Hello

I decided I need to post at least once a week. The only very interesting events in our family are the plethora of ways Grace tries to maim herself. Just today, she tried to amputate her finger and get a concussion, all while supposedly sitting quietly on a chair or a couch.

Mike is in LA until tomorrow. He is coming home early so that we can go see a Christmas show at the Arvada Center called Plaid Tidings! I'm very excited to go.

I'm painting my laundry room peach and I'm putting a matching print fabric on the the walls behind my shelves so that it looks like I wall papered the back of the shelving. Very neat! I love it. We finally moved furniture into the office, but Mike is unhappy with how the carpet in the closet was installed so we can't finish moving in until that is resolved. But the great room that was full of stuff is now only half full of stuff.

OHHH and the most important thing is that I am also getting a free used couch that doesn't shed cushion! Think of the time savings when I'm not vacuuming every day! I may end up with another calling.

We have no presents under our tree. We don't even have a tree, so I think Taryn is well on her way to a great Christmas. We are going to the Homestead in Jan. Come with us! You could be swimming in the Crater, too.

Love to you all.
Martissa

Merry Christmas

How many presents do you have under your tree? So far we have only 1!! Well hope you have a Merry Christmas. I can't wait to see anyone who comes down this Christmas! I miss ;like everyone. My goal is to see everyone on my mom's side of the family starting New Year's Day.

James most recent email and release date !!!!

We received a letter from the Mission President and James will be coming home on May 13th. Here is his most recent email. He was made a zone leader last month and sent his companion home. He is now a senior zone leader.

Hello everyone! How are you all doing?! I am doing really well. Today is a rainy day! In fact there are two typhoons off the coast of Taiwan. We had a sister in our zone last transfer who was transferred to TaiDong, but because of the weather on the East coast, she could not travel down on plane. I am still in XiZhi! My new companion is Elder Asbury from Michigan. He is the man. He is really fun and always has a smile. We are excited to work together. He just started being a Zone Leader and President asked if I could be a Zone Leader (Driver). The difference is when certains decisions need to be made, I would make the call. Otherwise, we work it! Last night was Elder Anderson's last night to get out and work. We went out hard and had some afflictions (rude people and rain), but we pushed and taught 14 lessons and found 6 new investigators! MIRACLE! Not to mention, we found two awesome families! They are so awesome. I am greatful for the Lord and His mercy. He has helped us find so many wonderful people. I am greatful for that. How are things with everyone in America? I hope well. I had the opportunity to cook a Turkey dinner for the XiZhi ward. I have never cooked a turkey before, so with help from my mom, Sister Nielson, and Sister Dodge (a senior Sister)... I was able to cook the turkey and make some gravy. I had two awesome ward sisters help make the potatoes along with my companion. We cooked some corn and had Costco Pumpkin pies. I will tell you, if you have not eaten a pumpkin pie in a long time... go eat one! It is delicious! President Garn, Asia Area President, and member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy... is in Taiwan visiting our mission! I am excited and ready to learn. We might be interviewed by him as well. Being a zone leader, the General Authorities usually like to know what the mission is up to. What better than to hit the leadership. I know this Church is true. I know that Heavenly Father lives. This is such a wonderful time to be alive. With all the negativity and evils in the world, "the Lord has need of willing hands..." I hope all of you this Festive Season will thank the Lord for all he has blessed us with. Remember your families and close friends. Remember your dentists, doctors, and grocery baggers... the work of God is wonderful. I love you all. Be strong and have an awesome Thanksgiving! I love you all! Love Elder Whelchel P.S. Keep dry and always remember I am a prayer, letter or email away!

The longest I've ever been gone!

I'm back in southern CA again. I drove back last night in the full moon. It was glorious! This past two weeks is the longest I have ever been away from my Nutro office. I came back early so I can go in tomorrow and reassure everybody I'm still alive. :) A noble gesture, don't you think? According to Nutro's fiscal calendar, tomorrow will be the first order day of December, so Merry Christmas to all of you!

A While Back

Okay, well I got tired of trying to find resent picture so I decided to go back a few years in Febuary 2002, and get a picture of all the cousins as possible at one time. And this is what I found.

Two Cute!

Paisley wore a new birthday outfit today and she looked very cute! When we were at Walmart today Santa was there taking free pictures. Paisley was too scared to take one by herself so I got to sit on Santa's lap with her and take a picture. It was a lot of fun.

Funny Stories

Each morning during breakfast, Mialee and I tell a story. I say about 3 words, then she says 3 words and we create a story together. This is how yesterday's went:

R: Once there was a
M: little girl
R: and it was time for her to
M: to go to bed
R: the little girl said
M: I don't want to go to bed
R: and the mom said
M: ok, you can stay up!

