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Howzit-Elder Flexy!

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Alex getting ready to wakeboard, before he left on his mission! Cute!


Elder Flexy 8:2 -email-

My darling Elder, It was a beautiful day today. The sky was clear and sunshiny. The temperature was actually warm. I am ready for spring. You’re probably thinking, I’m ready for fall. Anyway, It was a wonderful Sabbath. Our church was great. We had super lessons and then the Poppa and Juanita Fowers spoke. They’re going on a mission to LA, California. It’s a family history mission. They will do great. They’re talks were great. Then we went to Kelsey’s ward and heard her talk. Wow! She is ready. Her talk was great. I am so glad she decided to go. She has made some changes in her life and she is happy and at peace with her decision to go. I know she will do great. Thanks for being the trail blazer and setting a good example for your siblings to follow. I love you so much! I better quit. It is about time for you to get up. Have a great week! I am sending your B-day package tomorrow, it will probably be late, sorry. Be Safe!! Be Obedient! Love, Mom



Make,
this week has been good we had a district conferance on saturday and sunday it was huge there were like four hundred people there on sunday. we had one of our investigators interviewed for baptism it went great he will be baptised in two weeks it will be awesome. anyway life is good i got an interview with president vonstetton today what an awesome guy!! we had five investigators at conferance it was so good. oh ya i recieved a letter from colter from new york.

1 Any baptisms yet?

1.not yet in a couple of weeks.
2 How do you get, or encourage, the people you teach, who have Word of Wisdom problems to quit what they are doing?
2.we have some stop drinking and smoking programs that we use.
3 How is your area?
3.its good my legs are getting tough but my upper body is still getting soft but i weigh the same as when i left.
4 Favorite scripture of the week?
4.dang it i don’t have my scripts on me but i’ll look it up and tell you.
5 Do the people you teach know about the Savior? Is there any common ground to go from?
5.ya there are many christian churches so the people know him.

Special question:
6 How do you explain to investigators that Heavenly Father is their Father and that He is really there?

6.well we just explain to them that he is litterally the father of our spirits and that he loves us as a father.
well life is good on mission we will keep working hard. love you 

                                                              Love Elder Flexy 


Alex, How are you? We had a great Sunday. Church was super, We had a lesson on service and lots of people made comments we shouldn’t do service expecting a reward so, Chad said he doesn’t mow Mike Theis’s lawn  in hopes that Mike will offer to let him ride his Big Dog (motorcycle). Leon and Juanita spoke in church. They are leaving soon for California. After our ward we went to Kelsey’s Sacrament meeting, she gave a really good talk. The opening song was “because I have been given much” That song kills me, I don’t get through the first line before I am Bawling. What a boob. We had dinner at Brads house for a change it was great. Ariane was there with her 2 darling kids. she is doing ok. Brad and Cindy’s 4 dogs are so cute. Caleb is getting married in June to Kristy. I went skiing with Riley last Mon. It was fun but a little windy. Tues. would have been a better choice, it was a beautiful day. Today was in the 60s. soo nice. We had two soccer games this week, so it went like this. Ski 6hours mon. soccer game same day at 11:30pm soccer game tues. 5:45pm it was a fun two days. Well I better give someone else a turn. I am soo proud of you and what you are doing keep up the good work. Love Dad. 

Babe,
sounds like you have been having fun lots of cool things happening. thats so crazy Caleb is getting married thats awesome tell him congrats for me. so chad is still waitin to buy himself a harley! thats so funny ya we saw a nice car the other day. we saw a bentley its worth about seven million rands it was nice esspecially in swaziland. but life is good we are working very hard. ya they call this are a walking area but i think its a hiking area its tough to walk some of these places. anyway love you. 

                                                              Love Elder Flexy


Flexy Boo Lou,

Hey buddy? How’s life? I hope things are good for you. I’m doing pretty good. Still just getting things ready for when I leave. I’ve been a little stressed about that, but I know that the Lord will provide and take care of what I can’t do, as long as I do all I can. Today I went to mission prep for the first time in a while. It was really good. If the MTC (Missionary Training Center) is anything like that, I know I’m going to love it. Also I spoke in my sacrament meeting. I was super nervous, but I guess I did okay. I’m going to have to add a little more before I speak in the home ward next week, because I’m supposed to take about ten minutes. Anyway things are good. I better go though. At the family party earlier tonight, Cash head butted me in the nose, so now I have a headache. Continue the work. Keep doing what you are doing. The gospel is so true! 🙂 Love you lots. Love, Kelsey



Kelsey,
man i’m kinda jealous you will be in the mtc!! i would live there the rest of my life if i could its was so nice. anyway sorry the computer is glitching so others need to have a turn. love you 


Dear Flex, My awesome bro!! I’m so glad that you are doing great! And I am doing fantastic as well and today was great! I didn’t work for the first Sunday in like nine months! And we had a great family party. It was so fun and church was great. Kels spoke and did a good job! She is great! And i would like to announce that i am loosing almost all of my family members! Two siblings out on missions!! Wow its crazy! Anyway keep being a good boy and doing a good job! Sounds like you are having a lot of success and remember who you are and what you stand for 🙂 I love you lots and lots!! Thanks for being fantastic!! Peace and Blessings! Out! Em

Em,
I love you too i’m glad you didn’t have to work on sundays thats good love you.


