Christmas phone call

Braden told us that he would call us about 8 a.m. our time.  Everyone waited around anxiously.  Paige started carrying the phone around with her.
The phone rang about 8:20 and everyone gathered around. Everyone got to talk to Braden for a few minutes-except Loren- and the phone started beeping.  We waited for Braden too call back. Thank goodness for caller ID-we called him back.  Somehow, Braden paid for 40 minutes of talk time but only really got about 8.
We put the phone on speaker and talked to him and asked him questions about his mission.

He loves Africa and meeting new people.  His companion right now is a native and not very talkative, so it makes for long days of tracking.  They got to stay in Christmas day and they watched movies.
He has worn out all 3 pairs of shoes we sent with him.  Even his expensive ones from ZCMI that were supposed to last a long time.  So he found some nice ones there and bought them.
He has seen many giraffes and thousands of lizards.  He said that he got a picture a 5 foot lizard. But he didn't send it to us yet.  He has seen a few HUGE spiders.
He built him a rock man for Christmas, since there isn't any snow.  He told us that there is a tribe there that speaks almost the same language as on the Lion King! Ya know-acoona ma tatta.

He told us that he gets up at 6:30 every morning. And they go out about 10:00 and have to be in by 9:00 p.m.. the first house in their area is about 3 miles away. And the walk at least 12 miles a day.

Here are some pic's

Bad hair day...

Sorry i dont have a picture of how tan i am it doesnt show well on the camera.

I had to send the pictures using my own email.

See This is what happens to my shoes.

What happens to my socks

The New Shoes.

Yeah

On 12/30/13, Traci Erickson 
  Braden, It was so great getting to talk to you on Christmas Day! It was
 good to hear your happy voice and know that you still tease people. It is
 amazing that you have worn out that many pairs of shoes already. But I guess
 you do, do a lot of walking. I hope that now Christmas is over it will be
 easier to find more people to teach. For some reason the holiday seems to
 make it harder.Are you doing anything fun for the New Year? Do you have to
 stay in? Paige is jealous that you get to watch movies. It would have been
 nice on my mission to help pass the time on the days we had to stay inside.
 Paige is also jealous of her friends that got to Skype with their
 missionaries. I told her to just be grateful that we got to talk to you. Her
 response,"I know, I know". When we hang up after talking to you, booth Paige
 and Zach hugged each other and jumped up and down. It was quite a sight-wish
 I had my camera handy. When Zach realized Christmas eve,that you got to
 call for Christmas, he was very excited. It is great to see how much the
 kids want to be involved with your work and what you are doing.I have been
fighting a sinus infection and have been missed out on all kinds of things
 this Christmas. I didn't make to to the Christmas eve party at the R's. The
 rest of the family went. In stead of dressing up for the Story of
 Christ-Grandma made shadow puppets that the kids got to hold up in front of
 a light for the big shadow. I'm sure it was easier than dressing everyone
 up. She even sent a set home so we can do it here. I haven't made all of
 the goodies that we usually do. Dad got ambitious and made chex mix. It
turned out good. The younger kids have spent a lot of time playing with
friends. Okay, I guess the older ones to but we better call it hanging
out.Zach gets to talk in church on the 12th. And I get to talk in the 2nd
 ward with the dry council. How fun for me. (Maybe, we'll see how it goes.)I
 ran into Bro. Cop at church today and he asked how you were doing. And told
me to tell you HI.Love ya lots, MOM Remember to have JOY in the Journey!



 its "Red Tell" or something like that.

Teasing people is fun haha :) Yeah i have done a lot of walking i
would send you some pictures but i dont know if i can the computer is
slow today :( We dont really do anything fun for new years we are just
told to return to our house a few hours early so that we dont get
mixed in with all the stuff that will be happening. why was paige
jealous? haha. I would have been able to Skype for a little but by the
time we got back to the house the couple missionaries were a sleep and
so we didnt get to use the computer. but maybe on mothers day?! but if
you want to do that youre going to have to send me your skype
information and im going to have to remember mine....haha jk i think i
remember mine. Really i wish you got a video of that it would have
been very funny to see zach and paige doing that.

