New Companion: Elder Long

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

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

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

Flying Trampoline at Litster's

Johnson's Tree in the Circle North of Us.

In the Circle North of Us

Wilkin's Tree

Wilkin's Tree is the Sod Removal Service

On the Wilkin's Home

The Fallen Power line

The Cemetery was not the Final Resting Place for this Tree

More Flying Trampoline's

Trees Blocking Roads

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