Hello Jared,
Were you able to see the solar eclipse? It was pretty cool. We put Taylor's welding helmet on and watched it. We had the whole neighborhood out taking turns looking at it.
We had Stake Conference this weekend. It was really good. They did a satellite broadcast from the conference center to our chapel. It was for Davis County. My favorite talk was by Elder Holland. He asked everyone to think about a talk from General Conference and wanted to know how many of us had made a change in our lives because of something that we heard during conference. Then he proceeded to teach us the principle of, "Be doers of the word and not hearers only". It was very thought provoking and of course made me want to do better.
Friday afternoon I was able to go on our training trek. It was a lot of fun and got me really excited for our upcoming trek in just a few weeks. Hopefully it all turns out well.
Have a great week. We're praying for you.
Love,
Mom
Hey,
We've been super busy this week with all kinds of stuff. On Thursday we helped a family move and right after the move we went to help Ryan and his mother with some yardwork. We were doing service almost all day. Afterwards we were rushing to an appointment to give someone a blessing. There are a lot of hospitals in this area so we get the opportunity to give a lot of blessings to other Elders' members and investigators. Giving the blessing was a powerful experience. It was a referral from a member in one of the Indianapolis Wards, and this lady didn't really know anyting about the church when we showed up. We taught her a little before we gave the blessing. We asked her if she had faith that this blessing would help her and she said "absolutely". After the blessing she was in tears and told us that she felt a lot better. It was great.
Saturday was also an amazing day. We had a mission conference with Elder Neal L. Anderson and Elder Parker, an Area 70. Elder Parker spoke first and it was great. He's a convert of 30 years and by the way he spoke, you can tell he was a Southern Baptist. We got preached to. Haha. Elder Anderson was great. He spoke a lot about the Atonement. His talk was amazing and his testimony powerful. What an experience!
We also got some exciting news this week. The temple renderings have been released! Hopefully they'll break ground soon. The Temple site is in our area, so I think it'd be a great finding and teaching opportunity.
Love you,
Jared
Monday, May 21, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
The Work Goes On!
Jared,
It was super fun to talk to you last night. We really enjoyed our time with you. I am happy that you seem to be doing so well.
I talked to Tammy last night and she said Bridger said to tell you that he just got a letter from you that was postmarked two months ago. Apparently the mail is really slow there. Brings new meaning to the phrase, "snail mail".
What's the lastest with Sibanda's, Ryan and Thompson's? And the lady you met in the parking lot, did anything ever come of that?
Last week was my scrapbook retreat. We spent Monday thru Wednesday up at Collards cabin. I got a lot done and we had a good time. Perhaps the best time there was when a tiny little mouse poked its head out from under the recliner. Nichole shrieked and jumped up on a chair. Hahaha! Too bad we didn't get video footage of that. Pretty sure it would have gone viral. Haha! Jenn grabbed a broom and smashed the little critter flat. She was the hero of the day.
Well, it's off to the races for me. Time to wake the kids up.
Love you!
Mom
Hey,
The letter that Bridger got was sent when I was in Plainfield. I sent it about a year ago. We email back and forth so it's alright. I'm just glad I don't have to rely on mail alone.
The Sibandas are still doing well, aside from the job situation. Brother Sibanda works in South Bend, which is about three hours north of here. He's working all the time and can't get Sundays off. We're just waiting for a miracle with them. Ryan just moved into the Westfield Ward, so he's not our investigator anymore. We're going to help him with some yard work and have a barbeque this week though. We had an appointment with Michelle, the lady we met in the parking lot. She didn't show up though. We'll keep trying. We had a great lesson with Brother Thompson a few days ago. We reviewed the Restoration with him and read it right out of Joseph Smith History. He said it was powerful hearing it in his own words. He told us that his wife's friends are telling them all this false information and he keeps defending us. He said "there's something in that book that Satan doesn't want me to read. He's doing all he can to stop me from reading it." He knows it's true, but it's a little hard to get him to act on it. He really doesn't like to be pushed. We're getting close with him though.
Well, that's about it.
Love you!
