You know by how much I request news that I dont get enough news to write the letter. In the past, I have scoured people's blogs, facebooks, instagrams, letters, etc to get information for the letter. But it often takes me 8+ hours on a Sunday to do the letter. I just cannot keep that up. I always get updates from Cara, Lissa and Katie. When they write a letter or blogpost, they post it AND send it to me directly. That is very useful. But no one wants a family newsletter every week or so filled with just Cara, Lissa and Katie (including Cara, Lissa and Katie!!)
Most of you write updates on Facebook, blogs or letters. Please consider copying and pasting the update and emailing it to me (or setting up the blog so that it sends me the post directly.) bakerzoo@verizon.net
When I get updates from at least 5 people, I will write a newsletter. You can count on Cara, Lissa and Katie but we need more of you to make that minimum.
Now the newsletter---
God sent you here to prepare for a future greater than anything you could imagine. -Dieter Uchtdorf
Part of our [life] challenge is that we imagine that God has all of his blessings locked in a cloud in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with strict requirements. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us. Commandments are the instructions that help us close the umbrella and receive His blessings. -Dieter Uchtdorf
August
Alicia Smith, Stephanie Thomas, Hadley Smith, Catie/Cathy Hobbs, Phil Munoa, LeGrand Soelberg
September
Troy Peterson (Craig and Boston's), Severin Nelson, Robert Thomas, Liam Smith, Kiera Greener, Brooklyn Peralez, Brytten Sievers,
Upcoming
Sept 29 Jenna Baker
Oct
8 Cort and Alicia anniversary
21 Sawyer Smith (Timm and Megan's)
23 Ewan Mordecai-Smith (Erik and Angela's) and Harper Thomas (McKay and Stephanie's)
29 EmmaLee Smith
Missionaries
Kieren in Brazil-Other miracle of the week was Marco. I was on a division with Sister Seely and we talked to a couple in the street. We marked to go back, and yesterday we visited with Marco on his front patio. The Lord is truly preparing people. When we got there, he said that his work friend, Bispo Teixeira (from another stake) had already introduced him a while ago to a lot of stuff, given him a huge stack of Liahona´s and stuff. AND! That he had already researched the church on mormon.org AND that he had already downloaded the Book of Mormon in PDF and liked what he had read so far. He said he is a big fan of the church but has never had the opportunity to receive missionaries before. We are the lucky firsts! He is super smart and already knows about a whole bunch of stuff. He knew about President Hinckley, and we were pleased to inform him that it´s now President Monson that came after him and basically, it was just a delight to teach him.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to study the scriptures. I have been working on improving my study and mastery of the scriptures. Pres. Castro says that to master a scripture, you have to
1. Know the reference
2. Know the content (principles, doctrines, memorization)
3. Be living the principles contained.
Cameron in California--In our ward we have been setting family mission plans with the members, and I would encourage everyone to make one as well.
There is a great video at
If you watch that, make some goals and let me know how it goes.
Thanks again everyone for being so kind to me in my service and I will keep
working hard.
Have we had any other missionaries go out that I have missed? Certainly there are..... Especially from extended families of Aunt Olene?, Aunt Karen? Aunt Roberta? Uncle Bob? Aunt Lola? Aunt Theda? Uncle Jim? Vern and Kay's family? We would love to be connected to your missionaries, and report their mission experiences....
Family updates-
from Karen Ouimette--On Labor day we had a gaming day at our house. For gaming days we start at noon and go til.... well, whenever people leave. Usually between 9 and midnight. While here, we provide lunch and dinner. We have 2 other couples/families that we rotate with (one couple, no children, the other couple have 3 kids-8 yr old boy, 5 year old boy, and 2 week old girl). We try to have a game day every 2 weeks, but with busy schedules, lately it's been once a month. So even though it's a lot of work, it's only once every 3-4 months.
When Cam left on his Mission, we sent him with a nice back pack. Well, it wasn't but a few weeks into his mission that they wouldn't let you carry backpacks anymore, they wanted satchels or book bags. Cam's first companion was done and went home at transfers, so he gave Cam his old bag. Well, it was falling apart (after being used by Cam for 18 months), so for his birthday, I sent him one of Davis' M-squared bags. He absolutely LOVES it. It's a pretty cool bag.
Last Saturday evening we went to the Ogden Temple open house. We took Danny and Alicia and the kids. Alicia and the kids were real excited, they've never been through a Temple before. Danny isn't a member, but was willing to go. It was beautiful, well, aren't all the Temples? Danny commented on how pretty it was and asked questions about, and was very interested in the Baptismal Font.
From Monta Thomas-- Rob's dad passed away on Wednesday, August 14th. The family all went to Spokane for the funeral. Carol's note--He was a good man. Remember Rob and his extended family in your prayers.
Update from Stuart Smith--new PSA test score is down from 54 to 3.45. Almost normal. With the drugs, we expected a drop, but not this much. Oncologist is quite pleased. With my stage 4, decreases are usually not this big. This is good :)
Next is colonoscopy, then "markers" installed in the prostate and then 9 weeks of radiation. Seems to drag on, but doc assures me it is normal procedure.
