17 Aug 2025
VOLUME 13 – NUMBER 622
Swimming party with Keaton’s familiy
This week was awesome! On Monday, I finished my last day of my internship at Foothill Residential for Substance Abuse. That night we picked up Caleb and went to the Nelsons’ house, met some of Keaton’s family, ate good hot dogs and burgers, went swimming, and even got to see Aunt Meredith.
On Tuesday, I finished up finals for the summer term. Now I’ve officially done everything I needed to do, and I’m set to graduate with a BS in Psychology from BYU as soon as grades are finalized. My internship was temporary, so I guess you could say I also got “fired” this week. However you word it, I’ve had a lot of extra time on my hands.
In the mornings, I’ve been applying for jobs and trying to transition away from being a student. In the afternoons, we’ve been having a lot of fun. We saw How to Train Your Dragon, walked the Dripping Rock Trail in Spanish Fork, went swimming at my mom’s house, and really enjoyed ourselves.
Endia, Cougar, and boys hiking
All the extra time has brought a lot of fun activities, but it’s also a little worrying. I feel some anxiety about finding a job. I’ve already applied to a bunch of places, and I even had one interview that didn’t work out. Still, I’m hopeful that somewhere out there is looking for a person like me.
Because of how housing works around BYU campus, if you move apartments you end up “homeless” for about two weeks between semesters. Caleb reached out, and he’s going to crash at our place for a little while. It’s been great having him here—he’s already made pancakes for us, and Owen is so happy to have someone else to play with.
I feel very blessed for the life I am able to live right now.
Brooke and family after half marathon
This week I ran my second half marathon! After finishing the one in June, I felt so motivated to do another. I also knew that if I didn’t have a goal to work toward, I’d probably stop running altogether—and I didn’t want that to happen. I originally signed up thinking I’d be running it with a friend, but a couple of weeks ago she told me she wasn’t going to.
I was a little unsure about doing it on my own, but in the end it turned out to be a really good experience. Friday night I tried to go to bed early since I had to wake up around 4:00am. I’m not sure if it was nerves about the race, worry about sleeping through my alarm, or something else, but I didn’t fall asleep until after 1:00am. Thankfully, when it was time to get up, adrenaline kicked in and carried me through.
Emmett
The race started off well, and I was feeling pretty good until about Mile 9 when I hit a long hill I wasn’t expecting. After that, I slowed down a lot and never really recovered. I was a little disappointed knowing I wouldn’t hit my goal time, but I still managed to beat my time from my first race—which I was really happy about!
Having Braden, the girls, my dad, and my sister cheering me on at the finish line made it all worth it. I felt so loved and supported. After this race, I’m not totally sure if I want to do another one anytime soon—ha ha! But part of me still really wants to hit that goal time—so we’ll see which side wins out!
Monte and Elder Larson with member
Okay, before I start my email, I just want to state again how amazing my mission is. There are tough times, and there are really amazing times, but through it all I’ve felt continual joy in my life.
Now on with the crazy week that I had. In my last email, I filled you all in on our friends we’re teaching and how everything was going. Well, there have been some major changes.
Let’s start with Laura and Jesús. I’m done giving my personal opinions about other people’s situations because I guess I was completely wrong. We talked with Jesús about what was going on, and he told us that he really wants to marry Laura. They just need to work out some things with each other.
Owen eating chips
Also, he wants to learn more. He’s even helped us learn more as we’ve talked about commandments. He read in the Book of Mormon where it says that marrying a divorced woman means committing adultery (Laura is divorced). It’s all good, though, because Elder Oaks has a really good talk titled Divorce that covers it perfectly.
Then, on Sunday after they both came to church, we talked with them again—and they said they’re getting married! I’m so glad they were able to work out their problems.
Now, this is probably the craziest thing that happened this week, and it makes me a bit sad. On Sunday, out of the blue, Candy sent us a message saying she left Cozumel—permanently. It was really strange, because we had just talked to her the night before (the same night she left), and everything seemed fine.
Elders Hill and Larson
They had gotten their wedding all worked out and even had an official date set for their baptism. Then—poof. She’s stayed in contact, but it’s been super vague. We only found out yesterday where she’s at. Turns out she’s in Chiapas now… ni modos. We just sent her info to the missionaries there.
This week is transfer week! Last night we got our transfer board, and Elder Larson and I are staying here in Cozumel for another transfer.
It’s crazy because this will be Elder Larson’s fourth transfer here—six months on the island! I’m hyped, though, and we’re going to have an amazing transfer as I finish my training with him. The work is good.
