A Successful Week

Hi Jared.

My kitchen project dragged out all week and ended up downstairs in the family room. Now the entire downstairs is a disaster. The kitchen is still not entirely put back together, but looks better than before. I left your footprint indent in the wall that you put there many years ago. I like it there. :)

Mikayla is in love and went on another date this week. (Different boy). It's fun to watch her have so much fun. His name is Ben, and he's really cute with her.

Life is getting busier each week as my hours at the Capitol increas. I don't know how moms who work full time keep everything together. Luckily, this will only last three more weeks.

Here's a story I neglected to tell you. A few weeks ago, Taylor and I were coming home in Dads Audi, when Taylor heard a strange noise. He tore into the car and found that a piece had a hole in it that wasn't supposed to be there. They ordered a part, fixed the problem but then the car wouldn't run for more than a couple of minutes. The computer kept shutting it off. They called Josh's brother, Eli, who works at Strong Audi, and he said there were some unrelated recall items. He told them to make an appointment for the recall items and he would look at the other problems while it was in there. They put it on a trailer and borrowed Dennis' truck and took it into Salt Lake. They gave Dad a really sweet loaner car to use while his car was being fixed. They found there were metal shavings in the engine, so they said it need to be replaced, a $7000 job. The car has a 120,000 mile warranty. His car has 119,161. They are giving him a FREE BRAND NEW ENGINE! Dad says this is blessing from having you on a mission. Thanks! Can you believe it? When does this ever happen?

We're still getting more snow. There's probably a foot and a half on the grass and piles everywhere. The one by our back door is 4 1/2 feet tall. I am so ready for spring.

Have an amazing week!

Love you, Mom

Hey,

 

We had a pretty incredible week with a lot of exciting miracles. On Tuesday we had exchanges with the elders in Marion. I had Elder Davis with me in our area. We stopped by a woman named Sandra. Elder Zeyer and I taught her for a while, but life got hectic, her husband lost her job, and he didn't really want us around so we quit teaching her in November. He got a job again, so we're welcome back. We had a great lesson with her and her granddaughter Courtney. She loved having us back and she really recognizes the spirit we bring into her home.

 

On Wednesday we were able to get ahold of a member named Brandon. He was baptized about three years ago, came for a few weeks afterwards and then quit coming. Nobody in the branch really knew why. Brandon called us a few months ago asking for a ride to church. We found him one and he came that day but we were never able to get ahold of him until now. We stopped by and he let us right in. He asked us all about what he needed to do to get the Priesthood. I asked him what made him ask about it and he told us that he really felt like he needed to call us a few month ago to come to church and recently he's been reading scriptures and the topic of exaltation keeps coming up. He told us after all he's read about it he'd be a fool to miss out on it.

 

Thursday we had a pretty great lesson with a guy named Randy. We found him tracting a few weeks ago and he let us right in. This was our second lesson with him and we finished teaching the Restoration. He accepted it all really well and he even committed to be baptized when he knew that this was true.

 

Another great miracle happened on Sunday. We had planned to stop by Beth and Everett as one of our last stops in the evening. As we were driving into the town of Alexandria where they live Elder Melchior felt like we should stop there first. We followed the prompting and caught them home. They were friendly and invited us in. We asked about why he felt like he didn't want to meet with us anymore and he brought out some questions about the Book of Mormon that had been troubling him. We were able to answer his questions and he agreed to meet with us again. They're going to stick with their other church for now, but I'm really grateful that the door is open again for us to stop by.

 

So, that's been our week. I'm really excited that we're teaching Sandra, Courtney, Beth and Everett again.

 

Love you,

 

Jared 

The Last Zone Conference

Hey,

 

We've had a good week. We started the week off with exchanges with the Zone Leaders. They both stayed in our area for the exchange and we split up to cover more area. I went with one and Elder Melchior went with the other. I worked in Elwood and Elder Melchior went to Frankton. We both had a lot of cool things happen. We found a lot of great people and had a few lessons with new investigators.

