With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

I'm still mourning your not getting anything in your email last week! I'm so sorry! What a relief to know you'd arrived, and have been put to work. We received pictures from your president with them, and your new companion. Yeah! I imagine that your needing to find a place to live comes with scrounging up a bed or two. Please share about your living arrangements, even if you are still sharing with the other ward's missionaries! You mentioned in your letter your foundation was tested. What happened? Please share more details! We love that you're trying to be positive! And now that you'll have a little more time for emails, perhaps you could write your letter, read ours, add to your letter, and answer our questions! When you mentioned you loved our blogs, were you referring to the ones we mailed you, or the ones in your email? We stopped mailing them, so please let us know if we need to print them off for you to see! Or, can you now look at them yourself? When Dad converted his letter into a PDF version, could you see the pictures in your email? We're trying to figure out a system for you to see OUR pictures!

Also, you mentioned in your last letter that you can't send emails with pictures. In reading other missionary letters, they all mention sending pictures. Are you sure? If so, good for you. I think Sis. Bach will be mailing a mosquito net and two flash drives. We thought memory cards wouldn't be as good, as you can't make a copy in case it gets lost. So when you send pictures, copy them onto both flash drives, and send one. That way we'll have a backup.

I've mailed you a package (has a big heart on it) for your birthday! And another one will be on the way...Can you believe you'll be 20 years old? I'm not sure how long it will take for them to arrive, so this is a trial run for Christmas. I paid $26 for the first one, which was under four pounds. Considering I was paying $10 to Utah I didn't think that was too bad. That price also included the cost of the padded envelope.

I spent a little time this week connecting with Moms of missionaries in the Londrina Mission. Sis. Chambers told me about her son, and that he is your district leader. Sis. Empey's mother, whom you have yet to meet (in Maringa), Elder Peterson's mother (in Aguda) who found out he ate rabbit this week, Sis. Carrell,whose son is in Centro Civico, and Sis. Bennett, your companion's mother. They're all so sweet, and we have a good time talking on a Facebook page for Londrina missionary moms. They've been very welcoming, informative, and supportive. Your companion seems to be funny (standing and talking to everyone on the bus about the church) and very excited to be training you. He mentioned how more missionaries are being sent to Tupa, and how there is so much work to do.

This week's cub scout activity was on photography. I only mention this as your brothers were very funny. Cooper is my den chief, so he can fulfill his leadership requirement, and even has a den chief cord to wear on his shoulder. So he helps with one of my three dens, of which Sawyer is in, and which Miller participates. The boys were sent on a scavenger hunt, and each had to use their digital camera to take pictures of what was on the list, and were told to "be creative." They were to take a picture of a picnic table, a small rock (on Cooper's tongue),and themselves (Cooper's eye). Cooper definitely was the creative force behind this trio.

Thursday your cousin Roger arrived home from Panama. There was much weeping and tears of joy at the Boston airport that night. Even I was teary eyed all day thinking about that reunion. Your grandparents, and the Stokes were there in addition to Roger's family. His family even drew a name to see who would get to sit by him on the way home. Roger brought back BEAUTIFUL hand-embroidered ties, and shared them with family. They all wore them to the Priesthood session of conference. Such a good idea! Then Sunday, before conference began, they held Mason's baptism.

Dad worked the annual corn dog fundraiser for the Optimist Club at the Pumpkin Festival in Milton. He went Friday night with Porter, and Saturday morning with Hunter. Saturday a lady brought a corn dog back, and said, "I think the corn dogs are bad" and proceeded to show them how the inside was green. They were quick to agree with her, and quickly contacted the supplier. Apparently they weren't refrigerated properly beforehand, and they had to wait a couple of hours, around lunchtime, for replacements to arrive. Nothing like biting into a bad dog! So much for their big fundraiser of the year. Speaking of the Optimist Club, Dad found a really cute picture of you from this spring on their website, selling pancakes at Applebees.

We have so enjoyed General Conference. I bet you absolutely loved Elder Nelson's talk. I was feeding four missionaries here at the time, and looked at them and said, "Elders, looks like your "to do" list just got a little bigger." They replied, "And our teaching pool!" I also bet President Monson's announcement about the inclusion of 18 year olds as missionaries has generated a lot of missionary buzz! Was it difficult to watch conference in Portuguese, or did you see it in English? I have to confess every time missionaries were mentioned, or sung about, I was teary-eyed. I knew you were doing the same thing as me at the same time.

Grampy had a little hiccup while he is supposedly resting from chemotherapy. They'll never know for sure, but the doctors are thinking that perhaps he's had a nasty bacteria called c-diff for short, an infection that gave him a high fever and other issues with his intestines since June. Treating him for diverticulitis with antibiotics has kept it in check, but not taken care of the problem. Hopefully this will make his recovery much smoother. He was in the hospital for both sessions of conference, unable to attend the baptism, and basically having a miserable weekend. Breyer has had it pretty rough as well. We took Sawyer to the doctors to have his wrist x-rayed (bike - it's fine), and she picked up the coxsackie virus (hand, foot, mouth) that gives you a high fever, sore throat, then blisters on the inside of your mouth, end of your tongue, groin, palms and pads of feet. She's been miserable! She didn't eat from Tuesday night to Friday morning, didn't want to walk, and cried all night (I think because she couldn't suck her thumb). We're all so glad over here that this too is passing.

Your letters are uplifting, inspiring, and are touching many hearts. We love you so much. We think of you in all that we do, in all that we hear, and in all that we feel. You have elevated our home to a higher level because of your service. We're more careful in remembering to do those things that we're suppose to and need to do.

Love,

Mom and Dad