MADELINE'S TRACK SEASON (MAY 1) - not yet posted

DENVER ZOO WITH ANDREW AND MADELINE (MAY 5) - not yet posted

PETER'S MISSION WEEKS 22-26 (APRIL 10-MAY 8) - not yet posted

MOTHER'S DAY (MAY 14) - not yet posted

PETER'S MISSION WEEK 27 (MAY 15) - not yet posted

EMMA'S TRACK SEASON (MAY 19) - not yet posted

EXERCISE IN MAY (MAY 2-25) - not yet posted

MADELINE'S ES FIELD DAY (MAY 25) - not yet posted​

SLICES OF LIFE - not yet posted

ITALY SPRING BREAK TRIP DAY 8 (APRIL 1) - not yet posted

ITALY SPRING BREAK TRIP DAY 9 (APRIL 2) - not yet posted

ITALY SPRING BREAK TRIP DAY 10 (APRIL 3) - not yet posted​

PETER'S MISSION WEEK 20 & 21 (APRIL 3) - not yet posted

ABBY'S HS MUSICAL (APRIL 6-8) - not yet posted

EASTER SUNDAY (APRIL 9) - not yet posted

SPRING FLOWERS (APRIL 10) - not yet posted

PETER'S MISSION WEEK 22 (APRIL 10) - not yet posted

MADELINE'S FIELD TRIPS (APRIL 12 & 17) - not yet posted

SARA'S BIRTHDAY GETAWAY (APRIL 21) - not yet posted

EXERCISE IN APRIL (APRIL 6-28) - not yet posted

EMMA'S PROM (APRIL 29) - not yet posted

SLICES OF LIFE - not yet posted

Sara and Emma got up early and went for a run along the river. It was a beautiful morning in Tuscany, and they certainly won out. Mike got breakfast going because his right leg was still swollen with 3+ pitting edema. Fortunately, he brought his compression socks and was able to wear those to help. After breakfast, we went to the Academia to see the famous Statue of David and marvel at the hordes of people. Mike had purchased tickets ahead of time and thank goodness because it was a zoo of humanity. But it was worth it. The Statue of David is truly remarkable. The detail, the pose, the beauty is quite striking. It’s fascinating that Michelangelo was able to create that out of the stone. One of the impressive things is that there are some unfinished or partially started statues in the gallery which allow you to see the process of creating from marble. It’s hard to believe it was possible. At seventeen feet tall, it truly is a masterpiece to behold. The rest of the gallery was not as impressive overall. Must stink to be a super talented artist and then have your stuff displayed in the same place as the most famous statue of all time. We did enjoy the hall of instruments which had a Hurdy-gurdy which is the wonkiest instrument ever created. It was definitely worth a gander. 
 
From there, we wondered back across the Old Bridge and got lunch to eat in Boboli gardens. We were hoping for a Versailles experience, but Boboli is no Versailles. In fact, it’s not that great overall. It was a nice place to eat lunch and there were some nice views over Florence, but it was a bit underwhelming. The city parks in Florence were better overall. We walked back across the old bridge and saw the missionaries (turns out it was the entire Florence Zone). We grabbed a quick picture for Peter, and they carried on their way. Mike went off to get the rental car and the rest of the clan went back to the tasty gelato store and then back to the apartment to get packed up. There was no reason to stay in that mold swamp. Plus, we had seen the highlights of Florence and there was no need to stay there with all the tourists. It was a bit overwhelming. 
 
Mike got to enjoy listening to an Italian/Belgium duo talk to the rental car lady for 20 minutes. It would have been annoying, but it was so animated and exciting. It reminded Mike of a Seinfeld sketch. They were in a hurry, but wanted to make sure they had time for an espresso before they actually got their car. They were in a hurry, but not enough of a hurry that there wasn’t time for an espresso. Mike eventually got the Volkswagen and then began the journey to the apartment. The apartment was in the special zone, so he couldn’t drive back to the apartment, so he parked by the river and then walked back to help get all the bags. It was a bit of an undertaking, but at least all the bags fit in the car and then we were off to La Spezia. 
 
The weather was a bit rainy, but we were able to navigate the toll roads, all the trucks, and little cars everywhere. Driving in Florence was a nightmare of possible disasters, but the highways were much better.
 