Jared
It was super fun to talk to you last night. We really enjoyed our time with you. I am happy that you seem to be doing so well.
I talked to Tammy last night and she said Bridger said to tell you that he just got a letter from you that was postmarked two months ago. Apparently the mail is really slow there. Brings new meaning to the phrase, "snail mail".
What's the lastest with Sibanda's, Ryan and Thompson's? And the lady you met in the parking lot, did anything ever come of that?
Last week was my scrapbook retreat. We spent Monday thru Wednesday up at Collards cabin. I got a lot done and we had a good time. Perhaps the best time there was when a tiny little mouse poked its head out from under the recliner. Nichole shrieked and jumped up on a chair. Hahaha! Too bad we didn't get video footage of that. Pretty sure it would have gone viral. Haha! Jenn grabbed a broom and smashed the little critter flat. She was the hero of the day.
Well, it's off to the races for me. Time to wake the kids up.
Love you!
Mom
Hey,
The letter that Bridger got was sent when I was in Plainfield. I sent it about a year ago. We email back and forth so it's alright. I'm just glad I don't have to rely on mail alone.
The Sibandas are still doing well, aside from the job situation. Brother Sibanda works in South Bend, which is about three hours north of here. He's working all the time and can't get Sundays off. We're just waiting for a miracle with them. Ryan just moved into the Westfield Ward, so he's not our investigator anymore. We're going to help him with some yard work and have a barbeque this week though. We had an appointment with Michelle, the lady we met in the parking lot. She didn't show up though. We'll keep trying. We had a great lesson with Brother Thompson a few days ago. We reviewed the Restoration with him and read it right out of Joseph Smith History. He said it was powerful hearing it in his own words. He told us that his wife's friends are telling them all this false information and he keeps defending us. He said "there's something in that book that Satan doesn't want me to read. He's doing all he can to stop me from reading it." He knows it's true, but it's a little hard to get him to act on it. He really doesn't like to be pushed. We're getting close with him though.
Well, that's about it.
Love you!
Jared
Thursday, May 10, 2012
A Lot of Love in Carmel
May 7, 2012
Hello again,
This week flew by in nothing flat. It was super busy with lots of fun things! Mikayla was in a play at her school and the performances were this week, so of course we wanted to be to all of them we could. It was "Honk", the story of the ugly duckling. It was a really cute show which was very well done, right down to the casting. Mikayla, of course, was my very favorite actor. She did a stellar job as a turkey and I was so proud of her. maybe some day she'll be on broadway. She does have quite the knack for acting.
Oakley got baptized on Saturday. It was very nice and I enjoyed visiting with everyone afterwards. Marion has taken a job with the State of Wyoming. He is in the process of selling his shop in Draper and will be moving up there. He started a few weeks ago so he was telling us all about his new job and how different it is from owning his own place. Holly is getting married in July and Mirranda is getting married in August. Paige has two boyfriends, she just can't decide which one she wants to marry. Garrett bought his own house just outside of Vernal and is making a lot of money. Adam's new baby, Bentley, is pretty cute and so is Holly's baby, Lucy. Everyone is growing up and things are changing so quickly.
Did you get your package? I hope you like the book. Have a fantastic week.
I love you!
Mom
Hey,
This week's been great. All the senior missionares live around us so we get really spoiled. The Jarmans are always having us over for dinner and Sister Parker is always baking something for us. We get a lot of love here.
On Wednesday we did a lot of work in the Indianapolis part of our area. We've been finding some great people there. The only problem is it's a little hard to get down there on the weeks we don't have the car.
Wednesday Night we had dinner with Brother Bell, who is a beekeeper. We got to go into his backyard with him and put two queen bees into two of his hives. It was pretty neat. He's got a roommate from Germany, he lives about an hour away from Tim. That was a really fun night.
We had our Zone Conference on Thursday, which was great. I'm always eager to get back out and start working harder than ever whenever we have meetings like that.
