March Madness VOLLEYBALL @ the Church!!!

Tonight was the most NORMAL day since Covid broke out last year… Parents were invited to watch March Madness volleyball with the YM and YW—and NOBODY was wearing a mask! It was just for our ward joint activity, but it was so FUN!!!! It felt so normal and it was SO FUN to watch all the competition and the kids just being kids and having fun together! It really was so fun to watch! I have really missed these activities and all the social interaction! Us humans were made to be social and interact with others! It felt so good to feel normal!! I'll never take that for granted ever again!!!

Prom with All the GIRLS!!!!!

Katelyn went to a prom that was planned by a kid in another stake—Easton Wiggins. She went with a bunch of her girlfriends—Sammy Holmes, Hannah Hinton, and a couple of others. There were pictures and a pre-party and then the dance and then she went to an after party. She said she had tons of fun and everyone even jumped into the pool after the dance was over...she said she was cold when she got out, but that it was the funnest thing ever! I waited up as long as I could stay awake...'til about 1am. She got in around 1:30. I'm so glad she went and was able to have so much fun! It's been a while with these activities and I'm so glad that she could just be a senior in high school for a night!!

A Little Treat for the Plane...

I put together a little package for Elder Rowley of snacks and treats for his plane ride to Argentina tomorrow. I dropped it off at his house today-- just in time! They weren't home because it was mission transfers today, but the missionaries there said they'd get it to him! Good luck Elder Rowley!!

Buena Suerte Elder Rowley!!!

Tonight the missionaries came over for Elder Rowley to say goodbye and have one last lesson with Jarred. They left such a sweet message with us about the gathering of Israel and there was such a beautiful, palpable spirit in our home! Elder Rowley leaves for Rosario, Argentina on Thursday.  We are going to miss him and it’s transfers too, for our mission. Elder Mason told us tonight that he is staying! Yay!! (His new companion is Elder Downs.)  We got pictures after and I sent them to their moms and got the cutest texts back from them! It was so much fun! I made 2 new friends!! Sister Mason (who lives in Alpine), wants to have Megan and Todd and Brooke over for dinner sometime, and we are going to meet up with both families this summer when they get home from their missions. (Elder Rowley is from Santaquin.) Maybe when I take Katelyn and Brooke up to BYU we can all meet up! That would be a blast.  It was such a sweet experience working with these two elders in teaching Jarred the gospel!  I'm really going to miss them!  What an impact they had on our family!!!

GORGEOUS Day Together!!!

Today was a beautiful, warm and sunny day! We were able to spend it all together!  We spent the entire day enjoying the beautiful outdoors... we stopped first at Jimmy Johns and got sandwiches and then headed up Provo Canyon for a pic nic at Mt. Timpanogos park. We bumped around the volleyball and then drove up a little further up the canyon and did the short hike up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was such a pretty and warm day! Later on we went to an escape room and had fun doing that! These are all the things Katelyn wanted to do for her birthday. After, Bill and Todd went home to watch all the basketball games and us girls went to the grocery store to stock up Megan and Todd. After shopping, I treated them to a Chip cookie! They’re soooo good!! Then we went back to Megan and Todd’s and cooked taco salads for dinner. We watched some more March Madness basketball and When Calls the Heart. Such a FUN day!!

 

18th Birthday Fun in Utah!!

Today was Katelyn’s 18th birthday! It was fun to celebrate it on our spring break trip to Utah!  We enjoyed the day together— went to Brooke’s apartment while dad worked on taxes at the hotel. Megan had school until 5pm. We went out to dinner to celebrate her special day. She chose Ruby River Steakhouse. The food was really good! After, we headed back to Megan and Todd’s house for cake and ice cream. I made her the traditional angel food cake and Katelyn picked out her ice cream!  Katelyn brought all her stuff to Megan’s house from Brooke's apartment and will be staying with her for the rest of the nights we are here. She really had fun staying with Brooke too!  We played games and watched the latest This is Us episode that we hadn’t watched yet. We’ve also been watching When Calls the Heart a lot too. Brooke is into it now. It was a fun birthday for Katelyn. When we get home, for her birthday present, we’re gonna go shopping for all her dorm stuff so we can get her all ready for COLLEGE!!!!

 

Jarred's Baptism Day... a Very Special Day!

