Back In School

Hola, Elder Smith, my son.  I sure hope you had a good week, and that your church attendance was better than last week.  I have been praying for that all week.  How sad for you and your companion last week to wait for investigators who never showed up! I hope that didn't happen again this week! 

We are doing great, back into the school swing of things! Here is a school update from Stefanie:

School is good, on A-day I have health with bentley, then chemistry with jamie then pe with roberts then history with preece and then on B-day I have seminary with brother miller, english with larson, math with coach hayes, and sign language with lee. i like high school, its better then middle school, i like having an hour lunch, and lots of new people. I have been going to cross country practice, i like that too.  Love, Stef

From Dad:  Hola my boy, school starts for me tomorrow . We have had teacher meetings last week and the kids come tomorrow. We have had two cross country meets. My good runner has been first and second in each race. At sugar house park he ran 14:57 and was second by 15 seconds to Conner Masse form Skyview, who was the best runner last year. The number one runner for Lehi in both races is the little Raff freshman. That kid is running better than Heaps and Arnell. He is one tuff kid!  SO you get to open a new area and train and district lead. I guess that means that you are doing things well because all those are important things.  I am proud that you are working hard and have the confidence of the mission president. That means that you also have the confidence of the Lord because mission Presidents are very in tune with the spirit. I know that statistics don't matter. But I always had a goal to be near the top in discussions taught, new investigators found, people at church and baptisms. Being so competitive that is all I had to go on.  Even when my stats were down I wanted to know in my heart that no one in the mission was working harder or following the rules more than me and my comp. I hope you do not think I am boasting, just another way to look at things and a way to always to measure up to your personal standards.. whatever they are. Always have as much fun as you possibly can and love and serve the people in your area and follow the rules so you can follow the spirit, so it can lead your every thought and action. I love you and am so proud of who you are and what you are doing. Love Dad.

As for me, I love being a first grade teacher!  I am four days in and loving every minute of it.  It is my dream come true, I keep having to pinch myself to make sure it is real!  My classroom is super cute, and I have 23 of the cutest 6-year-olds ever!  I feel so blessed! I know Heavenly Father is blessing our family because of your service.  

 

Another month has gone by! So proud of you and grateful for your sacrifice. I no longer have Mondays off work, so I will be checking my email on my lunch break, and every time the kids go out for recess.  Love you so much!  I have a constant prayer for you in my heart.  

 

Love, Mom

Answered Prayers

My prayers have been answered, and my dreams have come true. I am still having to pinch myself to make sure this is all really happening.  It all happened so fast...I interviewed on Monday morning, and my new principal called that afternoon to offer me the job.  This was the week before school started! With getting my classroom ready, preparing for Back to School Night, faculty meetings, and cleaning out my music room, It was the busiest week of my life.  And I loved every single minute.  

So grateful for these three amazing women, Liz, Jennica, and Debbie. They sat in on my interview, were instrumental in my hiring, bent over backwards to help me get my room and lesson plans ready, and have been incredibly supportive and encouraging.

My new school "family".  They have made me feel so welcome. 

Oh my goodness, I love these kids already!  And isn't my classroom so cute!

And now I am three days in, and each day is better than the one before. I feel so blessed.

First Day of High School

She is so beautiful!

FHE in the Canyon

On the last Monday before school started we drove up American Fork canyon to roast hot dogs and marshmallows for Family Home Evening.  It was so beautiful!  And I was rejoicing because I had just found out only a couple of hours before that I had been hired to teach first grade at Lehi Elementary.  It was a magical evening! 

Finally a Real Teacher!

Hola my missionary son!  How are things in the Travasia? We were so happy last week to hear about your changes.  It sounds like a very challenging area.  Do you have a house yet?  Do you have any new investigators?  We are looking forward to your letter and hearing all your updates.

Well, I have some happy news…I am now officially a true elementary school teacher!!  No more teaching music for me, I am the new first grade teacher at Lehi Elementary! Hooray!!  I interviewed last Monday morning, and the principal called  later that afternoon to offer me the position.  I have been walking on a cloud all week!  I will meet my students tomorrow (Monday) evening at Back to School Night.  Can't wait to put faces with my list of names.  I have two Jacks, a Jackson and a Jaxston, haha!  Then the first day of school is Tuesday.  It has been a crazy, busy week with getting my classroom ready, cleaning out my music room at Saratoga Shores, and attending lots of faculty meetings.  I couldn't be happier or more excited! 

Stefanie has had a fun and busy week too.  She was at Girls Camp from Tuesday through Friday.  It was a great week for her to be away, because I was gone so much at my new school.  She had a fun time and came home filthy and smelling like a camp fire.  She has been telling us stories about Camp all week.  She is excited to start high school on Tuesday,  she has her class schedule and took a tour of the high school on Friday after she got home from Girls Camp.  LHS has been under construction all summer, they added an extra wing with about 16 new classrooms, she has a couple of classes in the new wing. It looks really nice!  Apparently they won't be bulldozing it down!

Saturday was Dad's first Cross Country meet, at Tooele.  Lehi Boys are really good, they won the meet!  Dad was surprised to learn that Coach Rowe is now the Athletic Director at LHS, he isn't coaching Cross Country this year!  Copper Hills boys and girls both came in 3rd, but Dad's best runner, Christian Allen, took first place.  He was way far ahead of anyone else in the race, Dad was pretty excited about that.   

