Guided Safely Home

April 27, 2015 email

Dearest Familja, 

So I got back pretty late from an AWESOME P-day activity so unfortunately this will be a tad bit short but it should still be good. I don't have tons to say but we saw some good success this week that made us all super happy. 

Wow!!  Beautiful place!

So I guess I'll start with Filip, the main man. We've been meeting with him almost everyday this week and our lessons have been awesome. We just share a scripture and he just reads it in Greek and then basically teaches us on what he thinks about it. And he always has the best insights to the Gospel. We have just been trying so hard to get him off of smoking. He is such an awesome guy and he tells us all the time that he just wants to get baptized as soon as possible. Just pray for him to get rid of smoking this week. This is the only thing that is hindering his progress and then he is a free man!

We had a lesson with him though last night and we watched "Guided Safely Home" by Pres. Monson and we actually were able to find it translated in Greek so that made us super happy campers. After we bore our testimonies on the Atonement and the love of God and it was just an amazing lesson in general.

I LOVE this picture!!  Elder Clawson standing on the corner eating something tasty, in a very foreign place:)

 Our other guy is Emiljano. He is slowly making progress. We met a few times this week and he is slowly starting to understand the truthfulness of the church. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation this week because he said that he didn't want to have eternal life. What? And so we explained that this was the best gift that anyone could give us. Eternal happiness and life. And so we kinda just explained all of that and such. We also had a lesson on "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have done it unto me" and we watched an awesome Bible Video and Emiljano was bawling at the end of it. And he ain't no emotional guy. So yeah it was successful. 

P-day activity.  

Gentjan is doing fantastic as well! He gave the lesson in Priesthood yesterday and it was super good. He blows my mind. He is such a strong guy and he loves the Gospel. Also we have another RC named Ilirjan who is also great. His wife has some really bad health problems though and so that effects how many times we can get to talk with him. Hopefully we can help him out. 

Elder Price and Elder Clawson

This looks lovely!  Elder Clawson and Elder Befus.

Crepes or Suflage with Elder Dahl and Elder Clawson.

Well that is about it for this week. Today I went to Gjirokaster, Syri Kalter, and Sarande. Super fun day but super long and so I'll fill you all more in next week when I got the time. I love you all and I hope you all have a fun week! 

Love, Jed

I have no idea where p-day was today, but it is BEAUTIFUL!  Can't wait to find out next week!

Dearest Mother, 

Tell Jane and Seth to calm down! Sounds like everyone is getting all OCD on us and that doesn't sound fun. Tell Paul way to go on his mission call! I'm sorry to hear that him and Joe won't see each other for such a long time. Let everyone know that I love them! Good luck with the new radio advertisement, I'm sure it'll go great. I love you Mom!

Glory To The Lord, It Is Good!

Elder Clawson contacting in Vlore, Albania

April 20, 2015 email

Dearest Family of 6,

This week was very successful, full of love, laughter, and fun stuff.

 

To start it all off we met with a lot of our recent converts and tried to help them out with their questions and such. One of our converts is Brother Gentjan Zgëna and he is AWESOME!! He is definitely one of the best people that I have met on my mission. He was baptized in the middle of March and he is just a little ball of joy. He works as a roaming salesman with little odds and ends and every day we see him we ask him how work is going and he just smiles and says "Lavdi Zoti, mirë." Which translates to "Glory to the Lord, it's good." and he just has the best outlook on life. He is super willing to help us out with any lesson we have or anything like that. This last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and he is so solid!

 

He was having some troubles this last week and so we gave him Doctrine and Covenants 121 to read because I had actually read it that morning for personal study and he read and then called us later in the day telling us how it had changed his life. That's it for Genti. He's great.

We also met with our çun friend, Valerio. He is making progress in his reading capabilities and he is starting to actually pick up what the Book of Mormon is teaching which is good. He brought a friend named Mateu with him the other day and he loved reading with us. I'm actually starting to like Valerio. At first I was a bit skeptical about him but he is showing promise so I like him now. He just chaps my lips sometimes when he takes 5 billion years to read the word "jashtëzakonisht". But I cut him some slack because I'm trying to be Christlike. 

Studying his guts out!

