Spike's Letter 4/23

Gattens, Parks, Mortons, Larsons, Ericksons…etc

How is everyone doing??!! Sounds like this week has bee a little adventure. From more snow and freezing temperatures, to another baby being born into the family! Astonishing! The boys have pulled ahead 10-9 and there is another boy on the was with cassie that will make the close call break open a little bit. Wow. Things are changing so much already. I feel weird! Yet an uncle once again. Remarkable. Brady Steven Gatten. That’s a strong name. I like it. My first impression was wow, great choice tim and liz! He was a big one. Over 8 lbs. he has the gatten genes to say the least! That is so exciting and our family is growing rapidly! Cassie is due any time now. Hopefully mom makes it there before she has her baby. She might be early as she was with cooper and gunner. That will be yet another exciting adventure to put into the this years book of events. They are packed already aren’t they? We are on busy bunch of people! From the letters that mom and dad sent me it sounded like they love every second of it. They loved having the kids and taking them to their soccer games and church. Sounded like they were pretty well behaved! Dad said that it was fun being a dad again this weekend. He said that he has not forgotten yet! He said that he cant forget yet cause he has to finish raising me….i thought that was really cute. Choked me up=) mom either just cant let go not being a mother=) she is the best nana in the world and I know and you know that she would do anything for any of us in two seconds. She is that kind of person. She is wonderful! Along with our father! Dad went with jeff and mike to the knife show and sale at the buck knives store. Sounds like the field was white there and dad bought a lot. Jeff and mike had a blast too. I love those kind of things! Miss them! Mom and Lori went to the Junior Miss on Saturday also. That is always fun. It is crazy to think it has already been a couple years or more since katelyn was in it. Time flies! Your all staying busy though. Brett started the new addition on the lee’s house? I never heard that they were planning that. Sounds like a big deal! 1200sqft addition. Marvelous! She will love the new big kitchen and the extra space. She said that the hole is humongous in the back yard. That will be neat too see.
So jon and tims team won the championship huh? That is so sweet! They were undefeated huh? And only won by 1 point! That is the best. Hope you stomped them into the ground. I heard that jon was the leading scorer and that does not surprise me. You are the man. I love watching church basketball. It is a blessing you got out of there with all your limbs and not hurt. I know that church ball can get brutal. Ha. That in and of itself is worth celebrating about! Did you guys go out after for ice cream and stuff? Let the good times role! I love going and seeing the games.!!
Dusty! You pulled threw dude. ATTA BOY. I know that you could do it man! I knew that I taught you well. Came out of there with a couple of nice toms huh? Sweet. Did you use my gun? That sucker has whacked a lot of turkeys already. Its deadly! I am anxious to hear your story about it and such. I did see your pictures on the blog and they were so tight. I’m proud of you man. I am also ecstatic to hear that your all drew for Montana deer hunting again! Did you draw for elk or no? that is so sweet and I am ssssooooo jealous you have no idea. I can totally imagine being there. It is the last thing that I did before I left! I love getting out there. The bad thing is you will not have gone right before I got home. I was looking forward to it. Are you going to apply for me next year or what? I am excited to get the pictures in the e mail and to get your and dads letter. I did receive 4 letters from katelyn yesterday so I have been pretty happy today!. Sounds like she is doing good. He family is driving down there tomorrow for a family reunion In park city. She is taking her final test and wrote her final paper today for school! She is done!!! Can you believe that? Already one year down! It is amazing to think of. Seems like I was just at home all sad cause she left! Ha. Only one more school year to go=) She loved having you guys down there. She does not know where she is going to work this summer so if you guys have any ideas just let her know. She will be pretty friendless, not really, but I am sure she will hang out with ya a ton! Parks too!
