Ethan had a follow up for his legs with Dr. Madich. She said he can slowly start to resume his normal activity.
I am going to start taking care of Cheri on Monday nights so Mike can go to the baseball games.
I worked handcarts again this week and drove the train on Wednesday.
Tuesday night I made a candy bar poster for Greg's 50th birthday and took it over to him. I can't believe we are getting so old. He will have his second grandchild next month so I guess it makes sense.
Ethan had a follow up with Dr. Partridge for his wisdom teeth. He hardly swelled up at all and is going so great.
I started my period this week- I wouldn't normally post that but since I shared how I went off birth control recently I wanted to keep a record for my hormone journey.
I took Melinda, Brooklyn and Bronson to Red Butte. Brody had school. He is doing a special summer program that will earn him high school credit if he does it for a certain number of years. It is STEM based which he loves and they get to go on fun field trips each week. They were going to sleep over that night so Brody called Melinda on the way to Red Butte and told her he felt sick. It turned out he just wanted to come to my house early but Melinda told him if he didn't go on the trip he didn't get to sleep over. So he did. Red Butte was fun. Brooklyn is a whiz at the fireman's pole in the children's garden. Bronson liked the fountain there but it said it was not to play in because the water was not safe for human consumption. Who puts a fountain that is not safe in a children's garden?? At the end Melinda couldn't find her phone so I sat in the car with the kids while she went back in to look. Brooklyn was worried so we said a prayer that she would find it. I told her that when we get into situations like that our first reaction is often fear but that she didn't need to be afraid if she could work the problem. There are solutions all around us for every problem if we stop and think. That and we can always ask Heavenly Father for help. Melinda found the phone. We grabbed some lunch from Chick-Fil-A and took it to Sugar House Park. We let the kids play at the playground and boy is Brooklyn a little monkey. I told her she needs to start going to the Ninja gym because she is great at climbing on things.
Friday night was the Bishop's dinner. For dessert Cassidy and I ended up making ice cream pie. I made two strawberry ones and she made two mint and two orange cream. The orange cream ones were amazing and will be in my recipe book from now on. We sat with President and Sister McBeth. They are the presidents of the Utah West Mission. They live in our stake. They have a son Tanner that is Ethan's age. They told us how they have had two hostage situations in their mission. I didn't need to hear that ha ha. They gave a wonderful talk about finding missionary experiences. For dinner we had chicken and steak, fruit, corn salad and potato salad, rolls and then our pies. It was all so good. The stake presidency puts this on to thank all the bishops and their wives for their service.
I went with Melinda's family to Taylorsville Dayzz. They go every year but this was my first time. It was so so fun! Melinda took Brody on the bigger rides and Brooklyn, Kevin and Bronson and I went on the smaller rides. I went down the big slide and it was a sight to behold. Me trying to get Bronson on my lap and sit down with out dropping him. He loved it but it freaked me out so I laid down the whole way while I held him. Brooklyn and I waited for 30 minutes to get nachos at the pizza truck and then we all met back up and watched the fireworks. I bought the kids light up swords which was probably a mistake for a 2 year old who was swinging it all over the place. We ended up sitting right next to the Brough family. Bronson loved seeing the firetruck and he waved his little chubby arms up at every airplane that flew over. He would yell "Hi Airplane" It was so darn cute. He can't say Amanda so he calls me Nan- All night it was "Nan look", "Nan airplane", "Nan firetruck", "Nan frog" I love these kids. The firework show went on for a really long time and was spectacular. I definitely want to go again next year.
I spoke in church and taught Relief Society on Sunday. I spoke about the things I have learned from Ashtyn serving a mission. I said these three things: 1. Everything begins and ends with Christ. 2. Be prepared to change. 3. Christ is our power convertor. I also asked Ashtyn what she had learned or her greatest blessing and here is what she said: "My perspective on God’s children has changed. When I use to see someone on the street I would just think there is a random person but now I see them as God’s child and that they have a divine worth and how important they are to him and that he needs me to share his message with them. When we see people this way it helps us to be a lot more willing to share the gospel with them. Seeing peoples live transform when they come to know the Savior is
my greatest gift."
Ashty's letter:
Olá todo mundo! This week was good:) lots more knocking and street contacting, miracles, a new companion and a baptism!
Sister Dodge and I have gotten a lot more comfortable with street contacting and knocking doors! Its bee pretty amazing to see how willing people are to listen to you even if that's for 30 seconds. We actually were able to find 3 new people this week from knocking doors! A few miracles we have seen are: we were walking past this door and Sister dodge felt like we should knock but then second guessed her self and kept walking. I turned us right around because if there is anything I have learned while being out here, is that you ALWAYS follow your promptings, even if they don't make sense! Well this 14 year old boy answered and we were able to go in and teach him the whole restoration! Another day we were walking and we saw this guy at the bus stop and felt like we should talk to him. He started speaking spanish and so I started speaking Portuguese and we were able to understand each other enough to get his number and tell him we will send him our message!
We also had some really cool lessons this week! We got a text from our zone leaders telling us that a boy named Luke was going to call us, and a few minutes later he did! He is in a family ward close by our area and he wants us to teach his friend Ethan who is in our area! We went over to Luke's house on Sunday and taught Ethan the whole restoration! It was amazing and so spirit led! The same day we were supposed to have a lesson with a new friend named Zenoah at 6:30. He never confirmed and didn't show up at the park. After sitting in our car waiting for a minute we got out because we saw a boy who we thought was Zenoah. It wasn't, but we talked to this boy and asked if we could share a message with him and he said he had to drop something off but would come back in 10 minutes. With lots of hope we sat down at the park and talked to a few people while waiting for him. After about 20 minutes he never showed so we got up and walked to our car and right as we are getting in our car we see Zenoah!! We approached him and asked him if he had a few minutes for us to share our message and he said sure! We briefly taught the restoration and invited him to pray about it! We are also going to drop off a Book Of Mormon at his house later this week! God works in very good, mysterious ways!
Our friend Alan is still on date and is doing so well! He's getting baptized on Independence Day baby!🇺🇲 also Sam got baptized on Saturday! I don't know if anyone remembers Sam, but he is the guy who me and my last two companions found on the street 2 months ago! It was so amazing to watch him make this decision and to see the joy it brought him! Oh I also got another companion named Sister Parsons! She is incredible and will be finishing her mission with Sister Dodge and I!
I hope everyone has a good week! Read your scriptures, say your prayers, and go to church!
Tchau tchau
-Sister Shaw
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