Dear Jared, Halloween 2011
Last Monday, sometime between when I wrote you, and you wrote me, Steve Meske passed away. He was struggling to breathe so he called Michelle at work. She hurried home and tried to help him get more oxygen, but it wasn't enough. She called their home teachers so they could give him a blessing, but he died before they made it over. It has been a very emotional week. Michelle has been pretty strong, but I know that it has been so hard for her. She told me that a couple of days later, she was thinking of him, and she heard him say that he was happy and in a good place. This has helped her to feel peace and know that he is doing all right. She is glad that he is not suffering anymore and knows that she will see him again. It's just crazy how fast it happened. I went over last Sunday night and took them some dinner. He was sitting on the couch. He told me to come in and sit down and visit, which I did. We talked for about twenty minutes. He seemed to be doing alright. When I got up, I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him. I had no idea this would be the last time would ever see him again. He was gone just a few hours later. It seems so surreal. The funeral was on Saturday.
I ran another half marathon this week.. This time it was for Amber Gibson. She just started running in June and we talked her into running the Halloween Half down in Provo. We trained faithfully all summer and fall and soon enough it was time for the race. There were five of us who ran it, me Amber, Laura, Sherisse and Sally. Amber made us all costumes and together we made a rainbow. I must say we looked pretty cute. About mile 11, Amber was getting pretty discouraged, but she hung in there and did not quit. It's kind of amazing when you accomplish hard things after you've told yourself so many times that you can't do it. She hung in there and met her goal. I'm proud of her. That is such a great feeling when you are done to be able to look back and see all your hard work and know that you've done something great.
Dad taught the fifth Sunday lesson in church yesterday. He did an amazing job, (like he always does when he teaches). it was on diversity and accepting other people and their differences. He just really brought it home with visual aids, class participation, poems and beautiful music. He really does have a gift to teach. I am so proud of him.
Mason Fenn got his mission call to Lima Peru.
Katie Brooks and Rebecca Johnson both had baby boys this week.
Mandy Wheeler is getting married to a guy from California, named Kevin. Your dad actually likes him and APPROVES! They will get married in the Spring. Wierd!
Saturday, Taylor was driving the Audi when some guy crashed into the side. Fortunately no one was hurt (but the car) and it was NOT Taylor's fault, so we should be able to get the car fixed with no cost to us. It's just a bummer that it happened to the only really nice car we own. Dad and Taylor were pretty bummed.
Wow! That was a lot of information this week. The most important though, is for you to know how much we love you, we think of you every day and pray for you several times a day. I am so proud of you! You can do hard things and not give up. Keep up the AWESOME work you are doing and tell Elder Empey goodbye and thank him for his diligent work and for taking good care of you for us. :)
Good luck with the changes that will happen this week. Happy Halloween!
Love you!
Mom
Hello,
Sorry to here about Steve. That's so sad. It seems pretty surreal to think that he's gone.
It seems like a lot has happened at home this week. We had a busy week as well. We're still teaching a lot of neat people and they're all progressing a lot. We've got a ton of appointments for this upcoming week. Me and my new companion are going to hit the ground running. We have two baptisms scheduled for the 17th of December.
We got transfer calls this morning. I'm staying in Fort Wayne, but out of the six of us here, only one other is staying. It's kind of sad, and a little scary because I don't know the area nearly as well as I need to. There are a lot more streets here than in Plainfield! It's a busy place.
We had dinner with a family on Saturday night. They're a young couple that went to BYU Idaho, and we were talking about music. Turns out they met at a concert in Kilby Court in 2008 and I was there for that show. Crazy stuff. The world's a really small place. Also, I found out two bands I like a lot broke up. Hearing that was kind of like a Dear John letter, but worse.
Our preparation day today is 1-9 instead of the regular 10-6 because it's Halloween, but Elder Empey is leaving at 1 so we're doing our email now, but I'll be staying with another set of missionaries between now and transfer meeting on Wednesday, so I should be emailing with them too later today. If you want, you can email me and I can send you another email.
Love you,
Jared
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Another Baptism Date
Good Morning Jared, October 24, 2011
We've had another week of beautiful weather that I am really grateful for. It's been cool at night and warmer in the day. It is supposed to get a lot cooler this week, maybe even snow on Wednesday.
We are really enjoying Ching and Yui. They are so fun and are really trying hard to have a true American experience. They want to try everything and live just like we do. They are really excited for Halloween so they can dress up. It's really fun to see their enthusiasm. They cooked us dinner last Monday night so we could see what they eat. They did a good job.
