Letters to my Children

Dear Ty— How are you doing? I hope this has been a great week. Seems like you’ve had a lot of change in the past month or so. How was it saying goodbye to Elder Oldroyd? How is your new companion? Did you have to move apartments? Ah! So much change! Hopefully it’s all good and you are just enjoying the ride. And hopefully you have found some people who are interested in learning about the gospel. Missionary work is so hard, but I imagine it’s also quite rewarding. I’m interested to hear what the city is like during Christmastime. Do many people celebrate? Are there decorations up? Hopefully you have something special planned for Christmas Day. We are looking forward to talking to you, but will miss having you home with us. It’s just not the same without you! This week for me was all about holiday prep--- 1. I found AND mailed the Christmas cards! 2. Tuesday I spent the ENTIRE day baking and packaging caramel popcorn. I tried to get out of it by telling dad I’d make popcorn just for him...

Hello, hello! Hi there—hope you had a great week! Hopefully it was safer than last week and no crazy men came after you with knives. How is Elder Oldroyd doing? I hope he enjoys a lovely Christmas at home with his family.  I’m in full-on Christmas Prep mode. Trying to enjoy it! This is what we had going on this week: Blake had his football banquet this week. It’s fun to celebrate the season, but it was 3 hours long! We found out one of Blake’s teammates had cancer when he was younger and it has come back—so that is sad news.  I reached level 30 in Duolingo—which means I’ve basically passed off the first three “beginner” sections, and now I’m moving into an “intermediate” section. Woot! Tate and Jett had their last basketball games for the season. Dad took Tate to Jr Jazz shooting contest, and apparently he did really well! I sat down to work on Christmas card mailing labels this week. And then I searched the house high and low trying to find where I had stashed the cards....

Hey there! It was great talking to you tonight. I always look forward to Sunday evenings.I hope Elder Nyaring had a good send off and arrived safely in his new mission. I’m so glad you had the opportunity to serve with him. And I hope you enjoy your last week or so with Elder Oldroyd. I’m so glad you have busy days and a lot of finding and teaching keeping you active. Some of the situations you are in with the people you are teaching are just difficult!  I hope you find people that are willing and wanting to learn and progress.  We had a good week here. This is what we've been up to: 1. The highlight of our week was definitely making gingerbread houses at Great Nana’s house. It’s the best tradition! Ethan couldn’t come because he was booked all day with sports, so I decorated his for him. Ethan had his last volleyball tournament of the season, and his team won the championship game! 2. We have been living under a terrible blanket of smog all week. It’s so gross and pretty eeri...