Missionary Update

Jared arrived in Lima, Peru on August 21st and stayed at the Missionary Training Center for 5 weeks.  He took classes in the morning to learn how and what to teach, mostly studying the missionary Preach My Gospel manual.  He did Spanish language training most of the rest of the day.  He said the food was good, although he didn't really know what he was eating most of the time.  He got to go to the temple 5 times while in the MTC.  He went to the Lima Peru Temple 4 times, but he also got to go once to the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple.  The Lima Peru Temple is only about 5-6 minutes from the MTC.  The Los Olivos Temple is about 35 minutes away by car - a little over an hour bus ride.  That temple was just dedicated and opened in January this year.  Jared loved being there with all the missionaries.  One of the Latino missionaries liked to give him gifts, such as a necklace-like thing, coins, a drawing, and Chips Ahoy.  He got to go running a little bit since his companion liked to run as well.  They didn't really get to leave the MTC though, so I guess it was whatever they could do on the MTC grounds.  Jared and Elder Bourgeous got to do a little 20-minute study session with Savannah a couple of times while there, to practice helping someone how to learn from the scriptures.  He loved his whole experience in the MTC.  

Let me share something from his home MTC experience:  "This week I had a special experience with the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ as well.  On Thursday, I noticed that throughout the day my mind would start wandering, or that I'd get distracted by little things like my tie or something on my desk.  I started to miss important instructions and also promptings from the Holy Ghost.  That night, I had the feeling that I needed to repent and ask Christ for help focusing.  As I prayed I felt God's love for me, and soon after I also had the impression to talk to my companion about it the next morning in our daily planning time.  When the alarm went off the next morning, I had so much excitement and energy, which lasted the whole day.  When I spoke with my companion, he said that he wanted to work on being more focused together, and so we set the goal to check in with each other to see how we were doing.  I can testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and I promise that if you turn to Christ and repent, he will not only forgive you but will also "make weak things become strong" (Ether 12:27)." 

(I didn't realize I already previously posted this pic of his MTC companion, Elder Bourgeous, in another collage.) 

Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple

Lima Peru Temple (and MTC)

The end of September, Jared flew from Lima, Peru to Asuncion, Paraguay.  We didn't know exactly when he was flying out or anything about the flight schedule.  The Air Tags came in handy again as we noticed they arrived in Asuncion the morning of September 25th.  His first assigned area was Ciudad del Este, in eastern Paraguay, near the Brazil and Argentina borders. It was about a 7-hour bus ride there from the mission office in Asuncion.  He isn't allowed to cross the country borders, but did get to see the Salto de Monday Falls on the Paraguay side, which is an offshoot of the more famous Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil.  

It is very hot and humid there right now - mid 90's most days.  He mostly walks around everywhere, and the streets are very rough and often muddy, since it rains often.  There are lots of dogs wandering around everywhere.  The people are very poor, but he said it's odd to see people with nice phones or motorcycles but they live in a shack with nothing.  The people value family over anything else though.  

His first companion was Elder Ponce, from Peru, who he worked with for 6 weeks.  He just got a new companion, who is also from Peru.  I think his name is Elder Lecca.  Jared got to go to the Asuncion Temple shortly after arriving there.  They've had a few baptisms already.  His first was a teenager named Pedro, who got baptized on October 9th.  Jared described that baptism as a "series of miracles too long to explain".  Pedro had wanted to be baptized but needed parental consent before doing so.  Jared and his companion had promised him that if he had faith, he could be baptized on October 9th (when they had other baptisms scheduled).  Jared wasn't sure himself if it would happen, but they were able to find Pedro's mom at home that day and get permission. She normally wasn't home during the day, but she happened to be preparing to travel.  They talked to her for a while and she was still hesitant, but Pedro's friend happened to be there and helped her see that it was a good thing for Pedro.  Pedro himself wasn't there at the time, but they were able to stop by later and tell him to get ready to go, because he was getting baptized in 3 hours.  Jared said Pedro was "overjoyed" at the news.  

