Brandon

I carried you under my heart for a very short 18 weeks. I felt you move like the flutter of butterfly wings deep in my womb. I looked forward to the day when I would hold you in my arms and welcome you to our family. You had two loving big sisters that were so excited to have a little brother to take care of and a Daddy that was looking forward to teaching you the steps of a Scout. We all looked forward to your first smile, your first tooth, your first step, and your first day of school. We had plans of teaching you the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that maybe you would want to go out into the world and share it with others. We were so heartbroken and sad when Heavenly Father called you home so soon. All our dreams seemed to be dashed in a matter of seconds. Even now, 19 years later, the tears come to my eyes as I think of all those dreams gone in a heartbeat. But thank goodness for the Gospel and the Plan of Happiness!! I know where you are, what you are doing, and who you are serving with. I miss you my sweet baby boy who looks so much like your Daddy, I look forward to the day when I will be able to hold you in my arms. I pray that I will be able to live a life that you and your sisters are proud of, that you all will be happy to call me Momma. I love you my sweet boy!

MISSIONARY WEDNESDAY

Dear Mommy, Daddy, Kaity, and everyone else ^-^ Sounds like you all are having so much fun! thats a good sign! Man i miss BBQs so much! when i get back i want to have a HUGE BBQ! hmmm with Potato Salad! ^-^ I cant wait to see the pics of Kaity's play! that sounds so much fun! Wow yeah general confrence. we see it a week late actually..but its going to be good cuz we watch it in english together with the elders. So some crazy things have happened this week. first off we got an AWESOME referral! her name is Co Le and her 16 year old daughter Em Kieu. They are sooo cute! Co Le was saying how since she's been here in Cambodia she hasn't been able to find a church or anything to go to. and shes been praying (she was christian before) praying for someone to help her find the truth the very next day she met Co Thuy who lives right near her. Co Thuy is such a good member and Co Thuy referred her to us. Co Le was crying in the first lesson out of joy...i think...i hope... ^-^' anyway she is so good! Bac Ut is getting baptised on sunday! her interview is on friday and she is so nervous! its kinda funny...she wrote all the 10 commandments down in Khamae so she could memorize them. we tried to explain to her that she doesnt need to memorize them, just follow them. Training has been good i guess. sister harlen is still here until friday so shes been helping alot. i dunno if its a good or bad thing. i dunno these past few days i've felt really ....bac boi...orz sorry i mean kinda like i dunno uneasy and sad alot. Sister vo has come back into the viet program and so shes training sister bales while i'm training sister sparks. they both are so good and so cute and sweet. dang they know more viet than i did when i came here...oh well. :) i dunno why but i always feel irritated and annoyed when sister vo is around, probably because her personality is so aggressive it rubs me the wrong way you know? but its only for 6 weeks. sometimes i feel like we are all competing for each other's attention now, but i dont like to do that. i still feel like if they wanted to talk to me they would...i dunno..sorry i'm just rambling i guess about things that dont really matter. the other day i had a dream that i came home from my mission and everyone was so shocked to see me...i didnt know why. i think since then is when i started feeling sad alot. ugh i hate having dreams about coming home, now this year is going to seem so long. oh well. whatever. um lets see on the plus side i've noticed i'm understand ALOT more than i did a week ago! Hurray for the Gift of Tongues! some of the members were saying about how when sister harlen leaves we will be in trouble because i dont speak clearly yet or understand alot yet...i was like..um i understand you now..XD they dont mean anything by it, its just funny when suddenly i can understand when they say that i dont understand or speak well yet :P AAAHH! the other day we had an awesome service opportunity! Chi Hue was moving her house when we randomly stopped by, so we decided to help her. and in her little tiny tiny house she had an entertainment center, just a medium sized simple one, and we moved it out of the corner and all these mice came running out! every single one of us screamed and we were like standing in the middle of the room while these mice where running beside the wall trying to find a place to hide! it was so funny! oh crap! Thank you so much for the package! man i loved it so much! ^-^ the scarff is really good too for when i'm studying and the temp gets down to 75F and i'm freezing! XD ahahaha yeah isnt that crazy! im so use to hot weather i freeze at night! i had to buy a blanket to keep me warm at night! :3 Well i guess now there isnt much to say. except thank you and i love you all and i miss you all so much!!! *big hugs and kisses* Sister Holloway

Finally Finished!

I finally finished Zoe Kay's blessing gown and booties!

Zoe is the daughter of Dave's niece, Virginia.

We are so excited to have this little bundle in our extended family!

