Stories from Ruth #46

Tuesday morning was interviews and we received a call from the zone leaders at 8:30 telling us that Sister Lotter and I were going to be the first interviewed at 9am. Well... we were planning on getting to Hyde Park at 9:30am and were still an hour away and going to arrive at 9:45, so that was fun. Sister Lotter and I were distressed until Elder Polishchuck gave us chocolate and told us to be happy. Oh, that was actually Elder Polishchuck's last day, so he came with us to Hyde Park and we left without him. Elder Park picked up his greenie, from Taiwan named Elder Lin. We went home and had dinner at a Turkish restaurant with our ward mission leader before he left for the Philippines with his family for three weeks. Turkish food is amazing.

This week we have continued to see Leila. I love her so much! She has such a strong testimony and wants to go to the temple!

We are teaching a lot of people at the moment, and most of them are leaving, whether it be to Cyprus, Birmingham, or Ecuador. One is named Veli. He is super good, and wants to be baptized and receive a remission of his sins. He was referred to us by a member and received a priesthood blessing. After Veli felt that power that comes only from God he wanted it in his life. Then we are teaching Gilbert who loves the bible, wants there to be a prophet on the earth, and has learned about the gospel through the BYU website, which I think was scriptures.byu.edu actually. We are teaching one guy who tells us to call him Brother Tony. He knows so much about the Bible and agrees that a prophet would bring forth many revelations. Then we are teaching this sweet girl who is only 18. Most of the people we are teaching, know and love the bible. I know that that is essential. I know that this church follows the bible more closely than any other church I have ever seen.

Thursday night we went on exchange in Hatfield which was a lot of fun and Sister De France cooked for us! Yes! People from Trinidad cook well. We got home Friday night right before Volleyball where we met Gilbert.

this lady named Pat came to church with us! Then she asked to meet with us! She was so sweet!

Highlights of the Week:
- Elder Lin gave a talk and a member came up to Elder Park and told him that they loved Elder Park's talk
- Sister Lotter and I ran down eleven flights of stairs, to the bus stop, and home in order to stay in this missionwide call. We are sooo fit
- trunking (tracting/trunky)
- Sister T genuinely asked Elder Olivera (a brazilian) if he was from Mexico and he just turned to us and said "this is because of you!" And it was
- they tell bad drivers in Korea to "go home and cook your rice!"

My spiritual thought for the week is found in 2 Nephi 32:7 "...for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be." I know that this is true. The reason many people are confused and left in darkness, because of sin and because they do not search the word of God. I have seen this in the lives of many people. The scriptures are laid out before them, they have access to prayer, but they do not beleive that God can answer them. They do not search and understand the scriptures. I am so grateful for this gospel. I am thankful for parents that have oushed me to study, search, and pray over the scriptures. These are things we must do if we want to be protected or even to know God.

This Week at Our House #29

We were expecting CPS to return everyday, but they didn't, so we have another week of waiting for their arrival and making sure the house is always picked up. Johnny and Arwen had their dentist appointments and they were both cavity free-- hurray! Though, they want Johnny to go and get his wisdom teeth checked with the oral surgeon, ugh. Joseph had his 9th birthday, and birthdays are always fun. Other than that, it was a quiet week at home with school and chores and games.

