COY, MY CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! Hi my precious darling beloved fantastic dedicated consecrated valiant honest interesting fun funny brilliant compassionate prayerful humble handsome dependable marvelous amazing talented beautiful Elder Christensen!

How is every tiny thing? How is Evelyn? How are the twins? How are your socks holding up? Your adenoids, how are those? How are your peanut butter sandwiches and prayers, your thoughts, your feelings, your happenings, your health, your spirits? How is the book you are writing? How is KL? Do you miss Old Trusty and the humble people in Miri? Do you still keep Brother Day in your prayers? Do you have enough American toothpaste? How are your pants holding up? 

We just love love love you and your letters. Thank you for writing so well and sharing with us. Last week was a little short, but I'm looking forward to Sunday! 

Life is zany kooks around here today. For family home evening on Monday night, Annie was in charge, and it was SO SO DARLING! She got the big obnoxious blue bulletin board thing out and covered the corner of the family room. She had everyone's name in the hat and drew the names out two at a time. She invited those people back and drew mustaches on everyone. She had cut out an artist's palette, the bean shaped thing artists hold with all of their paints on it, for every person. She filled it with the paint we wanted and we all drew a picture of the person of our choice with French Cafe music playing in the background. She then testified that everyone, even Nacho Libre (Seth's) and an alien (Spencer's) were creations of and children of God. (The French stuff was just to make it fun). 
We are up to our eyeballs in campaign stuff. Mckay is running for SBO. One poster will be hair today, hair tomorrow, always hair for you with a picture of him and a piece of a wig on the poster that looks like his hair, then pictures all around the side with different hairstyles. Mullet over, then vote mckay. Combover to our side. Your Grandma loves him… anyway. We took pictures of all these hairstyles. The second poster is a superhero barbie with a cape and a little hand fan blowing the cape and the hair….Mckay's face….
For his booth we're going to do a photo booth. They take pictures with their own phones in the costumes, then the backdrop will say something about Mckay, voilla, instant social media campaigning everywhere! His video is HILARIOUS. On Monday morning we went to Bentley Garner's cage fighting gym and Ben beat the little stuffin's out of Mckay for an hour and a half. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. (Not sure that reflects well on his mother :). It was SO FUNNY. Ben kept picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder, swinging him around…punching his lights out. It was SO FUNNY. We had a blast. 

Spencer is also running for HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE OFFICE! We think his skit will be coming out behind a shower curtain and singing and dancing in the shower, then poking his head out and seeing the audience and screaming like a little girl, then running through the audience over and over and over around and around and around just screaming screaming screaming. That's the best we got so far. His posters are that picture of Grandma Jan's family where every face is him and we'll probably say…"You voting for me, you voting for the whole family!" Then he's going to cover one with those wrapped pieces of cheese and say "this is Cheesy, but vote for Spencer". "Free week old cheese on Friday!" 
This week Seth wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy. "Dear Tooth Fairy, Can we be friends? It's really nice that you're going to take away my tooth and give me money. I wish I could be one of you. Love, Seth. 
He had another one that made me bend over laughing. They are studying the seven habits in school, and they were supposed to draw a picture of a win win situation. he drew himself with huge muscles, and this little bald guy crying in the corner, and a picture of a book and a computer. He wrote "If I win, he grows his hair back!" He said it was a reading contest, and if he won the little bald guy got his hair back. That was his idea of a win win situation. 
Anyway, that is some of our craziness right now. Tonight we get to go see FARLEY FAMILY REUNION LIVE with the slichtitudes! It is going to be AWESOME! Tomorrow morning I fly out to Indiana with Grandma and Grandpa Jello to see Nate's final Master's concert. 

I have probably spent 25 hours in the recording studio the last two weeks with valiant wonderful youth recording the story of the Restoration. I feel so cherished and blessed to be able to be in that environment and feel the Holy Ghost testify yet again to the truth of all of those marvelous events. It has been precious to see these youth with eyes stinging and testimonies blazing work so hard to make this happen. It is SO MUCH WORK but it is SO MUCH FUN too. 