I haven't seen her yet, but the pictures of her show that she is adorable!

I'm sure the pictures don't do her justice!!

This will be put in the mail this week.

And aren't these matching booties just the sweetest thing?

I sure hope that baby Zoe will still be small enough for this blessing gown this summer.

MISSIONARY WEDNESDAY!!!

Wow! I can't believe it, Aimee has been gone for five months now! She is AMAZING!! We love her so much and are so very happy that she is finding joy and happiness in serving the Lord on this amazing mission! We are so grateful to the Lord for all the blessings that he has poured out upon us as family and friends have given support in helping her serve Him! Thank you so much to everyone!! We love you all very much!!

Hello mommy and daddy and kaity! Happy Birthday Mommy and Grandma and Grandma C! And Grandpa and Daddy!

its okay, instead of a letter last week i got pictures so it made me happy! ^-^ Yay! i'm glad Kaity is doing better in school! you know theres a girl here who reminds me so much of Kaitlyn, it makes me sad sometimes.. I missah you Kaity!! *hugs*

yeah last week was kinda weird. but um i think you misunderstood what a mission tour is. we ourselves arent leaving the area, its Elder Watson who is touring the mission not us :P oh well. our musical number rocked though!...spiritually speaking of course, nothing like 9 elders and 2 sisters with no musical talent to brighten everyones day ;) Elder watsons talks were so good, he talked alot about having the Holy Ghost with us all the time especially when teaching. Sister Watson and Sister Smedely came with sister harlen and i to teach an investigator. it was so nerve wracking, but i was able to translate for them! yay!

okay i'm sending some pictures...finally!

pic#1 the elders i was with in the MTC

Pic#2 a random sign here in cambodia (send that one to wendy please, she'll understand why its so awesome XD)
Pic3 Anh Tai, 'he's actually in branch 6 but he comes to branch 3 sometimes, he's always saying he will stowaway on a boat to get to a country with a temple. hes deaf and mute and very awesome ^-^
Pic4 Sister Harlen and I this morning before we left the house. ^-^
Pic #5 Chi Nhanh 10~branch 10!
pic#6 Monkies eating the food from an alter across the street.

okay i hope youre able to view those, i'll try to send more next time!

So For grandma's birthday last week, sister harlen and i met a guy from new zealand named charlie. (maybe i told you about him before i dunno) but hes ex girlfriend is vietnamese and we were teaching her the first lesson when he wandered in and sat down. we finished the lesson in vietnamese then we figured since we were there we would ask him if he read the pamphet we gave him ect. and well the conversation turned into him telling us that we did not know these things, we only believed them. sister harlen did an awesome job of testifying, but every time she said "i know..." he would interupt and say 'you dont know, you believe, strongly" so then i pulled out (thank heavens for my english scriptures) 3 Nephi 11, and i read the verse where Jesus Christ appears. and I said 'because of these few verses, I KNOW Jesus Christ lives. I KNOW He is our Redeemer."He tried to interupt, like he opened his mouth but then he didnt say anything and i continued. "We KNOW these things are true."
He kept saying he had an open mind about religion, but i'm pretty sure he was one of the most close-minded people i have ever met. Anyway he ended up just saying that he doesnt believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah and he doesnt care about what happens after he dies. What a sad sad man. well at anyrate that experience alone has strengthened my testimony so much. (at the end of the day i wrote in my journal 'ha ha satan you didnt bring me down that time!')
Ah! Chi Hu'o'ng we commited to baptism! she is so good! she understands and she keeps her commitments! I'll get a picture with her next time we meet her and send it to you!
okay well i think thats about it for this week. we have been really busy with our investigators. its amazing though, we stopped meeting ones who werént ready, then all of a sudden we got more good people! Heavenly Father truely knows which ones of His children are ready. and I know, even though my language isnt fluent yet, even if i mess up, the people who are ready for the gospel wont be detiered by my mistakes. even if thats true i'm still doing my best every day. I decided i wanted to be like Ammon at the end of his mission, where he rejoices in all that the Lord blessed him with. He realized the Lord gave him and his companions success, even through the hard times, but at the end he was so happy. I want to be like that. ^_^ so i just try my best every day that way 1 year from now i can look back with a rejoicing heart and a greatful soul for all that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ helped me with!

okay well i'm going to read other emails now!
I love you all!
Sister Holloway

Second Email for March 16, 2011

man sorry i should have read this email first before the other one! *epic fail*
okay well i had no idea about the earthquakes or anything...maybe thats why i havent slept well this week? i dunno...but of course i will pray for them too!
Jeeze! an apperantly for yours and kaitys safty as well! well i'm glad that you all are okay though, take it easy though.

