24 July 2022
VOLUME 10 – NUMBER 462
Dad and Veidi repacking river trip gear
Christian
The river trip was really fun. When we came home at 11:30pm, Dad gave us the option to put everything in the garage right away and then sleep in tomorrow or leave it so we can go to sleep quicker but get up earlier. We decided to just get it over with, it honestly wasn't that hard.
Dad also had an idea to just put everything that is on one raft like the water containers, the “glove boxes” and the tubes in two tubs for each raft. He said it would be easier and less crazy for next year's river trip.
Jen
Hello everyone! Ian and I went on a double date with some friends, for Gabe’s birthday (Ian’s friend.) It was nice to get out of the house and go to the city for a few hours.
We also went to the beach with the boys and some of the same friends. It was neat to be out, soaking up some sun.
Ian and James
Kai
On Saturday after the river trip, we had to repack all the river trip stuff. Dad also had a project he wanted to do to store the rafts in a better place than outside in the backyard, or on the sides of the garage walls.
He grabbed Christian and Monte as helpers, and they all went to work. Dad was out there from dawn till dusk!
The idea of the project was really cool. He created a ceiling shelf to hold two rafts. Once the shelf was made, Dad had everyone come out to help pull up the rafts onto the shelf with pulleys (like I said, genius!)
After that we went inside and played some... M&M Wars! I love M&M Wars. It's really simple. You go in groups of two or three, and then you just play Rock, Paper, Scissors with the person next to you. Every time you lose, you give someone an M&M from your pile.
Once everyone runs out of M&M's, you count to see who has the biggest amount of M&M's in their pile, and whoever does gets an extra handful of M&M's and everyone gets to eat their pile.
Once we were done with that, we put some chicken in the oven. Once that was done we went downstairs to have a picnic. We had a list of what to watch, and Holes was on the list, so Dad chose that. Holes is a pretty good movie, it's also really funny. I had a great weekend!
New river raft shelf in garage
Endia
I am really enjoying having Cougar back in Utah! We do a lot of fun things together. We played volleyball three times this week. We also played pickle ball with London, Ashton, and Hannah and then did a midnight McDonalds run afterwards! We are also able to work on wedding planning, which has been really simple and honestly, pretty fun. I am really excited!
On Saturday we took our students to a lake to go paddle boarding. I hadn’t ever really tried it before, and it was so much fun! I enjoyed being chased around by the students and knocking some of them in the water, of course! Later that night, Cougar and I went to go play sand volleyball and it ended up being a really fun night with a lot of good games!
Emma with her potty book
Braden
This week we’ve begun the journey of potty-training Ellie. We really didn’t have any idea where to start so I talked with Mom to get some pointers. We got some undies, pull-ups, toilet seat, special treats, and a Kermit the Frog book (family classic I used to potty-train) called I Can Go Potty and we were ready!
Ellie had a few accidents, and also practiced sitting on the toilet (no successful trips the first couple days). In fact, one day she sat on the toilet for ten minutes, didn’t pee, and then peed on the couch five minutes after getting off. We’ve been practicing being patient, but it’s been challenging.
Then yesterday, Ellie came up to me and said “Daddy, potty tootie!” We ran to the bathroom and she went on the toilet! It’s encouraging to see her recognize when she has to go, and to see her be successful. We’re proud of her!
Garage full of river trip gear
Ashton
Getting back from the river trip and back into the swing of things has been a little harder than I thought, and I still feel so behind, especially at work. When I left there were two new teachers that just started training, and now there are two more, and that is where I spend most of my time as a supervisor.
This normally wouldn't be too challenging, but there has been one big incident at work that has taken a lot of time that could've been spent in the classroom with the new teachers.
Honestly, it's been rough trying to help this teacher, especially because they have problems with the way things are done at the MTC. They feel like they should be the exception to the rules. Trying to navigate the best course of action is definitely not easy, but we'll see how it goes over the next couple weeks.
On a bright note, on Saturday London and I, along with her roommates and families, went to Mapleton for a 24th of July celebration. They had a crazy firework show that was honestly the biggest one I've ever seen.
It was kind of fun to be a part of it, especially because I don't ever really feel like I've done anything to celebrate the 24th before. Mapleton goes hard!
I thought it was hilarious because they had a band there and just imagining the contrast from a band hyping up a big city like LA or New York, or even Salt Lake, compared to Mapleton was so funny. He would say things like "Let's hear it Mapleton!" I don't know why I just thought that was so strange and funny, but I had a good laugh with it.
Ian and Gabe at the beach
Caleb
Thirty-nine amazing weeks this week! We've continued finding a lot of people, and we're just filtering through them finding out who really wants what we have for them.
We had a really cool experience with prayer where we wanted to improve our faith by asking Heavenly Father exactly where we needed to go to "knock on doors," or in reality, yell at houses J. But we decided to pray and make a list of streets from an area that has proved really successful with people who have said we can return, and people that have let us return.
We prayed together. Then, while the other wrote five or so street names down, one of us would pray again. While Elder Jones wrote his down and when it was my turn, I prayed, and I had the distinct impression to write a certain street. I looked on the phone and found it and wrote it down.
Later that day, we went to that street, and we talked to some people in their homes. A few just said we could come back later, tomorrow, or next week. One of them just said we could come back tomorrow but earlier.
