February and March 1st

Maggie teasing her dad

Maggie's hello kitty outfit.

Well I have decided that they only way I am going to catch up on this blog is to tell you briefly about February because it seems that I am a month behind.  There are so many things that have happened and I have notes too but I will have to give you the highlights.

On the 7th and the 8th of February we had Nathan's kids.  I took a picture of Maggie in an outfit that Nathan bought her that she has not wanted to wear together since we bought it back in November or so.  She looks cute in it I think.  I was really pleased that on Friday evenings she climbed up on the bed after Nathan had just got in bed and was playing with him and teasing him and he was playing with her back.  She said she like to play with him because he is my daddy.  I think that helped Nathan to feel good.

Maggie playing with Daddy

Practicing on the ballet bar

Maggie doing a back bend with help

Sammy at dance lessons

David and Isaac playing at dance

Isaac in the backwards seat behind the driver

Saturday mornings are Maggies dance lessons so we all went to watch.  She is doing well even though she is one of the youngest in the class and has not been in the class as long as some of them.  As you can see her brothers are not so excited about watching her dance as they were to play on their Ipads.  Maggie used my phone when we got in the car after and took several pictures of the ride home of her brothers.  Some of them turned out good some had to be deleted.

Sammy intent on Ipad

Isaac agin with Nathan in the front.  Larry driving

On the 9th of February they had a Youth temple trip and David was old enough to go.  That is Nathan's night to have the kids and so Nathan and Larry took David and some of the other Young men to the Temple to do baptisms and out to dinner.  I took the other three and we went to dinner and then went to Target to shop for a birthday present for Isaac as his birthday was coming up. He wanted to get a Skylander but Target did not have any that he wanted and so he settled on a Creative Lego set.

We didn't worry much about Valentines.  We sent ecards to our grandkids.  Nathan bought us some chocolate covered strawberries and then Marcy sent him some also.  We got a card and some treats from Erick and Heather and Ryker the next Monday at the office so that was fun.  However after gaining 3.8 lbs at weight watcher's I was hesitant to eat them all so we shared with the office.

Nathan and Larry at Little Italy

The next Monday was Isaac's birthday so we went to Peter Piper Pizza for dinner and then we went to Toys R Us so Nathan could buy him a present. He chose a paint mixing set and something else that I cannot remember that he took home to play with with the other things he had at home.  We had a good time.  Nathan also bought himself some legos to put together as he uses them for therapy on his hands.  Maggie was really cuddly that night and so that was fun.  I downloaded the Mormon Channel Kids app and she likes to look at the videos on there.  They only have four right now but she will watch all four and she played those as we took them home.

The rest of the week Larry and I had zone conferences. On Tuesday the 17th we presented at the Stone Oak Chapel to the North and East and Hill Country zones.  I was asked to give a presentation on how the missionaries can use Familysearch.org to help investigators and new members with their Family History.  I prayed about it a lot and worked on it and the missionaries were very receptive.  So much so that President Slaughter sent me a text complementing me on my excellent presentation.  Larry was busy most of the day working with the people from Salt Lake putting in Tiwi devices in the cars that will moniter their driving and remind them to slow down and put on their seat belt and warn them of aggressive driving.  He also gave a presentation in the conference as did President Slaughter.

 Before we left for San Marcos on the 17th we went to a restaurant called Little Italy that we had noticed on the street that we drive to get to the apartment.  It had an impressive atmosphere and Nathan and Larry really liked the food but I did not like the fettuccine that I ordered.  I have had better.  But it was fun to go there before we left Nathan by himself for two nights.  He did fine but we had the neighbors come over and help him get food out.  He can pretty much take care of himself now except for that. We drove up that night to a hotel in San Marcos close to the church were we had to be the next morning at 8:30 a.m.

Larry and I at Mammacitas

Marcy with Sammy

On the 18th we went to conferences in the morning.  President presented first on the Millenium and then Larry and I presented.  They had to test drive the cars after the boxes were in to see if they were functioning properly.  I had gone to the mission office on Tuesday to work on some things there but in San Marcos I got to help test drive cars.  So I spent the afternoon driving to fast without my seat belt and attempting to drive aggressively in the parking lot to see if the alarms worked.  It was kind of fun.  They also had the person over the Vehicle Program for the church that spoke each day about the boxes and I was also able to listen to his presentation before driving the cars.  One of the cars went dead after test driving it so it took about two hours to find out how to get it started again and then we were able to leave for Austin.  It turns out that something is making some of the Ford Fusions loose all the power in their batteries after the cars boxes are installed as we have had three do that.  They are still working on what is causing it but they suspect that it is because the batteries are already partially drained when the box is installed because all of the Fords do not do it.

Maggie modeling the new scuba gear we got for the kids for Christmas that finally came.

Isaac and Sammy playing with legos and mixing paint.

Isaacs mini figures that he labeled Nathan and Marcy

Isaac with his birthday presents

We finished about 3:00 p.m. and went to Mammacitas in San Marcos for lunch.  John and Judy first introduced us to Mammacitas in Kerrville and we love it.  We took a picture there but then I forgot to post it on Facebook so I'll post it here.  We had a piece of cherry chocolate cheesecake that was good and I think Enchiladas.  We then drove to Austin.  We were so full from our lunch we only went and bought some fruit and yogurt to eat and then I worked on referrals on the computer while Larry watched old NCIS reruns.  As we were driving to the store I called an old friend's, Marsha Oleen, son on the phone.  He, Garrett Oleen was in the orchestra with my boys back in the Vernal days and I had just found out that he is a Bishop in Round Rock Texas which is close to Austin.  It was great to talk to him and we want to plan to see him sometime with Nathan.  I also was able to talk to Kirsten and Kyle on the phone for a little while that evening.

Maggie, Isaac, Sammy, Marcy

In the morning we went to the Austin, Round Rock and Round Rock East Zone conference.  We gave our presentations and drove the cars and were finished up at about 1:00 p.m.  We got a quick bite to eat at Subways and drove home.  That night we went to Bingo night with the kids.

Maggie, Isaac, Sammy, Marcy

A partial Quesedilla at Chachos

Friday we presented at the West, Border and South zone conference and then went back to the office.  By this time Larry was exhausted but the kids were coming over so it was not time to slow down.  Also Nathan's new wife Marcy came down to meet the kids and he finally told them that they were married.  He has had them talk to her on the Ipad but had not told them that they were married until that night.  David said, "Already?"  Sammy had come up and hugged Marcy when she came into the apartment and Maggie was excited to see her also.  Maggie was infatuated with the idea that she had a new Step Mother and after the evening was over said that she was a 10.  Marcy sat and just watched Sammy play his video games for about an hour before she helped him and Isaac and Maggie play legos and mix paint with Isaacs new birthday presents.  So of course thay all thought she was great.  Marcy was realistic enought to know that they will not always feel that way but at least she got off on a good note with them.

