The Epistle of Jared

Dear Jared,

It's 3:45 am. I can't sleep. I've been lying here for almost an hour pondering the events that are going to happen tomorrow. I am giddy with excitement. I remember going to the airport when Masen came home and the overwhelming flood of emotion that came over me as he came down the escalator. He was the last one off the plane. I'm sure he did that on purpose just to torture his family. That's just cruel. Mean. Torturous. I'm sure you would never do that to your family. Right?

Yesterday Rylee spoke in church. She did an amazing job. She made everyone laugh and cry. She recounted some spiritual experiences and some funny ones. She really kept the audience captivated. Later we headed to Spanky's to s big party in her honor. She's excited and scared as she heads off to Russia on Wednesday.

We had Stake Conference yesterday. When we sang "Called to Serve", I had a complete meltdown. I still remember singing that in the MTC many years ago and the emotion of that song still overcomes me. Mikayla was conducting the song and kept looking at me wondering what was going on. I kept hearing your words echo in my head: "Mom, pull yourself together". I did the best I could.

I remember being in your shoes as I prepared to leave Spain. For me it was harder that leaving home. I knew I would never see all the people that I had grown attached to again. All the people I  had learned to love through serving and who had been my entire life I had to say goodbye to. It seemed more permanent than saying goodbye to my family and friends back home. It's a bitter sweet day for sure. Lucky for me, this time I am on the sweet end.

I cant wait to see you again. I miss you like crazy. I know that the Lord has comforted me through your entire mission and has made me feel peace and contentment.  If I would have felt for two whole years, the way I have for he last week, I don't know if I could have endured. I have been basket case. I so excited I can hardly contain myself, yet I am scared for you as you plot out your future. I know this will be a hard adjustment as you transition back into real life. But just know that it has been done by many before you and you will eventually find your place in this world.

I will be waiting with open arms. I am expecting a great big, bear hug from you. I am counting the hours.

Love, Mom

3 John 1: 13-14       Love, Jared

Bummer of a Week

February 11, 2013

Hi Jared,

Another week has come and gone. It goes so fast.

I'm loving my job on Capitol Hill. I have learned so much. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until I started learning. It's fascinating to me. I really enjoy the people and the process from which an idea becomes a law. The House just passed a bill to raise the speed limit along I-15 to 80 miles an hour. Now we wait to see if it passes in the Senate. Dad follows along every day, following all that they do. He even streams the video of the session to see what happens and occasionally catches a glimpse of me. So fun.

Mikayla is in the middle of her play, The Little Mermaid. She loves it. We hardly see her because she is always at the school. It will be over in a week. She's pretty fun to watch. Ivan and Jenn and the kids, Nichole and her kids, and Grandma and Grandpa all came down for the weekend to watch the play. We had a good time. Grandma and Grandpa are still here and said to tell you hi. 

Here's a funny neighbor story: The other day, Laura got some Little Smokies sausages and some croissant rolls and made Pigs in a Blanket. She had extra sausages, so she just put BBQ sauce on them. When she served dinner, Oliver, who is three, said he wanted some "Crying Piggies" and pointed to the BBQ sauce. She dished him up some and then asked him why the piggies were crying. He promptly replied, "Because they don't have any blankets". Oh, so cute!

Mikayla had her first date this week with a cute boy named Zach. She doubled with Cassie Thompson. These kids have so much fun.

Did I tell you that Paul got home? He was here for a few days and then he and his family headed off to Chile for three weeks. He will speak in church on March 17th, the same day as Bridger.  Rylee will speak on the 10th of March. she leaves on the 13th. It's going to be a busy, fun month.

Happy Valentines day. I should have sent you a package, but I didn't. I'm lame. Just know that I love you very much.

Be awesome! Mom

Hey,

This has been an interesting week. Last monday we had a lesson with Adam. We met him at the church as we usually do and this time we met he just broke down. He's got a ton of struggles right now and the apartment he just moved into had some problems, so he told us that he's homeless and has no money. We gave him a blessing of comfort and after that he left for his fiancee's parents house in Noblesville for a few days. He called us the next day to tell us that he found a place to live down there, which is out of our area so we're done teaching him. We passed his information on to the other Elders and we're hoping for the best.

