Mother's Day Already

"This picture is titled
"Mother of Seven"
I know I look happier than this."
I was having a conversation with my friend Sandi while driving home from a ward conference. We were sharing our thoughts on Mother's Day. Mother's Day does not make the top five holiday list. I would just as soon skip it (well now that I have a missionary and he gets to call home on Mother's Day it has moved out of the trash can to maybe my favorite holiday) My husband and kids do a great job of making me feel loved, it is just that as I relect on some 28 years of mothering I find myself lacking. Wishing I had done some things differently and hoping for the patience to make it through the mothering years that still lie ahead (seriously eternity). I had such a list of things I was going to do when I became a mother. I would read to my children, I would teach them tolerance, I would show them happiness, they would all play the piano, we would memorize scriptures in a happy loving way, we would eat homemade healthy dinners. The list is endless and I tried, but I wish I could go back and do more, say more, love more, and most of all laugh more. But I don't know if I would find the energy to do things much differently. Maybe my list should have started with find good drugs =} I was reading though and came across this great quote. I hope someting in it helps you find joy
Mothers,
“Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be. …Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones….The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you…. If you strive to love God, if you try your best to be the best parent you can be, you will have done all that a human being can do and all that God expects you to do….Remember, remember all the days of your motherhood: ‘Ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.’ Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And ‘press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.’ You are doing God’s work.”Jeffrey R. Holland, “Because She Is a Mother,” Ensign, May 1997
Keep trying your best and know that there truly are angels watching over you, wanting to help you be the parent you want to be. Happy May to all the wonderful mothers and to all the mothers who want to be wonderful!

