{For 18 months – Jan ’17 to
Jul ’18 – I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to
Cochabamba, Bolivia. Our letter titles are taken from a list of family
sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with
her. You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}
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Spa day at camp:
Monday afternoon and all day we had our 24th Pioneer Celebration... the ONLY picture I took of the whole day; shame on me. Your middle and youngest brothers in the hamster balls before all 24 were blown up and taken over by the other kids:
This was posted by Alex on Insta:
And then, there was a happening at the Madsen house. It looks like a garage sale...
But no, is that an actual CLEAN GARAGE?!?!?!?!
Hmmm...
Oh, I get it. It's just pure awesomeness.
So Grandpa Levie came early for the Levie & Passey Reunions and put this epoxy floor in for us!
On Thursday, we had just an adult only Levie night. We met at Aaron & Kiri's and made the rockets for the Passey reunion to be shot out of Kimmy & Todd's cannon. All my siblings were here.
At the Passey reunion the next day we shot the rockets for the kids after they wrote their names on them and decorated if they wanted to:
then shot candy out of it later on. Guess if that was a hit.
The big kids got together to play games in their usual circle. =)
The program started. There were 51 Levies, 31 other Passeys, between my Aunt Helen & Aunt Jana's kids. They all asked about you, and I need to post your blog address on the Passey Family FB page.
We had lots of Talents shared both nights, including Jana & her kids singing Families Can Be Together Forever en Portugues.
We tried this cool silhouette picture with just the Levies:
Then came down on the hill:
And crazy:
All of these reunion ones are taken with the nice camera, so it's not fitting very many on an email!
And the whole Passey Clan:
And crazy:
During SS today, Brother Christensen talked about his friend who was in a car accident on his way to get married up in Utah. He was ejected from the car, while wearing his seat belt, broke his neck, and was a quadriplegic, losing all movement in everything, except one shoulder, a bicep, and a hand on the other side. The Dr. tried to prepare him by telling him that he would never walk, dress himself, get married, have children. When Brother Christensen met with him for lunch, he had flown to the city himself, checked into a hotel, dressed himself, was married, and had 2 children. Because of his handicaps, he was determined to work through the adversity and make it happen for himself, but nothing he did was easy. He asked him if he would change what happened to him, and he said he wouldn't change a single thing. Then he sent him a prepared statement he made about it. I took a picture of the overhead screen during class:
He also had a friend who was unhappy in his marriage, and consequently started a whole bunch of hobbies out of the house on the side, and got so into mountain climbing, that he paid $60,000 to climb Everest. While he was up there, he became blind at the very last ascent, so while he waited at camp, all the others went to the top, but got caught in a blizzard, and didn't come down when they said they would. When some of them passed by on the way down, he asked if he could follow them, and they hooked him up to them, but it was the blind leading the blind. When they got to the next ridge down, he fell face down, and froze that way, and they had to leave him for dead, because no one can haul another person down or carry anyone. 22 people had already passed away on their expedition. The next morning, he awoke, surprised to find his arms frozen out in front of him the way he had fallen, so the campers gave him fluids and put him in a sleeping bag, but left him for dead again. He surprised them by awaking in time to catch an emergency helicopter ride, where the pilot set a world record for flying that high to get him, and he was brought to safety, losing all his toes and one foot, all his fingers, and his face and part of his skull. He had reconstructive surgery to create a flipper on one hand so he could do some things for himself, and on his face to try to salvage what they could. Brother Christensen asked him, too, if he would change what happened, and he also said he wouldn't change anything because of the introspection he gained and the way his perspective on his life changed. His priorities completely changed, but he forgot to tell us if the guy's marriage got better. I hope so!
It's hard to remember to be grateful for our trials while we're going through them, but it's just like this last story, of the family who was moving across Africa in a large truck and they came to a series of bridges that had "3T" printed on them, signifying that the bridge could only hold 3 tons. The husband told the wife that they needed to lighten their load as much as they could, but then the truck itself weighed much more than 3 tons, so they had to get out and fell trees, and strengthen the bridge and build it up so it could hold their truck. They did it in succession for each bridge they came to. I can see how Heavenly Father works this way in our lives. It's not always the load that's taken from us, but we have to strengthen the bridge instead, to make it through our trial. We just have to hedge up our defenses, or strengthen our muscles, to handle what is given to us.
Little girl, I love you so much. Have a wonderful week!!! You're the best ever. =) Love, Mom
And the meme of the week:
