Dad, I absolutely agree! Did you and mom ever have days or nights where you just didn't talk to each other? It's way cool that you were able to watch the other side of heaven with S. I just went to dinner with the Tongan Branch tonight and it was so cool! It was a mission farewell and the way they sing is exactly like the movie. It was quite the experience. Everything about that movie is spot on. Especially the part with the guy that is a Mormon and is always drunk that later becomes a councilor. The Tongan culture is super relaxed. I hate running into people that say that they are in one of those because they always follow up by saying something along the lines of, 'I don't really know what to believe, so I'm settling for a basic belief that Jesus died for my sins and I need to be a good person.' I've read so many times in Conference talks that more than just random acts of kindness are necessary for entrance into heaven, or something along those lines. Anyhow......that's awesome that so many investigators came to church! We are teaching a girl that is going to Europe for 3 months and she brought two of her friends today! It was great! I can't believe Cis getting married......jeez....send me pictures! 

I'm glad you enjoyed the things I sent! Sorry it cost so much to get strings for it......I should've just gotten some here. I was able t get a full set for $15....Were you able to talk to the C? Thank you so much for sending some stuff out! I appreciate it a ton! I'm gonna be able to play with the primary in the PC Ward next week in sacrament meeting. So that shall be my Christmas playing in church this year! 

This week Elder D came to the mission and it was pretty cool! There wasn't anything incredibly amazing, but it was cool. I was able to play o come o come Emmanuel (the one the piano guys do) and Elder B transposed the cello part to violin so I could play it. It was so cool! It went flawlessly and when we finished everyone was completely silent! Everyone loved it lots. I'll send a record in of part of it. We went on splits with some people from the elders quorum on Thursday. I went with an RM named B and he is awesome! We were able to hand out three book of Mormons and teach some lessons on the doorstep that I didn't actually count as lessons, because we dropped them right after we left, but the spirit was strong and we left them with invitations to read the Book of Mormon. It was fantastic! That's about all that happened this week. Love you tons!

Hunter

Alrighty, sorry this got sent late everyone! This week was preeeettty crazy. We had our Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday. Wednesday we had an exchange. I love exchanges! They're a wonderful opportunity to learn from other missionaries as well as help them learn. Thursday we had our Zone Training (in which Elder K and I are responsible for providing a training for the missionaries in our zone for two and a half hours), so we had to get ready for that Wednesday night after our exchange. Instead of preparing, it turned into an argument that lasted long into the wee morning hours and we went to bed without really knowing what we were going to do. We didn't talk until 9:30 when our training started. The idea of getting married gets scarier and scarier the longer I'm on my mission.....jeez. A missions about a lot more than sharing what we believe! It prepares you for everything and anything life has to throw at you! Anyway, it ended up being probably the best zone training we've ever had! It was great! We talked about our feelings afterwards and apologized to each other for being morons.

Turns out we were both really worried about how the training would go.

It's something the Lord really wanted our missionaries to have though, so He made it work! Thursday we had our first splits with the Ward members. Haven't done those in AGES!!! Friday we had a special MLC with Elder D from the quorum of the seventy. It was really cool to get training from hm. You don't get that opportunity often in life!

Saturday we went to help set up for Christmas in the Canyon. The canyon is a whole new world! Everyone is pretty countryish and just does their own thing. So different than a couple miles away in the city! That's what most of the pictures are from. Sunday we saw a guy try to catch an exit he missed on the highway. He fishtailed, over corrected, and skidded off to the side through the sand, and snapped the big sign held up by giant pieces of wood half a foot thick like a toothpick. It was pretty insane! So we pulled over and crossed the street on the exit to make sure he was alright. People are morons. If you're not going to stop to help someone in a wreck, at least STOP and let OTHER people help! People make me mad. If I had had spikes to throw under their tires I would have. NO ONE stopped to let us cross, so it was kinda difficult. They guy was alright, just a little shaken up. The first thing he did was call his wife! Good man!! Full marks!

Exactly what a good spouse should do. Short though for this week......

"When the scientific facts contradict what is being promoted as truth, then ideology has trumped reality."

- Miriam Grossman, MD, psych. at UCLA

This is applicable to our world on so many levels. It very much defines the pathway most societies are following. It's kind of sad, but it's true! And we'll have these problems for a long time! That's why I'm so grateful for prophets on the earth today! Like the song from primary says....."We thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guid us in these latter days!" President Monson is much more than a President of some organization. He is the PROPHET OF GOD!!!!! I know he is. I know he has been chosen, not by any man or men, but by Savior Jesus Christ. I leave you all with this in His name, amen!

