Sweden Here I Come!

Sweden Here I Come!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Amazing Conversion Story and the Blessings of Baptism

What a wonderful week we had last week....  The highlight of course was the baptism Aldste Milne and Aldste Larsen had!  There were also some pretty cool things that happened here on the home front.  You can read all about Dallin's baptism in his letter. He sounds so happy!

PVHS baseball on Tuesday night had their Senior Night. Leslie Walker and her daughter Lakynn really went all out for our boys and their mothers.  They had incredible decorations up, big posters of all the senior players, and wonderful gifts.  It is so hard to believe that Carter is actually a senior and will be graduating in two short weeks! We played the first place, #1 ranked team - Desert Hills and defeated them 10-2.  This set up an exciting game for Friday night - the winner would be the Region 9 Champions and the first place seed going into the state tournament.  After an exciting and hard fought battle the Panthers came out on top once again...  The score was 4-2 and the game was played at Thunder Stadium.  Pine View will host three other teams on Saturday for the first round of the state playoffs.  We are so excited!

Here at the old adobe we are starting to make plans for the addition and the pool.  Carter and Ty have grown tired of sharing the queen sized be so Ty has been sleeping on a mat on the living room floor the past few nights.  Looks like I'll be ordering some bunk beds today!  I'm also growing a little weary of the small kitchen, but I've got some great plans for the addition!  I'll keep you posted as it unfolds.  I'm meeting with a pool guy tomorrow to do some measurements.  We will obtain estimates from three different contractors.  It will sure be interesting.  One things for sure...  I will have an outdoor fireplace!  Can't Wait!

Here is a wonderful letter I received this week from Victoria in Sweden!  Thank you Victoria for your thoughtfulness and for taking care of my boy!


Victoria's Letter:


Dear elder's families,
I just wanted to send you a sign of how your sons, your elders, are doing from the very north of Sweden. 
From a mother to a mother, I know that this can mean so much for a normal day, when everything you wait for, is that EMAIL :) 

Elder Larsen is doing so well here , with his swedish!!! Amazing! He has served 4 month and speaking swedish is so natural for him ( the way we hear it...we do know he has to struggle ...but he does have a gift to learn languages I understand ). He asks for words, what to say and how you say it, and then - he just remembers it! For a woman like me...with a brain that is tired and full of have to do things, want to do things, and everything between that, I am just so amazed!!! 
Elder Milne gave a touching talk in church last sunday and he talked about his younger brother...who gave away a Book of mormon...what a sweet story..what a Strong brother, person , what a good example of love and faith.
Elder Milne talked about how he has changed and that he learned so much from his brother. 
Your Elders, are serving with love and joy! We are so happy to have them here, in Piteå, for dinner and in Luleå branch to help us teach the gospel to the Norrbotten area :).

I do think we had elder Larsen´s brother over for Tacodinner, when he served in Skellefteå? Is that right?

We met Elder Milne last Christmas , when he served in Umeå and he was at my  husband's sister´s home. He was a new missionary and he was a bit shy and quiet. It is so much joy to see him now talking and being open and relaxed! 
I guess he wrote that he went back to Umeå for our district conference, and he could now talk and understand when people talked to him <3!

I want to say thank you for everything you have done, to fill your sons with love, faith and joy for the gospel. 
We will take good care of them, and we hope we will bring someone for them to teach!

With love,
Victoria 
Here is a picture of your sons:



Letter From Home:

Parents, help safeguard your children by arming them morning and night with the power of family prayer. Children are bombarded every day with the evils of lust, greed, pride, and a host of other sinful behaviors. Protect your children from daily worldly influences by fortifying them with the powerful blessings that result from family prayer. Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life.
The second tool is to study the word of God in the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. We talk to God through prayer. He most often communicates back to us through His written word. To know what the voice of the Divine sounds and feels like, read His words, study the scriptures, and ponder them.5 Make them an integral part of everyday life. If you want your children to recognize, understand, and act on the promptings of the Spirit, you must study the scriptures with them.  Elder Richard G. Scott (October 2014 General Conference Address)

