Dear Jared,
We officially passed the first day of summer this week and the heat has set in. It has been in the high 90's, but with no humidity. Every day, when I go out in the scorching heat, I think about you and wonder how you are surviving. I get to go back inside and turn up the air conditioner. And I only ride my bike in shorts, usually in the morning when it is cool.
We got a good laugh from your last letter about the old lady. Haha pretty funny. And I thought it was pretty clever of you to freeze your pillow. What a good idea.
This week, my hair salon got a well needed make over. I painted it cream and red. The back wall and the half wall are barn red. It's pretty bold, but I like it. I think it's a nice change from the light blue and white that it was.
Nichole and I went shopping a few days ago. When we got to the counter to pay, the lady told us that the security sensors weren't deactivating, so when we left the store, the alarm would sound. We told her that we would have a little fun with it and we'd start running when it started beeping. She said they had a good looking security guy she could send after us to tackle us and take us down in the middle of the mall. We thought it would make a good story and we could tell everyone we had been hunted down and tackled by security. We laughed about it, and thought it was a pretty funny idea. We left the store, and sure enough it started beeping. I took off on a dead run, and Nichole followed close behind, but no one came after us. We made it all the way out of the mall without incident. We laughed and laughed about it, and how silly it was, then every few minutes we'd look at each other and start laughing. I guess sometimes you just need to make your own fun. Nichole is always good for a laugh. Sad to say, that's about as exciting as this week was. Hahaha
A couple of months ago, I couldn't sleep, so I was sitting in the recliner and I noticed how your dad was sleeping. He has always snored a lot, so I try to get to sleep before him so I don't usually hear him. Anyway, I noticed how he stops breathing for a while and then he gasps for air. In the morning, I mentioned it to him. I told him I was pretty sure that he has sleep apnea. (Where you stop breathing while you sleep.) The next time he went to the doctor he mentioned it. That very day, a medical supply company delivered an oxygen machine to our home. I guess sleep apnea can be very serious, even fatal if not treated. He now sleeps with a c pap machine. It has a face mask and It forces air into your nose continually and will not allow you to be deprived of oxygen. He looks a litle Darth Vaderish while he sleeps, but he sure is a lot quieter and he says he feels a lot better during the day because for the first time in many years he is getting some really good quality sleep.
We are getting another foreign exchange student from Brazil today. He will just stay one week, then we get two girls from Brazil. They will be here for three weeks. We've got to do something to liven things up around this place!
We are all doing well and think about you every day.
May the force be with you!
Love,
Mom
Hello,
Transfer time has come, and we got the phone call this morning from President Collins. I'll be staying in Plainfield, and Elder Moore is being transferred to a new area where he'll be training a new missionary. I'm going to miss Elder Moore, but I'm excited to see who my new companion will be.
We've had a pretty great week. We really focused on finding the less active families and we've had a lot of success. The ward gave us a list of families to see, and almost all of them let us in and are going to let us teach them. We're going to have a lot of new investigators soon.
Hope you're having a great week.
Love,
Jared
Monday, June 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Frozen Pillows
Hello Jared,
Another week has zoomed by. Mikayla made it home from Costa Rica. She had an amazing trip and had some fun stories and lots of trivia to share with us. I think that will be a trip that she will remember forever. Her favorite part was zooming through the jungle on a zip line. She likes high adventure and has no fear.
Taylor started working for Ryan Davis. He likes it a lot and it is keeping him busy. Thursday he went camping for three days with the Young Men. On Friday, Mikayla and I went on a backpacking trip with the young women. We hiked up to Rudy's Flats. We had a great time. The girls stayed up until two or three laughing and being silly. We played games and got a lot of good laughs. Hallie left Friday to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house with Mariah for a week. That left Dad home alone for the weekend.
It is raining again. I feel really blessed that we had warm weather while we were all camping. Today is Sunday. Bring on the rain!
Everything is going well here. We are all healthy and happy. Bella stays busy herding the baby chicks into the coop. She thinks that is her job...to keep the chicks corralled. Funny dog.
Brad Richardson got his mission call to El Salvador.
Have an awesome week. I love you, Jared!
Mom
P.S. Come what may, and love it!
Hope you guys are doing well.
We had something pretty funny happen this week. We were in the retirement home visiting some people from the ward a few days ago. we were sitting in chairs in the hall talking to a man named Otis. While we were there this old lady starting hobbling towards us with her walker with a mean look on her face. When she finally made the trek over to us she started yelling at us. "Do you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and redeemer?!" We answered, "We sure do!". She was stunned and didn't know what to say. I think she thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses and she was ready to tear us apart. We told her we were from the Church of JESUS CHRIST (emphasis) of Latter-day Saints. She then apologized and hobbled off down the hallway saying she was sorry.
