Its Thursday

It seems very strange to write when I have no son to write to, but I'll take having him home to that.  Well, it's been a week since I got home from girl's camp, and my knee is doing much better.  I have to be careful, because it is easy to over do it, so the house could be cleaner, but Thomas and especially Matt have done a great job of keeping dishes washed, plants watered, trash taken out, and messes cleaned up.


Miriam has been working every day in the hot sun hoe-ing weeds growing in dry, caked earth, so she comes home pretty tired.  She has been doing it for a week now, and I'm very proud of her for sticking with it--all the other females quit on the first day.


Thomas has also been working every day, and sometimes he has done double shifts.  He's working at the water park as a griller, and he also picked up another job phone calling for the water park.  He really loves working.


Brian is working hard at the laundry although he took off some time yesterday and we drove up to the ski resort for dinner.  It was a beautiful drive, a delicious dinner, and a wonderful time talking to the man I love.  The first few days I was down, I read a book, but when I finished I resolved not to read anymore because I want to be there mentally for my family, so I did indexing one day, and then yesterday I started a fun project on the computer making family history cards like the ones I talk about on my family history blog.  Like I said, it's really fun, and I don't have to feel guilty for doing it because I can't do much else.

Matt hasn't worked at all since we've been home, but he's been tons of help around here.  He's signed on to some temp agencies, and I've really been praying that he'll get work.  Yesterday they called with a warehouse job for him, but he was reading his scriptures and had his phone turned down.  He ended up going disc golfing with Thomas, Jon, and his friend, Adam.  This morning, Matt got a call again, and this time he got it.  The job is about 40 minutes away and it entails stacking boxes, but like Matt says, it's a job.


Katrina really seems to be enjoying herself at Cassandra's house.  Miriam, Matt, and I Skyped with her for quite awhile the other day.  We also sent her a package the other day so she has a bit more of her stuff, now.  They all celebrated Emerson's birthday this week which sounds like fun.  Cassandra and Katrina are into some "dressing according to your personality" book.  It can't remember its name, but I think it's pretty popular right now.  My sister Elizabeth read it, too.  Cassandra says she'll loan it to me on my Kindle.  I told them that if I get anymore restrictions on what I can wear, I'll be wearing nothing.  That scary thought might have dissuaded her from loaning it because I haven't heard any more on the subject.


Me being down with nothing to do is a dangerous thing, especially with a smart phone in my hand, because I start shopping for toys.  I think Cassandra was a little dumbfounded when I told her I'd bought this for Lily:



I can't imagine why, ha ha.  I also looked up doctor kits for Lily since she watches a Daniel the Tiger cartoon, which is a spin off of Mr. Roger's neighborhood, and Dr. Anna on the show has a doctor's kit.  Katrina said she thought Lily would enjoy having a kit like Dr. Anna.  So after studying doctor kits, I bid on one on ebay.  I won the bid, and it shipped yesterday.






The activity gym I want to buy for Christian is $50, so I told Katrina to keep her eyes out for one at the baby consignment store where they live.  Poor Christian is not a happy baby these days.  Cassandra says she thinks he has gas, poor little guy.

Four Weeks in a Nutshell

Well, that's it.  No more letters to or from Matt.  He is home now.  Hooray!  Four days after he arrived, he gave a talk in our ward, and the next day we traveled to visit Emerson, Cassandra, Lily and Baby Christian for two weeks.  We spent the time holding Christian, playing with Lily, doing home improvement projects, eating ice cream, and going out to eat, which Emerson always insisted on paying for.  It was a wonderful visit, and we really miss them all.  Katrina doesn't miss them, though, because she is still there!  Cassandra asked her to stay and help take care of her kids for the summer, so she did.  I talked to them both today, and Katrina really seems to be loving it.

We got home from the trip late Saturday night, and then on Monday morning at 5:30 am I left for girls camp.  It was a wonderful experience, and I am so glad I went.  Unfortunately, at one point, I stepped backward, tripped over a rock, and fell down an incline, tearing my acl.  Two priesthood holders gave me a blessing which I was very grateful for because I had eight presentations to give that night, each one about a different day in the last week of Jesus Christ's life.  Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to do them before Brian took me home.

Brian was very sweet to come get me as soon as he was off work.  Unfortunately, he drove to the girl's camp that is an hour and a half south of our house, and I was at the girl's camp an hour north of our house, but when he found out his mistake, he just headed north and got into camp.  All the other women were impressed that he made the trip without me asking and didn't even get mad when he went to the wrong camp.  He got in to camp that night in time to help me set up my presentations and watch them.  Then he lifted me into his shiny black steed, and carried me home where we lived happily ever after...except I am going crazy sitting around trying to heal, which is why this blog is finally caught up!

May 19--Letter From Matt

Hey Mom, I had a couple of things I was going to add on,
First off, I'm very happy to hear that Christian is doing good and is healthy!
Second off, my baggage fee is going to be atleast (I say atleast because I might [even thought I don't think I will] go over weight) $40

May 18--Dear Elder

ear Elder Cole,

Hi!  How are you?  How has this week gone for you?  I hope it has gone well, Matt.  I know that you are having a slow time in your mission, but hang in there; you have no idea the amount of good that you are doing.

Now, for a little business.  I checked your account and you seem to be low on money, so I deposited another $100.  I wonder how much you will need for travel.  I'll ask Dad about that.  Also, I got on to your facebook page and invited all of your friends to your homecoming.  I hope you don't mind that I changed your profile picture from Bill Murray to Elder Cole.  If you do mind, just let me know and I will change it back.  I also called Elizabeth and Rick and invited them and their families to come.

Well, this is the hardest mental exercise I do all week: trying to remember what we did so that I can tell you, ha ha.  For some reason, I always forget what we did on Monday.  Hmmmm...Heck, what did we do on Tuesday?  Oh ya, we went to Katrina's last choir concert of the year, and we really enjoyed hearing her sing.  At the concert her choir teacher announced that they have been invited to sing at Carnegie Hall next year and asked us to vote on whether or not we wanted the choir to go.  So later we talked to Katrina and Thomas, who will both be in concert choir next year and told them how much we could contribute to the trip, and they told us how much they could earn, and we looked into a couple of other possibilities.  After determining all that and finding out how much it would cost, we decided to vote for the trip.  They are very excited about the possibility, especially Katrina, so we'll see what happens.

