​Madeline has really loved playing with her new American Girl dolls and loved dressing up her doll in one of the new outfits she got for Christmas. Madeline loves skiing and was excited for her doll to get all ready to go skiing. | Madeline went roller skating for the first time during one of her classmate’s birthday parties. She used the rolling walker to help her and by the end of the party she had really gotten the hang of the skates. | I love shopping and sometimes I just want new clothes for church but sometimes all I need is a refresh by putting together new outfits with the clothes and shoes I already have in my closet. | The lettuce we planted in our home garden finally started sprouting. It made us all extremely excited. | Mike did his 2-week reserve duty in DC again. He enjoyed reviewing medical policy and working out in the amazing military gym. | Mike was able to visit with his dad while out in the DC area. He enjoyed looking through all of his dad’s old military uniforms and looking through old photos on the bookshelves. | One morning Madeline put on my University of Utah sweatshirt and told me how proud the boys would be to see her in that sweatshirt. | Mike took Madeline out for a special day to get pampered. Madeline always loves to get her nails painted. | My new MacBook Pro finally came in the mail. I am so excited for a more powerful computer. | Our lettuce is finally growing, and we are so excited to finally start eating fresh lettuce grown in our home. | Miss Colorado came to the elementary school and visited each of the classrooms. Madeline was so excited when she came to her classroom, and they got a photo with her. | Madeline has loved going to the activity day activities and she especially loved making hot cocoa chocolate bombs. | Madeline wrote Peter the cutest letter to put in his birthday box. She is so excited for him to come home and baptize her. 

It’s not every day that you get to celebrate one of your children turning into an official adult. Emma had her 18th birthday, and we all did things to help her feel special. Mike took her out for a couple hour adventure to go shopping over the weekend while Abby, Mike and Madeline spent some time ordering her some fun gifts. I made sure her actual birthday was full of fun and joy! I put together a nice Japanese dinner for Emma with a beautiful strawberries and cream cake for afterwards. I found the cutest bags to put all of her gifts into that matched our strawberries and cream theme. She was so excited for the efforts that everyone put in to make her actual birthday special. It will be fun to put together a friend birthday for her after some of her indoor track meets are finished! I am so proud of Emma for the amazing woman that she has become. I can’t wait to see what incredible things she will do in the future! 

​We started the New Year with a 24-mile ride down the Cottonwood and Santa Fe trail. It was a relatively warmer day for the winter and so we put on our layers and headed out. The good weather didn’t stick around for very long. Most of my runs this month were on snow covered trails or really cold mornings. We did hill repeats at Bear Creek Park, hill repeats and tempo runs along the Santa Fe trail, a hill endurance run up Rampart Range Road, and a tempo loop at Bear Creek Park. I was extremely proud of myself for staying on task with the 45-day weight program that Mike and I started last month. I was consistent and started to see real results by the end of this month.

Hello Everyone!

Sorry this email has been a long time coming. The past few weeks and months have been filled with a tremendous number of adventures, both joyful and sorrowful. 
We have been so busy that we have had to resort to the wildest of shenanigans to keep the work going. Instead of fixing a leak in our aircon, we made a device to catch the water. When our power went completely out, we used our stove fire to heat the iron to unwrinkle our shirts. The amazing cuisine that has kept us alive, is almost entirely made out of hot dogs and eggs. At the current moment, my companion and I have two families that have a goal date for their baptism. We have been hard at work in an attempt to help them prepare for the covenant they will make. In the meantime, we have found a plethora of new people, each with their own unique set of circumstances and problems. 

I have come to recognize how harsh the world really is when looked at through the secular view. I have seen so much suffering here. Broken homes, abandoned children, and the rampant spread of poverty always accompany the day’s work. 

In the Book of Mormon, we read of a dream had by the prophet Lehi. In his dream, he saw a road that leads to the Tree of Life and many diverse roads leading to death and destruction. The only way to make it to the tree without falling away is to the hold to a rod of iron which extends itself from the world to the tree. Lehi describes two types of people that make it to the tree. Those who "cling" to the rod and those who "hold fast." Those who hold fast stay at the tree forever, but those who cling, fall away. In the English language these two groups of people may seem to be doing the same thing, but after careful pondering, I do not think that they are anymore. 

