APRIL 2024

LETTER FROM BRAD- SORRY THIS IS LONG BUT I LOVE MY MISSION

This week was so funnnn. We saw so many miracles and actually are just being guided by the spirit in every aspect. 3 weeks ago we started our consecration challenge where we got rid of anything and everything we do or say or have that pokes at the spirit. And we honestly could say its one of the best decisions because we've been able to learn so much from the spirit and realize how much guidance it offers. This week we also kind of just did divisions every day so we could get our other areas in our district working and getting numbers so that our whole district can be successfull as a whole. So I usually just stayed in my area training the new missionaries and my comp went over and helped the missionaries leading out. Superrr successful and everyone was able to see miracles and put baptism dates and it was quite exciting. 

Monday- I went to Arequipa for my immigration stuff and it was actually so fun. They had a little cesars there and surprisingly it was bigger than any little ceasers in the states, and it was actually hot and ready and I didnt have to wait for 2 hours for my pizza. It was absolutely packed and we waited like 10 minutes. Super fun. We also explored a little and I was so tempted to buy a poncho and splurge on a bunch of stuff but then I felt like I shouldn't. Fast forward to us leaving. I didnt realize theyd juet drop us off at the bus terminal thing and not really tell us what to do. And i was with a bunch of new elders so I had to buy the tickets and we bought them sevonds before the bus left so we made it on time, and I spent all my money on the tickets which if I bought the poncho we would have been stuck in Arequipa without money to get home. Cool little miracle. 

Tuesday: an absolute struggle and a half after District council. I didnt have money and we dont have someone to feed us. So i was trying to find food and money but still have an effective day. Eventually we borrowed some from these other Elders and found some food for the day. We then were able to get in contact with this kid we found through doing the paper activity thing(I explained like a month ago about the circle target thing) and he's so elect so we put him on date for April which we're super excited about. 

Wednesday: super hard day because nobodyyy was answering texts or doors. Pretty empty. We found a friend we dropped a while ago and she wants to get baptized now soo we will be meeting with her on Tuesday this weekkk. 

Thursday: Had divisions again so I was with an Elder from Bolivia and hes super cool and supeer new. We had some really powerful lessons and we created an excel sheet with our entire directory and we are knocking every single members house until they answer. We can make notes on if they answered, live there, have family, have family that arent members, and if they arent members, we rate them on a scale of 1-5 on how likely they are to accept a baptism date. If someone wants me to explain better I can. We've kept track of every single house thatsba member and are knocking every single one until we have none left. What we are looking for id inactive families that have family that arent members living with them. Every single innactive family has one so we can reactivate the family while bringing in baptisms. Well we found a family that has 2 kids unbaptized and their whole family is ready to come back to church. So we put a fecha for both of them for April which is super exciting.

And we haad a lesson with this kid and his sister talking about his baptism. It came to me sharing my testimony and I was literally just talking about jesus christ and i couldnt get it out without tearing up. I've never really had an experience like that with that topic but it truly was one of the strongest times ive felt the spirit. It was amazing. 

Friday: we got cooked. We ate with a member and they dont eat meat besides fish this week because of tradition stuff so they gave us super nasty fish. It actually really destroyed us and we didnt get a ton of work done. 

Saturday: still kind of cooked haaha. But we did the directory work and were able to find a 13 year old and a 55 year old that arent members and both want to get baptized so hopeefully next Tuesday as well we can meet with them and extend the baptism dateee. We did see a mircle today though. We were searching through tje directory by knocking every member door. Found someone who wasn't a member. Asked if we could share a short message and he said yeah but let me bring my wife first. Shared about baptism and our purpose and they go wait come in we want you to help us with these 3 questions we have. We walk in and sit down... AND IN THEY BRING 3 KIDS. They all sit down and say "we want to know where we came from, our purpose here, and where we are going after death." AHHHH first of all this has never happened in my mission getting in a house this easy and second ahhhh Plan of Salvationnn. We had a super powerful lesson with them and they seemed super engaged. Invited them to church... they came couldnt be more hyped. Absolute miracle and we said lots of thankyou prayers after. 

Sunday: not a good night. Both me and my comp still are cooked and so the night was just us alternating between bathroom use so we were dead. Eventually in rhe morning i felt better but my comp was wayyy worse. It also didnt help we were fasting haha. But we made it to church and it was absolutely fullll. And we had like 12 friends make it including the family we found so we felt so blessed this week because of how many miracles we have seen. Definitely because we've done our consecration fast and I recommend all missionaries do it. Other than that my comp has been throwing up all day so we ended the day early after having to stop at like 10 different houses for him to use and realized it wasnt an affective use of our time haha. Everyone pray for him so we can end this transfer strong  

I forgot to tell this story earlier in the email but we were in a taxi and we got to our lesson and then i hoped out and realized I left my phone in the car... i was freakingggg out cuz its so much of a hassle to get a new one. The kid we were teaching called it like 5000 times and we prayed like 10000 times. Finally he said he was coming back with it anddd so I gave the taxi driver a 10 so he could go buy a nice cold Inca Cola. Definitely an absolutely huge miracle. 

Spiritual thought: I've noticed how the times I'm being led by the spirit and recieving revelation I dont recognize until after the miracle or after I've recieved the fruits from it. When we are in the moment of revelation we a lot of times won't recognize until its after. Just like with Nefi, he was writing that he was going through the wilderness not knowing beforehand where he should go or what to do. I'm sure he felt like he was just wandering a lot of the time but every little thought he recieved was guidance from the Holy Ghost. And he didnt realize until after because he was writing on the plates after this happened."The holy ghost will bring ALL THINGS to your rememberance." Its not a coincidence we randomly remember stuff such as our mom telling you to pray before bed 5 years ago; its the spirit bringing that to our rememberance to guide you and help us. Not sure if that made sense but it did in my head. Heres some fun pics from this week

We have been giving our friends with baptism dates calenders so we can give them follow up and they can know when we're coming or what they need to do that night like praying and reading. Works really well and we take a Pic with every calender and friend on date so that's basically why we have a lot of those. 

SPRING BREAK DAY 1-

APRIL FOOLS

First day of Spring Break.  Almost no pranks today.  So disappointing.  4-1-24

DATE WITH LUKE
Luke and I got to use the gift card he gave me for Mother's Day last year on our date- we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for some wings and salad for Lunch :).  I loved this date and am so grateful Luke will make time to hang out with me.  It's probably one of our last for a while.  Hopefully my kids will come back for dates with me as they get older :).  4-1-24

LIVING PLANET AQUARIUM WITH GRANDMA AND SIMON

This was a really fun outing for all of us!  Kelly came too!  We have never been here before so that was cool.  We loved the rainforest and seeing all the animals.  Everyone got to walk across the suspension bridge.  We learned about rubber trees, pet the rays, and my favorite part was seeing the penguins.  Everyone humored me and enjoyed them for a while.  It was fun to spend time with Grandma and Simon.  They were so generous to take us all there.  Good times.  4-1-24

SPRING BREAK DAY 2- 

KELLY'S APPOINTMENTS

Kelly had all her appointments this week to check her blood and see if there were any follicles.  It didn't go as well as we had wanted and eventually they just ended the cycle with instructions to up the estrogen dose and wait a month.  Kind of discouraging, not gonna lie.  But we are trying to have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for Kelly.  I cannot deny the feeling that He is in charge here.  We will have to be patient, but it will happen in His time and in His way.  4-2-24

Not much else happened this day.  Not that I remember anyway.  I did discover and with Brad's copy of his passport was able to send him a package from Amazon!  Pretty cool!  4-2-24

SPRING BREAK DAY 3-

GRANDMA RUTHIE
We met up with Grandma Ruthie for some Culvers and Fish Hook Park.  This was a lot of fun.  Everyone goes off and does there thing and we sit and chat.  Kinda nice.  Grandma invited Bailey and Ainsley along too, which was fun.  This was a nice outing.  4-3-24

KICKBALL WITH GRANDPA HATCH
Grandpa came over and walked over to the park with us for a fun game of kickball.  Grandpa was fun to play with.  It was hard to realize that he's not his 40 year old self anymore.  He is getting a little older.  Not too old, he was still so much fun, but it was interesting the things he can't do as well.  I will miss that.  He was fun though and stayed for some Dominoes after!  So fun!  4-3-24

SPRING BREAK DAY 4-

MANTI TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE
This day started bright and early, we grabbed some breakfast on our way and then made the road trip down to Manti.  Just like the good ol' days when we'd go down for the pageant.  Course it was morning!  When we got there, you could see the stand-by line (we didn't have tickets and this was the second to last day of the open house), stretching all the way around the back of the temple, at the top of the hill, then all the way down the hill and around and down the sidewalk!!  SO LONG!!!  We had heard stories about how long people waited in line, but I don't know if we could have been fully prepared for the 4 and a half hours we had to wait!  But how fun to say that we waited in line for that long to see the house of the Lord.  I am so glad we did and so glad we didn't wimp out too!  It was actually pretty fun.  The kids (even Sadie) did awesome!  We stood and talked to the people next to us for the first little bit.  They were nice.  Then Kelly and Devan showed up and pretty much entertained us all for the rest of the time.  The kids ran around on the field, rolling down the hill and playing tag.  Looked fun.  We almost got blown away during the last hour or so, when a big wind storm rolled in.  SO much wind!!  But we hunkered down and stuck it out.  That temple was SO worth the wait!!  It was so neat to see so much of the original work inside and be able to go up the spiral staircase and sitting in the chapel.  So cool.  Such a beautiful temple!  I really loved seeing and remembering my trip to that temple to do baptisms with my mom for my Laurel project many years ago.  Such a beautiful place.  I loved what Kelly said about the dedication weeks later that this temple had been re-dedicated a few times and that that is similar to us.  We have to keep rededicating ourselves to His work and His Gospel.  SO cool.  Such a great day and fun time together.  4-4-24

SPRING BREAK DAY 5-

GRANNIE ANNIE SCONES AND SUSHI

We did our traditional scone run at Grannie Annie's, a lot of us were there, but not all.  Then sushi that night at Osaka Sushi.  This was fun because Nate got us the table that you sit at on the floor.  Kinda fun.  4-5-24

GENERAL CONFERENCE
I loved conference this year!!  It was SO GOOD!!  I thought everyone did awesome.  We had all the right treats and everyone stayed pretty attentive.  I saw way less sleeping this year for some reason.  The talks were amazing!  4-6-24--4-7-24

LETTER FROM BRAD- SORRY TERRIBLE EMAIL

Gonna be honest I would love to share some stories and send an amazing email buttt I'm dead so this is the best I can do right now. I really love you all and loved conference and the focus on temples covenants and prayers. I would like yall yo go to the temple soon so you can ponder on these 3 things. That's really all for this week love you guys lotssss. Dw not depressed just not writing a big email. 

