Homeschooled Trainers....

Happy Superbowl Sunday! Was it weird to not watch? DId you catch any glimpses? We went to Provo and Jay and Lara threw their usual awesome party with waaay too much food. I'm including a picture I took. There were decorations and all the superbowl food you could ask for. We missed you and Toph! The week was fast and furious! I'm sure you saw the picture of McKay's gnarly scar when we went to get his hard cast at the doctor's office after we spoke last week. McKay has been trying to be careful...so much that he's decided not to go to Newport with Lance over president's day. We are all kind of bummed about that but we spoke to the doctor very openly about some of McKay's upcoming things and the doctor just was honest that McKay needs to keep himself out of situations that tempt him to be an active 17 year old boy. He told McKay that he could go to Newport but that he had to act like a 40 year old woman in the ocean and not surf. Anyway, he took the information in stride and he's trying to do his best. I had the opportunity to visit with Natalie Lawson on her birthday last week. When I was about to leave, Jalynn pulled me into the next room and just cried. You'll never believe it BUT guess who Kenzie has training her??? A natzi HOMESCHOOLED girl from some small town in Utah. Oh my heavens, my heart is breaking for Kenzie. It's been rough. This sister is very controlling and belittling to Kenzie. And she's just strange. Dad just gets so fired up about these things when it's kids he loves. It's absolutely crazy to have missionaries training new missionaries when they aren't stable. I think Kenzie will be ok, but it's going to be a little rough. And the mission president said that all new missionaries will stay with their trainers for 12 weeks...so she's in it for the long haul. On Friday the girls and I went to the Art Market in Sugarhouse. It was so much fun. It's something that Kimberly is really involved with and she sells pies at it. Also, Paige has a booth. I took a picture of the girls standing in front of Paige's booth. It was super fun. And Kimberly's pie was totally amazing! I don't know why I've never taken you with me. You'd really love the art. Let's go sometime! Something exciting that we started working on this week were the plans for updating the upstairs and remodeling our bathrooms. It's going to be a big project and you are probably really happy not to live through it. We hope to begin soon. Today was Stake Conference and President Jackson gave an awesome message and read excerpts from missionaries' letters. I'm assuming you heard from him at some point? One thing that really stood out was something that our friend Tyson Escabare shared. He said that when we left for his reassignment he felt like it was his plan B but now he realizes that where he is at is his plan A. I loved that thought. President Jackson's message was kind of along those lines. He talked about Nephi and how he broke his bow and had to make a new one out of metal. President Jackson feels like that opportunity helped to prepare Nephi to build a ship later on. Nephi had never worked with metal, only wood up until the broken bow time. But in order to build the ship he had to use both metal and wood and the Lord was preparing him for something hard that was going to be in his future. In other words, the bow experience was really a blessing to help him through the next hard step. When we look back on our lives I think we can see these things. We can look to really hard experiences that really help prepare us for the next hard thing. The Lord is so wise in his purposes and I am grateful for the wisdom and help we receive along the way. It's hard to see trials as blessings, but they are in ways that we cannot see when we are in the thick of the hard things. Everyone here seemed to have a good week. It was cold and snowy and then today was amazingly spring-like. This is going to be my kind of ski week! I'm hoping to get up to the mountains and find a bluebird ski day! Love you Calder. I'm excited to hear your update tomorrow. It wa sooo fun to see your pictures of your peeps in Dallas. I've had so many of them on my mind at various times this week. We are praying for them, for you and for Elder Ames. I'm sure proud of you Calder. You are such a great example to me. Thank you for your dedicated missionary service. You make me proud! I love talking about you with everyone I see....Costco, out walking the dog, at the gym, and all the other places I go and people want an update...this week it was LaGand Lewis (Trek's Dad at Costco), The Simisters, The Browers and our favorite Jarom Call when we were out walking the dog, and we also saw Elder Lewis' super animated (not haha) parents on the trail today, Mike Robinson and so many others at the gym that I can't remember. Everyone loves you. Everyone's praying for you. Good things are happening and you are blessing so many people's lives...especially mine! Hang in there! Love you tons! MOM :)