Nicholas & Michelle & Family - Photos

I wrote this to the missionaries, but it outlines what was going on at Nicks place in Tooele!  He has the sprinklers up and running so the project is complete.  Now they will look for landscaping items to place about the yard.  Way to go Nick & Michelle!

 

Missionary helpers!  One Elder from Hawaii and the other from Washington State.

David & Lindsay...so cute together!

Hayden playing with the pipe pieces.

Back yard looks great!

Brothers helping each other out.

Nice new front yard.  Hurraaayyy!

Hello Elders!

I thoroughly enjoyed both your letters this week!  I've been telling everyone that Monday and Friday are my favorite days of the week and you can guess why!  Yippeee! Letters Day!

Its the usual stuff at work, but I've kept things busy in the evenings after ward.  Wednesday I visit taught Monica Morton and then Thursday night the RS midweek activity was at AF Canyon, Swinging Bridge picnic area and the ward sisters made Woof-ums!  They are made with Pillsbury refrigerator biscuit dough that is wrapped around a wooden dowel the size of a curtain rod.  The dowel end is put into a metal rod to hold onto.  The dough is cooked over hot coals and bakes then you put pudding inside and top with whip cream and voila, a Woof-um!  They were really good! 

During the week Nick got 33 TONS of topsoil dirt added to his yard that he had to rake out. (this being the next step after last weekends trenching.  He added about 7 more ton, just before the sod was laid.  He wasn't sure which route to go....sod or seed, so he called around and found that sod was only $100 more than Hydro-seed and so he had it delivered on Friday afternoon!  Nick had a hiccup with his BMW though as he tried to start his car during lunch on Friday, it wouldn't start!  Even after charging the battery, it wouldn't fire up.  So as he knew I was coming after work to Tooele, I picked him up a battery at the BMW dealership by my work.  By the time I got to him at 5:45pm he'd been off work for 1.5 hours waiting.  Couldn't be helped, but the new battery had him going quickly and we got to his house to start placing sprinkler heads on the 'funny pipe' leads.  He has awesome neighbors who have come help him each step of the way and we got them placed quickly.  David and Lindsay arrived and the next morning Mike and Gavin came!

I'm so proud and grateful for the service your brothers have rendered to Nick and Michelle.  I'm so glad that when we have an event, we come to each others aide!  Mike had to get new tires as his old ones were so warn out, rock were imbedding themselves in the tire.  The service guys all looked at his tire saying it was the worst worn one they've ever seen!  GLAD he got them replaced!  He stayed at my house Friday night and early Saturday got his tires on and then came to Tooele.  Thanks Mike!  Thanks David!  Thanks Lindsay!

Saturday morning Nick decided to get more top soil and left to get some and came back by 9am and we shoveled it onto the low spots up by the front of the house.  People were arriving and that included the local missionaries!  Wow!  I took their picture and of course I told them all about my two fine missionary sons!  They were doing service hours and helped so much hauling that sod!  They were really cool.  Elder B was from northern Washington state and was as RED as a lobster from the sun in short order.  Elder S was from HAWAII!  His home is on Oahu, in the middle of the island in the mountains at a city that starts with a 'M', but I don't recall the name.  He asked all about Morgan and his areas of assignment around the islands.  Elder S has lost 25 pounds since coming to the mainland! Haaa!  One neighbor was a rockstar and got so much sod laid so quickly and systematically.  A different neighbor Greg has helped him along the whole way with this project it's amazing. (they all joked that it is helping their property value to get Nicks yard in!  No doubt!)

After 2 hours the sod was down and the afternoon was spent resting and getting things tidy.  Dave and Lindsay left at 5pm for Logan and Mike left shortly after.  Lindsay is awesome, just saying!  She helped with the kids as we were all keeping up with tasks to keep things going with the yard. 

I do enjoy my grandkids and got to play with all three once again!  Hurrayy!  I stayed through Sunday and found the time delightful.  Church was great at their ward and later had a terrific dinner.  Thanks Michelle for everything and getting to spend time with you!   

It was a great weekend and I'm glad that Nick has a yard!.....with Grass!....and sprinklers!