4-8-24

LUKE'S MISSION PHYSICAL

He is one step closer to finishing his paperwork!  Everything looks good!  It was fun to take this step.  He did so good during his shots too!  

4-9-24

OUR COOL MIRACLE GETTING TO UVU TO SEE CHARITY SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

Looking back, we could have planned this outing better.  Maybe.  Like just leaving earlier I guess.  But that gets tricky because the kids' track practices, etc., so anyway.  I'll just tell the story.  We left here with "time to get down to UVU to see Charity sing the national anthem" if we had going at a time that there was no traffic or any other hold ups.  We drove separate to stop at Nate's work and leave the Prius there, and we'd been stuck in traffic getting there and then immediately stuck in traffic as we got on the freeway from there.  This was when it occurred to me that we may not make it.  I believe it was 5:20 when we left Nate's work.  I started to get really frustrated because I really wanted to see Charity sing, and thought it would be nice for her to have our support.  But luckily, the Spirit prompted me to pray.  So I said a little prayer in my head.  I told him how much I wanted to be there for Charity and how much I think she would like us there.  I promised Heavenly Father I wouldn't get stressed or cranky and that I wouldn't speed (I've been doing so good for too long to give it up!), if he would please just help us to get there in time for Charity if it is something she needs us to be at.  We knew how prompt they were at the basketball game, we knew we needed to be there right at 6:00.  Unfortunately, the GPS was telling us we wouldn't get there until 6:20ish.  I was pretty devastated inside, but I was doing really good at not letting it show.  For some reason, I was driving.  I had the thought to get in the carpool lane at one point and we just flew in that lane for quite a while.  Like WAY faster than the other lanes.  It was pretty amazing.  We had a few hang ups, where there was some congestion, but overall, we FLEW to UVU in the carpool lane.  Nate was looking at his phone the whole time and noticing the adjustments to our ETA.  Then he navigated me to taking the exit that is just before University, which I would not have thought of.  We were able to get to the parking lot at 5:50!!!  We had ten minutes, so Nate let me hop out and go find seats, while he parked the car.  Fortunately for us, there was no line getting in, and plenty of seats on the four sets of bleachers (this is really sad about our girls softball team, not gonna lie).  We were able to sit down and wait for what seemed like a little while, before they started and announced Charity!  She did an amazing job and impressed all of us, including the lady next to me.  So fun though!  I loved it!!  I loved our little miracle too.  Once we were done we remembered to thank Heavenly Father for getting us there on time and it came out that several of us had prayed (along with Kelly from Ephraim and Charity from Orem).  Such a fun family miracle.  I hope I never forget it.  We went to Crown Burger (or something like it- I'm thinking it had a different name, but it was basically the same thing) for some dinner.  Fun to celebrate Charity.  4-9-24

JAZZ GAME

Our Junior Jazz game night was the night of Pride night, so we were able to switch it with this night, thankfully.  We had to pick up Molly early from Matilda's birthday party, much to her dismay.  But we all went and sat up in the nose bleeds (Hunter and Devan came even) and we all had a good time.  I was playing musical chairs with the little girls and Kelly and Devan for most of it.  That was fun.  But I did enjoy talking to Devan and his sincerity.  It was a good game and we even WON!!!  First win in a while.  4-11-24

TRANSFERS FOR BRADLEY

This was a sad transfer for Brad, but also a cool one as he was made District leader and trainer of a new greenie, Elder Quispe.  New challenges ahead, and so sad to leave Elder Hoff (new ZL), but he will grow!  4-11-24

PORTER'S FRIEND BIRTHDAY PARTY

We were invited to Grandpa's house for Porter's friend party.  This was a lot of fun.  Pretty loud and chaotic, but fun!  We had to leave early for soccer games, but so fun to celebrate Porter!  4-13-24

FIRST SOCCER GAMES OF THE SEASON
Our first day of soccer and it was the game where Noah and Luke played each other's teams!  At the same time of Erika's game!!  This was a challenge.  We sat at the top of the fields, in between both, and tried not to be mad at the people that sat in front of us.  Who are we kidding, we were angry with them the entire time, but the games were fun!  We had fun watching.  I think Luke's team won.  Erika's did as well.  Sorry Noah.  4-13-24

PRINCESS AND THE FROG MOVIE NIGHT
This was a fun idea- thanks to Kelly- we decided to do a themed dinner with the movie The Princess and the Frog.  We ran to the store to get some last minute stuff (since the whole idea was at the last minute).  We ate Gumbo, Dr. Facillier's evil necklaces (watermelon), we wanted to do gummi frogs, but couldn't find any, so we did worms instead.  Seemed like they fit.  Then we had Lillipad salad (Della Fontanna style) and Beignets.  This ended up being a LOT of fun!  We'll have to do another one soon.  4-13-24

FAMILY MEETING

We got up to the family meeting in good time.  We had a nice lesson and enjoyed everyone's company and then Brad called, so we left.  It was a short little visit.  I always feel bad, but we love talking to Brad!  We never want to miss it!  4-14-24

LETTER FROM BRAD- TRANSFERRRS

Dang that was quick. Its weird how like one day you're living with someone 24/7 for 3 months and then the next you're living with some random Peruvian that doesn't speak English. The mission is kind of crazy. Anyways we got transfer news and Elder Hoff is leaving to Tacna. I'm staying as DL and training a new Peruvian. Kind of fun but at the same time I'm starting to miss having a comp that enjoyed planning stuff and doing stuff because now I'm kind of doing everything. We shall figure it out tho I'm excited. 

Not much happened this week until the weekend because I just was in a trío with the elders in my District and we had such powerful lessons!! We had this one about the plan of salvation and I used to actually hate the plan of salvación but it's actually crazy because as we were teaching it everything started falling into place and I actually understood and connected the dots and it all made sense. Super cool actually. We also had a baptism with the other Elders but they started wayyyy too late and ended up being late picking up my comp from the bus stop thing. Por guy was probably stressed. 

Thursday was awesome because we met with our friend Zoraida and she wants to get baptized but is leaving soon so like end of May kind of haha. Also met with our friend Joe who's baptism date is now for the middle of May. Super cool kid but his mom is kind of a huge problem

Sunday we had stake conference and it kind of sucked because a lot of the people with baptism dates in our district didn't come because it was in the stake far away. We then had a baptism after that in my ward with our friend Abish. I apologize dont got any pictures until next week. It went kind of awful because all the leaders decided they couldn't come 5 min before so we kind of just had to wing it but it ended up being okay. We just were super rushed the whole time so that was stressful. It was annoying because right after everyone like legit sprinted out of the building and then got mad at me cuz I was still cleaning everything up and draining the font. We are thriving. 

Spiritual thought: why do we learn the story of Adam and Eve? I heard this question and I had actually no clue. But then in one of our lessons it actually clicked and I learned it was because we learn the need for a Savior. Because of the fall we are out of God's presence. But because we have a savior we are able to return to God's presence. Because of the fall we are able to choose to come back. We are given agency to make the choices we need to make to come back to our heavenly father. It made a lot more sense in Spanish but anyways love you all very much. 

4-15-24

CLAIRE'S BROTHER'S FUNERAL
This was a sad day for Claire.  She did an awesome job on her talk though.  I was really impressed with how well she did.  And she made me laugh :).  I was happy I was able to sit by Gentry and Margo.  They are awesome.  Genry said her "favorite quote- all time- You!  Claire is hilarious!"  HA!!  My new favorite quote is of Genry saying, "I like weed."  HAHA!  It's a horse, don't worry.  I hope I get to see Claire soon and we can chat about all the things.  4-15-24

VISITING COURTNEY
Courtney texted a few days before that she was going to be in the hospital until delivering.  So scary what she was dealing with.  But I was able to sneak in a visit before the real chaos of May started.  I took her some flowers and cake balls and sat and chatted for a bit.  It was really nice actually.  I was so glad Nate was able to be home so I could do that.  We had fun talking.  It's so crazy that she is starting to have kids after I have finished having mine.  So strange.  But fun to talk with her.  I hope things go well with her c-section in a few days!  4-18-24

LUNCH WITH PAPPY AND EVERYONE :)

Nate came on our lunch this month :).  We had missed last months and just kept moving it back, so I decided rather than rescheduling because Nate was off on that Thursday, that he should just come with :).  We had a great time!  We met up at the Layton Olive Garden this time, as I was coming home from visiting Courtney.  Nate brought Sadie.  We had a nice time though!  I love that my dad and Nate get along so well.  4-18-24

FROM BRADLEY
Guys this is urgent. We just found out that one of the familias we are teaching is having a really hard time right now. Their son Harold has cancer and he has a very little probability to survive. They either have to do an extremely strong dosage or cut the chemo and let him die. Either one is extremely dangerous and each one has very little probability of success. This sunday me and my comp are fasting and so is our ward and the missionaries here. We need you guys right now to please pray for him and this sunday to join us in the fast. I have faith that God will heal him and that through our faith, fasting, and prayers that he will be healed and this family will witness the power and miracles of God. Please pray and fast for Harold Eyzaguirre and his family 

love you guys

4-19-24

DAVIS INVITE

The davis invite came and went.  I was glad all I signed up for was baked potatoes.  Luke did awesome on his 110 hurdles!  4-20-24

CHARITY

We got to have Charity and Hunter with us Saturday evening.  We went and played at the park!  They were so much fun!!  4-20-24

CUTE SADIE
"I kind of like being 5 the most, then I can keep being your little Sadie" 4-21-24

LETTER FROM BRADLEY- PRAY FOR HAROLD

Good day my people. This week was pretty slow until Sunday. As you all probably saw my friend Harold has cancer and we've been fasting/praying for him to help him and his family which has been really nice. Also thankyou to anyone that joined us as well its very appreciated. He will be coming home tonight so I'll give you all an update on that next week. 