1. John still has heard nothing from jobs and he has not gotten another game finished yet. It may be a month or two before he has another game or two out. He made the first games simple to learn the process and now he is working on things that are bigger, more unique ideas, and more graphic intensive. 
2. My garden is producing well. We got our first crop of corn, and I think we will be getting more corn weekly for a while now. We also had our first watermelon. We are getting plenty of tomatoes, green bell peppers, and jalepinos. We have tons and tons of butternut squash. We have been baking it, but John would like me to boil it and mash it. We are getting all this squash from seeds I saved from one butternut squash last January. I think that's pretty impressive, and we quite like the hard squashes. We have tons more growing too. The yellow summer squash is slowing down. I don't think they will be producing much longer. We ate our first watermelon and look forward to more. We will have a couple of honey dew, but the watermelon has taken over most of the honey dew patch. It looks like we have just 3 or 4 growing. I planted cantaloupe, and even though I planted it three rows from the butternut squash, the bees pollinated them together, so we have regular butternut squash and a darker orange and little sweeter butternut squash where I planted the cantaloupe. I actually like the "squashaloupe" as the kids call it, better than ordinary butternut squash. It has a nicer flavor.
3. Ruth continues to be a faithful and good missionary who is very conscientious about learning the gospel and working hard. I am very proud of her.
4. I want to let everyone know that Kate is completely innocent and morally clean. She has a strong testimony and knows the scriptures well, and many by heart. Her mission papers are not being stalled because of anything she has done or not done. She is very worthy and I am very proud of the woman she has become. The Lord has blessed her in many ways.
5. Johnny got his games coded for touch screen and has loaded them onto a phone and has begun debugging. He is learning a lot and working very hard. He is also teaching himself Japanese. He woke up one morning to learn their two easier alphabets.
6. Adam has been doing well with school and learning things that he needs to. I think the math that he is doing is pretty advanced now. Johnny was saying that Adam needed to spend more time on computer programming, but we reminded Johnny that Adam is only in the 8th grade and still needs to become good at grammar and math like he is. 
7. Rachel has been working really hard on learning Japanese. She is working on the Kanji, which is the hardest of the 3 alphabets. She makes herself very pretty flashcards and is careful to learn to strokes in the right order. 
8. Anya had to go to church with no shoes because she lost her only pair. This has been an issue for Anya her entire life. 
9. Joseph asked for homemade pumpkin pie and a homemade chocolate cake in the shape of a train. Kate spent hours on his food requests and then all he wanted to do was play computer games all day long. I said that next year I was going to give him a can of soda, a candy bar, and time on the computer and call it good. 
10. Joshua continues to progress with school. At 7 and a half I have been making him do more chores. He really hates it. Rachel was like that too, and I think Susan will be the same.
11. Arwen doesn't like school, but can be convinced to do it and to do it well for treats. She seems to like workbook pages the best. She had one about a hide and seek game and she seemed excited to be reading that little story and answering the questions.
12. Kate called Susan, "Susan", and Susan said, "I am not Susan. I am Susan Scarlett. That is what Dad calls me."
13. Sam is getting into everything. He hid the broom on us and it was several hours before we found it. He also broke an important cord of Johnny's. He dumps out games, puzzles, shelves of books, boxes of cereal, and bottles of soap. He is always getting the computers and carrying them off. Boy, he is a handfull, but we sure love it and everyone helps with him, so it is easier than when some of the other kids went through this stage.

Pictures

Sam tries to make his own smoothie, with a loaf of bread

We find Sam's missing pacifier in a can of pringles, he was not supposed to eat.

Happy Birthday, Joseph

Joseph, my very smart, very energetic boy is 9!!! The other day, I said to Joseph, "I can't believe you are 9," and he said, "Why can't you believe it? I am just turning 9, nothing to not believe." I can't believe it because 9 years have gone by so fast! Sometimes I still think of him as my crazy toddler or the new kindergartner. But he is definitely older and well past those stages. He half hangs out with the older kids and half with the younger kids. He can play with the little kids and joke around with the older kids. He still wrestles anyone willing to wrestle and he still likes to climb things. He plays all of John's nerdy boy board games and loves it. He plays soccer with the older boys and is pretty good with the basketball. Joseph loves his chickens. We let them free range around the yard and Joseph is always checking on them to make sure they are all safe. When they go to the front of the yard, he comes in crying because he is worried that they will get lost. Otherwise, Joseph is the same happy boy he has always been. Nothing has ever really bothered Joseph or his peace. Joseph Smith's mother mentioned Joseph Smith's "native cheery disposition". Joseph is named after Joseph Smith and he has always had a native cheery disposition.

Stories from Ruth #45

This week has been crazy and good! We have had so many funny stories.

Story #1 All of us sisters decided to get lunch and so we were heading home to do so when Sister Kaithwas decided to cross the street to talk to this man at the bus stop. So of course we all followed. Then the bus came and pulled over, although no one had waved it down or was catching that bus. We told the bus driver that no one was getting on the bus. And he opened his personal bus door, stepped out and asked "Now what did you do to get four lovely ladies to talk to you?"

Story #2 How do you know if the conversation has been too long? When your bus has passed three times or when you hear Hallelujah and Amen 30 times in a prayer?

Story #3
Random M&S worker: "Your the people with the dodgy badges!"
Sister Lotter and I: "What?"
Worker: "I met the two asian girls."
Sister Lotter: "Yeah they are both from India."
*long story proceeds... just to end*
Worker: "Are you from Canada? You sound Canadian."
Sister Lotter: "No. I am Austrailian."
Worker: "You sound American! Are you from Australia too?"
Me: "No. I'm from America."
Worker: "But you sound English! What?" *just scratches his head confused while we start walking off giggling*

Story #4 Sister Lotter and I were dying as it was 31 degrees Celsius and we had not eaten or had water since the night before. Well we went tracting and this enflish guy opened the door.
Sister Lotter started: "Hello! How are you? We are-"
Complete Stanger: "Come in! We have two young boys who need to learn about Jesus!"
*us standing there with our jaws dropped*
Sister Lotter: "Is there a female in there?"
Stranger "Yes, my wife."

So... we went in. There was the dude who invited us in, Paul, his sister-in-law from Peru, Marcella, and his two nephews who are in their twenties and looked like they had walked out of a vogue magazine. The football game was on and they were all watching it. But Paul told us to talk to Marcella and the boys about Christ. So we introduced ourselves and started with the restoration. We asked how they were all related and Paul said that it was a family barbeque, so they were other people in the backyard. They offered for us to stay but we told them we had to leave soon, because we were still in shock. Then this shirtless older guy in an apron popped in and asked "want a sausage?" We did, but we turned it down. Haha! They were so funny. We talked to them for a bit more. Met other family members. Paul told us that one of the boys had just returned from his trip from Barcelona and was now working for a bank. We regretted sying that we had to go at the end. They were so funny! Marcella had met missionaries before, and had visited a chapel, so she walked with us to the door when we left and we talked to her for a bit longer. The spirit was so strong and she said that she wanted to come to church with us sometime. So yeah!

This week I want to share Matthew 7:21 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
I think this scripture teaches us a lot of important things. I know that there will be many who know God is Lord, but salvation was never dependant upon merely acknowledging a fact. We need to know the will of God and do it. We have to ask what his will is and submit our will to him. He knows everything, and we have to accept that he knows what is best. The most important thing in our lives is to study the gospel and scriptures God has given us, pray, and be obedient to the Lord and his commandments.

This Week at Our House #28 We Start School Early

We started school this week. Some of the kids were unhappy about it, but it has been very hot outside and we expect to need some more vacation time for various things this school year. So July 9th became our first day. I wrote up a schedule and got the new curriculum prepared and I think it will go well. The kids seemed to get into the swing of things without a hitch. The other big event for the week is that the kids rescued a Northern Mocking Bird who could not fly. It seems to have taken it's place quite happily as newest pet, and has fattened up on the tuna fish and fruit we have been feeding it. The kids are all enjoying the bird in the house, but we do hope the bird will heal and be able to fly away again.

1. We have not heard anything about jobs this week, but John did get a second game up. We are going to sell some things so we can buy an ipad, so John can get his games up on the apple store too.
2. I got school back into session. I opted for teams of kids and 8 rotations to begin the school year. There are still more things I want to get in and want the kids to learn, but for now, this seems to be working and gives us a solid start. My teams are Adam and Rachel, though, they do not do the same math, everything else they do is grade 8 or above. Anya and Joseph are grade 5 and they do everything the same. Josh and Arwen are both on grade one for reading and writing and grammar, but Josh is doing 2nd to 3rd grade math and Arwen is on 1st grade math. Then I take 20 to 30 minutes a day with Suzy for pre-school. Johnny is spending 8 hours a day programming games, learning more programming languages and doing advanced college math with John and Kate. 
3. Ruth seems very happy with her current companion and the other two missionaries in her apartment. She said their camaraderie and general friendship is what she had hoped from college roommates, but never really had. 
4. In the past three or four weeks our family has made some difficult and important decisions. Those decisions have a lot to do with how our older kids have been treated at church. I have said very little about this, as I know the Lord wants us to forgive and move on. So without saying too much on the matter, Kate has stopped trying to get her mission papers in while living in North Carolina, and as soon as we can, we will move the whole family back to Utah.
5. Johnny spent a lot of time this week on computer programming. He scrapped his first game because he did not feel like it was good enough, but he has two more and this week he learned how to program in the touch controls. Our hope is that Johnny will be able to start a business alongside John.
6. Adam did well starting back with school. He works pretty hard on his math and it is pretty advanced for his age. He has also been helping a lot more around the house doing lots of little errands, cleaning up messes, and taking care of Sam as needed. Adam is also one of our funner jokesters. He has a good, funny or ironic quote for almost any situation. 
7. Rachel has grown. She is looking taller and her face has filled in more. Rachel was the most vocal about not wanting to start school again early, but she is doing it and doing a good job.
8. Anya got back to school without any complaints. Her reading curriculum right now is focusing on poetry and rhyming schemes and she is really liking that. She likes doing her school work right now.
9. Joseph has probably been my second biggest complainer. He does not like the poetry, and his poems have just been complaints about having to write poems.
10. Joshua's reading is so much better than it was. I am very pleased with how he is doing.
11. Arwen has had some trouble getting back into the swing of things. I think she will pick it back up in time.
12. Suzy really likes her little preschool time and the writing and drawing assignments I have been giving her. 
13. Sam never likes it when we get back into school, so he was pretty fussy all week.

