21 May 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 504
Monte, Gloria at Operation MyHometown
This week I asked Hazel out on a date! I was so nervous, but after I did it I was so glad. We are gonna go see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on June 5 with Riley and Gloria. I am super excited!
I'm also going to see Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse on June 2 with Ashton and Isaac for Ashton's Christmas present, but shhhh, nobody needs to know that I will have already seen the movie before my date!
On Saturday, I went on a service project with Dad, Gloria, and the ward. We went and rebuilt a deck. It was so cool to see the rotting wood get pulled up. We then put some nice gray planks to replace. We also spent some of the time across the street helping another group paint someone’s deck. It was an amazing experience.
Endia’s Lord of the Rings party for Isaac
We have happy news to share. We found out that I am pregnant! We are so happy and excited, more than I can say.
With all the excitement and anticipation has come a lot of sickness as well. I wasn’t able to keep working and had to leave my job. It is quite an adjustment but an incredibly happy one!
Lord of the Rings maps
I have started reading a new book series that Endia recommended, called Beyonders. It is by Brandon Mull, who writes Fablehaven, Five Kingdoms, and Dragonwatch.
It is very good, and I ended up staying up till four in the morning finishing the first book. It has a very good amount of humor, and action, and sadness, and shock. I would totally recommend this book. It is very very good.
Also, even though my birthday was passed, Endia organized an amazing Lord of the Rings birthday party for me! It was fantastic, with maps, and the Prancing Pony, and costumes. We had Panda Express, which is everyone’s favorite.
The most amazing part was that Endia did all of this even through she was pretty sick. Endia and Cougar found out this week that she is pregnant!
Caleb and Elder Angilau in Los Sauces
Casandra got baptized! It's amazing helping to change lives. I'm grateful for the role I've been able to play in Casandra's and Martha's lives.
Mirtha and Casandra are the nicest most good hearted people you could probably meet. Their lives haven't been too easy. They once told us something along the lines that they carried around a lot of anger towards the world and not feeling a place to belong. But thanks to understanding the gospel and choosing to have faith that's changed.
The gospel's amazing and true!
Caleb, Elder Angilau, at Cassandra’s baptism
Monday was really fun because we went to the Utah Jazz arena for Mom’s work. We got to shoot some basketballs down on the same court where the Utah Jazz play. I only made like two! Also Ashton came with us, and that was fun because he started a game of Tornado.
We didn't stay too long but the dinner the fed us was really good. It was sliders that tasted super good. Later, Dad came straight from work and joined us.
On Tuesday, all of the school sweepers had a little work party. It was about summer cleaning and what we needed to do.
We also went to Hale Centre Theatre on Wednesday to see a play about Hans Christian Anderson in New York. It was a really good play.
We also had a region dance on Saturday. It was really fun. The theme was Hawaiian I did not know what the theme was until I got there.
5th Ward members at service project
I would like to share my testimony for this newsletter.
I know that Jesus died for our sins, and that he was resurrected, and I know that if we can follow him, then we can be resurrected and live again with our heavenly father,
I also know that the gospel is true, and all of the Book of Mormon stories are true.
Braden and Brook in Palisades apartment
This week was our last one before our trip out to Utah for the summer. The timing worked out great because Brooke’s parents were in town for a bit visiting. They offered to fly Ellie and Charlie out with them so that Brooke and I could drive by ourselves and not have to worry about the girls having to be on such a long drive.
Monday was our last day all together in the apartment we’ve called home for the last two years. A lot has happened since we moved in to this place. Ellie learned to walk, I graduated from BYU, got this new job, and Charlie was born (amongst many other things).
We’re going to miss our Palisades apartment. It’s been our favorite place out of all the apartments we’ve lived in since we got married.
Last night in the Palisades apartment
Brooke and I started our drive on Friday morning. A friend of ours from the ward (my seminary co-teacher) offered his spare apartment above his garage for us to stay in our last night since everything including our beds were packed away. They surprised us with two huge bags of road trip snacks, drinks, and a breakfast for us the next morning. It was so nice of them and it was just what we needed.
