KC's email was really great yesterday. I'm so grateful that he was able to witness and be a part of this miraculous, historic event.

June 8, 2011

Hey Dad,
Man that's way too funny about you guys on the boat. That's so you and Dan. Like you could go out for the first time of the year and have it work.! It really was soo cool to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord for the week end. We got to attend three meetings with him. One of them was just for the missionaries. He stood up there and taught us and it was just incredible. I really know that he is an apostle of God. No doubt. And the cool thing is that when you see them in real life like that it makes you realize that they are regular people, who are just way righteous and have this special calling. He taught that the 2 most important things in this life are to know and love the Savior Jesus Christ and to strengthen your family through the ordinances of the temple. He talked about how its important to do family history work in Russia and recommended that the missionaries get "real chummy" with the family history specialist. Last night we actually sat down with one woman and her mom last night and filled out a pedigree chart as much as they could remember. It was way cool. So yeah basically it was an awesome week with lots of cool experiences. Love you tons. Have a nice week.

Hey Mom,
I know it has been a really quick week. Thanks so much for saving that lamp for me, that will be really neat to have. Man having Elder Nelson here has been incredible, I already told Dad a bunch about it so I won't repeat what I told him. The place where we had the conference was packed. I got to see a bunch of people that I haven't seen for a year or more and apparently there were about 1100 people there. I wont ever forget the moment that they actually announced the stake "We announce the end of the Moscow Russia District and announce the creation of the Moscow Russia Stake." It sounded a little better in Russian but that was basically it, then they announced the Presidency, the District president will stay in his place and my old branch president in the Arbatsky branch is he 2nd councilor, which is way cool because he is only in his upper 20's. Then they called one member who I know well to be the patriarch.
It was so great to see the excitement of the members. I think that they are already starting to understand that a stake will require a lot of work but that they will be greatly blessed. We called and invited just about all of our investigators to attend the meetings with Elder Nelson, but it turned out that only one of them made it, but I think it made quite the impression on him. On Saturday night after the meeting I asked him how he liked it and if he was going to come to the Sunday morning session and he said "I'm going to have to." I asked him after the Sunday session what he thought about it and he said that it was really good and that he had a "pleasant, warm feeling inside." So I explained to him what that feeling was. Oh and yesterday we went searching for an inactive recent convert that I had taught, and were just about to give up but the Lord truly lead us to him at the last minute and we were able to chase him down. He was way excited to see us too, so we will be working with him now to. Basically things are going really well and the Lord is doing his work through us. Its neat to see the moments when its obvious that its not really you doing this work but Him. Anyway, I love you guys tons. Have a great week.
Elder Jensen.
ps. I Just wanted to say hello to Grandpa Jensen too. I hope that you re doing great and that you're ready to go out fishing this fall. Thanks for you example Grandpa, I really do look up to you. Love you.Elder Jensen

If there is anything virtuous, lovely...

Mothers and Daughters



Sunday morning I ran over to Leslies to talk to Faith and Aaron before they left to head up to Logan. I met Cleo half way as she was on her way over to see me.

She said she had been thinking of me but wanted to wait for a quiet moment to come visit so we could talk.

Cleo is a special lady that is very dear to me. We have been good friends ever since they divided the ward. Her daughter lives next door to me and is also one of my dearest friends.

I got to know her when we were in the Relief Society presidency together, then I got to know her in a whole new way when I worked for her at the flower shop.... We had so much fun!

She is probably about the most ambitious woman I know. She is always serving others and does what ever she does 150 percent!

Anyway, we talked for a while, then she gave me the sweetest card and this beautiful gift.
Love her!

These are a few stitchery's I have been working on this past month.

I was in charge of the Young Woman birthday gifts this year, so I tried to use this year's theme (13th article of faith) in a few different ways.

I have sure enjoyed making these for all the girls...hope they like them too!

This is a picture I made for Candice to go in her new house.

She had seen a picture like this on the internet and had sent it to me, saying she thought it would make a lovely stitchery. Well there you go! Happy House Warming!

