Preston's Story

Preston sent this picture to our family group chat and said, "It was the day I decided to get my picture taken." Hahaha

We also got an email from Alta about Tik Tok. I guess there is some challenge going on where people destroy things. Preston says it is so annoying because all the soap dispensers are broken. They have been remodeling Alta for years and the kids have already destroyed it. Nicely done.

Mike and I got a letter today from a Realtor asking if we wanted to sell our cabin. They had a buyer ready. Nope. We still love it up there.

Stockton got a calling today. He was called to be the ward mission leader. That will keep him pretty busy I'm sure. Sounds like Stockton and Jorja are both doing great up there. I'm so proud of them!

Miscommunication

Jorja amazes me every single day. She asked the girl that really hurt her feelings out to breakfast. She had tears in her eyes on the way there, she was so scared. That girl has such a forgiving heart. She is so full of love. I learn so much by watching her every day. Although, on the way home from school we got in an argument. Jorja texted me that Stockton had left her and asked me to pick her up. I was annoyed that Stockton would do that to her. On the way home I asked her how her breakfast was. I picked up her friend and drove them to Jamba Juice. I sat in the car so I wouldn't bother them. It wasn't too bad, I had a book, but it did get cold. When I asked Jorja how it went she would only give me one word answers. For some reason that really bothered me. I was thinking, "I sat in the car this morning for thirty minutes, I came and got you at the drop of a hat, don't you realize how much I do for you? Can't you even communicate a little bit with me about your day?" It didn't get much better when she let me know her biology grade dropped to a B+. The quarter ends next week. What makes me upset is I don't believe Jorja tried her hardest this quarter. She had huge emotional things to deal with, especially at the beginning of the quarter, that she let her grades suffer. Anytime I tried to bring up her grades she would say, "It's fine Mom. I'll get them up." Now she didn't have horrible grades, but I know she wasn't meeting her potential. If she lost her 4.0 after trying her hardest, I wouldn't be upset. I just know she hasn't tried her hardest. I did tell her a few weeks ago that if she doesn't get a 4.0 she will need to take the bus to school. I don't think that's mean, I think that will give her more motivation than anything else. Stockton won't be going to school in the mornings next quarter. If I'm going to drive her, she needs to have earned it. Plus, if she takes the bus she can go to the engagement time everyday. The teachers have thirty minutes before school where kids are allowed to come and ask for help. Jorja has not taken advantage of this system. I think if she has to take the bus she will come to realize how valuable that can be. Anyway, long story short, I was mad at Jorja.

I also was mad at Stockton because he left her. Why would he do that? I came home steaming mad and got after him about why he would leave Jorja. Turns out he was still at school when Jorja texted me that he had left. He had just gone to the bathroom. He said once he got Jorja's text saying that mom was coming to get her he went home. Okay, I get that. It did make me even more frustrated with Jorja though. Hopefully next time she will make sure he is really gone before she asks me to come and get her. 

Mike and I went on splits with the new missionaries today. Sister Turner from Arizona and Sister Girard from Trinidad and Tobago. Sister Girard's name is Stephanie. Nice. I'm not sure if I'm spelling their names right either. Anyways, we went to the Mogensens. It was great. At 8:00 I went outside and got Preston. He was at scouts next door. I told him to come with us until we were finished. He was not thrilled with that idea. He just wanted to walk home. It is really dark and I did not want him to do that. I made him come inside with me. Things got much better once he realized there was a puppy to play with. He was one happy camper.

Preston

Maysen's roommate has now moved in! Her name is Deckyi and she is from Tibet, I think. She speaks Tibetan and Mandarin as well as English. She is a finance/business major. I hope Maysen loves having a roommate again!

Payton's Home!

I knew Payton was coming home this week and was thrilled to watch a video Jerome posted of Teresa meeting him. I cried. I was about to text Teresa a message when I got these three pictures from her. I was so happy! I couldn't believe she thought to send these to me. She knew how much I'd love them.

