oh rats

September 21, 2014

Hey Family.  Nothing really interesting happened this week.  Well on thursday me and my companion went on splits with the zone leaders!  That wasn't to bad I went with one of the zl's and elder arorong went with the other one.  Then we slept at their apartment that night!  In the morning me and elder arorong went to McDonald's for breakfast before we went back to our area.  It is pretty sad that I am saying this about McDonald's, but it was really good!  I got some pancakes, sausage, and like an apple pie thing.  So I would say about a week ago we got a trap.  One of the elders in my apartment set it up and he just used the smallest piece of bread for bait and he put it on top of the cabinets.  It obviously wasn't working so I set it up and changed the bait up and moved the trap.  It sat there for like 2 days, then during a brown out which means there is no power I realized that the trap had set off.  So I got my flashlight and low and behold I caught a rat!!!  That is how its done!!!  That is really all that has happened this week!  I hope that everything is going well at home.  I love you all!

Love Elder Lott

I guess all of his trapping skills have paid off.

We received this letter in the mail today.  It was a nice surprise.  He also remembered and sent Ethan a birthday card.  That was so thoughtful of him.

We are so proud of him and it's exciting to hear about all of his adventures.

From this month's Ensign.  I am so thankful for the strength that I receive from the leaders of our church and the scriptures.

Right after I took this picture Ethan scored his first goal of the season.  A look of pure joy was on his face.  He was so excited.  He ran across the field and gave me a huge hug.  It's moments like this that make it all worth it. 

We enjoyed a night of bowling.

Gamers in training.  I had thought these darn things had broken.  I guess they only needed new batteries.   

Our driveway has become a giant roller rink.  My kids and all the neighbors have so much fun going off jumps.  I am amazed at how good Adam and Ethan have gotten.

 

Jaime being camera shy as she practices the piano. 

 We are so proud of all her hard work at school.  She loves the piano and loves to read.  She is a blessing in our home. 

He survived his first typhoon

It was a wonderful surprise to wake up this morning and have an email from Alex.  We were even able to email back and forth a few times and it was great.  He also sent pictures.  Yeah.  I told him I would send him a new, much nicer camera if he promised to send pics.  It worked. 

We are so thankful he is safe and doing well.  Our prayers have been answered.  Hopefully we will find out more details of his adventure next week.  Thank you again for all the love and support.

Sept 16, 2014

Hey family I am alive...haha!  It has been crazy past couple of days!  So this past saturday I had my first baptism.  It was one of our investigators, her name was Gloria De Leon.  She is a 69 year old lady and she doesn't understand english or tagalog!  So when I was baptizing her and trying to explain it to her she couldn't understand me!  Also I didn't want to hurt her because she was a fragile old lady...no offense!  Then this past sunday was the crazy day.  So we had a category 3 typhoon go over the mission!  Pretty crazy since I have never been in a hurricane or anything!  So here is what happened...It was obviously very rainy and windy!  So our power went out during the storm, which sucked!  So I went outside with my flashlight and right when I went outside a huge tree fell over right across the street from our apartment!  It fell over down into the middle of the road and it took out a fence and the power lines and then landed right in the middle of the road!!  That picture doesn't do justice.  I took that picture in the morning and it was after a lot of people had already been hacking at it.  The tree made it to our gate in front of our house, all the way across the road!  Then later that night while the storm was still going on we were inspecting our house and a room that we don't use was flooded about 7 inches!  The floor for that room is lower than all of the other floors in the house so it didn't get everywhere!  Then also our bathroom was flooded and it stunk really bad!!  The road was also a river, it was all under water.  Then on monday we were out of power all day until about 8 at night.  It was our p day so it was super hot and boring because we had to stay at our apartment all day!  It has been a crazy couple of days thats for sure!  I hope that everything is going good at home!  I love you all

Love Elder Lott

His apartment

 I am sure he is thrilled to have two fans.  Hopefully his companion has at least one.  Ha ha.  That's the cleanest I have ever seen his room.  I am sure it is because he doesn't have any stuff.  He did say he hadn't made his bed before he took the picture but was planning on doing it.  I am sure he added that just for me.

So apparently he bought a pocket knife.  I am not surprised.  I guess his companion cut his fingers.  Not exactly sure how, but I guess boys will be boys.  He says they have healed fine.

He said his bathroom was full of water and stunk pretty bad after the typhoon .

Elder Lott's first baptism

Aftermath of the typhoon.

Pictures from Elder Lott

 

 

 

 

This is why he is losing so much weight. 

 

 chicken and rice

 

 

 

At the Manila Temple

Go Longhorns 

 

 

 

Looks like corn to me??? 

 

 

 

Missionary training  Sept 14, 2014 

(on the right behind the sister missionaries) 

 

 

 

 Elder Lott and his companion Elder Arorong

 

 

 

  Alcala District Tuguegarao North Zone

(Alex's companion from the MTC is Elder Reynolds on the right folding his arms)

 

 

 

It is wonderful to see so many pictures of him.  A big thanks to his Mission President's wife. 

Hooper fun

Adam and Ethan enjoyed an Ogden Raptors game.

 

 

 

 

Ethan loves school.  His first official day was Aug 29.  He was so excited and was up and ready by 6:30 am.  I admit I was to nervous to let him ride the bus the first few days.  He wasn't to thrilled as he wanted to ride the bus so badly.  I did let him ride it home from school and he was so excited.  I met him the first day with the car and he told me to drive home fast so he could walk alone.  I guess he is growing up whether I am ready or not.  I even became one of those moms and cried after I dropped him off for his first day of school.  Then I went to the store and bought a bag of double stuffed mint Oreos and ate way more that I will admit to.  I am doing great now.  It's nice to have a few more hours to myself.  I am enjoying my morning three hour naps after the kids leave.  Ha Ha.  Ok, I have actually only taken a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching the fireworks with Ry.