I spent three more days this week at WoodBadge. Laura, Sherisse, Kay and Mike Zumwalt went too. We had a really great time. We camped with our separate patrols and did our own cooking. There are really some neat people out there, some who even live right by us and we don't even know it. Out of all the things I learned there, I'd have to say that my favorite part was meeting so many wonderful people. I guess you could say that it restores my faith in humanity to know that there are so many amazing people everywhere. These people donate so much of their time to helping other people raise their boys through Boy Scouting. They volunteer hundreds of hours every year and give selflessly much of their own resources. I guess this is why the church is affiliated with the BSA, because they have so many of the same values.
Steve Meske isn't doing so well. He has really gone downhill since you left. I'm pretty sure you will not see him again in this life. He is on hospice now, which is a company that does house calls for the terminally ill. They come in and administer drugs, help bathe and basically keep the patient comfortable until they die. It's tough to see him this way. He's a great man who has really turned his life around. We were talking about that the other day. He told me how grateful he is that he has cleaned up his life so that he is more prepared to meet God. Michelle is really struggling and does not want to let him go. It's going to be tough.
For us, it's life here as usual. School, work, cleaning, homework. Nothing new. We are definetly being watched over. In fact, life seems so good right now, that it scares me a little because I know it is just about our turn for a big trial. I just keep praying to be spared a little longer. :)
I feel so blessed to be your mother. You really make me proud. Keep up the good work and always look for the good in everything around you, and be thankful for it.
I love you!
Mom
Hello,
We've had a great week. It's been busy. I've just got another week with Elder Empey before he flies home. I won't even see him for half the week though because we'll be on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and the Spanish missionaries.
We've had some awesome lessons this week and we were able to set a baptism date of December 17th for Chris. He's a really awesome guy. He just got married to a member last week and now he's taking the lessons. He's got a lot of real intent. You can tell he's doing it to find the truth, not just doing it for his wife. He's had a lot of really cool experiences that have shown him that this is the way to go. It's really neat talking to him.
Hope you're having a great week, and thanks for the package.
Love,
Jared
We've had another week of beautiful weather that I am really grateful for. It's been cool at night and warmer in the day. It is supposed to get a lot cooler this week, maybe even snow on Wednesday.
We are really enjoying Ching and Yui. They are so fun and are really trying hard to have a true American experience. They want to try everything and live just like we do. They are really excited for Halloween so they can dress up. It's really fun to see their enthusiasm. They cooked us dinner last Monday night so we could see what they eat. They did a good job.
I spent three more days this week at WoodBadge. Laura, Sherisse, Kay and Mike Zumwalt went too. We had a really great time. We camped with our separate patrols and did our own cooking. There are really some neat people out there, some who even live right by us and we don't even know it. Out of all the things I learned there, I'd have to say that my favorite part was meeting so many wonderful people. I guess you could say that it restores my faith in humanity to know that there are so many amazing people everywhere. These people donate so much of their time to helping other people raise their boys through Boy Scouting. They volunteer hundreds of hours every year and give selflessly much of their own resources. I guess this is why the church is affiliated with the BSA, because they have so many of the same values.
Steve Meske isn't doing so well. He has really gone downhill since you left. I'm pretty sure you will not see him again in this life. He is on hospice now, which is a company that does house calls for the terminally ill. They come in and administer drugs, help bathe and basically keep the patient comfortable until they die. It's tough to see him this way. He's a great man who has really turned his life around. We were talking about that the other day. He told me how grateful he is that he has cleaned up his life so that he is more prepared to meet God. Michelle is really struggling and does not want to let him go. It's going to be tough.
For us, it's life here as usual. School, work, cleaning, homework. Nothing new. We are definetly being watched over. In fact, life seems so good right now, that it scares me a little because I know it is just about our turn for a big trial. I just keep praying to be spared a little longer. :)
I feel so blessed to be your mother. You really make me proud. Keep up the good work and always look for the good in everything around you, and be thankful for it.
I love you!
Mom
Hello,
We've had a great week. It's been busy. I've just got another week with Elder Empey before he flies home. I won't even see him for half the week though because we'll be on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and the Spanish missionaries.
We've had some awesome lessons this week and we were able to set a baptism date of December 17th for Chris. He's a really awesome guy. He just got married to a member last week and now he's taking the lessons. He's got a lot of real intent. You can tell he's doing it to find the truth, not just doing it for his wife. He's had a lot of really cool experiences that have shown him that this is the way to go. It's really neat talking to him.
Hope you're having a great week, and thanks for the package.
