Jeff can see!!!

Jeff was able to get corrective eye surgery before the end of the year.  It has been so funny to hear him say "This is so cool!"  He keeps on reading things from far away, and we just chuckle.  He tests his vision against everyone's.  We went in for the follow up today and everything looks great.

He still has to wear the eye guards at night so he doesn't accidentally rub his eyes, so this is what I get to sleep with.  As the optometrist says, here are his black mail photos!  He loves it and we are so grateful to have been able to have it done.  By the way...  
               ****Happy New Year! 2014****

Feliz Ano Nuevo

so christmas as a missionary is awesome i think!!!! :) it was the coolest! i got to skype my family and it was soooooooooooo good to see them again! definately the highlight of my year! :) and people are so nice to missionaries! we got sooooo much stuff! i dont know what i am going to do with all of it! ;)  and it was soo cool because we went to eat dinner with this family and they weren't at their house but we were a little early so we gave it some time and right as we were about to leave, their son walks out of the house across the street and says that we should go over there! and this neighbor is DEEPLY religous and is a southern baptist and has a ton of preexisting notions about lds missionaries! and the members family had been trying to work on them for a long time!! and we had talked with (the baptists) before just casually and it went really good but this was only the 2nd time we had seen them so we knocked on the door and the mom opened it and invited us in and fed us a huge meal and we all just talked. thats it. but it was soooo good because it is helping the dad lower those barriers about the lds church! and let me tell you if he was a member he would be stake president material! and so god places these things in our way that we dont see coming and so we just have to have the faith to know that god will lead us in the right direction! :) in other news, for christmas elder sanfords family sent me and him nerf guns so on christmas it was war with the other elders which was fun!!! haha ;) and i also went on another exchange with our district leader and learned a lot! we even got a flat tire in the car and figured out that we could probably be in nascar cuz we changed that pup real quick! haha ;) oh and guess what Nana?!! he is way into the essencial oil stuff too!!!! haha ;) so that night we had a yoga session and oil therapy stuff! :) so love yall and hope that you all had a great christmas! and if you had any stories from that i would love to hear them! :) the church is true and i am so glad to be out here on a mission! hasta proximo semana! :)

--
Love Elder Jones 

Merry Christmas from the Jones Family!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas Day and are enjoying the holiday break.  Jeff is able to take a few days off, so we are enjoying spending time with him.  He is going to put some shelves up for me to help with the new clutter around the house.  The kids were very pleased with their new acquisitions, so I think everyone came out a winner this year.

We made it through Christmas without any new Lego's.  This is an absolute first.  Mason did get a perplexus ball that occupied much of his time.  And I might add many others as we try to be the first one to complete the ball.  We finally got Morgan a good flat iron, which she desperately needed and wanted.  She was so excited.    Sydney finally got her new boots and her leggings that she has been begging me for.  I have had to hear about it for a long time, but I had already gotten them for Christmas, and didn't want to duplicate.

And darn Morgan and her long legs.  Nana got her some new jammies and they ended up being a little short.  And that is before we wash them.  We all got a really good laugh over these ones.

Mason needed new reading material, so he received a lot of new books.  And he didn't waste any time getting started.  He is such a character.  We also got the game battleship, which he quickly beat me at, and we also got the game Settlers of Catan.  We are trying to get good at this one, so we can take on a few other families in the neighborhood.   We had our dinner Christmas Eve  (a fabulous pork roulade with herbs and orange/lemon zest, and a potato gratin).  The left overs were wonderful, and after a great breakfast of Belgian Waffles, sausage and fruit... A terrific nap during the kids movies....  Well, all in all it was a great day!

We feel tremendously blessed at this time of year.  We miss our missionary, but know that he is being watched over and protected.  We hope that you all take a moment to count your blessings and as Wesley counseled, strive to spread a little Christmas joy this year.

Christmas Greetings from Elder Jones

Merry Christmas!!!!

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas day.  Ours was very relaxing and filled with peace.  We were able to talk to our dear missionary and see him through skype.  The time limit was very generous and something we needed.  So here is the update on our sweet missionary.

