2 April 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 497
Family at Selvin’s birthday party
I got new basketball shoes! I've needed them for a little while, since we've been going to this thing called Stake Sports. This week was also General Conference. I learned wrote down a lot of stuff during each session of Conference.
For breakfast Ashton got us cereal. For lunch, Veidi and I made chili dogs. I've got mixed feelings about chili dogs. I love them, and I suggested them, but they really give me a lot of gas, a lot a lot!
We didn't watch the Saturday evening session because we went to Selvin's birthday party. It was really fun. They had a "King of the Hill" type of bounce house, and we played a lot of stuff in it. We played King of the Hill, and tag, and we also played basketball in the other bounce house.
On Sunday we ate some homemade sausage, egg, McMuffins that Mom and Endia made. We started to plan a little bit of the boy's retreat. We looked at a few places to go, but we haven't decided what to play while we're there.
Last time we went on our retreat, we went to this place with a big screen TV, and it was really cool! It's hard to not go back to that same place, but at the same time, you want to try something new and different you know.
Family at Selvin’s birthday party
This week threw a party on Wednesday, because it was spring break. We had a whole lot of people show up, and we played ABC Volleyball, Crazy Ball, and normal volleyball. I think we invited at least 20 people, and most of them made it.
We had a blast playing Crazy Ball. The score was bouncing around like crazy, and when my team was down by two, and the other team had one point to go, we came in clutch and stopped them...and they came in clutch as well and stopped us! We went back and forth without any points, until we finally scored the two points we needed to win.
There were also Mott's fruit snacks there, and for those of you who don't know, I'm what people consider a "Mottaholic".
On Thursday, we went to stake sports at the stake center. I started off playing basketball, because I needed to try out my new D.O.N. Issue #4's. They are super comfortable, and they look really cool.
Then after playing basketball with Riley for a bit I went over and joined volleyball with Herbert and Hazel. Volleyball was really fun, and I played that for the majority of the time, but towards the end, my wrists started to hurt a lot, so I went back over to play basketball.
Hazel then joined me a little bit later and we played a short one on one basketball game. Her defense was good, but my "natural talent" was "better." I threw up one deep three after she taunted me, and I miraculously made it!
During General Conference, I really liked the two talks on Patriarchal blessings, and they inspired me to finally stop pushing it aside, and to finally start taking the steps to receive it.
Brooke, Ellie, and Charlie
Ellie has been saying such funny things lately and Braden and I do our best to write them down so we can look back at it when she’s older. A couple funny things that happened this week:
My grandma sent Ellie a birthday package in the mail and there was a heart shaped sticky note inside. It was folded in half and Ellie asked me to fix it (unfold it). I accidentally ripped it. She looked at me and said, “you rip my heart. You ruin my birthday.”
We live on the third floor of our apartment building. We were all heading out and Ellie went to Braden to have him hold her. He was already holding Charlie so Braden told Ellie to go to me so I could hold her.
Ellie told Braden that I wasn’t strong enough to hold her, and he said, “No, mommy is strong.” Ellie turns to me and says, “Oh mommy! You strong belly button!” So I’m not sure if she thinks I have a strong bellybutton, or if she was calling me one. Either way, Ellie always keeps us laughing!
Quinn hitting the piñata at Selvin’s party
This week James and Israel came over, We are going to keep them for two weeks, until me and Dad head out to Washington DC to drop them off at Jens.
We also went to Selvin's birthday party, and it was a lot of fun. We had delicious—know when I say delicious, I mean delicious—food, and there was a king of the hill bounce house, and piñatas. I really had a fun time.
Happy Birthday Selvin! Thanks for inviting us Rima and Selvin!
Family at Selvin’s birthday party
This week has been great because I finished four of my classes all with A's. Now I just need to work on the last four classes I have. I am close to finishing them but I want to make sure I end with a good grade.
I love having James, and Israel with us. I love playing with them and making them laugh. They have both been pretty sick. I just hope I don't get sick after they leave. We also had Emma, Brigham, Mckay, and Mateo with us for a few days.
