Last week when we went to do sealings, Brother Larsen said he had a book to give back to me. It was one of the books I had given him for the church history collection of things from the Tahitian mission.  I guess they had one of these books already. 

Anyway, we were talking about the book and he was telling us that it's a collection of the fundamentals of the gospel  and favorite scriptures that they used to teach investigators.

He said what was interesting though was that he noticed while he was looking through the book that the person that wrote it was President Stevens...Brother Larsen said that President Stevens was his mission President too.  He went on about what a great man he was and how loved him and his wife were by all the missionaries.  Oh how I wished I could talk to daddy about these things!  I got to thinking about it after I got home and was putting the book away with daddy's other things from Tahiti.  I noticed daddy's journal from his mission and started thumbing through it.  I started reading and haven't been able to put it down.  I decided since I'm reading, I might as well get it typed into the computer while I read...then everyone can enjoy it.  It's been so great to learn about this part of daddy's life.  He used to say a few things every now and then,  and he did talk to Kelley quite a bit about his time on his mission and in the war, but I really didn't know what it was like for him.  When we went through the trunks he brought home from his mission, we were amazed at the amount of things he was able to bring home.  He had tons of shells, and neat things made out of shells (belts, purses,) lots of pretty things made out of coconut shells and woven out of the leaves, and some real nice grass skirts that were all decked out with shells.  We all wished we had sat down and talked to him about all these things so we could learn the story behind them.  Now I think we may be able to do just that.  I've only gotten through the first couple months of his mission, but I've already learned a lot about what it was like for him and how he felt about what he was doing...just reading this, I can picture daddy on the ship  "Limrick" and on the island of Pepeete. He tells about his companion Elder Chugg ( also from Providence) and mentioned President Stevens several times and it sounds like he felt the same way about him as Brother Larsen did. He is very descriptive and real in his writing  and has such a way with words, I feel like I could be right there talking with him. 

This is the journal he wrote in...I think "Tere" was his Tahitian name. 

 This is how he started his journal...

Just when I think I can't love my dad any more, my heart has been filled to overflowing as the years he spent on his mission are opened up before me.

 In honor of his birthday on Saturday...a few other  pictures from his younger life

 Love and miss you daddy.

 

We had a fun activity last night for Young Women.  It was the combined night and we were in charge this time. 

So we had planned on going ice fishing, and the girls were all about it, but the boys didn't want to.  HA!  go figure.

So we got to talking about it and Bonnie said she had this book with lots of fun ways to decorate cupcakes, so we decided to have a night of "Cupcake Wars"

Bonnie picked 5 of the cutest cupcakes in the book and printed off the picture of them.  Then she gathered all the supplies needed to make that cupcake  ( a ton of work!  Thanks so much to Bonnie!)

We divided the kids into teams and let them go to work.

 Seemed like everyone was having a good time.  Then the finished product...

 Snowmen...my personal favorite of course

 These were supposed to be dogs...that was a hard one

 The sharks must have been kind of tricky too

 Penguins and little people in bed ( I don't have a good picture of them except the one Chantel is holding) were really cute.

 Bishopric came in to judge and give out awards

 These trophies Devan made were super cute

We let the kids eat all the left over candy and cupcakes so with that much sugar flowing, a good time was had by all.

Isn't Valentines Day the best?  I try to do it all the time but it's great to have an official reason to show people how much you love them!

Saw this fun idea on pinterest and made one for my sweetheart.

Kelley said it probably took me a while to think of 52 things I loved about him...nope...only took me a few minutes.

It was fun to put together valentines for Liv and Sam and even funner to see the pictures of them opening them.  Wish I was there to give them big valentine squeezes.

Liv even made me a cute picture on her new lite brite

I woke up to a wonderful surprise on Valentines day...Kelley had slipped the receipt for a plane ticket to Arizona to visit the kids inside his card.  How sweet is that!  He knows I've been dying here without them.

Thank goodness Camille sends me pictures...seriously gets me through...

 Olivia's been losing her baby teeth..she's going to clean out the tooth fairy if she keeps this up!

 Rose got a shave

 Sam's been giving Camille and Kellen fits lately. He doesn't want to wear clothes and has a  BIG tantrum when they try to get him dressed. So most days he looks like this. Good thing it's warm where they live!

 Ha ha got his arm stuck in the ball popper toy.  This kid is all boy.

 Uber jealous of their warm weather...Camille said it was 80 degrees that day.  Maybe it's just worse because we are having the winter that will never end here...Cold... grey...inversion...snow...cold...blahhhh.

This is right before she lost that front tooth that looks all wonky.  Still cute as a bug.