We arrived in La Spezia and stopped at the grocery store to get milk, granola, and some cheese, grapes, and crackers. Then it was off to our apartment and the mystery parking lot which we successfully navigated. The lady couldn’t meet us, so she sent her dad, Pino. Pino was the highlight of the day. He was this cute little old Italian man that didn’t speak any English. Mike got to bust out his Italian and they hit it off. Pino helped with the luggage, showed us around the apartment, recommended a trattoria for dinner, and off he went. The apartment was wonderful. Modern, clean, and best of all, no stinky smell. It was a blessing. Plus, we didn’t have to drive back to Florence except to drop off the car. Phew! We unloaded our stuff, and then headed to the trattoria for dinner.  The food was delightful, the rain just fine. It was a wonderful conclusion to our evening. We went back, took long hot showers, and slept wonderfully in clean, nice, comfy beds. Grazie Mille!
 

​Bonjour no Venezia! It was a good morning to go for a run along the waterfront. Sara and Emma headed out for a run and Mike hobbled out for a run/walk. Sara couldn’t keep up with Emma, so she was a bit put out. Then she saw Mike hobbling around and it made her feel better. After the very pleasant run along the waterfront, it was time to get ready for the day and head out. Once we had packed up, Mike carried all the luggage down from the third floor and then we rolled over to the Vaporetto station. We just missed the boat, but that turned out to be lucky because Mike realized he still had the apartment keys in his pocket, so he had to run back to the apartment. Feeling confident in his navigation skills, he disappeared into the alleyways and promptly went three times as far to get back to the apartment than he needed to go. Once he got back, we hopped on a very crowded Vaporetto and took it up to the casino stop and then walked back over to the Jewish Ghetto to our favorite little bread shop. We got pizza (which was excellent), Madeline got a croquette, and everyone got to choose their favorite pastry. Sara and Mike both got the lemon merengue, Emma and Abby the cream puffs, and Madeline the mango tart. At least today, everyone was full of good food. Mike wanted to buy some of the Jewish action figures (especially the one with the rabbi acting our Leviticus 14 – killing the bird as an act of atonement, it was quite graphic), but Sara put her foot down. From there, we rolled our bags over to the train station, going over one last bridge in Venice. At the train station, a young man asked us for money in Italian, but Mike spoke to him in German. Exasperated by the prospect of dealing with a stingy German, he went to the next group of Americans. Emma said that Mike’s pronunciation was terrible, but it got the desired effect, so it probably doesn’t matter that much. Our timing worked out pretty well today and we boarded our train and sped off toward Florence.
 
One thing is for sure, Americans can be annoying when they are in other countries. No wonder people don’t like us overseas. I guess the good thing is that they all want our money, so here we are. I would rank tourists in levels of annoyance in the following order: 1) Chinese 2) Russians 3) Spaniards 4) Mexicans 5) Americans. The best tourists: 1) Norwegians 2) Swedes 3) Fins 4) French 5) English. That’s my ranking right now, but it is subject to change. 
 
We arrived in Firenze (Florence) and walked down the cobblestone streets to our apartment. It felt like we were in a renaissance fair with everyone else on earth. There were tourists everywhere. It was quite the zoo. We found our place and met the guy who gave us the keys to the apartment. He was a shady looking dude, but oh well. We got up to the apartment and it smelled so bad of mold, that he instantly opened all the windows to try to air it out. But it stank. There was all kinds of mold on the ceiling, the bathroom, it was pretty gross. We thought maybe it would air out, so we stowed our stuff and headed out into the city to go to the Duomo.
 
The Duomo was enormous and quite spectacular. The marble they used really gave it an impressive color and the terracotta roof was spectacular. We went over to the entrance to the stairs and climbed up to the top with a school group from the Netherlands. That was one thing about this trip that was noticeable, every school age kid from Europe seemed to be in Italy for some sort of school trip. There were kids from everywhere, and they travelled in packs like wolves, only loud and full of zits. On our way up to the top, we stopped inside to see the dome paintings up close. They were disturbing to say the least. I don’t think the Middle Ages was very warm and fuzzy. The scenes of people in hell getting stabbed with pitchforks was disturbing, but then Lucifer eating the damned was a nice touch. Yikes! No wonder people were willing to buy indulgences to be forgiven of their sins. Who would want to be eaten by the devil or run through with a pitchfork? The view from the top of the dome was spectacular and Florence is unique in its appearance. I can see why people love Tuscany with its lush rolling hills, terracotta rooftops and quaint little inns. On our way down, there was a guy that was debilitated by the heights. He took courage from Madeline and survived the descent. After the hike up and down we went to the Lindt chocolate store and bought tasty chocolate. It’s so much better in Europe. Curse you waxy American chocolate!
 
