I'm pleased and a little bit proud that the pirate clothing is, as of just now, all put away. And not tossed in the general direction of where they belong but truly and properly in the places they belong.

Open-house

It was the pleasure of Stephanie and I to attend the open house for Brandon and Sam Clawson in Logan, UT this past weekend.  Also in attendance were Grandma Bu, Uncles Ricky and Schipper, and cousins Devin, Kelsey, and Mary.  We were delighted to partake of several varieties of delicious cupcakes, the Lemmon ones were the best (I think Ricky had like four).  And we engaged in deep and intelectual conversations about trademark law (thanks to Brandon for filling us in on that one).

Overall, it was quite delightsome, and we were happy to meet Sam (who is very nice) and some of her family.

Proof that we were actually in Logan, and seeing
some family history (The temple where this all started)

WEDDING REPORT

centerpiece
on the deck
family at the temple
Brandon and Sam

WEDDING REPORT:

Fam-a-lee,

After driving through TORRENTIAL rain, we returned to Raleigh and caught our flight to the West. We arrived in Seattle and spent the night at a hotel. (It was the Doubletree, and they give out free, warm, chocolate chip cookies at check-in – yum!) Saturday we drove down to Portland without problems and arrived at the temple in time to walk around and take some pictures. There were quite a few wedding parties around and Kacy and I were checking out their color schemes and bridesmaids dresses.

Bryan and I went into the waiting chapel while the kids waited outside, eventually meeting up with Sarah’s kids and Meg. Elizabeth’s father is a sealer in the Houston TX temple and was able to get special permission to perform this family sealing in a different temple. That was very special to have him do that. The ceremony was quick, so then we waited outside for the bride and groom. Don’t they look cute? There was some picture taking and I was trying to figure out who was family or friend, but we were getting hungry so we left to find food. Katy Ramika told us about “Chevy’s” Mexican and we found it on our trusty GPS, right close by.

Another drive down to Roseburg and check in to another hotel. We went over to the house in the evening and tried to help during the reception. Gavin carried a tray around picking up dirty plates and silverware; I washed dishes and held Owen; Kacy and Katy danced with Clara and visited. The yard was lovely and Elizabeth had set candles around in pretty holders and pots of purple petunias. She even had a “kids table” set up like Bu would do, with Oreos, Graham Crackers, M&Ms and juice boxes. All three kids loved it, as well as a number of adults.

Elizabeth’s brother Jamie was there with his wife and daughters, along with Elizabeth’s parents. Sam’s parents were there, her sister, Kacy (spelled differently) and her husband, and a brother, Jake. Also one of her uncles and his wife. We tried to talk with both families and enjoyed being there. We all helped fold up chairs and tables when it was over and said our goodbyes. Brandon and Elizabeth both appreciated us being there and were very grateful.

A funny thing happened with church. Bryan had typed in our hotel address looking for the nearest chapel, since he had that address. We checked with Elizabeth that church was at 10 a.m. and said we’d see her then. So we went to church but no one else was there, and no one else came in, and on the program (of the Roseburg Ward) we did not see Todd Clawson listed with the other missionaries. Hmmm??? Turns out there are FOUR wards in Roseburg, and TWO chapels, and we were in the wrong one! Who’d have thunk that Roseburg would have two chapels within a mile of each other! We went to their house afterward and we all had a good laugh. As Jayce said, “They’re almost as true as us.” Elizabeth generously packed us up with sandwiches and snacks for the car and we were off.

Katy Marika was a pleasant traveler, no whining or fussing and very tolerant of our silly family jokes and car games. We took her to her friend’s house in Eugene, so she is on her way to new adventures! To help pass the time, we listened to all the Sunday shows: My Turn on Earth, Saturday’s Warrior’s, and Joseph. The kids sang along and acted out as best as possible with a seatbelt on.

There you have it. Kristine’s report on Brandon’s wedding, so you can feel like you were there, too.

And now my blog is the longest! (And it has pictures.)

The Newest and Greatest Contributor

I am going to contribute more than Wiz and Megan!!! See, my post is longer.

Suzy's edutuib

Love the beach, love the house, love the fam, love everything.

Topsail part 2

Megan is learning how to blog!!

Topsail part 1

Here we are!  

Carters

Gallands

MDC's

Ricky

Brown's (most)

Murray's  (some)

Nyfeler's  (most)

Bu

Grahams (yes, we are our own entity now)

Underwoods (some)

have arrived at Topsail Beach!  Our 5 story beach houses give us soft couches, beautiful scenery, and keep us fed, while the cousins, cousins, cousins, are keeping us entertained! 

