Hello Jared,
What an exciting but sad week, if you can use those two words in the same sentence. Sunday morning I was coming home from an early morning meeting when I saw an ambulance at the Collard's home. Topher was running up behind me. He had heard over the scanner that Ed was unresponsive. We went inside to see what was going on. He had passed out at the table while eating breakfast. When he came to, he was clammy and disoriented. They hauled him to the hospital but after running some tests and finding nothing wrong, they sent him home.
Then, Dad came home from on Monday with some tickets to the Jazz game. After dinner we headed over. We were about an hour into a pretty exciting game when dad got a call from work. He talked for a bit then turned to me and told me he had to run into work. Taylor, who has gone with him on several occasions, wanted to go. They handed me the car keys and took off on foot. They ran all they way to the conference center where there were fire alarms going off. Shortly after they arrived, here came all the fire trucks. They met in the lobby and Dad led the firemen to the elevator. Taylor turned to dad and said, "This is on my bucket list, to go into a burning building!". As soon as he said that, one of the security men saw Taylor and told him he had to wait outside. Bummer! A life dream shot to bits!
Dad guided the firemen to the source of the fire and was right in the middle of all the commotion. Taylor stood outside watching all the emergency vehicles show up. Finally after about 45 minutes, Taylor called me and we met him at the car to go home. We missed the end of the game, which I later heard went into triple overtime and the Jazz won. Dad didn't come home until 11:00 the next morning. The conference center sustained a half million dollars in damages, but considering what the whole building is worth, we were lucky they were able to contain it so quickly.
Fortunately, the week got better after that. I was in charge of a Stake Youth movie night. We watched "17 Miracles". We had over 200 attend. I was happy for the turnout. Friday night, me and the girls, along with Becky and Emma, went to see the play "Father of the Bride" at Hale Center Theatre. It was a cute show and the girls enjoyed it. Dad and Taylor went to an indoor football game and then drove to a Vernal late that night. They worked all day Saturday to help Grandpa put in a new fence. I heard that all the way out there, they played leap frog with a Shelby Cobra. Taylor was driving when he came up on the Mustang who was going the speed limit. Taylor opened it up and flew past him. On the next straightaway, the old car raced by and so it continued for miles until they were going over 100 mph. I'm sure the testosterone levels were soaring as well as the adrenalin. Sigh. Boys will be boys.
Saturday night was our ward Pie Party. That was fun. Sit around, eat pie until you're sick, then go home. Sunday I went to Jaesi's mission non-farewell. She did a fantastic job. She's really funny and she kept all of us captivated. A mission will be good for her! Cooper Hansen got his Mission call. He's going to South America. I can't remember where, though. Maybe Bolivia? He doesn't leave until August or September. Other than that, nothing too exciting this week, hahaha. I'm excited to find out where you will be going. You didn't answer my question about voting. Do you want me to send you an absentee ballot? Also, you got a tax refund. It's several hundred dollars. What do you want me to do with the check? I can send it in a package to you, deposit in your checking or savings, or forge your name and go shopping. If you don't respond, I will do the latter. :)
Love you,
Mom
Hey!
All is well here. Last Monday and Tuesday Elder Santy and I spent the day saying our goodbyes to people before I left Bloomington. It's a bit of a bummer to be leaving after only three months, but I'm happy to be in my new area. I am now serving in the Carmel ward with a fairly new missionary. His name is Elder Tobler and he's only been out for three months. Carmel is great. It's a really nice area. It's on the north side of Indianapolis. It's where the temple is eventually going to be built. There are tons of huge houses here. I'll have to take some pictures to send next week. There are lots of gated mansion commuities here. It's nuts!
We're teaching a pretty good ammount of people here. There are a lot of missionaries living on our street. There's us, the Assistants to the President, two office missionaries, and we share an apartment with Elders from the neighboring ward. It's a lot of fun here. Parts of this area remind me of Plainfield. There are a lot of great bike trails everywhere and it's beautiful here. We live right next to downtown Carmel in the Arts and Design district. I'm excited for the next few months working here with Elder Tobler. He's a great missionary and we're going to get a lot of work done.
Love you!
Elder Wise
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Changes on the Horizon
April 16, 2012
Hi Jared!
We got your memory card and have had a blast looking at all your pictures and videos. Mikayla was especially enjoying the footage of a fine looking prospect on a skateboard in the kitchen. It brought much enjoyment into our lives. It'll be fun to hear all the stories behind the pictures. I will get that sent back to you in the next day or two. Thanks for sharing it with us!