It was Jarred’s baptism today and oh my, what a beautiful day where blessings were poured down upon us! I woke up and baked cookies… Allison came over and we wrapped them with plastic wrap so they were “Covid compliant”—the missionaries said it could be homemade, they just had to be wrapped. I bought some flowers and Allison put them together in a vase and stuck some pretty flowers from our yard in them too. I purchased some white pants and a washable tie from Deseret Book because there were no baptismal jumpers in Jarred's size… I figured he’d need them sooner or later for the temple and for his mission. So I spent some time hemming those. Allison also helped wrap the gifts we’d purchased at Deseret Book as well. She bought him a nice book that gives prompts on what to write while you study scriptures, and I bought him a blank journal. I was so glad she came over to help because everything took all day! 

It was such a beautiful cold and somewhat rainy day with big storm clouds, but the sun poked through every now and then! When we got to the church the missionaries were all already there. Elder Mason and Elder Rowley and they had a third missionary with them for the day—Elder Morales—and then the 2 Elders from Apache Park ward were there as well. (They’ll be heading up the new member lessons in that ward, since that’s where Jarred lives.) I set up a tablecloth and the cookies on a platter and the waters and put the vase of flowers on the podium in the chapel. Jarred got there a little early and his family a little later. So many people from Apache Park ward were there and the Hudson's knew more people than I did so it was so natural and not awkward at all—plus they are so friendly. We got a bunch of pictures with the missionaries and then we started the program in the chapel so we could social distance. Elder Rowley gave such a good talk on baptism. Katelyn and I were the witnesses for the baptism… Katelyn saw his knee come up out of the water, but was afraid to say something so she whispered it to me and Bishop Muller saw it too, so he said it needed to be done again, so he went and told Bill and Jarred to go back into the font and redo it. It was good because it gave me a chance to explain to his parents that baptism has to be by complete immersion in following the example of the Savior—so it ended up being a good thing. While they were changing, we went back to the chapel and Christine Anderson played music while we all signed 4x6 cards to go into a little album for Jarred-- his family each wrote one for him too! There were a lot of people from both wards, so he got a lot of cards! The missionaries all signed one too. Katelyn and Allison sang their sweet musical number and it was so pretty! They did a good job! I know Katelyn was really nervous! Then Jarred was confirmed by Bishop Ashcroft who gave the most beautiful confirmation blessing that I’ve EVER heard!!! It was so beautiful and packed full of so many blessings—the Spirit was so strong. He would say something and then pause and add more and it was just so powerful! He is a very sweet man—the Ashcroft's have known the Hudson’s since Jarred and Luke were in kindergarten together! The blessing felt and sounded almost like a patriarchal blessing to me! After, Jarred was very emotional and crying as he turned to shake hands with and hug all the men in the circle. You could tell he was very touched and felt the Spirit very strongly as it was given to him!  It was such a sweet moment! After, Bishop Muller gave some closing remarks. He and Jarred actually have so much in common. He talked about how he was baptized at about the same age as Jarred and the day of his baptism. Then Sean Hinton gave the closing prayer—which was a sermon in and of itself with so many beautiful blessings given, as well. After, we stayed and visited—nobody wanted to go home!! The missionaries even hung around and visited afterward, as well. They finally had to excuse themselves, but the Hudson’s just kept lingering. I know they felt the Spirit! I know they did! The Ashcroft's, us and Hudson’s just kept visiting and then we went outside and talked some more… but it was super cold and windy and it was starting to sprinkle! We didn’t get home until after 6pm!! 

We changed our clothes and the Hudson’s invited us to go to dinner with them at Buca di Beppo’s. They had a reservation at 7pm but we ended up having to wait in their car (because it was so cold outside) until almost 8 to be seated—so we just visited for an hour. Dinner tasted so good because we were all so hungry! We had such a nice visit with the Hudson's! Allison came along and McKenzie—who was very chatty! Hahaha! Nicholas, Jarred’s younger brother also came too. McKenzie and Nico (that’s what they call him) played games on their phones together out in the car while we waited to be seated! They are such good people! I hope they follow Jarred’s example and feel the Spirit encouraging them to join the church! I know they felt something different with the Spirit during that baptism. It was seriously such a cool day FILLED with an outpouring of the Spirit!