elder Bair he came down with a bad case of Influenza. Him and his new companion have been pretty sick the past few weeks. I got out of there just in time. :) He gave me some good news and some bad news. Good news is, Jessica is getting baptized on November 1st. It's really exciting! She's awesome. Bad news is... The last lesson I had with Bob he told us he was doing some research on the internet and....got into anti information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". Apparently now he's dropped the elders and doesn't really want anything to do with the church anymore. It breaks my heart. He was doing so well. Hopefully in the future some other elders can bring him back. The ward really loved him and I really love him.
Anyways...back to Fort Wayne. We had a really cool experience this week. As we were planning one night we were planning backup plans for a set appointment we had the next day. We planned four or five people and then after we were done planning that night I thought of someone else in the area we could try by. It was a family that was having some problems and told Elder Empey and his former companion not to come by anymore until they called back after things cooled down. We put them on the very last "well, we'll see them if nobody else is home" backup. Well, the next day we went for our scheduled appointment. We knocked a few times and could see her in the house. She didn't answer. So we moved on to the next family. We were sure they would answer because both of their cars were there. They had to be home. Their five year old daughter answered the door, and when we asked if her parents were there she looked behind the door for a few seconds like someone was talking to her, and then she looked back at us, said "no" and shut the door. It was a little odd, but we decided to move on to our next plan. The next three people we tried didn't answer. We were on to our final plan of the family that told Elder Empey not to stop by anymore. We showed up and when we knocked on the door we got a nice warm "Come on in!" They were excited to see us. They told us, "it's really funny that you stopped by just now because Anna was just thinking about calling you back and having you come over again so she can get baptized." (This is where my jaw hit the floor.)
This was a really neat experience that showed me how the spirit works. We were inspired to plan to see them, and I'm pretty sure the people we had planned to see first were prompted to not let us in. I know we were supposed to see this family and we were guided to see them.
Neat stuff.
Love you,
Jared
Another week has flown by! It seems to be going crazy fast.
KSL did come to Spanky's on Monday. They stayed for two hours to get a lot of footage. Kalynn did a good interview. The story turned out nice and I even made my television debut! There I am in the background just working away. I hear they are going to follow her into surgery and do a full story about the outcome. She goes in on Tuesday for the surgery.
The Reich's came home from their mission in Peru. They spoke in church yesterday and gave a fantastic report. They told us how poor the people are there, how they had to baptize in the ocean and how many people joined the church while they were there. It was a really neat meeting. Even Taylor and Mikayla paid attention.
I spent three days last week up at Camp Tracy for a Boy Scout leadership training, called WoodBadge. It helps to train leaders to teach and strengthen the youth. They divided us up into patrols, six in each one. In my patrol, one guy grew up in Vernal, graduated from Uintah High, and knows some of my family. Another guy, in his twenties, served his mission in New Zealand, like dad. One lives in Draper and knows Marion. Another served in New Zealand, but was much older, come to find out....he was your Dad's mission companion! And a guy in the patrol next to me lives by Uncle Vaughn. Just goes to show, you should always behave. You NEVER know who you're going to run into. It has been interesting. I will go back this week for three more days, so it has been really time consuming, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Just as I suspected, the boys have been going through fuel like there's no tomorrow. When I got home Saturday night and got the report of what happened while I was away, the girls told me they ran into the Clayton's at the gas pump. Interesting, since they just filled up right before I left two days before. Taylor happened to mention that he and Dad went and got a pizza for dinner. He didn't bother to say where. Come to find out, they went to Bear Lake to get the pizza. Seriously? But wait...there's more. They found a little straight road and dad let Taylor "open it up". You guessed it. Taylor got his high speed record...107! These boys should not be left unattended. I'm not sure what to do, knowing I will be gone for another three days. "When Mom's away, the boys will play." I may have to hire a nanny to keep the boys out of trouble!
We got two more foreign exchange students, Yui and Ching, from Taiwan. They are really cute girls and speak English quite well. They are happy and excited to be here. They are going to cook dinner for us tonight. They are most excited to see snow and to experience Halloween. It's cute to see how excited they are.
