Newfoundland Canada

I got back from TX just hours before Owen and Alex left on their trip to Canada.  That was one reason I was hoping not to stay overnight in Phoenix, because I would have missed them.  I did get my hugs and saw them off on their 10-day trip to Newfoundland, Canada.  Alex has been taking each of the kids on a senior trip (although Nathan didn't really get a great trip, as he just went to northern CA).  Jared went to Scotland, and now Owen got to go to Canada.  It just depends on where Alex's work trips are, as it was a business trip for him that Owen tagged along on. Alex had a couple other colleagues there with him.  They had a great time, and Owen fell in love with Newfoundland.  I'm not sure he appreciates Alex's work, but he did have fun wading through the water and brush and exploring the area. 

September Birthdays

 Alex had to celebrate his birthday without me this year.  I headed to TX to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday.  The young women put a bunch of heart notes on Alex's door at church.  Owen made dinner and Savannah made cake, cookies, and a photo collage.  I had bought him a few clothes and chocolate.  

Audrey picked me up at the airport and then we headed to my parents' house to surprise them.  They didn't know I was coming, so it was fun to just show up at the door.  They were getting ready to eat dinner, so I got to join them.  We hung out at Audrey's later that evening.  She made plaid sugar cookies as Little Debbie treats for Mom's birthday.  Audrey did a fun AI Little Debbie label with a picture of Mom as a little girl.  That worked perfect to decorate the cookie boxes.

I helped do some party prep on Sunday morning and afternoon.  Audrey did all the planning and most of the work of putting the party together.  Sam made steak and coconut shrimp for dinner.  We had key lime pie, sugar cookies, and 7-Up floats for dessert.  Ashley, Daniel, and their kids came over for dinner too, along with Audrey's family, Mom, and Dad.  Audrey also planned a "drive-in movie" in their living room on a projected screen, where we watched Robinhood (with Kevin Costner) since it's one of my mom's favorite movies.  We also watched a video I put together of Mom's 70 years.  It's too long to post as one here, so I divided it in 3 videos. 

On Monday (Labor Day), the girls went and did a craft activity, bedazzling pictures of Mom.  We added glitter, buttons, and little things to add bling to pictures.  We met up with the guys for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

On Tuesday, those not working (Mom, Dad, Audrey, and me) went to the temple to do sealings.  We met up with Ashley for dinner.  It was nice to see and hang out with family.

I headed out on Wednesday morning.  I had connecting flights through Dallas and Phoenix to get home.  When I got to Dallas, I thought it was going to be a tight connection because I only had 45 minutes.  It turns out the flight was delayed.  About an hour later, we boarded the plane and prepared to head out.  I still had an hour for my connection in Phoenix, so I wasn't too worried.  However... right before we were taking off, they announced that the airport and all flights had been shut down due to President Trump arriving at the Dallas airport.  We sat there on the plane for another hour... I missed my connection in Phoenix.  It appeared that no other flights would make it home for me that night.  They were able to find one flight on a different airline that went through another city.  I did make it home a little after 11:30pm, adding a 4th flight to my day.  (I was supposed to arrive home about 4.5 hours earlier, but I was just glad I didn't have to stay in Phoenix overnight).

 

Alex was out of town for my birthday, so we both missed each other's birthdays this year.  Owen made breakfast and dinner (German pancakes, BLT's and sweet potato fries) and Savannah made a lemon cake with vanilla frosting and strawberry sauce.  Everything was so good!  I went out for a birthday lunch with a few friends a week earlier (when Kirsten could join us before her upcoming surgery). It was nice of them to think of me. 

I got some flowers and gifts from friends and family.  Savannah made a nice card and made a photo collage for me.  Alex had bought a new running hat for me.  The funny thing about this birthday was Alex tried to have something delivered to me as well.  The main part of the order was flowers and chocolate, and then he added a couple random things to the order (pineapple and tuna fish) to meet some minimum requirement.  The only thing they didn't deliver was the flowers!  Apparently they didn't have any flowers??  The dude that delivered sent a message to Alex saying, "Bro, they didn't have flowers.''  We laughed about me getting tuna fish for my birthday.  

September Misc

September continued to be a hot month.  It was up to 87 in our house by mid-September.  It's still hot (going on 4 months now)! 

Savannah took several pictures of Kai and sent them to me.  I had to say good-bye to the senior missionary couple that I had been working with this year, since they finished their mission.  They did so many things and were just amazing.  We're going to miss them (and hope things don't fall apart since they're not here).  They live in Utah, so Nathan and Jared actually went to see them for their mission return talks and reception. 

