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.

More News from Elder Brown!

Here is another letter from Collin! Yeah!

First, my companion is named
Elder Greg Barkley. He is
from Florence Oregon. he is
a pretty good guy. he works
hard. and as for the
pictures i am taking pictures,
so dont worry. Next, here are
the names from my district.
10 are going to Dallas and 2
are going to Tuscon. Elder
Alley and Elder Marble
are going to Tuscon and they
are in the room with us.
Elder Alley is from Logan, Utah and Elder Marble is from South Jordan. Elder Thurgood is the funny one. He is from Richfield, Ut. His companion is Elder Krammer and is from Greeley, Co.
Elder Lewis and Elder Walker are both from Pocatello, ID. But they didnt know each other. Elder Lewis actually lived in Wyview last year, not far away from where i lived. Elder Peay is from Las Vegas and Elder Hatch is from Gilbert, AZ. He says he loves Pete's Fish and Chips. Elder Hatfield is from Payson, and he is the oldest at 22. His companion is Elder Stevens from Hyde Park, UT. He likes to dirtbike like me. Thats everyone in the district.

Just to reanswer some other questions, i am leaving September 1st. Thanks for the package. i needed the soap box thing. We heard about the dork dots thing too. 1 guys in our group saved his and went messing around. Thats good that spencer got to go to Legoland with nick and Aunt Mercedes, cause he didnt get to go with me and i know he really wanted to.

i will be out in the field on monday. its only in 5 days. its nuts. We have to be at the travel center by 5:00 in the morning, so my call might be kind of early. As for my ankle. it is doing pretty good. i got an ankle brace and i got to ride around outside the MTC, cause i went to the health center to get Xrays. just in case. Then we had to pick up someone from the UTah regional medical center, so we got to ride down there and got to see the outside world for a bit. Still havent found my retainer, still checking the lost and found. it was the same day i was getting sick and the same day i rolled my ankle, so there was a lot on my mind. we got to go to the Temple today, and that was really cool. We had this huge discussion one day about the fall and whether or not a transgression and a sin were the same thing. we eventually figured it out. We talk about this stuff when we are in the RC and are waiting for people to call in from the numbers off the calling cards. Its pretty fun when you do get them. i actually got one from Texas that i sent the missionaries too. I am pretty excited to get out there, but there is a lot more i need to learn. oh, and i met a sister here that is going to Finland and i told here about Alec and how it is in Finland. she knew where Espoo was, so that was pretty cool. And i met someone from Kari's hometown that knew her and i have met so many people from my BYU ward. I met 2 people in the bookstore that were working there. that was pretty cool.
Well, i love you guys all very much, and i hope that all of you do well in school.
Love you all.
Elder Collin Brown

News from Elder Brown!

I was just checking my emails and there was one from Collin at the MTC! YEAH! Here are some excerpts from his letter:

hey Family,
It is really great to hear from you guys. i love getting
letters.
       Yesterday was a big day. We went to the referral
center in the morning, and we really like that. We call
a lot of people and every once in a while we get an
answer. it is really cool. After that we had class and
an appointment at the TRC. We got to teach our first
lesson, and i think it went really well. i am soaking
up the lesson material pretty well. we have gone back
to the Referral center a couple times because we all
like it a lot. Then we had a devotional yesterday
kinda like we had at BYU. they are always on tuesdays.
We had Elder Dallin H. Oaks come and speak to us on
the spirit. it was wonderful. he is truly called of god.
And something Spencer might like, i always think of
Elder Oaks as one of those old super wise Jedi guys.
He seems like he could fit in that role just perfectly.
Oh and we went to the temple this morning. that was
very cool. Class is pretty cool. We have a lot of
study time. The food isnt too bad.
Gym is very cool, but it doesnt last very long.
Well, i guess i will finish here.

Love,
Elder Collin Brown

Not a whole lot but it's something!

Girls Camp, the details.

Girls Camp was held this year during a different week than our Stake was used to. Somehow it was changed from the week we've had for 30 years or so. We were not informed of the change until February. This was bad because a LOT of girls and their families had already scheduled their vacations and such. We thought the numbers would be really low but they weren't so bad. Anyway, we had a great group of YCL's that really did a great job. This year the stake leaders stayed in the cabins with the YCL's. That turned out to be really fun. We learned a lot about the girls and they probably learned a few weird things about us. We had a couple of trips to the hospital with sick leaders and those turned out okay. The YCL's added a trip to the lake this year which was a smashing success! They also did a hike which was much better than last years. It was well marked and well traveled. There were some geocaches on the trail and since we were bringing up the rear anyway Susan Finch and I did some caching. It was a fun hike. The best part of camp was the bear! He showed up on Monday, Thursday and Friday nights. Some girls actually saw the bear at the trash cans and a ward testimony meeting. They thought it was exciting as did we! I stayed up and saw the bear with Susan Finch on Friday night. It was great! We actually got more sleep this year than others because of the sleeping arrangements. The awards were changed from Saturday morning to another date so that we could clean up and leave as soon as possible. That was nice. We arrived home around noon. Great! A note about the picture. I somehow ended up taking it and the timer wasn't working so I cloned myself in later. Here it is.

