Megan's Letter on 2/29/16 - Hello! :)

Hi everyone!

This week was.... interesting! I don't even know where to start!!

Haha, right as Sister Wilson and I were thinking we'd never had any crazy food, a member took us out to dinner and got us duck and lobster! They tasted... interesting. It was hard accepting the fact that I was eating DUCK! But it's all good. It definitely could have been worse! I'll send some pictures of it!

A kind of scary experience happened this week... So Sister Wilson and I were walking to an appointment in DC and all of the sudden we see a group of boys sprinting past us. They all were scattering and hiding! Then we heard sirens and saw a TON of police cars. Haha sister Wilson and I were so oblivious so we just kept walking to our appointment because we didn't want to be late. So we kept walking and there was this group of guys and they were clearly up to no good. We both had the strongest feeling to go a different direction and right as we turned, a really sketchy guy from the group came up to us and said, "Come on let's go help those girls out." AHH WE WERE SO SCARED! We tried to stay calm and just kept walking.  Luckily, they eventually stopped following us. Oh my it was so scary! Our appointment right after was with a girl named Sam and it went really well! We talked about the Holy Ghost and how it has many different roles, including

giving us physical guidance!   I'm not sure if I have mentioned Sam before but she is so amazing! She committed to a baptismal date on March 20! We are so excited for her. She is such a huge example to me!

A lot of super neat families come into the Visitors' Center! It is so great to see them! There was this family that came in, and they had like 6 kids and they were so intelligent! One little girl was only three and had the first vision memorized! It was so incredible! As the little girl left the Visitors' Center, she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and said, "I felt the spirit here most strongly than ever!" I love little kids so much! They are my favorite!  I love temple grounds and all the wonderful strong families that come to them! The spirit is so strong on temple grounds!:)

This week, a scripture that I have really liked is Moroni 7:48, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen" I LOVE this!!

As we pray with ALL the energy of our heart, we will be able to feel of Gods love for us!! Prayer is so powerful! I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Freeman

 the duck we ate

 The member that took us out was so kind and gave me the lobster head.... Ha ha! 

 Sister Wilson and I!

 We went to the Holocaust Museum today for our P day!

It was so sad!

Tiffany Redford's Temple Endowment at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple!

It was a beautiful, cold and windy Utah day!  But it was warm and beautiful inside the Oquirrh Mountain Temple!  It was a really nice session with all of Tiffany's endowed family members there. Stuart, Tracy, Jason and Camille, Chelsea (Joshua stayed at Redford's to babysit Warren), Corbin, Mom, myself and Scott Beatie were there.  It was a fun weekend and I'm glad I could fly with Mom to be of assistance to her as she needed help getting around.  It is very hard for her to travel, but she was glad she was able to be with Tiffany at this exciting time of her life!  It was a short and sweet weekend-- flew out Friday the 26th and were back Sunday night the 28th!  Tracy has a beautiful family with 2 very cute grandchildren!!  I got to know Kirra-- Jason and Camille's little 2 year old girl, and I also met Warren-- Chelsea and Joshua's little boy.  I enjoyed being around all of Tracy's children.  They are a lot of fun!  I got to know them a lot better on this trip.  Harrison is also a really nice young man! What a great weekend!!  :)

It was very cold and windy!  I was not dressed very warmly!!

Jason and Camille had already gone home to relieve Harrison of babysitting duties with Kirra,

so they weren't in any of the pictures.  

This picture of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was taken on Sunday 2/28 on the way to the airport.

Major Home Renovation-- Complete!!

So after MANY hours of cleaning and organizing and putting furniture back and moving things back into place... here is the end result!  It is beautiful and I'm really happy with the finished product! There is still a lot of cleaning to be done, but the house is mostly put back together.  I stayed up until 2 am on Wednesday night the 24th (Bill was gone, so a good time to do it I figured), cleaned all morning on Thursday the 25th, and again while the cleaning ladies came for 4 hours that same afternoon!  My body was completely exhausted by the time I finished.  Headed to Utah for the weekend, so I had to get it to the point where I could leave and not feel like I had a huge mess to come back to...

Dining Room

Front entry/Living Room

Family Room-- I don't want to put the area rug back just yet, because I'm still enjoying the wood!!

Kitchen

Downstairs Hallway

Stairs

Upstairs Hallway

Hallway looking into Katelyn's bedroom

Looking the other direction into Master Bedroom

The piano took a 1/2 hour to dust, so I had to get a picture of it too!!