He had one funny (but sad) experience while trying to serve an older lady.  She had asked if they could help cut some bananas off her banana tree.  At first, she brought out a giant machete, which they told her they weren't allowed to use.  So she traded it for a smaller kitchen knife.  Jared began trying to cut some of the bananas off the tree.  The lady tried to help by pulling the branch down but accidentally pulled down the whole tree!  He was left standing there with the little knife, looking at the fallen tree... she tried to prop it back up.  Hopefully the tree wasn't completely lost.  It was a sad experience, but a funny tale to tell later.

He is learning Spanish pretty quickly and has learned a little bit of Guarani as well.  Most recently, he got to travel back to Asuncion for a conference with Elder Gong, in the Quorum of the Twelve.  Elder Gong spoke to all the missionaries in the Asuncion and Asuncion North Missions.  Elder Gong's main message was about loving the people they teach and also loving and serving their companions.  He also talked about striving for willing joyful obedience.  Elder Gong shook every missionary's hand.  Jared loved the experience and said Elder Gong is now his favorite Apostle! 

Jared will still be in Ciudad del Este for at least another 6 weeks until the next time for transfers (and then we'll see if he stays or moves areas).  He is doing well and loving the people and the work!

Arriving in Paraguay and meeting his new companion

With his companion Elder Ponce at the Asuncion Paraguay Temple

Pedro is the one in the middle of the baptismal photo

Saltos del Monday Falls

October Misc

Nathan participated in some Halloween festivities at BYU too.  They had a church party where most of the guys dressed as minions.  One of the activities was bobbing for apples... good thing we don't have Covid restrictions anymore.  I'm pretty sure there's quite a bit of germs being exchanged for that activity!  

Nathan got to meet Kirby Heyborne, an actor and musician who has been in some of the LDS church movies such as the RM, Singles Ward, and Best Two Years (among others).  He's been loving going to the football games, especially since BYU is undefeated.  There have been some really miraculous wins, where they came from behind in the last couple of minutes to win the game.  

Savannah went on a camp-out with the young women.  She had a great time - hanging out, painting rocks, dipping in the ocean, and all the fun campfire things.  

We helped a family from church do an in-town move.  We're glad they didn't move out of our ward at church.  

Owen and Weston went to a church dance and apparently collected most of the glow sticks by the end.

I took the boys out for lunch on one of their days off.  I was hoping McDonald's would be a cheap lunch outing, but we spent over $42 for the four of us (and I just got a Happy Meal).  The prices have really gone up! We hadn't been to McDonald's for quite a while.

Savannah did a couple months of hip-hop dance this fall, but then she just wasn't into it that much anymore.  We had hoped for her to do one last performance, but with some problems having a regular teacher for the class, they never learned a dance for the performance.  I think part of why she loved dance in previous years was her teacher, and she wasn't teaching there anymore.  

Savannah is definitely into that pre-teen phase.  I can tell by the amount of selfies she wants to take on my phone!  

We dropped by our friend Grace's house on her birthday to drop off a treat and ended up staying for cake!  We had to snap a picture to send Jared to make him jealous.  Ha-ha. 

We enjoyed watching General Conference at home the beginning of October.  We had our traditional crumb cake.  Alex particularly enjoys conference weekend because he doesn't have all his normal Bishop responsibilities at church.  He's been really busy right now doing tithing declarations with all the members.  One Sunday this month, he was gone from about 7:45am-5:30pm - we don't see him much on Sundays.

Halloween

It seems like we had a whole week of Halloween festivities.  We went to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday, and Weston and Savannah carved pumpkins.  We did trunk-or-treat at church on Wednesday evening.  I'm not a Halloween person, so I didn't put hardly any time and effort into trunk decorating.  I printed off some Angry Birds faces and taped them to balloons - that was it.  I had decided last minute to wear some Angry Bird pig costumes that I made for the boys back in 2016.  They looked a lot cuter in them, but it was fun to pull them out of the box in the garage and use them again. Owen wore one and I wore the other pig costume.  I made a red hat for Alex to wear as the red Angry Bird. 

