So proud of the boys

At 11:00 am there were only 4 boys in the court for the game.  Oh my goodness - what will happen???  The boys were allowed to play 4 vs 5 so they didn't have to forfeit the game.  They got off to a great lead 10-4 at the end of the first quarter.

Bobbi Shooting the 3

Robert driving the ball

Go Robert

preparation for the shot

amazing shot

They were smart - the whole game.  They knew to take their time bringing up the ball when the other team couldn't press so that they could catch their breath.  They knew to pass and not dribble or drive too much.  I love this sequence of photos.  Robert is bringing up the ball and fakes out the guy...

bringing up the ball slowly

taking his time until he crosses the line

dribbling behind his back

making his move to pass the guy

Then the other team crept up and half time was 16-10.  

Bobby kept making his shots, and Robert his.  Michael hooks also contributed to the game greatly.  Even Trevor was open and making good shots.  Everyone made a difference.  

At the end of the game Michael Hooks had 4 fouls, Robert had 3.  The boys had a one point lead and 30 seconds with the ball.  Robert dribbled the 30 seconds away and ... They won the game.

Coach, Robert, Michael, Trevor and Bobbi

Girls continue to be undefeated

Marissa's basketball team had another victory on the court this Saturday.  They played louisville 3rd and won 18-4.  Marissa had 4 or 6 points and several assists to other girls to include them in the game.

taking the tip

Bringing the ball down 

dribbling down in the second quarter

go Marissa

In the second half they played so that everyone could have a chance to score.  Marissa was very good at getting the rebound and getting out - especially when the other team could press.

Getting the rebound

protect and ...

dribble out ... Go Marissa!

Senior recognition night for Marissa

I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast... here we are with another reminder that she is a Senior in high school.

Tonight was Senior Recognition Night for the girls Cross Country Team.  They were recognized at the boys high school varsity basketball game during half time.

Betsy was responsible for the festivities.  She bought two cakes, got Marissa flowers and had fuzzy fleece blankets for each of the 11 seniors.  They were escorted by their parents out to the middle of the basketball court one at a time in alphabetical order.  Christina, Emma, Kelsey Hall, Marissa Lowe, Makenzie Mullins, Mallory Price, Jesse Sanders, and Katie Walker.  Caroline Butler, Erin Olsson and Kelsey Wohlgetmuth were not able to make it.

After they were introduced we had a small celebration in the lobby of the gym with cake for the girls, their friends and family.

we love her so much!

Marissa flanked by her parents

Devon - Week 32 - no news this week

It sometimes happens that missionaries don't get a chance to email home because P-day gets moved for some special event.

This must have been one of those weeks because Devon didn't send an email.

I miss hearing from him.

Mexican Food for Devon

Someone in Boise sent this photo to me.

Devon and Elder Perez at a Mexican Restaurant

I'm so thankful for the kindness of others.

Robert's game was so close

At 11:00 am today, Robert's team had a basketball game against the LaGrange boys.  The LaGrange team is stacked with 6 seniors and about 8-9 other players.

LaGrange is a very good team and the coach is out to win at all costs.  He plays his 5 seniors to start.  They run up the score, but the coach leaves them in.

Robert didn't start the game.  We have a visiting sub coach since Brother Hillam is away.  He started 5 and then subbed all 5 4 minutes into the game.  With this rotation Robert never gets to play with Bobby, Chance or Tray.

The game has LaGrange in the lead the whole time but the Crestwood 1st ward boys bring it back to a 5 point game several times.  If they could only have scored 2 more baskets to tie it up or take the lead.

I was very proud of these boys because they were clearly smaller and younger than the LaGrange boys but they only lost by 8 points in the end and like I said, they too it to 5 points several time.

The final score was 43 - 35.

Undefeated Girls Bball team

Today was yet another great day for the girls basketball team.  They have really improved from the previous years.

Today's game started at 9:00 am at the Crestwood Stake Center.  As always, I do the books.

Today's game started with a ...

 6-0 lead at the end of the first quarter

she owns the ball :)

10-0 lead at the end of the first half

14-0 lead at the end of the third quarter

Great job dribbling - all the way to the hoop

and ended 19-0.

Even though it was a shut out, the girls secretly wished they made it to 20 since they had won all the previous games with 20 points, and in reality they felt bad for the other team that didn't score any.

Marissa had 2 baskets and Jasmine had a 3 point shot.  It was such a fun game for the girls.

Jessica - I'm Feeling 22

Today Jessica turned 22 years old.

