Mission Call!

Joseph received his mission call this week!

Last Monday, he got a call from his Branch President, who told him that the call had been issued and was in the mail.  Wahoo!  On Thursday morning, I ran out to the mailbox, and this is what I found. 

To see the name of the Church on that large white envelope is quite a thrill!  I yelled for Jesse and Mary to come out (they were out of school that day), and they ran and celebrated with me.  Bruce was hollering from his office window to bring it in.  The postage on it was $1.90.  We couldn't remember for the life of us what the postage on Josh's envelope had been, so we searched the house up and down looking for his envelope and never found it.  The postage is important because it's more if it's a foreign call because there's more paperwork.  We texted Joseph a picture of his name on the envelope, and he called back and said, "Mom, right when you sent me that, I was blasting Called to Serve by the Mormon Tab!"  He later said that nobody was in his college apartment, so he ran around the apartment yelling at the top of his lungs.

So there we sat, staring at the call for a day and a half.

In the meantime...

We went out to the Orchard to pick apples.  I love it out there.  I heard someone say that they have never seen such a plentiful harvest.  I love the pictures that I take at the Orchard, especially of the children, because they inevitably look so happy.

On Friday, we went out to the farm to do pull pipe.  Peter's friend Hunter came along, so we had a 3 teams going, with Libby driving the four-wheeler.  We moved right along - it was awesome!  We had some trouble with horses getting loose and running hay-wire, but eventually we rounded them back up and put in their respective pastures.

After that we went to meet up with Joseph and Dane, who had just arrived into town with their ride.  When we got home, we had about 40+ people waiting in the house to open Joseph's call.  Luckily Mom & Dad got there first and welcomed people in.

Joseph opened his call to a crowd of expectant, happy faces all gathered around the kitchen table.  His call is to the Argentina Mendoza Mission, speaking Spanish!!  

He will report to the MTC in Provo, Utah on Jan. 23rd, 2013.  What a coincidence - that is the same week that Josh reported to the MTC in Jan of this year, 2012!   It's a perfect time to go in.  It gives us about a month to get ready after Joseph finishes up at BYU-I.  I really thought that my share of luck and blessing had run out with Josh going Spanish speaking, but the Lord saw fit to send Joseph to a Spanish speaking mission.  Oh, I'm so grateful!  Now the three of us - Josh, Joseph and I, can keep up our Spanish with each other.  Bruce understands and speaks quite a bit too.  WOW!!

To have that call happen on Friday night, and then to enjoy Conference Weekend with Joseph here has been heavenly.  

The announcement on Saturday morning by Pres. Monson that the age requirement for missionaries has changed was stunning!  I turned around and grabbed Jesse's hand, and we both started to cry together!  Girls can go on a mission when they're nineteen and boys when they're 18!  I told Jesse that when I was nineteen I prayed all the time that the Lord would make that change.  It wasn't the right time then, but it is now.  The cultural and spiritual ramifications of this change are widespread.

I told my family (tongue in cheek - somewhat) that this is a sure sign that Mitt Romney's going to win the election!  And here's why:  1) Mitt has to win so that the economy will improve and parents will have jobs to pay for all these new unexpected missions, and 2) The Church is going to have so much more exposure because of his presidency, that more missionaries will be needed all over the world to take advantage of all the media exposure.

But seriously, what this means to me is, as Elder Holland said in the Press Conference afterward, that the work is hastening, and the time is short, which means the Lord needs more missionaries than ever.  And the fact that so many more sisters will be able to go, well, this FB post by Porter Hoskins says it all:

 

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who guides us through living prophets in our day.  I love how this is going to energize the Young Men and Young Women's programs, and Seminary also!

Speaking of Sisters, check out this future missionary!  She may have to tone it down a little, or the 18/19 year old missionary thing may not work out so well...

 

This is Jesse on the night of Homecoming.  She went to the dance with Victor, the starting quarterback at the High School, who got named the Idaho football player of the week for his tremendous play at the Homecoming game the night before! Way to go Victor!