Pictures

Stories from Ruth # 44

 

This week was absolute chaos, but Leila got baptized which was a huge miracle! She was really excited for her baptism. It was a very spiritual experience. Leila truly is prepared. She is keeping all the commandments and wants to become like Jesus Christ. Leila is excited to evwn go to the temple and has shared the gospel with her family and they are excited for her. Before her baptism we saw her everyday and read the Joseph Smith's first vision, because it is important to realize that the adversary is real and will exercise all his power to keep us from coming unto Christ. Another day she was feeling very lonely and we felt impressed to go and see her, so we did. We saw her and taught her about trusting in God. Leila impresses me because she tries to keep herself apart from the world and sin, and truly seeks God.

Tuesday we had zone conference with Staines from London South. President Checketts is really nice and his wife is so cute! It was strange, but fun getting to know people in London South. There were more sisters than elders from the south mission which was very strange.

Wednesday we went finding as a district and all the sisters wore matching dresses. We had so many people ask us what was special about the day, so my companion from Australia told them it was the fourth of July! Haha! We did not see many English people that day because they were all at home (most likely sleeping or hungover) since the night before they had won the football match. The sober few were out. We did a blitz as a district and Sister Lotter and I found this guy named Abdul. He is really interested to learn and loved the scripture Moroni 10:4-5. We set up an appointment for the next day, but Abdul later texted us and asked if we could meet that day. So later that day we had a lesson with him and a member, Adam Berry. Abdul enjoyed it a lot and said he looked forward to learning more the next day. The next we tuaght him the restoration and he was touched by the Joseph Smith story. Elder Holland told us when he came that when we share Joseph Smith's first vision, everything seems to go quite. The spirit is prominent when we share the story of God and Jesus christ appeearing to a young boy, calling him to be a prophet. I love this, because I know that God calls his prophets and is guiding his church today and is continuing to restore his truths to the earth.
Friday was the baptism and it was such a stressful day that my companion was comoaring it to a wedding, because it is a lot of work and you panic more about every little thing than you should, but the true purpose, and best part is when they are actually married, or in this case baptized. I laughed, but it was true.

Saturday we went up to Watford for a stake Picnic and I got to see a bunch of the members there including Michael (my recent convert). It was a lot of fun, and I got to know some more of the members of the Enfield ward.

Sunday Leila received the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is a glow about her now that is physically visible that the people who knew her before have mentioned to her. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of this miracle. I really believe that her choice will affect generations. I am glad I was able to teach her and help her before baptism and now after. Our friend Anny also came to church. Her sister is a member in Stratford. Anny is so sweet and has five children. When she came to church we convinced her to come to relief society with us and in relief society, we actually watched the talk we had committed her to read the previous time we saw her which was by our Prophet Russell M Nelson "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives." She also got to meet a lot of the sisters who also speak Portuguese and she enjoyed it. I lover her! Anny is a wonderful mother who teaches her children to follow Christ. She always brings her two youngest children and they are so cute! They are too shy to be on their own so they came to relief society. The teacher asked what were some gifts we could give people and Anny's youngest boy (he is about 4 years old) said "a kiss!" It was adorable.

