12/30/18 - Family Letter to Emma

Emma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas was really fun! I got a

really fun board game called

Betrayal in the House on the Hill. Also a pineapple.

Pineapples are good. The neighborhood girls are all

pretty much ignoring me again, and I was really sick

over Christmas break. but it's all great! How are you doing?

Health and mentality wise? Love you.

Hyrum

 Hi Emma,

We miss you

I got a new bed spread!!!

 i also got a lot of framed pics of me with Christian Chenoweth.

And a studio c member pic. to

OH I ALSO GOT EVES IPOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and i have my own appleID
love you so much

          Mari

Sweet Emma,

It was so great to talk to you on Christmas.  You look amazing.  It was so good to hear your fun personality that we all miss!  I know we all enjoyed your 'company'!  Thanks also for the Brazil jerseys and my necklace.  I love them!  Christie loved her necklace too!  I wore mine to church today.  We all tried the Brazilian candy and cake.  It is interesting.  We put the little cakes in the freezer and we saved the rest of the candy for you.😜  Did you like your Christmas presents?  Do the dresses work? 

What do you want for your birthday?  We will be sending you a birthday package via Ldxpress.  I drop off the package January 11 so please let me know what you want me to send before that.

Did the baptism happen this Saturday?  I was praying for all of you this week.

We had our first 'home centered church' this week (to prepare for the discussion at church next week).  It was good.  We got everyone (including you) a notebook to take notes/record questions during study and some fun colorful pens.  We also have a new marker board to write our scriptures/lessons on for the week.  It will be a good experience.  We will be rotating who teaches the lesson.  We will be having our home church right after church each week.  I am excited for this inspired program.

Today I finished the President Nelson challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year!  I love the Savior!    Each time I found a scripture about Jesus Christ, my love and testimony of him grew even more! I feel more prepared to help the family in home church. 

Dad and I went to the temple this week.  It is always nice to be there.  My new year's goal is to go more often. 

Dad and I  will start training the Ma's and Pa's for Trek this week.  It looks like a good group of people!  Some of them we have worked with before.  Some are new friends to be made!  This Trek we have a 'Dance Master' to teach the hoedowns, reels and square dances. (Do you remember Wendy Butler from R17 ward?)  She did some impromptu clogging at one of the youth conferences before you left. 

I'm sorry I don't have much to report this week.  We've been hangin' out at home, playing a lot of games and doing the hardest Santa Claus puzzle!  We DID go see the new Mary Poppins movie (musical).  It was great!  Lin Manuel Miranda was the equivalent of "Burt" from the original. He did great! Instead of a Chimney Sweep, he was a Lamp Lighter.  I love the songs from that show!  I think you will like it! 

Anyway, please stay safe, be aware of your surroundings and listen to the Spirit! 

We love you so much!

Sending you hugs!

💜Mom

M,

It was great to talk with you on Christmas.  You and your companion sounded great in your songs.  You were the highlight of the Holiday.  Skyping is much better than a phone call.  I'm glad you have members that will allow you to use their tech to make that call happen.  Thanks for the goodies and jerseys.  It made the day fun to try some new foods.  We have been hanging out and being very lazy this holiday season.  It seems like we all needed to catch up on sleep and get our minds right for the new year.  We went to see the new Mary Poppins movie.  There were a lot of songs in the show.  Almost too many.   It was good and your Mom thought it was great.  She kept having to remind herself not to clap after most of the songs.  She would raise her hands to clap and then slowly place her hands on her lap.  The songs were very imaginative but it felt like there was more singing than dialogue.  I'm sure you will like it.  We went to support the Chandler boys and the High School basketball team.  they had a tournament over the Holiday break and both Varsity and JV won the championship.  I made them some Championship ribs to celebrate.  We have a few more days before the break is over and are attempting to soak it all in.

We just started our first Home Centered Teaching.  Your Mom got a whiteboard we can write down some scripture references.  It will be interesting to see how we adapt to this new directive.  It will be a learning process.

We start training for Trek this week.  We are training the Mas and Pas.  They are going back to Wyoming.  The church has put a lot of effort into the church history sites up there.  The process is fairly rigid and mapped out.  There is not much to do but complete the process and path that has been created.  They have stakes from all over the country that have their youth complete the Trek in Wyoming.  It will be interesting to see how crowded it will be and how we attempt to adapt it to what our youth need.

Happy New Year kid.  I'm excited for you to have these experiences. 

Dad