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
Monday, October 10, 2011
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
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