BizTown and the Wiz

Dear Elder Rawson,

Hello my dear! It was so good to talk to you today. I always look forward to your call on Sunday nights. It sounds like you are having quite the adventure in Kuala Lumpur! Now that you know they left you an SD card, hopefully you can connect to the wifi and things will go better for you this week! I hope you have a great time at the pizza place today, and I hope you buy lots of fruits and veggies at the grocery store! I am just amazed at how you are meeting people from all over the world who speak all different languages. Who knows? Maybe you will come home speaking multiple languages? I know that part of you wanted to stay in Sibu and continue the work there. But I’m glad that you are able to serve in a new area and have this new experience. I love that you are able to just walk out your door and find people to talk to. Your success as a missionary is not determined by how many contacts and new friends that you find, or how many baptisms you have—but on your obedience and dedication to the Lord. He will sanctify your work and change your heart, and that is what matters most. 

I feel like we are just as busy as ever. We have so many sporting events and other activities to attend, and the school emails never stop coming. But each season brings change, and that’s good. This is what we've been up to for the past two weeks:

1. The little kids had crazy hair day at school for Red Ribbon Week.

2. Blake got asked to the Winter’s dance by Ellyse.

3. Ethan has been playing non-stop basketball, and also had another weekend-long volleyball tournament. He’s been super busy.

4. I got to go to a paint night at the church for young women’s last week and paint another nighttime snowman scene. Super fun. 

5. I also got to go watch one of my young women perform in the high school production of SpongeBob the Musical. That was not super fun. It might have been the most painful 2 hours of my life. I was so relieved when it was over.

6. I caught a neighbor swiping a package off our front porch on our doorbell camera. It was returned later, but definitely a weird situation. I texted the person to see if there had been a misunderstanding, and they did not respond. So now the situation is even weirder.

7. I got to go out to lunch with Sarah Jane Geckler. It was really fun catching up with her. 

8. I’ve been volunteering in Jett’s class every Monday teaching his class lessons about finances to get them ready for their field trip to BizTown. But before I could go on the field trip I had to get a background check done. What a freaking pain. About a month before the field trip I went to schedule a time to get fingerprinted, and of course they were booked out for two months. So I had to drive to the office, pick up paperwork, and then make an appointment somewhere else for the fingerprinting. That other place only accepted cash payment—which of course I didn’t have on me. I had just given my last $20 cash from the car to some guy begging in the Costco parking lot. No biggie, I would just run to the bank and take out some cash. Except. . . it happened to be Veteran’s Day. The banks were closed, the ATM was broken, and Bowman’s could only give cash back if I used a debit card instead of the credit card I had on me. Sigh. . . Never does a good deed go unpunished! I finally gave up and drove home, scrounged $20 out of Jett’s locker and returned to my appointment an hour late. But at least I passed!

9. Thursday was the day we got to go to BizTown. It was up on the 4th floor of the Discovery Gateway, and it was totally amazing. It was all set up like a miniature town. City Hall was in the center, and then a whole variety of businesses surrounded it — KSL News TV, Maverick, Smith’s Marketplace, utilities companies, insurance, banks, library, school district, etc. Each kid applied for and was assigned a job and a salary. They spent the day working in their businesses. They earned paychecks, had to deposit them at the bank, and then got debit cards with money that they could use to buy things at the different stores on their break times. It was super fun, and the kids loved it. 

10. Dad’s firm did a party and rented out the theater so we could go see Wicked. And it was WICKED! The movie was so good! I loved it. But it is a musical and you might hate it!

11. Jett had tryouts for the school play, Finding Nemo Jr. He auditioned for Bruce the shark and got called back for more auditions! We spent a lot of time at the piano learning the music and practicing the lines. The cast list will be posted after school on Tuesday. It will be a really fun play for him to be in.

12. I’m still doing physical therapy on my stupid elbow that hurts.

13. Uri came to visit Michael at BYU. I think he said 15 friends came to meet up with him at an ice cream shop. And Uri went to two of Michael’s basketball games. Mike said Uri was his good luck charm because he scored almost 25 points in each game with 5 3-pointers in each!

14. BYU has lost it’s winning streak. We lost the last two games. Michael says if Iowa loses a game and BYU wins against Houston we will get into the Big 12 championship game. 

15. Ethan’s Centennial basketball team is headed to the championship game of the lower bracket tomorrow.  Go Centennial!

16. Dad beat Blake in an epic arm wrestling match.

17. One of the football moms decided that we were all going to do this major craft project to make personalized centerpieces for the football banquet. I worked on it for a LONG time. But it was a fun project and I hope Blake likes it when it’s all finished. 

18. I slept in late today and then woke up to a text that the girls who were supposed to teach the lesson today were not coming to church. Nothing like preparing a last minute lesson! 

19. Dad put up the Christmas trees for me last night. Ethan’s been asking me to put it up since the day after Halloween!

20. The weather has turned cold here and there is snow up in the mountains. The leaves have changed colors and the light just before sunset is just absolutely stunning. We live in such a beautiful place!

I hope you have a fantastic week Ty! We will miss you for Thanksgiving! Not sure if we will be able to chat? But I’m so glad you will be able to have a nice meal with the other missionaries.

Love you,
Mom