From the Duomo, we walked over to the Old Bridge (the only bridge to not be destroyed by the Nazis in the war) and then walked over to the Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunset. About ½ of all the college kids in Italy were there drinking and singing as the sun went down. It really is an iconic view, but the college kids were a bit much. 
 
After watching the sun go down, we walked back down into Florence and had dinner at the Four Lions. Every restaurant seems to have some guy working hard to look like every Italian mafia stereotype known (gold chain, greased back partially bald head, track suit) sitting in the restaurant doing absolutely nothing other than barking orders at other people. This was a theme repeated throughout Florence and Rome. Dinner was pretty good and then we headed to get gelato at what Mike thought was the best gelato of the trip, La Carraia. The people were nice, the gelato creamy, and the cones fresh. Good heavens gelato here is good. Madeline would later say that she wanted to move our house to Italy. Mike asked her why and she said because our ice-cream is not any good. The other interesting thing about food here is that the girls had no issues with the cheese or milk at any point during the trip. In fact, everyone felt pretty good. The flight attendant on the way home noted that it’s because in America they use chemicals to age the cheese. He knew lots of people that can’t tolerate milk products in America but do fine in Italy. Fascinating. 
 
After our delicious gelato, we headed back to our apartment which still smelled like mold. We tried to air it out, but there were bugs, the girls woke up with bug bites, the place smelled like old wet socks. We had to get out. The company gave us no love and were a bunch of turds, so we adjusted fire. Mike found a place to rent in La Spezia, it turned out to be a great blessing, but we had to wade through the misery first. 

​Bonjour no Venice! Sara and Emma were up early for a run along the waterfront. The rest of the clan laid in bed until they got back and woke everyone up. Thanks, early morning runners. For breakfast, Mike bought granola and milk from the local grocery store and an assortment of Nutella cookies which were divine, dangerous, and devilish. These will clearly be our Achilles heel while we are here. Once fed, we headed out to wander the streets of Venice and just get lost in the back alleys of this ancient city.
 
We first headed out toward the Libreria Acqua alta so that we could funnel through the small bookstore with lots of other tourists. From there, we headed over to Ponte Chiodo which is a bridge with no side rails that is kind of cool. We meandered into Cannaregio and ate Cicchetti from a cool little bar (our favorite was the pumpkin / sweet potato with brie cheese on top). They were really quite delicious. From there, we wandered into the Jewish Ghetto, which was very somber, but full of Jewish people, Jewish restaurants, and delicious food. We ate desserts at a little Jewish bakery, and it was divine. We continued our wandering through literal neighborhoods with not a tourist to be found until we wound up at the Vaporetto station to take us over to Murano Island.
 
After passing the cemetery island, that no one wanted to visit, we landed on Murano. We were quickly ushered into a glass blowing factory to watch a little show on glass making. Overall, it was pretty cool watching the guy form a vase and then a cool horse out of a blob of molten glass. Seems like it would get old to make things out of glass, but maybe not, maybe it’s the best job in Italy. Either way, Madeline enjoyed it and she really enjoyed looking at all the little glass ornaments that you could buy in the gift shop. We started walking down the Murano canal and Sara declared that she was about to die of hunger, so we stopped in the first little pizza place we saw with a cute little courtyard. The rest of it from there sucked. The service sucked, the food sucked, and in the end, it was not good in anyway. I guess the good part was that everyone was full, so no more complaining. From there we wandered down to the clocktower looking at all the displays of Murano glass and then got back on the Vaporetto and headed back to Venice. We wandered back to the apartment so Sara could charge up her camera battery, then eased out to the Academy Bridge to get photos of Venice at sunset. On our way, we got Madeline some little glass figurines (three to be exact). Sara staked out her place on the bridge, and the girls and Mike wandered down to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. We had a lot of fun in the little alleyways, took some amazing pictures of Venice at Sunset and since it’s the girls, used a bathroom in a swanky hotel much to the chagrin of the hotel staff. Once the sun had set, we met up with Sara and wandered back to the apartment, grabbing some granola for dinner since we were all tired and ready to turn in for the evening.

