A final football note, camping and serving faithfully

Football is over!

Chase and his some of his Lehi H.S. football buddies

All four boys ended the football season last week and we finally breathed a sigh of relief. Chase lost his final game on Senior Night last Thursday against Lone Peak. As sad as it was to bid farewell to his teammates on the Lehi H.S. football team, Chase was happy to be playing against his friends from United Rugby on the Lone Peak H.S. team, whom he will be joining soon for the upcoming 2013-14 rugby season.

Mica and Quinn both lost their final games but Kenyon's team pulled out a narrow win in their final game of the season. He had the opportunity to play quarterback and hopes that it is something that he can work towards for next season.

We are proud of the hard work and determination they showed throughout this football season and look forward to watching Mica, Kenyon and Quinn play again next season.

Camping
The weather was perfect, the setting was beautiful and just about everything seemed ideal for a great time with the Scouts in our local troop. Seti has been having monthly overnight camp-out's with his troop since we moved into the Lehi 41st Ward a few years back. It's hard, frustrating, time-consuming work but it does have its blessings and rewards.

Troop 1241 - Lehi 41st Ward

It has been great being involved in the Young Men program over the years, especially as our own boys began moving through the program. It has been tough trying to mentor, coach and teach these boys because there are unique challenges with every youth. But we have to maintain and believe that what we do is for the greater good and that we are doing it to help build men.

Seti has been involved with each of our sons in the Young Men program and is now with Kenyon in the Deacon's quorum for a little bit longer. Quinn (who went camping with Seti on Friday to earn his Webelos badge) will be a Deacon a year from next March. Are we old? Only on paper :-)

Enduring to the end
Teaching young people on Sunday's is no easy task. We teach our 14-18 year-old's in Sunday School and then Seti teaches the Deacon's Quorum during the third block of our meetings. These callings have been taxing but it has taught us humility and it has given us a deeper love for our sons, a greater appreciation for the youth of the Church and a greater, more urgent desire to serve.

This past Sunday we had a rare unruly class. The Come Follow Me program is divinely inspired. Even though we have so many youths in our classroom all wanting to be heard at the same time - it is the Spirit that has calmed them and given them strength to be good young men and young women in the gospel. It is hard but it is so worth it! Especially when you see them develop and share their own testimonies.

A baptism
Elder Matua sent us an email today to inform us that he and his companion had their first baptism last week. He's enjoying the work so much but was very sad that he didn't receive any letters from us or from his friends last week. So, we are going to write him a bunch of letters tonight for Family Home Evening and send them off in the morning.

You can read more about Elder Matua's week and see some of his recent photo's on his blog.

Congrats uncle Adam

Jen, uncle Adam and the boys

We have been so blessed to witness the success of members of our extended family. On Sunday we were present to witness the passing of the guard from the outgoing leadership in Adam's battalion to their new leader Major Adam J. Kolowich. The military has been a big part of our life because of the service of Jen's brothers Adam (here in Utah) and Nick (who resides in Texas).

We want to once again congratulate Adam on this remarkable accomplishment and wish him the absolute best as he takes on greater responsibilities with his battalion. He's a great example to our sons!