 

We also had Elder Melchior's birthday on Wednesday. We got more birthday cake than we know what to do with. Brother Phillips, our Ward Mission Leader had us over for dinner and had a big cake for us, and another family, the Kings, had a nice German chocolate cake waiting for us when we stopped by.

 

On Thursday we had our Zone Conference. We got some pretty exciting news that Elder M. Russell Ballard will be coming to speak to the mission on March 2nd. On the less-than-exciting side, I had to give my "farewell testimony". It was a strange feeling. I didn't even know most of the missionaries there. My group going home is really small, so there weren't many of us up there sharing testimonies. There's only four of us going home, and there are thirty coming out next month. They're in the process of dividing areas right now so there are places for all the new missionaries.

 

 

Love you,

 

 

Jared

Staying in Elwood

Hi Jared,

Well, this week was pretty much awesome. I stared my new job at the State Capitol. I LOVE IT! I get to be right on the House floor while the legislature is in session. It is quite the hopping place. It is really fun to get to know some of the Representatives that I am assigned to and fascinating to see how it all works. 

Mikayla and I were both in the Davis County Clipper this week. Me, because I am shaking hands with Representative Nielson and Mikayla because she is in the play Little Mermaid.

The plays opening night was Friday the first. They do a great job and it is really fun to watch. Mikayla has really loved it. She spends so many hours at the school these days, that we hardly see her anymore. 

February 4, 2013

Dear Jared,

Hallie, of course, had her Birthday on Friday.  She is officially 14. Seems a little crazy that everyone is getting so old. Thanks for the letter and adorable pictures. You are one handsome cat. Not quite as cuddly as Garfield, but purr-fect in my eyes.

Sunday was the Superbowl. We celebrated with lots of food and friends. It got a little crazy around here. 

Manuela and Alice will leave today. Manuela is simply adorable. I could keep her forever. She fits right in here. She is funny, cute and really adventurous. I love that about her. I will miss her a lot.

Love, Mom

Hey,

We had transfer calls yesterday. I'll be staying in Elwood with Elder Melchior. We've had a bit of a slow week. It's been hard to meet with some of our investigators. We had a whole day planned in Alexandria yesterday and everything ended up falling through before we even got there. We did get a lot of lessons set up for this week though.

We did have some cool stuff happen though. On Wednesday we got to go to mutual. We taught the Young Women about missionary work and had a big question and answer session.

We had a pretty good lesson with Adam. He's still doing pretty well. He ended up moving again and he's having some troubles with the apartment, but he's staying with some friends right now and they're treating him pretty well.

On Saturday we had a member from Kokomo come down to take us out to lunch, which was cool. He's going to try to make it down here at least one more time in the next few weeks.

Well, hope you're doing well.

Love you,

Jared

Crazy Weather!

Hi Jared,

Mikayla got her card that you sent, and she LOVES it! Thanks for sending it. Hallie's Birthday is this week...hint hint!

This week we have had the CRAZIEST weather ever! Thursday we had an ice storm. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. The rain instantly froze as it hit any surface. The whole county was a literal ice skating rink. There were hundreds of car accidents and lots of people fell and got hurt. We had scheduled New Beginnings on a stake level but it was so slippery, the Stake President cancelled it for fear of someone getting hurt. We rescheduled it for Sunday night. Well, Sunday afternoon came and brought with it at least a foot of new snow. We cancelled it again. There were cars stuck all over. It was a mess. Dad and Taylor were at the church shoveling and couldn't make it home. They abandoned the car and walked home.

The new snow is so pretty. I love how it looks, and it is actually about 20 degrees warmer than it has been, so that's nice. Taylor took Alice and Manuela for a snowmobile ride around the circle. I think they liked it.

We had a snow day last week...no school. Thursday morning we got another call from the district, they moved back school start times two hours to allow the plows to get the roads cleared. The kids have really enjoyed these unexpected treats.

We hope you are braving the weather well. Spring is just two months away.

