New Year of 2012

I just have to say that my heart if still full from such a wonderful holiday with my family. We had so much fun and I am so glad my kids are kind and accepting of me and Darwin and each other. The grandkids were lots of fun and played so well too. We got to skype with Carl and it was sooooo good to see his face. He is working so hard and I'm very proud of him for all the growth that he is doing and the love he gives to others so freely.
My family also celebrated my birthday on the Sunday before they left. I love having my kids get older because one of the great thinks they do is give me thoughtful gifts! The men even all sang a song to me! That means a lot to me since they know I love that! Thank-you my family.
This month I began my "Happiness Project". I enjoy the group of people I am doing it with and thought provoking conversations it gives. I see already how my resolutions do make me happier when I do them. We'll see how I do the other 11 months. HA
Now I am going to attempt to tackle one of my biggest hang-ups. Secular learning! My master gardener program starts tomorrow and looking over just the first assignment my heart races! I don't know for sure why but I have a hard time memorizing. I have to associate everything with something for it to stay in my head. It may take me longer but I'll do what I have to. I will be brave and believe in myself. Something I never did when I was younger. I hope this will spur me on to go back and work towards my degree later. Not promising anything... just saying at least it's in my head to look at it closer.
I'm thankful that people love and put up with me even though I am weird! Hey at least I am trying.

Dean-2011

2011 has been a wonderful year. I am in my junior year at the University of Washington, one year closer to my degree! I live up in Seattle and enjoy my time up there and coming home on occasion for family events, holidays, or whenever I need Mom’s cooking in my life. I am blessed to be in a house that we have dubbed the “Manor House.” It has 10 guys, 9 bedrooms, 5 george foreman grills, 4 bathrooms, 3 fridges and x-box live. It IS college and I love it!
This summer I was able to work at the UW Medical Center as a sterilization tech and I loved every minute of it. This year I also completed a year long internship with the UW Department of Surgery doing research on the quality and outcomes of surgery. I was able to learn a lot and meet some great doctors who I so want to be like someday! I also enjoy volunteering with the HOPE Heart Institute and have landed a gig to be their mascot where I appear at community events as “Captain Cardio!” It is so fun and seriously one of the best ways to distress from school.

This summer I accomplished one of my goals and completed my first triathlon! It was a small one (a sprint), but I finished strong and felt that competitive adrenaline rush that I have missed so much since high school sports are over! I will be looking forward to doing more in the future.

At school I have the blessing of being the Seattle Institute of Religion president this year. I also am part of the campus’ Interfaith club and really have enjoyed working with the awesome students from mine and other faiths.
All in all it has been a glorious year. I love school, sports, serving, and yes even searching for the future Sister Spencer. This Christmas I hope you all will feel the love of friends, family and our Savior, Jesus Christ. With love, Dean

The Cox Family

We are celebrating our second Christmas in our house here in WA. Steve continues to work as a Orthopedic Physician Assistant. He had his 3rd year as the team physician for a local football team and they went to the playoffs this year. Steve and I took a trip to Wisconsin this fall to visit Neil and Amber and for Steve to attend an orthopedic conference. We took baby Jakob with us and we got to meet baby Preston who is just a couple months younger than Jakob. Work and the kids keep us busy. Steve is currently the elder's quorum president at church and I serve with our young women's youth group.
Jaxson just turned 6 and is enjoying kindergarten. He loves to learn and is reading and doing math. He loves to ride the bus, play cars, and write on everything.
Ehlana is 3 and is going to Grandma's preschool. She loves being a big sister and playing with her doll house. She is fun and happy. Her and Jaxson play well together and have all kinds of exciting adventures.
Jakob is 8 months old and is crawling and babbling. He says "dada" and "mama" and he loves his big sister. Having three children hasn't been too hard of an adjustment. Jaxson and Ehlana a great helpers and Jakob is a sweet and mellow baby.
I love being a wife and mother. I enjoy decorating the house and cooking. It's nice having Jaxson and Ehlana in school at the same time for 1 hour and a 1/2, 2-3 times a week. I usually spend it at the gym or running errands.
We are truly blessed and our grateful to our Heavenly Father for all of our blessings and for this wonderful Christmas season.
Love,
Steve, Delee, Jaxson, Ehlana, and Jakob Cox

Gerritsen Family Newsletter

Our big news this year is that we finally bought our first house. We now live on the Draper/Riverton, Utah border on an acre of weeds and clay soil. We've been busy making the house our own and working on landscaping. We were excited to find a 50-year-old well and now have plans to have an orchard, big vegetable garden and grass for the kids. We were sad to leave our old neighborhood and ward, but are loving the extra space and great location. We're always up for visitors and guests!

Jeremy is still growing his Optometry practice in Riverton. He's also been very busy doing scouting with the young men in our new ward. He took a shoe-shoeing trip last spring and led our family camping trips and annual Lake Powell vacation. He also cheered on the Utes in their Pac-12 debut.