(beautiful frame made with love by Candices' daddy)


Last night Kelley and I went to see 17 Miracles. It was kind of surreal to see Jasen as the main character, Levi Savage. He did such an amazing job.


Jasen has been a good friend to our family for the past ...6 years?


When Camille was working at Passages, she met Jasen's little brother. They became good friends and soon lined Katie up with Jasen.


Jasen was just beginning his career as an actor at this time and was going back and forth to California trying to break into the business.


Katie dated him off and on for a while, then she moved to California and would see him when he came there for work.


I wouldn't go into details, but just to say, after five extraordinary years (I kept telling Katie I hoped she was writing these experiences down, cause they were better than any love story I have ever read) , they have gone their separate ways. They still remain friends though and our family still talks with him occasionaly.


Anyway, it's great to see Jasen's dreams coming true. He is a good guy... the kind of person that you just love the first time you meet him.


I wish him all the best.










Love, love! loved!!! the movie! Reccomend it to all!



Watching the extreme hardships these saints went through (totally saturated two kleenex)made me think "What would I do if I was put in this situatiion...would I have the strength...the courage...the faith?



Kelley and I were talking after about how different the trials are for our families today....mostly spiritual and emotional...the temptations that are placed before our children are subtle and so deceiving, and some are not subtle at all...but this generation has become so desensitized, these things have become acceptable.



It's becoming more and more clear that we have to be just as strong, if not stronger than these incredible saints if we are going to survive these perilous last days.

Sisters and stuff

Have I mentioned lately how great my sisters are?

We spent all day Saturday( and I mean all day! left to go home about 11:00 p.m.) going through more of mum's things. It was such a fun day! Brenda brought us a yummy lunch so we could just power through the day.

We thought we would just finish up quickly in mum's bedroom and get started somewhere else, but when we started going through all of her clothes and cassette tapes (books and music) it took till about 2:00!
When we were going through mum's clothes, well, some of them were right out of the 70's. I got to thinking about the stuff Candice picks up at the DI, and this was right up her alley.
So I brought home some real doozers...Candice loved them!
We went out in the back room next and started going through mom's vases, flower, and crafty stuff. Found some real treasures... pin curl clips? There was also a huge bag of permanent rods and papers. Wow that brought back the memories of all those perms mum used to give us. We never went to a hair dresser...mom trimmed our hair, and gave us perms on a regular basis. Then when I started coloring my own hair, it got kind of scary cause the perm and the bleach I put on my hair didn't react very well together. Oh my! I remember one time when mum was taking the permanent rods out, my hair was really slimy and about half of it broke off. What was left was super frizzy. I remember crying a lot. I think that was the first time I went to a actual hair dresser (Karen Fredrick) and she tried to fix it. This was right before I started high school, and I got a super short hair cut. Ha! I when I look back at my school picture from that year, I always remember why my hair was so short!
We made it through all her vases and other cool dishes she had out in the back room and then started on the drawers below. They were full of all of mum's crochet patterns and crafty stuff. We decided it was going to take way to long to go through those, so we moved to the kitchen.

We started with the drawers with her cook books and recipes she had saved.

It was still daylight when we started...

We got into all her cooking utensils, bake ware, and pots and pans. She had some real pretty Pyrex, most of her things were the ones we grew up using. I think they used to just make stuff better than they do now. Her pots and pans were the originals and still in good shape. She had some newer pans that looked a lot more beat up than the old ones.We kept at it till about 10:30, getting as much done as we possibly could because Faith and Aaron were going to be moving in the next day.

It took us about a half hour just to load everything up, clean up and get on our way.

Kelley helped me unload the next morning....I'm so grateful for his patience and understanding as we go through this process.

I'm glad I've got an empty room so I can just go through stuff as I have time.

This was one of the first stitchery pictures I made for mom.

We came across these pictures and I was taken right back to when I was a little girl. These cute kitty pictures were hanging on the wall in my bedroom.

This was another table cloth I gave to mum. I made this one...I remember loving to do it because it had lots of fun lazy daisy stitches.

( She also never used this one...It's ok, I understand and would probably do the same thing.)

Ha! This is one of those wild things I brought home for Candice...she was so excited!

