Vision

Ok so here's the thing I've been in the mission for a while now! (14 months)  and i had something happen that hasn't happened my entire mission! 


I had an investigator who had her prayers answered through a dream OK so here's the story.

So we go to one of our investigators who we have been teaching for a while but has only gone to church once but loves the lessons but isn't showing a lot of progression outside of the lessons so we come in kinda getting the listen we love teaching you and we love you guys thing going but we might not teach you as much anymore talk going. Basically the friend zone of missionary work 

Anywho before I do that I get some followup going ask her about prayer and she's like a pray every night. Prayers good! 

Aight um hows your Book of Mormon reading goin? and shes like well I read Alma 25. Which I'm thinking like "Uhhh that's not what we had assigned but hey she read! Thats awesome!" 

So im like "oh really? uhh why did you read there?" and shes kinda bein weird about it like uhh i dont know and so i was like uh ok ummm what did you learn? and shes like uh i learned! and so i was like ok what did you learn? and shes like uhh i learned ok! and so now im a little skeptical that she read but i can tell theres something up so for some reason I'm like do you feel like the church is true? which way off topic and but without skipping a beat she is like "yes" so im like ok so then im like why? and she finally puts the piece in the puzzle i needed 

So what happened apparently,  she tells me she prayed before she went to sleep and that night this was her dream: so shes apparently at our chapel and she is sitting all alone no one else is in the church and shes kinda like sad that shes alone so then she looks to her side and sees a guy dressed all in white and he says "anak patuloy ka lang" which means daughter just keep going. yeah she said that and im just like excuse me while i pick my flippin jaw off the floor ano ba yun! aight so then she tells me why she had read in alma 25 aparently at the end of her dream she just had that pop into her head so she looked it up but didnt really understand it so we read it together instead of what i had planned haha no lessons go as i plan i swear i wish i was better at planning! and then we read it and it applies to her situation really well and just it was nuts so many things came up with the scripture and the dream whack as heck but also super dope! anywho love you guys!

Nov 28^th, 2017

Dear Adam,

Loved your email yesterday. Some of that was because I had been waiting over 24 hours checking my email every few minutes hoping you had emailed and deciding if I was going to have to come over to the Philippines and check on you. Secretly of course, so no one would think I was a crazy stalker mom J

But also because hearing of your joy in the bringing of one soul to Christ (D &C 18:15) and about the baptism you were able to be part of was great!!

So pleased with your resilience and gratitude. Glad you are looking for the joy amidst the trials and for your constant looking outside of yourself to see those your serving even when you are deeply uncomfortable. So pleased with your humility and willingness to suffer for the Savior and those you are called to serve with grace and peace. So pleased with your ability to maturely see all your blessings as you have to do without.

You are right when you said “missionary work will just beat the crap out of you.” Missionary work is hard and anyone who tells you otherwise is not doing it right!! Nephi described it really well in 2 Nephi 33:3 For I pray continually for them (my people) by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

And Alma calls it “great anxiety even unto pain” in Alma 13:27-28. Many great men like you have felt the weakness of their words and had desires to speak “with the tongue of angels”. I testify that the gift of tongues is real and when you need it you will have it. Heavenly Father speaks perfect Tagalog and when you are the only tool He has He will use you to speak profound things that you don’t know how to say. J 

The Brown’s spoke in church this week and Taylor who is 12 spoke and said something I have been thinking about a lot. She talked about how the priesthood is the power of God and the man holding the priesthood is like a light bulb that only works if screwed into the power source. I loved this image especially as it relates to the amazing #Lighttheworld campaign. Not sure what you are doing with that in the Philippines but it is my goal to do it each day of December. Found some good calendars to give the kids as well so we can all participate.

Andrew is really excited about his calendar and has been starting already. He came in and gave me a big hug then said “Did that one.” Then he brought me up a bunch of Hotwheels cars and said here is my “Pick a toy to donate”. Loved that he is so excited and starting early.

Dec. 6, 2017

Dear Adam,

Things are going good here.

I started working my new job. Still at Primary’s in case management but instead of floating to different places each time I work I am always on the 3^rd floor in the medical unit at least the bulk of my patients are there.  It has been good. The first week was really hard because of the change from evenings to day shifts. I was having a really hard time sleeping. But each week it gets better. I am working 8-6pm Monday- Thursday so mostly when everyone is in school. That is working much better as far as being able to eat dinner together and help with homework.

Dad’s job continues to be unstable. Not sure what will happen there? He is still applying for other things but because I am working full time now we are not as worried about a bump in the road of his job. We are hoping to get him out of production so that he will have more free time after work and more ability to enjoy his weekends.

Joseph got a promotion at Overstock.com and it came with a big pay raise. He is still with Brooke and hopefully they will make it official soon. He came and helped me give our old bunk beds to a family from Thailand who lives in south salt lake. They have 2 mom’s who are sisters and 11 children under the age of 17. It was pretty crazy. Lots of little boys running everywhere!

Paul is doing well at USU and we got to see their cute apartment. Sarah has decorated it all up for Christmas and it is small but sweet. Paul is doing well in his classes and got offered 2 positions next semester working on campus. One is in the Chemistry lab as an assistant and one is in the Computer lab and that one he can do homework as he lets people in the lab. One of the questions they asked him in the interview was whether he had a lot of homework. He is loving that.

Matt is doing well at BYU and won a Rocket contest with Chris Hardin, Parker Murray, and Matt Fisher. It was funny because they posted a picture of them all with the rocket and matt is looking at his phone (phone Zombie) and Caden Midgley posted on FB Matt is probably texting “some chick”. It made me laugh. He has a lot of girls circling around him right now. I think it is probably pretty stressful. Did you hear Sarah’s brother that got home when Matt did is getting married before Christmas?? WHAT!!

Rachel is doing well with her job as a C.N.A. She has had some hard shifts and had to learn about death and dying which is no fun. But has really handled it with maturity and grace. I am really proud of her. She had some bad news this week and I hope you will keep her in your prayers. She has had a best friend since 5^th grade and found out that she is doing LSD. It was really upsetting to her and she is needing to make some new friends and that is hard. Prayers for her would be really appreciated. She is strong and not really needing friends like Matt but also wants some group activities and fun things to do.

Sam is doing great with his instruments. He is loving the Saxophone and sounds really good. It is so fun to hear him. My favorite is when he plays Beauty and the Beast. You would be really proud of his missionary work this week. He got all his friends together and they wrote their testimony’s and Sam gave it all to one of his friends that is less active with his Quad. I was so proud of him. He did it for the light the world campaign day 2-3 which ever one was the “gave him drink”.

Emily is preparing for her first band concert this week and she is hoping to get to play the piccolo. She has been learning on the flute and the piccolo is harder. She says it makes her feel like passing out sometimes because you have to blow so hard to get the sound to come out. She got a new dress and is really excited about that.

Andrew is loving school and we have him going to the Wiberg’s in the morning so he doesn’t have to walk to school alone. That seems to be going really well and they seem to enjoy him. They invite him over after school still a lot and he enjoys playing with Grant. He is reading really well and working on the contest for reading. He just finished Mr. Poppers Penguins and is starting the One and only Ivan.

Heard from Katie and she wanted your mailing address so maybe you will get a snail mail letter from her.

Please let me know how the packages come and what experiments worked and what didn’t. Don’t want to send you moldy grossness.

Love you forever and ever

Mom