Filip is the man. We taught him about temples this last week and the Priesthood again just so he could kinda get implanted in his brain. The temples topic was a little rough because I don't remember much about the temple and I don't know what I need to say. But it was all good and he really wants to go to the temple! HOT DOG! We also had a lesson with him on Saturday night to kinda talk with him about smoking because he hasn't been making the progress that has been needed and we can't drop him because he is SO close to being perfect. We read Ether 12:27 with him and talked about the weaknesses that God gives all of us so that we can rely on him more fully.  It was a super good lesson and we set up some expectations with smoking that have already helped him a bunch. He is such a good guy and I just love him to death. 

This week we found a new investigator named Bujar. He came to church with us yesterday and we just sat and listened to the talks and loved church. Before the meeting started we were just chatting and what not and then he brought up baptism and I just mentioned how we are baptized to become members of our church and such and he said "I really want to get baptized." So needless to say we talked with him after the meeting and we are helping him out to figure out a date. He enjoyed church a lot and it was especially good because we had Ward Conference yesterday which made things even better.

By the way, today as I was walking down the road, a boy about 16 years old and 6'2 kicked me right in the butt and ran off down the road. I don't know why or who he was but Elder Dahl and Befus saw it so they can testify of the idiocy that goes on in this country at times.

Our other investigator Emiljano has been good too. We taught him the Word of Wisdom earlier in the week and it was great. He totally felt the Spirit and we invited him to be baptized on a specific date but he just wants to read the whole Book of Mormon first. He's actually pretty close so I'm okay with it for now but hopefully he understands why baptism is so darn important! 

I love his tag!

Those are about all of the highlights this week. But I love being here in Vlore. The people are great, the members are awesome, and I'm just loving life. The church is true and God loves us and wants to bless us 24/7. I love being on my mission and speaking Albanian and all the other crazy stuff that comes with it. 

I hope you all have a good week and stay safe. Tell Jake and Seth to make big jumps upon the track. That's how they can get better! I love you all!

Love, Jedi

New fancy suit to come home in.  They're pretty cheap in Albania!

Dearest Mother, 

Well Mom, I love you. Thank you for writing all these emails for me. Tell Seth way to go on the sacrament and on his talk. I'm excited to hang out with all of the kids. It'll be good times. So did all the snow melt pretty fast then? Hopefully the snow will be better next year. I got the suit and it is AMAZING!! I don't know if you wanted me to get both shoes or just one pair so I haven't gotten either of them yet. I don't have enough for both for now. But you would be so proud of how my missionary shoes look. They are massacred. Well I hope you have a great week and tell everyone I love them. Loves!

Love, Jedediah

My Life Rocks!

Elder Clawson with a cute member who helps teach lessons in Vlore.

April 13, 2015 email

Well Family in the West,

As I sit here in this Interenet Lokalë, I can't help but wonder how awesome my life is right now. I am serving a mission for the Lord in Vlorë, Albania, I speak Albanian with the Natives, I live on the beach, I get to finally wear short sleeve white shirts, I eat the best food ever, my companion worked at Nordstrom and helps me choose what tie goes with what pants every morning, it's sunny outside, I played beach volleyball for 2 and half hours this morning, I got to read my scriptures for a straight hour, and I get to talk with people all day everyday about how they can be happy for the rest of their lives!!! MY LIFE ROCKS!!!!!! The biggest stress I have to deal with is that an investigator didn't show up for a lesson and I have to find out why. And what kind of cereal I want to eat for breakfast. Everything is just taken care of by the Lord.

Anyways, this was a good week. We were able to meet with Filip a couple of times. He's making slow but steady progress with smoking. He is really starting to like me. After every lesson lately he grabs my head and pulls it right below his neck and he tells me how much he appreciates the help that we are giving him. He was going to come to church yesterday to come and watch conference with us but the Albanians celebrated Easter yesterday because of the Orthodox church and I guess that's what they do, therefore Filip had to do some stuff with his family so he couldn't make it. 

These 4 all came out together almost 2 years ago, and all 3 have been Jed's companions at one time or another.

We met with a new investigator this last week named Leonardo. He was good but he had read some stuff on the internet about Joseph Smith and that had kinda given him an "idea" of what our church was about. We had a member named Ariola in on that lesson to kinda help us out and she was a lifesaver. She explained lots of good things to Leo so that he could understand a bit more plainly of what our church was all about. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and committed him to read before we met him again and he said he would read it without being prejudge-mental of Joseph Smith and such. Hopefully his heart and mind will be open so that he can get a grasp on the truths shared.

