Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have had an awesome week!!! Bart, Rhegan, and I went to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving!! You all know that my brother-in-law coaches the Eagles football team!! We had amazing seats (a warm box), lots of food (ribs, wings, and dippin dots), and of course the best part was beating the Cardinals!!! Congratulations Uncle Andy for a great win, keep it up!! We also went to New York and saw "The Little Mermaid" on Broadway. I loved the show!!! We were able to stop by and see the Zollinger family, they used to be in our ward and we loved seeing them so much!!! We really miss them. Bart and I are leaving this week to see Riley arrive home from Iraq, we are so grateful that he has been protected this year while serving his country. He will be able to come home Dec. 24th to spend Christmas with us!! Can't forget Rees, he is doing an awesome job in Mexico on his mission!! We are so blessed and I am so grateful for this time of year when we stop and take time to recognize our blessings and more importantly to recognize the Lord's hand in our lives!!!

Feelin Good!!!

O.K., I just have to say that I got some new jeans in a size I haven't worn for a way long time, that is definitely something to feel good about!!! It helps to have Julianne tell me that I can wear things that aren't baggy all the time!! I don't like things too tight!! It helps having Lorene encourage me to hike and eat better!! It helps to have Tara yell at me at aerobics for being a slacker!!! Not sure if it helps that Rhegan says I need a new bra to hold me up so I am not such a saggy boob!!! Gotta love the honesty!!
Other good news is that Riley called and his group is packing up and should leave Iraq at the end of the month. He will get to Georgia the first week of December and hopefully be home for Christmas, Rhegan is happy about that, she doesn't like being an only child.
This weekend I was able to go the the rededication of the Mexico City Temple. It was an awesome experience. I loved hearing from our prophet and my testimony was strenghtened. On Saturday night they had a cultual event that was amazing, I was hoping to get a glimpse of Rees when they had all of the missionaries on the field, but I didn't. Cooper kept asking me "Where's Rees?" I'm o.k. with that because I know he was there. I am including his letter from yesterday, wow, what an awesome missionary he is!!

Mom and Pops,
Hows everything goin at home? I hope all is well. I´m so glad you guys got to watch the event and rededication. Did you only see one of the sessions of the rededication? If so, which one? We got to see both and they were both so amazing. We are so blessed to have a living prophet to guide us. I can´t tell you how powerful it was when he walked into that HUGE stadium. He filled that stadium to the top with his Spirit and no one there could deny that that man is a prophet of God. That event was something I will never ever forget. And something that I will always look to for inspiration and remembrance of the Spirit of the people here in Mexico. So we got to the stadium and met up with the whole mission, and then President Bulloch gave us our ties, handkerchiefs, and ticket for the event. Then we went in and sat down and had to wait quite a while for the event to start. Everyone was so excited and so anxious. We thought we were going to have awesome seats because we were in the second to front row of the stadium, but when we sat down we realized that our seats sucked because all the props of the dances were right in front of us. And there is a huge barbed wire fence to keep the crazy fans from killing their soccer players, and that messed up our vision too. But it all turned out ok. Well more than ok. When we got to go out onto the field and sing and wave at the prophet, I was completely overwhelmed. I can´t believe that you guys didn´t see me because we were in the very front row, and directly in front of the prophet. I saw us quite a few times on the big screen so I figured you guys would have seen me. But anyways, what an amazing experience it was to be in the middle of that huge stadium, everyone cheering and singing, and the prophet and Henry B. waiving their handkerchiefs and crying. I just can´t even find the words to tell you guys how amazing it was, and how lucky I am to have had that experience. I am so happy that you guys got to watch it and see how awesome it is here. These people are so amazing. I don’t know if you saw the session of the rededication when President Monson said that it was the best he´s ever seen…. But ya, it was spectacular. I have really been reminded of how much I´ve taken for granted the prophet all my life. I should have been feasting upon his words and the words of the other leaders of the church in my youth. We have so much to learn and know in this life, and those men are how we´re going to know. The spirit and knowledge they help us gain is such a huge blessing that we have to take advantage of. I love you all so much and am so happy to hear you saw the event and rededication. I hope all is going well at home and that everyone is happy and healthy. Anyways, a bit of news from me, I will be having changes tomorrow. My companion has been in this area for 8 months and its time for him to go. So I´m quite nervous because I also found out that I´m going to train a new elder and I´m going to be district leader… My mind is just goin nuts right now. I hope I´ll be able to do a good job. I´ll let you guys know how it goes. But I´ve been thinking a lot about what it says in my patriarchal blessing about my mission. I know the Lord will help me and provide a way for me to do well. I love you all and am happy to hear all is well. Take care and keep sending lots of emails. I love hearing from everyone. Adios.

Cheer Competition

We had a fun day with Rhegan's first cheer competition.
Check out the video. Sandra Day O'Conner High School came in 2nd and qualified for state.