We've been really busy this week and if feels like I've been all over the place. We went golfing last preparation day with some Elders in Greencastle. It was a ton of fun. I've been on two companion exchanges this week with another one happening tonight and tomorrow. So I've been serving in Avon most of the week. We've had some great lessons this week and I think a couple of our investigators are almost ready for baptism. I don't know if I'll be here to see them though. Transfers are coming up fast. and I think my time with Elder Moore is almost up. We're pretty sure that one of us is going to be transferred out. Only time will tell.
Hope the heat there isn't killing you like it's killing me. We don't have any air conditioning in our apartment and it's the top part of a duplex, so it's getting HOT. We've got a few fans in the bedroom but I'm having to resort to putting my pillow in the freezer a few minutes before I go to bed. It's hot here.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Jared
Another week has zoomed by. Mikayla made it home from Costa Rica. She had an amazing trip and had some fun stories and lots of trivia to share with us. I think that will be a trip that she will remember forever. Her favorite part was zooming through the jungle on a zip line. She likes high adventure and has no fear.
Taylor started working for Ryan Davis. He likes it a lot and it is keeping him busy. Thursday he went camping for three days with the Young Men. On Friday, Mikayla and I went on a backpacking trip with the young women. We hiked up to Rudy's Flats. We had a great time. The girls stayed up until two or three laughing and being silly. We played games and got a lot of good laughs. Hallie left Friday to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house with Mariah for a week. That left Dad home alone for the weekend.
It is raining again. I feel really blessed that we had warm weather while we were all camping. Today is Sunday. Bring on the rain!
Everything is going well here. We are all healthy and happy. Bella stays busy herding the baby chicks into the coop. She thinks that is her job...to keep the chicks corralled. Funny dog.
Brad Richardson got his mission call to El Salvador.
Have an awesome week. I love you, Jared!
Mom
P.S. Come what may, and love it!
Hope you guys are doing well.
We had something pretty funny happen this week. We were in the retirement home visiting some people from the ward a few days ago. we were sitting in chairs in the hall talking to a man named Otis. While we were there this old lady starting hobbling towards us with her walker with a mean look on her face. When she finally made the trek over to us she started yelling at us. "Do you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and redeemer?!" We answered, "We sure do!". She was stunned and didn't know what to say. I think she thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses and she was ready to tear us apart. We told her we were from the Church of JESUS CHRIST (emphasis) of Latter-day Saints. She then apologized and hobbled off down the hallway saying she was sorry.
We've been really busy this week and if feels like I've been all over the place. We went golfing last preparation day with some Elders in Greencastle. It was a ton of fun. I've been on two companion exchanges this week with another one happening tonight and tomorrow. So I've been serving in Avon most of the week. We've had some great lessons this week and I think a couple of our investigators are almost ready for baptism. I don't know if I'll be here to see them though. Transfers are coming up fast. and I think my time with Elder Moore is almost up. We're pretty sure that one of us is going to be transferred out. Only time will tell.
Hope the heat there isn't killing you like it's killing me. We don't have any air conditioning in our apartment and it's the top part of a duplex, so it's getting HOT. We've got a few fans in the bedroom but I'm having to resort to putting my pillow in the freezer a few minutes before I go to bed. It's hot here.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Jared
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tea Party!
Dear Family,
It's been a long week but it seems like we haven't really accomplished much. We've had a few tragic phone calls the past couple of weeks. One of our less active members we've been bringing back and an investigator with a baptism date have called us and said they don't want to meet with missionaries anymore. It's really sad. We think we're making a ton of progress and they're doing well, but something makes them back out. Maybe they're just scared of the change.
We've still got some great investigators though. Bob's doing really well, except for the Word of Wisdom. We found out he drinks a gallon and a half of tea a day! It's tough for him to give up his vices, but he's on his way. We've got a new investigator named Gabby that we've been meeting with for the past couple weeks. She's been reading every day and praying about it. She thinks she knows what the answer is already.
Hope you guys are having a great week.
Love
Jared
Dear jared,
I feel awful I didn't get your letter to you in time. This morning got a little crazy hectic and I got side tracked. Hopefully you don't have to wait a whole week for news from home, although there isn't much.
I am sorry a out the discouraging week. That must be so hard after all the work you've put into it, to have it all fall apart. Don't despair. After the trials come great blessings.
I hope you you survived the medicated pasta incident. I was telling Ivan about it and he assured me that missionaries are blessed with iron stomachs. Hopefully that holds true for you!
Well, the first week of summer vacation has gone off without a hitch. Mikayla is still in Costa Rica having the time of her life, so it is still really quiet around the house. Even all the Ensigns are gone on a church history tour so the neighborhood is super boring.
Taylor, Hallie and I have gone hiking with Laura and we've done a little bit of service this week for some friends. Taylor and Craig have gone mountain biking a couple of times at 5:30 am (he hasn't slept in even once yet, hahaha) but other than that, it's been pretty uneventful.