Love you all tons!

Elder H. Johnson

1-2. Mission Leadership Council. Everyone in the back row looks like a cardboard cutout. And the camera was at a bad angle I guess because Elder I (far right) looks huge. His hair comes down to his chin.

What is everyone's thoughts on guys having their hair like that?

Seriously, I'd like feedback. Because personally I think it looks ridiculous.

 3-4. Lunch in the Canyon was paid for us because we helped. It's a hole in the wall place. It was pretty cool!

A few pictures from service in the canyon. From Left to Right, it is Elder R, Me, Elder H, and Elder K. H and R are the funniest companionship in the mission. Soooooooooo funny!!!!!

1. Service on Thanksgiving!

2. and 4. Thanksgiving lunch at a families house the day after thanksgiving that wanted me to just come over and play something on the violin 3. Thanksgiving dinner. It's a really bad picture.

We helped set up for Christmas in the Canyon. Decided to take a swing on this rope swing we found.....there's a reason it is not being used.

That's too bad that S doesn't want to meet with the Elders anymore.....sounds like they were way to pushy. Here a lot of missionaries have the problem of being to friendly with investigators and just being their friends that come over once a week to share 'a message' (I hate that terminology btw. It's one of my pet peeves when a missionary says, when can we come over and get to know you and maybe share a message with you? It usually comes from missionaries that are less obedient/dedicated/haven't internalized the gospel.....i.e. my companion.) so nothing EVER gets done and no one progresses. Is she going to have family scripture study with you guys on Christmas? I've got a couple people on my end that might join us for scripture study! I can't wait to do scripture study with everyone again! That's a fun question to discuss. Why join the church sooner? Even if we are held accountable for not getting baptized if we know we need to, we can just repent when we finally decide to! So why get baptized RIGHT NOW?? Maybe you guys can discuss that for family night or something! 

I hate it when people throw away food....you know there is a general conference talk about that! President Kimball talks about it in his talk 'God Will not be Mocked' in October 1974. It's a really good one! It sounds like you guys had a rough campout! I miss camping. We're going to have to go on a camping trip when I come home. I'm glad that Z is still getting his scouting done! Thanks for sharing those quotes from President Packer! I liked them a lot! A talk you should read (if you haven't already) is 'Why not Now?' It is by Elder Maxwell fromOctober 1974 and it might be good for S. It also helps a little to answer the debate question I asked above! Love you tons Dad!

Hunter

I think I'll be in this area for three transfers. We cover the entire Orange Stake and the sisters cover the entire Irvine Stake. Those two stakes make up the Orange Hills YSA Ward. We are most definitely going to go tabling at the colleges around here though. Sounds like things are going will with Justus's GF. It's an interesting thing, but I've developed a strong testimony of dating anyone as long as they have the right standards. As long as you make it clear that the relationship will never get serious because you are going to marry in the temple. It's something that a lot of no members don't understand. And that's what leads them to investigate the church! There was a guy that was baptized right before I got into peters canyon that started investigating the church because he was dating a member. Now he is an incredibly strong and committed member. He attends gospel doctrine instead of essentials. Always trying to tell other people about the church, always shares cool stories about following the spirit with. Then Sean, the guy were teaching right now. Same story except he's not baptized yet. He is afraid of getting committed and then missing church because of work. (He's in the police academy and is waaaaaaaayyy busy.) but he'll get baptized soon. Don't worry about Justus. He'll get married in the temple. I know the star wars ride you're talking about! That was a super fun one! I loved it! It was like being in the movie! The kids got sick with grandma and grandpas cooking?! No.....no way.....you must be joking! ;) Email me on Tuesday and let me know how the discussion with Sarah goes! This week we just went to meetings and went out to try and visit people in between them all! It was great fun. It's nice to be able to have a fresh start in a new Ward with new (and lots more) people to visit and teach. A guy named Michael came to church and we had a lesson with a young Mexican guy named Carlos. He's going to college and is pretty open to listening to us but will not get baptized. But we can work on that. :) This morning we went mountain biking with a member from Peters Canyon. It was fun! I ran. They biked. It was hard. We did 7.5-8 miles. Then we went to rugby and played hard for two hours. I am completely pooped! We also got a whole bunch of Christmas decorations from Kuehne's parents, so we are going to decorate our apartment a little bit. That's about all that has happened this week. I know, super boring. :/ What did you have for your birthday dinner?! You didn't tell me! 