tell daddy good luck!..or i'll just tell him when i read his email after this...
and i'm sure you'll be a fine RS teacher, man speaking of service, sister harlen and i got a load of service opportunities this week. helping Em Lu'o'ng wash her clothes, then another member Em Danh came and saw us and she started helping too! I really want the members to learn to serve each other!!
but anyway i know you'll do fine! remember that if you search and study the scriptures then the Spirit will put into your mind the things you need to say. Just use the scriptures! thats what they always tell us, always use the Book of Mormon! :)
I'll start training the new sisters the 24th i think is when they get here. i'm so nervous but so excited. Sister Harlen was telling me what a great experince it will be and how much i will change and become a leader from it. :) man i hope so.

okay well i'm going to read the other emails now!
Love you all! be careful!!
Sister Holloway

Sometimes she just blows me away with her testimony! I'm so thankful for her and the example she is to me and to our family!

GRAVITY IS OUR ENEMY!!

Okay, there are lots of pictures this week! This past week has been a trial, but we made it though without too many breakdowns.

First of all, the dresses that I finished and sent to friends that had babies the last few months (I stole their pictures from their moms' Facebook pages).

Here is little Miss Makena Ardis in pink! Isn't she adorable?! I think the pink looks gorgeous on her, especially with her complexion!

And here is little Miss Avalina Wadsworth in her blue ensamble! Her Mommy said that she kept kicking off the booties. ;0) She's a darling!!

Kaitlyn is going to be in a play, Sleeping Beauty!! She is a member of the "Royal Court" and has a few lines. They have been practicing for many weeks and they have a couple more weeks before SHOWTIME!! Showtime will be on April 1, 2011. She has been so excited about this new challenge and has made many friends. The Drama Club is for third through sixth graders at the elementary school. She so desperately wanted to do something because her sisters aren't here and she wants to try her talents at different things. I don't know that we will do it next year, but it certainly has been an experience! An experience that she will treasure for her whole life I think. It seems like this has gone on forever and we will all be glad when it's over.

Kaitlyn is the third from the right on the back row standing holding a stuffed kitty.

Last week really was a bad week for us as far as gravity was concerned!

Wednesday as I was trying to get the dishes loaded into the dishwasher I noticed a sticky spot on the floor, so I got a rag and cleaned it up. I thought the floor had dried enough for me to walk on it, but I was wrong! My right foot went one direction, my left foot the other and the rest of me fell onto the open dishwasher door!! I am finding bruises just about every where, the only one I could get a picture of was the one on my left arm.

This bruise is four days old and is shaped like the plate that was standing in the dishwasher!

As I sat on the floor to catch my breath and try to move to a better sitting position, Kaitlyn came in to see what happened. It was all I could do not to cry in front of her, because she was already crying and scared because I was trying to breath normally and having a hard time of it. She turned brave, finished loading the dishwasher, tried to call her daddy at work, brought her homework into the kitchen to sit with me until daddy got home from work. Once I was able to calm myself and get up off the floor, I started dinner. While I was fixing dinner I heard the garage door open and Dave coming up the stairs, as he reached the top of the stairs and opened the door I hear a scream and crying!! My hands covered in flour and walking gingerly into the living room, Kaitlyn is in tears again!!

Kaitlyn ran through the living room, tripped and ended up spraining her foot!! We were afraid she may have broken it, but it turned out to be just a sprain. We were finally able to get her to see the doctor on Friday, x-rays were taken, half-cast put on, crutches and rest prescribed. She did pretty good over the weekend, keeping her foot up and icing it. Monday morning came around and she had to once again return to school. She is so afraid she is gonna get trampled by the kids at school, but I'm sure she will be fine and things will go great. As far as the play is concerned, she will continue and won't be on the crutches come show time.

Since I spent Thursday resting from my fall I was able to start a cross stitch project (January Snowman)...

finish a cross stitch project (January Doorway), and worked on my crocheting.

Sunday came and boy were we glad for the day of recharging our Spiritual batteries!! I had to teach Relief Society to ALL the sisters (French and English speaking). I was extremely nervous and afraid that I might offend someone (because we all know that I am good at that)! But thanks to Beth Passey who took me aside in the hall gave me a great pep talk and prayed with me to have confidence in the things that we talked about and what the Lord had planned for me to teach, Service! I made it through the lesson, with a few emotional tears. Beth teaches the Gospel Doctrine class for the English speaking members and that too was a little emotional for me. Sacrament meeting was on temples. Oh, how I love the Temples!!!