​Surprise, it’s daylight savings in Italy! You get one less hour of sleep weary travelers! With that nice surprise, we were up at 6:00 AM to get ready for the day. The best part of the morning was the ridiculously amazing breakfast offered by the hotel. There was fresh squeezed orange juice (by fresh, I mean you pressed a button and the oranges got cut and squeezed into your glass in that very moment), delicious fruits, croissants, granola, cheeses, meats, yogurts, eggs, bacon, and every food imaginable for breakfast. After the gluttony of last night, it’s hard to imagine how we were going to make it up the cathedral stairs. 
 
After breakfast, we headed out to the metro on our now very familiar walk to and from the hotel. Every time we crossed the road, we saw the little trolley coming down the road. At 9:00 AM, we entered the cathedral and were instantly taken back by the vast interiors, massive columns, and ornate stain glass. It felt like we were in the Mines of Moria. After taking in the cathedral and poor St. Bartholomew, we headed back outside and started the climb up to the terraces. Aside from its vast interior and exterior, the intricate nature of the cathedral is quite stunning. With its 3,400 statues, 200 reliefs, 150 gargoyles, and 135 spires, it is difficult to take it all in. Even the main door is amazing in and of itself with its depiction of the joys and sorrows of Mary. It was truly a marvel to behold. 
 
After taking in the terraces and rooftop, we headed back down to the metro and then went to explore the quiet quadrangle (mostly for the pink flamingos). At this point, Emma’s metro card wasn’t working well because she had crumpled it and covered it in grease, but we made it work for her to continue to ride with us. After seeing the flamingos, we walked over to the park and played on the slides, swings, and then just walked around. The trees were starting to bloom, and spring had started to arrive in Milan. People were out enjoying the parks with their dogs, kids, and since its Milan, everyone was well dressed. 
 
After the park, we headed back to the hotel, gathered up our bags, said goodbye to our nice little haven, and then made the journey to the train station one last time. We tried to switch our tickets to an earlier train, but there was no such luck. With time on our hands, Mike busted out his Italian and ordered a bunch of sandwiches and calzones and we ate tasty food in the train station until our train arrived. From there, we boarded the train and made our way smoothly toward Venice. 
 
Upon arriving in Venice, we were met by waves of tourists and people trying to get us to take a taxi ride. It was quite confusing at first on how to buy tickets for the Vaporetto, the little water bus that takes you around Venice (unless you are a super-rich person, then you come by water taxi). Even as a regular person, the Vaporetto tickets for a 48-hour pass were pretty spendy at 30 Euros each. Fortunately, Madeline was free because she is still a little bambina. We took the waterbus to the Rialto bridge station and the walked through the narrow alley ways to our apartment. The crazy thing is that the narrow alleyways are full of first-class stores that you would see in Manhattan, not in some crusty old alleyway. The apartment was on the top floor and so we had to carry our luggage up to the top floor, or at least Mike had to carry it up. The apartment was pretty fun with a little balcony at the top that overlooked St. Mark’s Basilica. 
 
After dropping of our stuff, we headed out and walked over to St. Mark’s Square and saw about 1.2 million tourists mulling about. From there, we headed over to the Ponte dell’Accademia and then to a little restaurant down an alleyway for some dinner. Mike got squid ink pasta, which Emma nicknamed the pasta you eat in hell, and the girls got spaghetti carbonara with Abby rounding things out with a pork cutlet. The walk home was in the pouring rain. Fortunately, we had three umbrellas, so everyone stayed pretty dry. Mike had to go without in the rain to navigate our way home, which is hard to do in the dark, when it’s raining, in the narrow alleyways of Venice. However, we made it home, warmed up in the shower, and tucked into bed. It had been quite a long day from the streets of Milan in the morning to the canals of Venice in the evening.

​Friday March 24, 2023
 
One day, we will be able to sleep in, but not today! Today we have things to do and places to go, and it’s not work and it’s not school. Sara and Emma got up early and went running and Mike got on the Peloton and went biking. Then we finished packing and cleaned up the house and got things ready to go. Abby did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, Madeline made sure her room was clean, and everyone else did everything else they could think of. Then at 9:30 AM, we were off to the Denver Airport. Of course, Mike had to make use of the time by having the girls stuff envelopes for him for work. They did a TON in the car and when we parked at the airport, he mailed them while the rest of the clan got in line to check the bags. Then it was through security and onto our flight to Atlanta.  Fortunately, we were flying Delta and not flying Frontier or, heaven forbid, Allegiant or, never in a million years, Spirit. Our flight took off a bit late, but we zoomed in comfort toward the east coast and our tight connection in Atlanta for our flight to Milan. 
 
