Joseph and Becca are Engaged to be Married!

What an incredible week we've had as a family!  But first the highlights:

Peter turned 16!

We had our annual Family Pack Trip this week.

Joseph and Becca are engaged to be married!

And the ward mission leader in Jesse's ward sent us this photo today.

WHAT A WEEK!

And what a post!  Each of these deserves an individual post on this blog, so I'll just add a few more pictures for each and then dedicate some more time later on.

On Monday morning, Peter got up at 5:30 and went and picked up his friends (Seth, Jacob, Sarah, Eliza, Peter, Sarah, and Addley) to go watch the sunset on the roof of Sarah K's house.  Then they came over and had French Toast for breakfast at our house.

Fun group to have at our home!

On Wednesday morning early, we left for our Family Pack trip!  We had Bruce & I, Josh, Joseph and Becca, Peter, Libby and Nic with us. 

Mary & Kevin came the next day.

This is the first time we've ever had anyone else on our pack trip besides our family.  The long-standing tradition was that before anyone got married, they had to bring their intended up on the pack trip - just to make sure it would be all right!  And it was wonderful to have Becca and Kevin with us!  Nic got to come along because he helped Joseph so much with the proposal - and because he is pretty much a part of our family anyway.  He was wonderful to have along too!

The highlight of the pack trip was that Joseph proposed to Becca and she said yes!

Joseph and Nic hiked in the week before and brought in a guitar, a picnic basket, a blanket, etc for a beautiful picnic!  I'll have to post more pictures later, but it was a beautiful proposal and we're so happy that they are engaged!  We love Becca like our own already, and to have it be one step closer to being official brings us great joy!


The only person missing on our pack trip was Jesse, and I am so grateful to the Lord for this tender mercy - that she was having a very rewarding weekend herself!  Jesse has been talking about Jose and Kyla for some time now.  These are some of the things she has said about them:

July 4 Sister Clegg and I went and taught the S________ family. They are wonderful! At our lesson earlier in the week they told Leah (7) to tell us what she said about primary. At first I thought it was going to be a bad thing because Jose said that she said she felt a little weird. But she said, "When I was singing the songs in primary I felt something inside me tell me that I was doing a good thing." YES! It was awesome. Her mom, Kyla, started to cry. It was awesome- they said that she used to go to a church with her Grandparents but she never came back as happy as she did when she went to church last Sunday. They weren't able to come yesterday because they were out of town, but they were so, so sad and they are really looking forward to next week. Jose's only real concern is about having modern prophets. Because of that I've been studying a lot about prophets. It's amazing to me that the answers are always there, but they only come to those who ASK, SEEK, and KNOCK. They come to those who truly search. God doesn't give them on a golden platter- he wants us to seek them out for ourselves. So many people claim that they didn't find the answers that they were looking for, when really they just didn't truly search for them.

July 11 The S_______ family is doing great! They all came to church Sunday and they looked so happy! 

July 18  Kyla and Jose came to church again today. He is really struggling with his testimony of the Book of Mormon and Prophets. I'm having such anxiety! I feel like it's going to be Randy all over again, where it seemed like they were so prepared and then all the sudden everything falls apart. It's been really hard for me to accept the possibility of that happening. I have to remember and realize that everything needs to happen in the Lord's time. He knows what's best. 

July 25 Jose and Kyla were getting interviewed to be baptized!! Kyla passed and is getting baptized this Saturday! We are so excited for her. Jose needs more time, but I have no doubt that he'll feel ready very soon and then they can be an eternal family!! They love the idea of being together forever. It's refreshing to see a father and mother-led family in a world where marriage is becoming just something you do when you feel like it and it's convenient! They are great.

And Jesse sent this picture on July 25th of her and her companion playing with the two little girls:

And then this pictures this week on July 31!

What a wonderful end to a wonderful week.  We have been wonderfully blessed of the Lord and we acknowledge his hand and tender mercies in our lives!