March 2018

My big event for the month of March was my surgery. 

I've had a couple of cysts burst and after the second one burst I landed in the emergency room. After lots of test to see what the pain was coming from I was diagnosed with endometriosis and "chocolate cysts".  From my blood work and tests they were concerned that it was cancer. I found all this out 2 days before I was supposed to start student teaching...all of this got canceled so I would be able to have surgery. 

The surgery went fine (though the doctor had a lot of clean up work to do because of the endometriosis) and we were thrilled to learn that it wasn't cancer. 

I was so relieved I posted this no-make up picture on Facebook that night. I cringe when I see it but it is what it is, ha ha. 

The day of my surgery went well and I was more comfortable than I thought I would be. Jeff was a trouper and stayed by my side until evening. I know it wasn’t comfortable because instead of waiting in the after surgery recovery for an hour we were there for 6 hours while we waited for a room for us. There isn’t TV’s or anywhere comfortable to sit. I was drugged up and in and out of sleep but Jeff just had to sit there. I remember that the leg things that kept inflating to keep me from getting blood clots made it hard to sleep, ha ha. I learned to take them off at night especially when I was up and walking around. In less than 24 hours I was up and walking around. I only threw up once after trying to eat a meal the night after surgery. By the next day I was fine.

 

 I felt calm and peaceful in the hospital despite annoyances and felt like prayers were helping me. I think some of it was the drugs too, ha ha. You have to have a lot of patience in the hospital with all the noise and poking and prodding so you can't rest and all. I had a roomate in my room that has some worse health problems so they had to keep coming in and doing tests on her and talking to her and things would beep on her side, they were even doing x-rays on her in the middle of the night. Our room was right next to the elevators and there was a big bump right outside the door and every cart you can imagine would rattle and bump over it. I had ear plugs but it didn't help much. Drove me crazy. You could also hear PA announcements, some guy moaning and yelling down the hall and a lady across the way hacking and clearing her throat repeatedly, ha ha. The second night I was in the hospital I was up and out of bed so I closed the door! It was much easier to sleep the second night. I'm was glad to be home in my own bed!! 

I was so grateful for visitors and all the nice things people did for us after the surgery...here is a list just so I remember ...

Patti – Visited me at the hospital even thought she absolutely hates hospitals and brought me a nothing bunt cake cupcake. I was so touched.

Penny – Visited me at the hospital and brought me juice it up and flowers. Loved the hospital visits because it kept my mind off of things.

Ashley and Jolene – visited me at the hospital before Jolene took Ashley to her cheer competition.

Krysten Spongeberg – Brought the family El Pollo Loco while I was in the hospital.

Sharla Ralston and Penny Smith – They heart attacked my door and brought balloons and flowers for me to find when I got home from the hospital. They didn’t just put hearts they put sayings all over them. So sweet!

Savanah Kalifi - Brought over dinner Saturday. Fettuccine alfredo and garlic bread. There was tons of it and we had a lot of left overs. The family loved it

Kristen Thompson  - Sunday Dinner - Brought over an amazing dinner of ham, potato casserole, veggies, jello salad, rolls and brownies.

Tera Turley – Monday Dinner brought over homemade chili, banana bread, cornbread muffins, salad and cookies. 

Steve and Tahna – They came and brought me two freezer meals, a card and a flower and had a nice visit on Monday night.

Mary Ann – took the cake coming over 3 days during the day and bought me lunch every day, visited with me and helped me clean the house.

Rosie Negrette – Came and brought a meal Tuesday night. Mexican rice  (I would love the recipe) and breaded chicken, salad and banana bread.

Monica Bullock – Brought over a chicken, potato and asparagus bake with cream of mushroom sauce for dinner on Wednesday night. It looked interesting but it tasted good and the family liked it.

Kristen Paige – Brought over alfredo pasta and chicken, salad, garlic bread and a chocolate cake on Thursday night for dinner. It was nice to visit and catch up with her too.