We played Taylor Swift's, "I'm Feeling 22" for her over the phone.

All day I waited for her to open her present, but she didn't have it until the evening.

She was so excited.  She skyped me to open it.  She screamed with excitement.  She got a iPhone 6 for her birthday from her mom and dad.  It was perfect timing because her old phone the iPhone 4s was dying - literally.

What a great day!

We have been so blessed by Jessica - she is a sweetheart and a wonderful daughter.

Devon - week 31 Disappointing week

Hi Family,

This week has been very hard and disappointing for me.  Twelve set appointments canceled and rescheduled.  Almost all of them rescheduled because they or one of their family members were sick which is a good excuse but it can be frustrating to plan out a lesson and be excited to share your message and then they cancel.  Especial since Jen has a Baptism date this week and we still haven't taught her all the commandments in Lesson 4 that she will need to follow after her baptism in order to be a disciple of Christ. We might have to push her baptism date back :(.   The flu spreads to everyone a lot faster and to a lot more people in Boise then it does anywhere else that I Know of and I could be bad luck that our investigators got the flu.  

However, sometimes during the week I feel like it is my fault that the appointments cancel because almost all of our appointments canceled and that rarely happens.  I feel like I needed to try harder.  I feel like Jacob 5:41.  I feel responsible for the part of the vineyard that the Lord has Assigned to me. I worry about the investigators that I have not seen in over a week.  

However, I know that the Lord has helped us in our area and he has helped our investigators remember the words we have spoken to them.  Even though I am worried about our investigators I know that they are in the great hands of the Lord.  I trust in the Lord and that gives me great hope for our investigators.

Robert's Basketball Team has an Amazing Win!!!

Marissa's Basketball Team Wins Again

Today's game was bright and early at 8:00 am at the stake center against Crestwood II, but that didn't hamper our girls.  They were all there and ready to go.

We had more girls here this week.  Marissa, Meg, Darianna, Eden, Jesse, Jazmine, Naomi, Taetae (no idea how to spell her name), & Ellie.  A few of the new girls have never played before.

Marissa won the tip and got it to our team - we had a fast break.  The first quarter ended 10-2.  The second quarter ended 14-6.  Third quarter was 18-10 and the game ended 20-14.  

Devon - Week 30 - Apostle coming

President Winder

Dear Elders and Sisters,
What a privilege to welcome Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve and his wife to the Great Idaho Boise Mission. They will be accompanied by Elder James B. Martino of the Seventy and his wife, and Elder Blake R. Alder of the Seventy and his wife. It is somewhat rare to have an Apostle visit a mission. For most, this may be a singular event to meet and be closely instructed by an Apostle. To gain the most from this, we should carefully begin now to prepare our hearts to be receptive to the promptings and impressions that will come then.

From Devon:

We had a great week this week.  We got 2 new investigators this week. We went over to teach the McDevitt's and the non members Mom, who is a non member, was there. She is from the the Philippines and said that she saw missionaries over there. She asked about temples and we taught the importance and sacredness of temples and the member and her non member husband both testified about feeling the spirit in the temple.  He was there in the temple before it was dedicated.  She asked us questions, we answered some of them, and asked her if she would like to hear more about what we believe.  She said yes and we have an appointment with her this Wednesday.    

This last Friday we had a zone meeting and it was focused on Finding.  At the end of the meeting the Zone leaders challenged us to find a new investigator before Sunday night.  Finding is not an activity it is an attitude.  We had from Friday afternoon to Sunday night to find a new investigator. We found one on Saturday. The investigator was the wife of a less active member named Br. Masily.  We have been trying to contact them for about 9 weeks now and we finally contacted them this week.  We were invited into the house and we started a regular conversation.  We were starting to talk about the church when she started to ask us questions about our church. We had a Fantastic discussion and testified about many principles in third lesson.  Our next appointment is this Wednesday.  I think for the first time in our two transfers we have two many appointments on Wednesday (6) between 6-8 o'clock.

Both of our areas are starting to really pick up.  The field is white and ready to harvest.  We had a meeting with stake president Kiel about missionary work last Saturday morning and gave us some good advise on some of our investigators.  This week was great.

Basketball Season begins with a BANG

Today started at 9:00 am with Marissa's basketball game.  Today we play last year's champions:  Shelbyville Ward.  Marissa takes the tip - she gets it!  We have a great first quarter!!!

Half time score!!!  Marissa must have 6 or 8 points at this time.  She is making all her shots.