We did go up to Idaho on Saturday for Bronson's wedding. It was a nice ceremony in a quaint reception center in Rexburg. We spent the night in a Hotel Saturday night with the entire Mott clan. It was quite the party. The kids were running like wild Indians all over the place while the adults sat and visited (like we always do), there was a little pool time fun, and our customary canasta game until 1:00 am. There was a good time had by all. Bronson looks super happy.
Dad stayed home so he could attend Grandpa Wise's 80th birthday party, which was the same time as Bronson's wedding. It was held on June 11th, which is Grandma Wise's birthday, ironically, but it was a celebration for him because it was a milestone. 80 years. Wow!
Taylor is hopefully going to work for Ryan installing home theaters. I hope it works out. He really needs a job!
Have a great week.
Love,
Mom
Hey everyone,
I'm in Costa Rica! I am having a great time. We missed all of our original flights because the first plane had problems. We ended up flying from SL to LA and then we took an all night flight to Miami. We then took a flight down to Cost Rica. It was a long trip, but we made it. We took a 3 hour bus ride from San Jose to a boat dock, then we got on boats and had an hour and a half ride to the hotel we were staying at. The hotel was awesome! It was a bunch of rooms and cabins on raised walk ways through the jungle. We stayed there for two nights and when we were there, we went on a boat tour and saw birds, river otters, fish, baby crocs, and lizards. After that, we went to the village and toured around the place, went to the beach and collected seashells. We also saw MONKEYS (tell Hallie I took a pic for her). Today we took a bus ride to Sarapiqui and went to a banana plantation. It was so cool. We made it to our new hotel, ate lunch, and went to a chocolate plantation. We got to try cocoa beans when they were raw, roasted, ground up with cinnamon sugar and made into hot chocolate. It was so good because it was kind of bitter and very different from what we are used to. I bought you guys some chocolate bars to try. They are actually very healthy because they are organic with cocoa butter instead of oil and sugar. I dont know when I will be able to send you another e mail or call you, so I LOVE YOU and only miss you a little bit. haha just kidding.
ps. the 2 gig memory card only holds like 100 pics ......grrrrrrrrrrrrr. I will try and buy another one if i can find it.
Love,
Mikayla
It's been a long week but it seems like we haven't really accomplished much. We've had a few tragic phone calls the past couple of weeks. One of our less active members we've been bringing back and an investigator with a baptism date have called us and said they don't want to meet with missionaries anymore. It's really sad. We think we're making a ton of progress and they're doing well, but something makes them back out. Maybe they're just scared of the change.
We've still got some great investigators though. Bob's doing really well, except for the Word of Wisdom. We found out he drinks a gallon and a half of tea a day! It's tough for him to give up his vices, but he's on his way. We've got a new investigator named Gabby that we've been meeting with for the past couple weeks. She's been reading every day and praying about it. She thinks she knows what the answer is already.
Hope you guys are having a great week.
Love
Jared
Dear jared,
I feel awful I didn't get your letter to you in time. This morning got a little crazy hectic and I got side tracked. Hopefully you don't have to wait a whole week for news from home, although there isn't much.
I am sorry a out the discouraging week. That must be so hard after all the work you've put into it, to have it all fall apart. Don't despair. After the trials come great blessings.
I hope you you survived the medicated pasta incident. I was telling Ivan about it and he assured me that missionaries are blessed with iron stomachs. Hopefully that holds true for you!
Well, the first week of summer vacation has gone off without a hitch. Mikayla is still in Costa Rica having the time of her life, so it is still really quiet around the house. Even all the Ensigns are gone on a church history tour so the neighborhood is super boring.
Taylor, Hallie and I have gone hiking with Laura and we've done a little bit of service this week for some friends. Taylor and Craig have gone mountain biking a couple of times at 5:30 am (he hasn't slept in even once yet, hahaha) but other than that, it's been pretty uneventful.
We did go up to Idaho on Saturday for Bronson's wedding. It was a nice ceremony in a quaint reception center in Rexburg. We spent the night in a Hotel Saturday night with the entire Mott clan. It was quite the party. The kids were running like wild Indians all over the place while the adults sat and visited (like we always do), there was a little pool time fun, and our customary canasta game until 1:00 am. There was a good time had by all. Bronson looks super happy.
Dad stayed home so he could attend Grandpa Wise's 80th birthday party, which was the same time as Bronson's wedding. It was held on June 11th, which is Grandma Wise's birthday, ironically, but it was a celebration for him because it was a milestone. 80 years. Wow!
Taylor is hopefully going to work for Ryan installing home theaters. I hope it works out. He really needs a job!
Have a great week.
