Argentina at Last!

Two weeks ago we got word that Joseph finally got his visa to Argentina!  A week before that, after reading his weekly email message, I had a distinct impression to specifically pray that Joseph would get his visa.  This was different!  Before this, I had not prayed for this.  I knew that Joseph was where he should be - in the Utah Ogden Mission, that he was loving his area and his companion, and that it was in the Lord's hands and it would come when it was right.  But then that Monday, that changed.  In 3 Nephi 19:24, it says, "it was given unto them what they should pray".  I felt like that day, I was given "what I should pray".  I also visualized the whole thing - files coming out of drawers, lines being signed, buttons being pressed on the computer, messages being sent.  Within a week, we got the word that Joseph had his visa!  It was a complete tender mercy of the Lord.

So Wednesday morning, we got to talk to Joseph on the phone!  He sounded great - all grown up and mature-like.  ha ha  The funniest part was talking to him in Spanish, and telling him that when he got to Angentina, they would think he was mexicano.  He laughed and said that he would tell people that his mother was Mexican, and they would say, "Tú mamá es mexicana?  Tú eres huero!  Eres gringo!"  Ha ha - I laughed so hard!  It was the way he said it - exactly how a mexican would say it.  For the record, I am Caucasian by race, but I was born in Mexico City and lived there until I was nine, and my parents and some of my grandparents were born and raised there.  Doesn't give me a right to say once in awhile that I'm mexican?  :)  Anyway, Joseph got some good conversations going with that story.  He had a 34 hour trip from the Salt Lake Airport to Mendoza.  He traveled with some other missionaries up until his last flight.  He was the only one that arrived in Mendoza.

On Friday morning I got this great picture from the mission office.

This is Presidente y Hermana Avila in the mission home with Joseph.  I love these pictures - they are so great.
And then, we got this great picture from the AP in the mission, Patrick, who is also the younger brother of Becky, who five out of my six children have taken dance from, and who is my good friend.

 Well, we didn't get it directly from him - we got it from his mom, who forwarded it to Becky and then on to us. He said, "We got an Elder ______, who already has great Spanish and is going to be a great missionary."  He also gave us the heads up on his new area and companion - it is Elder Gutierrez, who is not Latin, and the are is Pocito, in the San Juan District.  Click on the name of the town to see great pictures of it from google maps.  With the Andes mountains so close, it looks surprisingly like the Wasatch Front.  Like Tremonton!  I'll bet he's just hitting the sky with his figurative hat, he's so happy to be there!  I'm so excited and happy for him I can hardly stand it.

Joshua is having a great time with his companion, Elder Soriano, and they are serving in San Salavdor.  Click on the name of the city to see pictures.

He also was very privileged to have the baptism of Jorge a few weeks ago. 

Jesse has put in her application to go here!  Click on the link to see pictures of Vienna, Austria!  Jesse is applying to go to the Spring and Summer Terms of 2014 to the Study Abroad Program with the BYU School of Music.  This is an absolute dream of hers.  Some of her course work will be a German language class, and private piano lessons with Viennese professor.  The group will also have several group activities in Vienna, a day trip to Eisenstadt, and a week-long excursion to Salzburg, Florence, and Venice.  They also have a few long weekends where groups of students can go and tour Europe.  Since Bruce and I went to Israel Study Abroad and had such a fantastic experience, when Jesse asked if she could do this, I told her that I would do anything in my power that I could to make it happen!

Mary went on two day field-trip with her Idaho Geology Class this past weekend. 

They went to the ice caves in central Idaho and camped overnight in Carey. 

Her friend Nathan had the class with her, so it was fun to be with him.

He's also the one who asked her to Homecoming!  We went dress shopping this week, and she got a great deal on a beautiful dress and some stylin' shoes.  She's excited to go to her first dance!

Peter got his Boy Scout Life Award this week!  Wahoo, Peter!  He has been thinking about what he wants his Eagle Scout Project to be.

