Erica's smile

MJ Jan 31 2010
So you are now the lucky winner. I figure that since today is Dallan’s last day of his mission that he is not going to be checking his email on Sunday at some dumb kiosk. So you get the prize this week of having my letter addressed to you.
It has snowed several times this week. Big puffy flakes at times and at others little tiny sparkles. Some of it came down Kind of sideways and some of it came down really sideways. But alas School was in session everyday and for that I was grateful.
We had a bummer of a Saturday morning. Our Mare (that is a female horse for those non equine people) (equine means horse for those even less) her name is Sis was bred last spring and we were expecting her to foal in about 6 weeks. We were counting down the weeks and throwing around names for the baby horse. And then for some unknown reason Sis had her baby premature sometime Friday night. When we found the poor thing it of course had already died. Jon was bummed all day and the rest of us were in poor spirits as well. Sis seems to be doing okay, and I think we will try to rebreed her in about 4 or 5 months. So on that happy note let me tell you about the other goings on around the woodin nickel.
William fell off of the dinning table yesterday and has quite the knot in the middle of his forehead. He looked a bit like a unicorn but the swelling and color has gone down.
Erica Lost her first Tooth at the blackfoot swimming pool this Saturday, The story is worth the telling. Erica was all dressed in her suit and lifejacket and waiting for me to change and get William ready. Well somehow she had knocked her loose tooth to the point that it was barley hanging on and I was pretty sure that I needed to finish the job before she jumped into the pool less she lose it in the water. Her tooth was bleeding and she was sure that the end of the world was near. So after checking with my sister-in laws if they had any teething pain orajel type stuff in their diaper bags (which none of them did) I decided it was time to take action. I got some TP and took Erica into a changing stall. Yelled to the other patrons in the dressing room that if they heard screams I was not beating my child, I was simply extracting a tooth. Then I took the TP and assured Erica I was going to use it to wipe up the blood in her mouth, I grabbed onto the loose tooth and gave it a yank. SCREAMING CHILD! But I had the rotted tooth in my hand and was celebrating and telling Erica that she was all grown up and had just lost her first tooth and now the tooth fairy could come and how exciting that is and on and on and on. Still Crying! She was not easy to convince. But we got some more TP and blotted up the rest of the blood and she sat with a big wad of toilet paper in her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes while I changed into my swimming suit. When I was ready and Erica had spit out the TP, Erica was anxious to gain an glimpse of her new toothless smile in the mirror. After she had inspected the new gapping hole in her head she was anxious as all get out to go out to the pool and show Daddy and Elena the loss of her baby tooth. The Tooth Fairy even made it on the first try! We didn’t even have to come up with some lame excuse like…“It was the weekend, so the Tooth Fairy was visiting the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus, so they could get together with some leprechauns and play Settlers of Catan all weekend.”
Anyway my children are eagerly awaiting our trip to the Twin Falls Airport and I feel a bit sad that you will not be able to join us Monday night. But since Mom and Dad and Dallan and Garrett are taking off next week to come to see you the blow is softened and the Jealous bone creeps up and I will be thinking of all of you sunning yourself in the nice Florida sun every time I put on the Hat coat gloves and scarf.
Here is a Happy Birthday Shout out to Sara and Laura on Tuesday. Have cake for me. What, are you two turning 16 this year or what?
Work hard and know that We love you and are cheering for you.
Love Monica at the Woodin Nickel full of Nuckleheads!

Nicknames

I was just thinking about my name. It of course being Monica Gayle . As a child my mother, after having three boys, called me Monica Dolly so much I was quite convinced that Dolly was my middle name. I was fairly disapointed when my mother realized my confusion and told me the truth about my name. At the time I thought my name was a bit weird and spelled kind of funny. Later I realized that my name was a combination of both of my parents middle names. Gay, my mothers, and Del, my fathers. Few of my parents 9 children have boasting rights to being named after our parents. MJ and Camille have claims from Dads name but I am the only one who gets Moms. And so far this is true of all of the grandchildren. So there I am special. But I am not writing this becuase of Moms influence on my name. Rather the Influence DAD has had on my name. See when I was a small child Dad nicknamed me MUSH because I mushed his heart. It expanded to Mushcake which is currently a term of enderment from my brothers. As Well as the nickname CA which was bestowed upon me by my baby Brother because he was too lazy to call me or my sisters by our full names and nicknamed us ALL "CA". For some reason, "CA" stuck with me. Camille has moved on to Mille and Crystal will forever be Annie or Bacon Biscut (who knows why) Anyway back to the name Dad nicknamed me. I have not given the nickname much thought, it has been used only by my closest family members and as a joke when ever hot cereal was served, but that is a different story. Recently when I attened the funeral of my Paternal Grandmother I happened to sit down across the table from my Great Uncle Joe. And as I was explaining to Uncle Joe that I was Michaels oldest daughter Uncle Joe burst out "MUSHY!?!" I am sure I turned a few shades of red and laughed that my Uncle Joe, who has not seen me in probalby 2 decades, remembers me by the silly little nickname that my daddy gave me.
Thanks alot DAD.