At the Atlanta airport, it was all go, go, go to get to our connecting flight to Milan. We landed at the B concourse and had to get to F. We got there, grabbed some snacks, and then got on our flight. It started boarding 10 minutes after we landed in Atlanta. That’s cutting it close! Fortunately, we had good seats in comfort plus, which is what economy used to be before Airlines got super cheap, so we had a bit more leg room. 
 
Saturday March 25, 2023
 
Friday blurred into Saturday as these trans-Atlantic flights tend to do. Comfort plus is not that much comfort nor that much plus, but it sure beats the cheap seats in the back. Regardless, it was still hard to sleep, unless you are Madeline, then there was lots of sleeping. The food was pretty decent, and they gave us pillows, blankets, and ear plugs, toothbrushes, and eye covers. Overall, it was a good experience, until the Alps. As we were descending over the Alps, the plane started descending rapidly and then it was turbulence city. The purser got on and told the flight attendants to sit down in a very worried voice, which was a bit alarming. Then he said, “brace yourselves” and I thought, “this isn’t good”. Overall, it was like coming over the mountains into Denver, but it leveled out and we landed without too much fanfare. 
 
Passport control wasn’t that bad and then we grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. We missed the first train by seconds, and then the next train got cancelled, so we ended waiting a solid 40 minutes to get on the train to Milano Centrale station. The train ride was pretty crowded and not that great. The first thing we noticed was how much graffiti there was everywhere along the way. There was also this really annoying lady speaking Russian with a loud kid. Definitely not comfort plus. 
 
Milano Centrale was quite the train station. It felt like being in a movie with its grand ceilings, numerous platforms, and trains to everywhere. There was even a train to Frankfurt (made us think of Andrew). We exited the station and Abby was entranced by all the guys riding skateboards (by entranced, I mean that she was instantly embarrassed of her family). We walked a couple of blocks to our hotel and were instantly grateful for our little Hilton home. Every time we come to Europe, we stay in a Hilton hotel the first night, which makes things easier because we can check our bags, and then go explore the city while we are ultimately jetlagged.  
 
So that’s what we did, checked the bags, then headed back to the train station to head out into the city. We bought 24-hour metro passes for 3 zones, and then hopped on the metro for the Duomo. It was a zoo! But we like the zoo, and we eventually made our way through the madness after not having slept much. As we were exiting the station, the Duomo came into view, and it was breathtaking. It was such a large, intricate building that dominates the plaza. It was truly breathtaking. The plaza was full of people and clearly the place to be in Milan on a Saturday. Since we were starving, we headed straight to Luini’s for a panzerotti. We took our fried dough and mozzarella goodness back to the Duomo and ate on the steps overlooking the plaza. One of the things we noticed quickly was how many people in Europe still smoke, especially young people. I guess throat and lung cancer haven’t made their way here yet.  
 
Once we were full of food, we headed into the shopping mall to ogle at the super expensive clothes at Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and so forth. The girls took their turns spinning their heals on the bull’s testicles on the floor so that they could be blessed with good luck and a few thousand dollars to spend at the stores!
 
From there, we got back on the metro and took the red line over to the church Santa Maria delle Grazie. We got there a little before our tour time, so we exchanged our vouchers for the actual tickets and then headed over to the Sforzeco castle and park where we grabbed our first gelato of the trip. Everyone got chocolate. After our quick detour, we headed back to the church for our tour. The Last Supper Painting was pretty great, and everyone was pretty intrigued by the things we learned about this famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s a miracle that it survived the bombings of World War II and the photos of the destroyed building with the two wall still standing is impressive. 
 
Once done with the tour, we headed back to the hotel and saw a flash mob of 1,000 teenagers riding bicycles down the main street. Mike got a high five. From there, we checked into our room, took showers, and then took a power nap. At 7:00 pm, we headed back out for dinner at a little trattoria called “Alla Cadrega”. It was recommended for its traditional Milanese food, and it did not disappoint. We had meatballs and ricotta stuffed zucchini flowers for appetizers. For our “prima” course, Sara and I got risotto Milanese, while Emma got spaghetti, and Madeline and Abby both got pizzas that were a little bigger than they thought.  It was all delicious. For dessert we all shared apple pie and a molten chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream. Divinely fed, we headed back to our hotel for a well-deserved rest. 