We hosted all the Activity Days Girls this week.  This is a bi-monthly activity for the girls ages 8-11 in our ward (congregation).  Libby showed off her goats, Buck and Lilly, and then we had all the girls take a turn milking the cow.  They all got their hands in there and tried it!  Buttercup was a good sport - she let all those girls hang out all around her and didn't move a muscle (except in her tail and her chewing muscles.)  At the end we had homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate.

Bruce had interesting adventures in Colorado hunting.  (I often wonder why he think this is fun).  When they got to Colorado, after a 12 hour drive, they hiked in for 3 hours up over a 11,500 foot pass to get into the "bowl" where all the elk were.  Unfortunately, there was 3 inches of snow on the ground when they got there, and this drives the elk out of the bowl.  So they spent 4 days trying to track elk that are usually ubiquitous in the bowl.  Bruce said they did get pretty close and got to see a lot of animals, but they didn't come away with anything.  On Thursday night, when they got back to the trailer at about 9 pm., they were ready to load up the llamas and drive home.  Bruce left three of the llamas, tethered together and packs still on, on one side of the trailer while he went and put his bow away.  When he came back around the trailer, the llamas were nowhere to be seen.  This set off a 2 1/2 hour search in a snow storm until 11:30 pm, when Randy and Bruce were too tired to look any longer.  The llamas had all Bruce's gear, so he found a flimsy blanket in the truck and slept with that all night in the back seat.  Randy slept in the front.  It was a cold night for Bruce!  In the morning, they started to search again.  They went for hours, but found nothing.  Bruce figured he had about $4000-$5000 tied up in those llamas, between the animals themselves, their packs and saddles, and the equipment in the packs.  About mid-day a group of hikers came in to hike up a trail.  Bruce told them about the llamas and asked them if they saw them, to bring them back.  This was a long shot, but he asked anyway. Some time later, as Bruce was high up on a ridge, he saw the llamas from afar.  He started to hike down to the trailer, and when he got there, the llamas were tied up to the trailer.  The hikers HAD brought them back down!  That was just a miracle!  Bruce learned the lesson that sometimes the Lord answers prayers through other people, and you have to be patient and let the answer come.  Bruce and Randy got home about 3 am on Saturday morning.  I was so grateful he was home safely!

I had an amazing week, even though I missed Bruce a lot.  I had more appointments this week for Raindrops, Foot Zones and balances than I've ever had.  It was exciting to be doing what I love and believe in!  I had some really good results too - some really great blessings for people, for which I am so grateful.  I had some eye-popping answers to prayers this week.  That sounds like I am exaggerating, but I am not.  That's how I felt, when I realized what the Lord had done for me.  One I can share:  Peter on Wednesday night could not find his Scout shirt.  The time was getting closer and closer where he had to go to get his Life, so it was crucial that he have his shirt.  Finally, I gathered he and Mary together, and said, "We need to say a prayer."  Peter said in frustration, "We shouldn't have to!"  I replied, "Sometimes the Lord allows us to get into desperate circumstances so that He can show us without a doubt that it was Him who helped us."  After the prayer, I felt we should go up to his room again, so we did.  I looked in two different piles and then Peter said, "What...?"  His Scout shirt was sitting right in the middle of the shelf, clearly in plain sight.  Ha ha ha It was awesome.

I know with all my heart that I can trust in the Lord.  I lean not unto mine own understanding, but with all my heart, I acknowledge him and He directs my paths.  I loved the General Relief Society Meeting last night.  I believe the theme of covenant-keeping was inspired!  I have made covenants that I will keep!  They are sacred to me, and I strive with all my heart to make sure my life is in line with them, that my obedience is exact, and that my heart and intentions are pure.

One of my favorite quotes is this:  "The ability to recognize, receive and act upon personal revelation is the single most important skill we can acquire in this life."  -- Julie B. Beck.
As I contemplated this quote some time ago, I realized that our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, has fine-tuned this skill through a lifetime of practice.  What a Prophet to follow!  I love him, and I'm ever grateful for his example.  I love how he continually trains us on the development of this skill, sharing stories and feelings and direction.  I am grateful for a Prophet!

