Good Morning Jared,
This has been such an exciting week. I finally decided it was time to finish the top room in the garage. I called my dad to see if he would come help. He dropped everything and came out. He does amazing work, so the framing looks awesome. Dad, Taylor, Hallie and Hunter Lundy all helped all day Friday. It was a lot of work, but It is completely ready for drywall now. Hopefully, since today is a holiday, your dad and Taylor will work on it. I can't wait to get it done.
I picked up two more Brazilian foreign exchange students from the airport yesterday. They are cute girls. Melanie is 14 and Anne is 15. They were so excited to see snow, and asked if they could eat it. I told them they could eat the fresh snow, if we get some. And what do you know....it's snowing this morning. They are so excited!
I love you. Have a great week.
Love,
Mom
Hello,
We've had a pretty good week. We were able to finally meet with Anna, someone who we haven't been able to meet with for a few weeks. As we met with her she told us that she has received a feeling that everything we were teaching was true. She's almost ready to be baptized, but she has to get permission from her father which will be a little tricky. I'm hopeful that things will work out and she'll be able to be baptized soon.
We had another cool experience on Thursday. We went to this apartment complex downtown to teach a new investigator. We pressed the button and buzzed for her twice but she didn't answer. We were about to leave when this lady came up and started asking who we were. We explained that we were missionaries and she told us she wanted to know more. As we were talking to her, a man came down from the elevator and asked if we were looking for his sister. We said yes and he said he'd go back to the apartment and try to call her. So he let us in the apartment complex and we waited for him by the elevator while Brother Jones, the member who was with us went into a conference room with the other lady to answer the questions she had about the church. He came back and said he couldn't get hold of her so he started talking to us. He had a lot of good questions, so we taught him for a few minutes, and set up a return appointment with him. We went into the conference room and joined up with Brother Jones again and answered this lady's questions. It was neat to be able to teach two people at a time.
I don't really have much else to say.
Love you,
Jared
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Mikayla's Mustache Party
January 9, 2012
Hello Jared,
Already more than a week into the new year....sigh! Yesterday in church we were singing the hymn, "Improve the shining Moments", and one line says, "Time flies on wings of lightning, we cannot call it back....". Boy, isn't that the truth. Time is flying.
This week, your little sister turned 15. She gets to go take the drivers test and get her learner permit. Crazy! Doesn't really seem possible.
She decided that she wanted to have a birthday party this year. It was pretty fun. We had a house FULL of teenagers! She had a mustache theme. Everyone wore one, even the girls. It was funny. We had mustache decorations and mustache shaped cookies. It was after school on Friday, so we had waffles and all the toppings you could imagine. The kids seemed to like it. They played twister and had a blast. Silly kids.
It finally snowed here on Saturday. We got a little under a foot. Taylor was excited because he could finally use the snowmobile he has been working so hard on to get fixed. He was having fun until a piece broke, putting it out of commission again. Dad's going to see if a friend of his can fix the part. Hopefully that's not our only snow of the year. :)
Church is at 1:00 now. That's a little hard to get used to. It seems like by the time we finally get home, it's dinner time and the day is nearly over. I didn't even get to sleep in, because Stake Council is at 7:30.
Everything is going really well here. Everyone is healthy and happy.
We love you a ton! Keep up the good work. We pray for your safety and your success.
Love,
Mom
Hello,
It's finally starting to look like Winter, huh? We don't have any snow here. The past week it's been sunny and in the high 40s. On Friday it felt like it was Springtime. It was so nice outside.
The teaching has gone pretty well lately. We started teaching five new investigators this week. One of the families we're teaching we found out is actually related to someone in our ward, so they already have a connection, which is great. Things have picked up this week. We have a lot of appointments this week and we had a lot last week. Nothing really new to report though. Things have been pretty normal here, except for this guy sitting next to me at the library jamming out to 80s music videos. Lots of crazy people here.
Love you,
Jared
Hello Jared,
Already more than a week into the new year....sigh! Yesterday in church we were singing the hymn, "Improve the shining Moments", and one line says, "Time flies on wings of lightning, we cannot call it back....". Boy, isn't that the truth. Time is flying.
This week, your little sister turned 15. She gets to go take the drivers test and get her learner permit. Crazy! Doesn't really seem possible.
