8 June 2025
VOLUME 13 – NUMBER 611
Boating in North Carolina
The last 10 days we’ve been on the vacation we’ve been looking forward to for the past few months. Most of Brooke’s side of the family went out to North Carolina to visit relatives still living there. It was such a great time being back in the place we lived for four years.
The first three days we stayed in Mooresville and took a boat out on Lake Norman one of the days. After that, we drove down to Charleston, South Carolina for a couple of days. We visited historical sites like the Middleton Plantation and Rainbow Row, and we also spent an afternoon at the beach.
The girls' favorite part was definitely going to the ocean. Charlie had been asking for a couple of days, “We go to the beach?” and was so excited when we finally did.
Charlie and Ellie at the beach
On Sunday, we drove back up to Mooresville for the last three days of the trip before flying home. Some of my favorite moments were going golfing with my brothers-in-law. We went out a few mornings bright and early and had a blast!
Flying with the girls was definitely an adventure. We had a bunch of luggage to carry, two girls walking, and a stroller for Ava. They did so well, though. Once we got on the plane, they were all so well-behaved.
Long trips like this are always fun, but it’s hard getting back into the swing of things like work and regular life afterward. We’re grateful for North Carolina and loved being able to go back and visit.
Braden golfing
This week was the last week of normal work for me. Summer cleaning starts on June 9. We'll be working four hours instead of two, which I'm really happy about. We’ll just be deep cleaning the school.
Recently, I've been able to get lots of driving hours in. I haven’t really been going long distances—just 30-minute drives here and there. The farthest I've ever driven was to Lindon.
I'm getting close to finishing the third book of my series, which is both exciting and a little saddening. I'm excited to read more, but I also realize that this series is rapidly coming to an end.
I've also been added to help take care of visiting dogs at the house. The job is pretty tiring, but also fairly manageable. I'm getting paid for it too, which is a nice bonus!
Natalie, Yarima, Yaretzie doing nails
This week, I went to Rima’s house to hang out with her and do some crocheting. I was able to get the hang of it… mostly.
I made a bear and got the first leg done, then started on the body. It looks a lot better than the last time I made one.
I had a lot of fun and can’t wait until I can hang out with Rima again!
Isaac with Benson
On my way to class with Dad on Sunday, President Bradford asked if we could help him bless someone—a sister from out of town. I was able to put in some practice and anoint her. Later, on a ministering visit to the Harcrows with Dad, I anointed Sister Harcrow as well before Dad gave her a blessing.
At the end of the day, I had a devotional where they let us know some of the things we needed to do to get prepared to leave for the CCM. I'm excited to get down there! Classes are still amazing, even though they can be a bit tough sometimes. I'm learning so much.
I also had my last family pizza night, and we watched a church movie called Spirit of the Game. It’s about the missionaries in Australia who were assigned to play basketball—the “Mormon Yankees.”
Last Sunday at church with Monte
Before my nightly walk with Mom, I met up with Riley to say goodbye to him one last time. It was a bit hard, but it felt good. On Tuesday, I said goodbye to Aiden, and that really got me in the feels. As much as I'm excited for the mission, I can’t wait until I’m able to reunite with my boys.
Then I went straight to class at 9:30pm. It was brutal, but worth it. Elder Lemon had another "Helping Others" activity. This time, we listened to Ashton's advice and centered our lesson around the invitation we wanted to extend.
The person we taught was Elder Lemon’s mom, a former chemistry teacher at BYU–Idaho. I could really feel the Spirit in our lesson. It gave me hope and excitement for when I get to go out and teach people about the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Monte packing his suitcases
I’m really excited—and just the slightest bit nervous—to go down to México. I had only one class today and I also went to Walmart to grab all the last-minute necessities.
I needed to get a cheap watch, so I went for what I like to call... the Napoleon Dynamite. It’s almost the exact same watch he wears in the movie—and it’s cheap!
When we got home, Mom gave my last hair cut from her for two years—which kind of made me sad. Then we went up to the Harcrows and had some Dole Whip ice cream. It was delicious! After that, I finished packing.
