Another Week of Miracles

Dear Jared,

It's been another really busy week with lots of random things. Nothing really amazing has happened, just every day life. We have Nichole's kids again for a few days while she and Shane are vacationing in Las Vegas, so that makes life a little more adventurous. 

I went to the orthodontist today and saw Tammy Clayton. She said Bridger is doing great and is loving his time there.  I am so proud of you two boys. 

You should get your new shoes in the mail today. The girls picked them out, so I hope you like them. Let me know if they do not come. 

How are Matthew, JoAnn and Jordan doing? We are always anxious to hear about your investigators. Keep us posted.

Love,

Mom

Hey,

 

This week has been awesome. Another week of miracles. We've been getting a lot of new investigators. We had our Zone Conference on Thursday. Elder Golden, from the 70 was there. It was pretty powerful. He spoke about following the spirit. That night we had dinner with a part member family that just moved in a few weeks ago. They're from Salt Lake. Sister Miller grew up there her whole life, but didn't have any religion growing up. Brother Miller is a returned missionary. Anyways, after dinner we invited Sister Miller to take the lessons, and she accepted. We went over the next day and taught the Restoration. It went really well. The ward is doing a great job at welcoming all these families we're teaching. 

Matthew, Jo Ann, and Jordan are doing really well. We had lunch and a lesson on Saturday. They hadn't had time to read that week so we picked up where they had left off. We read 2 Nephi 11. After reading we asked Jordan, the 10 year old, if anything stuck out to him. He told us "Well, verse 7 reminded me of a verse I read. It's 2 Nephi 2:13" It blew our minds. This kid is smart! He's got a really good understanding of everything we talk about.

 

We also had a cool experience. A few weeks ago we tracted a couple streets called Bridle Ct. and Bridle Cir. and had no success on either of them. Well, we got a referral about two weeks later from someone that lives on Bridle Ct. who visited Mormon.org and requested a missionary visit. We went to go find this person, Josh, who lived on 867 Bridle Ct. When we got to the street we found that the house number didn't exist. Later that day we looked in the phone book and the city directory with no success. Nobody with that name lives on either of those streets. We decided to go back again the other day to see if by chance we could find this person. There were some house numbers that were similar so we decided to knock on their doors. We didn't end up finding Josh, but we found a sweet guy named Scott. We talked a little with him and set an appointment for Saturday so his wife could be there too.

 

It was a neat experience to see that sometimes you miss someone on a street that needs to hear you, so God will send a fake referral to get you to knock a few more houses on the street.

 

Love you,

 

Jared

An Amazing Family

August 3, 2012

Hello Jared,

We had kind of an exciting week. On Monday two baby chicks hatched. On Tuesday two more hatched, so we have a total of four new babies. They are so adorable! Only one did not hatch. I think it is amazing we got any, because several times over the last few weeks, I went out and found Fiona sitting on the wrong eggs. I would pick her up and move her to the right nest and collect the other eggs. So it was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Tuesday Christi from France came to stay with us.  She will be here for one month. She is super nice and very cultured. She fills our home with beautiful classical piano music. She practices for at least an hour a day.

I neglected to tell you a super funny story. Last fall, Dad took a class and got certified with the State of Utah in the Department of Public Safety. He got his own badge to wear with photo ID. He has sported this proudly around his neck for at least eight months. The other day, a man came up to him and introduced himself as a former newspaper editor. He asked dad if he had actually ever read his badge and pointed out a small, but very important typo. It actually reads, "Department of PUBIC Safety". Oops! I guess he won't be sporting that badge any longer.

The girls and I, along with a half dozen friends ran a midnight 5K in Sandy on Friday night. It was a lot of fun. We covered ourselves with glow sticks. You should be proud of your sisters. They did so great.

Saturday we went to the cabin for a work project. We got the place dejunked. It looks so much nicer. I'm actually excited to go up there and stay sometime. We're thinking we could go up this winter and try out Taylor's new snowmobile.

This week is crazy so far, and it's only Monday. We are fish sitting for Ensign's while they are at Lake Powell. We are dog sitting for Whitehead's while they are in Canada, watching Maggie while DeVries are at Bear Lake. We have three of Nichole's kids and one foreign exchange student from France. Grandma and Grandpa are coming to stay with us later this week too. Can you say MAD HOUSE?  Life is always an adventure.

Have an awesome week. We love hearing from you.

