When I received Nadira's letter a few days ago, she asked me if I could send her a Book of Mormon study guide book to help her understand the Book of Mormon a bit more. My heart was excited to help. Today Mika and I went out to find a few things that would help her. I prayed constantly to know by the Holy Spirit if there is anything else that she would need in helping her on her mission. The feeling of winter clothes for PDays was the first thought in my mind. As Mika and I went to Walmart tonight, I walked around looking to see if anything catches my eyes to add into Dira's box. Buy warm socks and sweat pants came to mind. I wanted to make sure I got the right size. So I called the only person who knows Dira best, her mom Jenny. As I talked with her, my thoughts were to ask Jenny if Dira had any sweat pants to keep her warm for the winter. She said no and kindly told me that it would be great for her to have during these chilly days. It's been really cold and snowy in Spring Creek, so getting her warm sweat pants will definitely keep her nice and toasty this winter. I than asked for her size and she said Medium or large. I thought perfect because those were the sizes I grabbed off the shelf. Recently Dira told her mom that she gained about 15 pounds on her mission, because they've been fed really well. I was very happy to hear that Dira has been taken care of by the wonderful members of Spring Creek. Being the caring and worrysome lady that I am, I bought one of each, just to make sure it fits right and comfortably for her.

I prayed again after I talked with Jenny, asking for more help and inspirations. Than it hit me, the thought of get Dira more writing materials.

I rushed to the stationary area to get paper, envelops, pens, pencils and sticky notes for her studies. The feeling was good and I was very happy with the items I got. Mika and I also stopped at Deseret Books to see if there is anything else I could get for Dira. I grabbed the seminary Book of Mormon study guide to add to the other Book of Mormon church books I already had at home to help her in her studies. The more I walked around the store the more I was feeling excited to put this package together for Sister Tupuola. Now I know how my mom felt whenever she would put a package together for my brother and cousins when they were serving a mission. 

I love that feeling of helping someone I know. My heart is over joyed right now. We finally arrived home and I began putting everything together for Dira. I had a few candies in my snack container and thought about making a little Holiday treat bag for Dira and Sister Merrick. I hope they'll like it. I got it all boxed up and ready to go. This has been one of my favorite moment, to do a little something for a loved one. I pray all is well for my niece and that the angels will protect her and this box as it goes out to Nevada tomorrow. Thank you Lord for this opportunity and blessing.

Have a great day everyone!!

Jay

Oh boy I love to receive a box in the mail. When its an Influenster box its even better. So I'm in the Pure Leaf Matcha Tea VoxBox, which I'm totally excited to test and give my thoughts online and on the app. Well let the warm nights with Japanese Tea begin!!

Alright so this last week was fun we had a BBQ at the beach on Monday which was nice plenty food which was good! (And of course we didn't swim lol) But yup I had an amazing time with a family that seem super ready to be baptized and I'm so happy to be apart of this awesome work! But yeah anyways we also had a good time doing a service at a hotel on Thanksgivings! So that was nice but yeah I feel the Lord has prepared plenty people on this island! I am happy to be here and of course we got all the Poly's here so thats been chill! Anyways much love to all my fam and friends!

Ed Monjar

Cayson and Katie

Love Sister Tupuola :) John 8:12

This morning I woke up to seeing the lights sky reflection beaming in my room with an Reddish orange yellow tint that got me a bit scared. At first I thought there was a fire near by or someone is shinning a really bright light in our apartment complex. So being a bit startled, I wanted to check whats going on outside.
Seriously, it really it didn't look like the typical bright light I'm use to seeing when I wake in the morning. So the first thing that I did was got dressed to go out to see whats the deal. As I walked outside, my eyes was surprised with a gorgeous and stunning looking grey clouds that was lit with the a interesting red orange yellow hue from the sun rays. The photos I took didn't really make it look spooky just more pretty.  But it kind of reminded me of Independence Day movie when the aliens was moving through the sky in a thick dark grey clouds with the fiery reddish orange yellow glow. Thats the best way for me to describe what I witness this morning. As if it was a sign of trouble coming to this earth or something dramatic. Some of my photos turned out purple or sometimes blue tint in the sky. I did not do any filters or edits, it was straight from the camera. Anyways, I just thought to post my thoughts since I don't always see the cool & mysterious things of nature come to light often. Have a great day everyone! Be safe!

After Mika and I visited the Harry Potter Christmas Wizarding World village a few days ago, We saw a few things that we wanted to get for Mika's sister Liz. Lets just say Liz is a big time Harry Potter fanatic! She's in the House Hufflepuff and she's very proud of that. She read all the books and even her children read it too. If Liz had it her way, her whole house would be design in a Harry Potter fashion. And i'm very serious about that!?! She's a die hard fan and whit that being said, we wanted to make her Thanksgiving, Birthday and Christmas a Hogwarts surprise. Mika bought a few cool wand pens and Christmas Hogwarts ornaments at the Wizarding World village at the South Town mall. We also stopped at the Fashion place mall where I found a ton of cool things to add to her Hogwarts box. There was a Hufflepuff Quiditch shirt and a Hufflepuff House shirt that I found at Hottopic which also came with a Mischief Manage hand bag for her to use whenever she needs to put things in it. Once we got a few other things, we went home and packed up her things to send out to her on Monday November 20. I wrote a hand written letter that was address to her in Calligraphy and stamped it with red wax and my initial sealing stamp. Everything was ready to go. Monday came and I had a few minutes to spare from catering to mail it out so that she can get it before Thanksgiving.