Love,
Mom
Hey everyone,
I'm in Costa Rica! I am having a great time. We missed all of our original flights because the first plane had problems. We ended up flying from SL to LA and then we took an all night flight to Miami. We then took a flight down to Cost Rica. It was a long trip, but we made it. We took a 3 hour bus ride from San Jose to a boat dock, then we got on boats and had an hour and a half ride to the hotel we were staying at. The hotel was awesome! It was a bunch of rooms and cabins on raised walk ways through the jungle. We stayed there for two nights and when we were there, we went on a boat tour and saw birds, river otters, fish, baby crocs, and lizards. After that, we went to the village and toured around the place, went to the beach and collected seashells. We also saw MONKEYS (tell Hallie I took a pic for her). Today we took a bus ride to Sarapiqui and went to a banana plantation. It was so cool. We made it to our new hotel, ate lunch, and went to a chocolate plantation. We got to try cocoa beans when they were raw, roasted, ground up with cinnamon sugar and made into hot chocolate. It was so good because it was kind of bitter and very different from what we are used to. I bought you guys some chocolate bars to try. They are actually very healthy because they are organic with cocoa butter instead of oil and sugar. I dont know when I will be able to send you another e mail or call you, so I LOVE YOU and only miss you a little bit. haha just kidding.
ps. the 2 gig memory card only holds like 100 pics ......grrrrrrrrrrrrr. I will try and buy another one if i can find it.
Love,
Mikayla
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Drug laced Pasta
Jun 6, 2011
Dear Jared,
Here's the word on the street. Robert Thompson got his call. He leaves for the Omaha Nebraska Mission on September 7th. His family is pretty excited for him.
Lindsay came into Spanky's the other day. She asked how you were doing. She said to tell you hello and she needs to write you a letter.
This has been kind of a crazy week. The last day of school was on Friday. I went over to the school to take pictures of Hallie and her teacher and as I was leaving, I actually got a little melancholy. I felt a lump form in my throat and I got all choked up. This is an end of an era for me. No more kids in elementary school. No more class parties, no more Halloween parades, no more PTA book fairs, no more kids in school until 3:30. Gone are my days of volunteering at Boulton Elementary.
After school got out, we had a party her class mates. She invited a bunch of friends from school and they had a big water fight in our circle. We set up a big pool right in the middle. It was pretty chilly to swim, 69 degrees, but the kids didn't seem to mind. At least it wasn't raining for a change. The party ended at five o'clock and then we packed up and headed up to the family cabin.
We caravanned with the De Vries and the Burts. All of us spent the night in the cabin. At 3:55 a.m., there was a horrible noise. It jolted me awake and I realized that someone had fallen down the stairs. It was Kiara. She had a dream that she needed to brush her teeth and tried to find the bathroom in the pitch dark. She cut up the side of her face and got a pretty good bruise, but otherwise survived. What a scary thing! I was glad it wasn't Craig or Laura who fell, because kids heal so much faster than adults. We finally all got back to sleep and settled down, then it was time to get up. It was time for our big ride.
We headed to Lewiston for our 100 mile bike ride; Little Red Riding Hood. We started our ride at 7:30. It was so cold, I was worried about getting hypothermia for the first 10 or 15 miles. When the sun got a little higher in the sky, it started to warm up. We were at mile 52 and feeling great when the unthinkable happened. Sherisse was in the lead, I was two inches behind her and Laura was a few feet behind me. A girl who was riding in front of us, and off to the left, clipped the tire of the girl in front of her. I saw her swerving and coming our direction. She lost total control, crashed, and slid face down directly in front of Sherisse. Because we were riding fast and so close, there was no reaction time. I watched as Sherisse ran right OVER HER HEAD! I swerved right and missed the girl by an inch and landed on top of Sherisse. Laura missed both of us, and wiped out on her own. Stacy, (the girl from the other group) was bleeding from her head and appeared to be in serious condition. Medical help came quickly and the paramedics were working to get her taken care of. Meanwhile, we assessed our own wounds, which, miraculously, were minimal. My wounds were purely emotional, perhaps post traumatic stress from a recent incident of my own. Seeing her lying there on the ground, bleeding, not knowing if she would live or have permanent damage was extremely disturbing. After the ambulance pulled away, we did a quick check of our bikes. (Some good Samaritan had put the chain back on mine) and we found that there was no damage to any of the bikes (another miracle). We decided to ride three miles to the lunch stop and reevaluate if we wanted to finish riding or call it a day. We ate lunch, and decided that it wasn't our day to die, so we rode on and finished the last 45 miles.
I got contact information from Stacy's family so I could get an update on her condition. When we got home Saturday night, I called to check on her. She has a concussion and a plastic surgeon did some work on her face, including 150 stitches, but aside from her abrasions, and mere flesh wounds, no permanent damage. What a miracle. By the way she looked, I was pretty sure she had some neck or head injury that was pretty serious. All of us feel that there was some divine intervention there. I remember vividly watching it all happen, but no recollection of me crashing or getting up. Sherisse and Laura said the same thing. I feel amazing today, I guess my guardian angel took the impact for me.
