Last week I got a call from Kristina Cole...she was the girl that KC and I met at the missionary mall...and come to find out she was going to the same mission that KC was going to!

She is already home from her mission (18 months !) and had brought home a little gift from KC. Well Friday morning she came by the house and brought the note from KC and a big chocolate bar from Russia...Candice and I tried it last night...delicious! (it was like chocolate filled with air!) She also gave me a cd with a bunch of picture she had taken on her mission. What a thoughtful thing to do! Especially since KC has taken about 5 pictures total!

We sat and talked about her mission for a while.... She loved it...cold and all! She said they had had some met some great people and had some really good success. She's a very sweet girl.

These are a few of the pictures on her cd.Last day at MTCMTC district with teachers
At Temple with districtFirst day in Moscow...this one tugged at my heart...reminded me of how he could go to sleep in any position. I imagine this day was pretty stressful! This was their first trip to Kiev to renew visa (with driver)

Christmas conference


Christmas conference show

Elder Stoopes birthday

Kiev famous temple

Place in Kiev where church was set apart for missionary work

( I just finished a great book that talked about this very place..."The Silence of God"

It was about a family that was the first members of the church in Russia (they were actually from Finland, but moved there) and what they went through when the revolution happened.

I love a novel that tells a true story...It helped me understand what went on there and why the people are the way they are. It's hard to comprehend the atrocities that were imposed upon these innocent people!

Red Square

Sister Cole's birthday

Thanksgiving with the Holmes

Tsaritsina Park

(This is Elder White, the companion KC has been with a good portion of his mission)

What a great gift...Thank you Kristina!

These are the email's K.C. sent us the past few weeks. Hard to believe he's been out for 18 months now...but when I read his letters, I can see so much growth in him. It's like he said in a letter he sent a few weeks ago..."A mission is an interesting thing. The longer you are out, the more you know and the better you can work. But at the same time, the longer you serve, the less time you have to serve!"
I think he will realize soon that his time of service is not coming to an end...this has been his preparation for a lifetime of service that he will just continue after he gets home.
At the ward Christmas party we all wrote notes to the missionaries serving in the ward. Thanks so much for all the sweet messages to KC...it surely will brighten his Christmas!


Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 23

Hey guys,
Sounds like you've had quite the week. I had no idea that Ann Dibs was President Monsons daughter, but as soon as I saw her in my branch building I knew that she was American and important. She’s way nice, I’m so glad she called too, I bet that was good to talk to her for a while. That’s an incredible experience you had with the piano too, man its amazing what we can do when the Lord is with us. I’m glad you got the letter, I only sent it 2 weeks ago and I put it in a weird little mailbox by our house. We made mashed potatoes today and are carrying them around in a big pot down town to the place where we are eating, we have had 4 comments and about a million weird looks hahaha. I cant believe Spencer is getting married, you will have to tell him congratulations for me. And send me pictures. We had some snow too, but it turned into really cold rain which is way worse. Elder White is leaving me and I am getting another newer companion. But it will be easier this time because our area is already pretty good. On Saturday we met a man on the street by our house and told him about the restoration and he said that he would gladly meet with us, and invited us to come to his house that night. So we went and met with him and his brother, they are both over 60 but look like they are 80 because they have been smoking for 40 years. Nice guys though, it was way funny to see how they interacted, you could tell that they hadn’t had any guests for a LONG time. He made borscht for us, and usually that’s a real treat, but do you remember the borscht that we made before I left? It tasted like that haha, but it wasn’t too bad. We had a nice lesson and lots of funny memories. We saw him outside yesterday and he said "Why haven’t you been coming over? When are you coming over again?" so we are going by tonight. I had a really nice interview with President Sorenson last week too, he is a great guy, I love him. On Tuesday the other elders in our district called and told us about a family that lives in our area, there is son that served a mission and now lives in America, and the mother was almost baptized but the dad was against it and that’s all that we know. But we have their address so we are going to try to get in touch with them. It would be way cool to see if the father has softened his heart. I’m so thankful for you guys, I hope you can feel it because I don’t know how else to say it. I hope that you guys have a wonderful thanksgiving. Don’t eat tofurkey.
KC

Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 16:53:25 +0300
Subject: Re: Utes
From: kelley.jensen@myldsmail.net
To: jkj51156@hotmail.com

Hey Dad,
Hows it going? Hows the ward doing? Are you still going to be in the bishopric when I get back? My companion is a lot different than all of my other companions, but we get along fine, so that just means that I can learn new things from him. The weather here is really nasty. This morning when I woke up I checked the thermometer and it said -20, that’s -4 in F. It was really cold yesterday and we didn’t have a lot of meetings so we had to spend a lot of time on the street, so we had every part of us covered except a little spot for our eyes and nose. The worst part was that the wind was blowing too, so it was bad. But no need to complain because its just the weather, and our missionary work is going really well. I wish you could meet our old neighbor that we are teaching, he is a hoot. Way funny and he can dance, mime and juggle, so its a blast to go to his house. He saw a few people who were baptized on Saturday get the Holy Ghost on Sunday and he really wanted them to bless him too, so we explained how and he agreed to get baptized on the 14 of January. We are way excited about that. I love you Dad, have a nice week. Don't freeze.
KC
Hey Mom,
Man I wish the baby would have come today, then I could have seen it, but I guess I can wait another week. I’m way excited for it. Tell Camille good luck from me...I don’t really know what to wish some one in that sort of situation, so we'll just go with good luck. Things are going really good here. Its way way cold, when I woke up this morning I looked on our thermometer and it said -20, that’s -4 in F. But don’t worry, we are dressed up all warm. We have been working with our old neighbor a lot. He came to church and loved it, he is coming this week again. And we agreed with him last night for him to be baptized on the 14 of January. He needs to learn a lot and quit smoking, but he wants to so I know he can with the Lords help. He is a way funny guy, you guys will have to come meet him when we come back. I got a new companion named Elder Page, he was Elder Grovers comp in the MTC, so he has been out since I trained Elder Grover. Things are going really well. Our area is growing a lot, it has been really neat to see the changes that have come in since I’ve been here. Today we decorated cookies to give to our investigators, is was way fun. We are going to buy a Christmas tree too, so that will be fun. I got your package and a package from Karen Neilson. Thank you so much for sending that, tell Karen thanks a ton from me. I will send her a letter and say thanks. I don’t know that doctor, I have been to the doctor a few times but I just went to the clinic because our area doctor went home a few months ago. Are you all excited for Christmas? Is the house all covered in snowmen? you should take a picture of the house decorations and send it to me. I really want to find a snowman martroshka for you that would be cool. Do you remember that one girl that we saw at the missionary mall? She went home on Saturday. I hope you have a great week. Love you. Send my love to Camille and kellen and Liv and the new boy...what’s his name going to be?
KC

Kelley Carson Jensen to me
dec 7
Yay! Im so glad that Camille had her baby. I thought about it pretty often this week. So glad that he is healthy and so is Camille. He is way cute, I like the picture where he’s wearing the hat. I like the name too. That was the best news ever. We are going to have a nice Christmas party on the 18th, all the missionaries are going to sing in a choir, which is hard because almost none of the Elders know how to sing. I am one of the worst. But it will all work out. We have had a good week. It was really cold, but what can you do? Just keep going. On we set another baptismal date with another of our neighbors, Alekcei. He is like 30, he is a way nice guy and LOVES it when we come over. He really wants to know all the commandments and do things right. He is going to be baptized on the 8th of January. And we should be able to set up one more baptismal date this week, that will be really good. I just got back from Kiev on last night, we spent the day at the Kiev temple yesterday. It was fantastic! We got there at just the right time, when a bunch of members or our mission who we knew had just finished doing baptism and the temple workers put us in charge of doing all of the Confirmations. It was really cool to get to do it in Russian, but it was hard. Russian names are hard, especially ones from 1816. But that was a way good experience, and then the workers decided to put on a special initiatory session for us, it was really great to be able to remember all the promises of the Lord. We are so lucky to be members of His true church. We have lots of investigators named Alekcei, its a way common name, but one of our other Alekcei's called us on Sunday and wanted to meet, so we went and met with him and had a really good meeting where we got passed this one problem that he has been worried about for a while, and then taught him about the 10 commandments, the Sabbath day , w.o.w and following the prophet. He is a really neat guy because he understands the reasons behind the commandments well and is willing to follow them once he finds out about them. I was thinking that you guys should make a list of questions and things that you want to know so that when we call on Christmas I can tell you all the things you want to know. On Sunday I had got to do an interview for baptism for one of the investigators of our sisters. This girl is deaf and can only read lips, and is hard to understand for an American, because its hard enough to understand regular Russian. Anyway, I was just praying that the Lord would bless me that I would be able to communicate with her, because I’m not Russian so my lips don’t make the right movements when I speak, so she really couldn’t understand me at all. So we figured out a way to do it where I showed the pictures and then wrote and the Lord blessed me to be able to understand her. It was really pretty incredible. Ive got to go. I love you guys.
KC