" I'm so glad you found it! That's the shirt I was hoping you would bring home!"

Mum's apron... this is what I picture her in.

I found this picture in the back room...it's a small picture, but it stirred a memory from when I was a little girl. Wish I could ask mum where it came from.

Don't be jealous...I got the duck lamp....it's Awesome!!!
I wanted it and my sisters were thinking.... probably no... so when I went to take it off mom's dresser, I saw it was plugged into the wall. I didn't know it was a lamp! I found a switch,

flipped it on and volia! Duck lamp!

I think this was the top to our wedding cake. Mum was great at saving stuff like this. I think she had saved every corsage ( and there were a lot!) that she was ever given. Also every doodad,favor, or hand out she ever received. So much stuff to go through...but so much fun.

I feel like I've gotten to know my sisters in a whole new way. I have never lived close to any of them since I got married, and have really missed having a close, day to day kind of relationship with them. We would get together maybe once a month, but not usually have time to really talk and open up about our lives and our feelings. This has been a real gift to me...something long overdue and precious. I know it will take a little more effort to get together with mom gone, but I think all of us have felt the importance and joy of being together and will do what ever it takes to keep building this sweet relationship.

This is Candice's new house.

Isn't it cute? I have a thing for white picket fences....totally sold me on the whole house.

It's in an older neighborhood up by the capitol-memory grove area.

It's actually the house that Quinn (Megan's Quinn) has owned for quite a while, but his dad and brothers have been living in it. Quinn and Megan decided to have it be a rental property instead (this is a long and complicated story and I am trying to tippy toe around other issues) and told Candice she could live there.

She was so excited and has been anticipating this move for several months.

She got word out that she needed a room mate, and got lots of interesting offers.

Then she heard from Mikayle. Candice and Mikayle grew up together and have been life long friends. They actually lived together years ago, and got along real well.

So anyway, Mikayle was all about it, so they were set.

When it came closer to the time for them to move in, Candice went over there with Meg and Quinn to check things out. Dad and brothers were still living there and the place was looking like three men had been living there. Not good. The dad has polio so he couldn't do too much, and the brothers didn't really care. (not to mention they had two cats and a dog) The place was pretty dirty.

Candice had to be out of her place by June 1st but really couldn't move in to the new house yet cause dad and brothers were still there. Megan and Quinn were doing their best to try to get the house ready for Candice, but there was a lot of things that needed to be done...painting, replacing carpet, wood floors redone, etc...

Well it came right down to the wire...May 31, dad and brothers out...Candice in.

Kelley and I helped her move in on Memorial day. With Curtis's help, they took the big red couch to it's final resting place. (the dump) Ha! I was trying to figure how many times Kelley and KC had moved that monstrosity! A lot.

Kelley and I went over there on Thursday and helped her clean a little.

It was pretty gross. (once again...three men living there)

The yard is really cute ( or could be) It has a nice patio area with this cool fire place. Kelley power washed and scrubbed everything. (I think they had been using it for a garbage can for a while)

While we were cleaning, Meg and Quinn and Lisa came over to help. They had been painting in the living room and when Kelley saw how they were doing it, he started twitching (you know how he is about painting...must be done right!!!!!) and the next thing I knew, he had taken the brush and was going to town on it.

Candice and I finished up in the bathroom, (this is really a cool house with lots of neat old fashioned features...we found a laundry chute in one of the cupboards!) then went out and visited for a while. There is still a lot to be done, but can be worked on as she lives there.

Candice is really thrilled with the new house. It has a cute little garden space and lots of places for planting flowers too.

Quinn has pretty much given her free run to do whatever she wants with the place, so she will be able to have all the fun of owning her own house, without all the financial and other responsibility that goes with it.

Lucky girl!

I have a lot of things to be thankful for.

These are just a few of my favorites today...

How great it is to be a grandma! Love these two more than I could have ever imagined.Grateful for my amazing family...their love, support, and friendship.

I'm sure thankful Kelley...