gratitude and scrament trays

Dear Dallan. Jan 24th 2010.
This marks the last letter I will write to you as a missionary so I better make it good. For all the rest of you I made a promise to MJ that if he got excellent grades at School I would continue my weekly musings in letters directed to his inbox. And if you haven’t heard the good news my bribe worked and apparently MJ can not possibly live without his weekly dose of Woodin Nickel hysteria, and MJ got EXCELLENT grades this semester. He deserves to be taken out for Ice cream and a root beer but since Florida charges way to much for their frozen dairy treats I will simply congratulate him via email, for the entire next semester…but I’m warning you bucko one not so EXCELLENT grade and I am withdrawing my hilarious support! Other people withdraw their financial support, but since I already spent that, I can only withdraw the stories that my children inspire!
Speaking of my children inspiring …something. Hunter was very inspirational for our humorous column today. In sacrament meeting today he was sitting on the bench or rather lounging around on the bench halfway between Jon and I. And when the bread was passed it was a bit of a fiasco to divert him from trying to grab two fistfuls of bread and devour them, but we succeeded…sort of…he only got ONE handful. We were not very smart when the water came by and Marcus passed it to Hunter and then Stiles tried desperately to take the tray from Hunter who had grabbed the handle with both hands in an iron clasping grip and was not about to let it go, and pass it to me. Jon had Wyatt in his arms and I had William in mine and between the two of us was quite a length of bench, not to mention a few children to get past. After much trying, pulling, yelling and the Help of Sister Terry, who was seated in the row behind us, we spilled half of the tray, before we were able to pry the handle out of Hunters hands, and pass the tray to me. I was able to partake of the sacrament and then pass the now mostly empty tray on to the Cooper family. It was indeed a not very spiritual portion of our sarament meeting for the Woodin family and I for one was very grateful when it was all over. Sister Terry laughed about the whole ordeal with me later.
I have discovered that I am raising very ungrateful children, or maybe they are just plain ole selfish. Maybe you can read this next story and help me decide. Stiles Desperatly needed a new pair of shoes. So on Tuesday I headed to the store in search of some new footwear for my oldest son. I was also on the lookout for some new shoes for William since I lost one of his tennis shoes and he has been wearing his sandals out in the snowy weather. Well I found some great tennis shoes for Stiles early on and some really cute cowboy type boots for William. Then I wandered around the shoe section for a few more minutes until I found some cowboy boots. They had some nice looking boots in Stiles size as well as Marcus’s so I threw the new footwear into the cart and then happened by some girly western boots and knew that Erica could not be left out and left the shoe section with 5 boxes of new shoes for my children. When I got home I knew that bribery is a great way to get my children to do what I want them to do but I prefer to call it “working towards a goal” so when my dear sweet childrens returned home from a “hard” day at school I gave them all a snack and informed them of my desire to give them a gift of some new cowboy boots when …they had finished their chores for the day. I excpected delight and glee as they looked upon what could be theirs with a little bit of work. Instead I heard. “OH Mom…I don’t want BROWN ones.” “Who gets the black ones.” “That’s not what I wanted!” “I want PINK ones…those ones are NOT pink!” “We ALWAYS have to do our jobs, and its too hard!” “I am NOT doing my jobs” . With this I realized that my Children needed a lesson in gratitude. So I swooped up the new shiny boots and told them that I was not going to give any such gift to children who didn’t appreciate that their Mom was trying to give them something nice and that their Father workes hard all day long to provide it for them. The least they could do was say thank you mom. And do their assigned jobs. So I informed them that none of them would recive the boots and that I would be happy to take the boots back to the store. Then my children started to really cry and beg for second chanced and opportunities to earn back the lost boots. Seeing my golden opportunity for a great “working towards a goal” moment I gave vague ideas about good behavior and clean rooms and the chance that if that happened I might not take the boots back to the store right away. In the end I had very cooperative children and cleaner than normal bedrooms (which still could be deemed a hazardous area) all week long. On Saturday I dangled my goal in front of my children and gave them a list of things to accomplish to finally achive the goal. After doing everything on the list with minimal grumbling and complaining and “MOM, so-and so’s not helping!” I told my children that they had earned the right to have a the boots I bought for them. But asked them if they thought it would be a good idea to show their Daddy how grateful they were for him providing the money for the boots by cleaning up his office. They were all in agreement that this was indeed a good plan and worked happily, and quickly and accomplished the job. So On Saturday when they were finally sporting their new footwear I think they might have a small understanding of what it is like to be grateful. But I am not going to hold my breath.
Hunter is trying to say his alphabet. Jon has been working with him. And Hunter often askes in all of his grunts if he can say the prayer. We are seeing some more pregrssion in his speech but it continues to be slow. William is a toal tease and we love him ever so much more for it. His two little dimples melts many hearts and he is trying out the just haw far can we push Moms buttons before she loses it all by himself. His latest trick involves emptying kitchen cuboards and carrying their contents all over the house. Some meals we have to go on a scavanger hunt to find the right pan I need to fix the next meal. But we all love the our Willy Joe. Wyatt has a dear little smile and is a very content baby. He does like to see what is going on and is enjoying the use of the Johhny jump-up that is hanging in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. I rather like it too. But I have to tell the older siblings not to spin Wyatt around and around. Hunter only had to get stuck in it once to decide that it wasn’t that fun to be in and I have used it to trap William so that he couldn’t get in the way.
We will miss praying for Uncle Dallan on his mission. But we are looking forward to your return. And I just wanted to point out to you that you can say you served exactly 2 years to the day! Seth claims serving for 4 years, be we all know that he is kind of full of it. HEE HEE. Love you tons. Work hard your last week. Don’t be the elder that someother Elder gets to complain about having this really trunky elder as his companion. Keep working. The Church is true. President Monsen is our prophet. And you are the cutest little missionary brother I have.
Love Monica and the rest of the Woodin Nickel Kiddos-and Jon too!

