I'm home!!!

Hey there all of my good friends!

This is just a little note to let all of you know that I am back in the
states safe and sound from my mission in Portugal. I had an awesome time
and I can't even express how much it has made me happy and how much I have
been blessed and have learned. I love the Portuguese people and could
spend my life there happily. I am absolutely loving also the opportunity
to see all of my 14 nieces and nephews and their pregnant mothers, and
expecting fathers and I know more than ever that the Lord lives and He
loves me through my family. I don't think that there is space in an
e-mail to really express the depths of my feelings, so this will be short.

Plans for my life at this point: I plan on attending BYU in Provo, Utah
this January and working toward a masters in teaching (history, languages,
arts, musics and nursing) I will be working as a nurse to support this my
school habit as I love school and I can see me spending the rest of my
life studying. I am extremely excited to be able to do this.

I would love to see and talk to you all! I am going to be spending this
month of December galavanting around the country and would love to hear
from you and talk to you all when I am in the area.

My location schedule is the following:
Dec 1-8 Georgia
Dec 9-14 Utah
Dec 15-20 Denver (I will be speaking in the Arvada 4th ward on the
17th and you are all invited)
Dec 21-28 Home in Austin CO.

I do not really have a phone at this point, so the best way to reach me is
by e-mail which I will do my best to check regularly. Hope all of you are
finding yourselves well and do forgive if my english is rusty at best. My
mind now thinks in portuguese. Love you all and wish God's greatest
blessings on you and yours. I am excited to come and see you all.

ellen

the last day

So, the last day here in my Portugal....I am the mission president's wife's companion to keep me out of trouble (they thought I would do something bad on the last day of the mission) No, actually I am feeling really lucky because I asked her last week if I could help, because I knew I needed to do something of worth, and I was the first one that asked. Since then the rain came down and all the other sisters are wishing that they had the same opportunity...I get to make pies and everything, we're having a blast, and it's good to serve. I said goodbye to Portugal on the train ride here by humming the national anthem a whole bunch of times. It has been hard to say goodbye to all of the people that I love so much. I LOVE PORTUGAL!! I am nonetheless very excited to see all of you and love you all too. But for now, back to the kitchen with me...

ellen

Fw: Energizer

Hey there family,
Another week has gone by and the work goes on. In missionary work the same thing happens again and again but it never seems to get old. You are always finding new people and trying to baptize them. It is very enjoyable work. What is even more neat is that you change so much as well as the people that you teach. It is really a lot of change. We are planning to have another baptism in two weeks. João Gabriel is a great 15-year old boy. He is a great example to his family. He is intelligent but also has a lot of talent. We are very excited about his baptism. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that through my diligence and faithfulness many people will come to a knowledge of the truth. We have to endure to the end. It is the hardest thing to do but it is needed. It is just like the quote of President Hinckley. Put your trust in God and move forward w/ confidence and faith in the future. The Lord will not forsake us...He will never forsake us. We are to Go Forward w/Faith.
Well, my sister is coming home I just can´t believe how much time has gone by. It really is incredible. Happy Homecoming to you Ellen. May your days be lovely and bright. I love you all.

Elder Thompson

another busy week

So,the work continues at an ever increasing pace... This week was a full one for sure. We had a funeral yesterday of a little 4 year old boy. He was really a joy and the way in which he went showed the family that it was Heavenly Father calling him home and so they were comforted. I also tried to translate what I remember of your butterfly poem Mom and I gave that to them, I hope it helps a bit. The day before that we had a great zone conference and I found out that on my last day here in Portugal I will be helping to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner, so that makes me happy. It's good to be doing something of use. Also, our music lessons and english lessons are going along lickety-split and it is like the people have come alive again. It is an encouraging feeling. This work is the Lord's and really He will do miracles. I really like the passage in Luke 5:5 and it is helping me to give my all to the end.

Hopefully I have been admitted to BYU, I still am not sure, but am working on it. If all works out as I hope I will be a student there in January, which will be all sorts of fun. yep, so that's the news from here. The Lord's plan is perfect and He cares for His children. Of this I am certain.

Love you all!

ellen

Fw: Here Comes the Sun

Hey there,
What a fast week this is. It is already the middle of November. I can´t believe that the time is just going by so fast. Sometimes I just wish that I could stop time.
It has been a great week. We received some outstanding referrals this last week and we have some baptisms planned for the first of December. We are so excited about it. João Gabriel is a great kid. When we first taught him and his family everyone rejected us except him, his mom and his brothers. He stayed firm and said that he would read the book of mormon. Now he has already been to church three times and we are planning his baptism. We are also teaching another family that is outstanding. Some years ago Heloide would run to the other side of the street because she had fear that the Mormons would get her as they were walking down the street. Now, we are talking about baptism with her. We are planning to mark her and her daughter´s baptisms this week. It is interesting to see the change that comes over people. I really feel that with we have faith in the Lord and we work hard following the spirit. We will have success. Part of our success here is that our investigators have a friend who is a member of the church. It helps so much because the friend can follow-up when the missionaries can´t, they answer questions and give support. The key to having a lot of baptisms is working with the members to baptize their friends and family. It is just like President Hinckley said. A new member needs a responsibility, a friend, and nutrido by the word of God.
I am so excited about the work and know that trusting in the Lord is how I will receive the blessings that he has in store for me. I love you all and know that if we do what is right(read the scriptures and pray everyday and go to church every Sunday) we will always be blessed.

Love,
Elder Thompson

Yeah! Yipee! Yahoo!

CONGRATULATIONS AARON, BETHANY and MICHAEL ANDREW!!! I'm excited to tell people that I have 13 neices and nephews. I am a blessed aunty! Health and all of that to you and to all of the other expecting mothers in our family!

