11/29/15 Thanksgiving Cont.

Elder Nelson,

We think of you everyday...so many times a day and wonder what life is like in Ghana. We play your music playlists and whenever there is a song on the radio in the car that you played we have a little memorial moment.You are missed.

Although we have so many questions, one big one is, where is your companion and other missionaries in your apartment from? What are their stories?

We keep watching the weather in Ghana....rain...80's....feels like 100. I will give you a clue as to the temp here.... the ice is half way up the windows today. Feels like the door to the basement is open. 

I earned just enough money helping Becky clean apartments to buy a new mattress for dad. It was delivered on Wednesday....so nice. It is guaranteed to help Dad's back and help him sleep.........guaranteed to solve all of our problems. I is really nice for me. I am sleeping like a dream.

The highlights of Thanksgiving were:

Seeing Tyler and Kent commemorate No Shave November

Watching Porter play soccer with Heidi's little dachshund dogs

Teaming with Tad in 6 handed pinochle to set Dad, Porter, Pace and Uncle Mike. We didn't even have a single ace between us to do it. 

Seeing Tyrel and Brittany and Travis' band friends

Evelyn carries rocks around in her pocket. For example turqoise is supposed to protect you and there were different rocks for different things.I wonder what the rocks do for Drew, besides ruin my washer.

On Friday we celebrated White Friday by going to the Rexburg Temple. It was as crowded as the stores. Keith enjoyed the peaceful wait with Porter, Tad and Brigham in the baptistry. I did intiatories...I am not as good at enjoying the wait. Pace forgot his recommend and waited in the cold van. Some names that I did had been waiting since the 1500's. Now that's a long wait. 

After thinking about Evelyn's rocks and going to the temple I was reminded how our garments protect us .... I often forget the simple blessings of being protected. I liked Jared's last letter.

We also celebrated winter by bringing the ping pong table upstairs. It is now our dinning room table and our real dining room table has become a project table in the living room. I am making a levi quilt out of dad's shirts and pants, Sadie is making Christmas projects for her friends, and Tad is making blacksmith pants out of an old ironing board cover .... he and Brigham have been melting metal for knifes. 

Chris Eckman came by Friday during his vacation at his parent's.He lives in San Francisco. His main job is making warehouses more efficient through physics. He is doing contract work for Space X!!!! And lots of other cool projects. Porter LOVED asking all of his science questions and have the dots connect. Space X is working with the old Titan Rocket......it is the same one Paul Hill built in his career. Fun connection. Paul Hill moved to Ririe with his daughter this week.

Brother Hale taught Porter, Pace, Tad and Brigham how to weld on Saturday. In preparation they had to watch some Youtube videos...love youtube for this. 

Last night we upgraded our chaotic dodgeballs game to a teenage volleyball party with Pace's friends and families. I liked the change. Pace has friends that are fun.

My little scout, Riley, is being baptized this Saturday. His mom is inactive, but so kind and happy. My scout group and my visiting teaching group is my teaching pool. 1/2 of my scouts are non-members or are in inactive families. All 8 come every week and are so fun. This week we are going to a live nativity and to the community Christmas program at the Crown of Life Church. Meghan is moving to Lewisville tomorrow and got engaged to David this week. Mixed feelings. We read Mark 8 for family scripture study about the seed being planted in the rock and I worry that she won't have the support she needs if she moves. I will have to trust Heavenly Father. 

My ponderization scripture for last week was Alma 62: 41 

41 But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.

We have the choice of how we react to our situations. You will see this in the people you meet. Hard, or humble. So many blessings come from being humble. 

Is there anything you need/want from us? 

We love you so much and pray for you multiple times a day. 

Love,

Mom

P.S. Pace and I tried to eat well cooked turkey bones with thoughts of you.  It wasn't so successful. We love to hear about your adventures, and teaching experiences....keep sending them. I have several people each week tell me how much they enjoy reading your e-mails/blog including non-member and inactive friends. 

P.S.S. How is week 3 in the field? Have you felt homesick? Anything you weren't pre-warned about yet?

