Last Saturday of the Summer...

And it was a busy/great day! My parents and Kersti finally got cell phones and we got a family plan :)

I switched from my contract to theirs and got a cute new phone, which was great because mine was pretty much done

Kersti was SUPER excited about getting a phone!!

After we hit up Ben and Jerry's! It was delicious!!

It was also my last day of working at the pool this summer! YAY!!

Now I just have to start packing up the car for school! Good times!

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan's a trainer!

Well, the exciting news is that Dan will be training a brand new greenie this transfer! I'm so excited for him because I know he really wanted to train and I know he will be amazing! I wanted to post some of his latest entries...

8/10/10- "We met Scott and Ricky at a ghetto pizza hut nearby! It was soooo fun! We had some good times. It was awesome getting to meet/know Scott and so cool to see Ricky again. It has been sooo long! We had a very fun conversation and good eats. We wanted to do something fun after so I suggested a mini golf place I saw while driving around! So that's what we did! It was SUCH a perfect night and this mini golf course was so awesome. We had a blast! I took some pics of our times together. It was soo funny to watch Ricky school us all since he's a golfer lol. He got like 7 hole in ones! Rollins seemed to really like my cousins too. We had some good fun, some good laughs and some good catching up. I hope I can see them again! We said our goodbyes and got home by 9:30 on the dot... nice! Turned out to be a great Pday at the end. :) P.S. Did I mention that Rollins feel asleep during 2 of our lessons? Well he did. How embarrassing!!"

8/14/10- "Right after I got into bed, I heard the phone ring so I got down (from his bunk bed) to answer it. It was Elder Fish. He's in my district. He was calling for advice. He and Elder Ewald have been tremendously hard working (getting like 20 lessons or more each week) but now they feel so unmotivated to get out and work. They burnt themselves out. Elder Fish? Not wanting to work? If you knew him you would be shocked like I was. He's intense when it comes to missionary work! I talked to him for like 30 minutes and tried to help the best I could. It was a great conversation. It felt so good to be able to help a missionary in need! I was surprised he called me! It was very nice he felt comfortable enough to call me and tell me how he was feeling. I told him we could all get together Sunday night (for a mini motivational district meeting) and we'll talk. Good day! That's about it!"

8/15/10- "Happy OE's birthday! Yet another birthday celebration that I'm missing. Yesterday was a pretty awesome day! We got our full studies in the morning, weekly planned and then I checked the mail to find a little package from mom and dad!!! I love Saturday mornings!! This time they both sent me letters, a card from the ward (that was cool! That was a great idea!), pictures from NH and another fun Toy Story car! I loved it! I love you mom and dad! Thank you!!"

I love watermelon!!

I've been meaning to do this post for a while! I wanted to send Dan a care package this month, but there aren't any August holidays to celebrate, so I decided to do a watermelon themed care package since they're my favorite summer fruit and totally classic August! I had to take pics because everything just looked so cute :)

Isn't this the most adorable box of kleenex you have ever seen?! As soon as I saw it I knew I had to send it to Dan and it inspired the rest of the package!

It was soooo much fun trying to find everything watermelon related that I could think of to send!

All packaged up :)

And of course I had to decorate the box, love the watermelon letter stickers!!


And, I took my Anatomy final today! Yay! I'm sooooo happy I'm done :) And I'll be posting Dan's latest journal entries soon!

Finally updating :)

Wow, this week has flown by! I just got home from working the whole day at Junior Swim Team Championships, I'm glad everything went well with it. I've been sooo busy with work and writing Dan and getting everything together for the Nursing Program and studying for my Anatomy final this week, but I'm finally updating Dan's journal entries! Enjoy!

7/21/10 "Pretty good day yesterday! At 10:00am we left for our Zone Meeting. Our zone is pretty small compared to Vegas but I like it. Elders Marshall and Anscough are very good ZLs. I like them. The Zone Meeting was really fun...we had fun introductions of everybody (which included an embarrassing moment and a video of what our parents think of us as missionaries. The ZLs called all our parents! They edited a video of all the highlights cutting back and forth to music (they had our parents on speaker phone). I listened to mine but couldn't recognize anyone! The spirit was strong and powerful. They did a great job with the presentation. It was all about working hard like our parents think we are. Then they connected that with our Heavenly parents and how much they love us. It was great. Very motivating for me! I asked who they talked to at my house and Elder Marshall talked to my mom. They said they talked longer to her than any other parent lol! They proved it to me by telling me the grandad/lasagne story lol and the coins falling out of my pocket on the 1st date story haha. I knew they were telling the truth after that! I guess my mom was the one who said 'Is this a prank?' lol I'm excited to talk to mom about it!"

Mission updates!!

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!"

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! :)"