Hunter

Heya everyone, sorry this is late! I got permission to send emails today so here you go! This last week was interesting. I'll start with the service project I threw together was in the canyon. There is this Christian retreat camp thing and it's waaaay down at the end of one of the canyons with nothing in it. So none of us knew it was there. A couple weeks ago when I was on exchanges, after a lesson in the canyon Elder Kupu and I decided to take a look down this one side road just because we could. And we found this place! I spoke to one of the head guys there and told him if they ever needed help with anything they could give us a call and we could get a couple guys to come help out.

Lo and behold, two weeks later we got a call and a couple of the guys that help take care of the place said they needed help cleaning the whole place up for a group that was coming over the weekend! They had found out last minute and were freaking out because there was so much to do. They asked if we could come Wednesday or Thursday so we came Wednesday. Called up everyone in the zone to get as many people as possible there and we were able to get 16-18 out of the 22 people in our zone there! We weed whacked lots of weeds, ripped out lots of nasty plants, wiped down mattresses, vacuumed the sketchy dorms, mopped the floors of some that didn't have carpets, I got bit by a fire ant, we cleaned and moped the kitchen (picture a scout camp kind of thing). When we finished up Kevin (the guy we were helping) came up to me and asked us to put our names all down on a piece of paper so he could sign off our service hours. The whole time he had thought that we have to have a quota of service hours for school or something else!

So I explained to him that we didn't need service hours, we just wanted to help. In all there was about 150 man hours of work provided by our zone. He was super grateful and couldn't believe we were just coming to help. So now they love Mormons.

Story two!

Tuesday night we were going to go to a bible study in Orange. We went, but couldn't find it, so we got our and walked around for a bit. Right where we parked there was his open room with a few people inside, so we went to ask them if they knew where a bible study was in the area.

The hey said, "no, but you should stay here!" So we did. Turned out they were an ex-Mormons for Jesus group (not trying to step on anyone's feelings here but......here we go! That is the dumbest and most contradictory name for any organization I can imagine. Mainly because only 3 out of the 15 people there were formerly LDS.) That was really interesting. Most of the people there were "concerned Christians' or otherwise had questions that their Mormon friends didn't answer in their bygone days of middle school. The whole time they (the three) were trying to tell us we were wrong about what we believed. Quick request of everyone. If you ever have a question about what Mormons believe, or, even bigger, WHY we believe something, please ask me. If you want to learn math, go to a math teacher. If you want to learn history go to a history teacher. If you want to learn about Mormons, go to an ex-Mormons for Jesus meeting. Just kidding! Go to a Mormon!!!!! So that was fun and exciting, and it makes a great story.

Last thing for the week....transfers have come and gone again! Bother Elder Kuehne and I have been transferred out of Peters Canyon and will be splitting the Young Single Adult Ward with the sisters in our zone!

It'll be interesting getting used to teaching a different demographic.

It'll also be interesting being with one companion for so long.

Sooooooo looooooongggg!! That's about all I can think of now! Love you all!

Elder Hunter

Picture of Kuehne with a snake. And elder Nelson is behind him. Kevin is to the left.

Here are some small gems taken from Hunters letter to family this week.  He apparently didn't have time to write a letter or send pictures in a general email.

 I love that Elder Robbins quote! Keeping the gospel simple is hard sometimes. Idealized its because I keep on learning more and more, and I want to share it all! But that's not how it works! Milk before meat! The more I learn, the more I have to go back and think of what my investigators need to hear and I need to remind myself that what we need to teach is enough! They don't need to know what Kolob is and how far from the sun it is. That's a bummer the camping trips keep falling through....have a blast in Florida! We are excited for this week and hope to make the best of it! 6 more days and then I'll get a new companion.....I'm ready for a change. Sorry his ones kind of short. We didn't have a lot of time today. :/

 We didn't go to any nursing homes.....I don't even know where one is in our area. I don't think there are any. But we are going to go to a bible study tomorrow! We were able to teach three or four lessons this week! Two of them were when we were on exchanges and I was in the area.
 

A letter to his younger brother who was complaining about going to Disney World...Let me tell you a story. 

