BRAD'S PHONE CALL
We got to talk to Brad and his companion today :). Brad has been teaching him English so we have lots to talk about. It's so fun to see Brad in his element and thriving as a missionary. So proud of him. 12-1-24
ERIKA BASKETBALL TRYOUTS
This was a much more chill tryout for Erika. She knew she was on the team and was able to kind of relax for the most part. That was nice. She did awesome! Made the team and then was voted as captain!! 12-2-24
LUKE'S PHONE CALL
We got to talk to Luke today! He looks so good and seems so gungho. He's been getting a little frustrated with his companion, but mostly doing really well. It was fun to see him. 12-2-24
BRAD'S EMAIL- THANKS GIVIN
This week was a battleeee. Not sure why but Satan felt like working extra hard on me this week. Everything felt way harder to do and I feel like it was a lot harder to feel joy in the work. But we kept going strong I'm pretty sure my poor comps are dying but we are getting things done
This week we spent like 3 days in our area. We had a very full week.
Wednesday we had zone conference. I LOVE zone conferences they're always soo goood. I got to give a little training on how to help our friends that have baptismal dates find people to get baptized that same day with them. We also talked a lot about high love and high expectations.
Thursday we went to the templeeeee. I ALSO LOVE the temple. Its such an amazing place. Normally I'm fighting to stay awake while I'm there but this time I was wide awake and legit recieved so much revelation for my area and the district. It was amazing. And this kid that always goes out with us to teach lessons received his endowment in the same session. So cool!!
Friday-Saturday: First full days in our area this week. To be honest my patience always gets texted to the max when we get halfway through the first transfer of training. Almost everytime my comp hits a mental wall and starts saying everything is too hard, there's no point they're just going to say no, this isn't who they are they can't just go up and talk to people... stuff like that. It tests my patience a lot but that means my patience is growing haha.
We had a baptism of our friend Karla!! She has been a battle for the past month because ir has been so hard to meet with her. She had so many doubts as well because her whole family are catholics so she was pretty scared about committing to something. It was cool because she was probably the first person I found, taught in every single lesson, and got to watch her get baptized. She is going to be an amazing disciple of Christ. It was cool looking back to those first few lessons and thinking how she has potential and then seeing all the progress she has made to now. Also the same day our bishop got released after 9 years!!! So we had 2 amazing gran miracles. Missionary work is just awesome.
We also met with our friend named Julio. Hes so cool as well! Heres a funny story. His best friend is a Missionary serving in Ecuador Elder Mejia i think. ( it's the mission of Elder Jex and Jones) and he is from a place called Mollendo. I served there and was best friends with his family actually. I almost baptized their cousin but she moved. But the sister of this missionary is now in my ward here in Umacollo. She gave us the reference of Julio. The missionary that's his best friend called us during one of our lessons and we found out the kid he is training was the comp in the MTC of the kid I am training right now. It was all just so many cool little miracles that showed how small the world is. Missionary work is so cool. Julio asked me to baptize him but I might be leaving this transfer... 3 days before his baptism. I really really really dont want to miss it because he also is like one of my best friends right now.
Sunday we went to a YSA devotional with our friend and basically they just yelled at them and told them all they need to get married. Apparently like 70% of the church is YSA in Peru and so they need them all to stop being so lame and date people. Our friend is super socially awkward but he opened up so much as we walked him home! He's like one of my best friends right now. I am going to do everything possible to help him get baptized. Hes amazing.
LUKE'S EMAIL- THANKSGIVING
This week was good! We had so many lessons and we had our boy Spencer (he's a young man from the ward) come out with us for like two whole days. He's the goat and super excited to become a missionary and we love having him come with us. Plus he drives us so we don't have to use any miles
Our friend Michael has been progressing a lot more this week, we taught him a super good lesson about the priesthood. He rlly wants to join the church but he thinks he's too old to get married and have a family so we were trying to tell him there's still time for him. Afterwards he was like yeah I think the only thing that I can do good for my life is to join the church. And then he said he's just gonna join the church, not get married, and just become a priest for the rest of his life. I think we still have a little more explaining to do about what a priest does but I'm glad he knows baptism will bless his life. He also got rid of his vapes finally which is super super good and we were so hyped. Thanks so much for all your prayers for him, keep it up
We had a good Thanksgiving, we did some service at an old folks home, and we went to a members house and ate too much. I felt kinda bad tho cuz their mom wouldn't let them watch football while we were there, so we played Catan for hours while they all watched the football game anyways, just with no sound
.
Idk I can't really remember what else happened this week. We worked really hard this week and had some pretty good days. We can't get anyone to come to church so we need to switch things up and figure it out.