Love,

Mom

Hello,

 

Things have been going really well here. Yesterday was awesome. We had five people at church. Three of them were Matthew, Jo Ann, and Jordan, who I told you about last week. It was fast and testimony meeting, which are usually a little sketchy with investigators there, but this Sunday was great. We had a few great testimonies and then Matthew went up. He told everyone that he was a convert and fell away, but he's excited to be in this ward and to get rebaptized. He said "I may have fallen away but I know that this church is God's Kingdom here on the earth once again, and I'm excited for my family to join so we can go through the temple together." WOW, it was great! The ward were all over them after sacrament meeting was over. They made a ton of new friends. We had a lesson with them after church where we taught them the Plan of Salvation. It went great. We asked if they had been reading together and they said they've been in different parts of the country for work, but they've been reading over Skype. At various times during the lesson we would teach something and Jo Ann would lean over to Jordan and say "Remember? We read about this this week." This family is amazing!

 

Love you,

 

Jared

Another Good Week

July 30, 2012

Happy Monday Morning Jared,

We had a good time last week. Your Dad and I were judges for the Days of '47 Parade again this year. It was tough because there were so many fantastic floats this year. After the judging,  Taylor dropped the girls off downtown and went back to work, and we found a spot to watch the parade. After a few minutes, the girls decided they'd rather go shopping in the new City Creek Center than watch the parade, so Dad went with them. I ended up at the parade by myself. I really enjoy parades.

On Thursday, we went to the ward Campout. We had a lot of fun. The river seemed to be a little bit higher than it has been for a couple of years in spite of the drought, but we still managed to hit a lot of rocks. I am feeling the pain from it today. I have lots of bruises to prove it, but I'm not able to show them to anyone. 

Our baby chicks are due to hatch today. We'll see if they do. A couple of times I've found Fiona sitting on the wrong eggs, so who knows if they'll actually hatch. I hope they do. That would be fun.

Tomorrow we are getting a 17 year old girl from France who will be staying with us for a month. We've never had some one from there, so this will be exciting.  Her name is Christi.

Yesterday at church your dad was a one man act. The Bishop is out of town, so is Kris Whitehead. He was the only member of the Bishopric there and Dennis, the High Priest Group leader was gone as well. The brother who was supposed to speak in Sacrament Meeting bailed on Saturday Night and the 5th Sunday speaker also cancelled last minute so he conducted, spoke and taught the RS/Priesthood lesson. As you can imagine, he did a fantastic job at all of them. He gets to play Bishop all week while everyone is gone. I'll bet he'll be happy to see the bishop come back.

We hope you are having success and enjoying your time in Indiana. We are really lucky to have you as our son. You can't even imagine how excited I am to hear from you every week and know that you are learning and growing and having positive experiences. Thank you for being willing to serve.

We sure do love you!

Mom

Hey,

 

Elder Smith and I are doing well this week. Not a ton of new stuff happened, but we had a good week. We had good lessons with Brother Thompson and the Sibandas. They're doing well. 

 

We were able to get three new investigators this week. Matthew, Jo Ann, and Jordan. We taught them for the first time this week. They just moved here from Virginia and Matthew used to be a member of the church. He's ready to come back and his wife and step son are as well. We had a great lesson with them and committed them all to be baptized when they knew it was true, and they all said yes. They both work crazy schedules so coming to church is a problem sometimes, but I have faith that things will work out. 

 

 

Love you,

 

Jared

Fasting Works

July 23, 2012

Dear Jared,

This week Hallie and I taught a card making class at the Rec Center for a dozen little kids. It was pretty fun, but it's nice to have it behind me.  It's a lot of work.

Our traditional parade attendance was put to a test this week as we were a family divided. Some man here in our area had a dream of trying to put together a parade entry with 2000 strippling warriors. When I first heard about the idea, I thought it sounded so great. I was excited for Taylor to be a part of this monumental accomplishment. Here's where the division part comes into play. Dad was violently opposed to the idea. He said that no son of his would take part in such an activity that was ostentatious and would hinder the missionary work here in the valley. He refused to go to the parade, so the kids and I went without him. I think that is the first time he hasn't gone with us.  The crowds at the parade were bigger than ever and it was difficult to even find a place where we could get close enough to see. The parade was nice, about like usual, but then came thousands of young men dressed in ancient tunics, each carrying a walking stick. It was quite an overwhelming sight. They went on as far as the eye could see. They stopped in front of us, pounded their sticks on the ground faster and faster, then they all shouted, "WE DID NOT DOUBT!"

Wow", I got chills, and instantly got tears in my eyes. I thought it was a neat experience and was worth it.  I'm anxious to see if it makes it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the larges parade entry.

