Justine's New PenPal

Justine received a letter from her penpal in Cambodia tonight; her great aunt/uncle are serving a mission there. This is the first letter she received; I thought it was pretty neat so here it is:

Dear Justine,



I'm sorry for replying late.I wish you forgive me.
I can give some answer. I'm 10 years old.
My favorite color is green and orange.
My favorite animal is cub.My favorite song is
'' when you say nothing at all''.I like to dance
and sing.I was born at the 25th of May1998.I
went to the temple at Hong Kong with my family.
I have me, my sis Emma who is 20, Max who
is 18.Sengthai who is 12, James who
is 5, Heng who is 3,Tong my dad who is 48,
Kim my mom who is 39.

I wish you will come to visit me at Cambodia.

                         Love Sina
                      To : my lovely penpal Justine

Justine is getting ready to do some fundraising for the missionary efforts over in Cambodia. There are several young men there that are worthy to serve missions, but lack funds. The mission president has asked each young man to contribute $500 to their mission in order for them to go, so Justine will raise as much as she can and send the money over. She is considering a bake sale to get started.

Adventures in Babysitting

Yesterday Michelle and I were over in South Jordan looking at houses, and had left Justine in charge of Em & Mads. As we were driving around, we received a call from a very frantic Emilie...she had to go to the bathroom, but the doors to all the bathrooms in the house were "locked". As I pressed Emilie (who was sounding very stressed at this point) for additional information as to why all the bathroom doors in our house would be locked, she proceeded to explain to me that several minutes earlier, Justine had been teasing Emilie, threatening to flush her blankie down the toilet. So Emilie, in the spirit of one-upmanship, decided she would thwart Justine's plan, and lock all the doors to rooms which had toilets in them. Now, in our house, blankies are, well....sacred. Whenever one goes missing, everything stops, a national emergency is declared, and everyone looks for the blankie until one is found. If it is not found, then mom heads to the Walmart, buys some material, and immediately makes a new one. We even had to stop scriptures the other night so that I could drive over to the Stauffer's and find Maddie's blankie that she had forgot. The alternative is to listen to a screaming, crying fit. Yes, we are weak. The crowning moment to this was we arrived home to a puddle of pee on the kitchen floor, compliments of Maddie. If I only had boys...I could have told them to just go out in the back yard and take care of business.

Emilie with the blankie...

Last night Michelle and I had a nice date at The Roof downtown. Great time!





This past week I went on my 1st Elk Archery hunt. It was a blast! We went up above Vernal, as well as deep into the Wasatch (above Strawberry). We were camped around 10,000 feet both times. Beautiful country! No elk though. Maybe next year.

This was the toughest terrrain that I have ever hiked in...straight
up a heavily wooded mountainside, with tons of deadfall.
Shortly after this, we called in an elk, and
he was within 100 yards. We could hear him crashing
through the deadfall until he caught our scent
(we were downwind of him) and took off. It was intense!

Ward Campout - Hobble Creek Canyon

This weekend was our annual trip to Hobble Creek Campground for the Ward campout. It was a blast!!! Dad caught a bunch of fish in the creek, mom and dad participated in an ABBA Tribute band, and the girls karaoked all night. See video's and photos below.

ABBA Cover Band
James and Michelle on right
The show almost didn't go on; Michelle barricaded herself in her trailer
due to her demands for two bowls of "red M&M's" before every show.
The roadies messed up and the M & M's for this show were blue...
Fame is getting to her!



Emilie Karaoke

Em & Allie Ott - Karaoke


Dad and Maddie by the fire

Em and Allie Ott


Em and Clara Moffat

Justine and Tiana

These are pictures of new cousin Kaislee Johnson!

The Gospel in Cambodia

This is a letter from Michelle's aunt & uncle who are serving a mission in Cambodia...

Hello to Everyone,



Well, we did it! On the 15th of July we reached our one year

anniversary since arriving in Cambodia. It's been an amazing year

filled with laughter and tears. The photo of the family attached

is just one of the reasons all of you are needed in the mission

field....yesterday!

The man right in front of Steve is Khem. He

and his family, along with his friend Raa and his family, are

investigating the gospel. We have been visiting them about twice

weekly during our temporary assignment in Kampong Cham, which is a

province city about 2 hours northeast of Phnom Penh. These two

families live side by side at a small brick factory where they earn

$2.00 per day making bricks 12 hours per day every day of the

week. We have been teaching them in Khem's house, where we all are

in this photo. Oh, and also in the house right behind Steve are 6

baby pigs that Khem is raising for food and extra income. They

have no electricity so we read by candle light, flash light and

occasionally, a small overhead light that they attach to a car

battery. But it doesn't work too often. You can see us well only

because of the camera flash. These families are so amazing!!!

They are positive, happy, friendly and grateful for what they

have. They welcome us into their home like royalty. When the

missionaries teach a lesson or when Robyn tells a Primary story,

the Spirit is so strong that it almost hurts. And to sit around

the candle light watching the children....AND the parents all

coloring a picture of Noah and the Ark, it's something we hope you

all get to experience as you will never think about the Gospel, or

your lives quite the same. When Khem and Raa came to church for

the first time, they couldn't believe how clean everything was and

how nicely they were treated. Of course they loved being in the AC

(air conditioned room) as that's a luxury only for the wealthy here

in Cambodia. They also took one of the hymnals home with them so

that they could sing together. So far they love....A Child of

God. We sing it every time we go. We also bring a big tin of

cookies for treats which is something they could never afford on

their own. These families, and others like them, have helped us

change our perspective on what's really important in life and what

we truly need to be happy. It can be found in a small, humble

bamboo and grass house that's about the size of a 12x12 bedroom

complete with pigs. It's the pure love of Christ that we read

about in the scriptures. It's charity, hope, faith and love.

