Elda Nateeeeee Andascott!

How we love and miss you! Your letters are so delightful. Picture a bunch of crazy kids, some smelly, some eating, all laughing and huddled around the computer now in the kitchen, reading our latest letter from Elda Nate. It is so fun! Thank you for being your wonderful self. I don’t know who else you would be, but let’s not find out, because we like you the very very best!

It is so fun to pray for you. Annie now remembers to pray for your “investigators”. You are rockin’ the house, Dude! In 55 years maybe I can have one day when I am as awesome as you are, but probably only until 11:36 a.m., then I might need a sleeve of oreos and an old episode of Walker Texas Ranger to rejuvenate.
Well, I’ll tell you a little bit about what’s goin’ down with my 7 little fixin’s. Jeff had an interview with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, heard of em? Do you want to know more? . Darrell got it for him. He would manage a massive project to insure that none of the church records would ever become outdated and not be able to be opened. It would include BYU and all of the other church holdings. He wouldn’t be the techy guy, he would manage the techy guys. This is kind of where we are with it….

Reasons to take the position at the church...

Closer to home
Time to exercise
More time with family
Educational opportunities
Spiritual environment
New connections that may lead to other things
You can hire Evan and bring them home :)
Health insurance
Nearly recession proof "company"
Less stress
Less Travel
Flying J is so unsure…
They have Christmas parties with BYU foodcourt brownies
Report to Elder Holland and Elder Jensen

Cons
not as fun
step down on resume
is there a ladder to climb? anywhere to go?

He is supposed to tell them today if he wants it or not. It won’t be a firm offer on their end, but they want to know if he is interested before they spend the time doing the background work on him. He is in Mexico right now, firing people, that’s hard.

Coy is so so awesome. We are truckin through school (challenging), and I think he is on his 6th book since last Thursday. He probably needs more social. He’ll go back to school next year, even if only half-day and lunch. I’m considering sticking the kids in gifted and talented middle school, now offered at Oquirrh Hills. We’ll see, it may temper the influence at middle just a touch which would be nice. Coy is so good with Seth; he is going to be a wonderful father someday. I have enjoyed this year with him so much. He’s grown up a lot. He still has his awesome nerdy friends that are just so fun, I love them. I’ve been trying to expand his reading genre, and with school, too he’s had to read some books intended to create or deepen a searing social conscience. He is so sensitive. He can barely stand for others to suffer. He stopped reading one book because the girl got spanked!
This is a robot he built with Grandpa Ruel.

Mooks is so busy, it’s weird, after spending three years together I hardly see him. He’s first chair in the orchestra some mornings, play practice for Bert in Mary Poppins more often than not after school, he’s in violin and guitar (both here gratefully), and he goes to bed at 9 (sets his alarm) and gets up at 5 most days. If I don’t hit that morning hour with him, I never see him. He’s doing great, he’s getting more sarcastic and getting a little attitude which is good. He’s been so good for so long, and they need to go through that sometime. Every spare second he’s writing music on his guitar. He is so excited to take percussion next year. He’s trying to fit in studying for the state geography bee in a few weeks. I don’t think it’s a huge priority for him. He’d rather do music. He is paying off a BYU sweatshirt he got from Grandma Jello with work around her house, and he got a BYU hat from Peterson’s. He wears them every day. He’s a logo loodle. This picture is as a man in black at the Mideval Feast. .

Spen is so so cute. He loves to come home on Monday and stress out and get all of his homework done for the week. He is such an outside boy. He’s not really into video games and such. He is so quiet, but so quick. He’s signing up for another round of spring b-ball. He loves to wear layers. We had a Napoleon Dynamite moment this week. He called from school “Can you bring me some chapstick? My lips hurt real bad!” It was awesome. This picture is after Spence was knighted for passing off his times tables and division tables.

Joseph is wild. He has got this awesome little temper we’ve got to temper. He always always always has a friend and more often 2 or 3 over. Where Joseph is, something wild and crazy is going on. I can’t believe he’s not in trouble at school, but I guess he has learned to play the game. He is the tiniest scout, and he gets so competitive. He was recently chosen form 167 kids to be one of 6 to record a prototype of scripture stories for an LDS radio project. It was so fun, and he made $100! I don’t know if he’ll be invited back, he has such a hard time holding still. He wants to sign up for spring soccer, brushes his teeth for about 10 seconds until I chase him around and make him do it longer, and he can make the baby giggle like none other. He’s a walkin’ party. He was feeling so cool this day because his clothes matched his guitar. .

Annie is such a princess! She has a lot of questions about life lately, what I thought and felt when I was her age, why Heavenly Father does things the way he does, what words mean. She loves to do her “homeowork”, and loves to draw. She has asked me to teach her the piano. She gets the giggles so bad, it is so so funny. Seth loves her. He’ll touch her hair and say “ook” like she is the most wonderful thing in the world. This picture was taken at McDonald’s, a bribery payoff for going to gymnastics. She’s having a hard time with it right now. She is a sweet, emotional little girl. I can’t say anything to her without “breaking her heart” somehow. I hope her husband is trained in the art of groveling, as mine is so apt to do J. Seth is a wild man. He has this absolute scream that goes off everytime something isn’t right, which is often. It is so loud and so high-pitched it is absolutely amazing that something that tiny can produce that sound. It doesn’t seem possible. It is like ancient Chinese torture. He starts to go off and everyone cringes, runs, covers their ears, tells him to stop, but that is one thing he will not do, stop. I thought by baby 6 I may have some things figured out, but this one is a kicker. When he is happy he is so so darling. He gives zerbers constantly, and says “ook” at everything. Actually, when he goes for someone’s face you never know if you’re going to get a zerber, a kiss or a bite! He’ll often scream just because we looked at him and he didn’t want us to. He doesn’t care to be denied any of his heart’s desires. He hasn’t been through a sacrament meeting in months. The nursery leader told us she was scared of him coming in. The boys fight over taking him out in church. He is a wild man.
As for me, I listened to a book by Elder Cook called “Getting Answers to our Prayers”. It is so awesome! I missed the part somewhere where we consecrate something, put something on the altar. I mean, I’ve always tried to be generally obedient, then if it was the Lord’s will, so be it, but he teaches that we consecrate or sacrifice something specific for a good length of time, striving diligently while we pray for our heart’s desire. I have a couple of them, those heart’s desires, so I started last week doing a new set of consecrations each week. I would love to pile everything all on at once and start doing everything perfectly, but I’m not capable, so I’m going line upon line, precept by precept. I feel an awesome spiritual edge, and I am so excited about it. I felt kind of blah through February, and now I feel so awesomely excited.
I just really don’t understand why the Lord has blessed me so much. I can’t think of another blessing he would give me. I am so overwhelmed with blessings (especially my 6 little blessings J). Surely, he would have given me such a favored life expecting great things. I want so much to do the work that He would have me do and not get distracted into lesser things. Right now, I am trying to put all of my heart’s passion into my 6 little converts in this home, and the education of my own mind and heart that I may fully obtain the word. I can’t express how grateful I am, and how much I want to lay my life at his feet. I want to make my life such that giving it to Him would actually be a gift and not a burden. I wish I could get my hands on your incredible study guide. Right now, I’m using Preach my Gospel for my personal study. Other than that my hair is dumb and I love my life.
I love you, Nate, SO MUCH! My children love you so much, pray for you constantly, and cheer for your success. Love you! Pray for you!


May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
The sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand