¡Hola!
Like I said last week, I got transferred. I am now living in "Charleston." We actually live in a place called Ladston, but our area is North Charleston. Hermana Berry is awesome! She is super fun. This is her last transfer, so I am getting another companion in 6 weeks. The question is, will I stay here or get transfered?😂Hermana Berry said that I will most likely stay so the area doesn't have to be whitewashed, but I am not going to get in that mindset again😅.
I said goodbye to Sister Robinson, but it isn't goodbye yet. I will see her on Tuesday because we are having a huge Christmas Zone Conference with three big zones. Pretty much all the missionaries along the coast of South Carolina are gathering together in a church building in Charleston. It is going to be awesome! I am so excited. At transfers I met Sister Robinson's other trainee. Her name is Sister Standard. She is super funny, and she is in my new zone. Sister Robinson said that both of her babies are going to be in Charleston (it is mission lingo)😂.
Hermana Berry and I live in a gated community of apartments. Our Zone Leaders live here too. It is super cute. We have a pretty nice gym. I am looking forward to having real workouts in the morning. I need to get in shape. We also have a pond near us. Hermana Berry said that the first week she was here she saw an alligator. I am crossing my fingers now. We went to the pond and saw two turtles. One big one and a tiny one. One of the elders told us he hopped the fence, picked up the big one, and took a picture. Elders are crazy!
On Saturday night Hermana Berry and I got a phone call from our Zone Leaders. They told us that we needed to come look at our car. We come out and look at it. It was covered in something like spray paint. Turns out the elders did it, not hard to figure that out. Hermana Berry saw them hiding and made them come over. It was super funny😂! I was laughing so hard. One of them got liquid snow from his mom and they wanted to try it out. So they thought, why not the sisters' car. We are going to have to wash our car now.
Earlier that day we left the church and there was a Chik-Fil-A cup on our car. We received a text from the elders telling us his name was Henry. (We share a church building with lots of elders. And my district is all elders, but Hermana Berry and I) I shook the cup and nothing was in it, so I threw it away in our garbage. At church we were talking to the elders and how I threw it away. One of them was surprised and that scared me a little. I decided I was going to rummage through our trash and take it out. I looked in the straw hole and lo and behold there is a gecko😂. I felt soooooo bad. It looked terrified. I took off the lid and we took it outside. I put it on the ground and it scampered out. Then I decided I wanted to hold it. Right when I picked it up, a dog came over and was right there. It would've eaten it! Henry latched onto my finger. It was super cute.😍He finally let go and went into a bush. I am a little "mad" at the elder but I got to hold an adorable gecko.
We went to the Hernandez's house yesterday (they are less active trying to become active) . We taught them the plan of salvation in english! The kids don't speak Spanish, but they understand it so we opted for english. They are such a great family. I love them already after only meeting them once. Hermana Berry gave the kids a sticker and their daughter Bella put it on her forehead. We also went over to Johnny's house. He is someone Hermana Berry and I are teaching. Johnny and Sandra are awesome! I love them so much! Apparently they fed Hermana Berry and Hansen (prev. comp.) every time they went over for a lesson. We had Tilapia, rice, ensalada, avocados, and lemonade. It was muy delicioso! We hadn't had dinner yet, so it hit the spot.
At the end, I asked if I could take a photo. They said yes, so we got all situated for it. I was going to say cheese but thought well cheese is queso in Spanish so... I'll say that. I said queso and took a picture. They all burst out laughing. We talked about why we say cheese (whiskey for them) instead of queso. Your mouth goes into an "o" shape, and not an "e" shape. Needless to say I'm stupid. We took a queso picture and it looks pretty funny.
The gift of tongues is real! Just because it is real doesn't mean it comes fast. It was really neat at church yesterday. I didn't understand a lot, but I felt the spirit so much. To be honest, learning Spanish isn't easy. I feel like I don't accomplish much during my studies, but as Hermana Berry tells me it comes line upon line. I just have to have patience and work hard. Practice makes permanent. I just finished reading the Book of Mormon on Saturday! In Moroni 10 it talks about spiritual gifts, verses 8,15, and 17, say, "(8) And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them. (15) And again, to another, all kinds of tongues; (17) And all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will." These scriptures really stood out to me because I am learning how to speak Spanish. I am really hoping it is His will. But if it's not, I am going to keep working hard and try my best. President Nelson said, "God loves effort!" Keep putting in your all!