After a really wet, cold week, it looks like spring is back. Everything is so green and beautiful. I just really love this time of year. It is my favorite season. I love finding new flowers that have bloomed every day and just when you think things can't get any prettier, something else bursts out in full splendor. And knowing that summer is next in line is always exciting. I really enjoy spring.
We are all still really busy trying to get the garage finished. Right now it is a complete disaster, but it's progressing. Everything we do seems to take so long and cost so much more than expected, but little by little we will conquer it. One thing this project has accomplished is Taylor knows without a doubt that he does NOT want to be a drywall guy for a living.
Mandy and her new husband, Kevin, are moving to Minnesota today. He got a summer job there. They will come back this fall when school starts so he can go back to BYU Idaho. Jamie is headed off to Israel for three months. She's really excited to go. That should be a neat experience for her..
Thanks for sending blessings our way. As you know it is tax season. Since we have paid off our house and we have so little to deduct, we should be getting hit hard by taxes, but for whatever reason, our return was huge. It's almost enough to pay for the rest of your mission. We were pretty excited when our accountant called us with the joyful news!
Have a fantastic week! I hope you know how many people love you, pray for you and ask about you daily. Of course, I am always proud to tell them how well you are doing. You are such a good example to so many youth who look up to you. Thanks for being willing to serve.
Find out if you can Skype on Mothers Day. That would be so much fun!
Love,
Mom
Hey,
Hold off on sending that memory card, I got a call this morning saying I'm getting transferred. I'm really sad to be leaving Bloomington after only three months, but oh well. It was good while it lasted. We had a great week this week. Elder Santy and I have been working hard. It's been really rainy the past few days, so we've had some fun in the rain. On Saturday we had an appointment on the other side of town, and we had just gotten back from a meeting and were already late. We jumped on our bikes and didn't even think of getting a raincoat or umbrella. We booked it over to the appointment and turns out he wasn't even there. We started walking to our next back up plan which wasn't too far away. That's when we saw this cloud rolling towards us. The clouds move REALLY fast here and it came quick. We got pounded by the rain as we were running to a nearby gas station to take shelter. We stayed there for a few minutes and then we got lucky and a member showed up at the gas station. She got her husband to give us a ride home. We were soaked. Indiana thunderstorms are pretty crazy. Haha.
Yesterday was great. We were packed with appointments. We taught Josh and Nikki first and it went pretty well. They've got a long way to go, but they're working pretty hard. We got to go to a Why I Believe fireside and hear some recent converts speak, so that was pretty cool. And to finish off the night we had a first discussion with a new investigator. He was a referral from a family in the ward, (the ones who saved us from the rain) and he's awesome. He's from India. This was my first time teaching someone who doesn't come from a Christian background. The spirit was strong as we testified about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was a great teaching opportunity.
I'm going to miss Bloomington, but I'm excited for what's to come.
Love you,
Jared
Hi Jared!
We got your memory card and have had a blast looking at all your pictures and videos. Mikayla was especially enjoying the footage of a fine looking prospect on a skateboard in the kitchen. It brought much enjoyment into our lives. It'll be fun to hear all the stories behind the pictures. I will get that sent back to you in the next day or two. Thanks for sharing it with us!
After a really wet, cold week, it looks like spring is back. Everything is so green and beautiful. I just really love this time of year. It is my favorite season. I love finding new flowers that have bloomed every day and just when you think things can't get any prettier, something else bursts out in full splendor. And knowing that summer is next in line is always exciting. I really enjoy spring.
We are all still really busy trying to get the garage finished. Right now it is a complete disaster, but it's progressing. Everything we do seems to take so long and cost so much more than expected, but little by little we will conquer it. One thing this project has accomplished is Taylor knows without a doubt that he does NOT want to be a drywall guy for a living.
Mandy and her new husband, Kevin, are moving to Minnesota today. He got a summer job there. They will come back this fall when school starts so he can go back to BYU Idaho. Jamie is headed off to Israel for three months. She's really excited to go. That should be a neat experience for her..
Thanks for sending blessings our way. As you know it is tax season. Since we have paid off our house and we have so little to deduct, we should be getting hit hard by taxes, but for whatever reason, our return was huge. It's almost enough to pay for the rest of your mission. We were pretty excited when our accountant called us with the joyful news!
Have a fantastic week! I hope you know how many people love you, pray for you and ask about you daily. Of course, I am always proud to tell them how well you are doing. You are such a good example to so many youth who look up to you. Thanks for being willing to serve.