This week I don't have much to share other than I want to share a cool story from Sunday. We were trying to get into this members house when someone next door opened cuz they thought we were knocking her door. I said to my comp he should go talk to her while we wait for this door to open. Didn't end up going. Then we walked up past it and I said yo should we knock the door because we already know she's here. We knocked the door and she answered, let us in and we had a lesson with her. Turns out her son is a member in the city next to ours and has heard about the church in the past. She started telling us how she once had this dream of exactly what was going on right then. We were sitting there talking to her but there was also someone in all white standing there and spoke to her saying "stand up, and get going." Something like that but a little more profound. She also said we were offering her these 2 huge loaves of bread. All I had to say to her is that we're offering her the bread of life. We are giving her this opportunity to yoke herself with Christ and have his strength in her trials. It was really cool how God prepares people and helps them before we meet with them. That is why we must follow the spirit in all that we do. The first part of this week I wasn't following much of the spirit so it was a lot harder but after church I was able to re-enter myself and get to work with the spirit. And that's when we started seeing miracles. 

I also gave a talk in church Sunday and couldn't seem to get myself off the topic of Jesus Christ. Usually I talk about some sort of topic but I just kept returning to Jesus Christ. It's really true though. God has given us these tools such as scriptures and church, and apóstoles, profets, teachers; to guide us to Jesus Christ. We take the sacrament to yoke ourselves with Christ. We go to church for this purpose. We study the scriptures because they teach and guide us to christ. Everything we have on this Earth is to guide us to Christ, you know why? Because Christ is the bridge that brings us back to our heavenly father. He's the only bridge that leads us to our heavenly father so why wouldn't God give us all these tools and resources to guide us back to the bridge? Back in the olden days its not that they rejected Jesus Christ as a person for his good deeds but they rejected the fact that we need a Christ. They felt they didn't need a bridge so they tried to destroy the only bridge we have and build their own.  Obviously didn't work. Dont forget the need of Jesus Christ. Dont forget our necesity of a Christ because if we understand who Christ is for us and why we need him we'll never skip the sacrament again. 

4-22-24

KIDS TO WORK WITH NATE

Jack went on Monday, from 11:00-3:00 maximizing the amount of time he can miss from school.  Noah went Thursday from 5:30-11:00 So as not to miss too much school and Erika and Molly went Thursday at 10:30-2:30.  Everyone seemed to have a good time!  Lots of running on the treadmill and eating pizza :).  4-22-24--4-25-24

RS ELDER'S QUORUM DINNER

This was pretty cool, once I got past the fact that we spend way too much money on food in the church.  I wish we didn't.  But other than that- super fun night!  We were sitting with the Desmonds, Pickerings, and Hills.  Pretty good conversation.  Then we got to see slides and hear all about Paul Gines' trip up Everest.  Looked so cool!  I don't know if I'd want to do that to my body, but pretty cool either way.  We had to hurry out of there so that Nate could go to work and I could go on my date with Noah :).  4-22-24

DATE WITH NOAH
We didn't have a lot of available time to go out, so we squeezed our date into this tiny window on Tuesday night.  We realized when we were buying tickets that it's cheap night!  So that was awesome. We went to see Escape from Germany- the new TC Christensen movie.  I LOVED it!!  I think Noah liked it too.  Might have been a little late at night for him, but it was fun to be together and laugh and chat during it together.  Good times!  We got home VERY late!!  Very memorable!  4-22-24

BREAKFAST BURRITOS FOR KJH ADMIN

I signed up at the last minute for making a dozen breakfast burritos Wednesday morning.  It was so spur of the moment, but I wasn't worried about it.  For some reason, I didn't get all the things I needed.  I left off cheese from my shopping list and didn't really have enough of everything else.  It was kind of a loaves and fishes moment by the time I was done making them. I was happy I had all 12, but they were pretty small.  Oh well.  Hopefully Heavenly Father helped them feel full.  Plus there was lots of other food.  But I was happy for the answer to prayers.  Even some leftover for the kids.  4-23-24

LAYTON TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

The youth were all going to the temple open house together- Nate, Luke, Noah, Erika and Jack included, so Sadie, Molly and I decided to make a girls night out of it and we went too!  Separate, but we were there about the same time.  This was a fun little outing for us.  We loved the temple!!  I can't wait to take these two girls there again someday!  It was fun to get to know the temple that we will probably start to call ours.  I was taking notes for when we usher in a week.  4-24-24

JACK CONCESSIONS

Jack got to go run the concessions stand with Liam at the Race Cats Track meet up at Davis this Saturday.  SEVEN HOURS!!  They did great!  He was exhausted after wards and didn't even want to go to Kason's birthday party.  But he made 50 bucks!  4-27-24

PROM FOR LUKE AND NOAH

Luke took Claire and Noah took the Spanish foreign exchange student.  I cannot remember her name.  They both sounded like they had a good time.  Can't believe this is Luke's last high school dance!!  So crazy!!  4-27-24

STAKE CONFERENCE

I completely spaced the adult meeting the night before.  I was really bummed about that.  I hate it when I just forget things.  I was not even too busy.  Although, it's a lot to leave the kids two evenings in a row.  But I would have liked to go.  Stake Conference was really good though.  We had a guy who is one of the secretaries to the First Presidency!  Kinda crazy!  He gave a really great talk.  I loved it!  There were only a few talks, which was fun.  We sat way in the back on the stage again and Grandma and Simon came to our meeting so that they would be here in time for Luke's ordination.  That was fun.  Good times.  4-28-24

LUKE WAS ORDAINED AN ELDER

After Stake Conference we all gathered in the Primary room at the stake center.  Grandma Ruthie, Aunt Jen, and Grandma and Simon were there.  Travis Maughan was presiding and conducted a prayer and then Luke was ordained an Elder by Nate.  It was so neat to hear all the blessings and guidance the Lord had for Luke in that moment.  He's getting so close to making all these big life decisions, I am so happy that he made this one.  He has such a strong apirit and so much potential.  I can see him doing cool things.  Can't wait.  Mom fail: I didn't take any pictures.  So sad.  4-28-24

HELP KELLY MOVE

We drove down to Ephraim Sunday evening to get some of Kelly's things- mostly clothes from the storage unit.  That was a fun little excursion.  I realized after that it was kind of pointless without more space int he back of the van.  But whatever.  It's done.  And I got to talk to Erika on the drive :).  4-28-24

LETTER FROM BRAD- A GAME OF CHESS

My beloved friends and family. I know nobody reads these I dont really care but this week was so crazy for me I loved it. I actually grew so much and was able to see how much I’ve grown recently and how much I know and am able to do now. It alsoo was pretty depressing for a minute but we look past those parts

Now that I think of it, the beginning of this week I was super depressed. Not because I missed home. I had a dream probably like 5/7 days this week of going home and in all of them usually I'm sad because I can't go home yet. But this one I wasn't sad and I was happy in the dream. So i woke up and felt terrible that I was happy to be home in my dream haha. Not really sure to be honest. Weird stuff. 

I had divisiones with this area Portillo to help them with a few of their baptism dates and putting a few more to reach their goals. Our first lesson was with our friend Pamela and apparently we only have lessons with her when I'm on divisiones so she doesn't even know the other Elder. But we've had maybe 3 lessons with her and the first one she was so against the church and didnt want anything to do with it. This last one we were able to put a fecha on her 12 yr old son, get her too commit to church; and on top of that we've been making baptism calenders for our friends so we are going to make a huge one for her, her son, and her Boyfriend. We are gonna make plans with them to get married and its actually so hype because she's changed actually sooo much since our first lesson. Then after that we woke up early the next morning and ran to this other friends house thats kinda far away. Showed up and put a fecha with these 2 kids that have been to church like 20 times but they just never put a baptism date on them. Super cool kids and they clearly want to kid baptized and follow Jesus. Then that same day we went to this girl in my area and put a baptism date on her too. Shes actually super cool and willing to listen we just need to get her to church. Thats her difficulty right now. Anyways super fun divisiones because we just realized how many people that would accept a baptism date right now. Then that night we had ann activity for our ward... 6 people showed up... including members... i dont care. I also got absolutely WRECKED by this one dog. He just came out of nowhere and went straight to the calf. Couldn't get him off but good thing these dogs all have warn out teeth because now I just have this huge bruise and not a missing calf haha. 

Later the week I had divisiones with one of the Assistants to Presidents. Superrr exciting divisiones because we just grinding super hard and were able to have a lot of super successful lessons. He also just dropped a ton of knowledge and ideas on me and so I was able to come up with a bunch of ideas to do with my district to help us become more centered on our purpose and more intentional in what we do. We also kind of got lost in the far pampas part of our area because its just dirt hills and tiny little shacks that are all the same. 

Then on Sunday we were able to have the baptism of our friends Jhon Luis and Luciana Quispe! They're all so chosen and ready to follow Jesus. It was actually one of the most succesful baptisms we had with having a ton of the ward show up. Jhon was kinda of larger than most people so the baptism suit didnt fit so i gave him my white pants and one of my old shirts but then I had to change rigght before the baptism of Luciana because I had to swap pants with Jhon. I also gave him on of my shirts which was kinda cool because he didn't have a white shirt to go to church. Im probably also gonna give him a tie to complete the set. Also holy we have had a goal as a mission to hit 100 every month which we haven't hit yet but today we heard that we just hit 140 baptisms for the month of April. Which is absolutely crazyyyy. 

Spiritual:

Not really sure if I talked about this or not but Ive been thinking a lot about covenants lately. Because really the ordenance of baptism isn't what gives us power or salvación. It's Jesus. So when we are baptized we make a covenant. When we keep this covenant we can recieve the redeeming power of Christ. When we come to church and partake of the sacrament WORTHILY, we are keeping this covenant. We are diligently strengthening this covenant or connection we have with God. And the more covenants we make, obviously theres more responsibilities but at the same time when we KEEP those covenants we are able to recieve the redeeming power of God. So just a reminder to all of you to diligently keep your covenants. Go to church and partake of the sacrament worthily. If you're not worthy to take it go talk to your bishop because hes literally called of God to make it possible for us to take the sacrament again to keep our covenants. It's really not that hard. Just shoot him a quick text to set up an appointment. Because in reality its literally a sacred promise we've made with god and he wants to bless/help us. We just have to do our part and when we die he'll come and give us the biggest hug because we did it. 

Also we just found out that the mom of one of our recent converts has Cancer too so everyone please pray for her. Her name is Melissa Telles. The kid that we prayed and fasted for, they've found something thats been working for people and they're trying it on him so everyone please keep praying for these 2 amazing people.  