11/22/15 Thanksgiving

Nov. 22, 2015
Happy Thanksgiving!

We’re meeting at Kent / Heidi’s this week. The annual celebration is getting smaller: only 28 people this year, but we’re looking forward to being with family. We’re in charge of mashed potatoes again, but might slip in some fufu to see if anyone notices :)

There is a coed volleyball team that has started at the high school, and Pace decided he wants to try it. I went with him to the first practice to see what it’s like, and there are some really good players. He’s excited, which is a good thing, but we’ll see how it goes.

Mom has been saving her money from various projects, and treated me to a mattress shopping date. We spent the afternoon lying on various beds to see how we felt about this or that mattress. It was a little weird, but fun. Prices went from $199 to over $4600. At about $400, we could feel a tremendous difference between our current mattress and the newer technologies, so I was excited to take a $4600 7th wonder of the world mattress for a test lie. Meh. Like so many other things, you can spend a lot of money for very little return.

Drew commented this week that “Isaac doesn’t talk as much as he used to.” Apparently he hasn’t noticed you’re missing? We’re still trying to get inside his head and figure him out.

Davis spent the evening in bed because he was grossed out by some unique texture in his chicken and wouldn’t finish dinner. I wonder where he’s going on his mission.

Porter played in the Jazz Swing Dance dinner / fundraiser. The menu seems to have gotten stuck somewhere in committee. Baked potatoes and chili. We missed you and your friends. Mom, Sadie and Drew danced a lot. Pace and I observed a lot, which was a good balance. I did ask Mom to dance on a slow song where we could waddle in a circle. It was my speed. Hugging in public. Much better than trying to count my steps, rubbing my head and patting my stomach. Mom always says I look like I’m in pain when I try to dance. Mrs Prader danced. She didn’t look like she was in pain.

After the dinner, Porter brought home three 10 lb bags of baked potatoes. They were the consistency of saddle leather, after having been under the warming lamps for 4 hours. This is after bringing home the last round of baked potatoes from his benefit dinner / auction to help the kids with cancer. We decided to try eating them as battered french fries. We mixed 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 3 tsp salt, 1 cup 7up, and about 2 cups of water to make the batter, cut the potatoes in to strips, and deep fried the battered potatoes. They were awesome! It turns out that 10 lbs of awesome is less awesome. Gut rocks. Still, we were dreading the thought of trying to eat all those extra fundraiser potatoes. This was probably the most appetizing method.

It snowed this week and stuck. Tad went camping on Friday night and it got down to 6 degrees (colder with windchill). Then we noticed that the temperature in Kumasi was 87, but felt like 107. Sorry. Sleep spread eagle and use your baby powder.

Sadie is in Pep now, and goes into Ms Smith’s for math. She loves it, on both counts. All her friends are in Ms Smith’s class (seems the school was aware of that), so she has been reunited with Rachel and Kaylin. We’ll see how Pep works out, but she’s loving the project / new nature of the class.

Grandpa got his knee replaced this week, and is home doing well. We’ll go down sometime around Christmas and finish bringing the rest of the stuff back (canoes, furniture, stuff).

We’re excited to hear how this week has gone. Our perception of your last email was “it’s pretty early to have a good sense of what’s going on”, so we’re looking forward to your letter after having a full week under your belt.

This week’s advice: Trust and love your senior companion. Don't be impatient or critical. Try to work together as a team and be supportive. See what they do really well, and actively try to learn from their best traits. Remember that you have no idea what it is like for a senior companion to train a new missionary, so be patient, humble and supportive.

We love you and look forward to your letter.

Dad

11/14/15 "Isaac doesn't talk as much."- Drew

Nov. 14, 2015

Elder Burgreen and Merrell stopped by to visit Jessie. They are both going to BYUI.  Remember them?

Guess who Drew and I worked with cleaning apartments?

Porter said he feels like we are a small normal family now.....??

Elder Nelson,

We loved getting the nice picture of you and your companion! We are counting the nights that you have slept in a real missionary apartment. We are also thinking of all the prayers you are saying.....just the two of you. Pace was complaining about how many times he had to say a family prayer this week.

