6 March 2022
VOLUME 10 – NUMBER 442
At BYU volleyball game
Veidi
Braden, Brooke, and Elie came. Elie got so big! We started to work on a 3000-piece Avengers puzzle. It took a while. We also planned a party at the church and there were a lot of people there. We played crazy ball, capture the flag, and murder in the dark. I am grateful that Mom and Dad let us do things like that.
Alex
This week Braden and Brooke came over from North Carolina! Braden has been wanting to do a puzzle with the Family. It is a 3000-piece puzzle and it was based on the Marvel movies.
Ginger and Christian surfing in Maui
Christian
From Ginger Hill (cousin in Hawaii): “Tuesday, I taught Christian how to surf! I am so happy that I now have a family surf buddy! I tried to tell Christian everything I thought he would need to know how to surf.
“I showed him the positions and how to do everything. The waves were small, which made them harder to catch. Still, Christian was able to stand up on a few of them, which was impressive!
“Most of surfing is paddling and waiting, so when you are able to stand up on a good wave, it can make you very happy, almost sheer joy. It was worth it seeing how happy it made Christian to be able to stand up on a few waves. He did a great job surfing for his first time!”
Christian watching the sea turtles
This week was really fun. I’ve gone shopping a few times since I’ve been here, there’s a Ross not too far, so I bike up there.
On Wednesday, for our young men’s activity, we went golfing. I’ve never golfed before, so I didn’t think I would do too good. But after I was taught, I did alright. I think my best hit was a boat that was put out far in the grass. It was really nice to hang out with the guys in the ward.
On Saturday we went to the beach to look at some turtles that came to the shore. It was really nice seeing those turtles, because I’ve never seen anything like it before. There were like 20 of them and we we’re pretty close to them too. It’s been a fun week and am happy I that I get to be here!
Children and Mabel in the schoolroom
Endia
This week was a pretty good one. London got permission to use her church building for volleyball every week, so now we get to play twice each week and have so much fun!
On Saturday I went with Braden and Brooke, and the rest of the family to the aquarium. I had never been to the aquarium before, and it was so amazing. I loved the turtles, jellyfish, and huge stingray. It was also fun to go to Chuckarama with everyone afterwards.
I was getting ready to head back to Springville when the snow really started falling. We couldn’t even pull the car into the garage after dinner.
We shoveled the driveway, and it was already coated again by the time we finished. We decided we couldn’t drive back through the snow, so we stayed. We all worked on a 3000-piece puzzle…until 4:30 in the morning!
Children working on 3000-piece puzzle
London
Endia's ward has started playing volleyball on a weekly basis, and it has been so fun to play again! I love volleyball, and I've missed my volleyball class that I had last semester.
This week I was really looking forward to volleyball from the start of the week, and I realized that I wanted to find another way to play volleyball more often. I looked into rec teams, but the deadline had just passed for all of the spring teams.
It was a huge bummer, so I decided to ask my bishop if I could start up a volleyball night for my ward. He was surprisingly fine with it and let me set it up with the building coordinator that night. So now I get to play volleyball twice a week, which makes me so giddy with joy.
I seriously just start smiling randomly when I think about playing. I've realized that having something to look forward to on a regular basis really helps with the monotony of life. Plus, it's been fun to meet so many people that I get to interact with regularly now. Life is good!
Christian surfing for first time
Gloria
This week I emailed my biological mom, and it was really nice to be able to talk to her. I haven't heard anything yet. I am also finished with one of my classes and it is child development. It was a relief to get a class done and only have six left.
I feel really good about myself and trying to finish classes. Most of my classes are more than halfway down. I just have to keep trying and to get them done early.
I also have been trying new hairstyles like curling and putting it in braids more this week. On Friday, we had a party at the church, and it was really fun doing it with friends and family. We played lots of games and sports.
On Saturday most of us went to the aquarium again, and it was really nice. Then we went out to eat. Sunday Vanessa, Veidi and I made cookies for Brother Kerekes, a man in our ward who visits us.
Children working on 3000-piece puzzle
Ashton
We've upped our volleyball schedule from just Thursday's, to now doing it Thursdays at Endia's church, and Fridays at London's. Still, it's such a fun time, and we have a pretty decent turnout each week.
This week, I signed a contract to move in with one of my friends from work in the fall. This will be my first time living with someone I actually know, which is pretty exciting! Also, Braden, Brooke, and Ellie all came from North Carolina, so I've been up in West Jordan a ton doing stuff with them at home.