The video is a quote we made for our zone for us to get a little bit more hype and excited as a Zone hahaha

4-29-24

LUNCH WITH MARIANNE

We were FINALLY able to go out for Marianne's birthday almost two weeks ago.  We went to Everbowl- so yummy!  It was a nice time.  I felt like I talked to much of course, but I really love hanging out with Marianne.  She's a good friend.  4-29-24

TRACK SENIOR NIGHT- LUKE

This was a big one!  The last chance meet and Senior presentation.  I got to make the balloon arch for them to walk through- had help of course- and then we got to do the whole walk on the field and have his name announced as he walked down the teammate tunnel and through the arch.  He got a card from everyone and some candy and a flower for me- he didn't know the flower was for me until later :).  But it was so fun to honor and celebrate Luke!  He's done so awesome in track and stuck with it so well.  I really am so proud of him and all of his accomplishments with the hurdles.  Grandma Hatch was there to cheer him on.  So cool!  Way to go Luke!  4-29-24

LUNCH WITH TAMMY

Tammy and I have talked about going out to lunch for years.  This was fun!  We went to Zupas.  Sadie was a dream the whole time we were out.  We got to talk nonstop for the hour and a half that I had before Erika's track meet and it was a much needed chat.  I love Tammy!  Such a good friend, so much wisdom.  4-30-24

ANOTHER COOL MIRACLE- ERIKA HURDLES STYLE

I got done with lunch with Tammy just in time to make my way to Syracuse.  I had timed it out perfectly and knew I was cutting it close, but when I got there, I realized I had cut it WAY TOO CLOSE!  Especially with the parking situation the way it was.  It's so dumb that they have these meets start during high school hours!  The parking lots are way too full!!  So I scrambled looking for a spot.  I had a tired Sadie with me too, so we didn't want to have to walk a mile.  Well, I couldn't even find anything within reasonable distance.  I was getting really discouraged and said a few more prayers- I had been praying the whole day that I could make it in time.  I tried to stay positive, but things were looking gloomy.  Then!  I stumbled upon the "Daycare drop off parking only" spots!!  This was a blessing!  I know it is against the rules- possibly illegal, not sure though- but I HAD to take one of these!  I did have a toddler with me, so we could pretend we were dropping off for day care :).  Not really.  But anyway.  I parked and we ran/walked/cried/sat down and screamed/I carried Sadie over to the track.  As I was walking I could hear the announcer say, "This is heat 6 of the girls 100 hurdles" and my heart sank!  She is usually in the first heat.  But something stopped me- or rather- kept me walking, I pulled out my phone to check which heat she was in on our awesome new app with everything I need to know- and saw that she was in HEAT SEVEN!!!!  I had made it!!!  Sadie and I hurried a little faster at that point.  We were going in the back way, also against the rules, but we made it!!!  We walked in, saw Erika, gave her the thumbs up and you got this, and then stood there and video-ed her run!  Saw the ENTIRE THING!!  SO HAPPY!!  Such a cool little miracle!  Maybe I've never mentioned how much I HATE missing my kids' events, so I'll say it now- I REALLY HATE MISSING THEM!!  I missed a few this season, which was a huge bummer, so this was a nice blessing.  She did awesome too!!  4-30-24

MARCH 2024

 JACK'S SHOW- LION KING

We had such a great weekend watching Jack perform and cheering and supporting him.  The first night was most of us- Nate, Kelly, Erika, Molly, Sadie, Grandma Hatch and Simon, Grandma Ruthie and Jen all came.  It was fun to see everyone's reactions to how well Jack did.  Friday show was Luke, Noah, Erika, Kelly, Grandpa and Jo and I.  And Saturday Heidi and her kids came.  We got pictures every night and had fun standing up to scream Jack's name at the end.  He really out did any expectation I had for him and did such an amazing job!!  I really loved this opportunity for Jack and I feel like his confidence level has just soared!  Good job Jack!!!  2-29-24--3-2-24

MOLLY'S BIG DAY!

Molly got to have a read-a-thon at school, then two birthday parties after school!  Pretty awesome!  She loved it all and was a little deflated the next day with very little to do.  But it's fun when Molly has things to look forward to and gets to do something out of the ordinary.  3-1-24

LUKE'S PORTAL
Luke met with the Bishop today and was able to open his mission portal!  Pretty exciting stuff!! This is getting real.  3-3-24

JACK'S TESTIMONY

I was so excited when Jack started to walk up to the pulpit this week.  I think he was still riding on the energy from the play- not as nervous to speak in front of everyone- and he bore his testimony!  I LOVED hearing it.  He talked about having the Priesthood and how important it is to be at church each week.  I just loved it!!  Sweet boy with a growing testimony- can't go wrong.  3-3-24

PHONE CALL WITH BRADLEY
It's been a lot of fun to have Brad call on Sunday nights now that he has his own phone, he and his comp call their families at the same time.  It's also funny how distracting Elder Hoff's phone call is for Brad- and the rest of us if we're being honest- we could hear a lot of it!  HA!  The downside to only one room apartment.  Which- he's in his new place!!  Wahoo!  Doesn't have a pension, but he's finally in his area!  That's exciting!  He has been so gung-ho in this area.  It's been a lot of fun to hear about.  He was fun to talk to- it's fun that he gets to talk to most of the sibs.  He sent us some funny videos of them rolling a tire down a big hill and a dog barking and then a pic of a giant staircase.  Looks like a dessert with a giant posh soccer field in the middle.  He's doing great though and we're really happy for him.  Hopefully he gets his credit card to work soon and has some money.  I also hope he tells his secretary financial guy that he needs money put on it.  3-3-24

EMAIL FROM ELDER MAYNES- You know its luxury when you have to turn on cold water to make it comfortable

So to be honest this week wasnt too eventful. We worked really hard but didnt find a lot of success for the most of it. Then came the end of the week though. We got two of our buddies on date and have plans for a couple more so hopefully they can go all the way through. They both are super elect and we've created baptism calenders with them so they know what days we are going to pass by and what we will teach them. This is something new we are trying and want to see how it goes. We have been using a new technique that me and my comp have created to work with members and find referrals. I'll explain laterrr. Basically we've been finding so many member references and have been working solely with the members we have. Kind of hard because members dont wanna work AT ALL here and i dont really know why. But anyways Sunday came a long and we had 12 friends make it to sacrament meeting and like half the people that showed up are members returning that we've reached out to. Sooo basically our ward plan has been going pretty good we just need more people showing up because still not where we want it to be. But basically we had our best numbers this week so we must have done something right haha. 

Also this week we moveddd into a houseeee. Its so exciting because its probably the nicest house in the mission and you know its luxury when you have to turn on a little bit of cold water so its not too hot but also right now we only have $7 a day to find food so we've been having to get a little crafty. Or just dont eat basically...

Some funny things that happened were our blind grandma member friend crashes into a lot of stuff because her daughter moves stuff around in their house regularly. Well she had this stand with soda and she walked away for a second and completely crashed into it and it was so hard not to die laughing. Shes actually the most angel person ever though and her grandson's baptism is next week or the next one I'm pretty sure. We love her haha

My comp got bit by a dog this week because we was provoking it so its kind of his fault. 

I lost 150 soles which was my food for th3 next two weeks so I shall be finding a new way to get food because I feel awkward

And our baptism we had this week stood us up so we will have to find a new week to have hers because she's being super weird.

Ok now to the member referral plan we have cooked up. Obviously we took ideas we've heard and then crafted it into our own. 

What we've created is 3 circles.

Each bigger around the other. Like a target.

The first- the bullseye: brothers, sisters, parents, kids... direct family

The second- less of a bullseye aunts, uncles, inlaws, cousins, nieces, nephews... extended family

Third: neighbors, friends, coworkers... 

Then what we do is we read or watch the story of Lehi where the first thing he did after having the fruit was search for his family so they can enjoy this joy he has found. 1 Nephi 8:10-12 or D&C 4

10And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. 

11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen. 

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.

Then we teach this a little and then say we have an activity to help us do the same. Starting with number one, Write down every single person in each of these circles that you know isnt a member. Give them 3 minutes.... now write a check mark next to those who you think would be interested in talking with the missionaries and learning more. 

Then once they check some people we challenge them to text/call/visit them and we will come back in a certain number of days to follow up and find the ones that said yes. So for this, we have made a referral calender where they mark when they want us to come back and we can reach out to their friends and family. This way if they have a calender of when we come 1. They won't forget and 2 they see how much time they bave before we come. We did this with one family of maybe 5 and found 20 referrals that would like to learn more and ao we are right now in the process of reaching out to them. Yes not all will be taught but now through one family they've given us a pool of 20 people to find the most elect. 

I really want to hear everyone's ideas and opinions because we want to make this the best way possible because we confidently believe it could totally change the work. And anyone that wants to know I can explain a lil better. We kind of just have brainstorm sessions every night and try to come up with ideas out of the box that will work or help with a problem we have at the moment.

Also lets be honest here my friends. If we all did this on our own we would realize how many non member friends we have that are just waiting to be taught by the missionaries. There's sooo many people that are non members and are just waiting to hear your testimony. What do we have to fear? If asking someone if they want to learn about your religion ruins your relationship... im sorry guys but like what? Don't have fear in sharing this gospel, in sharing the joy you have found through this gospel. And if you feel you dont know if you have found joy, share what you have come to know and found, and you will reallize theres so much more you have learned. 