Wesley is doing great.  They live in a home with 2 sets of missionaries.  They get fed almost every night.  The mission is great and extremely supportive.  As he said the members have become his new family.  We were able to thank them at the end of our conversation, for taking such good care of him and they were so warm and welcoming.  Wes said that it really didn't feel like Christmas.  More like a birthday or such because they don't have any snow and it is so warm.  He was so funny reacting to everyone's stories and getting caught up about home.  His companions family sent them some nerf guns for Christmas, so they had an "epic Nerf Fight" (his words) Christmas morning.  He has been warned about the weather in the summer.  Daily deluges, monster mosquitoes, and lovely, lovely humidity.  They were given instruction when they first get their about their new conditions.  They are instructed about cleaning and keeping up on the mold, so it doesn't get out of hand.  They have to keep their home at 76 degrees or lower, in order to keep the mold at bay.  How to scrub their bathrooms to again keep ahead of the mold.  He also said they had their first cockroach just recently.  All four missionaries went on the attack and finally subdued the invader.  But hearing it from them, just cracks me up.

All in all, he looks good, sounds good and is being watched over very well.  Thanks for all your support and prayers, he feels it.  We asked him if he had a chance to try some of the food that we sent him, but he said he was so stuffed, as of the last couple of days, that he couldn't possibly eat anything extra just now.  As a mom, that makes me smile :o).

Have a wonderful week!

Christmas from Florida...

feliz navidad amigos!!!! how are you guys doing???? :) i am doing great! still hot here in florida!!! but a couple of nights ago it actually got down to 46 degrees! whaaaahhhh? :O but its whatevz! can i tell you how awesome our branch is?! i haven't had to eat dinner for like a whole week cuz the members keep feeding us!!!??? its crazy! and on christmas day we have 4 meals in a row! i dont know if i can do it.... haha! i am so blessed to be in this area! the members have become my other family! they are awesome at fellowshipping! for example we had a ward christmas party and they did a chili cook off! and one of the people decided to try and murder some people cuz he made the chili from hell!!! it was sooooooooooooo spicy! easily the spiciest chili i have ever had!!! it had this pepper called the Trinidad Scorpion chili in it and i thought i was going to die! but i had the spirit with me and god doesn't want his missionaries to die so i got thru it! haha :) then we were dilevering christmas cookies to less actives and investigators and doing it doorbell ditch style! anyways while we were doing this, a police helicopter came and was spotlighting the neighborhood and so i was super scared that somebody called the cops on us! then when we were driving away, it shone on our car!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH but then it moved on so we got back safe! talk about sketchy! oh my gosh! but i went on an exchange too and we went to the most ghetto part of orlando called pine hills and we got pulled over by cops there while tracting and they told us to get out of there! soooo...ya but i am still a missionary and i am still alive and being able to preach the gospel and sing...oh ya we went to this town called celebration, and it is owned by disney, and they do this fake snow crap every year! totally not even in comparison with the real thing! but we caroled there and spread some christmas joy! and i want each of you guys to spread some christmas joy this season and tell me how it went! love you all and have a fantastic wonderful happiest joyfulest happy doo da christmas ever!!!!

--
Love Elder Jones

Another Week Passed....

i am doing great!!! this week we had 10 new investigators!!! that is apparently really high! so...we biked a lot this week and saw lots of success! i am getting along great with my companion! he is super chill! i have only taught 2 lessons in spanish so i haven't been able to use it a lot so that is a little frustrating!!! but it happens! we get up we exercise, we study for a couple hours, we go out to our appointments, come back for the night, plan, and go to bed! and don't worry about the missionary work on your end!!! it will come! we had a great devotional on member work this week! members are supposed to FIND for the missionaries! all you can do is invite people! everybody has their free agency, and also always fellowship when less actives or investigators come to church! and go on splits with the missionaries! it helps us out so much! so don't be afraid! :) a si se puede!

This was Wesley's note to Jeff.  I received a one liner, so I hope the rest of you all got your "Christmas Cards" that he was anxious to get off.  Who does he think is sending him a package???  One liner...  I will have a thing or two to say to him when we skype on Christmas ;o).  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

The Hobbit...