I hope yall had an awesome Thanksgiving, love yall so much
PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS
We got off to kind of a late start, but we were able to fit it all in! We went and picked up our tree- this was quick this year! Sadie said she found the perfect tree and it was! We were able to just shove it in the van where the seats are missing. Kind of nice. We'll have to remember that for next time. We grabbed some pizza on the way home and met up with Charity and Kelly and Hunters. We learned very quickly that our tree lights from past years were burnt out. Luckily I had my pearl lights and they worked just fine. We got our first ornament picture and then everyone took turns putting ornaments on the tree. Everyone got along really well. It was fun! It's just fun to have everyone (that's here) together. We all went and got hot chocolate after! Fun stuff. 12-2-24
JACK'S PUMP CLASS
This was the long awaited Pump Start Day! We were so excited!! It was a long appointment full of LOTS of information and Jack and I were dummies the whole time, but we were SO excited! He got the Tandem Mobi. He got his first infusion set installed and we filled the cartridge, did our practice bolus and we were ready to go! It was so exciting, but then our excitement sort of died out a little when Jack's blood glucose started to go up. Like really high. And higher and higher. It was so scary! Jack didn't feel good. I finally gave him a correction dose with the pen. Then we made a call to tech support and learned that his canula was totally bent! When I pulled it out a bunch of blood squirted out with it. It looked so painful! I felt so bad for Jack!! He was so tough and let me put in a new infusion set. It was a rough three days of us trying to recover from this first round. Such a bummer that our excitement had to be snuffed out. But after a few days we were on track, things felt much easier and Jack is a pump pro! It has been a really nice change. 12-3-24
RELIEF SOCIETY CHRISTMAS DINNER
This was a really fun night and exactly what I needed that day. I got to sit with the Barbaras, Amber Williams, and some others I love while we ate. Unfortunately, I was in a pretty stressed mood from the day that we'd had with the pump, that I let that kind of ooze out. But everyone helped me cheer up. I sat with Shelly Last and Emily during the white elephant game. That was a lot of fun. I was happy my dog puzzle was such a big hit. I got a big huge soft blue blanket. I stole it from Sherrie Chambers. At the end, I stood and talked with Amber about the pump day and she was so nice and comforting to talk to. It was a good night. 12-3-24
CHRIS FURNISS FUNERAL
Nate and I went to the viewing together. It was good to see Dolores so upbeat and doing okay about things. Michelle and Marianne were fun to talk to also. They have such a great family. I just love them. 12-5-24
MISSIONARY MOM LUNCH
This was my first time going. We went to Chonchi's. It was so yummy!! It was fun to talk to everyone and be able to share about my missionaries. 12-6-24
PRIMARY DRIVE-IN MOVIE- POLAR EXPRESS
This ended up being a fun activity minus all the hangups with my projector, sound bar, phone. That part was rough. I couldn't find our sound bar, decided to use the mic, then the projector was too quiet for the mic, so I pulled up the movie on my phone and had to line it up just right to the blue ray player and play the sound from my phone through the mic. It was so nuts. I had to keep readjusting it and it kept getting screwed up from my texts and phone calls. I was frustrated and worn out and it was kind of a pain, but I think the kids all had fun. Molly missed part of it so that she could go to her concert dress rehearsal, which she missed most of because I didn't tell Noah where to take her and Sadie wasn't there because she had a birthday party. I wasn't on my best behavior that night. Kind of crazy. But it was fine. 12-6-24
ERIKA ORCHESTRA CONCERT WITH MOLLY'S CHOIR CONCERT
We got to listen to Erika's orchestra play and then we got to hear Molly's choir singing with the Davis High Symphony. Kinda cool! I'm so proud of my talented kids! 12-6-24
FIRST PRESIDENCY CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL
This was such a great meeting! I loved it! I felt so inspired and motivated by this. We paused it so we could talk to Brad and finished after. 12-8-24
BRAD'S PHONE CALL
We got to talk to Brad tonight. He was somewhat distracted, but it was fun to talk to him. He's doing great! Still training two natives and dealing with the racist comments. 12-8-24
EMAIL FROM LUKE- RUDY RUDY RUDY
Hellooooo. This week was pretty good, we had some super hard days and then some pretty good days.
Monday we watched the movie Rudy as a mission cuz the real guy is gonna give a devotional this Sunday. After the movie they ordered us a bunch of pizza and a couple of us just started playing basketball in our church clothes while we were waiting, it was so fun.
Tuesday was probably one of the hardest days on the mish. I was not feeling motivated whatsoever and my comp was super trunky so it was just not a good combo. Also we had a lesson with our friend Michael that night and he said he wasn't going to be able to quit vaping. We decided we've done all we can do and that we need to let God do the rest. Super sad tho cuz we thought he was gonna get baptized soon
Wednesday was an average day.
Same with Thursday
Friday we ran exchanges and I went with my boy elder madsen. We also had a stake nativity event at our church, im pretty sure the number of missionaries was more than the rest of the people there. Not really, there was just hardly anyone there, but it was fun to have all the other missionaries there.