From Lissa Nelson--wrote a long post of adventures they had this summer. Check out her blog since I cant include all the fun here! But here are some of the adventures....
Our first adventure was to Governor's Island. We took a quick ferry ride over to the island, then had a little picnic lunch. Hamilton and Severin played a little baseball in a grassy area for a bit, then we set about exploring the island. There were so many fun things! They had mini golf, a tree house, a canoe drum, hammocks, and more. Hamilton has the time of his life--he could have spent all day at any one of the places we stopped to play. We also enjoyed a little treat at their outdoor food court (all food trucks) and got our first taste of Wafels and Dinges (something I'd been hearing about and wanting to try). [Severin: Great views of downtown Manhattan and all the activities on the island are free!]
The next week, Cameron and his wife, Becky came into town. Severin was able to take a couple days off and we went out with them to see several different things. One day, we went to the 9/11 Memorial, got lunch at Grimaldi's and ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, rode the Staten Island Ferry, got dumplings in Chinatown, and watched Brave at the South Street Seaport. Severin had to work the next day but he went with them to get Cronuts in the morning before work. After work, they were kind enough to take us out to dinner at Cafe D'Alsace. [Severin: My first Cronut and my first time to Staten Island.]
This wasn't really one of our adventures, but we had a surprise visit from Tyler and Kelly! They were on their way back from Europe and ran into some flight complications so they ended up having to stay the night in New York. Not ideal for them, but we were sure happy to see them! Severin and I had been at a Marriott School alumni reception and my cousin Lyndi was watching the boys for us so when we told her they were coming, she stuck around to see them too. [Severin: One of the best parts of living in NYC is getting to see people at random times.]
from Cara Webber--
Thank you Hallie for reading to Hyrum and Hamilton.
Thank you Seara for playing with Amalie (and Isaiah).
Thank you Hyrum for taking a nap.
Thank you Hyrum for adding Cheerios to the vase.
Thank you Ryan for the selfie I found on my phone.
(see picture above)
Grandpa Ole took Ethan and Liam to a minor league game.
And both boys came home with balls! How lucky is that!
She also sent pictures from the Ole Smith family reunion--funny stuff and great stuff. Check out her blog as well. I have included pics of two--the camping and the traditional/yearly man hike.
From Katie McKeown--posted a bunch of great stories. Most are a bit sad this time. Again I say, check out her blog.....
Emmeline has started to become quite the worrier. It concerns me because (1) I'm a worrier, and I worry (ha) that I am rubbing off on her, and (2) sometimes her worrying seems really extreme. But I've noticed that her worries most often happen when she is tired (either right before bed or mid-day when she hasn't been sleeping well). I feel like it's easier to get worked about things when you're sleep deprived, so hopefully we can get her sleeping better and this will get better too. Here are some things she's been worrying about lately...
One day she told me she wanted to be a pilot when she grows up. Then she started talking about how she would have that job, and her husband would have a job. Then she asked me, "Who will watch the kids?" I explained that sometimes if a mom and dad both work, the kids go to daycare. Then Emmeline started getting all whimpery and started doing her lower lip quiver and said, "But I don't know how to drive to daycare." She was SO concerned about it. Poor child! I told her she didn't have to worry about driving to daycare because she's only 4 years old. I explained that by the time that she grows up, she'll know what to do. But I don't know why she worries about things like that.
Another time, she started to get really sad and was acting all scared, so I asked why. She said she didn't want to turn 8. When I asked why, she said it was because she didn't want to get baptized because she's scared of going underwater. Again, she just worries about these futuristic things that shouldn't even be a concern to her at age 4. Poor girl.
Another--This morning I started watching a video online (one of those Britain's Got Talent videos with Simon--always good). Emmeline walked over and watched for a couple seconds and then said, "This is boring for me, so it must be boring for you."
Emmeline's 1st day of preschool at the rec center. She was SO excited!
Finally, an update on Aunt Olene. As many of you know, she has been in the hospital. As of tonight, here is the latest from Karen Soelberg....
Olene is doing really well. She's making great improvement she is walking with just standby assist for balance. she can put her legs over the edge of the bed and and sit up. She then can stand and transfer into a chair. She can walk down the hall with again just in standby assist she's working well with therapy on her speech. it's improving she still has a feeding tube. However her swallow tests are improving. They will continue working on that. when I was there on Friday the first time I saw her independently move her left arm what she has not been able to do. Her speech is much better occasionally a little bit slurred but generally you can understand her.
Overall she is doing remarkably well. She's a fighter. she has a great sense of humor she keeps us laughing quite frequently. Her memory is great and asking her things she could remember without hesitation. So overall doing okay. She will be in intensive rehab till approximately 7 October. She then will move to a care center for further rehab to see how much more she can progress and then decisions will be made from there.
Work hard, study hard, pray hard, everyone.
Carol
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