Jared did a family night lesson on the title of liberty before he left on his mission.  He took one of his shirts and made a banner with things written on it that we would work on.  We displayed it outside and left it up his entire mission.  I finally threw it away.  I'm not sure what we wrote because it was filled with spider eggs when I went to open up the banner... but it was a reminder to me every time I saw it that we stand for something and we can lift up our spiritual banner for the world.  

Weston hung out with friends a few times and even went to a couple football games.  He's turning out to be more social than we expected.  Savannah would like to hang out with friends more, but she has to settle for selfies on the bus I guess. She took a picture of some of the youth before they sang for stake conference.  The youth did an early morning temple trip the first Saturday in September (as in getting up at 3:00am to get ready to go)... they're pretty amazing youth. Owen and Savannah went, but Weston had his first cross country meet that morning.

The young women did a camp out one weekend in September and had a good time.

Nathan and Jared are settling into college.  Nathan is a junior and switched to Accounting as his major.  He had to take a professional photo for the business school. He has been applying to internships for next year, which requires looking ahead to see where he might want to live later.  Jared is a freshman studying Chemical Engineering.  He's taking 3 core classes right at the start - Intro to Chemical Engineering, Statistics, and Physics.  He's also taking Spanish, Religion, and a freshmen orientation class.  Nathan and Jared got into the same religion class.  They've already had a lot of homework and studying to do.  They also get to work in the temple together on Thursday evenings. They went to one football game together so far.  Nathan has been to 2 games, being lucky to get a ticket to both games, while Jared only got in the 2nd one.  It's pretty hard to get tickets for the games.  In the spare time they have, they've played some basketball and soccer, work out at the gym, and Jared started running again (along with trying out swimming once a week). They go to an Institute of Religion class on Wednesday nights, which doesn't earn college credit. Nathan is serving as the Ward Executive Secretary (which means lots of meetings and scheduling for the Bishop).  Jared also has a calling coming soon to serve in their ward.  They're doing well!

I sent in some then and now yearbook photos for Owen and Weston.

Our 5 days

We had Nathan at home for a full week but only 5 days with Jared.  Jared had a lot of boring stuff to do to get ready for college.  He went to a dentist appointment, eye doctor, and two doctors appointments.  We went to the bank, bought some clothes & shoes, and got him a phone and laptop.  He had to do a lot of sorting and packing.  He spent a couple evenings showing us pictures and talking about his mission.  We had a couple of his favorite meals - German pancakes, scalloped potatoes, and lasagna.  Savannah stayed home from school one day to hang out and play games with Jared.  (Owen and Weston had too much stuff to do at school.) We went out to eat a couple times, for Mexican and tacos, since he had been craving Mexican food.  We played ping pong, pool, and air hockey at the Institute one evening.  Owen won our ping pong tournament.  We watched a movie (F1) at home, took some family pictures, and played at the beach one day.  It was fun to watch them running around like little kids. We re-created one photo from 2014.  I did get in the water too for a while, but the waves were so rough that it wasn't very relaxing trying to avoid getting pummeled by the waves.  Some of them were too high to jump over. The water wasn't that cold either, so everyone had fun. 

We had a full day on Sunday.  Jared had an early meeting to report about his mission before church.  Then he spoke in our ward and then went right to the singles ward to speak there too.  Owen, Savannah, and I joined the choir in belting out "This Little Light of Mine" for the musical number.  We had a Linger Longer lunch after church.  I had made lots of rolls the night before.  Some were for lunch and some were for dinner.  I also made 3 lasagnas to take to our friends' house for Sunday dinner.  In the afternoon, we headed about an hour north of us for Savannah's Patriarchal Blessing.  It was her special day!  She had the honor of having all of us attend with her during her blessing.  It was really amazing.  One of the highlights of Savannah's blessing was hearing "opportunity to serve a full-time mission".  That's not an obligation for girls like it is for boys to serve.  She had been wondering whether she would receive any guidance on whether she should serve a mission (because she wants to).  We almost gasped when we heard it so specifically in her blessing. I realized that I still had 5.5 more years of being a missionary mom... We took a picture with the Stake Patriarch this time.  He was able to give blessings to all our kids, and every experience was just amazing. 

We had dinner with Donald and Julie on Sunday.  Their boys Nathan and Shawn were home, so our boys got to catch up with them.  When we got home, Alex gave school blessings to Nathan and Jared.   Then Nathan blessed me and Jared blessed Alex.  It was a little overwhelming day with feeling the Spirit.  