When I use the word cling, it almost always accompanies the underlying theme of fear. The phrase, clinging on for dear life, is a great example. However, the phrase, holding fast, shows something different. It shows consistent strength followed by determination. 

The scriptures tell us that the iron rod is the Word of God. When we put our hand on the iron rod, we have two choices. We can look directly at the tree, or we can focus on the fallen world around us. The iron rod won't change, but our perspective can. Those who focus on the disharmony of our world will cling. They will see the suffering, pain, and affliction caused by our mortal condition. Despite the rod, they will fear. However, those who focus their eyes on the tree of life, have no reason to fear. They understand the horrors of the world, but they know that there is hope. 

In the Bible, we read the story of Peter walking on water. At first, Peter successfully walks on the sea, but what causes him to sink? In Matthew 14: 30 - 31 we read,

"But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid;” He was focusing on the fear rather than the hope. What saved him?

“...and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Focusing his eyes back on his Savior and calling out for help, he was saved. In our lives, it is easy to see the winds and waves, but in those moments, we forget about the figure out on the water. We forget the very tree we are walking to. Despite all of the terrible things I have seen, I have never seen a day without the tender mercies of the Lord raining down from heaven. I have seen how much love and care He has for even the poorest of his children.

I have a firm witness, that focusing on the Savior in our trials prepares us to face our own storms, because we know, that in the midst of them, is our Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Wilhelm

​It was no surprise that we slept in again and then headed to the fitness center one more time to lift weights. After getting ready and eating breakfast at the Peacock Alley again, we headed to the Air and Space Museum by Uber as it was snowing. We loved seeing some of the new updates to this museum and understood why we needed reserved tickets. Over half of the museum was still under renovation. After we were done exploring we walked over to the National Art Gallery and saw some of our favorite paintings and then ate lunch at the Garden Café. The food was surprisingly good! As we walked back to the hotel it was still snowing a little bit. We finished packing our bags and relaxed for a little bit longer since my flight was delayed due to the snow. It ended up being a long trek back home as my flight got delayed even more at the airport. Although that was not ideal, I wouldn’t have traded this weekend for anything.

​After sleeping in, which we never do, we got on our workout clothes and headed to the hotel fitness center to lift our weights for the day. The gym was pretty nice but there were several people on the cardio machines, so it felt pretty stuffy inside. After finishing our workout and getting ready for the day we ate breakfast at the Peacock Alley inside the grand atrium area. I had the most amazing mini waffles and Mike had a stack of pancakes. It was delicious and filled our bellies for a full day of roaming around the mall area of DC. We headed first to the Natural History museum and loved seeing all of the new upgrades since the last time we there almost a decade ago. We just kept saying how much we wished Madeline could be there because we knew how much she would love this museum. Then we headed toward the Air and Space museum but realized upon arriving that you needed reservation tickets. Since there were no more for this day we got tickets for Monday. We made our way towards the Capitol building and needed to burn some time before our reservations at the Capital and Library of Congress, so we ate lunch at a cute little French inspired café not too far from the Library of Congress. It must have been a popular place since it was packed inside. After eating lunch, we walked over to the outside of the Supreme Court building which I had never seen and snapped a few photos before our reservation to go inside the Library of Congress. I was so impressed by the inside of the Library of Congress. It was beautiful and I enjoyed Thomas Jefferson’s library as well as the many amazing quotes in the main area of the building. Next we headed to the Capital building for our tour. We have done this tour once before with the older kids but it was nice to do it again without little children in tow. Our favorite statue, by far, was one of the Colorado statues. It truly is one of the coolest looking statues at the Capital. As we made our way back to our hotel after a lot of walking, we felt a little like we were in a different country with people from the middle east lining the sidewalks going to and coming from the protest. I must admit it felt strange to have the feeling of being a minority in your own country. Luckily the protest was dying down and people were going home. I’m glad we avoided that throughout the day. We decided to dine in for dinner and canceled our other plans to go out to dinner. We ate at the Peacock Alley again and got to witness firsthand the attitudes of those that deem themselves high and mighty. It was quite comical to watch different groups of people as they dressed in fancy clothes and drank their liquor. It made me grateful that Mike and I are very much down to earth kind of people.