Saturday we had a pretty cool miracle. This guy we knocked into last week fed us lunch. He and his wife were super nice, and apparently like two days before we knocked into them, they were talking about how poor missionaries are. And they felt bad that they had a no soliciting sign and do they took it down so that we could knock on their door, literally two days later we knocked. So they offered to feed us every Saturday
. And they're so awesome! His wife was a member before but left when she was super young, and she kept talking about how awesome her baptism and confirmation was. It was such a good lesson with them. We also met with this one guy named silver. Apparently he heard we don't get paid and so he was like, im gonna take you guys shopping. We told him we're fine and we have enough food and he told us not to be prideful. So we are going shopping with him tonight we'll see how that goes
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Sunday was super sad cuz we didn't get anyone to church. I think this week we're gonna have to really focus on that cuz if people don't come to church they really can't progress.
This is the last week before mini transfers and the last week with my trainer. Hopefully we can lock in and work super hard before he goes home. I am super excited to be out of training tho
Guys I'm so sorry I never take pictures. I'll try to be better I swear
Spiritual thought: 2 nephi 2
16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other
We're all given agency in this life. We have the ability to choose from right and wrong and the point of this life is learning to choose the right, especially when it's hard. The more we choose right, the more that God will trust us with his work. God has given us commandments to guide us to become the best we can be.
Love yall
EMAIL FROM BRAD- MERRY CHRISTMAS
Hey guys whats up. This week was cool. We saw so many cool miracles.
Tuesday: it was pretty slow if im being honest. Tuesday is usually a day of chamba but it was not this week. I think its because I was pretty worn out. I was tired. I've been pretty tired recently. We then had interviews with Presi. Those are always so fire. He always seems to start it off talking about leadership stuff and I just always have to remind him I genuinely to care and I'll serve wherever the Lord wants me. We talked a lot about if I'm staying or not. He wants me to stay for 1 more transfer because our area and zone is in such a good place right now. It genuinely is crazy. I really hope I stay because I'm figuring things out here.
Wednesday: Today was lots of work, we got to invite 2 children of God make a covenant with him!! They accepted so we will be helping them progress and make these steps towards Christ.
Thursday: Presi called me kinda worried because we set a goal as a zone to baptize weekly in 2025. He was worried that it would be a goal apostate because the missionaries would then start baptizing just to baptize. I then shared with him the perspective we had and how we were going at it and the doctrine we were teaching/studying to guide our goals. He then goes "nevermind you guys are doing wonderful I don't need to call you." And hangs up hahaha. Today I realized the Elder I'm training needs to start inviting people to be baptized. So hes now going to so everysingle invitation. The first one was today. It was really really bad. I love him but it was bad. But its okay because hes learning how to make invitations.
Friday: this whole week my comp has been on a divis tour. Hes just been jumping area to area to teach and implement some principles we need to develop as a zone and as missionaries. We had some other invitations that went really bad again. We saved a couple but sometimes it's too long gone to be saved. My comp has been learning a lot. We've had some super hard days for him. Its hard because every single new elder that comes in from the MTC, wants to be perfect at everything. They want to be able to communicate perfectly and be good at everything so there's a big wall that they have to break through in order to start this learning process.
Saturday: we had divis with Elder Johnson. He ran the 400 and 800 at BYU last year. He's a dawg. We actually ended up talking so much about track haha it was fun. He also was able to invite our friend Javier to be baptized and it was his first invitation which was sick. He gave me lots of good tips to get healthy for track. It was fun talking english again though. Haven't had a divis in english for a really long time and it was fun. We were literally just sprinting from lesson to lesson.
Sunday: we had a lot of friends show up! It was cool because we now split the area and in the whole ward we had like 20+ friends there which was sickkk. Itt was also the primary program which is always very fun.
Spiritual thought: There's a line in everything. One side of the line are those that are proactive, responsible, happy, obedient... the other side of the line comes stress, anxiety, lies, blaming others... theres a line in daily planning. That line is when you start the day. You must have already prepared your day the day before or 2 days before. Same thing with school. If we wait to be responsible and proactive and we cross the line, that's where cheating comes in, we start lying, rushing, not doing it how we should. The most responsible people in the world are those that not only take the blame for stuff but those who do everything they possibly can to prevent something from happening before the blame can be caught. There's a line when listening to the spirit. If we don't act when we hear an impression, that's when miss opportunities, get stressed, overthink... there's a line in literally everything. As we focus on being 100% responsible for ourselves and staying on this side of the line, when we cross it we won't have those negarive feelings.
