Letters to my Children

Hi Michael! It was great to talk to you on Thursday! I’m so glad you had somewhere to spend Thanksgiving, and I’m so glad there are kind people in the world willing to befriend and feed the missionaries.  I love that you are meeting interesting people and making new friendships. Your Dim Sum experience sounds memorable! The pictures look pretty awesome, TBH. FYI: lobsters, octopus, and crab have now been recognized as sentient beings that shouldn’t be boiled alive, according to the UK government. Fascinating. It sounds like you have had a lot of success finding people to teach. I'm so impressed by that. And I’m really amazed by how fast you seem to be learning the language. Keep up the good work!  News from home: 1. On Sunday night we had tithing settlement with the bishop. We were discussing home MTC and wondering why the MTC isn’t fully open yet despite availability of vaccines. Bishop responded that the church is being extremely cautious with covid. I told him I am more covid co

Helloooooo Michael! It was so fun to read your letter and see your pictures for the week. Your dad and I think your selfies make your arm look like Inspector Gadget. You probably don’t even know who that is lol.  The hike you took looked beautiful, and I love seeing what the city and neighborhood look like.  Hope your talk went well today! Have you heard from Elder Bell? Hopefully he’s doing alright. If you have any ideas for things you might like for Christmas, now would be a great time to let me know! I hope you can find some ways to get outside this week. I think it would be good for you to even just go walk around the block in between appointments, or eat your lunch outside. This week’s news: 1. Tate and I have been sick. We are both on the tail end of it, but I've been trying to take it easy this week, and mostly working on boring to-do items. I organized the hall closet, game closet, and started working on your bedroom.  Sheesh.  Found 3 packs of my gum in your bin, so I figu

Hey big Mike— We are in the car driving home from St George and listening to old home videos. We just listened to uncle Andrew open his mission call to Barcelona Spain. Grandpa was so excited and said that Barcelona is one of the coolest cities in the world. I’ve been so excited for you to be able to experience living in an amazing city like Boston. I imagine it is a very different cultural experience than living in Boston—especially if you are mostly interactive with Chinese speakers.   In the video we are watching, you are about 3 years old—same age as Tate is now. Some of the the things you did and said remind me so much of Tate. He is super demanding right now! We were watching church from our hotel room this morning and Dad got so fed up that he put Tate in the crib and then turned it over to trap Tate in against the wall. Tate was NOT happy, and he was not quiet about it either! It sounds like you are working hard teach and learn the gospel. I’m glad you’ve had so many teaching o

Hello my dear! It was so fun to talk to you on Monday and see your apartment and companions. Don’t let your Dad discourage you from calling often! I'm so glad you can learn from two experienced missionaries. It’s great that they speak the language so well and you can be immersed. So impressive that they can read characters as well. I love that they pulled pranks on you! You needed some companions with a sense of humor! I’m so glad you have good food to eat. I laughed when you said you were eating brownies for breakfast. I thought, that boy need some eggs for breakfast! But then you made eggs and almost smoked the apartment out, so maybe not. Haha.  I know eggs aren’t your favorite anyway. Your photo didn’t look like a normal grocery store. Do you have a missionary storehouse or something where you can shop? Or is it maybe just a discount grocery store to make your money go further? Those pictures of the rain storm were awesome. I love a good downpour. And the city looks absolutely