To Lake Powell We Went

About the Lake Powell youth activity. In some meeting previous to going Rich said that one of us would go. He preferring that I go since he needed to work. I agreed. When we returned from our grand adventure I found out that I was going. This was the plan. Emily, Madelyn and I would go to the activity and on Wednesday Rich, Collin, Spencer and Melissa would head up to Page, rent a boat, drive up to see rainbow bridge and if they could, find our youth camp and visit us there then return to page. That's pretty much what happened except that when they found our camp the Bishop asked if he would stay and drive one of the houseboats back. He agreed. So they all stayed overnight with all of the youth. It was fun having them all there but a little weird. The activity was good and I think some of the youth really blossomed. We played some fun games, had great devotionals and scripture reading time. Had interesting conversations. It was good. Here's a picture of the whole group at Rainbow Bridge that I pulled off of The Greens Blog. Thanks. :)

Collin is in the MTC!

Sorry for the long hiatus from the blog but I've been real busy. I'll blog about each week individually later and give a quick update here. After we returned home from our trip it was a week of rest and then off to chaperon the youth activity at Lake Powell. It was great and an adventure as Lake Powell always is. Beautiful too! We didn't return home but went straight to Cedar City to drop off Emily and Madelyn at SUU for EFY. Spencer and Melissa went to Brian Head to stay with Aunt Ronda and crew and Collin and I headed to Provo to do some missionary shopping. We stayed with my good friend Sheila and had a blast. After all our shopping was finished we headed back to Brian Head and played around then went back to Cedar City to pick up the girls and head home. We had a day to wash our clothes and then we headed back to the mountains for girls camp! The most exciting news there was the regular appearance of a bear! The "no food in the A frames" rule was at an all time high for compliance. Yea! The stake YW president and I stayed up late on the last night just so we could see the bear and we were not disappointed! I thought he was rather big and no small puppy. I wasn't sure I wanted to get out of the car after I got a good look at him. After girls camp I had a week to rest, sort of. Spencer was off to scout camp and they needed another adult leader so Collin decided to go. He also needed to go through the temple before he left. Hmmmm...what to do? Here's what happened. Collin and Spencer went down to Fiesta Island which is located on Mission bay in San Diego. On Tuesday afternoon Collin left the camp and met Rich and I at the San Diego Temple and took out his endowments. We went to dinner afterwards then he went back to camp and us home. The next day he woke up and went back to the temple with all the scouts to do baptisms. How cool is that for he and Spencer? He came home late Wednesday night and we continued to prepare for his entry into the MTC. So now he is in the MTC and I'll post all the details later. It was GREAT and I loved it!

Home Sweet Home

We're home! Yay! We arrived home on July 4th around 5pm or so. Most of the family walked right in and climbed into bed and slept. Melissa, Rich and I stayed awake until about 7 and then laid down for a quick nap which ended up being a big sleep. Around 2 am I woke to find Emily and Spencer playing a game. I decided to do some laundry since I was awake anyway. Melissa soon joined us. By 4:30am everyone was up and now it's 8am and it feels like noon or so. Adjusting to the time change should be fun. Anyway, more later.

We made it to church!

We (at least I, Dana) were so happy to make it to church on Sunday. When we went in London, we were late so we missed the sacrament. In Visby, we couldn't find it despite our best efforts. So we weren't entirely sure we'd find it in Stockholm. Armed with the address and the map of the metro we set out. We had previously decided to walk the 3 miles but decided to take the metro because of time. It was all an adventure and we made it in time to hear the last of the opening prayer. There were headsets for those who didn't speak swedish so we all picked up a headset and true to the headsets in our building only about half of them worked. It was great to hear the talks but singing the music was the best. The sacrament hymn was "I Stand All Amazed" and like I said I was really grateful to be there partaking of the sacrament so I really didn't sing THAT song. I just sat there choked up. Still good though. Afterwards we spoke with these two sister missionaries both from Utah, Price and Hurricane. They were great and helped us figure out how we could get down to see the Stockholm Sweden Temple. This ward also had apair of Elders from Finland serving in it. I said something about the Youtube video of 2 Finnish young men opening their mission calls and the Sister missionary from Hurricane said that that missionary was currently serving in the mission and had gotten an investigator from the youtube video. WOW! That's pretty funny. Anyway, the rest of their meetings were sort of scattered and really casual because of summer. The best part was that they had refreshments afterwards! Yeah! Spencer was sooooo glad. Cookies after all that suffering! We then went back to the hotel, took naps (Rich & I), and then set off for the Swedish Temple. We found it with no problem then came home and it was a good day.