The Games Report

Nobody wanted the break to be over.  We just played and had the best time.  Telestrations has been the hit game so far.  We played twice on Christmas Day and laughed so hard!!  The game is basically like the telephone game, where you whisper something to the person next to you and it goes around the circle and you see what you end up with.  In this game instead of whispering, you alternate between drawing a word and guessing what was drawn by the person next to you.  We actually took pictures of two of the drawings, but you have to look at the progression going down, not left to right.  On the left is one word, and on the right is another.

You won't laugh nearly as hard as we did - it was one of those things where you had to be there, but I tell you, when we saw Bruce reveal that he had written "Fun", we laughed until we were crying.  Fun?  How is Josh supposed to draw "Fun"??  And when Jesse put "Ugly Man", there were more tears going down faces.

We have gone to the late church schedule.  Hallelujah!  Since we don't get to sleep in on Saturdays a good part of the year (because of soccer games), I love sleeping in on Sunday.  One of life's little luxuries that I am grateful for.

Josh is still looking for work.  He has applied at a lot of places, but nothing has come up yet.  He will keep looking!

Joseph gave a great talk in Church today on Faith.  He used a lot of material from True to the Faith, Preach My Gospel, the scriptures and conference talks.  He spent about 5 hours researching material and another five hours putting it together for the talk.  He said he only included about 1/2 of what he had written down, and even at that his talk was still 12 minutes long.  The counselor in the bishopric had to tap on his leg to tell him to stop.  :)  I told him afterward to not give Joseph 3 minutes.  He's got to have more time than that!

Jesse made the commitment to learn Jeux d'eau (by Ravel) for Festival in about 6 weeks.  She has learned 7 out of 13 pages.  This is the hardest piece she has learned yet by far.  She knows the first 7 pages really well, but they are not a tempo yet.  A tempo is an eighth note equals 144 bpm, and there are 32nd notes all over the song.  Craziness!!  I love hearing her playing this song.

Mary had to do a project for science class in which they had to model an element, and her group is "Neon".  She made a vest out of purple felt.  She did it by making her own pattern from butcher paper and sewed it herself!  I was really proud of her.

Peter has been playing the Wii like crazy.  So has Bruce.  I won't make any more comment on that.  Ha ha  Peter has made a goal to read the Book of Mormon this year.  Yeah!

Libby surprised me this week.  I was getting her piano pieces ready for Festival.  I made a guess at what level she was on and played through some of the songs and thought that they would be challenging, but she could do it.  When I played them for her, she listened and then sat down and played through one of them.  She learned the whole song in about 10 minutes, playing it all the way through, a tempo, no problems.  Wow!  Needless to say, I went back to the store and picked a book that was at the next level for her.  Festival songs are not supposed to be terribly hard, but if you can sight read them and play them in ten minutes, that's too easy!  She's only eight, but she's really moving along in piano.

Libby also performed at halftime for the boys basketball game on Friday.  She did her Gymnastics routine.  She got lots of compliments afterward because she did so well!

I did 3 Raindrops this week within a twenty-seven hour period! In case you haven't heard of the Raindrop Technique, it's a method of applying essential oils to the feet and to the back, incorporating massage and reflexology techniques.  One lady I work with has had wonderful results with the Raindrop.  She gets one every two weeks.  I incorporate the oils that come up on the Compass for her, and she takes NingXia Red Juice on a regular basis.  (Contact me if you want to know more NingXia - I have a good website for it, but it has my full name on it, so I don't want to give it out on this public blog.)  It has been a tremendous blessing for me to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord in bringing some healing to her life.

A few months ago, at Bruce's work, they announced that they wanted to reduce the on-site workforce by 20%.  Bruce promptly signed up for it and got it approved.  At the end of last year he cleaned out his cubicle, and now works completely from home.  This makes sense, since his team is all in Vancouver and Israel.  If you wonder if globalization has taken place, let that be an indicator.  So we can live on our 2 1/2 acres, have our little farm here in Idaho and be close to great outdoor recreation and beautiful rural surroundings while Bruce works from his office in our home with Israelis in Tel Aviv.  It's a beautiful life.