LUNCH WITH BECKY
Becky and I went to Chonchi's, I had to show her the yummy food. We had a nice time talking longer than we should have. I had to get back to Sadie's class. It was a good time though- fun to talk missionary with her. 12-9-24
LUKE'S PHONE CALL
THis was a lot of fun. Luke is doing great. We had fun hearing about his day and telling him all about our week. He's fun to talk to. 12-9-24
ERIKA'S FIRST GAME
This game was SO AMAZING!! Erika scored 17 points!! Christine even texted me after to geek over how good Erika did! She was AWESOME!! We won by like 30 points. She had this incredible clean block as she chased down a fast break. So amazing! And like three three pointers!! 12-10-24
JACK'S PUMP
We've done a few pump changes now and getting pretty good at it. It's been new and challenging, but Jack is doing awesome at it and I think he actually likes it. I do think it's helping him eat more. 12-10-24
SADIE'S LEGS
We had another episode with Sadie's legs Thursday night. Not cool. The poor little thing. And ever since my co-worker mentioned Leukemia, I've wondered. She really hasn't been looking well for at least a month. I've been fighting the urge to take her to the Doctor. 12-12-24
TEAM BREAKFAST
I got up all night to make cinnamon rolls for Erika's team dinner. It was a little nuts, but anything for Erika :). Kennedy's mom helped with the meal. The girls got out early so we were "late" bringing the food, but it was okay. They loved them! I am always happy Nate can help with those things on Fridays. I think it went pretty well. 12-13-24
SHOPPING
Nate and I finally started our Christmas shopping! Not a moment too soon! We got a lot done at Station Park and had fun being with each other. We took some pizza to Erika and Jack and then I went and did centers in Sadie's class. It was a full day. 12-13-24
DATE NIGHT
We went to Five Guys for dinner and then to see the movie "Interstellar". It was the 10th anniversary or something so they put it back in theaters. Such a good movie! I had such a spiritual experience there at the end, thinking about life and how I want to spend my time and be with my kids as much as I can. Kinda crazy. Cool movie though. 12-13-24
WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY
This was a challenge. Highlights: getting to hear Charity and Hunter sing together again. Chatting with Charity and Kelly. Cute decorations and fun theme. That's about it. I was annoyed with how bad the manners of our ward were during Barbara Farnes' talking and Charity's song. They were so very rude. Then the battle with Jack about what to eat was unending and so frustrating. Not sure how to handle those things. Then we came home and watched a movie together. 12-14-24
ISAAC MAYNES' HOMECOMING
We had the privilege of hearing one of Isaac's homecoming talks on Sunday. We got up bright and early, Charity and Hunter came with us, and we all drove up to Idaho Falls. We still had my mom's Christmas party that night and so we knew we needed to leave Idaho Falls by 2:00. Unfortunately, the Idaho Mayneses do not miss second hour and wanted us to stay for all of church. We had determined that we might as well go home right then if we're not even going to get to spend any time with them anyway. Luckily, Heather came up with the idea to have the kids come home with us and help us get some food. So we got to hang out with Hannah, Jake and Grace, Isaac and Rachel at their new house eating all the yummy food and chatting. Kinda fun really! I liked it. We felt bad leaving as soon as everyone else got there (Dan and Adele, Grandma Ruthie, Jen), but we needed to hurry home. I did get a quick tour of their house. So pretty! We had a long drive home and stopped at the house for "three minutes" to change clothes or get things and then headed off to my mom's party. Fun surprise at home- Kelly had cleaned the kitchen while we were gone! 12-15-24
GRANDMA AND SIMON CHRISTMAS PARTY
We had a lot of fun at Grandma's party this year. We ate yummy food, talked, laughed, started playing Noah's fun writing to 100 game and then we were interrupted with Brad's phone call which we all love! Then we finished the game and got prizes. We had a good time. It was fun that Kelly and Charity brought Devan and Hunter. Steve was there too. He was so fun to sit and play the memory game with Sadie and Molly. Well, Sadie was worried about him beating her because of all of his trash talking, but I think Molly ended up winning. They all played with the Bluey house for quite a while also. Fun kids. Good times. 12-15-24
PHONE CALL WITH BRAD
It was nice that the younger kids all got a turn to talk to him. He was really attentive and asked them lots of questions. We didn't even get to talk to his comp :).
SADIE DR. TEW
I finally did it. Monday morning was kind of the last straw with how Sadie is feeling. I needed some answers. It was really kind of cool how my morning went. I tried to plan out my day with all the things on my to do list and nothing was working out in my mind and I kept having a hard time planning. Then the Spirit told me to just go on my walk and take a shower and then I would be able to figure things out. Well, I ended up calling the doctor's office after taking the kids to school and they had an appointment at 11:20 which is about the time I would be done showering after my walk. It fit perfectly. Felt meant to be. When Dr. Tew came in the room the first thing he asked was how our family was doing. I thought he knew everything we'd been doing this summer with the stroke and diabetes, but he hadn't heard anything about any of it. So we ended up talking about everyone else first. It's kind of weird that the information wasn't sent to him. But this really cool moment, when we brought up Kelly, Dr. Tew mentioned that his niece went through early menopause and then spontaneously had her own babies, just had her third! This was the coolest little piece of information I have heard in a long time! It made me happy. We finished talking about everyone else, got through all of Sadie's symptoms and issues, and then we were on our way to the lab on 400 North for some blood work. This was rough. Poor little Sadie! Screamed and thrashed the whole time they were getting the blood draw ready and it was so sad that she was saying, "Please don't! Please don't!" What kid says please? So sad. She was fine once they got the needle in her arm and we could see the blood, but it was a rough hour or so afterwards, worrying about the wrap and everything. We stopped at Wendy's for lunch and had to take the Coban off right away because she wasn't able to use her diplings with the arm they used. She needed a picture of her with the Coban before we took it off. She was being really sweet and pretty tough really and went back to school. That night I looked up her lab results and got pretty nervous googling all the ones that she was out of range. Dumb me. In the morning the next day I got the call from the receptionist that everything was fine. She just needs to take a vitamin and make sure she's getting all her water and we only call if she refuses to bear weight on her legs. Kinda crazy, but okay! I don't know why hearing that someone is perfectly fine is so frustrating, but I have learned that there are just things we don't know about. She will be fine. Just not comfortable every night. 12-16-24
EMAIL FROM LUKE- A guy bought us so much groceries
Hey guys, short email this week cuz I'm tired.
