21 August 2022

VOLUME 10 – NUMBER 466

London on vacation in Hawaii

London

I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place to spend my birthday. Being here in Hawaii has been absolutely amazing! Ginger was kind enough to teach us how to surf, and I just love being out there on the water even if I’m not very good at it!

The hikes have been so beautiful, and it just makes me happy to be surrounded by such a different part of Gods creations than anything I’ve ever seen before. Rebecca was kind enough to make me a lilikoi (passion fruit) cheesecake for my birthday, and it was delicious!

Endia and I also took Ginger with us to try some local fish tacos, and it was just the perfect combination of flavors! I truly feel like I’ve just been in a dream here!

Endia and London hiking in Hawaii

Endia

London’s and my trip to Hawaii was absolutely amazing! I loved spending time with Keric, Rebecca, Ginger and Max! I don’t think I can say everything in words, so I decided to leave more room for some amazing pictures that we took!

Veidi

This week was really fun because me, Gloria, and Isaac were able to make a business but it’s supposed to be a secret why we are doing it. Our business is called Popcones, and I had a fun time doing it. It was Quinn's birthday, and we gave him popcorn. And we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Gloria, Veidi, Isaac making Popcones

Isaac

Gloria, Veidi, and I all decided that we wanted to start a popcorn stand to make money to go on vacation. We came up with a plan, and we started making the popcorn the next day.

So, our idea was to have a surprise vacation and take the whole family to Disneyland, but it got out that we were trying to do it, so now everyone knows. We are trying to save up enough money to go to Disneyland in January of 2024 when Caleb gets off his mission. That way we can have a family vacation before more people leave on missions.

We are wanting to take all 23 brothers and sisters and brothers and sister in-laws. We hope that we can save up to get enough money and that way we can have a fun family vacation with all of the family.

Scenery in Hawaii

Gloria

This week for school I have been doing really good and so are my grades. I have added Chinese to my classes. I am very excited about it, and I think I will get good at learning a new language. Also, Monte and I started work again on Wednesday back at the school. I was happy because I am getting money.

We also had Tommy over and it was fun having him. For our activity this week, we had a slip n Slide at the park. I really had a great time, but I am still a little sore! On Sunday we had a youth devotional about trek and I really do miss it to be honest. I also talked to some of my trek family, and it was nice to see them again.

Endia, London, cousins Max and Ginger

Ashton

Yarima, Selvin, and I went to Men's Warehouse this week to get Selvin all fit and ready for his suit! It was honestly a ton of fun, even though it didn't take super long.

We did have to wait a while before anyone in the place could help us, so we filled the time by walking around and making fun of the smoldering models they had over at the suit-fitting station. I am so excited for both of them. Their wedding on September 22 is going to be a blast!

Also, this week, I went to the dentist, and after leaving I made the actual commitment to do better at flossing this go around. I have never been good at this, but I figured it was time to take control of the situation and just do it, so that is my plan going forward! We'll see how it goes.

Selvin getting fitted for a wedding suit

After my dentist appointment I stopped by the house for just a little bit, but then had to head out for work again. I've actually been living with Cougar for the past week, and we've definitely had some late night/into the morning talks just about life.

Also, the basement they live in is INFESTED with spiders, so as a "wedding gift" (I add quotations, because it was partly selfish, since I hate spiders and I am living here) I got home defense spider spray and did a perimeter spray!

Since we sprayed, we killed 14. That was probably after killing at least five of them before that. When I say infested, it might be a bit of an exaggeration, but since we sprayed (and I'll add, I did a double coat) the spiders seem to be dying!

Ashton and Cougar with bug spray

Caleb

I learned a ton this week. Honestly, when preparation day came, I was almost like, “Shoot! I can’t wait until I can get back to work!” Ha ha. No, but I just learned so much and I feel like we just have so much potential with people that's just flying in all directions! No, but preparation day has been going pretty great for me, we just finished playing some volleyball, ping pong, food, I learned some soccer tricks, etc. And now I'm standing in a bus for the hour and a half trip, back to Cunco.

I think I'll just share a little story. A while back we found a lady by knocking on doors that wanted us to enter a share with her. We did and it turned out the reason she wanted us to share is because her seven-year-old son had been telling her the other day that they needed to listen to more things about God.

Well, a few weeks have passed, and we were able to meet with this lady and meet her son. We had an amazing visit! Her son’s eyes just lit up with hearing about every part of the plan of salvation! It was super amazing, and his mom was very interested. We got a great commitment to read the Book of Mormon and at least from her son a solid commitment to go to church the next week.

Endia, Ginger, London eating fish tacos

Then when we talked about some members that live nearby and the age relation of their two kids, it made the little boy we were teaching light up again.

Then the mom started mentioning some other members that she knew, one that lives across the street, but has been less active for a little bit, and this member has a daughter that hasn't been baptized, and she was being taught by the sister missionaries before us.

Just a lot of greatness, and I could write about all the countless little details probably forever. But I'll just end with inviting you all to read your scriptures and pray. We simply can't understand the importance and the blessings of doing those two little things every day. I love you guys!

By the way, can you guys read this to Quinn for me? Happy birthday Quinn!! Now you’re seven years old! One more year and you can be baptized! I hope you got some cool toys and had some yummy cake and played some games! Love you Quinn and I miss you a lot! Feliz Cumpleaños!

Endia hiking in bamboo forest

Troy

One morning this week, Mom decided to let us go over to Aunt Amy's so we could go swimming. Sometimes Mom and some of the Olders go over to her pool to do exercises too.

While we were there, me and Kai were playing a game where I was Spiderman and Kai was Green Goblin, but he was a better Green Goblin. It was so Awesome at Aunt Amy's. We also played mini golf in Aunt Amy's backyard.

While we were at Aunt Amy’s house, me and Kai and Issac also did a Military training where we would go through the monkey bars and then go down the slide and back through the monkey bars, and then go down the pole and climb up the slide and through the monkey bars again. We did it over and over.

Braden working from home

Braden

Depending on who you talk to, some people love working from home, and some really need an in-office experience.

I am for sure one who loves not having to commute back and forth every day. I’m grateful I get to take breaks during the day to see Brooke and Ellie.

This week we planned a family date night to have a Chick-fil-A picnic and walk at the park. We went to one of our favorites, Cornelius Park, and had a great time as a family! Also, Brooke is officially in the third trimester for baby girl #2! We’re less than three months away from being a family of four!

Braden, Brooke, Ellie at the park

Mom / Jenny

Dogs, dogs, dogs. For the last several weeks we have had a plethora of dogs at our house again. A good friend, Shari Milch, had to have her hip replaced, so I offered to take her dogs and work with them. She was worried that they would jump on her and knock her down while she was recovering.

I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress with them, but they still have a long way to go. I believe that they have a problem called Litter-Mate Syndrome. This is where the dogs take their cues from each other about how to behave rather than their human. It often results in fighting behavior as they enter their teen and adult years. I hope I can help prevent this problem!

Dad reorganizing the garage

Dad / Arkin

So, you thought my garage project was over, huh? Well, even though the river raft shelves were completed a couple weeks ago, there is still one more garage project I have wanted to finish up. Now that the river rafts are all in shelves up on the ceiling, we can reorganize the shelves and tools along the sides of our garage, so that there is more room to walk when we get out of the cars.

So, on Saturday, with help from some of the children, we cleaned out the garage and relocated all our shelves and tool racks to the back wall of the garage. Now the garage feels much cleaner and more spacious!

Reorganized garage