Monte’s “Napoleon Dynamite” watch
I’m so excited to get out there and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those in need of it. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He has a plan for us. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and He atoned for our sins. I know that He was resurrected so that we can be resurrected as well.
Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We have a living prophet today—Russell M. Nelson. I know that the Church is true. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
See you all in two years! Wish me luck!
Eating ice cream at Harcrow’s house
Te esperamos en dos años, Élder Hill. We dropped off Elder Hill at the Salt Lake airport this week and said goodbye as he got on a plane to head to the México MTC. This brought back a lot of memories from my time as a missionary. I learned a lot of Spanish—but I learned even more about Jesus Christ.
Time is a strange thing. I feel like I just got home from my mission, and now Endia is due in eight days with our second child. I am filled with gratitude as I look around at the people in my life.
So many good things have fallen into place, and I believe much of that has happened because I chose to serve a mission.
Ashton with friends after softball game
I don't know how many people know this, but I’m on an intramural softball team this semester at BYU, and it has been a blast! I've never really played before, so it's been a growing process—and I love it. We won our first tournament game and play our next one next week.
What’s really exciting is that the next team we play is the BYU football team. Jake Retzlaff, Parker Kingston, Sione Moa, Isaiah Glasker, and Tanner Wall are just a few of the players on their team. We'll see if we even stand a chance against them! In any case, it will be fun.
On Thursday morning, we had to say goodbye to Monte as he flew out to Mexico. I am so excited for him, and it was really special to share a few memories with him while he was in the home MTC. He’s going to do incredible things down in Mexico.
Family walking dogs
Monte left on Thursday morning, so we had to get up early and go to the airport to say our goodbyes for the next two years. Caleb, Cougar, Ashton, London, and Keaton came too. When we got to the airport, we went inside and waited for Monte to get his bags checked.
When he came down, we all said our goodbyes. I felt really sad but also happy that he’s going on a mission for two years.
Once we came back from the airport, I had to keep taking care of the dogs. Apparently, Dad had accidentally arranged for 12 dogs to be at our house, so we were running around like crazy trying to get everything situated for the next couple of days.
Then we found out that Capone was supposed to come too, but he canceled. If he had come, we would have had 13 dogs, which would have been even crazier. Luckily, he didn’t show up.
Dad said that next week should be better because we’ll lose four dogs within the next three days. At least things are going to start calming down.
Boys eating “box bites” with Dad
While we were at the airport on Thursday, I was super excited for Monte going to Mexico! He's going to have an amazing time, I’m sure. I can’t wait for his Spanish to improve so we can chat more easily.
Besides dropping Monte off, my week has been pretty chill. I just taught my missionaries on Zoom for work and worked on some summer tasks I’ve been meaning to get out of the way.
I went to the temple a couple of times this week—once to do an endowment session and another time to do baptisms with my ward’s Relief Society.
It was a good week!
Ellie and Charlie in North Carolina
Since early February I have been buried in a seemingly endless project for MyPack Dog Training. By using Monday.com as our new contact management software (CRM), I have been working to automate most of our repetitive correspondence with our leads and clients.
It has been far more complicated and difficult than I ever could have imagined. For the past several weeks, I have been testing all sorts of different scenarios to make sure that the system works in all different situations. Test alone has taken almost a month.
Walking dogs up to Harcrow’s house
The testing phase is finally over, and I started putting the first real clients through the automated system this past week.
It’s kind of hard, because the work I have done is so technical—and boring—that there isn’t an easy way to share with anyone the really cool ideas I’ve been able to pull off.
However, I am really excited about the outcome, which includes over 150 custom automations that I built into the system. My hard word has dramatically reduced the time I have to spend now.
Brooke boating with Ava
Now, once a lead decides to buy our training or boarding services, I push a button, and by text messages, our system automatically gathers key dates, times, and other information, sends over a client agreement, and then a customized set of instructions for how to pay by Venmo or credit card.
When payment has been made, the system thanks them and several days before the visit, it reminds them what to bring. After the visit it thanks them for using us, and also sends several follow up texts to find out how things are going after training.
Finally, the system automatically reminds training customers that we board dogs as well, and invites them to leave us a review on Google.
Quinn and Joanna jumping in sprinkler