Elder Clawson on his deck doing his morning studies.  Nice view!

Evening view of the bay.

After that lesson we met with our investigator E.  We asked Elder Larson to come and help us out with the lesson since E really likes him. But the catch with this lesson was that E brought a friend that is very argumentative and VERY Protestant. We sat down into the lesson and then began the onslaught of questions. Trinity, polygamy, temples, magic underwear, and all kinds of other stuff. Elder Larson was blown away with the guys questions and fortunately we were able to answer all of them with reverence and patience but the Spirit was definitely not there until the very end when the three of us testified to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the church. I don't necessarily like those lessons a whole lot and it definitely wears on your spirituality for a bit. And afterwards I was talking with Elder Befus and we were just saying how sad it is to see people reject such a happy message just because they might not be willing to give up a little vice may it be a drug, alcohol, the Law of Chastity, or even pride. Just a sad thing I say.

A beautiful Monastery in Vlore.

 We have also been meeting with a young boy named Valerio. He is one of the boys that has terrorized the church before. Elder Befus and I decided that we needed to just love them into submission. Turns out, Valerio was baptized in Tirana like 4 years ago! Who knew?! So we have been meeting with him and his sister, Laura, and been reading the Book of Mormon with them. Valerio doesn't know how to read because his family can't afford school. Whereas Laura reads very well for an 11 year old because she taught herself basically. So they are showing progress and we hope to put Laura on a baptismal date hopefully soon and see where that goes. 

We got to watch conference this weekend which was great. I don't get all of it in Albanian but I get the message most of the time. Elder Holland's talk was super freaky with those brothers out climbing. I was imagining Jake, Seth, and I and I almost lost it! I miss my brothers!! But all in all I thought it was a good conference.

Well some stuff about Vlore. It has a huge Greek influence and lots of people hear speak Italian and/or Greek. Every morning I watch the Italy Ferry come in to Port and pick stuff up and then take off again. The beaches are either super pretty or super dirty. I try to see the pretty ones. The food is good here. The people aren't very Muslim as I'm used to which is a breath of fresh air at times. The main religion is Greek Orthodox and a lot of people actually practice. There is also a large population of Jehovah's Witnesses. All in all, I love Vlorë.

Elder Clawson and Elder Befus

My companion is one Elder Taggart Reed Befus from Draper. He is a little less than a year younger than me and likes fine things. He is into fast cars, nice watches, nice suits, and definitely not into the granola man life. Which is good. We get along super well though and we are always laughing. Probably will go down as one of my favorites. He has driven Ferrari's and Lamborghinis I believe so that's cool. Personally I'm more of the Isuzu Trooper kinda guy or possibly a Subaru Outback but to every man his own.

Everyone, let it be known throughout the world that I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He lives! I love Him and I know that I will one day see Him. I am His representative and I preach His Gospel. The church is true.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Jedediah

Dearest Mother, 

Well it sounds like you were all moving around quite a bit this last week. I hope you were able to get in the water a little bit. On conference it looked like Utah is all bright and springy. Are you getting the garden ready for anything? I love you Mom, thank you for writing me every week. I know it gets tiring. Loves!

Love, Jed

PS the blog needs updating. I have received many a complaint. 

Fallen In Love With Vlore

Loving his new area Vlore, Albania!

April 6, 2015 email

Hello family!! 

first off, this computer sucks and the keyboard is a mess so do not mind my mis-capitalization and any other gramatical errors. 

well, i have officially fallen in love with vlore!! it is such an awesome place!!!!!! i put a lot of exclamation points to emphasize the point that it's awesome. so monday i just said goodbye to a bunch of people and told them to stay solid in the gospel. earlier that day i said goodbye to my favorite suflaqe owners and they both started bawling like two year olds. kinda rough. 

the next day i got up and finished all my packing and then i took off to the mission home. every single missionary in the world was there and i got a chance to say my goodbyes to all the departing missionaries. it was super rough on me. i had seen all of the sisters come into the country and i had worked with most of them and it was just sad to have to say bye. Juxhin from lushnje actually came to tirana that day to come and see me so that was cool too. unfortunately i didn't have a camera to use or else i woulda gotten a ton of pics but ah well. i hooked up with my new companion, elder befus, and said goodbye to elder braden. we took all of the other missionaries and headed on down to vlore! we got home and dropped off all of my stuff at the house and then took off to our first lesson. we met with our investigator, filip, he is awesome and the first thing that i thought when i saw him was, holy cow, he's hugh jackman!! i sent some pics so you can all see for yourselves. he is such a good guy and is so ready for the gospel.

