Wow I can't believe it's almost August! Where is the Summer going?! But I'm glad it's going by so fast because everyday brings me closer to Dan!! I posted his memory card on facebook earlier this week and here are some excerpts from his latest journal entries...
7/14/10- "Gary was getting baptised! We were so excited. His baptism was perfect... for Gary lol. What I mean by that is is that it was so different and somewhat silly, just like Gary. It was such an awesome baptism! We had a pretty good turn out too. When it came time for the actual baptism, the witnesses tried to open the font, but it was locked!! LOL! No one had a key. Bro Leavitt apologized for the inconvenience and we had to baptise him with it closed! The witnesses and I (and Bro Leavitt too) went in and stood near the font steps so we could see it. The water level was super low and Gary's a big guy! That's why I wasn't about to baptise Gary lol... When he was choosing who would baptise him, I told him that Rodriguez was much stronger lol. Rodriguez baptised him the 1st time but he didn't go all the way under! It was so funny. He was totally holding him under trying to get him completely immersed but forgot that he needed to breath! He tried it 2 more times but still didn't get him all the way lol. It was a spiritual/comedic moment. The fact that we were all gathered in and around the font was just funny. For the 4th time, they just decided to both kneel in the font so he baptised Gary that way! It was a very nice moment. There was humor and yet the Spirit was very strong. While they were changing, I bore my testimony and by that time they were out. The Bishop welcomed him, Gary made some unusual comments of course but he wasn't as weird as we thought it was gonna be. Pretty solid actually! It was a great time :) I'm so glad we were the ones a part of it!"
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
The mission scoop!!
I've been busy working at the pool and taking my online Summer Anatomy class but I'm finally posting Dan's 4th of July journal entries because he wanted everyone to be able to read them! Enjoy!
7/04/10- "Happy 4th of July! Good times! Now it's 6:30pm and I gotta write about my AMAZING day!!! Well it was a really good day with a bad ending but I'll get to that later. Starting at 6:05am... I woke up early so I could shave and have time to open my care packages! I was (and still am) sooo excited!! I went out to the front room and opened my two unexpected 4th of July care packages!! Oh. My. Gosh. I still can't believe it! It's like Christmas every time! These packages consistently amaze me! Like I can't even describe it. I opened my parents' package first and this is what was in it (!!!): OE's classic amazing cream cheese brownies in a cute red lunch box (Oh man!! Sooo delicious!! A little taste of home! That was so thoughtful! Thank you!), Stewart's Orange Cream soda (That one is my fave! Another taste of home!! Yay! My parents know me so well), A very festive red, white and blue Hollister polo shirt (I LOVE it! It's perfect and fits perfectly! I'll take a pic of me wearing it tomorrow for Pday!!), a patriotic CD (I was hoping for some patriotic music!! I'm listening to it right now and I totally love it!! It's actually super classic and will be a new family favorite!! Its nice and peaceful and classy!! Thank you! :), a John Bytheway CD (I always love him and that will be super entertaining! Yay! Thank you! I know I'll learn from it!), Crunch bars and Twizzlers (Crunch is one of my fave chocolate bars! And it's red, white and blue! Perfect! I donated my Twizzlers to Elder Rodriguez cause he loves them and I'm not a very big fan. That was so cute and thoughtful!), a scripture study kit (WOW! That is SO cool! Where did my parents find that?! I love it! I've looked through a lot of it and it has so much interesting stuff! I'm gonna learn so much! It's awesome! Thank you! It would make any missionary jealous :), a Lordship CT hat (YES!!!! I absolutely LOVE it!!!!! You have no idea! It fits perfectly! Completely perfect! My new fave hat! I wore it all morning and I'm wearing it right this second! What are the chances that they found a hat that I love? I'm picky on how hats fit but I couldn't be happier! :) Man! I'm so impressed! Thank you!), my mom's outstanding latest niece/nephew project (for the 4th!! I can't even stand how cute it is! I look forward to those every time! It's on my wall right now next to my Pixar birthday one and SW one. I'm keeping it up ALL of July!! It rocks! Thank you SOOO much! It makes me so happy to look at! It feels like a little bit of home is out here with me! I also love seeing my nieces and nephews grow in ever one! I absolutely love this tradition and I'm so thankful to mom for starting it with the Turkey one. Yay! I wish I was there!), 4th of July little plates and napkins and the biggest surprise... mom found my Toy Story snow globe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!? WHEN!? HOW!? I can't believe she found it!! No way! I didn't even know