It was hard to send Nathan and Jared off on Monday morning, but they had to start college on Wednesday.  They drove back together, stopping to see my aunt and uncle in southern Utah along the way. 

He's home!

Nathan arrived on Saturday the 22nd, Alex got home on Sunday the 23rd, and Jared arrived on August 25th around 9:00pm.  He flew from Asuncion to Panama to LA and then home.  We could see him through the metal gate walking from the plane, so it was hard not to run to him.  I had to yell out to him as soon as I spotted him.  It's hard to describe the emotions of being reunited after 2 years, but it was finally time for my hug!  We watched 4 other missionaries come home over the summer, and I felt the emotions for those families too, but it was finally our turn.  Even though we had talked to Jared every week, it just wasn't the same as being in person. 

Jared was able to get released from his service that night with the Stake President, which was also emotional, watching him take off the missionary tag.  We got to hear some of Jared's thoughts and experience from his mission, things he learned, and habits he wants to continue.  

He had cherry pie and Twix waiting for him when he got home.  He got to pet Kai and check out the Lego room too.  I was happy to see the kids all lined up together and see how much Weston and Savannah had grown in the last couple years.  Jared, Owen, and Weston are basically the same height now.  I'm not sure if anyone will catch up to Nathan.

Last 6 months of the mission

Jared was in Las Lomitas until March 24th with Elder Segundo.  He taught Elder Segundo many basic life skills, helped him learn Spanish, and introduced him to pizza and chocolate milk (which he hadn't had before).  Jared liked how happy Elder Segundo was despite his background and the many challenging things he faced in trying to serve a mission.  Elder Segundo came with basically one white shirt and pair of slacks.  He borrowed some of Jared's clothes until he got some more.  Jared also ended up giving him his rain jacket.  

Jared spent the next 12 weeks (until the middle of June) in Pirayu with Elder Garcia from Argentina.  Then he served 4 weeks in Itau with Elder Walker from Idaho.  The mission split from 2 to 3 missions in July.  There was a newly formed Paraguay East Mission, but Jared stayed in the South Mission.  He spent his last 6 weeks in Itau with Elder Barentsen from Montana.  Jared was able to be a part of 32 baptisms during his mission, but he also taught and served many others who didn't choose to be baptized.  One of the more memorable people that he taught didn't get baptized, but Jared witnessed this man make great changes in his life.  A couple of the fun things he enjoyed was playing soccer and a game called piki voley on his preparation days. Piki is like volleyball except you use everything except your hands.  He got to watch Paraguay play in two World Cup soccer games (the first was won in penalty kicks, so it was a very exciting time.)  He got to go to the Paraguay Asuncion Temple a few different times.  A few of the hard things, besides people unwilling to make commitments, was dealing with roaches in his apartment, getting a ringworm, and dealing with the rain or heat.

In June, Jared asked us about extending his mission by 4 weeks.  I immediately said, "No Jared!  Don't do it!"  I was being selfish with my time with him, wanting to spend a full month with him before he left for college.  However, he went on to explain that his mission president had asked for volunteers to extend their mission to help fill the empty spots in the transition from 2 to 3 missions.  They weren't bringing in enough new missionaries to fill all the spots.  After finding out that the extension wouldn't cut into the fall semester of college, I felt a little more okay with it, although still sad that we wouldn't have much time with him.  I told him to pray about it and make sure it was right for him and not just the "helper" in him that always wants to help out.  I knew what he was going to do after talking with him, and I sent him a message expressing that I knew what he was going to do and I would be okay.  He was supposed to come home the end of July.  We later found out that the 4-week transfer happened first, and if he hadn't extended he actually would have been home mid-July (2 weeks earlier).  His extension was a normal full 6-week transfer.  His return date was Tuesday August 25th, which meant we would see him for only 5 days before he left for college.  

It was hard for me to process, but I knew he was supposed to extend his mission. I think during his last 6 weeks, he was able to help 5 more people get baptized.  As I think about those 5 lives that were changed for the better (and likely the ripple effect on others' lives), I found much peace in giving up Jared for one extra month.  Jared shared a quote from Elder Bednar that expressed this ability to focus more on the needs of others:

"As we follow, love, and serve the Savior, we gradually focus less on our own desires and interests and more on understanding and addressing the needs of others.  We do not merely perform benevolent deeds; rather, our state of being is changed and become increasingly Christlike.  Charity then ultimately possesses us."  