All of us got back on our bikes this morning and rode to the pool to swim laps. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I truly believe that He was watching over us and protecting us.
I took Mikayla to the airport yesterday morning before church. She's on her way to Costa Rica. She called me at 8 o'clock last night and still hadn't left the Salt Lake airport. Her flight had been delayed by almost 12 hours. Poor thing! But she was positive about it and said that it was all part of the adventure. I hope she's there by now.
Did you get the GPS we sent? Hope it helps.
We love you and pray for you every night.
Enjoy the journey
Mom
Hello,
Thanks for sending the GPS. It's really going to help next week when we have the car. It's not doing any good right now, because it's our week on bikes. I hope you're enjoying that nice 70 degree weather because it's in the 90s (with humidity) here, so biking kind of sucks. At the end of the day our shirts are soaking wet with sweat.
We've had some pretty funny things happen this week. First of all, on Wednesday I went on an exchange with one of the elders in Indianapolis. We were having dinner with a family in the ward. Before we went in, Elder Ketch told me not to do anything stupid because this lady is kind of crazy. She's got Schizophrenia and multiple personalities. She gets offended really easily. So naturally, the whole dinner was awkward. She had her 97 year old mother with her, and we were having pasta for dinner. This lady ground up her mother's pills and sprinkled them on her pasta and mixed them in...using the serving spoon...We didn't want to say anything to offend her so we just had to smile and serve ourselves some pasta with that spoon. I hope I don't die. After that, the doorbell rang, and the family's rottweiler ran to the door. Elder Ketch had his legs stretched out under the table and this dog wanted through. So it ran under his legs causing him to almost kick the table over and fall backwards off his chair. We got a pretty good laugh out of it.
I hope you guys are doing good, and it's not all doom and gloom like your letter sounds.
Tell Lindsay to she needs to write me. I still need to hear about how Sasquatch Music Festival was. I hardly ever get letters.
Love,
Jared
Dear Jared,
Here's the word on the street. Robert Thompson got his call. He leaves for the Omaha Nebraska Mission on September 7th. His family is pretty excited for him.
Lindsay came into Spanky's the other day. She asked how you were doing. She said to tell you hello and she needs to write you a letter.
This has been kind of a crazy week. The last day of school was on Friday. I went over to the school to take pictures of Hallie and her teacher and as I was leaving, I actually got a little melancholy. I felt a lump form in my throat and I got all choked up. This is an end of an era for me. No more kids in elementary school. No more class parties, no more Halloween parades, no more PTA book fairs, no more kids in school until 3:30. Gone are my days of volunteering at Boulton Elementary.
After school got out, we had a party her class mates. She invited a bunch of friends from school and they had a big water fight in our circle. We set up a big pool right in the middle. It was pretty chilly to swim, 69 degrees, but the kids didn't seem to mind. At least it wasn't raining for a change. The party ended at five o'clock and then we packed up and headed up to the family cabin.
We caravanned with the De Vries and the Burts. All of us spent the night in the cabin. At 3:55 a.m., there was a horrible noise. It jolted me awake and I realized that someone had fallen down the stairs. It was Kiara. She had a dream that she needed to brush her teeth and tried to find the bathroom in the pitch dark. She cut up the side of her face and got a pretty good bruise, but otherwise survived. What a scary thing! I was glad it wasn't Craig or Laura who fell, because kids heal so much faster than adults. We finally all got back to sleep and settled down, then it was time to get up. It was time for our big ride.
We headed to Lewiston for our 100 mile bike ride; Little Red Riding Hood. We started our ride at 7:30. It was so cold, I was worried about getting hypothermia for the first 10 or 15 miles. When the sun got a little higher in the sky, it started to warm up. We were at mile 52 and feeling great when the unthinkable happened. Sherisse was in the lead, I was two inches behind her and Laura was a few feet behind me. A girl who was riding in front of us, and off to the left, clipped the tire of the girl in front of her. I saw her swerving and coming our direction. She lost total control, crashed, and slid face down directly in front of Sherisse. Because we were riding fast and so close, there was no reaction time. I watched as Sherisse ran right OVER HER HEAD! I swerved right and missed the girl by an inch and landed on top of Sherisse. Laura missed both of us, and wiped out on her own. Stacy, (the girl from the other group) was bleeding from her head and appeared to be in serious condition. Medical help came quickly and the paramedics were working to get her taken care of. Meanwhile, we assessed our own wounds, which, miraculously, were minimal. My wounds were purely emotional, perhaps post traumatic stress from a recent incident of my own. Seeing her lying there on the ground, bleeding, not knowing if she would live or have permanent damage was extremely disturbing. After the ambulance pulled away, we did a quick check of our bikes. (Some good Samaritan had put the chain back on mine) and we found that there was no damage to any of the bikes (another miracle). We decided to ride three miles to the lunch stop and reevaluate if we wanted to finish riding or call it a day. We ate lunch, and decided that it wasn't our day to die, so we rode on and finished the last 45 miles.
