Life with the Murrays, as told to our missionary son!!!
Dear Ben,
Yes, your letter was an acceptable length. Thank you for complying with my wishes. Lol. We are always glad to hear about your life in Brazil!! Don't worry about sending "boring" details. We enjoy hearing about your everyday life. You could tell us details about your apartment, your companion, cultural difference, random street encounters, etc.
Now for the news from home. Monday was a back to school kind of day. I taught the kids, Dad went to work, and Gabriel and the older boys went to school. Big time bummer, but it's time to face the music. We had a nice FHE were we listened to one of the shorter conference talks. Tuesday, was pretty similar with nothing much exciting happen. Wednesday was my day off. Unfortunately Gigi called me and left a message while I was out on my walk. She wanted me to come in and see some new tech the district IT department was showing at the school. I had an appointment with your brother Dave though, so it had to wait. David had some naviance to fill out, and a senior meeting to set up. He has lots going on, as you can remember I'm sure, and he sometimes needs a helper to sit down with him to direct his efforts. After we were done (painful) I went into school. The tech looked like this toy I used to play with as a kid, called a Viewmaster. It's like binoculars that you look into and insert a little circular slide. They you change the picture by moving the switch on the side. Well, these things have phones inside and the teacher has a tablet that projects images to the phones with it's own internet connection. They call it a virtual field trip and the kids move all around to see different things the teacher points out with the tablet. Pretty cool, and it's funny because it's actually made by the same Viewmaster company! That night I had a cool activity with the Beehives. We had a rootbeer taste test, where we tried four different kinds of rootbeer. Interestingly, IBC was not a top finisher! Plain old Mug came out on top with A&W a close second. King Soopers brand was dead last, no surprise there. We also made butterbeer, like from Harry Potter, which really wasn't worth the effort. It had a weird grainy texture to it. By the way, I am getting released as the Beehive counselor. It makes me a little sad, because I really enjoy working with the youth. I am being called to the position of Camden Gilchrist's personal assistant. It should be a low key calling, which is fine by me.
Friday I worked all day. After school, I dropped Gabriel off at the church for a backpacking trip with the Deacons. Gabe and some of the other boys didn't even sleep in a tent. He was just on his pad on the ground, and he was apparently on a hill because he woke up with only his shoulders and head on the pad. Sounds comfy! It's such a weird idea to me that my kids go out into the wilderness and just lie on the ground and fall asleep. Seems wrong and yet everyone thinks it's fun (well, not Dad).
Saturday, I did some unusual things. David, Jacob and Stino signed up to volunteer for the HRCA Backcountry to be "scare-ers" for their Haunted Forest. I remember you went once and it was lame, so I told them it would be cool to do it. They got assigned to be werewolves. I looked up werewolf make up on youtube, and off we went! David concocted a blender full of blood (powdered sugar, cocoa powder, red coloring drops) and ripped up an old white shirt and decorated it with the blood. I did the make up for him, Jacob and Austen. David went solo on Friday night because Jacob had a game and Stino went to the church dance at Poulsen's barn, then everyone was in full force on Saturday. The coolest part was I ordered weird contacts online for David and Jacob. I will send pictures if I can.We used denture cream to glue acrylic nails onto their teeth. Austin was bummed because he couldn't have any because of his braces. They came home very tired, very dirty, and scratched up from the scrub oak. I think they had a lot of fun though.
Today is Sunday and we had Amanda Emmelkamp's farewell. She is leaving for London, England in a few weeks, adding yet another missionary to our ward. Today your brothers mentioned you in their testimonies during 3rd hour. Jacob told about how at the beginning of the football season, one of the coaches pulled their group aside and told them that Jacob was a Mormon and they needed to watch their language because he knew his older brother and Mormons don't like that kind of thing. Way to go Ben! Gabriel talked about how since his brother Ben is on a mission and his other brother David is preparing for a mission, it has increased his testimony since they are willing to sacrifice two years of their lives to the Lord. Awesome! We love you so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Mom
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