On Monday this guy named silver took us shopping, we picked out a few things for sandwiches and called it good then he made us go back and he grabbed a ton of stuff and put it in our cart, it was seriously 70 bucks worth of groceries it was insane. Then he took us back to his house to give us some banana pudding. And this dude isn't even a member of the church he's literally just a guy we've met like twice. He's so nice though.
I went on a super weird cross zone exchange, somehow I ended up in a Spanish area, not in my zone. This was a super good exchange though because the elder I went with was elder bench, he went to Davis. He hasn't been out very long so I kinda got to step up and be a lot more involved in everything, it was lowkey so fun. We also did a passoff lesson with another set of elders and one of the elders was elder edgington who also went to Davis, it was kinda awesome.
We had Christmas conference, it took literally all day and they fed us some super good food. We all performed some skits in front of everyone and it was probably one of the cringiest things I've done so far on the mish.
I get a new comp this week, should be exciting we'll see what happens
Spiritual thought: Luke 6
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
I read this the other day and it just hit so hard. As we serve others, not only do we help others feel good, but we also feel good. As we learn to constantly look outside ourselves and seek to serve God's children, we will feel more joy than we've felt before.
EMAIL FROM BRAD
Today I don't want to write a long email. This week was cool!! We had the baptism of one of my best friends Jose Carlos! He's so cool! Heres some pictures and we also had transfers and I'm staying till February!!!
TENDER MERCY
Heavenly Father totally prepared me for the day to go different than I had thought and helped me to not get bugged. I wasn't able to do any of the things on my to do list and it was okay. It felt like he had orchestrated that day. So grateful. 12-16-24
CHRISTMAS IN COLOR LIGHTS
We went on our fun tradition to drive through the Christmas lights up in South Jordan. I keep wanting to try the closer ones at our fairgrounds, but this year it was nice to have it there so we could meet up with Charity and Kelly and their guys. We all met up at Panda Express and had dinner and then piled into the van and drove through the lights. Nate took all the right turns and made our way quickly up to the front of the line. It was as if we had VIP tickets but we didn't. Luckily they didn't send us back to the end of the line when they didn't see VIP on our tickets that Nate FINALLY showed them. Kinda funny, a little embarrassing, but Nate was tired, so we all excused it :). Our car sounded like a party as we drove through. It was MUCH longer this year! I don't think we needed to drive as slow as we did. It was fun to have Molly and Sadie up front with us and it felt like everyone was having a good time. Kind of a funny tradition when we look at it from the perspective of outsiders, but anything to get together and have some fun. 12-16-24
WORK
I've been getting a little frustrated with how unorganized my boss is at work these days. We have SO MANY orders, so it's kind of understandable, but it's getting frustrating. We put the wrong labels on about 100 bags of Cinnamon Roll, he told us to peel them off, which wasn't going so well on about 30 of them, and then he remembered a different order and told us we didn't have to peel the rest off. So annoying. But whatever. We spent the rest of the day doing caramel. He also told us that we need to put something in the Amazon cart worth around $100, so that's fun. I didn't get a chance to put anything on there because Aumberlee was hogging it, but hopefully I can still do it on Thursday. I think I'm going to get an Amazon gift card :). 12-17-24
ERIKA'S FIRST HOME GAME
This game was SO intense!! It was kind of hard for our team. For some reason none of our shots were going in and passes were just a little off. It was such a bummer. I mean, don't get me wrong, we were winning most of the game! It just was so close it was frustrating for a lot of it. Erika wasn't feeling great and said she was dizzy for a lot of the game, which is a bummer, but she played so hard! She may not have made any of her shots, but she was a force out there on the court and was helping everyone else along. It was a pretty cool game though, with an over time and Erika had the ball at the last few seconds when the other coach was screaming at her team to foul her and she just held onto that ball so tight! We were two points ahead and we kept that lead til the buzzer went off thanks to Erika. Pretty cool. I was so happy to win after having to listen to the people behind us cheering for the other team the whole time. And I'll admit the refs missed a couple of our fouls at the end there, but hey, we'll take it! We shoulda won by a lot anyway, just unlucky shots. Erika played like a champ and I was so proud of her. Christine sent her the nicest text as well, boosting her up and letting her know that she recognized all that she did for the team today, and just because she didn't score 17 points doesn't mean she didn't play well. I really love our coaches. 12-17-24
OFF