Dear Dallin,

Greetings from the "Old Adobe".  It has been an exciting week for the Milne Family.  Of course all of the excitement centers around baseball. PVHS had two big games this week against Desert Hills. Tuesday's game was played at Panther Field and it was also Senior night.  Leslie Walker did some amazing things for the senior players and their parents.  I will post some pictures of it on the blog.  Good Ole Pine View won big - 10-2. Big Dakota Donovan really put them in their place.  This meant that the Region Championship would be decided on Friday night at Thunder Stadium. Boy was it exciting.  PV scored the first two runs and then in the fifth inning Desert Hills scored two runs.  It stayed tied through the sixth, and then in the 7th we scored two more runs on a triple by Connor Clark. PVHS had pitched Harrison Goebel for 4 1/2 innings Brooks Barney pitched 1 1/2 innings, and then they brought Dakota in the final inning to slam the door.  It was so awesome.  The ball park was packed with fans, and it was nice to see PVHS come away with a win, a region championship, and a number one seed going into the state tournament.  Pine view will host a pod of teams this coming Saturday in which all teams will play two games.  Those who advance will then play at Dixie state for the State tournament.  We will most likely face Union and Stansbury.  The four teams from Region 9 are Pine View, Desert Hills, Cedar, and Snow Canyon.  This week dad will also be taking over the head coaching job for Ty's baseball team.  They will become a 16U Pine View team.  Ocey Leavitt will be his assistant coach. More baseball all summer long.  I did purchase all of our vacation tickets, so at least that is a done deal!

Other happenings this week include: Aunt Shelly finally graduated from the University of Utah with her BS degree in Accounting.  Mitt Romney spoke at her graduation.  I didn't get to go, but Grandma, Raymond, Tyler, Aunt Nanette, and Devan attended.  I sent her a gift and some money so hopefully that made up for it.  However, after her graduation ceremony she was in a car accident.  Her new car was damaged, but she wasn't hurt, and it wasn't her fault so thankfully someone else will be responsible for the repairs.  Also, Devan left for North Carolina today for the summer.  He is working with the same home security company, but this summer he will be doing installations instead of sales, which he is happy about, and will also be making more money.  Carter registered for his college classes at SUU.  He has 15 credits and he will be attending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  He also will need to find a job.  He seemed excited.  This week he and ten other kids from PVHS were named as their class valedictorians.  I am so proud of him.  He has worked really hard. Time is really flying by.  Graduation will be on the 20th of May.  I truly can't believe another son of mine is going to be flying the coop.  Ugh!  That means I am getting old and before I know it Dad and I will be empty nesters.  

Speaking of dad, he has been a bit sick the past few days.  We were supposed to go four wheeling with his high priest group yesterday, we even rented a four wheeler for the day, but he was too sick to go.  Later in the day he and I drove it up above Washington for an hour or so, so at least we got some use out of it.  He seemed to be feeling quite a bit better today which was good because he had to teach his high priest group lesson.  It was on Fatherhood.  He loved teaching and was reminded of how lucky he is to be the father of three wonderful sons.  He went over to the dental office tonight with Uncle Gary.  He re-did Gary's top teeth. He put on nine crowns tonight.  He says they look awesome!  He has tomorrow off so that will be great for him to get an extra day to rest.

The quotes I used to begin the letter I used today while sharing my testimony in sacrament meeting.  I truly do have a testimony of the importance of family prayer and scripture study.  When the boys grumble about it, I remind them that it is because I love them so much that I make them do this.  We have been doing a lot better in this area and as a result, I notice that we are all happier, get along better, and when trials and adversity do come, we handle things so much better.  It is so important to remember that the words of Christ will tell and the Holy Ghost will show us all things that we should do.  We are so very blessed to have the fullness of the Gospel.  Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants all to return safely to Him.  That is why he has given us commandments, gospel principles, and covenants.  These things all keep us happy, safe, and continually progressing. All of this reminds me of the two most important days in our lives....  The day we are born, and the day we figure out "why" we are here.  Certainly we are here to fulfill the divine mission our Heavenly Father has assigned us to.

How was your week Dallin?  Did your baptism work out?  Please tell us all that happened!  Is it warming up at all?  We actually hit 90 degrees this week.  That is too hot for me, but the past few days have cooled off a little. How's everything else going?  What time will we get to Skype for Mother's Day?  I am so excited to see your handsome face and hear your voice.  Our church is from 9-12 but if you have to call during that time we can definitely make it happen.  You are the most important priority.  We can partake of the sacrament later in the day if we need to.