Tonight we had our traditional priesthood blessings before the beginning of the school year.  I love it that we do this every year.  So thankful Dad is a worthy priesthood holder!  He gave both me and Stefanie beautiful, comforting blessings.  We are now ready for school!

Tomorrow (August 18th) is the my wedding anniversary, Dad and I have been married for 24 years!  Too bad we won't be celebrating, I will be at Back to School night, and getting ready for the first day of school.  Dad starts meetings on Wednesday, his students will come next week.  Hopefully we can go out to dinner sometime soon!

Well, my son, I sure love you.  I am so thankful that you are a missionary.  So many blessings have come to our family since you left over a year ago, including my new teaching job.  We are so thankful and proud of you!  Hope you have had an awesome week, can't wait to read about it.  

Love forever, 

Mom

Last Week of Summer

Hola my son, how was your week?  We have been anxiously waiting to see if you got a change!  A new area?  A new companion?  We are excited to know!  Can't wait to get your letter and hear your latest news.  As for last week, we are so glad Cesar was baptized, that is awesome.  I hope he will serve a mission himself in a year.  Also, we are glad Presidente Bowler gave permission for missionaries to play sports every p-day.  Hooray, good news for you!  And glad you got our latest package with the camera. We want to see lots of pictures with your new camera!

We had a good week, the highlight was on Thursday at the Food Truck Rally.  Have you heard of that?  Food trucks have become all the rage.  Do you remember Waffle Love?  Well, now there are food trucks for every kind of food you can imagine: corn dogs, crepes, pizza, sandwiches, barbecue, Greek, Cajun, Italian, Mexican…you name it.  Each week a bunch of them get together in a random location…you have to look online to find out where they will be.  This week they were in Provo so we headed down with Rachel and George.  There were about thirty trucks in a big parking lot, we all got something different and shared, it was awesome!  We are definitely Food Truck Rally fans.

  

Today (Sunday) we went to Elder Matt Ward's mission report. Not sure if you remember him, he and his family lived around the corner from us in our last house,  he just returned home from Honduras.  Elder Glassett was his companion for awhile, he and his parents were there at the Welcome Home too!  Elder Glassett asked about you and wanted to know how you are doing and if you like the new mission president. He was there with Elder Evans, who said he knew you. They both say hello! We loved hearing about missionary life in Honduras, and reuniting with old friends. 
  

One other big piece of news…we added two new members of the family!  Saturday afternoon we were cleaning out the attic, found the old bird cage and decided we wanted to have a couple of new pets!  So we fixed it all up and drove straight to PetSmart and picked them out…one white, one green.  Holly LOVES them and won't leave them alone, poor things, they are in a constant state of panic with her jumping up and barking at them. But hopefully she will get used to them soon.  They are both males, their names…Messi and Renaldo, haha! So fun to have birds in the house again.  

Well, this is our last week of summer.  Friday I have teacher meetings, and the students return on Tuesday. It has been a great summer, but we are ready.  

We love you!  Love, Mom

Owls Game

Hola, Elder Smith, my son! I must tell you how sweet it was for me to read about  your experience of burying a Book of Mormon and covering it with a rock, like Moroni.  What a creative group! I can only imagine the sweet, spiritual experience you had doing that together. I get a little teary-eyed thinking about it. 

Did Cesar get baptized on Saturday? How are Laura y Sabino coming along?  We have been praying for them all week.  Today was fast Sunday, we dedicated our fast to YOU and to your investigators.  We hope you can feel our love and support.

We had a good week.  Monday night for FHE we went to an Owls game.  They are a minor league baseball team in Orem. 

 

Friday night we were invited to go to the airport with the Hammock family to welcome Lillie home from her mission to Germany.  It was fun!  There were about 10 returning missionaries on that flight, there was so much excitement and energy!  That will be us in about a year!

Stefanie really wanted to go to Preston for the rodeo and carnival and since Dad and I weren't planning to go, she got a ride with Bryan and Katie and family.  She left on Friday morning and got home late Saturday night.  She said she had a good time hanging out with Collin.

I have been spending a lot of time doing family history work lately.  I love reading stories about our ancestors!  I was amazed to find out that ALL SIXTEEN of my great-great grandparents crossed the plains with the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley.  I had no idea we had so many pioneer ancestors. What a heritage! I have found all their stories on familysearch.org, their stories are fascinating, heartbreaking and inspiring to me.  Here is one I read this afternoon about my great-great-great-great grandfather, Lorenz Hoke.  He was born in Germany in 1768.

"Lorenz Hoke was a devout man, and a scriptorian.  He was not satisfied with any of the religious denominations of that time, and wished he had lived in the time of Christ. Through prayer the Lord made known to him that the true church of Christ was not on the earth, but would soon be restored, and that through it, he and his posterity would be saved.  This he told his daughter on his death bed, and he also told her that he himself would not hear it, but that SHE WOULD.  He died in 1835, not having heard of the restoration of the gospel. However, through his daughter, the prophesy has been fulfilled and his entire household has been officiated in the temples of the Lord." 

Isn't that cool?  Stefanie has been bit by the family history bug too!  She went to a Young Women activity where they learned to find names of ancestors for temple work.  She came home and showed me how, and we spent the rest of the evening printing forms.  A few days later Dad and I went to the temple, turned in the forms, and they printed a stack of pink or blue forms for temple work.  So exciting!  The Lord is hastening his work...not just missionary work, but family history work as well!

Well, we love you!  Excited to hear about your work this week!  Love, Mom