cho what up?!!?!?! hows life going. ¿Jaryi?! espero que si. so this week was sick. everything just seemed to work out perfect. K thats a lie monday wasnt so hot, tuesday tampoco. but my comp finally figured out what we were doing wrong. so like i told you we have the thirdish biggest area in the mission (size wise) and for the past 2 weeks we have been working in this same barrio (like a neighborhood, but its pretty ghetto so drop the neighbor) mainly cause we have investigadores out there and we were being lazy and not wanting to walk the 25 mins to a different part of the city, and then come back for another appointment. anyways we were walking through the mud and rain down this main road and reached the end and we both just kinda stood there and my comp says, what are we doing. and i said i dont really know. so we walked back to the apartment grabbed the map and ask heavenly father to guide us to were we need to go. we both felt inspired to go to the same area so we jammed. and for the rest of that afternoon we just knocked doors in that area and found two families and 4 other people and had more lessons in one day then we have had in a long time. i felt like that was a turning point for us because we realized that life is a lot better when you working hard and finding people no importa if its pouring rain or your shoes weigh 20 pounds each cause they're full of mud, as long as you have the spirit with you todo tranquilopa. we both talked about it after and decided we want everyday to be like that. Respusta a tu pregunta sy (madre) the city that im in is a lot smaller then cuidad del este. CDE is the 2nd or 3rd biggest city in the misson; San ignacio is probably 2nd or 3rd smallest so it has been quite the change. im pretty acostumbrado to urry thing. also yes mother i can read spanish ive been here for like 5 month homie. (I asked if he read in Spanish meaning over choosing to read in English but I obviously uspet his ego and he thought I meant he couldn't read-what is a mother to do?)i still have to look up words a lot when im reading the BOM probably like 3 or 4 a chapter, but menos ese i can read just about anything pretty easily. my favorite thing to read in spanish would be preach my Gospel cause #1 its bombski and #2 its everything you need to know as a missionary. i wish i would have studied it more at home. anyone thats going on a mission soon should start working on Preach my G. that means you kyle slash Blake slash BRock. SIDENOTE- still havent guessed on brocks call im going with Paraguay and then i can train him. that be sick!!! my comp says Idaho so that he can go visit his family and his mom will hook him up with bomb dinners. ha´upei- ctr rings got´em and love´em gave a couple out to the people that were going to get baptized that i had to leave in CDE. and im giving out 3 more this week to Marcela, Mirta, y Estela. cause we have a baptism this Sunday im so pumped and we just redid the font and put a sweet roof over it. its going to be sweet. ill sent pics next week. Other big news i found out who the new President is going to be when Presidente Bradley leaves in June. his name in Mark Calin from Utah, i want to say Salt Lake dont quote me. Anyways you should look him up on Facebook or something im sure his got one. If not try Blogspot i heard all the cool cats got´em now. haha jk. But its going to be pretty exciting having a new president. IM going to miss President Bradley. the mans amazing. i have so much respect for him. Our relationship is a little weird cause i feel like he is a superstar or an Apostle and sometimes am scared to talk to him, but then other times i feel like he is one of my bestfriends and i can talk to him about anything. i think part of that is because were pratically related. thats to the marriage of Aunt Jamie to Uncle Michael and a Reber marrying someone in his family and i think another marriage was needed to complete that connection but were related and he figured it out some how. so thanks Uncle michael and Aunt Jaime for getting married. and being so cool all the time too. More news not so new but its news- the new Spanish bible is coming out in September its going to make life so much easier with the JS translations and all those Foot notes. IM pumped that also means i get to mark all my scripts up again. which is one of my favorite things to do so... sweet. oh also something cool that happened today was we played a fat game of soccer in Club San Ignacio, it wsa me and my comp with three jovenes vs 5 well practiced paraguayians. we played for like 2 and half hours. and i had 4 of our 7 goals. one of which was a sick header from range. And To be completed it took a killer head pass from my comp and a nasty leap on my part over the goalie to catch the back of the net. Wish i would have got that on tape. Also at the Club they had espn on and the ncaa Swimming Campionships were on and i got to see the mens 200 medley and all most peed my pants i was so excited. anyways it made me realize that i want to swim again when i get back so i guess i should start working out more. Sounds like swimming going great Dad hope you guess finish with another League Championship or maybe even Valley? huh Ikatu. Good luck tell everyone i said hi. If there is anyone else left i know. i forget sometimes that im getting kinda old now. almost 20! nde´da Sori!! well gotta blast but thanks again for all your love and support. i havent heard from my brothers in a while or melanie or Courtney. whats going on us step your game up. write me a letter on DearElder so i can read it in the pention. i also wrote a letter to Grandma and Grandpa Nichols but dont have their adress sent that next week please. and im sending Grandma and Grandpa Urmstons this week hope it gets there before they leave. thats so crazy i cant believe they are going home next change. LOCO! k love you all cant wait to talk to you in two weeks ill sent you the number next monday and you can tell me what time you would like to call on sunday may 10. dont forget to put the time change in factor. k im out love you and miss you like Shaq misses free throws. And thats a lot. hey dad give me a laker update please. love ya chau.

I need a break from weekends.

I cannot stay awake. I know moms are supposed to be waiting up when their offspring arrives home and I can't make it past 11. Last week was Mason's prom and he got home late -How late? Well, first when I asked him he said around 1:30, then later that night when the missionaries asked him he fessed up and admitted it as 2 because he couldn't lie to the missionaries. Ouch, he can lie to his mom but not the missionaries. He had a good time and went with a group of about 20 friends. He got his smashing suit at our favorite thrift store in Ventura. It was a vest and slacks that had some sweet topstitching. Lucky for us it is polyester so I just threw it in the washer when he got home and left the sweat saturated suit (alliteration or what?) on his bedroom floor.
So that was last weekend and this weekend is Frontier's prom. Candice was in charge and so she enlisted a bit of help from the family. She has been working like crazy for the past few weeks. I told her I would make a cake and so Friday I was up until 11 working on the cake with her, then Marc and Mason had to catch the bus to Clovis for a swim meet the following morning at 5a.m. and I couldn't go back to sleep. Later Nicole and I went down to help Candice decorate. When Marc got home at 6:30 that night, he was a little tired but I convinced him it would be supportive to drop by the Prom and see Candice. The decorations were amazing and then we entered closer to the den of iniquity. CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRap, I could not even believe it. I know I am an old lady but I am not a "hell and brimstone preacher" but even then it was beyond what I had imagined When they tell you it is sex on the dance floor at proms it pretty much is. I don't know if everyone was dancing inappropriately but I couldn't take my eyes off of two couples. I am grateful that I grew up in the footloose era. I hate to tell the teenagers of today but they are missing out on a whole lotta fun. I am now jumping off my soapbox.

