Presser/Christiansen Family: April 14 and before

Isaac in his ninja suit

Nathan downloading a game with Sammy

Sleeping Maggie

We have three of Nathan's kids with us tonight. Isaac and Sammy are playing and Maggie is asleep on the couch. Nathan found a fun game for them to play on the Ipad where they can take pictures of themselves talking and making funny pictures. Isaac is dressed in a ninja costume that Nathan got for him.

A sister in the mission with Sister Williams and me

Today was the first day I felt competent at the mission office. I was able to help Sister Williams learn how to make an order for Stationery and as I was doing that I figured out why we could not get the scanner to scan a document to the computer. After much trial and error I found out that the ability to scan to the computer had been disabled. I finished all of my referrals and was able to help Sister Williams and then input the weekly reports to two different programs for data on Baptisms.

Larry with Elder Williams the Housing and Finance person in the middle

Larry spent a lot of time working out things for a recall on certain Chevy models and helping the missionaries that were involved in an accident on Sunday. He also had to order some bike racks for some of the mission cars.

We usually start our day at 6:00 a.m. Nathan usually needs to get up then and I help him get into his wheelchair and then he goes into his bathroom and goes to the bathroom and showers all by himself. Usually Larry and I read from the Old Testament made Easier and have our morning prayer while he is doing that. Then I go in and help Nathan get dressed while Larry gets dressed. Then Larry makes breakfast which is usually cereal and I get dressed and then when we are all dressed and have eaten then we leave for work at the mission.

At a Senior couples dinner we had on Monday the 7th

We go to the mission about 8:30 a.m. Nathan is alone for about 3 hours usually. He does various things by himself during that time. He may have therapy or he may do some therapy on his own. He likes to have Star Trek on or sometimes another movie for background noise he says. He also writes a lot of letters and texts people and other things on his phone and Ipad. We come home and eat lunch with him about noon but it can vary depending on what we have to do at the office. Then we leave until about 5:00 p.m. but sometimes it is later. Nathan is usually alone but sometimes he has visitors and he has been having the missionaries come and talk to him lately.


Brother and Sister Sturdyvant the military relations missionaries have options to help Nathan

Tonight we went to a barbecue place on the way home called Two Brothers and got some Texas Barbecue and had that for dinner. I think that Nathan and Larry really liked that. Usually in the evening we have dinner and work on projects that need done and then we listen to conference talks with Nathan and then we go to bed. I only have to help Nathan in bed because he does not have a headboard to pull himself up to because he is stubborn and does not want to have any hospital beds.

Nathan at the Senior Dinner everyone fell in love with him, many have military backgrounds

We had our phones on silent and so we did not get some texts from Nathan so we didn't know he wanted to go to the house to see the kids tonight so he had texted Sara and asked her to bring up the kids here. David stayed home because he had homework to do.

Last night I found several pictures that I had taken during the last few weeks so I thought that I would upload those and talk about them. We have a few pictures of the dinner that we went to at Keith and Chris's when they have their whole family over for dinner. It was good to see their family before we left. He has a grandchild Tregan that talks as much and is as friendly as our Abbie. He also has a granddaughter Jenna that looks enough like Maggie that they could be twins.

At Keith's house for dinner before we flew down.

We also had to help get the meal for lunch and dinner for when the new missionaries come in. The last Missionaries came in on April 2nd. We had a long subway sandwich for the lunch and we talked and then the missionaries were taken to the Alamo and challenged to give away a Book of Mormon while they were there. Then they came back in the evening and we had a dinner of Texas Barbeque and they visited with President Slaughter. They took pictures in his backyard and we were included because we had just got there the week before.


Keith and Chris's Grandkids

Apparently the Senior Missionaries get together after every transfer for dinner so we were able to go to San Marcos for dinner with them and Nathan was invited also. We ate at a restaurant called Grins It was fun to get to know many of them and they really were good to Nathan. Elder and Sister Sturdyvant the military relations couple came to church this week in Nathan's ward and are wanting to get involved in helping him with the different programs that are offered also. Although Nathan has many advocates trying to help him get what he needs. Tonight Sara brought him his packet from the VA about his retirement so he has been reading that.

Keith's granddaughter Jenna looks like Maggie I think

The final pictures are of the grandkids swimming in the hot tub in our apartment community building. It was cooler that day so they stayed indoors but this last Saturday they swam in the pool. But my phone is damaged so I was not able to take pictures of the pool.

Compare to Jenna, this is Maggie

One last thing. Friday night I mentioned that I was concerned about the money because our renter had not paid. On Saturday I was praying about how I was going to make things work. I didn't get an answer right then but I went to take Nathan in the van to get a new phone charger and all of a sudden the idea came to my mind of how we could get the money that we needed immediately. It was amazing. It is truly wonderful how the Lord is taking care of us on this mission. We feel his help everyday. The Gospel is true and the Lord truly does bear you up.