Katelyn being Katelyn!! :)

I just have to post this!  Katelyn quite often grabs my phone and takes pictures of herself... here's another funny one!  Love her!!!

Bill in NYC for an Edward Jones Meeting

Bill went to New York City for a  meeting on Wednesday through Friday this week.  (CRAZY week to be gone with me alone getting the house all cleaned up from all the dust and the furniture all put back in place....)  But here are some pretty cool pictures of the area in Manhattan where he is staying in a really ritzy hotel and the JP Morgan Building there.  He said it's probably one of the taller buildings in that area.  He got to hear some pretty amazing speakers-- one of them being Tony Blair!! Man, he gets all the great speakers at these meetings!  (A couple of years ago, he got to hear George H. W. Bush speak!! )  He said that Tony Blair was a really engaging speaker and an amazing man. He faced a lot during his  10 yeas as the Prime Minister from 1997-2007.  Bill said he told a lot of funny stories about President Bush.  He is still involved today with the fight against terrorism/radicalism. He said he is very entertaining, passionate and religious.  He spoke for 2 hours, and Bill said he could've listened to him speak for another 2 hours!  Bill said he is super nice and quite witty yet serious when he needed to be.  What a great leader!!

On the top floor of the JP Morgan Building on Park Avenue overlooking Time Square.

50 floors up!! A very beautiful building!!

What a spectacular view!!  You can see all of Manhattan from up there!

Dinner at the top of the JP Morgan Building!!  (I'm jealous here at home... 

Tony Blair AND a dinner like this?!?!

Bill stayed in The Towers Lotte New York Palace Hotel--a block away from the JP Morgan Building and across the street from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel!  Ritzy area!!  He said it was a very beautiful hotel. (This isn't a picture of it... still the view from the JP Morgan Building.)

Glendale Prep Soccer Awards Ceremony!

Tonight was the GP Soccer Awards Ceremony!  What a great season they had!  Even though they lost that last championship game... they had an amazing season with even more amazing statistics!! Katelyn can be very proud of the way she played and her team.  What an effort they all made!  It was a nice evening. 

Megan's Letter on 2/22/16 - Four Months!!

Hey everyone!

These last couple of weeks have gone by so fast. Yesterday I hit my 4 month mark! :D  I say this all the time, but days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days!

This week a lot of tender mercies happened where Heavenly Father sweetly and quietly answered my prayers. One day we drove to our favorite place to contact and talk with people. Before we left the car (like always) we said a prayer. We decided to be very specific so we could get a more specific answer. We prayed that we would be able to find someone who was ready and willing to come unto Christ. When we got out of our car, we were walking and we turned a corner and out of nowhere we ran into this guy and HE approached US (that never happens) and he said, "You guys are the Mormons... here is my number and my address! Please come over and teach me more!!" This was like Christmas!! We were so happy! He then showed us that he found a mini Book of Mormon and he said that he had been reading it! We gave him our phone number and he has called us every day. Unfortunately, he is not in our area, but that's okay, the missionaries told us they would let us know what happens! His name is Barren. :)  Ah such a huge blessing! :)

We were invited to come to a companion study with an elderly sister

missionary:)  Her name is Sister Mitchell. She lives just a floor down from us. So we went and she fixed us breakfast! She is the sweetest lady ever! She made German pancakes (reminded me of home). This is my favorite breakfast! She told us how her husband passed away and it is such an incredible but sad story. They were walking on the beach and their daughter was a little bit behind them and out of nowhere a huge tidal wave comes up and knocks out both of them. Luckily her daughter wasn't affected by the wave and ran to get help. Sister Mitchell said that it was like a wall hit her and then she said it ran her into a rock and cracked her head open pretty badly. She had to be life flighted out. They were never able to find her husband... only a couple of his bones. They did a DNA test and found they were her husbands. Isn't that so sad!! She said God saved my life so I am going to serve Him the rest of my life. (She has been on so many missions!) She is so inspirational! I might name my kid Mitchell after her ;) haha just kidding. But she is so amazing. Her outlook on life is so inspirational. She could have turned bitter and dwelt in her sorrow for the rest of her life, but she has done the exact opposite. She is constantly reaching out. She is the most spiritual lady I know!

Studies with her were so amazing. We read Nephi's lament in 2 Nephi ch 4. I challenge you all to go read that and have a concern you would like to better while you read it. Just think of something or a question before and then read the chapter with an open mind and heart.

It is so amazing how the scriptures can answer our questions.