​While Mike was doing his reserve duty in Washington DC, I decided to head out there for the long weekend for a quick little couples’ getaway. When I arrived at the airport, he had food from one of my favorite sandwich shops just in case I was hungry. He also looked so handsome in his suit which he wore just for fun. We headed from the Reagan airport to the Waldorf Astoria which is where we would be staying for the next few days. When we made it up to the room, I was floored by how nice the room was and how sweet it was that Mike put heart chocolates all over the bed. He even had a nice little chocolate cake with ice-cream sitting in a bucket of ice. There is one thing that is for sure, Mike is such a romantic. We relaxed for a bit before heading out to dinner at the Hamilton. We walked by the White House on our way to the restaurant. In preparation for the Palestinian protest the next day there were already people set up with their own protest signs. Without saying too much about that I will just say that’s what you get when you live in America where everyone thinks they can say whatever they want. Luckily people were pleasant so that was good. After getting to the restaurant, we were seated early which was nice. There weren’t too many people there at the beginning which was nice. I had crab cakes, and they were amazing. After dinner we decided to head straight back to the hotel instead of wandering around more. It was getting colder, and it started to sprinkle a bit. We got back to our hotel just in time before the weather started to turn. As we walked through the grand atrium in one of the most impressive lobbies ever, I felt so lucky that we were staying in such a fancy hotel.

Our mini Aerogarden has been growing surprisingly well. We have already used some of the basil and it is amazing how delicious fresh basil is. | This year I decided to update our color scheme for our Christmas decorating. I took all the red pillows to the basement and got some green pillows, a fun new Christmas lumbar pillow, a cream tree skirt, and a new star. I love the way it turned out. | Emma decided to be silly one night and painted her face to look like Darth Maul and put together a red light saber and then went upstairs to scare Abby. It was hilarious. | Our elves have been found doing funny things this year. | Abby and Mike went shopping for a new ski coat for Abby and found the perfect burnt red coat for her. | Madeline has loved learning how to make bracelets for her friends. She made a big 6-sided bracelet as her first one. It took quite a bit of time to make. | Mike found a new recipe and made Italian style margherita pizzas and they were yummy. | Madeline loves to scooter around in the garage when Mike and I are lifting weights. | Emma’s winter orchestra concert was amazing. I loved watching her as she sat on the end of one row almost the entire time. | Madeline and mom had fun eating ice-cream while watching the Goldbergs together. | Abby found one of my retro camera bags my dad had passed down to me and has been using it. Some things never go out of style I guess. | Mike and Madeline headed over to the elementary school hill to go sledding. | Emma got her first college acceptance to CSU in Ft. Collins. | With the season comes the baking of many loaves of poppyseed bread to give away to our friends and neighbors. This year I made 5 batches. | Madeline and I headed over to Bass Pro Shop so that she could meet Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She was so excited to tell Santa that she wanted the pink American Girl Doll car. | Madeline had fun at her class holiday party. The room moms did such a great job with the rotations and the games. | I went out to a holiday dinner with some girls from my ward. Jen brought everyone fun reindeer headbands to wear. | Madeline loves to go shopping and usually goes with Mike to Costco. | Abby went to Noelle’s sweet 16 pajama party. Most of the girls were cheerleaders but she still had a great time. | Usually, it’s Peter that falls asleep on road trips but this time it was Abby who fell asleep hard core on our way to Vail. | Madeline’s wooden name finally arrived, and it looked so good on her wall. | Madeline finally got her haircut after a year of it growing way too long. We had them cut several inches off. | It was fun to see the boys and extended family on Christmas via FB messenger video. Technology is amazing. | I love when Mike sends me photos of him in the OR before he operates. He is such a bad ass. | Madeline loves all things crafty and artsy. She has been having fun lately painting on her easel. | The Spears came to visit us for the New Year and Mike took them all to Garden of the Gods and to the top of Pikes Peak.

​Most of this month found us with relatively decent weather which made running in the cold not so bad. I ran plenty of times with the Striders and was even able to go outside for a ride at Garden of the Gods. One of the biggest changes this month was working in more cross fit workouts into my routine. For most of the month Mike worked on developing a lifting program for us to do in the new year. We actually decided to start our 45-day program on Christmas day. It was fun to start something new and to be able to do it together.  

​Hello everyone, 
 
A lot of crazy things have happened in the past few weeks. The work has progressed a lot, but it has not been without its setbacks. We had two families accept the invitation to be baptized, however we have had many reject this gospel this Christmas season.
 