You need to get better soon!! Sounds like you will have fun giving
talks though in church.

If you havent already sent that package yet it would be really great
if i could get a 2nd set of scriptures a quad if possible, (the new
one) and a case to put it in. the case i have is starting to fall
apart and some of the pages in the scriptures i have are starting to
get loose. and maybe a tie or 2, WITH FOOD :) :) Thanks :)

calling for Christmas

I will be calling you probably around 8 am if i can 8 am for you not me it will be 6 pm for me. but dont hold me to that i have to use one of the other elders sim cards because i couldnt get mine in time. The mission pres. only wants us to talk for no more than 40 mins so i will buy enought time for 40 minutes max. I have you numbers in my planner so i dont forget. Sounds like Hope is having a hard time with me being alway poor girl. I want to send a christmas package but i need to finish pulling things together. and then i am going to be fearing the shipping price oh well....it will be worth it. Sounds like you had a lot of fun with the missionaries there. and some with hope. I hope everyone gets feeling better befor christmas. Burning no but hot yes!!! maybe i will try to send some of the heat to you :) haha. No we havent found anymore people to teach but we are still working hard. and No again my companion is still silent he talks very little.

On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 4:44 AM, Traci Erickson

How are things going? A few questions while I'm thinking of them…

Are you calling us on Christmas or do we call you? If we call you, we need your number.  If you call us here are numbers…801-847-5845 house phone. 801-400-7598 my cell. 801-922-0260 dad's cell.

What time to call works best for you. We will make sure to be awake!!

The Zone conference, was actually a mission conference-the Provo Utah mission.  Elder Arnold from the general authorities was there. He even came in the kitchen and talk to us for a while. Funny guy.  We had tons and tons of food. And sent the left overs home with the ZL's to hand out to all the missionaries.

Cute little Hope, thought that you were going to be there. Poor girl almost cried when I reminded her that you were far away in Africa.  Some cute Sister missionaries took Hope under their wings and helped her get her lunch and had her sit by them to eat.  Hope told everyone that would listen that her brother was a missionary in Africa. 

The lunch was a success but next time we do it, we are going to get a committee to help. Especially with clean up. It was a lot of work but worth every minute of it.

So, the yucky stomach flu made it through the whole family. Even Paige and Zach got it.  I took Hope and myself to the doctors on Tuesday because I could tell I still had a sinus infection. Hope has had a cough and stuffy nose for about 2 weeks. They put both Hope and myself on antibiotics. Lucky me, got a shot in the butt of antibiotics. The doctor said I needed a dole dose because I have been sick for way to long.  Guess what? Hope is feeling better, me, not so much. But hopefully I'll get over this stuff soon.

The temperature finally made it above freezing and today we got more snow. I will get a picture for you.  The roads are very slick because it rained and then froze.  Cars have a hard time getting up our street. I even got stuck once and had to back, back down the road and go around the block the other way to get home. Crazy weather.

So, are you burning up from all the nice warm sun?  Right now, I would love some.  Have you found anymore people to teach? And have you got your companion talking yet?

I'm sure I will think of more later.

Keep up the hard work-We all love you and pray for you daily!

Love, mom

Cooking

Yeah the weeks are going by really fast its hard to believe myself! Yeah it got better the same day, its funny how fast i get better from stuff like that and illness. Speaking of illness how is Zach, Hope, and Parker doing? did they get better? Yeah cooking is a lot of fun when we have the time to cook, i am trying to decide what i want to make for Christmas. My companion is very talkative just not when we are working i dont know i guess he just is day dreaming or thinking about something to hard. I would send some movies to you guys because they are really cheap here but i fear they would not make it to you because they are what the states would call Legally copied...So i cant do that. maybe i will buy you all a uganda shirt but those are sorta expensive to buy. We have found another family to teach that is good, this week are are going to go finding a lot more so hopefully that pays off.  You should send pictures of the snow so i can print off some pictures. It sounds like you are going to have a White Christmas! lucky you! i know i wont :l   I love food! i still have some left from the package you sent with the camera the Mac and cheese is good i only have 1 box left of that but it has helped a lot.  i want to make cookies for my district but i cant find some of the ingredients so i am looking around but i have no idea on how i am going to get the chocolate chips...Might just have to go with out them.  Alright i will give it to my comp if i have the same comp he will love it because he enjoyes playing them the really beat up ones i have right now.  anything exciting going on? how is the lights coming on at 6 going for the 2 older ones?