We are still a little mixed with our ratings of the Hobbit.  Love the story, love the dragon.... ( here comes the BUT) but they took a lot of creative license with the story.  It ends in a terrible spot.  Not enough Beorn.  And Way Too Much Orc Chase!  It is getting old.  I am curious to hear what everyone else thought.

Our latest project!!!

We finally finished our bed.  We have been meaning to make a bed frame for Wesley's bed, and wanted to get it done before he left, but you know, good intentions.  Well, we finally got it done and here are a few pictures.

I have to give credit where credit is due... We got the idea from Pinterest  http://www.birdsandsoap.com/2011/07/it-is-finished.html and then modified it to work for us. We are working our way up to doing the built-ins in the family room.  We will keep you posted.  Enjoy!

Wes is in Florida...

Wes made it to Florida on Dec 2nd.  Don't forget to visit the Mission blog at www.floridaorlandomission.com to see other pictures from the mission field.   Here is his latest post about the first week in the field...

thanks for all of your love and support! well the plane ride was crazy over the ocean and all of that stuff! but we landed in the miami airport and went straight for a burger place! oh food glorious food! it was truly heavenly!... :) then we saw the guy from the old star trek movies commander Sulu! but i couldn't remember his name....so if any of you have a picture and know what his name is i need to know! jk but it would be nice! haha then on the flight to orlando i gave the guy sitting next to me a pass along card! and i was super stoked cuz he seemed really interested! then we met the mission prez and went back to their house and had some more GLORIOUS AMERICAN FOOD!!! (i love america!) and they had the softest carpet in the world! and they had the nicest beds in the world!....it was a good day! and it was just awesome cuz the air here is so clean smelling compared to mexico and the weather is soooo nice right now! it just feels like this is the place i need to be right now! anyways at the transfer meeting i met my trainer whose name is elder sanford! and he is really cool! he has been out for 18 months and is a great guy! we dont have a lot in common but i do know he is a crazy doctor who fan...so if any of you guys could give me a run down of what that is so i can know what i am talking about maybe that would be nice too!!! hahaha but ya i have just been like following him around trying to get the hang of missionary work! and it is so crazy! i cant even remember the names of my investigators! we teach new ones every day it seems! but that is good! i have been assigned to the poinciana north area which is supposed to be part english and part spanish, but seeing as i have taught about 95% of my lessons in english i am beginning to wonder why i went to mexico...hmmm just another one of the mysteries of god i guess! haha :) but i love my area and the members so much! we are only a branch down here and the members want to become a ward soooo bad and they want a building to worship in sooooo bad! (we meet in an elementary school! loco!!!) but they are so helpful with the missionary work! and they feed us a lot too! ;) and it is GLORIOUS FOOD! :) (america is the best place in the world!) we have a car every other day and then we bike the other days! and i love my bike! even though it is hotter than Heck riding it! and it is the middle of december!!! so it is definately weird to think that christmas is actually close! it definately doesn't feel like it here! but we had our first baptism this week (no thanks to me, it was all the elders before me!) so that was really cool! and i am just adjusting to missionary life as it is! and everything is doing great! if any of you want to write me, my mailing address is,

10502 satelite blvd ste. e

orlando fl 32837

i love you all and miss ya tons! Merry christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week-end.  We had a great time with Jeff being home.  We went climbing on Wednesday, and got our annual pizza from Costco on the way home. Jeff and I were able to make great progress on the head board and foot board for Wesley's bed.  Jeff mapped it all out on his 3-D modeling, so we knew exactly what was going to look like before we started.  We will sand today and finish putting on the rest of the decorative pieces.  Cool!  Will post a pic when we get it all put together.