He has been my rock these past few months...holding me up, making impossible things possible, listening to me, loving me even when I was a basket case, buoying up my courage, doing things around the house that I didn't have time to or feel like doing. And mostly, just making me laugh. Love him.Thankful to be born to wonderful parents
and for the many ways they have influenced my life.So Grateful for a son who is worthy and willing to serve the Lord.
Here are a few of KC's latest emails...can't believe he's almost finished. What an awesome, life changing experience he has had.

May 25, 2011
Hey guys!
Things are going really well here. We have had an awesome week. We were able to find 3 new investigators. Which is a lot in our mission. We met with the girl from Providence and it turns out she basically knows all about the church history and the Book of Mormon and stuff, so now we just need to teach her with the spirit so that she can feel that it’s all really important and true. We are really expecting great things to come from her. It was a real miracle that we met her. She is a really nice girl. What is your address in Providence? I want to see if she knows where it is. I think if no one else is attached to them I would like the nut crackers from grandmas. Those just remind me of sitting on the couch with her and grampa cracking nuts. Nothing better than that. Another one of the new investigators was just a guy who a couple of weeks ago we tracted into and he told us to come back. So we came back and knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so we knocked again but there was still no answer. So we were just starting to write him a note to stick on his door saying that we had come by, when he came up the stairs and warmly invited us in. We shared the message of the restoration with him and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and wanted to meet again. Hope full we can start meeting with the whole family too. He’s got a son about our age and a pregnant wife. It was really neat to see how the Lord was able to put us in the right place at the right time. If we had come just a few minutes earlier we would have missed him. With the other two it also came down to planning and following the spirit. Things are really picking up here. Hopefully we will be able to set some baptismal dates with these new investigators soon. Elder Clawson is doing really great too. He is starting to impress me with a lot of the things that he is learning. He is becoming just the type of missionary that the mission is going to need in the end of the year to make it to our big goal and carry on the work. I don’t remember my password for SLCC, sorry. I think they will just let you sign up though if you go or call. We are planning on going fishing today! I will take pics if we catch anything. I love you guys tons. Have a fantastic week. --
Elder Jensen

June 1, 2011

Hey Mom,
Our week was really good. We met lots of new people and had a lot of good things happen. We did our best to find new investigators last week but it turned out that after calling all of the potential people no one could meet. We have quite a few people what are really interested but they just work too much. I am praying that we will have a few this week. On Sunday morning one of our investigators called us and wanted to come to church. This was a really nice surprise because she always has a hard time waking up, but she woke up on her own and called us so that we could meet and ride together. We also had a member bring one of his friends to church and she seemed to enjoy it. Its the one that lives way far away and brought a friend a few weeks ago. This guy is awesome. We have been sorting through our new investigators and it is becoming apparent which ones are really ready for the gospel. That’s crazy about the weather there. Hope it gets warm soon so you can go fishing. We went over and taught Vladimir the Journalist guy the law of chastity last Tuesday. Basically it didn’t go very well. We taught really well and I really felt the spirit when I testified of the importance of keeping it but he said that he just cant give up having sex and he cant see himself getting married any time soon. But the cool part of all this is that at the end I asked Elder Clawson to pray and then I thought once he started that I should have asked Vladimir, and I felt it so clear that it was a prompting from the spirit. So after the prayer I asked him to pray and in his pray he said some way cool things about God helping him understand how to keep this commandment and that he thinks he can find answers to this problem in the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome prayer. He came to the right conclusions himself. It was way cool to see how the spirit was really directing us and him. It turns out that one of the people that a guy in our area had us teach the first lesson is getting baptized next month. We taught a really good first lesson and then passed her off to the missionaries in the mission where she lives and she started meeting with them and wants to get baptized. Way good news. I think it would be way cool to have one of Grandpas hats if they are just laying around up there. I know what you’re talking about with the math test too. I’m a little worried about it though. Anyway. Have a really nice week!
Elder Jensen.

Life is good.

Spent a lovely day with my sweetheart Saturday.

We had planned on going up to mom's to do a little work up there.
I looked out the back window and saw these beautiful Iris had just bloomed so Kelley picked a bunch of them to take to the cemetery.