This Christmastime has been an off one for me for some reason. People have speculated that it's because my boys are gone, could be. I just haven't felt the motivation for everything. It's kind of a bummer. I've put off putting up my tall tree and didn't get my nativities up until Saturday (which did feel really good and I was happy to get some of them out- not as many because clutter is really overwhelming to me right now). I've just been really slow with everything Christmas. Kind of a bummer. I do miss my boys. I miss their hugs, their smiles, all the funny jokes and laughter and watching them play with their younger siblings and entertain their big sisters. It is really hard. I have to admit that. But I also have this long list of tender mercies and times when I saw the hand of the Lord in my day and I can't deny that Heavenly Father has been here with me and for me and we've been blessed in really interesting ways. Ways I can't even explain. So I feel a little guilty complaining about how hard it is. I know they are out doing the best thing they could be doing and that is comforting. I know that they will become more like who they are supposed to be while they are out there and gain so much experience to help them with the rest of their lives. I'm excited about the ways that a mission can prepare them for being a husband and father later and the things that they will improve on and the things they will learn. I know this is a good thing for them. There is no doubt. I just wish it could be closer to home :). Closer to me. It's been cool to hear about their successes and watch them grow, even Luke already! I am just so happy for them most of the time. But I do miss them terribly. Maybe it does make it harder during the holidays to not feel their absence. Maybe there are more reminders. I just need to toughen up. I need to keep it together for everyone else. Which I do feel like I've done okay at keeping up most of our traditions and making things fun for the little ones. I think we're doing okay. Just off a little I guess. I'll get there. 12-18-24
MOLLY'S CHOIR CONCERT
We all got to go hear Molly perform in her choir. She has been so diligent at going and was so brave to try this new thing out. She did so good! They sounded great and it was fun to see her getting into the actions and stuff. Good job, Mollz!! 12-18-25
KELLY AND DEVAN ARE ENGAGED!!!
He did it! He finally proposed!! So exciting! He had texted Nate and I earlier that day to let us know he was proposing and since he had been kind of warming Kelly up for this date that was kind of special and different, she kind of seemed to know also. But we didn't spill the beans! He took her out and they went to a few different places, she was anxious for him to pop the question, but also not sure if he was going to. He had thought he wouldn't have the ring until January, so this was earlier than he had planned too, but she was kind of going back and forth in her mind. Kinda cute. Finally when they got back to his house, he took her down by the creek and he had set up a cute little scene with lights in the shape of a heart and lights above and the ring was sitting on a little table. So cute!! Kelly has been on a cloud ever since. We were so happy they stopped by here, after, and showed us the beautiful ring and told us the whole story. It was so fun. Everyone is very excited and glad we get to add Devan to the family finally :). 12-19-25
POLAR EXPRESS PARTY- SADIE
Nate and I got to go help in Sadie's Polar Express Party. We were in charge of hot chocolate and cookies. I got E. L. Fudge cookies cuz they looked like elves. These kids were not impressed. Kinda funny. But we did have fun helping them all with their hot chocolate and talking to them about what they wanted for Christmas and stuff. Cute kids. Sadie is always so loving and affectionate when we go into her class. So cute. 12-20-25
CHRISTMAS EVE A WEEK EARLY
We had a pretend Christmas Eve this Sunday. Grandpa and Jo are going to be gone on actual Christmas Eve, so we moved it up. That was cool of Grandpa. We all went up, Steve was there, we ate lots of yummy food, the kids all begged to open presents and Grandpa finally gave in. It was a fun one. I think everyone got good and spoiled. Sadie got a music/jewelry box which she LOVED. Molly got a breathing dog toy- just like the cats Charity and Kelly had. Kinda funny how much she loved it, but way cute. Jack got a handheld microscope. Grandpa was really excited about that. Erika got a really pretty water bottle. I can't remember what Grandpa gave Noah. Kelly got a beanie and scarf and gloves. Charity got a weighted stuffy dinosaur- super cute. It was a fun time. Felt pretty weird driving home feeling like it should be Christmas eve and it wasn't. But good stuff. 12-22-25
DOWNTOWN LIGHTS ON THE TRAIN
We got everyone out for this, this year, which was so much fun! I'll admit I was a little nervous for Devan to experience this tradition with us. I've been nervous lately with the things that we do and how they will be judged. I want him to want to spend time with us so I hope it's not dorky stuff all the time, ya know. But he's been very reassuring and fun to have around. We got on the train at Station Park, drove down to Salt Lake and right when we got off the last bus Hunter started feeling pretty sick. We were all worried about him, but also very hungry (there's no Subway in Station Park anymore, so we chanced it and decided to do dinner at the food court), so we wished him well with the green face and most of us went on. This year was the first in a while that we've gone to the lights before Christmas, and we were reminded why and that we want to do after again in the future. It was SO BUSY!! So packed everywhere!! The food court was insane, but actually the Chick-fil-a line went pretty fast. It was kind of a tense moment where we were trying to figure out what Jack would eat and Sadie and Molly all wanted different things, along with everyone else. So we all kind of split up. Super crazy, but we all ended up back at the same table and actually ate together. Everyone was much happier and things lightened up once we ate. That was good. We got to see some lights, some of the new things at Temple Square. We went over to the conference center this time. It was fun to reminisce about the day Nate proposed to me there, with Kelly and Devan's recent engagement. We got to see what they've done with our spot. It's still the best view of the Salt Lake temple and was never really about that spot, just about the view from it, so it was okay they changed it up a little. It's really beautiful. We gave out Great Harvest Bread to the homeless. I think they were happy. We went into Red Balloon for a few minutes and found the perfect Lego set for Jack. Luckily he had no clue the bag Nate was carrying and kicking was not actually a puzzle for someone at work. Not really hard to fool Jack, but super funny. I loved that we had everyone together and spent that evening out. It wasn't too cold but we want to remember to go after Christmas next year. 12-23-25
CHRISTMAS EVE
After doing a good cleaning on the house, and dropping off a gift at the Wolsey's, we got to go talk to Santa this year. Not a surprise though :). We were over in the sim building this year which was different, but just fine. I met Duke's wife who was talking about living in New York for their last three years before he retires thing- sounded so cool. I would love to do that. Then the kids got to talk to Santa. This was a fun year. We decided not to do the older girls which is a bummer, but makes sense. Sadie was super nervous but did really good. I wish I wasn't writing this in February and could remember all the things he said to everyone, but unfortunately, I don't. But it was a fun year. I do remember him teasing Erika about Collin and getting after Noah for picking on Jack and him telling Jack he could take Noah. Lots of fun. After Santa, we got to go to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner with Grandma, and Becky (and her boys!). I had fun talking to Ruth and Becky and Adam and his girlfriend. It was a fun time. Different kind of Christmas Eve for us, but it worked! We missed Kelly and Devan. They had some Brenchley fun though. We came home and opened up our Christmas Jammies. I did matching ones this year! Kinda risky, but they ended up being so comfy and so cute!! Everyone seemed to like theirs. I was happy about that. It was nice that Hunter was here, we got a picture with everyone in it. I was happy to get photos from Brad and Luke the next day of them in theirs. It was a lot of work getting those to the boys! I need to plan the Christmas packages better in the future. 12-24-25
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!
This Christmas looked a lot like all the others :). With all the traditions happening just as planned. Everybody woke up early, woke up mom with the birthday song, stockings while we prepared creamed eggs on toast. And actually, I got out of the cooking and just took a few pictures instead. Everyone is so helpful on Christmas morning. Good kids. Everyone spoiled me with birthday gifts and then we moved down to the family room for Santa gifts! Sadie got "a dog in a kaj" as requested in her letter and the night before on the phone with Santa. Molly got Legos. Some really cute ones! She seemed pretty happy with those. She had asked for them as well. Jack got Legos also. He seemed very relieved (even though he got a small set in his stocking, I think he was worried that was it in the Lego department). Erika got a new coat and some shoes! Super cute ones. Noah got a new fishing pole. Big smile there. Luke and Brad were very missed. Christmas is just not the same without everyone here. It's a hard truth that we've all had to learn to live with. But we were happy to have Kelly and Charity (and her plus one) with us for sure. Kelly got speakers. She seemed quite happy with them. And Charity got a weighted blanket. It seemed like everyone was satisfied with their gifts from Santa. Then we moved on to the homemade gifts to each other. Sadie had Charity. She had designed an adorable hoodie for Charity with a cute kitty on it. Charity almost cried. It is super cute. Molly had Brad and she made him some pajama pants with a cute llama on the thigh. Super cute! He loved it of course. Jack had Kelly. He had made her some really cool candles. He made them all on his own after me showing him how to do it. I was really proud of him. Super cool. Erika had Luke. She decided to go the Amazon route and sent him a basketball :). I'm sure he loved it. Noah had Sadie and had slaved over her bath bombs for an entire Saturday. He went all out and put cute little animals in them. She has loved using them and the surprise animals that come out in the water. Such a fun thing he did for her. Now he needs to teach her how to make her own. Luke had Nate and picked out some fish Hey Dudes a couple months before Christmas. Very cool. Nate loves them. Brad had Molly and struggled to find the perfect llama hoodie for her on Amazon with me. He picked a cute one, unfortunately, it is really big despite the sizing it claimed on Amazon. But she loves it. He will have to bring her home a really nice Peruvian one I guess. Kelly had Erika and she made her a really beautiful mirror for her bedroom. So pretty. Charity had me and she wrote me a really sweet song. I really can't get enough of that song. Of course I cried the