Thursday, it was way too quiet though.  It was just our family minus Wes.  We managed, but look forward to having extended families and little ones running around.  We watched Pacific Rim for our first feature, and then watched the newest Star Trek:  Into Darkness.   We had great food and lots of fun with friends coming over on Friday and Sunday.  We are feeling extremely blessed at this time of year and hope that as we encounter the commercial mayhem, that we take a moment and remember the reason for the season.  Wes is constantly reminding us of the great gifts and blessings that come from being a member of the church.  Cherish it and share it. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Good Bye CCM

hey yallz this is Elder jones! and this is my last broadcast from the MTC! i leave in two days!!! i am kinda nervous, and i am really sad about leaving my district but i am pretty excited to get out into the mission field! :) but the highlight of my week was that it was THANKSGIVING!!! YAY!!! We started it off right with a Turkey Bowl football game! and it was so fun to play futball americano!!!...until they told us that it was a rule that we couldn´t! :( but our teacher was awesome and he let us listen to christmas music and make indian and pilgrim hats, and hand turkeys! (ya we are that cool!!! ;)) then we wrote grateful notes to everyone in our district and it was almost as good as being home for thanksgiving! :) then since lunch is the biggest meal of the day in mexico, we had our thanksgiving feast for lunch! and boy was it good! it was the best food i have had here EVER! :) then that evening our teacher Hermano Vargas brought us Real Mexican Churros! and they kick the popa out of the churros in america! they were crunchy and covered in sugar and on the inside they were filled with jelly!!! oh man they were good!!! :) then we watched a devotional by elder nelson which was really good! it was about using the members more! then when we got back to the dorms elder nelson opened a package he got and we had a toast with mexican rootbeer! ;) it was by far the best thanksgiving i ever had in Mexico! ;) then the next day was in field orientation (which is just in the classrooms, not in the field...) where we learned about how to use members and how to find people to teach! it helped me a lot to kinda refocus on our objective which is to bring others unto christ! then today we took a ton of pictures and said bye to all of our teachers which was sad! then tomorrow we have to say goodbye to our district... but the lord will provide and i am definately excited to get into the field to help the people of florida! :) i know this church is true and we have a glorious work to do! i know that jesus christ is my savior and redeemer and that he loves us so much and only wants the best for us! peace out until next time! :) love you all so much!

p.s. funny story: elder albin bought a bracelet at the store with the initials JAS on it (thinking it meant Choose the right) but it actually meant Young Single Adult! isnt that ironic?

and also in one year, look up the book "history of benemerito" cuz i should be in a couple of the pictures, (cuz we look like model missionaries! so they took our pictures! haha ) ;)

--
Love Elder Jones

Last e-mail from CCM!

Oh boy!  Here we go.  Our last e-mail from the CCM.  He told Jeff  he is very anxious to leave the CCM and get his "real" mission under way.  This is his zone.  Not sure how all this works, but I know they have zones and districts.  So this must be bigger than the district...  I am sure we will be experts by the time this is all done, all ready for Mason.  Here is his e-mail:

well this is my last week coming up and i just had my one month anniversary! this past week was really good! we had a devotional were an Area 70 spoke, his name was elder Valencia, we also had the coolest games of soccer i have ever played! it was so fun! we had like 20 people playing and we played on the big field! our investigators are doing great! all of them are getting baptized this next week, even Bryan and McCoy (the other elders in our district that we have to teach) we taught carlos the law of tithing and chastity and bryan and mccoy are on the plan of salvation right now. and it was so cool! we had TRC (where we teach volunteers and sometimes real investigators) and our teacher hermano vargus invited 2 of his non member friends to it! and after we taught them, they wanted to invite the missionaries over to their houses and be baptized!!! HOOT Hoot! SO awesome! then on sunday i was going to have to give a talk about the fall of adam and eve, but they didn´t end up calling me, so....i didnt have to give a talk in sacrament for the whole 6 weeks i was here! but the main thing that happened this week was that the district above us District 12 A left! :( that means no more pranks, soccer, and just having a good time with them any more! i was really sad :( i cant even imagine what its going to be like leaving my own district...its crazy, i have only known them 6 weeks but i feel like i have known them my whole life!!! we had a zone testimony meeting with the district that was leaving and it was really spiritual! ...and just to keep the ball rolling we found a new game to play with keys! we all stand in a circle and take turns throwing it up in the air and we all cant move and cant look up and we have to see who it hits! haha it was pretty rad!!! :) i know this church is true and i love you all sooooooooooo much and love hearing from you guys! 