So far we have saved sea turtles, swam for hours in the pool, built sandcastles, shared testimonies, learned church stories, watched movies, played games, and drank 15 gallons of lemonade.  Hooray for Clawsons!  Keep the fun rolling!

Todd's letter home 7-25-11

Dear Mom,

Well this will be the last full week of my third transfer so next week I will be emailing you one Wednesday. To answer your questions yes we have a lot of bugs here especially flies and ants. They are always everywhere (formigas e moscas são muito chato e não vão deixar nossa casa sozinho) and it is a little annoying. We also have cockroaches every other day and we even killed a mouse a couple of weeks back. Fortunately the ants and the cockroaches don´t seem to like each other and it is common for us to find a dying cockroach with lots of ants swarming it making it easier for us to finish the job and get rid of it. I have only seen one snake so far and hopefully I won´t see anymore. There is also grass here and the majority of the trees here appear to be coconut trees. It is a pretty common to see lots of stores selling green coconuts to drink from. It is good to hear that everyone is getting their callings. I´m a little surprised Austin hasn´t gotten his yet since I remember you telling me that he sent his papers in several weeks ago. It´s great to hear that Captain America is doing well. I have been looking forward to that one. You will have to make a list of the good movies that are coming out so I know which ones to see. Well this week was alright. We spent Wednesday and Thursday doing splits with some members of the ward and I made contacts on the street while Elder Rodrigues taught lessons to people that are close to baptism. I did pretty well and made several contacts but it really is annoying just randomly stopping people on the street and talking about our religion. The girl that we have been trying to baptize appears to be having doubts and I don´t think she will be baptized. We have been teaching an aunt and uncle of a recent convert that was baptized shortly before I arrived here. The uncle (Aldo) is all set and ready to go and while praying for an answer from God he said he had a dream where he saw Elder Rodrigus and I standing next to God all clothed in White. When he asked God if this church is true God told him that he already knew the answer and after this Aldo said he wanted to be baptized. The problem is that his wife is still having doubts about the Book of Mormon and it looks like he doesn´t want to be baptized without her. Understandable but frustrating. Well I am out of time so have a good week.

Love,

Elder Todd Clawson

Matty's letter home 7-31-11

I grabbed this from Bu's email to use as a test/sample

Happy Monday day!

 Well this has been another action packed week and it went by realy fast. Before I forget, my camera is a cool pix L22. Not sure if tat is exactly what you needed, but I dont carry my camera around, not the safest thing to do. But if you can, I would ove a camera cord. I have pictures to send you all that you would love. And yes, my house is amazing right now... well for a guatemalan house. But the area is pretty ghetto. It is really big too. I dont know if I said this last time, but there is a pert of our area that we go to and it taked like an hour and 15 to get there. So we are usually pretty pooped after going there, but thats just how the mission is. I really do like this area though, there is a lot to do. There is one investigator in particular, his name is Mario. We teach him in english and he is great. We had an amzing lesson with him this week, we read 3 nephi 11. I could really feel the spirit during the lesson and he said that when he gets an answer that it is all true, he would love to get baptized. Then on sunday he came to church with us. He really has desires to learn and know if the church is true, and when the happens the Lord answers. I know he will get his answer soon and we plan on putting a baptismal date with him the week. I will let you know ow that goes. We have a few other families that we are teaching right now so it is all going well. We had a mission correlation witht he bishop and our mission leader last night and they are both helping us a lot. We talked about a lot of different things to do to have success here. We are really going to start getting the ward involved in everthing, and if we can do that, I know we will have a lot of success here. My companions are good, we are still waiting for Elder Ochoa to get his papers so he can go to Peru. We are thinking this is the week, it will be sad when he goes. But I am excited for him also. It sounds like you all had a great 1 year celebration for me, thanks for that and I will be waiting for those wishes. For my one year mark we had some good lessons and the ended the night going to a really cool member family and they celebrated with us and made us some delicious home made pizza. It was fun cuz they are a really funny family too. There are a lot of really good people here. And I am excited for the opportunity to be here. Thanks for feeding the missionaries, the need it. I dont know how it is there, but it is the best thing in the world when we have a dinner appointment. So keep doing that for the missionaries and help them in whatever way possible. Be a family that they will remember and want to come back and visit. I love you all lots. Thanks for all of your love and help. Only 1 year left and I will be there in the living room sleeping... I bet you are all excited for that!

Love,

Elder Matthew T. Underwood