Mother's Day Blessings

What a blessed Mother's Day!  Dallin was able to Skype with us at 10:20 am.  It was so wonderful to see him and hear his voice. It is always reassuring to a mother when she can look into her son's eyes and see how he is really doing.  He looked great - happy, and at peace.  He told us of the successes he and his companion were having and that he would be having another baptism soon.  He also told us that Elder Larsen was being transferred and that he would be getting a new companion on Wednesday. We updated him on all the recent happenings in our family (mostly baseball) PVHS won both of their pod games for the first round of the state tournament, and Carter played a few pieces on the piano for him.  It was hard telling him good-bye.  I miss him more now than I have his entire mission.  He has only 5 short months.  He told us that his visa expires on October 27th so we are assuming he will be home sometime around then.  It has gone by so very fast!

After we finished speaking to Dallin we loaded up the car and after dropping dinner off for the sister missionaries at the temple visitors center we headed to Minersville to spend Mother's Day with my own sweet mother.  Nanette's family and David also joined us. We had a wonderful ham dinner and enjoyed each other's company.


Letter From Home:

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."  - John Newton

"The Savior has "all power" in heaven and on earth.  He has power to cleanse, forgive, and redeem us; power to heal us of weakness, sadness, illness, and heartache; power to inspire us; power to conquer Satan and overcome the flesh; power to work miracles; power to deliver us from circumstances we can't escape ourselves; power over death; and power to strengthen us.  When the Apostle Paul said, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,' he was describing grace." - Sheri Dew

Dear Dallin,

It was wonderful to see you and visit with you today via Skype!  You look great.  However, I was a little concerned because I felt a little disconnected from you.  I chalked it up to all the other missionaries being in the same room with you and you couldn't really talk openly, and also that we were embarrassing you.  I hope you are doing okay - is everything alright?

Sad to hear that Elder Larsen is being transferred.  You seem to get a new companion every six weeks.  That is crazy!  But I'm sure it is because the mission president wants to give all of these newer missionaries a good experience with Elder Milne.  It seems that the work is going as well as it can and that you have people to teach.  That is a blessing - especially in Sweden.

We pretty much updated you on everything that is going on here.  We now don't know when we will get going on the improvements around here.  Gary has gone cold again as far as helping us out, and this past Friday dad gave his two weeks notice at work because he is so tired of them taking advantage of him. He has done this before, but if he really sticks to it this time he will be out of a job in two weeks.  He does have an opportunity to buy into a partnership with John Gardner, but I really doubt that will happen.  I truly believe that your dad doesn't know what he wants.  I am trying to learn not to worry about our future anymore, but I am not very good at that.  It makes me crazy to not have some kind of plan.  I am trying to learn that the only person in this world I can control or predict is myself, and I'm not even very good at that.

Anyhow, we had a nice mother's day dinner at grandma's. The Morgensen family was there and also Uncle David.  David said his girls will be here in a couple of weeks from North Dakota, so he is excited to see them.  For Memorial Day weekend it sounds like the Lewis family will be coming to Grandma's as well as Tyson and his two kids.  We will most likely be up North for a baseball tournament, but hopefully we can make it back to spend some time with all of them and decorate the graves.

My ulcer has been pretty bad the past few days, so I am very frustrated with that.  I will probably not put most of this letter on the blog.  Please let me know how you are really doing!  Is there anything specific you  need from home?

Hang in there Dallin!  Enjoy these final months of your mission and endure to the end.  Your future is bright - so much fun to be had!  Have a great week!

Much Love,

Mom

Letter From Dallin:

Hey guys,

Man I loved skyping you guys on Sunday but man I sure got trunky afterwards hahaha I wanted to get home as soon as possible.  It was so refreshing to hang out with you guys over the computer.  The other elders sure thought you guys were funny haha.

I'm not sure what else to add on to what we already talked about on the skype.  I just dropped Larson off at the airport and my new comp will get off the plane in Luleå in a couple hours.  It feels really nice to have some alone time.  I'm just chilling at the library here.  But yeah I sure have had a lot of companions.  The only companion that I had for 2 transfers was when I trained Van Alfen.  So yeah I'm not sure if it's like how you said with President just wanting to give as many missionaries as possible a good expierence with elder milne or if it's just that no one can put up with me for longer than 6 weeks before they start writing president begging for a new comp haha.  

It'll be interesting to see how things turn out for you guys during the next 6 months.  I'm glad that you guys were able to enjoy time with family for mother's day.  I hope that your health gets better mom.  You are the best!

See you guys in October!

Love Dallin

Dallin said he couldn't get his pictures to download off his camera.  He was only able to get one - Here it is:

Hardworking Missionaries in Sweden!

I pulled these two pictures off from the Sweden Stockholm Mission blog.  The Mission President and his wife took the Norland missionaries out for Pizza after their Saturday evening district conference in Umea.  I think Dallin is so Handsome and he looks so happy!

That looks yummy!

The Three Amigos Reunited (kind of)!

Father and Son!

What a special gift and blessing - I love my boys and my missionary!

Here are the words my sweet boys wrote in their mother's day cards today:

Hey Mom,

Wow! Mother's Day 2015... Look how far we have come - haha!  I'm sitting in the old Umea apartment and writing this before we head over to the Sunday session of District Conference. We were here yesterday for the Saturday session too and it was so cool to see all of the members again.  They were all so excited.  I've had so many great experiences here in Sweden. Thank you so much for your example and for teaching me the gospel and how to live it.  Being so far away from home and meeting so many other families I've been able to see how great my own mother is!  See you soon on the Skype!  

Jag alskar dig! (smiley face)

Love, 

Dallin

Mom,

Even though I'm not the youngest you still seem to spoil me.  I will always remember early morning practices when you'd wake me up and drive me. I know there are a ton of other things you've done that I don't always realize or even remember.  There's never a day you seem to take off.  Thank you for caring for me every day of my life.

Love,

Carter

Mom,

You are an angel.  You're the best mom a young man could ask for. Thank you for spoiling me. Even when you have poor health you still manage to be an amazing mother. I love you more than anything!

Love,

Ty

They gave me a beautiful flower arrangement and a gift card to Dillard's. It was a fantastic day!