Our Memorial Day started by taking the boys over to the church to do flags. Yep they do flags for holidays in Texas as a scout fundraiser. The boys were good sports about getting up on a day they wanted to sleep in. While they were doing flags Aaron and I were like weekend warriors getting a real good workout in. Both of us rode our rode bikes and enjoying riding with little traffic, no rain and in the morning light. After a slower start then we wanted we headed for a new beach, Surfside. Surfside is a little more southwest from our home in Sugar Land but about the same distance (an hour) away as Galveston Island. The traffic was not crazy but the little city was overwhelmed with out of towners. Aaron was able to convince a local homeowner to allow us to park in their driveway and use their beach access for $20. It got us a pretty good spot and we no longer had to wait in a long line to get into parking. Jessie was a total surfer girl on the boogie board. She couldn’t get enough of it. The boys played hard in the water as well. After a few hours we headed home for a family Memorial day barbeque of hotdogs and corn on the cob. We had a fun day! We were able to go on the annual waterfall hike vicariously through pictures from family members in Utah. Thank you for including us. Oh we did have to study for final exams, the very last tests of the year. Yippee for the whole family! We couldn’t be more joyous over school coming to an end for the year!!
Luckily for Jessie her tests have finished and Tuesday I had the opportunity to go on a fieldtrip with her. I started the day at the mission office to deliver miscellaneous items and have you of our missionaries teach us for a video he is submitting to the MTC. He is hoping to get a job there after the mission. I felt like he did a great job teaching us. I then quickly changed into shorts and headed Minute Maid baseball park to meet Jessie’s class for a behind the scenes tour of the stadium. We learned a lot about baseball and the traditions of baseball. We went onto the field to sit in the dugout where we learned about the special grass that is used and is replaced every other year that we were not allowed to touch. We sat in the owners private VIP box and found out how much each seat costs, too much! We sat in the print press box where no talking is allowed during the game, if they do talk they are never invited in again. We watched videos on how baseballs and bats are made for the professional teams and of the special dirt that is provided by one family from one location in all of America to “unslick” the balls, one of those “Tradition” facts. Lots of information about sponsorship that completely went over all the third graders head. We passed by the huge kitchen(s) where the concession for is made. The most interesting part for me was the history of the site. It was once a railroad station and the historic building (on a historical registry) was incorporated into the parks design. I was happy to be a part of Jessie’s fun day. Zac reported great success on his Math 98% and Spanish 96% on the exams. Happy Dance! Bode reported that he felt good on his exams. He has no idea or desire to know a score. That's typical Bode. This is just an example of their distinctly different personalities. We celebrated with pizza and hot wings. Allie went kayaking up at Pineview today with a friend. I included some of her pictures from her adventure. Also someone mowed in the lawn Grad 16 so we took a picture in honor of sweet Allie girl.
Jessie had her classroom awards this morning. The class decided the awards like friendliest, nicest, funniest, best sense of humor, kindness, etc. They then voted for who they felt was most like the adjective. Jessie got most flexible. They were definitely fun awards. Afterwards I attended a district meeting at the Eldridge building of one of our smaller district. I find these meetings to be very beneficial for the missionaries when they use it to counsel with each other. There is a synergistic affect. As missionaries, even myself, we sometimes forget things that we have done in the past that helped an investigator along the path. When they counsel together these insight bring those to remembrance, a great blessing of counseling together. J I attempted to get home to pick up Zac because it was a half-day. He already got a ride home and headed to play ball at the church with Sam and boys from our ward. I quickly ate lunch and headed to a sister companionship study. This companionship study was later due to their service to the daily dose program that they help with in the morning. This companionship has three sisters in it. They work really well together sometimes having three can cause problems. We had some incredible insight during our study. We discussed and planned for a Mom and her married daughter that is originally from Ukraine and a Pentecostal background with several family members that live in the household and extended family in the same complex that hold onto to the fact that they have already have been baptized. They love the Joseph Smith story of the restoration but the struggle is helping her to understand the apostasy and need for baptism by the proper authority. We discussed ways to resolve their concerns with specific teaching. What was really cool as we did one of the sisters had a lesson plan for an investigator in a past area that she never used but as we talked it came to her remembrance. As she shared it with us it was a perfect fit for these two sisters. Amazing! Zac got 100% on his Art exam! Bode thinks he did well. Oh, if I could light a fire under that boy. I know he has it in him but only he can decide to bring it out. Love him. ;)
We also had our new lesson-planning meeting this week. Of all the meetings we have, I think this one is the most different in flow. Aaron starts it off the same having the missionaries share all the skills and knowledge that it takes to teach effectively as the Lord’s missionary. At that point is where it is ever evolving to help them in developing their skills. You could say it is unique for their needs. I left the meeting just before lunch to be at Jessie’s pick-up spot to silly string attack the kids to welcome them to summer. This is a fun tradition that they have been doing for years that the kids look forward to. It was a fun surprise for Jessie but soon the kids turned the silly string on the parents. Lots of fun, but try getting silly string out of your hair? Luckily I didn’t have too much. Jessie then went with a friend’s house for end of the school year fun! I headed back to the office to finish the meeting and meet with Aaron.
On the first day of summer Jessie went to play at Natalie’s, Bode went to hang out at JB’s while Zac and I ran some errands and did a little shopping. Yeah, for an unplanned mom and son day. ;) Later that night Bode had an end of the year party at another friends house. Natalie came over to our house for a late night. It was a fun day for Jessie and Bode.
On Saturday morning we had a special MLC with Elder Robbins. He shared us why agency is such an important part of the plan and can be seen throughout the scriptures. He walked us through 1 Nephi comparing Lamen and Lemuel to Nephi and Sam. We discussed how their experiences were vastly different based on how they used their agency. We all make choices and with choices there are consequences. Many people like agency but not the responsibility for the consequences instead they try to avoid it through a myriad of excuses. Going to the excuses ultimately is giving away control of our life. A lot of Aha moments through this meeting. He then tied in when we do take responsibility we can forgive and repent through the atonement and then can be accountable for our choices again. It was great and if you want a wonderful read about this Elder Robbins has a book called Love is a Choice that touches on this. Later that night we had a fun night out with the kids. We enjoyed creating our own pizzas at Blaze Pizza. We then went to Lazer Zone and did a 30-minute round of Lazer tag with the kids. Zac was the top of the leader board and surprisingly I wasn't too far down from him since Jessie was my side kick and she was very hesitant to play in the beginning. I also was wearing a bright white shirt so I was an easy target. We had a good time!
Yeah for summer!!