The second half we still control the ball most of the time but we aren't making our shots and we aren't getting as many rebounds; however, we are still doing better than Shelbyville.  The game ends 20 to 9.  Marissa scored 12 of the 20 points.

Our team at this game:

Jazmine, Danica, Jess, Sister Hall, Eden, Marissa, Sister Theiss, Taya and Elle

Robert's team plays immediately after Marissa's.  Mark is a ref for the game.

Robert does great - he starts and gets the first basket of the game.  We are playing the Deakins from our ward so we know it's going to be a win.

Robert, Ben, Trevor, Will, Michael, and Zack, and Bobbie are the team (I think there is one more but I can't picture them at the moment).

The first quarter ends 16 - 5
Second quarter elements change.  Colton (who plays school ball shows up to play which is great because he kinda even outs the teams)
Each team scored 4:  20 - 9 (Ironically the same score as the girls end of game score)
Third quarter each team scores 5:  25-14
Forth Quarter the Deakins actually outscore us by 1 (8-9):  Games ends 33-23.

Robert scored 8 of the points - Ben scored 10!  They make a great team.

Week 29 - New Year for Devon - January 2015

A lot of things happened this week.  We got a new investigator that atheist, her name is Candice. We asked her if she would listen to the discussions and she said yes; Which is crazy because she does not believe in God. She has a lot of problems with God and questions about the gospel.  We answer her questions even thought she didn’t agree with the answers.  The spirit helped us and guided us in answering her questions.  We taught Jen the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We asked Jen if she wanted to be baptized and she said, “yes.”  her Baptism date is 24 of January.  Yaaaa!!!!  New Years and New Years Eve was difficult especially during the Fiesta Bowl.  An Elder I knew went home on Saturday :(. I am in a trio with my district leader Elder Turner.  It was my first time in a trio and it was GREAT.  Thing are a little stressful because we were covering 4 wards and two areas but great. 

3v3 Super Saturday

LET'S GO MATHLETES!!!!

Robert is playing in the 3v3 tournament with his friends, Aaron Green and Ryan Danehy.  They have also invited some other soccer players from St. Xavier - PJ, Brandon, and Oliver Hine.

Well, we were all excited for the 3v3 tournament to start.  We were scheduled to have our first game at 3:00 pm on Saturday followed by a 5:00 pm game ... but all that changed Friday night with a phone call at 8:12 pm.

THE SCHEDULE CHANGED.

We were supposed to have a game at 7:00 pm - OGM!!!  The phone call was after our game.  What happened ... how did we not know there was a schedule change?

We were able to get it all worked out ... The new schedule also had us down for a game at 8:30 am on Saturday - no problem, then they rescheduled the game we missed last night for a game at 2:30 pm and then we still had our 3:00 pm game.  We will have games back to back, but that's okay - at least we didn't have to forfeit our first game.

If Noelle didn't call we would have missed two games...  thank goodness she called.

Brandon, Robert, Aaron, PJ, Ryan and Oliver

Our first game of the day was at 8:30 am vs the OSC team.  It was a great game.  Right from the start we dominated the game.  PJ scored first, then Ryan.  2-0.  Ryan had another but they said he was in the box.  PJ scored the third goal and then Robert scored the fourth goal and Ryan scored the fifth to make it 5-0 at half time.  After the very short half, OSC came back and scored three, then Robert was subbed back in and scored immediately on a beautiful one touch-score goal.  OSC scored so the score is now 6-4.  Brandon scored our last goal and OSC got one more in - game ended 7-5.   A win.

driving

Going for the steal

Our second game of the day was at 2:30 pm vs the Victorious Secrets.  It is a coed team with 3 girls and 3 guys.  They are older but we are a good match.  VS scored first, but Oliver fired back with a goal 1-1.  Aaron scored a nice goal but then VS scored 2-2.  Robert scores but VS scored too, 3-3.  Then VS and Brandon scored 4-4.  Oliver scored again and VS countered with their own goal 5-5.  This game went back and forth the whole game - it's going to boil down to a single goal was what I was thinking but then VS scored 2 in a row while Robert was out.  The pressure is on - and we rise.  Robert makes a great assist to Ryan for another goal 7-6 - and Brandon scored so we are right back in it 7-7, but now there is less than a minute to go. Unfortunately, we let up on defense and VS scored the winning goal.  We tried to get one in the last 30 seconds of the game, but just couldn't get one in the goal.  Great job by the guys.  Ending score 7-8.