I hope you got your package. I know it's not much, but I didn't really know what to get you that wouldn't be a headache to carry around the rest of your mission. If you need or want anything else, just let me know. I hope you have a great birthday! If you were still in Plainfield, I would call Sister Melton and have her bake you a cake, but since I have lost my only connection, you are out of luck. I thought about sending one, but that seemed disastrous. Just know that we are thinking about you, praying for you and wishing you a super HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
One year older and Wiser too. Happy Birthday to you!
Love,
Mom
Hello,
All our hard work from last week has paid off. we had a really busy week. It's a little bit sad though. Elder Empey's travel plans have been finalized. He's traveling down to the mission home on Halloween day and flying home on the 1st.
I got some news from Elder Bair in Plainfield today. On my last night with Elder Bair he came down with a bad case of Influenza. Him and his new companion have been pretty sick the past few weeks. I got out of there just in time. :) He gave me some good news and some bad news. Good news is, Jessica is getting baptized on November 1st. It's really exciting! She's awesome. Bad news is... The last lesson I had with Bob he told us he was doing some research on the internet and....got into anti information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". Apparently now he's dropped the elders and doesn't really want anything to do with the church anymore. It breaks my heart. He was doing so well. Hopefully in the future some other elders can bring him back. The ward really loved him and I really love him.
Anyways...back to Fort Wayne. We had a really cool experience this week. As we were planning one night we were planning backup plans for a set appointment we had the next day. We planned four or five people and then after we were done planning that night I thought of someone else in the area we could try by. It was a family that was having some problems and told Elder Empey and his former companion not to come by anymore until they called back after things cooled down. We put them on the very last "well, we'll see them if nobody else is home" backup. Well, the next day we went for our scheduled appointment. We knocked a few times and could see her in the house. She didn't answer. So we moved on to the next family. We were sure they would answer because both of their cars were there. They had to be home. Their five year old daughter answered the door, and when we asked if her parents were there she looked behind the door for a few seconds like someone was talking to her, and then she looked back at us, said "no" and shut the door. It was a little odd, but we decided to move on to our next plan. The next three people we tried didn't answer. We were on to our final plan of the family that told Elder Empey not to stop by anymore. We showed up and when we knocked on the door we got a nice warm "Come on in!" They were excited to see us. They told us, "it's really funny that you stopped by just now because Anna was just thinking about calling you back and having you come over again so she can get baptized." (This is where my jaw hit the floor.)
This was a really neat experience that showed me how the spirit works. We were inspired to plan to see them, and I'm pretty sure the people we had planned to see first were prompted to not let us in. I know we were supposed to see this family and we were guided to see them.
Neat stuff.
Love you,
Jared
Monday, October 10, 2011
Mormon.org Ad Campaign
Dear Jared,
We Finally got your plaque done and hung up at the church. It looks so nice, and I really LOVE the scripture you chose. It is so fitting. "O be wise, what can I say more". Hahaha you are so much fun.
This past week was my semi-annual scrapbook retreat. It comes on the heels of conference. I love doing this, because I am able to stay completely caught up with all my pictures. Plus, it's a nice reminder of all the things we did during the summer which I tend to forget about until I see the pictures. It's a fun get away from the hustle and bustle of real life and spend some time with my friends. Collards have been so generous to let us use their cabin. It is such a nice place, and not too far from home. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a VERY expensive trip for me, because while I was away, your dad officially had his mid life crisis. Friday (with a little encouragement from Taylor, Mikayla and Hallie), he went and bought a high performance car. I'm not sure it's a good idea to own such a fast car with teenagers around. He said Taylor is his sports car advisor. Whatever Taylor says is Gospel. Taylor thought it was a good idea, so your Dad did it. It's an Audi, German engineering, all the bells and whistles, and it drives like a rocket. 0-60 in nothing flat. In spite of all my discouraging of such a bad idea, they did it anyway. Since today is a holiday, he'll probably get to pick it up tomorrow. I'm betting that we will spend more in gas over the next few months than he has spent driving that gas guzzling truck of his. Just like with Bella, I was out numbered 4 to 1. I didn't stand a chance.
