January 4, 2021

Joseph I have so much to tell you I don’t know where to begin. Last night Spencer flipped his car. He was coming down a snowy hill and he was only going five or 10 miles an hour but he started to slide slid for 45 feet, hit a rock flew over a mailbox flipped his car and then slid for another 30 feet upside down and he is totally fine without a scratch. How can we possibly think of any father ever enough for a blessing like that? It happened at midnight last night. We got home Saturday night from one of the most amazing trips of our entire lives. We headed down to San Diego Saturday morning after Christmas, and two hours out of San Diego we totaled another car. Somebody cut across three lanes of traffic sending five cars flying off of the freeway we were the third and fourth of those cars the fifth car hit into the back of the Kia also flipped and was headed back down to smash into the Kia and Mckay said he wasn’t driving but the car moved out of the way. He was driving but an angel took over and got that car out of the way so they weren’t smashed by the car flipping back down so the only damage is the back passenger side wheel is that a 45° angle and the axle is compromised. We are so crazy we packed everybody into cars and went on to Mexico. Mexico was absolutely incredible. We stayed out of place literally on the beach you walked out the back door and into the water and the entire backyard was filled with gorgeous succulents and the entire back of the house was just windows I will send you 1 million pictures but it was so amazing. We got settled in on Sunday and Monday morning we were at the job site. It was just a cement slab and they were just starting to frame the first wells. I felt like our family really had a great opportunity to contribute. We Roofed, we painted the whole thing inside and out, and we really took over on the landscaping a duck huge ditches and moved us so much dirt so that the mountain rains wouldn’t come down and flood the house.We harvested all of the rocks and built a dry riverbed and a rock sidewalk and then at the very last minute heavenly father guided us to this nursery that we didn’t even know existed and it wasn’t on the GPS and we bought a few plants to put in and it was so so so much fun. We also got this little bridge to go over the dry riverbed. The house is so cute and so sweet and it was just absolutely miraculous. We worked on the house Monday half a day and then we went out to do gift delivery and food drive. That was very sacred and very sweet On the gift delivery we made a family who they were 10 children in the home and both a 12-year-old and 14-year-old had babies of their own, their boyfriends were living with them, and the mom had left them earlier in the year and the dad was never in the picture so all these precious little kids are just trying to take care of each other in this horrible house with no door. We met some other beautiful families and we were given the sacred privilege of spending the afternoon with the branch president whom we were building the house for. He is one of the sweetest best man. He told us about a miracle that he needed money to be able to build his cement pad for the house, and he didn’t have it, and then two men walked into his barbershop and asked him to train them and teach them what he does. He does artwork in peoples hair anyway here they ask him how much he would charge to train them and he told them the exact price of the cement that he needed and they gave it. I might’ve told you that story last week but it was so sweet. Anyway we worked ourselves to pieces and it was soMuch fun so satisfying so wonderful so spirit filled. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday we were blessed to be able to work all day every day and then Friday or Thursday night we turn the keys over to the Reyes family I will send you that video. It was so so sacred. They just sobbed. He talked about how he longs to provide the best for his family but he just couldn’t and it would’ve been years before they could ever afford a home and they just cried and cried it was the sweetest thing. Friday was play day and it was so fun. We went to this amazing resort and went zip lining We went to the Bufadora and spent the rest of the day at the beach. It was so precious and wonderful. Your sister is 17 today! Can you believe that? One of the funnest tender mercies was going to in and out in Las Vegas West dad had studied exactly where your mission was and knew exactly where we cross the border into not only your mission but your zone, and we all cheered when we crossed through the stop light into your zone and went to in and out and there were the When they said you were there zone later and Annie introduced herself and they said they’d heard about you and that you talk about her all the time she just started to cry. It was so sweet they told us that you are such a great missionary then I said really he is. It said you were such a great leader as well. There were tears and there was joy everywhere. We wanted to pay for their food but they already bought it. Saturday night was kind of crazy we pulled in at about nine and discovered that the cat had been attacked, and she had a big wound on her back, and this upset Seth so much and he