I am a child of God

Tonight as I was fixing dinner I noticed a splotch of lipstick smeared on the edge of the countertop. I wiped it off and then wondered where in the world it came from. Johnny said that he had found my tube of lipstick sitting on the glasstop stove and put it back in my purse. I instantly knew that Rachel had messed with it. I checked it out and sure enough my close to brand new, expensive, Mary Kay lipstick was not so new looking anymore. I was so frustrated and looked at Rachel and said in an exasperated tone "why can't you leave mommy's things alone?" She said (in an adorable voice I might add) "I sorry mommy" and then in her own exasperated tone of voice said "i a child of god and he sent me here" (the only part of the song that she knows and sings all the time). The timing was perfect!!! Johnny and I just both busted out laughing! Once again...she was saved!

More jungle pics from Alfonso

I received an email from Ryan this morning. He's doing amazing and said that they had 10 investigators at church last week, almost all of which have baptismal dates set! GO ELDER EDMUND & GREENIE COMPANION!! (Ryan hasn't told me his companion's name yet-he's training a greenie)

Ryan also said the following...

"i have some AMAZING pics for you. We found another waterfall. This one is maybe 10-15 feet tall. We climbed all over the place. Its BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! The pool that the water goes into is WAY deep. people go swimming there. Its super crystal clear. Aww....youre gonna love it. Its in a valley between 2 mountains, and the pathway to get down to it is WAY steep and muddy, and you pretty much have to rock climb down the cliff to get there. It was so fun!!!"

He also found a really tall bridge in the middle of nowhere and thought it looked kinda cool so he stopped and took some pics and then took a pic of a coconut tree in front of the setting sun.

He said..."ahhh....paradise, in tagalog, i would say something like "ANG GANDE NG PARAISO NITO!!!!" that just really describes how i feel about that area"

Cream on the bum-bum!

Anyone who knows Rachel, knows that the girl goes non-stop! It's one thing after another. She is so much like her big brother Ryan was when he was her age. She definitely keeps me running, which isn't so easy these last few weeks of my pregnancy, ugggh!! Her latest antic included a tube of Lansinoh ointment that I purchased in preparation for the new baby. I was practicing the piano and heard her yell something from her bedroom. I'm thinking..."wasn't she just on the couch watching Between the Lions"? Anyway, I headed to her bedroom only to find that she had locked the door. Not a good sign! I got a key and went in to find her standing in the baby's crib with the opened tube of Lansinoh and she was looking quite shiny and her room stunk to high heaven (hence the locked door-she likes to hide to poo-poo). She then wiped her fingers on her backside and said "i put cream on the bum-bum! First this cream is for soreness from breastfeeding (not for bottoms) and second she was wiping it on her pants, not her bare bum (which of course is a good thing considering she was poopy). It's a good thing that she is so darn cute and has the sweetest smile, cause i tell you what...that's the only thing that saved the girl, hahaha! I only wish I had thought to take a picture of her while she was so nice and shiny!

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