June 1--Dear Elder

Dear Matt,

Thank you so much for your last letter.  I am so glad that Arturo got baptized!  Where did the flowers in the picture come from?  I liked hearing about how you listened and responded to Pablo with love and didn't tell him how he was wrong.  I am trying to work on my listening, too.  I am trying to look beyond what is being said and focus more on the meaning and feelings behind the words.  Your experience helps me see that I need to focus on who the speaker is as a child of God, and try to see them and love them the way Heavenly Father does.  Then I can interact with them the way he would like you did with Pablo.   Thank you for sending pictures.  It helps me imagine where you are a bit more.

Did you hear about that Mormon mom from Arizona who was put in a Mexican prison for drug possesion.  She was coming home from a relative's funeral in Los Mochis, and police made a raid on the bus.  They found 12 lbs of drugs stashed under her seat.  At first they were going to arrest her husband, but she begged to go along as an interpreter and they decided to release him and arrest her instead.  Our government put lots of pressure on the Mexican government to let her go, and at her trial, they showed a survelance tape that showed her and her husband boarding the buss carrying very little; there was no way they could have carried on the drugs.  Anyway, she is free now, thank goodness.

Well, today is Saturday and it is the first time I've written because the week is so busy.  I have been getting ready for girl's camp and for the cruise, and doing my monthly Costco, Walmart, and Macey's shopping so that the house will be well stocked when Grandpa and Grandma com to take care of the kids.  I have been working hard since Monday and still have laundry, packing, phone calls, and a ton of other things to do before I leave for camp on Monday.

At camp we are doing an MTC activity so that the girls can get a feel for what it is like to be a missionary in the missionary training center.  They will rotate through classes and each class will be about one of the chapters in Preach My Gospel.  I volunteered to do a class on chapter 6, the attributes of Christ.  Remember that talk by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ"?  I used it in planning my lesson.  I am excited to talk about Jesus Christ and share how he always put the needs of others above his own.

I have also been asked to do a devotional called "Rise to the Rock"  the rock being Jesus Christ, of course.  For that one, I decided to show the girls the big wall hanging that we had in the entry way before we painted the house.  In case you don't remember, it is of Jesus standing on rocks above a stream holding a little child in one arm and reaching down with the other to help a young girl climb up.  It is called "Be Not Afraid" and it is by Greg Olsen.  It definitely illustrates rising to the Rock of our Redeemer.  I thought of the idea in the middle of the night one night and had it all figured out what questions I would ask the young women in order to discuss the picture with them, but when I sat down later to organize my thoughts and write the questions, nothing would come.  I expressed my frustration out loud, and Jon, who was in the room, told me exactly what I could ask and say.  I was so impressed I told him he should come up and give the devotional and he said he would and now that's the plan.  He'll do a great job!

I am over many of the youth camp leaders, including Katrina, who are in turn over groups of younger girls.  We call the YCL's "Big Sisters" and they mentor their "little sisters."  They have planned activities for their little sisters to do, quotes for them to read, journals for them to write in, and time for them to study scriptures together.  It is amazing to watch these girls make plans and carry them out.  They are learning lots about love and leadership.

I'm writing to you about camp stuff because that's pretty much my life right now.  Let's see...what have I done besides camp?  Well, I got to Skype with Cassandra and Lily.  She is really growing up.  Cassandra wrote a few of the things Lily says in her blog.  Here are some of them:

"You dropped the oatmeal." She said this to me after she dropped some oatmeal.

"YOU dropped the spoon." She said this to me very sternly--you guessed it--after she had thrown her spoon on the floor.

"Sorry" after bumping into someone.

"You OK?" after someone gets hurt.

"Wanna bite?" She said this to a dog today, while holding out her hand...yikes!

"Bless you." after someone sneezes.

"Ready?"

"Oh, yeah!"

"That's a lot of poop." during a diaper change, of course.

"Dat's da rule." When she's in trouble and broke a rule.

"I eat the food."

"I was...snack." when asked what she did at nursery.

"Night, night...tight!" trying to say "sleep tight."

"Stay awake!!!" this when she's tired.

So cute!  She is really liking nap time these days because it is one of the few times in the day when she gets to have her binky, ha ha.

Thomas worked only once this week, the other two days he was scheduled to work got cancelled because of weather.  He and Katrian helped me out a ton yesterday as I did inventory and shopping for the month.  They helped unload the car, put stuff away, refill stuff, etc.  Even with all that, they managed to waste plenty of time as well, ha ha. Katrina will be singing with the children's choir this Sunday at a pre-tour fireside.  I know it will be wonderful!

Miriam is gearing up to go to San Diego with Preston's family to see him graduate from Marine boot camp or whatever they call it.  She is very excited, but first she has to take that test for work again Monday.  She has been taking an online class to study for it.   She found a "detox" online.  It is a 5 day eating regime that is supposed to detoxify your body whatever that means.  Anyway, it is a pretty good diet because it has lots of fruits and veggies, nuts and legumes, and she asked me to do it with her.  The deal is that I paid for the food we need and she prepares it.  Today is our last day, and it has been fun to do it with her.  I guess we will end our detox with a fast since tomorrow is fast Sunday.  I plan to squeeze in all three meals before 4:30 which shouldn't be hard to do because they are very low calorie and then start fasting.  Anyway, Miriam has been so busy that it is nice to do this with her, and I have been so busy, that I don't have much time to prepare my own meals anyway.

Dad has been so nice about everything!  Last night was supposed to be our date night, but he asked me if I needed to do camp stuff instead and asked what he could do to help.  We couldn't even go out to eat or have our Friday night treat because of the detox.  It was really hard for me to miss out on Tamale Thursday at Cafe Rio with Dad, ha ha.  By the way, he asked a hispanic lady and she said that there is a little tamale place locally that makes delicious tamales.  Can't wait to try it!  Well, I'd better get busy!  Actually, I think I'll go back to bed instead, ha ha!