Dear Spencer,
Well have you survived your week in Honduras? It was so fun to talk to you on tues morning. I'm sorry about the mix up about calling. Grandpa called me monday night and asked if we had heard from you. So we waited and I figured you ran out of time or something. We went to bed a little miffed at you. And then you didn't call in the morning. I was researching how to page you when you finally called.
When I got to school that morning, I was about 30 minutes late because I didn't know I had an A hour class. I took my minute to win it games and I went running into the classroom huffing and puffing. I started introducing myself and I always tell about my kids especially at HJHS. They get a kick out of the fact that all of my kids went there. I started talking about you and I totally lost it. I realized that this was for real and that you were really gone. It really hadn't hit me until that moment. The kids were so awesome. They sat so quietly and waited for me to compose myself and I kept apologizing. Over half the class were lds so they had some compassion for me. That same day there was a boy in my 1st hour class that was from Honduras. He was born in San Paulo but moved here when he was one. They were able to go visit for the first time in October and he loved it there. Its such a small world.
It has been a busy crazy week. I have been all over the district. I did girls PE at mesquite jr. and I had a totally cool missionary moment with the other pe teacher I worked with. During my prep hour I had received an email from Arnon that was from Bishop Fletcher explaining his side of the story of seeing you . I was working out on the tread mill in their weight room and got all emotional again. So when I went back to the pe office I was still sniffling. I explained that you had just left on your mission the day before and I was waiting to hear from you and told her about Don seeing you. So then all of the questions came. She asked me as many as I could answer in the 15 min we had. She kept saying let me know if offend you. It was so awesome. I finally told her to invite the missionaries in sometime. They are not scary and they will answer any question you have "with no commitment" haha. Then I told her to go to Mormon.org. she said oh thats like facebook for mormons. I told her no that she could find out anything she wanted to know about the church. It was so awesome. We went to our last class and when I left I said good bye and challenged her to go to Mormon.org again.. I hope she will. We had a fun time together. We played mad ball which is a wild form or kickball. It was a blast. She said she had a hard time getting subs for girls pe and that she would definitely call me back.
We had a great ward party this year. We did it at the Driftwood building. They set it up like a living room and then used the backdrops from the Christ event we did years ago. It was like a familiy home evening. Bishop Larsen was the family and they read and sang the Nativity and the Primary kids acted it out. We took Drake and Jayden the boy from across the street in Jane's house. They both really enjoyed it. Then we had dessert. It was a nice simple but elegant evening. Then the next morning the Ward put on a pancake breakfast for the house of Refuge. Its a program just like Save the Family. They are located at the Williams Field Air Force Base. It was fun. We did breakfast, games, they had prizes and Santa came in on an old Firetruck like the one in Richfield. We all helped, cleaned up and came home and cleaned the house. Dad's been doing dishes and he now cleans your bathroom and my bathroom. He is great around the house and I really appreciate it.
Not much else is going on. Mitchell has had two concerts this past week and so has Garrett for choir. Sis Millward is the school choir director and is doing a fabulous job. They sang at Jason's Deli for Val Vista donation night. It reminded me of Totality! haha. I still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. Lauren and Dennis will be here on Wed night and so will Chris and Heather. Cami and Kyle are coming on Thurs. We are doing Grandma's Christmas exchange on Fri and Waffles at our house on Sat and then a Thanksgiving dinner here on Sunday. I cant wait for Lauren to be here. We'll go shopping and get everything done. Oh speaking of Lauren and Dennis, he received a bonus from his company at their Christmas party. He was one of 5 to receive it. They just moved into a 2 bedroom apt They just moved across the grass out their back door. She said it was a really easy move. So know we have a room to stay in when we go.
Connor is doing fine. He says hi and that he loves you and he has taken over your room. grrrrr! He doesn't leave it as messy and you did though. Guess what? He ran a red light at Southern and Mesa and got a ticket in the mail. $250. He is so mad. He kept waiting for the ticket and then it finally came. He is going to have to go to traffic school plus pay the fine. He took the SAT the other day so we are waiting for the score on that. And he dropped 2nd semester Spanish. He is only going to get a C for this semester and he has missed 12 days so they really don't have to pass him but they are going to. He still is hanging out with tons of girls. Its a different one every day and sometimes 2 or 3 in one day. He drives me crazy! But he's still a good kid.