Victor and Jesse

 They had a great time that night - thank you Victor for being a gentleman and friend!

And I just have to tell you about these shoes.  These are exactly the shoes Jesse had pictured in her head when she bought the dress (yes - she paid for everything for Homecoming with money she earned teaching piano lessons).  When we went shopping to find the shoes, these were the first shoes we saw in the first store that we went to.  No joke!  Talk about manifesting what you want...

 

I found this yoga pose on Pinterest, and asked Libby if she could do it.  Pretty close!!  Libby is SUPER flexible.  

Some more pictures - this is the last time Joseph will be out at the farm working with us for the next 2 1/2 years!  

I love this picture!

 We finished pulling pipe on Saturday after the afternoon session of Conference.  I couldn't believe the difference in our family's work.  Everybody worked quickly, happily and efficiently.  If you had told me it would be this way as little as 2 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it! 

On Sunday, we got a surprise visit from cousin Matthew!

 He just returned from his French speaking mission in Switzerland and France, and came by with Grandma and Grandpa H.  My parents happened to be here at the same time.  What a treat!

 Wow, writing this post has made me so grateful for the Lord's blessings to our family.  I feel like paraphrasing Mormon and saying, "Surely there could not be a happier family..."  We are not without our troubles (the house is 60 degrees right now because we have no heat - the furnace is broken), but they seem minor compared to the Lord's bounteous blessings. 

Coming up next week:  Cider Festival!

Conference Weekend!

Varsity soccer is a dangerous activity, as our family can attest.  We pulled out the crutches (Joshua's old ones from when he broke his leg two years ago) for the second time this fall season, but this time for Jesse.  At her game on Wednesday, she stuck out her foot to block a shot on goal, and the full force of the opponents kick came onto her right ankle.  She went down and had to be carried off the field by her coach.  The frustrating thing was that this was the one time in the last six months that I haven't had Deep Relief in my purse.  I ran home and got the oils that she needed and brought them back to her.  She was in a lot of pain and could not put any weight on it.  It turned out to only be a deep muscle bruise.  I was frankly relieved that it was only that - not a broken bone or torn ligaments!  She went to school the next day on crutches, hating every minute of it.  She hated the attention, but most of all she did NOT like that people had to help her.  It was a learning experience for her!  The next day she only needed one crutch, and Sat and Sunday she's been walking without even a limp.  I'm hoping she'll be back playing by Wednesday.  That was what her team was saying also.  Her teammate Sydney told me, smacking her hands together, "We just have to have Jesse.  We have to!"  Have I ever said how grateful I am to Heavenly Father for blessing us with essential oils?

Varsity soccer is also a very exciting activity, as Joseph can attest.  For the first time this season, Joseph scored a goal!  And he did it two games in a row - on Monday and Wednesday!  On Monday, I was so excited when he scored a goal, that I did a cartwheel on the sideline.  Yes - it's true.  I did a cartwheel.  I think it was seeing Libby doing it all the time that made it come to mind, and I did it!  And guess what - it didn't even hurt or anything!  Ha ha (That was adrenaline).  I looked up from the cartwheel, and a parent (I think it was Tammy), was holding up their hands, so then I went down the line of parents giving high fives.  Yes, that is true also.

The next game was in a town an hour and a half away, and I was in charge of the referees for our local club's tournament, so  I couldn't go to Joseph's game.  After the game should have been over, I checked my phone, and there was a text from an unkown number that said, "You owe us another cartwheel."  "What?", I thought to myself.  "Is this for Libby?", and then it donned on me.  It was for me, and that meant that our boys had scored a goal!  I called the number, and it was my friend Bob, and he let me know that not only was it our team, but Joseph specifically that had scored the goal!  Wahoo!  I was so excited, I couldn't believe it!!  Two games in a row?!  Just for the record, we had been putting on an oil called Highest Potential for about a week before that on his ankle and leg, where hurt it last month. 

