Early spring playtime

Jake and Lindsay were in town this weekend with their kids. We spent Saturday riding horses at an equestrian area near the Draper temple. It was a beautiful day, but just a little chilly at times for some of the grandkids that have been fighting some colds.

Jenine had to work but she and Brandon joined us for dinner Sunday to celebrate Brandon's birthday (a little late, also because of sick kids).

Jake and Lindsay left this morning to drive back to Rawlins.

Good job on the Woodbadge, Newel. As soon as I finished my Woodbadge training they released me from working with the young men.

We are looking forward to having Sam with us this conference weekend. My list of critical projects is growing, so if the weather is nice I'm anticipating working and listening.

Woodbadge

For the first time in our Scout Council, there was a Woodbadge course offered on two Thursday-Friday-Saturday weekends instead of two Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekends.  I have been wanting to attend woodbadge for years, so I jumped at the opportunity to participate.  As you can see from the pictures, it was a really difficult experience.

We had to survive on meager camp food.

And we had to study dry subjects like obscure Arthurian legends.

It was a great experience, even though it rained all day Thursday and we woke up to snow on Friday morning.

-Newel

American West Historic Center

Just to let everyone know that Ruth and I have volunteered to work at the American West Historic Center this summer. We will be working Friday afternoons and for special events. Ruth is going to be displaying her sewing skill on a very old treadle type sewing machine in the Millinery Store and I will be whittling in Patches Wood Shop. We officially start work April 8, 9, and 10th for Baby Animal Days. Last year they had over 10,000 people come out for Baby Animal Days. Our big challenge now is to come uo with the costuming we need. It isn't much trouble for me but Ruth will have quite a challenge. They want her to be dressed in Fancy 1890 style. I just need to look like a 1917 wood worker.

Rodger and Nancy Lincoln, (Verlin's Nancy) has worked out there for about 8 years. We are looking forward to the new experience.

Dad, Grandpa Stephens

Creed's latest letter 03-22-10

Hey!
Things are going good here. I was just at a different internet spot and had read half my mail when the power went. So now I’m at a new one and hopefully it will stay. We had a baptism Saturday of a 40-year-old very nice woman. Also her grandson got baptized who is about 10 and lives with her. They were both very ready and I can see that she really understands the importance of the restored gospel in her life. So that was good

Some other investigators that are looking good are Domingo, his wife Margo, Ricardo and his friend Luis. Domingo just has to get married this week then we can baptize him his wife has gone to church a lot and just needs a good kick into the water. Ricardo we just need to teach him and his friend Luis too. They came to church yesterday and loved it. They have both come 3 times Ii think and loved it every time so we just have to get them committed. We contacted a lady this past week who has her whole family except her in the LDS church so we will probably get back to her this week. But she didn’t come to church yesterday so well go check that out. That’s about it for investigators. Oh and Maico and Ronard--Maico was a pretty big tigre (gangster) and did some really bad stuff so he has been going through the repentance process and is having a bit of a had time with patience. He wants to be baptized badly. His little brother Ronard is ready and just waiting for Maico

As far as my comp goes things are going all right. Sometimes its just gets a little old because I never have time to myself and my comp has ADD and is always making noise. He is a bit selfish which makes it hard too. Just little things really that sometimes I get caught up on but it’s really not a big deal.

And for next transfer I think I wouldn’t mind staying here with my comp. I like this area and we have some great members in the ward. The ward really reminds me of ours at home just because everyone is so close and they help us a lot with the missionary work which is really nice. But it hasn’t been very fun living without light this entire transfer. I hope if I stay here they will come and finally fix our light. Also Dominicans are super racists against anyone who is Haitian, Chinese or not black (me) so it shows sometimes with my comp. But usually the word about this area is that when your out as far away from the capitol as I am you get stuck there for a while for quite a few transfers

Who is learning Spanish? Dad??????¿¿¿?=¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿? Ha! I mastered this keyboard. I am no longer a greenie it took me forever to find out how to use question marks.?? I have 4 pairs of pants right now which are working great. They have a great place closer to the capitol where they make custom pants that are cool. I will probably get some if I get transferred out there.

I wrote both grandparent letters so make sure you find out if they get them. Other than that that’s all I have to say really. I love you all lots and know that this church is true.
Creed

Rachel at the PD's Safety day for Girl Scouts

The local police department had an activity day specifically for Girl Scouts, so Rachel got to go.
She was the only one from her troop that was able to go, so she was a little shy at first. It was hard to convince her to get in the police car even though Kjirsti was there. Eventually, she did, as you can see. The other photo is in front of the newest Plano police vehicle. It's an assault vehicle. I can't imagine why Plano or any of the surrounding cities would need a vehicle such as this! Personally, I think it's a big waste of money!

