12 March 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 494
Troy’s birthday celebration
My birthday is today! I was able to play Roblox with Kai, Isaac, and Monte. Then we got cake and ice cream, which was so good!
Monte gave me the first present that he gave to me, which was a game called Happy Little Dinosaurs. Me, Kai, and Isaac played it.
Then it was Mom and Dad that gave me a Boba Fett Star Wars stuffed animal. It could repeat what you said, and it had a jet pack were you could launch a rocket. You had to squeeze it and then it would launch.
Then Kai gave me a Rival Nerf Gun. It could hold 12 bullets at a time and it had blue bullets. It also had a good aiming system, and it was an easy cock.
Then we watched edited episodes of The Office, and it was the best!
Troy with his birthday presents
So I woke up, and then I put on my clothes, and then I umm...went down stairs for scripture study and ate breakfast.
I got to watch the boys play some video games. I got to play in the kitchen. Then for Troy's birthday I ate cake, and I got to see Troy's presents.
He got a Rival Gun, a Mandalorian, and then a sad dinosaur game. I now have to go to bed.
Braden, Brooke, Charlie at Jazz game
This weekend we made our second annual trip down to Charlotte for the Jazz vs. Hornets game. We went with Brooke’s sister and her husband and got a babysitter to share. We decided Charlie is still a bit too young to leave with a sitter, so we brought her with us. We had some headphones for her, since NBA games are pretty loud.
Last year the Jazz lost a close game, but they didn’t let us down this time. The Jazz won pretty easily and were up big most of the game. Charlie did a pretty well, and we all had an awesome time cheering on the Jazz!
Braden, Brooke, Charlie at Jazz game
Nothing much has happened this week. Work always is something. Falcon Ridge is so interesting when it comes to stress. It will be a piece of cake one day, and then then next things are falling out of the sky.
This week was one of those piece of cake weeks. I just chilled and talked about prom, and got some good work done.
We also had our routes all change to combo routes (both sanitizing and vacuuming), so that was pretty cool. Hope you all have a good rest of the week!
Golden Girls: Misha, Mable, Josie
This week I wanted to watch the Hunger Games, because I hadn't seen them in a while, so I started watching the first one, and in order for me to keep watching it I had to go down and do some more school.
So after a couple of times going back down to do school, I was able to finish it, and then I started to watch the second one, Catching Fire, the next day. Now I'm on Mockingjay Part 1, and I am wanting to watch it, but I haven't been able to yet.
Also, I made a fort, because it was for a school bucket-list challenge. The challenge was to make a fort and watch a show inside of it.
Isaac’s fort
On Thursday I tested positive for COVID, and believe it or not, Endia got it too. It was nice to have a “sick-buddy” during the five days of quarantine.
We watched lots of movies, played some Nintendo Switch, and read books together. Hopefully we get feeling better soon. I’ve got a few tests coming up and a big paper due on Monday.
Troy, Joanna, & Quinn in back of Tesla
We celebrated Troy's birthday, and Me, Gloria, and Joanna started to watch a football show called Safety, and I really liked it. While we watched, Troy played Roblox with Kai, Isaac, and Monte.
For Troy's birthday diner we had Chick-Fil-A and watched an episode of Monk.
Troy’s birthday celebration
Troy got a Nerf gun, a stuffed animal Boba Fett, and a board game called Happy Little Dinosaurs.
I had to skip Troy's birthday, because BAD BOY. I had to stay on my bed, and Mom said that I could have some cake and Ice cream tomorrow, if I had fixed my problems. I've learned to fix my problems if I do something wrong.
Ashton playing in BYU intramural game
This season for our intramural basketball team has been pretty rough. We won our first game and have lost every game since then. Most have been somewhat close, but we haven’t been able to pull it off.
I should add that the only game we won we had five guys and they had four. So this week again they had four people show up, and so we decided to only play four, since we weren’t going to have our only wins be against teams with a whole player less than us.
However, our good intention fell short, we lost… they hit a buzzer beating three to end it!
Anyways, next game is the tournament so we’ll see how we play during that. We still haven’t found a huge flow yet as a team until this most recent game which was by far the most fun to play.
On Saturday I went on another date with Annie! We went to the national ballroom dance competition that was here at BYU. Honestly we just chatted for a few hours and it was really nice to get to know her a bit more!
Kai on the computer
I bought Troy a Nerf Rival gun. It's kind of like of a shotgun. Monte bought him a board game called Happy Little Dinosaurs.
We played it, (Troy, Isaac, and I) and, well as always, I wrecked them, or as Monte would say, I put them on a grill and turned up the flames! Woo!
And finally, he got a stuffed animal that can replay what you say. That's kind of cool, and it's quite an advantage if you know what I mean.
Children assembling outside dog fences
Mom and I were asked to give a 45-minute lesson in a stake spiritual retreat called Zions Camp. I’m not usually very nervous to teach, but this time was different. I think we both felt like we really wanted to provide something that would be valuable for those attending.
We covered two main ideas—new ways of looking at the gospel. The first idea was to think of the Plan of Salvation in a different way than we often do, with a chronological diagram of circles and rectangles. Instead, we described the Plan of Happiness using a solar-system model, where God is at the center, and where his children decide how close they want to orbit around Him.
Do we want God to be the center of our lives, do we want Him more at arms length, or would we prefer that He be at a distance—not really involved in our daily lives.
Then we shifted to our second idea. If God’s plan allows us to choose where we will end up and how close we want to be to Him, how do we signal to Him the type of relationship or connection we desire? Through our signs.
President Nelson gave a great talk about eight years ago on the Sabbath Day. He spoke about the Sabbath being a sign to God. Once he thought of the Sabbath in this way, he said that the Sabbath wasn’t a list of do’s and don’ts but a more personal sign to God.
We used this idea to talk about how everything we do in the gospel—from personal scripture study and prayer, to the Sabbath Day, to the standards for youth in the church—are really opportunities to show God the type of relationship we want to have with Him.
After the lesson, we weren’t sure what effect it had on the members of the stake, but we did have several people talk to us about how it influenced them positively. We hope we were able to make a difference, maybe not even so much as to what people do, but WHY they do the things God has asked us to do.
Slide from Zions Camp presentation