After Zone Conference we had dinner with a member in Indianapolis. While we were there our appointement for the next hour fell through. We moved on to our backup plans and tried by a few former investigators and planned to tract in the area. Once we tried by everyone I felt like we should try one more that was in an apartment complex a few miles away. We got in the car and drove over there. We parked the car and got out to walk to the apartment. There was a car parked next to us with the windows down and this mother and her daughter in the car talking. They sounded like they were in distress. We walked to the apartment and knocked, but nobody was home. As we were walking back out there was a group of teenagers all leaning on our car and talking to the people in the car next to ours. We saw this as a great opportunity to talk to all of them. We introduced ourselves and started explaining who we were. The mom in the car asked us if there were any black people in our chruch. She said she had never heard of a black Mormon before. Elder Tobler jumped right into the Restoration and explained everything. By the time he was done they said they really wanted to get a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. We'll be going back next week. She's got eight kids, so this should be a fun teaching experience.
Saturday was really neat as well. We helped a family move in the morning. We taught Chris, who is doing great. He's so sincere about learing more about the gospel. He's great. Setting a baptism date with him is out of our control, but I think he'll be able to be baptized soon. For dinner last night we ate with the Moalas, who are members of our ward. He's also a starting defensive end for the Colts. He brought a teammate over for dinner too. He's a starting center that just got signed to the Colts from the Steelers. Dinner was amazing. It was one of the few times I've had ribs in the past year. We brought the Westfield Elders with us too. We had a ton of fun with them. They're awesome.
The only downside to this week was that my bike was stolen last night. Bummer.
Love you,
Jared
Hello again,
This week flew by in nothing flat. It was super busy with lots of fun things! Mikayla was in a play at her school and the performances were this week, so of course we wanted to be to all of them we could. It was "Honk", the story of the ugly duckling. It was a really cute show which was very well done, right down to the casting. Mikayla, of course, was my very favorite actor. She did a stellar job as a turkey and I was so proud of her. maybe some day she'll be on broadway. She does have quite the knack for acting.
Oakley got baptized on Saturday. It was very nice and I enjoyed visiting with everyone afterwards. Marion has taken a job with the State of Wyoming. He is in the process of selling his shop in Draper and will be moving up there. He started a few weeks ago so he was telling us all about his new job and how different it is from owning his own place. Holly is getting married in July and Mirranda is getting married in August. Paige has two boyfriends, she just can't decide which one she wants to marry. Garrett bought his own house just outside of Vernal and is making a lot of money. Adam's new baby, Bentley, is pretty cute and so is Holly's baby, Lucy. Everyone is growing up and things are changing so quickly.
Did you get your package? I hope you like the book. Have a fantastic week.
I love you!
Mom
Hey,
This week's been great. All the senior missionares live around us so we get really spoiled. The Jarmans are always having us over for dinner and Sister Parker is always baking something for us. We get a lot of love here.
On Wednesday we did a lot of work in the Indianapolis part of our area. We've been finding some great people there. The only problem is it's a little hard to get down there on the weeks we don't have the car.
Wednesday Night we had dinner with Brother Bell, who is a beekeeper. We got to go into his backyard with him and put two queen bees into two of his hives. It was pretty neat. He's got a roommate from Germany, he lives about an hour away from Tim. That was a really fun night.
We had our Zone Conference on Thursday, which was great. I'm always eager to get back out and start working harder than ever whenever we have meetings like that.
After Zone Conference we had dinner with a member in Indianapolis. While we were there our appointement for the next hour fell through. We moved on to our backup plans and tried by a few former investigators and planned to tract in the area. Once we tried by everyone I felt like we should try one more that was in an apartment complex a few miles away. We got in the car and drove over there. We parked the car and got out to walk to the apartment. There was a car parked next to us with the windows down and this mother and her daughter in the car talking. They sounded like they were in distress. We walked to the apartment and knocked, but nobody was home. As we were walking back out there was a group of teenagers all leaning on our car and talking to the people in the car next to ours. We saw this as a great opportunity to talk to all of them. We introduced ourselves and started explaining who we were. The mom in the car asked us if there were any black people in our chruch. She said she had never heard of a black Mormon before. Elder Tobler jumped right into the Restoration and explained everything. By the time he was done they said they really wanted to get a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. We'll be going back next week. She's got eight kids, so this should be a fun teaching experience.