Joseph is working his way through the Ranger's Apprentice series. He reminds me so much of you.He loves to think and thank things through, and make sure things are JUST :). Last Saturday I recorded all day, and Dad had an activity with the young men all day, and Mckay had a track meet, and Spencer was with Dad. Joseph took wonderful care of Seth. He read to him, jumped on the tramp with him, fed him, played with him. I was so grateful. Annie was helping Grandma Jello with a shower for Suzy Anderson, Tommy's sister. She will be married in a couple of weeks.

I've got to send you the lyrics to spencer's break up song. It's hilarious. Spencer’s Rocking Song #superdissed

Don’t you think that were as one
Have your thoughts undone

We have passed the finish line
And their counting time

I started running slow
I need to turn and go

I’m lookin in you eyes
Nothing but dirty lies

I am feeling down
With the thought of you around

Baby, Why cant you see
The Love we have don’t work for you and me.

I’m trying to break free
To get away from misery

The misery in me

Not feeling love in heart
Where does it really start

I’m getting trapped inside
I need to go and hide

I want a clean slate
I hope this isn’t fate

I need to get away
I know I cant stay

I need to catch a plane
I’m going insane

I need to fly away
Our love can’t stay


As far as personally, I am so grateful and experiencing a lot more joy and peace than ever. The Lord has been working with me on owning my own agency, and letting go of others. He has been working with me on deep deep abiding gratitude and wonder, and making sure that my motivations for obedience are nothing short of absolute adoration and worship. This is a very happy place to live in. It is as big as the universe because gratitude spreads out to include everything, even the hard stuff. This is a note I wrote to my friend about this: I have been working on myself spiritually in a Thomas Jefferson education sort of way…unwilling to let the best I offer my children be heaped with guilt, discouragement, duty, obligation and frustration. A lot of things have slipped as I've let go of them with the family to cleanse,.sanctify and correct the reasons for the obedience in myself. Their rooms are a disaster and family devotional is me reading the scriptures to them while they lay in bed, but joy and peace and exquisite feelings of redemption and gratitude are seeping in to dark places never illuminate since the innocence of childhood. Some things are picking up as well. It has been so humbling to let go of things that make me look good, but I am determined to be 100% genuine in joyful consecrated obedience drenched with the absolute joy of redemption or nothing. Slow is the new fast, but oh what joy."
(Actually, all the kids rooms are spotless today. We got that taken care of.)
I am working through and discarding a lot of my perfectionist/pride priorities, at least in theory if not in practice, and casting out the martyr, trying to give people a lot of space to be themselves and learn and grow. I sure need a lot of space and time to learn my lessons. 

Oscar Wilde said "Be yourself, everyone else is taken!" I add, what a tragedy it is to try to be like someone else, because what you may rob the world of is the only you there is to enjoy! I am all about emulating qualities, but never allowing discouragement to quench (I love that word) what wondrous gifts WE have to offer. 

I requite Rachel Carson because I love this quote….“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”


― Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder: Stories of Work.

Long story long, I love the Lord and I am in a place with a lot of joy in it, real genuine joy. It has been kind of sacred to me to have some time in the mornings to talk to my Father in Heaven in the mornings when I am alone. I LOVE PRAYER. I love unadulterated, honest, raw, lay it all out on the table prayer. I LOVE Alma 37:37. What an invitation! Life is so glorious! 

I love you precious Son. I am so proud of you. I miss you so very very much sometimes I feel I can't quite bear it. I want you to be there, I just want to be there with you! But my heart is, I hope you know that. 

In the quiet misty morning
When the moon has gone to bed
When the sparrows stop their singing
And the sky is clear and red

When the summer’s ceased it’s gleaming
When the corn is past its prime
When adventure’s lost its meaning
I’ll be homeward bound in time

Chorus
Bind me not, to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I’ll return to you somehow

Verse 2
If you find it’s me your missing
If you’re hoping I’ll return
To your thoughts I’ll soon be listening
When I’m homeward bound again

Then the wind will set me racing
As my journey nears its end
Then the path I’ll be retracing
When I’m homeward bound again

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May 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 palm of His hand.

Love the Mom who will never ever let go!