Spain Barcelona Mission

 It was so fun to celebrate Ben's mission call with so many good friends and family.

Michael was able to call from a teaching appointment in Otavalo Ecuador. I love these three boys so much!

Ben's student government friends.

Ben's friends that came to support him.

Lindsey and Jade with Ben.

The Booths with Ben.

Spain Barcelona Mission! We are so excited!

Learning about the mission boundaries (that will change on July 1 when a third Spain mission is added).

Love this boy so much!

The mission call wait

Ben completed his mission paperwork with his Stake President interview on March 16. Our Stake President submitted Ben's papers on March 20. On March 23, Todd checked the status of Ben's mission call and it said, "Ready for assignment" so we thought Ben's call might come the next Tuesday on Sara's birthday. However, the church mission website went down on March 27. The system was on again and off again several times after that, plus General Conference surely delayed things a bit too. A few of Ben's friends received their calls on a Thursday which confused us even more. It was hard to wait. In the meantime, we tried to be patient. I decorated the house and we took some pictures of Ben.

Finally, on April 12, Ben was sitting in seminary when he received his call.

More on the call opening party to come.

General Conference

We had a lovely General Conference weekend. It is so comforting to me to gather as a family and listen to the word of the Lord. I never want it to end.

This conference I heard a lot about forgiving. This comes right after our Old Testament study of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by his brothers. I've been thinking a lot about forgiveness and this Conference added to my thoughts and my desire to be more quick to forgive.

Sara loves to do hair. She does her dolls hair, her mom and dad's hair... she's really good at it too. 

Mary painted her poster and banner during general conference. More on her elections to come.

We went for a walk and played outside after Conference. I can't get enough of this picture! It is almost perfect- the only thing missing is Michael.

West Jordan Prom

Ben is friends with the Student Body President at West Jordan high. She didn't get asked to West Jordan's prom, so she asked Ben. He had a good time getting to know some new people at a different school.

 

Fer-de-fer

These backpacks are popular and expensive! I don't know how to pronounce the brand so I call it Fer-de-fer. Sara decided to use her birthday money to purchase one. She chose the purple one and I think it is darling.

Temple trip

Luke has been working hard to find family names on Family Search.

Due to COVID restrictions, it has been difficult to find appointments at the temple. However, Luke was finally able to find appointments three days in a row at the Jordan River temple. I checked him out of school and he did baptisms by himself on March 30. He went back on March 31 with Ben and Mary. Then on April 1, Luke found 4 appointments so he took his friends; Brett, Will and David.

They came to our house after. Such a great group of kids!

 

Battle of the Books finals

Sara's school does a competition each year to see which team can answer the most questions from a list of books they have been reading throughout the year. Sara's team made it to the final assembly. Her 5th grade team of 4 classmates (named "Spice it up") battled a team of 6th graders. It was a close competition. Sara's team didn't win but she still gets to miss school tomorrow to participate in a field trip to a trampoline park.

Nice work Sara!