Jensen Update Sun, Jan 29, 2017, 9:30 PM
Hi family! Glad to hear that Seth's farewell went well today! I was under the weather this week with a very sore, itchy throat -- the kind which causes random coughing spells. I have been constantly drinking water and popping ibuprofen and cough drops all week. My throat feels a little better today, so hopefully it is on its way out.
So Landon finishes his mission tomorrow, right? Exciting! I hope the trip to Mexico with Grayson and his mom goes well!
How is Kellen doing in the MTC? We haven't heard anything yet...
Here is our week...
Jase got a new companion -- Elder Sanders from Hurricane, Utah -- which is only 30 minutes from here! He isn't in the Armenian program and so I don't know if they are transferring Elder Sanders into the Armenian program or transferring Jase into the English program. But it sounds like they are still going to do Armenian work. We found out that there is a "Mom and Dad's" facebook page for his mission and so we were able to connect with Elder Sander's Mom.
Wednesday 25: We bought a car for Janika! It is a 2010 Silver Kia Forte LX Sedan with just over 82,000 miles. We took it to the place where we get our cars fixed so that they could check it out. They were selling it for $5488.00 (on sale). We decided to offer $5000.00. They said that they had already lowered the price and were already losing money on it. We said we would think about it and come back. Then they texted Rick and said they would sell it at $5000.00 so we decided to go for it! We are glad we went down in price because I didn't realize that taxes, registration, licensing, and other fees would come to another $900.00! It seems like a great car (except no power windows or locks, darn it!). Janika paid half and we paid half and she will pay us back as she earns it. So now Janika has a "newer" car than both me and Rick! I can't remember if I mentioned that Janika had gotten a job as a teacher's aid for one of the professors at Snow.
I went visiting teaching to Lauren, who lives in Ivins since their house (next door to us) still isn't finished yet. We also visited Sue Gates. Her daughter, Kennadi, lasted a long time before the chemotherapy caused her hair to fall out. But it finally happened and she lost her gorgeous thick long blonde locks. Kennadi was there and was very outgoing and talkative -- more than I have ever seen her before. She was showing me pictures from the hospital and chatting about the trials from the past month. They had a big set back which landed them in primary children's hospital over Christmas! They had to skype their missionary daughter from the hospital room. But they figured out the problems (severe reactions to the medications) and she is doing much better now and has finally entered the maintenance phase. She still has a long road ahead of her though.
Thursday 26: I interpreted all day and then went to the Stake Women's Conference. Janelle had gone over for two hours with some other young women to help put together salads for the dinner. The speaker was Elaine S. Dalton, former General Young Women's conference. Our Stake leaders always seems to have connections with the big names! She is a very engaging and entertaining speaker. It was very good! The decorations committee went all out. The theme was "No Ordinary Women." They had gone with the Frozen theme (no two snowflakes are alike) and the tables were decorated really fancy and there were giant snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. I had my water bottle and a purse full of cough drops trying to keep my cough at bay!
Friday 27: Josh left this morning to go to an overnight track meet in Kearns. Track season hasn't officially started, but his coach was taking a bunch of them up for the meet and Jared was excited to be able to participate. I went and helped in Josh's classroom for his Chinese New Year's party. Both classes met together and are were between different activities. It was pretty chaotic!
Janika arrived home from Snow. She had come with Taylor since he had asked her to be his date for his brother's wedding. They went to a really nice dinner with family and friends at the Ledges tonight.
Tonight I brought the girls to go see Annie at St. George Musical Theater. Nikki and Callahan's daughter, Caroline, was playing the part of Molly. We were excited to go see her and brought her a little bouquet of flowers. She did great! If you know Caroline, she is extremely animated! She really hammed it up and stole the stage! The whole play was really good and we really enjoyed it. Originally I was going to have my three girls tryout for the play, but then we decided that it would be way too busy. Lots of Janelle's friends, from Sound of Music were in it and she came home saying that she just had to do another play!
Saturday 28: This morning I brought Janika to get her hair trimmed. The day has been busy with chores, helping Jaiden and Emily with their science fair project, and working with Janelle on Personal Progress. Now that we have started working on it I just want to go full steam ahead until it is finished!
Janika and Taylor went to the wedding reception for the evening. I went to the Stake Baptism and then Rick and I went to the reception, bringing Josh and Jenna with us since we didn't have a babysitter. Jared was still at the track meet, Janelle went to EFY Express at the Institute, Jaiden was helping cater the reception with her friend, Emily. Emily's mom, Allison, was catering the drinks and helping to keep the dessert trays filled. This is Jaiden's second catering experience and she really seemed to enjoy it both times. Allison said that she wouldn't have been able to do it without them!
After they had the traditional bride and groom dance and the dance with the parents, Rachel (the bride) danced with her dad to some upbeat music and they had it all choreographed and really got into it and it was really cute. I guess Jaiden told Allison that she and her dad would be doing that at her wedding! On the way home Taylor asked Janika if she wanted to go out again and she said that he was an awesome guy but she just didn't see it going anywhere (which is always a difficult conversation to have). He graduates from USU this Spring and then is going to dental school (I think). Great guy -- just not the guy for her. Darn! It is too bad that things didn't click. His family is in our ward and they are awesome!!
Janelle got home from EFY Express just a buzz with excitement. She had a great time and can't stop taking about it. She was especially excited that she got asked to dance several times and danced every slow song. Now she keeps going on and on about how excited she is for EFY this summer! Speaking of EFY -- the price went up again. It is now $505.00 for an overnight session! Expensive!! Rick and I have been asked to Session Direct at BYU-Idaho in July (the week of our anniversary). We are thinking about taking Janelle and a friend up with us to our session and maybe Jared and a friend too. Or having them go to a different session -- we are still discussing options.
Sunday 29: We had a great testimony meeting and had pretty much cried off all of my mascara by the end of it. Kim Gubler, who was in that horrible accident (hit by a car while on her scooter), is recovering miraculously well and will be returning to BYU in March. She and had dad both bore their testimony of the miracles that had happened to her. Her parents were working in the temple doing initiatory at the time they learned of the accident (just over three months ago). He said that he and his wife felt a complete peace and knew that everything would be okay. Although he knew that "okay" may not mean what they wanted it to mean. He told the congregation to think about the blessings promised during initiatory. He said that witnesses saw her fly twenty feet into the air and thirty feet horizontally. Four men ran over to help her and she was conscious and had the presence of mind to say, "My name is Kimberlee Gubler. I need a priesthood blessing."
Kim was severely injured with most of the bones in her face broken. Her face had to be "re-built" with plastic surgery. You would never know it though -- she looks the same! She had severely bones broken in her arms and legs from her knees down -- but all of her vital organs were fine. She was completely protected over the area of her body that was covered by her garments, and today she was able to walk up to the pulpit to share her testimony. They testified of the miracles of protection that had been given to her and of the blessings of the temple. The spirit was so strong as their shared their testimonies.
Janika drove home today in her new car and said it went well. The deadline to apply for BYU is this Wednesday and so she needed to get her "ecclesiastical endorsement." She also applied to USU. Her (former) boyfriend, Mitch, gets home from his mission in two weeks. She is coming home for his homecoming and hopes it won't be too awkward with all of his family. I remember when I went to Clay's homecoming (my high school boyfriend) and all of his family were treating us like we were still "together" even though we had broken up before he had even left for his mission -- it was awkward! She did promise him two dates but shows no interest in getting back together.
That's all for this week!
Wendy
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