CCHS HOCO 2021

Calder, Another great week in the books! And another crazy Sunday. I'm thinking next Sunday should be a much easier day. Our Saturday night ended so late because of HOCO! McKay and Henry got home around 1am and we talked and laughed about their dates until 2am. Dad and I were up at 6:45sm for a 7:30am virtual YM/YW meeting. We rushed to our ward, conducted the 2nd hour meeting together, I rushed into the Primary room to practice "The Olive Tree" with the Gonzales girls and cousins, went to the 6th ward sacrament meeting to hear Tai's report, accompanied the girls (and hardly made one mistake, which was a true miracle and tender mercy), ran home to put a salad together for the after party/Tai's welcome home at the Draper Park, stayed and ate for a second at the park, hurried home to gather all the stuff for John Gilbert's after party/farewell that we were in charge of, went to the Gilbert's sacrament meeting (where John gave a great talk and Clark - Elder Gilbert - also spoke and it was powerful), went over to the Gilbert's home and visited with such great people/family and came home EXHAUSTED! Crashed on the couch, put Jane to bed...and here I am. I won't give you the full download on the Homecoming dates because I think McKay and Henry will. Can I just say...SO GLAD THE BOYS HAVE MESSENGER! It was such a highlight for both of them last week, but especially Henry. If you picture birds flying above, there's always one that flies in the front of the triangle and hits the most headwind. Once that bird is tired, it falls back and another takes the headwind. I feel like parenting is similar. There's always one kid that has the headwind and you worry about them and eventually they figure things out and another kid goes into the headwind. As you know, McKay has been in the headwind and a worry for us last spring. I feel like McKay has moved out of the headwind and Henry moved into it. I know the interaction he has with you via messenger is so good. It really uplifts him. We had the opportunity to go to the temple last week as a young women's group and the boys with their priest quorum. Henry wasn't planning on going. He told us that if he had to give answers to the temple recommend questions he wouldn't be able to pass because he couldn't say that he knew that the church was 100% true. I told him the good news was that you don't have to know, you just have to have faith in it. Our good, sweet bishop ended up calling us saying he felt prompted to talk about Henry and going to the temple. So, Henry went. When he came home he said he hadn't felt peace like that in a long time. I just feel like we really missed building the temple foundation for Henry with the temples being closed for so long and now we are in a dire situation and he doesn't have the temple reserves that he needs to make it through these tough times. Thanks for being a great example to him. We really are blessed because of your missionary service! Thank you for all you are doing. I don't know if you heard anything about Elder Holland and an amazing talk he gave at BYU last monday. It's become an extremely hot topic in the news this week. Basically Elder Holland came to BYU to express how it has gotten off course and we need to get it back on the Lord's course. He talked about how it is a unique school with a higher purpose in mind when it comes to education. He talks about the LGBTQ+ community and our love for them but that we won't alter God's law for them despite their struggles and challenges. The title in the desert news about his talk was "BYU must stand committed to its unique academic mission and to the church that sponsors it." Clark was instrumental and worked hard with Elder Holland on his talk and presentation. Clark will be at the helm of cleaning up some of the liberal departments at BYU. It will be a very interesting thing to watch. The general society that leans very left is super upset about this talk. So much of the address has been taken out of context but Elder Holland delivered his message with so much love. I don't know if you can listen to something like that, but if you can, it is amazing. We had a great time at John's farewell today to hear Clark speak as Elder Gilbert. It was amazing to see that mantel in full view. Both he and John gave outstanding talks. We also had a minute on the back porch at the Gilberts to be taught by Clark and John Eyring. So much amazing insight into conference talks and preparation. I don't know if we've mentioned it yet, but Clark will be speaking on General Conference on Saturday morning in October. He's working on his talk and it sounds like it will be great. John Eyring talked about how difficult it is for his father, President Henry Eyring, to write his talks nowadays. He described it as almost "debilitating" because he works so hard to give the talk that the Lord wants him to give. I was imagining that it was getting easier for President Eyring because he's been doing it for so long! But it sounds like it just gets harder because he doesn't want to let the Lord down. Wow. So much insight. We truly are so blessed to be led by a living prophet on the earth during such a tumultuous time in day. And how cool is it that we have the opportunity to have more of a front row seat as we watch Clark in his new calling. I was really feeling strongly last Sunday that we should try to get Henry to a live session of general conference in October. I mentioned to Tony how powerful it can be to watch at the conference center, especially if Clark is speaking but we figured there would be no chance. The very next day I got a text from Christine asking if we'd like some tickets to conference to hear Clark speak. I cried. Such a tender mercy. Unfortunately, McKay has a bike race that day, but I think Dad and I have come up with a plan where Dad will take Henry to the conference center to hear Clark speak and I will go with McKay to price for the race. I will be sad to miss that opportunity but we only have two tickets and I think this is the right plan. So great to talk to you tonight. I really enjoy our Sunday evening laughing with my three boys. It brings me so much joy. Thank you for facilitating it! It's the highlight of my week. Thank you for blessing our family with your hard work and obedience on your mission. Thank you for enduring disorganization and some chaos as you rebuild and reorganize the mission. Can you imagine the chaos Joseph Smith endured as he organized the church? You truly are the guy the Lord needs to move his work along in the Kiev, Ukraine/Moldova mission. You're good at these types of things. You're an amazing communicator and your mission president needs someone that can communicate for him. You're a bit a of a pioneer and you are doing great things and changing people's lives. We are praying for Олег, Файрад, Микола, Коля and all the people who the Lord has prepared for you to teach in Ukraine. I am looking forward to your weekly email tomorrow. Keep up the great work, have a great week and know that we are praying our guts out for you! I love and miss you more than you know. The Lord loves Elder Horsley! That I know to be true. Love you tons! Mom :) Some dance pics....