Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Oct 3--Dear Elder


Dear Elder,

Hi!  It is so nice to be able to write to you again and to know that you will probably be writing to us tomorrow.  So you have a new companion named Elder Kunz?  How is that going?  I am not at all surprised that you miss Elder Livingston.  I could tell by what you wrote, that he’s a wonderful guy.  I hope he does come visit us, because we would love to see him!  Is his mission done soon?  Thanks for telling us about who you are teaching and how are you doing.  I love knowing about your work.
This has been a good week.  On Sunday we went to see the fall leaves and we also had a family home evening lesson on feeling the Spirit.  Don, Renee, and Becky also came to visit.  It was a pretty nice day.  On Monday I got to stay home and I loved it.  I got lots done.  Monday night we went to a new nickel arcade for family night.  That was kind of fun, I guess, but there wasn’t much family interaction.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I subbed in the morning.  I don’t like being away because I don’t get much done.

Dad and the kids had a pretty good week, I think.  Katrina was doing play practice lots, and Thomas of course did lots of football.  Miriam was home because work is over for her till next year.  The kids got the first payment of their bonuses on Friday.  Both Katrina and Thomas got letters asking them back next year.  I’m wondering if there will be enough jobs for them since this year they closed down most of the food stands.  We’ll see, I guess.  I hope they do work next year for many reasons.  One reason is that we need to record Thomas’s earnings, expenses, and expenditures in order to get his Personal Management merit badge.  I wish we had done that this year!  Dad has lots of record keeping type stuff to do for his work, and it kind of has him stressed, but his week was pretty good, I think. 

Jon came over a few times and installed a new router for us which has really sped up our internet.  He also came Friday and he and Thomas got to hang out which was wonderful since otherwise Thomas would have been alone.  It has been so nice to see Jonathan often, and I am so glad he’s working close by! 

Cassandra got Lasik surgery last week.  After the surgery she was supposed to sleep through the rest of the day and not wake up till the next day, but she didn’t sleep.  She was awake through the surgery and in deep stress, and then she was awake the rest of the day in terrible pain.  She said that for about an hour, she couldn’t even talk, because the pain was too bad.  By the next day, the pain was gone and she could see well enough to drive herself to the doctor for her follow up appointment.  The doctor didn’t have much to say about what she’d gone through the day before except to say that was unusual.  She is seeing better every day and it is a very good thing for her because she’s always had lots of trouble with her contacts.

I got to Skype with Cassandra and Lily on Friday.   She is so cute and fun to Skype with.   I think that I will pull out the puppets next time and play with her that way.  It’s hard to do things by screen.  I also think we’ll do more singing.  All this depends on her willingness to sit still, ha ha.  Lily so into her binky now!  It’s funny to think that she didn’t even have one for a whole year.  I think it helps her sit and Skype longer to have a binky to suck on. 

Dad and I went out on Friday, kind of.  All we did is our monthly Costco shopping and then we got Panda to go and went home to watch a dvd.  This week we’ve been watching Dicken’s “Dombrey and Son.”  It was a very interesting video. 

On Saturday we decided to do something as a family.  First, we went to MacDonald’s because it’s the time of their annual Monopoly game, and, as Dad says, it’s his way of gambling, ha ha.  We had to order only the food that’s part of the contest which means we basically could choose between a Big Mac or chicken nuggets.  So we all had chicken nuggets for lunch except for Miriam who decided she’d rather not eat than eat that.  Whatever.  Then we went to the mall and got Thomas fitted for his choir suit.  It brought back memories of being there with you buying your missionary stuff.  BTW, let us know if you need more stuff.  I heard that clothes don’t last long there.  After that we watched a movie called Hotel Transylvania which was made by the same people who made Despicable me.  It was a very funny. 

Saturday evening, Katrina went to a friend’s to practice for Shakespeare competition, Thomas and Dad went to Thomas’s game which they won.  At one point Thomas said to the coach, “Coach, I want to play.”  And the coach said, “Don’t talk to me.”  Thomas didn’t get to play.  Miriam went to the roller derby.  It is so weird to me that she likes roller derbies.  In fact, she was planning on participating in the sport until Dad said she’d have to wait till she was paying her own doctor bills.  Is roller derby more dangerous than football?  Hmmm….  Anyway, I went to the General Relief Society broadcast at the church.  Elizabeth and I were going to go together, but the day got too busy for us both so we went to our own buildings instead.  It was an incredibly wonderful meeting with everyone speaking about Jesus Christ and His atonement and love.  It really motivated me to try and be more like Him.
Now it is Sunday.  I went to another ward with the Stake young women presidency because it was their ward conference.  Now I’m home and our ward will be done soon and then we will read your last week’s letter together as a family around the dinner table.  Many of us have already read it, of course, but this will refresh their memories so that they can write their weekly letters to you and hopefully answer your questions in them. 

I am done with the chapter on the Holy Ghost in Preach my Gospel, and now I am studying the Book of Mormon chapter.  Studying this book had increased my desire to become more converted to the gospel and to live by the Spirit more faithfully in my life.  I can’t wait for conference next week to be spiritually fed even more!

I love you so much, Matt.  I hope that you are doing well.  I notice that the red spot on your face is not going away.  Do you have any Neosporin or triple antibiotic ointment?  Something like that will help it heal.  I hope you are free from other irritations, but if you aren’t, I hope you will write to us about them since Dad usually knows what to do to heal most ailments.  Say “hi” to Elder Kunz for us.  I’m sure he’s a wonderful guy!  We are praying for you and we love you very much.  Write to us soon with all the news you can think of and have time to write. 

Love, Mom



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