I had to laugh so hard. Poor her, that is probably what she wishes I would say each night when she tells me she doesn't want to go to bed.



Walking in to the market this morning Mialee says to me: "Mom, I'm not big, I am still little, I have sharp teeth." She cracks me up.



Nathan too is getting to be quite funny. The other day in the car, he gasps and points at the window and yells, "it's a pider." There really wasn't a spider there but it sure scared me!

Your up-to-date weather forecast is...

SNOW!

Our Family Thanksgiving Picture

This was our 3rd Thanksgiving together as a little family of 3! Our first Thanksgiving we were on our own in provo with a month old baby and we took family pictures, some how last year at Mom's house we didn't think of it, but we did it again yesterday. We've all grown up a bit.

Our Thanksgiving Food

These are the dishes we took to our friends house for Thanksgiving. We took funeral potatoes, jello salad, a fruit plate with dip and a chocolate dessert. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of good food! Paisley had a fun time helping me and we had to take a picture in our Christmas aprons!

Left at 3:30am and home before 6am!!!

Mission Accomplished!! Yes, Lauren and I got up this morning and braved the 37 degree weather to hit the sales. We had determined that only Kohl's and WalMart had stuff worth
fighting the crowds for. Kohl's opened at 4am. We stayed in the car until 5 mins to for warmth. Got out at 5 mins to and waited for a min in line then the line started to move. We hit the store and thanks to Lauren's famialarity with it, we knew where to go to get what we wanted. Got our stuff and got inline. We were out of there and at WalMart for their 5am opening. We got everything we wanted there and hit the line and just got home. Now its back to bed. I go into WalMart at noon and work til 5, Lauren goes in at 1 and works until 8.

Hope you all had as good of luck as we did!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving family! I hope you have a very special day filled with yummy food and good company. Some of our friends invited us to their house for Thanksgiving, so don't worry about us being lonely. We have made some yummy treats to share, maybe I'll put up pictures. Well Happy Thanksgiving and I'm Thankful you're all a part of my family!

Germany Movie

Our New Bedroom

Well, how many times have you moved into a place and in the hurry of the moment and fatigue of it all just thrown a room together? That is what happened to our bedroom in our present house. I haven't liked it much and have wanted to play with it but knew it would mean moving our bed and that meant taking the thing apart and putting it back together. Something Lewis hates (with good reason). However, the kids asked what I wanted for my birthday and it seemed like a good idea to me to get some help and get what I wanted.....our sanctuary. Here are the results. I love it!! Let me know what you think.

Nathan's Birthday.....Party #1

His Puppy cake. He enjoyed barking at it!
He blew both candles out on the first try. It was so much fun he did it 5 more times!
Opening presents, thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
Wow, it is great to be 2!

Here is a LAUGH

Police cadets are being trained in the finer points of recognizing suspects. To test their skills, the superior officer holds up a photo of a mean looking dude, and then hides it.

"This is you suspect,"He tells the group of three."Describe him."
The first cadet says," He’s an ugly looking, one eyed guy."
" You only see one eye because the photo is a profile," the officer says patiently.
He flashes the photo at the second cadet. " Here’s the perp. What do you do?"
Id round up all the one eyed crooks."
"I told you, it’s a photo of his profile!" the officer repeats.
The third cadet pipes up," The suspect wears contact lenses."
"That’s true," says the officer, relieved that on of the new recruits is on the ball. " How did you conclude that?"
"Easy." Says the cadet. "He can’t wear glasses because he only has one eye and one ear."
Credit to the reader’s digest August 2003

Lewis will soon be off to Portland

Hi,

I will be meeting Mom and Dad in Portland in the early afternoon. As you are all painfully aware, I haven't had great luck with Southwest Airlines being on-time. As a way passing around the fun, I'm creating a lottery. The person with the best estimate to my delayed departure from Las Vegas will win a candy treat of their choice, which I'll mail out when I get back to Utah on Thanksgiving day. Please enter your guess below. The guessing will close tonight, since hopefully few of you will be up by the time I leave for the airport.

My guess: 55 minutes late.

What's yours? :)

More pics

Arch Overlook Pictures

A Really Funny Joke (from Kendall Kelly)

SAYING GOODBYE TO MOTHER.... We were dressed and ready to go out for the New Years Eve Party. We turned on a night light, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet parakeet and put the cat in the backyard. We phoned the local cab company and requested a taxi. The taxi arrived and we opened the front door to leave the house. The cat we put out in the yard, scoots back into the house. We didn't want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to eat the bird.