3-3-24

JACK AND SADIE'S ROOM

Sadie and I worked pretty hard on their room today and got it mostly cleaned up.  Just left Jack's stuff.  Then surprisingly, Jack came home and willingly went through all of his things, getting rid of stuff that he doesn't need anymore- THREE WHOLE GARBAGE BAGS FULL- and finished up the job!  I was so happy!!  It was actually so cool.  So anyway.  Pretty big deal really, just had to document it.  3-4-24

FHE
I did the lesson, we "rejoiced in Christ".  It was awesome.  I loved hearing Molly and Jack's take on this.  Very cool.  I had to go get Sadie to bed before the activity and I think they had Molly's upsidedown pineapple cake for the treat, but they were all watching the Jazz game when we came down (Sadie didn't want to sleep afterall, and wanted to eat instead).  3-4-24

KELLY DOCTOR APPOINTMENT
We've made more progress with this new doctor in the month we've been seeing her than we have in the whole year with the U.  Kind of telling.  We had the appointment where they kind of lay everything out and tell Kelly all that she will be going through.  It's going to be hard.  Very complicated schedule with different meds and injections.  I'm extremely overwhelmed just hearing it all, so I hope Kelly is able to go through with all of this with a clueless, overwhelmed helper.  I'm sure she will do great.  We are just waiting for the pre-authorization from the insurance and then she can schedule it!  Pretty crazy.  3-5-24

TOY ROOM
Today, Sadie and I worked on the toy room.  We are slowly making our way through the house.  It's been nice to have some clean spaces once in a while.  I only wish it could stay clean longer.  But it did look nice today :).  Didn't get rid of enough stuff though.  3-5-24

STATE ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL- ERIKA
Grandma Hatch and I drove up to the Libby Arts Hall to watch Erika's orchestra perform.  It was a lot of fun, talking and driving there, and then being able to watch the group before Erika and then Erika's group.  They did amazing!  I only wish I'd been able to see her cute face more.  They got all 1's and some extra compliments on everything, apparently they are really good at sight reading!  So impressive!!  Pretty fun stuff.  I think Erika enjoyed missing school the most.  3-6-24

THE LIBRARY
I finally took Molly to the library.  Molly is starting animal reports and was not satisfied with the books at the school library so she has been begging to go to the Kaysville library for almost a week.  We really did have a pretty crammed week last week though, it wasn't really possible to get there sooner.  We looked at the animal books and it was a really tough decision, stopped on the sea otters for a minute and carried those books around a little, but then Molly got stuck on llamas.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find any books on llamas.  We needed to reserve one at a nearby library.  This was funny because apparently Erika's card- the one we were using- had "lost books" on it.  Things checked out so long they appeared to be lost, so we were unable to check out books on her card.  So we started to try to get me a card and of course, it was the day that I took Nate's car to Salt Lake so my wallet and all forms of ID were in there.  So annoying.  It was kind of challenging to try to make this happen really, but eventually, we went and got my wallet from Nate's car at the church, came back to the library, got the books Sadie and Kelly had picked out, with my new library card, and then drove up to Layton library to pick up the llama book for Molly!  PHEW!  Kind of a process, but I must say I wasn't feeling all the same PTSD ish feelings while we were there.  I am not sure why I don't love the library and why I've avoided it all these years, but we're back!  And I just learned that there are no fines anymore so!!!!  3-6-24

PRIESTS GAME AND DEACONS GAME
We had some fun basketball games this week!  Luke (Noah was out with a hurt ankle) scored like 20 points in the Priests game.  Almost carrying the whole team after Crew got injured (again).  It was pretty exciting but we didn't win.  We needed more guys, they were playing with no subs and the other ward had like 10 guys.  

Then in Jack's game, Jack was the only one from our ward there.  He did a great job, and they came very close to winning after a huge point gap, but didn't quite make it.  It was fun to watch him and fun to sit and talk with Krista Johnson all night.  3-7-24

DAIRY QUEEN DATE NIGHT
We knew we weren't getting our date night this week, with Charity's birthday party-ish thing tomorrow, so we decided to go out on a mini date Thursday.  We went to Dairy Queen and got Frozen Hot Chocolate!  So fun!  We of course had Corbin helping us :).  This was a nice break from life.  And I do love frozen hot chocolate.  3-7-24

FIRST TRACK MEET OF THE SEASON
We had an awesome track meet this week!  Luke and Noah both did great on their 110 hurdles.  They disagree, but I think 20.anything is a good base time.  They will improve!  We sat there and watched after the 110 hurdles, hoping to catch the 300 hurdles before we needed to go get Molly, but of course, they didn't go, we went and got Molly and when we got back, they were all done with hurdles and some stranger was telling us that our son got hurt really bad on the hurdles.  Great!  So we tracked down Noah.  We knew it was him with his already injured ankle.  I really couldn't believe he ran on it.  He was upset and it was hard to see him that way, but he was being tough too.  I think the next track meet will go better for both of them.  Luke's time on the 300 was decent!  I really am proud of these guys!  They're getting it!  3-8-24

CHARITY'S 22ND BIRTHDAY PARTY
We all met up at Applebee's down in West Valley for dinner- we had all of us plus Hunter, Devan, Grandpa, Grandma and Simon.  We had a pretty long wait, which seemed fine to me for some reason.  I wasn't my usual stressed self thank goodness.  We waited and ate and then we went over to the Grizzlies game for some cheering fun!!  This ended up being a lot of fun!  I loved watching the hockey game, but even more I loved watching everyone get into it and having fun with each other.  We even got on the jumbotron!  I think Charity liked her party.  She was happy and grateful.  Can't believe she's 22!!  So crazy.  Happy Birthday, Charity!!  3-8-24

CLEANING THE CHURCH
Gaylen Smith called me bright and early Saturday morning to remind me that we were on the schedule to clean the church.  I had seen it, put it on my calendar but never contacted the group and then completely spaced it when the day came.  But we hurried and got up, went over and did everything that wasn't already done by the Smith's and Richardsons.  Kinda fun.  3-9-24

DEEP CLEANING THE FAMILY ROOM
We actually got everyone's help with this today and did the family room!  No basketball or soccer games so we were able to get a lot done.  We're revamping the whole computer/cat area this week, so it was nice to get it all cleaned up for the changes.  Everyone was working hard, but we do have some areas we could work on as far as attitude goes.  Nobody does enough cleaning around here, so it's always a hard thing.  3-9-24

JACK'S LAST GAME
We got to watch Jack's last basketball game of the season.  His fingers are still hurting pretty bad from jamming them the other day and so he was going to take it easy, but he did anything but!  I was so proud of him out here, pushing himself and trying really hard to get the ball!  He even made a basket!!  They came so close to winning and were so close the whole game, but didn't quite pull it off, but this was by far their best game!!  I was so proud of them!  So proud of Jack!  He did awesome!  3-9-24

FAMILY MEETING AND BRAD'S PHONE CALL
We made it to the family meeting a half hour late, Ruth surprised us with having waited for us.  So we sat there for the hour lesson and then at the end, Bradley called so I walked out into the hallway, on the stairs actually and we all got to talk to him for a good 45 minutes!  It was so good to see him and so good to talk to him this week.  He really is looking good and having a good time.  He just sounds so on top of things and so into the work.  It's been really cool to see that in him.  WE ended up talking for most of the time that everyone visited and ended up leaving just minutes after we got off the call with him.  So that was weird.  And we forgot to take the cans to Becky on the way home.  3-10-24

ELDER MAYNES' EMAIL- CANDLESIDES>>>

Alright this week wasn't too eventful again because we have been trying and implementing a lot of new stuff and its been a slow process. We had transfers this week and I'm staying with my como which is sweet because my comp is buddies with the AP whos an absolute genius so we kinda just chat it up with him everyday and come up with new ideas and new ways to do missionary work, obviously still in line with preach my gospel, but still new. We're right now making an excel form of the entire directory of the ward. So that we can organize it by streets and as we are walking to lessons or a lesson cancels we can pull out the excel sheet and find the street we are on and then go contact all the members in the directory that live nearby. Because all the apps people have of members is in the wrong spot or just wrong. So then if they answer we can mark it and what time of day they answer we can mark as well. And then if they dont live there (which many of them don't) we can mark it and put it down so missionaries and the ward never have to go back there looking for that member. And then obviously if theyre inactive and have family members unbaptized we can put that down and then we know exactly where and who out of all the members have kids or family members unbaptized. Its basically the same work we have been doing but on an excel sheet and wayyy more efficient. Theres a lot more filters and information on it im just not trying to type it all out but im sure you all understand what im saying. 

On Monday night last week we had a lesson with this guy who doesnt have electricity in his house. All he has is a little candle and so we taught him while sitting around this candle l. SOOO COOL AND THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG. Its like campfire conversations. And so I'm gonna try and get a member to have a family night where we invite all our investigators and then sit around a fire and put them all on date because that would be the moment to do it anyways it was super cool

We also were waiting for this lessons for these people to show up and this drunk guy comes stumbling up the street. Takes his pants off. And then just pees all over himself and me and my comp started DYINGG. He left the hugest puddle and his clothes were just so soaked. 

We also watched this couple accidentally run into a pole and then the wife got mad and it slowly escalated really fast and she said she was leaving him soooo kinda awkward. 

So remember meet daans? Yeah we had it like everyday this week and it was probably the best week of dinners ever haha. 

Not much else happened this week. I watched a cool talk from Holland and he was talking about how if you think God doesnt love you because you suffer or go through hard times youre caught in a trap right now. God let his only begotten son suffer more than anyone thats ever lived on this earth. That doesnt mean he didn't love him. The apostles in Christ's time, they suffered more than anything as well, almost all of them were killed in cruel ways. Joseph Smith, im pretty sure he was loved by God too, he literally reastablished Christ's church. But he suffered too. Holland then goes to say that suffering is part of exhaltation. Something about suffering prepares us. And i believe that too. We wouldn't grow or learn if we didnt suffer. Thats all. Love you guys

3-11-24

NO SCHOOL

We have Monday and Tuesday off from school so we have tried to do some fun things.  Monday we went to the park with the Maughans in the morning- super windy, but Luke and Erika played basketball, the other kids all played on the playground and running around playing tag.  Noah was off making plans and arrangements for his snow cave camping.  Then we made the trek out to "West Jordan" to deliver Brad's package.  Stopping at Walmart for mesh bag and treats for everyone and garments at Beehive Clothing.  Then Carls Jr. was a must and then it was off to deliver the package.  I had no idea just how far out west/south West Jordan went!!  But we got it out there.  I risked it all and left it on a random porch.  Felt so strange!  And I was wishing I'd made plans with Annie to see her house while I was out there.  But we stopped at Becky's on the way home.  We were short on time by then and had to hurry out to come home and clean the church, but it was good to see her and give her the canned food.  We cleaned the church and then everyone spent the rest of the day playing with friends.  It was a strange evening.  No FHE, just Sadie sitting here watching tv, me running everyone around from house to house and place to place.  Kind of different.  But here we are.  Tuesday we got scones at Grannie Annie's for breakfast, then on to Seaquest with Heidi and her kids.  We had fun at Seaquest- it's always a good time.  Kind of felt a little run down this time though.  There were hardly any tickle fish.  I bought a bunch of coins and a lot of the machines weren't working.  Kind of irritating.   But I did let the kids jiggle some of the machines to shake food out to make up for it.  Luke and Noah came with us but had to leave an hour into it, for track.  That was a bummer, but we loved having them for a little bit.  It was Erika, Jack, Molly and Sadie the rest of the time.  With Porter and Alyssa.  I think we've learned that my kids have shorter attention spans and go through these kinds of things much quicker than Heidi's.  Not sure why that is, but it was very evident here as well.  We live in a faster paced world maybe.  After Seaquest we had to go get some pretzel bites and then back to the playground for some running around.  It was the perfect day for Sadie :).  Maybe even Molly.  I was grateful that the older kids played along.  Super fun to see Jack still climbing around at the mall playground with Molly.  Fun times.  Then it was time to go.  I can't even remember what we did after the mall.  Seems like we did something, but I am drawing a blank.  We did have to get Molly home for her activity days activity.  She was very excited about that.  I do remember everyone playing with friends quite a bit and running around outside a lot.  3-11-24--3-12-24

