Arrived Safely

 He made it safely to the Dominican Republic!

Neighborhood Race

We participated in a race organized by our neighborhood today. Carter and I raced in the 5K, though he was exhausted from an all-day tennis tournament the day before. He finished about 20 seconds ahead of me. I ran a 7:38 pace, 1st female finisher. Austin and Bryson ran the 1 mile race.

 

Set Apart as a Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

When Caleb was set apart as a missionary, he was told that ancestor angels would be with him as he served. We couldn't help but think of his Uncle Sid being one of those angels.

Home MTC was a long week of sitting, staring at a computer screen for different classes, and little free time. He would have 10 minute breaks now and again and then an hour break for lunch and dinner. We got him all packed up and took him to the airport yesterday morning.

Caleb was district leader for his home and Mexico MTC.

He's going to miss this piano so much!

We were cruel and made Carter go to school. He was already missing every Friday for school tennis tournaments and struggling to keep up with his classes.

Off to Mexico!

Caleb Mission Farewell

Caleb had such a wonderful experience at BYU. It was so reassuring to hear after my first adult religion education class fail how much joy and light he had found at BYU; he especially loved how religion was integrated into his classes, and he could feel the Spirit while learning. Caleb took an organ class, piano, Book of Mormon, missionary preparation, Writing, required freshman class (University 101), and American Heritage. He didn't want a heavy schedule. He started dating a girl named Annie who was in 2 of his classes and his home ward. Instead of getting a job, he worked a Friday night shift in the temple. He joined an Ultimate Frisbee team and participated in a pickleball club and played in several tournaments, winning most of them (prize money or nice pickleball paddles that he sold). All of his friends from home went straight on their missions, so Caleb roomed with someone he didn't know ahead of time named Evan. They got along fine, and really helped each other when it came time to study for their American Heritage final. Caleb participated in tunnel singing on Sunday nights, practiced the piano a lot, organized musical numbers at church for his calling, went to a few football games, and enjoyed the freedom of being on his own. He and Annie became really close to their Book of Mormon teacher, and she had a huge impact on them both. Living in Helaman Halls, he had a meal plan and thought the food was great. He ate a huge spinach salad most every day. It was tricky doing some mission prep while he was away at school such as getting his passport and visa done, especially since he didn't have a car. He became very familiar with the public transportation system. Leading into the American Heritage final, he had a B in the class, so he studied super hard for the final with his roommate, staying up late quizzing each other. His roommate only missed one question on the final and Caleb missed two out of 90-ish questions! His final average qualified him to be asked to be a TA for the next semester!

While Caleb was home for Christmas and before being set apart as a missionary, we played a lot of games, and he played a lot of tennis and pickleball!

Cousin temple trip

Carter's first time baptizing

A snowstorm actually came through the weekend he was supposed to give his farewell talk, and church and school the next day were canceled. Fortunately, the bishop allowed him to play his musical number and give his talk the next week on a Fast Sunday, followed by testimonies from the congregation. He got emotional a few times during his talk as he shared experiences of how he has gained a testimony of Jesus Christ.

Christmas 2025

This kid got glasses! It was a shocking development where he off-handedly mentioned to the pediatrician at his well-visit that he was having trouble seeing the whiteboard from the back of the room. I had never heard him mention that! He has 20/70 vision and uses his glasses mostly just for school and only to pull out at certain times. I rarely see him put them on at home.

Kari and Jared planned some new Christmas Eve games for us to try this year!

One of our Christmas presents was a family trip to Six Flags! We had a great time.

Our Christmas plan originally was a trip to Universal Studios as our entire Christmas. We planned to use Matt's Christmas bonus to off-set the cost and enjoy one last trip as a family before Caleb started his mission. The trip was booked and paid for with the itinerary of leaving the 23rd and spending the next 3 days at Universal in Florida. However, things started going badly at work for Matt where he was juggling so many balls all on his own and not able to keep it all afloat. His boss called him into the office and told Matt he wasn't working hard enough, being lazy, and thus would not receive his Christmas or year-end bonus. Matt was crushed. He had been overloaded for some time, begging them to hire more help to alleviate his load. They didn't want to spend the money. Matt was drowning putting in so much over-time to try to keep his head above water, and it was taking a toll on him emotionally, mentally, and physically. To be told he wasn't working hard enough and would lose out on his bonuses broke him. He turned in his two week's notice, which would put his ownership of the company at risk, and we canceled our trip fortunately only losing out on $200. He started lining up options for other jobs with the future unknown. His boss refused to accept the two week's notice, however, and this triggered them moving two people over from engineering to help Matt with his responsibilities. After a week, the two engineering men said it was too much work, and they couldn't keep up with their engineering responsibilities and the tasks assigned to alleviate Matt. In the end, they finally hired two new people under Matt that he could delegate responsibilities to. Matt is still not happy at work, but he keeps his head down, avoids his boss when possible and is trying to ride it out to the end and the company sells. 