Isaac had wanted to go to Chachos to eat and to bowl for his birthday but he didn't tell us until we picked him up on Monday so we told him we would do that for his birthday on Saturday.  So Saturday we got up and went to dance with Maggie and then we went to Chachos to eat and then went to Bowlero to Bowl.  It was the first time that Larry and I had bowled since one of Kyles birthday's since before 2007.  I had got up in the morning with sciatica nerve bothering me so I was pretty poor but Larry did a little better.  We had a good time.

Marcy and Nathan at bowling

In the evening I went to the East Stake Women's conference while the rest stayed home and played and watched movies and went Scuba diving in the hot tub at the amentities center.  It was a very inspirational conference and I took lots of notes but I don't have time to copy them into the blog.  Maybe another time.  It was fun to spend some time with the Woodlake Ward Sisters and get to know them better.  They had a keynote speaker who was the Temple matron here, Sister Sprouse, and then three classes on very good subjects.

Not the best scores but we had fun.

Sunday, Marcy went to church with us and then we had to take her to the airport.  We went home and had lunch and played life and worked on Pinewood Derby cars that Nathan is helping the kids with.

Maggie in another cute outfit

This past week has been and emotional roller coaster.  I got a new phone from insurance so I took it Monday to get the stuff in my old phone transferred.  I was really excited that I was able to get the person who set up my phone to give me his name and information so I can send the missionaries out to talk to him.

Tuesday I took Nathan to get an apartment that came open that he wanted even though it was earlier than he had planned.  He and Marcy are getting an apartment in Converse so he can be close to his kids and she is moving down here.  It is a nice three bedroom apartment that will be crowded when they have all seven kids there but it is a good start for him.

He got mad at me for some reason that only his brain knows and so we have had an up and down week as we have tried to work that out.

Wednesday we picked all the kids up for Sara and then took them to the church were Isaac had scouts and David had Young Men.  I got the little kids so we could get Isaac there on time and we all went to McDonald's before we went to the church.  Nathan and David and Larry went to Chili's to satisfy David's desire to go there.  We worked with Brother Turnbaugh from the ward and had a great time helping him find some names for the temple in his descendency.

Thursday night we took the kids to a shopping area called the Forum. When we went to pick the kids up Sara was upset so it kind of put a damper on the night. We ate at Chick fil-A and then went to Hobby Lobby for things for the Pinewood Derby cars.  It was bitter cold that night.  It had been in the high fifty's in the day.  It was so far away that by the time we finished there we did not have time to show the kids the new apartment so that they could see it because it was time to be back.

Friday I tried to work but spent a lot of time texting on the phone trying to work out disagreements. We did not have the kids so we just relaxed after coming home.  Larry was exhausted again and I was emotionally upset with the week.

Saturday we slept in.  I was surprised that we slept to 8:30 a.m. Larry got up and immediately went to get some cars to Pep Boys for repair like he has been doing all week since they cut 8 cars from his fleet in an effort to downsize the mission.  I did some exercises for my hip and then dressed and then realized I had no way to go shopping because Larry was gone and Nathan was not letting me take his car so I worked on bills until Larry got home.  

In praying the night before about the things going on in our lives I felt like we should go to the temple.  So we got ready and went to the Temple for the 4:30 p.m. session.  It was a great session and healed my heart so that I could feel better. It also gave Larry a clearer understanding of what we should do. Plus they played my favorite of the new temple films that they have now.  

Then we went grocery shopping even though we had realized that it was Fast Sunday today.  We bought lots of good things that we could not eat until this afternoon but it was fun doing it.  Today was Fast and Testimony meeting and I bore my testimony on the importance of Temples for healing and Nathan bore his testimony also.  Things are much better today.

We called Jeff's son Owen to wish him a happy birthday that was last Monday and to see if he got our gift card.  He was cute and talked for a few minutes then we talked to Jeff for quite a while.  We had a good talk.  Jeff is always fun to talk to.

I watched a Nova special with Nathan and Larry took a nap this afternoon.  I started the blog but then we ate and Larry and I read our scriptures and some other things.  Nathan was really tired tonight and went to take his shower at about 7:30 p.m.  After talking to Marcy he said that he didn't feel well and so he went to bed with a bowl in case he got sick and threw up.  I hope that resting will calm it down.  He has a lot to deal with and works really hard to be independent which is good but he is often tired and refuses to take a nap because it is so hard to wake up from them.  So now everyone is in bed except me so I think I better hurray and finish this as it is 11:57 p.m. and I have to be up at 6:00 a.m.  But at least until tomorrow I am caught up.

February 1st and before

Hoping that I can get this blog updated today so that I am up to date.

I saw a miracle today.  David was so upset with his dad for taking away his Ipad for discipline that he purposely didn't wear a tie to church so he did not have to pass the sacrament.  When his Young Men's President offered him a tie so he could pass the sacrament he refused to take it.  It was a very frustrating moment for all of us.  Then during Relief Society they came to get me because they were setting David apart.  I was confused because he already had the priesthood so I could not think of what they would be setting him apart for.  When I got there it turns out that he had been called by the Lord to be the President of the Deacons Quorum.  He was pleased you could tell.

The Senior missionaries

 I was able to see the Bishop set him apart for this calling.  It seems he asked for me to be contacted before he was set apart.  Larry was also there and was able to participate as well as Nathan.  From that moment on for the rest of the day he was happy and obedient.  He talked to me about who he was thinking about for counselors and we gave him some advice about how to tell when the Spirit is talking to him. We had a fun conversation all the way home from church.  He played with the kids all afternoon and was generally pleasant. He even reminded me that I was supposed to give his Ipad to his mother when we took them back to her. I had been praying that he would be able to see that his father was not mean but just disciplining him for being belligerent and disrespectful. I was amazed at how the Lord accomplished that purpose for now.

A very blurry picture of Nathan and Larry, Antuars, and Williams

Today was Fast and Testimony meeting because it was the 1st Sunday in February.  There were many testimonies given about the importance of turning our will to the Lord.  I too bore my testimony of this as the Spirit bore witness to me that I needed to talk about what Elder Nelson had said in his talk on Saturday.

Greers, Sister and President Slaughter, Clarks, and Zirkles

When we got home we changed clothes and made hamburger for dinner and had fruit and chips with that.  I have decided that Maggie and Isaac do not like hamburgers right now because it doesn't matter how we fix them they do not want to eat them.

The kids then got out the life game and started to play that.  They have really enjoyed the Life zapped version that Maren and Landon got them for Christmas.  I worked for awhile on last weeks blog.  Larry went in his room to listen to music videos on his phone and Nathan just worked on something on his Ipad.  They played for a long time before they started to get upset with each other but they worked it out and then played some more and finally ended the game.

Garffs, Adairs, and D. Willims

President and Sister Slaughter with Sister Greer in background

At this point they wanted a snack.  Isaac wanted to make some big soft pretzels that we had found in the frozen food section at the store so I helped them make those.  They had to bake for a few minutes and so while that was cooking I started to make Maggie a S'more because she did not want a pretzel.  Of course everyone except Larry wanted a S'more after that.  So I made more S'mores.  We melted the marshmellow in the microwave like we figured out from Saturday.  When the pretzels were done Maggie decided that she wanted one too.  So I decided to cook them all because there were only two left.  So we make pretzels and S'mores for everyone and they all had a good time eating them.  Of course the S'mores made everyone messy so we had to get out the wash clothes and clean things up. I think those two things are the only thing we have ever made that all the kids liked!!