After church we came home and Dave cooked the meat for our final dinner with our current missionaries! Dave is the Ward Mission Leader and so we feed the missionaries assigned to our ward twice a month so that they can also have a correlation meeting. Well, five of these six missionaries are being transferred to other areas in the mission.

From left to right we have Elders Garcia, Bjerga, Dykstra, Canonica, Sisters Thompson and Jorgensen. These missionaries are so good! They have sacrificed 18-months (for the sisters) and 24-months (for the elders) of their lives, putting off educations, careers, and relationships to serve the Lord. They have dedicated this time to teach those people who are seeking the true Gospel of Jesus Christ! Their families are sacrificing as well, and we salute them all. We understand those sacrifices they are making because we are making those same sacrifices while our missionary is out. We wish all those that are being transferred great success and pray for them continually. WE LOVE OUR MISSIONARIES!!!

Missionary Update

At the end of her letter she wrote something in Vietnamese, but I have no idea what it says.

Hello mommy!

so we get to email today because tomorrow (on our pday) we are having a mission tour.
elder watson from the 70 is coming to speak to us. and all of us vietnamese missionaries have to give the musical number! @_@ yikes!

so this week sister harlen and i were able to make our goal of 20 lessons with a member present and 15 lessons to recent converts and less actives! yay! ^^ and remember the crazy lady i told you about? co Va? the one that tried to kill her husband? well she gave us a really awesome referral! like her of all people..who would have thought! XD the referral her name is chi hu'o'ng. her and her husband ahn chung just moved here from vietnam. shes pregnant and just moved into the building next to co va. shes so nice and so pretty! ^-^ and she understands alot! she even has that light about her you know?

sister harlen had to spend some time in the mission home for training meeting, so sister vo came back from the cambodian program to serve with me. we have made some changes in the vietnamese program so i decided to take charge. and you know i was really comfortable making the plans and setting the goals and things that i will have to be doing when i train at the end of the month. im sure sister vo was all upset though that i took charge, but whatever. :)

thank you so much for sending me pictures! i know i was going to print some of mine to send to you this week, but we didnt know our pday was going to be today and we've already made appointments and time is really short today! orz the life of a missionary....

so i hope you all are doing well! you all looked so good in the pictures! (sister harlen is like 'woah your mom is sooo pretty!' i was like yeah i know :) ) and kaitlyn's hair is so long! daaang! dad's homemade shovel is so awesome!

so the other day we went to lucky burger....and the people there are so friendly and so overly ..over the top. XD people in fast food places in america should take happy lessons from the lucky burger people! but hey i got a free cup! ^-^


so now i would just like to add some vietnamese randomly in this email
Co Hu'o'ng, Anh Tuan, Anh Kiet oi! (toi hy vong co va hai anh co thay hieu viet thu' nay ^-^)
Khoe khong? toi moun noi ma toi rat biet o'n ve tat ca su giup cua co va hai anh khi toi o' MTC. Co va hai Anh la thay giao rat tot! va toi nha co va hai anh, nhu'ng toi luon luon co giang nha ma neu co va hai anh co thay phuc vu vo'i nhu'ng ngu'o'i viet nam, thi toi co thay phu vu cung! bay gio tieng viet rat la kho hieu, nhu'ng toi biet rang Cha Thien Thu'o'ng se luon luon giup do toi. ^-^ Toi hy vong Co va hai anh co hanh phuc! toi se co gaing het su'c hu'o'ng dan hai chi ca moi! :) ~chi ca Tam

okay well i'd better go, we still have shopping to do today.

I love you all very very much!! and i miss you all!
Love
Sister Holloway

There is so much going through my head right now I don't know where to begin or what to even write about! I know it's Missionary Wednesday, but I'm gonna postpone it for a day.

Last week was a rather difficult week for me as I strained my back and ended up on the couch

on my back for three days. Dave had to take two of those days off to take care of me. Isn't he amazing? I had a difficult time walking again and had to revert to the use of my cane for most of the week. Since then I have had a more difficult time getting around again and still have to spend a great deal of time laying down to relieve some of the pain in my hips and back. Some days I wish I could trade in my body for a new one, but then I'm just thankful to be alive and breathing! Today I woke up with half of my face being numb! It is so weird to only feel half your face!!!