she was looking! I can't wait to hear the story behind it!! Mom can find anything! Thank you mom and dad for everything! Ever since the home videos from the 80's... you can always hear someone say "I can't believe it! How did you find it!?" And my mom always explains the crazy way if finding it (by calling every store in the USA lol). I bet mom called lots of Disney Stores and found it in like Texas or something lol! I loved their letters too! Then I opened my very special Summer care package from Brita my love!!!! So thoughtful!! She got me: Brownie mix/ Marshmallows/ Hershey's chocolate bars/ Graham crackers (to make our classic S'mores brownies!! That's so thoughtful and Summery!! I'm gonna have so much fun making them for dessert after our cookout here tomorrow! Yay! Thank you!! I love it! <3 Such a good idea! I wish I had Brita to make them with though :(, Caprisun (classic Summer drink! I love that drink! Awesome! Thanks so much babe!!), Kraft whole grain Mac & Cheese (can't go wrong with that! Our dinners do cancel a lot so that will be great to have! That was so thoughtful honey! Thanks tons!), Peach salsa (my fave! I'm just about out so perfect timing! Also a taste of home! You all take such good care of me! How could I have a more perfect family and girlfriend!?! :) and some more Yankee Candle car fresheners I love those! I can't wait to have a car to make it smell sooo yummy!). Thank you! Thank you! You all mean so much to me! Gosh! I'm just so happy! It's hard to express in writing. After that great time opening my packages I got ready for church. I even wore my flag tie... of course!! After church, we got a ride to Russ' (our dinner) and that's when the day took a turn for bad. We had nasty ribs, met his buddies that were there and talked about his baptism. He totally freaked out, said he wasn't doing this anymore, went on a rampage and ripped down all of the stop smoking signs, and said he was going to another church and tons of other awful things. It was totally crazy. I don't even have time to write down everything he said! We told him that we had to go (which we did- it was 5:50pm) and got out. So much for Russ :( I can't believe it. Sister Tucker's daughter gave us a ride back home and that was that. I had a Caprisun and then one of my cheesecake brownies and milk!! So amazingly good!! It's 8:30pm now and I've been using this entire free time to write in my journal but it's worth it. OMG... we just got like 4 voicemails from Russ. And they were not pleasant. The were the jerkiest messages EVER. "I'm just letting you know that I'm going to buy a whole box of cigars cause I can" "If your church is true that I would be aloud to be baptised. Obviously your church is evil and God's trying to stop me" among about 5 minutes of rambling. Rodriguez and I were so shocked just now!! He turned into such a nasty person when all we ever did was try to love and help him! We tried calling him back and he picked up and said "I'm busy" and hung up. What a baby! Ahhhh! So many details I wish I could write. Well that was my fantastic day and my not so fantastic night. Oh well! We tried! We'll be there for him if he wants to come back. By the way, you know my little "scripture a day flip calendar" that I got for Christmas? Well I had to reverse it now and go the other way since it's half way until December! Sick. Well that's it for now, I'm gonna hang out outside! Ba bye! :)"
7/04/10- "Happy 4th of July! Good times! Now it's 6:30pm and I gotta write about my AMAZING day!!! Well it was a really good day with a bad ending but I'll get to that later. Starting at 6:05am... I woke up early so I could shave and have time to open my care packages! I was (and still am) sooo excited!! I went out to the front room and opened my two unexpected 4th of July care packages!! Oh. My. Gosh. I still can't believe it! It's like Christmas every time! These packages consistently amaze me! Like I can't even describe it. I opened my parents' package first and this is what was in it (!!!): OE's classic amazing cream cheese brownies in a cute red lunch box (Oh man!! Sooo delicious!! A little taste of home! That was so thoughtful! Thank you!), Stewart's Orange Cream soda (That one is my fave! Another taste of home!! Yay! My parents know me so well), A very festive red, white and blue Hollister polo shirt (I LOVE it! It's perfect and fits perfectly! I'll take a pic of me wearing it tomorrow for Pday!!), a patriotic CD (I was hoping for some patriotic music!! I'm listening to it right now and I totally love it!! It's actually super classic and will be a new family favorite!! Its nice and peaceful and classy!! Thank you! :), a John Bytheway CD (I always love him and that will be super entertaining! Yay! Thank you! I know I'll learn from it!), Crunch bars and Twizzlers (Crunch is one of my fave chocolate bars! And it's red, white and blue! Perfect! I donated my Twizzlers to Elder Rodriguez cause he loves them and I'm not a very big fan. That was so cute and thoughtful!), a scripture study kit (WOW! That is