Earlier that day, my school class went to fishing day at a pond.  It is a big event put on by the Department of whatever for all the special needs kids in the valley.  The students get to each catch a fish, and they also get served lunch.  Our students had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed taking pictures of everyone which I am adding to the year book that we are making for each student.  It is kind of my project since I took all the pictures and no one else knows how to put pictures on the computer.  All of my coworkers are older than me, so at work I'm considered a young whippersnapper.  I love my job, ha ha!  The teacher I work for is retiring this year for sure, btw, which means lots of changes in my job.

Oh, I forgot that it was also Thomas's birthday, and it figures that I would forget to write about it till now, because I also forgot to wish him happy birthday that day.  He had to remind me.  I felt so bad!  I don't think I've ever forgotten to wish any of you kids happy birthday before.  We celebrated his birthday on Sunday, so we didn't do much for him that day, but you'd think he'd at least get wished happy birthday without having to remind everyone about it.  Later that night, when it arrived from Amazon, I did present him with a six foot long poster of the galaxy to hang in his bedroom.  It's pretty cool.  Then, Friday, another poster of a nebula came for him.  His room now looks out of this world, ha ha.

I did, however, remember to wish my sister, Elizabeth, happy birthday which, I found out previously, I've never remembered ever since Thomas was born on the same day, not even to wish her a late happy birthday.  I told her the reason I remembered her birthday this year is because I forgot Thomas's and since it is obvious that I can only remember one or the other, this would be the last birthday of hers that I will be remembering since I can't very well forget Thomas's again.  I gave her a hanging flower basket.  We siblings don't usually give each other gifts, but since this will be the last birthday I remember, I figured it was the least I could do.  Of course, I was kidding her: I hope to remember both of their birthdays from now on!!!!  Wish me luck on that, I'll need it.  Some young whippersnapper I turned out to be, huh?

Wednesday, Thomas went to his first priest's activity which just happened to be a combined activity with the Laurels, so Katrina was there, too.  I think they both had a nice time.  With both of them taken care of for dinner, Dad and I decided to eat out.  We invited Miriam to join us, and ate at Panda Express, a place that Thomas can't eat.  We enjoyed eating and visiting together.

Thursday Thomas worked and Katrina had voice lessons, and on Friday, Dad and I went out to eat.  He was pretty exhausted, so we went home after that to watch a movie and eat ice cream.  We watched "Flipped" which you may have read, Matt.  It was a sweet movie, and it made Dad cry, which is why I married him.

Saturday I exercised, cleaned house, went to the girl's camp to check it out, and watched the tube in the evening with your still-exhausted daddy.  It's Sunday night and he's still utterly exhausted.  He put in the coolers at the laundry this week, and it was hard to do.  He goes straight from teaching to that and stays there late.  No wonder he's one tired hombre.  By the way, Dad is being transferred to the junior high next year which he is very happy about.  The fact that he can be happy about moving to junior high attests to the misery of his present situation.  I sure hope is ends up being a good thing for him.  It will be, monetarily, because we wont be facing the pay cut that we thought would happen.  Heck, he may even buy himself the vehicle he's been wanting to replace the little pick-up which is twelve years old now, I think.  It would be good to have it for a second kid car.

Today was a weird day, but I don't have the emotional energy to go in to it.  We also did some nice things, though, like go to a church history museum and watched a movie about the resurrection, and eat dinner together as a family.  The highlight of the day is when Thomas got ordained to the office of a priest in the Aaronic priesthood.  We are so happy he is worthy to be so trusted by the Lord.

Lately I have been studying Lehi and Nephi's visions of the tree of life.  I've often thought that if I were to paint the scene, which I long to have the skill to do, I would add a gate at the head of the path leading to the tree of life.  Read 2 Nephi 31:17-18  and tell me what you think.  Also, we are reading the Isaiah chapters as a family, and I have been reading a commentary along with it.  Thank you for telling me what you are studying, Matt.  Alma 17-27 are wonderful missionary chapters!  What insights have you had about them?

Well, Matt, I love you so much.  I have been praying for you.  I always pray for you, but this last week, I have been praying even more.  I hope that you are feeling happy and seeing the fruits of your labors no matter how subtle.  We see them here as your faith and example continue to bless our family.


Love,
Mom

May12--Letter From Matt

Hey Mom Thanks for your letter I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed talking with you guys, the little old lady that was with us spends most of her time laughing so I don't think that she was at all suprised so don't worry too much. :) I'm glad to hear about your week and I'm very happy with the picture of Cassandra's baby! That's so good that Dad did all of those things for you! Sound's like a very nice day. Renee, in her letter said that Donny kept on asking when you guys are going to come over and visit.

Well this week, hmmm.... A lot of good things happened, we went and taught a lesson with the Bishop, which turned out really well, it was good to see him magnify his calling (we were teaching less active members and investigators in the same family) Later in the week we also tried to change his jeep's flat tire while he was in a meeting, I say try because after getting the tire lifted up and taking out three of the lug-nuts, the fourth was so stripped that we couldn't get it out, so we had to put all of the other lug-nuts back in, and lower the car again, (and we did all of that in missionary clothing about a half hour before I skyped you guys, if you noticed a gleam on my face, it was sweat haha,)

Rosa Maria is a wonderful nice person, when we went to visit her, we were in divisions and I was with Elder Llanos (pronounced: Yeah no's). Elder Llanos had served in our area six months before and had actually taught Rosa María before hand. When she saw him, she shouted out: "It's my son!" and tried to hug him. hahahahahaha :)
Other good things that have happened this week: We got to meet theAraujo Family, that was fun, They have some problems in their family but the Mom seems interested in listening to us. I hope that we can help them. :)
Not so good things that happened this week: Rosa María, the one that I wrote about last week, is going to start working, That, in her mind means that it'll be impossible for us to teach her because she's always going to be busy. we'll see if we can find a time to teach her.
We are going to be setting up an appointment with Lupita, Jesus's wife to meet with her visiting teachers this week.
I've been studying Alma 17 to 27 this week, also I've been reading the war chapters in Alma.
I'm sorry for the short letter, well, I hope that you have a great week this week!  I love you mom!
-Mat

May 5--Email From Matt

I feel great to be an uncle! Again! haha, I'm so glad that everything turned out well and that you were able to fast for her! That sounded like it was a very special experience.
I love you Mom, Thanks for your letter! Have a great week!

