8/29/22

Dear Ruth- 

I’m trying to buy your coat but it’s not letting me so I’m going to call and see if that works. It won’t. I called and they said no. BUT you can use our credit card to buy it up in Canada. Which seems like the same thing to me. *sigh* I did get a promo code though that will take ten dollars off your order: 8pxd-n5m5

:::Still waiting for your p-day letter home:::

So Adeles signed me up to teach the younger young women how to make bread and that’s what we did last night for mutual. It worked out OK though because I was supposed to make loaves of bread and pigs in the blanket for the daddy daughter dance this evening at the church for Elinors activity day girls. Altogether we made enough bread to bake 21 loaves and I was in the kitchen baking from 6 PM to 1:30 AM. It was a long day. I rewarded myself with some marked down brie cheese that I got the last time I was at the grocery store . It tasted like marked down cheese. Actually that makes it sound like it was gross it didn’t have a flavor it tasted cold. Maybe I should buy myself some legit brie cheese one of these days. 

Do you feel like a mermaid skeleton would have a pelvis? We sell one at work and it’s got a pelvis. It looks weird. I just read an article, and by article I mean meme, that quite reasonably stated that Ariel probably crapped her pants at least once on that first day. AND that Eric couldn’t speak to animals like she could so those two minutes of Kiss the Girl must have been quite troubling. True as well. 

We took Neil out to a sashimi place for dinner last night where they cook the food right at your table for you and then flip food in your mouth and all sorts of silly stuff was super yummy. But I got a text from Liam about halfway through our dinner with a picture of Trudy. He said somethings wrong with Her. Her eyes were all squinty and she was laying there like a lump I don’t know what her problem is. Neil said that she was in his room eating Rollo‘s and Orson said she was in the backyard eating ant killer but she’s also got a huge amount of weeds on her side of the door doggie door  so she might just be having an allergic reaction to the weeds I gave her some Benadryl she seems OK just her eyes are swollen. she is drinking chicken broth fine and seems like herself other than her eyes bothering her. AND I really do think she’s pregnant so that’s good. 

Will you forward Maggie’s farewell to me? I want to add it to the pictures of her on that day and also on the day she was set apart in your mission blog. I have the audio version of her talk below you can listen to. 

Love you! Miss you! mom

Maggie gave her farewell talk on 8/28 and later that evening we went to her open house. 

I asked Elinor who she would be more sad about leaving, Ruth or Maggie. She said she couldn't decide. 

Neil and Orson tag-teaming being punks. 

To Maggie:

Oh my heck I loved reading it!! I read most of it while driving between the two towns I'm over on Friday and the rest of it this morning!! I loved how you focused on trusting the Lord and allowing Him to guide your path because I have been studying that exact thing for like a month straight. Humility and meekness and trusting God to direct you in ways that will be of most benefit to you and those around you takes a lot of faith. And it takes a lot of courage too! In Joshua 1? God tells Joshua to have faith and great courage like four times and in Jeremiah 18 verse 6 (one of my fav verses) It talks about God working with us as a potter works with clay and clay is funny because it can have so many different properties just like people. 

Sometimes, the clay is too soft and needs to be left to dry for a bit, which might feel like abandonment or not getting the answers we want. 

Sometimes, the clay is too hard and has to be wedged or kneaded till it is plastic and workable enough to be used, which can feel like too much change all at once or even like trial after trial keeps hitting nonstop. 

Sometimes, the clay has gone bone dry and must be left to rehydrate in a bucket of water which could feel like drowning in sin or confusion or fear or whatever else is distracting us from Christ. 

Sometimes,  clay remembers how it was shaped before it was turned into a beautiful vase or a sturdy mug or a dependable dinner plate, and it bends or cracks or explodes in the kiln. It forgets The Creator's hand and breaks in the heat of Satan's traps. 

We all have to go through the process of becoming. We all have to go through life becoming more and more like Christ, like God, as we make and keep new and old covenants, as we continue to put our faith in Him and trust that He knows what He is doing. 

Sometimes, the piece does make it through the process of building, bisque firing, glazing and glaze firing. Most pieces come out a bit cracked or slightly misshapen and sometimes the glaze doesn't look exactly how it was supposed to, but those who stayed strong and trusted The Creator have become what He intended them to be: perfected and exalted beings able to dwell in God's presence for all time and eternity with our family all around us. 

Sorry that got rambly. Can you tell I just finished personal study? Anyways I loved your talk and that pic is so he king cute and also my mamma Makin Neil give you a real hug lol!

I wish I could give you a hug too!! I miss you and I can't wait for you to start home MTC!! 

Love Sister Evans <3

9/4 Maggie was set apart as a Missionary!

9/5 Ruths Second P-day but at the river with all the cousins and Aunts and Uncles.

Elinor and Dad twinning as they try to figure out the theft from Ruth's account. While trying to buy a winter coat the transaction wouldn't go through at the same time Dad found out that someone had spent $1500 at a best buy in Milwaukee and then the next day another $800. So. Rude.