FREMONT AT DAVIS TRACK MEET
We had an awesome track meet this week!  Luke and Noah both did great!  I think this is when Luke got his 300 hurdles PR.  It was snowy, rainy, then not, and we had Sadie there, Erika came and so did Grandma and Simon.  Fun stuff.  3-13-24

SAME DAY CARE- ERIKA HAND
We finally took Erika in to check on her hand.  This was an evening appointment, after hours, they just started doing this and it seemed great considering they don't charge the emergency copay.  Well.  It ended up being pretty lame.  We saw the PA, he told us she needed an x-ray, duh.  Then told us their x-ray tech was not in and that we'd need to come back tomorrow.  Duh.  We could have saved ourselves the trouble and just scheduled the appointment for the next day.  Kind of irritating, but Erika got to skip school lunch and go get a 4 for $5 or whatever it's called now.  We got the x-ray, their "30 minutes to get the results" turned into about five hours, and I had to nag them to look at it, but who's counting.  We found out her hand is fine.  Thankfully.  3-13-24--3-14-24

PIE DAY!  And HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT!
Nate had the day off, that was awesome.  We did some errands and sat around a good amount.  Got some ingredients for some Oreo Cream Pie which Molly so graciously volunteered to make for us!  Cool girl whipped out one of the best Oreo Cream Pies I've ever had!!  So delicious!  Then we went and watched the boys in their Priests Game.  3-14-24

PRIESTS GAME
This was probably one of my favorite games of the whole basketball season!!  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  No refs made it pretty awesome to watch and really, there was not much fouling in the first three quarters.  Then Luke was on fire!!  He made at least 8 three pointers!  Noah was hitting all of his lay ups!!  It was a really fun game!  We didn't even have many subs, but we just kept going!!  We were playing the Dewsnup's ward and their team was pretty good!  Once we were like 20 points ahead, their good player pulled out some stops and scored a little.  Then we knocked out a bunch.  It was a crazy game emotionally!  Then they ended in a tie 73-73!!  So they decided to do a two minute overtime which also ended in a tie.  So then they decided to do a free throw shoot off.  The team to make the most from their five guys wins!  We made two of ours and they didn't make any, so we won!!!  SO exciting!  I LOVED that game!  It was fun to hear Luke mention it to Brad on the phone later too.  3-14-24

THURSDAY OF MIRACLES
Thursday was pretty cool.  I was feeling a little down, but I was trying so hard to be happy and just let things go.  It was hard, but then I started texting the people I was thinking about.  I thought abaout Kim Ball and texted her to let her know I was thinking about her and that I love her and she responded saying that she felt like I was inspired to text her because she had just learned that her mom has terminal cancer.  Her sweet mom- I think I only met her a few times, but I can see her smile.  She had to be awesome to make Kim.  Anyway- it felt cool to have texted her.  Then I thought about Courtney and decided to see how she was doing.  She had just found out that she has a rare placenta Previa that will really cause problems for the baby if anything ruptures.  She will most likely need to have an early c-section.  So scary and stressful.  I was happy I had texted her when I did.  And then when Sadie, Nate and I were on our walk, Sadie chose to walk up the big circle and I immediately felt like we should stop and say hi to Sis. Magill.  I am not sure why I have wanted to be friends with her so bad, maybe just from choir, but either way, she told us that we were inspired to stop because her son Daniel was in the hospital and having some really weird problems with his stint.  She was super stressed and had some yard work she was worried about and so we offered to come take care of that on Monday.  She was very grateful for the love.  It was so cool to feel like I had been able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands that day.  It actually made me really want to do better at that and so on Sunday night, when I was thinking about Marianne, I had to text her and of course, she had been in the hospital with her little girl all week.  So I was able to offer to take dinner Monday night.  I had the idea to make lasagna in the smaller casserole tin foil pans Nate has, which are smaller than the 9x13 so I was able to make THREE with my double batch one for Marianne, that should last a couple days.  One for us.  And then when I heard that Peggy Magill had had a horrendous week with Daniel being readmitted to the hospital after almost bleeding to death, we were able to take her the third one.  Felt like Heavenly Father had orchestrated that.  I just love helping.  I wish I could do it more often.  I'm learning.  3-14-24--3-19-24

DATE NIGHT
We went to see the movie King Arthur.  I really loved that!  So much fun and such a feel good movie!  I want the kids to see it.  Have to edit out the F word though.  3-15-24

TONY GLOVER MEET- DRAPER
Saturday was my big day.  First I went down to Orem to take Charity on our breakfast date.  We had planned a lunch date but it evolved.  I only got a little worried when it took 20 minutes to wake her up with my incessant phone calls and banging on her apartment door.  She did eventually come out thank goodness.  We went down to the Provo Kneaders.  It was a lot of fun.  I love spending time with Charity- she's just such a light.  Even when things aren't great, she just lights up my life.  Sweet girl.  She was patient with my millions of trips to the bathroom- I had gotten all my water all morning for sure!  After sitting and chatting for a bit we headed out, i dropped her off at headed back to Draper for the track meet!  This was a fun one.  It was only 20 minutes behind schedule so I watched Noah in the 100 M, then pretty soon after I got to watch Luke in his 110 hurdles.  He got a one second PR!!  Super impressive!  Then I went out and got some snacks for the boys and came back for Luke's 300 hurdle run.  He did great on the 300 also, just not a PR.  Pretty great though!!  I was able to sit with Noah for a while which was fun and then once the 300 was over I left for some lunch and some green day shopping.  It was so nice to get out on my own.  3-16-24

SIMPLE TREASURES BOUTIQUE- GRANDMA HATCH
After the track meet, I took a little power nap and then rounded up all my unhappy little friends and dragged them off to the boutique with my mom.  I think Erika was the only one not mad at me.  We did not do very well in the boutique either.  Jack ended up really liking it.  Erika was super helpful with Molly and Sadie, trying to distract them or find things for them to enjoy, but Molly and Sadie were a bit of a nightmare.  I kind of wish I hadn't made them come.  But I did want them to see the things there. It was hard to look around and not acknowledge that we could make most of the things we saw ourselves.  Erika and I made an inside joke out of it and laughed every time we saw something else we could totally make ourselves.  I developed the idea to have a booth next year!  I would actually love to make that happen.  We will see.  I think next year when Sadie is in school it could actually be a reality.  We shall see.  But we did enjoy some of it.  Grandma was fun and let the kids all pick out something under $5.  They all loved that.  Jack got his heart set on some legos and then I talked him into waiting and buying some on Amazon.  He ended up spending $50 on one once he found his card!  Holy moly legos are expensive.  Anyway- such a fun time if we take out the horrible stuff.  I'd go again.  I'd probably make sure the kids have food in their tummies first though.  There wern't any samples like I'd assumed.  We did get to watch a movie and relax when we got home.  3-16-24

LEPRECHAUN'S DAY

It was a little strange to have this on Sunday this year!  But we had our usual Lucky Charms, no green milk this year because nobody likes the green food coloring in their cereal.  I had bagged up some green snacks and treats for the kids and left those by their beds.  Then after church and after I had magically set up the treasure hunt (I mean, the leprechaun magically set it up with everyone everywhere), we went on a treasure hunt for a pot of gold!  Very exciting!  The leprechauns used scriptures since it was Sunday.  This was a fun way to do it.  At each clue there was a puzzle piece to create a picture of a rainbow and then on the back of the puzzle another scripture to where the gold is.  It was pretty fun, pretty easy, but of course, we did have some disgruntled hunters who make it less than enjoyable.  Molly really has some attitude adjusting to work out.  I'm not really sure how to help her.  We had fun sitting out front and playing around in the sun too!  Nice weather is here, gotta take advantage of it!  3-17-24

GENERAL WOMEN'S BROADCAST
We had the coolest meeting on Sunday night.  It was at the Stake center, it was the whole RS presidency and the Prophet spoke.  Their talks were so empowering and so motivating!  I loved it!!  I was really enjoying things and trying to stay focused the whole time.  I do this annoying thing where I analyze what someone who isn't a member would have to say about it all and I get easily distracted watching people's mouths move and stuff.  So annoying.  But it was a great meeting and I was really happy Heavenly Father helped me to focus.  After all the talks they were doing testimonies which was cool.  I got to hear about four or five and then I got the alert for Brad's call :).  I just couldn't resist.  I had to go talk to Brad :).  

PHONE CALL FROM ELDER MAYNES
This was a fun phone call, hearing about th ekid swinging the kitten around- poor thing!  And listening to Brad talk about their progress.  I am really proud of him and his hard work.  It was cute to hear what the kids wanted to talk about- Luke with the Priest's game and Noah got to update him on his ankle.  It is cool to sit and talk as a family.  We did get Nate, Charity, Kelly, Luke, Noah, Erika and Sadie all on there at some point, never all together, but it was a good turnout  :).  I just love that we get to talk to him.  Makes my heart happy.  He says he is doing really well and really loving the mission right now which is totally awesome.  He's also VERY excited for Luke to get his mission call, and has been really good at nagging him to get his paperwork done :).  Funny guy.  I hope he's not too disappointed if Luke doesn't get called to a Spanish speaking mission.  Anyway.  Good times!!  3-17-24

BRAD'S EMAIL- OLIVES

I apologize I took 0 photos this week. That's one of my goals is to take more photos because we just forget or it doesnt even cross my mind. 

Monday: we played sports with the youth and I also have been learning how to use Excell again because we've been making spreadsheets and stuff like that for our ward and for our District to show numbers and progress in a way they can understand it. Gonna be honest Excel is actually so useful I with I prayed attention in my computer class because it would be so much easier to use. But anyways it's awesome and if anyone is really good at using it let me know. We had this guy come up to us and ask us if he could come to church. Super sweet guy and we were hyped. Did he come to church? Nope he was at the bar

Tuesday: district council was chill just had everyone come up with new ideas and then I had divisiones with our zone leaders. Super cool guy and we got to just talk about ideas and stuff we want to implement in our areas. Super fun. 