​It was Dr. Seuss week and Madeline dressed up as Lucy Lou and she was adorable in her cute dress and crazy hairdo. | I have been working on the kid’s school albums and have loved seeing their old artwork and writings. It is a lot of work to scan everything into the computer, but it will worth it. | Mike was having a rough day in the clinic and so his support staff went out and bought him chips and lots of different salsas. | We have been trying really hard to have fruits and vegetables prepped for the kids every week. It’s amazing how quickly it gets eaten up. | After rummaging through old school memorabilia, Mike found my old Walkman and after trying to get it to work, he decided to get online and order a new one. The girls were in heaven listening to our old mix tapes. | One of our favorite places to eat is Cowboy Star. Mike loves getting the scallops when we are there. My go to is definitely the filet mignon. | While Andrew was visiting during his spring break we headed up to the Denver LDS temple to do a session. It was really nice to be in the temple with Andrew. | Emma went to the Sadie’s dance with her friend Rya. The theme was the 70s. The girls and I had loads of fun picking out their outfits. | When we get those random warm days, the first thing Madeline asks is if she can go to the pool at Flying Horse. Mike is always happy to take her and go sit in the hot tub. | Abby spent a lot of time on her project about women’s rights and I loved how she displayed everything on her board. She really is quite the crafty one.

Maayong Gabii tanan! (Good night everyone)
 
I have indeed been transferred once again to a completely different zone. Since I've come to the mission I've been transferred to three different areas and have had to learn a total of four distinct dialects and languages. Waray Waray H, Waray Waray S, Tagalog, and now Cebuano. I don't know why I keep being sent around the mission, but it has definitely given me a lot of experience in terms of language learning. I haven't been able to learn a language super in depth yet, but I have gotten good at learning the basics fast. 
 
That being said, a lot of wonderful miracles have happened in the short time that I've been here! At one point a man stopped on the side of the road and told us to jump on his motorcycle because he wanted to be taught a lesson. We explained to him that Habal-Habal (motorcycle riding) was against the rules of our mission, but we waved down a small tricycle and told it to follow him. This was all very suspicious, and I told my companion to be ready to bail at any point. Thankfully, he wasn't trying to kill us, and it became a wonderful experience. Turns out he's a super inactive member that hasn't been able to come to church because of his work. His family aren't members so we taught them and said we would be back next Sunday. The spirit was super strong and I'm grateful that the Lord put that experience in my life. 
 
My spiritual thought comes from Gen 26:24 where it says,
 
" 24 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake."
 
There have been a lot of times on the mission where I have been fearful of what others think. From being scared to talk to people because of my poor language skills to being scared to stand up for what I believe in, there is often moments when I am tempted to fear man more than God. There are times when I think I may feel a spiritual prompting but will dismiss the feeling out of fear of what others may think or say. And because of that I have often felt that I am the "wicked and slothful servant" that had buried his talent in the sand. Whenever I come across these moments when I am tempted to sin or shy away from my responsibility I try to remember and repeat my favorite part of Psalm 59,
 
"1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men.  
3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. 
4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me and behold."
 
This short plea for mercy and protection gives me the courage I need to follow spiritual promptings even though I'm scared. It gives me strength to resist temptation and follow the Savior's example. I know as we seek his guidance we will find the strength we need to move forward. To fear no man, do no evil, and live like Him. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen. 
 
See you all next week!

​Elder Wilhelm 

​Preaching to everyone must include this ostrich

​The nice thing about March are the random warmer days. This was a month full of epic runs with the Striders. Between intervals around Monument Lake, speedwork on the CC track, hill repeats up BFNH at Bear Creek Park, fun runs at Red Rocks, and tempos and long runs on the Santa Fe, it was a really great month of training and working hard. My favorite workout of the month was probably the intervals around Monument Lake because I felt really strong on that run. We had super cold mornings as well as a few warm short sleeved days. 

​Dionne and I had such a blast skiing together today. I gave Dionne a tour of all 5 peaks at Breckenridge! The powder on Peak 7 and Peak 6 were amazing today. I introduced her to Bliss and she went down that run twice with me. We got a little bit of sun coming down Bliss and some on Peak 9. Most of the day was cloudy but we were plenty warm. I really enjoyed being on the mountain with one of my best friends and hope we can continue doing this every season!

​Mahupay na Gabi everyone! 
 
