Hi. How are you? How was your week? I sent you a package a couple of weeks ago. Did you get it? I hope so. I enjoyed reading about what you are up to and am so glad that Erick came to church. I pray that you will find Jesus and Christina. How is your companion? I hope he is doing well. Please tell him "hi" for us, and share your package with him (I know you would do that anyway). I know it must be very hard to rely on member referrals to find people to teach, but I know Heavenly Father will bless you for listening to your leaders. As you ask members for names of people you can teach, maybe if they can't think of anyone, you can then ask them if they know of anyone who is not a member who could use some service. Service opens many doors, and you know. I'm glad you could repair a door for that single mom. I know as you pray for inspiration, Heavenly Father will bless you to know what you can do to find people to teach and serve.
This has been a very busy week because I am not yet used to being away from home so much. As you know, last weekend Dad, Miriam, and I were in San Diego. Our trip home was good. I am so sorry that I didn't answer your last email--I lost service. By the time I got back on, you weren't there anymore. Dad drove the whole way. I read a short book to them, and we talked a bit. It was nice to spend the whole weekend with Miriam and to see Preston, too. We got home at 5:45 Monday night, just in time for Miriam's 6:00 college class. It was good to be home. Dad, Thomas, Katrina and I went to the laundry so that we could keep Dad company as he worked, and then we met Miriam at the frozen yogurt place afterward.
My job is going well, Matt. I feel very blessed to be working with such wonderful adults and students. The teacher has given me five of the higher functioning kids to track. I meet with their teachers in their mainstream classes and make sure they are keeping up, etc. It has been hard to catch them all up, and the work load is a bit overwhelming, but once we get everything caught up, it shouldn't be too bad. The teacher is happy with my work and everyone is very helpful. I really enjoy working with the students. The fact that I love my job is a source of great joy to Dad. His own job is more stressful because as a teacher, he has tons more responsibility and also has to work at home as well as school, but he is delighted that my job is so nice.
I call this my first real job because, although I've done doctor surveys, the Dept of Agriculture survey, subbing and assessment testing, this is my first traditional job. It is nice to work with the same people every day. One of the reasons that I am so happy I got a job is that Dad believed in me so much, I didn't want to disappoint him. He's always said that if I were working and he were home, we'd be rich, ha ha. I don't know about that, but he sure has lots of confidence in my ability and can't even imagine people not being delighted to hire me, so it was nice to not let him down.
Katrina has been doing well. She made the Shakespeare team with the dialog that she does with Ashton. She did the cut for the scene, and her teacher and his wife were really impressed. I talked to them at parent teacher conference on Wednesday, and they said the scene is one person doing most of the talking and the other character not saying much at all, but Katrina managed to cut it so that the parts were quite even. Can you believe it, I forgot to ask them what play the scene was from! Here other teachers had nothing but good to say about her as well. A couple of them commented on the fact that her participation in class discussions encourages other kids to contribute as well. I have been driving a lot with Katrina a lot lately. She started drivers ed earlier this month, and just got finished with "range". She had driven with us only two hours before she started, but she did well, and passed easily. That gave her more confidence and she is happier to go out driving now. We got some time in this week, and she is up to four hours, one half hour of which was night driving. That's a long way from the 60 hours she needs before she gets her license! Katrina is the designated lawn mower for the family this year, and I think she is really glad that the weather is getting cooler and she won't be mowing much longer. That reminds me, I have to tell Dad that the mower died while she was doing the backyard yesterday. She and Thomas tell me its not the gas or oil. I hope it is not gone forever. We spent more money to get a Husquvarna so that it would last longer.
Thomas is a very busy guy with football, gymnastics, and homework. I am so glad he is good friends with Hayden because Hayden works hard to keep up in all his classes and does homework during lunch and after school. Thomas is keeping up much better because of it. He is even enjoying some of his classes, particularly English and Chemistry. He and his chemistry teacher enjoy talking about astronomy, and she says he picks up on what she is teaching in chemistry much more quickly than most of the other students. All of his teachers say he makes them laugh. Last night was the big rivalry game between BYU and U of U and he wanted to watch it with Hayden, but a girl his age was having a big sweet 16 party, and we wondered if many kids would be there because of the game. Thomas had told her that he would be there before he realized that the party would be during the game, and his friends wanted him to stay home and watch it with them, but he said no, he'd made a commitment. I was proud of him for that. Dad was the one who picked him up from the party and he said he had a fun time.