It's being satisfied and thankful for what we've been given but also

willing to give it all away for someone else to enjoy. Thank you

so much for your prayers and support. We know the Gospel is true

and is alive and well in Cambodia.



Love,

Elder and Sister Wallwork aka Steve and Robyn

Steve and Robin are wonderful examples to our entire family as they have given up 18 months of their lives (and they are relatively young!) to serve the Lord. We really look forward to their reports from the mission field!

Yesterday Emilie cut her foot and James and Justine took her to the clinic to get stitched up. She was a real trooper, and really toughed it out during the Lidocaine shots; she actually fell asleep during the stitches. I wish I would have had the camera for that!

Photos from Phx Trip

Jeff & Kate Pugmire

James & Don Nation

Dan and Becky Wadsworth

James & Don

James & Don

Dan, James, & Don

Travel!

We have been on the road quite a bit this summer...a few of the trips that we've taken recently:

Phoenix. James had a two day meeting in Phx for work, and had the opportunity to see several friends. He stayed with Jeff and Kathryn Pugmire (Blewster) and was able to catch up with several friends...James, Kathryn, and Jeff got together with Kathryn's sister Becky and her husband Dan, as well as Don Nation, James' old roommate from the singles ward days. It was great to see Dan and Becky...I have always thought that they were the neatest couple, and James has always looked up to Dan...very cool guy! They have a GREAT family with lots of wonderful kids! It was also great to see Don...it had been around 14 years! We spent a few hours catching up. I will post photos soon.

James went straight from Phx to Vegas for a 4 day meeting with his sales team. Good food, good golf, but after 3 days of being bombarded by that place, came home a day early! It was about 150 degrees the whole time.

Had the Johnson (Michelle's dad) reunion down in Moroni as well. Great fun! Camped in the yard (forgot the air matresses...ouch!). It was great to see everybody!

Emilie, Emily Stauffer, and Maddie


Emilie riding with Grandpa


Justine reading to Em


Maddie riding with Grandpa


Todd's (Michelle's brother) wedding


Jason Kupiec (Tin Cup..he is about a 2 handicap)


Mike, Edie, Steve, and Dottie


Todd's Wedding Day (Lehi)

24th of July Report...

Not much new happening...for the 24th of July we took off and went up to Park City and stayed a few days at the Canyons Resort. We had planned on going camping, but a very persistent telemarketer had been badgering Michelle for weeks, insisting we come up to the Canyons and listen to a sales pitch on "time share ownership". Now, nobody hates these things more than me. I went to one about 10 years ago, and committed that I would never go to another. After the 8th phone call, Michelle convinced the guy to give us two free nights at the resort immediately after the pitch. So I relented and we went up. We sit down with the sales person (George Williamson) and as we introduce ourselves, I immediately commenced to inform him that I was in no way interested, that if he wanted to just give me my two nights, and perhaps move on to someone who was actually interested in a time share, that it would be alright by me. He felt that after his pitch I would have a different opinion, and I told him that he had been warned. He was actually a very interesting man...after he had probed us for information about what kind of vacations we enjoyed (I told him that we didn't vacation, only "camped"). I asked him what kind of adventures he had been on...it turns out that he had spent two years on a sailboat sailing around the world back in '83, among other really cool adventures (restaurateur, finished 174th at the 2009 World Series of Poker, among others!). One of his daughters is an actress in CA. So it turned out that we mostly talked about him. Every time he got 5 minutes into his pitch, I would throw out something like "OK that's cool...let's go back to this sailing trip...." and we would talk about these cool adventures. Here is a sample of our dialogue..... George: Well, would you ever like to go to Hawaii? James: No. It's too far. George: How about Europe? James: Oh, yes! I served my mission there! Does the timeshare cover airline tickets? George: Oh, no. James: Well.....I am afraid that's a problem...so, what islands did you stop at on your round-the-globe sailing trip? George: How about we take a quick tour of the property and get you on your way? I was genuinely intrigued. In the end, everyone loves to talk about themselves, and George was no exception. I had told him that I wasn't interested...I am in Sales, and I have a pretty good understanding of sales pitches, sales questions (Shaun Steel, arguably one of the best Sales people I have ever been around is my mentor/sinse/Jedi master) and I really don't like to spin my wheels with people who are there for the free HP camera, etc., so I would just as soon give them the free shwag and move onto someone who could make me some money. I did empathize with him; he is simply trying to make a living. Very cool guy!

He was a really interesting guy though! We even talked religion. Learn more about George here:

http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/115430/george-williamson.htm

http://www.edesber.com/PDFs/JambalyaParkRecord02-14-1998.pdf

After checking in, we didn't do much but hang out at the pool (see previous posts...my girls are part waterdog). We did go up to Park City and ride the Alpine Slide and Alpine Coaster.

Sorry, no pictures. In my haste to escape the heat of the valley I forgot the camera.