first fifty times I listened to it. She's so sweet and so thoughtful. I had Noah and I got him one of those journaling Book of Mormons so I could mark it up and put cool quotes and cross-references in it. I think he liked it. Nate had Jack, he had been working on the stained glass frame he made Jack all season. Funny enough Jack had seen him working on it but had no idea it was for him. Funny kid. After that we went youngest to oldest through all the gifts. It was pretty fun and a nice time together. Everyone was in a good mood and we had fun. Christmas is always a good time. We all hang out trying out new toys and games and taking naps and stuff. It was so nice. We even got to talk to Luke and Brad that evening, both of them together. They were very focused on missionary work, which was really fun to hear about. They were grateful for the packages we'd sent them both and sent me their pictures of them in their Christmas Jammies. 12-25-24
NEW CALLING
We were invited to visit with President Perry and I assumed it was either Nate getting released or a Girls Camp calling for me. I was actually kind of excited about the thought of going to Stake Girls Camp. But alas, it was a full on Stake calling for me. 1st Counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. They are keeping Martha McKay in and calling all new counselors and secretary. Kind of crazy. But I'm willing to try whatever I am asked to do. 12-29-24
GRANDMA RUTHIE'S FAMILY DINNER AND GIFT EXCHANGE
This was a fun evening. We all met up at Lynn and Ali's for soups and fun. It was funny when we first got there, everyone was playing with some bells that you follow youtube videos and play your note when it comes up. It was really loud and obnoxious sounding when we first got there and I was worried about Devan and Hunter's headaches, but we ended up making it fun and having a really good time. Everyone was talking to all the newly engaged kids and talking wedding plans, so that was fun for them. We remembered Jack's pbjs so that was awesome for him also. After food we did a little gift exchange and that was a lot of fun. We ended up with a lot of the stuff we brought which was kind of fun. It was especially fun to have Nate with us. He took work off to come! 12-29-24
NEW YEAR'S EVE
We had a pretty fun New Year's Eve this year! I was surprised to have Kelly and Devan and Charity and Hunter with us for most of it! Even Noah stuck around for most of it. Lots of fun. We did our traditional balloon popping with fun ideas to do inside each one.
12:00 eat lunch and make the yummy cereal treat
1:00 board games
2:00 make molten lava cake
3:00 gingerbread house baseball and hot chocolate
4:00 scavenger hunt station park- this ended up being a lot of fun! Two teams going around getting pictures of stuff. Kelly, Devan, Erika and Sadie in one group, Charity, Hunter, Noah and Molly in the other one. Lots of fun. I felt like everyone had a good time. We met up at Pretzel Maker for Pretzel Bites at the end. I was surprised that Hunter did the whole thing on crutches!
5:00 minute to win it games
6:00 tacos for dinner- dessert molten lava cake
7:00 paper plate ribbon game- this was a lot of fun too- Molly won the biggest prize- cheesecake factory $50 gift card! So cool!
8:00 New Year's resolutions and study time- I found a bunch of questions you can print out on cards to play for this, pretty fun
9:00 paper airplane contest- an oldie but goodie
10:00 board games
11:00 studio c and get ready to ring in the new year!
It was a fun night.
12-31-24
FAMILY SUM UP IN 33 Sentences- I'm hoping to do this every year now
Sadie (5)- I started kindergarten. Went to Lagood for the first time. I got a new bike!
Molly (9)- I got to perform in my Illume's production of Beauty and the Beast. My soccer team was undefeated. I became a chef this year, making treats for everyone.
Jack (12)- I got the Priesthood this year. Got diagnosed with Type 1. And I started junior hight.
Erika (15)- I got my learners permit which has been so funn!! I made the varsity basketball team and became a captain! I'm now a freshmann which is super fun!
Noah (16)- I turned 16 and got my drivers license so I've been driving around a lot. I had a stroke and did physical therapy in order to get healthy again. I had a good year and I've learned a lot of new talents that I didn't know I had before
Elder Luke Maynes (18)- I graduated from davis high school and hung around all summer. I got my mission call to the Texas Houston south mission. I'm serving my mission right now and it's super awesome so far.
Elder Bradley Maynes (20)- Basically this year was the greatest year of my life. The progress I have witnessed from 2024=2025 is the most progress I'm sure I'll ever experience in my life. I love Jesus
Kelly (21)- This year was the best ever because I got engaged to the best guy ever :) I spent the summer as an fsy counselor and then moved to provo!! So many good things happened this year and I can't wait for more!!
Charity (22)- I started a new job at Vivint that I've been performing really well at and love. I'm still a relief society teacher in my YSA ward and that's so fulfilling. I've loved the lessons learned this year and am excited for more with the next one :)
Me- I started a new life chapter- having all of the kids in school. I got some great one on one time with Noah and Jack during their separate hospital stays. I did about 416 loads of laundry :).
Nate- I am so happy to be blessed with an amazing and wonderful wife. I am so happy and blessed with obedient and cheerful children. I couldn't ask for more!!