Kalynn just called me last night to tell me that KSL is going to be at Spanky's this morning. They are doing a story on her. She needs a new kidney, and a customer has volunteered to give her one. Her ward did a fundraiser a couple of months ago and raised over $4000 to help cover the cost of her anti-rejection medication. It has been a neat experience to watch people be so generous, especially Heather who is giving her a kidney. What a selfless person. I cannot even imagine being so willing to make that kind of a sacrifice for a person you hardly know. There are a lot of really amazing people in the world.
I'm curious how the finances work on your mission. Do they give you cash every month? Do you pay the rent or does the mission? Do you have a checking account? All I know is we make a monthly payment to the ward for you. I just don't know how you get the money or buy things that you need.
The Lord loves you. We love you too and we are so proud of you. Keep your shoulder to the wheel!
Love, Mom
Hello,
Congratulations on the new car! You'll have to send pictures next week and have Taylor do a write up of all the specs. I'm excited to see this.
Elder Empey and I have been working hard this week, although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the numbers we got this week. We had tons of appointments fall through and it seems like we were always biking all around town all day everyday. We set up a lot of appointments for this week though. Most of our days are already planned and completely full with appointments. The weather's been a nice change this week. It's warmed up to around 85 degrees most days and it looks beautiful outside. There are trees everywhere and they're all different colors.
To answer your question about money, we have a card and money gets deposited every two weeks. We get a total of $135 a month to buy groceries and other supplies. The mission manages the rent and everything else.
The mormon.org ad campaign started here last week and it's really exciting. We've only seen one so far, but there's seven billboards up around Fort Wayne. Almost every time we talk to someone they say they've seen the ads on TV. It's a really exciting time for missionary work. We've already had someone go on to mormon.org and request a visit with us. We saw her a few days ago and talked for a few minutes. She's got huge potential. We have an appointment set with her for Tuesday, so I'm excited to see how it will all work out.
Hope you have a good week, and good luck with the speeding tickets.
Love,
Jared
We Finally got your plaque done and hung up at the church. It looks so nice, and I really LOVE the scripture you chose. It is so fitting. "O be wise, what can I say more". Hahaha you are so much fun.
This past week was my semi-annual scrapbook retreat. It comes on the heels of conference. I love doing this, because I am able to stay completely caught up with all my pictures. Plus, it's a nice reminder of all the things we did during the summer which I tend to forget about until I see the pictures. It's a fun get away from the hustle and bustle of real life and spend some time with my friends. Collards have been so generous to let us use their cabin. It is such a nice place, and not too far from home. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a VERY expensive trip for me, because while I was away, your dad officially had his mid life crisis. Friday (with a little encouragement from Taylor, Mikayla and Hallie), he went and bought a high performance car. I'm not sure it's a good idea to own such a fast car with teenagers around. He said Taylor is his sports car advisor. Whatever Taylor says is Gospel. Taylor thought it was a good idea, so your Dad did it. It's an Audi, German engineering, all the bells and whistles, and it drives like a rocket. 0-60 in nothing flat. In spite of all my discouraging of such a bad idea, they did it anyway. Since today is a holiday, he'll probably get to pick it up tomorrow. I'm betting that we will spend more in gas over the next few months than he has spent driving that gas guzzling truck of his. Just like with Bella, I was out numbered 4 to 1. I didn't stand a chance.
Kalynn just called me last night to tell me that KSL is going to be at Spanky's this morning. They are doing a story on her. She needs a new kidney, and a customer has volunteered to give her one. Her ward did a fundraiser a couple of months ago and raised over $4000 to help cover the cost of her anti-rejection medication. It has been a neat experience to watch people be so generous, especially Heather who is giving her a kidney. What a selfless person. I cannot even imagine being so willing to make that kind of a sacrifice for a person you hardly know. There are a lot of really amazing people in the world.
I'm curious how the finances work on your mission. Do they give you cash every month? Do you pay the rent or does the mission? Do you have a checking account? All I know is we make a monthly payment to the ward for you. I just don't know how you get the money or buy things that you need.