Love,
Jared
Following The Spirit
Hello Jared, 10/17/2011
Another week has flown by! It seems to be going crazy fast.
KSL did come to Spanky's on Monday. They stayed for two hours to get a lot of footage. Kalynn did a good interview. The story turned out nice and I even made my television debut! There I am in the background just working away. I hear they are going to follow her into surgery and do a full story about the outcome. She goes in on Tuesday for the surgery.
The Reich's came home from their mission in Peru. They spoke in church yesterday and gave a fantastic report. They told us how poor the people are there, how they had to baptize in the ocean and how many people joined the church while they were there. It was a really neat meeting. Even Taylor and Mikayla paid attention.
I spent three days last week up at Camp Tracy for a Boy Scout leadership training, called WoodBadge. It helps to train leaders to teach and strengthen the youth. They divided us up into patrols, six in each one. In my patrol, one guy grew up in Vernal, graduated from Uintah High, and knows some of my family. Another guy, in his twenties, served his mission in New Zealand, like dad. One lives in Draper and knows Marion. Another served in New Zealand, but was much older, come to find out....he was your Dad's mission companion! And a guy in the patrol next to me lives by Uncle Vaughn. Just goes to show, you should always behave. You NEVER know who you're going to run into. It has been interesting. I will go back this week for three more days, so it has been really time consuming, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Just as I suspected, the boys have been going through fuel like there's no tomorrow. When I got home Saturday night and got the report of what happened while I was away, the girls told me they ran into the Clayton's at the gas pump. Interesting, since they just filled up right before I left two days before. Taylor happened to mention that he and Dad went and got a pizza for dinner. He didn't bother to say where. Come to find out, they went to Bear Lake to get the pizza. Seriously? But wait...there's more. They found a little straight road and dad let Taylor "open it up". You guessed it. Taylor got his high speed record...107! These boys should not be left unattended. I'm not sure what to do, knowing I will be gone for another three days. "When Mom's away, the boys will play." I may have to hire a nanny to keep the boys out of trouble!
We got two more foreign exchange students, Yui and Ching, from Taiwan. They are really cute girls and speak English quite well. They are happy and excited to be here. They are going to cook dinner for us tonight. They are most excited to see snow and to experience Halloween. It's cute to see how excited they are.
I hope you got your package. I know it's not much, but I didn't really know what to get you that wouldn't be a headache to carry around the rest of your mission. If you need or want anything else, just let me know. I hope you have a great birthday! If you were still in Plainfield, I would call Sister Melton and have her bake you a cake, but since I have lost my only connection, you are out of luck. I thought about sending one, but that seemed disastrous. Just know that we are thinking about you, praying for you and wishing you a super HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
One year older and Wiser too. Happy Birthday to you!
Love,
Mom
Hello,
All our hard work from last week has paid off. we had a really busy week. It's a little bit sad though. Elder Empey's travel plans have been finalized. He's traveling down to the mission home on Halloween day and flying home on the 1st.
I got some news from Elder Bair in Plainfield today. On my last night with Elder Bair he came down with a bad case of Influenza. Him and his new companion have been pretty sick the past few weeks. I got out of there just in time. :) He gave me some good news and some bad news. Good news is, Jessica is getting baptized on November 1st. It's really exciting! She's awesome. Bad news is... The last lesson I had with Bob he told us he was doing some research on the internet and....got into anti information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". Apparently now he's dropped the elders and doesn't really want anything to do with the church anymore. It breaks my heart. He was doing so well. Hopefully in the future some other elders can bring him back. The ward really loved him and I really love him.
Anyways...back to Fort Wayne. We had a really cool experience this week. As we were planning one night we were planning backup plans for a set appointment we had the next day. We planned four or five people and then after we were done planning that night I thought of someone else in the area we could try by. It was a family that was having some problems and told Elder Empey and his former companion not to come by anymore until they called back after things cooled down. We put them on the very last "well, we'll see them if nobody else is home" backup. Well, the next day we went for our scheduled appointment. We knocked a few times and could see her in the house. She didn't answer. So we moved on to the next family. We were sure they would answer because both of their cars were there. They had to be home. Their five year old daughter answered the door, and when we asked if her parents were there she looked behind the door for a few seconds like someone was talking to her, and then she looked back at us, said "no" and shut the door. It was a little odd, but we decided to move on to our next plan. The next three people we tried didn't answer. We were on to our final plan of the family that told Elder Empey not to stop by anymore. We showed up and when we knocked on the door we got a nice warm "Come on in!" They were excited to see us. They told us, "it's really funny that you stopped by just now because Anna was just thinking about calling you back and having you come over again so she can get baptized." (This is where my jaw hit the floor.)
