Catching up on the last few missionary emails from Erik

AUGUST 17
NOT MUCH TO SAY, BUT I GOT LOTS OF PICS

Hey so we haven't had any luck this week with Mubashir or Barbara. We found a new part-member family that were going to start working with their wife and kid that aren't members. They seem really interested so I think we might put them on date soon. 

We also got tons of cool pictures. We got to pick up trash off the path at the state park we do service at, so we got to go out where visitors aren't allowed. We were able to get right next to a manatee that just had a baby a few days earlier and get some cool pics when most people would have to watch them from like 100 feet away.

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AUGUST 24
I can't believe I have 1 week left. It's crazy that it's actually happening. This week I'll be busy packing and doing all the things I need to do to to prepare to leave. Today we're taking the train down to Orlando because I never had a p-day in Orlando my whole mission so we're going to see the sights. 

Mubashir and Barbara both haven't been responsive this week which was a huge bummer. I think they just need some time. So we've mostly just been meeting with members. 

Also Go Jazz! 

Also a week before I leave they finally approved a photo editing app, so I spiced up the landscape pic from last week. I just wish we had it earlier.

Heaviness and desires of a heart

The Lord is ever mindful of our thoughts and desires. Several Utah temples have opened up for phase 2 which means Nate could go through . . . if we could get an appointment. I stressed about this the moment I heard the news. I stressed about the unknown of home-MTC and knowing what his schedule would be like and could we fit in an endowment session and could we do it after Erik came home so he could be Nate's escort. See . . . too many thoughts on my brain. 

I just knew I wanted to go through the temple with him for his first time. The thought of him going by himself just made me incredibly sad.

And the Lord knew this.

Last week my heart was heavy after I got word that the temple was full and we could not be getting in on an endowment session before Nate left. Friday I got an email from his mission president in Denver and one item addressed my very concern. When temples opened up in the Colorado area, they were to send their missionaries as soon as possible and parents would be allowed to come with them at their own expense.

I read this, sitting at my desk, and shed a few tears, grateful that the Lord knew the heaviness of my heart and knew the desires of my heart.

Don't every underestimate the power and love of an all-knowing Father in Heaven who loves all of his children to the core.

UPDATE: A week after writing this I received an email from the Bountiful Temple from an actual person saying they were booked until November BUT that I should try the Vernal Temple. I was trying to pack for a half marathon race but decided to quickly call knowing I would just get their voice recording with an email to contact them. But Nooooo . . . I actually got a REAL.LIVE.PERSON!! AND . . . she said they had a few openings. I was ecstatic.

So Nate is going September 16. Erik will be home. Kiersten is going to drive out.

It's going to be a great day.

He also got his missionary tags in the mail and is getting ready for home-MTC this week.

AND . . . ERIK COMES HOME ON TUESDAY!! Kiersten will be here with our baby Oliver. We are all so stoked. It's gonna be a fabulous week.

Life at the moment

August has sent me into a tailspin as I attempt to figure out this upcoming school year with all of its new rules and procedures. So blogging or reading in any kind of depth has not been at the forefront of my brain.

I was asked to be on a team of two to help implement technology in our building. There was training at the district for that and then back to Willow Elementary to share our "expertise." I do feel like blogging and building a website or two has helped me be more knowledgeable when it comes to some of the tech tools out there. And I'm not afraid to try new things, but I feel like I'm in my first year again working at curating resources that can be used in an online world.

I feel for these seasoned teachers who have been there a long time and are struggling to figure out where to start. They too are starting over just as a first year teacher would.

Our district has been preparing for this, attempting to get our district to be more tech saavy. The plan was to have chromebooks for every student in every school  within 5 - 6 - 7 years. This pandemic merely escalated that plan. Technology will never replace good teaching. The goal is to thread technology into our already good teaching practices and be intentional about what we use and how we use it.

However, I've felt that students get so much tech when they are at home that sometimes it's good to come to school and have a little break. I guess that's where I get to really decide what is going to work best in my classroom to satisfy both sides.

There is a little mantra in the world of plants that goes like this: The first year they sleep. The second year they creep. And the third year they leap. I feel like this is a year to leap despite all its challenges. I've spent the summer getting ready for it, getting organized, and learning for myself how I really want to tackle phonics and reading systematically. I am ready to tackle this year, complete with all its craziness.