I got contact information from Stacy's family so I could get an update on her condition. When we got home Saturday night, I called to check on her. She has a concussion and a plastic surgeon did some work on her face, including 150 stitches, but aside from her abrasions, and mere flesh wounds, no permanent damage. What a miracle. By the way she looked, I was pretty sure she had some neck or head injury that was pretty serious. All of us feel that there was some divine intervention there. I remember vividly watching it all happen, but no recollection of me crashing or getting up. Sherisse and Laura said the same thing. I feel amazing today, I guess my guardian angel took the impact for me.
All of us got back on our bikes this morning and rode to the pool to swim laps. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I truly believe that He was watching over us and protecting us.
I took Mikayla to the airport yesterday morning before church. She's on her way to Costa Rica. She called me at 8 o'clock last night and still hadn't left the Salt Lake airport. Her flight had been delayed by almost 12 hours. Poor thing! But she was positive about it and said that it was all part of the adventure. I hope she's there by now.
Did you get the GPS we sent? Hope it helps.
We love you and pray for you every night.
Enjoy the journey
Mom
Hello,
Thanks for sending the GPS. It's really going to help next week when we have the car. It's not doing any good right now, because it's our week on bikes. I hope you're enjoying that nice 70 degree weather because it's in the 90s (with humidity) here, so biking kind of sucks. At the end of the day our shirts are soaking wet with sweat.
We've had some pretty funny things happen this week. First of all, on Wednesday I went on an exchange with one of the elders in Indianapolis. We were having dinner with a family in the ward. Before we went in, Elder Ketch told me not to do anything stupid because this lady is kind of crazy. She's got Schizophrenia and multiple personalities. She gets offended really easily. So naturally, the whole dinner was awkward. She had her 97 year old mother with her, and we were having pasta for dinner. This lady ground up her mother's pills and sprinkled them on her pasta and mixed them in...using the serving spoon...We didn't want to say anything to offend her so we just had to smile and serve ourselves some pasta with that spoon. I hope I don't die. After that, the doorbell rang, and the family's rottweiler ran to the door. Elder Ketch had his legs stretched out under the table and this dog wanted through. So it ran under his legs causing him to almost kick the table over and fall backwards off his chair. We got a pretty good laugh out of it.
I hope you guys are doing good, and it's not all doom and gloom like your letter sounds.
Tell Lindsay to she needs to write me. I still need to hear about how Sasquatch Music Festival was. I hardly ever get letters.
Love,
Jared
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Missionary Sunday
May 30, 2011
Dear Jared
This week went crazy fast. Monday morning a group of us went to Collard's cabin for three days for a scrapbook retreat. We were having a good time until Laura went up to the bedroom we were staying in, and found a LOT of tiny bugs crawling a all over the beds. Luckily I took my iPad and was able to google the bugs. They looked exactly like bedbugs. Everyone was really freaked out and hysterical. I thought it was pretty funny and had a good time with it. We eventually found out that they were bat bugs. They actually hitch a ride on bats which consequently the Collard's have had problems with. We sterilized all of our personal belongings and moved to another bedroom, and we were fine.
Friday we went to Vernal for the annual family reunion. We came back Saturday night (or early Sunday morning). That was pretty much my week.
Mikayla sang in sacrament meeting with Sammi and did a beautiful job. She has such a pretty voice.
It's good to know you are staying busy and you are seeing results. It's so nice to have baptisms and actually get to see some of the fruits of your labors.
I am sorry about elder Moore's parents moving. That would be hard. But, the climate probably won't be that different from here, since it is still RAINING every day!
Mike Carter got his call to Concepcion, Chile. He's pretty excited about it. I'm not sure when he leaves, but I think it's this fall, either August of September.
Well, I'm off to work. Have an amazing week. We are just trying to get through the last few days of school. Hopefully Taylor passes all of his classes!
Love you,
Mom
Hello family,
This week's been really busy, especially with service. We've helped two families move this week and we helped do some yard work outside of the church.
This Sunday was great. Every fifth Sunday here is "Missionary Sunday", which is really cool. Brother Horman got a calling to be a Varsity Scout leader and Sister Horman gave a talk on her conversion story. It was neat hearing about how she said she would never give up coffee because she worked twelve hour days at a hospital, and it was the only thing that got her through the day. But, when Elder Moore and the other missionary before me taught the Word of Wisdom lesson she gave it up the next day. She has a ton of faith, and I think her talk helped some of the other investigators we had at Sacrament Meeting because they're kind of struggling with faith right now, thinking they need to know absolutely everything about the church and know everything about the Book of Mormon. They're going off facts instead of faith. Hopefully her talk made them realize something.
Hope you're having a good time in that rain, because it's over 90 degrees here. I wish it was raining.