There was a guy that moved from his old apartment complex to a new one. He spoke with the guy at the leasing office and said, "I hated my old complex. The neighbors were loud,  the kids were always making to much noise, the water wasn't hot enough, and the Pool was always like warm." How am I going to like this place?" The guy in the office said, "your going to hate it." Dang. New guy is angry. Another guy comes from a different place. "How's this place, he asked. The office guy says, "How did you like your last place"? "Oh, it was amazing! My neighbors were amazing, they had the cutest kids! The room was cozy and the pool was always just right!" Office guy says, "You're going to love it here! This place is great!"
Understand? Hope you have a more enjoyable week!

This week was incredibly busy and extremely exciting! We started it off with Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday. 6 hours of training fro President and Sister Taggart and the AP's! The main focus of it was having desire. Desire to do our personal and companionship studies in order to better learn and treasure in our hearts the principles and doctrines of the gospel we teach! It wasn't as boring as it sounds.

But it gets better. As zone leaders, we are responsible for carrying the training we receive in MLC to the rest of our zone. So we have to put together a two and a half hour training out of the notes we take.

That takes place on Thursday and is called Zone training. Almost all the missionaries in our zone hate meetings, so the real challenge is making it interesting. We were driving in the car on Sunday (the 25th) talking about what we would do to make it interesting. Seeing as it was the week of Halloween, I declared that we would carve pumpkins as a zone for part of zone training! So that night, still unaware of what we would be teaching, we called up our Relief Society President and told her we needed 11 pumpkins. We figured out what we were teaching Tuesday, planned Zone training on Wednesday, got the last few pumpkins Wednesday night, then carved pumpkins for 30 minutes of the training on Thursday! It was a lot of fun, but here's how it tied in. When we teach people, we teach the same principles, but we tailor the way we teach to the individual. When everyone had finished carving their pumpkins, we pointed out that they had all carved different Jack-o-lanterns. Just like people don't all make the same exact Jack-o-lanterns, we shouldn't give scripted lessons to everyone! If people are more important then pumpkins, then how much more important is it to study and prepare a lesson for a person than carving a jack-o-lantern? It was a pretty bomb object lesson and one of the most enjoyable zone trainings ever! The rest of the week was pretty hum drum, but we were able to go to a couple "Halloween parties" for a short time on Friday! (We had to turn in early on Halloween) Everyone thought I looked like Ron Weasley. It was a fun end to the week and the month of October. Here's a short thought to start off he new one!

"Character cannot be summoned at the moment in crisis if it has been squandered by years of compromise and rationalization. The only testing ground for the heroic is the mundane. The only preparation for that one profound decision that can change a life, or even a nation, is those hundreds of half-conscious, self-defining, seemingly insignificant decisions made in private. Habit is the daily battleground of character."

- Daniel R. Coats

To kind of go along with our zone training this week, character is determined by desire and action. In our fast and testimony meeting, a lady in our Ward shared a story of how her son had lost a tiny Lego from his Lego titanic ship. They looked for it forever, and even after praying for help to find it, I hey couldn't. She sent her son back to the house to grab a piece similar to it to put it in the grass to see what it looked like, and while he was gone and she was sitting down, she suddenly saw the piece in front of her, right where she had already combed over multiple times. This is a tiny thing. Probably not even something most would count as a miracle. I think this speaks volumes about the character of God as our loving Heavenly Father. He cares enough about a little boy enough to take time out of his probably busy God schedule to help him find it. It's the little things that count. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I love all of you so much! I say it every time because I mean it!

 Hunter

The pictures:

Carving Pumpkins for Zone Training!

My Halloween costume. I was trying to be an evil Brother Thommason (a guy in our Ward with longish black hair. Also the most intelligent person I've ever met. So all of you don't get it. But it was really funny. Everyone else thought I was Ron.

Pictures from the hike we went on last week.

Then we had dinner. Dinner with a Tongan is great! There was corn, mashed potatoes, and some pork tenderloin. Sister Wright asked Elder Kupu if he liked corn because he had only eaten one ear, and he said, "yes, but......I like meat more!" It was pretty funny. We crashed a Halloween party a Ward member was having on Thursday. Then on Friday or Saturday we helped set up a haunted maze at an elementary school for the kids. That's about all that happened this week! So let's jump to the good stuff.

Something I learned last week that I did t have the time to write about it that perfection isn't just an end like we often think of it.

It's a means to an end, because perfection is also a process. It's something that we should continuously be doing.