This was a really neat experience that showed me how the spirit works. We were inspired to plan to see them, and I'm pretty sure the people we had planned to see first were prompted to not let us in. I know we were supposed to see this family and we were guided to see them.
Neat stuff.
Love you,
Jared
Another week has flown by! It seems to be going crazy fast.
KSL did come to Spanky's on Monday. They stayed for two hours to get a lot of footage. Kalynn did a good interview. The story turned out nice and I even made my television debut! There I am in the background just working away. I hear they are going to follow her into surgery and do a full story about the outcome. She goes in on Tuesday for the surgery.
The Reich's came home from their mission in Peru. They spoke in church yesterday and gave a fantastic report. They told us how poor the people are there, how they had to baptize in the ocean and how many people joined the church while they were there. It was a really neat meeting. Even Taylor and Mikayla paid attention.
I spent three days last week up at Camp Tracy for a Boy Scout leadership training, called WoodBadge. It helps to train leaders to teach and strengthen the youth. They divided us up into patrols, six in each one. In my patrol, one guy grew up in Vernal, graduated from Uintah High, and knows some of my family. Another guy, in his twenties, served his mission in New Zealand, like dad. One lives in Draper and knows Marion. Another served in New Zealand, but was much older, come to find out....he was your Dad's mission companion! And a guy in the patrol next to me lives by Uncle Vaughn. Just goes to show, you should always behave. You NEVER know who you're going to run into. It has been interesting. I will go back this week for three more days, so it has been really time consuming, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Just as I suspected, the boys have been going through fuel like there's no tomorrow. When I got home Saturday night and got the report of what happened while I was away, the girls told me they ran into the Clayton's at the gas pump. Interesting, since they just filled up right before I left two days before. Taylor happened to mention that he and Dad went and got a pizza for dinner. He didn't bother to say where. Come to find out, they went to Bear Lake to get the pizza. Seriously? But wait...there's more. They found a little straight road and dad let Taylor "open it up". You guessed it. Taylor got his high speed record...107! These boys should not be left unattended. I'm not sure what to do, knowing I will be gone for another three days. "When Mom's away, the boys will play." I may have to hire a nanny to keep the boys out of trouble!
We got two more foreign exchange students, Yui and Ching, from Taiwan. They are really cute girls and speak English quite well. They are happy and excited to be here. They are going to cook dinner for us tonight. They are most excited to see snow and to experience Halloween. It's cute to see how excited they are.
I hope you got your package. I know it's not much, but I didn't really know what to get you that wouldn't be a headache to carry around the rest of your mission. If you need or want anything else, just let me know. I hope you have a great birthday! If you were still in Plainfield, I would call Sister Melton and have her bake you a cake, but since I have lost my only connection, you are out of luck. I thought about sending one, but that seemed disastrous. Just know that we are thinking about you, praying for you and wishing you a super HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
One year older and Wiser too. Happy Birthday to you!
Love,
Mom
Hello,
All our hard work from last week has paid off. we had a really busy week. It's a little bit sad though. Elder Empey's travel plans have been finalized. He's traveling down to the mission home on Halloween day and flying home on the 1st.
I got some news from Elder Bair in Plainfield today. On my last night with Elder Bair he came down with a bad case of Influenza. Him and his new companion have been pretty sick the past few weeks. I got out of there just in time. :) He gave me some good news and some bad news. Good news is, Jessica is getting baptized on November 1st. It's really exciting! She's awesome. Bad news is... The last lesson I had with Bob he told us he was doing some research on the internet and....got into anti information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". Apparently now he's dropped the elders and doesn't really want anything to do with the church anymore. It breaks my heart. He was doing so well. Hopefully in the future some other elders can bring him back. The ward really loved him and I really love him.
Anyways...back to Fort Wayne. We had a really cool experience this week. As we were planning one night we were planning backup plans for a set appointment we had the next day. We planned four or five people and then after we were done planning that night I thought of someone else in the area we could try by. It was a family that was having some problems and told Elder Empey and his former companion not to come by anymore until they called back after things cooled down. We put them on the very last "well, we'll see them if nobody else is home" backup. Well, the next day we went for our scheduled appointment. We knocked a few times and could see her in the house. She didn't answer. So we moved on to the next family. We were sure they would answer because both of their cars were there. They had to be home. Their five year old daughter answered the door, and when we asked if her parents were there she looked behind the door for a few seconds like someone was talking to her, and then she looked back at us, said "no" and shut the door. It was a little odd, but we decided to move on to our next plan. The next three people we tried didn't answer. We were on to our final plan of the family that told Elder Empey not to stop by anymore. We showed up and when we knocked on the door we got a nice warm "Come on in!" They were excited to see us. They told us, "it's really funny that you stopped by just now because Anna was just thinking about calling you back and having you come over again so she can get baptized." (This is where my jaw hit the floor.)
