MAY 2024

USHERING AT THE LAYTON TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

I absolutely LOVED this!!  I guess I have kind of dreamed of being part of a temple open house ever since hearing about others' experiences with it during the Bountiful temple open house.  So this was a long awaited opportunity.  I'm so glad we had the chance.  Nate, Jack and I were signed up for May 1st at noon-3:00.  Jack had to be checked out, but this was so worth it!  We made it there just in time (we were the late ones, walking into the training meeting in front of everyone, so embarrassing), got our booties on and opened our ears for instructions.  I loved the training and the things we were taught.  I loved the story about the pearl in the fancy box.  I don't want to ever let my mind or heart be distracted by the beauty of the temples enough that I forget why we have them.  It really got my mind thinking about all the things in the temple that point to Christ while we were ushering.  Really helped me to keep my focus.  I got the job of standing outside of the Celestial room and first directing people to the hallway of endowment rooms and then opening the door to the Celestial room to allow people to enter.  It was an amazing spot!!  I loved it!  There were so many cool analogies that came to my mind as I was standing there.  There was this really interesting vase right outside of the Celestial room that I couldn't help but notice and think about.  It was (not to be rude. but) kind a little bit ugly.  It was metal, melted and shaped into two pieces that were welded together.  Then painted gold.  (at least this was mine and the guy who was over us, just kind of roaming making sure things were going okay's observation) It had a crinkled paper look to the outside.  I had to sit there and think about how that vase could point us to Christ and what I came up with was- the vase is us.  We are crinkled, we sometimes look broken, we have flaws and are not perfect.  But we can go to the temple.  We are allowed to be close to Him and close to our Savior regardless of our flaws and imperfections.  I loved my analogy :).  There was a really cool painting of the water of Bethesda and the man healed there.  So cool to stare at for three hours :).  The beautiful staircase and stained glass were so pretty!!  We learned that the Celestial room is on the South side of the building, so if you were to the south and had a telescope or something wonderful that you could see the temple with, you could look in the top windows and look into the Celestial room!  Kinda fun.  This was a very cool, cherished experience that I had.  I wish I could have written down all my thoughts while I was there.  I felt so close to my Heavenly Father and felt so much peace about my position in His Kingdom.  I felt so much love for my Savior and so much direction and motivation.  It was really neat to be able to spend that time there.  I loved seeing people's faces as they experienced entering the Celestial room.  So beautiful.  Even some unconventional responses like "Holy sh__" as they looked in there.  It was kind of fun :).  It was interesting to have to tell people they couldn't just come to the celestial room, they had to walk down the hall and go through the instruction rooms first- analogy there.  I loved that I was right next to Jack for the last half.  Well, kind of next to him.  He got to be IN the Celestial room, letting people out, so I saw him every time he opened the door to let someone out.  That was special.  I hope we always remember that.  I loved this opportunity.  5-1-24

TAYLORSVILLE TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE
Kelly, Noah, Nate and I all went to the Taylorsville Temple Open house.  It was so beautiful!!  After a minute or two we started noticing a lot of cool little ties to Grandpa Russ!  So many things he would have loved about this temple and so we decided he must have been part of the planning committee from the other side of the veil.  He had to have had some kind of say in it, being from Taylorsville and all :).  So cool though!  I LOVE this temple!  5-2-24

BYU INVITE! LUKE

I had the privilege of driving down to BYU to watch Luke run his 110 hurdles.  He did so good!!  I loved being there.  I got to see Jay Denison and his wife.  I wanted to buy Luke and I some hoodies, but he didn't want one.  It was so neat though!  Glad he got that experience!  He did great!!  5-3-24

LETTER FROM BRAD- I'VE MADE IT A WHOLE PREGNANCY

This week I found a new love for the work haha. Its such a fun work on top of being the Lords work. It's also one of the most frustrating things ever too but I enjoy this work so much. I actually lost count lowk of how much time I had but I realized I just hit 9 months. Which is weird because when I first told all my friends i got my mission call they were all saying no wayy I hit my year mark at that time. And i got my call in May last year so its like a complete circle. 

Last Pday we had a Gringos vs Latinos soccer game because we had to. And to your surprise; Gringos:5, Latinos:0. We remind them anytime an argument or disagreement comes up haha. Super fun though I love my zone they're all super awesome Elders. 