Thought number two. The commandment to keep the sabbath day holy.

Under the law of Moses, it was strictly enforced with specific rules and punishments. You could only walk a certain number of steps, you had to have food prepared the day before (or you could only prepare certain kinds of food. Something like that) and there was no business done on the sabbath. Breaking this commandment was punishable by death. Now the law of Moses has been fulfilled, but the commandment to keep the sabbath still stands. We use the sabbath to worship God and renew our covenants with him. Please turn to Mark 2. The last two verses talk about the sabbath and the relation of it to man. Then the last verse kind of randomly starts talking about the Son of Man.

A.k.a. Christ. So we discussed in Elders quorum the translation of that and how the Greek didn't translate too well, but when it was translated to another language, all the 'man' and 'son of man' in the last two verses translate to 'mankind'. So in that context, the last verse says 'mankind is Lord of the sabbath.' So does this mean that we can do whatever we want on the Sabbath? No, of course not. In both the bible and Book of Mormon there are parables about vineyards. We often hear references to 'the Lord of the vineyard.' What does 'Lord' imply in this context? The Lord of the vineyard TAKES CARE of his vineyard and works with his servants. He leads by example. Thus as Lords of the Sabbath, it is our duty to TAKE CARE of it. Truly make it a day of rest from the labor  and cares if the world, and 'pay our devotions unto the most high.' The Lord blesses us for keeping His commandments.

I'd like to challenge all of you to take time to make a list of the blessings that come from keeping this particular commandment and have an honest inventory with yourself on how you are doing with keeping it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I love you all tons!

Elder Hunter

Pictures

1. Us at the Halloween party we crashed.

2.-4. Setting up the maze for the kids.

 Last picture of manaquins at Nordstroms...

This is just part of a letter Hunter sent last week:

Sounds like Sarah is like some of our former investigators. Having her over to the house is definitely helping her. There's a talk by someone.....I forget his name, but I think it was in the ensign in 1989. It's called 'keeping the gospel simple.' I was given a hard copy early on in my mission and read it every now and then. It is extremely powerful. Maybe take a look at it and see if it would be good for Sarah! The whole 1/3 thing is kind of ridiculous if you ask me. That's just natural selection at its finest if you ask me! Stupid people make stupid choices! Please feel free to share that with Sarah and quote me! Good to hear that Justus finally got his license! Sorry your Memorial Day or Labor Day, whatever it was, wasn't fun. :/ 

Thanks for the thought! That sparked a few thoughts and gave me something to ponder for the next little while. I had a few I wanted to share, but I'll have to save them for next week. Is week, we discovered that our bathroom door wasn't shutting well because the top hinge was stripped. Then the middle one went. Now we have no bathroom door. :) Sight and sound at ALL times from now on!!! Love you dad! Sorry I didn't write more today. I was running around ALL day, literally from 6:00-present. 

Hunter

Here's a couple pics of a hike we went on today! Went to a place called black star falls. It was lots of fun. 

Alright, I just wrote up an email and it got deleted. So here's the shortened version!

1. The mayor of Silverado personally paid for us to go to this farmers market/festival thing.

2. We had a fireside for recently baptized people's! It was so cool to hear their testimonies of the restored gospel!

3. We had our temple trip today! It was wonderful.

Love you all!

Hunter

Pictures:

1. Me walking down the canyon road.

2-4. Temple trip pictures!!!!!

So this week was transfers! Elder Kuehne and I are staying together for 6 more weeks after which he will most likely leave. We got a whole bunch of new missionaries in our zone, and two brand new missionaries are getting here tomorrow! Not much went on this week except for the rain. And on Friday we had a booth in this festival that Tustin does every year. Besides that...... Who watched General Conference?! For those of you who didn't, the new Apostles are Elder Rasband, Elder Stevenson, and Elder Renlund. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to sustain them as Apostles of  he Lord Jesus Christ this Conference for the first time. Here are a couple pearls of wisdom I gained from Conference.

Bradley D. Foster said, "Be engaged in intentional parenting." For those of you who are parents, you can find ways to best apply this in your lives. For those of you who hope to someday be parents, myself included, decide now how you will be actively involved in the lives of your children. Parent isn't just a noun. It's a verb!

Larry R. Lawrence challenged everyone to, "Ask the Lord what is keeping us from progressing." I'd like to challenge all of you to read that particular talk on LDS.org and then to ask that very question to our Father in Heaven. The Holy Ghost gives customized council and will be completely honest with you in what you need to do.