We built a 3000-piece Marvel puzzle. I stayed up until well into the early morning with Braden and Viedi, and then a few of us stayed up even later (earlier) to finish it off a couple days later. It was a great memory to build it all together.
I'm sure a lot of us are writing about the aquarium, but that was also really cool to go to! I had never been before, and it's crazy to see all the different fish swimming all around you at certain points.
Family at the aquarium
Caleb
I'm almost done with my training! I really don't think much will change, after I'm done or whatever, but crazy to think I’ve been here for three months! It will be weird to possibly have a different companion! Maybe even a different area, but hopefully not.
It's hard because I love this ward the members are awesome. We haven't received any referrals yet, which is hard for all the effort we're putting into our "plan misional del barrio" or "ward mission plan." Mainly I think this ward is just struggling in general, but hopefully things will improve!
We had some good lessons through the week, not a ton, but I'm grateful for the ones we had! Sadly, we won't be teaching Gonzalo anymore because we found out he doesn't live in our area. But he seems to be really progressing and is beginning to find a testimony! If he can be baptized and enter into the path with Christ, that's all I want!
Elder Wray’s and Caleb’s funny faces
Rodrigo and Carmen, a couple we found a few weeks ago, are available for us to keep teaching them! They take in everything we teach them so easily, and the spirit is always there with them! They've both had hard backgrounds, but all of that has prepared them for now! They're really amazing.
During my scripture studies I was thinking a lot about commandments and the blessings we receive when we can keep them, and that means trying to keep all of them. But the promise from Heavenly Father is that, those that keep the commandments will prosper in the land! Prosper!
That means things will improve more and more when we keep the commandments! I'm in Alma 50 and in the Book of Mormon it's already said that exact promise at least 12 times! One is enough for it to be legit in the scriptures, but more than 12 times has got to be saying something! Keep the commandments and your life will improve!
The attic after Isaac cleaned it
Isaac
Ever since we moved rooms back in December, our attic has been a huge mess. It stresses out Mom and Dad when they go up there, and they kept talking about needing to clean it up, so I decided to go up and do it myself! It was a lot of work, but I finally finished, and now it looks really good again!
When Dad saw it, he was so happy! I think it helped him to have a better day. He said he really appreciated my kind act of service. I am always happy when I can help serve people.
Dad and Braden at “Christian lunch”
Dad / Arkin
This week, Braden and I went to another “Christian lunch.” Christian Larsen is a good childhood friend of Braden’s (he has autism). I also grew very close to him and his family when I was bishop.
Every six months or so, Christian asks me is we should set up another lunch with his favorite people: Braden (of course), his former bishops, Kevin Kiernan, Mike Anderson, myself, and his old young men’s leaders Brandon Ellis and Jeremy Visser. This week most of us went to lunch together.
Work has been going pretty well lately. When I switched over to the operations team, I was given a list of several projects. I feel like I’ve been successful at finishing off most of them, with positive results.
Dad’s updated company dashboard
The project that got me the most positive feedback at work had to do with re-designing our company dashboard. It’s a challenging project, both creatively and technically. I was able to take a lot of data, and present it in a logical way, complete with 12-week trends in each key metric.
My boss was so impressed when I unveiled the new dashboard. He told the leadership team that we are very lucky as a company our size to have such detailed and professional data. He also mentioned that the dashboard really helps to visualize our important goals and metrics.
On Saturday evening, after Jenny and I, Braden and Brooke, Endia, London, and Ashton came back from having dinner together at Café Rio, only to find nearly eight inches of new snow on the ground that fell in just a couple hours.
It was crazy! The snow was so heavy and wet that Jenny suggested we’d better shake some of it out of our tree branches so they wouldn’t break. I ended up with a huge pile of snow on my head!
Arkin covered in falling snow from trees
The children also helped shovel the driveway. We were missing a snow shovel, so Endia was using a normal shovel, and complaining that she was shoveling more with her little shovel than Ashton was with his normal snow one.
Then London joined in and as Ashton was pushing a small pile of snow with his shovel, she threw her loaded shovel right at Ashton, covering him with snow, and almost knocking him over, as his feet slipped, and he danced to recover!
It was a very funny sight, and we all laughed for a long time, and then laughed again when we watched the video, over and over again!
Children cleaning snow off the driveway