Tea Party!

Dear Family,

It's been a long week but it seems like we haven't really accomplished much. We've had a few tragic phone calls the past couple of weeks. One of our less active members we've been bringing back and an investigator with a baptism date have called us and said they don't want to meet with missionaries anymore. It's really sad. We think we're making a ton of progress and they're doing well, but something makes them back out. Maybe they're just scared of the change.
 
We've still got some great investigators though. Bob's doing really well, except for the Word of Wisdom. We found out he drinks a gallon and a half of tea a day! It's tough for him to give up his vices, but he's on his way. We've got a new investigator named Gabby that we've been meeting with for the past couple weeks. She's been reading every day and praying about it. She thinks she knows what the answer is already.
 
Hope you guys are having a great week.
 
Love
 
Jared


Dear jared,

I feel awful I didn't get your letter to you in time. This morning got a little crazy hectic and I got side tracked. Hopefully you don't have to wait a whole week for news from home, although there isn't much.

I am sorry a out the discouraging week. That must be so hard after all the work you've put into it, to have it all fall apart. Don't despair. After the trials come great blessings.

I hope you you survived the medicated pasta incident. I was telling Ivan about it and he assured me that missionaries are blessed with iron stomachs. Hopefully that holds true for you!

Well, the first week of summer vacation has gone off without a hitch. Mikayla is still in Costa Rica having the time of her life, so it is still really quiet around the house. Even all the Ensigns are gone on a church history tour so the neighborhood is super boring.

Taylor, Hallie and I have gone hiking with Laura and we've done a little bit of service this week for some friends. Taylor and Craig have gone mountain biking a couple of times at 5:30 am (he hasn't slept in even once yet, hahaha) but other than that, it's been pretty uneventful.

We did go up to Idaho on Saturday for Bronson's wedding. It was a nice ceremony in a quaint reception center in Rexburg. We spent the night in a Hotel Saturday night with the entire Mott clan. It was quite the party. The kids were running like wild Indians all over the place while the adults sat and visited (like we always do), there was a little pool time fun, and our customary canasta game until 1:00 am. There was a good time had by all. Bronson looks super happy.

Dad stayed home so he could attend Grandpa Wise's 80th birthday party, which was the same time as Bronson's wedding. It was held on June 11th, which is Grandma Wise's birthday, ironically, but it was a celebration for him because it was a milestone. 80 years. Wow!

Taylor is hopefully going to work for Ryan installing home theaters. I hope it works out. He really needs a job!

Have a great week.
Love, 
Mom



Hey everyone,
I'm in Costa Rica! I am having a great time. We missed all of our original flights because the first plane had problems. We ended up flying from SL to LA and then we took an all night flight to Miami. We then took a flight down to Cost Rica. It was a long trip, but we made it. We took a 3 hour bus ride from San Jose to a boat dock, then we got on boats and had an hour and a half ride to the hotel we were staying at. The hotel was awesome! It was a bunch of rooms and cabins on raised walk ways through the jungle. We stayed there for two nights and when we were there, we went on a boat tour and saw birds, river otters, fish, baby crocs, and lizards. After that, we went to the village and toured around the place, went to the beach and collected seashells. We also saw MONKEYS (tell Hallie I took a pic for her). Today we took a bus ride to Sarapiqui and went to a banana plantation. It was so cool. We made it to our new hotel, ate lunch, and went to a chocolate plantation. We got to try cocoa beans when they were raw, roasted, ground up with cinnamon sugar and made into hot chocolate. It was so good because it was kind of bitter and very different from what we are used to. I bought you guys some chocolate bars to try. They are actually very healthy because they are organic with cocoa butter instead of oil and sugar. I dont know when I will be able to send you another e mail or call you, so I LOVE YOU and only miss you a little bit. haha just kidding.
ps. the 2 gig memory card only holds like 100 pics ......grrrrrrrrrrrrr. I will try and buy another one if i can find it.
Love,
Mikayla