Texas Independence Day

This is most of my Texas History class. A couple of days after the official Independence Day, we had our own little celebration with our homeschool group. My students all did a short presentation on some aspect of Texas History. Lynette dressed up as, and reported on, Susanna Dickenson, one of the survivors of the Alamo. The weather was great, and we had a little potluck lunch to go with it.

James was off of school that day, so he came and fired up our little volcano stove and used that and the dutch oven to cook. I even provided a demonstration of the fire danger to the pioneer women who got too close to the fire! Fortunately, the only thing that caught on my dress was some polyester blend lace, so it didn't flare up.

Signs of Spring

Spring is coming to Madison!  The crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are poking up through the ground, the piles of snow are receding, and the vultures are roosting in the trees.

We have had a "kettle" (I looked it up, that's the proper term) of vultures roosting in some trees in our neighbor's yard for several days.  Apparently they are migrating and have decided this is a nice place to rest for a few days.  They squabble over roosting spaces and you can hear their big wings flapping.

Yesterday was the regional competition for Mariana's Destination Imagination team.  They had to do an improvised skit with no props and 7 minutes to prepare.  Their skit was supposed to highlight some of the issues around something that was endangered or threatened-- in their case the land line telephone.  They had a lot of fun preparing and competing.

Nothing much new

We met Dad and Mom in Brigham City a few days ago to celebrate Dad's birthday. We went to a restaurant called Maddox's. It is quite famous locally. They raise their own beef and bison. It was really nice to see them and it was a nice day so we drove Anette's fancy car. We are down to a few small patches of snow in shaded north sides. But it is supposed to be in the 50s today, so even that should disappear.




News from Creed
I guess ill start by telling you about my comp. Of course there are cultural differences between us. The way he works as far as missionary work is completely different. The old Dominican that I had in my last area in our house had horrible table manners and a giant lack of respect which I hated. But my comp now is a lot better with that stuff.
He is a crazy he is always singing or screaming something in the house I’m not sure what because he is probably the fastest talking Dominican I have meet so far and probably the fastest talking missionary in the east. He has a lot of love though and is always happy. A lot of the time I cannot understand what he says because he just slurs everything into one word but when he slows down and separates what he says I can understand.
As far as working with him goes its a little different because he is apart of the culture here so when we visit people a lot of the time we end up talking about nothing for about 30 minutes and sharing something for about 10 or 15.
It’s interesting to see the contrast between this transfer and last. My old comp was very timely and always kept track of time my comp now doesn’t. Instead of exact times for appointments like I had before with my comp now it’s more like a list of people we have to visit during the day sometime. So we are going to have to work on that.
We definitely aren’t perfect and can be more obedient. Like the other day Thursday there was a mutual activity at the church and the kids were going to watch a movie. We had to set it up for them and get the key to the gate so we did that and instead of leaving the activity and teaching more lessons we stayed and watched a Jet Lee movie. I told my comp that I didn’t want to do that again when it was over and he tried to justify it by saying there was investigators there. Which there was. One teenage boy that sat in the back and my comp barely even recognized he was there. I ended up sitting by him. So we have got some work to do but I am trying.
Thanks for praying for me.
As far as living with my comp it’s actually not too bad. Our house is a nice size and I’ve got a smelly bed and a good closet and we have lots of good running water all the time. There is one little problem with the house though. We haven’t had light for a week. It’s not like we are so far out in the country that there isn’t light. It’s just like someone turned it off or cut the cord and they haven’t come out to fix it which is really making my comp mad.
Speaking of light I did get your package the other day with those two lanterns which are sweet. The yellow one works amazing. It lights up the whole house. The food is much appreciated. I have a bit of bad news about it though. I forgot about how we don’t have electricity for the fridge to run good and I opened up the delicious flat pieces of jerky and ate some and now it is about not edible because of mold.
And as far as food goes we eat lunch at a member’s house everyday and pay him at the end of the month witch has its ups and downs because it is easy and I don’t have to clean up after a Dominican all the time but the house we eat at is a ways away from ours. Oh and were really not supposed to eat at members houses now. So I guess you could say my comp is a rule breaker especially since he is on facebook right now too. Uh dumb. well I’m going to try and answer dad’s questions now. Love you all miss you
Creed

(Answers to Dad's questions)

My area is called Villa Hermosa. My comp is from Santiago. My Spanish slowly but surely is improving. Our church is the stake building so its pretty big and very nice. Yesterday was stake conference and they had a priesthood meeting where the talked a lot about tithing because it is a huge problem here. There are about 22 missionaries in my area. We do not have a maid. We don't use bikes but it looks like they did before because there is a lot in the dl house. Mail comes when the office elders come. They just drive it around from the mission office--usually on Thursdays but this week it came on Friday. There are little internet cafe´s in probably every little town in this country-- at least two in each so its very easy sometimes to find them.