With All My Love

Dear Elder Schenewark,

I've been watching the news this week. I'm hoping you'll have some soccer information, as Brazil won the gold medal. And the Olympics are done. But I was thinking more of the news I heard about California: 82 thousand forced to evacuate due to a raging wildfire. And, in Lousiana, 40 thousand are homeless due to massive flooding in Lousiana. And then there's the Zika virus health crisis. Definitely last days, natural disasters, plagues et al. Elder Hales said, "However dark conditions may seem in this world today, whatever the storms we are facing personally, … joy can be ours now."

Thursday we spent the entire day going through everybody's clothes. Breyer had to try on each new outfit that was unpacked, Miller cheered when the sport clothing was found; Sawyer just didn't care, and Cooper had been done the previous week. We got rid of six garbage bags of clothes, half were worn, and the other half need new owners. We just had too many, and I didn't thin very well last year. We have also been encouraging Porter to begin packing. He leaves Monday, flying out of Dallas, to Utah, hopefully to be picked up by Uncle Ben. He has a mountain of clothes for the boys to go through, at another date.

Thursday we also had back to school event for the three younger siblings. Sawyer was Mr. Cool, maybe offer a nod or two to the hello's, smile at those who were in the shot line, picked up his schedule, and we were done. Miller got the #2 teacher on his "Teachers I Want" list, so he's happy. He only wanted to know what days he had gym (MWF), and where he was sitting. Breyer wanted to try out her desk; play with her school supplies, and stare at her neighbor.

We finished purchasing the younger three school list supplies. Breyer was taken out on a date by her friend in the ward, who wanted to purchase her backpack. It came with an attached lunchbox, all in the "aren't they beautiful" butterfly motif. She's excited and she's not. Just a little worried, I suppose. She also came home with new white tennis shoes, for gym, and has been practicing wearing them all weekend. Her record is twenty minutes. It will be a big jump to nine hours tomorrow. Her feet up until now are happiest when bare.

Cooper has a day reprieve from seminary, and will begin tennis practice after school. They lengthened the school day, so he finishes at 4:25, and will stay later. He is still building planes, anxious to put a motor to some of his designs. He found out he has a 3.7, at the end of last year, and is ranked 39 out of 538. With all his AP classes this year, he hopes to surge in rank at the end of the year.

Porter is excited to leave. Probably. Sometimes he is so relaxed it's hard to know if he remembers. But we've been working on packing his bags. He doesn't seem to be having a problem, including his bedding, getting all his belongings into his three bags and backpack. He opened a bank account Friday, right before they closed. He contacted the Marriott Center in regards to working special events, and with the last name of Schenewark was welcomed in with open arms for an interview next week. He had an appointment with the Stake President Wednesday, and will arrive in Utah as an Elder. He found an interesting statistic this week. His ward ratio of boys to girls? 113:34. He's psyched. We spent a good portion of one evening finishing his registration of classes. He had me laughing, as he was perusing his choices. My favorite? Him seriously considering spring board diving as a gym class. There was also fencing, badminton, Polynesian dance and bowling. He's in awe of the choices. He said if he had known earlier, he could have convinced all his high school friends to go to BYU with him just by the choice of classes.

Today Porter was ordained to the office of Elder, and Cooper ordained to the office of a Priest.  We did it at home, in the evening, and the boys had invited a few men influential in their lives. And a few extra came as well. Dad did Porter, and then Porter blessed Cooper. It was powerful. The spirit strong. And the homemade hot fudge sauce on vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate chip cookies with whipped cream sweet.

Your father and I got out to visit a few hospitalized members this week. One's in for a stroke, one has an infection, and one is in hospice. It's a bitter sweet experience for sure, but one of my favorite ways to spend time with him. I always leave uplifted, and counting my many blessings, and hopefully impart love along the way. He's a good man, and is very loved.

Just like you.

Be safe, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Mom

P.S. Need your address for the contacts.