Can you stand the cuteness?
I'm so grateful Camille sends me lots of pictures of Sam and Olivia...it eases the ache of being away from them a little bit.
Camille said Sam is being a very good baby so far...sleeping for several hours at night and looks like this when he's awake...what more could you ask for?

Olivia washing bottles for Sam. She has stepped right into the big sister role without a hitch. I could see that in her though...she is such a sweet, loving child. Camille told me she found Olivia teaching Sam a little song about numbers and holding up his little fingers to count while she sang.

Sam is a very good eater!

He had lost 4 oz. by the time they left the hospital ( very common)

but at his first week checkup, he had gained it back, plus 4 oz.!

Camille has never had to coax him to eat...That's the Jensen coming out in him!

I've been thinking about this special lady...I always keep her memory in my heart, but at this time of year, the feelings come back stronger and clearer.

It's been seven years since she left this earth but in some ways it feels like yesterday....

She had so many health problems all through her life, but never really complained. She would drag herself out of bed when we would go over there to visit, trying to appear cheerful even though she was in an incredible amount of pain.
The only time I ever saw her break down and cry though was the early fall day I went over

there and asked her how she was doing...she had been into the doctor for some tests for terrible pain she had been having in her back and hips. (She was no stranger to pain after going through many back surgeries) We were standing there in her living room and she started telling me, kind of matter of factly what the doctor had said...then she just started to cry. It was pancreatic cancer. I held her and cried with her. I think she knew then that she would not be getting better this time.

I remember the day she asked Katie and I if we would find her a new dress. We were thinking she just wanted something new to wear..."Of Course! What do you want it to look like?" "Well, I'd like a pretty new temple dress to be buried in" That was a tough one. Kate and I went everywhere(seriously every white clothing store in the valley) looking for the perfect, most beautiful dress and finally found one that looked like 'her'. She said she loved it and thanked us for all of our efforts.

She was about the toughest lady I ever knew and endured the short remainder of her life with dignity and grace...loving and teaching us till the end.

Another special memory I have is being asked to be the one to put on her temple veil and tie the bow before they closed the casket. It was a tender moment and a sweet blessing for me to be able to say goodbye to her this way.

Last night at bunko, the ladies were talking about their mother-in-laws. One related a story of how she had run into her mother-in-law at a nail salon and she acted like she didn't even know her! Can you imagine that? Then several others said they had never had a very good relationship with their mother-in-law either....I know you hear awful stories about mother-in-laws, but I was surprised to hear how many of them felt this way.

I felt sad for them... that is a relationship that I hold very dear! I am very grateful that I was blessed with a wonderful mother-in-law...she has been such a big part of my families lives. She had a unmeasurable impact and influence on each one of us that we will never forget.

Love and miss you Maxine!

Well He's finally here! Say hello to Samuel Arthur Wilkinson!

He's pretty much adorable...

do you love this hat Kate got for him? He will need it for those winter outings in Arizona...wait a minute, I guess he won't...it was heavenly warm while we were there! But he looks darn cute in it anyway!This post is going to be incredibly long and boring to most, but to me it was about the best ten days ever! So bear with me...