Angela called me and talked to check up on me.

I got cards in the mail from Petra Burberich and Jeannie Pendelton.

I’ve had so many people text and message me from all over asking how I’m doing and sending me good wishes. I’m overwhelmed with support. I’m so grateful.

 

So far my recovery is going as expected. I was grateful to start hormone replacement therapy after 3 weeks and I've been able to sleep better and don't have as many aches and pains with it. I'm still tender and can't do everything that I could before but I'm steadily getting better, it's just slow. 

Jeff connected with Merrill this month when he was getting a haircut. He was happy to see his old friend and buddy that would lift his spirits whenever he had a hard time when he was growing up. 

A cute picture of Tessa wearing the dress I made her. We get to go to her baby blessing in April.

Ashley had toga day this month. It ended up being a chilly day so she had to wear long sleeves and long pants underneath. 

Ashley has had a couple of friend nights this month. 

One of them was a last minute friend night which was good timing since she was sad that she failed her driving test. Nothing better than friends that can help you get through a bad day. 

I drove Ashley out to Palm Springs so she could finally take her drivers test after a mixup at our local DMV made her miss her first appointment (my fault). It's a little small office out there and it took them forever. We waited almost an hour and 1/2 just sitting in the car waiting for them to be ready to give her the test (there were 4 cars in front of her). She ended up failing the test because they have a stoplight there that says "No right turn on red" and she didn't see the sign and hadn't come across any of those out where we live. I tried to drive her around the DMV but we didn't see that intersection. She's good on bike lanes here because we have a lot of them but she didn't know to look for that sign so she failed. The person giving her the test said she would have gotten 100 percent otherwise. So now Ashley has to wait 2 more weeks to be able to test again. 

The next friend get together was the weekend right before Spring Break. 

They swam and then had a fire and roasted marshmallows. 

Chilling with Maddie...Ashley's other best friend when her human friends aren't available. 

Ashley had New Beginnings this month. Here is the whole group of Young Women's group. (one of the girls has moved since this picture was taken.)

They are so small they all meet combined now. 

Ashley and Kate...

Great picture of Ashley...

This year I went to the Crystal Apple awards with Ashley and I was pleasantly surprised that my friend and teacher that I sub for regularly, Carly McKarty won the award for King! She was just as happy to see me as I was to see her. 

On their way from Big Bear to Joel and Virginia's house Angela and Robert and the kids came to our house and hung out for the afternoon and ate dinner with us. I loved getting to know Paisley who is now running all over the place and talking. She had a love/scared relationship who she liked to pet when she was sitting down but avoided when she was walking around because her tail knocked her down a couple of times. 

She kept repeating "doggy" and "woof, woof". So cute!

Since I'm not up for hosting a big Easter thing this year Virginia was nice enough to offer her house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt so we are planning that for this year. I've got the baskets ready...including one for Taylor Rose because she might be coming too. 

Updates from Jacob

March 5^th 2018

 

Hello family! 

     

That's great to hear that the surgery went well! I hope you recover quickly!

Hospitals are always a fun time haha, I got to spend a lot of time visiting people at the hospital in my last area, because there was a big one there.

     

Yes! I did get transferred and Elder Olson is my new companion. It's funny because this is the second time I've had an Elder Olson as my companion, and while I was with the first Elder Olson, this Elder Olson was in my district! Small world!...um... small mission! And Yes! I am in a branch down in Lancaster South Carolina. Now I've served in 3 different states! I am no longer a zone leader! I'm a district leader again! It's super exciting because as a zone leader, it's tough to help the zone, when the district leaders are tough to work with. So I Will be able to be more helpful from here!

This district also struggled the last few transfers, so 2 of the past Elder companionships were switched with Sisters! And the new sisters that came in, two of them are pretty new and are training brand new missionaries, while in areas that were struggling, so it's kinda a lot of stress for them! So I'm excited to be able to help them in any way I can!

