BAD DOGGIE!!!!

Our dog Rylie hasn't been feeling well the last few days and has just been kinda moping around. She is not supposed to be on the furniture but I caught her in the act, as you can see from the incriminating photos I took. She does not look like she cares one bit about the rules. I'm glad that she's feeling better, but rules are rules!

Paradise

Here are some pictures of Ryan's new area, Alfonso (paradise) in the Philippines...The absolutely gorgeous mountainous jungle area where Ryan is now serving.Ryan feeding a cow (in the middle of nowhere) some yummy leaves that were just out of his reach.
The smallest volcano in the world(it's the first small mountain in the middle of the lake)

I guess all missionaries look alike :)

Last night we were at church for the Cub Scout Pack meeting and I took Rachel out of the meeting to get her a drink from the water fountain. The missionaries were standing in the hallway with their white shirts, ties, nametags and backpacks and Rachel saw them. She immediately pointed to the tall one and said "Ryan". I just started laughing. I had to explain to the missionaries that her big brother "Ryan" is also serving a mission and that we have shown her his picture quite a bit since she was just a baby so that she would know who he is when he comes home. I can't believe he has less than 6 months. I can't wait for him to come home. He left on his mission when Rachel was four months old and will come home to Jacob Isaac who will be four months old. Weird! Here's the picture she always sees of Ryan. It's my desktop picture.

Elder Edmund's New Area -District Leader

Hello everyone from ALFONSO!!!! actually right now i'm in manila again for my once a week therapy. Oh mom, it's everything i could have imagined. I'm in paradise!!!! We go tracting in the jungle, and teach people in houses made of bamboo and palm tree leaves!!! It's pure mountains, and we hike long trails to get to houses, and it's farms everywhere of corn, sweet potato, pineapple, rice, bananas, and even coffee trees. It's AMAZING!!!! There is this beautiful river in our area that we found the other day while we were tracting, and it's in the valley of some mountains. It has a huge deep pool that little kids were swimming in, and it's CLEAN!!!!!!!!! I'm soo excited everybody in case you couldn't tell. I love it out here. And yes, it's cold. at night it probably gets into the 60's. during the day it is in the lower to mid 70's maybe. IT FEELS GREAT!!! I'm gonna buy a long sleeve shirt for working in the evenings. It's gonna be really sweet. Ok in other news, I saw Elder Bednar last monday. i shook his hand too!!!! It was cool. We had a mission tour, and his "lesson" ... we had an open forum!!! We could ask him questions and stuff, and it was really cool. I never got to ask my question, but it got answered. It was soooo sweet!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway. I don't really know what else to say. It's fun, the branch loves me already, and umm....no i didn't find my camera. I bought a new "pirated" camera at greenhills earlier. It was much cheaper. I withdrew from my savings again. Sorry mom...i won't lose this camera. I bought a little cord to tie it to the inside of my bag, and it will never be stolen. I also tie that pocket of my backpack shut so it will make it a lot harder to get in. I'll realize that something is up before they get all the stuff untied. And i'll never put it in my pocket again either. that was my biggest mistake. ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!! this is my 4th camera now!!! All well. Thats life. I'll be able to send pics next week. I'll be taking a lot of them of all the sweet places this week. Including the volcano, and the lake, and that river i told you about, and the jungles that we walk through, and the farms, and all of that great stuff. I got some new pants made too. brown...they are pretty sweet. I got them brown so they would hide the mud. My shoes are already thrashed. we walk for MILES daily, and I LOVE IT!!! my knee gets sore, but MAN!!! I'm walking in the middle of a rainforest!!!!!!! it's sooo awesome. i can't even describe it well enough. It makes me want to buy a house there when I get older and go on vacation there all the time. Housing is cheap, so its a good possibility. Especially if i fly for Philippine Airlines. That would be so sweet!!! anyway. So we had a baptism last week. not a biggy for me since i never taught her before. My district here has 4 sisters and 4 elders in it. It's fun. they baptize a lot, so i always have interviews. Its a 2 hour bus ride to get from my area to the farthest area in my district. its about 3 hours to get to the zone leaders area. CRAZY!!! everything is so far away...thats why i have a cell phone now. We had interviews with president howard on monday too. He told me that i'm the elder he trusted and would turn to when he was in a rough spot. It was amazing, because it was prophecy of Pres. LeSueur fulfilled. he told me that a long time ago, that one day i would be the elder the president could turn to for help. I almost cried in the interview. It was so spiritual. I really like president Howard. In the interview, he said he would pay the fare for my therapy since he is the one that put me in the farthest area of the mission. My p-day is changed to thurs while i get therapy, and he told me when i'm here in manila to do something fun. So i asked him if i could go and get the camera. he told me yes of course. he said i could do whatever i wanted. I might try to go to see some of the sights if i can in the following weeks. the zoo, the war forts, etc. I'll ask him again if i can do that just to be sure. I'm so excited mom. I wish you could see the area. It's the most beautiful place i've ever seen. And the people are nicer. There just aren't nearly as many. It makes it harder, but it's a lot of fun. I love all of you guys so much and I miss you. tell sam i said thanks for emailing me. I can't believe shes off to BYU. I thought she was younger than that. And about the house i would have to say WAG which is tagalog for don't i dunno why...it's just weird. i don't want to come back to a different setting. It would just...well suck. Plus, you won't be close to me anymore when i live in sister morgans house at walnut. Those 2 houses aren't close at all. But eh...i'm not in charge :) Well, i dunno what else to say. I'm just living it up while i can. President mentioned some things that made me think that i won't be there very long. I'd like to finish my mission there, but i doubt it. I only have 6 months left...it could still happen. He wants to make me a Zone Leader is what he told me in the interview. I begged with him to let me stay for a little while in Alfonso. And i told him to try to make sure i stayed out of the city. i don't want to come back to manila...i've had enough experience there. Anyway....i think thats about it for this week. I don't really have anything else. I just want to send pics. I'm off to my therapy now....I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Ryan

Breaking Dawn

OH MY GOSH! What an awesome book! I predicted to a friend of mine after I finished the 3rd book that Bella would get pregnant. I guess being a mom of almost 8, I really wanted her character to be able to experience that human aspect. My friend and I discussed it and were just not quite sure how it could happen. Stephanie Meyer is amazing and didn't let me down! I won't say anymore for those of you who haven't read it yet. I can't wait for the movie in December. If you're planning on attending the opening night, let me know. Maybe we can get enough people to fill an entire theatre and have it all to ourselves.

So Blessed!!

We are so blessed! I sure love Sundays! I'm so grateful to have a day where we can just slow down and spend time together as a family away from the craziness of everyday life! Yesterday was just a quiet day of going to church and enjoying testimony meeting. I sang a special musical number right before the bearing of testimonies. It's a moving song called One by One. That was my testimony for the day. After church we went to a picnic at the park. Ashley works at Chick-fil-a and they had their work picnic yesterday. We debated whether or not to go since it was the Sabbath, but ultimately decided that we would not be breaking the Sabbath as no one was going to be doing any work and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet Ashley's employer. We weren't disappointed. He's a really nice man and has good christian values and very family oriented. I guess that's what makes him a great employer. We love that the restaurant is closed on Sundays too. Anyway, he spoke highly of Ashley and her great work ethic and told us that we were raising a wonderful daughter. He told Kayla that he would be looking forward to her coming to work for him as well. WAY TO GO ASHLEY! It's nice to see the fruits of your labors once in awhile. It makes it well worth the effort!