This was a really neat experience that showed me how the spirit works. We were inspired to plan to see them, and I'm pretty sure the people we had planned to see first were prompted to not let us in. I know we were supposed to see this family and we were guided to see them.
Neat stuff.
Love you,
Jared
Monday, October 10, 2011
Mormon.org Ad Campaign
Dear Jared,
We Finally got your plaque done and hung up at the church. It looks so nice, and I really LOVE the scripture you chose. It is so fitting. "O be wise, what can I say more". Hahaha you are so much fun.
This past week was my semi-annual scrapbook retreat. It comes on the heels of conference. I love doing this, because I am able to stay completely caught up with all my pictures. Plus, it's a nice reminder of all the things we did during the summer which I tend to forget about until I see the pictures. It's a fun get away from the hustle and bustle of real life and spend some time with my friends. Collards have been so generous to let us use their cabin. It is such a nice place, and not too far from home. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a VERY expensive trip for me, because while I was away, your dad officially had his mid life crisis. Friday (with a little encouragement from Taylor, Mikayla and Hallie), he went and bought a high performance car. I'm not sure it's a good idea to own such a fast car with teenagers around. He said Taylor is his sports car advisor. Whatever Taylor says is Gospel. Taylor thought it was a good idea, so your Dad did it. It's an Audi, German engineering, all the bells and whistles, and it drives like a rocket. 0-60 in nothing flat. In spite of all my discouraging of such a bad idea, they did it anyway. Since today is a holiday, he'll probably get to pick it up tomorrow. I'm betting that we will spend more in gas over the next few months than he has spent driving that gas guzzling truck of his. Just like with Bella, I was out numbered 4 to 1. I didn't stand a chance.
Kalynn just called me last night to tell me that KSL is going to be at Spanky's this morning. They are doing a story on her. She needs a new kidney, and a customer has volunteered to give her one. Her ward did a fundraiser a couple of months ago and raised over $4000 to help cover the cost of her anti-rejection medication. It has been a neat experience to watch people be so generous, especially Heather who is giving her a kidney. What a selfless person. I cannot even imagine being so willing to make that kind of a sacrifice for a person you hardly know. There are a lot of really amazing people in the world.
I'm curious how the finances work on your mission. Do they give you cash every month? Do you pay the rent or does the mission? Do you have a checking account? All I know is we make a monthly payment to the ward for you. I just don't know how you get the money or buy things that you need.
The Lord loves you. We love you too and we are so proud of you. Keep your shoulder to the wheel!
Love, Mom
Hello,
Congratulations on the new car! You'll have to send pictures next week and have Taylor do a write up of all the specs. I'm excited to see this.
Elder Empey and I have been working hard this week, although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the numbers we got this week. We had tons of appointments fall through and it seems like we were always biking all around town all day everyday. We set up a lot of appointments for this week though. Most of our days are already planned and completely full with appointments. The weather's been a nice change this week. It's warmed up to around 85 degrees most days and it looks beautiful outside. There are trees everywhere and they're all different colors.
To answer your question about money, we have a card and money gets deposited every two weeks. We get a total of $135 a month to buy groceries and other supplies. The mission manages the rent and everything else.
The mormon.org ad campaign started here last week and it's really exciting. We've only seen one so far, but there's seven billboards up around Fort Wayne. Almost every time we talk to someone they say they've seen the ads on TV. It's a really exciting time for missionary work. We've already had someone go on to mormon.org and request a visit with us. We saw her a few days ago and talked for a few minutes. She's got huge potential. We have an appointment set with her for Tuesday, so I'm excited to see how it will all work out.
Hope you have a good week, and good luck with the speeding tickets.
Love,
Jared
We Finally got your plaque done and hung up at the church. It looks so nice, and I really LOVE the scripture you chose. It is so fitting. "O be wise, what can I say more". Hahaha you are so much fun.
