General Conference

April 2, 2012

Hi Jared,

Well, Taylor finally had his day in court. He did a great job and didn't seem nervous at all. He was sworn in, and took the witness stand. He had to go and draw the accident on a white board and tell every little detail of what happened. I was proud of him for being so brave.  Taylor got to skip school, PLUS he got paid a whopping $16 for his time.  We actually felt sorry for the other guy. He was a middle aged Hispanic man who seemed like a good guy who just didn't understand what happened. He used a translator. I thought how horrible it would be if you were in another country and had to be in court, not understanding the language or the procedures. When all was said and done, the City (and Taylor) won. The other guy had to pay a $160 fine.

The whole experience was a good thing. We had to wait more than an hour for our turn. While we were waiting, there were a lot of cases before us. I think that every single one of them were drug or alcohol related. There was even a man in a striped jail outfit wearing shackles who came before the judge. It is a good reminder for all of us why it is so important to obey the Word of Wisdom. It's always amazing for me to see real life application of why we are given commandments. Keeping the commandments sure does simplify life and make it more enjoyable.

Although we missed having you here on April Fool's Day, Hallie more than made up for in practical jokes. First thing, I went to the kitchen to make beeakfast and all the silverware was missing. There was just a note..."April fools". Then, I grabbed my iPad so I could listen to conference and something just wasn't right. She had switched cases on mine and Dads and it totally confused me. She had several more lined up throughout the day for us. She was a lot of fun. Were you up to your old Tom Foolery yesterday?

Last, but certainly not least, we enjoyed General Conference. I thought there were some really amazing talks. I really enjoyed Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Jeffrey R. Holland's talks. There were some really good one liner's too. "Stop it", "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you",
‎"There is enough heartache & sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness & resentment." These things are plastered all over the Internet, especially on Facebook.

But my very favorite part, that really made me emotional, is when I saw all the missionaries from the MTC singing during the Saturday session. Wow! That choked me up. They did a beautiful job and even had a little help from David Archuletta. and they sang one of my favorite songs, "Called to Serve". I still remember the feeling I had in the MTC all those years ago when we would sing that song. It can be so powerful.

This week is Spring Break. I think we will go to Vernal for a few days. We haven't been there since last summer. Dad is wanting to go fishing.

Have a fantastic week.

I love you!

Mom



Hello,

Not much to report on this week. It's been pretty normal here. General Conference  was great. I learned a lot from it that I can apply to missionary work. Josh and Nikki are doing pretty well. They watched conference this week and they enjoyed it. I don't know how much they got out of it because they have four wild little girls, but we'll hope some of it stuck.

I had a good day on Wednesday when I went on exchanges with Elder Wilson, one of my Zone Leaders. We worked in his area, which is the Indiana University campus. It was a huge change from what I'm used to. It was a little weird talking to people my own age. Most of the people we talked to were really open so we got a lot of return appointments set. We also had two lessons that day. One of them was with a girl named Stacy. She's roommates with two members from Fort Wayne and they're a really good example for her. We had a very spiritual lesson and she's excited to learn more. It was pretty weird to see people from past areas I've served in.

Well, that's pretty much all that's new.

Love you,

Jared