Terra is loving having a whole house to paint and decorate. She spends her time cooking, cleaning, gardening, refinishing furniture, reading, volunteering at the elementary school, and serving at church. She's always busy keeping up with three little kids.

Paul (7 tomorrow) started first grade and is gone all day at school now. He has become a great reader and does well at school. He is very social and has lots of friends. He is very active, loves bike riding and playing sports, including co-ed soccer this fall. He enjoys playing Super Mario Brothers on the wii and watching Phineas and Ferb. He is a kind, empathetic and helpful big brother.

Sam (4) is doing "home" preschool this year, including spanish school one day a week. He is starting to read and loves books. He had a hard time with the move, but he's been making lots of new friends too. He learned to ride a bike (with training wheels), but still prefers his scooter. He also played co-ed soccer this fall and had a great time. He loves watching shows and being with his dad. He is super funny, imaginative, generous, and compassionate.

Audrey (2) loves babies and doing whatever her mommy is doing. She is very observant and caring. She likes to sing, dance, look at books and play in her kitchen. She is funny, sweet and adorable.

Merry Christmas! Love, the Gerritsens

Darwin and Margaret News for 2011

Our year, in looking back, had some challenges but nothing too big and full of many blessings.
We got to send our youngest off to serve the Lord and put him in his care totally. A big relief to us, yet a new growing time to rely only on the Lord ourselves with joy and faith in Carl being the fine man he is growing to be. We are proud of him and enjoy hearing how he is living his exclamation point life in Brazil. ( It's a joke we have since all his letters are filled with multiple exclamation points!!!) Anyway, we truly are empty nesters and enjoying our freedom as well as being reminded of those first few years of marriage before children.
We got to go to the Midwest this year in welcoming Preston to our family. It's a joy to watch our children become parents themselves. The Midwest was a beautiful place. One of the times we went, we flew into Minnesota and went around where Dean had served his mission. He was to come with us but got a job at the hospital last minute and decided to be responsible instead. So off we went with his map of where to go and who to met. We also all went to Nauvoo Illinois and totally enjoyed church and family history. Then back to Wisconsin for Preston's blessing. Great times! We also got in a trip to Utah to visit Ter and Jer and kids. It's always great with them too.
Darwin has been mostly been busy with work and farm life. He was a great help trying to keep up with everything when I was down with my back. He resently went back to Wisconsin and did the road trip thing with Neil in driving to San Fransico stopping in Utah to see Terra's fam.
Margaret has been busy with great kids for preschool again this year, learning to knit, doing her "Happiness Project" group and "21 Wishes" group, water aerobics (you can laugh out loud on that one but you don't want to visualize it) wonderful friends to play and learn new things with, and Delee's kids to enjoy. My big challenge this next year will be that I've been accepted into the "master gardener program". I will attend WSU extention ( but I will remain a Husky). I am looking forward to getting some scientific knowledge to help with my experience of gardening all these years.
So much to be thankful for and if you reading this you are one of those blessings! Thanks!
Merry Christmas..... Love Margaret and Darwin

Updates from Elder Spencer!

Carl has been having some incredible experiences in Vitoria, Brazil. As expected he loves it there, loves the people and has been growing a lot emotionally and spiritually. Here are some updates from his emails! We love our Elder Spencer!

Hello Family!

I hope you have all had a wonderful week! First off Rita and Rafael were baptized!!!! YYEEEAAAHHHH!!!!

It was very very goood! I loved it! they are a great family on a start to being an eternal family in the gospel!

Conference: I have a new testimony of what exactly is conference! and what it means to havea prophet today. I loved it! here is what went down, the first session the english cables things were gone..... soo I wached it in port. I got a lot out of it! for example, did you know elder scott speaks perect port?? he translates his talks and so it was great to hear his voice in the talk just in a different language, but he speaks the same soft and spirit pearcing way. other than that everyone else was weird for me to see their faces but hear a different voice... so I called president and got permission to go on a hunt in vitoria for a building with it in english! found one! and it took over an hour to get there! but, the saturday afternoon in english rocked my socks off! for preistood the re broadcast in english was in the same building at 6 am.... sooo that means catching a bus 1.5 hours before and waking up even earlier to get ready... but, 100% worth it! I did the waking up early thing a lot this week to my comp and I think if I suggest one more morning before 6:30 he might kill me... haha but, we travled back to ours sunday morning session started here at 1 in the afternoon... weird huh! but, I harrassed people until we got the stake presidency to get into action and get this thing moving a long! every conference it is the same news here... everyone says the other knows how to do it! drove us missionaries crazy since we had a lot of investagators there waiting! but, we got it going and even got it in english in the stake sec. office! with AC!!!! what a treat! all was going welll until an elder started to have an allergic reaction to something he ate... it was super weird! he came up and said I dont feel good again! (he had been sick for like 3 days already) and started to turn red, then bumps started to appear and his feet and face swelled up like a little umpa lumpa... it was funny for all of us but crazy! we called president and got a ride for him to the hospitial. my comp stayed with him so I had the baptism in 15 min alone haha it was crazy but alll went great! loved the day! and the elder is great! he had a lot of stuff poked and stabbed but, he is good now!