Lastly, I logged onto www.relativefinder.org tonight.  It was so cool.  It is an extension of family search and you have to use your lds account and password. It tells you all these really cool people you are related to such as prophets, apostles, US presidents, famous US people, etc...  For example, I am related to 11 of the 12 current apostles, 25 deceased apostles, 13 LDS prophets, and 29 US presidents (including Barack Obama).  I am also related to Elvis, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney, as well as two kings and one queen. It was so interesting to look at.  Dad's numbers are about the same as mine, some the same, some different.  If you have a chance, you will have to log-on to it. It tells you a lot of other interesting things too like US Constitution signers your related to and Declaration signers, Mayflower ancestors, Martin handcart company ancestors, and Mormon Battalion ancestors.

Anyhow, have a wonderful p-day and week.  Let us know how you are doing and how the work is going there up in Norland!  Can't wait to Skype with you!

All My Love,

Mom

Dallin's Letter:


Hey everyone,



Well we had a baptism on Saturday so you know that I am happy.  Victor is his name.  Total stud.  Comes from Cameroon.  I think I'll give a short account of his story.  So recently he has had quite a bunch of health problems.  One of these was really serious and the doctors weren't sure if he would come out of there on foot or in a casket.  He said that he talked with God a lot during that time in the hospital and promised Him that if he would let him get through this then he would give his life to Christ.  He asked God to lead him to people who would "hold his hand on path to heaven".  So he ends up recovering and some time later he is visiting a friend in Luleå when the sister missionaries knocked on the door.  Victor's host let them in and the sisters taught the restoration.  Victor felt the Spirit and wanted to meet them again.  The sisters found out that he lived in Boden so they sent his info to us.  We continued to teach Victor the gospel and he said that one night he prayed asking God if this was the right church to be baptized in.  That night he had a dream where he was standing in the water of a pool and that it felt really good.  He woke up that morning and when he did his morning bible reading he filled on accident right to the part in Matthew when Christ is baptized.  He felt really strongly that God had answered his question from the night before.  He gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the church and was so happy to be baptized.  Our chapel is currently under construction so we borrowed a hotel conference room and used the pool for the font.  Victor said it reminded him about the one in his dream.  Pretty cool.  I was priviledged to baptize him.  Another awesome spiritual experience getting to baptize someone.  Makes everything else worth it.  The service went great and Elder Larson confirmed him the next day in church and did a good job.  It was a pretty stressful week leading up to the baptism trying to get everything set up so it felt awesome to get home sunday night with it all taken care of.  

That leaves one week left in the transfer.  Transfer calls will be on friday/saturday so I'll know when we skype if anything is happening with me.  And about skyping, we are not 100% sure yet where we will be skyping but I'll shoot you guys an email later this week on thursday or friday about the details.  So excited!

Sounds like you guys had a good week back on the home front.  That is awesome that PV baseball nation came out with the sweep on DHills.  Looks like Carter has a chance retire with not just one, but two championship rings on his finger.  What an exciting opportunity!  I'll be anxious to hear about it all later.  Thats great to hear about Aunt Shelly getting it done and good to hear that she is okay from the car accident!  Scary stuff.  That's cool that Devan is out there getting a job done as well.  I've always seen him as someone who is going to be very successful.  Has he still been going to SUU?  Does he know what he wants to get into?  It's great to hear that you guys are getting your stuff together with family scripture reading and prayer.  That's what's up.  I hope that I will be a good parent as well and make that a priority in my future home.  Way to go Mom.  That sounds like a cool website too with the family history stuff.  I'll have to check that out.

Anyways it's all good in the hood up here in Boden.  The last bit of snow is starting to melt and the sun is shining.  I'll let you guys know later this week what is going on with skype.

Love
Dallin

This Week's Pictures:


Sister Missionaries, Victor, Me, and Elder Larsen


Victor's Baptism


Cool Kids of a Family We are Teaching


Swedish Cows


Doin' Work!


Senior Night 2015









Harrison, Taylor, Cash, Carter, Hunter, Kaylin, and Blake


We love #2!


Smee.... The Crafty Lefty on Senior Night


Coach Poach and Son


Proud Momma Natalie


Player Gifts...


They also gave the mothers this beautiful locket necklace!


Region Champions!


Two Handsome Panthers.....


We Love Our Team!



Farmer Blaine on his old Tractor!


I think his tractor's sexy!




1 comment:

  1. I'm SMILING . . . this is such a great post and I love love all the pictures and the captions under them. "I think his tractors sexy!" YOU are AWESOME Natalie. I love that you love the Lord sooo much and you are raising good boys. AND THANK YOU for sticking it out with Blaine. I know that can be very challenging! Love to all. Kim

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