Tuesday  we had district council. We set our goals for the month and my district is crazy cuz we set a goal of 22 baptisms for June haha. We have 3 companionships so we have a lot of work but we have an actual amazing district plan going so Its actually a reachable goal. Im super excited actually because this next week we are basically just going to find for all 3 areas at the same time with the circles so if you guys want to know how to use the circles lmk. I'm actually gonna make a video on how to use the circles effectively and ao other people can start using them. I'm actually so excited for June because we're preparing ourselves so much for it so that when we enter June we just have to focus on keeeping our baptism dates and then finding for July. So right now we just are grinding finding for June and keeping our May dates. 

Wednesday we had divisiones. I went to Portillo an area in my district. We made plans for their friends Pamela and Luis to get married so they can get baptized before I leave because thats what they said their goal was. So we are making plans for them. We put a baptism date on our friend Adrian and then we talked to the Dad and he chewed us out so I think we might lose that baptism date... we then went to MeetDaan obviously because its in his area so I had to go. 

Thursday we kind of failed. We had a ton of potential but then they all fell through and I eas so ready to just go home and call it quits haha. I was so done. The thing with me is im 100% good 90% of the time. But then there's 10% where I need the push of my comp. Which worked really well with Elder Hoff but now I'm training so when I just have someone following me around, when I get to that 10% of the time it gets very difficult haha. But we survived I just dont remember what happened that was actually interesting.

Friday: completely different day. We had an AMAZING lesson with one of our friends with a Member from another ward because our ward is struggling right now. But it wa soooo good. Made me realize how I need more lessons with members, and not just a youth following us around but a person that will actually bond with them and connect. We then had a lesson with this girl struggling with basically every temptation there is in the world right now. Shes so awesome so we are helping her right now. Then later that night we had a Family Home Evening with our ex stake presidente, and like 3 of our converts, and then a friend we are gonna extend a baptism date on. The stake presidente and his wife are soooooo amazing i love them so much. They basically just made all these people into power members and put a fecha on the one kid we were going to ask if he wanted to. I think I'm just going to bring all our friends we're teaching to my ex stake presidents house so him and his wife can put them all on date. We also put our other Friend Jenni on date, FINALLY. Shes so elect but just needed a little push so now we just have to keep her. 

Sunday night was soooo crazy. We finally got in contact with this one member. She has a 13 yr old daughter un baptized that wants to get baptized. And then her 3 friends were there during the lessons and want to get baptized toooo. So Friday we have a family home evening with all of them and their parents. Our recent convert brough his friend to church and so he wants to get baptized too so we have to get his parents permission and then we can start teaching him and helping him make commitments. We also had a abaptism for our friend Adrian.

Spiritual storry: 

Friday someonne told us a member fell and hurt themself so they needed a blessing. We showed up. Turned out to be this superrr old guy named Juan Carlos. He was in so much pain and suffering and could barely talk to us to tell us about his pain. Poor guy was just in so much pain. We gave him a blessing and promised him that his pain and suffering will only be for a short moment. We ended the blessing and said goodbye to him, shook his hand, and then he layed down and closed his eyes. So then we left. The member that drove us there locked his keyes in the car so we just walked to our next lesson while he went to go get his second set of keys. The next morning we woke up to a text saying that Juan Carlos passed away. I wasn't sad at all. Not a bit of sadness was in me. Not because I'm emotionless but because I have so much faith in the Plan of Salvation. Sometimes we don't realize how much faith we have in something until something like that happens. It also showed me the healing power of the Priesthood. It healed him. He's right now getting to know his past family members. Talking with his parents after such a long time without them. I still don't know 100% how I feel about the situation because there's so much to think and feel but I thought it was prty cool. 

Also for missionaries: I'm going to make a tutorial video on a bunch of things like the circles, calenders, and other methods that we've come up with or that are working super well; and then put those videos on a shared google drive so lmk if you want the link.