Mitchell is still just Mitchell. He hangs out a lot with Andrew and He loves your long board. He biffed it twice the other night. He wants a new one for Christmas so we'll see if Santa will bring him one.
Garrett sure has calmed down ever since you left. He is becoming a little more helpful around the house and he doesn't have as many screaming episodes. He sure does idolize you though! You are his big brother and he sure does think the world of you.
Dad is Dad. He still hangs out at the gym all of the time and talks about you to all of the gym rats. We are at 23 rented and we are going to fix the roof at 521 so we can get that rented. It's so exciting. He's going to write to you in the morning. He's actually folding the clothes right now while I am typing on the tv. The Cardinals played another awesome game. They won again in overtime. Shelly and Mike came over for dinner and they watched the end of game with us. It is fun to have them here.
Well, have a great week. I hope all is well. You need to let us know how we can call you on Christmas and when the best time will be to call. We just have sacrament meeting at 1pm everyone is going to come here for dinner. We are going to set up Google Voice. We can call you from that and then we can conference call you to other family. Kevin is really excited to talk to you. So find out a phone number we can all you at. We have been told that you will call us a couple days earlier to give us a number and set up a time to call. Is that true? I will just have to wait and hear from you. if you can call in the afternoon if its at the begging of the week or early morning any day would be fine.
I also heard a great way to send pictures home. If you go to Costco.com and log in under my account you can then download your pictures there and then I can print them out along with a disc. Someone had their SD card sent home from his mission the other day and the card was damaged in the mail . I would hate to have that happen. Then you can upload your pictures from you r camera.
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Thank you for the pictures from the MTC. It is awesome to see you but we need info about the pictures. I don't know how you can do that but figure it out please.
Ive heard from two of the parents that traveled with you so I emailed them today. Louie Vasquez. He's the convert that lived with a family and then another boy, I can't remember who. I wont ask a bunch of questions right now but write as much as you can so everyone can read about your mission especially your first week and all of your experiences down there. One thing I do want to know is if your Christmas package is there for you? I sure hope so!
Well Ive gone on way too long. Sorry, You know how I can get. But I miss you and want you to know all that's going on here. We are so excited for you and can't wait to hear from you next week. Is it best that we email you or use dearelder? Do you know how long it takes for you to get your letter through dearelder? let us know.
Have a great week and cant wait. Be good, Be strong, and most of all Be obedient!
LOVE YOU! MOM
| 12/19/11 |
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Dear mom and everyone
Everthing is going great! My 1st area is called monjars (monhars) im in the south its hot people are poor btu way cool. The name of my comp is Elder Guitz (gaweets). He is from guatamala he speaks alot of english and helps me alot with my spanish. I can hold converstions for a little bit but i dont understand alot of the people are saying. Its so hard but the people are so nice. In the city im in it has one paved road through the entire thing. We have a concinera who cooks us lunch everyday and we normaly eat with member every night. its alot of fun trying to speak with them. But its amazing the situations that these people live in and how greatful i am that i lived where i did.
I live in 1 of 2 houses with with more thatn 1 companionship. I live with my comp a gringo named mitch cizmas who is the one of the guys stuff we looked at online. and a mexican elder who is trying to learn english so hard.
so anyway our 1st day there we got here we flew in a group of 7 elders that were with us in the mtc. we got to tegus at about 130pm here. it was hot and muggy it was awesome. you can see the temple from the aireport it is so sick. We went to lunch with president henandez. It sounds like if you are a good missionary all is good but if you planch (to be disobedient) mainly with girls the mission can be hell. But ya president reminds me of the centeral american version of pres. peterson haha.
It is so hard to try to help my comp teach lessons because i cant speak the languge but it is way interesting to hear these peoples stories. Anyway everything is fine. Oh and i havent gotten you package yet. and just do emails. i only get letters once a week so it wount make a deffirence. so what im doing for a phone is a borrow one from a member and buy minutes and call that way. I already have a phone lined up but i dont have the number yet. and i dnot think i will call you in the days before. Love you guys talk to you next week.
Elder Spencer Olsen
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