31%!

Jill is now 1/3 finished her mission! A lot of people ask if we miss her. We do - but there is no place we'd rather have her be spending her time and so are loving this time. We know that the things she is learning and the experiences she is having will leave an indelible impression on her life and others - including ours. There are things you can learn on a mission that you can't replicate with any other experience. It's a life changer! It's great blessing to have someone on a mission and we wouldn't trade it for anything.

Jill didn't send a group email this week, but here are some things from the emails she sent to us:

She's been sick. She said: I was thinking this week since I have a cold, can you send Tylenol cold medicine when you send a package next? They have other things here but when you're sick you just want what you want right? 

Re: Elaine Dalton

• Don't you want to be the type of person who when you leave, people take notes? I do!! She was just on vacation. She loves it hear and comes often! 

Re: Halloween

• I'm going to wear a white shirt and black skirt and call my costume an elder.

Re: Mission activities:

• We're going to have a district meal with foods from everyone's home. Any Canadian ideas? There's like 3 sisters and an elder from Canada so I have to think of something original and maybe Calgary specific? 

Someone from South Jordan, Utah sent me a text. She said that they were in France visiting because her husband served there. They went to the temple and met Jill and her companion, Soeur Ethington. She said: Just met your beautiful daughter at the Paris temple visitor center. You should be very proud!

 ...and we are! These are the pictures she sent:

Soeur Ethington is from Utah and lives across the street from the director of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (had to use the new name!). Her mom is from France.

Parent Teacher Inteview Celebrations

This week Allen went to Peirce's parent-teacher interviews (yes....Allen went!) I think he had a great time. He likes to talk to all the clubs with displays, buy their bake sale items, and yuck it up with the teachers. When he walked into one classroom, the teacher said, "Hey! It's my favorite parent." I guess when Jill had her, we were memorable (something about Allen wanting something on Jill so that he could ground her ....but she just thought she was great and couldn't give him anything grounding-worthy). He took notes and everything. Everyone had really great stuff to say about Peirce and his marks are really great! (Well, there's one class where he has some outstanding assignments and so his mark isn't that good - but he'll hand those in and it'll be good again). Allen stopped by my school to tell me about it and I suggested maybe we should go out for dinner and tell Peirce all the good news. Peirce was so funny. At first he figured he was in trouble and was going to have one of those conversations with parents where we tell him what he needs to do to do better. He couldn't believe it when Allen said they all had good things to say. He was like, Who? What did he say? What else? Who else? LOL It was pretty funny. We went to Smash Burger and so that was great. After, since he realized we were celebrating, he asked if we could also go to Menchi's - so we did. Then he wanted to get hair care products - so we did. THEN I guess he figured he'd keep celebrating and he said, "Could we get a dog too?" We said, "Well, we thought of that, but you chose hair care products." LOL

Lessons From A Venus Fly Trap

This week in seminary we did section 24 - which is a section that came about when Joseph Smith was starting to experience more and more (and more serious) persecution. We talked about how we deal with hard things when they happen. It was a good discussion. After, we watched a video where John Bytheway talks about that idea. He talked about venus fly traps. He said that a venus flytrap needs pure light (has to be outdoors), pure water (no minerals or additives in the water) and a cold winter. If you keep it indoors, it'll die. If you feed it regular water from the tap, it'll die. And if you don't let it go through a winter, it'll die. Then he compared that to us - we need pure light (the gospel), pure water (the daily things that we need to do to feel close to the spirit) and a freezing period of death (ya...that describes winter....but it also describes what it feels like when we go through trials). Without those things, we won't flourish. I thought that was a good analogy. I also appreciated that it showed me why I can't keep a venus flytrap alive. I've tried to have one for my class pet - but it dies. Apparently, it's not my poor gardening skills....it just can't survive in a classroom. :)