From Mom: Happy February 9th

Dear Elder Hoopes,

Hope you are doing well. Here it is chilly and foggy. Hilde and I just walked about 3 miles so we are warming up in front of the fire. Weather.com says you are going to get some rain today and tomorrow and your temperatures will be in the 50s, a lot warmer than here obviously. We are all doing well. It will be quiet here this week because Dad is off to Oregon all week to speak. And I took Caitlyn and Bandit down to Utah to her brother's home on Saturday. Finally, after being in foster care for over 13 months, she was reunited with her family. It would have happened a lot sooner if her mother hadn't fought it the whole way. She was excited to go, but also sad to leave the friends she had made and a school that she had come to enjoy, (in spite of the uniform policy).

I got to stay overnight at Jon and Nicole's. They are doing great. I think that Jon must wake up every morning and say, "I am the luckiest man in the world!" They are leaving on Valentine's Day for their belated honeymoon: a Mexican cruise. How do you spell "spoiled"? J-O-N.

I'm happy to report that this early morning seminary teacher is learning a lot. Who knows if the kids are getting anything, but they are all so incredible, it probably doesn't matter. I am finding that as I study the New Testament, I come across puzzling passages, that, in my pre-seminary-teaching days, I would pause over, then shrug my mental shoulders and move on. But because I feel that I have to understand before I can teach, those passages become a spiritual workout, and I do a lot of "heavy lifting" searching and praying, until I can understand, master and explain the concepts and applications. I've come to understand that there are no "fillers" in the scriptures, that the recorded revelations, experiences and prophecies are there on purpose. I have been eating just the croutons at the feast of the scriptures. I was content to absorb the things that my mind could grasp without effort, while all along, there before me, was the mind of God.

And the love of God, which surpasses my understanding.

May you feel a portion of His love this week.

And add it to the love I send to you,

Love,

Mom