Mason for Boy's Commissioner of Athletics

This would be Mason's piture for his campaign poster. He is running for Commissioner of Athletics and is trying to put forth his all-around athletic self. Candice (as his campaign manager) designed this outfit and for some reason he agreed to dress up and let us take his picture. He was a little apprehensive when we said we needed to go out front for better lighting but he did it. Elections are today so hopefully his gamble pays off. I just wanted to document this moment and I hope he does win because he would do a great job and he loves being involved in ASB.

The many faces of Elder Urmston

Que pasa Familia?

So remember how i told you i had that killer new comp from Panama, elder Lizondro, yeah well i dont anymore. He left and i got a new comp, and he is from America!!! Loco no? its so weird speaking english all the time, i kinda like but i hope it doesnt screw up my progression with the language. he does know a lot of Guarani so hopefully i can learn a little from him. he has a year and 2 months in the mission he is from Idaho, his name is Elder Rowley and hes gotta be the goofiest kid i have ever met in my life. Sometimes when im walking with him i feel like dumb and dumber, cause hes just such a funny kid and makes me do stupid things too. Like this morning we played a fatty game of soccer in the pension using the chairs as goals it started getting kinda rough so we took it out front and played for like 45 mins as random people walked to see 2 goofy looking americans trying to play soccer. ha. but he is also one of the best teachers i know and when we are in lessons i feel like im getting more out of it then the investigators. we were having some problems with algunos de nuestros investigadores but im pretty sure with his help it will all work out and we will get them in that water.
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> so this week was easter. the way that they celabrate it down here is just a LITTLE bit different then the states. you know how in the states there are those people that go to church like 2 or 3 times a year for holidays such as christmas and easter. well instead of more people going to church everyone just stays home and gets wasted. Que lastima. we had 14 members show up this last week which was quite the disappointment from the 50 that came with us to Conference the week before. but what can you do. we formed a army this past week with the faithfuls and we are going to visit all the inactives this saturday, hopefully we can get more people at church. we also have a new reinforcement that showed up last week. his name is Carlos and he just finished his mission in Argentina and is going to help out a lot. im thinking my calling as 1st consejero will be taking away some by him, which would be tranquilopa conmigo cause it would be a lot easier to just be a missionary. dont get me wrong its fun being a consejero but it takes up a grip of time. Ill let you know what happens.
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> thanks dad for the sports update theres isnt anymore tuesday morning sports meeting but i still appreciate then. the other night elder olsen, a die hard laker fan, also the secretory of the mission, had to talk to my comp about something but not until after he asked for a full season report on the lakers. ha. also talk of another package being sent is in the air. that makes me happy. a few things that i have thought of #1 the skippys creamy is a must if you want to throw 2 in there i wouldnt hate it, a nice jump-rope, i want to be cool like rocky, (or just not fat). milkyways, if there is another sd card, and i believe there is, at home i would love videos put on it of; swim meets, cool people that want to talk to me, and talia and tristan of course. that would be the best birthday present ever. and i am expecting hand written letters from my brothers and blake and kyle, and everyone. besides that just cool stuff you find around the house or at walmart or where ever.
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> but thats about it if you have any questions that you want me to answer question away. lifes good works good, spanish is improving everyday and guarani is going to still be awhile. love you all and all talk to you some. like really talk cause mothers day is coming up soon so im excited. k hasta luego.

ps comp says hi and said youre all beautiful

Note from the Mom if you want to email me a letter to include in his birthday package (His birthday is May 27th) I will print it and include it, or you can send a letter to him on Dearelder.com 9he is in the Paraguay Asuncion Mission, or mail him with the postal service at
Mision Paraguay Asuncion
2881 Del Maestro c/caballero
Bario Herrera
Asuncion Paraguay