cowboy up

Dallan, Jan 17th 2010.
Major countdown mode. Just 16 days left. We are anxious for your arrival and my children have assured me that it will be Okay for them to miss school in your honor.
Marcus is currently sporting a black eye. I asked him what happened and his response was this “When I was playing soccer I got hit with a football in my eye.” I made him repeat his sentence twice and then asked how that was possible. Apparently the playground at school is the field for all sports no matter which one you choose to be playing you need to be aware of all games. Perhaps this is why so many men are able to follow so much sporting hype. They got their first taste when they were in elementary school and couldn’t get over the constant involvement in all sports.
Stiles is nursing a fat lip. He got that while taking a shower last night in my bathroom. Being short he did not have the proper reach to get the spray wand part of the shower head down and when he pulled on it to bring it down to him it came hastily and Kissed him right in the Kisser Quite hard. It cut him on his upper lip just below his nose. And then the force of the blow caused some abrasion damage on the inside of his mouth and his mouth was bleeding. This morning it was pretty swollen but by church his lip didn’t look so kissably juicy.
Yesterday we took the kids and the horses up to the indoor riding arena. Stiles got thrown off by Rebel pretty early on but did a cowboy up and was soon in the saddle again. Stiles rode and rode and got Rebel pretty tired and calmed down so the other kids could have a good ride. Jon’s sister, Julie, and her family came up and their boys took a turn, they seemed to really like it. We had quite a surprise with our kid horse “Oaky” that we bought last fall. She has been totally awesome in our yard with me and with the kids and Jon. But she was originally trained as a roping horse. So when we got into the arena she was ready to RUN! And run fast! And Hard! I lead her around the arena a few times with kids on her and then I decided to jump up on her and have a ride. Well she needed very little encouragement to TAKE OFF. And she did. I was saying not very good words to say in front of children and when I finally got her to slow down and almost stopped she spun real hard and I lost my balance and I could feel myself falling so I “stepped off” well the crappy thing is Now I Know that I have GOT TO get back on that Horse. I was shaking so bad!!! I had to have Jon lead me around the arena because I knew that if She took off on me again I would be in big trouble! All in all We had fun and Stiles has a nice owie on his side from being thrown off.
I have been trying to get this body back into a shape other than the one it is currently in. 3 babies in a row has not been nice to certain parts of me. Because of this new years goal I have had much soreness and stiffness in many parts of my body in the last week. The scale still gives me a number that makes me want to throw the scale out the window and then drive a semi truck over it a few times but we will continue to work towards a less flabby mommy shape.
Mom had me read a book called the Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. I am impressed with the “duh this just makes sense” formula that the author teaches. You really walk away from the book with a new insight to money in general. As part of that new insight to money I can see why Camille is starting her own business and Why Seth And Emily cut up their credit cards and why Emily is going back to school. So they might be able to see why in the crazy sam hill I switched my kids to cloth diapers. -then again maybe they won’t but we are getting a little further ahead one diaper change at a time and Jon has even managed to get stuck with a poopy one. And he changed it! I gave him a trophy. When you get home I am sure that Mom will try to get you to read this book. And if she doesn’t one of your other siblings probably will. Anyway I just finished reading the book yesterday and I am anxious for Jon to start and see what insights he has.
The Church is true. Christ lives. The time is short. Work hard.
We Love you , Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckle Heads!

