HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY GRASSHOPPER

As Mitch's mom I've decided to excercise a little poetic license and do a post on the "Dutch Elder's" blog.  It is officially Mitch's 20th birthday right now.

 It really does seem like yesterday that he was born.  I still remember the feeling of finally getting to hold him when he was born.  He was really tiny and scrawny.  He was red all over (which is a good color, blue means the baby is not breathing-bad color), he had a little patch of strawberry blonde colored hair.  Within a matter of days he was cover from the tip of his pointy little head to the very tips of his tiny toes with baby acne.  I could not believe how bad it was.  The dermatologist that I worked for at the time was also amazed but, of course, there was nothing he could do for poor Mitch.  We just had to "wait it out" until his skin and hormones adjusted to life on the wonderful earth that we inhabit. 

Ross and I were about 32 years old (but whose counting?) when we had Mitch.  Yes, I was asked many times if Mitch was my grandson.  One day when I was picking him up from kindergarten, one of the kids yelled, "Mitch your grandma's here to get you".  When Mitch saw that it was just me, not his grandma, he yelled back, "she's just my mom".  Oh well, when you're older those kinds of things don't bother you because trying to keep up with young children makes you feel like a grandma.

Mitch was always a handful  but in a good way.  He loved to tease every person that walked on this planet.  There were many times I thought I would die of embarrasment from something that he had said or from something that he had done., or both. 

He has grown into a fun loving and responsible adult.  He has always known what he wanted to accomplish in this life and so far nothing has stopped him from reaching his goals.  Luckily, his goals have always been positive and good.  At least, as far as I know and believe me I really do know more than I want to about some of his "adventures".  I apologize to any of you who have been included in any "adventures" that you were not happy with. 

I love you Mitch and I am so very proud of you. 

Love,
Mama Bear

P.S.  I'm going to make sure to print this post so that when you get home and I'm ready for you to go back to The Netherlands because you're teasing me, I can read it and remember how I felt on your 20th "birth" day.

WE ARE AS THE ARMY OF HELAMAN

Once again, I bring you my best regards,

I hope all is well first off! Second off happy mothers day to all of you mom´s out there!! You have a big task to fulfill which honestly probably isn´t thanked enough, so I salute you!!!

A big lesson on the power of prayer came to me this week as the experience of the week takes place. Not only that of my own, but also that of many around the world. (Particularly I believe that of my mom). We had a pretty rough week, and to be honest it was a little discouraging, I did my best to smile through it but it was starting to get the best of me. But I remembered something I had learned from Elder M and our experiences together in Vlissingen and that was `Wait for Sunday`. So my prayer was that something would happen on sunday, something it didn´t have to be huge but just to let me know that the Lord was still there by my side. We had an appointment with a lady that day and we weren´t so sure that she would be home (as that is the case with most people from S). But she was home, she told us how she didn´t have lots of time because she had to go to the police station to get her daughter checked out as the daughter was strangled by her ex-husband, obviously that was something really important, so we asked her if we could just come back another time, she said she had time and wanted to "feel peace" so we stayed. The events of this appointment may be the highlight of my mission. She bore her testimony of the gospel, and we bore ours, then the daughter bore hers, by the end they all were willing to follow the spirit and committed to entering the waters of baptism.

Now I don´t focus on the numbers. Because they aren´t important, they show the progress of our investigators not our own. But I gained a huge testimony of prayer specifically knock and its shall be opened. It is because of all of your prayers even if its "please bless the missionaries" that these miracles happen, naturally I have to do something too, but thank you all so much. I appreciate all of your support, and hope all is well with all of you.

Sincerely,

Elder Ipson.

WHAT IS A TRADER?

I love this video.  I first saw it on Pinterest.  I hope you all like it as well.