May 5--Letter From Matt

April 28--Letter From Matt

Hi, Mom.  I loved your letter and I was so excited to hear about Jim and Becky getting engadged (I have no idea how to spell that) and, o my heavens! Cassandra is going to have her little baby boy! Hot dog! ha ha.  I feel very happy.

Well, I feel weird about saying this on Friday I will have been a full-time missionary for two years. I remember a little bit about before starting.  I thought that this would be eternal.  Unfortunately I am finding out that my current full-time mission service is shockingly final.

Thanks for what you've written and I will try to put it into practice.  This week we weren't able to see Jesus much because it was the ending week of "Semana Santa" which is a pretty big celebration.  We were able to see Carlos, Rocio's husband and talk to him for a bit.

We've been street contacting a lot more, so we've met a lot of really nice people and a few crazy people! Ha ha.  On Saturday we had a "seminary" with our mission president.  He talked about the importance of working with members, and contacting people.  We then left and contacted.  I got to see three of my former companions.  That was a very fun experience.

After seminary, we got back to our area, and our three appointments fell through.  So we were a little disappointed, but then I remembered that our ward had gone to the temple and wouldn't get back until Sunday morning (the temple is about ten hours away in bus).  That meant that no one was going to clean the chapel.  So we got out the cleaning equipment and we got to business.  The bishop showed up and was very grateful for our help.

This week I have really been trying to focus on others and think about them.  I'm not very good at it.  I have also been trying to strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ.  I have also been trying to treat my companion well and help him.  He is a great companion.  I am glad that we are going to be companions for two transfers.

Well, I love you, Mom.  Thanks for your letters.  I really appreciate your advice and your insights.  When is Mother's Day and at what time do you prefer that I Skype?  or do you just want to wait until I get home?  I hope you have a wonderful week!
I love you!

April 27--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,
 Hi, How are you?  Thank you for your last letter.  It was nice to email back and forth a bit, too.  I always pray for you, but this week I have really been praying for you and your companion and your investigators.  I’m sorry that your hard work hasn’t reaped the blessings for your investigators yet that you would like them to have, but I know that Heavenly Father will consecrate your efforts for your good and theirs.  You are doing a wonderful job!

Monday we had the interesting experience of driving all the way to a little mining town far away from anything else, to look at houses.  Though it took only 35 minutes to get there, it seemed like forever.  Dad wanted to look at a little house there that was for sale for only $45,000.  He thought it might be a good investment to buy it and rent it out, hoping that the little town will become a big booming town someday.  It was a nice drive and made for a nice evening, but we are not planning to buy any property there any time soon as far as we know, ha ha.  When we got home, Miriam was back from Washington DC and we enjoyed hearing all about her trip.

Tuesday we had the wonderful experience of seeing Donny sealed to Brett and Emily for time and all eternity in the temple.  It was a real privilege for Dad and me to be there, and the spirit was very strong.  Donny looked so happy!  When I hugged him afterwards, I told him that this was only his first time at the temple and to be sure to return there again as a missionary and throughout his life.   It was also the first time that we got to see Becky and Jim since their engagement, so it was also nice to see and congratulate them.

While we were at the temple, Miram, Katrina, and Thomas watched the rest of Brett and Emily’s kids.  After the sealing, we all went out to eat, which was awesome because then the kids who weren’t at the sealing could participate in the celebration of it, at least.  Jonathan had to work, but got off in time to join us at the restaurant.  It was nice to have him there, and he got to meet Jim for the first time.  Jim is a really great guy, Matt, and I am so glad Becky has found such a good man to marry.  It was a wonderful, wonderful evening.

One thing I feel bad about, though, is that Don paid for our familys’ meal.  Brett had chosen an expensive place to eat at, and I mentioned the price because I was hoping that maybe we could find someplace cheaper, but I told Renee that if we did go there, it was fine, and that any cost was worth getting together as a family after such a wonderful experience.  So, anyway, Don offered to pay, and Dad took him up on it and I learned to keep my big mouth shut.  It was so nice of Don and Renee to do that.

Wednesday the kids went to young men and young women groups and Dad and I stayed home and watched TV.  Then I went to bed early, which was wonderful because I really needed the sleep.  Thursday Thomas interviewed at the water park and he has a job as a cook for the summer.  He applied for a supervisor position, but they ignored that and hired him on as a cook.  He’s fine with that.  After the interview he and I got food and met Dad at the laundry and ate there.  Katrina went to see the play, “The Hobbit,” put on by the children’s theater, with her friend Ashton.  I think she had a fun time.

Friday night Dad and I went out to eat and then we went home.  We watched a good movie about the civil rights movement called “The Long Walk Home.”  Thomas was at Jonathan’s house barbequing in the rain. He said they had a lot of fun and that the burgers they made were incredibly delicious.  Speaking of food, Matt, are you paying attention to how to cook the food you love?  There are many little Latino food stores around here that sell Mexican brand foods, so pay attention to the brands and ingredients that you need to make the food you like, okay?  BTW, I just looked at your account, and it looks like it is almost empty, so I put $100 in there.  Let me know if you need anything else.

Saturday was cold and rainy.  In the afternoon, Katrina, Dad, and I went to a youth camp leader planning activity.  The activity was supposed to be seven hours long up a nearby canyon which is why they asked Dad, as a priesthood holder to come along.  Anyway, with the bad weather, we ended up doing a few activities up the canyon, then, after making s’mores, we went back to the church and ate dinner and finished our planning activity there. After dropping us off at the church, Dad went on to work some more at the laundry.  It was a good activity.  The girls are amazing and planned lots of fun and inspiring activities to help the younger girls come unto Christ.  The activity ended sooner than was expected and Katrina and I were home by nine.  At home, we found Miriam and Thomas watching the last half of Batman Returns, so Dad, who had just gotten home, Katrina, and I joined them.  It was nice to have us all five together.  It doesn’t happen very often anymore.

Today has been a wonderful Sabbath day, Matt.  Yesterday I fasted to have more love in my heart, and today I really tried to care about others and I prayed a lot for help.  It was wonderful to visit with and enjoy so many people at church today, and I really loved the lessons.  The lesson in Relief Society today was on Motherhood.  I have been thinking and reading about the doctrine of motherhood lately, and have tried to cultivate the divine nature of love and compassion within me, which is why I fasted yesterday, so the lesson is just what I needed.

