8.26.18

This letter will be shorter because my phone has been crazy and it keeps deleting. 

It was great to be able to take Keagan up to the temple Thursday before it closes for a couple of months. What a special and awesome experience! The only sad thing was that my mom and Thom couldn’t come because she ended up in the hospital again. Hopefully they’ve figured this out and she’ll be getting better soon. 

It was a beautiful day and one of he only days recently that we haven’t had smoky skies and air from all the fires around. 

We were able to have Keagan’s girlfriend Makayla’s parents and grandma come with us, too.

I don’t know what I would of done without my dear friend Sandy and Daren there. That was such a blessing to me, especially with out my mom. There were many tender feelings and blessings that day!

Adam and Em Falter got to do baptisms while we were doing our session. So fun to have them there, too!

 And Kelly Grubbs got to come with us, too! That was so nice to have him there with us, too. He has been a close friend of our family for a long time.  And our bishop and and Keagan's ym president.

I can’t believe he didn’t want me to kiss him.. he lets Makayla kiss him on the cheek all the time...




And today Daneah showed up to visit! 



Love you all!
Sis Shoop 

8.18.18

Not much news this week on my mom. She has been to a few doctor appointments and has had tests done. They say that she needs her spleen out. That surgery takes 6-8 weeks to recover afterwards. I looked it up on google and it says sometimes people need their spleen removed because of problems with their blood. 

I love going on adventures. Sometimes it’s an adventure getting Ray on board, but then about 90% of the time or maybe even more he has a good time. He’s funny! I love going to the beach and Washington has so many that I’ve been trying to find new to us to go to and that are close ish. I found Saltar’s Point in Steilacoom. It’s a cute little beach that you go over a Walker’s bridge over the railroad tracks and down some really really steep stairs. It’s very cute and a beautiful beach. I also love standing on the bridge as the train goes below us. It is a definite place to return to.  

It’s been really Smokey lately from all the wild fires around and it was hazy that day!

I also go to go out to the Nelson property with the young women. It is so nice of the Nelsons to share their property. And it is beautiful and peaceful!





They had a blast going on the swing and getting wet. 

This week was also the garden party in Barbara Johnston’s backyard. This has been a tradition of our ward’s Relief Society ever since I’ve been in the ward (around 25 years). It hasn’t always been in her backyard, but we’ve always had it in the summer. I stole some pictures from the rs Facebook page..





I was able to get a non active Sister to go with me, too. She loved it. 

I’m so grateful for our beautiful earth that we live in!

8.12.18

We had stake conference this weekend. As always it was so good. I love it when you feel the spirit so strong that you almost feel like you’re floating. Elder Hallstrom of the seventy. I was privileged to go to the 4:00 meeting on Saturday, too. It was for all the ward council members. He taught us a lot about ministering and how that was a divine program and what a miracle it was. He showed us the videos on Ministering and invited to watch them all and as often as we need. https://www.lds.org/ministering/resources-for-ministering?lang=eng

 He e came around and shook hands Sunday morning. Ray mentioned that Keagan had his mission call. He chatted with Keagan a couple of minutes and pointed to his beard and asked him if he was milking it... 

Earlier this week we were able to go to the temple with the youth. It was stake temple day for the youth. Each ward was assigned a time. We had the 3:00 time. The temple president told us we set a new bar - record for youth baptisms that day. 1200, the precious record was from last year when Lacey stake went.. 1000. In our ward, we only had one Laurel be able to go, so for the majority of the time I got to hand out towels when they came out. That is one of my favorite jobs. I get to see their facial expressions and be right there. There were a couple of brothers that got to baptize their sisters. That was very sweet. And one funny.. one of the boys baptized for a Daniel Boone and he almost started giggling. I love the spirit of the temple. 

My mom has been sick lately. Last week she was in the hospital for a couple of days and this week she had to go back. For a few years she has had problems with her blood. Her red cells have a hard time replenishing. What has happened in the past is that she gets run down, sick with a cold and then ends up needling a blood transfusion.  She has been to many doctor appointments and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. She got frustrated and gave up because she was tired of all the appointments and run around. It was a couple of years ago that she was last really sick and in the hospital with a blood transfusion. This time has been a lot worse. 

A normal person has 12-14 (I don’t the measurement) of hemoglobin in their blood. She only had 4 when she went into the hospital. She had to have 3 units of blood. She got up to a 9 and they let her go home. The next week she still wasn’t feeling well and went to a dr appointment and they sent her back to the hospital because it went back down to a 6, it had to be at least a 7 for her not be in the hospital. She ended up with 3 more units at her 2nd stay. 

They have some more appointments set up for her next week to try to figure this out. 

It kind of acts like Leukemia, but doesn’t have all the characteristics. It’s been sad watching her be so weak and in the hospital. Hopefully we’ll get some answers soon. And be able to get her well. Please pray for her. 

Tonight we also had the Erickson family come visit us. They’re here on vacation. It was such a fun visit. We really miss them. He just got called as bishop again in his new ward last week. :)

Love you all,

Sis Shoop

Melissa’s pic

8.5.18

This week we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. We were lucky and got to get away for a couple of days. We went to Coeur d’Lane Idaho. The lake is beautiful over there. We could see it out our living room and balcony window. 

We took a detour and went and saw the Spokane temple. I wish we would of had time to go in. Isn’t it amazing that whatever temple you visit you can feel the spirit and feel peace. Even on the grounds. I love it. Like all temples, it was beautiful! It’s one of the small temples and there is a stake center across the parking lot, I think the stake center is bigger. 

On our way home, we stopped and saw Adam Cichoski. We see him often, but hardly ever get his picture. I think it’s because we see him so often. It’s nice!

We decided to take a different route home and go through Yakima and White pass. I’m glad we did. There was no traffic and it was a scenic route.

My young women did great sharing things that gave them peace. I’m happy to be around them. 

Here is the video for the song for the theme this year. 

https://youtu.be/R46J-GjbRWA

Have a great week!

Love ya,

Sis Shoop

from my iPhone