In spite of the fact that I have been in so much pain I have been able to do a lot of cross stitch and crocheting. It is amazing what handcrafts can do to help relieve the pain that I am in. I always tell people that the fast I crochet is reflective of how much pain I am in, the faster I crochet the less pain I am in. I read an article once that said that crocheting was a relaxing hobby and helped with pain management and I can testify that it is true!!

Last Friday the local British Elementary School had a Mardi Gras parade down our street. They were so stinkin' cute!!

A Giveaway on Another Blog

I like to follow other blogs and enter their giveaways. Here's another fellow blogger that is giving away free stuff, so check her out!

http://crazymotheringchick.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway.html

Missionary Wednesday!!

I thought I would just say that we are so very proud of our Missionary, Sister Holloway.

She has been able to escape her comfort zone and try new things.

She has traveled far, experienced new foods, met new people, and amazed us with her willingness to serve the Lord!

I just discovered that she is in the Hong Kong China Temple district.

Isn't it a beautiful temple?


Hey Mommy Daddy and Kaitlyn!

Wow these weeks go by so fast! it seems like only yesterday i was here in the Diamond Web internet cafe writing that super long whiny email (i apologize for my whine-y...ness)
So the Assistants have really been pushing us to reach our goals, and everyday we have to try and get 10 new contacts. yesterday sister harlen and i were so pumped! we worked really hard to get 10, i even stepped out of my comfort zone *finally* and talked to a woman. at 545 we started home and we were so depressed because we thought we would end the day with 9/10 contacts. we got home and sister harlen was really upset because even though we make goals we rarely ever meet them all. so we prayed to start companion planning and we prayed so hard. we planned and i tried to help her feel better, yes goals are important, but even though we dont achieve them, we did all that we could during the day. and then right in the middle of my sentance the phone rang. it was chi thuy, she had called to give us a referral! we got her number and we called the girl, whose name is chi diem..yiem.....orz i wish i could figure out how to spell vietnamese correctly! ...anyway, we met with her this morning (yes even though its p-day) and we taught her the first lesson. She is really good i can tell. ^-^ she even prayed correctly the first time! of course it was a little awkward teaching her too because the two members that helped us teach are fighting and they hate each other, but Chi Yiem is a mutual friend. so the whole lesson the two members Chi Linh and Chi Thuy were talking over each other....orz ...but anyway the big overarching lesson from that is that even after we do all we can do, it is still the Lord who gives us success, and if we try our best in all aspects of our lives he will be there to make up the rest. :)

So yesterday at District meeting, i had to give the closing prayer. man that was intimidating! there are a few...well okay only one elder who is getting the language like really quick and he memorizes 60 words a week. orz...anyway he speaks really well and i was kinda nervous, but after i prayed they all were like 'woah! that was so good!' :3 Not that i'm seeking the approval of men or anything....but it made me feel good that even he was impressed.

speaking of which I've been thinking alot about service here. every time we offer do so some service the members tell us "khong sao! khong sao!" we ask why and they reply "so' toi!" ...pretty much the members here are afraid of sin. like they think its a sin if we help them or something.......*cough*stupid*cough* like that. so at district meeting we were talking about how we could get the members excited for missionary work. and i suggested also getting the members to serve each other. We are commanded to serve. It is part of the baptisimal commitment. so i was like "what do we do? do we fear man and not serve them because they are afraid of sin (when in reality its not a sin at all but totally the opposite) or do we fear God more and serve them anyway'?
I feel like the members dont even care about each other, thats why visiting teaching isnt successful. when we told Co Oanh that there was an inactive member just down her street she acted so uninterested. it made me kinda upset. >_< i have already decided that when i get home, i'm gonna care more about the people in my ward, not have that selfish indifference like she does.........okay maybe that was a little harsh...... well at least i'm not an elder...(you probably shouldnt read this part aloud but you can send it on anyway cuz its pretty funny) apperantly one of the members told elder thanh and elder hung (in plain english) that he hasnt had sex with his wife in six years. XD hahahaha! poor elders having to hear all that stuff.... So i'm trying to figure out how to use my drawing ability to help people understand...but i always chicken out because i dunno if it would be...i dunno sacreligious or something to draw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ you know? oi...but i feel like it would help so much! oh by the way before i forget..whose birthday is on the 9th? also when is gmpa and gma's birthdays? i forget..*badgranddaugher* sorry! okay well i need to go email my Mission president now. :) i hope you all are doing so well! I miss you all so much...sorry i cant email pictures. :( did you get the email with sister smedley's blog? Love you all so much! keep up with the spanish! *lovelovelove* Sister Tam