Letter from Rees

I am posting this for Cindy as she is gone on a cruise (LUCKY)!
-Julianne-

Hey everyone,
Mom and Dad I hope you guys are having a blast on your cruise! I normally would be jealous but I´m enjoying the poverty right now. It´s amazing to see how happy these people even though they have so litlle. So this week was pretty awesome. We got to work at the temple for the open house and it was so cool. We got to work in parking for part of the time and that was super fun! So I´m pretty excited for the upcoming rededication and cultural event. I´m so excited that you all get to watch it. Anyways, there really isn´t much to write about because we spent most of our time at the temple this week. We are so so blessed to be able to go the House of the Lord so often. I took for granted the oppurtunity to go each week in the MTC. I miss being able to feel so close to the Savior. Remember how lucky we are to have temples and remember to go OFTEN. I love you all and hope all is well. Sorry this is so short, keep emailing!

News from Mexico

Hey,
Mom I am so happy to hear that Riley will be home by Christmas, and that Tylar got to be baptized. But I´m especially happy to hear that the Eagles won yesterday!!!! No I´m just kidding. Thanks for letting me know, I love to hear everything that´s going on. That´s awesome that you guys will get to see the rededication of the temple and the cultural event! It´s going to be so awesome. All the missionaries from like 6 missions are going to sit in 2 sections of the stadium and we´re all going to sing (don´t know what song). And we´re all going to receive special Mexico City East Mission ties and handkerchiefs (?). So it should be really cool. We don´t get to go to the rededication but we´re all going to watch it in the stake center. But I´m super excited that you guys can see it because it is gonna be sweet. This week we´re going to be working in the temple for the open house so that should be fun. My companion has been quite interesting lately. He does a lot of things that bug the heck out of me; but it has actually been a blessing because I can´t tell you how much patience I have developed = ). There is a section in Preach My Gospel about developing Christlike attributes and it says that we can´t do that without the help of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And that is one thing I have really gained a testimony of this week. When I just react before I think about what the Savior would do I end up being rude and hurting my relationship with my companion. But this week I have learned that I need to stop and think, and then act. The Savior blesses me with feelings of love and patience for my companion. Sorry that I don´t have much time, I have to go get my haircut because we´re going to be working at the temple this week. I love you all and hope all is well at home. Sorry this is so short. Love, Rees P.S. Dad when I read about you crashing on your bike I was surprised that I wasn´t laughing. My heart has definitely been softened. I hope you didn´t break any bones in that old body. = ) JK Love you dad.

Homecoming Week

Homecoming was this week for O'Connor High School. Rhegan had a fun week decorating the school, practicing cheers and dances, and dressing up for the dance. Her friend, Hunter, did something cute for her everyday!! Thanks Hunter!!!

I Love Mondays!!!

I love Mondays because I get to hear amazing experiences from Rees!!! A special thank you to those who e-mail my boys!!!

Here is his letter: the dangerous part in the letter was a shooting near his apartment!!!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thank you all for the great emails. I love hearing from everyone and how everything is going. Sorry I can´t email everyone cuz I can only email family but I´ll try and throw in answers to some questions from everyone. This week was great. We got to baptize 3 people! Hector, Alexis, y Areli. It´s been amazing to see the changes in people´s lives. We are so blessed to be members of this Church. So ya, it it pretty dangerous, dad you said that Tracee told you about those two things. It´s not like horrible, only in some areas. Me and another american (our zone leader) did divisions the other day and the people didn´t seem to like that much. We knocked a ton of doors and everyone was super rude. They were all tellin us to go back to our country and to quit lying to the people here. But normally they are super super nice and always give us water and let us teach them. But ya, that day I didn´t feel very safe cuz two americans working together here isn´t the greatest idea, but it all went ok. O ya, I bought a really cheap watch, just in case we got robbed that day = ). But we didn´t, so now I have another watch. Ya I But ya, everything is going good. Friday we organized a family home evening for all the members. We had a couple baptisms and we made a little video for everyone to laugh at, and then we all ate tacos. We bought a ton of meat from the taco guys by our house and they were freakin good. It was super fun and I think all the members liked it. The ward here is awesome (well we have two wards). The members are so nice and so friendly. They feed us lunch everyday and always help me with the spanish. And in return I help all their kids with their english homework = ). That´s always fun. The retention here isn´t so great. That´s definitely one of the biggest problems. Missionaries are good friends with their investigators and are always helping them come to church and to activities, but when the missionaries change areas, the people stop going because they don´t get visits every week. So it´s definitely a challenge. The thing you have to think about is how you can teach them to rely on the Lord now. How to learn from the Book of Mormom and rely on the Spirit. Because when you leave, they need something to help them, and it needs to be the Lord. That´s definitely something I need to do better at, teach people to rely on the Lord and be independent. The people here are amazing I am so blessed to be able to work with them and learn from them. They are very different than us, but they are great. I love you all and hope everyone is doing good. I gotta go, sorry I don´t have time to write more. Love you all! O, tell Jules I got her photos and thank you! O, and the dear elders take about the same time as normal letters, so just do those cuz I´m sure it´s much easier.