A Lady's Favor by Josi S. Kilpack, Proper Romance Series, book 2.5

Regency romance. This short novella was a quick light read and just what I needed the other day. It has all the typical ingredients of a regency romance with a spitfire leading lady and a dashing young man with a controlling mother thrown in for good measure. Great book to sit by the fire and read in an evening.

Recommend: Yes.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Young adult mystery. I enjoy mysteries, especially if the writer keeps me guessing until the end. The main character, Pip, is a gutsy girl who as her senior project decides to solve a five year old mystery of the disappearance of a teen girl and the apparent suicide of her boyfriend.

I listened to the audio version of this book which made it a bit difficult to keep all the character names in my mind. When I read a mystery book it's helpful to look back in previously read pages to remind myself who all the characters are. That being said, I really enjoyed listening to the narrators. It does have a bit of crass language throughout.

Recommend? Yes.

The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance, book one of Candle Man, by Glenn Dakin

Junior Fantasy. I read this book a number of years ago and decided to read it aloud to my kids (one of my favorite pastimes is reading books with my kids). This fantasy book has all the ingredients of fantasy lovers: bad guys, creepy monster-like creatures, talking garghouls, super power infested young person, and characters who you thought were bad surprising you in the end. This is the first in a series and I haven't read the next book yet, but I plan on ordering it from Amazon soon.

Recommend: Yes.

Elder Edholm -- week 34

We were able to talk with Andy for a few minutes this morning. The missionaries in his mission have been counseled to stay inside for 2 weeks starting at 2:00pm today. They were given extra money to buy food to last them 2 weeks. Andy said this is the smallest apartment he has had so not a lot of room to be in for 2 weeks!  Because he doesn't have any technology in his apartment they will have to be quite creative in finding things to do. Brian told him to start doing 500 squats a day!  There has only been 4 cases of the virus in Boliva, with 2 of them in the city Andy is in with zero deaths, but the President of Boliva has asked everyone to quarantine to make sure it doesn't spread.

Andy was pretty positive and said he really likes his companion, which is great since he is the only person he will see for the next while.

Middle school swimming is over

Lucy was looking forward to the middle school conference swim meet that was going to be tomorrow. She has worked hard on her dives this season and improved a lot. But, because of the virus the meet was cancelled. Here are a few videos of her during this past season:

End of Wrestling Season

The wrestling season has come to an end!  Eric improved and did well over the season and ended with 15 wins and 22 losses and qualified to wrestle at Regionals. He received his letter at the wrestling banquet from Coach Garcia.

Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter

Teen Adventure. Maddie Manchester's father is the head of the secret service for the President of the United States. The President's son, Logan, witnesses the kidnap attempt of his mother and both he and Maddie see the kidnappers shoot and wound Maddie's father. This leads Maddie and her father to hide in deep Alaska from the bad guys. This was a high adventure story that I thoroughly enjoyed. It moved quickly with lots of suspense. There was blood shed involved, but in the end the good guys win.

Recommend: Yes.

Elder Edholm -- week 33

This last week we had a baptism! And then I got the news on Saturday night that I was going to get transferred again. I am now back in Santa Cruz for my 4th area so far! I was only in Tarija for one Transfer (six weeks). My old companion is still in his 4th area and he has been out for 20 months and I have been out for only 8. Don't have much time, that is all for this week!

Mom's note:
His new companion is from Peru and his name is Elder Carbonel. This is his first native Spanish speaking companion. He flew from Tarija to Cochamba to Santa Cruz to get to his new area. 

Some parting shots of Tarija and pictures of the baptism:

The body was as big as Andy's hand. The sprayed it with water, swept it outside and then used a broom to fling it over the side of their apartment. 

Elder Barba and Elder Edholm

This scenery reminds me of the badlands here in Wyoming

Baptism last Saturday. Andrew was able to confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. (Which he did all in Spanish)

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Junior Fiction. This is a delightful story about a china rabbit whose character is shaped by the people who own him. He starts out life as a small girl's cherished toy and ends up at the bottom of an ocean, buried under piles of garbage as well as suffering cracks to his china body. Through it all he learns to love those who love him. This took me a couple of hours to read and left me with a smile on my face.

Recommend: Yes

The Saints, Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand

Non-Fiction. I read parts of this and listened to parts of it as well. I found this uplifting, heart breaking, revelatory, and fascinating, sometimes all at the same time. I learned new things about church history that I did not know and I came to love characters I never knew existed. I took away a profound gratitude for those early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their dedication amidst staggering trials.

Recommend? YES

Elder Edholm -- week 32

This week was fun, Carnival was Monday and Tuesday, so we stayed with 6 other elders. We did some fun stuff, we deep fried some food, like Oreo and other stuff here. Elder Barba made some banana, peanut, dulce de leche, and Oreo deep fried thing, and it was super good. We also talked a lot about movies and made waffles too! It was actually really fun to spend the two days with more missionaries. There were a lot of people outside throwing water balloons and buckets of water and foam. That ended and we went back to our area, and worked until Friday because it was zone conference Friday. We had a psychologist who was a professor of psychology at BYU Hawaii, and he talked to us about stress. It was really helpful actually, especially because I think I am going to train a new missionary and my Spanish is still not awesome. I don't know for sure, but I really think that I'm going to train one of the 22 new American missionaries that are coming in. And we are going to have a baptism this Saturday that is exciting also! that is all for this week

Pictures:

Brick Factory

Zone conference. Andy is in the back row in the middle

A fish that Andrew says is delicious!