News from Teach in Texas

Pics from Teach's 17th birthday in 2008.

Teach is doing wonderfully well on her mission in Texas! Sometimes I think we miss her more than she misses us. She is always so busy making herself into a better person while sharing the gospel with everyone she sees.

We are working with the members here to move forward in the work of salvation. We have SO many members with so many friends they are sharing the gospel with- we are now working to connect the dots and build the bridge to the next step. The members are finding- and we just want to be able to teach their friends! We are working with the Ward Mission Leader and he is working with the bishop to see what we can do to make these dots connect so we can find more people to teach!

She had a wonderful Easter spent with a member family.

We went to church for Easter. Fabulous. I love church. We had 3 investigators there! (: And our recent convert's grandma who we are going with to dinner this week. (: So exciting. We did our studies and then went to dinner with a member family. They were really sweet. Tasty food and then we taught about the Plan of Salvation. After that we tried to visit members and less actives but... NOBODY was answering. And it rained. So it coulda been considered a pretty miserable day. But we kept smiles on our faces and kept going. (: We met with one of my favorite investigators that night. We just stopped in. They are a Catholic family, but they LOVE us. (: She gave us some cake and we showed her the video Because of Him. Then we helped her family clean up all of their Easter egg hunt. (: Such a fab family. They just need to be baptized. (: 

She continues to be in awe of the people. She loves them and serves them every day.

Scout looks just like Baby doll does now!

I love being a missionary. It is always a world of exciting adventure. This week we pulled up to the house of a less active. Well... we tried. But she lived ON a GOLF COURSE! And there was a guard at the gate and they wouldn't let us in to the neighborhood without seeing our ID and calling the family! It was so weird! I swear. It's like the movies. We ate dinner at the golf club restaurant of yet another golf course in our area. (: These people are wealthy. But they love us. And I love them. (: They are such good people. Their hearts are in the right place and they love the Lord. They have real struggles and concerns. They have broken hearts and rough days. It's just... so incredible how the Gospel Of Jesus Christ reaches out to everyone. Come ye Disconsolate. (:

I am so very proud of her and her great attitude. She shared with me this final wish.

Silly girl. :) Miss your cheesy smile so much!

Mom. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. The time truly has flown by. I can't believe I will be home in 4 months. It's a very happy thought... but at the same time... there are so many blessings and life experiences I won't be able to have when the calling is gone. It is just such a privilege. I wish everyone could just... serve at least one mission at some point in their life time! (:

Aquanaut

I'm sure I've told you before what wonderful neighbors we have! Well, they came through for us again.

Sport has been stressing the fact that his Cub Scout career is nearly over. He still has so many things he wants to accomplish before his birthday in June.

 He was thinking he wanted to earn all the rest of the belt loops. He only has about 10 more, but since he doesn't know how to skate, the hockey one would be pretty hard. And since we don't know anyone with a pommel horse, I think gymnastics is unlikely. But I do want to support him as much as possible.

His other goal is to pass off all 20 activity badges for Webelos. He still has 2 more to go, but I think he will be good to get them over the next two months along with his Arrow of Light.

Anyway, back to my awesome neighbors...

I called my friend, Lori, to see if she would be willing to let us use her pool so Sport could pass off the Aquanaut badge. He is a pretty good swimmer, but not really used to swimming distances like the badge required. Lori told us to take all the time we needed, so on Thursday morning we headed for the pool. It took us about 45 minutes to get him through all the requirements and then we spent another hour just playing in the water.

It was a fantastic way to spend the first day of our spring break! And one less badge to worry about.

Now, if I just had a friend who owned an ice rink...

Princess and her super-model pose

Real Meaning of Easter

Easter has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love the cool spring weather and the newness and rebirth. I love the baby animals and the promise of summer. There's baseball and softball and just a whisper of the end of the school year approaching.

And we still enjoy the Easter Bunny and all that entails. We dye eggs, hide them, hunt them, and eat lots of candy and traditional treats. My sweetie makes the best deviled eggs! Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in those things and there are some years that I must admit to planning more for that part of Easter than I do for the real celebration of Jesus Christ's Atonement, death and subsequent resurrection.

I was a bit chastened when Teach reminded me that her whole life revolves around the teachings of the Savior right now and she sent me a link. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has done a wonderful job putting together this video to help us all remember the true meaning of the Easter season.

You know I'm not a preachy sort of person and rarely do I get on my soapbox about religion, but I want all of you to know that I try my best to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my Savior, my Redeemer, my brother, my friend. I know He atoned for my sins because He loves me. And He loves you too.

Here is the video Teach shared with me. Take 3 minutes and watch it. It might just change your life.

Thanks for being my friends.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Easter Egg Hunts

I broke my own rule today. I actually took the kids to a community egg hunt. I know, I know, I've given you my rant on that before, but this time was different.Princess and Prima Donna are part of the Youth City Council as you know, and they were part of the committee assigned to set up the Easter Egg hunt.

It was already a busy morning. We woke up early to find the eggs hidden and the baskets filled with goodies. While the kids munched on chocolate and gathered up 10 dozen eggs (one egg is still missing!), my sweetie whipped up a batch of Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries.

By the time we finished eating, the girls had to change quickly and run out the door. About 20 minutes later, Princess sent the first of several texts, urging us to attend and participate. It didn't take much persuasion to get the kids ready and we arrived at the park in plenty of time to secure a good spot.

They had the kids split into groups based on age and Baby Doll was in the 3 to 4-year-old group. I left her with Princess, Prima Donna, and Crafty and hoofed it over to the 5 and 6-year-olds. Fajita and my sweetie were waiting patiently with him so I swung by the 9 and 10-year-olds. Taco and Sport were not waiting so patiently, but Bossy was with them so I knew they were in good hands. My last stop was the 7 and 8-year-olds where Drama Queen was coaching Burrito and Scout on which things to go for first and how to get the most candy possible.

That's where I remained when complete mayhem broke out! The hunt was on and in about 2 minutes it was all over. All of our kids had a gallon Ziploc bag about half full of goodies even after Sport gave a handful to two little kids that didn't get any. Burrito got two little stuffed footballs and he cheerfully handed one to Scout. I love that my kids and grandkids are so willing to share!

That's just the way we roll.

Bossy and Gamer set up our second egg hunt at our house. They have been giving that hunt to the family for 10 years now. I generally buy some of the candy and goodies, but Bossy does all the work stuffing the eggs and setting it up. This year she had help from Gamer and Drama Queen.

It was over in a couple of minutes too, with the kids gathering over a hundred plastic filled eggs, bubbles, and a handful of kites. The big girls got muffin tins too. There was even a kite for the Gym Rat! And we had something new this year...some of the plastic eggs had coins in them. Everyone was excited for that!

Once all the finding was over, Bossy gathered all the loot and proceeded to divide it up in sandwich bags for each person. We always make sure that everyone gets the same amount when it comes to egg hunts or pinatas, Halloween candy, stuff like that.

We had a fun day! Princess and my sweetie ran the "Bunny Roll" station and they helped the little kids roll out 9 cookie sheets worth. We had so many we gave a bunch of them away.

We played board games and watched the Prince of Egypt. Then we put away all the bunny decorations and the baskets. Tomorrow we will focus more on the real meaning of Easter.

And how was your celebration?