Vlore, Albania

He calls it Paradise!  Looks pretty good:)

wednesday we woke up and worked out and i don't really remembered what happened but it was a good day. i know that in the morning we met with two recent converts that are both around the age of 75 and we taught them the law of chastity as their post-baptismal review. Needless to say it was a fantastically interesting lesson with lots of explanation and stuff like that. the two men's names are novrus and nikolla. two awesome old guys that love being old. later on that day we met with filip and talked about his smoking issue. we gave him a priesthood blessing to help him out and he was so grateful at the end. just need to say that i love exercising the priesthood. good stuff. 

 thursday rolls along and we are just happy campers. we actually had  a service project at brother rokaj's home which is on the side of the mountain next to the bay. it has the best view in the world and i finally found the actual place where i will have my vacation home. up by him. after that we came home and had toast for lunch. i also have a killer view from my balcony of the bay. this is really the most paradise like place. after that we met with filip again and taught him fasting and such and talked a bit more about his smoking. 

P-day activity with Elder Clawson's district.

friday came along and it was all cookies and cream. we went and contacted on the boulevard and talked with lots of people about the resurrection of christ. one interesting thing, vlore has tons of jehovah's witnesses and everyone in vlore thinks that i am one of them. cool. that night we went and did a hike with some of the instituted kids and elder larson. it was super fun. 

saturday we met with some recent converts named altin and xhulieta. they are fantastic! they love reading the book of mormon and they are just so receptive to the spirit. they also have a super cute 2 year old girl named mishela. besides that we mostly just spent the day doing some contacting. 

sunday, we got up and went to church and had a fantastic time. the ward is pretty good here. we didn't get to watch conference but we will be able to next week so i'm excited. i just hear lots of good things about it. also i heard about the temples coming out. sounds awesome! after church we had lunch with the larson couple and then had studies and had a lesson with filip again. he has a problem with sleeping so he always sleeps when church is starting. (Who doesn't!) kinda sad but we'll fix that. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Befus overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

today, i went and played beach volleyball in my bare feet, it was wonderful. then i went and ate lunch and now i'm here sending an email.  i have a lesson with some members in like 20 minutes so i gotta go but i love you all and i hope you are all safe! don't worry, i am safe and working hard. loves!!

love, jedediah

dearest mother, 

sorry my email is really bad this week. my computer is of the devil and the keyboard is really broken. i should be on a bit later though. tell everyone that they will probably get an email later, or next week when i have a better computer. tell seth happy birthday though! tell him i love his guts and i'm excited for him to get the priesthood. i love you mom and it looks like you all had a blast at city of rocks this week! love you!

love, jed

To Vlore He Goes For His Last Transfer!

March 30, 2015 email

Dear Family and Friends of all ages,

This week was my last week working in Tirana. I have been called to finish the remainder of my mission in the southern end of Albania in the city of Vlorë! I am very excited. I have made "The Hop" as we missionaries call it. I have served in the northernmost part of the mission (Prishtina) and I will be serving in the most southern part of the mission now. I will be serving with Elder Beefus, more dirty details on him will be coming next week. But yes, I am actually kinda sad to leave T3. It has been an awesome time being here. I have also been released as a zone leader, after almost 9 months! 

This week was a good one. We've been meeting with those two boys, Klajdi and Ledion that we found last week and they are super fun to teach. Klajdi has already been baptized when he was 3 years old so it has been a little rough for him to understand the importance of being baptized by the proper authority which is found in our church but he is praying to know if he should be baptized. So he will get his answer if he's sincere about it. Ledion on the other hand, he accepted a date in April and he is super excited. He said he's happy to get rid of all of his sins because he has a lot of them. We gave them the assignment of reading Alma 32 as a commitment since we had seen such awesome results with Behar and that chapter. They read it and then the next time we met they basically just taught us how important faith is in the scheme of the Plan of Salvation and how it all just makes sense. They are really good guys and unfortunately we won't be able to teach them anymore because we are both leaving our area. Elder Braden is going to 1st ward now because the mission office has been moved and they moved a lot of missionaries out of that ward. But Elder Penrod and Elder Sadiku will be good teachers. 