A few weeks ago, Elder Bosley and I hiked into the mountains in order to teach a progressing family. After some time of trucking through the mud, we finally arrived at the mountain abode. The family was excited to see us, and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. They accepted the message and the invitation we bore, but as we began to pack up our things to leave, we noticed something unfortunate. All of the small dogs that had been running around our feet were covered in hundreds upon hundreds of lice. On the way down the mountain, I confirmed that it had indeed spread to us, and we hurried our way back to our apartment. The better part of two hours was spent in an attempt to save our hair. I am glad to report that it was successful.
 
Another unfortunate happening of the past few weeks was the emergency transfer of my companion. It was 9:45 on a Monday night when we received a surprise call from the office. They informed us that my companion would transfer early the next morning. Without almost any warning, we spent the next 4 hours preparing for his departure. The next day, we traveled to Tacloban, and I received my new companion. Due to the transfer, I have become the new district leader for the largest district in my mission. Though I was prospected to transfer this cycle, it seems like my adventures in Capoocan are not yet over. 
 
Sometimes, it seems that I keep getting curve balls after curve balls on the mission. A cycle has not gone by when I haven't been afflicted with a strange new disease or ailment. From never ending diarrhea to heat exhaustion and athletes foot to projectile vomiting,  sometimes it feels like there is always one more thing. But despite the consistency of the unexpectability, life goes on. I have learned a lot in the field of patience and "to come what may and love it."
 
A while ago, Elder Joseph B Wirthlin gave a talk in regard to the uncontrollable lives in which we live. He recounted the advice his mother had given him when he had been young. This was to "come what may and love it." You can't always see the sharp turn ahead but the ability to be composed despite the sudden shifts in life will always result in a better outcome. Early on in my mission, the smallest things used to get on my nerves. My constant murmuring and complaining never helped the problem and often resulted in a lower morale for everyone. For the longest time I used to see the misfortunes of life as nothing more than an inconvenience that should never have existed in the first place. Little did I realize that these inconveniences were the plan for happiness.
 
Our Heavenly Father never intended us to come into life comfortable and have it stay that way. He wanted us to experience discomfort. The Lord himself, Jesus Christ, was born in a manger and experienced all sorts of pains and afflictions in his childhood. Despite the conditions however, he
 
"increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52
 
I hope that we can come to love the lives that we have been given despite the circumstances. I know that they are given to us so we can increase in wisdom and love of God as well. Through the Savior, Jesus Christ, we can be succored in our afflictions and feel the strength of Lord in our sorrows. He is the bread of life and our salvation. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

​Christmas morning is one of the most anticipated mornings of the entire year. I am so glad that even the older girls were excited for Christmas morning. Everyone slept in until a little after 7am. It gave me the chance to shower and get everything ready before we opened up gifts. The girls sat at the top of the stairs and posed for a quick photo. This is the smallest we’ve been in numbers ever since Madeline was born. One of my favorite things is watching the kids run down the stairs to see what Santa brought them. Everyone was so excited about their gifts this year. Madeline got a pink American girl doll remote controlled car equipped with a look alike doll. She was beyond excited. Abby got a white turntable and several vinyl records from her favorite artists. Emma got an iPad Pro for digital drawing and for college. Mike got an indoor Aerogarden equipped to be able to grow our own lettuce, and I got new mats for my Tesla as well as a ski rack and tire repair kit. We took turns opening up the other gifts under the tree. There were many fun things given to each other this year. The older girls mostly got clothes and Madeline mostly got accessories for her American dolls and a brand-new special edition doll from Grandpa Al. Mike got his traditional Lego which was a motorized lighthouse. One of the most cherished gifts this year were the albums my parents had put together of some of their history. A few years ago, we gave them a subscription to Storyworth where they answered questions about their earlier years. They assembled all of those questions and photos into a book. It was amazing and something we will all treasure for years to come. At long last, we finally got to talk with both the boys at the same time. Peter was able to call us even though it was not his p-day since it was a holiday that he celebrated. For that short period of time, it felt like we were all in the same room celebrating with each other. It made my heart so incredibly happy!