Saturday was really neat as well. We helped a family move in the morning. We taught Chris, who is doing great. He's so sincere about learing more about the gospel. He's great. Setting a baptism date with him is out of our control, but I think he'll be able to be baptized soon. For dinner last night we ate with the Moalas, who are members of our ward. He's also a starting defensive end for the Colts. He brought a teammate over for dinner too. He's a starting center that just got signed to the Colts from the Steelers. Dinner was amazing. It was one of the few times I've had ribs in the past year. We brought the Westfield Elders with us too. We had a ton of fun with them. They're awesome.
The only downside to this week was that my bike was stolen last night. Bummer.
Love you,
Jared
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Crime in Bountiful Soars
April 30, 2012
Good morning Jared,
We have had another crazy week. I guess it started out a week ago Friday when Grandma Mott called the eye doctor. She has been seeing some weird stuff out of one eye. He got her in on Friday, saw that she had a tear in her retina so he immediately got her an appointment with a specialist on Monday morning in Salt Lake. Her plan was to come out and back in one day. It was business as usual for me last Monday, so I was working at Spanky's when I looked up and saw both of my parents. The doctor told her she needed surgery and he would do it Tuesday morning. They came by to spend the night.
About 12:30 Tuesday morning, the phone rang. I thought it was perhaps someone calling to be the first to wish me a happy birthday, but instead it was Dennis. He said the cops were on their way and we might want to come out and make a statement. We were burglarized again! Dennis was just getting ready to get in bed when he saw headlights outside. He looked out and noticed the dome light in his car and Grandma and Grandpa's car were both on. There were some kids going through both of them. He turned his porch light on and yelled and they jumped in the get-a-way car and sped off. We think they came in on foot, cleaned out the cars and then the car came in for them. They got in Taylor's car, but found nothing. They somehow got into the Audi, which was locked, and got Dad's new GPS. Then they moved on to Dennis' car, got his stereo front and rummaged through the Buick but found nothing. When they were in the Audi, they went through the glove box where your iPod was...I felt terrible about losing that, of all things, but on closer examination, we found it. I'm not sure how they missed it. We think it had to be a miracle. The car was in the driveway where it was well lit, the dome light and the glove box light were on and the they had a flashlight (which they accidentally left in Dennis' car). How could they have not seen it? Anyway, it was our tender mercy. The police came and did an investigation. We ended up talking to him until about 1:30.
We climbed back in bed and tried to unwind from the early morning activities. After laying there a bit, Dad saw car lights reflecting off the garage. I jumped out of bed and ran to the front room window where I saw a small, dark car stopped. I watched as a tall man stepped out of the car. He was carrying some sort of bag. My heart was racing. I yelled in my loudest whisper for dad to call 911!. Then something inside me hesitated. I told him to hold the call until I did some investigation of my own. I watched as he slowly strolled towards Ensigns, then disappeared between Meske's and Ensigns. I waited a couple of minutes but he never came back out of the shadows. I put on a robe and headed over to find out who was lurking in the darkness. I slowly made my way over, with Dad following twenty feet behind with cell phone in hand in case he had to call for back up. When I got to the side of their garage, there was a light on and some rustling sounds. I was a little perplexed about how a crook could get in the garage, since the window is so far off the ground. I cautiously made my way around to the back of the house, where I saw Masen's tv through his bedroom window. It was then I realized it could have been him coming home. I went back to the side of the garage where I thought he was and called out to him, to make sure that was him in there. When he didn't answer, I realized what it was making the noise! They have a bunch of new baby chicks. Haha The light was the heat lamp and the rustling sound was them! Boy did I feel foolish. Later that day, Christy confirmed that it was Masen coming home at 2:00 am. I nearly called the cops on him!
So in the end, we only lost the GPS, we never caught the lousy crooks but they didn't get your iPod and they did no damage to the cars. We feel pretty blessed. Taylor said he was glad for the bad guys, because they are the ones that keep life exciting.