I flew out friday morning. I have to say I was a little bit nervous about flying...with all the talk about the troubles people were having going through security and getting scanned or patted down! Also, I was pretty nervous flying alone into the Pheonix airport. It's so big and I don't know my way around very good.

Well while I was waiting for it to be time to board the plane, I saw them bring in this older lady in a wheel chair. She stood up out of the wheel chair and walked over and sat down by me.

We started chatting and I found out she was from Gilbert. She had been visiting her son in Salt Lake and taking care of his kids while they had a new baby. She was fun to talk to and we had a lot in common. By the time we got to Phoenix, I felt like I had known her forever.

I asked her if she needed some help when we got off the plane because I had noticed she had come in in a wheel chair. She said she has arthritis really bad in her legs and it's hard to walk a long way. I told her I would push her in the wheel chair down to the baggage claim...then she was having a friend pick her up. I was glad to do it cause she was very familiar with the airport and told me right where to go!

When we got down to baggage claim, Katie and Camille found me and I introduced them to Margaret. We were standing there talking waiting for our luggage to come out, and Katie looks at one of Margaret's bags. It had a tag that said Rosenthal...(I think that was it) and she said are you Shan's mother in law? This was Kate's dear friend from Salt Lake. No kidding, what a small world. They talked for a while about her son and Shan. She said she wished she had another son left for Kate, but she was fresh out! She was a pretty amazing lady...one of those special people that you are just drawn to. I'm so glad I got to know her...kind of felt like it was meant to happen. She was pretty adamant about lining Kate up with a friend of her sons and they exchanged phone numbers so she could have him call her.

We had a happy reunion with Olivia !


I did not miss this!!! Kelley sent me this picture of the day after I left. They got about 12 inches of new snow and really cold temperatures! Man I wish Kelley could have just come with me!
I made Olivia a new little apron so we could bake together while we were waiting for baby brother to come.

Camille was not so happy in her cute apron. She was getting pretty frustrated waiting for things to start moving along. We did a lot of walking...chasing liv on her bike, and shopping. Still nothing.

Then on Thursday morning, we went to her doctors appointment that she thought she would definitely not be going to! He was a pretty cute doctor, and had a great sense of humor. He joked about Camille's orneriness and said he had never seen this side of her before. Lets just say that Camille was on the edge. He told her they could induce her because the baby was full term, but she didn't want that. He stripped the membrane, but said he didn't think it would do much because the baby was still so high. He made an appointment to induce her on Monday if nothing had happened on the weekend. Oh boy, now she was reeeealy discouraged! We went out to the car and she had a good cry. She really wanted to have the baby before Kelley and Candice got there. I tried to convince her that it didn't matter, they weren't coming there for her to entertain them....We were there to help her!

Soooo we went shopping again...if she wasn't going to have the baby, we might as well go to her bunko...so we both needed a ten dollar gift. (they play the game a little different than we do) We found some fun things at hobby lobby (including the reindeer antlers)

Later that afternoon, she said she was having some pain in her back and felt kind of different. But not anything that felt like labor. So we went to bunko. It was pretty fun. It was at Brittney's house and her friends were a hoot.

Kellen's mom called and told Camille she had arranged for Camille to meet with her friend who knows how to do some kind of aroma therapy foot massage that's supposed to put you into labor on friday morning....we were getting pretty desperate.

We stayed up pretty late that night, and when I went to bed, Camille and Kellen were still up.

About 3:30 a.m., Camille came into Liv's room and said they were headed to the hospital. She had been having pretty regular contractions for a while. HOORAY!

They said they would keep me posted.

I couldn't go back to sleep so I just got up and watched tv and waited for them to call. Kellen sent texts and kept me up on her progress. I let Kelley, Candice and Katie know what was going on.

I got liv up about 9:00 andgot her all ready to go in her cute "Big Sister" shirt Katie had made for her.