 -- 

Love Elder Jones 

He also sent us a picture of a "Nacho Libre Bike".  Oh, the places you'll go...   We sure feel blessed to have a missionary out in the field, to see how his testimony is growing and to know that he is serving the Lord. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and remember the "Reason for the Season".

Contact Info

So... we just received the letter from the mission home about how to send things to our sweet missionary, and rules of contact. So here it is. The mission office counseled us against sending too much "stuff". They find it is difficult for them at transfer time as well as distracting them from the work. If you feel impressed to send something to Elder Jones, please keep it small and use the following address:

Elder Wesley Jones
Florida Orlando Mission
10502 satellite Blvd, Ste. E
Orlando, FL 32837-8479

The mission has several missionaries with the same last name, so please use Wesley's first name as well as last. Please send all mail through the U.S. Postal Service. These items can be forwarded. UPS and FEDEX do not allow packages to be forwarded which makes it difficult for the mission office. So if you want your package to arrive in a timely fashion, please use USPS.

The mission also has a web page that you can peruse. They post pictures of the missionaries, and posts about what is going on and service opportunities. So check out www.floridaorlandomission.com for additional information. He will be there on December 2, so I would imagine they will have pictures of the new kids on the block shortly after that.

Deep breath, now comes the time for mom to have faith and trust in the Lord to take care of her boy. The CCM wasn't the hard part, it was like sending your child to the dorms. They have food and a roof over their head as well as adult supervision. Now, not so much. Keep the prayers coming, he sure appreciates them and feels the effects. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's Tuesday...

We just got our new message from our sweet missionary. He also figured out how to extract pictures, so enjoy! "so heads up yallz! this week was super cold!!! and that is super bad! cuz the only warm thing i have is my suit! and that is because i am going to orlando! and supposedly its never cold there! but it was cold here! and i almost died! but other than that this week was great!!! for service this week we cleaned all of the light fixtures and replaced all of the flourescant light bulbs...until the unavoidable happened...elder banegas dropped one!!! and they are the craziest things! cuz like the gas inside is pressurized, and so they EXPLODED!!!! BOOM!!! it was awesome! haha ;) oh remember when i threw my keys on the roof? well our zone leaders remembered that and got them down, and then put cheeze wiz all over our toilet seat in our dorm! it was the sickest... :( but on a more spiritual note, we taught luis the law of chastity, yup the big mamma, but it actually went really good! we also taught carlos the plan of salvation! so both of our investigators are going really well. quick note on our lesson about the plan of salvation, it was super spiritual cuz we were going to talk about the gospel but carlos had a question about the tree of life so we switched the lesson to fit his needs! and that is always cool to see the spirit come into the room! then on friday we had a priesthood blessing night where anyone who wanted to get a blessing could! and holy cow it was so powerful with the words that were being said! i totally had the chills the whole time! and it was crazy cuz i got to give my companion a blessing and i truly know that it was the words of god coming out of my mouth not my own words! then on sunday for priesthood we had a jeopardy game about the gospel between the districts in our branch and our district wrecked the competition!!! it wasnt even close!!! i freaking love my district and everybody has grown so close its awesome! :) i also saw my first cockroach this week and those things are wiginasty!!!! asceroso! but we also made our own investigator profiles on monday so now we can teach each other and play the part of the investigator and that is cool cuz we can find out what the investigator actually needs! so that pretty much concludes my week except for one detail that i have waited last to tell...even though i got my keys back from my zone leaders, i accidentally threw my spare keys in a palm tree...but we got those down with a pair of scriptures! so i just want to end with my testimony of the power of scriptures! haha ;) but really yo amo esta evangelio y yo se que mi padre celestial me ama mucho! el libro de mormon es verdadero y las palabras de dios! yo estoy agredecido por la opportunidad a servir un mision, y yo les amo mucho mucho mucho!"