After Grandmas surgery, she decided to stay here for a week of recovery, since she is supposed to keep her eye looking to the ground for seven days and nights. The doctor injected a gas bubble in her eye to hold it where it needs to be to heal, but the eye had to be down in order for it to work properly. Today I will take her back to the doctor, if he clears her to go home, I will take her half way and meet Grandpa this afternoon.
Life is an adventure. Sometime when it isn't, we have to do things like follow our neighbors who lurk the the darkness at unearthly hours or talk to baby chicks in the middle of the night. In the end, it's all about the story. I thought maybe I could be a vigilante and stop a crime in progress, instead I just got put on somebody's stalker list. And Bella, our ferocious watchdog, slept through the whole thing.
I love you, Jared!
Mom
Hey,
Elder Tobler and I are doing great. We have had a pretty great week. We had dinner with a family in the ward last monday, we were talking to brother Jenkins, and it turns out, he's from Sunset Utah. He said he thinks his parents probably know grandma and grandpa.
We had a great lesson on Tuesday night. We have a family that is investigating the church, the Sibandas. They're from Zimbabwe, and they are amazing. They absolutely know that the church is true. They'd be baptized today if they could. The problem is they both work on Sundays. They've both asked time and time again to get Sundays off, but it's not happening. So that's the trial they're going through right now.
We were able to have dinner with a family in the ward, and have the Sibandas with us too. We had a great dinner and lesson afterwards. They can't come to church now, but they have a huge ammount of faith and I know that the Lord will bless them for it. He will provide a way. Thursday was great. Our evening was packed with appointments. We taught a guy named Ryan. He's been coming to church for the past few week. He's a great guy. We taught him and commited him to be baptized in June. He told us no, but he would think about it. A few days ago we got a call from him, and he had some questions about how the baptism service works. I have a feeling he'll get baptized pretty soon. Later that night we had a lesson with the Thompson family. Normally we just teach the father, but this time the son was there with a bunch of friends. They were all really interested and wanted to learn more. They had so many questions that we didn't get home until about 10:15...and we're supposed to be in at 9:30. Oops...
On Saturday we had some success. We were able to have three lessons back to back, and none of them were set appointments. We stopped by a few investigators we hadn't heard from in a while and happened to catch them home. That was two of the lessons. The third was with a man named Keith. We found his name in the potential investigators section of the area book. He let us right in and we taught him the Restoration. It was great.
Hope you're having a great week.
Love,
Jared
Good morning Jared,
We have had another crazy week. I guess it started out a week ago Friday when Grandma Mott called the eye doctor. She has been seeing some weird stuff out of one eye. He got her in on Friday, saw that she had a tear in her retina so he immediately got her an appointment with a specialist on Monday morning in Salt Lake. Her plan was to come out and back in one day. It was business as usual for me last Monday, so I was working at Spanky's when I looked up and saw both of my parents. The doctor told her she needed surgery and he would do it Tuesday morning. They came by to spend the night.
About 12:30 Tuesday morning, the phone rang. I thought it was perhaps someone calling to be the first to wish me a happy birthday, but instead it was Dennis. He said the cops were on their way and we might want to come out and make a statement. We were burglarized again! Dennis was just getting ready to get in bed when he saw headlights outside. He looked out and noticed the dome light in his car and Grandma and Grandpa's car were both on. There were some kids going through both of them. He turned his porch light on and yelled and they jumped in the get-a-way car and sped off. We think they came in on foot, cleaned out the cars and then the car came in for them. They got in Taylor's car, but found nothing. They somehow got into the Audi, which was locked, and got Dad's new GPS. Then they moved on to Dennis' car, got his stereo front and rummaged through the Buick but found nothing. When they were in the Audi, they went through the glove box where your iPod was...I felt terrible about losing that, of all things, but on closer examination, we found it. I'm not sure how they missed it. We think it had to be a miracle. The car was in the driveway where it was well lit, the dome light and the glove box light were on and the they had a flashlight (which they accidentally left in Dennis' car). How could they have not seen it? Anyway, it was our tender mercy. The police came and did an investigation. We ended up talking to him until about 1:30.
