More pictures-yeah & a baptism

April 27 '14
Hey, how are things going, Braden?

If I had seen that you were still on last time, I would have chafed with you. :( Sorry I missed it.  But I am looking forward to mother's day.

Do you still have 2 companions or back to normal now? Tell us about your investigator's.

These last week was busy.  Paige got asked to Senior Prom on Monday and the Prom was Saturday.  We went dress shopping for her on Tuesday and she really didn't like anything at the first place.  We talked about renting a dress but since it was so close to prom ( 4 High School's in the area had prom the same night) we didn't find much.  We ended up buying her a dress and the place hemmed it for her.  She went with a group of 18 and had a blast.

Monday for family night we planted the veggy garden and Dad and Zach staked the new tramp into the ground. They also dug the dead tree out. It came out very easy-no rots left.

Tuesday evening there was a big wind storm(60+) miles an hour.  It was kicking up all kinds of dirt and was a black out because of it. Tramps went flying-not ours thank goodness. Windows were broken out of peoples cars.  Tress fell over and it was crazy. It has rained everyday since and been on the chili side.  

Parker starts track and field this week.  Neither he or Ethan wanted to play baseball this summer.  Parker also has a piano recital on Friday. He is playing Star Wars. He has it memorized.

Josh Coomes is home from his mission. He invited us to his Home Coming on Mother's Day. I think we're gonna go. It is the same time as our church but that's alright.

  

I don't need to take any money from your wow toons.  I am now a level 83 and have almost 2,000 gold from quests and selling items and putting stuff in the A.H.. Funny thing, the guild I am in only has 18 people in it. The last player besides me, played 18 months ago.  I have full access to the guile bank.  Except the 7,000 gold. But that's okay.  I can use guild money to repair my armor-so I do.  Hope now has a toon. I made her a Mage. It is a level 5 now and she is made because she wants to ride a horse. She dies all the time and complains that she can't move-it is funny.  We have her playing mine craft because it is easier.

I know that you are being blessed because of your work. God knows you and loves you.  So do we-HUGS.

Love ya, MOM

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We are finally back to normal but the bad thing is now we have no investigators because of have to balance both areas, we didnt have much time to tracked :( So things are Hard once again, but thats alright guess i have to bring the same area back out of the dust again for the 2nd time. So, if your looking for information about our investigators you wont find any because we are starting from scratch again. However we did get a Baptism last sunday!!! we have been working with this guy for a long time his name is Alan, he has come to church for more than 10 weeks now. We also got to watch General Conference last saturday and sunday!! it was great! i enjoyed the talk about Following up.

So Paige went to prom huh? Sounds like she had a good time. q`1

Sorry about that Computer sent the email randomly. anyways paige is almost done with high school!!! thats crazy.

Sounds like a bad storm, the weather here is still normal that is nice.

Parker is playing Star Wars on the Piano?? i dont think so! Oh that reminds me at the church the piano is always out so i go and sit down and start playing songs i can still remember and some hymns but i started to figure out star wars all by my self just from having the toon memorized in my head i can slowly pick out the song. So i guess hes not the only one! haha.

Josh is back huh thats cool! im sure he is excited and i bet zakk is to.

Thats cool Sounds like your Playing WoW a lot! but its true you just have to go questing and you will get a lot of gold! and then when you hit 85 or is it 90 now??? i think its 90 you go back to the area's you didnt finish quests and you get more gold!!! You only have 18 people in your guild haha!!! atleast you are getting free repairs. You have HOPE PLAYING WOW!!! thats got to be funny!!! She is playing minecraft to haha thats awesome!!!

How are things going? What is your new comp's name? You mentioned that a few strange things happened last week, what were they?

Things are going well with everyone at home.  Spring break starts tomorrow.  We are headed to S.L.C. for a few days, just for a break and some fun.  Paige heads out Tuesday to California with choir.  They get to have dinner on a cruise ship like you did when you went.

This was conference weekend and all of the talks were good.  When I told Hope that we were watching church on t.v. she said" Did you buy candy"? Of course I did. How can you play conference bingo without it. I'll send you an Ensign when they come out.

It will be interesting going to church next week, to see who gets released from callings and who gets put in.  It will be the first time meeting as a new ward.

Love you lots, Mom

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Easter was just a normal day here, besides the fact that the senior couples came and gave us some chocolate which was gone in 2 seconds haha.

So sounds like the younger ones had a fun time and got a lot of candy!

Hope is excited when ever it involves candy haha, ok i lied she is excited about everything almost haha. I think that it would be parkers fault for leaving his candy in a place were tanner could get his candy, im sure parker was not happy and tanner after it made him sick haha.

we are still working as 3 maybe in the middle of this week some late missionaries will arrive and we will be back in 2's but we will find out soon. although i hope that we do go back in 2's its easier and less work. its hard trying to balance both sides of the area. So we went to a bigger store today and i found Doritos!! so i bought 3 bags haha hopefully i can pace myself.

I enjoy teasing both of my companions now though i guess you can say there is not a time we are not laughing haha. We did have a Baptism on sunday which makes me happy, it took him some time to get prepared because he is a little slow at learning.

Tanner Todd is going to joberg huh thats cool i have heard lots of stories about it both good and bad. i guess the best advise i could give him for there is only be in lighted areas unless he wants to get mugged.

HAHA Pibz is feeling Senioridous haha 6 weeks is not to long its only 1 transfer here on mission.