Miriam has been taking Katrina and Thomas shopping lately. She and Katrina went earlier in the week, and she and Thomas went on Saturday. She bought Katrina boots and Thomas a jacket. I need to pay her back! I am so glad that they got to spend time together. It was very nice of Miriam to do that especially because she is so busy. Preston sent Miriam two dozen roses for the anniversary of when they first met and they are very pretty. Now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that Miriam got to talk to Preston at all yesterday. I'll have to ask her about that. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but at work we go out into the community with the students and they collect recyclable paper from businesses to earn a little money for the classroom. Miriam offered to arrange for them to come to her work and pick up paper there. I thought that was so sweet of her!
Thomas and I got to Skype with Cassandra and Lily this last week, and that was so sweet. She dragged in her mom's bright pink bathrobe and put it on for me to be pretty. She sang me a song, and visited for quite awhile before she got distracted. Cassandra says they are doing well, so that's good. Jon was over yesterday and changed his oil in the driveway. It looked like a pretty messy job, but he got it done. I also worked with Jon to get you a Costco card which I sent to you yesterday. I have no idea if it will get to you, but I hope it does. If it doesn't, you can go to Costco and they should have you on their computers as a member and they should be able to give you a card. If you do get the card, take it in to Costco with an ID or passport, and they will be able to put your picture on the card.
Dad has been crazy busy this week, but he took time out to watch Thomas's game Thursday night. Thomas didn't get to play, but I know he was glad that Dad was there. Dad graded papers as he watched. Friday Dad and I went out. We did some errands and also got a bite to eat. When we got home, we ate ice cream and watched Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone, Dad's favorite Sherlock Holmes actor. It was fun to be together, and we also got a lot done. Yesterday he was at the laundry till after dark working to put a furnace in, and he's not done, so he gets to work on it again tomorrow. He got home so tired, but still did the dishes before he rested. He and Katrina and I watched some of a Disney documentary before having scriptures with Miriam. After that I went to bed and Dad stayed up to get Thomas home and have scriptures and prayer with him. I really hope today is a good day of rest for Dad.
Yesterday I drove with the other stake young women leaders to check out an LDS young women's Campground in preparation for next year's camp. I drove eight of us up there. It was a nice trip and fun to visit with everyone. It's the first time I've been up to the camp, and it's amazing! I can't wait to have camp there. They have a staff of 150 couple missionaries to run it, and somehow manage to allow family reunions up there as well as girl's camp. It is an amazing place! I love how much effort the church put in to this facility to bless our young women and give them a wonderful nature and gospel experience.
Besides that, I have mostly been playing catch up this week. I did get to talk to my brother, Tom on the phone Thursday and wish him a happy birthday. He seems to be doing well. He does independent civil engineering work, and lately he has also been doing some programming work on company websites. He is really enjoying the programming, and it was nice to talk with him. I also got to see my sister Elizabeth for awhile on Thursday to drop some stuff off to her. Isaac had a birthday party yesterday and I wonder how it went. Elizabeth is planning the family reunion for this summer, and I am so excited!. Also I got to hear Sarah's voice yesterday, but only to ask her to look something up for me since Dad needed some information, and I had no data at the girl's camp. It was very nice of her to help me out.
Thursday my new visiting teachers came over. One is Sister Brinkerhoff. It was nice to visit with them. I also visited the family who lost a son a month or so ago. They are so fun to talk to! Britttany has applied to do an internship at Disney World. Katrina wants to do that, too, in college.
I have been studying Helaman 5 lately, and also about the evils of contention which has really blessed my life. I'm learning that when Dad and I don't agree on how something should be done, if I avoid contending, and pray instead, a resolution that we both agree on presents itself or the subject isn't an issue after all, or something else happens to help us. It is amazing to me the different ways that Heavenly Father answers our prayers!
I also studied about pondering the other day and I need to do that more often. It brings the spirit into my life and is a precursor to revelation. I need to ponder with prayer. I can ponder on the scriptures I've read and the words of the living prophets, the spiritual experiences I've had, and the questions that I need answering. I need to be sure I ponder on things of God and not of Man.
Today I have a meeting and hopefully we will have some good family time between church and the meeting. Other than that, I can't think of much that is happening today, which is good. Tuesday our school class is going to the zoo, and I am really looking forward to being there with the students. They act like they aren't that excited about it (much like my own teenagers through the years, ha ha), but I think they will love it.
Matt, thanks for writing to us every week. I hope that your week this week goes well, and that you will have a nice preparation day today. I look forward to reading about how things are going, and I will be praying for the efforts you tell us about to be blessed. I love you very much. We all do!
Love, Mom
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