Joe's Farewell

Today was Joe's mission farewell. Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came down for the weekend and it was really nice to have some extended family with us for this even. At first we thought only Joe would be speaking, but in the end both Greg and I were also asked to speak. Our topic was "The Good News". None of us were thrilled with such a broad topic, but in the end it turned out quite well. I spoke first and started by defining the good news as the Gospel. I then touched on understanding the good news, how it has been shared, and what we need to do to fully benefit from it. Greg went next and spoke about how the good news came to and benefited his family. Then Joseph finished the program by focusing on our responsibilities once we have received the good news in our lives. He made a comment about home and visiting teaching being missionary work that impressed the Relief Society President so much she came up and told me that she had written it down so she could quote it later. We had many people tell us how impressed they were with the program. And even a few that commented that they had never heard Joe say so much at one time before. He did an excellent job and I believe gave us a glimpse of what a great missionary he is going to be.

Later on in the afternoon we had a small open house for people to come say good bye to Joe. It was good to have one last time to gather friends together with Joe. It is going to be strange when he is gone. I am excited for his opportunity to serve a mission, but do not look forward to his being gone. But I know he will be an excellent missionary and will be blessed greatly for his service.

Melissa turns 21!

I am not sure how it happened, but Melissa has turned 21. I am having difficulty dealing with the fact that she is that old (not to mention what that means for me!) To celebrate, Erin and I drove to Austin and spent several hours with her. We started off going to lunch, where we enjoyed Indian food at the Clay Pot near her apartment. Erin then went with Melissa to her Institute class. Before leaving town, we drove up to Mt. Bonnell and enjoyed the view of the city and river. Melissa's birthday present this year was her UT class ring, something she was very excited to receive. Melissa has become an amazing woman, and we had a great time with her on her birthday.

Missionary Shopping Trip

On Monday, February 18, we flew to Utah to shop for Joe’s mission clothes. Since Houston isn’t known for extreme cold, we started looking online for clothes. After checking out some websites, I liked the looks of the Missionary Mall, which offers a wonderful 2 yr guarantee on everything they sell. If anything wears out during normal missionary activities, all the elder has to do is send in a picture of the item and they will replace it for free. This even includes wiping out on your bike and tearing your pants. Hard to beat that. Although their website was good, we didn’t want to buy Joe’s mission clothes without letting him see them and trying them on first, so a trip to Utah was a must. What a blessing to have my flight benefits which made this trip possible.

We originally tried to fly out Sunday morning. However, our flight filled up at the last minute and all we ended up doing was spending a few hrs. at the airport. Luckily flying out Monday was a breeze, so the only thing it cost us was a night we planned to spend with the Stays. When we arrived in Salt Lake we were picked up by Grandpa Stay, who was going to loan us a car for our trip. After dropping him off at work, we headed to Provo. We spent the afternoon at Brett and Tonia’s house. Tonia and the boys were pulling in just as we got there. We helped them unload their groceries and headed inside. We soon discovered that Brett was home with the flu. Luckily he felt good enough to come chat with us (and none of us ended up catching what he had!). Sam and Cobe couldn’t wait for Joe to arrive. As soon as we entered the door, Cobe went downstairs to get the Wii turned on so Joe could play with them. It didn’t take long for Cobe to lose patience for Joe to come play, so he came up and got him. The three boys were happily occupied until dinner.


Tuesday was our shopping day. We headed right for the Missionary Mall. There were a couple of people already there, and only 2 salesmen so we wandered around for a while on our own. Once we had a salesman to help us, everything went smoothly. He went through the list with Joe and helped him select things that Joe was comfortable in. We ended up buying just about everything he needed there (and getting an idea for a great laundry bag that I made for about $25 less than they were selling it for).


All that was left was to have his suit pants hemmed. They took Joe's measurements and told us the pants should be done in a couple of hrs. Since we were heading to Salt Lake when we were done, we decided to grab some lunch, make a quick stop at the distribution center and then pick up the suits. Unfortunately the seamstress was called over to the Sister Missionary Mall, and unable to finish his pants when promised. This meant we'd have to return in the morning before we flew home. What a pain! We headed to Layton, had a great evening with the Stays and then drove back to Provo Wednesday morning. Luckily the traffic was no problem at all, and we were easily able to get there, return to Salt Lake for lunch and still be at the airport with plenty of time to spare. The biggest challenge was making all of our purchases fit into our carry on luggage. But in the end it did and the flight home went very smoothly.

Sadie Hawkins

Rachel went to the Sadie Hawkins dance tonight with Chris White. Both Rachel and Chris are big fans of "The Office", so Rachel asked him to the dance by putting a stapler which said "Sadie Hawkins?" in green jello. Couples dressed like each other for this dance, but Rachel and Chris decided to just dress in black. They had dinner at BJ's before the dance and then went to a friend's house after the dance to play rock band.

The Tuba Queen Rules Again

Rachel had her solo and ensemble competition on Saturday, Feb. 9 and earned ones on both of her performances. She had worked very hard preparing for this competition, but was worried because her ensemble wasn't able to get together to practice very much. In the end it turned out she was worried about nothing as her ensemble did awesome. She was, however, shocked that she got a one on her solo as that didn't go as well as she had hoped. But she is not complaining. She is happy to take her medals and run--all they way to the state competition which will be held on Saturday May 24 in San Antonio.