We met with Behar and he was still as usual. He was definitely touched by the Spirit in our lesson last week so we were hoping for a change or something but he still said that he didn't really believe anything. We asked him if he was believing anything that we were saying and he straight up said, "No." So needless to say we are here to work in the field that is WHITE already to harvest not BROWN ready to be planted, so we dropped and told him that a seed had been planted in his heart and when it was grown a little bit more he will want to come and meet with us again. We parted ways and I will probably never see Behar again. But I will NEVER EVER forget that lesson that we had with him last week. It will always be a testimony builder to me that the scriptures are here to guide us in every aspect of our lives and that the Spirit can work so beautifully and simply. I love the scriptures!

I went on an exchange with Elder Sadiku this week as well. We met with one of their investigators named Maldi and his friend who is actually a less active member named Juxhin. They invited us to their house for dinner and we went there and taught them the Word of Wisdom because they were telling us a story of how Maldi received an answer to his prayers. They had bought a bag of hashhash (marijuana) and they started reading the Book of Mormon and talking about the Plan of Salvation and they were just learning a ton from the scriptures and such and then Juxhin told Maldi that if he wanted to know for sure if these things are true then he needed to pray. Maldi ran into his room and prayed to know if the church was true, (just remember that all of this is going on while under the influence of marijuana). He finished his prayer and he said that all of the effects of the drugs just left and he was on his knees in the most profound peace that he had ever felt in his entire life. We explained to him that God was letting him know that the Church is true through the Spirit even though he was on the effects of drugs. We told them that drugs were prohibited in the church and they both promised to stop. It was an awesome experience that got me laughing pretty hard at times. They made us rice and qofte and omelettes because they are poor college students. But it was a good day.

Yesterday I gave a talk in church for how we can magnify our callings and I used Mom and Dad as my examples. You two are both so good at fulfilling your callings! I know there may be some complaining every now and then but that's just how the cookie crumbles. The Bishop took me aside afterwards and told me that I had told the ward exactly what they needed to hear. That made my heart shine! After church we had lunch and waited for a lesson that didn't show up. SHOCKER! Then we actually had a baptism. Trazhgim's brother got baptized and Trazhgim got to come to Tirana to baptize him which was way cool. Him and Elder Richards stayed the night at our house because it was too late for them to go back into Durres but we had a good time. Trazhgim will be serving in Durres until next week which is when he will head out to England and start in his real mission. He'll do awesome.

That's about it for this week. I'll miss my district but I've got some good friends in Vlore with me. Me, Price, Dahl, Baldwin, Beefus, and Sisters Bezas, Olsen, and Cani from Durrës which will be fun. And Price is training so we will have some fresh meat with us again. Coleman is going to Elbasan but she is the Sister Training Leader over Vlore so I'll see her every now and then and Sister Fuller is staying in Tirana as a trainer. Penrod and Sadiku are staying together in T3 because they just got together. 

Have a good week family! I love you all!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

Today I am going climbing for the last time. I am sad for that. Also the card does not work. I have been to many banks in hopes that it will work but it won't. Ah well. I also need to tell you that my shoes are destroyed! My slip ons are ripped to shreds and are like flip flops. I am so proud!!! Well Mom, have fun at City of the Rocks. There's some awesome climbing there so make sure you take the climbing stuff and take some good pics! I love you!

Love, Jedediah 

What Makes You Beautiful

Singing "What Makes You Beautiful" at the rest home.  This picture was sent to me from a cute member in Elder Clawson's ward in Tirana.  Look at those smiles:)

March 23, 2015 email (sorry I'm a slug!)

Well Family,

Once again the work of the Lord was done this week and I am tired. This week we kept up with waking up at 6 every morning and I am running on fumes right now. I may collapse at the keyboard of pure exhaustion.