I had to laugh a few weeks ago when Cedric, my brother, told me that as a parent, I needed to stay detached from the high school games.  I laughed and laughed.  What a joke - who ever came up with that paradigm?  He understood why I was laughing - I wasn't laughing at him, but my word, what parent that has watched their child play soccer since they were five is detached when they see them play Varsity games?  Ha ha  Not me, that's for sure.

Mary and her friend Trent made a display in the library for the upcoming Book Fair that the librarian raved about.  I haven't seen it yet, but apparently is very creative.  It is really cool that Mary has such a neat circle of friends right now, both boys and girls.  That doesn't happen very often in 8th grade.  This is one of Mary's gifts, however, and she is using her gifts well!

Guess who came home this weekend?!  Josh came up to the door Friday night and Libby went to answer the door.  Josh said her jaw dropped and she just stared for a minute or two before giving him a hug.  I knew he was coming, but nobody else did.  We got Joseph so good Friday night.  He came home from his date (with one of the cutest girls in the school - and yes, that's two weekends in a row with a date) and I was rubbing oils on Jesse's foot.  I said, Joseph, "Please go get me the Lavender in the bathroom."  When he turned the corner, Josh was there with a hockey stick in his hand raised up.  They both yelled, and it scared Joseph so badly!  Oh, we were laughing so hard!

This is a picture of us right before Josh left to go back to BYU-I.  Notice that Jesse, Mary and I are nearly the same height?  With raised eyebrows, I'm examining that fact in this picture.  It had to have been uneven ground, or else Josh is standing on his toes, which is entirely possible, because he is not taller than Bruce.  Yet.

I love General Conference!  We were able to go over David and Elysia's and spend the day.  David and Elysia moved here a little over a year ago from another state, and now our families have become dear friends.  David cooked us breakfast, their family tradition, and we made BLT's for lunch.  Add peaches and cream to that, also, and it tells you that we were stuffed at the beginning of the fourth session!

Obedience, repentance, following the prophet, addiction, and the Holy Ghost were some of the salient points of the Conference for me.  I can't wait to take each talk individually and study every word.  I am so thankful that we have this privilege.  One speaker said something to the effect that humans usually take things for granted.  So I express my gratitude for apostles and prophets!

Family Happenings

Quiz: This is a baby picture of one of our children. Any guesses which one?
Libby got a kite at a friend's birthday party, and one evening, she wanted to fly it. In my limited experience, kite flying has not been successful, so with the little dollar store kite, I didn't have much hope. But I've obviously never flown one in windy Idaho.

It went right up and Libby and I had a fun time flying this kite!Here's Josh singing with the high school Madrigals at the 100 year celebration of our town.
Later on the same day, Josh went to Prom with Mary. I've been hoping Josh would go out with Mary for a long time, because I like her so much, and this was the right time. They doubled with Jancen and McKenzie, Josh and Krissy, Sterling and Hannah, and Dallin and Jayme. For their "day date", they rode tandem bikes on the green belt. After gathering for pictures, they went to dinner at a fine Italian Restaurant, and then to the dance. I am continually grateful that Josh has consistently chosen good friends, and these are no exception.

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference! I felt that the theme of the conference was how to teach and guide the youth. This is not surprising seeing that I'm in the throes of doing that very thing.

The next week, Joseph was asked to speak in Church. He took all these talks from General Conference and coalesced them into a wonderful talk. He said that when he wrote the talk, he felt that it was exactly what he should say.

Jesse went to a clogging competition. We didn't get to go with her because I wanted to be here for Josh's prom date, but she had a good time. I was so glad to see her when she got home!The same night as Prom, we had an Un-Prom party for Joseph and his friends that didn't go to prom. It was fun - we had teenagers in and out of the house all night long. One time I went out on the back porch and found two of them on the roof! (It's easy to access from our back deck). Needless to say, they were asked to come down. I had to smile later, though, when I overheard the girl telling her friend that when they were up there talking, she was testifying the guy about the importance of serving a mission. :)

I've been having so much fun with Young Living Essential Oils. I set up a new website this week that I'm really excited about. It's lorena.vibrantscents.com and lorena.myningxia.com. It's explains a lot why I love these essential oils. The myningxia.com website is about NingXia Red, which is a juice that is very high in nutrition and anti-oxidants. We drink it almost every day as a family, and love it.

