Happy Anniversary to US!

Well, today is our 23rd anniversary! I want to call it my golden anniversary but that's the 50th anniversary. I was married when I was 23 year old and now I have been married for 23 years. So this anniversary marks the same number of years that I was single and married. I think that's pretty cool. It doesn't have a name, so I'm thinking of one. The week FLEW by! I was put in charge of the Fall Festival/Youth Fundraiser for our ward that was on Saturday. It was SO. MUCH. WORK! Glad to have it over. Lots of texting and coordinating and the worst part was we had tons of rain right up until it started (it was going to be outside). So, a little stressful. All in all, I think everyone enjoyed the ward activity. But in true D8th ward form, hardly anyone came. Seriously. It was a bummer. I mean, we had a ton of kids and youth but the parents and empty nesters didn't come. We have such a strange ward. But we had some total wins with people coming who don't normally come. Jake Hilton was there. He's the greatest. A less active dad of one of the youth - Merritt Aho, who hates coming into the church came, which was a miracle. And a couple of others were there, so it was worth all the work. I ran the bake sale. It was fun to greet and talk with everyone and meet some people I didn't know. Friday night was the night we celebrated our anniversary. Guess where we went....Tsunami...did you guess right? The sushi was above average. It was nice to sneak away with Dad. I am so blessed to be married to Dad. I knew he was great when we got married but I had no idea HOW great he would become. I love being on the same team as Dad. I feel like we are really good at strategizing and planning together. Wether is planning a family trip or how to help one of our kids. It just feels like we work pretty in sync together and I am so grateful for that. I remember when I was serving with my very most favorite companion, Sister Pocock. She was the best. She was my 5th comp (not counting my MTC comps) in my second area (Zurich). She was the first person I served with that I felt what it meant to be equally yoked. If I was tried, she pulled. If she was tired, I pulled but most of the time we were pulling together. I remember thinking how important that characteristic would be in marriage. It would be so difficult to have to constantly pull when it comes to family prayer, scripture study, CFM, going to church and all the important and unimportant parts of life. There are times I am tired and Dad pulls and when he's tired and I pull but most of the time we are both pulling and that is a huge blessing! Today Andrea Christensen bore her testimony. Life is tricky for the Christensen family. Wyatt is pretty much inactive and Andrea pulls all the time. In fact, she stays after church with her kids and conducts come follow me at church because it causes too much contention at home. In our YWs lesson a couple of weeks ago we talked about the keys of the priesthood, Olivia (her daughter) opened up and shared a beautiful message about her mom and the way she exercised the priesthood on behalf of Olivia before school started this year. Olivia explained how much she wanted a father's blessing but her Dad wasn't able or willing to give her a blessing so Andrea took Olivia into her room and told Olivia that even though Andrea hadn't been ordained to the priesthood she was still exercising the priesthood power on behalf of Olivia and knelt down together and prayed for Olivia and called upon the power of the priesthood to bless her in her school year. That was extremely powerful to me. The power of a righteous woman. Wow. So I've been thinking so much about Олег and his baptism. I can't wait to hear all about it. And I got the greatest message this week from Sally LInford. Did we tell you how we had to bribe McKay and Henry to sing in the youth stake conference choir a couple of months ago. We thought there was no way but then we offered to pay for a tank of gas and they agreed to singing. They definitely let everyone know the reason they were singing and it became a funny conversation. So this week I got a text from Sally with your song with Elder Crane and it all caps "buy that boy a tank of gas!" I had actually already watched the song but I died laughing at Sally's comment. She of course gushed at how wonderful your voice was among other things. So...I guess we owe you a tank of gas! Today in church our opening song was "How Firm A Foundation" - my favorite all time Hymn. I'm sure I shared with you that I found the scripture for my missionary plaque from this song: Isiah 41:10 aFear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. And I was so touched by the words of the song: Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed For I am Thy God, and will still give you aid I'll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand When through the deep waters I call you to go The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow For I will be with you, your troubles to bless And sanctify to you your deepest distress When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie My grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply The flame shall not hurt you, I only design Your dross to consume and the gold to refine The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose I will not, I will not desert to His foes That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake I'll never, no never, no never forsake Anyway, I was thinking about you so much and thought I'd include those words in my email this week. Those words are always good for the soul. My prayers have been with you this week. I've been earnestly praying for you to be filled with love for those who are difficult to love. I've been praying for you to have a confirmation of the sacred calling of your mission president and to understand where he is coming from. I'll keep praying for you to be filled with more love. You're doing great things. Keep up the great work. It's so exciting to hear about all those you are teaching. You are changing lives. I'm super proud of you! And I already can't wait until we get to talk next Monday. Don't be jealous but I'm heading to the Great Wolf Lodge with Henry, Gwen and Jane over our fall break this week (Wednesday - Saturday). McKay and Dad are staying behind because the Great Wolf Lodge depresses Dad/is so dark....haha....just kidding....they are staying behind so McKay can prepare for his big state race the following weekend and I"m taking one for the team. I"ll make sure to take lots of pic. We will miss you! Have a wonderful week! And send pics of your new jacket! Love you tons! Mom Pic #1: This is so gross to me that I had to take a picture,. McKay is holding a huge drink of Hawaiian Punch that they take to the CCHS games and pass around. EVERYONE swigs out of this jug. I mean, that's already gross but in an era of COVID....absolutely disgusting! And how they don't all get mono from that is unbelievable. Did you guys do that at the games?? Pic #2: McKay for the red, white and blue game when we lost to Lone Peak. This guy has some serious school spirit Pic #3: Me and my Dad. Kimberly snapped this picture in Provo last weekend for conference and it's a keeper. He's usually the guy behind the camera, so it's a priceless gift to catch this moment in time. And that's it for my pictures....just weird McKay ones. Hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into my week. Love you!