After the parade, it was off to the fireworks. Bountiful did a good show this year. We enjoyed them a lot.

Well, Taylor is already off to work, and we are off the the girls dentist. It's going to be one of those days. 

Hope you're surviving the heat. We love you!

Mom

Hey,

 

We had a week full of miracles again. First was on Tuesday. Elder Tobler and I got a referral from Mormon.org about a month ago. We called her to set up an appointment but she told us she was busy for the next three weeks. Well, we finally got an appointment with her. Her name's Karen, and she's great. She has a lot of buisiness associates from Salt Lake City, and the owner of the buisiness is a member. She told us she loves how the company operates and the good people that work there. She wanted to know what made them the way they were. So, she got on Mormon.org and requested a missionary visit. We met her outside of a cafe in downtown Carmel. Karen ordered some breakfast before we sat down to talk. When the waitress brought her food out she immedietly recognized us as missionaries. She stopped and talked to us for a minute and told us one of her high school boyfriends was a member and went on a mission. It was a pretty nice surprise. She went back inside and we taught Karen about the Restoration. She told us she might want to come to church sometime and she had a few questions. The waitress came back out right on time to hear us talking about church. She chimed in and said she went to her first Easter service last year with her Mormon friend. She said she was a little scared to go because she thought she would be judged and looked down upon, but the opposite was true. She pretty much bore her testimony  to Karen about how great church was. It was sweet. It reminded me about the scripture, "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established".

 

We also had another miracle on Sunday. The whole stake was fasting for rain so we joined in and also decided to fast for the Sibandas. When we were in Elders Quorum and there were a few new people in the ward introducing themselves. One of them got up and told us that he was in charge of housekeeping at one of the nearby hospitals, and they are in constant need of housekeepers. This is a perfect job for Sister Sibanda. She works as a housekeeper at JW Marriott right now and can't get work off on Sundays. We talked to the member after church and he told us this job will pay better and they're really flexible with Sundays. Once she gets an application in we'll call him and he'll pull it out and review it. Fasting works!

 

We also got Brother Thompson to church and Madeline is back at her dad's house so we can start teaching her again.

 

What a week!

 

Love you,

 

Jared

A New Companion, Elder Smith

July 16, 2012

Hello Jared,

I heard on the radio this morning that we are in one of the top ten worst droughts in recorded history and so far in Utah this year there have been 426 wild fires that were started by man. Fortunately, we have  had a few days of cooler weather lately to give us a little reprieve from the scorching hot sun.  

Taylor spent last week at Scout Camp by Jackson Hole. They did white water rafting, a ropes course and shooting. He had a good time and actually had some fun.

Dad want to Vernal to go fishing with Dennis for the weekend so that just left me and the girls home alone. Once again we had a pretty quiet week.

I ran into Peterson's in the store the other day. They asked how you were doing and gave me a quick report on Travis. He really loves his mission, but he's been in five bike accidents, wrestled with a few alligators and Susie even got a call from the Mission Presidents wife. She said Travis was in the hospital. He had some weird things going on, like numbness one one side of his body. Because Travis has a heart condition, Susie immediately thought he had had a stroke. The Mission Presidents wife said she would call back after the doctors had a chance to look over the tests to determine the problem. After a very long wait, the call finally came. The voice on the phone said, "I am so sorry. (pause) Elder Peterson isn't the patient. It's his companion. I called the wrong mom." Susie said she could hear Travis in the background laughing hysterically. He thought it was hilarious that she had made such a big mistake and called the wrong family and gave them a scare. Travis was fine! Susie was furious with Travis though. Haha the companion even ended up being fine too. Funny story.

Have a happy Monday. We love you tons!

Mom

Hey,

 

 

Well, Elder Matthews and Elder Tobler are gone and I've got a new companion, His name is Elder Smith (one of four in our mission). He's from Casa Grande, Arizona. I like him a lot. He's a hard worker and we're getting a lot done together. Also new in our apartment (the frat house) are Elder Bushman from Mesa, Arizona, and Elder Hadlock, from Vernal.

 

We had another great lesson with Brother Thompson this week. We talked a lot about how his kids look up to him and how he needs to set the example. He said he'd be at church this week, but he didn't show. Kind of a disappointment.

