Mission Monday

I love Monday mornings.  I really do.  I wake up slowly (because I am not a hop-out-of-bed-at-first-light kind of person, because Trent kindly takes care of that job for me), pry my eyelids open, and reach for my tablet.  Then I get to lay in bed and read precious letters from my boys.  No, I got that backwards.  Letters from my precious boys.  Love the letters, but I love the boys more.  This morning I got a new surprise - a connection with the mother of Ben's new companion.  Now I can let more stories and pictures from this new area he's in.  And it's gorgeous.

Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.  From Elder Pinson's blog.  

Anyone want to go in on buying a summer home here?  Man, I think I could live here forever.  What an amazing world the Lord made for us!


From South Africa:

On Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to Elder Si'ufanua. He got the call that he was headed out to go to George. Which call means that there are only going to be two of us here in Paarl now.

I do have to say, that after six weeks of teaching with three missionaries, it is kinda hard to transition back to two. So now it is just back to the two of us here, Elder Castro and I. It is weird to just have one companion now, but that is what is in stock for us now.



And from Madagascar:

Well. Fort Dauphin is cool.  Yeah.

It has like all of my favorite things in one: a beach, nice mountains, jungly stuff, a crazy sweet language, and super awesome people!  Yes, the beach looks good. It especially looks very good when I look out my window in the morning and it's right there.

Any way, have a good week all of you, wherever you're at, and don't forget that Jesus died for you and your family so you can be with them throughout the eternities. It doesn't hurt to be a little more grateful than we usually are.

A Party in My Front Room

After a brief book pause for the end of school hubbub and the beginning of summer crazies, I've started reading again.  I'm happy when I have a book - when no one is bothering me.  So, nearly never!  But I can snatch a few minutes at night while Trent unwinds with a movie.

I've been reading my house book, "Love It or Leave It."  No, that's wrong somehow.  It's "Love the House You Have," and I've been loving it - the book and the house I have.  One suggestion she had was to schedule a party, invite people over, and let that deadline be a good incentive to get your house looking nice.  I'm more of an introvert than the author, and I don't really want to throw a party.  I'd rather just stay at home with my family. We are having company in a few weeks, so I guess there is my incentive. 

And I can invite you over, too!  Here is my living room last night.  I'll work on quieting and prettying the room today, and hopefully I'll get a nicer picture posted tonight.  See you then!

My Best Intentions

(Sigh)  Still trying to get organized for the summer. 

I made a little chart of the days, and then we listed out fun types of things we would like to be doing.  We put them on the chart and rearranged them until they looked good.  Finally!  A plan!

But I forgot to glue them down and over the course of the day, our tidy schedule got... less tidy.  So this is what our days have been looking like: good intentions all tangled up into "whatever."

Today, we find the glue.

Work? No Can Do

The boys have been messing around with our computers today.  I'm glad they are learning how computers work, and I am really glad the cleaned all the dustbunnies out of there.  But could ya put it back together for me, boys?  Please?

Mission Monday

It's transfer time again!  Every 6 weeks, the missions shuffle the missionaries around, greet brand-new missionaries, and say farewell to those going home.  The past 6 weeks have gone by so fast I can hardly believe it - one boy is going to a new place, but the other is staying.  So glad they are happy!


From South Africa:

(This week was) Awesome because we got a bunch of work done and we saw miracles this week.

On Sunday, we had two baptisms that we had started teaching from the beginning. The only downside of that is that the water was WAY cold, but it was really amazing. And it was really cool to see them when they came up out of the water.

Also, our open house and ward party was really awesome. We had a great turnout at it and it was way amazing! So both of those were really amazing!


From Madagascar:

Malagasy Morsel is variana. And it means distracted, and I am super variana right now because I keep just thinking about Fort Dauphin (on the very south of Madagascar and there are some crazy dialects spoken there. You are also very far away from any other missionaries... And there's a beach! And beautiful mountains! And a lot of awesome missionaries have been down there so the work is just screaming along! I'm super pumped!).

I am way bummed to be leaving Ankorondrano now though. Menja and Fitiavana are just about to get married, soiree des quartes are just about to get going, and Bakar and Fidy were just called as ward missionaries, and there are just so many people that I love, dang it! It's all good though. When I get back to Tana I'll have to visit them all, but for now, I'm just way pumped to be going on an airplane soon to Fort Dauphin.

It's Suuuuuuummmmer Tiiiiiiimmmme!

Yeah, it's officially summer.  Graduation is over, field day is done, grades are posted, the parking lot is empty, and the office is shuttered.  As if it knew about this, the sun has come out and heated the earth.  We've had such a nice spring, with cool temperatures and cloudy skies and lots more rain than normal, but suddenly we've been thrust into summer with its baking-oven temperatures and unrelenting sunshine.  I'm not complaining too much, because this is where we usually are.  It's just the quick change from one to the other that makes me lose my balance a bit.  So now it's hot, and the tomatoes will grow and the watermelon seeds will sprout.  Summer is good, too.

We started off the summer on an exciting foot by an impromptu stay at a ski resort.  The mountain air was cool and refreshing, the beautiful trails beckoned, and it was good to have an itty bitty change of scenery.  Even though we spent all the time watching the kids get sunburned in the pool or cleaning up.  All good.

Today, Eddie got right up and did his chores, even without the help of my handy dandy chore charts - because I hadn't gotten around to printing them off yet.  Or maybe I did but I put them in the safe place where I lose important papers.  David was running a fever (from the sunburn), Chris was spending the night with his cousins, and Angel and the twins were a touch grumpy (from the sunburns).  Remind me to throw out the expired sunscreen and buy a fresh bottle.

And so we got the house mostly tidied up, two gardens watered, another garden weeded (they each have their own garden to tend this summer), and helped my dad on a project he's been wanting to do.  We had lunch, and now... now... now we're bored.  Now we're tired.  Now we have no more energy to do anything more.  (Maybe from the sunburns).  The kids are watching odd youtube videos and I'm reading the news.

Maybe we'll start being really productive tomorrow.  For now, I think I'll go switch the youtube channel to Studio C and we'll laugh together.  And then we'll make a blanket fort on the couch so we don't get sucked into the hot lava floor.  Summer is good.

Mission Monday

Man, I love these boys.  I can manage to get up and going on Monday mornings because I get to read their letters.  Things must be pretty busy on the Cape, because his letters are getting shorter and shorter.  Maybe I need to send him an outline and he can just check off the boxes that pertain to that week.  That would make it easier for him!

From South Africa:

Well, this week has been kinda dreary. The clouds have started to come, and the rain is here. Some days it comes down in buckets, some, just a drizzle. Everybody is starting to prep for winter. It is that time of the year.

In the news, we have two investigators that are getting baptized this Sunday! They had their interviews this past week and passed! On top of that, we are having a Chapel Open House and ward party on Saturday. Hopefully it goes well and everybody comes. Even if they don't, we are still going to have a party.

And from Madagascar:

And then we had a BAPTISM!!! It was great. I baptized. The water was very cold. It was also green, but the cold was the worst part. D. stepped down into the water and almost stepped out so I dragged him down in, then baptized him. And as soon as he came rushing out of the water he was rushing up the steps to his towel and warm clothes... Haha it was also a very spiritual experience too though!

Then church was interesting. The confirmation went really well. He was glowing all day long. But then, because our new stake center was being dedicated in Andranomena, not very many active members came to church, but because it was Malagasy Mother's day, lots of less active females came (they hand out treats to all of the mothers...) Then we had combined block because it was a fifth sunday and we had a lesson about birth control of course! So, yeah. It was just a great day.