Book of Mormon Challenge

Start reading the Book of Mormon on September 1st and end on December 31. This is a good challenge and a great way to end this fabulous year! I'm in!

Sep 1 1 Nephi 1-3

Sep 2 1 Nephi 4-7

Sep 3 1 Nephi 8-9

Sep 4 1 Nephi 10-11

Sep 5 1 Nephi 12-13

Sep 6 1 Nephi 14

Sep 7 1 Nephi 15

Sep 8 1 Nephi 16

Sep 9 1 Nephi 17-18

Sep 10 1 Nephi 19-20

Sep 11 1 Nephi 21-22

Sep 12 2 Nephi 1

Sep 13 2 Nephi 2

Sep 14 2 Nephi 3-4

Sep 15 2 Nephi 5-7

Sep 16 2 Nephi 8

Sep 17 2 Nephi 9

Sep 18 2 Nephi 10-13

Sep 19 2 Nephi 14-17

Sep 20 2 Nephi 18-20

Sep 21 2 Nephi 21-24

Sep 22 2 Nephi 25

Sep 23 2 Nephi 26

Sep 24 2 Nephi 27-28

Sep 25 2 Nephi 29-30

Sep 26 2 Nephi 31-33

Sep 27 Jacob 1-2

Sep 28 Jacob 3-4

Sep 29 Jacob 5

Sep 30 Jacob 6-7

Oct 1 Enos & Jarom

Oct 2 Omni

Oct 3 Words of Mormon

Oct 4 Mosiah 1-2

Oct 5 Mosiah 3

Oct 6 Mosiah 4-5

Oct 7 Mosiah 6-8

Oct 8 Mosiah 9-10

Oct 9 Mosiah 11-12

Oct 10 Mosiah 13-15

Oct 11 Mosiah 16-17

Oct 12 Mosiah 18-19

Oct 13 Mosiah 20-21

Oct 14 Mosiah 22-23

Oct 15 Mosiah 24-26

Oct 16 Mosiah 27

Oct 17 Mosiah 28-29

Oct 18 Alma 1

Oct 19 Alma 2-3

Oct 20 Alma 4-5

Oct 21 Alma 6-7

Oct 22 Alma 8

Oct 23 Alma 9-10

Oct 24 Alma 11

Oct 25 Alma 12

Oct 26 Alma 13-14

Oct 27 Alma 15-16

Oct 28 Alma 17-18

Oct 29 Alma 19

Oct 30 Alma 20-21

Oct 31 Alma 22-23

Nov 1 Alma 24

Nov 2 Alma 25-27

Nov 3 Alma 28-29

Nov 4 Alma 30

Nov 5 Alma 31-32

Nov 6 Alma 33

Nov 7 Alma 34-35

Nov 8 Alma 36-37

Nov 9 Alma 38-39

Nov 10 Alma 40-41

Nov 11 Alma 42-43

Nov 12 Alma 44

Nov 13 Alma 45-46

Nov 14 Alma 47

Nov 15 Alma 48-49

Nov 16 Alma 50-51

Nov 17 Alma 52

Nov 18 Alma 53-54

Nov 19 Alma 55-56

Nov 20 Alma 57

Nov 21 Alma 58-59

Nov 22 Alma 60-61

Nov 23 Alma 62-63

Nov 24 Helaman 1-2

Nov 25 Helaman 3-4

Nov 26 Helaman 5

Nov 27 Helaman 6-7

Nov 28 Helaman 8-9

Nov 29 Helaman 10-11

Nov 30 Helaman 12-13

Dec 1 Helaman 14

Dec 2 Helaman 15-16

Dec 3 3 Nephi 1-2

Dec 4 3 Nephi 3-4

Dec 5 3 Nephi 5-6

Dec 6 3 Nephi 7-8

Dec 7 3 Nephi 9-11

Dec 8 3 Nephi 12

Dec 9 3 Nephi 13-15

Dec 10 3 Nephi 16-17

Dec 11 3 Nephi 18-19

Dec 12 3 Nephi 20

Dec 13 3 Nephi 21-23

Dec 14 3 Nephi 24-27

Dec 15 3 Nephi 28-30

Dec 16 4 Nephi

Dec 17 Mormon 1-2

Dec 18 Mormon 3-4

Dec 19 Mormon 5-6

Dec 20 Mormon 7-9

Dec 21 Ether 1-2

Dec 22 Ether 3-4

Dec 23 Ether 5-7

Dec 24 Ether 8-9

Dec 25 Ether 10-11

Dec 26 Ether 12-13

Dec 27 Ether 14-15

Dec 28 Moroni 1-5

Dec 29 Moroni 6-7

Dec 30 Moroni 8-9

Dec 31 Moroni 10

Claire is back!!!!! Yahoo!! We've been following the World Scout Jamboree Blog and it's been fun to imagine what she was doing. Once someone blogged about Germany and their Yurt. I imagine she felt very at home there, since we've had a yurt for years now. Jeff built it (and we all helped) several years ago when the Ward was having a camp-out. Anyway, it was hard to have her away for so long. While she was gone Junie went to and returned from Girls Camp, and the second week of Claire's trip Logan went to and returned from Timberline, which is a Scout leadership/training camp. There were a few hours one day when the only children at home were Mirielle and Esther---and Mirielle really doesn't fall into the category of children, as in "young children", she's an adult. It was strange to have so many of the children gone. It'll be that way some day, "for reals". weird.