Anxiously waiting for the box arrival to Liz, Mika kept on bugging me to see where the package is through the tracking number and how far is it from her home in Virginia. To be honest, my husband was more excited about this package than me. I was trying to tell him to chill it will get there. After a few days of waiting, it was arrival day and the hours felt like a life time. I got the notification that the package arrived but no response from his sister Liz. Mika got worried that we sent it to the wrong address or someone took the package when no one was looking. So to calm his nerves, i asked her two eldest daughters Anessa and Alema if they've been home today and if the received a package from the mail man. It was about 6 almost 7pm when they snap chatted me back and said that it came in and that their mom was literally SHAKING with excitement. they took some photos and send me a video on snapchat that she was extremely happy and excited to receive our Hogwarts Mystery Box. I wished that I recorded it, but you know how Snapchat is...a quick snap and its gone. Oh well its ok. So her are a few photos of her receiving her box and wearing it on Thanksgiving day. I'm glad that she loved the shirts and it fit perfectly. #grateful

I do love coming home to find a box waiting to be opened by me!?! today after work I came home to find a big box on my door steps. I thought to myself, I wasn't expecting anything from the mail. So i looked at the sender and low and behold it was from Colourpop. They send me a few items from the Holiday 2017 collections and a few single shadows. It definitely felt like Christmas and my birthday all in one day! Thanks Colourpop for sending a bunch of gorgeous colors eye shadows and palette to me. You guys are awesome. Now I have to figure out where to put them since I don't have much room in my makeup case!?! Its all good i'll make room somewhere. Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Wierd feeling

Jack Martindale

Fire Spinning

Last week we ate dinner at a less actives home. The Fordins. We were able to witness their son spin fire who is not a member of the church! He was really good!

Not everyday a couple can say that they make a meal together. It's usually one or the other. But tonight was one of those nice night when my husband and I wanted to make a meal together. Earlier today, Mika and I went food shopping to get a few things for our place. As we were walking around the store, both our eyes went straight for the meat section and both said out loud, "ooh stakes!" We looked at each other sort of giggling and head over to the section where the Ribeye stakes were. I said to Mika as he was looking through the packages of stakes. " That's too funny we thought the same thing...stakes. We definitely have been married way too long to think the same!?!" He smiled and agreed with me as he picked out the stakes for our dinner. We both thought about what we already had at home to cook and what else we needed to get to complete our meal. after going through the store a few times to pick up everything we need. We checked out and headed home. My stomach was grumbling just thinking about dinner. We've arrived home and began to get things ready and prepped to make dinner. I started on making the garlic butter roasted potatoes. Once that was chopped, oiled, seasoned and placed it on a sheet pan, I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. As the potatoes were cooking, I usually would start cooking my carrots around the 12 minutes mark left of the potato cooking time. I would put 1 cup of baby carrots and 1 cup of water into a sauce pan and let that cook for 12-14 minutes until slightly soft. As the carrots are cooked to the preference I want, I would drain it, put it back into the pan, put on low heat and add 2 table spoon of fresh honey, 3 table of brown sugar and 1 cup of unsalted butter. Cook the carrots until the glaze is nice and caramelized.  Next I rinsed and cut the asparagus put it a small pan with a 1/2 cup of water and a pinch of salt, sort it to medium heat to cook for 10 minutes.  Now all the side dishes are cooked and done within 40 minutes, we can get the Ribeye stakes prepped. Which I'm glad that Mika usually cook the stakes. Marinate the ribeyes in any beef or stake rubs for 40 minutes. Prep the frying pan on medium to high heat. Cook the stakes 3 minutes on each side. My husband likes to cook it with butter and minced garlic to give it its own carmelized glaze. After each side of the stakes has been cooked, take it out of the pan, put it in foil, wrap it up, also wrap it in a towel for it to finish cooking to perfection for 5 minutes. Your meal is done, plate it up and enjoy.

That was our little simple process of cooking our yummy Ribeye stake meal tonight and I hope to make more yummy meal with Mika in the near future.

Happy eating everyone!!

Mika and I visited the South Town mall in sandy tonight to see the new Holiday tour of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I do enjoy anything Harry Potter and it was well worth the long wait. When you visit the mall, the Harry Potter setup is in the center of the mall on the lower level. You need to wait in line to get in. We came around 5:50 pm and there was already a line. Mika and I waited for about 30 minutes before entered into the small version of Daigon Alley. They had Olivanders Wands where I went in to choose a wand for myself. It was mysterious and low lighted vibe that got me very excited to see all the wand boxes. Once I got my Serious Black wand, i walked around the small alley to browser through there merchandise. I got a Slytherine scarf for my sister and Mika bought a few little things for his sister Liz, whose a huge Harry Potter Fan. It was a nice little experience. Some of the things are a bit pricey, so if you're on a budget this might not be something you would want to go. But if you just want to look around, its best to look around the outside because its about the same on the inside of Daigon alley. I'm glad to went and had a simple experience of the Wizarding world until I go to Universal Studios to the Big and real Harry Potter World. Happy Holidays everyone!!