Wednesday, May 18, 2011

missionary update

cam o'n rat nhieu cho tat ca dieu ma cha va me da giup da con vo'i. con co thay thay ma Cha Thien Thu'o'ng da ban phu'o'c gia dinh cua con rat nhieu! Con rat cam o'n Ngay moi ngay cho co hoi de chia se Phuc Am cua Chua Gie Su Ky To moi ngay. Mat du ho khong muon nghe doi khi, con biet ma Giao Hoi cac Thanh Hu'u Ngay Sau cua Chua Gie Su Ky To co le that, va Sach Mac Mon that su la cac lo'i cua 'Thu'o'ng De.

okay that whole think will not make sense if you put it into a translator so i'll just tell you what i said
thank you very much for all the things you and mom helped me with. i can see that Heavenly Father has blessed my family so much! I thank Him for the oppurtunity i have to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day. Although they dont listen sometimes, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, and the Book of Mormon is the words of God.

Aimee is doing very well!! The first couple of paragraphs are excerpts from her latest email to her Daddy. She is an amazing woman!! We are so very proud of her, miss her tons, and love her so much!!

Today is our Wendy girl's 21st birthday!! I can't believe it!! It seems like just yesterday that we were holding in our arms for the very first time! She is an amazing woman! She has been such a great help to our family! She had to learn to be responsible at a very young age due to my health and she has never once showed any resentment toward us or our situations. Now she lives so far away from us with her Grandparents. She works and attends University. We miss her so much! We really didn't realize how much she does for our family until she left in November, but it's okay. She had to leave the nest sometime. She has so much love and patience to share with others. She is studying to be a kindergarten teacher, she loves children! She has been a great friend to those around her, she's helpful, caring, loving, understanding, and full of life. She is always happy and always smiling! She brings sunshine to the lives of everyone she touches.

We love you Wendy!! Hope you have an AWESOME day!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Missionary Update and Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and mothers yet to be!!

What a great day it was for us!! We had the two of the three sets of missionaries over for dinner and let them all call their Mommies! It was great to hear these young men and women talk to their families. Made me want to talk to my missionary, but I had to wait one more day.

Monday morning began for Dave at 3am! He couldn't sleep so he came downstairs to flip through movies and catch up on the world news. Five am arrived and our Skype began ringing....it was our Aimee girl!!! He came upstairs to wake me and Kaitlyn while Aimee bought more time for her phone call. It was so great to hear her voice!! She sounds so happy and so excited about being in Cambodia. She has been learning a lot about the culture, people and a simpler way of life! She has also been teaching these beautiful people the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! She has grown to love rice and fish since arriving in country. As with any other mission, they are going through a dry-spell right now. They have had a few baptisms since January and those members are doing great. The sisters of the church in Cambodia are faithful and try to do their best, the brothern are slow in converting. She has had a few experiences with mice, cockroaches and monkeys. Our germaphobic daughter is learning that the things of nature aren't going to kill her and give her diseases just by existing. ;0) She rides a bicycle everywhere she goes and thank goodness hasn't had any accidents except maybe a hip bump or two by the "crazy" drivers. Two of the sisters with her are from Utah and one is from Hanoi, Vietnam. There are several senior couples called to serve in the mission as well and Aimee has had to do quite a bit of translation for them. She is slowly becoming more proficient in the language and I'm sure the more she practices the better she will be and by the time she is ready to come home she will be very good. I can't wait to hear her bare her testimony in Vietnamese!! The American missionaries are unable at this time to get Visas to travel to Vietnam so their teaching pool and area is quite small (consisting of a small area in the capital city of Phnom Phen). The Church is so very new to the people that the Elders are teaching the Branch President how to give priesthood blessings and perform baptisms. An amazing experience for all of them.

The Church has relaxed the dress code for the sisters since Aimee entered the MTC. When she entered the dress code was more business attire and now they are encouraged to wear brighter colors but still stay modest. They have been trying to find some modest clothing at the street markets that would fit American women, but have had no luck, so we have to send her some new dresses in the next month or so. We try to send a box to her every three months or so with different things that she might enjoy, she was extremely happy to get the Crystal Light mixes that we sent to her for her birthday and Christmas. So I guess we will be sending her some more. I can't believe how happy she is!!

She has asked us if we will be able to meet her in Cambodia a few days before she is sent home next year, but we had to tell her no. :0( But we will meet her in Utah when she arrives there!! ;0) We are planning to be on vacation when she comes home. We are sad that we weren't there when she was set apart for her mission so we WILL be there when she is released!!