Have a good week,
Jared
Dear Jared
This week went crazy fast. Monday morning a group of us went to Collard's cabin for three days for a scrapbook retreat. We were having a good time until Laura went up to the bedroom we were staying in, and found a LOT of tiny bugs crawling a all over the beds. Luckily I took my iPad and was able to google the bugs. They looked exactly like bedbugs. Everyone was really freaked out and hysterical. I thought it was pretty funny and had a good time with it. We eventually found out that they were bat bugs. They actually hitch a ride on bats which consequently the Collard's have had problems with. We sterilized all of our personal belongings and moved to another bedroom, and we were fine.
Friday we went to Vernal for the annual family reunion. We came back Saturday night (or early Sunday morning). That was pretty much my week.
Mikayla sang in sacrament meeting with Sammi and did a beautiful job. She has such a pretty voice.
It's good to know you are staying busy and you are seeing results. It's so nice to have baptisms and actually get to see some of the fruits of your labors.
I am sorry about elder Moore's parents moving. That would be hard. But, the climate probably won't be that different from here, since it is still RAINING every day!
Mike Carter got his call to Concepcion, Chile. He's pretty excited about it. I'm not sure when he leaves, but I think it's this fall, either August of September.
Well, I'm off to work. Have an amazing week. We are just trying to get through the last few days of school. Hopefully Taylor passes all of his classes!
Love you,
Mom
Hello family,
This week's been really busy, especially with service. We've helped two families move this week and we helped do some yard work outside of the church.
This Sunday was great. Every fifth Sunday here is "Missionary Sunday", which is really cool. Brother Horman got a calling to be a Varsity Scout leader and Sister Horman gave a talk on her conversion story. It was neat hearing about how she said she would never give up coffee because she worked twelve hour days at a hospital, and it was the only thing that got her through the day. But, when Elder Moore and the other missionary before me taught the Word of Wisdom lesson she gave it up the next day. She has a ton of faith, and I think her talk helped some of the other investigators we had at Sacrament Meeting because they're kind of struggling with faith right now, thinking they need to know absolutely everything about the church and know everything about the Book of Mormon. They're going off facts instead of faith. Hopefully her talk made them realize something.
Hope you're having a good time in that rain, because it's over 90 degrees here. I wish it was raining.
Have a good week,
Jared
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunlight after the Storms
May 22, 2011
Dear Jared,
Is it still raining in Indiana? We have had six days of rain and one sunny day. One morning at 3 am it was raining and it turned into hail. It was so loud it woke every one in the house up. There was crazy lightning and thunder. It made me wonder how you were doing, being out in the rain all the time. This has been the craziest weather.
Taylor was ordained a Priest today. Can you believe your little brother is getting so old?
Taylor and Dad went test driving a sports car yesterday. It was an Audi TT. Cute car. It was like driving a rocket. I think it's a bad idea to get such a speedy car. We can't afford all the speeding tickets. I think Dad's in love. Oh, Taylor is too.
Yesterday was the Ogden Marathon. Sherisse, Laura, Jeanette and I all went. We had to leave home at 4:00 am so that we could be on a bus by 5 am in Ogden. We were bussed to the start line where we waited for an hour and a half for the race to start. Laura and Sherisse did the full, Jeanette and I did the half. Our goal was to run the entire thing, no walking. We did it! That is such a neat feeling of accomplishment. Jeanette and I hugged and cried after we finished. It was a pretty emotional experience. I waited at the finish line for Laura and Sherisse and watched as other runners came in. It was interesting to watch. As soon as the runners crossed the line and stopped running, some started throwing up, many of them collapsed and were caught by the medics, a couple of them collapsed on the ground unattended and were rushed off to the medical tent. One girl made it almost to the finish line and passed out. She did a face plant on the pavement right in front of Laura. It's amazing how people can push themselves that far, where they have absolutely nothing left to give. Crazy! Anyway, I'm thankful that was the one sunny day last week and we didn't have to run for hours in the rain and I'm glad to have that behind me because we have a 100 mile bike ride coming up in two weeks. I'm really excited for that one.
Run your marathon, Jared. give it your all. Don't walk. Push yourself and give it everything you have. When you cross the finish line exhausted, you can come home and rest and know that you worked as hard as you possible could.
No regrets!
I love you,
Mom
Dear Mom,
The rain has mostly quit and the sun has come out this week. We've had a couple short storms though. The thunderstorms here are LOUD.
It's weird to think how old Taylor is getting. By the time I get back he'll almost be done with High School.
I look forward to seeing an Audi parked in the driveway for me when I get home. It'll be great to have something with a little more power than the Ford Escort.
My companion's a little jealous about you running the Ogden Marathon. He misses running. A few weeks ago there was a marathon ran all through Indianapolis that ended in the Indy 500 track that he wanted to run, but he couldn't because it wasn't on Preparation day. Speaking of Elder Moore, he got some shocking news this morning. First thing in his email from his parents he got told that they'll be moving to Seattle in a few months for a new job. His reaction was pretty funny.