As you may or may not have realized, Matt, today is Cassandra’s birthday.  We already sent her a present, but we also have a madlibs for her, and we are going to Skype with her later and read it to her.  She is 26 today.  I have been able to talk to her and Lily a couple of times this week which has been so nice.  She only has eight days till her due date.  Pretty exciting, huh?  Before we know it, they will have a little baby boy.  Wow, is Lily going to be surprised!  I also have more meetings tonight, but I’ll be done by 7:00, and I’m very happy about that.  We took pictures of all the young women in the stake and I am in the process of making flash cards for them so we can learn their names better.

 I have seen Jon this week at Costco, and he seems to be doing quite well. I pray for him and all of you kids all of the time, and I know Heavenly Father hears my prayers because He showers blessings down on my children.  I love you, Matthew, and I hope that you and your companion are successful and focusing on serving Christ and not worrying if you have impressive results or not—He sees your work and knows your heart and loves you dearly.  So do I!

Love,
Mom

April 21--Letter From Matt

Here ya go mom! hahaha  I love you! Thanks for your letter! I hope that you like mine, if you don't you still have an hour to ask me information!

2014 04 15--Letter From Matt

I'm going to write a general letter this week. Yesterday was transfer day and things got really crazy. I'm grateful for all of the help that we received from the Spirit and from God. Things just barely worked out, but they worked out, and we never got into a situation that we couldn't resolve with help and inspiration from heaven :)
My companion and I are in the same area and haven't changed, but we had to help a lot of other Elders and Sister missionaries get to their new areas.
I've got some good news! On Sunday we found out that Rocío got baptised! Also María s and her husband Cezar got baptised too! That's truly amazing! I was so glad to hear about them.
I also go to hear from Manuel and Anahí, a young matrimony from Los Cabos. They are now living in Puebla (a different city in a different state) and are still active in the church. They are planning on being sealed as a family to their two wonderful children later this year.
We are currently teaching Jesus Abitia and his wife Lupita. Lupita is a member of the church and her husband is very interested in learning about what we believe. Right now we are teaching them about the Restoration of the church. Today we have an appointment with them and we are going to teach about the Great Apostasy and about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. It's going to be awesome.
We still haven't gotten to see Rosa María. She seems to be discouraged about something but every time we try to teach her, she says that she's busy and doesn't have time. We are praying for her and we hope that this week we'll be able to talk to her.
Yahir is doing well.
Omar is pretty much in the same situation that he's been in for a while now. We didn't see him last week but we are going to teach him the Restoration this week because we have a sneaking suspicion that although he's been going to church and receiving the missionaries off and on for six years now, that he hasn't been taught the Restoration yet...... Hmmm....
I've been working to strengthening my testimony of Jesus Christ. I try to testify of Him in every lesson and I try to follow all of His commandments even when it's hard to do. I feel like my testimony of Him is growing gradually . I need to be persistent. I don't think that it's going to be strengthened all at once. Just as a tree does not spring up all at once full grown from the ground.

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week, I'm sorry that this letter is going to a large group of people and that I couldn't write specifically to  every single one of you as I usually like to. I'm praying for you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week.

April 7--Letter From Matt

hey, tell me if you don't like it when I send letters like this ok? I think it's helpful and I might keep on doing it like this, so tell me what you think.
Thanks so much!

nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! I spelled prepare wrong in my letter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 6--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,

Hi!  Thanks for the hand-written letter!  It was fun to get it, and, yes, your hand writing has improved!  I appreciate you thinking ahead like that and taking the time to write.  Thank you, also, for telling me about your investigators.   I’m so glad that you could get a birth certificate for Rocio.  That is a wonderful service you for her!  I’m also glad to hear that you and your companion are working so well together.  I liked your bowling video.  Too bad the camera wasn’t rolling when you got your strikes, ha ha!

You asked me about Mosiah 15:1-4.  Doctrine and Covenants 93:4 further clarifies the concept of Christ being the father and the son:  “And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men. “  Also Mosiah 5:7 explains another way Christ is the father as well as the son.  “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.”  We are all children of God the Father, but those who take upon themselves the name of Christ, also become His sons and daughters.

As far as God the Father and Jesus Christ being “one god,” these words from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism help clarify their “one-ness”

“The unity prayed for in John 17 provides a model for the LDS understanding of the unity of the Godhead-one that is achieved among distinct individuals by unity of purpose, through faith, and by divine will and action. Joseph Smith taught that the Godhead was united by an "everlasting covenant [that] was made between [these] three personages before the organization of this earth" relevant to their administration to its inhabitants (TPJS, p. 190). The prime purpose of the Godhead and of all those united with them is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39; Hinckley, p. 49-51).”

I hope this helps, Matt.  Let me know what else you are thinking, and we can think about it together.

We are doing well.  In fact, Dad, Katrina, Thomas, and I are traveling to  see Grandpa and Grandma.  It is our spring break, so we thought we’d take advantage of the time off and visit them.   General conference was this weekend, so we waited till it was over and then took off.  We are staying over night at the half way point, so the drive won’t be so bad.  I decided to read an abridged version of Les Mis to the family as we drive, but it’s very badly abridged, so I’m ending up looking things up in the unabridged and reading to them from that.  Good thing I had them both on my Kindle!  The funny thing is that the unabridged version was free, but this stinkin’ abridged version cost me five bucks, ha ha.

Did you get to see Conference, Matt?  I hope so.  Wasn’t it wonderful?  I loved the talks, and many of the speakers said things that seemed to be just for me.  I can’t wait to re-read them!  I hope I’ll have time to study at Grandma and Grandpa’s, but we’ll see.  I also thought that the talks were very good for the kids, and I know Dad enjoyed it, too.  I especially loved the talks about Joseph Smith, and I thought there were a lot of them.  Matt, I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much, and I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His church!  I appreciated all the counsel we received, and I want to reread the chapter in “Preach My Gospel” about inviting others to come unto Christ and following up on invitations.

We didn’t do much on Saturday besides watch conference except that while Dad and Thomas were at the priesthood session, Miriam, Katrina, and I went out for a treat and to do a little shopping.  It was fun to be together.