SO cool! Where did my parents find that?! I love it! I've looked through a lot of it and it has so much interesting stuff! I'm gonna learn so much! It's awesome! Thank you! It would make any missionary jealous :), a Lordship CT hat (YES!!!! I absolutely LOVE it!!!!! You have no idea! It fits perfectly! Completely perfect! My new fave hat! I wore it all morning and I'm wearing it right this second! What are the chances that they found a hat that I love? I'm picky on how hats fit but I couldn't be happier! :) Man! I'm so impressed! Thank you!), my mom's outstanding latest niece/nephew project (for the 4th!! I can't even stand how cute it is! I look forward to those every time! It's on my wall right now next to my Pixar birthday one and SW one. I'm keeping it up ALL of July!! It rocks! Thank you SOOO much! It makes me so happy to look at! It feels like a little bit of home is out here with me! I also love seeing my nieces and nephews grow in ever one! I absolutely love this tradition and I'm so thankful to mom for starting it with the Turkey one. Yay! I wish I was there!), 4th of July little plates and napkins and the biggest surprise... mom found my Toy Story snow globe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!? WHEN!? HOW!? I can't believe she found it!! No way! I didn't even know she was looking! I can't wait to hear the story behind it!! Mom can find anything! Thank you mom and dad for everything! Ever since the home videos from the 80's... you can always hear someone say "I can't believe it! How did you find it!?" And my mom always explains the crazy way if finding it (by calling every store in the USA lol). I bet mom called lots of Disney Stores and found it in like Texas or something lol! I loved their letters too! Then I opened my very special Summer care package from Brita my love!!!! So thoughtful!! She got me: Brownie mix/ Marshmallows/ Hershey's chocolate bars/ Graham crackers (to make our classic S'mores brownies!! That's so thoughtful and Summery!! I'm gonna have so much fun making them for dessert after our cookout here tomorrow! Yay! Thank you!! I love it! <3 Such a good idea! I wish I had Brita to make them with though :(, Caprisun (classic Summer drink! I love that drink! Awesome! Thanks so much babe!!), Kraft whole grain Mac & Cheese (can't go wrong with that! Our dinners do cancel a lot so that will be great to have! That was so thoughtful honey! Thanks tons!), Peach salsa (my fave! I'm just about out so perfect timing! Also a taste of home! You all take such good care of me! How could I have a more perfect family and girlfriend!?! :) and some more Yankee Candle car fresheners I love those! I can't wait to have a car to make it smell sooo yummy!). Thank you! Thank you! You all mean so much to me! Gosh! I'm just so happy! It's hard to express in writing. After that great time opening my packages I got ready for church. I even wore my flag tie... of course!! After church, we got a ride to Russ' (our dinner) and that's when the day took a turn for bad. We had nasty ribs, met his buddies that were there and talked about his baptism. He totally freaked out, said he wasn't doing this anymore, went on a rampage and ripped down all of the stop smoking signs, and said he was going to another church and tons of other awful things. It was totally crazy. I don't even have time to write down everything he said! We told him that we had to go (which we did- it was 5:50pm) and got out. So much for Russ :( I can't believe it. Sister Tucker's daughter gave us a ride back home and that was that. I had a Caprisun and then one of my cheesecake brownies and milk!! So amazingly good!! It's 8:30pm now and I've been using this entire free time to write in my journal but it's worth it. OMG... we just got like 4 voicemails from Russ. And they were not pleasant. The were the jerkiest messages EVER. "I'm just letting you know that I'm going to buy a whole box of cigars cause I can" "If your church is true that I would be aloud to be baptised. Obviously your church is evil and God's trying to stop me" among about 5 minutes of rambling. Rodriguez and I were so shocked just now!! He turned into such a nasty person when all we ever did was try to love and help him! We tried calling him back and he picked up and said "I'm busy" and hung up. What a baby! Ahhhh! So many details I wish I could write. Well that was my fantastic day and my not so fantastic night. Oh well! We tried! We'll be there for him if he wants to come back. By the way, you know my little "scripture a day flip calendar" that I got for Christmas? Well I had to reverse it now and go the other way since it's half way until December! Sick. Well that's it for now, I'm gonna hang out outside! Ba bye! :)"
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Updates from the cutest, most precious missionary in the whole wide world!! :)
I can't believe it's already July! I feel like this Summer will go by really fast, which is perfect because everyday brings me closer to Dan! So here are his latest journal excerpts...