Antuars and M. Willims

Nathan is working hard to help Isaac earn his bear award in cub scouts before his birthday which is the 16th of this month.  One of the things that he needed to do was to play a game like Charades.  So we played Animal Charades where they had to act out an animal for everyone else to guess.  They really had fun with this.  You could tell that they had done this before and liked it.  We saw all kinds of exotic animals and even a few common ones.  My favorite was when Isaac lay on the floor and put all his arms and legs out spread eagle. His head made the 5th arm. He was a starfish!  Which I guessed by the way.

Isaac running in to the finish line in his box car.

About this time we noticed that it was about 5:30 p.m. so we had to take the kids home.  We hurriedly picked up things and then drove home with them.  It was a beautiful day Sunday, warm and in the 70's.

Isaac with his prize

Last Monday was fun because we got to go to the Senior Dinner that is always after Transfer week on Monday.  This time it was at a home.  The Clarks one of the missionary couples in our mission for the past two years that came from Idaho decided to settle in San Marcos and built a big home there to move into at the end of their mission.  They had us over to their home to show off their new home and to see us for one last time as official missionaries.  We took Nathan's ramp that he had a friend build but his chair kept hanging up on the threshold because of the piece that is underneath his chair to attach him securely in his van.  It was a fun potluck dinner and we had many good things to eat.  The main dish was soups and then we had other salads and desserts along with rolls.

Tuesday was a normal day.  We went to office, worked, went to lunch with Nathan, went back to the office, worked and went home for dinner.  Nathan decided somewhere in the week that he wanted to eat more vegetarian so we are learning to deal with that.

Wednesday we went to pick up Isaac and Samuel and Maggie at their schools.  Then we went to Subway to eat before Isaac had a box car race at Cub Scout pack meeting.  It was so good to have the kids for a few minutes.  But we had to hurry and Isaac just barely got there in time to race.  I was supposed to be in the Family History Center in case someone came but Larry took the key and went there and I was Isaac's pit crew.  The had to race three laps.  One the first stop at the pit we had to wring out a cloth and wash their face with that cloth.  The second time around we had to get them a small glass of punch to drink and they could not take off until they had drank it.  The third pit stop They had to take off their shoes and then pit crew had to get them a donut which they had to eat and then get back in the race.  Isaac was behind but on the last pit stop his shoes came off so easy that he easily got finished sooner and then he passes one person on the race and came in second.  I was so proud of him!  He got to choose from several prizes and he chose a whoopy cushion.  Sammy thought that was great and kept asking me to sit down on it so he could make it work and laugh at me.

We didn't have anyone show up at the Family History Center that night as well.  We were able to go home early then so we got to bed at a good time.

Thursday we went to pick up the kids and we got there early so we decided to help Sara and pick up the kids for her at the School as we drove by.  She did not like that.  Thought it was encroaching on her time and felt like Nathan planned it.  Which was not true.  We ended up taking the kids to their house and waiting for a while so that she could see the kids.  She still let them go early about a quarter to 6:00 p.m.

The kids had mentioned the night before that they missed cleaning the church and then the Bishop got on Facebook and announced that it was a church cleaning on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. so we decided rather than take the kids to Bingo night we would take them to IHOP for dinner and then to clean the church.  They loved it!!!

Friday night we had the kids at about 6:00 p.m.  Larry and I got off of work at the office about 4:00 p.m. and went grocery shopping so we would have some food for them as we had let the cupboards get a little bare.  We bought a pizza for that night and the kids enjoyed that with some sodas that they had then Nathan worked with Isaac on his bear requirements while the rest of the kids watched a movie or played on their IPads.

Isaac and Sammy were really excited because Nathan bought Sammy a refurbished IPad and gave Isaac his old IPad.  That way all the boys have an IPad to play on.  Sammy was pretty excited about that but then he didn't like the fact that it had to stay at our house.

Saturday we got up at about 7:00 a.m.  That gave us time to do all the rituals before we had to take Maggie to dance.  Nathan insisted that they all come but he would not let them take their IPads.  He wanted to show David a sex education movie while we were waiting by going someplace private.  David refused to go with him and got very belligerent and disrespectful so Nathan told him if he could not do what he was asked to do he would not have electronics all weekend. David just got worse so he sealed his fate.  I had Nathan's phone to take videos for him of Maggie's dancing so I did not get any pictures on my phone.  She is doing very well considering that she just started and many of the others started in September.

After dance we went home and fixed lunch for everyone.  We had planned to have a picnic on the patio of the pool where they have barbeque grills but it was raining so hard that it made it impossible to do that.  Isaac needed to pass off making food for a camp out.  We taught him how to make pigs in a blanket that he could have put on a stick but we cooked them in the oven.  Then we tried to teach them how to roast marshmallows over a burner on the stove but when one of the marshmallow's dropped and started to burn it set off the fire alarm so we decided that was not a good idea.  I knew that we could cook them in the microwave so after a little experimentation we made the rest in the microwave and made s'mores to go with the pigs in the blanket.  We had bought sodas so they had those and we had an indoor picnic.  It was fun considering the circumstances.  I think that Isaac really enjoyed cooking the marshmallows over the open burner because he tried it again several times and made himself three s'mores.

After that we had a friend of Nathan's from the ward, Thomas Myers, that came and stayed with him from 2:30 p.m. til 6:00 p.m. so we could go to a missionary meeting with Elder Russell Nelson.  The only reason that Nathan needed someone to be there was because the kids were there and the divorce decree says that he cannot be alone with the children.

We left and went to the meeting.  We had to be there at 3:00 p.m. so that we would be ready if Elder Nelson came early and that happened this time.  Even thought the meeting was supposed to start at 3:30 p.m. he arrived at 3:15 p.m.  He asked to shake the hand of every missionary there and so we all were able to shake his hand.  He thanked Larry and I for our service and stopped to talk for a few seconds to each senior couple.  It was a fun experience.  It helped me to understand a little more fully how the Savior could have let everyone at the temple feel the prints in his hand when he came to the Americas.

Sister Slaughter was the first speaker.  She talked about the fact that we need to give a 110% on our mission.  She gave an example of a time on her mission when she had to give 110 % to learn the Mandarin Chinese language.  She always has a good spirit with her when she speaks and I know that she was a great missionary.

After President Slaughter spoke.  He mentioned that when King Benjamin had spoke to his people that they immediately felt joy in the atonement as recorded in the Book of Mormon.  He told us that we would find joy from Elder Nelson's talk.  He mentioned that the talk that Elder Nelson gave to the missionaries when he was on his mission as a young man changed his life. He told of how he had taken one thing from that talk that was the thing that he measured what he was going to do when he was making decisions for the rest of his life and he is still using it today.  He challenged us to do everything that we could to align our lives with Apostolic conversation.  He asked, "Do you believe in a way that will change your life and your whole mind.?"