This Week at Our House # 27 Oral Surgery and Blah 4th of July

We did not celebrate the 4th of July this year because Joseph had two teeth pulled 2 days before and Kate had all of her wisdom teeth removed the day before. With two kids out of commission, we just could not go out and do things that we might have done. We had our steak and watermelon dinner last Sunday so Kate and Joseph would not have to miss out. So on the 4th of July we read Joseph Smith's  9 page document on government and the Constitution. It was an incredible document, but some of the kids felt bummed on the whole. Rachel said it was the worst 4th of July ever. That's okay, though. We had two very good reasons for keeping the holiday quiet and uneventful, and there is always every other year.

1. John is about to get his second game up. He has been good about the diet I have him on and is finally starting to lose weight.
2. I took kids to appointments and grocery shopped and took care of the family a little bit more with Kate out of commission for nearly the whole week. Our garden is growing very well and that makes me happy. The watermelon and butternut squash have covered every part of ground and protected it from weeds, so that turned out differently than I anticipated, but not in a bad way.
3. Every now and then I have an email exchange with Ruth about getting married once she is off her mission. She is not too keen on the idea just yet, but I know that the right guy will change that in a millisecond. 
4. Kate had her wisdom teeth removed. She was most worried about the anesthetic because Joseph had a bad reaction to it. Kate did well with the anesthetic, but she has had a lot of jaw pain and a swollen mouth and has been anxious every 8 hours to get her next dose of ibuprofin. She won't take any other pain killer because she feels like enduring pain is better than the medication. I tend to agree with that sentiment.
5. Johnny seemed happy all week. He keeps working on his games and he has been very interested in learning Japanese. He decided that it was time to start telling Joshua scriptures stories at night before he goes to bed. Johnny is a dedicated scriptorian. He has almost finished the Old Testament for a second time. When he has finished it, he will have completed the standard works twice before the age of 18. If there is a scripture that I need to be reminded about, I can usually ask Johnny and he knows it off his head.
6. Adam really took over for Kate this week. He did everything I asked him to do cheerfully and well. Sometimes Adam can be a bit discontent about things, but when it comes down to it, Adam is a very good boy and a good hard worker and an easy going teen. 
7. Rachel had one filling on Monday. Afterwards, she came with me alone to do a little grocery shopping. I had a delightful time with her. She had lots to talk about. I have her on a strict dairy free diet because she has been having stomach aches, headaches, and small frequent rashes and a dairy free diet has cured her of all of those symptoms. But that has been unfortunate for her because ice cream is her favorite food. The dentist gives coupons for a free ice cream and Rachel could not have it. But we were blessed and found a favorite Japanese soda at the grocery store that made up for it. 
8. Anya has really enjoyed the garden. She and Rachel like to go and "explore the garden". My mom gave me a nice basket. They take that and search out ripe vegetables. They've brought in fresh vegetables three days this week. They're also continually counting how many watermelon we have, Their latest count is at 12. The one before was 7, so I think we are having more grow in. 
9. Joseph had a bad reaction to the anesthetic they used when they pulled his two teeth. He was very woozy, could not walk, and threw up twice on the way home. He was sick enough that he could not keep the gauze in and ended up swallowing a lot of blood which made him more sick. He could not eat until the next afternoon. I will probably not allow a dentist to use general anesthetic on one of the kids again. In 2014, Rachel and Adam both needed a tooth pulled. The dentist used Novocaine and nitric oxcide and the kids did a lot better and healed a lot faster. Lesson learned for me. Poor little Joseph. Though, the Lord blessed him in that he never took any pain medication and he never had any pain in his mouth.
10. Joshua has been reading a little more on his own initiative, which is something I always look for. I am going to start school this week, so we use our very hot weather indoor time wisely and then can take a bit of a break when it cools down in the fall. I was thinking of starting sooner, but I needed time to get ready for a new school year. I have done that this week, so now I am ready.
11. Arwen  has been drawing some really good pictures. She draws very detailed pictures of people. I am not sure any of our kids, most of which are good artists, were this accurate with their drawings at such a young age. Oh, and Arwen wrote Susan's name Soozan just from sounding it out. I love that she can do that now.
12. After watching Joseph and Kate come home from the dentist and having a lot of blood to spit out, Susan very solemnly said, 'Dentists are bad guys."
13. Sam had the opposite reaction to Joseph and Kate bleeding and feeling sick after the dentist. He got as close as he could to Kate while she spat out a bunch of blood in a bucket and then growled and rather excitedly said, "Blood."

Pictures