Not Quite 2022

 For the last few years, I have attempted to become a minimalist.  I am so far from that.  However, I have participated in a decluttering event.  The idea is to declutter 2022 items from your house in 2022.  I didn't mke it this year.  I did come close. 

That is my chart I color in when I get rid of something.  I did however, get  rid of almost 1500 things.  That seems like a ton.  My house looks like I could get rid of another 1500.  I think I should do a challenge that when I bring something in the house, I have to erase one box.  

I do love to get rid of stuff.  So cleansing.  I have already printed off the chart for 2023.  Here's to more stuff leaving the house.  

Day After Christmas

 The day after the dentist was Jack's favorite time yet.  He got to go to the Dentist.  We have been trying to get there for like 3 months.  He had 3 cavities that needed to be filled.  Finally we did it.  He was a rock star and was so brave.  

After the Dentist we got some Planet in.  Andrew has to go with me to the Planet because he doesn't have a membership to the gym anymore around here.  He didn't like the Planet for a long time because they didn't have these correct weight machines.  But it isn't all bad because it isn't as crowded as the other gyms.  Love that he goes with me.'

Couldn't decide which socks to give Grandma.  I'm a big spender.  These are my favorite socks.  WE choose the green ones for Grandma.  She says she likes them too.  I did take the sale price tag off.  Grandma likes the Planet too.  We did see Grandma once at the Planet over the holidays.  

This is Nick's post.  Very true indeed.

Christmas Day 2022

 

Christmas day started out in Church.  It was a fabulous meeting as it was only one hour long.  We sang songs and had a speaker.  The bishop was the weakest link to the meeting for sure.  We headed home and decideded we needed a Christmas Walk.  We walked around Bountiful Pond.  It is nice over there when it is cold because there are no mosquitos.  It is about a mile around the pond.  We saw about one other person and their dog there.  It was really beautiful and cold and good.  

I don't think Jack went with us but I can't remember why he didn't.  Maybe he was sick or just wanted to stay home because he was tired from Church.  

We went home to open presents.  

But then we decided to call in our Chinese food order.  We did and they said pick up in 20 minutes. Ok so we had to stop presents and head to Syracuse to the Golden Ginger and get our order.

I didn't get any pictures but it was absolutely fabulous.  

Obviously we hit the Maverik after our walk.  They are never closed.  Love that. 

Brooke got a Shark Grabber that wonton loved

Wonton Got a new vest.  

This is the brand.  So hilarious.  

And Look who else got a vest?  The Wonton's mother.  

Jack got these headphones.  (are they even called that now?)  They are some kindof fancy ones he wanted.  He thought they were fabulous.  I just thought they were expensive. :)  

Andrew and Ty were there also.  I guess I didn't get photos of them.  Ty got some a case of Spam from the Costco and some cool Mountain Dew flavor.  

Andrew got some Vans and a shirt

Christmas Eve 2022

 We started the Christmas Eve at the Planet.  Andrew and I are rocking the Planet.  That is his friend Brian that says he sees me there all the time.  Yes he does...All the time.

Couldn't decide what to get for Marlena.  I know, I'm a big spender

We didn't do the usual Temple Square thing but decided to go to a Movie instead.  It was just the four of us.  Andrew, Brooke, Ty and me.  We saw Spirit with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reyolds.  It was a spoof on A Christmas Carol.  I absolutely dislike Christmas Carol.  But this was really good and it was a musical.  It was perfect and fun and really good.  Ty was kind enough to borrow the popcorn tubs from his Mother so we could get a discount on the popcorn.  

Then we went to the usual In N Out.  It isn't like my best place, but it is the only place open on Christmas Eve.  Jack came over and joined us with his friends Aj Tukuwafu and Thoren.  They had already eaten their Christmas dinner but joined us for fries and a shake.  Everyone is welcome.

A different Christms Eve for sure. We missed Abi and Brody and Nick.  But we know they are being their best selves and doing good things and making their own memories.  

Lewis Family Christmas Party and Church Playing

 Our Christmas program at church was the week before Christmas.  This is the list of songs and hymns for sunday.  My friend in charge put this together for me so I knew when the hymns were.  

Not sure why she had the songs on strips of paper...but hey, it worked.

It was really a great program and lots of singing which I like and a few speakers

It was also our family Christmas party at grandma's house.  WE had appetizers for food and played the Bells with a Youtube video.  The bells replaced the pipes we usually do from my school.  

We also had a game that a picture of Christmas carols that we had to identify.  That was fun too but it is an old game.  

Paula also read us some trivia about Christmas that she used at her job at the Rest Home.  

Grandma handed out her presents and we called it a night.  Always a fun time.  It is fun to see the people that I don't see very much.  We were missing Andrew and Nick and Abi, Hayden and Sierra, Grace and Kendall, Micaela, Callen and Mitchell and Brittney.  Whew that is as many gone as we had there it seems.  

Winter's for Jack

 Jack received this poster.  He was invited to Winter's dance.  

I ordered him his clothes to wear, and they were not going to get here in time.  So I had to go to the same store and get them so he had them for pictures.  Here are some of his pictures. He won't give me others.  

That is his Boy Thoren.  He plays Lax and works with Jack at Cutler's Cookies

I don't even have a picture of his date.  She showed up and texted him to come out.  I didn't get a picture or anything.  He sid he had fun.  I

Our Annual Sing a Long

 

The Annual Sing a Long was held again this year.  We braved the parking and the crowds and attended.  The thing this year was that michelle's family didn't come with us.  Not sure what their excuse was....