The Lord loves you. We love you too and we are so proud of you. Keep your shoulder to the wheel!
Love, Mom
Hello,
Congratulations on the new car! You'll have to send pictures next week and have Taylor do a write up of all the specs. I'm excited to see this.
Elder Empey and I have been working hard this week, although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the numbers we got this week. We had tons of appointments fall through and it seems like we were always biking all around town all day everyday. We set up a lot of appointments for this week though. Most of our days are already planned and completely full with appointments. The weather's been a nice change this week. It's warmed up to around 85 degrees most days and it looks beautiful outside. There are trees everywhere and they're all different colors.
To answer your question about money, we have a card and money gets deposited every two weeks. We get a total of $135 a month to buy groceries and other supplies. The mission manages the rent and everything else.
The mormon.org ad campaign started here last week and it's really exciting. We've only seen one so far, but there's seven billboards up around Fort Wayne. Almost every time we talk to someone they say they've seen the ads on TV. It's a really exciting time for missionary work. We've already had someone go on to mormon.org and request a visit with us. We saw her a few days ago and talked for a few minutes. She's got huge potential. We have an appointment set with her for Tuesday, so I'm excited to see how it will all work out.
Hope you have a good week, and good luck with the speeding tickets.
Love,
Jared
Monday, October 3, 2011
General Conference
Dear Jared,
What is the weather like right now in Indiana? We are still enjoying the summer heat and have been running the air conditioner. I am grateful for a warm fall after such a long cold spring. I know it won't last much longer, though. I hear there is a nasty storm with a cold front coming in this week. I guess we just have to enjoy it while we've got it.
I sure enjoyed conference. Your dad worked all day Saturday, but was home for the Sunday morning session. I loved the talk on the Book of Mormon. I can't remember who gave it, but it was amazing. He said that it is either a book from the devil, or from the hand of God. Read it and you will find out who it is from. And once you know that it is true, you will know the church is true. I loved his analogy with the two circles. He asked how many straight lines can you draw through the center of a circle. The answer: infinite. Put a circle along side of it. Now there can be only one! Once circle represented the Bible and the other the book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I hope you were able the hear conference!
Did you catch the news that the Provo tabernacle will be rebuilt as a temple? The Provo temple is currently the busiest temple in the world. Now they will have two in Happy Valley.
Your cousin, Anna, got married on Saturday night, so the whole family was in town. Everyone brought their bikes. Uncle Jay even brought his tandem bike. (Which was pretty funny, because he drives a mini, and that bike is almost as long as his car.) They planned a bike ride for Sunday afternoon. I wasn't very excited to go, because I didn't want to miss conference, plus, I really wanted a day of rest, but we went so we could be with the family. I'm glad we did. It was fun and the weather was perfect. Mikayla was a trooper and rode the entire 25 miles. That little ride was nothing for Taylor after his last bike ride! Dad and Hallie drove the support vehicle which came in handy when Taylor got a flat.
Everyone is doing well. We love you! The Church is true.
Love, Mom
Hello,
The weather here has been cold and rainy for the past week. The sun's just barely come out. The leaves are beginning to change and it looks beautiful here. I'm beginning to get the hang of Fort Wayne. It's really different from Plainfield. Biking around the city here reminds me of mountain biking because the sidewalks are so broken up. There are some pretty crazy people here, and there's sirens going all the time, but there are also some great people here. Fort Wayne is known as "the city of churches" and it's true, there is a church on every corner. Someone told me there's around 120 churches, and almost that many bars. Haha.
Conference was great. There were so many excellent talks relating to missionary work. I really learned a lot. But, It seems like no matter how much I'm looking forward to conference I still doze off a little.
I've had a good week, besides all the rain. I went on my first exchange with a Spanish speaking missionary. It was a little weird sitting in on lessons and not being able to understand almost anything. It was a fun experience.
Elder Empey and I have had some great lessons so far. We're gaining more investigators and should be getting a lot more really soon. The mormon.org advertising campaign starts today! There's going to be seven billboards around Fort Wayne, 30 second television commercials playing back to back on prime time TV, and internet ads. I can't wait to see the results!
