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!

July 6 and 13 Missionary Emails

June 6

Great Week!

Hey all. It was a great week here in Florida. Elder Duarte and I got a new companion so we are in a trio. He's super dope. We have so much in common. It's been really good to have another person to help motivate us. He just got reassigned from Brazil after being home for a few months.

We were able to have a few member lessons this week that went really well. I feel like I'm starting to know who everyone in the ward is now.

One of my favorite previous companions, Elder Tempest, also just got transferred next to us and it's been super fun serving around him again. Yes I know I shouldn't have favorites. He brought a pickleball set and we've been doing that for our exercise time. I never knew how fun pickleball was. (Tennis is still better though.)

We also had a District BBQ for the Fourth. We have a really good district. We're all super close.

Anyway, having Elder Sullivan here has been perfect for us. We've been really productive all week and are excited for this transfer. 

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July 13

😀

We had such a good week here. We found a new guy named Mubashir. He doesn't have a religious background at all, but he is so excited to learn. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and has been accepting everything we teach. He was an online referral that we just got one day and reached out to and he turned out to be so solid. I really think he's going to get baptized, which would be a huge miracle during quarantine. 

Barbara has still been unresponsive. We even left her a note with an origami squirrel at her house. She didn't even respond to that. If an origami squirrel didn't work I don't think anything will. So we may have to wait until church starts again to start teaching her again. 

We spent a lot of time making videos this week for our zone Facebook page. We also had some really good member lessons. The members are starting to get to know us, which makes scheduling member lessons easier. 

So basically we had a really productive week. We've been having a good time being in a trio and have had some cool miracles. Hopefully this trend continues and this next week is even better. 

Missionary Emails June 22 and 29

June 22
Hey sorry for the late email. This week was fairly productive. Our one investigator canceled both our lessons though. But she's doing good and has been reading the Book of Mormon. We also got a new ward mission leader and had a great meeting where we planned out how we're going to help the members do missionary work and hopefully get us some new people to talk to. 

Also today we had a cool miracle. Right as I was leaving to go pick up a pork shoulder and some other food from the store, a member showed up to our house with a bunch of food, including a pork shoulder. What are the odds of that? Crazy. 

Also today a bug crawled into my shirt without me realizing while I was driving, then I felt something and squished it and got guts all over my shirt. I thought it was a wasp and I was freaking out, so I pulled over and got out. Turns out it was a grasshopper. Don't know how it got in my shirt but I was freaking out. Scariest moment of my mission. 

Anyway, that was about it for the week. We also found a super dope park next to our place so I'll be going to play ball there for exercise a lot. That'll probably be good. I'll get some vitamin D in me. We have high hopes for this week. 


June 29
TRIO LIFE

This is gonna be a short email. We have transfers tomorrow and we're getting a third companion. He was serving in Brazil I think and just got reassigned here. It will be good to have a third person with us to give us some fire. 

Today we get to go to the beach. That always puts us in a good mood for a bit. It's going to be Elder Duarte's first beach pday in 18 months. I'll send some pictures later. 

June

For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.  -- 2 Nephi 28:20-21

There is such division in our country right now. To wear a mask or not to wear a mask. Protests and riots about Black Lives Matter. The state of Utah COVID-19 numbers have skyrocketed in the past month. Businesses have slowly been opening and I think that has given people a false sense of security. That and I just think they are tired of this whole virus thing and the social distancing that comes with it.

I take heart in Elder Holland's words from our last general conference where he said, "Even as we speak, we are waging an ‘all hands on deck’ war with COVID-19, a solemn reminder that a virus 1,000 times smaller than a grain of sand can bring entire populations and global economies to their knees. When we have conquered it — and we will — may we be equally committed to freeing the world from the virus of hunger and freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty."

In the meantime, Nate opened his mission call. Unlike Erik's that came in the mail, Nate's came through his email. It showed up on Tuesday but since he was working every night, he wanted to wait until Saturday to open it. Talk about patience!

Nate's headed to the Adelaide, Australia mission, English speaking. He enters the MTC (which has now been changed to home-MTC) on September 2 and flies out on September 23, quite possibly to a reassignment until Australia opens back up.

The kicker . . . Erik flies home on September 23 at 9:30am. What are the odds Nate leaves a little later and they'll be able to see each other briefly at the airport?

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We left a little piece of our heart in Colorado a week ago.

Jason was offered a job to work in Denver doing maintenance at the apartment complexes two of his aunts manage. So with little notice, they packed up all their belongings and we moved them to Lakewood, Colorado. 

Ash got some driving time on the way home.

Did I mention she finally passed her driving test to get her permit!

But before they left we got a 5-generation photo or two with Grandma and Grandpa Ellis. 

We made a trip to Ferron to see the Greats down there.

And we visited with the Goldens who are like a 2nd set of grandparents.


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Alex celebrated turning double digits. He opened presents at Grandma's,

came home to drive-thru birthday dinner like Ash's,

went to Settlement to practice fishing with his new pole,

and came back to birthday pie and Erik and his companions singing Happy Birthday.

June was a good month. It was a sad month. But babies somehow make everything right with the world. We tried to get as much baby time as possible.

We all miss our little Ollie [and I guess KJ too, but maybe not as much ;)]