Please, send us a picture of your apartment so we can visualize where you are. Bantama, is like batman mixed up, so it is easy to remember and we have it marked on the map. Tell Elder Antwi "HI" from us.

So, today was a really wonderful wedding. The weather was awesome, like summer, at least 60 degrees. Interesting things about the wedding were:

• Porter sat a a table with Dallen H. Oaks' wife. (Naoko is translating her book into Japanese)
• Dima came and said that he hasn't been playing soccer in SLC this past month with small children
• Kurt came from Hawaii
• I can't even carry on a conversation in Japan. It was like cement was in my brain. I was sad about that.
• A Japanese friend sealed them.
• The only actual family Naoko had there was a cousin that came from Japan. She is a non-member.
• Naoko had about 30 other Japanese friends there, some who traveled from Japan and Seattle. 
• We ate a very fancy dinner at Thanksgiving Point.
• Natalie is at BYU and said she is dating someone.....
• Family is everything and it is always so fun to be together!!

Porter is getting ready to take the ACT. He found a fun science camp this summer, He got an A- in Chemistry and was pretty bummed. He is reading the book that the Princess Bride came from.

Pace was the first one of us all to get Home/visiting teaching done this month. He came out with the best grades this tri in the family. He has taken over your bed and is itching to wear your clothes. 

Tad went to the temple again this week with his friends. He spent the week getting homework done before the end of the tri. Do you miss that?

Sadie is loving piano and practices everyday without me saying a thing. Lora is amazing with Pace and Sadie. Pace doesn't have the practicing thing down.... he still loves going to piano lessons. 

Davis memorized a story in Chinese and surprised me when he recited it one day after school. There is a new student teacher in his class, who actually came from Taiwan...BYU-Hawaii and the Kurt connection. She is way happy and bubbly. She and her boyfriend came to FHE and told us about the growth of the church in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Chris and Katelyn came too. They are moving to Montana next month. 

As you saw, Drew and I had fun working with Becky and Straton .... and crazy Dave, cleaning the apartments that you worked on. We cleaned the first two buildings. Greg has them all sold. He is really good at that. Thompson paving was paving the parking lot while we were there. I haven't heard Crazy Dave laugh yet. We will go back again next week to clean more.

The big news is that Pagodabox and Delorum are separating officially by next week. I don't think much will change in our lives. I am glad Dad feels guided by the spirit and has been inspired when he reads the scriptures. I am sure he will write more about it next week. When I was reading Alma 49:27-50:... about Moroni, it really reminded me of dad because he always strives to keep the commandments, live by the spirit and work to do all that he can. Opposite than 

Grandpa will get his knee replaced on Tues. Grandma and Grandpa are giving away more stuff this weekend. 

Are you getting all of your friends' emails that you want? We see Jared's and Maria's and Kelsey's.  

Know we love you so much and can't wait to hear from you about all the stuff we thought we knew about Ghana, but don't have a clue. 

Love, Mom

p.s. We had to drive the Jeep down this weekend.  We found a large Y sticker on the top of the Thule.  Do you know who did this? We also found your backpack in the Thule from the summer backpacking trip....... I can't wait to unpack the contents when we get back. 

"Isaac doesn't talk as much."- Drew

11/4/15 Halloween

Nov 4, 2015

Hi Elder Nelson!!

We miss you.  It has been three whole days and I wish I had given you one more huge hug.  There are more left overs and it always seems someone is missing. I wondered if I would cry for weeks.  I am not crying...is that bad?? More than anything I feel excited and happy for you. 

  

You look so happy in the pictures we have seen!! Sister Robinson posted one of you by yourself in the cafeteria and also of one with you surrounded by about 15 native missionaries at a cafeteria table.  I am happy to see that you are diving in. There were a couple more group pictures of you by the MTC sign. It doesn't even look like you have jet lag or that it is hot. You look like you are on vacation in palm tree paradise. You will have to tell us what it is really like, smells, food, native missionaries..... we can't wait to live in Ghana through your eyes.