grandma's funeral and something profound

Dear Dallan, Jan 10th 2009
With only two more p-days for you before you come home I feel a great need to write something profound for you to read on one of your last preparation days before you come home and start de-weirding. Actually you are so weird that there is no way you could possibly de-weird. Maybe I should refer to your new venture in trying to speak English. And since you are now fluent in Spanish and Ewok, English shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Anyway back to something profound. Well I’ll tell you what. I’ve got nothing. After two years of letter writing and letting you ,and the rest of our family laugh and laugh at the funny things in my life. IF you haven’t found anything profound in anything I have said let me just tell you how proud of you I am.
I am proud of you.
There something profound.
Actually I would like to let you know that you are a giant in my eyes. All of my brothers are. (My sisters are more like magical fairies) I am glad that you made the choice to serve a mission. I know it could not have been an easy thing to do. I am proud of you for working hard to learn Spanish. I’m sure that when you arrived in Mexico you had no idea what anybody was saying but now you will come home and not be able to order a whopper at burger king without messing up the sentence structure. (don’t worry if you are in burley they will know exactly what you mean. )
I know have I told you this before but I would just like to say again “thank you for your example” There is nothing better for my boys, and my daughter, than your example right now. I wish that every young child in the church had the example of an aunt, uncle, cousin, or grandparent out on a mission. I know that I remember the example of uncle Dean and Uncle Alan and aunt Debbie and when Grandma and Grandpa Wall served their missions it was a strength and a testimony to me of the truthfulness of the gospel in so many different ways. I pray that your example to my children will strengthen them, and plant in them a desire to serve our Father in Heaven when they are old enough to do so.
And I want to thank you for giving me a really good excuse to take an hour out of my week and record the doings of my family. The letters I have written you are the closest thing I am getting to Keeping a journal in this busy time of my life. It has been a true blessing for me and has developed my typing talent and my ability to story tell in a way that I did not know I could. It has helped me see the messes and the meltdowns and the moments that I just wanted to give in and cy as great stories for someone else to read and enjoy. I really hope that you have enjoyed my ramblings, I know that I have enjoyed rambling to you.
Now let me tell you a about a sweet moment at grandma’s funeral, one I don’t want to forget, For the funeral all of the men in the family right on down to Mason and Wyatt were given a red flower to wear on their shirt. And all of the grandsons were honorary pall bearers. Marcus felt the weight of the flower quite profoundly and messed with it for almost the entire duration of the funeral service. Then as we were getting out of the van at the cemetery for the graveside service Marcus began to panic because somehow his coat had unpinned the flower from his shirt and the flower was not where it should be. After a moment of searching the flower fell out of the bottom of his coat and we repined it to his shirt. At this point Marcus said “Mom, I want to give this Flower to grandma.” I told him that if he want to he would be able to. Thinking that when most of the people had left the grave side I would let him put it on grandma’s coffin. Well after the prayer they invited all of the pall bearers and honorary pall bearers to add their flowers to the bouquet on top of grandma’s coffin. Marcus was about the first person after our uncles to give grandma his flower. He was very glad that he could give great grandma a flower and when we got back to the van he offered me his condolences and said “Mom, I am very sorry that your grandma died.” He is a very sensitive kid and I am so glad Heavenly Father entrusted me with him. I just hope that Jon and I don’t screw him up to bad.
Grandma’s funeral was great. You were the only grandchild not in attendance. But there were a “bazillion” great grand children present and they kept a good steady hum going the whole time. I realized that Jon and I are the only ones who have 6 children. There are several with 5 but No one else is in the 6 club with Jon and I. Jason said that we had won “the rabbit award” for having the most kids. I argue that Tyrell and Rose should win the award with 5 kids in 4 years! The Woodland Family has followed the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth and Grandpa will get his wish of having posterity to number the sands of a small white sand beach on the leeward side of a tropical island in the pacific.
Work Hard. The time is very short. The homecoming party is being planned and since you are going to Florida over Valentines day I have yet to set you up on a date. But I am looking at some options for you. HEEHEE. Love Monica.