So lots of cool stuff happened this week, I just can't remember all of it. On Monday we went and met with the Nure family because they all needed some blessings. The mom, dad, son, and the daughter. They are the family who had the recent death of their grandfather last week so they were really sad. We gave blessings of health to the kids and to the dad and then for the mother we gave a blessing of comfort and counsel. After that we went out finding.

Tuesday we had our wonderful district meeting. After that we went out street contacting and talked with a bunch of people and we met these two boys named Klajdi and Ledion. They seemed pretty interested in what we had to say so they gave us their number and we told them that we would call them that night. After our contacting session we had our English Course! I really like our class. We've got like 8 kids in there that are all super fun to talk with and they all love hearing about the Gospel. We invited two of the boys to meet with us after the course but they said that they didn't have time so hopefully next time.

On Wednesday we went and sang a the old people's home again! It was fantastic! We started singing hymns in English and some in Albanian and then Sister Fuller and I decided to sing "What Makes You Beautiful" By One Direction for them. So we did. And even though they couldn't understand a single word of what we said, they loved it. When we finished it all up one of the old ladies grabbed me and told me that I looked just like her husband when he was young. I just told her "Thanks!" In my assumption, what she said was a compliment. After that we met with Klajdi and Ledion and taught them the Restoration. The lesson lasted FOREVER!! One because the member that we had invited for the lesson was a chatty kathy and two because Klajdi was all hung up on the fact that he was baptized when he was 3 and had no need for another baptism. And we explained super clearly the whole fact that WE have the authority and stuff. Ah well. We'll meet with him again soon.

Thursday I don't remember much about what happened besides the fact that I taught English Course, found for like 6 hours and found like 5 new investigators for the sisters.

Friday, we went out finding in the morning and then we weekly planned and then I got hit by something. I was instantly feeling like a train wreck and had a runny nose from heck. We met with the Lamaj Family that night and taught the Word of Wisdom and talked with the kids how to stand up against their friends if they did stuff like that. Good lesson.

Saturday we went finding in the morning but we had planned two lessons that didn't show up. But it was okay because we had five other lessons planned through out the rest of the day so we would be okay. Only one of them happened. That lesson was the highlight of my week. We met with Behar, who is the guy that we met with last week that said he is God. So we decided to meet with him one more time to give him a chance. We started the lesson and he wasn't showing any real growth but then we decided to read Alma 32 with him. We each read 5 verses until we had finished the whole chapter and then we asked him what he liked about the chapter and he just blew us away. He understood so much and was asking all kinds of questions and stuff and he was just eating it up. We loved it. SO we had asked him to pray and he hadn't accepted the invitation to do so yet, but this time we asked him if he would like to give it a try. He gave a great prayer! It was just like the the song "A CALL I HEAR"!! After that we left and went home. Victorious.

Yesterday, we picked up an investigator for church and sat with him during sacrament meeting. It was a sad, gray, and rainy morning so everyone's spirits were a little down and sacrament meeting was just a little dry but what ya gonna do. So our investigator, Alen, had some work to do after the meeting so he couldn't stay but the rest of the day went well. We had some lessons not show up but it was okay because I was still sick so we just went out and found and taught the Mission Prep class and then we went home because I was not feeling good at all. Also last night I got the zone numbers, for the last time! I may never have to get numbers again.

Today we had house inspections in the morning and then we had to run to the mission office to get some stuff and turn in some baptismal papers. After that we took a bus to Pellumbas which is on the way to Elbasan to go see a cave. But when we got there we realized that the next bus that could take us back to Tirana left at 6. SO we just hopped right back on the bus and came home. Not the best P-Day I've had but it's alright. Tonight I"m going to visit the Spalding family with their home teacher so that'll be fun.

Well, I want everyone to know that I love the Albanian people! I love the opportunity that I have to be their messenger of the Gospel! I love being a missionary and I love my life here!!

Have a good week everyone and be safe! LOVE YOU!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mother, 

Well I don't know what I have but I am a sick dog. Any suggestions in case this lasts any longer? I've basically been living off of ibuprofen and oatmeal lately so that might not be helping the situation. Sorry I don't have pics, the card didn't work so I couldn't get a new camera. I hope everything is going well at home. I love you all so much! Have fun boating and stuff!

Love, Jedediah