LUKE DENTIST
The long awaited dentist visit!  He went!  Got the work done!  And now he is one step closer to finishing his paperwork!!  Go Luke!!  5-6-24

KJH SOUTH END
Erika did awesome!!  We had a good time watching her and cheering for her.  I got to run the ticket booth also.  5-6-24

STEVE FOR DINNER
We got to have Steve over for dinner Tuesday.  He's always fun to have around.  I like this one on one time.  We need to do it more often.  5-7-24

FARM FIELD TRIP WITH MOLLY
This ended up being a lot of fun.  It was in the big convention building by the ponds, kind of different, but we learned all about farms!  She seemed to have a good time, minus when she wasn't :).  But she did like holding my hand while we walked.  Love that girl!!  5-9-24

TICKET BOOTH
I got to run the ticket booth at the Region 1 Championship.  Luke and Noah did great!! 5-9-24

GRANDPA HATCH'S BIRTHDAY
We just had a quiet little party for Grandpa at his house after changing the plans from Mueller park.  But it was still nice.  I made him a carrot cake.  I forgot his gift though.  huge bummer.  5-9-24

CANDY LEIS
I got to go help make candy leis for the 6th grade graduation.  Kind of funny to work with Heather Kelling again.  She's nuts.  But we all had a good time talking and it didn't take long at all.  We totally could have done all of them :).  5-10-24

TRACK MEETS
We had KJH Track meet and Sophomore Region on the same day and so Nate and I had to juggle a little.  They both did so great!  It was fun to see and cheer them on one last time.  5-10-24

JACK CONCESSIONS
Jack has had the opportunity, a couple of times this month, to sell concessions with Liam at the Race Cat Track meets!  It's been really cool for him and some extra money!  He's spent quite a bit of money and time on some really cool lego cars.  He got a hummer and a lambo!!  Pretty fun!!  5-11-24

MOTHER'S DAY!!
I LOVED my Mother's day this year!!  It did not disappoint!  The kids gave me breakfast in bed, lots of awesome gifts, and hugs and sweet things to say about me.  Then we all got to hang out and play games and stuff all day!!  Plus!  Nate stayed home so he cooked all day and spoiled me that way.  It was so nice!!!  I love being a mom and I love being celebrated :).  I know I am not perfect.  I never will be.  I know that I haven't done everything right.  But I know that through Christ's Atonement it can all be made whole and complete.  I am grateful for that knowledge.  I hope my kids know how much I love them and cherish this life with them.  5-12-24

LUKE'S SENIOR PICTURES
We finally made it out to get pictures taken!  He chose to do them at the Farmington Trail.  Kelly came and helped out, which was nice- and we had a fun time just picking any random pose and making Luke do them :).  He did awesome!  The pictures turned out great!  Time to get those announcements out!  5-13-24

NO LETTER FROM BRAD- SAD FACE

5-13-24

ERIKA'S ORCHESTRA CONCERT
Erika sounded amazing in her concert!  I loved the songs this time and it was fun to have everyone there to cheer her on!!  Good job Erika!!  5-14-24

HAPPY 23RD ANNIVERSARY TO US!!
We went to dinner and a movie to celebrate :).  It was my year and I know what Nate likes :).  It was fun to think about all the time we've had together and how fast it's gone by.  Can't wait to see what the next 23 are like!  5-15-24

JACK'S 6TH GRADE DANCE
I got to help with the planning a little, for this, and was excited to help set up and be there.  I struggled a little with the moms on the group text, I ended up bringing 15 2 liter bottles of soda and trying to help with whatever I could.  Some of the moms this year are really strange.  I need to adjust obviously.  New group.  But I LOVED being there at the dance and seeing Jack enjoy himself.  It was neon themed, so that was fun- there was a black light and glow sticks.  So fun!  Kelly came and had some fun with him and then Erika also showed up!  So much fun!!  5-16-24

PICNIC ON THE PLAYGROUND
We had a great time eating Wendy's and talking with the wardies there at the school playground.  Always a good time!  I got to hold the Clark's new baby- Everly- SO sweet!!  5-17-24

LUKE'S COTILLION
I think Luke had a good time.  I didn't get to hear much about it but I loved the pictures!!  So fun!  5-17-24

MOLLY'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST PERFORMANCE
We all got to go watch Molly perform her dance in the Beauty and the Beast Production.  She was snow :).  She did amazing!  I LOVED seeing her beautiful smile the entire time she was on stage and she did so well!  She had been so worried about messing up but she didn't!  And she looked amazing!  I loved it!  She had the loudest cheering squad (Grandma Simon, Charity, Kelly and the rest of us) and we all loved watching her improv dance at the end during the announcements, she looked so happy up there!!  I loved it!!  5-18-24

LAST SOCCER GAMES OF THE SEASON
These were not our favorite games.  It was really sad actually to have Erika's team lose.  I guess you can't win 'em all- not forever anyway- just three years of undefeated games, only to end the season on a loss.  Such a bummer!  I don't know what was happening, although, Erika was feeling pretty sick.  But we had a good season!  Lots of fun. Grandma and Simon came to a bunch of the games which was fun.  It was a good time!  5-18-24

CLEANING NORIEGA'S
I got to go help clean a little in the Noriega's house- just wiping down walls and railings.  It was actually so fun because I got to hang out with Barbara :).  I love her.  Plus, I did almost nothing for Shar as her minister, it was time I did something!  5-18-24

LUKE'S SEMINARY GRADUATION
This kind of snuck up on us, but it ended up being really great!  I loved seeing Luke walk across the stage to get his Seminary diploma.  Kinda cool.  We got to get a few pictures with all the friends after, which is always fun.  And then snagged the last of Brad's phone call once we were done :).  Congratulations, Luke!!  5-19-24

MOLLY'S PONDS FIELD TRIP- POPSICLES
I was asked to bring the popsicles to the field trip again this year.  It was a little weird how it worked out- they got there sooner than planned, so I was a little later, but on time.  But it worked out and we got to see Molly.  5-20-24

LETTER FROM BRADLEY- SO THIS DIDN'T SEND LAST WEEK FOR SOME REASON

Guys I love this work. Its God's work and I'm literally just on the front lines witnissing it all from the first point of view perspective. I hope I never go home haha. I love you Mom but this work is too awesoome. This weeknwas super cool and then kinda got punched in the face with a brick wall halfway through and then kept getting hit while I waa down butttt we're doing great

Monday we played paintball as a zone. Didnt know it was something we could do here but it was wonderful and President told us it was okay My coordination is broken now though so I just kept getting shot. 

Tuesday: we had divisiones and I went with Elder Capson he's actually awesome. We did an activity with our 9 year old recent convert and she referred her 40 year old Uncle. We showed up and she was just sharing her testimony and teaching her uncle for us. Eventually she started talking about baptism and so we put him on date for baptism. He's super awesome and has just been waiting for the missionaries to show up on his door step. 

Wednesday: was super annoying because we only had like 4 hours of work to do so we rann to this one house we've been trying to enter for like 2 months. FINALLY WE ENTEREDDD. And they're actually amazing. They're not ignoring us just were being a little obliviant but we finally entered the house and its an inactive member with all her kids unbaptized. Such a cool family and super rich. Anyways we put her daughter on date for baptism and we found out their cousin is another girl whos talking to the missionaries in my district. So we have a family night with them to put the rest of the both families on date. They said they'll bring meetdaan so seems like heaven. 

Thursday: we got to zone conference Wednesday night and then Thursday morning we came to the church and had our zone conference. Basically they were talking about consecrating ourselves better and also doing these for the right reason. Our mission is filled with people who want to run businesses so they're all kind of starting or trying to run the mission as a business so President pushed a ton on running it the way of the Lord. Also with knowing our purpose out here. And fulfilling our purpose. Its actually so fun because I'm now getting in a position with I'm actually super close with a lot of the mission now. At least the half I'm in. I also learnes I need to practice eye contact so I'm gonna be so good at that when I get home. 

Friday: we actually had so much success today. We found an entire family through an activity we had and they're so cool. We also collected a lot of references that said they would come to church. We had a super powerful lesson with this one lady and then right after she says, "I have a question, what perfume do you use?" To my comp, and so there goes the spirit as well as there goes my comps ego he had bahahah. 

Saturday-Sunday: BRICK WALL BOOM. Guys I dont even wanna talk about it. Everyone bailed on us this week for church and we even like knocked every door of our friends the morning of to grt them to come and AHHHH. It was mother's day so it makes sense. They all had to do something with their Mom's and go out for lunch or something like that. But holy I was about to just call it quits and go home to cry or something. We worked our butts off this week and then nobody shows up is just a punch to the face. Its okay we are doing great though. 

This we adopted a street contact callled "The FLENDA." Its a picture of the covenant path that we have for south of south america. Basically what we do is invite to church first contact right away and then if they say yes we teach them with the covenant path picture which I will share, and then talk about how baptism is the door to enter this path. Basically emphasize baptism and the doctrine with that and then tell them thats what we will talk about in church and if we could meet once again before church. So then we can help them have a spiritual experience before church. Its super effective acrually, I didn't use it a ton but we had our zone do it and works really well. Obviously theres other more effective ways which is why we need to plan our lessons with members and plan to find references but when we walk to our lesssons we just invite everyone to church.

We also had MEETDAAN with our recent convert which was pretty amazing. Gonna miss my good old meet daan hamburgers.  

Week2

Not much happened because this is already super long but we had a baptism with our friend Joey and I love him so much because he reminds me of my little brother Jack. Lowk they're the same person. We also put a baptism date on our friend Hunder. He used to walk to church by himself when he lived in the jungle. He lives in the desert of Moquegua now so we are trying to teach him and his little brother. Also we found this complete family thats interested in learning and they all came to church and are already super close with the ward members which is soooo excitingggg. We also put a date on our recent converts sister which is pretty exciting actually. 

ALSO GOOD NEWS BUT HAROLD THE KID WHO HAS CANCER IS MAKING PROGRESS. The day we ended our fast they found a treatment that's worked in Lima and so they are trying it on him and it's working!!

Also I was thinking a lot as I was passing the sacrament about the repentance process. And I think it's such a necessary process to have to reject the sacrament instead of just not showing up to church(when its needed to not take the sacrament). We have a lot of people that are in our ward in this process and I always wondered why they don't just show up late or something instead of having to reject it every time. But I think it's such a necessary part of repenting and also makes us appreciate it so much more. Not sure why I felt like this being my spiritual thought but yeah  5-20-24

KELLY BLOODWORK/VISIT CHARITY
Charity had forgotten her social security card and needed it for her new job, so we (Luke, Sadie, Kelly and I) made a plan to go down there and have lunch with her.  We were going to hit Kelly's appointment for bloodwork on the way back.  Things got a little messed up with Noah needing help getting into his car, but we made it down there and had lunch with Charity at Chick-fil-a and then finagled a few things so that Kelly could do bloodwork in the Pleasant Grove office instead of the Salt Lake one we would be late for.  Also we were trying to get Luke back to his graduation meeting as well.  It was fun to have Charity all to ourselves! 5-20-24

FIELD DAY!!
I had signed up to bring some stuff at the beginning and help set up, then also to run the dunk thing, which got cancelled because of the rain.  So instead we (Kelly signed up with me and we ran it together) ran the parachute!  We did awesome.  It was actually so much fun.  I was surprised.  We played Sharks and Lifeguards mostly.  I think it was a bummer to not have the water, but it worked.  Then I helped clean up which actually only took a few minutes!  Kinda nice!  Lindsey and Amy Norton did a great job.  I liked it.  Thanks to my mom for watching Sadie!!  Huge help!  5-21-24

TRACK TEAM AWARDS NIGHT
I didn't get to go to the banquet since it was one parent only, but I did set up the balloon arch for pictures :).  This was a fun one- kind of different arch- it was actually a ring- but it went quick.  I'm getting good at these.  Luke lettered!  5-21-24

AWARDS ASSEMBLY- MOLLY!
Molly was awarded the Principle's award this year!  Luckily, Natalie Clemens was in the room and came out and got me to see her on stage and get a picture real quick.  Pretty proud of that girl!  She's such a good student and classmate.  5-22-24

ELEMENTARY WALK FOR THE GRADUATES
Luke and his friends got to go to the Elementary school and parade around in their caps and gowns.  The little kids got to see them at the end of their awards assembly, up on stage, and clap for them.  Then high fives as they went back to class.  Kind of fun!!  I wish Charity and Kelly had done this!!  So fun!  I was happy I got to be there for pictures as well.  5-22-24

JACK'S 6TH GRADE GRADUATION
This was pretty exciting!  I got to go help set up the balloon arch for the stage- didn't go so well, but we did a Christa-fix and made the thing stand up good enough for the whole thing :).  I was happy to have a part in that.  Some of the moms I was working with were nuts, but that's okay.  We had Kelly and Erika came out to support.  We got to get a picture with Jack and his teachers.  He looked awesome in his cap and gown.  It is so crazy that Jack is moving on to bigger things this fall!!  He seems excited for Junior High!  5-22-24

GRADUATION PICTURES WITH THE FRIENDS
We went over to the track to get some pictures of Luke and his friend group.  It was a lot of fun.  Jami had her special lens and I took some otheres- together I think we got a lot of cool pictures.  I was happy Luke let me do that.  5-22-24

LUKE'S GRADUATION!