Bam - now we have another game against, probably, the best team in the tourney ... Javanon 99 (Mason, Parker, Nathan, and Mathew).  The third game of the day was immediately at 3:00 vs Javanon 99.  Unfortunately, we look a little tired from the last game, and Javanon 99 is playing their first game of the tournament.  We will play strong!!!  Robert didn't start this game because he finished the last game.  Javanon scored 2 goals before Robert got in.  Once Robert was in he scored a goal 2-1.  Then Brandon scored 2-2.  Then Javanon scored two 4-2, that was the score at half time.  After the half Ryan scored, then Robert scored again - we are tie again 4-4.  Javanon got right back in it with a goal 5-4.  That's when Robert went out.  Jananon scored again 6-4, but Ryan came back with another goal 6-5, but Javanon ended the game with a last goal making it 7-5.  We were close - it was a very good game.

New Year's Day - New Beginnings

After sending Jessica off to BYU it was back home for us ... but then I got the great idea of going to IHOP with the kids.

It was awesome.  The place was packed so we had a 35 minute wait.  Not to worry, this allowed Robert, Marissa and Avery a chance to relax and it gave Mark and I a chance to walk around the area (even though it was freezing) to get some exercise.  We were then called back to our table.  It was great.  We all ordered hot chocolate and water.  We had some great laughs while waiting for our food.  Marissa ordered the Cin-a-stack, Robert the stack of 5 original pancakes, Avery had 4 chocolate chocolate chip pancakes, Mark had french toast and Betsy had the short Cin-a-stack.  Everything was delicious and we had a wonderful time.

Once home, Robert and Marissa hung out with Avery and did homework, etc.  Robert worked out with Mark and Betsy took a much needed nap.  - that felt so good!

After I got up, I convince Marissa and Avery to go see "Annie" with me.  Before going I met up with Rovi from the Philippine Shipping company to deliver another box of clothes for people in the Philippines.  I had to send it to President Dahle - but I had intended to send it to the Branch President of the Calapacuan Branch.  I will have to write him and tell him my intentions.

As soon as that was done, Avery, Marissa and I saw the movie "Annie."  It was such a good movie!  It is a feel good movie - I felt so good leaving the theater.  I hope Marissa got the idea of a positive attitude ...

I treated Avery and Marissa to Steak and Shake after the movie - as this is probably the last thing we do together as part of the break.

Tomorrow I have to work ...  I so enjoyed today!!!

Jessica Leaves for BYU

With her parents

This morning came way too early and I feel there were so many things left undone or unsaid.  I can't believe Jessica left today for BYU.  It seems she just got here and that we had all the time in the world ... then all of the sudden ... it's the morning of the day she flies back to college.

at the airport

We all stayed up late last night since it was New Year's Eve.  We enjoyed ourselves but didn't do anything special (Robert and Marissa were gone at the church dance and then at the O'Briens for an after dance party).  Jessica was tired after packing and visiting with friends all day so we just watched movies and relaxed.  I should have taken that time to have some better time talking - then maybe right now I wouldn't feel like she left without me having a chance to do more with her or just talk more.

We all love this girl

So, as I was saying, we woke up and got ready, Making Jessica her requested breakfast of a ham and cheese omelet.  Avery Pryor came over to be part of the send off.  We all (Robert, Marissa, Avery, Mark and I) left for the airport at 9:20 (a little later than expected, my fault) but didn't think anything of it.  Usually there aren't any lines to speak of at Louisville Airport, but today - oh my goodness - the line for Southwest was soooooooo long.  It took 20 minutes to get through the check-in line and then another 10 minutes to get to the point of security.  We were all just joking around and talking while waiting in line with Jessica when all of the sudden, it was like, "oh my gosh, she's next in line to hand her boarding pass ... we need to get out of line ... oh my gosh, that means this is goodbye ... wait ... I didn't get to say goodbye properly."  We all hugged her, but it was rushed and hurried.  She liked it that way, less tears!  She was off, again.

Jessica with Robert, Avery and Marissa

I love her so much, it was so hard to see her go.  I've loved having her home and feeling the sweet spirit she brings to our family.  But ... this is right and good.  This is where she should be and doing what she should be doing.  We watched her go through security and head off towards the gate before we left.  (Mark and I always do that).

Jessica, what's with the tongue

Mom, staying positive

Dad, getting sad

Avery

Saying goodbye to Robert

Saying Goodbye to Avery

Saying goodbye to mom

Saying goodbye to Marissa