June 31--Dear Elder: Flying to Lily

Dear Elder,

Hi.  Thanks so much for yesterday’s letter and photos, we loved them!  It was so nice to hear about where you are living, the people you are serving, and the experiences you are having.  I saw a couple of those tiendas you described when we toured the small village of Yelapa last year.  I’d be looking at a house and suddenly realize, hey, that’s a little restaurant or store or whatever it was.  I found it all very interesting.  In Yelapa there were sometimes bars on the window, but rarely any glass.  Is that how it is in Los Mochis?  I enjoyed reading about the people.  It must be so hard for the families of Mexico to not have jobs they can count on for more than a week or month.  We know how busy you are and really appreciate you taking the time to write and tell us all about things.  

I am sitting in the airport waiting to board a flight to visit Emerson, Cassandra, and Lily.  It is almost 6:00 am.  I was supposed to get up at 3:30 am, but I couldn’t sleep after 1:30.  Have you ever been so stressed about needing to sleep that you couldn’t sleep?  That’s how it was with me.  Anyway, yesterday got off to a slow start because I didn’t get done with my computer “chores” till after noon, but I did get everything done which was good.  Dad worked fixing the chimneys at the laundry so that they won’t fall down.  If it wasn’t for him, the whole place would collapse around our ears, ha ha.  Neither Katrina nor Thomas worked yesterday, so they helped me lots and also wasted lots of time.  Miriam did work, of course.  We all were home in the evening for dinner (home made pizza) and family home evening where we read out loud your email from yesterday and passed around the pictures you posted.  We also read a talk from general conference by Elder Ballard about the importance of families.  It’s the third time I’ve read it in a week.  I’m glad the whole family could read it together.

Later...It was so fun to ride home from the airport next to Lily.  She is so cute!  At first, she hid her face from me in the side of her car seat and peaked out shyly.  She’s been with loud, happy, adoring fans all week, and was pretty warn out.  I just smiled and talked softly, and soon we were smiling and talking to each other like old friends.  I had so much fun showing her the little Tigger we bought her to go with her beloved Pooh Bear and Piglet.  She liked Tigger very much and sat and talked and jabbered to him.  She also liked the bib that Jonathan brought her from Canada.  I showed it to her and she grabbed it and enjoyed eating it’s packaging for quite awhile.