¡Yo quiero ellos!
Here are some pictures!:
3-4. Last photos with Sister Robinson
Merry Christmas and Lotts of Joy in 2020
Though it has been an unusual year, we still have so much to be thankful for. When times are hard, we should try to focus on that which truly matters- family, friends, and our faith. I pray we can all look for the miracles from above and “learn to dance in the rain”, especially when times are uncertain
With the “shut-down” in spring we took advantage of our kids not being able to go to friends or participate in sports and got some good use out of them with various projects around the house. We called it “family fun time “, as we made them help us. (I know we are not the only parents who have a little child labor going on.) We decided to expand our chicken coop into a chicken mansion, that now can double as a “man cave” for Mike or the boys. (Ok it is not that big, but now it has an actual door and we do not have to crawl into it to get eggs.) We had fun playing games together and eating a lot of treats. We went camping and had cook outs in our back yard. We really did enjoy the simple life and all the time we had together. (Ok, Mike and I did- the boys were bored and missed their friends.)
Mike and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in February. I really felt old when it was mentioned that this is the silver anniversary. Yikes, but I do have the gray hairs to go with it. Ha ha. Mike and I had planned to celebrate with a trip to Europe in April. I am sure everyone can tell how that ended. We did end up getting takeout on the day of our trip and ate it in the back of our car, which totally made up for our trip. Not really, but Oh well. I realize we weren’t the only ones who had plans change and so we just looked on the bright side. We will look forward to going in a few years. Hopefully things will calm down in the world and we don’t have to wait till our 50th- ha ha.
During the spring, Adam and Ethan spent a lot of time doing school work at home. Little did they know none of it really mattered and it was mostly “busy work”. Of course I didn’t tell them, as I was attending school and needed them to stay busy so I could study. The boys also spent a lot of time fishing. They made sure to use plenty of hand sanitizer, stand 6 feet from each other, and wear their masks so the fish they caught were not put at risk. And too many times I had to tell them they couldn’t keep their disgusting worms in my fridge; they still can’t understand why?
Ethan is 12 and continues to keep us entertained. With nowhere to go, we decided to have some fun with Ethan’s quick growing hair. One week during the spring he had a mohawk and then later I shaved his initials on each side of his head. On Easter we told him we would pay him $14 if he would let us shave him bald. All of us took turns shaving his head; it was hilarious. At one point he looked like an old man with a receding hair line. Once totally bald, Adam gave him the name of “Waldo the Baldo”. Ethan did not appreciate this name, but I thought it was funny as well and joined in the fun. Let’s just say Ethan was not a fan of being bald and so he wore a hat until it grew in. When his hat was off, I had fun rubbing his fuzzy head. I wasn’t thinking and I should have rethought the timing of his baldness because we had family pictures a month later; for some reason his hair didn’t grow back as quickly as it normally does. Woops. In September Ethan ended up breaking his ankle playing a game at school and was in a cast for the next 2 months. He got really good at crawling up our stairs. He also had fun getting pampered and being able to ride a knee scooter everywhere. He somehow couldn’t do chores because it was too hard, but he still managed to do the things he found fun. One day I got a call from the school that he was playing goalie (on his knees) and got kneed in the face. Silly boy! I am so glad he didn’t lose any teeth. Ethan was so happy the day his cast came off and he could finally take a shower again and wear two shoes. We were so happy he could finally wash his foot. Boy did it stink. I had gone through tons of Lysol, not for covid reasons, but because I would actually spray down his foot so it didn’t stink. On a funny note, someone had lent us a walking boot and they didn’t end up wanting it back because the stink wouldn’t come out.
Adam is 14. For some reason boys today think mullets look good; they didn’t look good 20 years ago and they still don’t. Adam couldn’t understand why we would let Ethan have crazy hair styles and not him. That’s the joy of being a parent, we don’t always need a reason. Ha ha. Well, we finally gave in and let him use his hard-earned money to get a perm. Now we call him “Poodle Boy.” I guess its fair game because he made fun of Ethan’s baldness. The boys have really wanted a new dog. Now we don’t have to get them one as we have a poodle. Ha ha. Adam still eats us out of house and home. It’s crazy that when he is finished with dinner, he clears off his plate and heads straight to the panty for a snack. The lucky boy is still a stick; we are all jealous he can eat his weight in food and never gain an ounce. Adam was so excited when the orthodontist’s office was able to reopen so he could finally get his braces off. Now if he will just quit breaking his retainer. He also begged us to get him contacts and promised to wear them- he doesn’t. Darn kids. Adam rarely gives me hug (I guess it’s the age) and I offered to pay him to kiss me on the cheek. He declined. We can pay him to eat the grosses things, but no kiss on the cheek for his mom. I am insulted. JK. I am sad to be the only girl in the Lott home again, but Adam still screams like a girl and so I am still good, I guess. Ha ha.
