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