6/22/10- "I'm gonna write about my AMAZING anniversary/Pday yesterday!! I woke up and the 1st thing I did was open my very special Toy Story package from my darling!! She did so much for me! So what was in it? Well... Toy Story shampoo (!!! I've never seen that! That was so thoughtful!!!),
Toy Story Legos (Now I have 3 sets as part of my collection! I was totally hoping for some!! Thank you! I love them! :), Toy Story stickers (I love them! So cute!), hand sanitizer (yummy "warm vanilla sugar" from Bath and Body works! I was totally hoping for some cause I requested some delicious smelling sanitizer cause I shake a lot of dirty hands! 
aThank you!), Summer training fitness guide for helping me stay healthy/fit this Summer (!!! Thank you! It's the right one! I've already used a lot of its tips! I was hoping for this! xox), a cute and precious picture of us holding hands in our orange shirts (HMMMM! 4 years ago! That picture brought back so many amazing memories! That was such a perfect idea to send that! Thank you honey!) and of course... the Toy Story 3 Soundtrack!!! 
I've been waiting so long for that and I love it! It's so fun! I put it in right away and have listened to it countless times since already! It's the closest thing I have to watching it. Thank you sooo much for everything!! It was all so perfect." (Note from Brita- I added pics of the cute Toy Story shipping envelope I found at the post office, the L'oreal shampoo, the Toy Story legos and the soundtrack so you could see how cute and Toy Storyish everything was :)
6/27/10- "Was my birthday really a month ago? This month went so fast! Yesterday was a very great day! In the morning, we went to do service! An elderly ward member called us a couple days ago and asked us if we could pull her weeds and trim her hedges. So we did! It wasn't too bad of a job... pretty fun actually. She was very funny. She even made us homemade lemonade...that was yummy and a classic summer drink :). We talked to her after, shared a scripture and had a prayer. Nice lady! We got home around noon and I rushed in totally hoping that I had a letter from mom and dad waiting for me in the kitchen (cause FedEx or packages come around 10:30am) and I did!!!!! That was so exciting! I love getting mail from them! It made me so happy! But it was more than a loving letter talking about Toy Story 3...they sent me a Toy Story car!! I was so surprised! I love little surprises!! It's a Woody car and I put it with my awesome collection of other Toy Story stuff! My parents are the absolute best! And I needed to tell them that. So during our lunch hour, I wrote them a letter in response :)"
"As we were biking back toward our house I had a thought that we should visit Jeannie. Like a minute later, Rodriguez said, "dude I think we should visit Jeannie!" Those are the thoughts of the Spirit! Wow. I love experiences like that! :) We arrived at Jeannie's and asked her how she and AJ were doing. We still can't contact him because he dosen't have a phone and still lives at random places. She had just gotten off the phone with him! We tried to help her through the scriptures and she loved a few things we said. I was inspired with a thought. What if we held a special fast next week with Jeannie for AJ? I told Jeannie my idea and I felt the Spirit so strong and I know Rodriguez did too as we taught boldly with power and authority. We testified about fasting and shared some experiences. I promised her that fasting in faith works and brings so many blessings. We know she felt the spirit too. She told us that she couldn't fast from food/ water because of health problems. We asked her if she could think of a different sacrifice she could make to fast. She told us that for AJ, she would be willing to fast from smoking for 24 hours with a purpose and prayer. She told us how hard it's gonna be but also said it would be selfish of her if she couldn't even fast for 24 hours for her son. Next week we're gonna go to Jeannie's on Saturday night to all start fasting together with a prayer. I'm so grateful for the inspiration of the Holy Ghost! :)"
6/22/10- "I'm gonna write about my AMAZING anniversary/Pday yesterday!! I woke up and the 1st thing I did was open my very special Toy Story package from my darling!! She did so much for me! So what was in it? Well... Toy Story shampoo (!!! I've never seen that! That was so thoughtful!!!),
Toy Story Legos (Now I have 3 sets as part of my collection! I was totally hoping for some!! Thank you! I love them! :), Toy Story stickers (I love them! So cute!), hand sanitizer (yummy "warm vanilla sugar" from Bath and Body works! I was totally hoping for some cause I requested some delicious smelling sanitizer cause I shake a lot of dirty hands! 
