This weeks letter.

We received an email from Collin on Monday. Not a lot of news but some. My comments are italicized.

i got the package and the brownies are really good. They are! Thanks a lot. i cant remember or not if i signed up to vote absentee, so its good you are sending a form. none of the bike racks look like the one i have, but its not so bad so far. i would just like it because then i could put my backpack on it and my back wouldn't get sweaty. i will take a picture and send a cd in a little bit. the main problem with this is that the only walmart is 8 miles away and we dont have near enough miles to go there on pday. About that VOR, i have seen it. A VOR is a giant, bowling pin looking antenna for airplanes. when i did see it, i couldnt remember what it was called though. so thanks. we have been there a couple of times because members live up at a lake by there.
I told him in the last letter that Rich had purchased glasses.
Dad should be wearing glasses. Maybe he can get lasik or something, or maybe just reading glasses. squinting all the time just isnt fun. i got a postcard today. We send random postcards made from old family photos. I had to give a talk yesterday on how the gospel blesses families and Elder Conte didnt get to talk because there wasnt enough time. Apparently i took up 15 minutes. he said 20, but i disagree on the time i started. So that was good. I would have LOVED to have heard this!! have fun at Grandma and Grandpa's homecoming. they have some pictures. Got them a long time ago sunshine! tell me how jordan is holding up.
I love you all.
Love,
Elder Collin Brown

All the rest of us.

Lately I've only been posting news from Collin because we're all so excited when we receive a letter or email. But the rest of us have lives and you may be wondering what we are doing. Here goes. Rich has been busy with the office, being a father and 2nd counselor in the bishopric. Something really fun that he started doing this year is early morning tennis. When Emily, Madelyn and I leave for seminary he wakes up and gets Spencer and Melissa up and ready and off they go to play tennis until about 7. This has really helped in getting Spencer to go to bed earlier. I, Dana, am in my 6th(holy cow!) year of teaching early morning seminary. This year is a good group and so far it's been good and I really have no great regrets. It's still hard to get up and I still want to barf in the morning. The city of Rancho Mirage (Boo! Hiss!) put up a bunch of big fences at the different trail heads to fend off would be hikers. This trail is VERY popular here in the Coachella valley. I think the city would be more successful at holding back the tide than stopping the hikers. I've been doing this hike for about 7 years or so and many have been doing it longer. So what do you think the hikers did? They hike right around these fences. One barbed wire section went up and was clipped down before I ever even saw it.  We already knew the City of Rancho Mirage was pretty lame and this just confirms it. The unofficial city motto is "Welcome to Rancho Mirage, now get the he** out!" On with the next person. Emily is having a wonderful year so far and you can read her blog to find out more. She auditioned and was selected to perform the National Anthem at the homecoming game on Oct. 3rd. She is excited about that. I'll most likely post it here for viewing later. She has had a poem accepted to be published at something called Blazevox. I don't know if I even spelled that right. She loves all her classes. In her Spanish class she was given permission to perform her oral presentations set to music she writes. Her teacher LOVED her performance and looks forward to her next presentation. These songs tend to be funny as Emily is quite humorous. Madelyn is VERY busy. This is her life. Seminary, school, volleyball, homework, sleep. She throws an apple or something in there somewhere and manages to keep going. I hope she doesn't wear herself out and become real sick. Spencer is busy doing boy stuff. Tennis in the morning, homework, legos and scouts. He is learning that earning a merit badge on your own is a lot harder than doing it at scout camp. But you actually learn! Melissa spends about 1/3 of her life upside down. She is constantly doing handstands. If you've been around this lately you may have accidentally received a foot in the shoulder or face depending on how tall you are. It is habitual for her. Maybe I'll post a video of how many times she does it at home just when she's walking around. On the plus side, she's very good. Straight up, pointed toes, perfect most of the time. All is well with all of us and we hope it is with you.

News from Quitman.

Collin is in a small (2000 people) town in Texas named Quitman. Here is some of what's happening from his most recent emails.


We got permission from the mission president to use a member's computer to email
home because the library here in Quitman is closed on Monday. Kind of weird, but
thats how it is here in Quitman.
I dont know how much you heard about hurricane Ike. On Friday night we got
a call that the area authority had ordered all the missionaries to stay in their
apartments all day saturday. So we did. We barely survived. A tree fell on the roof
of our Apartment and the roof blew away in the 80 mph winds. it was crazy. we are
not sure what we are going to do now.

This had me freaked a little then I read on...


Just kidding. it was pretty boring. we still did have to stay in our apartment,
but nothing really happened here. not even any thunder or lightning. I doubt the
winds ever got over 30, probably less than that. and only 2 inches of rain. We didnt
even lose power. The only thing that i thought was cool was that halfway through
the day the wind and rain and clouds switched direction. everything was going west,
then it turned and went east. obviously because its a hurricane. still it was cool.
i just basically read Jesus the Christ all day. the storm was supposed to last longer,
and we were told to stay in on sunday as well. They changed that Sunday morning,
and we went out though we didnt really have any plans. Church was cancelled because
refugees could have stayed in the building though none did. We went to another nondenominational
service just to check it out. it was interesting.
So the weather wasnt bad. it was a lot worse in Houston and Galveston.
it was even worse in the mid west. and last i heard it was up by chicago. I dont
know. All i know is that i havent had a real storm yet.
So everything is going well. i got the screws you sent today. and i finally
got all the letters i had coming on saturday morning.
Oh, and i met with Grandpa and Grandma Shill on Wednesday. That was fun.
Did you know some people in the ward here used to live in Lehi. they are the Frazee's.
He is in the Bishopric. They got their temple recommends when they first went to
the temple from Otto Shill. that was cool to find out.
So right now we are teaching a spanish family. only their son speaks good
english, so we get by. it makes me wish i knew better spanish though. We are teaching
2 new guys tonight that we gave BoMs to. We are also teaching an old guy from Chicago
that was impressed with the church at Nauvoo back in the 60's. He seems really
interested, the only problem is that he just had an operation on his eyes and cant
read right now. So we have to wait a bit on that one. I am meeting a lot of people
and getting used to the humidity a little bit. it is cooling down, especially with
the storm.

So all is well but that first bit had me fooled for a bit though.