Taiwan Week 33

Hey--So we had a pretty cool week. Mostly full of seeing the Lord work miracles. The Lord really is too good to us here in Chao Zhou. One of the coolest things was when we were deciding to go with the back up back up plan or the back up back up back up plan; either Lin Jie Mei or this one Hong guy that Elder Braby and I didn't think had too much potential. We decided to go to Lin Jie Mei's. BUt the Lord had other plans. We were stopped by the train and took that as a sign to go to the Hong guy's house. It turns out that he was sitting there asleep. We had a great sit down with him and then he came to church on sunday. Why? Because the Lord led us there. We were going to go to Lin Jie Mei's but the Lord knows what we need to do, and he will lead us in doing it.

This week was only a little bumpy in the idea because I think I may have found something that I am alergic too, not sure what yet, we'll see.
I hear that Shan is getting pretty big into rock climbing. Sounds pretty cool.
My companion right now is a Cello player and he was pretty good. I have been listening to a lot of his classical cello solos and they really are great. Some cool stuff from Bach. yeah.

There was an old missionary that came to visit. He was cool and brought his wife who also speaks Chinese. I think they go to BYU? Anyways, just fun to talk about the differences in the ward and mission from a year and a half ago to right now.
Yeah BAPTISM! Cool stuff.
Thank-you for all of your prayers and love! Have a good week.
-Elder Sanford

Wow --I feel like crying!! I hope that all is well with Claire, and with Colby. Sometimes as a mom I get sad feelings and then I find out that a child of mine was/is passing through a rough time at that very moment.

Claire is on her way home from the Jamboree. I'm guessing she's missing a crew of people already! Hugs to Claire!!! ...and Colbs--well, y'all know he's on his mission in Taiwan. I hope he's feeling an outpouring of love and the Spirit, so the Missionary work will go on, AND that he will be truly happy. I love all of my children so much. One of the hardest things a parent lives through is seeing/knowing that their child is hurting/suffering and not being able to take that pain away... no matter how diligent one tries to ease pain, it is something that all must endure and rise above.....Prayers are the only way to help a smidgen.

Taiwan 32

His letters are getting shorter (he's working harder--right?!!!), and are directed to specific people instead of the general audience.

Basically he said hello to all and said to Esther:

I have been having a great time here in Taiwan! Have a good week too!

