Best Mother's Day...

Dear Calder, I always get so distracted when I start my letter to you. I spent about 45 minutes reading through different posts on Facebook in the different groups for your mission. I found a lot of the post very interesting. One thing that was written in the comments about this group of missionaries leaving on May 27th was that most if not all of these missionaries are sisters. That makes some sense to send the missionaries who have less time remaining as quickly as possible. I also read that the next group would not be far behind. Another post was from a mother whose son will be finishing his mission June 16th I believe. My assumption would be that the next group would come around that time. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I'll let you know if I hear anything else that's interesting. I'm doing something new tonight with my letter writing. I am dictating on a Google doc that I will paste into an email. It takes me so long to type one-handed. My broken arm really causes the basics to take so much time! Last night I washed my hair and it was killing me. It also took forever to do it one-handed. I keep thinking about Bethany, the girl from Soul Surfer, and wonder how in the world she is a mother with only one hand! I'm anxious to hear what the orthopedic surgeon has to say tomorrow. I honestly cannot believe that I broke my arm in that fall AND that I broke my tooth just like you! What are the chances!? It was fantastic to talk to you tonight! Thank you for all of your kind words. I love you so much! And I am so grateful to have you as my best friend! I know I already told you this, but I am so proud of you! I can't even believe the amazing young man that you are. I know heavenly father is so proud of you. You are doing great things! And you are so well suited to missionary work. You are bright and can have deep conversations with people seeking for light and knowledge. They are attracted to you. You're also an amazing teacher! When you tell us about opportunities that you've had to teach others about the gospel, I stand In Awe as I listen to the way you masterfully teach the gospel. You're amazing! You've been blessed with so many gifts of the Spirit. The Lord is doing great things with you in Texas and he will continue to do great things with you and use you as one of his finest instruments in Ukraine. This is an amazing time to be a missionary. The resilience, the dedication and faith that you need to be effective and efficient, is far beyond anything I ever imagined. And you have totally risen to the call! I am humbled to be your mother. I'll send some pictures with the commentary on what's happening. I know you've seen plenty of my broken tooth pictures, but on the way to the dentist I snapped a couple more (pic 1). It was so shocking! I also took a picture in the dentist's seat when they shaved my tooth (pic 2). They ended up glueing on my broken tooth and then shaving it down in order to put the cap on it. It looks terrible! On Wednesday afternoon we had our second covid shot (pic 3). In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to get the shot the day after I broke my arm. It kind of wiped me out! Luckily Kimberly had taken Jane on Wednesday night and kept her Thursday night too. It was the best help I could have had on Thursday to recover from the covid shot and my broken arm without Jane. On Friday around noon we met Kimberly at Grandma Ann's House for our planting party (pic 4) and took Jane home with us (pic 5). She was knocked out on the way home! She was exhausted! She clearly had a wonderful time. Later in the week Kimberly checked on me to see how I was doing and sent me this cute picture of Judy (pic 4) at Lagoon on bogey the whale. It's so cute! I thought I'd include it. She looks so much like Kimberly! On Friday night we met my parents and Tony's parents at a restaurant to celebrate Mother's Day (pic 5). It was really fun to be with all of them. The Hale Center Theater is showing Les Miserables and we bought tickets for our parents as gifts for Mother's and Father's Day. We are going to see the play on Tuesday, May 18th. It should be a lot of fun. The next picture is of my place setting today at dinner (pic 6). Henry worked super hard on it. He even looked up ways to fold a napkin into a heart for me. I thought you'd get a kick out of it. I've also included some pictures at the dinner table (pic 7) and of the gifts that I received (pic 8 & 9). The girls went above and beyond and showered me with drawings and notes and gifts that they bought themselves. It was very sweet. And on Mother's Day one thing that is always really important to me is to get a picture with my kids (pic 10). We missed you very much in this picture! Not to mention that Mackay and Henry got into a shoving argument just after it was taken. It was quite a lovely moment! Well, I'm looking forward to more talking tomorrow! I hope you have a great night sleep and a good morning. I love talking to you twice a week. I could totally get used to Sunday night calls in addition to Monday afternoon calls. I'm looking forward to hearing more awesome missionary stories from your week. I'm Blown Away with the number of people that you found. And we are Beyond excited about Cornelius and his upcoming baptism. We love you so much. Keep up the great work! You're killing it! I'm so proud of you. Love you tons! Mom