Find out if you can Skype on Mothers Day. That would be so much fun!
Love,
Mom
Hey,
Hold off on sending that memory card, I got a call this morning saying I'm getting transferred. I'm really sad to be leaving Bloomington after only three months, but oh well. It was good while it lasted. We had a great week this week. Elder Santy and I have been working hard. It's been really rainy the past few days, so we've had some fun in the rain. On Saturday we had an appointment on the other side of town, and we had just gotten back from a meeting and were already late. We jumped on our bikes and didn't even think of getting a raincoat or umbrella. We booked it over to the appointment and turns out he wasn't even there. We started walking to our next back up plan which wasn't too far away. That's when we saw this cloud rolling towards us. The clouds move REALLY fast here and it came quick. We got pounded by the rain as we were running to a nearby gas station to take shelter. We stayed there for a few minutes and then we got lucky and a member showed up at the gas station. She got her husband to give us a ride home. We were soaked. Indiana thunderstorms are pretty crazy. Haha.
Yesterday was great. We were packed with appointments. We taught Josh and Nikki first and it went pretty well. They've got a long way to go, but they're working pretty hard. We got to go to a Why I Believe fireside and hear some recent converts speak, so that was pretty cool. And to finish off the night we had a first discussion with a new investigator. He was a referral from a family in the ward, (the ones who saved us from the rain) and he's awesome. He's from India. This was my first time teaching someone who doesn't come from a Christian background. The spirit was strong as we testified about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was a great teaching opportunity.
I'm going to miss Bloomington, but I'm excited for what's to come.
Love you,
Jared
Homeless in Bloomington
April 9, 2012
Good morning Jared,
The kids are back in school after a week of Spring Break. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thursday and came back on Sunday night. Dad went fishing Friday and then Saturday he and Taylor helped Grandpa put a new liner in their irrigation pond. The boys enjoyed the service project and Grandpa was super grateful for the help.
Grandpa sold his 1946 Chevy last week. It is a little bit sad, but he's become really partial to 1929 Fords. he had to thin down his fleet to devote more to the Model A's.
While we were out there, it snowed five inches in Bountiful. But by the time we got home on Sunday there wasn't a trace left.
Road trips are a fight now, because both Taylor and Mikayla want to drive. Taylor HATES not being in the drivers seat and Mikayla thinks it's not fair that he always gets to drive and she wants her turn...they are driving me CRAZY! :)
We got your camera in the mail. We'll hang on to it and I'll get your memory card back to you. Did you get the package that we sent? Hallie was sure mad at me when she found out that I sent you the pictures. She picked them all out and SHE wanted to send them in a letter so that they were from her. Oh well, I rarely do anything right.
Do you remember Clairae Heap? She is Carl's mother. We were in their ward for the first half of your life. Anyway, she passed away this week. She suffered from Alzheimer's and it finally got the best of her, but is is a good thing. She has suffered long enough. The funeral is this week.
I don't think I told you that Austen got his mission call a couple of weeks ago. He leaves May 23rd for Ventura California.
We are all doing well. I hope you are too. Have an awesome week.
I love you!
Mom
Hey,
I got the package you guys sent. Thanks so much! I really enjoyed the pictures.
We had a good week. On Tuesday, we volunteered at a local soup kitchen here. I love doing service there. The people are really funny. Here are some choice quotes....
"Elder Santy: Hey sir, would you like some corn?
Homeless guy: Of course I want corn, I'm homeless!"
"Lewis: What are we having today?
Me: Bologna sandwiches.
Lewis: Bologna? That's for poor people!"
Haha. It's always a good time volunteering there. It's really busy there all the time. Bloomington has a large population of homeless people. I've heard that it's ranked 4th per capita.
Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Collins at our apartment. One of us was talking with President Collins in the bedroom while the other was with Sister Collins, who was showing us how to clean our apartment. It was great. I always enjoy talking with President and Sister Collins.
Easter Sunday was great. We had a great church service. The choir sang and it was amazing. This ward is the best that I've ever heard. After church we had a lesson with Nikki and Josh. We finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation and we comitted them to be baptized on June 9th and they accepted! They're doing really well! We had a great Easter dinner and overall, a fantastic week. We even caught a little bunny. (There's a picture on the SD card I sent.)
Love you!