Elder Nelson then had the Stake President of the San Antonio Texas North Stake, President Spendlove, to speak to us.  He was there because we were meeting in his building.  He asked?  What do I expect of my Bishops?  He quoted D & C 128:11 "Now the great and grand secret of the whole matter, and the summum bonum of the whole subject that is lying before us, consists in obtaining the powers of the Holy Priesthood. For him to whom these keys are given there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men, both as well for the dead as for the living."  He stated that our Bishops have no difficulty tapping into what needs to occur in their area.  Missionaries should be in ward counsels. They can learn there what needs to be done in the ward.  He said that he was going to ask his Bishops to work the missionaries hard. We need to work hard because mission is such a short time in our lives.

It is interesting to note here, we learned later that President Spendlove was just called to be the mission president for one of the Salt Lake City missions.

The next speaker was Elder Wright of the 6th quorum of Seventy.  He told the missionaries that they are so blessed to have President and Sister Slaughter for their leaders.  He said that it is so important to come close to the Lord on your mission.  The Lord looketh on the heart.  He quoted from the 10th Chapter of Alma verse 6 in describing Amulek, " Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges."  He said that we need to decide if we will respond when called.  He then mentioned that his father and he often rode horses and one time he put him on a horse called Cebu.  But Cebu would not be broken and quickly bucked him off and he was not able to do his work.  How does this apply to your service?  It is so important to be converted to turn our hearts to the Lord and be broken.  You cannot inherit the Kingdom of God with out the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  Mosiah 27:10 tells of Alma and the sons of Mosiah who had been taught the gospel but did not receive the call, "And now it came to pass that while he was going about to destroy the church of God, for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord, contrary to the commandments of God, or even the king"—Faith cometh by hearing the word.  Alma and the sons of Mosiah heard the word of God from the angel and were converted and turned their hearts to the Lord.  They became marvelous missionaries for the Lord.  When Alma was thown out of Ammonihah the same angel that had spoke to him earlier met him and told him to rejoice.  He might of thought what do I have to rejoice about.  The angel told him that he had been faithful in keeping the commandments of God since the day that he had first delivered them unto him.  Alma returned to Ammonihah and found Amulek who had been commanded by an angel to help him and this time he followed the command.  Amulek took him in and fed him and Alma blessed his family.  Finally he went with Alma to preach and does a marvelous job because he is converted.  His family rejected the gospel but he is able to be helped by Alma when he was rejected by the people for Alma took him into his home and helped him and strengthened him in the Lord.

The last thing he mentioned was some advice his brother gave him.  No one cares what you did in High School.  He said that many of us have accomplished many things in High School but right now no one cares what you did and you need to work with your companion to be obedient.

The next speaker was Elder Foster of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  He bore testimony of the calling of Elder Nelson.  He mentioned that he was also on a mission with Elder Williams that we work in the office with in the Texas South Mission about 45 years ago.

On his mission he had an experience where he met a Baptist Minister who was working in his town.  One of the people that he worked with was contacted by the minister and was having a hard time choosing which way to go.  They asked the minister if the people would be lost if they did not hear him preach.  His reply was yes.  The investigator told them that they knew that the the church was true because we want to save all people.

He declared that this is your day, this is your time.  You are enough. He quoted D & C 31 where the Lord tells Thomas Marsh, blessed are you because of your faith in my work.  He goes on to say, "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.  You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned. Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live. Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them."

He then said, Begin with the end in mind.  Revile not against your companion. It is the same work on both sides of the veil.  Your job is to help them see and be converted.

After this it was time for Elder Nelson to speak to us.  He began by telling the missionaries thank you for being worthy to serve.  He told them that they chose the best missionaries to serve in the United States.  He admonished those who speak English to teach it to their companions.  He said that President Hinckley demanded excellence in his own speech and he was always polishing our documents.

He then decided to tell us a little about the way things are organized in Priesthood.  There are 8 quorums of the Seventy.  Quorums 1-2 are general authorities that help the Apostles and assignments throughout the world as designated in Section 107 of the D&C.  Quorums 3-8 are area authorities and are responsible for a certain area.  Elder Foster is a general authority because he is in the 2nd quorum.  Elder Wright is an area authority because he is over the area including San Antonio.  He is in the 6th Quorum of Seventy.  The Stake Presidents hold the keys for missionary work in their stake, even over the full time missionaries.  Missionaries need to be a full purpose missionary.  That means that they are able to do several things.  The Mission President is in charge of assignments that are given to the missionaries.

He told the missionaries that they needed to make their companionship work.  On your mission is where you learn to get along in marriage.  Follow your mission presidents example and look for someone who loves the Lord.  If they love the Lord first they have a bigger capacity to love you.

He then asked for questions.  The first Question was:  How can you be patient with change but not tolerate sin?

Change is what you pray for.  We are to call all people to repentance!  Change is a commandment of the Lord; change your attitude, change your mind and several other things.  We encourage change.  We are born totally selfish and need to work to being selfless.  Change we pray for and we work for.  We should not tolerate sin but we should love the sinner.  Don't waste time doing what you did in the past.  You are of the lineage of responsibility and we need to change and overcome our sin.  He quoted from Abraham 3: 23-24 "And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;"  He pointed out that we were among those noble and great ones that were called to be the rulers because we were good and we have a responsibility to become the kind of person that the Lord can use.

Question 2 :  How do you know when it is adversity or if you need to change?

Why would Heavenly Father allow Satan to be part of things.  Because we have the chance to change from Heavenly Father.  That is why we are teaching that opposites are needed.  He quoted from D&C 101:3-4 "Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewel. Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son."  He also mention the story of Gideon in the Bible where the Lord had him pare his army down to 300 to show him that the Lord could fight his battles for him.  This is a pattern that the Lord uses.  He wants us to see that with his help we can accomplish anything.  There are many examples in the scriptures: Sarah having a baby at 90, Mary having a virgin birth.  Why does he do that?  To teach us that if we will do our best all things are possible.  In Exodus 3:11 it says, "And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"  Often we say "Who am I?" Part of the process of growth is to do the things that we think we cannot do with God's help.  You are among the noble and great ones.  Even before you were born your received your first lessons and prepared to come forth to the earth.  Everyone knows their family.  You need to be prepared to help them with the Family History Consultants.  Their ancestors are praying for you to meet their family and convert them so that they can get their work done.

This pattern of using the unlikely is one the Lord uses to accomplish his purposes.  When Ezra Taft Benson was called as President I was assigned at the first meeting to open the countries of Eastern Europe that were behind the iron curtain.  At that time it seemed like an impossible and overwhelming task.  But by praying and working with the Lord I was able to accomplish that. You need to know how extraordinary you are.  Pay attention to your patriarchal blessing to see what the Lord has promised you.

When your leader see your communication will they have a smiley face or a frowny face?  When you see something that is our of order instead simply criticizing have a recommendation to make.  Learn from how he responds.

We are thankful for you.  This is the greatest organization of all the world.  I bless you that you will feast on the word that you will shine like a beacon on a hill and that you will continue to preach the gospel after your missions.