She decided that she wanted to have a birthday party this year. It was pretty fun. We had a house FULL of teenagers! She had a mustache theme. Everyone wore one, even the girls. It was funny. We had mustache decorations and mustache shaped cookies. It was after school on Friday, so we had waffles and all the toppings you could imagine. The kids seemed to like it. They played twister and had a blast. Silly kids.
It finally snowed here on Saturday. We got a little under a foot. Taylor was excited because he could finally use the snowmobile he has been working so hard on to get fixed. He was having fun until a piece broke, putting it out of commission again. Dad's going to see if a friend of his can fix the part. Hopefully that's not our only snow of the year. :)
Church is at 1:00 now. That's a little hard to get used to. It seems like by the time we finally get home, it's dinner time and the day is nearly over. I didn't even get to sleep in, because Stake Council is at 7:30.
Everything is going really well here. Everyone is healthy and happy.
We love you a ton! Keep up the good work. We pray for your safety and your success.
Love,
Mom
Hello,
It's finally starting to look like Winter, huh? We don't have any snow here. The past week it's been sunny and in the high 40s. On Friday it felt like it was Springtime. It was so nice outside.
The teaching has gone pretty well lately. We started teaching five new investigators this week. One of the families we're teaching we found out is actually related to someone in our ward, so they already have a connection, which is great. Things have picked up this week. We have a lot of appointments this week and we had a lot last week. Nothing really new to report though. Things have been pretty normal here, except for this guy sitting next to me at the library jamming out to 80s music videos. Lots of crazy people here.
Love you,
Jared
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. I love this time of year though, because I love starting over. I guess for me it brings new hope of things I can accomplish. I wrote out all my resolutions yesterday, and it took an entire page. I am excited to get started on it. Reading the Book of Mormon again is at the top of the list, along with losing ten pounds. I keep that one on there every year, just for the fun of it.
We threw a last minutes New Year's Party together. Ivan and Jenn, Nichole, Mike and Rebecca Johnson and Natalie and all their kids came, along with Hunter Lundy. We ate and played games. At midnight, we went outside and lit a bunch of fireworks, along with lots of others in town, so it pretty much looked like the Fourth of July. When we ran out explosives, we came back inside to play another game. We heard a knock on the window, so we opened the blinds, only to find our Christmas tree in the middle of the circle, completely engulfed in flames. There was your little brother standing nearby with an enormous grin and a lighter. We were all amazed to see how quickly it went up in smoke, seriously, less than a minute and there was nothing left but the trunk. It was quite amazing!
Grandpa Wise gave Taylor his old snowmobile. Of course it doesn't work, so he now has a project to keep him busy. I'm grateful for that! Hopefully he can get it going before we have our first snowfall of the season. It has been the driest year I can remember, not to mention how warm it has been. I was outside on New Year's Eve, mowing the lawn, well, actually vacuuming up the leaves with the lawn mower, but still, I don't think I've ever been able to do that before.
I'm working at Spanky's again today while your dad is home with the kids. Only time will tell what mischief they will get into. :)
Enjoy your week! We sure do love you!
Mom
Hello,
It has been a great past couple of days. We've had a lot of cool stuff happen. We had a lot of appointments cancel again, but we had some great opportunities. Last Thursday we got to help with a service project. There's a man in our ward who has recently just started coming back to church. He has had a lot of problems in his life, and things have been really rough for him, but he's received a lot of help from the ward. A few weeks ago he found out he had cancer and now he's in the hospital getting treatment for it. He's been in the hospital a lot longer than expected. His trailer is a mess and in desperate need of repairs. Someone started up a service project to get his house back into shape for him before he got home. The ward has been a huge help. They've had so many people show up to help that they had to start turning them away. They've put in over one hundred hours of service there. We got to help for a few hours and it was great. I love how much this ward really cares about him and wants to help him out. It reminded me of what the Christmas season is really about.
We went to have New Years dinner with the Hansen family. They moved out here a few years ago. They used to live in Tooele, so I asked them if they knew Mark and Ruth. Turns out they used to live in their ward! They knew them really well. Sister Hansen wanted me to ask Cody about his worst babysitting job ever. Haha.
We finally got some snow last night. When we got done with dinner we went outside and there were about two inches on the road. It was Elder Long's first time driving in the snow, so that was pretty fun.
Tell the Oleas thanks for the package of Christmas goodies. We really enjoyed it.
How did the drifting in the new car go?