My wife goes out to the taxi, while I went inside to get the cat. The cat runs upstairs, with me in hot pursuit. Waiting in the cab, my wife doesn't want the driver to know that the house will be empty for the night. So, she explains to the taxi driver that I will be out soon, 'He's just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother.'

A few minutes later, I get into the cab. 'Sorry I took so long,' I said, as we drove away. She was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her with a coat hanger to get her to come out! She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked! I hauled her downstairs and threw her out into the back yard!'

The cab driver hit a parked car...

Monday Fun

My mom, brother,and me are going to take Grandma, and Grandpa to the airport in Burbank. Instead of just droping them off and leaving, we decited to go to the LA Zoo. We are leaving tomorrow at around 8:40. They have to be at the airport at around 9:45. Oh, boy! What a trip it would be!

Arch Overlook Trailhead

Lo and behold I had off from WalMart today. I couldn't believe it, so I asked the kids if they wanted to go for a hike and they said "sure" enthusiastically. Ok, so they didn't say it enthusiastically. But they did say sure. Then we decided to see if the cousins wanted to come along and we ended up having Jon, Caitlin, Kendall, Thomas and McKay and myself on our little adventure. I took them to Arch overlook which is the trailhead you hit right after you go through the Zion Tunnel headed north. We parked at the turnout, got some pictures of some bighorn sheep or mountain goats (not sure which). Then headed out on our hike. The pictures are of the sheep/goats then of the kids at various places along the trail. Then we came across this fun rock and decided to take some "fun" pictures, hence you see muscle shots. Then on the way back home we stopped to see the elk and buffalo at the petting farm. We ate at Wendys and called it a day. A great time with great company!!

Friday night project

I out grew my 2 shelf bookcase, so today we went to Walmart and found a perfect size, perfect color bookcase that I love. Tonight we put it together. Mialee was my lovely assistant, though Nathan had the screw driver and hammer a few times too. No blisters, but a sore right hand and an hour later, we have our finished product! Mialee got my old bookcase so now we each have our own.

My email inbox

Yeah to me! I just spent four hours going through a year's worth of email and emptied my inbox but for two emails that I still need to respond to. I'll now see how long it takes me to get behind again. Thank you for all of the lovely notes you've been sending since last October that I just read today!

Love you all,

Martissa

James most recent email

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I am doing great. Elder Anderson came back on saturday. It has been nothing but fun and hard work. Here is a miracle day for you... Last thursday, Elder Jensen and I wanted to find new investigators. We said a prayer of faith and than went to a "hot pot" for dinner. After dinner, Elder Jensen was feeling sick, so we stopped by the chapel and he used the restroom. While he was in the restroom, I called some potential investigators in my planner and had a brother Huang set up for this saturday! How awesome is that! SO GREAT! He drives a Mazda too, lol. That is how i remembered him, lol. After that, we did some serious contacting... than traveled to tract at a He Ping Rd. I got lost in the rain, so we turned around past the train station and we stopped to talk with a Brother wu. We shared about the Book of mormon and he commited to read a copy and meet with us on Saturday. AWESOME! I know the Lord answers the prayer of faith. I know He listens to all of His children. This past monday. We had alot of busy stuff (follow-ups, service at a hospital, and preparing for our district visits) which kept us inside alot. We went out at night and we were rolling. We wanted to see miracles and the first three people we shared the gospel with all set up times to meet with missionaries! THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME! We did not stop there, we kept teaching and talking to everyone we met. We had a fun wet time. The last man we talked to was a very humble person. He set up and said "i have never talked to God." We are so stoked to meet with him! Miracles are out there, I know they are true. In the book of Moroni, chapter 7, verse 29: "... my beloved brethern, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." Believe in miracles... do not lose hope. THEY ARE REAL. I am a testimony to that fact. In Zhongli, I crashed face first into the ground and lost two teeth. The fall could have been much worse, but because of four years of track, what could have been a send-home-accident, turned into an experience that has allowed me to see the hand of the Great Creator in my life. Usually when people fall, they will use their hands to break their fall. At the speed and magnitude that I hit the ground, I would have broken both of my arms had I done just that. I at the time, did not... instead I had done what I have done multiple times on the running track. My first two years of high school I attended Los Altos High School. My coach there spent most of his time on our technique. I fell around 20+ times each of those two years. While falling, I taught myself how to break my fall. At the time of falling, I would start to curl into a ball to break my fall, where I would take it in a roll, and spin my body up ward using the force to extort my body and break the fall. As I fell, my experience grew to where I could fall and break my fall and get out without much damage. (I know mom, both times I raced Rubidox I had some nice cuts, lol. Those were different.) So, back to my accident. Elder ware said when I feel, I flew off my back and rolled into a ball. Obviously, i missed the form, since my face hit before I could get the break out. Elder ware said i had landed funny, he said i should have come out of the fall differently. I know, that the four years of track had more of a purpose than enjoyment, health and fun. Its purpose was to keep me on my mission and teach me a lesson that I will forever be indebted to the Lord for. I know this is true and I know He lives. In our lives, many things will happen without power of our own attaining to it. I know the Lord cares for each and everyone of us. He loves us and is guiding us. He has plans for us we could never dream of. For those of your married or on that path... I am sure you were surprised how you two met. The Lord works in ways to bring about His grand and eternal purposes. In Alma, chapter 37, verses 6-7: "... that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." I love you all so much you are all spiritual giants! Be strong and remember who you are! Love Elder Whelchel P.S. Have an awesome week and always remember to forgive and forget!

