22 October 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 526
Caleb outside temple with office elders
It's crazy! I only have about one week left! I’ve had some problems with my leg that have been getting worse. It’s hard to walk now, and President Jorgensen called and suggested that I pack up my bags and move up to live with the office elders for my last couple of weeks, so that happened!
I'm calm and am honestly really grateful that I can focus a lot more one just getting rest and getting better, but my service has changed dramatically. This is my third day working in the mission office, and yesterday I was literally just scanning all of the house contracts to get them digitalized. I also took a couple trips in the mission van.
It's good though. I like seeing all the little efforts and things that are done in the office just to have the missionaries on the streets. There's a small chance I get back out to my sector for a couple days before if I end I heal, but I'm good with whatever happens.
I still know this work is true. I'm grateful for the gospel in its pure form. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and his power to help us heal, grow, and learn. I'm also grateful for the church that helps us be around other people that are striving to become like Christ and the resemble him in many ways. Life's beautiful, I love you guys!
Gloria’s birthday party
This week has been amazing! I turned 17. I feel so much older but in a good way. On Tuesday I had fun planning a birthday party. I had a good amount of people come—that made it fun.
Veidi and Mom helped prepare the food, and I was grateful for that. When people started to show up they started to decorate cupcakes and after more people arrived, Mom went to get the pizza. When it came, we a scary Psych called “Tuesday the 17th.”
After we ate, I opened presents, and I got a lot of snacks. A few of my favorite gifts were from Monte and Riley. Monte got me a Dobby Lego set as a joke because of a funny picture of me from FSY that looked liked Dobby from Harry Potter. Riley got me a very nice Minky blanket.
After the gifts, we talked for a while, and then we played laser tag. After laser tag everyone except Sofie and Riley left, and we watched the first Quiet Place movie. It 11 PM when we started the movie, so we got to stay up late.
Gloria’s Dobby pose at FSY
Gloria had a birthday party, and I helped her set up by baking the treats like popcorn and cup cakes. I also made sure that the laser tag guns had charged batteries. When everything was set up, we played VR, laser tag, and watched a Psych episode. I had a lot of fun.
Gloria’s birthday party refreshments
Happy Birthday Gloria! This year for Gloria's birthday, she threw a party. It was really cool, and we had a lot of people over. We watched the Psych episode "Tuesday the 17th" because it actually was Tuesday the 17th! It was also October, and that episode of Psych is one of the scarier ones.
We had cupcakes, pizza, and popcorn. We then played Five Nights at Freddy's in VR. We had so much fun watching people who not only had not used a VR headset before, but then had to play through a terrifying survival experience. There was a lot of screaming from both the person wearing the headset, and the people watching.
Then things started to simmer a bit with a little bit of drama. We tried to play laser tag, but some of the guests wanted to do their own thing, so we just sent them home and let Sophie Zimmerman, and Riley stay to watch a late night movie. We decided to watch A Quiet Place Part II. One last “Happy Birthday” to you Gloria. Have fun being a 17 year-old!
Playing VR at Gloria’s birthday party
So this week I started to take the bus and train to my play practice. It is a lot of fun. I take the bus from the Wendy's right by Walmart all the way to Murray Central Station. From there I take Front Runner (commuter train) all the way to Orem Central Station, and then I take a bus again to a stop close to Hale Studios where I practice.
I get there about an hour early, so I usually go and eat at the Culver's right by the studio—I get some fries and a shake. Let me just say that the crinkle cut fries are delicious. When I'm done eating, I arrive at the studio a little early and wait for everyone to show up.
Rehearsal's are really fun, and for one of the scenes, I get to dance. I also get to be a big black ghost. I'm really excited.
After a rehearsal, I run to the bus stop because I get out right as the bus leaves, and then I take the bus to Orem Central, then to Murray Central, and then a bus to the Walmart, where Mom picks me up, and we go home!
Cougar test-driving a new stroller
After the baby shower there were only a few things that Cougar and I still needed, the biggest of them being a stroller. We decided to look on Facebook Marketplace and saw a stroller that we really liked and it looked like it was in really good condition.
I went to go look at it and it looked just like new! It was a jogging stroller, which I was hoping for, and it was only $25. I bought it and brought it home and only then did I realize it was the exact stroller we had put on our registry. It was a great blessing. Cougar loves the stroller and will set it up randomly and take it for a drive around our tiny apartment with the biggest grin on his face!
Endia picking grapes (one fell in glasses)
There was also a woman in our ward who let everyone know that if they wanted to come and get some grapes from her backyard they were welcome to stop by and get as many as they wanted.
Cougar and I thought it would be fun so we stopped by, picked a couple bags and then I followed some YouTube videos and made us homemade grape juice! It was really fun to learn and the juice turned out to be delicious!
Drinking homemade grape juice
Recently at work we have been spending a lot of time planning an upcoming trip for about 20 of us to go to Palmyra for some trainings. We were originally going to fly out and spend a week there. So if you can imagine there are a lot of moving parts to a trip like that, and trying to map out everyday so we are sure we use our time to the best has been quite the adventure.
We even got permission to stop at Niagara Falls on our way to the Buffalo library where we could hold an original copy of the Book of Mormon (worth millions of dollars now). Sounds pretty exciting right?
Children doing school in the Bunkhouse
So, on Wednesday I was on the phone with the director of the church history sites, when Rob, my manager came in and told me he had an emergency. He sat me down in a room with the two others who were also helping to plan the trip, and we were informed that the trip was going to have to be canceled.
It was quite the shock, but honestly it was still a great learning experience and now a fun story to tell among the group of us planning. We started working on ideas for anther trip that would be sure to get approval, but nothing has been finalized yet!
Gloria’s birthday party refreshments
For Gloria's birthday, while they were having the party, me, Kai, Mom, Dad, Quinn, and Joanna went downstairs. We set up a table in the Bunkhouse for dinner. While we watched the movie, we ate pizza. We had our own party in the basement!
Ellie and Charlie playing
Gloria's birthday was this week! She turned 17. She had a party, but I stayed upstairs to watch the little kids. We watched some TV, and had some Little Caesars Pizza, which was so good!
When the party was over, everyone downstairs watched A Quiet Place. I didn't want to watch that, because it was really late, so I went to bed. I had a fun night!
Dad working at home in the Bunkhouse