Other than the news of the move, this week's been great for us. We set two baptismal dates for next month, and we're hoping to set two more this week. Our area's doing great. We've been having lots of success in our "marathon". At this rate, we're running like a two minute mile. Time is flying by.
Love,
Jared
PS Thanks for the package!
Dear Jared,
Is it still raining in Indiana? We have had six days of rain and one sunny day. One morning at 3 am it was raining and it turned into hail. It was so loud it woke every one in the house up. There was crazy lightning and thunder. It made me wonder how you were doing, being out in the rain all the time. This has been the craziest weather.
Taylor was ordained a Priest today. Can you believe your little brother is getting so old?
Taylor and Dad went test driving a sports car yesterday. It was an Audi TT. Cute car. It was like driving a rocket. I think it's a bad idea to get such a speedy car. We can't afford all the speeding tickets. I think Dad's in love. Oh, Taylor is too.
Yesterday was the Ogden Marathon. Sherisse, Laura, Jeanette and I all went. We had to leave home at 4:00 am so that we could be on a bus by 5 am in Ogden. We were bussed to the start line where we waited for an hour and a half for the race to start. Laura and Sherisse did the full, Jeanette and I did the half. Our goal was to run the entire thing, no walking. We did it! That is such a neat feeling of accomplishment. Jeanette and I hugged and cried after we finished. It was a pretty emotional experience. I waited at the finish line for Laura and Sherisse and watched as other runners came in. It was interesting to watch. As soon as the runners crossed the line and stopped running, some started throwing up, many of them collapsed and were caught by the medics, a couple of them collapsed on the ground unattended and were rushed off to the medical tent. One girl made it almost to the finish line and passed out. She did a face plant on the pavement right in front of Laura. It's amazing how people can push themselves that far, where they have absolutely nothing left to give. Crazy! Anyway, I'm thankful that was the one sunny day last week and we didn't have to run for hours in the rain and I'm glad to have that behind me because we have a 100 mile bike ride coming up in two weeks. I'm really excited for that one.
Run your marathon, Jared. give it your all. Don't walk. Push yourself and give it everything you have. When you cross the finish line exhausted, you can come home and rest and know that you worked as hard as you possible could.
No regrets!
I love you,
Mom
Dear Mom,
The rain has mostly quit and the sun has come out this week. We've had a couple short storms though. The thunderstorms here are LOUD.
It's weird to think how old Taylor is getting. By the time I get back he'll almost be done with High School.
I look forward to seeing an Audi parked in the driveway for me when I get home. It'll be great to have something with a little more power than the Ford Escort.
My companion's a little jealous about you running the Ogden Marathon. He misses running. A few weeks ago there was a marathon ran all through Indianapolis that ended in the Indy 500 track that he wanted to run, but he couldn't because it wasn't on Preparation day. Speaking of Elder Moore, he got some shocking news this morning. First thing in his email from his parents he got told that they'll be moving to Seattle in a few months for a new job. His reaction was pretty funny.
Other than the news of the move, this week's been great for us. We set two baptismal dates for next month, and we're hoping to set two more this week. Our area's doing great. We've been having lots of success in our "marathon". At this rate, we're running like a two minute mile. Time is flying by.
Love,
Jared
PS Thanks for the package!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
An Uneventful Week
May 16, 2011
Dear Jared,
Thank you so much for the fantastic Mother's Day present. I love it. You look so happy. It truly is a cute picture. Who took it for you? Pretty much the best Mother's Day Present ever! I've had so much fun showing it to everyone.
Taylor will be ordained a Priest next Sunday. It seems pretty crazy that he is already sixteen. I love that he can drive and that he likes to. It helps me out so much.
We had our regional dance Saturday night. There was a good turnout. We had over 160 kids come. It was fun to be there and watch Mikayla. She is the life of the party.
Hallie has been at Nichole's for the last three days, so it has been really quiet around here. Luckily we have Sally and Mckenzie to keep the place livened up.
Bridger left the MTC Sunday morning. Tammy was so excited to get to talk to him from the airport, because he didn't get to call home on Mother's Day. He's pretty funny. I read his letters on his blog.
Jess and Josh blessed little Stella yesterday. She is pretty cute..
Have an awesome week. Keep the faith.
Love,
Mom
Dear Mom,
I'm glad you liked the gift. We have a member in our ward who has a photograpy buisiness that took the photos for us while we were at their house for dinner.
This week's been a little rough. It was one of those weeks where we thought we had solid plans for each day, but everything fell through. It seems like we didn't get anything accomplished this week. There's not really a lot to write about because it seems like nothing really happened this week. Hopefully next week will be better.
Some good news though, transfer calls happened today, and we didn't get one, so Elder Moore & I are staying together in Plainfield for another six weeks.
Hope everything is going well for you.
Jared
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