Cross Country season starts!

All three of the kids still at home are running cross country this year-Eric on the high school team and Lucy and Peter on the middle school team. The high school has already had some fun events/runs.

They ran up the mountain in Ten Sleep:

Eric is the only one not looking at the camera on the back row!

They made it!! 

Team building. Eric is wearing his bright yellow hoodie. 

The Color Run is always fun!

Elder Edholm -- week 6

1. The trip went well, we didn't have that long of layovers, and I didn't talk to anyone on any of the planes. I sat next to an older Polynesian the first flight, an older man from China the second, and a missionary the third flight. I slept on the planes a little.

2. First thoughts were the driving is crazy and there is graffiti everywhere.

3. I got a little sleep, we went to a apartment type room which had 18 bunk beds, and gave us time to sleep until 12, but some elders that were returning home the same day talked to us for a while.

4. My mission president is the coolest guy ever. He made some dad jokes so that was awesome.

5. My companions name is Elder West, he is from Utah and played football at lone peak, defensive end. He has been out for a year.

6. My zone is called La Merced, (or plan tres mil) I am technically in Santa Cruz, but not really cause we can walk to the jungle from where we are.

              a) You have to go onto some rough dirt roads to get to our area

              b) There are no street signs, so you just have to memorize where you are.

7. I can understand words every now and then, but never a whole sentence. I am usually just sitting there confused.

8. Yes, it is really hot and humid, and it is only going to get hotter.

So far, missionary work is awesome. The people are awesome, but on Sunday they had the missionaries bear their testimonies, and all of the members laughed after mine because is was short, so that sucked. Because we reopened this area, we have done more contacting, and I have been able to talk a little, very little. Learning the language will take a lot of time.

Nathaniel, Andrew, and Gabe at the MTC map before they all three left for their missions. Great to see those Worland boys all together!

Josh Dawson and Andrew. Josh is from Star Valley and in the same mission as Andrew. His dad, Ted, sent us this picture at the Salt Lake Airport. 

At the Santa Cruz Bolivia airport. All the missionaries who flew together with the Mission President and his wife. 

First view of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Andrew is in the center back. 

With the Mission President and his wife. Andrew is on the far left in the back row. 

They took the newly arrived missionaries out to eat. 

Eating Bolivian food for the first time.

Andrew with his companion, Elder West and President and Sister Stanford. 

Elder Edholm -- week 5

The temple opened back up this week and I was able to go! It was awesome! The Provo temple is huge though, I almost got lost. It is weird to think that that will be the last time I get to go to the temple for 2 years cause there is no temple in my mission. 

 It is hard saying goodbye to the people in my district, cause I’ve been with them every single day for the past month and a half, but I am ready for Bolivia.

Sorry for such a short letter, I think I’ll have more to write about next week..

Elder Edholm

*Andrew flies out this Monday, the 19th, early in the morning. He is scheduled to arrive in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 12:30am on Tuesday the 20th. His Preparation Day (P-Day) will be on Mondays once he is there instead of Saturdays. 

Elder Edholm -- week 4

This week has been seven days. Hopefully you guys laughed at that. This week we got a new person for TRC, Carolina, and she is the best person ever to teach! She is from Uruguay, and it honestly feels like she is the one who brings the Holy Spirit to to the lessons! She is so understanding of our spanish and how terrible I am at it. I have been doing all that I can so that I'll be able to teach coherently and with the Spirit so that it will guide what I am supposed to say. I got a bolivia shirt today, so that is pretty awesome! I was able to go outside the MTC this week also! We walked to the pharmacy because my companion had an ear infection. He is feeling a better now! That is really all that happened this week. Routine is the same.

Elder Edholm

We balanced a chair:

Our journey to Minnesota, 5th and final day.

We went to church in the Pierre South Dakota branch this morning which was nice and then started the last 7 hours home. We passed thought Sturgis on our way and didn't realize the annual motorcycle rally was well underway. As many as 700,000 motorcyclists converge in Sturgis each August. Crazy!

And we're home!! What a wonderful trip!

Our journey to Minnesota, day 4: Laura Ingalls Wilder

We sadly left Minnesota and started our drive back to Wyoming.  We took a longer way home so we could stop by all the Little House on the Prairie sites, we LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder in our family.  We hit Walnut Grove, Minnesota where she was as a child and where she met the girl who inspired Nellie Oleson. Her last name was actually Owen's, not Oleson. Then we went a few hours further down the road to De Smet, South Dakota. Here she spent a good chunk of her school years and met Almonzo.  We finally finished the day in the state Capitol, Pierre.

This town is about 35 miles from Walnut Grove and is mentioned a lot in the TV series.

Love that they have Nellie's Cafe! 

Eric makes a good Mary! Peter was taking the picture.

Original Walnut Grove jail.

An example of the sod house the Ingalls lived in.

The facade of the Ingall's home from the tv series. 

This is in De Smet, the original schoolhouse Mary and Laura attended.

The school house was made into a residence and when the walls were stripped down they found the original blackboards with chalk drawings on them.

Home the Ingall's stayed in when they first moved to De Smet.

The girls' bedroom. 

Caroline and Mary (before she went blind) would have played this organ which was in the church Charles helped build. 

One of the buildings had clothes you could dress up in. I left to find the bathroom and found this when I came back!

In a replica of a school room in Walnut Grove Eric pretended to be Miss Beadle and Brian is Willie, always in the corner.

This is the homestead of the Ingalls in De Smet. The church in the far distance is original, all the other buildings are replicas.

When we got to De Smet among the trees we heard this amazing sound. It was so loud.  It's hundreds of cicadas.

Our journey to Minnesota, day 3: Wisconsin

We were only 30 miles from Wisconsin so we drove over the border and stopped in St. Croix Falls. Beautiful scenery and the St. Croix River was lovely.

The first town we came to was Grantsburg. Their claim to fame was a 7 and a half foot man who lived there in the 1920s. They have a figure of him in a glass case. So weird, so we took a picture.

St. Croix River

Brady, Brian and Eric enjoying the river view

Our journey to Minnesota, day 3: Braham Pie Days

The second reason we came to Minnesota was to attend Braham Pie Days! It's always the 1st Friday in August and the entire town of 1700 bakes hundreds and hundreds of pies.  There are arts and crafts booths and a car show and entertainment.  It was a lot of fun!

Blueberry Raspberry Rhubarb

Carmel Apple

Peach Picante on top, Strawberry Peach underneath 

Eric getting Apple Curry Raisin (actually really good) from the Cambridge (a town by Braham) ambassador 

All three Cambridge ambassadors!

Peter loves the Corvettes

A three wheeled vehicle

Resting on a statue after eating lunch and before eating more pie. Peter's mouth is blue from shaved ice.