Wednesday, Oct 2nd: Zone games were great. We play... Continue reading

Mother Daughter weekends are a tradition that my mom and I kept from 2001 - 2016. In the beginning, we attended Women's Conference at BYU in Provo for two consecutive years. During the years when I was busy raising babies & toddlers our weekends usually involved me traveling to her home in California, and my dad watched the kids while she and I spent a special day together -- shopping, spray tans, special lunches, and pedicures were highlights! A couple times she came to me in Oregon and while Scott watched the kids we went to Time Out for Women,... Continue reading

Tuesday: pretty eventful. First, forgot my tie. An... Continue reading

Let's see... This week we tried going to this college campus to see if we could find young people to teach. It felt kinda weird, though, because it's a Christian college. These students are already taking classes about religion. On the one hand, they've learned about Jesus Christ so we... Continue reading

First email from Japan! Finally here! Man, what a week! President McClure and his wife are super awesome! They hooked us up with some great meals at the mission home. Also, Japan is ahead of America on so many levels. For instance: The mission home has a toilet that opens... Continue reading

Again, these photos were shared by Sister McClure .... giving us a peek into his first days in Japan. After being picked up from the airport the new missionaries stay at the mission home in Sapporo for 1-2 nights. Breakfast In President McClure's office. He gives the missionaries an introduction... Continue reading

No letter from Conner . . . just two photos (one from him and one from his mission president) to confirm that he made it to Japan safe and sound. It was a 26 hour travel day that began with reporting to the MTC Travel office at 2:30am on Monday... Continue reading

TRC Volunteer Sean Conner's district and their teacher Cox Kyodai in the middle Kyodai Cox - Conner loves his teachers Huber Kyodai District - 5 going to Sapporo, 1 going to Tokyo Brown Choro and Embley Choro The famous MTC Map When a set of missionaries leave it is tradition... Continue reading

Well, it's about time. The teachers are telling us over and over again to be diligent until the end because that will set the tone for the rest of our mission. The struggle hasn't been working, though .... it's been finding stuff to work on. I can't imagine being here... Continue reading

Flight plans this Friday! Man, I love the mtc, but I've been here for seven weeks. It's time to get out of here. Wednesday: That night, a little before class, we got to our room early and found a note on the board that we had an online TRC at... Continue reading

Two thirds of the way through! Everybody says this is where the days start flying by, until the last week, which they say is unbearably slow. We'll see what happens. Thursday: Had a great TRC today. My companion and I are still working a bit on understanding people, but our... Continue reading

After visiting Ketchikan we made our way to Victoria, British Columbia -- the last stop on our Alaskan cruise. This one was short (8pm - 11:30pm) but very, very sweet. As always, cruising into port was one of my favorite parts -- the new scenery & sights to take in, and the excitement over what we might find when we get off the ship. Once off the boat we grabbed a taxi to take us downtown. Let me just say that we loved Victoria! We only got a small taste but we could tell this is our kind of place.... Continue reading

Another day, another port! After sailing through Glacier Bay we found ourselves in . . . But let's back up for a second and admire the beautiful sunrise we were treated to this morning We made zero plans for Ketchikan. Our schedule allowed us to be there 7am - 1:15pm and we knew it would be a chill day of wandering the town and just checking things out. Right off the boat we stopped at the Visitors Center and picked up a map for a walking tour of the city. It was the perfect activity as it wove us through... Continue reading

After spending the entire day in Skagway, we woke up Thursday morning to find ourselves in Glacier Bay National Park. This is what an Alaskan cruise is all about! Getting up close to these magnificent glaciers! The waterways and shores are protected and there was a special kind of calm and stillness that permeated the entire area. It really felt like a privilege to be there. The main glacier viewing times were 8am - 1pm so we were up and ready with our hot chocolate in hand! Again, having a balcony made this whole day just so wonderful. We could... Continue reading

Stop #2 on our Alaskan Cruise . . . Skagway! It was also our longest port of the week (7am - 8:15pm) which gave us plenty of time to explore. This town is super adorable. Just take a look! That building on the left -- the Arctic Brotherhood Hall -- is covered in over 8000 pieces of driftwood. Wow! Give me all of the cute window boxes ... ... old-timey cars .... restaurant gardens .... hints of gold rush days ... and totem poles. The most popular attraction in Skagway is a ride on the Yukon Pass Railroad. And while... Continue reading

Over halfway through the MTC and the Temple is finally open! So glad we were able to go this morning, so glad my district got up at the butt-crack of dawn, and so happy that the laundry room is practically empty! Here's my report: Thursday: another TRC today. Was able... Continue reading

After a full day at sea (Monday), we awoke Tuesday morning to find ourselves cruising through the Inside Passage of Alaska. This route is one of the things that made this cruise so enjoyable! With bays & inlets, islands, mountains, endless coastline . . . there was always something new and beautiful to see. And having the protection of land on either side meant that the swells were kept low and we never felt the boat rocking. This morning was also the one and only time we had rain. And very little at that. But it was fun to wake... Continue reading

Scott and I love to vacation together and Hawaii has been our go-to destination for the past 13 years. But then he started working with a new company that offers trip incentives (in lieu of bonuses) and he earned one of those trips in his first year. Yay! The catalog of trips to choose from had quite the variety and in the end we picked . . . . . ALASKA! The idea of an Alaskan cruise actually popped up on my radar in the last year, so when we saw it was one of the options (and a cruise... Continue reading

Hey guys! Almost halfway to getting into the field, so pressure's on to master this language. Here's the weekly report: Thursday: Had another set of member TRCs. I thought they went way better than last week's. The language is definitely getting a little smoother. I just need to give myself... Continue reading

Here's the weekly report: Thursday: Had my first member TRC. A TRC is where my companion and I talk with a volunteer in Japanese, in this case a returned missionary, and talked about what they were going through and how the gospel can help them. It was a pretty cool... Continue reading

Hey guys, I'm back with my report for week 2! Let's see... Last Thursday: Had an epic experience teaching in Japanese. My teacher was pretending to be one of his investigators from when he was on a mission. He was just pretending, but I could still feel the spirit so... Continue reading

Hey guys! So excited to be sending my first email ... Continue reading

On June 23rd Conner was invited to speak in sacrament meeting, in preparation for his mission departure. His mission farewell was an absolutely beautiful meeting. I can’t quite express just how wonderful it was .... my heart was floating with SO MUCH love for this family. Conner gave a fabulous talk on the love that Jesus Christ has for us, the youth speaker (Pierce Hill) and concluding speaker (Linda Grondel) were SO wonderful as they also spoke of Christ’s love, and Payton and Anna played a piano/flute duet of “Nearer My God to Thee” that brought it all home. I... Continue reading

The big day. We had several hours before Conner had to report to the MTC so we tried to spend the time as best we could. First, games. Before we checked out of the hotel Scott took the opportunity to give Conner a father's blessing. Definitely a special moment for Scott. He loved his mission and has talked about it on repeat with our kids over the years. And now to see his son taking that big step, going into a mission prepared with a righteous heart ... huge pay day. But also as a dad, hard to watch your... Continue reading

Tuesday was wonderful. Just a great, great family day. After taking Cooper to a sitter, we hopped the car and started our drive north to Provo, Utah. Now, this drive was going to be a little different than our typical road trips because we had a missionary in the car which meant no popular music and no video games. Sooooo, we had to change up our entertainment a bit! We ..... listened to the Tabernacle Choir listened to a BYU devotional from Elder Uchtdorf made origami creatures (Conner received an origami book from a sweet lady in our ward) talked... Continue reading