another one

Dear Braden,

How are things going? Did you have zone conference yet? Anything new?

Ethan got his braces off-finally.  He reminded us for days that it was coming. He has a permanent retainer on both the top and the bottom.  They go behind his teeth so you can't see them and they are only on 4 teeth.  He also has the clear ones like you have that he has to wear at night. But his teeth are now nice and straight!

Hope has lost 3 teeth already. She seems to going to loose them already.  Since Valentines Day was this week, we talked about it in preschool. So, Hope has been making cards for everyone and giving them to the family and friends all week long. 

Parker didn't get a prize in the science fair but he had fun doing it.  I laugh at his teacher. She emailed me concerned that he wasn't getting a lot of his homework turned in-of course it was finished and just in his back pack.  We got his report card and it was A's and B's.

Paige came home for the long weekend (President's Day). We have enjoyed having her around.  She is loving college life and her classes.

Zach registered for his senior year-what!  Surprisingly, he didn't sign up for choir.  He said he couldn't fit it in with all of the college prep classes he wants to take.  He signed up for SI-FI because you had it and said that just watch a lot of movies. He also signed up for debate, that could be interesting for everyone involved.

The company that I purchased my preschool curriculum through, asked me to blog for them once a week and in return, they will send me FREE curriculum every month. I couldn't pass that up. Free is nice.

Grandpa E is in the hospital. He was having a lot off back pain and couldn't sleep. Then he couldn't urinate and had a lot of pain in his bladder. They finally took him to the ER and have been running tests.  He has an abnormality on his spine in his lower back.  They are going to biopsy it on Monday. They had to wait a few days for the blood thinner he has been taking to work it's way out of his system before they can do it. Guess we'll find out sometime during the week what is really going on there.

Keep up the good work and have fun killing your comp off soon.

Love ya, MOM

Happy Valentines Day or as Zach calls it--Happy single's awareness day

Wow sounds like a lot is happening yeah, the sister missionaires told us many times on valintines day that it was that wonderful time of the year haha. Oh well...

So i had some interesting things happen this week 1 i almost had my camera stolen from me and 2twice. we did have zone conference/exchanges with the zls.  So we were coming back from zone conference and we have to go through town and thats a very busy and crowed area. we were going to a taxi so we could get back to our area and as we were walking, someone behind me started to unzip my bag and grabbed my camera luckily i felt a tug on my bag and saw him and got it back haha people fear missionaries here and also all you have to do is say one word and the hole city will attack him.....i didn't say it but i could see that he though i was.  a few days later the zls came down to work in our area......I HATE THAT!!! they don't help you at all they just like to yell at you most of the time. 

New area?

e 

 

2/01/15 

Dear Braden,

So I guess it is kinda important to push the send button after writing a email.

Sorry you didn't get it last week.

Anyhow, how are things going? I hear your area is covered with lots of hills. I bet that is a good work out.

Any investigator's or baptisms.

You get to kill your comp? :) That's cool. Don't let him get too trunk, keep busy.

Tell us what exciting things have been happening.

We had Stake conference last night and today.  Because I am in the Stake Relief Society, I was able to help make dinner and serve it to the Stake Presidency and their wives along with Elder Eince(from the 70's) and his wife between Saturdays meetings. That was a neat experience.

Elder Eince is from St. George. He spoke on our Stake Theme-Reverence for sacred things builds faith in Jesus Christ. He told some funny experiences about digging a well and how he had 3 different people tell him where he should dig his well. He choose a different place and ended up having to drill 5 hole before hitting water.  He then told us about knowing how much water was in the well when it was full and to never empty it all of the way or you will have to replace the very expensive pump.  He likened this to our spiritual wells.  Are we replacing the water we use so our wells don't dry out.

This is something I am going to work on even more. Scripture reading and reading Sundays lesson before Sunday will help.

Dad bought a 110 year old baby grand piano. Yes, he is crazy. We don't have it yet. It is being cleaned up. Dad wants to put it in the dinning room so he started cleaning it out. Hope it fits.

Now we can have piano wars. You know, who can pound louder then the other person.

Love ya, MOM

Smile, it makes people wonder what you've been up too.

transfer to kajjansi

Hey Elder,

How are things going? Eating anything strange lately? Have you heard about transfers yet?

Any baptisms?

