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!

Life is about loving

Wow, I miss a week and there's so much to blog about that I will have to keep this post mainly to pictures.

The first big occasion was a week ago Friday night when we had a community celebration for the Special Olympians that were in town. For his Eagle Project, our good friend Devin planned and carried out the event. Part of the entertainment for the night was Josh and his friends singing the Star Spangled Banner, and an acapella number called "Breakfast at Tiffany's". The Show Choir from his High School also performed two numbers that were awesome. Jesse's Competition Clogging team also performed. At the end, they had the Special Olympics athletes come down on the floor and learn a line dance, along with anyone else who wanted to do it. There ended up being probably 200 to 250 people out on the gym floor doing line dances. The athletes were loving the dancing! One guy grabbed the microphone and started thanking everyone in Italian. I understood "magnifio America, and morte beni". It was awesome! There was so much energy out there and everyone was just grinning from ear to ear, laughing and having the greatest time!

A week ago Saturday, we spent the afternoon and evening with these dear people!
Bruce's brother Stephen and his wife Kendra decided to have a family gathering in honor of Devyn, our nephew, who was going to leave on a mission. Because of a weird schedule, he gave his talk in Church about a month ago, so during a family fireside on Saturday night, he gave his talk again. Other adults in the family also had the opportunity to give him advice for his mission. This was a marvelous meeting filled with the Spirit. I think there's no better setting than home for the bearing of testimonies.

Shawn and Janel drove all the way up from Utah to be here. And Michelle and Matthew flew in from Washington.I was about to take a picture of these guys from the other direction, and then decided the lighting was bad, so I walked around behind them.Michelle had to make a wise crack about getting their better half!The family got to meet Heidi, Sarah and Zach for the first time. We're so glad they came from Oregon to be there.This is what the cousins love to do at these gatherings. Hit the basement and hang out and play games!And here's the man of the hour! Devyn and Grandma,
and Devyn with his parents, Stephen and Kendra.
This is Devyn, now officially an Elder , going into the MTC. This Elder is the definition of what the bretheren want in a new missionary. He's intelligent, clean, humble, personable, well-versed in scripture and doctrine, filled with the Spirit and just an all-around wonderful person. What a good example he has set for our children. I'm so proud of him!

The day after this was Sunday, and Josh and Joseph sang "My Country Tis of Thee" with Connor and Drew for the special musical number in Church. It was really nice.


That evening we had Josh's Eagle Court of Honor.No broken bones this time!Our dear friends Todd, Fred and Larren spoke on the points of the Scout Law. Thank you so much for doing that!Jesse administered the oath.

This is the Eagle's Nest congratulating Josh.

Thank you to so many people who attended! We planned it so quickly that many people didn't hear about it in time. Please - if you didn't make it we me missed you, and apologize sincerely for the lack of better notice. It was one of those things where we knew we had to juts get it done.
All day the next day Bruce watched the slide show we had made of Josh, and then came in and said, "How come I'm so nostalgic for our chidren today?" We're both feeling like it's time to put the brakes on this train called "kids growing up".

On Monday evening we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's hotel and swam in their pool. Thank you for the invite, we really enjoyed it!

On Tuesday, I found out that Teresa, one of my best friends from high school, college and the many years in between, had to have some tumors removed from her leg. After finding out, I went in to Mary, who was home sick that day, and told her what I had just found out. She didn't say anything, she just reached over and gave me a hug. She sat and hugged me while I cried for a few minutes, and was a great comfort to me.

We were on pins and needles until yesterday, when she found out it was benign, not malignant. WHEW. What a relief. And it will save us a lot of money because I was headed out to Indiana for sure if she had received a bad diagnosis. When I told him the good news this afternoon, Josh said, "I have been praying for her. I said in my prayers, 'Please bless Teresa (I can't remember her last name, but You know who I'm talking about) that she will be a better person for the experience, no matter the outcome.'

On Wednesday, Buttercup, our cow, had her milk come in. Bruce thought the calf would be born within a couple of hours. Well, we're going on three 1/2 days, and still no calf! Hopefully it will be here soon...

On Thursday I got called in to sub at a local Middle School, and then Friday I also worked for my old team-teacher and taught her classes at the High School. I enjoyed teaching these two days, but it was baaaad, for the cleanliness of the house. What? If Mom's gone, it's a free-for-all? How does that happen? Easy enough, I guess.

Last night we went and played some games with our friends (The Way blog), and then went and saw Twilight (it finally arrived at the dollar theater). I thought it was a great adaption of the book!

This morning Jesse had a volleyball tournament. They lost the games in the morning but went on to win later in the afternoon. Bruce, Joshua, Joseph, and I all refereed a Futsal tournament. This was my first time to referee Futsal, and it was pretty fun! Futsal is basically soccer on a basketball court. I'm proud of myself for doing something new and just a bit scary.

After the morning events, I picked up Jesse and we drove the backroads to get to the local university to compete in her first official Clogging Competition this year.

They won a 1st place for this dance. Jesse is the one in the front with the number pinned onto her. Her hat was too low, so you can't see her face very well. That's something she'll have to fix for the next competition! It's so fun to watch her dance.

And, to bring us up to tonight, Josh went with Raigen to the Tip-Off Dance, and the theme was 70's!
I don't know where the guys came up with these outfits, but they were hilarious.Last week at his Court of Honor, I was SO disappointed that Josh didn't have his haircut. And now this week, I was glad he put it off, because it was totally 70's!Sorry, you gotta crank your neck on this one.
These girls are so beautiful, and they really did the 70's theme up right!
And the boys, well, bring on the disco!Peace, love and GQ looks.This was impromptu, but a lot of the parents showed up to take pictures over at the neighbors of all these great kids! That's why Josh has such good friends, because their parents are the salt of the earth, and we just love them all. (So how Josh came out so good is a mystery - he just CAME that way.) We ended up going over to chaperone at the dance, and boy, was there a difference between what these kids were wearing and what many others were wearing! Thank goodness for modest 70's prom dresses!

And amidst all this fun, inspiring, and wonderful activity, here is the comment I want to leave you with on this Valentine's Day:

Last week before school started, Bruce had Libby all wrapped up in his arms and playfully said to her, "Life is about eating Libby." Without missing a beat, she replied, "Life is about loving."

Now I swear that she said "Life is about loving Libby", but he swears that she said, "Life is about love." We simply can't agree on who was right! So we disagree agreeably, and choose to remember the gist of what she meant, that truly, life is about loving!

Happy Valentine's Day!