6/27/21 Family Letter

 hello

I'm tired all the time now. I wake up tired, I go to work tired, then I go to sleep tired. but work Is getting better at least. I've gotten really good at making fries. but I've been working a lot, and I worked till 11 three nights in a row just barely. it's hard, but it's making money. Idk what else to write about, so i'll be signing off. 
Love ya!

Hyrum 

Hi

I went swimming this week with some people from my friends group. It was fun! Cece.Becca and I went Yw hopping. It was really fun! First we went bowling with people in our friends group. Then we went to my Yw and we rode bikes to all the neighborhood libraries. Then we went to CeCe's YW and played night games. It was a party!

We had Harrison Slighting and his wife's bride shower in the backyard! I got to connect with some of the younger neighborhood girls. Cece's cat is in the hospital right now. send prayers. Brakennas birthday party was so fun, but also scary. As we were playing bigger and better( a game where you go to people's houses and ask them if they have anything bigger or better then *BLANK* then you would trade the object until you got something really good) anyway we were playing the game and went up to a house. An old man answered the door and forcefully said come in. so me and about 5 other girls went in. He pulled off the pillows in the front room and said sit Really forcefully to me, so I pulled my other friend over to sit with me. Anyway his wife came into the front room and we explained the game to her and she went to grab something. Meanwhile the old man sat down and asked us what's your name, where do you live. We all made up fake names. mine was stacy. ( by the way this old man used to be Adris' old bishop, not some random old man.) The spirit wasn't there at all. It felt rather sketchy.after the wife came back with the thing we all got up to leave when he said wait. We all were really scared. But then he just introduced us to his dog. Sketchy experience. Last night we went to a brazilian celebration of juneteenth. They had some really good food there! Mia Elise and I got together to go swim! This is a rather long sorry! Love ya!

MARI :)))))

Sweet Eve,

How do you like your new apartment?  How about the area? Caremark sent your BC prescription to our house.  I am sending it to you this week. 

Something exciting:  When the Portuguese Ward (Harvest Fields) came to pick up the church keys from Dad, in broken English, they invited him and our family to their "Festa Junia" ward party that evening.  It was so exciting!  Emma and Matt came with us as our translators.  We learned a bit more Portuguese.  The party and people were really cute.  They were dressed in scarecrow plaid and really colorful.  They decorated with scarecrows and sunflowers.  Most of the girls drew on freckles and the boys drew in beards and unibrows.  I have never seen anything like it.  We had hotdogs in this tomato sauce with parmesan cheese, peas, corn, and potato chip strings on the hotdogs/buns.  It was actually pretty good.  There was also a good assortment of Brazilian desserts. 

Today was Erik's homecoming.  He gave such a good talk!  He spoke about how hard his mission was.  He said that on his mission he learned to ask for help from Heavenly Father.  He talked of an experience near the beginning of his mission when he went into his closet to pray to plead for Heavenly Father to not give up on him.  He was worried that his inadequacies and weaknesses would ruin the church in that area.  Later, when he was stuck in his apartment with a companion that would only eat bread (and threw away a delicious steak that Erik cooked for him) during quarantine, he said he lost it and decided to just come home.  He prayed about it and heard, in his own voice, "I didn't give up on you. Don't you give up on me!"  It was enough to help him through the rest of his mission.

Dad gave a great High Council talk in our ward today.  He spoke about the culture of Unity in Christ.  He shared ideas about different age groups and how we can (or teach our children/youth) how to widen their circle of influence.  He did a great job.  I love listening to him speak.  After Dad's talk we went over to the Ormsby's for Erik's party.  Carrie fixed Navajo Tacos.  We all thought about you and how much you loved those things!

Fun news:  We are starting to do more home improvements!  We will be getting a fireplace in the family room (with the TV above it), new carpet on the main level and up the stairs, painting all the doors (new white) and switching out all the gold door hardware (knobs and hinges) for brushed nickel...hopefully giving it an updated look.  We will also repaint/refresh the baseboards.  I'm getting bids on updating the banister on the stairs...but it looks like I'll just have to repaint that (it was going to be $5000) because the price of wood is so high right now.  I can't wait for you to see it!

Hyrum has an MDT retreat this week.  Mari has been babysitting and hanging with friends.  The Matthews moved out this week.  It was sad!  I got to go help her clean (the Sister Missionaries and Brittany Henage helped too), and we also did dinner for them one night (as they were loading the moving vans).  Their new ward is very lucky to get them.  The new people who moved in are nice.  They have little kids (oldest is 4yrs old).  Me and some of the other sisters from the ward did a bridal shower for Harrison and his fiancee.  We've got this bridal shower thing down!  Melissa does invitations, I do backyard/treats, Katie or Jillian do decorations and a few other ladies help with treats.  We have awesome friends!  This week, we are going Curling (think Olympic sport, ice, things with handles that slide on the ice) with the Wenerstroms, Yonks, and Moncurs.  I'll let you know how it goes.  It should be hilarious! 

How is the drought in your area?  Any improvement?  Oregon is having a heat wave right now.  The Olympic trials are going on right now.  They had to cancel the track and field competition because it was 140 degrees on the field.  Yikes! 

You are so loved!  I hope you feel our love and prayers for you.  Keep close to the Spirit.  We miss you, but are so proud of you!

 Mom

Millie,

What a time to be a missionary . . . who doesn't have to knock on doors.  I hope you have found a way to successfully get out of the heat.  We watch the news and notice you are getting the same weather we have here.  We have had major problems with the lawn at the church.  We went over tonight to try and gauge what the problem is.  We found that the water is not working for the whole property.  Likely when we had the water worked on they forgot to turn the water back on.  This facilities calling has been very challenging.

We had the RS President from our Portuguese Ward come by to borrow some keys and we got invited to their Festa Junina celebration.  This was the third time I was invited but normally assume they are inviting to be polite.  Mom was in ear shot though.  If you can imagine I was at the door speaking with a couple that do not speak English very well and your Mom is on her hands and knees outside our bedroom door trying to see what is happening at the front door.  I said goodbye and turned around to see your Mom on all fours and she all but shouted "WE ARE GOING!!!"  So we went to Festa Junina.  We invited Matt and Emma so they could speak the language.  It was fun.  It did not take long and we were put in charge of a games booth.  We manned that for about 30 min.  We had the funky hot dog Emma made us.  Hotdog with a tomato sauce, corn, peas, and the potato chip straws.  What Emma made us was legit.  It was fun.  

We are starting to get serious with our remodeling.  We are likely going to put a fireplace on the main level.  Your Mom is trying to find a design she likes.  There are a lot of options on pinterest.  We need to make a decision this week.  Most everyone is about 2 months out for construction projects but these fireplace people have a lot of availability. We had talked about replacing all carpet with hardwood but are thinking we will stick with carpet until the lumber prices go down.  Nobody is willing to give us a firm estimate due to the fluctuating lumber prices.   We will also be buying Mom a new violin this Summer.  I got my last FC bonus so we have some cash to spend we did  not think we had.  

Let us know if your fridge starts to look empty.  If you start eating bagels for Sunday dinner I'm going to get my feelings hurt.  Love you kid.  Keep doing great work.  You are making a difference!

Love

Dad

D&C 68:6