Obviously I do not know shorthand so there is much that is left out.  Also I felt that the spirit was bearing witness to me of many things that cannot be written. For the first time I understood what it means when they say in the scripture that words cannot be written to describe the feelings that we felt. I hope that writing out what I did take notes on will help someone to understand his words and change their life for better.  I know that he is a prophet of God.  He is sharp as a tack at 90 years old.  Much of what he said was much more complicated that what is indicated here.  It was a wonderful experience for me and I was so grateful to have the opportunity to listen at his feet.

January 25th and before

This weekend we did not have the kids.  It is pretty quiet around here when they are not here.  But it is nice to have a weekend to recuperated from things.

Sacrament today was on the Godhead.  Brother Emmett reminded us that we can only know the truth by the Holy Ghost.  A young couple in our ward spoke.  They took their teachings from the new youth curriculum.  They were both good talks.

Sister Crawford first mentioned that we must be like Alma and ask God if the things we learn are true. She talked about the Who, What, When, Where and Why of the Godhead. The First Article of Faith States, "we believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost".  So the Godhead is three separate beings God the Father and Jesus his son have a body of flesh and bone.  The Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit so that he can dwell in our heart.  The when is that they are Everlasting and Eternal.  Where are the Godhead.  God himself spends his time going about in the Heaven.  Jesus works on earth as well as in heaven.  Omnipresence is achieved through the Holy Ghost.  Why do we have the Godhead, they work for the immortality and eternal life of man.  Jesus was the needed sacrifice to bring us home to our heavenly father.  The Holy Ghost will teach you all truth.

Brother Crawford talked about how the scriptures can help us to have a testimony of the true nature of the Godhead.  If we study, read the scriptures we can learn the true nature of God.  He talked about Ether Chapter 3 as an example of how the scriptures can help us to understand the nature of God.  Jared prayed to be preserved by God from the effects of confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.  The Brother of Jared was able to see the Savior hundreds of years before he came to the earth because of his faith despite the fact Jesus was still a spirit at that time.  The scriptures also teach us that we are made in the image of God.  Moses saw God face to face, saw that we are in the similitude of our Father, saw the world and all the creations of God.  He then concluded that we are nothing compared to God.  Then he also was able to discern the difference between God and Satan because Satan has no Glory.  Joseph Smith had a similar experience.  God came to him in his glory with his son so we could know what we worship.  Doctrine and Covenants 93 talks of the things that John saw in vision and reported on the character of Christ.  In other words we must study the scriptures and keep the commandments to know the mysteries of God.

Obviously it is easier to listen and take notes when the children are not there.  We also had a great lesson in Relief Society about the power that prayer can have in our lives.  It made me realize that we needed to have more prayers as a family and with the kids and that could help with some of the problems that we face when we are together.  Larry and I say our couple prayer but we have not been so good to include Nathan and to have prayer with the kids when they come.

In the afternoon after dinner I just worked on the blog until it was caught up until the 19th.  Nathan was talking to Marcie and Larry has found You Tube Music Videos for Sunday afternoon listening.

This week was transfer week.  Tuesday we were in the office while the Williams went to feed the outgoing missionaries.  About noon I realized that a missionary that was leaving for home had ordered some name tags and I had not got them ordered.  So I had to go up to talk to him to figure out what needed to be done.  I lost a couple of things that I wrote down in Hawaii and this was one of them.  After that I went to feed Nathan before I went back to the office.  When I got back to the office Larry had gone somewhere so the office had been closed for a while.

Tuesday nights we were planning to watch Bones for a while before we went to bed. But then we remembered that it was Ward Temple Night that we had been planning for for some time.  Larry and I were headed grocery shopping when he remembered.  So we shopped faster than usual.  When we got home Nathan was talking to Marcy on the phone but we got him dressed and were still there on time.  It is an 8:00 p.m. session so we were able to make it but it gets out late also.  Every night this week we only got 6 + hours of sleep so we were pretty tired by Friday.  Usually we do not tolerate this amount of sleep well but the Lord has been blessing us to have the energy to do the work he has called us to do.

Wednesday we were responsible for feeding the missionaries coming in.  They have decided to meet for lunch at the Stone Oak Chapel for lunch as it is the closest to the Temple.   So they take the missionaries to the Temple for pictures and then they come for their late lunch.  The missionaries that come in from the Mexico MTC don't come in until about 3:40 p.m. now, so we just fix lunches for them and they eat on the way to the Alamo to pass out Book of Mormons.  We were supposed to have lunch ready for them at 2:00 p.m. but they didn't even come in until 1:30 p.m. and it took them longer at the Temple taking pictures so we ended up just sitting at the church for about and hour waiting for them to show up.

We were able to go back to the office for about an hour after they ate and we cleaned up.  We had to go and get the materials we needed for the next mornings orientation so we would have them.

We went to get the food from Blanco BBQ about 5:30 p.m. and then we headed to the president's home to get the dinner ready for 7:00 p.m.  It was really good barbecue this time and I was proud of myself that I didn't go over my points to far.  But we were late doing dishes because I didn't notice that the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes and so I basically started that and then we had washed the dishes but at least we only had 16 come in this time and not 33.

Elder Nelson with his bike

Thursday for Transfer day we have to be there about 2 hours before we usually get to the office, at 7:30 a.m. for the orientation meeting for the new missionaries.  We got up and did our usual rituals but for some reason we lost time again and we just barely made it in time for us to speak and the President, Elder Williams, Sister Williams all speak before us.  It was a rainy day and so it was crazy how wet it was that day and it was also cold for San Antonio.

Elder Presser, Elder Nelson, Sister Presser

Isaac and David and Sammy at Bingo night

One of the Elders was a missionary from Heber who had been converted by my cousin's family and lived with them for a year and now he was in the mission field.  It was fun to know we had a connection and we took a picture of him with his bike and with us so that they would know that he got here.  I posted that on Facebook. His name is Jayson Robert Nelson so when I first saw the picture I wondered if he was related to Robert Nelson in Vernal.

A worker who always brings us our sodas early with Nathan and Isaac

We attended transfer meeting at 9:00 a.m. and enjoyed that.  It was a rainy day and we found out that a missionary had parked his car in a handicap zone when he got home and had had his car towed so after that meeting Larry had to work on getting the car back and paying the fine because the Elder was transferred to Austin area.  He was very apologetic but it cost him 210.40 for the fine.  He paid Elder Presser back later.  I worked on the office work.

Maggie and Nathan

We went to lunch and then came back and worked. Nathan came to the office with us so that we could leave from there for Wounded Warrior Bingo night.  Just before we were getting ready to go home about 4:30 p.m. the transport truck came to pick up a car from Elder Presser.  I decided that he was inspired not to go to the Austin transfer meeting because he had those two things that he had to be in San Antonio to do.