Jeff's Trip to Hong Kong

Jeff was able to take a day and go to Hong Kong while he has been in China.  His friend that went with him sent us this photo.  I can honestly say that one of these is not like the other (in every way possible).  We sure do miss him, and he is getting really tired of being away from home.  The poverty over there has shocked him, made him feel very gluttonous and basically ruined him for Christmas.  He will be more prepared the next time he goes over.  But he just wasn't ready for that aspect of his trip.  He is very tired and ready to come home.  So the count down begins.  And we will fill in the rest of the adventure after he visits Beijing.  Enjoy.

Wes is not illiterate!

Well, I found out today, that at the CCM in Mexico, they have Spanish keyboards.  I hadn't realized this.  I just thought my son couldn't type very well.  Apparently they are different enough, that capitalizing letters is difficult and there are a lot of extra keys for typing in Spanish.  I know he was in a hurry to get his e-mails out and read all the incoming notes, so I was using that as his excuse for poor typing skills.  So now we know it is not completely his fault.  I thought I would pass that along, just in case you were thinking the same thing.  Have a great day!

The count down begins. The second Hobbit comes out the day after Morgan's birthday, so she and Jeff and Mason are going to go to the late showing that night. We are very excited nerds at this time. So now you know why we have the movie trailer poster on the blog. I wish I could go, but someone has to stay with Sydney (we acknowledge her limitations), and I can't stay up that late anymore. Until our review, don't pass up an adventure ;o).

We love our Missionary

w We just love our boy. He is improving so much there at the CCM. Here are a few blurbs from his e-mail.

it was awesome this week! we had a devotional where an area 70 daniel johnson spoke and he asked us to pray to god to really know if he exists, and that he has a body, and that he knows that i exist and that he actually knows me and what i have been thru....and that he really loves me! i have never really done this before so i really tried this time, and immediately after i started praying i felt the most overwhelming feeling of love and compassion, such as i have never felt before! it was probably the most spiritual thing i have experienced at the CCM so far! and it was just cool cuz now i can actually say that i know these things are true and i know that my heavenly father loves me!

on to other things this week, for service our district cleaned the cafeteria, and i have mixed feelings about that cuz i actually saw where our food was being made and it was a kinda wiginasty (one of the many Albin-isms i have learned) Every body has been getting sick this week and it has been going around the district! i thinks a total of 6 people have gotten the bug, and guess who the carrier was... my compañero!!! i just want to say a shoutout to my dad for teaching me how to be a germa-phobic cuz i havent gotten sick yet!!! haha

haha During this week though we had our first TRC, where we actually taught real people who were investigators and less active members, and not just our teachers!!! it is so much more nerve racking when they are actual people that you could influence their lives with your broken spanish!!!! but it ended up being pretty good and i felt like we taught with the spirit, and said what they needed to hear!

and we also had another group of latinos leave us again today! so sad! we had a huge group of them in our dorms for their last night and we sang each other our national anthems and took pictures! its so funny cuz they know a little english and we know a little spanish so there is a language barrier but somehow we communicate and teach each other!! haha they call me taco! (cuz i tried a mexican taco instead of an american taco (trust me there is a huge difference!) and it was super good! it had chicken, pineapple and salsa thats it!) but i really am going to miss those guys! it kinda sucks cuz they are only here for 10 days and we are here for 6 weeks! But its only 3 weeks now and i am so excited!!! remember to always look to christ in everything you do! a scripture that helped me out a lot this week was Ether 2:24-25...it talks about how god gives us trials so that we can make it to the promised land! we will be pushed to the bottom of the sea but he will bring us back up! I love you guys so much and miss ya tons! i know this church is true and that jesus christ is our savior and that he loves us!

Wes is safe for at least another week ;o).  He is being our dear Wesley.  Now the MTC knows what our Sunday's have been like for the last year or so.  Here is a sample of his letter  "We play volleyball (not even as fun as playing sand volleyball with all my peeps back home) basketball and soccer! the other day our district played another district and it was super fun!!! we whooped them! :)" 

 Wes and his companion teach "investigators", who then turn around and become their teachers to help them teach better.  He says he is learning a lot about how to teach and how to plan.

