Finding

Hey Braden,

How are things going? Was was your big meeting with Elder Bednar? 

So I'm sending your package tomorrow, I know I said I'd send it last week but never got to it.  Also, I keep forgetting to get your sunglasses out of your car. and when I think of it, the car is at dad's work. 

Things that happened last week. Ethan went to the ortho and had to have part of his gum cut off so his tooth will come in. His mouth was sore for a few days. But his teeth are looking so much better. He is loving Karate and of course school. The new semester started and he comes home and tells us what happened in each of his classes. At least he isn't bored.

Zach took the driving test on Thursday in school and finds out tomorrow if he passed. If he did-off to the DMV for his drivers permit. I'm a little (a lot)scared! And it just hit me that he will be old enough to date in a few months-wow-now i'm scared and nervous.

Paige asked a boy to the sweet hearts dance- I'm sure she'll tell you all about it. If not ask her too. She is still looking for a job.  She applied to BYU and BYU Idaho. We'll see if she gets accepted.

Parker got roller skates for Christmas and uses them all of the time-to go to school, to friends, even friends just across the street. uses we need to go to Classic skating again so he can show off.

Hope is full of ideas and planning camp outs and vacations. Her new favorite game is murder in the dark. Even though she says it scares her a little. She gets all of us playing sand it is so hard not to laugh cause she says the funniest things when she is the murderer and we know exactly where she is. She told the boys after she killed me, "boys, run for your lives"! She is getting better at playing though.

I am actually feeling a lot better. Still not recovered fully though. I started taking the allergy drops instead of the shots-trying to get over all of these sinus infections.  They didn't tell me until I got to my first appointment that for now on, I get to carry EPI pens with me at all times incase I have a severe reaction at home.  I even got a trainer pen to practice with. I made all of the kids (minus Hope) learn how to give them to me just incase. What joys! NOT!!

Anyways, I have rambled for a while, so I better let you go---

Oh, but first I have to tell you. President Spencer got a new baby girl this week.  The birth mother decided just three weeks ago that she wanted them to be the adoptive parents. They are real excited and tired because of no sleep. Hope now thinks that she needs a baby. Not gonna happen.

Take care and pray often.

Love you so so much, MOM

Sounds like a lot of stuff is happening! I dont understand Ethan and i dont think i ever will WHO LIKES SCHOOL SERIOUSLY!!!! sure its fun for the first few days but after you realize that you really dont like it at all. Sounds like he went through a lot of pain, The dentist of the mission came and cleaned a lots of our teeth. lucky for me i didnt have to :) :)  Wait Zach took the test again!! OH NO!! RUN!!! Lucky for me im on the other side of the world! i dont he can get me now HAHAHA! He will never be old enough to Date are you kidding me haha jk! that is scary though. Paige never emailed me shame on that girl i will have to yell at her. at least parker is putting use into his christmas gift. Hope is so funny haha. she makes me laugh that one does. So i found out that Star Wars 7, 8, and 9 are coming out CANT WAIT!!! i wonder how they are going to continue the story though. (it comes out 2015, the year i get home) Sounds like you get to carry needles around not fun!! i think i had enough of those just to come here to africa....im not kidding.  how many kids do the spencers have now? 3?  Elder Bednar was a BLAST!! he made the meeting into a conversation which was awesome unfortunately we didnt get to meet him up close. besides that it was awesome! Thngs are going slow here and we have a lot of finding to do.

How was your week?  How was the meeting with Elder Bednar? Any interesting stories?

The week went by pretty fast. I had to go to my allergy specialist to see if he could do anything for my sinus infection. Now I get to do a sinus rinse 3 times a day with guess what in it---baby shampoo. Sounds strange but hopefully it works. Oh and also a steroid.  My allergist is by grandparent R's house and so Granda watched Hope while I went and then we visited for a while. Now Hope wants to go back. She also wants to go to Grandparent E's. The kids have Monday off of school for Martin Luther King day and so Hope got the idea that we should go to Arizona on Monday. She was sad when we told her that we needed more than 1 day to visit  Hope also has the idea that we need to go to a hotel with the big letter H on it. Remember we stayed at the Holiday inn on the way back from Arizona? I don't know how she remembers but she does. We told her that we might stay at a hotel for spring break. Now she is counting the months and already packing a suit case.

The other kids are doing well. Busy with school work and friends.

My talk went well today. I had to kind of expand my talk because the youth speaker didn't show up. Of course I was nervous, I always am, but to make things worse, President Spencer showed up for the meeting at the last minute. Glad that it is over.

Paige had an appointment with President Bunnel today. He asked her to speak at the youth fireside that they have for Stake Conference. So now she is the next one to speak in the family. When she got home she was saying "really? out of all of the Young Women the choose Me?. She'll do a great job though. She always does.