Weston actually spent some time working on his costume with friends.  One of his friends used a 3-D printer to make costume accessories, and they worked on painting and finishing those.  Savannah made the face piece for Weston.  I can't remember exactly what Weston was... I think it was a character he made up from Star Wars, an unnamed Sith Lord. 

Savannah wanted to be a teddy bear.  It took a little time to find a brown sweatsuit for her to wear. I bought the bear ears and then just had to sew a brown piece and red bow onto the front of the sweatshirt.  Bonus is she can still wear the sweatsuit again after Halloween!

Savannah did her last costume parade at school on Halloween morning.  We had a fun time with dinner, by eating spaghetti with our fingers directly off the table.  I put plastic wrap all over the table and then just dumped the bowl of spaghetti out.  I got the idea from Nathan, who had done that once on his mission with a family from Nashville.  Later, Savannah went trick-or-treating with friends from school.  Alex and I wandered around the neighborhoods with Savannah, her friends, and some of the parents for about 2.5 hours!  Weston stayed home and passed out candy and watched a movie with friends.  Owen watched a movie at another friend's house.  

On Saturday after Halloween, we went to a friend party.  They had a Disney Villains party - lots of creative food and decorations!  

2016

 

Band and Choir

Weston had a band concert in October.  He plays in the advanced and jazz band this year.  He played 4 songs during the concert.  He also got to play along with the High School band during the homecoming football game.  They didn't get to go on the field, but he got to sit in the stands and play in uniform.  He loved it!

Owen also participated in the homecoming football game, singing the National Anthem before the game.  He also sang in a couple of concerts. Owen's church friends Becca, Taylee, and Cruz were soloists in the first concert piece. 

September Misc

Just some random pics - Savannah's picture day, Weston hanging out with friends for a hot tub and games night, Weston's collection of pencils that he found on the ground at school (that he had been carrying around in his backpack), and a youth activity.  The youth did a big fundraiser dinner and service auction. 

Owen's basketball team doing wall sits, Alex performing a wedding, monthly temple outing, and Savannah at a birthday party.

I spent a lot of time in August and September cleaning and selling some things from the house and garage that we didn't need anymore.  I also made a SISTERS book for Alison's 40th birthday - celebrating 40 years of sisterhood.  I had one moment where I was getting close to finishing the book.  I was eager to start working on it, but then I had the thought that I hadn't read my scriptures yet.  I had a little argument in my mind, but Jared's words popped in my head, "Just read your scriptures first."  I called it my WWJD moment - What Would JARED Do?  His influence is still here even though he's not at home.  I'm grateful for his example and good habits to motivate me.  I did my scripture study first AND finished Alison's book that day. 

September Birthdays

We celebrated Alex's birthday with a few good meals - breakfast, a Chili's lunch date, stuffed peppers for dinner, and cake & ice cream for dessert.  My birthday was on a Sunday (also fast Sunday), so we went out to eat for breakfast on Friday.  Savannah made a cake for me, and a couple friends dropped off flowers and cookies on my birthday.  It was hilarious listening to Weston play the trombone during my birthday singing.  The following Friday, some friends did a birthday lunch for me, which was fun. 

 

BYU

Nathan made it out to BYU and went to football games the first couple of weekends.  He made a good friend, Karsen, as he was moving in.  Karsen offered to help him move his things in, and they have been good friends since then.  After the first game, they went out to eat after the game.  There were a few girls sitting nearby and they heard one of them say their goal was to get married in 3 months.  They laughed a little about that and started speaking Spanish.  A little while later, one of the girls came over and said she had served a mission in Panama, so she knew what they were saying!  It turned into a conversation and they had a double date by the end of the night.  The date never actually happened, but it was a pretty funny story.  He did go on a few dates later with a couple other girls.   