Josh Shipp spoke in our ward today. He has been home for almost a month. He stood up and said it was good to see us because he thought that we had all become inactive. That's because the ward split while he was gone and we aren't in his ward anymore. He gave a talk on the importance of the temple. It was rally good.

Hope had her tonsils and adenoids out on Tuesday.  Apparently, she had extra adenoid tissue so the doctor removed most of it.  The poor girl has been in a lot of pain most of the last few days.  Yesterday, she was up and playing and doing good but today she is having a rough time.  Since I told someone that I would sub in primary for them today, Dad stayed home with her.

Hopefully, she will start doing better in the next couple of days.

We found out from Parker's teacher that he hasn't been doing a lot of his home work and she is concerned. Guess what BIG homework he hasn't been working on...the science fair project.  Dad came up with a good one and they did most of the work on Saturday.  He is experimenting on which potatoes give off the most electricity current. It is the RED one, thought you might want to know. We just have to put his poster together and he is good to go. Now to catch up on all the math homework, silly boy.

Zach gave his 2 week notice at Smash Burger's. I don't blame him, they don't work him very much. He worked 1 day out of 3 weeks last month. Not very good odds. He is looking for a new job.

Paige is loving college life.  We have skipped with her  a few times and talked to her on the phone. And of course see the pictures she's tagged in.

The big Stake Relief Society training went over very well.  Now I can breathe for a while before all the madness of visiting wards and doing ward training begin in 1 week.  We get to feed the visiting Seventy, his wife and the Stake presidency and their wives on January 31 for Stake Conference also. Crazy, busy, calling but I love it.

SPA=Spiritually Prepared Always

Love ya lots, Mom

Fwd: audition success, tonsils, rough we

On 1/19/15, Loren J Erickson
> Hey Elder,
> How are you?  Are you down to a single companion now?  How are the baptisms
> coming?  Seems like you had a few in the works.  I hope you are emotionally
> well and healthy.  Remember to eat and drink enough for your body's needs.
> Walking all those miles is taking a toll, I'll bet.
>
> The house is feeling pretty empty with both you and Paige gone.  I've found
> myself counting heads several times.
>
> Paige is having no trouble adjusting to college life, I think.  I keep
> seeking photos shared on facebook with her in them.  Her roommates are
> apparently pretty cool and there seems to be a party at her apartment quite
> often.  Might be because we let her take the Wii with her.
>
> It's been a pretty busy week.  At least it feels like it.  Work is in
> crunch mode.  I'm under a lot of pressure to get some bugs fixed.  Not sure
> there will be enough time.  May be working some late hours this week.
>
> Hope had her tonsils out on Tuesday.  She had a few more growths than
> usual, so the procedure took longer, and I think her recovery is taking a
> little longer too.  She is not a happy camper.  Can't eat much without
> hurting her throat.  We keep giving her pain medicine but it seems to be
> only barely managing the pain.  Include her in your prayers, please.
>
> Ethan is going ice fishing soon, don't recall exactly when, but I think
> he's excited.  Zach really liked it when he went.  Did you ever do that?
>
> Parker's piano teacher dropped him from her students.  She said he had
> missed too many lessons, even though we told her that he was not going to
> be coming during the holidays.  So we put him in Tae Kwon Do with Ethan.
> He seems to be pretty happy about that.  We'll see when the punches start
> flying.
>
> Zach quit his job at Smashburger a while back.  They were only scheduling
> him for 1 day a week, so his 2 week paychecks were pretty pitiful.  He says
> he is going to try to find another one, but I'm not sure how motivated he
> is.
>
> Mom had a big stake Relief Society training session that she put a lot of
> planning into.  She had to set up most of it herself because the other
> presidency members were going back and forth to home because they kept
> forgetting things.  Anyway, she planned a cute object lesson to help the
> sisters understand that it was not the decorations or color coordination
> that makes the lesson, but a focus on the scriptures and on Christ.  Sounds
> like it was a big success.
>
> I think I told you about auditioning for the Millennial Choirs and
> Orchestra, didn't I?  It's a national group that has chapters in Utah,
> Arizona, California and elsewhere.  They've only been in Utah for just over
> a year, and I had never heard of them before.  They do two concerts a year,
> one for Easter and another for Christmas (actually it sounds like there may
> be more concerts around Christmas time).
>
> The audition went pretty well. I think they mistook me for a bass because
> they had me do the bass scales first and I got down pretty low, maybe a low
> E (one line below the bottom the bass staff).  Then they asked whether I
> sang baritone or bass in the Messiah, and I told them first tenor.  So then
> they ran me through the tenor scales and I got up to an A (one line above
> the top of the treble staff).  Then I had to sing the melody of America the
> Beautiful, and the tenor part of All Glory Laud and Honor, during which the
> two people doing the auditions sang with me (I guess to see if I could
> blend).  Well, I guess I can because they accepted me as a second tenor.  I
> wish you could be home to hear the easter concert, but I know that's not to
> be.  Definitely the Christmas one though.  :)
>
> Long letter, sorry.  Remember the basics: prayers, scriptures, hard work.
> You are doing a marvelous work and a wonder.
>
> Love,
> Dad