This past week was my semi-annual scrapbook retreat. It comes on the heels of conference. I love doing this, because I am able to stay completely caught up with all my pictures. Plus, it's a nice reminder of all the things we did during the summer which I tend to forget about until I see the pictures. It's a fun get away from the hustle and bustle of real life and spend some time with my friends. Collards have been so generous to let us use their cabin. It is such a nice place, and not too far from home. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a VERY expensive trip for me, because while I was away, your dad officially had his mid life crisis. Friday (with a little encouragement from Taylor, Mikayla and Hallie), he went and bought a high performance car. I'm not sure it's a good idea to own such a fast car with teenagers around. He said Taylor is his sports car advisor. Whatever Taylor says is Gospel. Taylor thought it was a good idea, so your Dad did it. It's an Audi, German engineering, all the bells and whistles, and it drives like a rocket. 0-60 in nothing flat. In spite of all my discouraging of such a bad idea, they did it anyway. Since today is a holiday, he'll probably get to pick it up tomorrow. I'm betting that we will spend more in gas over the next few months than he has spent driving that gas guzzling truck of his. Just like with Bella, I was out numbered 4 to 1. I didn't stand a chance.
Kalynn just called me last night to tell me that KSL is going to be at Spanky's this morning. They are doing a story on her. She needs a new kidney, and a customer has volunteered to give her one. Her ward did a fundraiser a couple of months ago and raised over $4000 to help cover the cost of her anti-rejection medication. It has been a neat experience to watch people be so generous, especially Heather who is giving her a kidney. What a selfless person. I cannot even imagine being so willing to make that kind of a sacrifice for a person you hardly know. There are a lot of really amazing people in the world.
I'm curious how the finances work on your mission. Do they give you cash every month? Do you pay the rent or does the mission? Do you have a checking account? All I know is we make a monthly payment to the ward for you. I just don't know how you get the money or buy things that you need.
The Lord loves you. We love you too and we are so proud of you. Keep your shoulder to the wheel!
Love, Mom
Hello,
Congratulations on the new car! You'll have to send pictures next week and have Taylor do a write up of all the specs. I'm excited to see this.
Elder Empey and I have been working hard this week, although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the numbers we got this week. We had tons of appointments fall through and it seems like we were always biking all around town all day everyday. We set up a lot of appointments for this week though. Most of our days are already planned and completely full with appointments. The weather's been a nice change this week. It's warmed up to around 85 degrees most days and it looks beautiful outside. There are trees everywhere and they're all different colors.
To answer your question about money, we have a card and money gets deposited every two weeks. We get a total of $135 a month to buy groceries and other supplies. The mission manages the rent and everything else.
The mormon.org ad campaign started here last week and it's really exciting. We've only seen one so far, but there's seven billboards up around Fort Wayne. Almost every time we talk to someone they say they've seen the ads on TV. It's a really exciting time for missionary work. We've already had someone go on to mormon.org and request a visit with us. We saw her a few days ago and talked for a few minutes. She's got huge potential. We have an appointment set with her for Tuesday, so I'm excited to see how it will all work out.
Hope you have a good week, and good luck with the speeding tickets.
Love,
Jared
Monday, October 3, 2011
General Conference
Dear Jared,
What is the weather like right now in Indiana? We are still enjoying the summer heat and have been running the air conditioner. I am grateful for a warm fall after such a long cold spring. I know it won't last much longer, though. I hear there is a nasty storm with a cold front coming in this week. I guess we just have to enjoy it while we've got it.
I sure enjoyed conference. Your dad worked all day Saturday, but was home for the Sunday morning session. I loved the talk on the Book of Mormon. I can't remember who gave it, but it was amazing. He said that it is either a book from the devil, or from the hand of God. Read it and you will find out who it is from. And once you know that it is true, you will know the church is true. I loved his analogy with the two circles. He asked how many straight lines can you draw through the center of a circle. The answer: infinite. Put a circle along side of it. Now there can be only one! Once circle represented the Bible and the other the book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I hope you were able the hear conference!
Did you catch the news that the Provo tabernacle will be rebuilt as a temple? The Provo temple is currently the busiest temple in the world. Now they will have two in Happy Valley.
Your cousin, Anna, got married on Saturday night, so the whole family was in town. Everyone brought their bikes. Uncle Jay even brought his tandem bike. (Which was pretty funny, because he drives a mini, and that bike is almost as long as his car.) They planned a bike ride for Sunday afternoon. I wasn't very excited to go, because I didn't want to miss conference, plus, I really wanted a day of rest, but we went so we could be with the family. I'm glad we did. It was fun and the weather was perfect. Mikayla was a trooper and rode the entire 25 miles. That little ride was nothing for Taylor after his last bike ride! Dad and Hallie drove the support vehicle which came in handy when Taylor got a flat.
Everyone is doing well. We love you! The Church is true.