 

We had some miracles happen yesterday though. We had dinner scheduled with a family in the ward for right after church at 2:30. Brother Holt came up to us at church and asked if we could do it at three instead. We decided that we'd get a ride to their house and do some tracting while they were making dinner. We decided to tract the next street over from them. There was a long string of doors where nobody answered. As we were on the last few houses we finally had someone answer the door. His name was Mike. When we told him we were missionaries he let us right in. He told us his sister was a missionary for another church for nine months. We sat down with him, and his sister, who also lives in the house. Mike told us all about how he had come to know God after some major trials in his life. He also told us that he was praying for guidance in his life last night. He told us he knew we were sent from God. We had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation with them. Mike was one of those people that you can tell has been humbled and prepared. A lot of the things we taught him went right along with what he believed.

 

I'm so grateful for the promptings of the spirit, and that we were able to follow them.

 

 

Love,

 

 

Jared

Mormon Missionary Fan Club

Hello Jared,

We had a pretty typical holiday week. We went to the fireworks up at Eaglewood on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we went to Centerville to watch the parade with Craig and Laura. The kids got so much candy, it was a little crazy. That night we had a BBQ and did our own fireworks in the circle. In spite of the dry conditions, there we still so many fireworks going off in every direction. What a country.

Saturday we did a huge BBQ  our backyard for the people who bought "A smoked dinner from Kent" at the YW auction this spring. It was amazing and delicious. Your dad has certainly perfected the art of smoking. We invited a few extra people too, like the Sims. It was fun to chat with them, it's been awhile since we've actually got to visit with them. Stella is getting so big. She is walking all over the place. You won't recognize her when you get home.

Sunday morning I took the foreign exchange students, Joy and Jessica, to the bus.  They are headed off to California this week for a few days sightseeing and visiting theme parks. We won't ever see them again.

Mikayla has finally mastered the ability to drive a stick shift car. She's pretty excited about it. Dad took her driving again last night and when he came home, he gave me the two thumbs up. She can stop on a hill and get it going again.

Uncle Marion ended up having surgery to repair his clavicle. Now we will have matching titanium plates. Same side too. He's on the mend now.

Hope you are surviving the Indiana heat. Have an amazing week. We sure love you!

Mom


Hey,
 
We had a pretty fun Holiday week. We emailed on Monday but we had our Preparation Day on the fourth. We live right off Main St. in downtown Carmel so we walked over to the parade in the morning. We walked the streets looking for people we knew. We found a family from our ward and talked to them for a few minutes before we left to find more people. As we walked down the sidewalks in the 105 degree heat I'm pretty sure we got more looks than the parade did. It was hot and humid outside. After walking a little further down the street we saw a huge group of members. We had to cut across the street while the parade was going to get to them. As we did so, the entire group started clapping and cheering "Yeah! Mormon missionaries!" It was pretty funny.
 
We had to leave the parade a little early so we could make it to a lunch appointment. We went over to one of the senoir couples' apartments and had some Famous Dave's ribs with all the senior missionaries, the assistants, and President and Sister Collins. They were good ribs, but I've had better. We went to the stake center where we played dodgeball with all the other missionaries in the zone until dinnertime, when we went to the Westfield Ward's Bishop's house for dinner. We had a large group there where we had a great dinner and a lot of fun. Fireworks were banned this year, so it was kind of a strange Fourth of July. Other than the city's firework show, I didn't see or hear anything.
 
It's been a pretty slow week for the Carmel area. We've been working a ton in Westfield. That's ending pretty soon though. We got transfer calls today. I'm staying, but everyone else is leaving. The sisters are getting double transferred out and Elder Tobler and Elder Matthews are both leaving. I'll be back to Carmel full time and It'll be great.
 
 
Love you,
 
 
Jared

A Flaming Inferno

Good morning Jared,

What a flaming hot week here in Utah. We have had record breaking hot weather after a very dry, mild winter. We have had no rain for more than a month, making this hot, dry desert a tinder box. We have had countless wild fires burning all week. They are started so easily by target shooters, cars parked on weedy patches, barbecues, and careless actions by cigarette smokers.  It seems that every day we hear of another fire. It sort of feels like the last days when "the earth shall be burned as stubble"... 

Bountiful city outlawed fireworks East of Orchard Drive. Wahoo! Southview Circle is still on for our annual firework festivities, but we will be cleaning out the ditch before Wednesday to reduce the risk of fire. It is a big change from last year when they allowed all kinds of fireworks and the sky was exploding with color everywhere you looked. What a difference a year makes.

