Sunday, February 2, 2014

Feb 2--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,

Hi!  How are you?  Thank you so much for the email and the picture.  It was so nice to see what Ellery and Janeth and Martha and the others look like.  It looks like you really had a wonderful birthday.  I loved seeing your smiling face holding your birthday tamale.  It really warmed my heart that you had people around you to celebrate your birthday with you.  BTW, did you get the SD card yet?  I'm wondering if you will ever get it.  I'm fasting today, so hopefully my prayers that you will get the card will be extra efficacious and that you will get it.

I'm so glad that you have found a way to incorporate the thirteen steps found in Preach My Gospel into your day.  Are you still doing it?  I hope so.  If not, remember how well it worked, and start doing it again, okay.  You asked me if work affects my scripture reading, and it does sometimes because a good night's sleep is more important than ever.  So if I wake up at 4 am or something, I usually read scriptures until I fall back asleep, and then I call that my scripture reading and wake up later than my usual 6 am wake up and scripture reading time.  The reason this hurts my scripture study is that when am able to wake up at 6, I don't just read, I study, but when I read in the middle of the night, I read without taking notes and studying and it's just not as effective in my life.  Anyway, don't worry, Heavenly Father helps me when I am committed, and lately I have really been able to feast upon the word and get direction for my life.  Right now I am reading 1 Nephi 3 and I am learning more from the chapter than ever.

Thanks so much for sharing Doctrine and Covenants 128:8 with us.  It is so wonderful to think that God loves us enough to have restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to us in the latter days and that Christ has given His church the authority to seal on earth and have it be sealed in heaven.  We really live in a wonderful time, Matt.  I hope you can remember that when you get home and see the changes that have occurred in our country since you left.

Hmmm... what have we been doing this week?  Let's see...Wow, Matt, it's really hard to remember.  I wish I had more time in the mornings so that I could write to you a little every day instead of trying to remember at the end of the week.  Um...Thomas is trying to find an Eagle Scout project these days, Katrina has been driving us around a lot, Miriam is feeling sick and so is Dad.  I did visiting teaching this week.  I have also been trying to work a bit on family history.  I'm really trying to make that my new hobby.

I have really been keeping up on things at work and thoroughly enjoy working one-on-one with the students.  I have one student who is reading on level F right now, but we also read an abridged version of "Call of The Wild" together and he works so hard to read it that his reading is improving through sheer will power.  He told me on Tuesday that he wants to read "The Outsiders" when we finish this book.  I looked up "The Outsiders" on the internet and found out that it is a level Z.  That worried me, but when I pulled it up on Amazon and reviewed a page or two, I realized that it is totally do-able for him.  That is a very exciting thing, Matt, because he may be moving away in April, and I can't think of anything that we can do better for him than to increase his love for reading and his ability to do it.  I work with other students, too, all wonderful.

My job is kind of tenuous, Matt, because we are on the borderline of having enough students to justify having a fourth aide in the class.  If student numbers go down, I will presumably be the one who goes because I am lowest in seniority.  The district won't lay me off, they will just relocate me, thank goodness, but no where else I can work will be as wonderful as where I am working now, so I cherish every moment I spend here.  It is truly one of the sweet experiences that my patriarchal blessing assures me I will have in this life.  What's amazing is that it is nothing compared to the even sweeter experiences I have had with the family and the gospel through the years.

Friday Dad and I went out to dinner and then we walked around the mall to get a little exercise.  I really enjoy walking and talking with your dad, Matt. He's an amazing guy.  He started feeling a bit sick that night, but on Saturday morning he still went to the gun show and really felt sick on the way home, pretty much being down for the count the rest of the weekend.  I sure hope that he feels better after today because he says there is no way he can miss work tomorrow or the rest of the week since his aide is taking the week off.

We had tickets to see the art exhibit on Saturday night, but Dad was too sick to go.  Miriam didn't go either, so it was just me, Katrina, and Thomas.  It was just as wonderful an experience as it was when I went last week, Matt, to see those beautiful paintings.  Katrina and Thomas really liked it, too, and I think they were glad that we went.  I really want to get more tickets so that Dad can see it later, and hopefully Miriam, too.

Today I only had to go to my regular church meetings, which was nice, and my poor back thanked me, ha ha.  It really hurts to sit through five and six hours of church.  I have determined to take Advil next week to help me through.  Next week is our own ward's ward conference, and I think we may have only one week after that and then ward conferences will be over for the year.

After church today we had a nice time visiting around the dinner table as some of us broke our fast.  We also got to Skype Cassandra, Emerson, and Lily today which was wonderful.  Lily was really excited to see us and wanted to be sure that we noticed her pretty pink dress, which we assured her that we did.  She loved yelling "hi" to us.  We didn't really get to talk long, but it was very heart-warming to see them.  I love them so much!

Now I am writing to you, Matt, which I love to do.  Have a wonderful week.  I know that you cherish every moment of your mission, Matt, and I am glad that you do.  Thank you for not only having a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ but for acting on that testimony by bringing it's truth to others.  I love you.

Love,
Mom

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