Bruce and Peter went horseback riding almost every day last week, and Joseph joined them one day also.

The last two days have been WARM with no wind. Absolutely heavenly. Spring has sprung!

Bruce, Jesse, Mary and I are starting a Health Challenge this week. We get points for not eating refined sugar, exercising for 60 minutes, not drinking pop, eating a healthy breakfast, drinking at least 80 oz. of water, eating a handful of vegetables, and doing all these for six days a week. The challenge lasts for 7 weeks. Each participant puts in $10. Whoever has the most points at the end of the 7 weeks gets the whole pot of $$. It's community wide, and 32 people are in it so far. Jesse said earlier, "All these adults think they're going to win, but they're not because I'm going to win." Ha ha. Since there are four of us in the household, I think we are going to be pretty competitive about it! If you want more details, I can send you the blog address. I don't want to publish it here because it has the name of our town on it, and I try not to publish that in this blog.

One last word - Mary gave a wonderful talk in Church today about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She was a really good sport too, because I knew about the talk on Tuesday, and forgot to tell her until late Saturday night. Yes, it's true - Saturday night. We got up at 6:45 this morning and worked on it together. Thankfully it was an easy topic with easy material to find. I was proud of her though, because she just got up and gave the talk and didn't say anything about who called her to speak, or when, or how she prepared it that morning. She just dove into the talk. Good job Mary!

Four Months Worth

Oh, that's a scary title. Judging from how long my posts were when I was only reporting on a week, this could be book length! :)

Highlights of the last four months:

Jesse goes to Blanding, UT with her best friend Kalli.
Bruce & Trevor win the Horseshoe Tournament at our Ward Campout,
and the rest of us have a great time.

Josh, Joseph and Bruce go an a High Adventure trip in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (yes, that's really what it's called), with the Teachers and Priests.

Summer fun for Libby and friends:Canyon County Fair:
Peter gets first place in the Market show for his class, and earns a blue ribbon in Showmanship.
Mary tells about her fair experience on her blog - mjblogger.blogspot.com.

Josh, Joseph and Jesse go on a roadtrip with soccer buddies to watch a Salt Lake REAL game. Josh gets to go down on the field at half time to participate in activities.

On the way home from our Trek in Wyoming, we went through Jackson Hole. This has to be one of the most beautiful spots on the earth.(A little tired Josh??)

Our friends Greg and Rachelle were kind enough to treat our WHOLE FAMILY to dinner at Bar J Chuckwagon. It was fabulous! We loved the dinner and the entertainment. Libby was completely taken with the cowboy music and had to buy a CD afterward with her own money. We listened to cowboys crooning all the way home.
We stayed overnight at Mom & Dad's after the long trip from the Trek. This is all of our shoes drying out,and visiting Dad at the Care Center.We were so surprised when Dad got up and walked us out to the front of the care center. He came home shortly after this. Thanks for your hospitality, Mom!

In August, Bruce's brother Gary, Heidi, Kaylee, Kaleb and cousin Daniel came to visit.
Daniel, Kaleb and Peter had a ton of fun together. Peter went back with them to Oregon, and spent a few days.Have to get in the picture of the cousins playing a serious game of Risk! Josh insisted that I remark on how he dominated everyone else, especially Joseph...Soon after this, Jesse, Joseph, and Josh had Two-a-day tryouts for the High School soccer team. Bruce was the Boys JV Coach, so he was involved as well. They were successful, because Jesse made the Girls Varsity team, and Joshua and Joseph made the Boys Varsity team! Holy cow!
We knew Josh would be on Varsity for sure, but Joseph making Varsity was awesome, and Jesse making Varsity as a freshman - WOW! Joseph did have a bit of a scare for about two weeks when they moved him and two other guys down to JV. But he handled it extremely well, and kept working hard. When Josh got sick for a few days, they asked Joseph to take his spot, and Joseph played well enough that they kept him on Varsity for the rest of the season, even when Josh came back.