The drive went very smooth. Brooke and I had a good time road tripping together and enjoyed the one-on-one time. We got to Utah on Sunday after driving Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Keith and Amy (uncle and aunt) are letting us rent their spare house for the three months we’re out here.
Mom walking dogs
We had a total of 7 dogs this week—Misha, Mable, Max, Mondo, Moose, Ted, and Beauty. That’s a lot! It was a lot of work, but I like having dogs, and taking care of them, and helping to train and walk them.
Mondo was a really big dog! He is a Newfoundland. Moose is a bernadoodle (Saint Bernard mixed with a poodle), Ted is a mini poodle, Max and Beauty are mutts, and Misha and Mable are golden retrievers.
Joanna walking Mondo
At FHE (Family Home Evening) this week, there was a group of us that decided it would be fun to do a little polar plunge in the runoff of the provo river. It ended up being super overcast when we went, but I'm always up for a challenge, and we did it anyway.
The water was pretty cold, but there wasn't as much as we had hoped for, so we had to sit on the ground to even get wet at all. I enjoyed going with a group of people that I didn't know as well, and it was nice to get to know them better. It also made me really excited for all the outdoor summer activities!
Kai and Ashton at the Delta Center
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd get to shoot a basketball on THE Utah Jazz court! At first I was a little nervous, but I grabbed a ball, took the shot and, "all my butterflies went away." We did a few things on the court: 1) King of the Court, 2) Revenge, 3) Shoot around, and 4) Lick the court (okay, that last one was probably just me 😁).
It was an epic experience being able to play on this court. The weird thing was that the hoop looked a lot smaller than a few others that I've played on, and I thought the three-point line was way farther, but it actually wasn't that far.
Children eating at the Delta Center
It was an exciting week this week. On Monday, I was up at the house since it was my day off, and we actually got to go down to the Jazz arena with Mom's work to shoot and play basketball on the court! It was so weird to be down on the floor and to play around.
We got some good games of "Lightning" started and lots of the people there joined in. Kai had a funny experience because before we got there he said something like, "I don't want there to be people taking our pictures like, 'Oh look at all the children and stuff like that...'"
Next thing you know, during one of the rounds of Lightning, he was the last one in with this big athletic dude, everyone taking pictures and Kai ended up getting him out! It was pretty epic!
This week I also had the digital portion of my interview for the new position at the MTC. It was kind of cool, because Dad had an interview at BYU the same morning that I decided to do my online interview and so he picked me up afterwards and we went to Burgers Supreme for lunch, to celebrate.
It sounded like both of us had a pretty good experience in our interviews, so it will be exciting to see what happens.
Gloria, Monte, and Dad at service project
This was a busy week! I have decided to take over the scheduling of family baptisms each week, and this week we were able to get back on a weekly schedule. I took a day off work today so that we could go (and for my job interview later), and after our visit to the temple, we of course stopped off at Dunford Donuts before heading home.
For 10 years before COVID started, we attended the temple together almost every week. I estimate that our family performed about 20,000 ordinances in those 10 years. Here’s hoping that we are starting up again for at least another 20,000!
Shortly after getting home, I headed off to BYU, and interviewed with the director of the adjunct faculty in the Marriott School, and things went very well. It sounds like she’s going to offer me a job as soon as my paperwork goes through! It was also fun to pick up Ashton and have lunch with him in Provo after his successful MTC interview. Afterwards, we both drove back to West Jordan.
Gloria and 5th Ward members working
I finished off the week by attending an Operation MyHometown day of service with the 5th Ward. Gloria and Monte came with me and the three of us worked with other hermanos in the ward to replace a resident’s rotten deck. It felt good to perform service, and I feel like we all got closer as ward members by doing so.
One last thing! This week I also got to be a guest speaker in Mom’s foster care training class. She asked me to come help introduce our family and answer questions. It was so awesome to see what a good teacher Mom is!
Jenny in her Utah Foster Care classroom