Richard J. Maynes compared creating pottery to our lives. Just like we must have for he clay perfectly centered on the wheel, we must have our lives centered perfectly on Jesus Christ in order to produce the results we desire.

There is so much more I'd like to share with all of you, but I don't have the time. I might share little bits and pieces for the next few weeks. But even better than hearing it from me, you can go read or listen to these talks by yourselves! Love you all so much! Here are some pictures.

This week Jon was baptized and confirmed a member of he Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! He is awesome. We've been teaching him for about 4 weeks now, and the most exciting thing about it is just seeing the change in his countenance! He's one of he canyon people. Canyon people live in the canyon, and they are usually a little bit.....strange, but he's such a simple nice guy, and it's wonderful to see how much happiness the gospel has brought into his life. That was the big event of the week! We also got to go to a wedding! It was super awesome, and when we drove into the park it was being held at we got to tell the guy at the gate that we were here for a wedding and he asked for our names. Our names were on the list. It felt really cool to have our names on a list.

In other news.....this is the last week of the transfer! We both think Elder Kuehne will be leaving. I'll let everyone know what happens next week.

If all of you knew Christ had called LIVING prophets and apostles on the earth again today, would you be interested in knowing who they are and what they had to say?!?! General conference is also this weekend again! Sessions are on Saturday and Sunday and can be viewed online as well as on tv somehow. They sessions are at 10:00, 2:00, and 6:00 on Saturday and 10:00 and 2:00 on Sunday. Imagine if you missed out on hearing a prophet of God speaking to the world, and the calling of three new Apostles! I'd like to personally call and invite each and every one of you to watch some of the Conference, but I'm not allowed to call, so this shall have to do. I know God HAS called a prophet on the earth again. I know that by listening to and following His council, we will come closer to God and receive personal revelation on how to better improve the quality of our lives. Here is an example, taken from the words of one of my favorite, and the most recently deceased apostles, of what we have the blessing of listening to for hours on these days.

“Humility is essential to the acquiring of spiritual knowledge. To be humble is to be teachable. Humility permits you to be tutored by the Spirit and to be taught from sources inspired by the Lord, such as the scriptures. The seeds of personal growth and understanding germinate and flourish in the fertile soil of humility. Their fruit is spiritual knowledge to guide you here and hereafter.”

-Elder Richard G. Scott

Taking my invitation in the context of this quote, I'm inviting all of you to be humble, and by being humble, to become more like Jesus Christ, and I leave that invitation with all of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all so much! If I didn't, I wouldn't write these every week!

Elder Hunter

So, California is so expensive, especially the area that were in now, so that we have had to resort to making our own butter out of the fat from any kind of meat we cook up. In this case it is Hamburger butter.

It's a little un-appetizing, but at least it's filling.

Week four of the transfer is always the longest. But this one went really fast! On Tuesday it rained! Whoopee! It never rains here. We also took that day to explore our area a bit more. In driving around we found a really cool nature park down one of the canyons! We took pictures with a grizzly bear and gave them our phone number in case they ever needed help with stuff, and then continued exploring. We found some really cool places that we wanted to go back to and knock on some doors. Wednesday night, I was looking at the map of our area again along with my map on my iPad, and I realized we had spent a couple hours exploring the Irvine Mission! Not our mission. So that was really awkward and disappointing. Then on Thursday we went on exchanges. They lasted a little longer than usual, but they went really well. We inspected a few apartments. For some reason it all just went super fast. Time just disappears. We got to go to the temple this week because there was a temple tour and we had some people coming that we were teaching! Then they didn't show up, so we were just kind of there. So that's what the one picture is of! 

Here is something I found recently that I'd like to share with y'all.

"How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life as if to say, "Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!"

-Neal A. Maxwell

As much as we dislike them, trials are part of life. God doesn't always necessarily give us trials as much as he allows us to have trials. I can't imagine that a God that loves us would take away from us opportunities that allow us to grow and become something more than we are. Sometimes we feel like what we are going through is unfair. Sometimes it seems like what other people are going through is unfair. Fortunately, God loves us enough to allow us to struggle. I'm so grateful to have a perfect Father in Heaven that knows what is best for me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

1. Kuehne and I at the temple.

2-3 Me and a grizzly.

4-. more pictures of ward activity and missionary haku