MIB gets home on Thursday! It doesn't seem real! He will be speaking in St. George and in Pleasant Grove. I hope you can make it to one or the other.
October 31st in St. George at 11am at the East Brigham Road Stake Center.
November 14th in Pleasant Grove at 1pm at the 1300 West Chapel.
We'd love for you to come visit at the open house following each service.
See you there.

We have a DATE!

Yes, we have a date for MIB's return. He will be home on October 28th! Wahoo! We would love for you to come to his "Homecoming" at church on October 31st. What a great way to spend Halloween!! Trick-or-Treat at our house after. Sacrament starts at 11am at the Brigham Road Stake Center. Let me know if you need directions or have questions.

We are so excited! MIB is coming home. MIB is coming home!!

Double Digits!

Wahoo - we are into double digits for MIBs return! He has been extremely busy the last few months. Here are a few excerpts from the last 3-4 months:

5/2 "Some things that happened this week: On Monday we had our Zone Activity which went really well. We kept it simple and just played games and ate lots of food. Tuesday we went and ate one of the best burgers I have ever had. After that we had one of the best ice creams I have ever had. Then we went to the doctor and wasted 4 hours there waiting for him to show up and then the actual appointment. I have an infection in my toe and am taking medicine for it.
Wednesday we had to go out to one of the sister missionary's apartment (spiritual story for when I am home and feel like it's time to share it.). Thursday we found out that our investigator, who had a baptismal date set, is actually a witch. : ( We have talked to her lots about the power of God and priesthood and everything (including that if she were to be baptized she can no longer be catholic) by the end of the week she dropped us. (Dropped = not investigating anymore). Friday we had a district c.s.p. (c.s.p. = community service project) where we built some one's house : ) Then afterwards we went on exchanges with the other District Leader. I had a good time with his companion. Later that night, about 11 pm, we felt an earth quake. haha. It was kinda cool; nothing to big but enough that everyone felt it and stuff was moving. Saturday had some cool stuff happen and depending on how things go, I'll tell you about it next week. On Sunday one of the coolest things that happened was right after church - I got to bless three different people for their sicknesses. :D So lots of fun stuff. :D"

5/16 "This week we had a baptism on Tuesday. We baptized a girl that is 14 years old. Hopefully she will continue in the church and her mom's heart will open up to us.
On Friday we had transfers. Elder Pullicar left me to go be with Elder Ridd in Sagay. My new companion was actually my District Leader last transfer. He stepped up to Zone Leader and is now my companion :D His name is Elder Eslava and he is native. Way funny guy, it's going to be a good transfer.
Well, that pretty much sums up this last week, but I want you all to know I love you and pray for you."

5/31 "So what I wanted to say to you is I really, really need your prayers. Working on trying to help people change their lives (missionaries and in-active members as well as our investigators) is overwhelming. I have been working on changing myself a lot too and Satan is working his butt off over here. Only having time to eat once a day, getting sick, running all over the zone, being on exchanges with other missionaries in their areas, rainy season starting up hard and fast, this week... I will have four days looking for apartments, working on strengthening the ward and branch we are over right now before they fall apart, preparing for the big mission split and huge batch of missionaries coming in (32), and still dealing with Satan's daily temptations is really working on my butt. I feel like I have aged 20 years just these last couple of weeks. Ahhhhhhhhhhh"

6/21 "Right now my companion and I have two areas. Next transfer, Friday, they will split. I will be in Alijis and he will be in Tangub... On top of that the mission is splitting July 1. As of 3 hours ago, my stress hit a peak. I now need to make sure everything in my new apartment is ready and that everything we need is in it. I also have no one to share the load with. So this week I'm going to be doing some serious soul searching and have some very long serious prayers. My focus on the work has to be at the top of its game."

6/28 "hah. Last week we had 32 missionaries arrive here to prepare us for the split. That is a huge bat (ours used to be the biggest with 16). I am a zone leader as well as training a new missionary. His name is Elder Ili and he is from Samoa. He is so, so awesome. I'm so excited to be his trainer. We have already had some way good times together. We also have seen some bad (not in the companionship just with in-active members.) The good is - we saw a 180 kilo pig. haha He tells everyone it looked like a small bear. haha. We also shook hands with a monkey and lots of other fun stuff. Sad thing that just happened about 10 minutes ago - he lost his wallet on a tricycle : ("

7/12 My companion and I are awesome. I made a request last night that we stay together another transfer. The work is really pulling together. :D. I'm finally starting to see people change and seeing those people that the Lord is preparing for us. (Once again stories to save for when I get home. haha.) There is so much going on and it's so hard to explain it all. Don't worry, 3 and a half more months and I'll tell you everything. haha. I get reminded like every hour of everyday that I am almost on the plane ride home. haha. It's not really distracting, just frustrating because I feel like I still have a long time, but not long enough. If that makes any sense at all."