aThank you!), Summer training fitness guide for helping me stay healthy/fit this Summer (!!! Thank you! It's the right one! I've already used a lot of its tips! I was hoping for this! xox), a cute and precious picture of us holding hands in our orange shirts (HMMMM! 4 years ago! That picture brought back so many amazing memories! That was such a perfect idea to send that! Thank you honey!) and of course... the Toy Story 3 Soundtrack!!! 
I've been waiting so long for that and I love it! It's so fun! I put it in right away and have listened to it countless times since already! It's the closest thing I have to watching it. Thank you sooo much for everything!! It was all so perfect." (Note from Brita- I added pics of the cute Toy Story shipping envelope I found at the post office, the L'oreal shampoo, the Toy Story legos and the soundtrack so you could see how cute and Toy Storyish everything was :)6/27/10- "Was my birthday really a month ago? This month went so fast! Yesterday was a very great day! In the morning, we went to do service! An elderly ward member called us a couple days ago and asked us if we could pull her weeds and trim her hedges. So we did! It wasn't too bad of a job... pretty fun actually. She was very funny. She even made us homemade lemonade...that was yummy and a classic summer drink :). We talked to her after, shared a scripture and had a prayer. Nice lady! We got home around noon and I rushed in totally hoping that I had a letter from mom and dad waiting for me in the kitchen (cause FedEx or packages come around 10:30am) and I did!!!!! That was so exciting! I love getting mail from them! It made me so happy! But it was more than a loving letter talking about Toy Story 3...they sent me a Toy Story car!! I was so surprised! I love little surprises!! It's a Woody car and I put it with my awesome collection of other Toy Story stuff! My parents are the absolute best! And I needed to tell them that. So during our lunch hour, I wrote them a letter in response :)"
"As we were biking back toward our house I had a thought that we should visit Jeannie. Like a minute later, Rodriguez said, "dude I think we should visit Jeannie!" Those are the thoughts of the Spirit! Wow. I love experiences like that! :) We arrived at Jeannie's and asked her how she and AJ were doing. We still can't contact him because he dosen't have a phone and still lives at random places. She had just gotten off the phone with him! We tried to help her through the scriptures and she loved a few things we said. I was inspired with a thought. What if we held a special fast next week with Jeannie for AJ? I told Jeannie my idea and I felt the Spirit so strong and I know Rodriguez did too as we taught boldly with power and authority. We testified about fasting and shared some experiences. I promised her that fasting in faith works and brings so many blessings. We know she felt the spirit too. She told us that she couldn't fast from food/ water because of health problems. We asked her if she could think of a different sacrifice she could make to fast. She told us that for AJ, she would be willing to fast from smoking for 24 hours with a purpose and prayer. She told us how hard it's gonna be but also said it would be selfish of her if she couldn't even fast for 24 hours for her son. Next week we're gonna go to Jeannie's on Saturday night to all start fasting together with a prayer. I'm so grateful for the inspiration of the Holy Ghost! :)"
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