 

  Hooper has a huge Labor Day celebration called Tomato Days.  Saturday night there was a town dinner followed by fireworks at fair grounds.  We have chosen the past few years to watch them in the cemetery.  The view is great and so it the company.  The kids enjoyed treats, homemade kettle corn and glow sticks.  The show was spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day morning waiting for the parade. 

 

 It's wonderful to live in a small town and to be able to drive two miles and show up for a parade only minutes before it starts.  The kids get tons of candy and its fun to see the great folks from Hooper.

The day continues with games, booths, food, fishing and later a rodeo.  I helped cut and give out free watermelon and helped in our Boy Scout booth selling taco salads.  It was fun to see the boys enjoy the games and rides.  Jaime volunteered all day with the kid games.  Mike followed the boys around and was a great sport.

Adam and Ethan as human sized hamsters.

 

 

Ethan was brave this year and made it to the top.  They both got a reward of a dollar. 

A ditch across from the fairgrounds had been filled with water and about 300 catfish.  The boys had fun trying to fish but didn't have any luck.  I guess the fish finally got smart and quit biting after being caught multiple times during the day.  (it was catch and release)

 

 

 

 

 

So this is what happens when you don't notice a cucumber for awhile.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it and it actually had little seeds and tasted great.  I cut it and snacked on it for about a week.  Yes, I promise it isn't a zucchini.

 

 

 

September 12th

The boys happily wore their jerseys to school to show their love towards Ryan.  Sweet little Ethan also wore his "Future Missionary" tag as well.  He was supporting both brothers.

 

 

 

 

 

When we got home from the cemetery I received the email informing us of the typhoon headed towards Alex.  It had been a hard day already with it being the 12th.  And to top it off  Mike's flight was canceled and he wasn't able to come home and had to stay another night in Texas.  Actually he had to drive from El Paso to Albuquerque, New Mexico, spend the night and then fly out the next morning.  He got to his hotel at around midnight.  Had he not taken that drive, he wouldn't have gotten home for three more days.  So, my emotions were already high.  Then to get news of the typhoon was almost all I could take.  The next morning I had a scripture come to mind.  It was, "Peace I give unto you ....  let not your heart be troubled or afraid."  I felt much better.  I was thankful for answered prayers.  I knew he was in the Lord's hands and would be safe.  It also helped that Alex emailed us late Friday night because they would most likely be without power for the next few days.  In his brief response he said he wasn't nervous about the typhoon.  Instead, he was excited about his 1st baptism.  It was wonderful to see him focusing on the positive and not the negative.  I was very proud of him.  I can't wait to hear how both went.  I also took comfort knowing that if he had really been in danger the baptism, only hours before would have been canceled. 

 

Thank you for all the prayers and support.  This evening I did receive word that all the missionaries are safe.  I can't wait to hear about all his new adventures.  

 

updates from Elder Lott

Sept 1, 2014

Hey family another week has passed.  I am doing good here in the philippines.  One thing for sure is that I like it much more than the mtc.  So this last week my companion didn't tell me that our support was for two weeks so i bought food and ate it in like one week and then I was like broke for a whole week.  It sounds like everyone is doing really good back home!  It sounds like hooper tomato days is going good!  Make sure that you go to a rodeo for me.  The work is going really well for me and my companion.  We have a baptism scheduled for like the 13th of september.  It is getting easier to talk to people but the language is still a big barrier.  This past sunday I spoke in church.  I lost my talk before church.  So I pretty much just picked a topic and studied it a little bit before church.  The elder that spoke before me took like 15 minutes so the bishop looked back to me and told me to take like 5 minutes.  In my mind I was like YES!!!  It went good.  I also have to teach the lesson next week for the sunday school class so that will be interesting.  I told you that last week I was broke so I was living off of pb and honey sandwiches so that is not the best diet.  So today I weighed myself and I have lost 20 pounds since I have been here in the philippines and I have only been here for like 2 and a half weeks!!!  The storms they have here a huge, rain wise!  When it rains it pours.  Me and an elder from my apartment were at a net shop and when we were done it was raining.  We didn't have our umbrellas so we walked back to our apartment in the rain.  By the time we got back to our apartment we were soaked.  We might as well of hopped in a pool..haha! I want to thank everyone for their emails and stuff.  I really enjoy them.  It sounds like adam and ethan are dominating in soccer and that is a good thing.  We are definately related haha.  So I will send pictures next week, hopefully.  Since my camera broke I need to look for another one.  I have already went through two cameras on my mission, crazy!  So I will hopefully get some next week!  I love you all so much

Love Elder Lott

Sept 7, 2014

 

Hey family!  There goes another week!  This saturday me and my companion have 2 baptisms.  I get the opportunity of baptizing one of the investigators!  This past sunday I taught in sunday school.  I taught all the youth because we don't have a whole lot in our ward.  It went good but I would rather not teach.  The work is going really well.  I don't have any pictures this week but I will get a new camera, sorry.  I hope everything is going good back home!  Make sure to keep me updated!  Love you all

Love,

Elder Lott

 

 

We are so proud he is doing well.  What a blessing it is that he gets to baptize someone already.   We hope he will start eating food so he doesn't keep losing weight and then his little brothers will out weigh him.  Also, I am pretty sure I sent him with an umbrella and a poncho.   

 

 

 

 

Also, I just got word a typhoon is headed his way so please keep the missionaries and people of the Philippines in your prayers. 




The typhoon hit there Sunday Sept 14.  I just received word that all missionaries are safe and have been accounted for.  What a relief.  We can't wait to hear from him and learn what it was like to go through a typhoon.  Thank you for all your prayers.