Not much for gospel inspiration here, but as you can see the family unit is central to us Durochers and we always support one another!  I look forward to hearing from you on how your week went. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE you boys.  And I mean all of you and my fine jewel of a daughter! (includes Michelle!)

Mom  <3 nbsp="" span="">

Morgans 33rd letter of 2013 - Photos

Ohana,

So Sunday night, we got a phone call from President Warner. Elder Cutler needed to go to Honolulu-West to go fill a vacancy. Then I would get a new companion, who just came from the MTC. Our transfer is next week, and so he came in the middle of the transfer at a weird time. Maybe because my companion learned Samoan in the MTC, and was called to Hawaii, as Samoan Speaking. My companions name is Elder Talatau and he is from West Jordan, Utah. He is an 18 year old missionary, and is a Samoan, but couldn't speak Samoan. So he had been studying that in the MTC for 6 weeks, we cover 2 English wards, but now since my comp is Samoan, they might give us a Samoan ward at the Transfer next week. He will be my 3rd Samoan companion I have had on my mission, crazy!

So Elder Talatau flew into Hawaii on Tuesday. Then I dropped of Elder Cutler with his new companion. Then Met Elder Talatau, and ate dinner at President Warners House. 3 Missionaries came in Mid-Transfer with him last week. The other 2 are Marshalese speaking from Alpine, Utah. Then we drove the hour trip back to our house, and then gave the car we borrowed back to the Elders who own it.

That's cool the Local missionaries came to help Nick lay out the Sod. And all the Help from the Family and the Ward too. Was the missionaries area just Tooele? or do the cover a huge area? I think the place you are thinking about is called Mililani is in the center of the Island in a huge Valley. That's where the Dole Banana and Pineapple Plantation is at.

We had a lesson with Nick our Tongan Investigator again. He's not really progressing anymore, he is kind of set in his ways, and I feel like he is just trying to find a reason the church isn't true. I don't know its tough, were still trying out best. And he wants us to keep teaching him, and he says he wants to keep learning. So we will keep praying for him, and working with him.

We have a baptism this coming week. Lee Kealoha, and his Sister Tani Kealoha are gonna be baptized on Sunday the 25th at 6pm. They kept pushing the date back, and pushing it back, but this time I think its super sold. Sister Kealoha apologized for pushing the date back so much, and then said this Sunday for sure, and who ever comes, comes, and whoever doesn't come, doesn't come.

Then Next Saturday August 31st we will have another baptism of 9 year old, Valin Samuelson. He came to church on Sunday and was excited to see me.  Talking about Church. We got a call on Saturday night from the Bishopric to give a talk in Church the Next Day. They said that either we can speak by ourselves, and have a youth speaker + Elder Talatau + Me to speak. Or we could ask another set of missionaries to speak with us too, so instead of 20 minutes each, we would have 10 minutes each. So I called some Missionaries and found 2 Sister Missionaries who said they wanted to Talk with us. Our Topic was Hymn 293, "How other lives have touched ours for Good." This was my first time giving a talk in church on my mission, and Elder Talatau had only been out for 5 days and had to give a talk his first day at church. I connected the Topic to Missionary work, and ended up speaking for about 15 minutes. The spirit was there so much and so strong helping me to not freak out or be nervous, because seriously public speaking is like my biggest fear! And Guess what the Miracle that came out of it!? After the Talk a bunch of people came and shook my hand and said great job, and THEN here's the Miracle, we got 2 Referrals!! :) One of them is a 14 year old boy who wants to be baptized, who came to church, and his name is Dade. And the Other is a 9 year old girl, who the parents are less Active and the Grand-Parents want us to start teaching and eventually Baptize. So Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this week! I'm so grateful to be here in Laie! I love the work, and Love all of you so much. Have Great Weeks!

Love Elder  Durocher

This is a mountain apple, its kind of a mix between an apple and a pear, but it has a giant seed in the middle like a peach. They grow wild in the woods.

We went on a hike to go and pick Mountain Apples!

The group hiking

The Elders in My zone are funny! They scuddled from the church behind them, all the way to where they are in the picture

Me and my Companion Elder Talatau!