Ward Conference

Yesterday we had ward conference, which in our ward apparently means a 2 hour sacrament meeting and we still have the last hour to squeeze in whatever we can.  I have 2 callings that mean I am busy all during church!  I am the sacrament meeting pianist (3rd time having this calling...and I still don't like it...) and primary music leader.  Primary sounded intimidating because I'm used to wards having a junior and senior primary and each having about 40 kids.  But this ward combines junior and senior, and they still only have about 7 kids show up, and it's usually different kids each week because most people in our ward only attend about once a month.  But I like that it's not a lot of pressure and I can just get up and sing and have fun!

Well yesterday we had the stake presidency speak, and the 1st counselor had, I thought, some very interesting things to say!  He is a white man, but he opened up his talk by speaking Navajo very fluently.  I was surprised because usually you only hear the Natives speak the language.  But the mystery was quickly solved when he switched back to English and said that back in the 70's, he had gone on his mission to this area.  And what a different mission it must have been!

He said he spent a little time at a place called Navajo Mountain (pretty close to us).  He said that we may think it's isolated now, but back then was even worse.  It was all dirt roads and they didn't have any cars, so they had to hitchhike or walk wherever they needed to go.  They're "apartment" was really just a room at the back of the health clinic in the main part of town.  It was only them and they didn't have any phones at all to contact the outside world.  And going tracting sounded like quite an adventure!  He said that to go tracting, they would pack up their sleeping bags and backpacks, and hike out to wherever they needed to go and spend the night camping and then head off to the next place.  They would be gone from their apartment for days at a time.  After having lived here, I could see that!  You can see houses so far off the road and so spread apart, that if you didn't have a car you really would have to camp out to visit them.

Well he said one week they left their apartment to go visit some people.  They were gone for a few days and when they got back the Mission President's assistant was there waiting for them.  He said they couldn't get a hold of him (no phone) and they didn't know where he was (out camping) and that he had been transferred the previous week!  It really is a different place here.  I've learned a lot about this culture, but at the same time I feel like I still don't know much.  I can definitely say, though, that this will be a time that I won't ever forget!

Spring Break!

Coming from Rexburg where Spring Break is a Friday and Monday off, I was surprised when David had an entire week off!  I knew I wanted to travel to Utah/Idaho to see family, but I wasn't so sure David would want to.  When he has breaks from school he likes to relax and chill at home.  But we had been getting a little bit of cabin fever (not only from being in the house too much, but also from being in a town with very little to do), so we decided that after school on Friday, we would head up to Utah to spend a few days with Brian and Brittany!  The drive wasn't terrible, but Asher was awake the last 2 hours and very grumpy.  We didn't have a carrier for Millie (our pup) because they are pretty expensive and we're still pretty poor, so we put a blanket in a clothes hamper and just put her in that.

But we did make it to Utah!  It was fun seeing both of them and getting to show off how much Asher's grown and our new puppy.  We got a lot of exercise taking Millie up and down the 3 flights of stairs every hour or so and Asher loved getting out of our house!  We went and got our brakes fixed (not exciting and very expensive...) and we got to go to the playground and have dinner and watch movies and play games with each other!  We also went to church with them on Sunday and Asher got to go to Nursery!  We don't have a Nursery in our ward so I was super excited that Asher got to play with some kids his own age.  That doesn't happen very often and I feel bad that he doesn't have any kids around here that are his age.  But he had a lot of fun with all the other crazy toddlers!

Nursery!

You can thank Brittany for this picture!  She managed to get Brian to have a good smile!

Asher was breaking.

Asher sure loves his Daddy!

On Monday David had a job interview (which we still haven't heard back from) and after he got back to the apartment we drove up to Rexburg!  Asher was very excited to see Grandma Mitchell and Oscar and we were all glad we didn't have to go on any road trips for a few days!  I had noticed that Asher is way too big for his pack-n-play, but he's not ready for a regular bed, so my mom and I devised a plan that involved a twin sized bed on the floor surrounded by their gate for the fireplace.  It worked like a dream!  Asher wasn't all squished and cramped and actually slept really well.

Most of the week in Rexburg was filled with play dates with Asher's cousin Ledger, those two are thick as thieves!  Joni brought Ledger and London over to the house for them to play and we also went to story time at the library and the park!  Ledger did his best to teach Asher how to be naughty and run away and make lots of messes.  I wished we lived closer so they could play together more often!

This was our story time craft!  Joni and I made the hats while Asher and Ledger colored on the same picture, Asher tried to color on other people, and Ledger tried to get all the tape out of the dispenser!

Best friends!

One of the big reasons to go to Rexburg was for my sister, Lisa.  Lisa and Tyler have been trying to have children for a long time.  They found out they couldn't have kids, so they decided to try adoption.  It was a long process full of many ups and downs, but last week they flew to Arkansas to pick up their little boy, Isaac!  He is so little and adorable.  I only got to hold him once (they got back to Rexburg the night before we left), but I love him so much!  On Friday, March 13, they were sealed together in the Rexburg Temple!  I was so glad we were able to attend that and to help out a little bit with their baby shower.  I was so sad when we left that I will admit I cried a lot (mostly in the car where no one but David could see...)  but I want to make another trip up there when school gets out!  David doesn't have another break until Memorial Day Weekend, so it's going to be a long few months.  But we loved going to see family and get away for a week!  Thank you so much for everyone who looked after my child, let us stay at their house, and fed us wonderful food!  We can't wait to see you all again!

So glad we could be there to see your family joined for all eternity!