Elder Payton

 Weston, Payton, Teresa

 Jerome, Weston, Payton, Teresa

Look at that complete family! Isn't it awesome! My friend Alisha's boy, Cameron, is going into the MTC tomorrow. Wow. So excited for these families.

I wanted to take Maysen shopping and we were about to leave when Stockton mentioned something about his bowling class. Whoops! I had completely forgotten. Good thing he said something. Instead, Maysen and I waited until he came home. We were still able to make it to the store before it closed. We went bra shopping at a store called Lace by Louise. Shannon told me about it on Sunday. I loved it. I felt really comfortable with the owner and I'm so excited to get Maysen a bra that actually fits. Her rib cage is so small that her bras need to be special ordered. Her chest is too big for her to go to youth sizes. Anyways, she has never had a bra that fit properly. I have tried, but the people I had taken her to had no idea what they were doing. I wasn't impressed, so the next time we just went to Kohls and that experience wasn't great. Anyways, I'm really excited about this. I think it will help Maysen a lot. I will need to take Jorja there some time as well. Now that I trust someone, that will be my go-to.

Speaking of Jorja, I got this picture from her today. Doesn't she look happy? She said her day was good and they had a dance today. I asked her where Ebony was in the picture. Ebony was in a different class, but they met up with her later. That surprised me that they would be separated, but I guess they aren't mission companions.

Random boy, Random boy, Jorja, Random boy, Random girl, Random girl

Mike and I met with the sister missionaries tonight. That was good. They were able to help Mike with a few things he didn't know about. Like how when our ward has splits, they are supposed to meet with Mike for fifteen minutes before. Something called RTL (?) We had never heard of such a thing. It was great to talk with them and form a connection. Mike has a lot of work ahead of him, but he will be great at this calling.

Ward Mission Leader

Mike and I met with Bishop Waddoups this morning so Mike could get a new calling. He is now the ward mission leader. We thought that was what is was going to be because the previous ward mission leader and his wife decided that they want to attend a Spanish ward to improve their Spanish. We were ward missionaries, and the only ones that attended the last meeting besides Nellie. (Talking with the bishop we all agreed that Nellie would be the best person for this job.) The bishop even got permission to release Mike from his stake calling. Mike had been off limits with the old stake presidency. Bishop Waddoups said he convinced the new stake presidency that Mike would be easy to replace. Anyways, Mike is pretty nervous about this calling. He had a cushy stake calling once he got the computers in line. Mike was hoping that they didn't call him just because he was serving as a ward missionary. The bishop laughed and said he had no idea. That's good that he was prompted to pick him and didn't just look at who was working in that field already. The bishop wants someone who can do this calling with out-of-the-box thinking. That is definitely Mike.

Our stake patriarch, President Christensen, died yesterday. I'm so sad. He usually sat behind us in church and was so nice. During the height of AP testing season, I was prompted to have Stockton get his patriarchal blessing. I remember thinking that if I wanted President Christensen to give it to him we should get this done. I thought he might be getting released or something, I didn't if patriarchs kept their calling forever. I never imagined he would die. He was 72 years old, so younger than my dad. He got sick two weeks ago, I'm not sure what happened, but he had to have emergency surgery. I decided not to bother Stockton right away, even though I kept thinking about it. I wanted to wait until AP season was over so he could catch his breath. Then summer school started up strong that it feels like summer hasn't even started. Another example of me not acting on a prompting. I feel very sad for his family.

Alex and Andi will have their birthday on Saturday, so they were sung to today. I took this picture and texted it to their mom. These guys are adorable! I had three visitors today, which doubled the size of my class. I had made things for five people, one short. Megan said that she had six people last week too. The most I have had before this was four, so I was quite surprised.

Sister Mark, Alex, Andi, Sister Hawkins in the back and Sister Tanner's arm

We went to Steve and Shannon's house after church. We taught them One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Mike and some of the boys played Betrayal at House on the Hill. It was pretty fun.