We returned the next day in the pouring rain, we called out, called out again, called out again, and one last time we called out. Finally, the lady who answered was really nice, questioned us why were getting ourselves wet, and told us not today.
We walked away and started looking at the phone to know where we should go next. And then she came out and told us we could come in! We entered and met her daughter—Actually it was her daughter who's been looking for something that she feels like she's been missing. She told us she wanted to come closer to God! Super awesome.
We also found a guy by calling people that have been taught before. He was super excited that we called. He asked us to send him a video, and asked if we could visit. We visited the next day on Sunday, and he's super ready to be baptized! He wants it, and the visit was so powerful! He's planning on being baptized on August 13! This work’s amazing, and I love it!
Family river trip
Dad / Arkin
Last week on the river trip, almost everything went beautifully.
The weather was great (no scary nighttime storms Aura!), no one was injured (even though London fell in and was pinned underwater for a few seconds), we figured out transportation, found a good hotel in Vernal and a great new first-night campsite, and everyone seemed to have a really good time.
However, one really hard thing happened to me. We always have two GoPro cameras attached to floatable camera mounts, on two of our rafts. This year I took a new mount I had never used before. I always take one camera, and 80% of our camera footage usually comes from my raft, because…well we’ll forgive London for being so excited about being back on the river that she forgot to film much that first day.
The next morning, a few minutes out on the river, I unscrewed the new camera mount, but as I pulled it off the raft, it slipped through my fingers, and dropped into the water. No problem, right? It’s floatable, and besides, the river is usually shallow enough that we can easily retrieve it even if it didn’t float.
Imagine my dismay, when I watched it sink quickly down into a deep pool we happened to be passing over. The camera was gone, but even more importantly to me, our entire first day of footage was gone with it.
Dad working on river raft
The children spent almost an hour trying to find it. I had flashbacks to my first few weeks as a missionary in Argentina, when my first roll of film of the trip down to Argentina and my first few weeks there was lost.
We finally had to move on. As we floated away from the sunken camera, I thought about the loss. For seven years, we have used GoPro cameras. They have always been attached to floatable mounts, and I have never dropped one. One slight adjustment to the new camera mount (which made it not floatable), and one unusually deep pool doomed my footage.
As I prayed, I told Heavenly Father that, while I expected that I was supposed to lose the camera so I could work on having a positive attitude in spite of the loss, I still wished He would get it back for me.
I told him that even though I was willing to accept the loss, I knew that He had the power to pick up that camera, and place it unharmed on the front seat of our truck, so our footage could be waiting for us at the end of the trip. I also told Him I wished He would do that for me. Then I closed my prayer and worked on keeping a positive attitude.
This week I have started to download all of the pictures and video from the past few weeks. As I was viewing the footage, I discovered something strange. The first few clips were of the first day…and they were taken from my raft. How could this be? As I reviewed more clips, I realized that all of the footage I had lost on the camera in the river…wasn’t lost. I had it all!
Packing river raft tubs
But that’s impossible! And then, as I thought through the events of the river trip, I remembered that after the first day on the river, I had removed the cameras from their mounts so I could recharge the batteries.
In the morning, I had reattached the two identical cameras to the mounts. And somehow, I had unknowingly placed the camera I used the first day on the mount that went on the other raft. The camera on my raft was the empty one, which is the one I lost!
I suddenly realized that I had received the impossible miracle I had prayed for. I wanted God to spare my footage and return it to me. He just had a better way of doing that then lifting a camera off the bottom of the river and transporting it through the air to the truck. Instead, he just switched the cameras before, so I never actually lost the footage in the first place!
God loves me. He loves me because I am His son. He cares about the big things, and the little things, and the little things that are big things to me. God listens to my prayers. He doesn’t always answer them like I expect Him to, but He does answer.
In this case, He allowed me to offer my sacrifice of having a good attitude and accepting a painful loss, and then He restored to me what I had lost. I sure love Him!
River raft shelves in garage
Quinn
My story about last week…Here is how it starts. We were having a lot of fun then we went swimming. Then we got out of the pool and had some popsicles and dried off the sun. Troy and I stayed home, while the others went to get a surprise. Then we got a boys’ tent and the girls got their tent.
Later we watched some shows and had dinner. I asked Mom if I could sleep downstairs with Joanna and Brigham and Mckay, and Mom said YES! The next day Mom had us in different rooms for quiet time. I was with Mckay and we watched Despicable Me and other shows in the bunkhouse.
Monte
We had to work at a Real Salt Lake game this weekend. I just have to say, it was hotter than an oven there. Everybody was sweating harder than ever! I was so happy when we got to go home, and even when we got in an air-conditioned car!
James at the beach
Joanna
I had a fun time spending time with Emma, Mackay, Brigham and Mateo. We went swimming and built a castle. We had some popsicles after we went swimming.
Gloria
This week has been a little busy because I was trying to finish school before trek. I was able to finish school for the summer with an A and a B. I am really excited to start school that is coming up in a few weeks. Also, trek is coming so fast. We have been packing all week. I am a little nervous, but also really excited for that experience!
Veidi
We had to put away the river trip stuff after we got home. For my activity we had a bake off. I really enjoyed it because all of the treats were really good. Teagan Pettit made tortillas, and it was really delicious. I am so grateful we have activities like that.
Loading up after river trip