When we canceled our trip, we then had to scramble to come up with Christmas presents! Caleb was easy as we were already purchasing things for his mission. It became a year of mostly gift cards as presents for everyone else, which felt lame! We also did some new family games; Six Flags was our Universal replacement. 🤣

Stake Adult Religion Education Teacher

After serving 3.5 years in the Stake Primary Presidency, I was released right after we finished our 4th Stake Day Camp (my least favorite part of our responsibilities). The part of my calling I enjoyed most was overseeing Primary music and training the new music leaders and giving them resources to enhance the experience for the children in each ward. Some were more receptive to my help than others, but it was fun for me to be involved. I subbed for Singing Time quite a bit over those years in several wards, especially in one ward in my building. Thus it was a very Sunday-busy calling, which was tough when that overlapped with Matt's 2.5 years in the bishopric.

As I was released, I was extended the call to be a day-time stake adult religion education teacher. I have attended the class in the past but wasn't currently attending due to concern of some things being taught by one teacher in "gray" areas of Church history and a handful of ladies that seemed to relish those discussions. I was nervous to come in as a teacher but tried to have a positive attitude. My partner is a friend from a past ward whom I have always seen as stalwart in her testimony of Jesus Christ. She has never attended the class. We had many discussions together prior to starting and had a meeting with a stake presidency member about some concerns and to hear his counsel: focus each lesson on Jesus Christ and love each individual.

To say there were some ladies that weren't happy with the change (two new teachers who weren't attending the class) is an understatement. My first lesson from Saints 4 was on the centennial celebration of BYU. I felt like I structured the lesson on a train pointed towards the Savior with a discussion about how following the honor code helps to create disciples of Christ. I came prepared with quotes and support of concerns that might be brought up, but I was NOT prepared for the conclusions that were drawn about the honor code. It felt like some women picked up the train, took it off the tracks, and then pointed it in the opposite direction. A main conclusion is that the honor code actually creates liars. People sign their name to obey the honor code in order to get a cheaper education. One woman came with ammunition of examples of how the honor code doesn't protect the students such as two girls who went to a party, participated in the drinking, and then one got raped. She couldn't report the raping because then she'd have to report the drinking which would mean getting kicked out of the school. Apparently students will "ward shop" to find a bishop who will be willing to write them an ecclesiastical endorsement. The environment is not good at BYU anymore and the light has gone out. At a loss of what to do, I finally sat down feeling like I had lost control of the discussion and didn't know how to get it back. The discussion took almost my whole time. My partner tried to help turn the conversation around saying that the solution seems to be that we need to educate parents not to pressure their children to attend BYU if they are not willing to abide by the honor code. When I finally moved onto the rest of my lesson about some faithful African American Saints who chose to join the church despite not being able to have the Church established in their area, I struggled to feel the Spirit and had difficulty bearing my testimony at the end. At the end of class, my co-teacher and I had a long discussion together about how the class went outside by our cars. Then I proceeded to call Matt and my mom where I broke down into tears as I recounted the events of class. I wanted to quit. I strive to fill my life with light, and I couldn't feel the Spirit during that class discussion. 

Because of how my lesson went, my co-teacher took her topic of 1978 lifting of the Priesthood ban the next week and invited very little discussion. She had beautiful thoughts from African American Saints and how they reconcile their faith today with the Priesthood ban. 

It's been a very challenging calling for me, also because I don't love history, but I'm grateful for the deeper friendship I have now with my co-teacher.

First Pickleball Tournament

Kari and I played in a pickleball tournament together! It was a fun experience and something I'm sure we will do again in the future!