We climbed back in bed and tried to unwind from the early morning activities. After laying there a bit, Dad saw car lights reflecting off the garage. I jumped out of bed and ran to the front room window where I saw a small, dark car stopped. I watched as a tall man stepped out of the car. He was carrying some sort of bag. My heart was racing. I yelled in my loudest whisper for dad to call 911!. Then something inside me hesitated. I told him to hold the call until I did some investigation of my own. I watched as he slowly strolled towards Ensigns, then disappeared between Meske's and Ensigns. I waited a couple of minutes but he never came back out of the shadows. I put on a robe and headed over to find out who was lurking in the darkness. I slowly made my way over, with Dad following twenty feet behind with cell phone in hand in case he had to call for back up. When I got to the side of their garage, there was a light on and some rustling sounds. I was a little perplexed about how a crook could get in the garage, since the window is so far off the ground. I cautiously made my way around to the back of the house, where I saw Masen's tv through his bedroom window. It was then I realized it could have been him coming home. I went back to the side of the garage where I thought he was and called out to him, to make sure that was him in there. When he didn't answer, I realized what it was making the noise! They have a bunch of new baby chicks. Haha The light was the heat lamp and the rustling sound was them! Boy did I feel foolish. Later that day, Christy confirmed that it was Masen coming home at 2:00 am. I nearly called the cops on him!
So in the end, we only lost the GPS, we never caught the lousy crooks but they didn't get your iPod and they did no damage to the cars. We feel pretty blessed. Taylor said he was glad for the bad guys, because they are the ones that keep life exciting.
After Grandmas surgery, she decided to stay here for a week of recovery, since she is supposed to keep her eye looking to the ground for seven days and nights. The doctor injected a gas bubble in her eye to hold it where it needs to be to heal, but the eye had to be down in order for it to work properly. Today I will take her back to the doctor, if he clears her to go home, I will take her half way and meet Grandpa this afternoon.
Life is an adventure. Sometime when it isn't, we have to do things like follow our neighbors who lurk the the darkness at unearthly hours or talk to baby chicks in the middle of the night. In the end, it's all about the story. I thought maybe I could be a vigilante and stop a crime in progress, instead I just got put on somebody's stalker list. And Bella, our ferocious watchdog, slept through the whole thing.
I love you, Jared!
Mom
Hey,
Elder Tobler and I are doing great. We have had a pretty great week. We had dinner with a family in the ward last monday, we were talking to brother Jenkins, and it turns out, he's from Sunset Utah. He said he thinks his parents probably know grandma and grandpa.
We had a great lesson on Tuesday night. We have a family that is investigating the church, the Sibandas. They're from Zimbabwe, and they are amazing. They absolutely know that the church is true. They'd be baptized today if they could. The problem is they both work on Sundays. They've both asked time and time again to get Sundays off, but it's not happening. So that's the trial they're going through right now.
We were able to have dinner with a family in the ward, and have the Sibandas with us too. We had a great dinner and lesson afterwards. They can't come to church now, but they have a huge ammount of faith and I know that the Lord will bless them for it. He will provide a way. Thursday was great. Our evening was packed with appointments. We taught a guy named Ryan. He's been coming to church for the past few week. He's a great guy. We taught him and commited him to be baptized in June. He told us no, but he would think about it. A few days ago we got a call from him, and he had some questions about how the baptism service works. I have a feeling he'll get baptized pretty soon. Later that night we had a lesson with the Thompson family. Normally we just teach the father, but this time the son was there with a bunch of friends. They were all really interested and wanted to learn more. They had so many questions that we didn't get home until about 10:15...and we're supposed to be in at 9:30. Oops...
On Saturday we had some success. We were able to have three lessons back to back, and none of them were set appointments. We stopped by a few investigators we hadn't heard from in a while and happened to catch them home. That was two of the lessons. The third was with a man named Keith. We found his name in the potential investigators section of the area book. He let us right in and we taught him the Restoration. It was great.
Hope you're having a great week.
Love,
Jared
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Transferred to Carmel
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
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
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
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