Douglas. he is 17 and has been going to church for the last 5 weeks! he was never baptized ever and has been waiting for a church that he feels is right, he watched conference and after talked to me and said listen, this girl I am kind of daiting doesnt like your church and I will probably baptize in hers. I said just pray about it man and see what happens ok? call me later about your prayer. this was sunday. on monday night he called our phone and said, look I am to be baptized come talk to me. we were in a lesson at that moment so I made a lot of last minute calls found a division to come pick me up and someone to stay with my comp and away I went. douglas came to the house running and covered in sweat which was funny. but, he is super super shy and talks like a mumble so I dont understand much, in fact I learned no one really understands him. but I prayed hard and started the lesson. he siad look I want to be baptized thursday. can I? I said no. you need lessons first and an interview then if all goes well how do you feel about sunday, he said no saturday. I said cool lets work for it! sooo he only has had the first lesson about the restortation and book of mormon. the rest he didnt know about. I started right away, with 4 commandments. the law of chasity, word of wisdom, 10 commmandments, and sabbath day.... It was way to much for the poor guy, I did a mock interview with him and asked if he knew it was true... he said right now no... but I feel good so lets keep going.

well, moral of the story he was a little rollar coaster for us. we learned someone was pushing him to be baptized or he will go to hell. he was super scared and just wanted to be with us. we continued to help him every day, but in the end he had doubts about a couple things but wanted to go or it anyway. then this girl who he is absolutly crazy about said look! you cant get baptized in their church you need to read this pamphlet fomr my church. he is in love with her so he studied it alll night for her and the next day cut us. (asked not to go anymore to church) lesson learned, this is the true church, and sometimes people will do everything they can to stop someone from finding the truth. we will keep him in our prayers and hope after this girl with 14 years stops playing with his mind that he will come back to what he felt was true.

other than that our miracle family of 4 is progressing great! will go to churhc this next week and we will see what happens! I am hoping they will be baptized the last day I am here in this area october 30th :) love them!

One year home!

Today, exactly one year ago, I stepped off the plane from Minneapolis to Seattle to greet my family after being gone for two years on my mission! It feels like it was just yesterday, but at the same time feels like it was much more than a year ago.

As I think back on it, it is amazing how emotions and feelings of a momentous occasion in my life come flooding back. Like the excitement to see my Mom and Dad, siblings, and other family again and to hold my nephews and nieces, as well as the nervousness for going back to college, entering the young single adult social scene as an RM, and not being immersed in the Lord's work 24/7. It was the one of the happiest moments of my life!

After 12 months I can say I truly love my life now, but a piece of my heart is still attached to Minnesota. I miss the people who took me in and treated me like family, the people who I saw learn how to pray and gain a personal testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ, and the special people who took their families to the temple for first time to be sealed for time and all eternity. One of the choicest experiences I had in the last month of my mission came from a 16 year old young man who had developed a testimony of the gospel, but was encouraged to wait to be baptized by his parents because they didn't think he was ready. He called me one day and said "Elder Spencer, I know I'm not getting baptized, and I don't know when I will, but I want you to know I am still going to live like I am. I'm going to keep all of the commandments and keep praying and be the best Christian I can be." He then thanked my companion and I for teaching him so much and said he viewed us as his big brothers he never had. That kind of experience was what made everything worth it.

That is the kind of blessing that comes from being a missionary and this is the kind of experience I miss so much. But, I will say I have felt some incredible blessings over this past year that I am very grateful for. When I first got off my mission it was amazing to see how things fell into place. I was able to get into all of the classes I needed even when they filled up quickly, my housing situation for school fell into place, and I made some new, incredible friendships. Since then, I've been able to have a great internship with the UW Department of Surgery, have a fantastic summer job, make some more meaningful and lasting friendships, and welcome in two handsome, manly nephews!

I'm also grateful for my incredible family. After being away from them for two years I realized just how much they meant to me. I realized that so many things in life are temporary. The places we live, the jobs we have, and even the friends we spend time with can be very temporary and change quite often. But, the one thing that never changes is my family. They are always there and a part of me. It was this new and exciting perspective that has helped me to love them even more. I think that is one reason serving a mission is such a blessing. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for these wonderful blessings and I'm grateful for the experience of serving a mission and who it has helped me become. Here is to hopefully another great year!

Angels Without Wings
By Rachel Henderson

I see my family differently,
now that things have changed.
It seems that our priorities
are somewhat rearranged.
My parents are my teachers
and help me see the light.
My siblings are my closest friends,
there for me day and night.
Each one is peculiar
in their own amazing way.
They are my positive influences
each and every day.
I'd be lost without them
and what comfort to me each brings.
For my parents and my siblings alike
are simply angels without wings.