Owen and Laura's Wonderful Family

Hello Megan! How are you? We just finished feeding the Sisters. They are gearing up to have many more sisters enter the Denver North Mission. Sister Moore has only been out 5 weeks and Pres. Toombs told her that she was going to have to train. It is crazy fast. They talked about what a zoo the MTC is and how they can only have access to the gym every three days and how hard it is to find a washer to do laundry. They are teaching several less actives and were especially excited to get in the door at the Hill's after many tries. Attached are several pictures - Rachel without her braces,

Elizabeth at her Activity Day Tea

Jake's 18th birthday,

Jake as Lumiere - he was incredible - I can't believe how quickly he learned the role and was just a natural, he didn't miss a line or lyric. Their director, Ms. Stacks was so amazed. She went on and on about how she had never seen anyone transform so quickly and take on a role like this and make it their own. It was fun to watch him. He performed Tuesday and Wednesday and then Nick willed himself to be better and back for Thurs-Sat performances. Many people told me that they preferred Jake and I had to agree but the mob scene was in need of Jake and they really missed him so for the good of the show, it was good he went back. I helped with dinner last night and enjoyed the week with the performances. It was Valentines Day this week so that means - you guessed it - American Girl Tea! We did it up right again - they made matching headbands, saw and touched primary sources/artifacts/antiques from each of the decades that the dolls would have lived in and had high tea. It was fun but always exhausting. Dad and Tara's husband came at the end and helped Tara and I set up the bookfair so that we would be ready for wishlists on Tuesday. We get Monday off - President's Day!!! Yeah!!! Well, Dad doesn't get it off and has to fly our to Chicago tomorrow but the rest of us get to sleep in! We need it. Elizabeth has been sick and everyone is exhausted. Earlier in the week, Heather subbed for me so that I could teach 6-7th graders to create Animoto and iMovies. I have a huge report to turn in and grades were due on Friday, Teacher Appreciation is coming up and I feel like I am drowning! I think I may be having a nervous breakdown. :) This time of year always seems to be more crazy than anything - of course I think that of just about every time of year at this point. Elizabeth and Villate hosted a tea yesterday for the Activity Day Girls - I tried to talk them out of a tea but Villate has a huge collection of tea cups and they insisted on having herbal tea. They sent out a message asking if anyone had a problem with the herbal tea and no one did - just me. I feel like the scriptures say tea and they don't make exceptions for herbal. Anyway, this is the second time that I have been outvoted for a tea church activity. She had a great time and their little tea was very fancy. Alice went skiing and her first run down the mountain, she tore her ACL in both knees and has to have surgery. We took dinner over last week and I hope she is ok. I can't wait to hear about you week. The sisters seemed to think there was talk of possibly extending missions in the near future. Are you hearing anything like that? We love you! Love, Mom Dear sister Israelsen (megan), I still have to get used to that title. Well, this week was all about Jake in many ways. I think we told you that he was given the Roll of Lumier. however, on monday it looked like Nick (the original Lumier) was out of the Hospital and ready to back to his roll. so Jake did the first performance, which was for any teacher that wanted to come for free. Essentially, it was the last dress rehursal. so we all decided to go. He did such a good job that the director decided the next day that he was going to do the opening show. Which made Nick a little upset. So we changed our seats for Thurday and went again on Wednesday for the "true" opening. He did great! Again! Rachel has been ushering the whole week, so she is tired of the show by Saturday. It cost $10.50 per show so we didnt go any of the other nights but we heard that it was fantastic. I guess Ms. Stacks (the director) said to Mom that she should have had jake in the program earlier. She had no real idea that he could be such a good actor with a wonderful voice. Seminary is getting tough. the kids all show up really late, around 6:10 most of the time and it is getting harder and harder to get them going or involved in the lessons. I call these morning the "Dog days" of seminary because it is just a long time between new years and the next break (spring break). Oh well, enough about us. How are you feeling? Have you had any more problems with the dairy stuff? Is Money OK? How are your investigators? We just had dinner with the sisters here and they told us that they are going to triple the sisters here within the next couple of months. They should be up to 60 by May or something like that. In fact, I read an article the other day that said that the Utah Universities were worried about the next 2 years because their enrollment looks like it will go way down. So they were going to offer out of state students discounted tuition to try to get them to come to Utah for school. Of couse, it looks like they will have the opposite problem in 2 or 3 years where they will have a much higher enrollment when missionaries come home at a faster rate. One of our sisters is from Sacramento, CA and the other is from Jacksonville, FL. They were both supprised to be called to Denver. Especially, the one from FL, she did not want to go anywhere cold. We told her where you were serving and she said she was envious of you because she wanted to go some place that was not cold. I didnt have the heart to tell her how cold Holland could be. Mom has been having a really hard time with administration about the China trip that it almost got cancelled last week. I was all for it, because it was causing so many problems for you mom. I was ready to cancell and take the money that we saved to go on our own vacation. But I guess that it was saved at the last moment and we are still going. I hope your mother is still sain when this is all done. I sure LOVE you and miss you. Do your best, I know we can count on you to be the best representative of Christ. I have always looked up to you as example of determination and high standards. Thank you for that example. Love you, Dad

Friday night we went to the Pops Concert at Legacy High School. The seniors decided to dress in thrift store outfits and the sophomores dressed like spies. Rachel and Jake were very good! Check out the picture of Jake in his camo pants and velvet jacket. They finished the night off with a tribute to Queen with all of the kids standing around the auditorium stomping and clapping to we will we will stomp you and then into the rest of the Queen songs finially ending the the bohemian rhapsody! very good! Dad had screaming girls sitting next to him - he wasn't so thrilled.

Rachel had a swimming meet on Thursday and cut time off all of her events. She rocks at the backstroke! Yesterday, Jake had a swimming meet and broke his times - now the fastest time for a 200 free for Northglen! Beat his time in 100 breaststroke by 2 seconds, 3 seconds better in 200 free and a state time! And he swam his 100 fly at 59 seconds - 4 seconds faster than last time! I

took the afternoon off on Wednesday and Loralee and I went down to the Art Museum to the Van Gogh exhibit - wonderful and thought of Megan the whole time with all of his art and stories of his life living in the Netherlands and Holland. Jake and Rachel sang in church today. Rachel was supposed to sing with Rebekah but she got sick so she begged Jake and he stepped in at the last minute. They sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". They were wonderful!