9 February 2025
VOLUME 13 – NUMBER 594
Joanna working on Dad’s math card
When Dad helped me with math, he drew two tents, and each has two parts. I put the tens in the front of the tent, and the ones in the back. I have little green things that are ones and little green sticks that are tens. I put them in the tent.
Mom says that when I have trouble learning, food, water, and sleep help me learn, so when I finished a lesson, Dad gave me a piece of cheese or sausage or a grape.
Dad’s tent card helped me, because I was having trouble before. I had tried and tried, and I finally figured it out when Dad taught me about ones and tens.
Mom helped me with the rest of my lessons and which was like 60 lessons behind and now I am caught up.
Veidi with Daisy
On Sunday Elder Uchdorf gave a worldwide devotional for young adults at the BYU Marriott Center. My stake was invited to attend in person, so me and my roommates all went together.
I love hearing apostles and their wives speak in person in situations that aren't as formal as a general conference. You get to see a lot more of their personality, and just seeing that example is very insightful to me.
One thing that Elder Uchdorf said was that some decisions just don't matter from God's eternal perspective. Lots of times, all of the options we have are good options, and God will work with all of them.
I don't think I have much of a problem with fearing to make decisions, but I loved how it reinforced this idea that I've had in my mind frequently that often there isn't a perfect way to do things, there are just a lot of good ways.
Ava
It's kind of the idea of how imperfectly perfect nature is. It's not like all the trees and pebbles are "perfectly" lined up in straight lines, and the earth is divided into symmetrical halves. Really it's all very random, but that randomness has its own type of beautiful order.
Besides attending the devotional, I was doing non-stop schoolwork, work, and getting the needed rest to do those. Then on Saturday I had a date. We did an escape room board game, which was actually very fun, but the level of the game was a little too high for us, so we didn't end up escaping in time.
On Sunday, Nico Franco from the old Spanish 5th ward invited me to listen to his farewell talk. Several months ago I decided to go to institute with him, and afterwards we started talking about missions and other things. It was an awesome conversation that still stands out to me.
Anyways he talked about that a little in his farewell talk. It filled me with a lot of joy to think that I could have been a positive influence in his decision-making process of deciding to go on a mission or not.
Gloria putting on Riley’s boutonniere
This week I have been trying to get my hours for work. I think I got sick from work from memory care. I've been sick for the past few days, and every day it gets worse and worse.
I have also been trying to get school done, and I'm really excited to finish my last year of high school. I really like how I can have my own pace by schooling from home. I really enjoy a class where we listen to children’s books and learn about them. Some of the books bring back memories of my childhood.
On Saturday we went to Aura's house and cleaned it out, so that it can be sold. It was a lot of work, but we made lots of progress. After helping with the house I got dropped off, and I got ready for the day date for Sweethearts.
When Riley came and got me, we were driving and Dad called me and asked if we wanted Aura's fish that had been left for five months in the fish tank at her house and miraculously survived. I told him we wanted them. It's been awhile since we had fish in the house.
Aura’s rescued fish
I also made two boutonniere's for me and Mia's (Austin's girlfriend) dates. My talent for making those have really improved a lot from the first time I started.
Riley and I went to get lunch, and then we went to Target. We got a Lego set and went back to his house to build a little Lego Simba from Lion King.
The date wasn't that long. We got ready for the dance, and then we took pictures at the house. We had Mia, and Austin in our group, but they didn't go to the day date, because Mia was not feeling too good.
The dance was fun. There were a lot of people. By the end of the dance, I almost threw up because I was not feeling too good.
Gloria and Riley before Sweethearts
I got a piece of paper that said I have a talk next week. It was a busy week. On Sunday, I remembered I had the talk, so I asked Mom if she could help me. When I was done, she said to practice the story about my talk.
When we were at church, our Primary teacher said that she wanted us to share our testimony. I was kind of nervous, but Mom and Dad said that I did not need to bear my testimony. They said I needed to practice at home more first, since last time I tried, I couldn’t say anything.
In Primary, I shared my talk. Mom and Dad were there. I talked about Joseph Smith when he was little, and I talked about his first vision. Mom and Dad said I did a great job!
Mom preparing food for all the dogs
This week has been exhausting for me because of my doggie duties. I am starting to fall behind in school, because I am usually on a dog walk. By the end of the day, I am already exhausted from walking dogs, and I can't get much school done.
But then I was having a bad attitude towards Dad, because I had to organize and sort through the school tubs. He told me I was fired, and I thought he was talking about the doggie duties (he was just talking about organizing the school tubs).
In the end I was wrong, but I was able to get a load of school done. I didn't get a perfect day on the dog chore board, which gets me closer to getting Top Dog and getting a paycheck, but I was able to get really far ahead in my school, providing more room to do doggie duties in the future.
Visiting dogs Toby and Lexi
While me and Troy were on our evening walk with the dogs, Troy spotted a lost dog. We looked around and found no one around. I took the leash off of Max, because I knew that Max would stay with Troy. Then I put the leash on the stray dog, and we brought it to our backyard.
We called Mom, and Dad they said to go back to where we found it and wait there with him, so that it would be easier for the owner to find the dog. Me and Troy did that, and then Mom and Dad found us and took a picture of the dog and posted it on the Facebook neighborhood page.
Lost dog found
After a while of waiting out on the sidewalk, Mom said to come home. We went home and had pizza, and then someone posted on the Facebook page that their dog was missing. Their gate had opened when they were gone.
Mom sent to the owner that we found him, and she sent them our address. We were so happy that he had been found! The owners came and got him, and we found out they live really close to us.
They were so grateful that we found him because they weren't sure if he knew how to make it back home, because he was an older dog. I am glad I was able to help him found his owner.
Isaac and Owen
This week Kai and I went to the Zimmerman’s to play some games. We also finished watching the movie Singles Ward, which we started watching a couple months ago. It’s pretty funny!
After the movie, we went to In-N-Out and got animal style fries, which were pretty good! Then we went back to their house and played a game called Skyjo, which was pretty fun.
We were laughing really hard most of the night and had a lot of fun. We played that for a while then went home and went to bed.
Ava
Last week Jenn asked if Hannah and I would cater again for the boys party, and we had a ton of fun coming up with the ideas. We’ve also been working on making our food much more delivery friendly, and I’d say it was a huge improvement from some of our other events.
It was also Heidi’s birthday this week. We went and got pedicures, and then we went ice skating. It was pretty embarrassing while we were getting our pedicures though, because I had a toenail fall off recently. The poor guy working on my nails had no idea what to do with my partial nail nub.
We were all dying laughing after we left, and I determined that I’m too much of a hobo to go to nail salons anymore. I think I belong in the wild instead!
Cowgirls Charlie, Ellie, and Joanna