AND . . . to add to a crazy beginning, Erik is coming home in 9 days. WOW! When did that happen. Nate is ready to tackle Denver in a few short weeks, and Kiersten is bringing that baby home to us. I informed my principal that I would be taking a day off to celebrate having all my family home for a short period.

It's going to be wonderful.

Life is wonderful.

Lots of missionary emails

 I got just a little behind . . . 

July 20
Yeah Mubashir!

So last week I talked about teaching a guy named Mubashir, and how we hoped to set a baptismal date with him this week. Our lessons with him went even better than we had planned, and he now is super excited to get baptized next month. 
We had a lesson with him yesterday and we had committed him to read Alma 32 at the end of our previous lesson. So we started yesterday with him telling us all the things he learned. His comprehension of the things he reads and of the things we teach is crazy. He explained like 10 different insights he got from Alma 32 and understood everything perfectly. I was amazed with him. He is so awesome. 

We also had a lesson with Barbara again his week. She hadn't responded to us for a few weeks, but we finally had another lesson and it went super well. She still wants to be baptized as well and wants to work towards that with us. So we had a couple good breakthroughs this week.

 
I've also been staying in really good contact with some people I was teaching in Sanford and Rockledge. A lady named KK is working to be baptized before I come home in September so I can go to it. She had a big holdup that is getting resolved finally in August. So basically this week we talked about getting baptized with 3 different people. August could be a really good month. 

I also found out some big news this week. I'll be returning home on September 1st, 3 weeks earlier than my original return date. We decided it would be more important to return and see my brother before his mission and so I can be home with him while he attends the MTC from home. My goal is to finish strong and hopefully help these people get baptized before I return.

 
That's all for this week. I'll throw some pics in at the bottom from pickleball. It's been fun recording our games and getting some action shots.

July 27
🤪

Hey guys it's been another good week. Nothing too crazy happened. We had lessons with both Mubashir and Barbara and they're both doing well. 

We also got to do service twice at a state park here and I got some cool pics. We saw a huge alligator, a snake and some massive spiders there. For our actual service we got to clean out a house they have there that was built in the 1800s that they give people tours of. We spent a few hours sweeping and wiping down everything to make it look nice again. We're going to be doing finishing up with it this week. It was a fun time. 

Also we are now allowed to have member meals again, so one of my recent converts from Sanford took us to lunch at Red Robin and we had a blast. It was nice to see him again because we were super tight. Also I forgot how amazing red Robin is. It was the best meal I've had in months. 

August 3

2 On Date!

So a hurricane came right by us this morning, but it was small enough and far enough off the coast that we weren't affected by it. This week we helped Mubashir get ready for his baptism in two weeks. We also set a baptismal date with Barbara. 

Mubashir has been taught everything now except for a few commandments, so we just need to plan his baptism and finish teaching those and he'll be ready to go. We're super excited for him. 

Barbara finally has a baptismal date as well. She's shooting for September 26th. She has some things holding her back currently, but we set some goals and made a plan for her to overcome those obstacles. Hopefully things will go more quickly now that we have a goal we're shooting for. 

 We also had zone conference in person this week for the first time since March. It was nice to see some other people that I haven't seen in months. 

It was a really good week overall. It's crazy to think I only have four left. I'll do my best to make the most of them. 

Elder Leary

Pics:

There was a really cool sunset while we were playing pickleball. 

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings! (There just so happened to be a Jazz game on😏) 

I made the whole district matching ties and we got a sick picture. 

August 10

Final Transfer!

We had some sad news this week. Mubashir is moving away for a month which means I'll miss his baptism. Also Barbara was sick all week, so no progress there. I've had lots of time to sit and think though. 

I've been trying my best to prepare to return home, my goal this week is to try to solidify all the habits I've made on the mission so I can continue them when I return. Obviously I can't be a missionary forever, but there are many things that I learned on the mission that I want to keep doing forever. So that's what I'm trying to do. 

Today was my final beach p-day, so we made sure to get tons of cool pics and hit all the good spots by the beach. So I've got tons of good pictures.