I know Jared was changed in the process of serving and he was able to more closely follow the Savior and be like Him.  Jared expressed his happiness to be part of the Lord's work.  He learned how to gain more success in finding people by following the influence of the Holy Ghost.  Jared also showed great faith and had miracles happen on his mission.  A story was shared about Jared (which he hadn't even thought to mention to us).  Our friend Janet called us and asked if Jared had told us the story about the locked gate.  We hadn't heard about it, so we listened with great interest when she shared what the mission president had shared with her, in the words of the stake president: 

"In the Las Lomitas branch, during a year-end dinner, I went to buy a soda from a shop located in front of the chapel.  When I arrived, I found the main door locked.  Since I have the stake key (literally), I opened the door, but I couldn't remove the key from the lock.  I spent about five minutes trying to take it out, but I couldn't do it.  So, I left the key in the gate, went to buy the soda, brought it to the table at the branch activity, and then returned to try again... This time, I tried for about twenty minutes without any success.  At that moment, the elders from Las Lomitas - the missionaries - arrived.  Elder (Jared), noticing the difficulty I was having, said:

--Can't you remove the key?

I replied:

--No, I can't.

He folded his arms and said:

--Let's say a prayer; I'll offer it.

He said it in such a pure and innocent way that I agreed to his request, even though it didn't seem like the right place or moment to me.  There I was, with my hands on the key in the lock standing by the street, while he offered the prayer.  He began by giving thanks for the day, for the morning, for the blessings we receive, and so on, while people passed by in front of us... It was an uncomfortable moment for me.  The scripture came to my mind that says, "When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." I even thought, "This isn't necessary; I can just leave the key in the lock and call the facilities manager to send a locksmith." 

However, it was sure a pure, sincere, and special prayer for him that I didn't dare touch the key.  When he finished, I said:

--Elder, would you do us the honor?

The elder took the key, pulled it, and it came out without any problem.  I was amazed by that experience.  I felt bad about myself for not having enough faith to believe that Heavenly Father can answer our prayers, even in the simplest and most insignificant things.  I learned that the Lord can answer our prayers if we offer them fervently, with faith, and as James says, "believing that ye shall receive."  I literally saw the scripture fulfilled: "Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

That mission president also expressed that Jared was one of the most obedient missionaries he had seen.  I know Jared's striving to obey with exactness and his faith allowed him to see miracles throughout his mission. 

Here is part of what Jared shared in his last email: "Last week we saw many miracles. Our friend's baptism had fallen through a couple Sundays already, so we weren't so sure if it was going to happen on Sunday. Her mom was determined to do everything she could to help her though, and her mom isn't even a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. We didn't see our friend all week until Saturday when we passed by to confirm plans. We left not very convinced that she was getting baptized... what a miracle it was when her mom told us over the phone that they were all up and getting ready! God is good and taught me to have more faith in Christ and in our friends...

I want to testify of the love of our Heavenly Father. I have felt it as I've served His children. I have been here to help others to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Living these principles has blessed my life, and I have seen the change they've had on others. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and the words it contains in 2 Nephi 25:23 "...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." I know that Jesus is my Savior and the Christ."

He had a great mission and served faithfully for just over 2 years. Well done Jared! I made a video but it's too large to share here. I chose a couple songs that seemed to be a theme for his mission. Here are the words:


Walk With Me
When you're walking through the fire and your feet are worn and scarred, there's a source of living water that can heal your weary heart. You see the Savior's footsteps and you feel His guiding light. He is calling out to you. He says, "Walk with me, and I will calm your troubled waters. Walk with me; I will make your mountains move. Oh, take my hand when you're feeling heavyhearted. Walk with me, and I will walk with you."

He walked on desert highways to go and find the one. He lifted up the broken and showed the world His love. And when we walk beside Him, He gives His power to us. He is calling out to you. He says, Walk with me...


Witness
I see the waters part when I kneel down and pray. I've seen my selfish heart soften and change. Through all the silence I can't stay quiet. I'll shout it out to the sky wherever He takes me, every day of my life. I will try to be like Him, shine a light in the darkness. I'll be a witness and live the way He lived at all times and all places. Whatever happens, I'll be a witness of all His love, a witness of what He's done. I'll stand and tell everyone in all times and all places. I'll be a witness.

I'll raise my hand and say I've been saved by His love. My Savior took my place, and after all He has done, through all the silence I won't stay quiet. I'll shout it out to the sky wherever he takes me, every day of my life. I will try to be like Him...I'll be a witness.