Halloween:  " Halloween was Freaking awesome! we dressed up in our most outrageous costumes (which isnt much since we all have the same clothes!) but elder Fearnley actually has a Batman 1nzy (didnt know how to spell that one! haha) then we Feasted on candies and set up a mini ping pong set in our dorm! which was a bad idea cuz we stayed up past our bedtime playing it and then got in trouble...oops! :( Each week we do a service project and this week i had to help clean the cafeteria and the rest of my district had to do bathrooms...got the better end of that one there! haha! we are learning how to plan and how to teach better in our classes! but sometimes we get bored, so to relieve the stress we play Key Ball! (we just throw our keys to each other and it is ridiculously fun!) but we were playing, and in a strange turn of events i ended up throwing my keys on the roof! oops again? we got them back though! :) We Got new Latino room mates and they are pretty chill! and then the highlight of the week was fast sunday!! the spirit is always SOOO strong and everyones testimonies makes the whole week better and puts our mission in perspective! that we are servants of Jesus Christ and we should act like it in all that we do! i love this gospel and it has blessed me sooo much while i have been down here! i love you all and hope to hear from you all next week! :)"

Love that boy.  Have a great week.

I don't usually brag about things that we make, but when I find a winner, I like to share.  Jeff harvested A LOT of walnuts this year.  He likes to make potitza (sp?) that his grandmother used to make.  It takes a lot of walnuts, and as we are cheap, walnuts are expensive, and we have walnut trees around here....  Well you get the picture.  So I have been experimenting with different recipes for spiced nuts.  And we have a winner.  This is the link to get to the site.  I don't take credit for awesome recipes that I find.  But I do like to share them when I find them.   http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/12/sugar-and-spice-candied-nuts/  So go out and try it because these are dang good!

Happy Halloween!

This year I just told the kids to use what we had for costumes.  We have a lot of options and cute stuff.  But what did they choose?  They chose to be fat man and fat woman.  they just wore baggy clothes and stuffed them with pillows.  Then Sydney had the audacity to be upset when someone in her class told her she was fat!  Anyway, Jeff took Sydney and her friend around trick or treating while Mason and his friend went out on their own.  Morgan just went and watched a movie with her friends.  I told Mason this was his last year to trick-or-treat and he was not happy.  He says "Wesley was able to trick or treat until he was 17!"  So we explained the cost and benefit of delay growth pattern. Not a happy camper.  Over all we ended up with a net gain, as I ran out of candy here, and they filled up the cauldron more than when we started.

The best was this morning when I questioned Mason about how much candy was in his back pack.  He mentioned a few, so I told him to empty it out.  It just kept coming and coming.  We narrowed it down extensively much to his chagrin.  Crazy kid.  All I know is that I would hate to be a teacher today ;).  Hope you all had a great Halloween!

We finally got our first official e-mail from Wes.  I was getting a little nervous, I will admit.  But he is doing well.  He really likes his companion, which is huge and they are already teaching investigators there at the CCM.  He was able to go to the temple on his p-day and he said it was really cool.  He actually doesn't mind the food there, but our kids have always been pretty adventurous.  I am just excited to know when to expect an e-mail and to know that he is fine.  As a mom those are your worst fears, that he will be miserable and there is nothing that you can do.  Anyway, enjoy and keep the prayers for my boy coming.

Wes got his name tag!

Wes got his name tag at the CCM.  He is official now.  The senior missionaries wrote us to let us know that he is adapting well and not homesick (yet).  He is so excited about being down there.  I know he will do great.  We have heard that the first two weeks are pretty rough, so he knows what he is up against.  Lots of prayers please!

Wes made it!

Hey everyone!  Wes just contacted us and let us know that he made it to the Mexico MTC.  He was able to go through security with an Elder Daily that was headed down to the same MTC.  It felt much better to see him leave with someone else instead of leaving alone.  He also mentioned that they met up with about 8 other elders that were already through security, so they stayed in a pack and made it there together.  Morgan and Sydney are having the worst time of it.  They love their brother.  Although Sydney did seem to perk up once we told her he had made it safely.  Hopefully this blog will keep you all posted as to the events of our lives a little better and help keep you up to date with Wes.  Enjoy!