So much for Spring!

Hello Jared, 

So much for Spring. Saturday was perfect, I went for my first bike ride of the year. It was amazing. Yesterday was beautiful and warm, the sun was shining and we ate dinner outside. Even this morning when I went swimming, it was t-shirt weather. About fifteen minutes ago, the wind started blowing like crazy, temperatures dropped and now we are in the middle of a crazy wind, rain and SNOW storm. So weird. It's one of those days I wish I could stay home all day. Who wants to go outside in the middle of a blizzard? It is miserable outside.

I didn't tell you about our ward activity a couple of weeks ago. The Young Women did a service auction to raise money for girls camp. People donated all kinds of services, like lawn care, gardening, tilling, babysitting, etc.  Mikayla auctioned off "sing at your funeral". It was pretty funny. Dennis bid on it and got it for around $20. Your dad auctioned off a smoked dinner, which went for fifty something and finally ended in a three way tie...? So we are doing dinner for three families. We bought a three layer cake from Josh Sims which I figure I can use for your dads 50th birthday this year. But the funniest of all....(you do remember that it's mustache march, right? ) the rights to Topher's mustache...the highest bidder gets to determine the fate of his 'stache. Taylor and Brad chipped in on it and paid $24 for it. Natalie was hilarious, she was wanting to know what their intentions were. She, of course, wants it shaved off. He looks like Mario with his long, curly caterpillar. They have yet to take action on his furry friend. We are all anxiously waiting to see the fate of Topher's face. Stay tuned...

Tim and Steffi came over for lunch on Saturday. Your dad did ribs and chicken, and of course, they were amazing. Then they went to Mikayla's voice recital with us. She did a good job. I'm always proud of her when she sings. She has a pretty voice. Tim was harassing her and telling her how painful it was, she took the teasing well, in the end when he hugged her goodbye, he told her she really did do a good job. That made her feel so great.

Saturday night was the General Young Women Broadcast. We served dinner beforehand to all the YW, their mothers and leaders. That made a really busy day for me, but the broadcast was really nice. We had a pretty good turnout, although not as many as we were planning on.

There is a man in our ward who is a military man, he has post traumatic stress disorder and uses a service dog for comfort. Yesterday in Sunday School, the dog had loud, VERY stinky GAS! Everyone around them was so disgusted and sickened by the smell, but no one dared to do anything for fear of offending. I guess it was pretty miserable. Luckily, I followed the spirit and sat in the hall because I was late going to class. Hahaha lucky me. At dinner last night, Laura was saying she could still smell it and telling us how awful it was. I think she now has PTS disorder. Haha

I love to hear your stories and experiences. I am glad you're enjoying your time in Indiana. Keep the faith and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Well, the storm has passed. It's eerily quiet and calm. The chickens have come back outside of the coop. There's barely a breeze now and now the sun is starting to peek out. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.

I love you, Jared!

Mom



Hey,

We have had one of the best weeks in a long time here. The weather has been great, almost summer weather. which means we've had lots of opportunities for service. We were able to help Lindy, a member in our ward with some projects around her house. We were going to help her on Friday night at 7:30. Right before that we were at dinner with a really neat family in our ward. She's from Italy so as you can imagine the meal was fantastic. lots of amazing pasta and a salad topped with olive oil crushed from her parent's house in Italy. So good! While we were eating the weather got really crazy. Out of nowhere it started hailing really hard and the tornado sirens were going off. We were worried we weren't going to be able to help her. By the time dinner was over though the sky was clear and we were able to help. We went over there and helped her transplant some bushes and haul some old broken up concrete from her garage. She was so grateful for the help. 

This week the first move of the year happened. The Clark's, a really cool family in the ward moved out this week. There will be many more following. It's a little bit sad. 

I found a few more cool connections to home this week. When we were having dinner with families this week I found someone in the ward that is cousins with a friend from school, and I found out that the bishop's wife is from Moses Lake, Washington, which is where Jared Jensen moved to Utah from. She said there are some Jensen's in her parents ward so there might be a connection there. It's funny how small the world is. 

We also were able to get two of our investigators to church yesterday! 

Hope you have a good week!

Love you,


Jared

P.S. Send me pictures of Topher's mustache. I miss it.