World Travelers

Hello my dear!

Ty it was so good to talk to you on Sunday. It was great to have you and Blake on the phone together, but I felt like we didn’t get enough time to hear bout your week and how you are doing. I’m glad you had a great zone conference and actually got to go out and do finding! And also I’m glad you could reconnect with your Myanmar friends. I’m super glad that you finally got your air conditioning back up and running. It was fun to hear Michael say that he ran into missionaries that knew you. I’m not at all surprised that they said you are an excellent missionary. Keep up the good work!

Hello Blake!

I’m so glad you were able to travel and arrive safely in Cambodia! What an adventure! We were excitedly waiting to hear from you all week. I loved your letter. I know you were all excited for food at the airport after being at the MTC for months, but—holy smokes—Elder Blackham! Putting down that much food could not have felt good! I hope you enjoyed your Cafe Rio! I’m guessing it will be awhile before you eat anything that resembles a Cafe Rio Salad. I’m enjoying your food reviews on Google Photo. Isn’t it wild to look at your food and not have a clue what it is? I felt like that In Taiwan—Is it fruit? Meat? Boba? Fish eyes? Who knows?! That trash mountain looks wild. I want to see what it looks like in the day time. How big is it? A city block? I was trying to google it, and it seems like the original trash mountain that was so notorious was closed several years ago. Is this the same place? Or a new site? Why do they manage their trash this way? So confusing. PLEASE BE CAREFUL on those roads! I’m glad you’ve got a lot of teaching opportunities. What a great way to start off your mission. I hope the language starts to settle in and I hope you are able to stay healthy! Keep those hands clean! I see from your photos that you were wearing one of the ugly ties I sent you. Lol. Glad to see the kids liked the toys and stickers.

This is what we’ve been up to:

1. Ethan got asked to the Harvest Dance. Dad’s not super excited about it, but Ethan sure seems to be!
2. Ethan was lifting weights a couple of weeks ago and injured his leg. If I have the story right, he was attempting a power clean with 155 pounds. He failed the rep and let the weight fall, but the bar hit his leg on the way to the floor. The bar hit his leg about 6 inches above his knee. It was tender and bruised. But then about two weeks later it began to swell and form a squishy bump on his leg that is tender. I took him to Wee Care and the doctor said it looked like “myositis ossificans.” That basically means the bruise is starting to form bone within his muscle tissue. The doctor just said it would take time for his body to reabsorb the bruise and bone, but I’m going to see if Dr. Tyson has any better advice for him. Of course he’s wanting to strength train and practice basketball with tryouts coming soon, so he’s not super happy about the idea of letting it rest.
3. Ethan and I took a walk while waiting for Jett’s football game to start last week, and Ethan was attempting to explain some of the current teen slang to me, but he wasn’t very helpful. And you know, 6/7 is big right now, and weird, and also probably on the way out. Tate came home from school the other day and let me know that “We’re not allowed to say six seven at school. Only at recess.” He currently has 7+6=67 written on his leg in ink.
4. Dad took Tate on a quick weekend trip to Disneyland and they had a great time! With little notice Dad realized that he was going to lose 50,000 points with Spirit airlines if he didn’t use them right away. We were all so busy that we couldn’t find a time that would be practical for all of us to go together. So Dad and Tate got to have some special one-on-one time. Jett and Ethan took it like champs that Tate got to go to Disneyland without them. Tate was very sweet and wanted to make sure he brought home souvenirs for everyone. He brought me a magnet, Jett a Mickey Mouse beach towel, and Ethan a bright white hat. Dad promptly spilled chocolate ice cream all over the hat, and the Disney store manager was kind enough to replace it! They had great weather and small crowds and were able to ride all the rides (except Toy Story which was down). But Tate’s favorites were the thrillers—Space Mountain, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the rollercoaster.
5. Michael took a very quick trip down to Arizona for Everett’s wedding. They had a ceremony in Arizona for the bride’s family to be able to attend, and then they will have a sealing in Utah October 9th, and we are invited to attend! Michael said the wedding ceremony was held outside, and just as the bride began walking down the aisle, a torrential downpour began! They tried to continue the ceremony despite the rain, but then the hail started and they all had to take shelter! Oh man, what a memory!
6. It seems that nearly the whole family was traveling this week because Ty was at zone conference, and Blake finally got to leave the MTC! Blake, your travel schedule was intense! Leave the MTC by 6 am. Then around 11:00 take a 13 hour flight to South Korea. 3 hour layover, followed by 5.5 hour flight to Cambodia. Then travel to the mission home for the night. Sounds exhausting but also exciting!
7. I got to go to another sourdough bread making class this week. My life has slowed down since the last class I went to last spring, and I’m thinking I *might* have the bandwidth to try again. I had no idea baking sourdough bread was so time-intensive!
8. My friend Alisa invited me to attend the Faith Matters conference at UVU with her this year, so I drove down to Orem Friday and Saturday. We enjoyed the conference. There were a lot of really interesting speakers. But it also started early in the morning, and I wasn’t able to get to all of the speakers I wanted to hear. Sharon McMahon was supposed to be one of their keynote speakers, but she cancelled and didn’t attend. My understanding is that she’s been getting threats and had security concerns. It[s really a sad commentary that she had to cancel for that reason. Security was high on campus and we all had to go through metal detectors to get into the event. There were huge temporary memorials for Charlie Kirk and it felt very surreal.
9. Sunday morning I woke up to the news that President Nelson had passed away. And despite his advanced age, I was still a bit surprised. I was hoping he still had another 5 good years! Isn’t that a crazy expectation? He was 101 years old! Amazing. He was an extremely endearing man, and strong leader. His smiling face will be missed this conference weekend. 
10. We had the Primary Program this Sunday, but sadly Tate was still in California and couldn’t participate. It was a delightful program as always, but during the program I got a news alert that there had been a shooting at an LDS chapel in Michigan. As the news unfolded, it became apparent that the attack was particularly brutal. A man drove his truck into the front of the church, opened fire on congregants, and then lit the church on fire—accelerating it with gasoline. A truly horrific scene—especially on a day when we were reflecting on the life of President Nelson who spoke so recently about Peacemaking. Ah what is this world coming to? Maybe it’s just because I follow the news so closely, but the world feels a bit more unsettled lately. I’m looking forward to this weekend when we can listen to conference and be uplifted by talks and music. I hope conference weekend is great for you too!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Talk to you soon!

Love, Mom