Hi you precious scrumptious muffin of love of my ever loving llama free life!

• AAAHHHH!!! I miss you SO MUCH! I can't say in words how much I love you, how hard it is to be on the other side of the world, BUT, I am so grateful for your incredible example, your LIGHT, your POSITIVE OPTIMISTIC GRATITUDE that just beams from every word.  I'm so grateful for the work you are doing. Can't wait for all your news. 

This week for us:

• It was such a sacred privilege to be able to teach sharing time about prayer today. We talked about how accessible Heavenly Father is, two tiny words, a bowed head. I love that so much. Alma 37:36-37.  I shared with the children that incredible story of David Brown, the Olympic runner, one of the fastest in the world who is also, BLIND. He runs with a "guide" and they are tethered together by a 6 inch string. They start out with a longer rope and as they practice the rope gets shorter and shorter.  The guide calls out "curve, straight" and other directions, and cheers him on.  In the short video David talks about how they should be moving as one person, how his guide sees what he cannot see and guides him to acheive his potential. He says the closer they are, the better they do. The blind runner must cross the finish line first, so after staying right by his side the entire run, the guide sends David across first.  Both of them get a gold medal.  It was so fun to talk about being tethered with Heavenly Father, how he sees what we can not, how the only gold medal he gets now that he has acheived his own perfection is through us, we are his glory.  I just LOVE TALKING ABOUT PRAYER!  
• The world is drenched in October glory, rich with splendor, saturated in heavenly wonder.  I am overcome with the gifts we are given. Every breath is a gift. This world is so unspeakable beautiful. It has been in the 70's, so we've been soaking in the sun to get ready for winter ahead.
• Saturday we picked about 5 bushels of scrumptious beautiful apples from our backyard. Scrumptious. 
• There was a big service project at Jared Morse's house on Saturday. John and Drew organized it and Tommy Anderson, Jake Garner, Bowman twins and lots of others were there to paint the trim on his house. So awesome.  
• Monday our FHE lesson was Brad Wilcox. I'm sending you a copy of the fabulous talk. 
• Did you hear about Dallin? He didn't get his visa so he's going to be in the Salt Lake Mission for 6 weeks!  
• Wednesday night we had a pack meeting and did an Arrow of Light ceremony for cute little Nathan Garn. I was in the Indian costume and Seth backed me up with a black wig down to his knees and his drum. It was pretty halfway almost epic, but we tried. 
• Took the Bear Scouts to visit with a police officer at the city. Oops, were we one seatbelt short on the way? Oh, oopsy toopys, we were.  
• We also went to Cornbelly's to celebrate Marissa's birthday!  
• Heavenly Father has really blessed me lately! I have 9 new piano students, just out of the blue!  Most are brand newbies. I have discovered that I really love teaching paino lessons, and it's a great financial blessing, too. I taught 8 lessons on Thursday this week.  
• Yesterday Seth and I packed a picnic and went to explore a new part of the Jordan River Parkway trail, south of 144.  We were sitting under a tree eating and talking and I asked him what he would do if he were president. In less than a second he began his answer and said that he would write every single person in America a letter every single day  with a scripture.  When finally someone wrote him back and said "What is this?" He would say, "It is trueness, it is trueness."
• I need to make a sign to hang on the front door that says "Beware of Free Range Children".  
• We had fall break, so Friday morning I had Spen, Joseph, Jake and Annie in the car and we listened to Hank Smith and drove to the beautiful Brigham City Temple to do baptisms. It was SO fun, but I do think the old Brigham City farmers couldn't hear each other very well. Afterward we met up with our whole families and went to Crystal Hot Springs, SO FUN!  The hot springs with the most mineral content in the WORLD!  So warm, so sunny, so fun. 
• I have a super romantic story for you. Prepare yourself.  Evan's Grandpa White suffered a stroke after sitting next to his wife day and night for a month. She had lost almost all abilities and couldn't speak.  He was so postive about her and so sweet. When he suffered a stroke, he was put in another room, and she passed away within 48 hours. He passed away 4 days later. They had a double funeral yesterday. Isn't that precious?
• I've just been thinking so much lately about what a blessing it is to suffer sometimes. I have garnered such incredible precious lessons from a lot of the things we have been through.  Isn't it interesting that the result of sorrow is joy? I have learned so much about joy. Through a lot of lessons, experiences, great examples, it is as if I have been fashioned a pair of glasses through which to see the world, and the lens is set on the tender mercies of the Lord. Now, I am NOT saying that I always have them on, and I never complain, but I do feel like I see more clearly now how precious it is just to live, just to eat, just to love, just to belong, just to breathe. Add to that to be ransomed, redeemed, mediated and advocated for, bought with an infinite price, listened to, never forgotten, cleansed, and saved, Oh my.  I have a deep deep core of peace and ransom, joy and blessing like a rock solid core in my soul, and irritation, doubt and discouragement come for sure, but they don't seem to penetrate that place, they are more surface irritants.  I love Jesus Christ. I love Heavenly Father.  I love that I can be forgiven and compensated for.   I don't pity all the sufferer's like I used to. Sometimes they are in a beautiful school. I've had a few classes there and I'm all the better for them. 

I love you so much! 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.

Have a great week! Love your Mom that thinks of you twenty million times a day!