Hope things are going well for you.

Love ya lots, MOM

When you don't feel like praying, pray until you do.

MOM,

so now your breaking the word of wisdom SHAME ON YOU!! Just Kidding!!!  Hope is a funny one indeed!!! and has a very good memory when it comes to that kind of stuff. paige will do well with her talk

Transfer to Ntinda

 Hey, what is your new area called? It is neat that you get to be with
someone you knew at the MTC. I never did. Do you have to walk as much in
 your new area?I am looking for a good priced quad to send to you. I bought
 you some new socks since you sent the picture of what yours look like. Hope went to her first dance lesson this week and enjoyed it. She wants to go more than once a week :( guess she'll just have to practice at home. Ethan started Ti kwon do this week also. He loves it and picks up on things pretty fast. They speak Korean when they do it, so he has to learn a little of it. In order to get his next belt he has to do chores at home, get good grades or improve them and do 3 book reports besides the things he has to learn in class. I don't think it will be very hard for him. He loves to read and is getting good grades. Parker is still taking piano lesson's but doesn't practice very much. Somehow he passes of the songs each week and gets new ones. Paige is applying for BYU but is kind of thinking of going to UVU until her mission. She and a friend went out and applied for a few different jobs on Saturday. I guess she is running out of spending money. Zach is having a rough time in school right now, or maybe he just needs to work harder so he can get better grades. Dad has made a deal with him that if he gets good grades that he will buy him a better computer-since we aren't buying him a car for his 16th birthday.(cause he can drive which ever one is available) Dad is still driving yours most of the time.We got some more snow and Parker and Hope tried to build a snowman, well Parker would roll them and Hope would smash them-so no snowman.I had Stake Relief Society training for all of the wards in the stake. It went pretty well, I think. And thankfully we only have to do one a year.Hope all is we'll with you? Prayers and Hugs!!Love Mom

I got Transferred to Ntinda Its more a city that where i was. in fact
if you wanted to compare the 2 places i have been you could say my
first area was a Jungle and the place i am now is a HUGE CITY!! How
are things going? I get to see Elder Bednar that is cool I cant
wait!!!


---My email didn't go through last night, however, it all turned out good. I got on to check Braden's reply and he was still on. So we chatted back and forth and I resent the email and he got it that time.  He is excited because President Bednar is coming this week.  The have a few investigators but are working on mostly the inactive this week.  

this is what he said when I told him I loved him and to take care.
"You getting off? i still have 1 hour"
Uhm, I need to go-I'm supposed to be teaching preschool right now. (Kids in other room playing) Wish I could have stayed on longer. Hope I catch him next time.

Another transfer

On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 6:55 PM, Traci Erickson

Braden,

How are things going? Did you get transferred?  

The pictures you sent were great-except for the big yucky spider. Although, some of the kids thought it was cool.  I can't believe your shoes actually look like that. They were supposed to last along time. Oh well, guess they weren't as good as the man told us.  

I found a new pair of pants that you left behind, so I will send them in the next package. Not sure when that will be. Let me know if you think of anything else you want besides your sunglasses and food and a quad.

Not much has happened this week. Just hanging out, relaxing and having fun. 

School starts again tomorrow. I kind of wish we had a few more days. It has been nice to wake up late and just take it easy.  Ethan and Hope are excited about going back.  Break messed up Hope's schedule and she is getting grumpier every day. So, it will be good for her to get back in the normal routine.  Ethan had home work over break and he did it all yesterday.  I still don't understand why teacher's do that.

Send us a picture of the giant lizard. The kids want to see it. 

Shirt sizes are….dad xx large, mom women's medium, Paige women's x small or small, Zach mens small, Ethan and Parker boys size 10-yes they are almost the same size now.  And Hope a kids  8.

 This week I get to help teach the Stake Relief Society training  class.  I think it should go pretty smooth.  I found out at a Stake meeting that I am schedule to speak in Sacrament meeting 3 times in different wards this year. To bad the themes are different every month so I just can't give the same talk 3 times. Oh well, maybe I get use to speaking again.

Love ya, MOM

Convert yourself and then convert others.

Things are going good, i did get transfer new and i will be leaving Gulu! My new companion is my Brother from the MTC which is awesome!!! I cant wait. so I have another Picture of a spider for you that you may or may not like unfortunately i am unable to send the picture from the place i am emailing today. Yeah its sad the shoes didn't last very long. So i have bad news about sending The Uganda Shirts to you, i went to the post office to see how much it would cost to send the package and they want $200 USD  worth of money maybe i will  see if i can get a better price at the new area i am going to but  if not then you might just have to wait till i get home :(