To say the least I am so jealous about the nice dinner that you all had. Dad was explaining it all to me in detail, then said I better change the subject now that your jealous…ha. That’s right. Sounds like he made some wonderful soup and mom fried them good, and brynne topped it all off with some amazing cookies! Man how I miss the good ol´ USA. But I guess beans rice and plane noodles and some mysterious fish no one knows what it is-its pretty good! Ha. Nutritious to say the least. But you all enjoyed it and everyone made it over there but liz. Still recovering. I miss those family days. But you know what I will be passing six months half way through this transfer! Sweet! Got five months!
So the trek is right around the corner huh? Already begun all of the final meeting and such. Six weeks away! Dad is getting into it from what mom said, and things are coming together. The kids in the stake had a pre hike also this last week. that is cool. That is AWESOME that nikell is going! That is such an awesome opportunity. Like mom said, none of us had that opportunity when we were her age so it is cool that you get to do that and that your nana and papa are in charge of the whole thing. Who knows maybe you will get some extra stuff! It was funny to hear that dad got on the internet and bought some of the period clothing for the trek. That is awesome that he is so into it. It will be one of the things that you will look back on and think how awesome it was! Dad is the man. So organized and is just a leader. He is the best ever. I love him and the stake is so lucky to have him and mom in charge of this cause you know that things will be done 110%. And I know that I am speaking for a lot of people here. Your splitting all of the kids up into the groups and such also. How does that work? Should be fun. I am excited to see pictures and so hear it all work out.
So how are things here….this week was pretty busy. We have been doing a lot of things for the president. We have lists from the general hospital of people who need wheel chairs and we have been going to all of their houses and getting info from them so we can distribute them. It is really busy and takes a lot of time away form prosyliting. I guess that we get to talk to the needy people about the gospel, but the majority of them are in a situation where they cannot receive the discussions or are physically not able. It has been a really humbling experience going to these peoples homes. It really shows me that there are people in the world who are in need and who do not have much. I think that will be the theme of my mission. Tim says that many of my stories remind him of his mission. We did have the baptism of Tayla this last Sunday! It was awesome. She is so cool and I know that she will be a leader in the church here, and be active. She is one of those golden converts. We made a cake for her and it was just perfect. Blessing. Also this week, Monday we had a bbq for the president of our branch. He is 51. we had a big grill and the members grilled a ton of meet. Monkey, river dolphin(there pink) and fish. It was good. I was cleaning up though and I was cleaning a dish that had a chip out of it. It cut my finger so I dropped the dish and it shattered and a fat piece stuck in my hand. Left hand between my ring and pinky finger. It stuck to the bone. I took it out and the bone was clearly visable. About ¾ of an inch wide and as deep as it would go. I just have been keeping it clean and didn’t get stiches even though I know 1000% that I should. It is healing and is shut. I think that it cut a nerve or something.cause it constantly like feels like I hit my funny bone but up my arm. I am good though. Im a man=) it left a mark! The meat was good. Didn’t taste to different and was good. They just put salt on it and then grill it over coals on a big bamboo like stick. It was good.
Well I did not get transferred. That was Monday and Tuesday. I still have the same companion also. Elder souza from joão pessoa. Just north of receife. He is a slacker and I kick his but everyday to work and to stop thinking about home. He only has this transfer plus one more. He is almost done! I get sick of hearing about it. My bro elder mason from Colorado has a comp that this is his last transfer and he is way trunky too. I get sick of it. I have to tell the prez. Its ridiculous. They think that rules do not apply to them. But we are still doing good. I don’t know when the next zone meeting is. Should be in the next couple weeks I would guess. I will get all the packages and everything that are there at manaus. Ps. From now on send everything there. I am anxious to get them. Going a month and a half with nothing makes me go crazy. Elder duffy is not the assistant to the president anymore. He is going home in like 40 days. He is coming home. He is one cool kid. I will miss him for sure. He is going to byu and already finished 2 years before the miss so he is going back a junior. It is sad to see your bros leave. Even at transfers. When I think of it it is like me and my comp now will be together for 3 months. That is a whole summer break! That is a lot of time. You become close to them and it is impossible not to become their best friends. It is an experience. I love it. Katelyns uncle is going to be a mission pres in japan here pretty soon. My companion has a brother who just finshed his mission there. That’s cool. Small world. Well as for the wildlife here. There are a ton of lizards and snakes and spiders. We cleaned the house and found a snake and lizard and things in there. Its totally normal.tons of cockroaches too. It is fun to see all the different kinds of wildlife here.
They have really huge lizards too. We were walking in the street and cornered one and we were going to go and try to catch it cause it was to fat to climb anything and we couldn’t. It was to big and I did not want to be whipped by its tail. Scary. The rain has been on and off here. It is raining really hard here right now. Nothing compared to manaus though. Things are normal here regardless. Not much to talk about. The branch is doing good. Just normal, which is weird and just normal. I am working a lot with getting the men who have been baptized and confirmed to church so we can get them active to receive the priesthood. That is the biggest thing that we lack here I priesthood holders. We need them cause we need leaders!!!! Besides that just working! Clapping my hands at the doors and teaching people!! It is amazing. Fun. You can imagin how nervous I get speaking all the time with the people! That brings up another subject. The language. It is coming along fine. I just asked my companion 100% telling the truth how do you think that my language is going. He said that it is really good for the time that I have been here but I still have a lot of things that I can improve. I need to improve a lot. So I am nervous to talk to tyler at the mothers day! Ah. It will be a blast. We will be able to talk in portugues the rest of our lives together! Is that sweet or what?
Well I love you all and I just want to leave you my testimony. I have read a ton at the beginning of Alma. Where alma the son of alma is teaching the people of Gideon and such. He is speaking in respect to their standing before the lord and what they need to de to become ready for the coming of the savior(because this is like 83b.c.) it is really amazing. I t asks questions about ourselves that we may not want to think about, that give us answers to the question of how do we stand before the lord. It speaks of repentance a ton. It says that any sin that easily besets you, put it aside and become clean in the site of god. Become one of his elect, with clean hands and a pure heart. For this, we must do to secure our spot with our heavenly father and his son. I have such a testimony of this. It brings into the picture so many aspects of the gospel. Repentance, forgiveness, atonement, preparation. I have a testimony of it. I know that repentance is not the most enjoyable thing in the world. I know that I am not perfect and I know that I need to improve daily. I repent daily and continually ask for forgiveness from my heavenly father for having the natural man a part of me. I, while preparing for the mission, had things that I was ashamed of and that I just wanted to hide….but why. We need not fear. Our heavenly father is waiting with open arms to receive us. All he wants is that we honor the sacrifice that his beloved son made for us, and partake in becoming pure and washing our garments with his blood. I cant sufficiently explain the joy that comes from having a clean conscience, and doing what is right. It is my prayer that you will, at whatever expense, put away your sins, repent, and return to the right hand of god. We build up things so big in our mind, we make the path of repentance so grueling and hard in our mind, but it is a purifying process. We can repent. He will give us the strength. We just have to exercise our faith. It is such a blessing to be able to repent. Our brother DIED for us. He suffered our very pains, he bleed from every pore, for who?......for you, for me, for every man that has lived and him that will live. I love him, I love the gospel, it is true, it is the path. Take it. Make a covenant with the lord now, don’t wait, to follow him, to set aside the natural man, the things of the world, and become a son and daughter of him, an heir to the kingdom of our father. I know that we can only through his love and sacrifice and blood. I love you all so much. Be safe, have fun, choose the right, and remember who you represent. Always. Share the gospel. You do not need a name tag. You just need that will and the lord will provide the way. He will make up the difference, we need to exercise our faith, and we will be made whole. I hope you all know how much I love you. Your in my prayers and thoughts. Love you. 17 days till I get to call home…are you ready?....i am!
Yours always and for forever!
Elder gatten