​This year Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. We spent the morning working on our Christmas dinner and then got a quick family photo while we were all dressed up before heading off to church. The Christmas program during Sacrament meeting was fabulous and the spirit was really strong. I wish Christmas Eve could fall on Sunday every year. It really helped us get into the right mindset for the day. We were all smiles as we came home and got in our Christmas pajamas and stayed in those for the remainder of the day. We even ate our nice dinner in our pajamas this year. After dinner we got to talk with Peter which was amazing. He even saved his presents until the call and opened them up in front of us. It was so great to see his reaction to some of his gifts. He loved the wooden ocarina that he had asked for and laughed at the tiny violin gag gift we got him. When the call was over, Emma and Abby helped Madeline decorate sugar cookies before we read from the scriptures. It was a super low-key Christmas Eve which was nice, but I am looking forward to having the boys in our home next year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was a little sad to not have them with us in person this year. 

Today’s ski day was the best! Mike and I skied on demo skis. We tried the Nordica Santa Ana 93 for me and the Enforcer 94 for Mike. All I can say is I skied so well today. These skis were 100 times better than my decade old Vokls. That coupled with my new Nordica Speed machine boots and today was a dream even on the mountain that desperately needs more snow. We spent most of our time on Northwoods and Northstar and we even taught Madeline to parallel turn on the easier runs. We did make our way down the backside of the mountain on the Poppyfields run but it was not that great. I forgot how angled the bottom of that run gets. There were also some bare patches near the bottom. It’s no wonder why Blue-Sky Basin was closed. In all, it was another great day skiing with the family and when we were done I headed back to Christy's to purchase the Nordica Santa Ana 93 skis. 

​It was another great day on the slopes. It felt like there were even less people skiing today. We ventured to some of the black runs today off the Timberline Face. Northstar was groomed so we all made our way down that run to the bottom of the Northwoods Express lift. Madeline loved skiing North Star with us so much that she wanted to do it again. We decided to do it a few more times before heading over to the easier runs on Sourdough before lunch. We ate lunch at our normal spot at the Two Elk Lodge. Then we headed down Boomer to the bottom and did another black run off the Timberline Face. This time we all did the Northwoods run. Since Blue Sky Basin was closed we decided to head over to the middle of the mountain where we did the Lodgepole run and then took the Avanti express up and eventually made our way back to the Eagle Bahn gondola to complete our second day of skiing. ​Mike and I headed back out to the village again in the evening and looked at new boots for me. I ended up getting the same boots as Mike and then we set up to rent demo skis for our last day of skiing. 

​We were so excited to try out a new to us condo that we found on VRBO. The place ended up being better than we could’ve expected with updated furnishings, indoor garage parking where we plugged in Mike’s truck, and ski lockers and boot warmers with an exit right out the back of the building. It was only a short 800m walk to the Eagle Bahn gondola. Our first morning was great with pretty good snow for the early season. There were plenty of good runs and fairly light crowds which made for a fun first day. Madeline graduated to bigger skis this year and figured them out fairly quickly. We headed over to the eastern side of the mountain where we spent most of our time on some of the easier runs off the Sourdough Express Lift. We also did Flapjack several times all the way to the Northwoods Express lift. We decided to finish early to save our legs for the next few days. After getting the girls all settled back at the condo Mike and I headed back to the village to look at boots at Christy's sports. Mike found some new boots and both of us got some new inserts for our boots. On our way out we saw the lamp from the Christmas Story movie. It was hilarious!

​It is not uncommon to get a good snow storm in December. The girls were actually thrilled when school got cancelled and wouldn’t you know it, Emma and Abby got all ready to go out and play in the snow with Madeline. Emma even offered to drive everyone over to the elementary school to go sledding on the hill. It was a nice surprise and gave me the chance to do some errands. Of course, I stopped over to watch them have a little fun on my way out. It is so great having older kids to play with the littlest one. I hope one day Madeline remembers all the fun things her sisters did with her while they were still living at home. 

​Emma and I toured the United States Air Force Academy to get a feel for what it would be like for her to be a student athlete at the academy. It was intriguing to see what her schedule would be like and to see a little what it would be like to be a cadet. After the tour Emma ran with the team and had a really good time. She really liked the coaches and the team, and she didn’t seem to be nervous about the cadet life. Although I was trying to stay positive, I had my doubts that this was the right path for Emma. However, I tried to embrace what we have been telling her which is to keep all her options open.