Jared
General Conference
April 2, 2012
Hi Jared,
Well, Taylor finally had his day in court. He did a great job and didn't seem nervous at all. He was sworn in, and took the witness stand. He had to go and draw the accident on a white board and tell every little detail of what happened. I was proud of him for being so brave. Taylor got to skip school, PLUS he got paid a whopping $16 for his time. We actually felt sorry for the other guy. He was a middle aged Hispanic man who seemed like a good guy who just didn't understand what happened. He used a translator. I thought how horrible it would be if you were in another country and had to be in court, not understanding the language or the procedures. When all was said and done, the City (and Taylor) won. The other guy had to pay a $160 fine.
The whole experience was a good thing. We had to wait more than an hour for our turn. While we were waiting, there were a lot of cases before us. I think that every single one of them were drug or alcohol related. There was even a man in a striped jail outfit wearing shackles who came before the judge. It is a good reminder for all of us why it is so important to obey the Word of Wisdom. It's always amazing for me to see real life application of why we are given commandments. Keeping the commandments sure does simplify life and make it more enjoyable.
Although we missed having you here on April Fool's Day, Hallie more than made up for in practical jokes. First thing, I went to the kitchen to make beeakfast and all the silverware was missing. There was just a note..."April fools". Then, I grabbed my iPad so I could listen to conference and something just wasn't right. She had switched cases on mine and Dads and it totally confused me. She had several more lined up throughout the day for us. She was a lot of fun. Were you up to your old Tom Foolery yesterday?
Last, but certainly not least, we enjoyed General Conference. I thought there were some really amazing talks. I really enjoyed Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Jeffrey R. Holland's talks. There were some really good one liner's too. "Stop it", "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you",
"There is enough heartache & sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness & resentment." These things are plastered all over the Internet, especially on Facebook.
But my very favorite part, that really made me emotional, is when I saw all the missionaries from the MTC singing during the Saturday session. Wow! That choked me up. They did a beautiful job and even had a little help from David Archuletta. and they sang one of my favorite songs, "Called to Serve". I still remember the feeling I had in the MTC all those years ago when we would sing that song. It can be so powerful.
This week is Spring Break. I think we will go to Vernal for a few days. We haven't been there since last summer. Dad is wanting to go fishing.
Have a fantastic week.
I love you!
Mom
Hello,
Not much to report on this week. It's been pretty normal here. General Conference was great. I learned a lot from it that I can apply to missionary work. Josh and Nikki are doing pretty well. They watched conference this week and they enjoyed it. I don't know how much they got out of it because they have four wild little girls, but we'll hope some of it stuck.
I had a good day on Wednesday when I went on exchanges with Elder Wilson, one of my Zone Leaders. We worked in his area, which is the Indiana University campus. It was a huge change from what I'm used to. It was a little weird talking to people my own age. Most of the people we talked to were really open so we got a lot of return appointments set. We also had two lessons that day. One of them was with a girl named Stacy. She's roommates with two members from Fort Wayne and they're a really good example for her. We had a very spiritual lesson and she's excited to learn more. It was pretty weird to see people from past areas I've served in.
Well, that's pretty much all that's new.
Love you,
Jared
Friday, March 30, 2012
So much for Spring!
Hello Jared,
So much for Spring. Saturday was perfect, I went for my first bike ride of the year. It was amazing. Yesterday was beautiful and warm, the sun was shining and we ate dinner outside. Even this morning when I went swimming, it was t-shirt weather. About fifteen minutes ago, the wind started blowing like crazy, temperatures dropped and now we are in the middle of a crazy wind, rain and SNOW storm. So weird. It's one of those days I wish I could stay home all day. Who wants to go outside in the middle of a blizzard? It is miserable outside.
I didn't tell you about our ward activity a couple of weeks ago. The Young Women did a service auction to raise money for girls camp. People donated all kinds of services, like lawn care, gardening, tilling, babysitting, etc. Mikayla auctioned off "sing at your funeral". It was pretty funny. Dennis bid on it and got it for around $20. Your dad auctioned off a smoked dinner, which went for fifty something and finally ended in a three way tie...? So we are doing dinner for three families. We bought a three layer cake from Josh Sims which I figure I can use for your dads 50th birthday this year. But the funniest of all....(you do remember that it's mustache march, right? ) the rights to Topher's mustache...the highest bidder gets to determine the fate of his 'stache. Taylor and Brad chipped in on it and paid $24 for it. Natalie was hilarious, she was wanting to know what their intentions were. She, of course, wants it shaved off. He looks like Mario with his long, curly caterpillar. They have yet to take action on his furry friend. We are all anxiously waiting to see the fate of Topher's face. Stay tuned...