David, Sammy and Larry

Thursday night we went to Bingo night with Nathan and the kids.  We had a good dinner but I ate too many desserts.  But for the first time in our time here I won a bingo game and got a prize.  I actually got a $50.00 gift card to Target so it wasn't too bad of a gift. Because I won the 2nd game and it was raining we didn't have any reason to stay because if someone in your family wins then no one else can win that night.  So we decided to go to Target and see if I could get a skirt or a blouse or something.  I couldn't find anything at the Target in Converse except a scarf but it gave us the extra hour with the kids and then we took them home.

Friday we slept in some and then didn't exercise so we could leave earlier.   We basically worked at the office that day.  Larry had to take back the van and trailer we had rented.  We looked forward to having a weekend to do what we wanted.  We realized that it was Larry's Sister's Birthday on Saturday so we decided to go to Kerrville and take her and John out to dinner for her birthday and probably for John's also because we were not so alert when it was his birthday.

Saturday we slept in until about 8:00 a.m. and then I worked on the blog until we needed to go about 3:00 p.m trying to get it caught up because I was a month behind.  Then we went to take a car to the Bulverde missionaries.  We thought that their apartment would be closer to Bulverde but it turns out is was in San Antonio just east of the temple.  We traded them cars and then we went on to Kerrville.  We hadn't planned to take Nathan because we had to drop off the car.

We had a good night talking to Judy and John.  Judy wanted to go to Billy Gene's one of our favorite places to eat in Kerrville.  Of course we had to have turtle cheesecake for dessert.  Judy and John wanted something else that they said was seasonal so they ended up having turtle cheesecake also.  We had a fun time talking with them but decided not to spend the night this time because of church and having to take Nathan.  I also wanted to finish the blog.  When we went to church and it was so inspirational I was glad we had made it back.

January 19, 2015

As today was a holiday from public school we had the kids today also because it was Nathan's weekend.

Luckily we got to sleep in some because we did not have to be to the office early.  We woke about 7:45 a.m. and as the kids were still sleeping we read our scriptures and said our prayers together and then we began to fix breakfast.  The smell of bacon of course brought the kids awake.  We made pancakes and bacon and eggs.  Most of the kids wanted chocolate milk with their breakfast.  Some of them would not eat the eggs because we cooked them in bacon grease and they had brown spots in them.  They sure tasted good though.

The kids and Nathan watched a My Little Pony movie about the Equestrian Girls for a while after as Nathan tried to organize them into what they needed to do this morning.  He wanted to work with Isaac on his requirements for his Bear Badge and so he let the others watch the movie while he tried to work with Isaac.  They eventually finished the one on Famous Americans with help from Larry and I.  Isaac was having a hard time concentrating with the movie on.

Then he took all the kids out to his van and they helped him clean it on the inside.  They are getting pretty good at it as they have done it several times now.  That is when Larry and I took the time to get our showers and get dressed.

Maggie was hungry at about 11:30 a.m. because she didn't finish her breakfast so we had lunch.  Most of the kids wanted chocolate milk and popcorn but the rest of us had left over calazones from Saturday night and hamburgers from Sunday night.

When they came in they put another movie on and we watched it during lunch and Nathan was trying to work with them but it wasn't working very good.  Larry and I went in the bedroom until the Movie was over.  At that time Larry had to go to the mission office to get the vans and trailers that they use for transfers.

When the movie was over I suggested that we turn off the movies and work on the Pinewood Derby cars that the kids had been excited to make all weekend.  So we turned off the movie and Maggie, Sammy, and Isaac began to draw the picture of what they wanted their car to look like.  Sammy drew a picture on the paper and then got very upset when Nathan asked him to draw it on the car.  Nathan asked him to draw it with the wheel sites up and he was really upset because then the wheels wouldn't work.  Nathan has built many championship cars so he patiently explained that they could make new wheel sockets so then Sammy calmed down just to get upset because he did not know how to draw the picture on the block of wood.  When I offered to help him he calmed down again.

When it was time to cut them I realized that I would have to do the cutting and as I had never worked with the hand saw that Nathan had I was a little apprehensive.  I called Larry to see if he could come and help me but of course he couldn't so I went to the garage and got some clamps of Nathan's out and clamped the wood to the outside porch railing and started sawing.  Before that I had to say a prayer for courage but after about an hour of sawing I finally had all three cars cut out.  I got as many points on my active link as if I had walked a half hours so I guess it was worth it.

Nathan had the kids file the cars smoother and then they decided to stop for today.  Then they put on another movie.  I worked a little at uploading pictures for the blog and looking at Facebook on my phone but I was really tired.

It was really warm today in the 60's so I like San Antonio in the winter.  I remembered that the kids wanted to go to the hot tubs to swim  for a while so I asked Nathan if he wanted to do that but he thought that we did not have enough time.  So he paused the movie and had the kids clean up all their stuff from the living room and put it away in his bed room.  Then I started to make dinner.  I specifically asked the kids what they wanted and made what they wanted but Isaac decided his was not good and Maggie decided she didn't want hers either because I had put on a Yo Gabba Gabba for her to look at while I made it and the other meals.  It was a little frustrating.

Larry came home just as we were finishing fixing the dinner.  I felt like I was a chicken with it's head cut off running around to all the demands of Grandma fix this and Grandma fix that.  I was glad to see him.

We got the kids ready after dinner and then we took them home.  We thought that we had thought of everything and then when we got back there sat Maggies dance bag that her mother will need for next week.  So I put that and some papers from Primary on the snack bar and thought we would take it for Thursday when we had the kids.  Larry and I were really tired so we got ready and went to bed at 8:30 p.m.  Shortly after that I got a text from David saying that he had left his wallets with his military ID in them by the end of the table and so after thinking about it for a while I decided to take them to them tonight as I hate getting up earlier in the morning than we already do.  So I took all the things to Converse, a half hour trip one way, tonight so that they would have them in the morning.  Somewhere along the way I got the courage to write down what we did today for the blog.

When I got home Nathan had showered and wanted help getting in bed.  So I helped him and wrote this and now I am going to do the same.

January 18th and before

Maggie's dance class this week

We had Nathan's kids this weekend.  There have been some good moments but for the most part Maggie is upset about something and she has been telling me and Nathan and Larry that she hates us all weekend from time to time.  I guess she has finally figured out that the arrangement of going to dad's ever other weekend and on Thursday's is permanent.  She told Nathan last time they were here that he needed to come back to the house and not live with Grandma and Grandpa.  This time she just kept telling us that she wanted to go home.  Divorce is hard on kids.

We have a later church now that the new year has come.  We go at 11:00 a.m.  so you would think that we could get to church on time.  Today was one of the most embarrassing days of my life and it was mostly my fault.  We got up early and fixed breakfast for the kids.  Then we all showered and got ready for church.  I thought it was about 10:00 a.m. so I decided to get some hot dogs for the kids so they would not be hungry at church.  All of a sudden Nathan got upset and said we have to go and we looked at the clock and it was 10:58 a.m. and we have to drive 20 minutes to church.  David had to speak in church in Sacrament meeting and we were late!!!! We hurried and got in the van and drove there.  Nathan texted the Bishop that we were coming.  When we got there they were singing and I thought it might be the sacrament song but it turns out it was the intermediate hymn.  We walked in and David walked up to the stand.  I was proud of him.  Then the song ended and the Bishop got up and announced that David would be speaking.  He gave a good talk.  He did not act nervous and talked appropriately.  But I cannot remember ever being that late to Sacrament.  The High Counselor talked after him but I cannot remember what he talked about.  I have forgotten.  But I was so impressed with David.  He could have not wanted to go up and such but he just walked up and gave his talk.