Friday night, Dad and I saw Les Miserables…again!  It was so fun.  We left right after work, so we thought we had tons of time to kill.  We bought me some shirts and walked around and had lots of fun together.  When we got to the theater, however, we found out that our tickets were for 4:00, and we’d missed the showing!  We were both in shock.  They sent us to a different window where they said they’d just gotten a cancellation, and that they could seat us.  We were so relieved!

We went in and sat down, and all these men in suits and their wives and dates sat all around us.  All of them were holding little white boxes with bows on them, and then the governor came in and sat down, too.  They were all big wigs who had come to see the play.  The man in a suit next to me gave us his little white box because he and his wife had gotten extra.  The box had three meringue cookies in it—one red, one white, and one blue, like the French (and American, ha ha) flag.  It also had coupons for free drinks.  It was really nice of him to give it to us, and he told us a bit about why they were there which was basically to see about funding for a new theater.

The play has two casts, and we were able to see the other cast that we hadn’t seen yet.  They did a wonderful job.  Dad was smart enough to grab some tissues in the bathroom, so we were able to cry to our heart’s content as we watched.  Afterward, we were able to greet and thank the staff.  We never did shake the governor’s hand because there were so many people who wanted to.  That’s okay.

Let’s see, other than that, this week I finished sewing the parachute for Thomas’s Eagle Scout project.  I also did my finances, and went on a couple of walks with Dad.  Pretty exciting, huh?  Katrina got home at 3 am Tuesday morning, and Tuesday night we had family home evening.  Thomas gave a lesson on preparing for conference, and then we all drew pictures for Great Grandma to hang on her wall to cheer her up.  It was a good family home evening.

Lily is potty training this week, and I got to talk to her and Cassandra quite a bit.  Lily’s doing pretty good with it, I think.  I sent her a package with a princess shirt and some new unders.  It also had a little toy chicken in it that lays candy eggs.  I also talked to Jon this morning.  He’s doing good, and it was fun to visit.  Miriam isn’t going with us on this trip, btw.  She couldn’t get the time off.  I hope she isn’t too lonely without us!

Well, we are at our hotel, now, and I really need to get to bed.  Good night, Matt.  I love you very much.  Thanks for remembering us in your prayers, we are praying for you, too.

Love,
Mom  

March 31--Letter From Matt

Anticipating that we were going to be busy today an unable to write, I wrote my weekly letter on paper and took pictures of it! Here it is:

March 31--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,

Hi!  How are you doing?  Did you have a good week?  How is your companion?  Did you find any new people to teach?  How are the families that you have been teaching doing?  I am so glad that Rosa Maria wants to raise her children in the gospel.  I know that it will really bless her life.  I am sorry that Carlos and Rosio haven’t been progressing much.  I will try to remember them specifically in my prayers.  I am so glad that you are teaching Jose’s whole family so that they can all live the gospel together.  It sounds like things are going really well.

It is wonderful that you are studying about the atonement.  There sure is a lot to learn, isn’t there?  I’m glad you work so hard to not only learn of Christ but also to be like Him.  You are a good example to me and the rest of the family.  Thank you so much for that, Matt.

We have had a nice week although the weather has gotten cold again.  Right now the wind is blowing really hard, and I’m glad that I’m inside, ha ha.   Some specific things have made this week so nice.  For one thing, Dad and I went to the temple Friday, which was absolutely wonderful.  There were five young missionaries in our session from the Marshall Islands who were going through the temple for the first time, and it was wonderful to be in the session with them.  

Another thing that made this week so good is that on Saturday I went to the General Women’s meeting of the church.  Katrina is on choir tour, so I went to Elizabeth’s ward and watched it with her and Esther.  Two of the speakers spoke on keeping our covenants with the Lord.  All of the talks were inspiring and the music and videos were beautiful.  I came away from the meeting feeling comforted in my sorrows and also inspired to be more loving of the women around me.  I am so glad I got to go with Elizabeth and Esther!

Besides all those wonderful things, it was also Fast Sunday today, and I am so grateful that I can fast for strength and blessings.  Not only that, but, as you know, conference is next week!  What a wonderful and much-needed time of strength and renewal.  What a blessing!  

Besides those things, we also have been doing some fun things.  Dad hasn’t had to work as much after school, so he and I got to spend some extra time together when Thomas and Miriam have been gone, and also, all four of us went to the nickle arcade this last week and had a total blast.  I had a ton of fun playing “Tubin’” and “Burger Time” with Dad.  We used to play those two games at the Wilkinson center together when we were dating and first married.  We looked around for “Bubble Bobble,” another of our faves, but it was gone.  So sad, ha ha.  Miram, Thomas, and I had fun doing basketball hoops and air hockey together.  It was great; I really didn’t expect to have so much fun.  

Katrina got her ACT score while she was gone, and it is a 31.  Her last score was a 30, so she’s happy with that.  I told her that she should take it again and study this time, ha ha.  Katrina has been calling periodically, and she says she is having tons of fun in Seattle.  Last night she called me just before they went in to see the Lion King.  She also texted Miriam earlier and asked if anyone wanted souvenirs and stipulated that they would have to pay for them or convince me to.  That made me and Miriam laugh.  Saturday, Miriam and I went shopping together and then we got frozen yogurt.  I’m glad we got a bit of girl time.  Dad and Thomas worked at the laundry and then went off on another adventure.  

After the conference last night, I got to talk to Cassandra on the phone.  They are doing good.  Cassandra’s friend gave her a super hero baby shower.  I think that is so cute!  Emerson and Lily went and did a service project together Saturday morning, I think it was, and they had a fun time.  I love those guys so much!  They are always doing something good.

Dad and I saw Jon and Costco once this week which was nice.  He’s very busy, but seems happy.  I sewed a shirt for him and helped him get a doctor’s appointment.  My favorite thing to do after work is to go to Costco, eat samples, and see Jon, ha ha!

At work we took the kids bowling again, and then we ate at the mall afterward again.  One of our students who is a real Disney fan didn’t want to go with his group—he wanted to go to the Disney store instead, of course, so I volunteered to go with him.  We were in there for a whole hour.  I’ve had my fill of Disney for quite awhile.  I did find a book for Cassandra’s baby.  It has tons of sound effects that you play as you read, and if he’s anything like my boys, he’ll love love love sound effects.  It also has a steering wheel to turn while you read.  I think Lily will like it, too.   I found out this week, also, that Elizabeth’s baby is a boy.  It is all so exciting.  Not only that, but the lady I visiting teach is having a boy.  Lot’s of boy babies to spoil.  Hooray!!!