Dear Braden,

Wow, I can't believe that it has been another week already.  How are you doing? Did your stomach get better?

Good thing you know how to cook or Thanksgiving dinner might have been a disaster. 

Be patient with your companion, it may just take him awhile to warm up.  I had a comp that only had a few months left on her mission and she was still so shy that she still was uncomfortable teaching the discussions.  I was impressed that she actually made it through her whole mission with as shy and nervous as she was. Have you found any more people to teach. This time of year is always hard. My comp and I set a goal to just step inside someones house it was so hard. Hope you are having better luck than that.

So we got a snow storm with big snow drifts and it blocked your car in by the fence, so dad took his car to work one day. Later that day, I got the snowblower working and dug it out.  Saturday it snowed all day an into the night and more crazy snow drifts up to 3 feet high.  Luckily, dad got up early and dug us all out so those that weren't sick could go to church.  Hope, Parker and Zach all stayed home ill, each with something different. Hopefully they are all better tomorrow.

I just found out that The Stake Relief Society is in charge of lunch for the Provo Mission Zone conference next week.  We sent lists around all of the wards for people to help out with food.  We are putting the missionary mom's in charge of making desserts.

The lady that called from the mission home requested that we have 14 long tables for the lunch and training.  Funny thing, our new stake center only has 2, the rest are all round. So, some men in the high council are going to borrow some from the other buildings. We will see what we come up with. We have sister missionaries serving in our area. They asked for people to sign up for meals to feed them but it must have gotten filled up because it never made it to me.:( Oh well, maybe next time. Keep up the good work and enjoy the things around you. 

Love you, Mom

P.S. when you get the next box, it has Christmas gifts in it. Give one to your comp. so he doesn't feel left out. One the size of a card game-there are a few in there.

Smile, it make people wonder what you have been up too.

Thanksgiving

Hello Braden,

I can't believe that it has been another week already. I hope that you are doing well. Was the turkey we saw in one of your pictures, your Thanksgiving dinner? Good to see that you still get to do American traditions.  How was your Thanksgiving, by the way?

We went to Teri's and Mike's this year. There were about 26 of us. Grandparent R's made it. Rob and Chris were both there. Which was a miracle in itself. They usually have to work or just don't show up. There was also Cody and his family, Pat and Tina with the 2 youngest boys and Teri's kids and her grandkids. Oh ya, Aaron and Rikki and their baby came also.  All the men watched ball downstairs-the kids played and the women finished the food and worked on our service project for the year. I know Dad mentioned it to you earlier.  So here is what we are doing.  We are making dresses for the girls in Africa. WE are also collecting dress clothes for the boys.  I thought it would be nice for your investigators or new baptized families to have something to wear to church.  If you don't think that is a good idea, you can give them to the bishop or Branch President  to give to people that may be in need. I won't be sending them until January sometime.  We need time to finish everything up first.

The kids had 3 days off of school, plus the weekend so getting everyone up and out the door will be a challenge tomorrow. Hope probably won't know what to do being the only kid home again.

Dad got switches installed in all of the bedrooms and has programmed them to turn on automatically in each room when the kids should be getting up each morning.(Aren't you glad you aren't here...hehe). Tomorrow is the first trial. We'll see what happens and what the kids all have to say about it. I'm sure Dad will tell you all about it.

Dad and Zach put up Christmas lights. I know, kind of a miracle in it's self to get them up so early.  And it was even warm weather.

I'm finished with all of the ward conferences now. I can take it easy for a few weeks which will be nice. Preschool is going good. The kids make me laugh aver day about something silly or some strange thing they come up with. Like one girl is only afraid of LIVE dinosaurs. Guess we need a lesson on them next.