When I told Liv that her mommy was at the hospital having baby brother, she said she wanted her mommy to go back to the doctors office and get a baby sister! Ha!

hmmmm maybe next time?

Kellen sent me this picture about 10:30 and said every thing had gone really well. He weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz.Liv and I went and hopped in Kellen's truck and headed to the hospital. That was pretty exciting...haven't driven a shifter for quite a while! Liv kept asking me if I knew how to drive. But we made it! When we got there Camille was feeding him...he caught on really quick and nursed really well.

It's always such an great reminder of how amazing a mother's body is made and how natural and perfect God's plan is for us to bring this new life into the world and nurture and love them.

Camille had Olivia come snuggle up by her on the bed so she could help her hold the baby. He was very peaceful and calm. As I watched them, I felt so much love for them I thought my heart was going to burst. You can sure feel how very close they still are to the veil. It was a memory I have stored away in a special place in my heart....Pretty sweet moment.

Candice and Kelley and Kate got there a little while later....Kate had hopped on the soonest flight she could get and met Kelley and Candice at the car rental place...then they all came to the hospital together. It was great to see them all! I haven't been away from Kelley for so long before and I really missed him and Candice!

(That's Sam's hat Candice!)

Sweet!

Liv was holding up pretty well through all of this, but then when she was holding Sam, he threw up on her. She had a bit of a melt down. I think it was all the excitement and tension and worry(she is a thinker and listens to people and takes in whatever is going on around her) that had built up and finally came out. It didn't last long though and we cleaned her up and told her that's what babies do and she was fine to try to hold him again.

She is also pretty stuck on calling the baby Jack...I'm not sure where it came from but she's not about to change her mind. Camille told her they would get a dog someday and she could call him Jack..."hmmmmmmmm ok but I'm still going to call the baby Jack!"

It was pretty special to see how Kate and Candice would drop everything and rearrange their lives so they could be with Camille. There's a lot of love and a special bond between those girls.

On Saturday, we went to the hospital for a while, then took Olivia for a fun afternoon at the park. We fed the ducks, rode the train, and played on the play ground.

We played games and played with her toys...she put all the crochet animals I had made her in a big circle and we played duck, duck, goose with them.

She has a great imagination! She will talk and play with her dolls so cute. You can tell the way her mom talks to her because she talks to her dolls the same way. So sweet!

Kellen is great with Olivia and spends a lot of time playing with her. He is very patient and sweet with her. She adores him.

Camille is about the cutest mom you ever saw.

She really spends quality time playing with Liv.

To Olivia, Camille is the center of her world. She wants to share everything she does with her mommy. What ever happens, good or bad, she wants to tell mommy about it.This was apparently a regular activity....Liv is the pink horse and Camille is a butterfly(wearing Liv's tutu on her head)...dancing around the living room.

This was a sweet moment...Chewey holding Sam, (So glad Candice came!) Liv comes up and touches his hand and he wraps his little fingers around her finger. She was thrilled! 'He's holding my tinger! he's holding my tinger!' (she hasn't quite got the f sound down...usually comes out as a T or a P.)

My favorite pic

On monday, we took Liv to Pro Bass shop cause there is a really cool Santa there, but he hadn't arrived yet. Kelley still had fun.
Liv did too...we got there just as they were feeding the fish (peeding the pish) and she got to help

We went to the mall and went to the pet store where she got to play with the puppies.I got to ride the carosel with her...pink pony was her favorite!
When the ride was over, she gave the pony a hug and told her thanks for the ride!

Lots of nice at home...getting to know each other time.

I got my Christmas early this year....more joy than I could have ever dreamed...so glad I could share this special time with them.

It was pretty hard to say goodbye Monday night. Lots of tears...especially when Olivia would cry and say how much she will miss us and we should stay just a little bit longer!
I tried to convince her ( and myself) that it wouldn't be too long and she would be coming to my house for a good long visit!

Camille is going to stay with us while Kellen studies for the Bar exam. In January, I'm gong to fly out there (got killer deal on flight earlier this fall), stay for a few days, then help her, Liv and Sam fly back home with me. I can hardly wait!