Love, Mom
Hello,
The weather here has been cold and rainy for the past week. The sun's just barely come out. The leaves are beginning to change and it looks beautiful here. I'm beginning to get the hang of Fort Wayne. It's really different from Plainfield. Biking around the city here reminds me of mountain biking because the sidewalks are so broken up. There are some pretty crazy people here, and there's sirens going all the time, but there are also some great people here. Fort Wayne is known as "the city of churches" and it's true, there is a church on every corner. Someone told me there's around 120 churches, and almost that many bars. Haha.
Conference was great. There were so many excellent talks relating to missionary work. I really learned a lot. But, It seems like no matter how much I'm looking forward to conference I still doze off a little.
I've had a good week, besides all the rain. I went on my first exchange with a Spanish speaking missionary. It was a little weird sitting in on lessons and not being able to understand almost anything. It was a fun experience.
Elder Empey and I have had some great lessons so far. We're gaining more investigators and should be getting a lot more really soon. The mormon.org advertising campaign starts today! There's going to be seven billboards around Fort Wayne, 30 second television commercials playing back to back on prime time TV, and internet ads. I can't wait to see the results!
Hope you're doing well.
Love,
Jared
What is the weather like right now in Indiana? We are still enjoying the summer heat and have been running the air conditioner. I am grateful for a warm fall after such a long cold spring. I know it won't last much longer, though. I hear there is a nasty storm with a cold front coming in this week. I guess we just have to enjoy it while we've got it.
I sure enjoyed conference. Your dad worked all day Saturday, but was home for the Sunday morning session. I loved the talk on the Book of Mormon. I can't remember who gave it, but it was amazing. He said that it is either a book from the devil, or from the hand of God. Read it and you will find out who it is from. And once you know that it is true, you will know the church is true. I loved his analogy with the two circles. He asked how many straight lines can you draw through the center of a circle. The answer: infinite. Put a circle along side of it. Now there can be only one! Once circle represented the Bible and the other the book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I hope you were able the hear conference!
Did you catch the news that the Provo tabernacle will be rebuilt as a temple? The Provo temple is currently the busiest temple in the world. Now they will have two in Happy Valley.
Your cousin, Anna, got married on Saturday night, so the whole family was in town. Everyone brought their bikes. Uncle Jay even brought his tandem bike. (Which was pretty funny, because he drives a mini, and that bike is almost as long as his car.) They planned a bike ride for Sunday afternoon. I wasn't very excited to go, because I didn't want to miss conference, plus, I really wanted a day of rest, but we went so we could be with the family. I'm glad we did. It was fun and the weather was perfect. Mikayla was a trooper and rode the entire 25 miles. That little ride was nothing for Taylor after his last bike ride! Dad and Hallie drove the support vehicle which came in handy when Taylor got a flat.
Everyone is doing well. We love you! The Church is true.
Love, Mom
Hello,
The weather here has been cold and rainy for the past week. The sun's just barely come out. The leaves are beginning to change and it looks beautiful here. I'm beginning to get the hang of Fort Wayne. It's really different from Plainfield. Biking around the city here reminds me of mountain biking because the sidewalks are so broken up. There are some pretty crazy people here, and there's sirens going all the time, but there are also some great people here. Fort Wayne is known as "the city of churches" and it's true, there is a church on every corner. Someone told me there's around 120 churches, and almost that many bars. Haha.
Conference was great. There were so many excellent talks relating to missionary work. I really learned a lot. But, It seems like no matter how much I'm looking forward to conference I still doze off a little.
I've had a good week, besides all the rain. I went on my first exchange with a Spanish speaking missionary. It was a little weird sitting in on lessons and not being able to understand almost anything. It was a fun experience.
Elder Empey and I have had some great lessons so far. We're gaining more investigators and should be getting a lot more really soon. The mormon.org advertising campaign starts today! There's going to be seven billboards around Fort Wayne, 30 second television commercials playing back to back on prime time TV, and internet ads. I can't wait to see the results!
Hope you're doing well.
Love,
Jared
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Transfered to Fort Wayne
Mon, Sep 26, 2011
Dear Jared,
I am sad that you have left Plainfield. I will really miss the phone calls from Sister Melton telling me how great you are doing and what a fantastic missionary you are. Now I no longer have a connection to fill in all the details that you don't bother to tell us. :) I am so happy that you have had success there and have made some life long friends. I am excited to hear about your transfer and your new companion. Where is he from? How did you transfer? Did you use public transportation or does someone from the mission home take you around?