I picked Jaime up from BYU-Idaho in April after the semester was done for her. I was in school at the same time and worked ahead to finish a week early. She ended up turning in her last final 2 minutes before it was done. Crazy girl. She’s lucky the internet didn’t go down. In June, Jaime surprised us by deciding to serve a mission for our church. She received her call to South Carolina, Columbia- Spanish speaking. She participated in the “in- home” MTC. It was very special to be able to witness her love of the gospel increase and be able to see her learn to speak Spanish. Currently she has been in South Carolina for seven weeks. She loves it there. It is fun to talk to her weekly and see the joy she is experiencing as she brings others to Christ. We miss her but know she is where she is needed. It has been wonderful that with preparing for a mission she finally cleaned her room. I love to go into it and see that is it is still clean. She took a ton clothes with her. We had to weigh her bags multiple times to get them to the 50 lb. limit. Since carry on bags do not have a limit, she loaded them up. We warned her to take less, but she wouldn’t listen. She later told me she had bruises on her arms from her carry-on bags. She should have listened to her parents. And its too bad she couldn’t have stuffed her cats and taken them. Before she left, I walked in on Jaime holding down Ethan and plucking his eye brows out. It was so funny. Hopefully she enjoyed it as I am sure it’s the last time she will be stronger than him; he will probably grow a ton while she is gone. Ethan is already counting the years till she gets back. Slow down buddy- I am not ready for it to be 2022 yet!!
Ryan would be 22 this year. He has been gone for 8 ½ years now. Not a day goes by that we don’t miss him. We know he is still a part of our family and that he watches us from above. I am so thankful that families can be together forever. I take comfort knowing this and am thankful for all I have learned through this trial.
Alex and Kelsie still live up in Logan and are staying busy with work and school. Kelsie is currently taking a few classes online. We enjoy spending time with them. Alex has taken Adam frog hunting a few times. Nothing makes me prouder than for them to surprise me with a fridge full of frog legs. Alex actually cooked them up for us; I don’t know if I should admit to the fact that I have tasted frog legs. They weren’t too bad considering he used a lot of breading and spices on them and so I really couldn’t taste them. That was a one-time thing and I do not want to try them again. There is a huge black vein in them that is just gross; little did I know that Kermit and his buddies suffer from varicose veins. Ha ha. As if the big veins weren’t gross enough, the boys left the guts in our garbage can in the heat of the summer. The smell!!! We ended up having to move the garbage away from the house and spray it out after it was emptied.
I am still in school, but not for much longer- I have senioritis!!! I am thrilled I only have one more semester and will be done in April. This month I started an internship with the United Way. I am working with new moms and educating them about their babies. I was looking forward to my senior trip of going to Disneyland when I graduate. Sadly, the most magical place on earth is still closed and so it doesn’t look like that will be happening next year as well. Oh well. I guess I will just watch a lot of Disney movies and call it good for now. And, I imagine I will graduate virtually, but that’s ok as well. I am just so excited to be done and to finally be able to sleep in and watch Hallmark movies again all day while eating bon bons.
Mike has been working from home since March. He didn’t join in the fun of trying new hairs styles like the boys. We tried to convince him to have permed mullet, but he refused. I am also trying to convince him that his work attire now is business casual, as I am tired of seeing him in the same sweats and t-shirt day after day. Just kidding, ok, I am not kidding. It has been nice to have him around more- especially to kill spiders and reach things for me.
Despite changes to our plans, we have had a
wonderful year. My heart breaks for all
those who are suffering, and my prayers are with them. I hope we can all show gratitude for our blessings
by “paying it forward” to help those in need.
We also need to make sure to acknowledge Him who makes all these
blessings possible. I am so thankful for
my Savior. He is the reason for the
season. He is the reason we can be happy
all year long no matter what trials and hardships come our way.
Merry Christmas and hopefully to a mask-free New Year,
Love the Lotts
Jaime’s email: Jaime.lott@missionary.org