Haha... So one day this week we had a dinner appointment with this cute girl in our ward! Sister Wilson and I were so excited to go over because we are poor and member meals always taste way better than our crackers and cheese. Hahak! So we get over there and she invites us in and she goes into her moms room and we hear them arguing for like 10 minutes... it was a little awkward. And then she comes back out and takes us into the kitchen and it was A MESS. Then she says, "Actually can you guys help me clean?" We were happy to help her! We are always looking for service opportunities as missionaries! It took us like an hour to clean up her kitchen. I can't even explain how messy it was!

But anyway so we were almost done cleaning and she gets out stuff to make dinner and starts cooking! Haha it got mine and sister Wilson's hopes up! It smelled so good! Then she says, "Sorry I would make you guys dinner but I kind of ran out of time."  We weren't bitter :) Haha no just kidding! We didn't mind at all. Service is 10X better than food! We had a good laugh about that.

Here is just a spiritual thought to end this email. :) It's about "Asking without guile and receiving without doubt when we pray." A lot of times we fear to put our weight on a beam that might break. We have to have faith.  Faith is a burden of love. We have to trust in God and His greater love. Accepting answers to our prayers with out doubt is accepting truth! Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." This is so true! I love to keep this in mind when ever something happens that I do not quite understand! Like President Cooke always says, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  I know that the more we put our weight on a beam that might break, the more we find out that the beam will never break! Have a great week!

Sister Megan Freeman

LOOK WHO I FOUND!!!! SISTER GRIFFIN! I love her so much!

She was the best trainer ever!

This is Sister Buhler! She is like a big sister to me!! She is so amazing! 

We have gotten so close! She was one of my roommates last transfer!

Sister Wilson and I pretended like we didn't see this haha! We knocked anyway! ;)

Brooke's Basketball Banquet! (Say that fast 10 times!!)

This was a very nice evening with a yummy dinner from Olive Garden (which tasted even better because our house was a huge mess with tile demo and wood install going on) and a nice awards ceremony after.  It was held in a really nice banquet room at CCV.  Brooke didn't enjoy her SMHS JV basketball season as much as we'd hoped, but she stuck with it and learned a lot and did a great job in her participation on the team.  It was a great season and Dad and I loved going to all of her games!

The SMHS 2015-2016 JV Basketball Team!

The team motto this season was "Family Never Stops!"

Here is a picture taken at a home game v. Agua Fria back in December.  They had

pictures laying out on the tables for the girls to take home... Great action shot Brooke!

Savannah, Heidi, Allie and Brooke

Julie, Savannah, Heidi, Allie and Brooke

Coach Eager, his daughter, Emilee, Isabel, Julie, Savannah, Heidi, Allie and Brooke

Brooke!  Look a little more excited!!

Coach Eager is the Ceramics teacher so he always makes the girls on his team a bowl-- dishwasher

and microwave safe too!  Megan got one of these too, when he coached her as a Freshman.

They showed a really nice slide show too!  Brooke was in it!!

Allie, Heidi and Brooke

Beautiful Purple and Gold flowers!  The Booster Club did a great job

preparing a beautiful evening for the girls and their families!!

Having been involved in these dinners numerous times, I know how

much work goes into these events and I appreciate the little touches!!!

Major Home Renovation Project Continued... (Part Two)

This is where it gets down and dirty!!  (With an emphasis on DIRTY!)  I think we are covered in about an inch of fine dust!  My house looks like the side of a mountain!  Ugh!!  It looks so pretty where they've already laid the hardwood though... so it's worth it!  McKenzie got in on the action too... she really enjoyed hammering at that tile-- a little pent up aggression?  Hahahaha!

Dining room demo!

2.15.16

2.15.16

"I"ll smash it with a hammer hahahahahahaha"- Emperor's New Groove

 2.15.16

2.15.16

My house looks like the side of a mountain!! 

2.16.16

2.16.16

2.16.16

It looks BEAUTIFUL!!  I love it!!  This is the front entryway.  

2.16.16

Family Room

2.17.16

Kitchen and Dining area

2.17.16

Downstairs Hallway

2.17.16

2.17.16

Kitchen

2.17.16

2.17.16

A lot of progress was made today... with all the demo finished, the workers

could concentrate on the installation! :)

2.17.16

Hallway upstairs looking toward Katelyn's room

218.16

2.18.16

Hallway looking toward Master Bedroom

2.18.16

Each stair took Jake about 40 minutes each to install!!  He did beautiful work!!

2.18.16

The Office

2.18.16

Downstairs hallway by the Office and Laundry rooms

2.18.16