Jared and Gabby came into Spanky's on Saturday. They told me that Cammie got a job as a Deejay at 90.9 (I think). What a great job for a music lover.
Dad and Taylor spent three days this week in Las Vegas. They went with Uncle Marion to a car auction. He is trying to sell an old Mustang for a friend of his. They are trying to get $220,000 for this car. It didn't sell there, so they will likely take it to an auction in Arizona next year. They had a great time seeing all the amazing cars. They even got to test drive some fancy sports cars and ride with a professional race car driver. Taylor asked the driver to do a little extra drifting, which he did, so of course, Taylor loved it! They had a good time together.
It was a quiet weekend at home with just the girls. We actually had our fall quilt retreat, where my friends come and set up their sewing machines and we work on quilts for days on end. It is a lot of fun, and usually very productive.
I got a call from the Stake President Sunday night. There is a Young Women training meeting in November. Church Headquarters wants our stake to host it. They will film it in the Regional Center and then broadcast it to other stakes. We need to organize it and provide all the music. I will sit up on the stand with the General Authorities and the General Young Women Presidency. It's a little intimidating. You'd better pray for me!
My favorite quote this week: If you were to wake up in the morning with only the things you gave thanks for last night, what would you be left with?
I'd still have you! Keep up the good work.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
Things are going great in my new area. They put me way up North in Fort Wayne with my new companion, Elder Empey. Fort Wayne's pretty different from Plainfield. It's a lot more city than Plainfield was. It's kind of like a smaller version of Indianapolis. I've met a lot of great people here. We're living in the garage of one of the families in the Spanish branch here. Our address is 8307 Hunter's Knoll Place, Fort Wayne, IN, 46825.
Elder Empey is from Idaho Falls. He's a great elder. We've been working really hard. This is his last transfer, so we're going to make it the best one ever. He's going home on Halloween day.
We had a baptism on Saturday for two of our investigators here. Their names are Bill and Francisco. They're really sweet people. It's pretty cool because my last companion, Elder Bair, found Bill and Francisco when he was trained here about a year ago. It was pretty neat to see.
Hope you're having a great day,
Jared
Andrew's Baptism
Mon, Sep 19, 2011
Dear Jared,
Sounds like things are going really well for you and you are baptizing the nations. :)
We are anxious to hear how the baptism went on Friday. Also, did you move into your new apartment yet?
On Friday night, Craig set up his outdoor theatre and we watched the show 17 Miracles. It is a movie about the Martin-Willy Handcart Company. It tells the story of the pioneers as they travel to Zion. It is heart wrenching to see what they went through, but also astonishing how many miracles they witnessed. The writer did a lot of research and studied personal journals to make the movies as factual as possible. This is another reason we should keep a journal. You never know when someone will want to make a movie about your life. :)
For our Stake fireside on Sunday, we had T.C. Christensen, the writer of the movie, come and speak to us. He did a fantastic job. It was fun to hear some of the trivia behind the scenes. It was really amazing to learn some of the many miracles that the pioneers experienced. Someone asked why he thought the Lord made it so tough on the pioneers when he could have given them even more miracles and made it easier. He then asked everyone who is a descendant of that company to stand. About a fourth of the audience stood. (You could have stood had you been there.) He went on to explain that because they struggled so much, they really had to look inward for strength and rely completely on God. That made their testimonies so strong. God helped them enough just to get them there, and His miracles were enough to sustain them, but not enough to weaken them. You've heard the phrase, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". He believes that the testimonies those pioneers had were strong enough to sustain several generation. You are part of that heritage.
We love you. Keep your chin up, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
We just got transfer calls this morning. Looks like my time in Plainfield is up. I'm getting transferred on Wednesday. I'm really sad about leaving this area, but I guess I'm needed somewhere else. This week really had its ups and downs. To start off the week, when we met with Bob on Tuesday we found out that he was searching for something on the internet and ran into some anti information. He read an article about a book full of information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". We told him about how dangerous that stuff is, but he's insisting that he needs to buy this 800 page book and read it to get the answers. It's really heartbreaking. This really shook him up. He missed church on Sunday, which was the first time he missed since Mother's Day. I'm really worried about him.
On the other hand, we had Andrew's baptism this Friday. It was a great experience. He had a lot of family show up, and there were a lot of people from the ward too. Andrew's stepdad was the one who performed the baptism. He's changed a lot lately. You can really tell the difference its making in their family. They're excited to eventually get sealed in the Indianapolis temple once it's built.
I meant to send some pictures last time, but the Plainfield library was closed, so we had to go to the Avon library instead, and they didn't have any SD card slots on their computers.
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