have peace and believe...

hAvE pEaCe AnD BeLiEvE...this weekend greg and i took a last minute trip to yellowstone park.  our family as well as extended family have a long tradition of visiting the park.  we have many memories of family trips spent looking for wildlife and enjoying the scenery.  many of the family went to the cemetery in bern to visit travis's grave, but we chose to go north to a place that travis loved and hopefully see some bear in his honor.  there is a peace that our family feels when we are in yellowstone.  the same peace that we feel when we remember travis.  tate has mentioned many times that he feels his presence with him on his mission...helping him and guiding him.  we recently have had an experience as a family that is a tender mercy.  we know that travis is near and can feel the peace that that brings us. 

                                                        

                                                              tate teaching a lesson

 tate shares the following...

first of all mom...i bawled like a baby when i read that story about travis....that is incredible and i know i have felt his presence here with me as well....i think about him a lot.

                                                                           elder harding teaching

my ingrown toenail came back so looks like tomorrow i will have surgery!! haha woo!! road trip to santiago!! haha kinda sucks but gotta do it because it hurts like crazy!!

                                                                             tate at a district meeting

 so some funny things that happened this week is we started teaching a little old lady who is like 90 who doesn't understand a single thing but still wants to listen and learn more!! also she is a crazy cat lady and has a thousand cats and puppies...my comp sat in one of the chairs where one of the puppies and cats had peed in hahahahhahah he had a big old puddle of pee on his pants....i couldn't stop laughing when we left!! 

                                                                         

                                                                                   tate the missionary

one thing that i learned this week from hermana grant in our district meeting is WE NEED TO BELIEVE CHRIST....NOT JUST BELIEVE IN HIM. i hope we can all think of what that actually means in our lives and apply it...sometimes we think it is enough just to believe in him...but do we actually believe him....believe his words....believe his teachings....believe that his atonement is eternal and works in our lives daily....that hit me like a bus and i couldn't stop thinking about it! i hope you can all learn something from that!

                                     

                             teaching the gospel

 i am doing really well tho and i cant believe how fast the time goes. me and the elders i live with are getting along amazing and always have a good time!  i'm pretty sure i will be staying here this change and that my comp will leave in a week. so that will be  interesting. i hope all is good... hope everyone is well! love you guys! 

hard things...

Bonus Blog

                              hArD ThIngs...
                             When Tate was at the MTC

he noticed that within the saying

“We can do hard things” that the letters

to his last name stood out. This is a

picture of him, a blonde boy from

Pocatello Idaho walking down a dirt

road. This blonde boy is serving

the people of Chile.  He is far away

from home and his family. As you look

at this picture I hope you can relate it to your

journey thru life.  We all have our own road to

navigate and with that comes happiness, excitement

and discovery.  With every life also comes sadness,

disappointment and hurt.  With every step it is important

to remember that WE CAN DO HARD THINGS. Our

family has had some tragedy and challenges with the

death of my brother.  As a family we have rallied

together and decided to try a little harder to be a little

better.  I hope that as you look at this picture

whether your frame it, put on your fridge or put it in your

drawer that you will be reminded that you too can do hard things.

Love Tammy

iT's RaInIng iT's PouRinG...

iT's RaInIng iT's PouRinG...this past weekend we headed to boise to support the highland rams at state baseball.  there was a little rain...a little wind...a little sunshine and a lot of baseball. 

                                     tate doing what he loves

 now one might ask why we would travel to boise to watch when tate no longer plays for the rams?...well seriously what else would we do during state baseball weekend?  the other excuse we can use is that our son in law nick is the assistant coach for the rams.

                                     
                                              tate and coach sorrell (nick)

  i have to admit it has been different watching the games when tate has not been playing and someone else is wearing the number 2 jersey on his back.  there are many guys on the team that tate played with and were his teammates...so we cheer for them and for ram baseball.

                                                             
  tate and travis in a rainstorm changing a tire in yellowstone park

this week it started raining....FREAKING HARD!! hah i love it. i just walk around without an umbrella and people think i am crazy but idk why i love the rain so much here....its amazing...good thing i have botos!

                                  
                                 a sign on tate's wall


so this week was a really hard one actually! we had like every single lesson fall in the first part of our week so we were pretty frustrated...but we then had interviews with president...my last one with this president... and it really helped me out a lot. he really trusts  me and isn't worried about me at all so that is good. i love that man and will be sad when he leaves but also excited to see the new pres and what he is like.

one thing i know i keep stressing on you guys like every week is SPENDING MORE TIME TOGETHER...i know i say it a lot but it is one thing that i cannot even start to explain how much i miss...so i'm serious just spend time together. do your family home evenings, pick a night during the week to do date night, eat together once a week...do whatever you can to be together more in your lives....i promise you that everything will seem so much better and you will really notice how blessed we are in our lives....

 some funny stuff that happened this week was my comp likes to eat baby food...................................i threw up in my mouth..........also he just likes to eat sweetened condensed milk  like yogurt hahahha THIS KID IS SOOOOO FETCHING WEIRD....but i love him and we have fun together....

we played basketball today and i tore it up....then again i am playing a bunch of latins...haha jk but it was good to play again and cant wait to play a little when i get back!

               tate will play here when he gets back

love you guys!! the time is going by faster and faster every day for me haha ....miss you! 

elder harding! 

mOtHeRs DaY...

mOtHeR's DaY...tate has always been a kid with a smile on his face.  when he was little he was such a good natured little guy.  he was always happy and seemed so content.  he always sees the positive in things and can find a bright spot on a rainy day. he was and is  a happy go lucky kid. my daughter in law was describing him this weekend and she used the words...kind...genuine...caring and loving.  tyson and taryn always tease me that because he is the baby that he is the favorite...which is not true!  if the truth be told i think he is both his older brother, tyson and his older sister, taryn's favorite little brother.  

we gathered around the t.v. screen waiting  to see his face and hear his voice...and that smile.  we laughed and listened and talked and just looked at him.  i didn't want it to end.  i loved the fact that tyson and dani and hazyl and hattie were there.  i loved the fact that nick and taryn were there.  i loved the fact that his dad and i were there...all together as a family...just as it should be. 

i want to think that his smile was mostly because he got to see his mom on mother's day but...it might have been the cute girl who came over to say hello...i am really not sure :)

since the death of my brother i have gained a new perspective on brothers and sisters and family.  i am so grateful that that my little family loves each other and that we support one another.  we seem to fit together like a puzzle and for that i am so thankful.  

one of the questions that we asked tate was what he misses the most...his answer...all of you.  i love that happy go lucky missionary with all of my heart and don't mind sharing him with the people of chile for a while more. he sent a short email today that simply said...thanks for being my mom.  that is is something that will never get old to hear.

fAmILy TiMe...

fAmILy TiMe...it does not need to be planned or invitations sent out. all it takes is one of us to be involved in something and the rest of the family is willing and excited to support them.  most of our treasured memories with the kids do not involve a big planned out vacation but rather sitting around laughing and teasing one another or hanging out at a game supporting one another.  no one really seems to get our jokes or our inside funny stories better than one another...we just love.  as the kids get older and grow up it makes this mom appreciate and treasure those family times that much more...

soo one thing that i wanted to talk to you guys about is spending more time together...and i mean everyone...like the WHOLE family....do whatever it takes to spend as much time together as you can. start some traditions or something...just do little get togethers every week or something...that is one of the things that i miss most. just being with everyone. even if it is just to eat on sunday or something. i miss you guys a lot and wish i could be there so spend more time with you guys but don't worry...the time will go by way fast haha i promise!!

we are still trying to find a lot of investigators and find some families but the work is going really well!... so something that happened was there  was an earthquake... not a huge one but just big enough to rock our house a little bit!  i was a little scared...but all is well...supposedly it wasn't that big...haha....also it has started to rain quite a bit around here. so that is fun . i really enjoy the rain down here so i'm excited for winter! also we had an amazing mexican fiesta activity in the church with our ward so that was really fun and a good opportunity to unite the ward. 

 i am doing really well tho. me and my comp are getting along really amazing and he is one of my best friends...we have a good time working together. we are teaching one family that is golden and loves to learn more so hopefully we can find them today because their mom got in a wreck and is in the hospital...hopefully they will be okay. i am way excited to talk to you guys this next sunday and hope you are too!!! haha pumped! 

love you guys!!! miss you and we will talk sunday!!! cant wait!!

 

love you