Kris

Just thought I would share a few mission stories from my brother Kristopher who is in California; they are pretty funny.

So myself Elder Bourne and Elder Gossman (my zl's last transfer) were walking on Pacific Ave in down town Santa Cruz when this fairly ripped dude with a sick mullet and a beater on ran up to us yelling at us.... hmm... I wasn't sure what to make of it at first but then he said "hey do you guys have one of them Mormon Bibles?" we all three looked around realizing that we had each already given all of ours out that we had carried with us that day... "Actually we don't, but we can get you one if you'd like. Oh and by they way, what was your name again?" "Oh hey I'm Michael (I don't remember his last name), what's going on guys?" "Nothing we're just out talking to people about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel." ... Then he stopped us all... "You know guys, that's me."... "What?"... "Yeah, I'm Jesus.".... "Oh really! Well what makes you say that?"...."Well my girlfriend keeps sayin I'm the son of God, and my WIFE told me that I should be nailed to a cross." ..... We all three busted out laughing at this point, but to be polite continued to listen... "I'm serious! All my life its been nothing but persecution, I go around doing good for people and all I get is persecution! I'm telling your I'm Him, I'm Jesus. Its crazy isn't it.".... so we at this point said "okay, well Jesus, where do you live and we'll bring the Book of Mormon to ya."....so he gave us a street name and that's it... so I asked him "well do you have a house number"... "No I live out of the back of my truck, I don't have a house." so we then said "ok we will get it to you see ya later!" While we were walking away Elder Bourne said that a lady had told him that often bums ask for Books of Mormon because they use the paper to roll their joints... apparently the thin paper works GREAT, and its free. Moral of the story, don't ever give out a Book of Mormon to a homeless guy on the street who says he's the real Jesus! No I'm just kidding, I figure that its up to them what they do with it, maybe they will learn the Plan of Salvation through osmosis!

One day Elder Vest and I were up in the mountains and we were waiting for Shannon, so we could teach her new member lessons. We were supposed to meet her outside of Chopstix, but she was no where to be found. So this bum walks up to us and starts talkin to us... oh great here we go! Well first off his breath was kickin... something NASTY! We talked to him of couse, gave him a BOM even. Then he started goin off about how he had all this power.... "I'M EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN JOSEPH SMITH!" that kinda urked me. So I asked him how. He then said that he was Elijah, walking the earth again with special powers, that his toes had all been cut off (which they had) and because of his power he could still walk! So I said "You've got all this power, so that must be why you live on the street then!" haha, he got kinda upset and screamed that the earth was his home, that when someone says where do you live he answers them ON PLANET EARTH! I'M AN EARTHIAN!... that was a bit odd, we quickly left and found Shannon! haha it was fun though. We also had a guy outside of a bar tell us that he was a prophet, and he saw through vision that soon aliens would come and take all of the righteous people off of the earth to another earth and all of the wicked people would be left on earth to be destroyed!

Connor

This post is mostly for my benefit so that I'll remember Connor's stats.
Connor is 6 months old, crawling all over, and just cut his first 2 teeth. So here is the run down on his growth-
Weight: 18# 2 oz (60%)
Height: 27" (70%)
Head Circumference: 161/2" (8%) I always think it's funny that my babies have tiny heads and big chubby bodies!

TEXAS

We had a really nice and relaxing trip to Texas over the last week and a half or so. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves riding horses, swimming, going to the lake, and just partying it up with the fam : ). We are such partiers (if that's a word); let me tell you. We did have a little shin-dig for my mom, dad, and Kinsey's birthday. Too bad my dad missed his own birthday party. We missed you dad!! Now I'm having a hard time kicking my butt back in gear and into our normal routine again. It's so nice to go visit my family because I don't have to cook, clean, or even get dressed if I don't feel like it. Sorry, mom, for being totally lazy on this trip. I really enjoyed myself though and it was fun to watch Kins interact with all of my little bros.


