“Oh My Son, Remember…” – Letters to Calder on His Mission

I've been thinking about you and transfers so much today! Today in our 5th hour meeting, the bishop held a combined YM/YW meeting via zoom. It was really well done. We talked about goals among other things. One subject that the bishop really did well on was the topic "what advice would I give to my younger self." He'd touched basis with many of the youth to get their input and then called on them in the meeting. In regards to transfers, I would share McKay's advice that he gave at the meeting "things usually work out for the best." Or would you rather have Henry's advice, which was "go to the gym to get swoll!" :) Luckily he changed that at the last minute to be kind to everyone. Much better, in my opinion! That goofball! Today was fast Sunday for our ward. Next week is Stake Conference, hence fast Sunday. It was a great day. President Jackson visited our ward and bore his testimony. He talked about missionary work. It was a great...

Whooohooo! T-minus a few hours until we get to see you cute face! Remember how everyone has been hating Mondays for forever because of Jody/piano and laundry? Well, I've never hated Mondays but I especially LOVE them with a missionary! Here's a rundown on my pics this week. I thought you'd like to see Daniel and McKay together at ice skating (pic 1). Bishop told me that Daniel is starting his mission papers in February. That's super exciting. So as you can see, we had the YW/YM ice skating activity last week. It was a great time. Gwen was the cutest and loved it so much. Pic 2 is of Dad and Gwen ice skating. Gwen isn't the best ice skater, since we haven't done it much, but she worked hard the entire time to get better. And it was really paying off by the end of the night. It is fun to have her in YWs. It's like she grew up overnight. She's so sweet and kind to everyone. Pic 3 is in the recovery room after McKay's surgery on Thursday....

Ok...I'm going to go through my week and send some highlights: Well, Grandma and Grandpa found a place to rent. It is perfect for them for two reasons: 1) it's brand new, which means super clean! and 2) It's right by pickleball courts. On Thursday, Grandma woke up with a super swollen leg that was red and hot to the touch. She fell a couple of weeks ago playing pickleball with your Dad and she hasn't felt well. She's been limping around and needing to elevate it. It's been tough and finally she agreed to get it looked at. Luckily, everything was ok but man....it's been tough! So I started a new way of studying Come Follow Me this week and I loved it. I listened to so many good devotionals, conference talks and read so many good scriptures. I was touched to see how Joseph saw himself (fell into foolish errors, weakness of youth guilty of levity, etc) and how God sees him (called him by name, his name should be spoken for good and evil). God can do a...

Hey Calder! It seems like it's been such a long week between when we talked last week and today. Things around here have been good...a little crazy with Grandma and Grandpa living here...but good. I just feel like I've been extra busy but I wouldn't change it for the world. I am so glad that we have the opportunity to serve and help them right now. They have definitely had their ups and downs. I think my favorite quote from Grandpa this week was when grandma was in a really bad mood and Grandpa told me "The only thing I can do is stay calm. That's my role. If someone shoots out the windows, I stay calm and figure out how to fix them." Sweet, sweet man. Their relationship is complicated and sometimes it's hard to be around them when Susan isn't being her nicest...but...most of the time she is nice. Here's an explanation of my pictures. Picture one is Jane during our YWs meeting today. Gwne is officially in YWs with me and Jane is a lone wo...

I’m writing this email from a hotel connected to the Minnesota airport. We have loved our trip to Costa Rica but it has been travel intensive!! We have our alarms set for 4:10am to get to our 6am flight home in the morning. On paper it looked tricky but doable. Tonight I’m wondering what we’re we thinking?!? 😂 So Dad’s amazing at pictures and updates. Here’s a few that you likely didn’t get. The first three are beach fun. The fourth is henry’s bad sunburn. For some reason McKay and henry didn’t think they needed any sunscreen on day one. Dumb teenage boy decision! It was a painful mistake to say the least...especially for our fair skinned Henry!! The last seven pictures were from zip lining with henry and McKay. Dad stayed behind with the girls who would have hated it! We honestly considered everyone participating but that would have been an epic and expensive fail!! It was pretty intense zip lining and I loved it! The day was rainy and cloudy but they said it made the zip line extr...