He was glad that June had a good time at Girls Camp. Here is some advice he gave June:

Strengthening your testimony is very important. Keep up the great work. Any time that you want to get away from the world, you can find a nice quiet place and read the scriptures. Opening up your mind to revelation is VERY important. Don't ever be afraid to ACT on that revelation either. YEAH!!!

Here's my entire message from him:

Hey Mom!

Wow crazy week. I hope that every thing is going well. Yeah, the humidity was a little much at first, but I'm used to it by now. I really love just going out and working. The humidity makes me feel like I am working harder than I am because I am constantly sweating, but yeah, I"m used to it.

Wow, Claire is in Sweden. Cool.

Yeah! This past week, we had 4 Baptisms! I don't have any pictures though because I had a run in with a card machine and a picture printing shop... I'll do my best to send those pictures next week :)

Yeah, Start of a new move call! Elder Braby is in Tainan with my trainer as the Zone leader there. So cool. ELder Gardner is my new senior companion. He's really cool. I'm going to love serving with him. He only has 3 more move calls, so he is pretty experienced. I'm going to learn alot from him :)

Sorry, a little short on time today I'lll tell you more next week.

YEAH!!!

and part of his letter to Jeff:

Hey Dad!

Thank-you so much for sharing that story with me about the lady. ... I have actually had a couple people who just started living the word of wisdom recently because we taught them. We also have a lot of other people who have been working a long time on keeping it and have failed.

... Does the ceramics room still have the full wall of windows? ....

Thank-you for all of the help and encouragement.
-Elder Dib Sanford

He sounds busy and happy---just the way a Missionary should be.

Have a happy week all--Love ya, Jamille

ps--I have his address permanently on my "side bar". I'm sure he'd love letters from all of you....however his writing back isn't a guaranteed thing. "write at your own risk" :D

I'm back (sorta)

Don't get confused when I insert the Posts that I haven't created yet. I will insert them on the day they SHOULD'VE been. So in a way, this post is in and of itself is a teaser, because I don't have any of my travels blog entries ready. I'll put in the Colby Missionary entries. They're ready. Don't give up on me. I have Minnesota, Kansas City, and California blogs on the back burner (charring).

Week 31 in Taiwan

Yeah!
Hey!

Cool, you're in California. that's really fun. Mom, I'm glad to hear that visiting the parents in KC went well. I hope that you have a good time on the road and at the Oakland Temple!

I gad a great week this week . We just got back from Ping Tung where a member took us to the Shabu Shabu place where we ate. It is a place that you have a pot of boiling soup in front of you, and you can go to this big bar of things to throw in. There is a lot of great selection. A lot of great things that you can eat without boiling them either. Eggs, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Tofu. You usually make up a little bowl of seasonings to dip the stuff that you boil in. Probably a step up from what you had... you went to Chinatown? Cool. I want to go! I hear that they speak a lot of Cantonese there. but they probably still speak alot of Mandarin there as well. That be a fun thing. Yeah don't drink the tea.

We had a baptism this week! His name is Pan. Very cool guy. He already has his masters in electronics, but he is testing to get into another big university. He was first introduced to the church when he came for free English class! Yeah!

Yeah, I was reviewing some of the Conference talks from this past session. Going through them, I found a couple of really good parts. One thing that President Monson said that I liked was, "Don't ever do or say anything of which you would not be proud". When I read it it made a lot of sense to me. I also read over President Uchtdorf's talk, "On the Road to Damascus". I think that it is so great. Just go out and do. Don't wait for the miraculous confirmation. It will all come over time. Good stuff. I'll have to look over Elder Bednar's talk again.

Ok, well, have a good rest of the month! It's almost over and it went by so quickly. Man. Thank you for all of the love and support!

Well, I hope that everybody has a good week and that the trip back is safe! Tell Claire good luck and to use her head.

-Love Ya!
Elder Dib Sanford.