One Year for Tyler

Our Italian Elder has hit the one year mark today. He is loving his mission - here are a few pictures of the past year.

At the MTC May 2007 - Companion Elder Mason

His district in the MTC

This is his first day in Italy with his trainer, Anziano Blake and President and Sister Dunaway.

Ty rode a bike in his first city, Ravenna. He really loves wearing the helmet :) I don't know if he still rides a bike in Torino, it is a much bigger city. (Remember the Winter Olympics?)

This is one of his favorite foods in Italy - a piadine - but he calls it "a quesadilla on steroids."

He says he found Mr. Bean's Fiat!

This is the baptismal font that they use there. :)

And of course, the real reason he is there in Italy, this is one of the first baptisms he got to participate in.

Keep up the great work Ty! We love you a lot!!!

Breaking Records at ASF

Ryan has been really involved with football, weight training, and plyometrics this year. Yesterday he received an award for "Outstanding Junior in Physical Education" at an assembly in front of the whole school. Last week he was tested on his vertical jump and shattered the school record. The old record was 26 inches - the new record that Ryan set is 31 inches. On his first jump the coach didn't have the measuring instrument high enough, so they put it up 12 inches more because he jumps so high. He enjoys staying after school everyday for strength and conditioning and also football practice. He is in amazing shape! Congratulations and keep up the great work!

Baptismal Service

Russ, Ryan and I attended this baptism last month, with these 6 people being baptized. The little girl with her arm around her sister bore her testimony later in a fireside that night, it was such a strong testimony for someone so young. The little boys look so young! We asked them how old they were (we wanted to be sure they were at least 8) and the smallest one said he was 12. The people here are tiny in stature but large in spirit. Elders Sander and Mora did a great job teaching them and helping them find the gospel. Elder Sander (standing) kind of reminds me of Tyler. He is from Uruguay.

"A Heart Like His"

I just finished a book my good friend Suzanne sent to me, it's called "A Heart Like His" by Virginia Hinckley Pearce. It is wonderful. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was so short. I wasn't ready for it to be over. I recommend it to everyone. It's about opening our hearts and feeling the love of God - His love for us, and our love for Him - and how we can help others feel this same love. If you want to read a really wonderful book, this is the one!

Tongue Twisters en Espanol

These are some tongue twisters that Ryan got in his Spanish class. He got the paper while Chad and Joey were here and Chad loved them! I made some copies for him to take home, but he forgot them - so I thought Chad and Brandon (and any other Spanish speakers) might like to try them. (Keep in mind this thing is not letting me do Spanish letters and punctuation, ok)

Usted no nada nada?
No, no traje traje.

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal.

El vino vino, per el vino no vino vino. El vino vino vinagre.

De Guadalajara vengo, jara traigo, jara vendo, a medio doy cada jara.
Que jara tan cara traigo de Guadalajara.

El volcan de parangaricutirimicuaro se quiere desparangaricutiriguarizar, y el que lo desparangaricutiricuarizare sera un buen desparangaricutirimizador.

Pablito piso el piso, pisando el piso Pablito piso cuando Pablito piso el piso, piezas de piso piso Pablito.

Un tubo tiro un tubo y otro tubo lo detuvo. Hay tubos que tienen tubos pero este tubo no tuvo tubo.

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No, I don't know what they mean :)

Thirteen Nations Represented

We have the wonderful opportunity of serving here with 204 young missionaries and 6 wonderful senior couples. I thought I would post the different countries we have represented here and the number of missionaries serving:

Mexico: 125
USA: 64 (+12 with the couples)
Argentina :2
Nicaragua: 2
Guatemala: 2
Ecuador: 2
Honduras: 2
Bolivia: 1
El Salvador: 1
Panama: 1
Uruguay: 1
Costa Rica: 1
Peru:1

The majority of these missionaries speak Spanish as their first language. It's surprising to me to see how many of them know some English. They are a great help to me in learning Spanish.

Our senior couples are wonderful and I don't know what we would do without them. It's marvelous to see them here doing what they do, and getting around this city so well. A couple of weeks ago we had a breakfast to say goodbye to one of them, the Greer's from Nevada. We'll miss them!

Chad and Joey visit Mexico City

Chad and Joey visited us at the beginning of this month, and we loved having them here. It went by way too fast, though. We went to Teotihuacan (tay 0 tee WUH con) and they climbed the Pyramid of the Sun.

We went to a restaurant by the pyramids called "La Gruta" - it is bright and colorful inside, but the restaurant is inside a cave. The food there isn't that great, but it's kind of fun anyway.

We had new missionaries arrive in the middle of their visit so they went with us to take the Elders for "tacos al pastor" - We go to a restaurant called La Onda in the downtown area.

Ryan and Chad bought these jackets at a tiangi near the pyramids. It was a pretty hot day, so they didn't wear them very long :)

We went over to the Visitor's Center on Sunday, it just reopened on April 24th after having a lot of remodeling work. The hermanas gave us a wonderful tour and they even did some of it in English. They work very hard on their English skills, and they are really improving.





We went on the "Turibus" and saw a lot of the sights of downtown Mexico City. This is by the Angel monument and is one of the most famous. The Angel is actually on the top of the monument and you can't see it (sorry).

We hope you'll come back soon!

Reyna

I finally got to take a picture of Reyna the other day (she's on the right) and thought you might like to meet her. Her daughter Maricela and her grandaughter Yaretzi were visiting, so I took their picture. I don't know what I would do without Reyna, she's the greatest! She keeps everything looking great in the mission home, takes care of all the laundry, (I haven't had to iron a white shirt in almost a year!) and makes the best "limonada".

Whole mission photo

We got the whole mission together last week for a picture. It was exciting to have everyone together even if it was only for an hour. We had half of the zones come in the morning for zone conference and then the other half came at noon. We had the picture, then the first half went back to their areas and the second half had zone conference. The final picture has the temple added in behind us instead of the rooftop and tower. I'll post the final picture as soon as I can.

Ryan loves football

Ryan played JV football this spring at his school, and has had about a month off. Next week they are gearing up for next season and he couldn't be happier! He had a great season last year and looks forward to the new one. He has played at tight end and linebacker. Here's a picture from a game in February. He's #89.

My new blog starts today

Well, I want to get in on this blog thing, too. I've really enjoyed seeing all the new family blogs and want to share what's going on in our world, too. I'm not sure I'll be able to update very frequently, but I'll do my best.