Tonight we stake young women and young men leaders are putting on a fireside with Steven Kapp Perry.  I wonder if we will have anyone there since another stake is having a fireside tonight with the University football and soccer teams.   Dad is coming with me, but I don’t know whether Thomas will come with us or go to the other one.   It’s really pouring out there, Matt.  Dad pointed out earlier that we’ve totally lucked out this winter with lots of rain in the valley and snow in the mountains.

I’m sure Dad told you, but he is making real headway on family history I am really hoping that we will soon have some family names to take to the temple.  That will be so neat!  I tried to get on to puzzilla.com to find cousins, but I can’t figure out how to do it, even with the video they have on family search to help me.  Luckily, they have a phone number that I can call with questions, so I guess that is what we’ll do.

I love you, Matt.   Have a wonderful day.  

Love,

Mom

March 24--Dear Elder

Now I remember what a flibber is! Haha, I also remember those bear thingies very vaguely. I don't really remember them too much.

Anyway, I really enjoyed your letter this week mom, and i would love to comment on the things that you wrote there, but, as usual we are pressed for time, and I only have a half hour to write. I think I'm getting better at writing letters on the fly! haha.

 

This week we found a woman named Rosa Maria, she's a grandma now and has a lot of little Nietos (Grand children) An RM brought us to her house and told us to teach her. She had gone to church before in the past but had stopped coming because she got disappointed with life and as she would say she: "let the devil win" and decided that it was easier not to go to church. We invited her to read, pray and come to church this week, which she did. She wants to be a good example for her little grandchildren and bring them up in a "God fearing" way (I really don't know how to say that in English) I respect her a lot and we have a lot of hope that we can help her become a member of the church and be able to be the example that she wants to be.
We have an appointment with her tomorrow. It's fun to teach her. We haven't gotten to know her that well, but we are going to care for her as much as we can.

Carlos and Rocío haven't been progressing as much these past weeks, although we hope that we can help them and their family to progress. 

José is doing good right now. We are trying to teach his family because we want to help them to re-activate so that José doesn't just go inactive if he gets baptized. It's slow going but with a lot of help from the ward, I'm sure that they can come back.

This week, I started looking at the Atonement of Christ more in my studies and I noticed that the Atonement is extensive..... And that the Atonement is only one of the things that Christ did, the most significant for us was the Atonement, but there are still a lot of other things he did for us. So, I have a lot to study! Man do I have a lot to study, and a lot to put into practice. 

Other interesting things about this week: I got stung by a bee this Saturday in a ward mission activity. I survived don't worry. :)

Imagine your son, sitting in Mexico, in a small room jammed with computers, sweating to death. Yup. That's about what's going down right in this moment.  

I love you Mom thank you so much for everything you do! I hope that you and the family have a wonderful day today and all during the week.

March 23--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,
How wonderful it was to get your last email!  I love reading about the people that you are teaching and what is happening in their lives.  I am so sorry that Jose's uncle died, and I hope that you will be able to talk to everyone that you want to this week, including all of the smiling families you encounter while you are walking in the street.

I think that is wonderful that you were able to apply what you learned in D&C 58 to your life and that doing so blessed you so much.  I hope that you have lots of success contacting the people that the members at the activity referred you to.

The clay pots that you described sound really neat.  It will be so fun to see them!  The best thing, though, was reading that you really love me.  I love you, too Matt.  Thank you so much for being my boy.  My love for you wouldn't change no matter what, but the good things that you do in your life bring me a lot of happiness, and there isn't a nicer thing you could do for me than to be such a faithful missionary.


We have had a very nice week this week.  It was the last week of the term, so I spent a lot of time at work helping students to finish up their assignments and get the turned in.  We have had a lot of substitutes lately because my one co-worker is still out after being in a car accident, and my other co-worker took some time off to be with her daughter who had a baby this week.  They will both, hopefully, be back to work tomorrow.  Their being gone didn't increase my workload or anything, but I miss having them around.

Neither Katrina nor I can remember what we did on Monday night, but I do remember getting to talk to Lily on the phone Monday after work while I did my grocery shopping.  Cassandra was making pizza, and Lily was pretty excited about that.  She had fun telling me all about stuff, and I had tons of fun listening.  I think we had chicken soup for dinner that night.  It's weird that I can't remember what we did that evening.

Tuesday Thomas's track team was doing a fundraiser at the school.  It was a hypnotist, and Thomas wanted to go, so that is what we did for family home evening.  It was kind of a boring thing to watch, but I think the students on stage were having fun.  Anyway, we did our duty and supported the track team.

Wednesday night, Thomas did most of his eagle scout project.  He had 10 kids and 9 adults all over at the church working hard to clean and repair PE equipment for Hayden's mom who is the PE teacher at the elementary school.  We cut, filled, and sewed beanbags, scrubbed stuff, and tried to repair the big parachute, but we didn't finish that yet.  Sister Spotten I are going to work on that some more this week.  Thomas worked hard going door to door and calling on the phone getting people to help out, and everyone really came through.

Thursday was the last day of school for the term and for the week, so Dad and I took advantage of the long weekend to book a 2 night get-away.  We left Thursday after Dad taught night school and didn't get back home again till 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday.  We had lots of fun together.  We didn't really have any plans of what we wanted to do.  It was just fun to spend time together doing whatever we felt like at the moment.  Let's see... we ended up touring the state capitol, going to a museum, visiting a family history center, watching the new Muppet movie, eating lots of good food, and kicking back and taking it easy.  The state capitol is so cool.  If I had realized how beautiful it was, I would have visited it much sooner, ha ha.  It was a very fun weekend.

While we were gone, Thomas had a track meet.  He participated in a co-ed relay, and he handed off the baton to Abby, but she wasn't running fast enough and he almost ran her over.  Luckily there was no on in the lane next to them, so he dodged her, and for some reason they weren't disqualified for that, so that's good.  Thomas has been doing a lot of reading lately which is good since he has a hard time falling asleep at night.  First he read "The Other Side of Heaven," and now he is reading Brandon Sanderson books which he really seems to enjoy.  In fact, everyone seems to enjoy Brandon Sanderson's books, so I think that when I finish reading Les Miserables, I am going to read one of his.  I'm at the part in Les Miserables where Jean Valjean has emerged from the sewers of Paris, bearing Marius on his shoulders and is again accosted by Javert.  I'm glad I'm reading it again because I'd forgotten how detailed and gripping the story is, having only watched the play these last few years.  I'm reading the unabridged version, Matt, but I have to admit that I skip some of the parts where Hugo goes off on tangents, ha ha.