Yesterday wasn't very good either. We spent the day in Alexandria after church. We had a lesson set with Beth and Everett at 7:30 and we had a member from Elwood meeting us there so we called in the afternoon to confirm the appointment since they weren't at church. Everett told Elder Melchior that they have decided to go to Beth's aunt's church instead of ours. It was heartbreaking. I think we're going to try dropping by next Sunday and seeing if we can sort things out.

Hopefully we don't get dumped for a third time before Valentine's Day!

Love you,

Jared

Fifty One and a Half Hours to Go!

In spite of Daylight Savings Time, I still woke up really early. It's dark and cold outside, but inside its toasty and the smell of baking banana bread is wafting from the kitchen. 

My countdown began long ago but this morning it switched to hours instead of years, months or days. Fifty two, to be exact!

When he left. I cried my eyes out. I thought my heart would surely break. As they weeks went by, it got easier to bear. I have felt such comfort and peace during his entire mission. I haven't worried about him since he left the MTC. I knew the Lord would provide and take care of him. I know he's in the right place, doing what he should be doing. Words of praise from members in his area have been so reassuring and his letters home, short as they are, have been a constant comfort.

The last few weeks have been the hardest for me. Every time someone asks me how much longer, I get that big annoying lump in my throat, and my eyes fill up with tears. I can hardly wait until I can see him again, hold him in my arms and get one of those great big bear hugs that he is so good at. I miss him so much. How can the hours drag on so long?

Although I miss him terribly, I am scared to death to have him come home. The fear of what lies ahead now is greater for me that sending him out in the first place. What's next? Will he get a job? Go to school? Have friends? Who will he date? Will he date? Will he marry? Where will he end up? Will he be happy? Will he stay active in the church? So many unanswered questions. So much uncertainty. I'm scared for him. The worry has already begun. This is where I have to trust in the Lord. Trust that He will continue to bless him and place opportunity and good people in his path. I realize that as a mother, my influence is all but gone and he will go on his own path from here.

I miss the scared little boy I sent out twenty four long months ago. He will come home a man. Things will never be the same as they were. I'm scared. I'm terrified. I'm beside myself with excitement. Only 51 1/2 hours to go!

Mission Conference with Elder Ballard

Good Morning Jared.

We are counting the days now, and getting so excited to see you again. I do have some bad news for you though. Taylor is unwilling to move bedrooms or share a room. So it looks like your new room will be upstairs in the Jungle Room. I hope this doesn't make you want to extend your mission. :) Taylor says you can paint it. You're an artist. I guess you can fight it out when you get home.

Life is busy, so it is passing quickly. It's good I got this Capitol Hill job to keep time passing fast so I'm not just sitting home or pacing the floor anxiously awaiting your return.

Holden comes home this week, he will go to the temple and then to the MTC on Wednesday. He still doesn't know where he will be going. That will be interesting to find out.

We got the house put back together although I didn't get everything painted that I had hoped to, but it's better than it was.

We are so excited to have you home again and Hallie is excited to have you upstairs by her. 

Will you have P-Day on Monday next week so we can hear any last minute things, or is this it? We will be anxiously waiting in the airport eight days from now. Woo hoo! We are SO EXCITED!!!! I can't wait for a BIG BEAR HUG.

I love you. Finish Strong!

Mom

Hello,

 

Things are getting crazy around here. Everyone seems to be counting down the days. It's been nice lately, I've been having dinner with a lot of my favorite families. Other crazy things include, the plumbing in our apartment not working and my companion damaging the car. The house we live in is around 100 years old and the plumbing doesn't work very well anymore. We've had trouble with slow draining water the whole time I've been here, but it's been bad lately. We've had to drive to our Branch Mission Leader's house every morning so we can shower and get ready. We finally got it fixed (kinda). So that's been a headache. When we were on exchanges on Tuesday, I went to Marion with Elder Channell, and Elder Melchior and Elder Davis stayed in Elwood. We were supposed to meet half way and exchange back on Wednesday afternoon. Things were delayed when Elder Melchior hit a curb and tore a big chunk out of the tire. They had to change it immedietly, so I stayed in Marion for a few hours longer than expected.

