Good Morning To My Favorite Missionary!

CALDER!!! Here it is Sunday night again! I love the opportunity writing you gives me a chance to reflect on my week. It was a great one. I've included a couple of pictures. The first one is when we were on a Calder Family Zoom call with all my siblings, parents and spouses. We had the opportunity to hear from Clark and Christine about the new calling. It was such a great experience to wrap our arms around them and hopefully they felt our love and support for all that they have ahead. It was also cool to hear all about receiving the call and meeting with President Nelson and Elders Bednar and Holland. Fun news on the Gilbert side is that John officially has his mission papers in. Another fun note that is not official but Christine did say that James and Erin are moving in the direction for a summer wedding. No news yet, but that is fun! The second pic is of the older class in YWs. On Tuesday we went to the Draper temple baptistry as a family with Gwen (Dad probably sent you that pic) for the first time which was the best ever! And on Thursday I had the chance to go with my YWs class and the bishop. We had a great time. It is SO much different! And SO much better! As you might imagine, I absolutely love efficiency and you would have never been able to describe the Draper baptistry as efficient in the olden days. Well, that is a great way to describe it now. It's really cool because the hour that you schedule is YOUR hour. No one else is inside the temple but your group and it cannot be more than 16 people - adults included. They get you in and out. Gwen was so sweet. It was so different for me to have someone in the dressing room who needed a little help. I loved it. And you know how I love temples. It was great to be there with everyone. Henry baptized me - his first time being able to do that - and it was awesome. He was a little giggly with some of the names - Knut, which he thought was Nut and it smeed to catch his super immature funny bone. Same with one of the last names that was spell "...dyk" and he said "dick" and it about threw him into orbit. Not to mention that he dropped his key in the font and he was like swimming around to get it. Classic Henry! The next two pictures are from a really fun outing that we had with my Mom for her birthday. We met at a yummy Mexican restaurant in American Fork for lunch and then went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving point. Both my parents, Jay and Lara, Christine, Grace and Claire, Me, Gwen and Jane, Kimberly, Simon and Sally all came to celebrate. Lara is still not feeling great and can't walk long distances, so she rented an electric wheelchair. She was so fun. The kids loved it. She let them ride on it with her, drive it and just be totally wild and out of control. It was a total highlight. It was also really fun for me to walk around and visit with my parents and siblings. The weather had been really rainy but it let up just in time for our reservation. And best of all, my Mom felt loved and celebrated. She turned 78 years old! We continued with the celebration today. We had Grandma and Grandpa Calder over to dinner. The second to last picture is of them leaving on our front porch. It was SO much fun to be with them. I am so blessed to have such great parents. We had a fabulous time getting them all to ourselves. The last picture was taken on Friday. Lara sent me a link to a baptism that Topher was having in his area, Concho. It was really cool because the baptism was in the river. It was super skippy but it was fun to see Topher and watch the baptism. I was busy wrapping a present in the kitchen while I listened and when the baptism started, I was so touched. The spirit is SO strong wherever you are when you get to watch a baptism. I really loved it! Another cool thing about the baptism is that Topher's old companion who he was serving with but got transferred was able to zoom in and say the closing prayer. Did you realize that Topher is going to be released in about one month? I think his return date is May 26th. Wild huh? I was touched with your sentence from your last email about Daniel that said "He's making big changes in his life, and the change is huge....we asked him what it was. He's been reading the Book of Mormon everyday, and that's been the change." I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon. I've seen that change so many times. I've seen it most recently with McKay. I can tell that he is reading it again everyday and his demeanor is simply different...better! I've been noticing a difference with me. I haven't been reading it everyday. It's so difficult to figure out how to balance the scripture we are reading in CFM when it's not the Book of Mormon. But I miss it and I need it in my life! I've been doing a lot of soul searching this last week and realizing the one thing that really will help me the most is if I make sure to get the Book of Mormon every day. It's a powerful thing that I've been missing. Ever since we've returned home from our trip in Florida, I've been wrestling with how to balance having Gma and Gpa Horsley here. I love them but I think I've been running a marathon at a sprint pace. I really hit the wall after a week together in Florida. There's a lot of complicated factors in this move/living by them and I've been feeling really badly about my feelings. However, as I've thought about the Savior and the way he served, He still had boundaries and that's ok to set boundaries. So, I'm working on that. I'm figuring out a balance with them and their needs. I guess I've been a little surprised at how needy they've been. But I think these are just normal kinks that need to be worked out and having the Book of Mormon as a regular part of my day will help. Another thought I've had this week is in line with what we are studying in CFM. I just love these chapters about the early missionaries of the church in Doctrine and Covenants. I love the mission to the Lamanites that seemed unsuccessful but ended up with a visit to Sidney Rigdon who was baptized. That is such a common missionary experience when you are sent to do something that doesn't go well but blessings are poured out in a different way. I also love the way the early saints and their missions have so many similarities to our Covid missionaries like you. For many years missions have been very predictable. You receive a call to serve, you go to the MTC, you go to your mission, you knock doors, you street contact, you hand out Books of Mormon, etc. Well...just like the early missionaries of the church, the covid missionaries are blazing a new trail. You don't really know where you are going or if/when you'll get there, your training looks different, the missionary work is evolving as you go, you can't knock doors, you go on faith, and you rely on the Lord from day to day. I am so grateful for a front row seat to missionary work. You are doing an amazing job with being resilient, malleable, and just a total rockstar! It was such a great experience on Wednesday to feel how much the Lord loves you. I wasn't prepared for such a spiritual experience when I went to get your Apostille letter. I also know that the Lord loves his missionary Moms. He blessed me to know that He is in charge and that He will get Elder Horsley to where he needs to be. This work isn't getting stopped by a pandemic or crazy Russian neighbors to Ukraine. Government offices just don't work that smoothly. The spirit was leading the lady to find your papers, find a notary and for me to not leave that office without the papers I needed. I'm planning to finish up the work on Monday or Tuesday. And then we will see what the Lord has in store for his Elder Horsley. I love you so much! Thanks for the awesome letters full of the spirit, love and reminders that He loves us. That was so clear to me last week. You're doing great things and changing lives...especially mine! Oh - and i got the sweetest text from Nicole Langi on Wednesday. She sent some cute pics. I love that family. They are so sweet to send me those things. It makes my day! And my eyes always fill with tears because I love you so much and I miss you and I'm so proud of the missionary you are. Those people in Richardson just love you! And even though I miss you like crazy, I wouldn't have you anywhere else! Can't wait to talk tomorrow! Love you tons! Mom :)