just kind of fell to pieces and cried and I went in his room and we had this big long talk and he confessed to me for a second time that he just doesn’t ever really feel like his prayers have been answered and that he knows what God‘s voice sounds like. He said other people tell stories of getting answers to prayers but he doesn’t feel like he’s ever had any and he’s so worried about it. One of the things I fasted about yesterday was just how much school to take and how to handle that so I can be a better mom to him. He really needs to understand how a testimony is obtained until we hear gods voice. I think he’s heard it a lot but he’s just expecting something more pronounced and obvious. I am feeling really bad that I haven’t kept better records of the spiritual experiences that he has had. He’s also just 13 and everything‘s going crazy emotionally for him. He’s right in the throes of all of that he’s also very sensitive to being annoying which he is not, but sometimes people get after him for just being a 13-year-old boy and we did to spend an entire week together as a family and he’s very sensitive to that. You would’ve been so proud of him he really held his own with a group that was largely just young adults this time. There were five young adults and then two other families that just had a couple of kids and all the young adults came over to our house every night and played games and it was so much fun. He was just right in the middle of all of that and did great with everyone being older than him he was the youngest on the trip. Anyway if you want to reach out to him at all and help him understand how to hear gods voice to know if he’s really there and if his prayers are being answered that would be awesome. He loves and respects you so much. The cat is doing a little better this morning the wound has scabbed over but it was a crazy night set for saving Rebecca‘s family came up to get them because their house keys were in the Kia which was in a lot somewhere in San Diego so they had to come to Bluffdale to get their keys from Smitty, and so her family was here Sethie sobbing the cat was bleeding it was pretty crazy. I really can’t tell you how glorious the trip was. Other than a car accident we would not change one single thing. It was just perfect and everyone got along beautifully well and worked so very hard and it was so much fun. Thank you for being such a great missionary. Today could be very very different for us if the car accident had turned out differently. How can we think heavenly father for his preservation and his precious opportunities. I feel so blessed. I want to surrender my life to him and do exactly what he wants me to do. My mind has been a lot on that story in the old testament fire they’re carrying the ark of the covenant and God clearly tells the people Moses not to touch the ark and or any circumstances that he will protect it he is in charge. It’s been carried on the shoulders of men and one of them slips in the arc starts to fall and someone reached forward and studied it and they immediately died. It’s a gory story, but I just want to make sure that I’m not studying the ark if that makes any sense. I wanna make sure that the projects and the way I spend my time are exactly what the Lord wants me to do and that I’m not packing everyone in the car to go build a house in Mexico and he’d rather have me do something else. I felt really good about Mexico the whole time and it was just a magnificent experience, but I use that as an example moving into the new year. Last time we got home from Mexico I have a strong feeling that I don’t even know my neighbor neighbors that are from Venezuela. And it’s great to go to Mexico but that I need to be content and be focused on the work that God has for me to do no matter how small or how regular it may seem? Does that make any sense? I just wanna make sure that I am doing what he wants me to work on. One of the best things that happened last week for me is Christmas Yves morning Spenny Annie and Lizzie and I got in the car and drove around to Alisa and emily and Ryan and Mitchell and just dropped off a little bit of Christmas love. When I think aboutReaching out to them my heart is flooded with the spirit. I want to labor in the places he wants me to work. In this picture Mckay has like a 12 inch rip in his pants. He was asking us if we could see it it was so funny. We LOVE YOU! It was a long night last night. We got the call at midnight about Spencer‘s accident and from midnight to two we were just thinking feeling and trying to deal with it all and I thought about if things have gone a different way and whether or not you would come home and all these terrible things that we could’ve been dealing with and I’m just so grateful to rejoice in the Lord ‘s preserving blessings today. I want to know exactly what the great work is that he would have us do you wanna do it with all of my heart. Jesus watching over Tiajuana. I love you. Sorry I feel like this letter has a lot to take in and digest all at once. Know that God is watching over us I thought it was very sweet that we couldn’t see you but we got to see missionaries that knew you that was a tender mercy. One of the best things about 2021 is you being home in our arms again!! Love you! Momzies