 

When I got back though we were able to teach a new investigator named Sheila. Her son is a member who is returning to activity, and she's interested in learning about the church. The lesson with her went well, and we have another appointment set for Tuesday.

 

The big highlight of the week was our Mission Conference with Elder Ballard. It was him, Bishop Stevenson, and Elder Lansing. We got to shake their hands and they were all great, and very personable. Elder Ballard opened it up to a question and answer session with the statement, "You can ask me anything, but if you ask about where Kolob is, I'm going to have to call you to repentance. You can worry about that with your Elders Quorum when you get home." It was a great meeting.

 

In other news that maybe you've heard about, they'll be splitting the Indianapolis mission in July when they get a new mission president. The Fort Wayne Stake and the Muncie Stake (where I'm at now) will be part of the new Cincinatti Ohio Mission.  

 

Love you,

 

Jared

A Successful Week

Hi Jared.

My kitchen project dragged out all week and ended up downstairs in the family room. Now the entire downstairs is a disaster. The kitchen is still not entirely put back together, but looks better than before. I left your footprint indent in the wall that you put there many years ago. I like it there. :)

Mikayla is in love and went on another date this week. (Different boy). It's fun to watch her have so much fun. His name is Ben, and he's really cute with her.

Life is getting busier each week as my hours at the Capitol increas. I don't know how moms who work full time keep everything together. Luckily, this will only last three more weeks.

Here's a story I neglected to tell you. A few weeks ago, Taylor and I were coming home in Dads Audi, when Taylor heard a strange noise. He tore into the car and found that a piece had a hole in it that wasn't supposed to be there. They ordered a part, fixed the problem but then the car wouldn't run for more than a couple of minutes. The computer kept shutting it off. They called Josh's brother, Eli, who works at Strong Audi, and he said there were some unrelated recall items. He told them to make an appointment for the recall items and he would look at the other problems while it was in there. They put it on a trailer and borrowed Dennis' truck and took it into Salt Lake. They gave Dad a really sweet loaner car to use while his car was being fixed. They found there were metal shavings in the engine, so they said it need to be replaced, a $7000 job. The car has a 120,000 mile warranty. His car has 119,161. They are giving him a FREE BRAND NEW ENGINE! Dad says this is blessing from having you on a mission. Thanks! Can you believe it? When does this ever happen?

We're still getting more snow. There's probably a foot and a half on the grass and piles everywhere. The one by our back door is 4 1/2 feet tall. I am so ready for spring.

Have an amazing week!

Love you, Mom

Hey,

 

We had a pretty incredible week with a lot of exciting miracles. On Tuesday we had exchanges with the elders in Marion. I had Elder Davis with me in our area. We stopped by a woman named Sandra. Elder Zeyer and I taught her for a while, but life got hectic, her husband lost her job, and he didn't really want us around so we quit teaching her in November. He got a job again, so we're welcome back. We had a great lesson with her and her granddaughter Courtney. She loved having us back and she really recognizes the spirit we bring into her home.

 

On Wednesday we were able to get ahold of a member named Brandon. He was baptized about three years ago, came for a few weeks afterwards and then quit coming. Nobody in the branch really knew why. Brandon called us a few months ago asking for a ride to church. We found him one and he came that day but we were never able to get ahold of him until now. We stopped by and he let us right in. He asked us all about what he needed to do to get the Priesthood. I asked him what made him ask about it and he told us that he really felt like he needed to call us a few month ago to come to church and recently he's been reading scriptures and the topic of exaltation keeps coming up. He told us after all he's read about it he'd be a fool to miss out on it.