Auf Wiedersehen- but mine are cuter!

This is our hotel. It is called the Hotel Mercure am Kurpark.
This is at the Brothers Grimm Musuem, Paisley didn't want to be measured by Pinocchio's nose.
We are driving around in a Mercedes, it's pretty awesome!
This is Paisley waiting for our pizza today in the cafe.
Our hotel is in a very pretty, and very big park with several historic buildings in it. This is Paisley in front of one of the many fountains in that park.
We went to the brother Grimm museum that had a lot of interesting things about the original fairy tales. We couldn't read any of it, but from the pictures and props it was very fun.


I thought it would be a good time to add one of the family jokes to the blog. For those of you who don't know or don't remember good bye in germ sounds like "our feet are the same" but mom and marti used to always add "but mine are cuter!" we've been hearing this phrase a lot lately. We've been sampling a lot of chocolate trying to find just the right stuff to bring home to share. I've yet to find the cuckoo clock I wanted, but I still have a week and a half. Not very many people speak english (contrary to what we were told) and so we have had somewhat of a hard time at restaurants, a lot of the time we just choose something and hope it is edible. For breakfast they eat hard bread, lunch meat (well that is what it looks like, it is probably nicer than lunch meat) and cheese. Not our idea of a good breakfast. Luckily the hotel has an american breakfast so we can get eggs, potatoes and bacon. We have had german food and italian food. The pizza here is gross but it is one of the few things Paisley will eat so I have had it twice already. We are trying to get the courage to try the chinese food but all the pictures look yuckie. We'll see. Well this is it for now. We'll write again when we can! Cheers!

Update

I just wanted to thank you all for your love, support and prayers on my behalf this past few weeks. I have felt an increase in the spirit and love of the Lord and know that your prayers for me have been a big reason for that. It is amazing what experiences can teach you and how quickly they can do it. I have learned more in the past 3 weeks about the Atonement and Christs love for me than I have in the past year.

Jen and I are going to make it. It will be a long road ahead but we can do it, and we are going to do it. I finally got my Temple Recommend and Jen and I spent the day in the Temple yesterday, it was wonderful. I didn't realize how much I missed the temple until we did a few sessions yesterday.

I love you all. Thanks again.

news

Lauren and I are running in the Butch Cassidy races tomorrow. We both raced last weekend too. She participated in the NCAA Western States Conference (5k) meet and I participated in the Sister to Sister Breast Cancer 10k. She pr'd and I came close but not close enough. So, we heard about this race and decided it would be fun to run another race exactly a week later and see if we could improve on our times. That is what we will attempt to do tomorrow.

Halloween

I miss Halloween. I just can't wait for Christmas. Post a comment if you agree with this statement.

Christmas Request

James has expressed a desire for some kind of chinese/english electronic translator. It isn't cheap and since some of you have asked in the past what he wants, I thought I would let you know about this. If anyone wants to contribute to it, we can let him know who all made it possible for him to get it. Thanks.

Goodbye for now

Some of you may not be aware that we are going to Germany tomorrow. We leave tomorrow evening and return on Nov. 16. I don't know what our internet situation will be there. If I can post I will for sure, but if not we will have a lot to catch up on in two weeks! If you are interested in looking it up on a map we will be flying into Hannover and staying in Bad Oeynhausen. Jason will be going to work everyday and Paisley and I will be exploring. It is getting cold over there but hopefully not too cold to stop us from being tourists. We look forward tasting the chocolate and have high hopes of bringing a lot back with us! Have a super 2 weeks and we hope to be able to post at you soon!