Happy Birthday Old Man!!

 

8/1/11

Well thanks for al of the birthday wishes im not goin to lie i feel really old right now. But i almost forgot that it was my birthday until yesterday.

 Well sorry i dont have a whole lot of time today to write a whole bunch. but this wek has been very eventlful i have had to go back to Santa Ana tow times this past week and to Sonsonate one time. Im pretty sure that the job of being a zone leader is one of the most eventful jobs that there can be here in the mission. I was able to go back to one of the baptisms that i had in my old area of a complete family that i was teaching and they wanted me to come back and baptize the son!! So i was super excited. I´ll attatch one of the pictures. And then yesterday one of the sister missionaries in our zone dislocated her shoulder so we had to run her to the hospital yesterday, but she left the hospital today in the morning, so it wasnt anything serious but it lñooked super painful she was crying the whole time.

 So in all of this hubub, i forgot until last night. I was writing in my journal and looked at the date.....wow....tomorrow is my birthday. No but i really liked what you said dad in your email if i focus on myself im going to miss lots of opporunities to serve other people. So we arent going to do anything special today i dont think that we are going to have time to do a cake but we get to do something better....WORK!!!!!!! Yey!!!!! Thats the best part of the mission. you can feel such a difference when i get focused on myself, I just get disanimated and i feel lazy. But when i stasrt thinking about others i get just like a surge of evergy. For example fasting here is soooo easy because im fasting with a purpose and i hardly feel hungry. The mission is awesome! I cant imagine any opne of the young men in the chruch not serving a mission. For me its like there isnt even an option. I love you guys so much and i hope that you all have an excellent week.

 Love

Elder Bever

 

PS on Friday we found a tarantula in our house. It wasn't that big..... well that's kind of a lie it was about the size of a closed fist. But I've seen bigger. But anyway it turns out that it was super poisonous and it spits venom that eats away your skin. Cool hugh?! But don't worry we killed it with a lighter and a can of bug spray. wahahahahahah!!!!! Flamethrower!!! 

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Jim and Sandy Bever <jsbever@molalla.net> wrote:

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE. I HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY ONE I’M WISHING ONE TO YOU,HEY!!!!!!

If you forgot that is the song they sing at restaurants when it’s someone’s birthday J I’m sorry I won’t be home for your birthday but I will be at girl’s camp!!!!!! I am SUPER excited. I hope you like your package I thought we should send you more things but the package was too small and you didn’t ask for much J you better get yourself a cake because I’ll tell you now there won’t be one in the package, sorry. Today was 5^th Sunday and so they just talked about youth conference and that was nice. Mom, Emily, and I all went to Clackamas yesterday and I got things for soccer and other stuff J Ethan got a new lap top and he is really excited. It is a Lenovo ideapad. As a matter of fact e is on it right now instead of doing the dishes. Dad has his new replaced phone and it is just like mom’s but it is Verizon instead of at&t.

                All week Emily and I have been cleaning so I can’t imagine what the house is going to look like when we get back in a week since no one bothers to clean it up a little. I am really nervous because the Monday after we get back I have to get expanders(that’s the 8^th) then on the 15^th (which is a Tuesday) I have to get an expander L!!!!! Then on Wednesday (the 17^th) I get braces. My mouth is going to KILL ME!!!!!!! You get it easy the only thing you needed was braces Jso mom was telling me during dinner that my mouth will really hurt and that we all went through and basically told me to suck it up and know it is for a good cause J not helping!!! Man I really wrote a lot so I better pass it on to someone else J happy birthday! Make It Count!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Always,

                AUDREY

 Hi Thomas.