 

We also had our first member meal since arriving in Deltona in April. It was good to get some good food for once after living off my own cooking for months. The member that we went to had a super cool room filled with all sorts of collectible movie items that we got pics with as well. 

So we had a fun week, but no real progress with any investigators. I'm doing my best to stay focused on the work and helping them, and hopefully we'll see some more progress this week. 

July Has Come and Gone

Erik is coming home in exactly one month. SEPTEMBER 1! And Nate will enter home MTC the next day AND Kiersten and Jason are going to bless little Ollie that weekend. I swear my kids don't know how to space things out. Everything always seems to happen at once.

I remember so clearly the day we were headed to the MTC to drop Erik off. He was sitting in the back of the van . . .

*Writing that word van gave me a thought that we no longer have a vehicle big enough for all of us to go and pick him up from the airport. Hmmm . . . I guess we'll take two.

. . . sitting there very quiet and contemplative. I'm sure he was thinking of the two-year road ahead of him and how long it all seemed.

It seemed long to me and now here he is so close to coming home. He is currently bracing for another small hurricane. As a precaution all missionaries were moved inland again. This time he got to stay put.

He's become a pro at making ties making one for his entire district, and he's become quite proficient with a crockpot.

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Back in March when schools shut down for less than a 100 cases of COVID-19, I was pretty certain that come August we would be heading back to school in normal fashion or at least somewhat normal. HA HA! Our average COVID numbers are now between 500 and 600 and our school board voted to have us in the classroom Monday through Thursday with Friday being an online day (no kids in the classroom). I'm really not sure how that's going to be any better than simply going to school on Friday since Friday was our half day anyway. This year will be so interesting. I've spent my summer preparing for online. Digitizing a lot of materials and updating my website.

Am I nervous about going back?

Not really.

I have felt calm and peace about the whole thing. 

I read an article by a man who works for Pfizer or some drug company working on a vaccine. He said that normally vaccines take 5 years to roll out to the public. Two years ago some new technology was developed that enabled them to work at a much quicker time frame. God knew what was coming and prepared a way for us to not have to deal with this forever. I'm confident we'll have a vaccine sometime next year.

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Kiersten hitched a ride from Colorado and stayed with us for a week. We sure enjoyed having our baby back.

When he made it back home, he got shots he wasn't too happy about.

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Five miles into my run, preparing for another half marathon, I hit the ground hard. The first time I've done that in 14 years since I started running. Instead of limping home, I decided to run since it would be faster. I found that plastic wrap worked MUCH BETTER than any bandage would. It kept the wounds moist, allowing the new skin to begin it's growth without a lot of scabbing.

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Alex wanted to go backpacking this summer. A few days before the 4th, we headed out. It seemed EVERYONE, camper and non-campers alike, had the same idea . . . escape to the mountains. Luckily not many were backpackers so we had the lake to ourselves. We truly live in a very diverse, beautiful state.

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Nate celebrated his 18th birthday by starting a new, 40-hour/week job. It's been hard for him this summer in the employment department. He was doing tennis clinics until they shut those down early due to a neighbor of one of the kids testing positive with the coronavirus. He's been doing yardwork for various people and was happy to get something for this last month. We went suit shopping and today was his "farewell" talk at church. He and cousin Jeremy spoke together in all three sessions of church while Carl Jackson, whom Erik spoke with at his farewell, reported on his mission in the first two. Afterwards both of these cousins were given the Melchezedek priesthood and ordained as elders. We chose to not invite anyone other than grandparents. Usually farewells are a big to-do with some socializing afterwards. COVID-19 has made gatherings so hard. But this I know: two years from now when Nate and Jeremy are reporting their missions, this virus won't be a hindrance to who we can and can't have gather with us. However, with the way the world is in upheaval, it won't surprise me if it's something new we are learning to combat.

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One week I took Alex and Ian to Ferron for a few days to help mom and dad out watching Angie's kids, but especially to help lift Makayla in and out of her wheelchair. 

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Then I took Al and Ash to Logan for some puppy heaven. Natalie's house is always a favorite when there are puppies around.

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The Utah Jazz have started playing ball again with a very shortened season. All 22 teams playing have been quarantined to an area in Orlando. There are no actual fans to cheer them on. This is the one an only birthday (most likely) where Nate got to watch a Jazz game on his July birthday.

Bring on August!