But when Michelle says she's only 50 percent in, I knew she was really 100 percent OUT.  

We only had 4 of us there.  Ty, Brooke, Grndma, and Me.  Jack was sick.   So the four of us had a great time.  We got Pretzel bites and drinks from Thirst that were a total disappointment.  

The orchestra is from West Valley and was great.  The guests were good and even Kurt Bestor was decent.  It is only an hour and we were home by 9:00. My kindof event.  

Week 20. Its really cold now. Also merry Christmas I guess...

 

what's up y'all. This week was supa hot fire. Now the weather was very not supa hot fire. Last week I complained about it starting to get cold but then god decided to humble me and make it even colder haha. Thursday it got all the way down to -12 and us being the very smart missionaries we are decided to drift to all our lessons. Thursday we were also inside most of the day because the roads were super icy. 

 Monday we did get to go to the temple which was super nice and spiritual. I also got to see both of my old comps that day. Then we all hung out as missionaries at the stake center and it was super fun. I'm very slowly starting to recognize all the little blessings in my everyday life. It was a huge blessing to attend the temple during the Christmas season and to hang out with a bunch of missionaries for a few hours. After p day ended we wanted to go and knock on this one apartment building where we know this lady lives but she wouldn't give us her address. So we went and decided to just knock on them all and we found marie. We had a super good lesson with Marie and she had all these amazing stories about how she has seen god more recently in her life. IT WAS A HYPE MIRACLE 

 Tuesday was zone conference and we had a combined zone conference with the omaha zone and sioux falls zone so there was a lot of missionaries. Every district in each zone had to come up with a skit and we made our skit like 5 mins before we were supposed to go on. So for our skit we just did a fake training to the whole mission on how to do a comp inventory which basically is just when you and your comp sit down and tell each other what you don't like about them. So me and my comp decided to do that but we made it funny by "fake wrestling". It got a little out of hand when I jumped off a table to body slam him but we were only injured slightly by the making of this skit. Tuesday was also awesome because i got to see my boy elder hansen and the AP's did me a huge favor and let them sleep over at our place. Now that was lit. 

 Wednesday The elders who live with us car broke so they tagged along with us for the day and we made them teach our member lesson which was kind of funny but it ended up being a good lesson. All i did during the lesson was play with the members' dogs!!!

thursday we were grounded basically all day until like 5 then we went drifting and then we went and taught our friend yuri. Yuri is half catholic and half lutheran which don't make sense at all but we taught about jose smith and she liked it i guess. 

Friday we went and taught brother woods and we talked about football for an hour and a half before we started teaching. He is my fav person to teach because he updates me on all the scores and headlines. After that we went and taught our friends angie and we had a really good lesson. She even gave us fruit snacks so you know the spirit was there haha. 

 Saturday we had a half p day so we basically just had to do missionary work until like 4. All we did was go to members houses and eat food until then. We did do some service for sister mejia though and helped her make some tamales. Then the rest of the day we played basketball and volleyball. My comp fixed my shooting form so now I can make like 1/7 threes instead of 0/7 threes. 

 Sunday we had a lit program with lots of singing. Then we went over to carlos house and had more tamales and then went to another members house and ate some smoked brisket and watched jonny lingo and then played basketball and card games. 

 Mission life is still going good. Hope yall had a good christmas. Just remember who you are and what you stand for. Jesus loves you!!!!

 

-elder clemons. 

Its getting cold - Weekly Email Elder Clemons

 It's Getting Cold

This week was pretty mid but we ended off on a bang so thats lit. 

Tuesday we had a really good district council about how to hie to kolob. Not gonna lie I didn't know what kolob was until we talked about it so guess district council works haha. The bad thing about district council is my district leader is so good at bringing the spirit that I always leave feeling like Im a bad missionary lol. 

 wednesday We had our book of mormon study and everyone made fun of me because I hyped up jacob 5. so they all expected me to know everything about the chapter and if you don't know what jacob 5 is it is the longest chapter in the book of mormon and there is a lot of symbolism in it. So I basically answered everyones question about the chapter with "pray and ponder on that one".

 Thursday we pulled to cathlico and had so much fun doing service. A bunch of other missionaries in our zone pulled up too and made it lots of fun. After  we had some taco bell which was fire!! Thursday night we were also able to meet with our friend shawn and finalize everything for his baptism!!

 The highlight of friday was brother grossgebauer took us out to this Korean grill place and I loved it!! He's a return missionary too and he is also in the airforce so he is just a cool guy in general. We talked a lot about his mission in Korea and how different it is there than over here. After that we got some drinks and cranked out weekly planning.

 Saturday was a pretty big dub. We were able to baptize Shawn and it was so spiritual. Shawn is this super spiritual 9 year old. The cool thing about his family was that they were all inactive until he told us he wanted to get baptized. He was able to get baptized and confirmed over the weekend. His whole family was crying during the first hymn. It was super dope and very rewarding. later that night we had the ward christmas party and I lost again in goat lords to this primary kid sooo that was by far the biggest L Ive taken on my mission. 

 Sunday our freinds kamylie showed up to church and apparently they did the griddy in primary so i think they liked it lol. 

 That was my week. sorry if this email sucks. Didn't have a lot of time to write one this week. Hope yall stay safe and have a good christmas!!!!

 

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