 

Thursday we had a pretty great lesson with a guy named Randy. We found him tracting a few weeks ago and he let us right in. This was our second lesson with him and we finished teaching the Restoration. He accepted it all really well and he even committed to be baptized when he knew that this was true.

 

Another great miracle happened on Sunday. We had planned to stop by Beth and Everett as one of our last stops in the evening. As we were driving into the town of Alexandria where they live Elder Melchior felt like we should stop there first. We followed the prompting and caught them home. They were friendly and invited us in. We asked about why he felt like he didn't want to meet with us anymore and he brought out some questions about the Book of Mormon that had been troubling him. We were able to answer his questions and he agreed to meet with us again. They're going to stick with their other church for now, but I'm really grateful that the door is open again for us to stop by.

 

So, that's been our week. I'm really excited that we're teaching Sandra, Courtney, Beth and Everett again.

 

Love you,

 

Jared 

The Last Zone Conference

Hey,

 

We've had a good week. We started the week off with exchanges with the Zone Leaders. They both stayed in our area for the exchange and we split up to cover more area. I went with one and Elder Melchior went with the other. I worked in Elwood and Elder Melchior went to Frankton. We both had a lot of cool things happen. We found a lot of great people and had a few lessons with new investigators.

 

We also had Elder Melchior's birthday on Wednesday. We got more birthday cake than we know what to do with. Brother Phillips, our Ward Mission Leader had us over for dinner and had a big cake for us, and another family, the Kings, had a nice German chocolate cake waiting for us when we stopped by.

 

On Thursday we had our Zone Conference. We got some pretty exciting news that Elder M. Russell Ballard will be coming to speak to the mission on March 2nd. On the less-than-exciting side, I had to give my "farewell testimony". It was a strange feeling. I didn't even know most of the missionaries there. My group going home is really small, so there weren't many of us up there sharing testimonies. There's only four of us going home, and there are thirty coming out next month. They're in the process of dividing areas right now so there are places for all the new missionaries.

 

 

Love you,

 

 

Jared

Staying in Elwood

Hi Jared,

Well, this week was pretty much awesome. I stared my new job at the State Capitol. I LOVE IT! I get to be right on the House floor while the legislature is in session. It is quite the hopping place. It is really fun to get to know some of the Representatives that I am assigned to and fascinating to see how it all works. 

Mikayla and I were both in the Davis County Clipper this week. Me, because I am shaking hands with Representative Nielson and Mikayla because she is in the play Little Mermaid.

The plays opening night was Friday the first. They do a great job and it is really fun to watch. Mikayla has really loved it. She spends so many hours at the school these days, that we hardly see her anymore. 

February 4, 2013

Dear Jared,

Hallie, of course, had her Birthday on Friday.  She is officially 14. Seems a little crazy that everyone is getting so old. Thanks for the letter and adorable pictures. You are one handsome cat. Not quite as cuddly as Garfield, but purr-fect in my eyes.

Sunday was the Superbowl. We celebrated with lots of food and friends. It got a little crazy around here. 

Manuela and Alice will leave today. Manuela is simply adorable. I could keep her forever. She fits right in here. She is funny, cute and really adventurous. I love that about her. I will miss her a lot.

Love, Mom

Hey,

We had transfer calls yesterday. I'll be staying in Elwood with Elder Melchior. We've had a bit of a slow week. It's been hard to meet with some of our investigators. We had a whole day planned in Alexandria yesterday and everything ended up falling through before we even got there. We did get a lot of lessons set up for this week though.

We did have some cool stuff happen though. On Wednesday we got to go to mutual. We taught the Young Women about missionary work and had a big question and answer session.

We had a pretty good lesson with Adam. He's still doing pretty well. He ended up moving again and he's having some troubles with the apartment, but he's staying with some friends right now and they're treating him pretty well.

On Saturday we had a member from Kokomo come down to take us out to lunch, which was cool. He's going to try to make it down here at least one more time in the next few weeks.

Well, hope you're doing well.

Love you,

Jared