Wednesday-Sunday

I just don't remember what interesting things happened so I've combined the rest of the week. We have been working a lot with find families that aren't all members so we can increase the assistance at church by reactivating and then finding people to baptize with a higher chance of getting baptized because they already have family members that are baptized. We decided to eat dinner at a members pizza store and me trying to branch out got olives on my pizza. The olives here aren't like the states. They're like 100000x worse. I was straight dry heaving and I just couldn't get that taste out of my mouth to save my life. It was so awful. We put our buddy Jose on date for next week. He chose it not us. And he already has 3 asistencias in the church so I think he's totally fine. 

We had divisiones this week again and I had a new missionary with me so it was actually so fun. We just did as much as we possibly could and as effective as possible. So we were cranking and put another one of our friends on date so we have a bunch for these next upcoming weeks. One of our friends has cancer so he's in the hospital so please pray for him his name is Harold. 

Sunday was crazy actually. We woke up and the whole city was out of power and water. We didn't have service either and so we kind of just walked to all of our friends to get them to church because we couldn't really text or call people. We made it to church after a couple visits and the everything was off. We didn't have water, or power so the sacrament was a mess and we had to run too a little store to get water, and then it was just incredibly hot in the church so the people were sufferinggg. Anyways lots of prayers were said and right before church everything turned back on and started working! And on top of that, everyone starting walking into church. Like everyoneee. Our first Sunday we had here the average was like 70 at church. Then this Sunday we had around 140. So we've doubled the attendance in the church in under 2 months which was actually so exciting and such a confidence booster because we can see our friends and those inactive members we've been teaching start coming back and start bringing their families with them. Super fun.

Spiritual thought: I want all of you to read Alma 5 and write down every question in the chapter and write down your answer to each of those questions. That's all today. I love you guys and pray about yall everyday. Also here's my prayer list if anyone would like to pray for these people too it'd be appreciated. 

Miza Pari

Mauricio Pari

Morelia y esposo

Angel Luque

Juan carlos

Kathya luque

Mathias Laura

Jose Laura

Kaela Mamani

Harold eyzaguirre

Valentino eyzaguirre

Monica fiorella

Edward Chavez

Justina chara

Dina Aquino

Eddy Fernando

Luana camila 

Gianela vargas

Jhon Luis

Yesenia Rojas

Alejandro Pari y fam 

Gonzalo Quispe

Elder Hoff

Mi familia

Jean Franco y fam 

Fernando y Pierina

Vilma y Jaime

Ariana

Juan carlos

Joao

Marisol y su hijo

Leonardo

MONDAY
I had a really awesome Monday.  Super productive!  It was so awesome!  Got the whole house cleaned, did tons of laundry, was all on top of meal planning, played plenty of games with Sadie.  We even went on the worlds longest walk that included going to the park twice (had to make a trip home for the potty) then up to the school to walk home with the kids.  Nate joined us.  It was a lot of fun.  About 2 hours of wlaking!  We had a good time though!  I was super proud of myself with the cleaning, even mopped.  I made three lasagnas, took some to Marianne Barth.  

FHE

Tonight we went over to Peggy Magill's and chopped off some of the branches from her cherry and apple trees.  Pretty fun stuff.  Minus all of Molly's and Sadie's whining.  Molly just really wanted to be doing the more inportant stuff.  Sadie was cold and apparently deathly afraid of mosquitos.  We went to Arctic Circle for the treat.  3-18-24

SADIE DENTISTx2

Last week Sadie had mentioned that her tooth hurt and when Nate and I looked at them, it looked like one had decayed a little.  So Tuesday was the big day to go to the dentist.  She was really excited, then scared, then mad, then excited, she went through all the emotions about this appointment and ultimately was counting down til the moment.  We had to do some finagling with the dropping off, I took Noah so that Luke would have the forerunner to take the younger kids and then Sadie and I dropped off Erika a teensy bit early so that we could get to the dentist by 8:00. Always a little crazy when we throw off everyone's groove.  Fortunately, we were done before the little guys had to go, so I ended up taking them afterall.  Sadie did awesome at her appointment!  Sat right in the chair, let them put the bib on.  Smiled SO big at Dr. Chris when he came in.  It was actually adorable.  She let them do the x-rays just fine.  She was really good the WHOLE time!  She wanted me to hold her hand during the last little bit as Chris was showing me all of her cavities and a possibly abscessed tooth.  It was hard to hear how bad her teeth are, but the thought of that being the cause of her getting up in the night, kind of has me excited to take care of it all.  Dr. Chris didn't want to traumatize her doing all the work in his office so they wanted to send us to Kids Town in Layton.  We scheduled an appointment for THAT DAY.  It was going to be a little tricky since we would be tending Alyssa at that point, but we weren't too worried.  After lunch and with Alyssa in tow, Sadie went in for her consult at Kids Town.  It was fun to play in the little treehouse waiting room.  Then we went and got x-rays and then checked out the fish.  Then it was kind of long, waiting for the dentist to come.  Sadie got to watch The Little Mermaid while Alyssa slid down my "slide" lap.  Everyone did really well.  Sadie did great when the dentist was looking at her teeth and then we got the run down on her cavities again.  He was pretty nice about it, said her front teeth are as good as they could get, but the back ones are so close together it's just hard to get between them.  It was somewhat of a relief hearing that it wasn't quite as bad as Dr. Chris thought, but they still wanted to just get it all done with one sedation appointment.  I'm sure my eyes popped out of my head when they gave me the quote, but I think we'll live.  So now we count down to Monday- no eating after she wakes up, til 9:20!!!  We might die.  I hope she doesn't kill me.  3-19-24

TENDING ALYSSA
It was really cute how well Sadie and Alyssa were getting along today.  They had a lot of fun together.  

LITERACY NIGHT
I was supposed to help set up chairs, but when I got there, the chairs were all set up so we ended up helping the girl in charge with everything else that needed to happen.  We laid out red butcher paper as a red carpet (I guess there was like a "lights, camera, action" theme.  We helped put popcorn in the little bags.  It was kind of fun to talk to Karen and Kayla as we did that.  Nate showed up with the kids and we wandered around a little aimlessly once it started, not really sure what we were doing.  Then we ended up sitting down in the gym to listen to someone ramble on about nothing.  It was incredibly boring if I'm being honest.  They gave out some awards for a fractured fairy tale contest they had had.  It was very interesting how uninterested everyone was. The room  never got quiet.  Kind of rude actually, I mean, if you don't want to listen then leave.  That went on for too long and then we were able to go down and check out Molly's animal report.  I hadn't had a chance to see her llama yet, so that was fun :).  She had wanted to keep it a surprise.  We went over to Jack's class hallway to scan the code on his assignment to summarize a book.  Pretty cool.  He did good.  Wasn't too excited about it all.  We talked to the Caldwells for a minute while we were down there.  We poked our heads into the library where they were talking remotely with an author/illustrator, in California, kind of strange. Then we decided to leave.  It was a very uneventful Literacy night.  I really think there was too much focus on the theme and decor and not enough on the meat of the night.  Plus, they didn't do what they usually do and that always leaves kids wanting if you ask me.  It was fine though- we got to hang out together and that was good.  I will never forget how blown up Erika's hand was when she got there from Track practice, purple and swollen like I've never seen!  She got a little emotional talking about it- just hand slapping game- which was so weird- I thought it was her hurt hand and she'd fallen and made it worse or something, but it was her right hand!  So anyway.  Good times.  3-19-24

MORNING SIDE WITH SIS. FREEMAN AND THE GENERAL YOUNG MENS 

Luke and Noah got to go to this awesome fireside.  Just having them come talk in person sound fun, I don't actually know what they talked about and how it was.  I heard they talked about different personal experiences.  It was good though.  3-20-24

DEACONS TEMPLE DAY
Nate picked up Jack and Liam from school to get home quick and get ready to go to the temple for baptisms.  This was a cool experience for them.  Liam's first time and Jack was really helpful with him I guess.  Sounded like a cool time for the deacons and three of their leaders!  3-20-24

THURSDAY 

Thursday felt a little crazy- I spent the morning making Pico for "70".  Then lunch with my dad- which was really fun cuz it's actually been two months this time!  Sadie was a little more restless than usual, but we made do.  It's always good to hang out with my dad.  We had a few minutes to sit and veg when we got home and then it was off to Molly's program.  And the very quickly after that we headed down to the track meet at Farmington.  This meet was ahead of schedule so we missed Luke as we were talking with the girls about where we needed to go in.  So sad!!  We missed him by seconds.  We rushed back home to hang out with the kids for a minute and celebrating at the chocolate shop, creamery and the popcorn place!!  We were waiting for the creamery to open.  Then it was off to the basketball banquet.  So kinda crazy!  It was fun though, minus missing the races.  We had had to miss Noah's for the banquet which was a bummer too.  I am glad I've been to all the other track meets so I don't have to feel TOO bad when I miss one.  I love going.  It's so fun to watch my kids compete.  3-21-24

MOLLY"S 2ND GRADE PROGRAM

We had such a great time at Molly's program!  All new songs we've never heard before- such good songs about how amazing they are!  I loved it!!  It was fun to watch Molly even though it was through the cracks and I"m still bugged I didn't get to sit by Nate for it all, but Erika was a close second, and we had Grandma and Simon on the other side- so fun that they came out to support Molly.  She looked adorable up there, knew ALL the words, took it very seriously.  So cute!!  To celebrate, Molly chose to go to the creamery, but since it didn't open for another 12 minutes, we went to the chocolate shop and the popcorn shop to kill time and dad bought stuff at all three places.  It was pretty fun.  We had Liam and Jack with us by then.  Everyone loved it.  Good job Molly!  3-21-24

KJH BASKETBALL BANQUET- ERIKA
This was another great season of basketball and another fun banquet.  Erika sat with her team (after they kicked us off their table) and Nate and I sat with Emily.  I love that Coach Christine does all the photography and the video- so much fun to watch and see all the fun they've had.  I'm always suprorsed there's no awards, but it's also fine.  Erika had an awesome season and thanks to Emily had her awesome three point video in the team video!!  Very cool!  I was glad Erika was feeling well enough to go- she's had a rough week with this cold, and had to come home to sleep that day.  Kinda crazy that she still went to Track a bunch of the days.  I think she only missed one day of track.  She's tough.  3-21-24