 Wow, 21!!!! How does it feel?  I can’t believe your 21.  Time has just flown by,  but I don’t think you could be doing anything more important in your life than what you are doing right now.  I have been so proud of you, Thomas for the amazing man you have grown into.  You have affected so many people’s live for good and it will change their lives forever.  Sometimes when I’m feeling sorry for myself,  all I need to do is look at my kids and know that no matter how hard things may be, Heavenly Father has blessed me with the most wonderful blessing of all.  That is to have amazing kids who have their own testimony of the gospel and who know how much their Heavenly Father loves them.  It also helps to know I have a husband who love the gospel as much as I do and we are sealed as a family forever.  Anyway, thank you for setting such a great example for the others to followJ!!  Well, how did your week go in your new area?  It sounds like It’s high up in the mountains.  What does your apartment look like?  Tell Elder Alvarado hello from us.  I guess El Salvador can’t be too far off from Miami with the heat and humidity.  It sounds like he will be a great missionary for you to work with.  I would love to hear his conversion story.  It must have been difficult for him to be baptized, but I know Heavenly Father will bless him in ways he could never imagine because of this decision he’s made.  Look at my family!  From “Hippyville” to happy families all sealed in the temple.  Who would ever thought!!  I don’t know if your package made it in time for your birthday.  Dad mailed it a week and a ½ ago.  But I hope you enjoy it when it comes.  I taught my primary class today on The Last Supper and brought a feast of flat bread, grapes, crackers, cheeses, apples and dried mangoes for them to eat as I told them about all the things the Savior did for his disciples to help them to always remember him.  I think they enjoyed it and helped them to realize how much Jesus Christ loves each of them.  It’s a fun class to teach.  Well, have a wonderful day tomorrow!!! You deserve it!  Love,    MOM

 Hello sir,

 I have to call you sir because you are all grown up now, just kiddingJ it is strange to think that my brother is 21 though. Just wait til I am 16, then you will be on your way back here. I bet time just flies for you right now. Speaking of missions, mom and Ethan are at an open house for Andrew Bjornson and Tyler Linfesty because today was their mission farewell and they are both going to Brazil but I am sure somebody already told you that. mom peaked into their sacrament today during Andrews talk and I guess he really looks like a missionary now but that’s not hard for me to imagine because somehow I think he always looked like one. the weirdest thing to think about for me though is that only a few months after you come home, Ethan could be leaving. You have no idea how weird it will be sept-nov when both you and Ethan are gone and Audrey and I are stuck here, I think I might die.

                So I have two things to tell you about my life. I have good news and bad news. I will start with the good cuz that is what everyone does. So, tomorrow we leave for girls camp and hopefully it will be fun, we are going to a more “rugged” camp but that really means no electricity this time, yeah I know that is REALLY roughing it hahaJ the bad news is that everyone is going to Utah to take Ethan to BYU and I will probably have to stay here with grandma while they do a TON of cool stuff with out meL unless… there is a very slight chance that I get a plane ticket to come back in time for soccer stuff. Besides they wont even have fun anyway because I would totally be the life of the party!haha, just kiddingJ  maybe I will just use my plan ticket to vacation down there in Juyawa ( I know its spelled wrong) . I hope you have a great birthday and make sure you put yellow cake mix on your grocery list.

 LOVE,

EMILY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Birthday Boy!!!!

                I’m so excited for you and all that you have done! I hope that today is a wonderful day for you and that all your goals are met. This last week was packed with good stuff and I have gained a greater appreciation for the work you’re doing. We had a stake youth dance last night outside the stake center which I planned with the SYC and it went GREAT! P.S. when you get back I’ll have to teach you all the right dance moves and keep you posted on all the good songs J! Anyway, we had like 200 youth show up and everyone had a great time. I love getting to know all of the youth and love to do these things which accomplish our goal as a Stake Youth Council to bring youth to Christ! OH! Then last Sunday after I wrote you, we were watching a BYU TV program with a great speaker who talked about the atonement. He explained beautifully how the atonement is meant to be used continuously and infinitely every day in our lives. He said this: “The atonement is not the finishing touch, but the touch of the finisher”. What a great quote! The atonement isn’t meant to be something to make up for the gap that we fall short of, but to impact our life every single day by allowing us to choose to commit to better ourselves and progress eternally. If there were something I could give you for your birthday it would be that.

                Like I said, this week was packed, and throughout the week, I have been over at Lower Highland helping Grandpa with his hay. He bought all his own equipment for hay this year and I’m supposed to go back there tomorrow to help more. Today, I was able to go to Tyler Linfeisty and Andrew Bjornson’s Missionary farewell talks and sit in on their sacrament meetings. They both did fantastic and gave wonderful talks. They’re both going to Brazil and they’ll be excellent missionaries and I am so excited for my opportunity to serve! They also had an open house which Mom and I just got back from which was at Gunter’s. I was able to talk with everyone and it was nice too. I’m getting ready to get my patriarchal blessing and will be ordained an elder soon too! I’ll keep you posted, and I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow! Have a wonderful week and I wish you the best for your 21^st birthday… boy you’re getting old;)

                Love, Ethan!