Hello My Cousin!!!!! 
I’m playing at your house for the next couple days… Oh this is Caitlin, I probably should inform you of that. Um…. What to say? I guess that I’ll just let you know what’s going on. I was attending Snow College. I thought that I was doing well… I turned out to be wrong, so I decided not to go back for Spring Semester. I feel like everyone’s leaving… Imma be all alone. ): Well… Not completely alone, but you get what I’m meaning. I hope that you’re having an amazing time and I’m so very proud of you!  I love you to bits!!!!!! -Caterbug! (That nickname still bothers me but I felt that I should put it.) Once again, I love you to bits!!!


Caiterbug i love you too i hope you can continue to have success in life.

                                                            Love All you guys Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

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I absolutely love 

James E. Talmage!!

 Here is one of my favorite stories that he wrote. Enjoy!

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 The Parable of 

Two Lamps

Among the material things of the past—things that I treasure for sweet memory’s sake and because of pleasant association in bygone days—is a lamp. …
The lamp of which I speak, the student lamp of my school and college days, was one of the best of its kind. I had bought it with hard-earned savings; it was counted among my most cherished possessions. …
One summer evening I sat musing studiously and withal restfully in the open air outside the door of the room in which I lodged and studied. A stranger approached. I noticed that he carried a satchel. He was affable and entertaining. I brought another chair from within, and we chatted together till the twilight had deepened into dusk, the dusk into darkness.
Then he said: “You are a student and doubtless have much work to do of nights. What kind of lamp do you use?” And without waiting for a reply, he continued, “I have a superior kind of lamp I should like to show you, a lamp designed and constructed according to the latest achievements of applied science, far surpassing anything heretofore produced as a means of artificial lighting.”
I replied with confidence, and I confess, not without some exultation: “My friend, I have a lamp, one that has been tested and proved. It has been to me a companion through many a long night. It is an Argand lamp, and one of the best. I have trimmed and cleaned it today; it is ready for the lighting. Step inside; I will show you my lamp; then you may tell me whether yours can possibly be better.”
We entered my study room, and with a feeling which I assume is akin to that of the athlete about to enter a contest with one whom he regards as a pitiably inferior opponent, I put the match to my well-trimmed Argand.
My visitor was voluble in his praise. It was the best lamp of its kind, he said. He averred that he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He turned the wick up and down and pronounced the adjustment perfect. He declared that never before had he realized how satisfactory a student lamp could be.
I liked the man; he seemed to me wise, and he assuredly was ingratiating. “Love me, love my lamp,” I thought, mentally paraphrasing a common expression of the period.
“Now,” said he, “with your permission I’ll light my lamp.” He took from his satchel a lamp then known as the “Rochester.” It had a chimney which, compared with mine, was as a factory smokestack alongside a house flue. Its hollow wick was wide enough to admit my four fingers. Its light made bright the remotest corner of my room. In its brilliant blaze my own little Argand wick burned a weak, pale yellow. Until that moment of convincing demonstration, I had never known the dim obscurity in which I had lived and labored, studied and struggled.
“I’ll buy your lamp,” said I; “you need neither explain nor argue further.” I took my new acquisition to the laboratory that same night and determined its capacity. It turned at over 48 candlepower—fully four times the intensity of my student lamp.
Two days after purchasing, I met the lamp peddler on the street about noontime. To my inquiry he replied that business was good; the demand for his lamps was greater than the factory supply. “But,” said I, “you are not working today?” His rejoinder was a lesson. “Do you think that I would be so foolish as to go around trying to sell lamps in the daytime? Would you have bought one if I had lighted it for you when the sun was shining? I chose the time to show the superiority of my lamp over yours, and you were eager to own the better one I offered, were you not?”
Such is the story. Now consider the application of a part, a very small part, thereof.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” [Matt. 5:16].
The man who would sell me a lamp did not disparage mine. He placed his greater light alongside my feebler flame, and I hasted to obtain the better.
The missionary servants of the Church of Jesus Christ today are sent forth, not to assail or ridicule the beliefs of men, but to set before the world a superior light, by which the smoky dimness of the flickering flames of man-made creeds shall be apparent. The work of the Church is constructive, not destructive.
As to the further meaning of the parable, let him that hath eyes and a heart see and understand.
*************
Hope your Sunday was the Best!! Love, Joy

Family History Friday (FHF): Castle Garden!

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A while back I wrote a post about Ellis Island, and how for many years it was a stop for immigrants who came to this country, but before Ellis Island, there was Castle Garden. From 1855 to 1890 millions of immigrants entered America through Castle Garden. You can read more about the history of it here and here! So if you think your ancestor came to this country before 1890, you may want to look for them coming through Castle Garden. At one time it was a Fort, there to protect New York City. In fact, it was an island, but it’s not anymore. It is part of the southern tip of Manhattan, in New York City, and it is called Castle Clinton.
 Happy Family History Friday! 
Love, Joy

And another thing…

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…and another thing
 I love about Dori is…she has this short term memory. 
She says, “It runs in my family, or at least I think it does…where are they?” 
Well, I was talking to one of my friends about Dori and telling her why I love her so much, and she said, “If I could forget everything except the last five minutes, that would be great!” We both laughed. And then I thought about that, and decided that is just one more thing to love about her. She’s doesn’t hold a grudge, and she can’t stay mad, because she can’t remember she was even angry or upset!! If we were all more like that, it really would be great!! (sigh) I love Dori!

