August 11, 2019
Sorry it's been awhile since the last post; life has been a bit crazy both here and in Seattle.
We have learned that Matthew will quickly send me lots of pictures if he wants something. When I told him in exchange for pictures he could have money for a guitar he quickly sent these:
We tried to tell him that we wanted them more spaced out, but ya know we will take what we can get.
At the end of July Matthew had another bike accident :( He tells us that even the mission president was worried about how many falls he's had (6 in 3 months!). In this last fall he buggered up his hand and cracked his helmet. So he had to go get a new helmet. He sent the picture below as a joke, but we told him seriously he might need to consider something that extreme if he keeps crashing. Hopefully he will get the hang of this bike thing soon.
We got another picture from the bribe. In this one he was showing off his nice coat. I'm glad he like it and says it helps when it rains. I told him after this picture he needs a haircut and we will add funds for that.
And here is the guitar. It's been damaged before and the music store told him it probably won't last long, but Matthew is excited to have it. Music is powerful so I understand why he would like to have this as an outlet. If this one doesn't last we may have to look into another option for him.
Matthew has been struggling with a little bit of homesickness and had his first couldn't come home for event when his Grandmother passed away on July 22nd. He had gotten to talk to her a little bit couple of weeks earlier on dad's birthday, but he was still sad he couldn't come home. We talked a lot to the mission president about how he was doing and all decided that it was better for Matthew to stay in Seattle. The mission president was also very understanding about how he wanted to be there and part of the family and let us have him on the phone with us during the family prayer, and he got to call and talk to dad a bit later in the afternoon. I think that seemed to help.
The weekend of the funeral was also the end of a transfer. We found out on July 29th that Matthew was getting a new companion, but he was staying in Bellevue. His new companion is Elder McNabb; he is from Las Vegas, NV. Last week he didn't tell us too much about him, but says that so far they seem to get along okay.
Matthew is really good about calling his dad every week to chat, and he using the chat feature to clue me in a little about what he's up to. It has been nice for Dave and Matthew to get to talk regularly, and the kids get to talk to him when he can.
I finally remembered to ask him for a scripture and need to keep reminding him to send them each week. This week he shared 2 Nephi 29:7-9. It talks about the witness of Christ on both nations and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I can't wait to hear Matthew expound more. I'm hoping he will start sharing why he chose the scripture and not just the scripture.
Until next week, keep our missionary in your prayers.
