Hi! How are you? Thanks for sending the scholarship essay to us. I sure hate to bug you about that kind of stuff when you are busy serving the Lord. You will be happy to know that all the applications, etc have been sent off, so we shouldn’t have to bug you again for awhile. It was hard not to get letters from you last week, but I was glad that you got to read some from us. I was the one who had Dad tell you not to send us letters because I figured you wouldn’t have time to do that and the scholarship essay. I hope, however, that you did have time to read our emails. That is what matters to me most. We heard on the news about the capture of the drug czar, and have been praying for your safety because we figure things might be more violent where you are, now. We have faith that you are in the Lord’s hands and He is watching over you.
This has been such a wonderful week. We have family home evening on Tuesdays instead of Mondays now, so Tuesday we all, including Jonathan, went out to eat for Miriam’s birthday. She didn’t really want any birthday money spent on her, so I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies or out to eat with the family instead of getting a present, and she liked that idea. The plan was to go Thursday, but Jon wasn’t available then, so we went out for family home evening instead. It was so wonderful to be there surrounded by the kids and Dad and laugh and talk. I’m so glad that Jon could come; we see him so very seldom.
Wednesday Thomas went to a young men activity at the church. Katrina missed her young women activity because it was on Tuesday night, and she needed to be with the fam. I went to bed early, and Dad read scriptures and said prayers with the kids. It was very nice of him, and appreciated the extra sleep.
It rained a lot on Thursday, which was kind of a surprise after many days of sun, even though the weatherman had predicted it. I went on a field trip with my class. We went bowling and then to the mall to eat lunch. The field trip went well. Later when I was back home and Dad got home, he wanted to go for a drive, so we took Katrina with us for a drive. Dad wanted to go into a sporting goods store, and Katrina and I wanted to check out the scented candle outlet, so we split up for awhile. Katrina and I bought a candle warmer and scented wax for Miriam’s birthday to make her room smell good.
That night, Miriam gave the family home evening lesson that she had planned for Tuesday. She showed us all how to scan a document and save it as a pdf. I guess Dad didn’t know how to do that and had been asking her to show him. She also showed us some stuff on Excell. It was very informative. After that, we had cake and ice cream for her birthday. It was a fun little celebration. I hope that she liked it.
Happy Birthday, Miriam
Friday, Katrina and I got to talk to Lily on the phone. She was in a very loud mood, ha ha. She sang Camptown races for us with lots of “doo da’s,” At that point, Katrina told me I could take the phone off "speaker;" she could hear just fine without it, ha ha. Lily also treated us to an ear-splitting rendition of the chorus to “Angels We Have Heard on High.” You know, “Glooooooooooooooooooria!” sung over and over with an even louder and very long-drawn-out note at the end. It was the cutest thing ever, and we totally loved it. I told Lily that it was nice and lound and that I liked it. I wonder if someone was telling her to sing softer, because I heard Lily say to someone, “Grandma likes it.”
Later, Dad and I went to see the Lego movie. We ate at the theater first, which is always fun, and then went out for frozen yogurt afterward. It was so good, that we went out for frozen yogurt again on Saturday. We found a place that always has one low-carb flavor and one no-carb flavor, so we like to go there sometimes when we’re in the area.
On Saturday, we decided to get some things done around the house, so we went to some stores to get the supplies we needed. When we went to Auto Zone, Dad showed the kids how to change the tail light on the van. The weather was cold and windy, and Dad couldn’t get the tail light off, so we bought a manual to make sure we were doing it right, and we were. When he finally got it off, the casing broke. The van is getting old, Matt, and the plastic broke before the pin snapped out like it was supposed to. Anyway, we replaced the light, and also the windshield wiper blades and then headed to Home Depot to look for some clear epoxy to fix the broken light. Dad ended up repairing it with super glue. We’ll see how long that lasts, ha ha. When we finally got back home, we hung a couple of pictures and then Katrina and Thomas were through. Thomas went to Hayden’s house, Katrina exercised, etc, and I took a nap.
Later that night, Dad wanted to go buy some stuff from a guy so he and I drove up to meet him. We made another date of it and had a delicious dinner at our favorite teryaki place. It was fun to drive and talk. On the way home we stopped at the candy outlet and bought sugar Easter eggs for the kid’s Easter baskets and then went for frozen yogurt like I said.
The kids have been indexing and reading family history, Matt, isn’t that nice? I didn’t sleep well last week, so I wasn’t real productive, but I did do visiting teaching, and I took some prints of the museum paintings to the one sister I’d invited to go with me to the museum. I have been reading Les Miserables, which I love. It is so nice with a smart phone to have a library of books with me always in my pocket.
Today, as you know, is fast Sunday. I am fasting for you, Matt. I don’t have meetings on fast Sunday which is nice. Besides, ward conferences are now over, so I will have less meetings now. That is good since I don’t think my poor aching back could have taken much more of it, ha ha. We just got home from church. Dad is doing some family history, I am writing to you, Thomas is taking a nap, and I’m not sure what Katrina is doing, but she has a family home evening lesson to prepare, family history to do, and a letter to write to you, so she’s probably busy doing one of those things. There is a church educational system devotional at 6:00 which we may watch. I want to ask each person to make a snack to eat while we watch it. That will also be our dinner for the evening.
Well, that’s about it. I have had a harder time staying focused on Jesus Christ and feeling the Holy Ghost than the week before. I am trying to figure out the reason, and I think that one reason is lack of sleep, another one is less focused prayer and scripture study, and also, I think that different experiences bring out different sides of my character, and this week’s experiences did a good job to show me where my weaknesses are. It seems like Heavenly Father intersperses unsuccessful times with successful ones so that I stay humble, but don’t get too discouraged. I know His hand is in my life and in your life, Matt. I hope that you feel His guidance and spirit with you this week as you go about His work. I love you very much and look forward to receiving your email.
Love,
Mom
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