And then the kids started back to school! Libby is in 2rd grade, Peter in 3rd (both at a local Charter School), Mary in 7th at the Middle School (all by her lonesome), and Jesse in 9th, Joseph in 10th and Josh in 12th at the High School. They are having fun being there together.

At the end of August, we had the great privilege of going down to Utah for our nephew Josh's wedding to Rachel in the Salt Lake Temple. That was wonderful! They were married in the same room that Bruce and I were, so there were wonderful memories. We had a great time being with Bruce's side of the family. A few weeks later, Josh and Rachel came up here for their Open House, and we had the honor of having them stay at our house. I got to talk to Josh and Rachel 'til one the morning. It was so fun! I was the DJ at their Open House and got a few people to get out and boogie. :)

Josh went to Homecoming with a friend named Genny. They look great together, don't you think? This is a great group of kids. I'm so thankful Josh has good friends.

The next few months were filled with soccer games! Monday through Thursday night we had Varsity games, and then on Saturday Mary, Peter and Libby had games. It was fun, but very, very busy.

Josh, then Bruce, then Joseph all had a bout with the swine flu. It was miserable for them, but they came out OK, without any complications. This was a miracle for Bruce especially, because he had influenza about five years ago and developed pneumonia as a complication. Once you get pneumonia, you are more susceptible the next time to get it, so we are so thankful that he was OK this time.

We enjoyed General Conference, as always. Pres. Holland's talk was a classic on the Book of Mormon, and there were many others I enjoyed thoroughly.

In the District Tournament for the Boys JV Soccer team, which Bruce coached, his team took first place, which our HS has never done before. Congratulations Bruce!

In the District Tournament for the girls, Jesse's team played hard and won their first game. Unfortunately, they lost their next two games to finish the season. Jesse really had a great season! She came out and started almost every game and the coaches played her on defense most of every game. Way to go Jesse!

In the District Tournament for the Varsity boys (Josh and Joseph), the boys came back and took 2nd in the District! This was a total surprise, because they were in 7th place out of 8 teams during the season. They were able to go to State, which is always so fun for the team. They lost both of their games in state, but they were SO CLOSE. In the first game, they lost only by a PK, and in the second game it went all the way through two ten-minute overtimes, and through a 5-on-5 shootout with the score still tied. Then it was down to a one-on-one shootout, and our guy missed and the other guy scored. Josh and Joseph were both in the line-up to shoot next if it came to it, but it didn't. It was a heartbreaker, but they came back from so far down, that there was nothing to feel bad about! Congratulations Josh and Joseph on a great season!

Mary's team struggled throughout the season because they didn't have a true goalie on their team, but she played well and worked hard. I got to ref a lot of her games, which was fun for me. Yesterday she got in a tangle and went down hard, and then got up and went at it again as fast as she could. It was one moment when I wanted to be Mom and cheer for her as hard as I could. On the other hand, if I hadn't been the ref, I wouldn't have been out there to see it up close like I did. Good job, Mary!Peter was really a star on his team. One time he even scored on the kick-off. He made a goal recently to be a really good keeper, so we'll see what comes of that!

Libby, well, let's just say that Libby has not QUITE caught on to what the soccer thing is all about. One game I told her I'd give her a quarter for every time she kicked the ball. This is about the first time that she actually went for the ball instead of running around on the edge of the crowd!

Oh well, none of our kids have gotten what soccer was all about until the second half of U8, so she still has another half of a season to get there. :) If she doesn't, hmm, I don't know quite what we'll do. A child not playing soccer?!? Now, don't get all worked up over this - we'll survive if she doesn't. Ha ha

To be continued next week with a report on the Cider Festival!