Tim and Steffi came over for lunch on Saturday. Your dad did ribs and chicken, and of course, they were amazing. Then they went to Mikayla's voice recital with us. She did a good job. I'm always proud of her when she sings. She has a pretty voice. Tim was harassing her and telling her how painful it was, she took the teasing well, in the end when he hugged her goodbye, he told her she really did do a good job. That made her feel so great.
Saturday night was the General Young Women Broadcast. We served dinner beforehand to all the YW, their mothers and leaders. That made a really busy day for me, but the broadcast was really nice. We had a pretty good turnout, although not as many as we were planning on.
There is a man in our ward who is a military man, he has post traumatic stress disorder and uses a service dog for comfort. Yesterday in Sunday School, the dog had loud, VERY stinky GAS! Everyone around them was so disgusted and sickened by the smell, but no one dared to do anything for fear of offending. I guess it was pretty miserable. Luckily, I followed the spirit and sat in the hall because I was late going to class. Hahaha lucky me. At dinner last night, Laura was saying she could still smell it and telling us how awful it was. I think she now has PTS disorder. Haha
I love to hear your stories and experiences. I am glad you're enjoying your time in Indiana. Keep the faith and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
Well, the storm has passed. It's eerily quiet and calm. The chickens have come back outside of the coop. There's barely a breeze now and now the sun is starting to peek out. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.
I love you, Jared!
Mom
Hey,
We have had one of the best weeks in a long time here. The weather has been great, almost summer weather. which means we've had lots of opportunities for service. We were able to help Lindy, a member in our ward with some projects around her house. We were going to help her on Friday night at 7:30. Right before that we were at dinner with a really neat family in our ward. She's from Italy so as you can imagine the meal was fantastic. lots of amazing pasta and a salad topped with olive oil crushed from her parent's house in Italy. So good! While we were eating the weather got really crazy. Out of nowhere it started hailing really hard and the tornado sirens were going off. We were worried we weren't going to be able to help her. By the time dinner was over though the sky was clear and we were able to help. We went over there and helped her transplant some bushes and haul some old broken up concrete from her garage. She was so grateful for the help.
This week the first move of the year happened. The Clark's, a really cool family in the ward moved out this week. There will be many more following. It's a little bit sad.
I found a few more cool connections to home this week. When we were having dinner with families this week I found someone in the ward that is cousins with a friend from school, and I found out that the bishop's wife is from Moses Lake, Washington, which is where Jared Jensen moved to Utah from. She said there are some Jensen's in her parents ward so there might be a connection there. It's funny how small the world is.
We also were able to get two of our investigators to church yesterday!
Hope you have a good week!
Love you,
Jared
P.S. Send me pictures of Topher's mustache. I miss it.
So much for Spring. Saturday was perfect, I went for my first bike ride of the year. It was amazing. Yesterday was beautiful and warm, the sun was shining and we ate dinner outside. Even this morning when I went swimming, it was t-shirt weather. About fifteen minutes ago, the wind started blowing like crazy, temperatures dropped and now we are in the middle of a crazy wind, rain and SNOW storm. So weird. It's one of those days I wish I could stay home all day. Who wants to go outside in the middle of a blizzard? It is miserable outside.
I didn't tell you about our ward activity a couple of weeks ago. The Young Women did a service auction to raise money for girls camp. People donated all kinds of services, like lawn care, gardening, tilling, babysitting, etc. Mikayla auctioned off "sing at your funeral". It was pretty funny. Dennis bid on it and got it for around $20. Your dad auctioned off a smoked dinner, which went for fifty something and finally ended in a three way tie...? So we are doing dinner for three families. We bought a three layer cake from Josh Sims which I figure I can use for your dads 50th birthday this year. But the funniest of all....(you do remember that it's mustache march, right? ) the rights to Topher's mustache...the highest bidder gets to determine the fate of his 'stache. Taylor and Brad chipped in on it and paid $24 for it. Natalie was hilarious, she was wanting to know what their intentions were. She, of course, wants it shaved off. He looks like Mario with his long, curly caterpillar. They have yet to take action on his furry friend. We are all anxiously waiting to see the fate of Topher's face. Stay tuned...
Tim and Steffi came over for lunch on Saturday. Your dad did ribs and chicken, and of course, they were amazing. Then they went to Mikayla's voice recital with us. She did a good job. I'm always proud of her when she sings. She has a pretty voice. Tim was harassing her and telling her how painful it was, she took the teasing well, in the end when he hugged her goodbye, he told her she really did do a good job. That made her feel so great.
