The twins got extra credit if they had a political debate watch party! So we borrowed Sara's 4th of July decorations and hung those up over our Halloween decorations and the twins and Mikey watched the debate between Biden and Trump! They didn't last long, but we got a picture so now they get the credit!
A lot of planning went in to having Youth Conference this year. We really wanted to do something to bring the youth together since we haven't been together since March. We decided to make it an all day affair. It started off with breakfast made for them by the Elders Quorum, then they listened to Taryn Bashford speak, then they broke out into their age groups and did different service projects, after that Kona Ice came. Then Jared and I took the boys to their first tackle football game and then came back just in time for the virtual fireside speaker, Cafe Rio for dinner and then swimming and hanging out until 9pm. The next day was a fireside testimony meeting. The boys had a great time. My favorite part was the end of the night when the boys and girls would all just mix and play some giant game of capture the flag and there wasn't anything awkward about the boys and girls mixing! Good memories and the boys really enjoyed themselves. Made all the planning and meetings worth it!
In 4th grade, we were super bummed we didn't get Ms Palomarez for the twins 4th grade teacher. We got someone we didn't know - which means you never know what you are going to get. We got Ms. Dalton. Turned out she was a perfect fit for the twins. When we walked in her room on the first day and it was filled with Superhero stuff - I knew we were in the right spot. I would do Art Masterpiece in the class that year and bring Alyza with me to teach and Ms Dalton would color with her, etc.
Fast forward to last year when I got Alyza signed up for Haley cheer with Ms Dalton. Then RJ and her became friends and they ended up finding out they live 4 houses down from each other.
Then fast forward to many phone calls over quarantine about many different things. I felt a very strong prompting - even though it was way out of my comfort zone and I was fighting it - to ask her if she would like to have the missionary discussions. She did! We secretly got all the kids out of our house without them knowing and had her over for the discussions for an hour with the sister missionaries over zoom.
Then over time she would meet with them on her own at her house, call me with questions, I dropped her off some magazines from Deseret Book, her friend Christie helped her a lot, etc.
Then one night she was having a really bad day and I was talking to her at 10:30pm and I felt like I should ask her if she wanted a priesthood blessing. She did. I looked at Jared who had just crawled into bed and turned on TV and told him, sorry we need to go.
He got up, got dressed in his church clothes and we went over to her house and were there till probably 11:45pm. Jared gave her a very touching and powerful blessing. She is an incredible lady. Jared said it may have been one of the most powerful blessings he had ever been a part of.
Then one night while we are sitting at tackle football she called us and asked if she could come over but we told her we weren't home so she facetimed us and told us she was going to get baptized and wanted Jared to baptize her, I was her witness (first time ever) and Jared confirmed her a member of the church and I gave a closing prayer.
Dalton met with our Bishop and her Bishop and decided for many different reasons she wanted to be apart of our ward. She was able to get the exception and so we moved forward with it. Her best friend Christie and I got together and planned her baptism for her. Christie did flower arrangements and the program and I did the dessert table afterwards. I was able to secretly invite some of her former students and families in our ward to come and be apart of her special night.
This was one of the greatest missionary experiences I have ever had and probably will ever have. We are so lucky to have her in our ward, we got her hooked up with the best home teachers, she sits with us every Sunday, we got her hooked with the activity days leader - perfect calling for her and everything is awesome!
We love visiting Grandma Joyce!! We also love that at 96 years old she does NOT love ripped jeans. She warned Emmerson that her new ripped jeans should not be taken to Utah because the holes would make her cold! Em politely smiled and nodded! Fast forward a couple months later....I get these two pics from her today. “Ok Grandma Joyce was right! I’m wearing my new grey ripped jeans and my Sherpa and I’m freezing!” I promised her I wouldn’t tell grandma she was right!