Ryan didn't have work for Taylor for a few days last week. He gets a little antsy with nothing to do and starts to drive me crazy. He and Hallie got into a huge pillow fight and started destroying the house, so I called Grandma to see if there was anything that Grandpa needed Taylor to do. Sure enough, he was wanting to work on his fire truck and get it ready to sell. Taylor and Hallie drove out (in dad's new car) on Friday morning and stayed until Sunday morning. Grandpa really appreciated the help and I got a little quiet time. Grandpa called me after they left to tell me how amazing Taylor is with fixing things and how much he helped him. He really is pretty handy. Hallie discovered that a donkey had just given birth and she was excited to be the first one to see it. It is pretty cute.

Mikayla went on a three day backpacking trip with the young women. She had the time of her life. They went up into the High Uintah's and did some fishing a long the way. They even ate the fish they caught. I am really proud of that girl for all she accomplishes. She was a trooper and loved every bit of the adventure. This morning she is off to BYU Idaho for OYA (Outdoor Youth Adventure.). She will do some crazy stuff; whitewater rafting, rappelling, ropes course and so much more. She will be gone all week. What a life!

Dad and I were home all alone on Saturday. That was weird. I hate the thought of everyone moving out. It's going to be so lonely.

Uncle Marion bought a mountain bike a few weeks ago. last Tuesday he went up in the mountains behind the Draper temple. I guess there are some pretty good trails. As he was coming down, he went over a small jump, caught a couple of inches of air and landed in some really soft dirt. The front tire dug in and he went over the handle bars. He tried to get up and get back on the bike, but he was in too much pain. He walked out the last mile of the trail. His buddy took him to the hospital where he spent the next few days. He broke his clavicle, and eight ribs, some in more than one place, and punctured a lung. I guess you could say he's not doing so great right now. Hahaha! Those stinking bikes can sure inflict a lot of pain. Luckily the human body is fantastic when it comes to repairing itself. He'll eventually recover. 

Mikayla did the music in Primary. She did so well. I was grateful to not have to do it, and she was excited to, so it worked out well. She has a natural music ability, and you should hear her sing. Wow! She is amazing.

Craig and Laura just announced last night that they are expecting. Baby #5 is due at the beginning of December. Hallie is so excited for them.  It'll be good to have more kids in the circle. It's getting kind of quiet around here.

Keep up the good work. We love you so much.

Mom


Hello,
 
It's been pretty hot and dry here as well. The normal green landscape of Indiana has turned yellow. We've had some rain in the past few days though and it's starting to cool down. We had a big storm roll through on Friday and there were even some tornados touching down. On Thursday we were helping a family in the Westfield ward move. It was about 105 that afternoon. After the move we all had to take showers and change because we were soaking in sweat.
 
We've had some great miracles this week. We had a great lesson with one of the less-active members we've been working with. You could tell it really touched her. She showed up at chruch on Sunday and received some great fellowship. There were some sisters in the ward that gave her big hugs and sat right next to her. It was really great to see.
 
On Monday, the Assistants to the President, who live down the street from us and go to the Westfield Ward, were shopping at Meijer and they had a cool experience. A family came up to them and introduced themselves. They just moved here from Virginia and the husband is a member. He was baptized in 2000 but went less-active for a long time. He's making his way back, and his wife and kids are not members. They wanted them to come over and start teaching them. Turns out, they live in our ward boundaries, so we'll be the ones going over. What a miracle!
 
Friday night we had a lesson with Brother Thompson. It's been hard to get ahold of him and we hadn't talked with him or seen him for five weeks. We ended up having a great lesson with him. The last time we saw him was when he went with us to Will's baptism in Westfield's ward. He had to leave the baptism early, but as he was leaving he told us, "Man, that really did it for me." When we went over this time we asked him about how he felt at the baptism. At the baptism they had the programs typed up and Will's testimony was written in it. Brother Thompson said as he read Will's testimony he felt like he received revelation for himself. He asked what would be expected of him after he was a member. Brother Thompson has come a long way. We're really close with him!
 
Last night was pretty cool as well. We had dinner with a new family in the ward. They're here for the Summer while he's selling security systems. As we were talking at dinner the ususal "Where are you from?" question came up. When I told them Bountiful he asked if I knew Amanda Wheeler. It's a pretty small world. He's friends with her from BYU Idaho. He's been to the Wheelers' house before so chances are, he's been razzed by dad. You should ask Amanda about Blake Bedke. 
 
After dinner we went to try by some potential investigators. We stopped by a woman named Martha and she was in her garage smoking. She put out the cigarette and we were able to have a lesson with her. She lives in a group home and one of the men that lives there as well came out during the lesson to listen to us. I'm not sure both of them are all there mentally. But they had a pretty good understanding of what we were talking about. It was a neat experience.  
 
Hope you have a good Fourth of July.
 
Love you,
 
Jared