Saturday night was the General Young Women Broadcast. We served dinner beforehand to all the YW, their mothers and leaders. That made a really busy day for me, but the broadcast was really nice. We had a pretty good turnout, although not as many as we were planning on.
There is a man in our ward who is a military man, he has post traumatic stress disorder and uses a service dog for comfort. Yesterday in Sunday School, the dog had loud, VERY stinky GAS! Everyone around them was so disgusted and sickened by the smell, but no one dared to do anything for fear of offending. I guess it was pretty miserable. Luckily, I followed the spirit and sat in the hall because I was late going to class. Hahaha lucky me. At dinner last night, Laura was saying she could still smell it and telling us how awful it was. I think she now has PTS disorder. Haha
I love to hear your stories and experiences. I am glad you're enjoying your time in Indiana. Keep the faith and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
Well, the storm has passed. It's eerily quiet and calm. The chickens have come back outside of the coop. There's barely a breeze now and now the sun is starting to peek out. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.
I love you, Jared!
Mom
Hey,
We have had one of the best weeks in a long time here. The weather has been great, almost summer weather. which means we've had lots of opportunities for service. We were able to help Lindy, a member in our ward with some projects around her house. We were going to help her on Friday night at 7:30. Right before that we were at dinner with a really neat family in our ward. She's from Italy so as you can imagine the meal was fantastic. lots of amazing pasta and a salad topped with olive oil crushed from her parent's house in Italy. So good! While we were eating the weather got really crazy. Out of nowhere it started hailing really hard and the tornado sirens were going off. We were worried we weren't going to be able to help her. By the time dinner was over though the sky was clear and we were able to help. We went over there and helped her transplant some bushes and haul some old broken up concrete from her garage. She was so grateful for the help.
This week the first move of the year happened. The Clark's, a really cool family in the ward moved out this week. There will be many more following. It's a little bit sad.
I found a few more cool connections to home this week. When we were having dinner with families this week I found someone in the ward that is cousins with a friend from school, and I found out that the bishop's wife is from Moses Lake, Washington, which is where Jared Jensen moved to Utah from. She said there are some Jensen's in her parents ward so there might be a connection there. It's funny how small the world is.
We also were able to get two of our investigators to church yesterday!
Hope you have a good week!
Love you,
Jared
P.S. Send me pictures of Topher's mustache. I miss it.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Beginning of Spring Marks the Half Way Point!
Good morning Jared,
This week is the first week of Spring!
Saturday night we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and ran into Cadence and Ian. They both work there. They asked about you and wanted to know how you were doing. They said to tell you hi. Ian said that his Aunt fed you dinner awhile back. It's a small world.
The speakers in the Sacrament program were the members of the Elders Quorum; Mike Johnson, Topher Maxwell and Ryan Davis. I thought Topher did a great job and spoke directly to the youth. I noticed Taylor gave him his undivided attention. Ryan stood up and said, "The last time I spoke in Sacrament meeting was about a year ago when Jared Wise left on a mission". It caught me off guard and choked me up a little bit. I had forgotten that he spoke with you.
Wednesday night was the South Davis Orchestra. Mikayla and Hallie both did very well. They are getting pretty good. After hearing them practice solo for so long it was neat to hear them with the full orchestra. It was beautiful.
Tim is in town. He came over this week to visit. He hasn't changed much, he still likes to tease an have a good time. It was fun to see him. He and Steffi will come back this week and cook us a German meal.
I went to our caucus meeting Thursday night. I'm trying to be a little more politically involved. It was interesting how things work but I was a bit annoyed how unprofessionally things were run. We voted for people who wanted to be delegates, but because there was such a huge turnout, they ran out of ballots. They were just using pieces of paper, so there was no way to know if people voted more than once or even if people who weren't supposed to vote were voting. After I came home it bugged me even more. Oh well...what can you do? That reminds me, are you going to vote this year? If so, we need to get you and absentee ballot. Let me know.
Taylor is still on his fixing spree. He got the snow blower going. Yeah! Maybe next year it will snow. A working snowmobile and a working snowblower and no snow this year. Weird!
Have an amazing week. I sure love you!
Mom
Hey,
This week may be the first day of Spring, but it feels like summer here. It's already pretty hot and humid. We've been biking all over the place in the heat. We're not the only ones though. Next month is the "Little 500" bike race. It sounds like it's a pretty big deal. There's even a movie about it called "Breaking Away".