I'm sorry this email will probably be short as I have very little time to write it. The past two weeks have been full of crazy experiences that are both terrific highs and unfathomable lows. I would like to include a couple examples to illustrate the tomfoolery of this week. 
 
One day we came back to our apartment, and we were distraught to find that we had locked ourselves out. The usual option would entail us calling the owner of the house and dealing with it from there. I, however, was very impatient and extremely thirsty for a glass of juice that I had saved for myself that morning. So, I decided I would try to climb our house to the second floor and break in through the balcony door. And I did exactly that! The juice I had saved tasted all the better as I proudly opened the door from the inside. 
 
I also completely lost my shoes for a solid 15 minutes in a flood but that is probably a story for a different time. 
 
My spiritual thought stems from a way to experience the spirit more strongly in your life. While important, sometimes studying the scriptures or listening to general conference talks is not the best way to study the gospel. There are many times when it comes much better through service. Remember in Lehi's dream when he partook of the fruit. 
 
"12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."
 
Immediately after he partook of the fruit he was desirous that others should have it. If you have tasted of the fruits of the gospel, share it with others! This does not always have to be through a scripture verse or a spiritual thought. It can be a helping hand, a friendly smile, or reaching out to an old friend. Be Christlike, what can I say more? D&C50:22 states that
 
"22 Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together."
 
As you preach the gospel through your actions you will be edified. As we minister to the one, we will draw closer to Christ. Remember 
 
" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."(Matthew 25:40)
 
Do these things because you love others or in other words, because you love Christ. 
 
Elder Wilhelm

Holding a fish

Sleepy Pete

After a very windy track meet down in Pueblo where Emma ran the 3200m with no competition whatsoever and still managed to PR by over 30 sec, we quickly rushed home so that she could shower and get all ready for her church spring formal. Somehow she managed to be all ready in less than an hour. By some miracle I was able to do the updo that she wanted in 15-20 min, and I am very proud of how it turned out. She and her good friend Collin are headed to the dance together and I couldn't be happier for them. There is nothing better than going with a good friend!

​One of Madeline’s favorite places to visit is the Cheyenne Mtn Zoo in downtown Colorado Springs. I took Madeline out of school early so that she could go to the zoo with Mike and Andrew. Madeline’s favorite part of the zoo is hands down feeding the giraffes. It has taken a few years for her to not be scared to feed them by herself. She just loves this exhibit so much. Her next favorite place in the zoo is the reptile house. For some reason snakes fascinate Madeline. She loves the big pythons. Of course, after getting through most of the zoo, the day is never complete without riding the carousel at least once. Going to the zoo with Madeline is probably one of the best things ever!

​Madeline participated in her very first cello festival and did so well. She played from memory with her bow Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Lightly Row. We were the most worried about Lightly Row as that song had been more difficult for her to memorize. By some miracle she remembered the entire song and played beautifully. She received a superior rating for her performance from both judges. They had such nice things to say about her performance. We are so proud of Madeline for trying something new this year and learning how to play the cello!

​I let Madeline ditch school today so that we could head up to the mountains to ski together! My legs were a little tired from working out hard this week, so I was happy to go Madeline’s pace for the day (which isn’t all that slow it turns out). We parked at the south gondola garage so that we could charge the Tesla while we skied. It ended up only costing $7 to charge for 5 hours which was awesome. We had a great time skiing all of our favorite runs while trying to avoid the crowds. I took Madeline on 4 of the 5 peaks today. We started on Peak 7 and made our way to Peak 6 to ski Bliss a few times. Then we headed back to Peak 7 to eat lunch before making our way to Peak 8 and Peak 9. We skipped skiing the blacks off Peak 10 since the weather was starting to turn colder. We hit all of the fun little kid zones in the tree sections. Madeline could’ve skied those all day and been happy! 

​Mahupay na aga, na kulop, ngan na gabii tanan na mga tawo sa ini na Kalibutan! 

This week was pretty fun though I had a few misteps, literally. We spent a lot of this week finding and while it really helps me learn Waray Waray, it is most difficult. I think I can speak pretty well now but understanding is a whole other animal. They speak super fast in Calbayog and when I hear them I feel like a computer shutting down. Nevertheless my studies of Tagolog have helped a lot. We were able to hit some return appointments this week so hopefully we will have some progressing people soon.