Maggie on the Second row in the purple

We had a great lesson on the importance of Prayer in Relief Society.  The Spirit bore witness to me that we needed to have better Family Prayer together.  I was so excited but then we went home and everyone kind of went off and did their own thing and I couldn't seem to get myself to do anything about it.  Later it seemed that Satan was laughing at me.  I got a very dark feeling and had a hard time shaking it.

In the afternoon the kids and I played a game of Life and that was fun.  I feel like we need to do more of things together but for this week it seemed that Larry and Nathan were off wanting to do their own thing.

Saturday we slept in but we had to get Maggie to dance at 10:00 a.m. so we finally got going and she was actually a little early.  Sara met us there with her dance shoes because she had forgot them the night before when she brought the kids.

After going to dance with Maggie, Nathan wanted to go and get the kids bank accounts so we went to the Chase Bank close to us because Nathan is banking with Chase.  He worked with the guy and we just waited and tried to watch the kids.  It seemed like it took them forever.  At least an hour and a half.  I don't know what took so long but by the time we got out of there it was almost 1:00 p.m.  The kids and I were hungry and we were all tired.

But, Larry and Nathan decided to go get gas and go through the car wash.  That took another half hour at least.  But then we went to the Dairy Queen.  I love Dairy Queen but going there signals eat ice cream in my mind and heart so I had to get a blizzard.  When I looked up the points I found out that the one I got was 22 points and it was a small!!!!  I forgot that they have mini's and they are more economical for points.

Nathan worked with the kids on some scout things and we watched some movies in the evening on Saturday.

I don't remember what we did on Monday and Tuesday of the week.  We were working on getting caught up still.  We went to Weight Watchers and I lost a little but it was not as much as I gained the week before.

Wednesday we worked with the office again.  In the evening we went to take the kids to Scouts.  We have started picking up Sammy and Isaac and then going to get Maggie from school.  That way we can get Isaac to Bear's on time because it takes Sara so long to get all of them.  She picks up David at his school and then meets us at the church and we give her Sammy and Maggie and she gives us David.  Then we go help in the Family History Center while they are in Scouts.  Wednesday night no one showed up even though they said that they would.  So Larry and I worked on some things on our families.  I was frustrated because I went on Family Tree and someone had marked my Mom and Uncles Reed and Lynn and Aunt Hilda as deceased even though they are very much alive.  So I called Mom to make sure she was alive.  She was and she told me she would have told me if one of my Aunts and Uncles were dead.  I sent in a feedback on it for each of them and hopefully they are back alive but it was frustrating to me that someone would do that.

Thursday we went to Wounded Warriers Bingo Night with the kids.  We always have a good time.  Nathan was having a good time but then he won the Cow that they always have for one of the gifts and that seemed to give him a lift and help him feel better.

Thursday Nathan hired a lady from the ward to come and clean for us.  Then he had her take him to take the papers in to the base about his divorce.  He told Sara and she assumed that she had to take her ID into the office immediately and so they would not let her go get David so she was not able to pick up David from school because he goes to school on Randolph Air Force Base.  She was upset so it caused lots of problems getting the kids to Bingo night.  But we eventually got everyone there.  Sara had a rant on Facebook about it because she didn't see the things as Nathan did, so if you wondered what it was about that is that.

The next morning we had to get up at 5:30 and go out to take David to school because he had lost his ID.  Nathan got him an ID and then he bought him a wallet to keep it in with a clip and another wallet for other things.  Then we took him to school.

The kids came on Friday night and we had a home night David had wanted me to make a Cheesy Calazones recipe he found in a kids cookbook we have.  I made them and they tasted really good and some of the kids ate them but I have a feeling that they will not eat them again.  They are not real pizza even though they are made from the same ingredients.  But we love the kids and are so glad we have time to spend with them someday they will learn to like real food!!!

January 11th and before including Christmas with the kids

Nathan wearing the glasses the kids gave him as a gag gift

We arrived home on the 27th of December in the afternoon.  After flying all night we had no desire except to sleep.  So we spent some of the time resting but we had to go shopping for some things for the kids who were coming on Sunday.  Nathan had already flown in the night before from Utah and Reed Johnson picked him up from the airport and brought him home.

Maggie wearing the glasses

Isaac in the van

Sunday we went to church and then the kids were able to come after 1:00 p.m.  They had arrived home late with Sara from having Christmas with her Dad in Missouri.  We had a good time opening gifts and showing each other what we had got on our other trips and such.  Nathan bought the kids more of something on an online game called Roblox and he also got them season passes to Splashtown a local water park here.  Because we had seen what fun good snorkeling equipment can make snorkeling and they have the pool at our apartment to practice in we decided to get the kids some good snorkeling equipment.

David in the Van

The next day we took Maggie to get her Christmas Present.  Because Nathan knows how natural Maggie is for dancing he bought her all the equipment for dance lessons and then is paying for the Dance lessons every week on Saturday.  That way both Sara and we can take her to dance lessons.  She was so excited.  She wanted to go that day but they didn't start the lessons for two weeks.  I let her wear her dance leotard when she got home and that seemed to satisfy her.

We had the kids for the rest of Christmas Vacation until after the New Year when they went back to school.  Unfortunately we had to work at the mission.  Because Sara stipulated that she wanted and Nathan agreed to it that he had to have someone who was a responsible adult to be with the kids at all times or ourselves in the divorce agreement, we had to find someone to be with Nathan each of the days while we were at the mission office.  Woodlake ward was really good to provide someone each of the days that we needed it.  Although about 5 of the days were the Relief Society President or her family members.  I felt bad for all of the time it was taking her away from her family.

Maggie in a selfie

On Monday after we went to dance lesson signups James Johnson came to stay.  I felt bad because while he was there Maggie threw up all over her leotard and some of the floor and he was good to clean it up.  Maggie did not have the stomach flu but seemed to be throwing up with flem each time she got too congested.  Sara had brought her to us that way and so it continued on after.  That was actually the only time she threw up while with us but Isaac started getting it the night before he went home and had a high fever.

Maggie the first time wearing the leotard.