     

South Carolina is a lot different then North, it's a lot closer to the stereotypical southern people than usual. We just went to Wal-Mart today, and I got to meet some interesting people. It's different serving in a branch too! I think there's only a couple in the mission, so it's a great to get to serve here! Church was also fun! It feels a lot closer and family like since there's not that many people. And This is where southern hospitality is even more of a real thing. The people here are so nice! We've already been seeing miracles here recently, which hopefully this branch will become a ward soon! It is a little different than my last ward, so we're going to have to figure out the best ways we can work here. 

     

I heard that ash is starting her license test pretty soon here! Good luck with that! I hope everything else is going well, and I'll be keeping y'all in my prayers!

-Elder Beaulieu

So my new address is 

439 Colonial Ave.

      Apt. D

Lancaster, SC

March 12^th 2018

Hello Family!

First off, I'll answer a few of the questions!

Yes! I am able to keep in contact with Noor! Her baptism actually got moved up to this Saturday! My Mission President called us, he was the who interviewed her, and said she had a request to have me come. So he said to honor his promise he will be taking us up to the baptism on Saturday! It's super exciting!

In my last area, I feel like the member missionary work did improve a lot, however there was still a lot of hold backs. They even moved the zone leaders out of that area, because some ward members aren't too supportive of the missionaries there.

The people in South Carolina are very interesting, but different from North Carolina! We've been able to start working with a lot of good people here! The branch here is amazing. The Branch President is amazing as well! Sadly, he's leaving already to go to Armenia for 2 years, so we'll be getting a new branch President soon. 

The weather shot back down! It's been a lot colder, even with a little snow today! Not enough to stick though.

Things are a lot different being a district leader again, but I feel like I have a closer influence on the missionaries here. The zone here struggles as did my last one, so it will be nice being able to work front if the lines, helping raise it up. It's been weird conducting District Meeting again, but I feel I'm doing much better than I did last time. The other missionaries in the district seem to be doing well and are all super happy and enthusiastic! It's weird not having as much responsibility, but it helps. Since I have learned to work harder, and with less I'm responsible for, I'm able to give even more effort to what I'm doing now! It is a great blessing to serve here, and I’m thankful for it. This could possibly be my last area, but I think it's a slightly better chance I'll have one more area.

That's good that Ma is feeling better! And I will keep Riverside in my prayers as Ash starts driving. Hope y'all have a wonderful week, and here are some pictures! 

 

March 26, 2018

Easter has come up so fast! It's crazy how fast time goes when you’re not paying attention! I didn't even know it was here until at church yesterday. We sang a couple Easter songs, and had talks on the Atonement of Christ, and the primary kids sang Gethsemane. At the end of the meeting, I was kinda confused on why we were singing Easter songs, then I realized that Easter was next week! I am so excited for general conference! Even without the big things that are coming, like the new Apostles, as a missionary I have really come to appreciate hearing from the living prophets! Out here we usually watch it at the church, and sometimes with investigators. And Even though I’m a missionary, I’m not perfect, I’m making it a goal this year to not fall asleep once during all 10 hours of conference!

     

This week was a good one! Spring is finally coming! It's beautiful when everything blooms, but it all happens in 1-2 days here. Literally, one day all the trees are dead, then the next everything is green, i love it! 

     

Me and my companion are getting along great, it's nice to have someone from California! It's crazy how close we live, and how much his family knows our family. He usually does most of the driving, because I’m too lazy to put the extensions on and off ha ha. But don't worry, when I get home I will be prepared to be a speed driver! I've learned how to keep the car straight going 100mph, and I can accelerate and brake really smoothly now, even from super fast speeds! 

     

The branch here is amazing. It's weird though because we still don't have Branch President yet, but we should be getting one in a couple weeks. They are a very interesting branch, but I like interesting people! 

     

This week wasn’t too eventful, but I do have pictures! And i hope that Ash is able to pass next time! Good luck! Love you everybody!

-Elder Beaulieu

(just kidding about the driving thing ;)