Family making taquitos
Ashton came over on Saturday to watch General Conference and then after we watched two of the sessions we went over to Selvin's birthday party at Natalie's. It was so fun because they had such good food—beans, rice, cheese, chicken, and tostadas.
They also had a bounce house and a inflatable basket ball shooting area where we did contests. Then we did the piñata and it was fun because I got a lot of candy. When we came back Endia and Cougar were at our house.
On Sunday we had delicious McMuffins and did General Conference and it was awesome. I almost got a black out on bingo but in the prayer it said example and Kai needed that last word! My last word was missionary but Kai won.
Troy and Mom making taquitos
What a week! On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to conduct a meeting that the traveling tabernacle missionaries put on for the youth that would be staffing it. I was asked by my institute teacher if I'd be willing to help and they ended up asking me to conduct.
I honestly didn't know what to expect, but it was way bigger than I had imagined. When I showed up they had chairs filled all the way back to the stage in the gym, and the whole chapel and gym ended up being filled with youth. Apparently they invited 40 stakes of youth to join either in person or via zoom.
Yeah, like a said, a lot bigger than I was expecting! They had a member of the Seventy speak, and it was cool to chat with him a little before and after the meeting.
The whole setup was crazy though because they had all these different angles for cameras and screens for us so we could see what was being broadcasted during the meeting. It was kind of like a mini version of General Conference!
I also was invited to attend the Lamb of God performance at Thanksgiving Point with my roommates. The music was beautiful and it was a great way to prepare for Easter coming up in about a week.
Then to top off the whole week, I had a sleepover with my freshman roommates followed by General Conference. I love being able to listen to the words of the prophets and apostles, and I found some answers that I have been asking about recently in my prayers.
I even got to go to two sessions in the Conference Center, which is always neat to be gathered with so many people. It was a good week to say the least!
Endia and Cougar at the tabernacle
I have heard about the traveling tabernacle for a couple of years now but have never been able to go. This week it was in Springville, so Cougar and I decided to go check it out. I love history and have learned a lot about the tabernacle over the years, so it was neat to be able to experience it in this way.
Right after we went to see the tabernacle, we headed over to the BYU football stadium. There was an alumni game being played with some of BYU’s past players. I don’t know too much about BYU sports but even I recognized the name Ty Detmer (quarterback that played when Mom and Dad were at BYU).
I really just loved being able to watch them play, I forgot how much fun it is to watch live sports, even if it was just a bunch of older guys playing two hand touch football!
Endia and Cougar at the alumni game
I had a really productive week this week! Tuesday was probably my busiest day, which is good, because normally Tuesdays are slower since I don't have any classes after work in the morning.
After work, I went home to eat, and then to campus to work on school. I have been terrible at doing my homework the past two semesters, and my grades reflect that. So it felt nice to devote several hours to my classes and really try to learn these last units.
After that I had to go return some things at the mall, and then head to my church building to be there while the bishop visited with some people.
General Conference was this weekend, and so was Selvin's birthday! It was a ton of fun to go to Natalie's for that, and we messed around with the bounce house basketball shooting thing, and put the little kids as rebounders insideI
Yaretzie definitely won that one, and I think she had like seven rounds in a row where she beat her opponent. It's always fun to have big family get together's like that!
Veidi, Gloria, Yaretzie at Selvin’s party
They are starting up stake sports again and I really like them. I like to do basketball and Nine Square. This week was also General Conference and there was really good talks.
We went to Selven's birthday party. It was super fun. We had a lot of candy and we did a contest of who can make the most basketball shots. I had a great time.
Caleb with his district
We saw some kids playing some basketball one night and decided to jump in and play with them. It was pretty fun, and my team won, so I'm famous in this town now! I'm just kidding, but we set up another game at the chapel for later that week, and almost all the kids showed up!
We started the activity with a prayer, played, and last we shared something with all of them inside the church. The miracle was that one of the kids came with his dad, and when we were inside the chapel the dad saw the painting of Jesus in America. He had a bunch of questions and is now interested in the Book of Mormon, we'll se how things go!
General Conference was super amazing as well! Elder Miranda and I watched some of it with our new convert, Jose Quiroz.
Watching conference with José