It turned out to be a tender mercy that I didn't fly out to UT to help Nathan move in.  A few weeks into the semester, he called and told us he was called to the High Council.  He needed to be ordained a High Priest for that calling, so Alex and I scrambled to find flights out there for the following Sunday.  It wasn't cheap or even very convenient, but we managed to get flights.  We had to make some last-minute arrangements for the kids at home to get to church and school.  We had a 5:30am flight out of LAX, so it was an early start.  We got into SLC around 8:45am and made it just in time for Nathan's 10:00am stake conference.  Nathan sang in the choir, so we didn't get to sit with him.  We got to listen to Nathan's mission president from Ecuador, Elder Roman, who was now a 70, speak at the conference.  We also met him and his wife after the conference.  Nathan also had the opportunity to participate in a panel on Friday evening.  He was the student representative, answering questions, along with Elder Roman and the Stake President.  Apparently he did a really good job at that meeting.  We ran into a couple girls from the ward on campus after the meeting that complimented Nathan on how he did on the panel.  

We had lunch in the cafeteria and then went for Nathan's ordination and setting apart to the High Council.  Alex got to do the ordination, so it was a pretty cool experience.  Later for dinner, we met up with the missionary, Brook Langston, that baptized Alex back in 1995.  Alex hadn't seen him since his baptism, and he hadn't been in contact until just a couple weeks prior to Nathan receiving his calling.  Brook had sought out Alex on Facebook and then contacted him.  We had a little zoom chat a couple weeks before we went to UT, and then it worked out great to have dinner with Brook and his family that Sunday evening.   

After dinner, we dropped off Nathan back at BYU, then headed to the airport.  Alex took a late flight back to CA because he had a conference the next morning in Anaheim.  So Alex wasn't even in UT for a full day.  Alison picked me up from the airport and I stayed the night at their home.  My flight back was on Monday afternoon, so I at least got to hang out with Alison and the kids for part of the day.  We just hung around, played with the cats, and watched the kids do their Monday routine.  I was back home by Monday night.  The hardest part of the trip for me was finding our car at the airport.  I had 2 one-way flights, so I didn't even fly into the same terminal that I left out of.  I didn't pay attention to that, so it was a little hard to find the parking garage.  I ended up wandering around in the parking garage and alleyways outside by myself until I could get to the right place.  

 

And they're off...

...to school, and mission, and college!

Everything happened in matter of a couple of weeks.  Owen and Weston started school on Monday August 19th.  Owen is in 10th grade at the High School.  He is still able to walk to school, but he goes to seminary scripture study class from 7:00-7:50am at the church before school each day (although he has also had some morning basketball practices that have conflicted with seminary).  Weston is in 8th grade at the Junior High.  He rides the bus home in the afternoons and on Wednesday morning.  We take him the other mornings for 0-period advanced band.  Savannah started 6th grade on Wednesday the 21st at the Elementary School.  Alex or I usually walk the few blocks to school with her.  Her first day of school was also the day Jared headed off for his mission.  

Jared started home MTC on Monday August 12th, which was a little tough since we still had family in town for a couple more days.  He was definitely on a different schedule than everyone else.  He was operating on Peru time, so he had to wake up at 4:30am to be able to exercise and get ready for his online training to start at 6:30am.  He had lunch around 10:30am and dinner at 3:00-4:00, so I had to prepare dinner around 2:45pm.  