TEETH CLEANING
I got up early to go get my teeth cleaned- kind of a nice little break from the morning routine.  I love having clean teeth and love that I don't have any cavities!  3-22-24

KINDERGARTEN BLAST OFF
I'm a little embarrassed posting about this since we only caught the last 15 minutes of it.  Yep, even after all the counting down we did, I still forgot about this thing.  It was probably fine to miss.  I keep thinking that maybe it was for the best for Sadie, if she had seen all the chaos from all the rowdy kids, she may have gotten the wrong impression of Kindergarten.  She did get there in time for testing with Ms. Smith even.  And we grabbed her a crown to color at home.  She missed exercising and coloring with the kids, I feel bad about that.  But we'll probably live.  I filled out the survey, and we went home.  3-22-24

SMOKED

Nate did ribs this week and it was kind of a terrible turn out, which was a bummer, but everyone that got them, loved them!  3-22-24

DATE NIGHT
We went to Zupas for a light dinner and then to see the new Ghostbusters movie.  Pretty fun!  I liked it.  Reminded me of Courtney.  I love our date nights.  I think they are keeping me alive right now.  3-22-24

DATE WITH KELLY

Kelly was in Orem for Devan's stuff, so she met up with me at the Everbowl in Pleasant Grove for breakfast!  This was such a nice time for us to just talk.  I don't think we get much of that without the little sisters pulling on Kelly's attention :).  I was glad she thought of something she could eat for breakfast.  I'm really proud of Kelly and all that she is doing with her life right now.  She's really impressing me.  And she's such a nice girlfriend to be driving Devan to Orem all the time :).  3-23-24

PRIMARY EASTER EGG HUNT
Nate took the girls to their primary egg hunt while I was out with Kelly.  They sounded like they had fun.  A little disappointed with how few eggs they were allowed to find, when there were so many more on the ground and the wind, etc.  But still a good time.  3-23-24

KENZIE'S PARTY AT BOONDOCKS- MOLLY

Molly got to go to a fun party at Boondocks!  I haven't heard a ton about it, but she did have a good time.  She gets a free game of bowling next time she goes :).  3-23-24

HAIR APPOINTMENT
I should have known with how the phone call went with the new owner that I may not be completely satisfied with my hair this time, but of course I went anyway.  It's too short and not layered, so I'll probably fix that on my own.  The color is great and my brows are fine, but I may not be going back there again.  We'll see.  3-23-24

CHARITY!!
Charity called around 7:00 asking if we'd be home around 9:00 and then came to visit and talk and watch a movie with us!!  I was so grateful she'd called first because I spent the entire two hours cleaning up our house!!  It looked beautiful when she got here.  I was happy about that.  It was so fun to see her and Hunter.  A little chaotic with everyone so excited to see them, but so fun!  They were fun to talk to, feed, and then watch Spider-Man no way home with.  Good stuff!!  3-23-24

LETTER FROM ELDER MAYNES

We literally traveled so much this week and there was actually so much that happened which made it go so fast. 

Tuesday was normal, not much happened and I don't remember. 

Wednesday we had divisiones for the first half of the day and it was crazy because the first half of the day is always so hard here to contact and to have lessons so we just did everything possible to get stuff in and to actually do some work in the area. We managed to put another fecha for this family that all aren't baptized. We then had interviews with president and it actually went so well. 

Thursday- the APs came and slept over at our house and then the morning we basically were just gonna go divisiones in all the areas in our zone and just put fechas so every area can at last have one before the month of April. Me and Elder Hoff were able to put 2 more and theyre actually so elect it was amazing. The other areas were just able to find a lot of part member families and new people who are definitely going to progress. It was actually super fun. And we were able to meet with this family we've been teaching FOREVERRR and put their kid on date!! It was a major miracle because the dad who is catholic and doesn't really let his kids talk in the lessons... FELL ASLEEP so we extended the fecha to his son and then later his dad woke up and we told him what happened and is letting his son make that decision. Their sister is a power member so she should be a great help for him. 

Friday Saturday we had zone conference til Saturday and it was the best one yet. President and the APs talked a lot about covenants and how important they are. It was a really powerful conference and I really enjoyed it. We then had to zoom because because we had a baptism that night and we definitely missed it but that's okay because the ward was already planning on us being late from the conference so they took over and everything went super smooth. Our friend Kaela got baptized that night and then we had to scramble and get the interviews done for our other 2 friends who were going to get baptized Sunday.

Sunday- holy stressful. We showed up to church and one of our friends Jose who was gonna get baptized that day told us he didn't want to and made up his mind. We kept trying to talk him out of it and teach him why he's feeling so much opposition. It was really cool to see how well I was able to connect with him and help him understand the "why" and he changed his mind right after church. Him and his cousin got baptized and it was actually a really cool experience. After the baptism they wouldn't leave the font and they wanted to just swim around because the water was warm so we had to fight them and get them out of the water after like 5 minutes. Super excited for them though. Jose should be going to the temple this weekend. Also our recent convert who we baptized like 3 weeks ago is gonna go to and wants too serve a mission because he's just freaking amazing and so we are helping him a lot with that. Super exciting weeks because me and my comp basically just take turns going to the other areas and coaching them up a little bit and then watching them all do so good in their areas because they all have so much potential just lack the knowledge. I feel that's how most areas are. 

Spiritual thought: study the "why" for our baptism and the why we take the sacrament. If we understand the true doctrine we will really change. If you guys can understand that we HAVE to take the sacrament every week in order to renew our covenants with God we will make it to sacrament every week and do whatever it takes. It's all just a fact of understanding the "why".

Anyways love you all 

3-24-24

SADIE SEDATION

Monday was the big day.  I prepped Sadie the night before about the no eating thing.  She was pretty tough and only took a tiny sip of water at like 7:30.  We got to the dentist with plenty of time, she was in some comfy clothes and in really good spirits.  I had not told her much about what was going to happen.  She loves the Kids Town waiting area and was in heaven as we waited.  Then they came and got us, took us back to "pick out a prize" from a box.  Can I just insert that these were like the throw away prizes or something.  They were stupid.  They weren't even fun enough to REALLY distract Sadie.  In fact, she couldn't pick one.  Nothing was jumping out at her and then OUCH!! the anesthesiologist stabbed her with a needle in the arm!!  SHEESH!!  Sadie was not happy about that.  She got really upset and then let me calm her down pretty quickly as she slowly melted into my arms.  This is not my favorite thing to experience if I'm being honest.  She felt like a little limp noodle as I handed her over to the guy I just met.  Then it was a long wait for me in the waiting room and who knows what for Sadie.  When it was time for her to wake up, or at least start thinking about waking up ("here she is, you can sit here by her.  no! don't touch her!  You can't wake her up yet, just look at her here until she does"- so strange).  Eventually she did start to stir a little and I was allowed to pick her up and hold her as she came to.  Her oxygen was really low and they kept looking at it, but not doing anything.  Just talking about putting her on oxygen.  Finally they did.  Her O2 went up immediately and she was back on track.  She looked so peaceful laying there.   She let out a big roar at one point, not super happy with things, then let us get her a popsicle (just to hold apparently).  She was trying to talk and eventually was able to ask about the shot in her arm.  That was all she remembered.  She laid in my arms while she slowly came out of the anesthesia.  She wasn't super thrilled with all that had happened, but I don't think she really knew.  We basically didn't do anything there, because as soon as she was awake, we left.  She did cry about not picking a prize and they let us have a token to get something out of the machine in the waiting room, but of course it ended up not being what she had wanted AND she forgot to get Molly something.  All the way home, "I forgot to get a prize for my sister!"  She felt really bad about that.  And she was disappointed with the prize she got.  Funny girl had no idea she had just had a couple root canals and had way bigger things to be disappointed about.  She did pretty good all evening, only complained about her arm hurting from the shot, but she wasn't eating anything, so I wondered if her teeth were okay.  Poor little lady.  She does love her "princess crowns" though so that's fun.  3-25-24

NO SCHOOL FOR ERIKA, NOAH AND LUKE

There were ACT testing and things going on Tuesday, so the big kids got to stay home!  It was nice having them home.  I was wishing we were doing something together the whole time, but I think they had a good time.  3-26-24

MAYNES FAMILY EASTER PARTY

We made our way down to the Call Tower for the Maynes Family Easter Party.  We stopped at Crown Burger before, got to hang out with Charity and Hunter and Kelly and Devan while we ate.  It was fun that everyone was able to come.  We got over to the party, there was a little egg hunt for the few little kids and then a big people egg hunt as well.  This was a lot of fun, we sat in a big circle while Chris read of what each of the numbered eggs represented.  It was pretty fun!  Devan won big- three prizes! and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.  I got to chat with Paulette, Nancy, Meg, Becky, Ruth, Austin and Caden and their girlfriends.  Jared decided he's starting a "raffle" (I have no idea why he's calling it a raffle, he means a contest or something, a bet maybe... anyway) about who's going to be the next kid to get married.  Charity, Kelly, Sierra, Austin, Caden or Bryn? I can't think of the sixth one.  I don't think it was Brynn.  But anyway.  Kinda funny.  They thought it was funny.  OH Miles!  I don't think he's even dating anyone though.  3-29-24

EASTER BUNNY SATURDAY
We decided to try something different this year and did all our Easter Bunny stuff on Saturday instead of Sunday.  I thought it went really well and I liked not having to cram everything into one day.  The kids woke up to the hunt for their baskets.  I was surprised at how quickly some of them were discovered.  And cute Jack found everyone's before his own.  After baskets, we went on our egg hunt!  So much candy, so many eggs!  There were a few with money in them.  That was fun.  After that we went over to Grandma's and Simon's for some Easter lunchinner.  The kids got to find baskets there as well, with candy.  Apparently Steve hid these ones, along with eggs in the yard.  So that was fun.  We loved hanging out with Steve.  Charity was with us all morning and afternoon which was super fun as well.  She and Hunter had spent the night here after the family party the day before.  That evening we colored our eggs!  This was a lot of fun.  I just missed having Luke here for his last time.  I guess last year was his last time :).  But we had fun.  Everyone's eggs turned out really cute.  3-30-24

EASTER SUNDAY
We had Sacrament only.  It was a nice day.  We lazied around.  Talked about Christ's resurrection and ate Creamed Eggs on toast for breakfast.  I enjoyed this Easter so much.  Felt relaxed.  We got to talk to Brad and that was another highlight.  His Easter sounded less Eastery than ours, but we loved being able to talk to him.  3-31-24