Saturday after that, Dad went off into the boonies and had a ton of fun.  Katrina, Thomas,and I made and ate dinner together and had fun talking.  After that, we decorated for Easter, and the kids got a surprise.  Matt, do you remember the mini bear village that we'd bring out at Easter time when you were little?  Well, I found one on Ebay and bought it.  I put the little pieces in medium and small plastic Easter eggs.  A couple of weeks ago I began growing wheat grass, and it is now tall and green, so yesterday when we decorated, I put the plastic eggs in the grass. After all the decorating was done, I told the kids that they hadn't inspected the decorations good enough, so they started examining things and found the little bears, cars, swings, houses, etc, in the eggs.  They were pretty excited, especially Katrina.  Now we have a little bear village in the living room for Easter.

Jon just came by for a minute and I showed him the village.  He remembered it, and thought it was cool that I found one on Ebay since we'd lost all the bears from the original village and I had gotten rid of it.

Katrina gave a talk in church today, and did a wonderful job.  She chose for her topic "Individual Worth,' and shared with us Doctrine and Covenants chapter 18 verse 10 which says, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." She asked the question, why, when we are so weak and fallible, and God is so great and perfect, are we of worth to him.  She reminded us of Christ's words in Moses 1:39 which says "Behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." and again asked why are we worth so much to God and His son that they make it their entire work and glory to bring about our eternal happiness.  She said that she thinks the answer is love and quoted John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son."  It was a wonderful talk, Matt, and I am so grateful to know that we are God's children and that He is our father and loves us individually and infinitely, enough to give us His son to atone for our sins and bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.

After church, we had family home evening, because Dad has a meeting Monday, and Katrina and I might have a meeting on Tuesday.  Katrina gave a lesson on the atonement of the Savior, and it was wonderful.  She read some of the talk that Bruce R. Mckonkie gave about the Savior, and she asked dad and me if we remember when he gave the talk and she gave us the opportunity to share our feelings about it, which we really appreciated.  It was wonderful to spend some time talking and rejoicing in Christ.  We also had a bit of a family meeting afterward where we discussed the calendar for the next couple of weeks.  It looks like we may celebrate Easter early in order to include the whole family.

In about an hour and a half, we are going to Skype with my Aunt Ida who takes care of Great Grandma.  She is going to have Grandma on Skype, and it will be good for the kids to get to see her since who knows how long she will be around.  She's not always very lucid, so we'll see if she'll even get that we are Skyping.  Whether she does or not, it will be good to see her.

After that, I have about three hours of meetings and while I am gone, Dad and the kids are going on a drive.  It was so wonderful yesterday when it was seven o clock at night and still light outside.  Yay, spring is here!  Popcorn is starting to pop on the apricot tree, and Dad and I saw a couple of robins while we were walking together this weekend.  Katrina said she saw some weeks ago, but the point is that after a long winter, spring is here.  We wanted to have family home evening outside today, but Katrina said it was too cold.

Welp, that's just about it, Matt.  I hope that we get to hear from you tomorrow.  Have a wonderful prep day and a wonderful week sharing the gospel!

Love,
Mom

PS I attached a picture of flibbers for you,  Now do you remember them?   :)

March 17--Letter From Matt

Ok, I'm sorry this is going to be another short letter!

We are still trying to help Rocío and Carlos but we haven't been able to see them too much this last week because Carlos started helping his dad out with his sushi business.
Leticia is another person that we are teaching. She is an amazing person and has been progressing a lot in the Gospel, she's gone to church, she reads her scriptures and says her prayers, but she is living with a man. They can't get married because he's married in the U.S. and hasn't been able to get divorced. I really hope she can eventually get baptised.
We haven't been able to talk to José at all this week, because his uncle died. How sad. They had a wake for him on Saturday and the barriul this Sunday.
We haven't been able to find Berenice yet! But we are still going by her house, Maybe this week she'll be able to see us.
Our mission president has told us to contact all of the smiling families we see walking in the street. We are going to do that this week!



My studies this week have been focused on Rendir Cuentas, or in other words,  Accountability. It talks about D+C 58 which says:

 "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
 "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
 "For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
 "But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned."

 This Saturday, we had a stake activity, and as part of it, us missionaries were supposed to give tours of different booths and at the end of the tour, we were to ask: "Do you know anybody that could benefit from hearing the message that we have to offer?" and then take down addresses and names to visit them later.

Well, the activity was not very organized, and we missionaries only received vague instructions as to what we were supposed to d. I had read those verses that morning before leaving home, and they ran through in my mind again and again while we were in the activity. No one was commanding us, we were our own agents. If we didn't want to work, we didn't have to work. If we wanted to be successful, we had to work by our own free will, and do a lot of things without anyone to tell us to do them.
So we worked! Hahah, It was a great activity, and we received many names and addresses to visit, but it wouldn't have been that way if we wouldn't have been self motivated!

Thanks so much for your letter this week mom. I loved reading it. It's nice to hear that Missionary work is still a family focus. If we do it constantly it will change our lives for the better. How are you doing with Family History? I noticed that Katrina was reading about one of our ancestors, is that part of family history?
I love you mom, I think I'm going to buy some clay pots for you. They are large mouthed and look like huge frying pans with handls. They look like your style. I love you so much. Thanks for everything you do for me and for the family.

Tell everyone that I love them.
-Matt

March 16--Dear Elder

Dear Elder,

How are you?  It was so nice to get your letter after a bit of a dry spell.  I really like reading about the people you are teaching, and I hope that they will fill the Spirit, become truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and be baptized.  Thank you, also, for sharing with us some of the things that President Velez taught you.  I can tell that he is an inspired man.  Was this last week as difficult and awesome as you hoped it would be?  I hope so.  I hope you have some time to tell us about it.  Before I forget, I deposited $100 spending money into your bank account.  Sorry it took me so long to remember to do it.

We have had a very nice week this week.  Sunday night we tried cheese fondue again and it didn't work out so well again, but we ate it, and I know what to change about it, so we will try it again sometime in the distant future.  On Monday I took Thomas to the doctor.  He has a sprained sternum and can't do push ups or bench presses for awhile.  When we got home, we had my sister Elizabeth, Daniel, and her kids over for dinner and family home evening.  We ate curry, which most of her kids ended up really liking, although I'm not so sure the two youngest were very impressed.  We also had a nice lesson given by Moroni, and we had root beer floats for dessert.  It was a very fun visit, and they only left for home a half hour later than they wanted to which isn't too bad, really. 

Wednesday after school and work, we said goodbye to Dad who left for a two-day teacher's conference.  After that, Katrina and I dropped Thomas off at gymnastics and then went to give blood.  Turns out that I am still anemic, so Katrina gave blood all by herself.  I am really proud of her for doing it with such a positive attitude.  It was very fun to spend time with her.  When I got home, there were enough leftovers, etc, that I was able to take a break from dinner making which was really nice.  That night, Thomas went swimming with the young men, and Miriam and Katrina and I had a fun girl's night watching a movie and eating ice cream.  

On Thursday, Katrina and I made chicken roll-ups for dinner.  We took some to a family in the ward whose mom was not feeling well, and we ate the rest.  It was a good dinner, and it was good to eat it with the kids. When they brought our dishes back, the family asked for the recipe.  That always makes me feel like my meal is appreciated. After that, Thomas went swimming with his friends, and Katrina and I went to see a play at the university.  It was wonderfully done, and we really enjoyed ourselves even though we got home much later than we both would have liked.  Dad had called me earlier and asked me to come up to the conference and go out to eat with him, but I couldn't because of bringing dinner in and because of the play.  

Friday at work I was busy helping the students get caught up in their classes for the mid-term.  I think everyone is fairly caught up.  I am teaching one of the students earth science, but yesterday first period, I learned that he still doesn't know how many days in a week, month, year, etc even though they spent all last year trying to get him to remember these facts, and he knew them for awhile.  Anyway, I spent the rest of the day brainstorming a way for him to make a poster that models these facts.  I don't know if it will help him remember it or not, but last week he made a model of how the earth rotates around the sun and the moon rotates around the earth, and it helped him remember facts about that stuff, so maybe a visual will help him remember these other facts, too. We'll see.

When I got home from work, Dad was home from his conference!  Yay!  We went out pretty early.  We ate early because we had both had small lunches.  After we ate, we went to a running store and bought me two pairs of shoes, so I don't have to wear shoes with holes in them to work anymore.  My old shoes cost $100 and lasted two months before they got holes, which I was very unhappy about, so I wore them around for about five months with holes in protest, ha ah.  After that, we went on a good long walk together, and I think the shoes I bought are going to work out fine which is a relief.  It was such a pleasant walk, and we had so much fun being together.  I missed Dad while he was gone, and I am very glad that the conference ended up being a good one for him.

Saturday was fun because Dad and Thomas went on an adventure together, and the girls and I went out for lunch and shopping.  After Dad and Thomas got home, Dad, Katrina, Thomas, and I all went to the Saturday session of stake conference.  I said the opening prayer, and the conference was on...missionary work!  It was very inspiring, Matt, and we are going to try harder to reach out to other people.  It sure is a hard thing to do!  After that, it was 8:00 at night and we were all starving, so we went out to eat as a family.  It was wonderful to do those things together!

Today was stake conference again, and the talks were very good.  I also had a meeting with the stake youth planning committee.  I had the 14-15 year olds.  I helped them brainstorm and plan an activity for their age group to help them prepare to date when they turn 16.  I think they chose some fun and informative activities for the youth to do.  Later, we went for a drive as a family which included stopping at Renee's to drop something off.  We talked about temples and read scriptures on the ride.  Back at home, I made dinner, Dad wrote to you, Thomas indexed, and Katrina read some of Great Grandma's life history.  Dinner was cabbage with cheese sauce, muffins, and salad.  Now Katrina is driving Thomas around so that he can ask people to sign up to help with his eagle scout project on Wednesday.  He was just going to send around a sign-up sheet in church, but it was stake conference, so he couldn't do it there.  He needs to get 5 people to bring sewing machines and lots of people to donate other stuff.  The teacher's quorum is going to help him do the project.  

I love you, Matt. We are praying for you to stay well and have the Spirit with you.  I am studying 1 Nephi chapter 8, and I know that it is important, once we partake of the fruit of the tree of life, to love others enough to share that fruit with them.  I'm sorry our efforts are so small and slow.  I hope that I (and we) can do better.

I love you, Matt.

Love,

Mom

March 11--Email From Matt

I'm writing today because yesterday we were in the hospital from 11am to 8pm. An Elder had to get a medical tube taken out of him

What is a flibber???? I have no idea. What is it?

Sounds like you guys did have an adventure! I slightly remember going to the little canon. I really don't remember it though.

Ok, about me,
Who have we been teaching this week? Well there is a matrimony that we are teaching. Carlos and Rocío. They are parents of 2 little kids, and they do sushi in their house. It's hard to explain, they have a large, open covered porch, and they make it there. Carlos started talking to the missionaries first, but afterwards, Rocío got interested too. We haven't really gotten to know them, but they seem to be great people.

We prayed to be able to find someone to teach, because there aren't many investigators here, and we both felt impressed that we had to go and talk with a lady called Berenicia that we found in the area book. We've gone to her house, but we haven't been able to talk with her, but we have talked a little bit with her kids: Raul and Ivana. Today we have an appointment with her. Let's hope that she's there.

Today we had a muti zone conference. It was most excellent. I wrote down a few things that President Velez said: "We cannot be successful if we are prideful," Later he gave us a promise: "The missionary that loves his companion as himself, will have the success that he has always wanted to have in his mission." Wow. That's a pretty darn good promise! He said a lot of really good things that I just couldn't write down, but basically he invited us all to follow verse 74 from D+C 88
"And I give unto you, who are the first laborers in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and sanctify yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean;"
Sister Velez also gave an excellent section of the training.

This week, we are going to be working really hard! I'm loving it! It's been a hard week last week, but I think that this week is going to be a fuller, possibly more difficult week, but it's going to be amazing!
I hope that you're all doing well. I'm going to finish up right now but if I had time, I would write more.

I love you Mom, Thanks for your faithful letters! Even though sometimes I cant write!
-Matt