Love you,
Jared
It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. I love this time of year though, because I love starting over. I guess for me it brings new hope of things I can accomplish. I wrote out all my resolutions yesterday, and it took an entire page. I am excited to get started on it. Reading the Book of Mormon again is at the top of the list, along with losing ten pounds. I keep that one on there every year, just for the fun of it.
We threw a last minutes New Year's Party together. Ivan and Jenn, Nichole, Mike and Rebecca Johnson and Natalie and all their kids came, along with Hunter Lundy. We ate and played games. At midnight, we went outside and lit a bunch of fireworks, along with lots of others in town, so it pretty much looked like the Fourth of July. When we ran out explosives, we came back inside to play another game. We heard a knock on the window, so we opened the blinds, only to find our Christmas tree in the middle of the circle, completely engulfed in flames. There was your little brother standing nearby with an enormous grin and a lighter. We were all amazed to see how quickly it went up in smoke, seriously, less than a minute and there was nothing left but the trunk. It was quite amazing!
Grandpa Wise gave Taylor his old snowmobile. Of course it doesn't work, so he now has a project to keep him busy. I'm grateful for that! Hopefully he can get it going before we have our first snowfall of the season. It has been the driest year I can remember, not to mention how warm it has been. I was outside on New Year's Eve, mowing the lawn, well, actually vacuuming up the leaves with the lawn mower, but still, I don't think I've ever been able to do that before.
I'm working at Spanky's again today while your dad is home with the kids. Only time will tell what mischief they will get into. :)
Enjoy your week! We sure do love you!
Mom
Hello,
It has been a great past couple of days. We've had a lot of cool stuff happen. We had a lot of appointments cancel again, but we had some great opportunities. Last Thursday we got to help with a service project. There's a man in our ward who has recently just started coming back to church. He has had a lot of problems in his life, and things have been really rough for him, but he's received a lot of help from the ward. A few weeks ago he found out he had cancer and now he's in the hospital getting treatment for it. He's been in the hospital a lot longer than expected. His trailer is a mess and in desperate need of repairs. Someone started up a service project to get his house back into shape for him before he got home. The ward has been a huge help. They've had so many people show up to help that they had to start turning them away. They've put in over one hundred hours of service there. We got to help for a few hours and it was great. I love how much this ward really cares about him and wants to help him out. It reminded me of what the Christmas season is really about.
We went to have New Years dinner with the Hansen family. They moved out here a few years ago. They used to live in Tooele, so I asked them if they knew Mark and Ruth. Turns out they used to live in their ward! They knew them really well. Sister Hansen wanted me to ask Cody about his worst babysitting job ever. Haha.
We finally got some snow last night. When we got done with dinner we went outside and there were about two inches on the road. It was Elder Long's first time driving in the snow, so that was pretty fun.
Tell the Oleas thanks for the package of Christmas goodies. We really enjoyed it.
How did the drifting in the new car go?
Love you,
Jared
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Our Blue Christmas!
Good Morning Jared,
It was so fun to talk to you on Christmas. I am so happy that you are doing well, that you love your companion and that you are happy. That is such a relief to me. I just wish I could of had a big hug to go with the phone call.
A mission is kind of a strange thing, it's hard, it's rewarding, it's challenging, it's frustrating, it's amazing, it's discouraging, and yet it's fun. It's your highest highs and your lowest lows. It's all those things wrapped up in one. But when all is said and done, it's a wonderful experience that you wouldn't trade for anything.
Just yesterday at Spanky's, I met a lady from Madrid. She was baptized two years before I was there, in the same ward that I served in! Soon after she was baptized, she moved to Utah to find a husband and be strong in the church. She is married and has two beautiful daughters. One of her daughters served a mission in Spain as well. It was really fun to talk to her and her family. It makes me think back and wonder what happened to all the people I taught back in the day.
I don't know what you and Taylor talked about, because he made us all go out, but he sat in my room for a long time after you hung up, and just cried. My heart broke for him. He really misses you and loves you. Your influence on him is HUGE! Thank you for the great example you are in so many lives, especially his.
I worked yesterday, so of course, Dad and Taylor were up to no good. They did a little shopping. Taylor bought two cheap cookie sheets. Apparently he watched an episode of Top Gear where they put cookie sheets under the two back tires, put on the hand brake, so the cookie sheets stay there, then they can drift. Sounds like trouble to me! He practiced last night by putting tape on the tires of his remote controlled car. He was drifting all over the house. He's actually really good at it.
I hope you have a great week. Happy New Year! We love you!
Mom
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