It has been Spring break here this week, so we didn't get many teaching appointments. We spent a lot of time finding people to teach. We also helped a lot of people with yard work which was a nice change. We had a pretty cool miracle happen this week. We were walking down a street trying by a few potentials and I felt like we should knock on a door down the street. We knocked on the house and they guy wasn't interested at all. As we were walking away Elder Santy said he thought we should knock on the neighbor's house too. That's where we found Elnora, an old widow that needed help with yard work. She said she had been praying that someone that could help her clean up her yard would come along. We went back the next day to help her pick up some branches in her yard. We had a big blessing come from this service. While we were working Elnora's neighbor came over. We introduced ourselves to her and turns out she's a member that's not on our ward list. She hasn't been to church in a long time. She says she's not interested in coming back right now, but we said we wanted to help her with some yard work she lightened up a little. She said we might even get a church visit out of her.
We had a good lesson with Nikki and Josh this week. After the lesson Nikki told us some friends of hers told her not to listen to us, but Nikki said that everything we are saying makes sense. They're on the right track and doing well.
Love you,
Jared
This week is the first week of Spring!
Saturday night we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and ran into Cadence and Ian. They both work there. They asked about you and wanted to know how you were doing. They said to tell you hi. Ian said that his Aunt fed you dinner awhile back. It's a small world.
The speakers in the Sacrament program were the members of the Elders Quorum; Mike Johnson, Topher Maxwell and Ryan Davis. I thought Topher did a great job and spoke directly to the youth. I noticed Taylor gave him his undivided attention. Ryan stood up and said, "The last time I spoke in Sacrament meeting was about a year ago when Jared Wise left on a mission". It caught me off guard and choked me up a little bit. I had forgotten that he spoke with you.
Wednesday night was the South Davis Orchestra. Mikayla and Hallie both did very well. They are getting pretty good. After hearing them practice solo for so long it was neat to hear them with the full orchestra. It was beautiful.
Tim is in town. He came over this week to visit. He hasn't changed much, he still likes to tease an have a good time. It was fun to see him. He and Steffi will come back this week and cook us a German meal.
I went to our caucus meeting Thursday night. I'm trying to be a little more politically involved. It was interesting how things work but I was a bit annoyed how unprofessionally things were run. We voted for people who wanted to be delegates, but because there was such a huge turnout, they ran out of ballots. They were just using pieces of paper, so there was no way to know if people voted more than once or even if people who weren't supposed to vote were voting. After I came home it bugged me even more. Oh well...what can you do? That reminds me, are you going to vote this year? If so, we need to get you and absentee ballot. Let me know.
Taylor is still on his fixing spree. He got the snow blower going. Yeah! Maybe next year it will snow. A working snowmobile and a working snowblower and no snow this year. Weird!
Have an amazing week. I sure love you!
Mom
Hey,
This week may be the first day of Spring, but it feels like summer here. It's already pretty hot and humid. We've been biking all over the place in the heat. We're not the only ones though. Next month is the "Little 500" bike race. It sounds like it's a pretty big deal. There's even a movie about it called "Breaking Away".
It has been Spring break here this week, so we didn't get many teaching appointments. We spent a lot of time finding people to teach. We also helped a lot of people with yard work which was a nice change. We had a pretty cool miracle happen this week. We were walking down a street trying by a few potentials and I felt like we should knock on a door down the street. We knocked on the house and they guy wasn't interested at all. As we were walking away Elder Santy said he thought we should knock on the neighbor's house too. That's where we found Elnora, an old widow that needed help with yard work. She said she had been praying that someone that could help her clean up her yard would come along. We went back the next day to help her pick up some branches in her yard. We had a big blessing come from this service. While we were working Elnora's neighbor came over. We introduced ourselves to her and turns out she's a member that's not on our ward list. She hasn't been to church in a long time. She says she's not interested in coming back right now, but we said we wanted to help her with some yard work she lightened up a little. She said we might even get a church visit out of her.
We had a good lesson with Nikki and Josh this week. After the lesson Nikki told us some friends of hers told her not to listen to us, but Nikki said that everything we are saying makes sense. They're on the right track and doing well.
Love you,
Jared
Monday, March 12, 2012
Staying in the Same Apartment
Good morning, Jared!
Did you get into your apartment yet, or are you still with the other Elders? We enjoyed watching the video you sent of those two. That was fun. I'm guessing they went home, so two others replaced them. Tell us about them.
Austen sent in his papers. He should find out in a couple of weeks where he will be going. Fun times.
Last week I went to book club. Sister Pollock works at the library, so each month she checks out 15 copies of next months book and passes them out so we all have a copy. She tried to hand one to Sister Casper (who I think is about 95) and she rejected it. She said, "If it's not a church book, I'm not reading it. I don't have time. I have to cram for my final exam!" hahaha I thought that was so cute. Funny Sister Casper.