We had to scramble a little, morning of, with Nate getting the littles off to school and such.  Jack was babysitting Sadie for us.  Kind of different, but we made it work.  I got some pictures of Luke in his cap and gown in the backyard- tradition!  And then I had the privilege of driving Luke up to Weber to line up.  We were a little late and I think that was driving him a little nuts, but I'm sure it was only a matter of time before he learned that he didn't need to be there right on time.  I got to find seats by the accessible seats up at the top of the arena and save them for everyone else who was coming :).  Grandma Ruthie, Jen, Grandpa Hatch, Grandma and Simon, Charity and Kelly all came to support Luke.  It was great!  I loved finding him and being able to spy on him the whole time with my zoom lens.  I can't believe he's really here.  It is so hard to believe that it's been 18 years since we brought that little guy into the world.  I feel like he is prepared for the world.  I feel like he is going to do big things.  I really don't think there's more I could do for Luke.  He's basically raised himself :).  We cheered really loud for him as he walked out onto the stage and shook hands.  He looked great!  We got to go to Red Robin afterwards.  Kind of funny the little miscommunication of Red Lobster vs. Red Robin.  We got it right though.  Funny stuff.  I think he felt good and celebrated with everyone's gifts (minus mine- still not done yet) and all the love.  You got this Luke!!  5-23-24

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
We had an awesome last day of school!  I was able to make it to the Elementary to get some pictures of the kids with their teachers- tradition! We went over to the Clemens' for some fun with the wardies- no water this year because it was so cold and rainy.  We were planning on doing our projector movie, but the wind and rain spooked us and so we did it inside.  We watched Migration which was fun, with kids draped all over the family room.  Still fun.  Just not as cold and windy.  I think it was a good year!  We survived!  5-23-24

SADIE'S TALK
She did so good :).  I loved helping her write her talk and she loved being able to talk in the microphone.  I hope she felt good about what she was talking about.  5-26-24

WARD MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC
Always fun to get together with the ward for some food.  I got to talk with Leslie and Gretchen and Barbara.  I met the people who moved into Noriega's house.  Good times.  5-27-24

LETTER FROM BRAD- DREAM CAME TRUE

Soooo we had a cool week. So many random miracles. We're finding the most elect people ever and they all love outside my area so I've just been tossing around golden references to everyone hoping they take grest care of them haha. 

Monday we had a Family home evening with our relieve society and they acrually brough some investigators which is extremely rare for our ward. But we found this elect family that lived in San Antonio, the area next to us so they'll work with them. 

Tuesday we had divisiones which is always exciting. For some reason divisiones always go so well so we had a ton of success and were able to have some lessons to send people to other areas. Then some guy came running into thee church and said he wants to join the church. We taught him a lil and he was super elect and just wants to change. Well the other elders put a baptism date on him and then yesterday we found out hes bipolar and has joined like 10+ churches but right now hes traveling for the next month soooo there's that. It was super cool at first though. Had a lesson with a memberr that went wayyy too long but we taught him the belief window because he was in a weird situation and it went surprisingly well tbh. He's strugglingg a lotttt so please pray for Sahid Pari 

Wednesday was absolutely slow but we putt our friend Jenni on date because shes so incredibly elect and knows more than me basically so there's that. 

Thursday had divis again with some other Elders because their area is kind of slowly falling apart so we helped a little with that. Found an entire family where the mom is member but the rest aren't and the mom is planning on reactivating sooo we were pretty hyped about that. 

Friday had to do immigration stuff. Didnt like it. Took a really long time. We put a fecha on our friend Valentino so we need to fight for that one because his family is being super weird about it. Mostly his mom. His sister is active and a power member in the church. 

Saturday dream came trueeee. Ive always wanted to like play soccer or basketball with a huge group of kids and then teach them all right after and then have them all come to church after. Well we had a sports activity and one of our new members brought his whole friend group which was soooo hype. And then this big group were walking around outside the church and had their soccer stuff so we invited them in and they wanted to play. So we ended up having a huge group of kids playing soccer and basketball for a couple hours and then we had them all sit on the stairs while we taught them a quick little lesson about Jesus, our purpose on earth, and then baptism. Invited them all to church and like 6 of them showed up. And it was like the kids who just showed up without knowing anyone to play soccer. I was actually so hyped because I've like always dreamt of having that happen and its never happened because usually nobody brings people to our activites. I alsso think a lot of them came because they've never seen a white person before so they came for that but its a good start because they will start coming for the right reason after a little bit. 