How are things going? Are you getting along with your new companion? Any baptisms? How is the finding going?

Prayers and HUGS coming your way.

Love you, MOM

Sounds like you had a fun time at teri's and mikes. The picture was just a meal that my old companion and i made. so its wasnt anything really special. the thanksgiving dinner was great we had to help the couple missionaries make a lot of the food because there was about 30 people coming and the kitchen is just not big enough to cook for that many people. but we have 3 kitchens (the couples, ZL house, our house) so it made it easier. it was still a lot of cooking. the food turned out really good and we got a lot to eat, i dont think i have eaten so well here before and that turkey made me extremely tired so i went to bed about a hour and a half early which i have no problem with at all :) Dad sent me a picture of the Christmas lights on the house looks like there is still a lot more to put up. Yes i am glad that i am not home with those lights coming on at 6 in the morning, i think if i was still home i would be sleeping under my blanket so i don't know when the lights come on haha :) im sure dad is going to get a yelling at from the others though. Little kids are really fun to be around and they are extremely funny. Things are going well here, I think i ate something that was bad so my stomach is a little upset with me today but hopefully i will be better tomorrow.  My companion and i are getting along well, he is really quiet and does not talk much at all so i end up doing most of the talking. Unless i stop talking and turn and look at him he won't say a thing until the very end. i guess this is what it would be like training, i guess, but he is not a trainy he is about 10 months on mission, so i think he hit his wall of im tired of this, but who knows. we did have one baptism 2 weeks ago but that was it. we are hoping to have 2 with in the next week or so. Finding is IMPOSSIBLE!!! we went looking and didn't find anyone for 4 hours so we went and got a few less active lessons in since it would be bad if we came home with 0 lessons.

Dear Elder,

Well, we had thanksgiving dinner (actually lunch) at Teri's house this week.  There were a little less than 30 people there.  We got to see some of my cousins that we haven't seen in a while.  Chris was there.  It always strikes me how similar the two of you look to each other.  I think everyone got plenty to eat and most everyone slept on the way home.  

I put the Christmas lights up right after Thanksgiving for once.  It's not much but it's all I had the energy for.  I am attaching a picture, so I hope it comes through for you. As far as the internal lights go, so far I have replaced about 15 switches with the fancy ones from work.  I've programmed the porch lights to come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise.  The Christmas lights come on at sunset too and turn off at midnight.  I also programmed the kids bedroom lights to gradually come up to full brightness over 10 minutes starting at 6am for the older kids.  We'll see how they like that!  :)

I'm glad you got your Christmas box.  There's another one coming I think with some of the other stuff you requested.  I hope you don't binge all that american food down at once!  Please let us (and Grandma E) know when you get her box as well.  There might be some more treats in there for you (and she spent a small fortune sending it)!  :)

I hope this finds you in good spirits.  I am looking forward to the holidays, but I will miss having you around.  Work hard, be obedient and prayerful and you will find rich blessings this holiday season.  Sorry this is short, but it's late.  I love you and am so proud of you.  

Love, 

Dad

That sounds like you had a lot of fun, Chris and i look a like huh i never thought about that maybe we do i dont know i havent seen him a in a long time. I got the picture you sent looks like there is still more to do :) Thats cool about the inside lights though, it really does sound like a toy to play with haha. So whats your next toy you get to bring home? There is no way i could eat all that food at once, no matter how much i wanted to i just cant. I know i need to take my time eating it so it lasts long. the food here is alright but its starting to taste all the same to me now. I would like to eat some of the local food but due to some events here that have recently taken place i dont think that i will be eating anything like that for a few weeks or so. So i got a new companion he is a cool guy he is from south africa, he is really quiet i end up doing most of the talking but i dont really mind. 

I will let you and Grandma/pa know when the other packages get here, but i dont think i will be getting them for some few weeks because we just had transfers and thats almost the only time the ZL's go down to Kampala to get stuff.

This week has been normal for the most part not much really happend but thats normal for the first week of every transfer.