We picked up Candice and went up to the Salt Lake Cemetery first to visit Maxine's grave.
Her headstone looked real nice. I think grampa must have been there recently cleaning and shining it.





We wanted to see Candice's new house so we drove over there...not too far from the capitol...memory grove area.


It's a real cute little house with a neat yard. (potentially) It's been neglected and from what Candice says pretty much trashed on the inside...so she will have her work cut out for her. I admire her for jumping in and tackling this huge job. (she could say a lot of negative things about the way things have transpired, but doesn't...I like that about Candice!) We are going up there today to help her move in.

When we got to Logan, we went right up to the cemetery. They must have come on Friday and put mom's death date on the headstone cause it wasn't there when we went there on Thursday.

I like how they put flags on all the veterans graves. I found out from my visit with my sisters the other day that Keith Watkins (who has owned Watkins printing there in Providence forever) started putting these flags on all the graves way back when...just out of the goodness of his heart. And now he is gone, his sons carry on the tradition. Nice!

We went over to mom's and Kelley went right to work on the bathroom. Alan had finished up some rough edges around the doors and it was ready to paint.

While Kelley painted, I cleaned and vacuumed. Lots of spiders!!!!! And I think there is a squirrel living back by daddys desk!

Mostly, I just liked wandering around the house, trying to take it all in.

I got a call from Leslie last week...she was all excited because she had gotten a call from Mardene Knowles. Well let me back up a little bit...

At mum's viewing, LuDene had mentioned that her daughter Mardene had always loved mum and daddy's place and had told her that if she ever saw it up for sale to let her know.

So when we were sending out our thank you notes, we mentioned to LuDene that we were going to be selling the place, so if she wanted to tell her daughter, that would be great.

So when Leslie got this call from Mardene, it was pretty unexpected...I just thought that was a long shot.

She told Leslie that her husband is getting ready to retire ( they live in Idaho) and they want to live closer to their children who are all there in Cache Valley. She said her and her husband both have always loved our yard and would want to have it stay like it always has been.

Leslie told her we were having it appraised this week so we would let them know what we come up with. She said her husband was going to come down and walk around their place on Saturday. I don't know what will happen here, but I feel like if it works out, it would be an answer to our prayers. The Knowles family has lived across the street from mum and daddy since I was a little girl. We grew up with their kids. ( all 10 of them!) Marlo was our home teacher forever, and LuDene played the piano for us when ever we sang. I can't really think of anyone else( besides one of us girls) I would rather have be there.

It still makes my heart ache to think of it not being ours anymore,..not being able to go there and find refuge in that beautiful peaceful place... ( it is a very real and tangible feeling as you pull in the driveway of leaving the noisy world behind, and entering a sweet quiet haven) Daddy's baby picture

His desk...it's fun to read all the little thoughts he has stuck under the glass and everywhere.

Just reminds you of his character...he was a perfect example of what these thoughts portray.

His hats....sigh....miss him.I could write a whole page about this typewriter and the memories I have of seeing daddy sitting there at it every night. Keeping a journal of their lives...plunking out the words day after day was an incredible gift our parents gave us. We went out and assessed the damage to the roof of the old house...it's leaking pretty bad. Kelley said he would need some help on this...still wondering if it's worth fixing. I imagine whoever buys it will want to tear it down.( although it is on the historic building registry) It's pretty much falling apart.Even with no attention or care, the rock garden still looks quite beautiful.
Kelley finished up the painting ( although he was not one bit happy about the way it looked..."this needs at least 3 coats! I can't leave it like this!" along with lots of swear words. I told him it doesn't have to be perfect... just make it livable. That is not in his nature. He does not do a job half-way...I wouldn't be surprised if he went up there and put another coat on there, just so he could sleep at night) I finished tidying the house and we locked it all up and left.

We went over to the Bluebird and had a nice meal. I love that place...full of happy memories of lunches with the girls and singing for Mother's day programs for mom's club ladies.

We stopped back by mom's place to get a old scythe Kelley had seen up in the wood shed, and Leslie and Alan pulled in the same time. We talked about selling the place...I think we all feel the same about it (ripping our hearts out) but trying to come to grips with it.