Sunday: super hype we some of the kids show up and then our fechas as well came to church which was so exciting. Our ward is still kind of dying down and so im trying to figure out how to get these people to come back. We ended up walking with our new convert and his friennd and another member to pick up all their friends and go to church with them. We got a couple to come but then they made me pay for the busses so that was kind of lame but valid i guess. Super hype actually because now we have a ton of kids who have already made it to church once that we haven't even taught that much. So now we've got a ton of worrk to do this week if i hopefully dont get sent away in transfers. Also super hype our mission got 120 baptisms this month and we're actually all learning so much becoming so much more effective here in the work of the Lord. Our mission is implementing so many new things we do that are just small and simple that are changing everything. 

Spiritual thought: here in Peru theres these people I call the "blue workers." They kind of are like amongus characters. They're like the clean up crew of the city and go around building stuff or cleaning, doing tasks you could say. But when they do these things they do it as lazy or as slow as you could possibly imagine. Like they be sanding these poles or railings for hourssss because they do one swipe every minute. But im not here to make fun of them haha. Basically we can relate this to our own lives that sometimes we are being obedient, doing our tasks, but in the way they are doing them is like this. Sometimes its how our spiritual work goes too. We read our scriptures but the whole time we are focusing on something else but hey we opened our scriptures up. Id like to challenge yall to take a look at your own lives to see ways you can become more diligent within youur obedience. Sometimes yeah we're being obedient but the same way as the blue amongus workers. So lets find ways to be diligent in our obedience. 

VISITING NANA'S GRAVE
On the way to Lynn's we stopped and met up with grandpa, Steve and Heidi to visit Nana.  This was a fun one, we all shared some fun memories of her.  It's crazy that she's been gone for almost 15 years!  I still miss her so much.  I hope she knows we love her.  5-27-24

MEMORIAL DAY BARBECUE- MAYNES FAMILY
We all went to Lynn's for some yummy food and visiting.  Charity met up there as well, which was awesome.  We had a great time.  I talked with Meg mostly.  It's fun to have missionary stories to share with each other.  5-27-24

DATE WITH ERIKA
We had the best idea to go paint ceramics at Hands on Art for our date.  It was so much fun!  I painted a little sauce bowl and Erika painted a hedgehog.  I loved visiting with her and laughing.  She's always so fun to be with.  We got fiiz after.  Can't wait to see the finished products.  5-28-24

SETTING APART
I was really grateful for the blessing I received when I was set apart for Secretary in the Primary.  It was so comforting and just what I needed.  I am excited for this calling, just really sad to leave my Sunday school class.  5-28-24

CHECKING OUT THE CAMP
We took the Youth Committee up to the Brighton Meadows Campground to check it out and make some final touches on the schedule for Youth conference.  This was actually so much fun.  I think it was worth the drive to be able to picture things and the kids seemed a lot more gung ho in the planning after that.  5-30-24

KELLY'S FAMILY PARTY
We got to go to the baseball park for Kelly's party.  Everyone had SO much fun!  We had pizza and cupcakes (I had picked up a gluten free, dairy free cake for Kelly which I think wasn't the greatest, but I think she appreciated the thought :)).  Then we all went over and played pickle ball together!  It was SO FUN!!  Even Grandpa and Heidi joined it!  We couldn't get Grandma and Simon in, but they were so nice to keep an eye on all the kiddos.  It was a really fun way to celebrate Kelly and have one last hang out before she ditches us :).  5-30-24

TEMPLE WITH KELLY
Kelly and I made it to the temple on Friday.  That was a miracle.  We were running late and knew we weren't going to make our session but decided we just needed to go anyway.  I'm so glad we did!  I had so many cool thoughts that time.  I'm not sure why, but a lot of it was standing out to me.  I need to hurry and go back with Nate to talk about it all.  5-31-24

SWIM PARTIES
The boys had their track swim party and Molly had her Illume swim party on the same night!  Different pools of course, but same night.  We all went with Molly.  It was nice to just sit there and visit with Jack and Erika while Nate swam with Molly and Sadie.  Then eventually just Leslie and Kelly and Nate after :).  It was fun for Molly though.  5-31-24

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