The Mergenthaler Family

  This week I learned many things about myself that I probably wouldn't have learned if I hadn't decided to serve a mission. For example, I probably wouldn't have discovered that music helps me to be super in tune with the spirit. I found this out when I was struggling with Spanish, haha. I still am struggling, but that's beside the point. Music also helps me calm down after a long day at the CCM.  One other thing I learned this week while in the CCM was that prayer helps a lot!! We have devotionals every Tuesday. This week's Devotional was a video from Elder Bednar; he talked to the missionaries about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how miraculously it came about. During this time, he shared a video of the Whitmer family when Joseph Smith asked them if he could continue writing the Book of Mormon. Brother Whitmer tells his son that he could not house joseph smith because the fields were not yet tilled and their farm was not ready. So the younger Whitmer...

 We have been busy since May. Ricky had his one wisdom tooth removed. A couple of weeks later, he traveled to Tucson for his friend's graduation. His return flight landed in Philadelphia at 10:30 p.m. and wasn't scheduled to leave for State College until 6 a.m., so we saved him a night in the airport by picking him up in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia temple is my favorite nearby temple. We have hosted a lot of swim parties. I figure, since we're taking care of a pool, we might as well have people over to swim in it as often as possible. You know what? I have never swam in our pool, but I still love it because the kids have so much fun. I usually cut our boys' hair, but I'm not a professional. I fired myself from being Sean's barber after a particularly difficult haircutting experience with him. Sean went months without a cut because he feared those mean middle school kids saying something. He finally conquered his fear and went to a barber for the first time.  ...

Our big family trip this summer was to Colorado and Utah right after the kids finished school. I still feel like a circus when we're all together at the airport, and we didn't even have Emily with us. Rick had a conference for work in Vail, Colorado. There are some cool parks there. From Vail, we drove to my parent's house in Monticello, UT. They live a couple of blocks from a temple--much better than the 3 1/2 hour drive from our house. I love going to the temple with my family. We also helped Mom organize keepsakes in preparation for a yard sale. The kids loved her dress-up clothes. We got ice cream at The Shake Shack, took a hike to some ancient settlements near my mom's house, visited rock shops and museums, hung out at the park, and worked on a few projects at the property.

Last August, Rick had a horrendous week—maybe even the worst week in a very long time. What made it so bad? We were still deep in the remodeling trenches and living in complete chaos. Each family member had a bed to sleep in, but that was the only consistency. We combined the features of two bathrooms to make one working bathroom. Our kitchen appliances were on backorder, so our meals came from the microwave, Instant Pot, or Crock-Pot. Our refrigerator was in the garage, and our microwave was in the living room. We didn’t have a dishwasher or a kitchen sink. We hand-washed cooking utensils in the garage sink and used many paper products. We had been living like this for about a month when Rick took a trip with Brooklyn to a BYU sports camp. I imagined him gleefully exclaiming, “See you, Suckers,” as they drove to New York for their flight. Unfortunately, his respite only lasted long enough for him to let his guard down and contract a horrible cold. This was bad news because the day...