Hope you're doing well.
Love,
Jared
What is the weather like right now in Indiana? We are still enjoying the summer heat and have been running the air conditioner. I am grateful for a warm fall after such a long cold spring. I know it won't last much longer, though. I hear there is a nasty storm with a cold front coming in this week. I guess we just have to enjoy it while we've got it.
I sure enjoyed conference. Your dad worked all day Saturday, but was home for the Sunday morning session. I loved the talk on the Book of Mormon. I can't remember who gave it, but it was amazing. He said that it is either a book from the devil, or from the hand of God. Read it and you will find out who it is from. And once you know that it is true, you will know the church is true. I loved his analogy with the two circles. He asked how many straight lines can you draw through the center of a circle. The answer: infinite. Put a circle along side of it. Now there can be only one! Once circle represented the Bible and the other the book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I hope you were able the hear conference!
Did you catch the news that the Provo tabernacle will be rebuilt as a temple? The Provo temple is currently the busiest temple in the world. Now they will have two in Happy Valley.
Your cousin, Anna, got married on Saturday night, so the whole family was in town. Everyone brought their bikes. Uncle Jay even brought his tandem bike. (Which was pretty funny, because he drives a mini, and that bike is almost as long as his car.) They planned a bike ride for Sunday afternoon. I wasn't very excited to go, because I didn't want to miss conference, plus, I really wanted a day of rest, but we went so we could be with the family. I'm glad we did. It was fun and the weather was perfect. Mikayla was a trooper and rode the entire 25 miles. That little ride was nothing for Taylor after his last bike ride! Dad and Hallie drove the support vehicle which came in handy when Taylor got a flat.
Everyone is doing well. We love you! The Church is true.
Love, Mom
Hello,
The weather here has been cold and rainy for the past week. The sun's just barely come out. The leaves are beginning to change and it looks beautiful here. I'm beginning to get the hang of Fort Wayne. It's really different from Plainfield. Biking around the city here reminds me of mountain biking because the sidewalks are so broken up. There are some pretty crazy people here, and there's sirens going all the time, but there are also some great people here. Fort Wayne is known as "the city of churches" and it's true, there is a church on every corner. Someone told me there's around 120 churches, and almost that many bars. Haha.
Conference was great. There were so many excellent talks relating to missionary work. I really learned a lot. But, It seems like no matter how much I'm looking forward to conference I still doze off a little.
I've had a good week, besides all the rain. I went on my first exchange with a Spanish speaking missionary. It was a little weird sitting in on lessons and not being able to understand almost anything. It was a fun experience.
Elder Empey and I have had some great lessons so far. We're gaining more investigators and should be getting a lot more really soon. The mormon.org advertising campaign starts today! There's going to be seven billboards around Fort Wayne, 30 second television commercials playing back to back on prime time TV, and internet ads. I can't wait to see the results!
Hope you're doing well.
Love,
Jared
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Transfered to Fort Wayne
Mon, Sep 26, 2011
Dear Jared,
I am sad that you have left Plainfield. I will really miss the phone calls from Sister Melton telling me how great you are doing and what a fantastic missionary you are. Now I no longer have a connection to fill in all the details that you don't bother to tell us. :) I am so happy that you have had success there and have made some life long friends. I am excited to hear about your transfer and your new companion. Where is he from? How did you transfer? Did you use public transportation or does someone from the mission home take you around?
Jared and Gabby came into Spanky's on Saturday. They told me that Cammie got a job as a Deejay at 90.9 (I think). What a great job for a music lover.
Dad and Taylor spent three days this week in Las Vegas. They went with Uncle Marion to a car auction. He is trying to sell an old Mustang for a friend of his. They are trying to get $220,000 for this car. It didn't sell there, so they will likely take it to an auction in Arizona next year. They had a great time seeing all the amazing cars. They even got to test drive some fancy sports cars and ride with a professional race car driver. Taylor asked the driver to do a little extra drifting, which he did, so of course, Taylor loved it! They had a good time together.