Here we see what MIB is really missing about home:
"So apparently Dwayne Wade just picked up two of the best teammates ever; LeBron James and Chris Bosh. I expect the few games I miss here to be recorded and waiting for me to watch when I get home. haha. But I'm actually being serious about that; I really want them to be recorded. They should start the last week of October so there should only be like 1 or 2."

It's a great testimony builder for me to have MIB on a mission. The growth that we feel in his weekly emails is tremendous and we wouldn't change the last two years for anything. I'm so very excited to say, "We are in double digits in the number of days until he returns home!" I will keep you posted as to the date of his arrival and talk in church - just as soon as I know it myself!!

1000 words OR 1 more Picture!

Well, 2 pictures actually. So that is really almost 2000 words!!

Enjoy!!

FYI - I just fulfilled my promise to post again before 3 months past. : ) I just wanted to point that out for anybody who may be counting. Check! (Although I didn't really count this one since there wasn't too many real words.)

Hair Cuts, Disney, Romeo & Juliet, 5 going on 13!

The rest of the family does still exists. My hubby CUT his HAIR. Yep, he will forever now have sympathy for what "up keep" long hair requires. Here are some of the pictures of the hair cut. He was able to donate to braids to locks of love. He has no desire to grow his hair out again. : (

Princess has finished up basketball season and is now on to golf. The girls here in "golf country" definitely know how to golf. It's been fun for her to have to stretch to keep up with them! The music department made a trip to Disney Land last month and enjoyed being able to work with some Disney musicians to play their music to a few animation clips. She had a great time, of course!
DK enjoyed a season of basketball as well and continues to play tennis several times a week. He is currently involved in another play. He's doing Shakespeare. I never thought I'd see the day he'd go for that. But yes, he is Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. Although the school year is winding down, we are gearing up for the activities that the summer will bring!!
NAWs loved playing basketball this season. He did notice that he enjoyed the games more than the practise. Surprise, surprise! He enjoyed Easter so much with his cousin here. He is now hard core into riding his bicycle. He seems to be 5 going on 13!
Me? I am concerned that after Princess gets her driver's license, I'll still have two more kids to experience the driving thing with. Uuhhg! Will I survive? : ) I recall being so frustrated when I was learning to drive (on a stick-shift no less) while my father ate crackers and gave very little direction. I wanted more help, insight, something. However, I wish my poor daughter had my father to be so laid back and CALM as a licensed driver next to her. I KNOW she would enjoy the driving experience so much more that way than with "up tight" me. How did that happen? As a teenager, I always thought my dad was so up-tight, but that's nothing compared to me in the passenger's seat with Princess behind the wheel! : )

6 Months and Counting!!

Yes, MIB really only has 6 months left and then we get him back home!! Finally, I have some more pictures. You know me - a picture speaks a thousand words - so why blog without one!! : )

MIB is now in Alajis and Tangob with Elder Pullicar. I do believe he is staying busy. "I'm doing good today. Last week on Saturday we had a baptism :D An elderly lady and her granddaughter. I'll send pictures next week because we have our zone activity in like one hour and we still aren't all the way ready. (Being zone leaders we are kinda in charge of doing the zone activity haha). Oh, tomorrow I might go to the doctor for my toe. It's kinda swollen and might be infected. We haven't gone yet because, to tell you the truth, we don't have time to go to the doctor.

Last Tuesday we went on splits with one of the district leaders. I had a good time with him and tomorrow we go on splits with the other district leader.

Yesterday we tried to teach a lady who only knows Tagalog and she didn't really understand us haha. We could kinda understand her but that's about it haha. I plan on working on Tagalog when i get home though."

MIB did something that I consider to be very clever. A few weeks ago when he had little time to email, he just sent me his companion's, Elder Pullicar, email that he had written to his mother. Why write it twice, right? : ) So, here is a story from MIB through the fingers of Elder Pullicar. (Thank you Elder Pullicar!!)