Yarima tripping at family pool party
Over the past few weeks, Isaac had been begging me to come over to his place for the week. We finally managed to make plans, so I hopped on a shuttle, went to Idaho, and stayed at Isaac’s for the week.
I had a blast at Isaac’s! He had bought treats and snacks before I got there, so we had plenty to eat all week.
We played lots of volleyball at the field right by his dorm, watched shows, and played games together. We also both did school on some days, which was really good because I didn’t want to get behind at the beginning of the school year.
I’m really glad that I went down to Idaho to hang out with Isaac!
Monte
School has started, and I like my classes so far. The electives I am taking are astronomy, character ed, and art history.
I am also watching The Rookie with Mom and Troy. It is really good. Mom has already finished it, and we only watched the first few episodes together as a family. Then Mom and Dad got ahead, so I started watching it on my own.
I usually watch it after school, around 2:00–2:30pm, which is pretty much my favorite part of the day. It also feels weird now that Isaac and Monte are gone—the house seems so quiet.
Owen digging for gold
What a week! It felt like I had something every single day. Braden and I had our final basketball game on Monday night. We lost, which eliminated us from the tournament.
I won't lie, after our first game I thought we would be the best team in the league. Turns out we only won two games the entire season. Heartbreaker! Later that evening, it was fun to meet Keaton's family at the pool party. Most of the time was spent trying trick shots off the slide, which is always a blast.
I'm currently playing in another softball league, but this one is just for the city, not intramurals. We played on Wednesday and lost. I guess this was a pretty losing week for me in retrospect—ha ha. On the last play, I was on first base, we had two outs, and the guy was up to bat.
Ashton and Keaton at swimming party
When you’re on first with two outs, you run after anything is hit. He was a lefty, which I should have been thinking of. He hit a strong grounder, and I instantly started running. Unfortunately, my first step off the base was right in the path of the ball, and it crashed into the inside of my ankle. The game ended—it hurt both physically and emotionally—but at least the bruise was impressive!
On Friday night, Caleb came and helped me do my final cleaning check in the apartment. I’m so excited to move! Every cleaning check for the past three years, I’ve signed up for the bathroom. No one ever likes to do it, but I don’t mind since I always keep it very clean, so the check is easy.
This time, however, after three years, my roommate stole that assignment. I was left with our nasty kitchen, which I never use because of how dirty it is. Caleb was a lifesaver and helped me out. The funny part of the story is that I ended up passing the check (unexpectedly), while my roommate, who signed up for the bathroom, failed. I guess that makes one victory this week!
Elders Larson and Hill
Then Caleb and I drove up to West Jordan and got there around midnight. This way we would have a shorter drive to visit Isaac in Idaho the next day. We spent Saturday up in Idaho with Isaac and Kai. Rexburg turned out to be a surprisingly cool place!
Kai and Isaac came back home with us, and we spent the three-and-a-half-hour drive belting out every song from the “Zeus” playlist—the collection of all the songs we listened to in Zeus. I’m surprised my voice recovered quickly because we pushed them to the very limit.
Cougar, Endia, Owen, Emmett swimming
School started on Monday, and so far I’m off to a great start. I’m ahead in my work and passing my classes. I hope that this school year I’ll be able to finish early with good grades.
This week Kai is going to Isaac’s place in Idaho, which means I’ll have to take care of all the dogs. That’s actually been pretty good for me because I can get double dog days. More dogs means more money, which is always a good thing!
Joanna and Quinn in bouncy house
I moved out of Centennial and in with Endia and Cougar! It was strange and exciting to end my time living at Centennial, but I’m ready to move on. I want to be somewhere new, meet new people, and experience new things.
I’m just with Endia and Cougar for a couple of weeks, but it’s been a ton of fun to play with Owen! I’ve also enjoyed hanging out with Endia and Cougar and just talking. Both of them are good friends to me.
Meeting Keyton’s family was fun! Thanks to London and Keyton for setting that up—I really enjoyed getting to know Keyton in that way. I’m excited to welcome him into the family very soon. He’s a fun guy!
Swimming party with Keaton’s family
This week was really tough. I ended things with Riley after two years of being together. I decided to do that so I can focus on myself while preparing for my mission. It was really hard for both of us. Things ended on good terms, and we still want to be friends. I think that’s going to be hard, though.
On Monday, we went to Amy’s house to have a swimming party so we could meet Keaton’s family. It was great getting to meet them!
On Friday, my mom called me to see if we could babysit the twins and Christian while she ran some errands in Salt Lake. I had such a fun time watching them and bonding with them more. They’re the cutest kids and so funny.
On Saturday, Mom and I went garment shopping because I’m getting my endowment next week. After shopping, we stopped to get some Swig.
Veidi and Gloria