At the beginning of the last paragraph I said I had mistepped literally. I wish to expand somewhat upon that. In the Phillipines there are some neighborhoods where the houses are built on wooden stilts. They are all connected together with small fragile wooden pathways. These patheways are similarly built on stilts and so they not very stable. All of this rests over a swamp like mud that consists of the waste from each of the houses. While attempting to cross through this week, the wood beneath me broke not once, but twice. I was luckily able to catch myself before I fell into the mud but I'm either really bad at walking or getting fat. Honestly, it is probably a combination of the two. I'm just glad the Lord has been protecting me from all my fumbles and falls because I have a lot. 

This week I was thinking about something that was pointed out to me in 2 Nephi 2: 25. The scripture says that,

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

At first glance one would think that joy means a general happiness, but upon further inspection of the footnotes you will find that another definition exists. That is "mens ability to become like God". I thought this was a very curious way to describe joy and so I went through the scriptures and sought to plug in this definition. I found that it adds a quite a lot to some scriptures. For example take the following verse from John 14: 28:

"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice"

Now, if we are to believe that joy is the ability to become like God, then the action, rejoice, must mean coming unto the Lord. If we are to follow this logic further then everytime the scriptures tell us us to rejoice, they are not just telling us to just be happy, they are telling us to come unto God. They are telling us to pray in gratitude when there are good times in our life. If we so love Him, why are we not coming unto Him? Whenever we experience happiness in this life, share it with the Father. He wants to hear all the parts of our lives, not just when its hard. He wants us to share in the joy, to come unto to Him, and through Jesus Christ it is possible. What other evidence do you need of His love, but His Son. 

I encourage all of you to search the scriptures and send me your perspectives on different scriptures with joy in it. For example:

Ecclesiastes 2:10

Original: "my heart rejoiced in all of my Labour: 

New: "My heart came unto the Lord in all of my labour" 

Warning, its literally so fun I can't stop

Elder Wilhelm 

​We love watching Peter’s air tag on his mission to see where he is. It was especially fun on this particular day when we realized that he was being transferred up north to the island of Samar. | Abby is such an amazing big sister to Madeline. After being gone at Emma’s track meet, I came home to a tea party that Abby put on for Madeline. Even Abby dressed up which was so sweet! | For the 100th day of school Madeline wanted to dress up as a 100-year-old. I pulled out the wig, glasses and pearls and we put together something so hilarious. She was so excited to show her friends at school. | Madeline had fun assembling her milkshake valentine cards this year. It was quite a bit of work to punch everything out, but she had a blast creating fun paper milkshakes for her classmates and attaching a cute curly straw to each one. | Mike out did himself for Valentine’s Day this year. I came back from my early morning run to flower petals and chocolates on my bed with a dinner invitation. He did the same for all of the girls. He took charge of serving us dinner in the dining room and made us all feel so special. It’s a Valentine’s Day we will all remember! | Stephens hot chocolate has been out of stock forever at our store and so when I saw it had finally come back in stock, I grabbed 3 cans. There really is no other hot chocolate that tastes quite as good. | It was so fun to be back in the temple again and even better to share that time with Michelle. | Emma and Abby went to an 80s dance at the high school. I let Emma borrow my letter jacket and Abby quickly came up with the most perfect outfit, big earrings, and all. The girls looked cute and had a blast. | Emma and I went prom dress shopping and had so much fun at Something New. The dresses in this store are definitely on the pricey side, but we managed to find one that was manageable. It was the most perfect dress for her figure, so we went halfsies on the dress. It was a win win for everyone! | Emma was asked to Mormon prom by her good friend Collin Bass. He was so cute when he came over to ask her. They have been good friends all school year so I knew that they would have a good time. | Madeline wasn’t feeling well so she just laid on the kitchen chairs while I cooked dinner. | Mike and I were able to go to the temple together this month. This was his first time seeing the new Endowment session. Afterwards we headed over to The White Chocolate Grill to eat dinner. We shared the veggie burger which is amazing and had fun chatting without the kids around. | Peter’s missionary plaque was finally finished and put up on the missionary wall at church. I just love the way it turned out. | I usually shy away from dinners that involve lots of cheese since Emma and I don’t tolerate it very well, but I was able to modify the shells recipe to include one batch with lactaid cottage cheese. The other batch included ricotta cheese and parmesan for the top. This has now become a family favorite again. | For Dr. Seuss week Madeline was so excited to dress up like Cindy Lou. We found something in her closet that worked, and I did a crazy hairstyle that involved a small cup and lots of hairspray. I thought it turned out super cute.