Every morning the first thing Kinsey wanted was to go see Ozzy the horse and Dakota the dog. She LOVES animals and loved every minute of being in TX with all the "pets".

Just thought I'd throw this in there for kicks bc she has some kind of fascination with this dora helmet and always wants to wear it.
I thought I'd let Connor have an oreo bc it was his 6m birthday... he really enjoyed it- as you can see!!

Daily Alarm Clock

Kinsey singing: " MOM! Wake up, it's not time for sleeping! The sun is not asleep anymore, it's time to get up!"
me: ugghhhhh, as she wakes up Connor who is in bed next to me by this point.
So I wake up and look at Connor who gives me the biggest grin his little mouth can form and smile. How can you not?

I have been worried for a while bc Kinsey wasn't wanting to pray with us as a family. Well, she finally got over that and now won't let anyone but her pray. It is really cute and also very humbling because she doesn't ask for anything only gives thanks; somewhat like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thanks for grandma and grandpa, thanks for Chance and Ashlyn, thanks for mommy and daddy, thanks for Heavenly Father and Jesus..... Amen"

I love that she is grateful for the people in her life before the things in her life. Yes, we are blessed and grateful for the things that make life more convenient, but isn't it the people we love who are really important and what really makes a difference in our lives? And ya, I did notice that I was fifth on her list of people.... the little stink.

HOORAY!

Look at my big man learning to sit up! I feel like his life is just flashing before my eyes! I do enjoy the stage though, when they can sit up and play but aren't quite mobile enough to destroy the house.What's going on here??
Thought I would share Kinsey's latest art work. I hope this isn't a premonition of what she will do to her body when she's a teenager ; ). As you can see from the background I was working out and pretty much let her do whatever she wants so I can get through my workout in peace. What can I say? All week Kins has been refering to her hands as if they were seperate entities from her body. Our dialog as she was coloring on herself:

"Mom, my hands are coloring on me."

me "Well make them stop."

Kins, "Stop hands!... Mooom, they won't stop coloring me up!"

Canning

Monday night we had an all nighter of canning 2500lbs of wheat, beans, and potato flakes. It was a lot of work but, we had a good time with Trav's family. We had a nice assembly line going and even Kinsey and her little cousins helped. Everyone worked really hard and it only took 4 hours! HA! It was a great family activity; I hope Kinsey remembers doing it-(fat chance of that happening). We are excited about getting our food storage put away now!! Man oh man do I have a lot of wheat to find places for. : ) I forgot how good it feels to do manual labor- it is so rewarding to see how much you can get accomplished after you work hard on something.

Holy crap that's a lot of cans!
Marisa, Trav's mom, Heidi, and Taylee

Marvilla and Grandma Twilla

Gratitude

For some reason every Sunday it is so incredibly hard to get out the door and make it to church on time. It really stresses me out so, I usually arrive at church a little bit grumpy. There is just so much chaos in the morning and to make it to 8:00 church is a struggle. We are always a couple of minutes late- which isn't even that bad but it is just a pet peave of mine. I love that I can go to church a little moody and always come home revived and happy. A big contributer to this is my husband. He is so good about helping with the kids during church on Sunday. I always get a little bit of a break from the kids because he will just kind of take over. Maybe just to get out of class... but it's good enough for me : ). Another reason I am always happier after church is primary. My junior primary class is definitly a challenge. I always have to keep it fun or I'll lose the attention in a split second, but they are so sweet. I love that we are starting to get to know eachother and they will talk to me outside of singing time. And when they do sing, it really is beautiful to hear their tiny little voices singing church songs. Senior primary is so much fun. They can really interact with me and joke around- I love it. I have one little girl who will just sing, "LA LA LA..." at the top of her lungs even if she does know the words. It's so funny because she really gets into it! Her face gets into all of these contortions... she's so cute. Anyway, I'm just grateful that I belong to the church I belong to and always come home refreshed and happier.