I'm off to work at the State Capitol...

Have a wonderful week. I love you so much! Mom

Hey,

 

The weather hasn't been nearly as crazy as it has at home. We were supposed to get a big ice storm yesterday, but it ended up just raining. We're supposed to have more rain for the next few days and the temperature will be in the 60s.

 

We didn't have a ton happen during the week, but yesterday was great. We had another amazing lesson with Beth and Everett. They're doing so well. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he loved every bit of it. They also came to church and the branch did a great job welcoming them.

 

Love you,

 

Jared

What's with Your Sweater?

Dear Jared,

A few days ago Hallie, Dad, and Taylor went to weigh Taylor's mini and it weighs 1340 pounds. Pretty crazy! Everyone thought that it would weigh more than that. 

Hallie's birthday is in 11 days. She is super excited and hopefully she will buy an iPad mini. 

Mikayla has been hanging out a lot with a really cute group of friends. Saturday they went tubing. She and McKenzie Lundy were on the same tube going down. Everything was going well until they hit a jump! Luckily one of the guys caught it on video so we could laugh about it over and over. They both thought for a minute that they were goners. After they realized they made it through, it was okay to laugh about. It is a pretty good clip. When they were done, all 10 of them came here to spend the rest of the day. I like her friends a lot.

I don't think I told you that I spoke in church last week. My subject was "The Blessings of Serving a Mission". A subject near and dear to my heart. My talk was pretty much amazing since I had such great subject matter.

This week has been super cold, icy, smoggy and uneventful. Wish I had some amazing entertaining story to share, but this is real life here. This is the life we lead. 

I'm off to work at Spankys. This will be by last time there for a couple of months. I'm taking a leave of absence so I can go work on Capitol Hill. More about that later...

I love you more than you'll ever know! Keep up the good work!

Love, Mom

Hey,

  

This week has been pretty great. We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Wedensday and i got to go to Ball State University for the day. It's a whole different type of missionary work. We spent a ton of time walking around campus talking to people. We met some great people, including a girl with red hair named Ginger. It was great. We also taught a mission prep class that night, which was pretty cool. On Friday we had an awesome first lesson with a guy named Derrick. He's super cool. He looks just like a young George Costanza. He's a really open guy who's been through a lot. In the past two weeks three of his grandparents have passed away and he just went through a divorce. He likes our church a lot and he responded really well to the Restoration.

 

Adam is doing pretty well. We have a lesson set up with him today, but I'm in Marion on exchanges right now with Elder Channell, so I won't be there for it. We also have a lesson tonight with a cool part member family. We just started teaching them and they're awesome. The husband's name is Phil, and he's a great guy. They've got an old Victorian home they've restored and it's probably the nicest house in Elwood. He works for Rolls Royce, so that's pretty cool. They should be commiting him to baptism tonight.

 

Sunday was a neat day. We had a fireside at the church and we were stopping by a few people before going over there. After one of the doors we got back in the car to try by the next person. As we were sitting in the car another car pulled up and stopped right next to us motioning for me to roll the window down. He asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. When I told hime no he asked who we were. Turns out he's really been searching for the past few days. He said it was a "funny coincidence" that he ran into us. We set an appointment with him and left for the church. Pretty cool stuff.

 

After the fireside we had another spectacular lesson with a part member family in Alexandria. Their names are Beth and Everett. We had a great first lesson with them a few weeks ago and he's a truck driver, so it's hard to get ahold of them. We finally got ahold of them and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong and we commited him to be baptized on March 30th. He gladly accepted.

 

We've had tons of spiritual experiences this week and our area is really starting to blossom.

 

P.S. Funny side note for you, on Monday we were at Kohl's buying some clothes for the cold weather we are having this week. At the register the woman working asked if my wife picked out the sweater I was buying. I just smiled and said yes.

 

Love you!