Another week full of stuff... fun, funny, and hilarious. We got to do a division on monday to tuesday...I got to teach with Irmã Andelin who is serving now in Matosinhos and we really had a blast talking and stuff. She is an amazing missionary and I'm greatful for the opportunity that I had to work with her. She has a lot of qualities that I would like to emulate. It was good for Irmã Karren too. She had never seen the way anyone else worked and so it was a good experience. We are really having a good time together and the work is moving forward because of that.

We also at times become a hinderance, like on Monday when we brought a huge slug to district meeting. We called him Babe Ruth the Grand Slugger because he was about 7 inches long and quite large. We needed a little something to spice up our lives and about which we could giggle incessantly. The elders were quite impressed, and we did use it to teach an object lesson, so maybe it was alright.

Other fun things for the week...I picked up nits from an otherwise respectable looking dog owned by one of the members and Irmã Karren had fun picking them out...when the shampoo from the pharmacy didn't have the immediate results I wanted I just decided to get it over with quickly and dunked my head in bleach, killing all of them as Irmã Karren can attest. Hopefully I did not kill all of my hair follicles and I still have hair the next time all of you see me. However, it is a quick way to kill the nasty things. That is probably the most nauseating experence that I've had, including having to eat the recognizable heart valves and lungs of the ox in s.j. da madeira, which was pretty bad. Yuck!

Samuel, recebeste já a minha carta? Parabéns no sucesso vocês estão a ter lá. É sempre bom ouvir. És um missionário espectacular! Porta-te bem e tudo. Continuação con um bom trabalho!

Mais coisas....acho que não há nada.. amo vocês todos...oi english! Nothing else to report for right now. Love you all and a big love and a squeeze for Michael!

ellen

Subject: It's a Boy!

Subject: It's a Boy!

No name yet but working on it--probably today sometime. 8lbs, 6oz----20 ¾” long. Bethany is doing well and both should come home today. Enjoy the pictures but remember they are copyrighted and can be reproduced or sold as much as possible with a 10% royalty.

Love you all,

Aaron

I forgot the date but most of you would’ve figured that out. November 2 @ 2:40 pm.

Quick November

Today a quickie...spent all sorts of time on a letter to Mom (aren't you all jealous) No really, we have had a great week. We had a cool experience this week where our neighbor contacted us by way of the window and asked us to come and visit her, she had been impressed by the way we live and could see a 'light' as it were radiating from our apartment. Good thing we don't let down our guard even in the house. A good missionary is a missionary always. We now have special care with how we act and things. Anyhow, other great things from this week, we have more family nights planned than we can ever accomplish and invites coming out our ears. We have a great english class going and now have started a music class to help the members, and anyone else who wants to attend, learn the ins and outs of music, especially as found in the hymnal. It is going to be really fun I think. Yep, and otherwise it's work as usual. It is amazing how it gets better all of the time, just when you think it is too good to be true, you go through another trial and get even more blessings. I love the letter I got from a friend of mine that said: I have definately come to see that His blessings come in greater abundance than our pains, and way beyond anything we could ever deserve. This is the Lord's work and He is inc charge. Love all of you and Happy November!

Update on the Hayes Family

Well,

For the big news! We're expecting #5 in April. That
has us going through a lot of changes right now. We
are re-painting our house, 2 rooms at a time to fix it
up in order to sell. And that means a lot of
de-wallpapering, which is a lot of work. We haven't
even come to the kitchen and dining room yet which
will be even more work. We've just outgrown our
little house. Charles is still sleeping in a
port-a-crib which rotates room to room depending on
where we're working.

Charles is now not just walking, but running
everywhere. His favorite toy is the phone. He's
always talking on it - the real one of course is
preferred, but remotes and other flat, retangle
objects also work well - sometimes they're by his ear
and sometimes on the top of his head, but he's talking
on the phone. He also loves reading books. His
favorite birthday present was the board book from mom.
He carried it everywhere and had the binding broke in
less than a week.

Marah was finally potty trained the 1st of September.
We kept trying to convince her it was a good thing,
but when Grandma Hayes got her some cool big girl
underwear that's all it took. No diapers ever since.
She's even a lot better than the other girls had
hardly any accidents. We did have one when we were
hiking in Zions a couple of weeks ago along the
Riverside walk and that wasn't much fun. Marah loves
to read books as well -- I could spend all day on the
couch reading to her. She always has to go if
anyone's going anywhere. She just likes to try to be
like her big sisters - she loves to play computer
games when they're at school. It's hard to believe
that I will have 3 years let before she goes to
school.

Alaina is in 1st grade and is learning to read even
more. She is our drama queen - already at age 6 - we
have our hands full when she gets even bigger. This
was her 1st year of soccer and she did really good.
She was always right on the ball and very much in the
middle of things. Alaina is very responsible and
always makes sure her things are in her backpack for
school, her library books etc, I don't have to ask
her like Keturah, she takes care of it herself.

Keturah is in 4th grade this year. It's hard to
believe. She has a male teacher which is kind of fun.
She still struggles with math - it seems to be her
fate and she often has a lot of homework because she
daddles or daydreams in class so has to do it at
night. One night this past week we were up until
10:30 getting all her assignments done because it was
the last day of the semester. She is enjoying piano,
though. Her favorite song so far as been Edleweiss.

Blair is enjoying his work. He's been setting up a
webserver. He had it all finished and then they
wanted it set up more user friendly so he had to
re-program things and make changes. It's been hard
but he's really enjoyed it and is getting a lot better
at it.

I've just been helping everyone with their stuff - the
kids with homework, Blair with fixing up the house. I
did get some canning done though, 66 quarts of
applesauce 1 weekend and 36 quarts of pears another
weekend with tomato sauce another.

Hope everything finds you families well.

Martha