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

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Flexy the day he left on his mission
 
Elder Flexy 8:1 -email-

Make,
Life is good this week has been sweet. we had some dogs come after us but it was okay because after i got a little uneasy and gave one of them a good kick they backed down it was pretty intense. ya i guess just some news we have fourteen people who have been committed to baptism and this awesome Babe named Elias is going to be baptized three Sundays from now. but the people of Swaz are prepared of the lord we are teaching like crazy we had twenty eight other lessons last week it was pretty awesome. anyway…
1 How was your week?
1 It was good today we went to the king sawubuza II memorial and museum it was the culture shock all over again.
2 Have you had any good teaching experiences this week?
2.well when we teach the restoration it always seems to be powerful.
3 Favorite scripture of the week?
3.well i started the BOM over again so it has to be 1 nephi 3: 7 and the fact that his brothers complain about the assignment to say its a hard thing the lord has asked.
4 Have you met the Blackburns?
4.yes they are the ones that drove me across the boarder into swaz.
5 How is your toe?
5.its fine almost better.
6 Did you send pictures yet?
6.not yet but i will have he blackburns copy the rest on to a cd and send them soon.
Special question of the week:
7 How do you explain the word of wisdom to investigators?

7.well we just explain that the lord wants our bodies to be healthy so he taught us how to take care of them.
oh ya i taught priesthood yesterday and i taught about home teaching and missionary work.anyway love you.

                                                       Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

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-3 Nephi 14:2-5-
“With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother: Let me pull the mote out of thine eye—and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye”
*********************
Stephen R. Covey says that people who have a tendency judge have the “mote and beam sickness.” It is human nature to look for the faults in others. But can we change others? No. We can only change ourselves. Like Mahatma Ghandi said, “We can be the change we want to see in the world.” When we have removed the beam from our own eye, then we can see clearly what we need to do to help our brother (and sister) with the mote in their eye.
*********************
“The highest form of influence is to be a model, not a critic; a light, not a judge.”
-Stephen R Covey 

Family History Friday (FHF): Organizing Helps!

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It’s fun to go to 
FamilySearch.org 
and just see what’s there! I found some great “Helps” I thought I’d share with you. You can find them here!
Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

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Elder Flexy 7:5 -email-

Make,

sorry i told you the wrong spelling the G and K make the same sound here. so this week has been great we have done a lot of good work. and today we went for a hike to to execution rock and we saw warthogs, wildebeest, springboks, hippos and zebras. its was super fun. ya i like the story of the missionary and you just have to notice that your to protect your companion from sin not disobedience. And always treat them with respect and you will be ok.

1 How is your toe?

1.its doing well i’m doing my best to take care of it.
2 If you could, would you get me some cool beads from SA?
2.ya i can get you some.
3 What has the temperature been lately?
3.its has been either really hot or really rainy. it rains a lot here.
4 Are you getting used to the climate?
4.yep its not too bad anymore.
5 Are you having success with your teaching?
5.ya i’m getting a little to comfortable so i do most of the talking now.
6 Favorite scripture of the week?
6.well its actually the official declaration called “the living Christ” and i’m actually memorizing it.

Special Question of the week?
7 How does Satan try to bring us down? 

7.he makes us feel like we are the ones holding everyone back and gets you discouraged.
anyway life on mission is doing great. love you.

                                                              Love Elder Flexy
Babe.
Man i miss doing that kind of stuff. i’m so glad your still working with those young guys. they need a good example. ya i’ve started to find good food to eat that is cheap. we are teaching so much i’m becoming a versatile missionary. the work is getting good we will have a baptism in just a couple weeks so life is good the work is going forward. ya the walking area is nice you really feel like a missionary when you are walking. anyway i better quit. love you

                                                                Love Elder Flexy    

Kels,
wow i am so exited for you! mission is such a good experience and you learn so much. like i’ve learned that i’m actually a pretty good teacher and i’m thinking about doing it for my job. but you will love it and you will be blessed and you will feel complete joy. i get home every day and all i can say is that i’m tired but i’m happy.  and you don’t know why you feel so happy but you just do. idk why but its is the best. anyway love you

                                                                 Love Elder Flexy

EM
i’m a little concerned for your sanity!!!! 🙂 jk but you write the weirdest emails i don’t even know what to say except i love you to and keep working hard. haha luv ya guts. BYE!!!!!!!!!!
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

                                                                 Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

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“As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother’? Unlike the book on the library shelf, the covers of which shield its contents, our lives cannot be closed. Parents, we truly are an open book in the library of learning of our homes.” 
-Thomas S. Monson

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy