It's a brand new year!

Hey William,
So 9 AM church, I have a love hate relationship with. Especially at the end of Christmas break. We've been staying up past midnight and waking up at 9:30 all week, so getting to church by 9 this morning was a bit of a struggle. But now we are done early, so we have lots of time to write you emails and do other Sunday stuff, so that part is super nice.


It was super nice to talk to you on Christmas and New Years. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with you, it almost felt like you were right there with us a couple times. I'm glad you loved the scriptures we sent you. It was super fun to collect them. I'd love to hear what Brother Finnell had to say if you're willing to share.


That's so cool that Elder Larkin got a bunch of music. We had some really cool piano guys christmas songs I kept wanting to send you, but the app Dad paid for to get music from Youtube stopped working, sad we bought a lifetime membership for it so we could send you songs, so we'll have to either actually buy songs or figure out something else. I am glad that Edler Larkin got some good stuff though.


I loved reading about the lady that gave you the nicest talking to. That made me smile. And the story about Jim telling you that Jim left to Canada yesterday. That was funny too. Also your story about knocking doors on that dirt road and knocking the 2 last doors on the road reminded me of Elder Uchtdorf's talk 4th Floor, Last Door. If you haven't read that in a while you should. It's a good one.


This week was a little weird because we would usually go to heber and hang out with cousins or something, but James and Macie were at Macie's parents house and Val and Jon were in st. george and then they were sick so we kinda did our own thing, which was fine, except I got cabin fever pretty bad and there was no snow, so I finally drove the kids up to Tibble Fork to find some snow and go sledding. There weren't very many people there, and Dad was working, so I was the responsible parent who had to decide if the ice was safe to walk on or not. It made me kind of nervous, but then I saw a spot where it was at least a foot thick, so we decided it was ok and walked across the lake to sled. It was pretty fun. After we sledded for a while, Eden and I were looking in an old ice fishing hole, and we started to hear the ice crack, so then I got nervous about the ice again and kept worrying the rest of the time we were there. Then we finally got some snow yesterday and just went sledding for a bit here in Eagle Mountain.


I'm not excited to go back to the school schedule and being busy again, but that is just life.


I'm pretty excited that the Come Follow Me lessons this year will be on the Book of Mormon. I love when we get to study the Book of Mormon. Sister Tranter is the new Sunday school teacher and she did a great job today. One of the comments that was made as we were talking about when Moroni came to Joseph Smith 3 times in the night and told him the same thing 3 times, Sister Frost brought up the point that he was probably so surprised and just trying to take it all in so he didn't really hear everything that was important for him to hear, which was why he needed to hear it 3 times and then again the next morning when he was told to tell his Dad. I hadn't ever thought of it that way before with the repetition and why it was needed. it kind of makes sense to think of the shock he was in, and just thinking about this angel that came to see him, and the repetition was there so that he could remember the important things that Angel Moroni needed him to hear.


Something we talked about in FHE the other day was just thinking of the new year and how to approach it. I've never really been one for making resolutions. I've just never been good at keeping them, and I feel like I am already making goals and continuing to work on them, so making them at the beginning of the year never really made sense to me. But one thing I heard that I really liked was this.


I would encourage you to look back on 2023 and celebrate your accomplishments. You did a ton in 2023, and you should definitely celebrate all that you did! Look at all the good things that you did and all the good memories. Then instead of making resolutions, do these 3 things. Think of:
Something you would like to start doing
Something you would like to stop doing
Something you would like to continue


I thought that was a good way to look at the new year, and something I feel like I can do.


I hope you've had a fantastic week. I'm super proud of you and the man you are. Keep up the good work!


Love you lots!
Mom