It was a quiet weekend at home with just the girls. We actually had our fall quilt retreat, where my friends come and set up their sewing machines and we work on quilts for days on end. It is a lot of fun, and usually very productive.
I got a call from the Stake President Sunday night. There is a Young Women training meeting in November. Church Headquarters wants our stake to host it. They will film it in the Regional Center and then broadcast it to other stakes. We need to organize it and provide all the music. I will sit up on the stand with the General Authorities and the General Young Women Presidency. It's a little intimidating. You'd better pray for me!
My favorite quote this week: If you were to wake up in the morning with only the things you gave thanks for last night, what would you be left with?
I'd still have you! Keep up the good work.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
Things are going great in my new area. They put me way up North in Fort Wayne with my new companion, Elder Empey. Fort Wayne's pretty different from Plainfield. It's a lot more city than Plainfield was. It's kind of like a smaller version of Indianapolis. I've met a lot of great people here. We're living in the garage of one of the families in the Spanish branch here. Our address is 8307 Hunter's Knoll Place, Fort Wayne, IN, 46825.
Elder Empey is from Idaho Falls. He's a great elder. We've been working really hard. This is his last transfer, so we're going to make it the best one ever. He's going home on Halloween day.
We had a baptism on Saturday for two of our investigators here. Their names are Bill and Francisco. They're really sweet people. It's pretty cool because my last companion, Elder Bair, found Bill and Francisco when he was trained here about a year ago. It was pretty neat to see.
Hope you're having a great day,
Jared
Andrew's Baptism
Mon, Sep 19, 2011
Dear Jared,
Sounds like things are going really well for you and you are baptizing the nations. :)
We are anxious to hear how the baptism went on Friday. Also, did you move into your new apartment yet?
On Friday night, Craig set up his outdoor theatre and we watched the show 17 Miracles. It is a movie about the Martin-Willy Handcart Company. It tells the story of the pioneers as they travel to Zion. It is heart wrenching to see what they went through, but also astonishing how many miracles they witnessed. The writer did a lot of research and studied personal journals to make the movies as factual as possible. This is another reason we should keep a journal. You never know when someone will want to make a movie about your life. :)
For our Stake fireside on Sunday, we had T.C. Christensen, the writer of the movie, come and speak to us. He did a fantastic job. It was fun to hear some of the trivia behind the scenes. It was really amazing to learn some of the many miracles that the pioneers experienced. Someone asked why he thought the Lord made it so tough on the pioneers when he could have given them even more miracles and made it easier. He then asked everyone who is a descendant of that company to stand. About a fourth of the audience stood. (You could have stood had you been there.) He went on to explain that because they struggled so much, they really had to look inward for strength and rely completely on God. That made their testimonies so strong. God helped them enough just to get them there, and His miracles were enough to sustain them, but not enough to weaken them. You've heard the phrase, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". He believes that the testimonies those pioneers had were strong enough to sustain several generation. You are part of that heritage.
We love you. Keep your chin up, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
We just got transfer calls this morning. Looks like my time in Plainfield is up. I'm getting transferred on Wednesday. I'm really sad about leaving this area, but I guess I'm needed somewhere else. This week really had its ups and downs. To start off the week, when we met with Bob on Tuesday we found out that he was searching for something on the internet and ran into some anti information. He read an article about a book full of information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". We told him about how dangerous that stuff is, but he's insisting that he needs to buy this 800 page book and read it to get the answers. It's really heartbreaking. This really shook him up. He missed church on Sunday, which was the first time he missed since Mother's Day. I'm really worried about him.
On the other hand, we had Andrew's baptism this Friday. It was a great experience. He had a lot of family show up, and there were a lot of people from the ward too. Andrew's stepdad was the one who performed the baptism. He's changed a lot lately. You can really tell the difference its making in their family. They're excited to eventually get sealed in the Indianapolis temple once it's built.
I meant to send some pictures last time, but the Plainfield library was closed, so we had to go to the Avon library instead, and they didn't have any SD card slots on their computers.
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