grandma

Dear Dallan Jan 8th 2010 (Happy Birthday Crystal!)
Happy new Year! Oay Oay I am a bit late in my letter writing. And Yes My letter K is broken on my key board and so It only works some of the time. We shall see how important the letter K is to the English language. And don’t be surprised if the H stops showing up as well. It is official I have worn out the Key board on Jon’s laptop computer writing to my Missionary Brother. Well to bring you up to speed. Christmas came and went and we now have a new mouth to feed. A miniature Horse named Rebel. My children are ecstatic and Jon seems to be pretty tickled too. The kids have fallen off of their new friend a number of times but they are getting better and better at staying on. When ever the horse starts to run the kids get scared and ditch. It is kind of funny to watch. Hunter is the most fun to watch- total grins from ear to ear.
We had a big BRISCOE Christmas Party here at our place out in the Barn. It was attended by all who could possibly make it and Jon’s Mom and Uncle Nolan worked hard to set it up and take it down. The kids had a ball the adults loved the visiting and the food and the grandma’s and pa’s were usually stuck holding one of the many many many children who were running a muck back in forth in the upper reaches of the barn. We hope to hold it again. But maybe with a larger committee to help in the set up and take down so that it won’t be such a huge job.
We also attended a Christmas Party with Jon’s Siblings and their Children. It is affectionately called “the Piñata party”. Why Jon’s family break a Piñata at Christmas is still beyond me, but the tradition is strong and a total blast. In fact we broke our own piñata at our house with just our kids. Anyway as part of the Woodin party we ended up with a visit from SANTA. It was so cute. Hunter literally Jumped up in Santa’s lap with out hesitation when it was his turn and laughed a giggled the whole time. (a far cry different than all my other kids who thought I was torturing them to go see Santa) Santa even called up the adults and gave them a prize. Santa was so good he knew that I had been bad and grouchy and mean all year. And He told me I had better shape up if I wanted any presents. My kids where laughing so hard that Santa knew that their Mommy had been a grouch this year. In my defense it is all Wyatt’s fault.
I took just the kids and went to the farm for an over-nighter during the holiday break. I gave Mom and Dad “His and Her’s” drills for Christmas. And the best part was that they opened them apart from each other and Dad said something like “I really needed this, and now nobody will steal this” and so did Mom! I was laughing pretty hard. It was a fun trip and the Kids even threw them selves down the sledding hill a time or two.
For the new year we spent the night in Aberdeen with Jason and Nanette’s family. We celebrated the new year first at midnight then again with their Sisters Cindy and Becky who live in Washington and then again when the new year came in on the Island State of HAWAII! And then at 4:15 am we finally went to bed. Then it snowed and snowed and we got up and played in the snow and I made the cutest snow bunny. No not figuratively ..I did it literally. The project started out as a snow man and I morphed it into a bunny, Nanette even found a basket for my bunny to hold. It was fun and the kids thought it was awesome. And then we were having so much fun in the snow we decided to spend another night in Aberdeen so that Jon could go ice fishing with his brother and Father and brother in law. I think they had fun and they actually caught some fish.
Some crazy things we have done with the kids include moving Stiles out of the basement and back into the bedroom with Marcus. We also set up Hunter’s new twin size bed in this room and moved William in with Erica. Stiles and Marcus are usually in a power struggle over who is in charge of their room. It hasn’t come to blows yet but there is usually lots of crying , screaming and gnashing of teeth. Hunter is having a hard time going to bed. Before he snuck out of his bed and would crawl into one of his older brothers beds and sleep with them. Stiles and Marcus didn’t seem to mind. But now that they are all in the same room together the big boys don’t think that sharing their bed with Hunter is such a cool idea. Every night it is getting a bit better… usually Hunter comes into my room and falls asleep in my bed and then Jon and I move him to his bed . William has been taking the switch pretty hard. Not only did he switch rooms but went from the crib to the toddler bed. Let us just say that it is like a Chinese fire drill in Jon and I’s bed at night. Between Jon and Hunter and William and Wyatt, I end up sleeping with at least two Woodin boys every night. Sometimes all 4 of them. A few times all at once! The other night William did sleep in his own bed for the whole night. That was nice.