Pizza on New Year's Eve

I was proud of Nathan.  He did most of the stuff with the kids and took good care of them.  They were a little disgruntled that he took away their electronics during the day but it was amazing how much better they played together and especially David acted happier and more caring to his brothers and sister.  They went to the fitness center a lot.  He took them out to eat several times.  One time they went to meet other Mother's at a play group at a restaurant.  They watched movies and played games. Maren's family had Nathan's family name for Christmas and she bought them the game of life zapped edition and they have really liked that.  They got the Dr. Who edition of Yahtzee and we gave them Uno but the Life game was played the most.  The Yathzee game came with a Tardis to put everything in when you store it and so we now have a Tardis to decorate our dinning room lol
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Laughing at America's Funniest Home Videos on New Years Eve

On New Year's Eve we bought pizza and all the trimmings for dinner and decided to have a family game night.  We played several games ending up with Life.  The kids wanted to stay up for dinner but by 11:30 Maggie was so grouchy that I laid down with her and got her to sleep.  Sammy fell asleep also in his dad's bed before that.  David and Isaac said that they were going to stay up until Midnight but we turned on the TV to see if we could see the apple drop in New York like we do in Utah but it was full of San Antonio celebrations and we were able to see the fireworks that they had in San Antonio but David and Isaac were asleep before they came on,  together on the couch.  So I took some pictures of them and we all went to bed.

Maggie sleeping on New Years Eve

On the third we went to the Northstar Mall to do several things.  Nathan got him a new phone because he thought that his was broken but later we figured out that the booster that we have for Sprint at our apartment was not working properly.  Someone had put the antenna behind the TV to get it out of the way and so it was not working.  We had to call Sprint to learn this.  Not only is Nathan's service on Sprint but our mission phones are also on Sprint so we had a few days where getting phone calls was a chore.  One time I just had to call the missionaries on my own phone that is through AT&T.  I don't know why Sprint is so weak here but it is. 

Isaac and David asleep on the couch

Sammy asleep in his dad's bed.

Sammy's haircut.

The kids also had some gift certificates to Build a Bear and to Lego Store.  Unfortunately they only had $10.00 so Nathan ended up having to supplement them to help them get what they and we thought was economical.  The have a thing that you can build three figures for $10.00 but we did not think that was very economical so we steered them towards getting a set.  While we were there Maggie built about $70.00 worth of people 21 to be exact and so I took a picture of all the people she built.  Isaac was able to get some shoes for Monkey Toes, his monkey that he has had since he was born but Nathan had to buy the skates he wanted to go with them at Build a Bear.  Nathan and I thought Maggie had a card so we let her look for something.  She actually found a small pink bear for $10.00 that was cute but Nathan had to pay to put the Frozen song,"Let it go" inside.  Sammy found a dog that he wanted that was regular size but it was $20.00 so Nathan just let him get the Dog, stuff it and get a birth certificate but we did not buy clothes for it.

Maggie's pony all redone

We also took the kids to get hair cuts.  I guess Sara was afraid that we would make them cut it shorter than she likes so she asked that we text her their picture.  David went to a place in the mall that he likes but they were so expensive that we just took Isaac and Sammy to WalMart.  We ate at the mall in the food court and then went home.  It was a long day but I got lots of activity points!

Maggie with all the characters she built at Lego Store

Isaac with his Lego creation

David's Haircut

David went home that evening because he had school the next day but we had the other kids until the 4th because they did not go back to school until the next day. Nathan wanted to take them all out to dinner before they left so we went to Applebee's.  While we were there Isaac got really sad and meloncholy I thought that maybe he was sad because David got to go home to Mom and he didn't but when we got home he said he didn't feel good so I gave him so Children's Advil after that he brightened up and Isaac, Maggie and Sammy and I played a game of Life when we got home, while Larry and Nathan took David home.  Later however Isaac got a high fever again but claimed he was fine and we ended up taking him to Sara that way.

Isaac with Monkey Toes and his new shoes and skates

Nathan's birthday is on the 7th of January.  He is 41 this year.  Because we had just taken the kids back a few days before he decided to wait until we saw the kids on the 8th to celebrate it with them.  We took Nathan with us to the office in the afternoon and then we went to dinner for birthday on the 7th.  He wanted to go to an East Indian restaurant and so we found one that was recommended called the Bombay Hall.  We liked the food there.  They had a buffet or you could order.  Nathan ordered and Larry and I had the buffet.  We liked it because it was more chicken and fish than lamb like some of the Indian restaurants in Utah.

Isaac's hair cut

That evening we went to the church to help Brother Turnbaugh with his family history.  We would have picked up the boys for scouts but Isaac was still sick.  It was fun to get to know Bro. Turnbaugh.  He comes to church alone so I thought he was single but his wife is bipolar and she has decided not to come.  We had a great time introducing him to the Family Search website and seeing for ourselves the new things that have been added there.  We were able to find him about 5 names that can be taken to the temple.

The scarf the kids gave me for Christmas

Birthday boy with Sammy

On Thursday night, the 8th of January we had the kids to celebrate Nathan's birthday. We went to an Italian restaurant called Papa Dantes in Converse.  They had really good Italian food.  The kids seemed to enjoy the place but Maggie was pretty grumpy because she had just woke up until they brought the food.  We told them it was Nathan's birthday and they brought him a huge slice of chocolate cake which was enough for all the kids and him.  Larry and I ordered turtle cheesecake.  We didn't have any candles but we sang Happy Birthday to him and he seemed to enjoy the night.

Nathan with Maggie

Larry at Papa Dante's Restaurant

Nathan has had several examples of the fact that he is getting happier.  He is also taking charge of his own life.  He is taking more responsibility for the children when they are here and he is working to overcome the challenges that he has been given.  I think that his mind is clearer and he is not getting so angry now.  He is trying to deal with more issues in his life.  He was releaved to have his Divorce Decree Signed by the Judge on Dec. 29th.

Plenty of food

Larry and I were trying to get caught up during all of this at the mission.  I had about 100 referrals to get put in and several of the old referrals had to be caught up in the new referral system.  I also had almost a whole month of Baptism and Confirmation certificates to put it.  Also it was MLC the first week when we got back and so I had to get orders ready for that.  Luckily I ordered the supplies before I left for Hawaii and so I had what I needed to get the orders out.  I got lots of activity points that week.  Larry had several car accidents that he had to get caught up on and work through the system.

Nathan with his birthday cake

We didn't have the kids on the 10th but Sara sent some pictures of Maggie starting her dance lessons.  She really liked it but has already decided that she does not like tapping.  I didn't think I would like not being able to see the kids each weekend but It gives Larry and I a chance to catch our breath and get some paperwork and housecleaning done and rest a little more and that is much needed sometimes.

Sunday's Sacrament subject was on making new year's resolutions.  Two friend of ours Andrea and Erik Alonzo spoke on the importance of making goals at this time of year.  Erik really cut his talk short but then we learned that his brother who is the Bishop asked him to because he wanted to introduce the ward mission goals:

Maggie's first dance lesson

1. Every member pray for guidance to know who of their friends or relatives they can invite to church, an activity or to meet the missionaries.
2. Every member or family bring one non-member friend or relative to church and one non-member friend or relative to ward activity.
3. Have Eight (8) convert baptisms throughout the year.
4. Host TWO (2) gospel-sharing focused devotionals or activities throughout the year.

I was excited to see this as there are many people in the Woodlake area that still need to hear the Good News of Christ.  I get a lot of referrals from Woodlake and I hope that some of them will listen to the missionaries so that they can have a happier life.  I have seen so many people change their life for the better and become happier that I know that the Gospel that Jesus offers through his true church is something that comes from God and is the truth.