"Well we just had an amazing conference! The priesthood session was amazing as well of course as the Saturday and Sunday sessions. Saturday's was possibly better (Hollands anti pornography talk was awesome! It "Blew a crater in my mind!"). We also had a very interesting experience. We had committed several different inactive families, recent converts, and investigators in Tangub ward to come to conference with us, to which they all agreed. We arranged for a member in Alijis to drive down in his jeepney and pick us all up Sunday morning by the road. One family, the Villar family, is a full member family who is now entirely inactive. Their father died 3-4 months ago and have gone inactive partly because of his death, and also partly because the oldest, a son who is 21, changed to baptist. He was a strong and great member before, but he had a baptist band to which he was the lead singer for. He eventually got baptist indoctrinated and then became a member in their church.Anyway we have been working on them for several weeks now, trying to reactive them. No luck. Anyway this past week we committed the entire family on Tuesday to come to conference (after teaching about the importance and relevance of living prophets), to which they all agreed. We visited them again on Thursday and recommitted, and they were good to go; however on Saturday we visited one last time, and mom, her oldest daughter, and son, all pulled out. The oldest daughter suddenly had a trip to Cebu she didn't know about, and Mom had a meeting to go to in the morning. They were being truthful and sincere. Satan really didn't want them to go. Anyway we committed mom and son to go (oldest daughter really did have to go) for only the afternoon session so they could go to their meetings.So back to Sunday-day of. We got up and left right away and went to our investigators in Tangub at 7:00 to gather them together and then wait for a jeepney. The first when we got there was gone, apparently she left for Sumag. The second family did meet us and we waited for the jeep. When it arrived we all left and drove to pick up some people we committed to go in Alijis Branch. The driver of the jeep ran into his house while we picked up one family who piled into the jeep, and then while we were getting one more at a different house, we came back and the jeep was gone. I don't blame them because by the time we got back to where we left the jeep conference had already started. Anyway we payed for her fare and rode a jeep and then a trike to the chapel and missed the first 15 minutes of Dieter's talk. We gathered together all our investigators and went into the sacrament/cultural hall and found there wasn't any good seats. We went to one of the smaller rooms and sat at the very back where you couldn't see/hear the talks very well. It really wasn't that great to be totally honest. After first session we left our group and rode back in the jeep to Tangub and picked up the Villar family while everyone else ate snacks the ward provided (an anti-going-home measurement taken which had no effect, everyone ate and then went home anyway). We got there just in time as the second session was starting. It was nice because of course everyone had gone home for lunch and nap-time so the hall was EMPTY. The first talk started going and I closed my eyes and prayed for 3 things. 1. That the small kids wouldn't be a big distraction. 2. For a miracle, I wanted the talks to be hand tailored for their needs. 3. That they would listen, feel the spirit, and apply the things that they heard. It was a MIRACLE! I couldn't believe my ears when FOUR times raising a family as single mother as referenced, 4+ times rescuing in-actives was talked about, and of course the powerful testimonies born about the truthfulness of the church. It was exactly what Mom and Son needed. The spirit was very strong, I know for a fact they felt it. Everything they needed to hear at that moment was spoken about beautifully. Amazing... It is obvious why we started reactivating them 3 weeks ago, why we felt it so important that they needed to go to conference no matter what, why Satan was working so hard for them not go, and its amazing how God orchestrated everything so perfectly when they finally did go."

I've been promised more pictures and I PROMISE TO BLOG AGAIN BEFORE 3 MONTHS HAVE PASSED!! : )

Ring in 2010... with a phone call!

Our New Years Eve plans were halted until we received a call from MIB. He was into his first day of 2010 while we were still in 2009. He had much to tell us about the future : )
We had a great conversation with him – it was great to get to hear from him! He has been in Inayauan for the last couple of transfers. It’s a bit more remote than his last area (see the map). He is enjoying it and is really immersed in the work. He sounds wonderful. Only 9-1/2 months left! WOW!!
Last week we were up north and able to visit our old ward/church. We’ve only been gone for 6 months, and yet I could see some real changes in the children there. Many of them seemed so much more mature. It’s amazing that while you are right there among them, it’s hard to see the transition. Yet, when you leave for even a short time, the changes are so significant! It was like being with family to be back in our old ward and visiting with old friends. You truly are wonderful people!
It scares me, just a little, to imagine the transition that MIB is making in the mission field. When he left, I considered how much his younger siblings would change in his eyes. They have changed so much already, just as I know he has too. I know that Hubby has changed a lot, at least physically, since he has left. He comments on those changes already. We never seem to see our own changes. Have I changed since he left? I wonder if I’ll seem changed to him. Who knows – just have to hope that the changes are for the better!
I have to admit that I’ve been hording some photos MIB sent. I have been enjoying these pictures and have yet to share them. So… here they are. Enjoy!