Erica received some dress up clothes for Christmas and changes into them almost as soon as she comes in the door from School. I think that they are a hit. She has always loved to dress up and usually goes though several outfit’s a day. Now they don’t just all fill up her laundry basket, after trying them on and then discarding them 10 minutes later for something “more” beautiful. She still is sure that I am chopped liver and that she loves her dad the best. “Dad is cool, Mom is just pretty” but I do have to say that since she Loves pretty things perhaps she does have a place in her heart for me.
William is learning how to drink out of a cup and entered the world of Nursery this week. I am so excited that the Lord said that Nursery should be a part of the gospel. Because if he hadn’t I don’t know that Jon and I would have continued to keep going to church when our children were between the ages of 16months to 3yrs old. Those little guys are big handfuls. All those who are nursery leaders earn big points toward eternal salvation in my book.
Speaking of my book. There is a class being offered through the relief Society Program in my ward about how to write and publish a book. I signed up to take the class. I am curious as to what I will learn from such a class. Now I just need a topic and some direction.. Everyone knows that my MUSES are constantly MESSING up the place, and giving me great material.
Jon has been working very hard. HE is trying to catch up from all the time off for the Holidays , cold weather and short days. We continue to have work and know that the Lord is blessing us in this. We are back up to having 3 guys working for us. Considerably less than the 10 we had 2 years ago! But we were down to just Jon and one other guy who Jon really couldn’t lay off because he lives in our other house. So things look a bit promising. We hope we will be able to continue to work on houses. Most of our work right now is on remodel stuff and it is cool to see the before and after pictures of the homes they have been working on.
I am still on a diet. The big butt fairy did not lay off this holiday season and many treats were indulged in. In truth I just wanted to get my kitchen cleaned up so I just kept on eating everything until I there was nothing left. It was not the best way to clean up my Kitchen but I do like the way the Kitchen looks when it is cleaned up. But my backside in a mirror is not looking so great.
I did get Christmas decorations down this week. It always makes me sad to take then down. But at the same time it is liberating to have it all down and out of the way. I still have a beautiful poinsettia plant that I have not yet managed to Kill and that is a nice reminder that it was just Christmas and that it was a beautiful Christmas season.
On Sunday when Dad called and told me that Grandma was not doing well I felt sad and was then immediately filled with Joy that Grandma would have the wish of her Heart be with Grandpa again. It is wonderful that we have the plan of Salvation because it really is the plan of happiness. That night when Camille and I went to the hospital to see Grandma for the last time there was so much love and Joy and happiness in that room. Seth described it as peaceful and that is the correct word. Even though we knew that grandma’s life was at an end There was so much peace in the knowledge of what was to come for her and her life. And right now she is probably eating buckets and buckets of white fluffy bread! I am so grateful that I got to be one of her grand daughters and feel of her love and concern for me. She was a great grandmother and I will dearly miss her phone calls and birthday cards.
We will miss you with us this Saturday as we attend the funeral but we will see you soon . Work hard, you have so little time left. I know that your efforts these last few days of your mission will bless many lives. You have been such a great example to me and my children and my husband I can not thank you enough for the influence you have had on my family by serving a mission. The blessing we have received have already been great and far reaching.
We Love you much and pray for you always and with all our faith.
Love the Woodin Nickels.