Steffi, Tim's girlfriend, is here from Germany. She has come to visit a couple of times. Saturday she came over and made German cheesecake for us. It was yummy! Tim will be here on Thursday. He will stay for a couple of weeks with her before they go back. We really want to go to Germany and see them and the country. Maybe in a couple of years we can make it happen.
It has finally felt like Spring the last couple of days. I worked out in the yard on Saturday and it felt so nice. It's good to be outside after being cooped up all winter.
Dad and Taylor are still working on the garage. There is a lot of work left, but it feels good to see progress. I am so excited about the whole project.
Enjoy your week. We'll put a special mark on the calendar this Thursday for you! Keep up the good work.
Love you tons!
Mom
Hey,
Plans have changed for the apartment. We are staying in the one we're in right now. It's a lot more convinient for us since it's right next door to the church. The other elders will be taking the new apartment. They should be moving out tomorrow. The new set of missionaries living with us are Elder Thomas (from Pocatello) and Elder Wilson (from Tooele). They're both pretty cool. Elder Wilson has been to a lot of the same concerts I've been to, and he knows Mirranda.
We've had a good week. We didn't have many meals this week so a really cool family in our ward had us over for dinner twice. We had pancakes, eggs, and bacon the first night and german pancakes the second night. haha.
We didn't get many lessons this week. We're teaching two Mennonites and we've had some great lessons, but this week they weren't there when we knocked on the door. Kind of a bummer. It seems like most of our other lessons also fell through. It's alright though because we found a few great potentials to start teaching.
Sunday was a little weird. IU's Spring break plus daylight savings time made for the smallest sacrament meeting attendance I've been to on my mission. There was hardly anybody there. Sunday afternoon the weather was perfect and we were able to have a BBQ with Nikki and Josh, who we're teaching. It was a lot of fun.
Well, that's about all for this week.
Love you,
Jared
Did you get into your apartment yet, or are you still with the other Elders? We enjoyed watching the video you sent of those two. That was fun. I'm guessing they went home, so two others replaced them. Tell us about them.
Austen sent in his papers. He should find out in a couple of weeks where he will be going. Fun times.
Last week I went to book club. Sister Pollock works at the library, so each month she checks out 15 copies of next months book and passes them out so we all have a copy. She tried to hand one to Sister Casper (who I think is about 95) and she rejected it. She said, "If it's not a church book, I'm not reading it. I don't have time. I have to cram for my final exam!" hahaha I thought that was so cute. Funny Sister Casper.
Steffi, Tim's girlfriend, is here from Germany. She has come to visit a couple of times. Saturday she came over and made German cheesecake for us. It was yummy! Tim will be here on Thursday. He will stay for a couple of weeks with her before they go back. We really want to go to Germany and see them and the country. Maybe in a couple of years we can make it happen.
It has finally felt like Spring the last couple of days. I worked out in the yard on Saturday and it felt so nice. It's good to be outside after being cooped up all winter.
Dad and Taylor are still working on the garage. There is a lot of work left, but it feels good to see progress. I am so excited about the whole project.
Enjoy your week. We'll put a special mark on the calendar this Thursday for you! Keep up the good work.
Love you tons!
Mom
Hey,
Plans have changed for the apartment. We are staying in the one we're in right now. It's a lot more convinient for us since it's right next door to the church. The other elders will be taking the new apartment. They should be moving out tomorrow. The new set of missionaries living with us are Elder Thomas (from Pocatello) and Elder Wilson (from Tooele). They're both pretty cool. Elder Wilson has been to a lot of the same concerts I've been to, and he knows Mirranda.
We've had a good week. We didn't have many meals this week so a really cool family in our ward had us over for dinner twice. We had pancakes, eggs, and bacon the first night and german pancakes the second night. haha.
We didn't get many lessons this week. We're teaching two Mennonites and we've had some great lessons, but this week they weren't there when we knocked on the door. Kind of a bummer. It seems like most of our other lessons also fell through. It's alright though because we found a few great potentials to start teaching.
Sunday was a little weird. IU's Spring break plus daylight savings time made for the smallest sacrament meeting attendance I've been to on my mission. There was hardly anybody there. Sunday afternoon the weather was perfect and we were able to have a BBQ with Nikki and Josh, who we're teaching. It was a lot of fun.
Well, that's about all for this week.
Love you,
Jared
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