Sounds like a lot is going on, We got transfer news and i am already
leaving for a new area supprise huh! i am going to be going to
kajjansi and i will be "Killing" someone  they are about to go come so
fun stuff i guess. we did have a baptism and almost a confermation
but they were late.

Interviews

> Dear Elder Erickson-yeah, Braden,
> How was your week? I hope it was good and you are teaching lots of
> discussions.Anything exciting happen? Any new animals following you around?
> This week went buy pretty fast. Nothing too exciting happened. Just trying
> to get back to our normal routine.Hope is excited because she gets to have
> her adenoids and tonsils out on Tuesday. I don't think she quiet understands
> what it all means. She just knows that she issuing to the hospital to have
> them taken out and after she gets to eat lots of popsicles and ice-cream.I
> have the big Stake Relief Society Training on Thursday. I need to prepare a
> talk on sticking to the lesson and not getting all fluffy with handouts and
> pictures and such. It will be interesting.
> Take care,,love ya lots, 

sounds like a lot has going on huh Hope is always a trouble maker

haha. i think when they time comes for them to be removed she will be
very scared with all the needles and things like that haha.

The only exciting thing that has happend was Interviews with Mission
Pres. it kinda messed with weekly planning though but thats ok we just
had to do it on sunday. but that is about it transfers are coming up
again very soon just next monday i know i will be staying in this
area. my companion has been here for 5 transfers now.

Am I behind or what?

RE: College

Traci Erickson

 

 

1/11/15 

 

 

To:  Braden Erickson

Dear Elder Erickson-yeah, Braden,

How was your week? I hope it was good and you are teaching lots of discussions.

Anything exciting happen? Any new animals following you around?

This week went buy pretty fast. Nothing too exciting happened. Just trying to get back to our normal routine.

Hope is excited because she gets to have her adenoids and tonsils out on Tuesday. I don't think she quiet understands what it all means. She just knows that she issuing to the hospital to have them taken out and after she gets to eat lots of popsicles and ice-cream.

I have the big Stake Relief Society Training on Thursday. I need to prepare a talk on sticking to the lesson and not getting all fluffy with handouts and pictures and such. It will be interesting.

Take care,,love ya lots, Mom

> Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 16:03:38 +0300
> Subject: Re: College
> From: braden.erickson@myldsmail.net
> To: tracirerickson@hotmail.com
>
> Not much has been going on here these past few days. the area is sorta
> challenging its hard to find people and also the ward is not very
> active. we also have to get some marriges done for 4 of our baptisms
> to go through but nothing new has happend.
>
> Sounds like house is getting bigger is that right its ok one person
> will be coming back sooner or later. paige will be fine though.
>
> On 1/5/15, Traci Erickson <tracirerickson@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Hey  Elder Erickson,
> > What's up? Anything new happened?
> >
> > We took Paige to BYU-I on Thursday. We all spent the night  in a motel.
> > And then got her to her apartment complex by 9:00 am to do her final check
> > in. She wanted to be first so she could get a good room. She chose her room
> > and we brought all of her stuff in. After all that, she ended up changing
> > rooms anyways.
> > The house  is a lot quieter without her here.
> > Hope had the hardest time saying goodbye. She has already Skyped her to say
> > hi. Hope has also decided that I need to help her prepare for college 
> > too. Who cares about kindergarten, let's go straight to college.
> >
> > Hope you are doing well and keeping busy.
> >
> > Love  you lots, Mom