  

Jared

Garfield and Elder Wise

Jared,

So sorry about not getting you a letter sent. I have been so sick the last few days. This morning I got the kids off to school and got someone to work for me, and i went back to bed. The phone rang and woke me up, I couldn't believe when I saw the time, it was almost noon. I checked my email and you had already written. I'll send this anyway and hope you get it.

Thanks for the pictures. That's crazy about your warm weather. It has been extra cold here. It snowed before Christmas and hasn't gotten above freezing since. Thursday it started snowing and didn't stop until Saturday afternoon. We got so much over night, the school district closed all the schools. Friday was a "snow day". The kids loved that!

Yesterday we picked up two girls from Brazil who will be staying with us for a month. They are darling. Alice and Manuela. I think they will be a lot of fun.

Hope you get this today. If not, you'll get two next week. Sorry about that.

Love you tons, Mom!

Hello,

 

Things are going well for Elder Melchior and I. The Weather has been crazy here. For two days it was near sixty degrees and a few days later there was a lot of flooding in the area.

 

On Tuesday We went on exchanges and I went to Marion for the day. While I was gone Elder Melchior and Elder Channell taught Adam. The lesson went really well and they set a baptism date with him for March 2nd. He's doing really well now. He's still got a lot to overcome, but he's making big steps. He came to church yesterday for the first time.

 

Elder Davis and I had a good day in their area. We went to a little town called Fairmount, childhood home of James Dean and Jim Davis. We did a lot of work tracting there. We even got a picture with one of the Garfield statues there.

 

Other than Adam, it's been a little slow with teaching right now. We're finding a lot more people though. It's just hard to consistently meet with them.

 

Love you!

 

 

Jared

 

P.S. I'm sending a second email with some pictures, let me know if you get it.

Mikayla's Sweet Sixteen

Hi Jared,

We had an adventurous New Years Eve. We went up to the cabin and it was COLD!  We had fun snowmobiling inspite of it. But it was so cold the water inside the cabin froze up and we had to melt snow to survive our two days there, We invited Ivan and Jenn and the Thorley's. They are a lot of fun. When we left there Tuesday afternoon, it was 5 degrees.

Wednesday was back to school for the kids. It was a short vacation, and everyone was bummed about it, but they got to start school later this year.

Saturday we attempted to throw a surprise party for Mikayla's sixteenth birthday. Hallie had it all planned out right down to the smallest Pinterest detail.  We made adorable cupcakes and a cake on a three tier cake stand. All was going well until it was time for the party to start and none of her friends were here. She came home with Sammi and her mom, who were detaining her while shopping. I told Taylor to not let her in the house, to quickly take he to get a pizza for lunch. As they were pulling out, several of her friends were coming in. She knew then that something was up. They turned around and came back to the house. By then, everyone was here. It ended up to be a really fun party. She has cute friends. The last guest left at 11:00 p.m., ten and a half hours later. One boy even professed his "like" for her. What a way to start her sixteenth year of life.

Unfortunately, Mikayla woke up sick on her Birthday. She was so sad. Hallie wasn't feeling well either, so they both stayed home from church. Not a fun day for her. We put candles on her cake, but didn't want her to blow out the candles and contaminate the cake, so she fanned them out with a paper plate. Poor thing.

It's cold and icy here, 12 degrees this morning. It's been like this all week. How's the weather in Indiana? Hope your week is awesome!

We love you! Mom

Hey,

 

It was a pretty slow week for us. The highlight of the week was a new family we started teaching. Their names are John and Kathy. Kathy met with missionaries about 40 years ago and still remembers almost everything they taught. It was pretty neat, as we were teaching she was helping teach her husband. She even asked us when we taught about the Book of Mormon about "a scripture of Jesus talking about other sheep that he has". It was a great lesson. Kathy's a little stubborn though and has a few doctrinal issues she doesn't understand yet, but we'll get them sorted out. We've got a lesson scheduled with them tonight so we'll see how things go!

 

The weather's not too bad here. It's been in the 30s the whole week.

 

Love you,

 

Jared