I got up with him and ran 2 of the mornings at 4:30am since he had to have someone with him to leave the house.  It wasn't very fun running in the dark, but I appreciated the last couple of times to spend a little bit of time with Jared.  On the first run, we headed for the bike path, which usually has lights, but they weren't on.  We decided to head back to the school, where I thought we could run on the track.  Well, the gate wasn't open for the track (nor were there lights on), but we were able to squeeze through the side of the gate.  At least the surface was predictable as we ran with a flashlight on the track.  And Jared didn't have to run my pace.  Jared ended up running full on into a spiderweb on the way back home.  The 2nd morning we ran, the moon was bright, so we did a few miles on the bike path.  After our run, we had a nice chat about Captain Moroni and his preparations for war and how Alma and the sons of Mosiah were still out preaching.  They couldn't rest.  I taught the youth Sunday School lesson on Sunday on that topic.  Jared came into my class and was a good contributor to the lesson, particularly how he's prepared for his mission.  We've had to do a lot to prepare physically, but the main part was his spiritual preparation.  He's put in the extra work to strengthen his testimony and work on weaknesses.  One of the things he did was bear his testimony every month in fast and testimony meeting for the last year.  That helped with his confidence in public speaking and sharing as the spirit directed.  It was also a great blessing for me and our ward to hear from him.  He inspired some of the other youth to share their testimonies often too.  

Speaking of preparation, it's amazing the number of things required to do to prepare for a mission, with so many things to gather and paperwork and medical stuff.  One of his pieces of luggage arrived just a couple days before he left.  We still had to get Jared set up with a credit / debit card that would work in Paraguay, and we had to get $160 in crisp bills for the Visa as he entered Paraguay.  The bills were supposed to be free of any marks or folds - basically uncirculated pristine bills.  We waited until the day before to try to find those, and that proved to be an impossible task.  Alex ended up going to over 15 banks in search of these bills, and they were nowhere to be found.  All of them had a fold down the middle, from being sent through machines at the bank.  We eventually gave up and hoped that somehow they would be good enough and not rejected.  Jared took the carefully placed bills in a protective plastic sleeve.  That was one of my biggest worries sending him off - would the money be rejected?  I just hoped and prayed that they would be good enough, that maybe the Lord could somehow remove the folds in the bills.  What's interesting is that a bit of a miracle did occur with the process, but not what I expected.  It turns out the church has been working with Paraguay to get that fee removed for the missionaries (or maybe handled in some other way), and they didn't even need the money to enter.  Instead Jared had a representative from the church there with him as he entered, basically an advocate for him that he was who he said he was and serving for the church.  So he ended up taking the cash with him and didn't even need it for entry into the country.  That was a tender mercy!

Anyway, we had our pancake breakfast the morning that Jared headed off.  It wasn't any easier to say "bye" to Jared than it was for Nathan - still just as hard and ripped out a piece of my heart to watch him walk away for the next 2 years.  I was in tears off and on most of the morning after he left.  I had to come home and finish cleaning out his room so that Owen could move his stuff in there.  Owen was excited to have his own room finally.  Weston would have been fine either way, but he now has his own room too.  My friend Carrie dropped off a "missionary mom" necklace for me, which I love.  I'm sharing the letter I wrote to Jared.  

Jared flew to Atlanta first and then on to Lima, Peru where he spent 5 weeks at the Missionary Training Center.  Another tender mercy was a photo we received from a random church member at the airport in Atlanta.  He snapped a photo of Jared and 4 other missionaries who were flying together to Peru.  Jared didn't have a phone for travel, so it was nice to get an update.  We did send Jared with Air Tags, so we were able to track him based on where his luggage was during his traveling.   

Jared's MTC companion was Elder Bourgeous - they got along well and both are runners too.  He's quite a bit taller than Jared though (as seen in the photo below where you'll see Elder Bourgeous in the light blue pullover).  

After we sent Jared off, we had one more week with Nathan, which was spent going to the temple and gathering the last bit of things he needed for college (mostly clothes).  It worked out well to pile up Jaden's car when he was here and have him take most of Nathan's stuff with him.  That allowed us to put Nathan on a flight to Utah, with a couple suitcases full of clothes and shoes.  I initially wanted to be there to help him move in, but then it didn't seem necessary after the option to send stuff with Jaden.  Jaden was a huge help, as he also picked up Nathan from the airport in Salt Lake City and dropped him and his stuff off in Provo. I didn't cry when sending Nathan off to college, because I know I'll see and chat with him quite often. It was a little odd sending a kid off to college though - am I really old enough to have a college kid?  Welcome to a new season of life!