Wait did you say Zach passed range??? your lying right??? well i guess if he wont be driving till summer thats good. it means i might come back and have a car to drive haha.

We dont really have many investigators because of having to balance the area we have been trying to find a lot of people though, the area is hard when it comes to finding.

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Hey Elder,

I keep meaning to tell you this, but I always forget.  I hope that is not the Spirit telling me that I shouldn't tell you this,but we'll see.  You know I play a little bit of Star Trek Online (a little -- haha). Well a while back I got a new ship (a cool one) and the random name the game gave the ship when I first got it was...."Kampala"!  So, of course I had to keep it.  I thought that was pretty funny.  

Things are pretty normal around here.  Hope misses you a lot.  She came up to Mom and me and asked if we could print up some pictures of you so she could put them in a tiny little photo album and carry it around with her.  She keeps saying how fun it was to have you tease her, and that you are a funny brother.  I hope she can keep it together until your work is done.  

Speaking of which, how are things going?  Are you back to a single companion yet?  If so, which one?  The native African or the one from the US?  Sorry I don't remember their names.  Any more investigators.  

Paige went to Senior Prom on Saturday.  She (we) bought a beautiful dress, a formal.  I'll let her tell you how it went, but she seemed to have a good time (even though she did get home a little late).  I've attached a picture.  

Paige is graduating High School on my birthday (sound familiar?).   She is continuing to do very well in school and assuming she doesn't have a meltdown between now and then she should graduate with honors.  We are getting here a nice laptop for college (also sound familiar?).  NO TELLING!  It's not as big as yours, but we figured she wouldn't want to haul around some huge laptop.  

Ethan had to be reminded of his email address again.  So I hope that he remembers to write you sometime soon.  If he does, be sure to tell him as much as you can about what it's like to be a missionary.  

Mom is still suffering through this allergy treatment she is on.  She has to take drops under her tongue that are saturated with the stuff that she is allergic to.  I know, sounds crazy.  But the idea is that it's supposed to help her body develop a resistance to the allergens.  She is pretty miserable, so please keep her in your prayers.  

I love you and pray for you every day.  Grandma Erickson has already sent something for your birthday.  I hope you like it.  It sounded like it was something you could use.  Take care, be obedient, work hard and you will be blessed.

Love, Dad.

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Sounds like you are having a fun time with Star trek, That is a cool name for the ship though. You should try to send a picture of the ship if possible.

 Sounds like Hope is having a hard time. I will try to send more pictures next week of me. but i havnt taken pictures for a long time i dont carry my camera with me in this area i think it is to risky.

So i am back to a Single companion but now the area is dead again so i have to bring it back up from the dust a 2nd time.  We did have a Baptism last sunday that was great though!!! I was with 2 South Africans but i am back to my normal companion. Elder Mamani

Im sure paige had a fun time

Thoughs things do sounds familiar. haha

I will wait for a email from ethan

Hope all is going well

Elder Erickson.

3 is a good number

                                                                                                                                                              April 13'14

Braden, 

How are things going? Any baptisms this week?  Any thing exciting happening?  So Easter is next week- do they do anything special or crazy for the holiday? In the Philippines, it is common for them to actually crucify a female virgin, so we had to stay inside for 3 days until it was all over. Ya know, missionaries are easy targets.

So this last week was fun fun fun.  We went to Salt Lake and spent a few night in a hotel.  We visited Temple square, the Planetarium, and the the Aquarium that is right by dad's work.  They kids enjoyed all of it. I didn't think Hope would be to interested at the planetarium because it is for older kids.  But she loved it and asked questions and tried things out.  Of course the hotel had a swimming pool and the kids swam at least once every day.

Paige had a great time in California with choir.  They went to Medieval Times and guess who got a rose-again. Yup, Paige. She said, " He looked right at me and throw it right to me".  She got home today at about noon and had lots to talk about and then she had a long nap and did homework.  Yes, back to normal daily routines again in the morning.  It will be hard to get up early for all of us. Exclude Ethan in that, cause he wakes up around 6 a.m. every morning, silly kid.

Zach starts range this week. That should be interesting.  He has driven the excursion a few times- he is braver then you and Paige.  Dad took him driving on the freeway this week.  Dad is braver than I am, it scares me to just have Zach drive me around the neighborhoods. I'm sure he will get better in time.

We had a lot of releases and new people put in callings today.  We knew it would happen because of the ward being split.  Dad still has his same calling.  And of course I do. When you have a stake calling your pretty safe to stay there until the Stake President decides to release you.  I could have this calling for a few years.  It is good though, I''m really learning a lot and getting to know quite a few people because of it.

We love you and know that you are being blessed in your work.

Love, MOM

Things are going good here for the most part. The area just keeps getting started over from nothing but I guess it keeps me on my toes. We didn't have any baptisms this week but next week we will for sure. I can't wait,we have spent a lot of time with him and you can see the change in his life. He even attends Choir practice at the branch and  everyone thinks he is a member haha. 

The most exciting part was one of the elders had to go home because of some things so now we are working in a 3 some and have to cover both areas…I have no idea how that will work, our area is already behind. From what i hear they don't do much for easter but attend church and a lot of people come so that will be interesting. So ,Paige sounds like she had a fun time, same with Hope, Hope is interesting, you can never expect what  she will do haha.  I don't think Zach's braver than us but maybe more Crazy than us. I still don't like the freeway and probably never will haha. We played some Soccer today against other missionaries and guess who won, we did.