On Friday Sadie, Tad and I helped at the Midway Carnival. Sadie and Tad were dedicated to helping from beginning until the end. I love dedication. It is bigger and funner than ever with lots of free treats for helping at the end. 

Dad, Porter, and Davis went to the Hanson's hayride and hot dog roast, complete with a haunted hay ride compliments of Brigham, Olivia, Ben, and Jacob. They even pulled Drew off the wagon and Drew was loving being kidnapped. Greg passed on that Mike said that you were his right hand man, dependable and showed up on time. He missed having you around.  

Dad took the mats to the dump. They were such a fun part of our life. I hope we can get something fun to replace them. 

 We went to Grandma Nikki's for Halloween pop, then took the younger kids trick or treating. We stopped at Grandma Nikki's neighbor's house, who is also Grandma Johnson 's cousin Aunt Helen. She has a pet deer in her yard. Pace wants to have one.Now it's fast Sunday and everyone is eyeing the candy on the shelf. 

This week I am looking forward to seeing my mission companions, Gina and Shari. Sadie and I will stay with them on Thursday and Friday. On Friday we are helping the other Ghana Missionary moms pack Christmas for the Kumasi Mission in Provo. Then on Saturday we are throwing a bridal shower in South Jordan for Naoko. Fun things for us to look forward to.

We love you and can't wait to hear from you!!!

Love Mom

The mats were buried at the dump on Halloween. Dad said that when the machine tried to crush them they bounced right back.

Porter's math teacher asked him if he had a photogenic memory. He replied with a big flashy smile, "Why yes I do.... but I don't have a photographic one." 

Yesterday I was subbing in nursery with Sister Franz and Sister Bennett. We were laughing about Paige's letter about Le-sha. Sister Franz Franz said one of her relatives is naming their soon to be born son, Dash. Brother Franz suggested just using a --. Ha Ha

Drew- How long is Isaac going to be gone? Two weeks??

Mom- No, two years.

Drew- How long is two years? 

Mom- A long time.... you will have two birthdays.

Drew- No.... HOW MANY WEEKS!!!

Mom- One hundred and four weeks

Drew- (angry face stomping off screaming)

Mom- (This is going to be a long morning for mom and a long two years for Drew and mom if this continues)

What is he working on?

$$$ Lessons

Two lessons in money:

1) Porter and Isaac both came out of the dentist with no cavities and $50 richer. That is the reward for a year with no cavities in our house, I just as soon pay our kids, instead of paying the dentist more. Isaac didn't even see the cash, but paid off his accordion repair and bought a clarinet ligature. The freedom of being out of debt is happiness. We came out saving hundreds of dollars.

2) Usually, I do my monthly shopping trip by myself. All of the calculating and decisions are better made without interruptions of 7 kids. Keith always suggests we go together. I always groan. But, for his birthday we went shopping as a family and to a movie. As I do every month I wrote a grocery list and gave an approximate price for each item and an idea what everything would cost. I split up the list into sections. But by the time I did that I realized that we wouldn't be within our budget if we got everything that was on the list, so instead of me deciding, I let them figure out how to cut $20 out of their own grocery list. In the end I paid for each list separately, so we could see how we did. Here are the results of the life lesson of staying within a budget and still getting the things we need:
Budget/Reduced budget/Actual
Isaac $125 /$100/$99.52
Porter $85/$65/$66.38
Pace $70/$50/$49.18

No calculators. Busy Saturday shopping at WINCO.

WOOHOO!!!!!

End of Trimester

The awards for the end of the trimester are:

Isaac- winning over 2 hard teachers, Mr. Green and Mrs. Linstrom

Porter- over 100% in ALL his classes, even 100% on all assignments and tests in several, and a TUBA ROCK STAR

Pace- most improved grades, 920% of his reading goal

Tad- readaholic, Geronimo Stilton Books

Sadie- best penmanship in the family, kindergarten substitute for 2+ months, Mrs. Lindsay who was old when Keith was in 3rd grade