Sister Olds the II: "It was pretty much love at first sight with Ammon and King Lamoni" -Sister Genster

First of all thank you SO SO SO MUCH Mom for sending all of those awesome Family History stories!!! They have been so much fun to read. Our family is so cool! I had no idea that Great Great Grandpa Bunker met and first heard about the Book of Mormon from Martin Harris! And that he was in Cleveland, and Kirtland, and Akron!!! How cool is that?! Everyone told me that I had ancestors that were in Kirtland. [There was a prophesy from Joseph Smith I think it was that said that all of the saints that were in Kirtland, their descendants would come back to build Kirtland up. How cool is that?!] And Sisters Gannon, Gardner, and Genster all got a real good laugh at how Great Grandpa Hector and Great Grandma Mina met. "Is there room on this sidewalk for two to walk?" "You can if you want." Too great. I especially love that they all had recorded their testimonies down and their spiritual experiences. They really do help to strengthen my testimony. I am so grateful to be a part of such an amazing family. And grateful for all that they went through and the tremendous faith that they had so we can still have this wonderful gospel in our family.

So this past Tuesday the Utah Valley Children's Choir came to perform here at the Cleveland Stake Center and then the next day out at Kirtland. I was pretty much just expecting a primary sacrament meeting program. Boy was I wrong! They were INCREDIBLE!!!! If you ever get the chance to go see them perform then do it! There spirit there was so strong the entire time. Also! the Conductor was the same conductor that we had at the MTC when I was in the choir there, so that was fun! I went up and talked to him afterwards and he was telling me about how just the week before he had conducted a choir for the new mission presidents fireside and all 12 apostles were there. Umm...awesome. Oh and he conducts choirs for General Conference as well. He was a pretty cool guy.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!! I was so happy that I got to be in America this year for it!! At ZTM this past week an elder asked me what I had done for the 4th of july last year and was like "Oh wait, nevermind, you were with your family." But then was super surprised when I said I was in Ukraine. Trying to get the kids to watch fireworks on a projector on the ceiling was about as exciting as it got last year to celebrate! However this year was pretty fun! The ward mission leader and his wife had all 6 of us missionaries in the ward over for Waffles and they were the BEST WAFFLES EVER!! Holy cow. I have seriously been missing out all these years! What was wrong with me?? So his wife is the stake camp director and she needed tons of help so we spent a lot of time helping her put packets together and then making oobleck. [Cornstarch and water] SO FUN!!! I felt like a three year old again. So they have this tradition of keeping their Christmas tree for a while after Christmas and then lighting it on fire a month or so after Christmas. Somehow this year they just forgot about and so they still had theirs and they decided to include us in the tradition. It was so crazy. I don't think they realized how big that fire was going to get! It lit up in a flash! We were all running from it cause it got so hot and was so huge. Thankfully the house or anything else nearby got caught in the fire. I came runnin in with the hose after to put it all out. All in all it was a pretty great Independence Day! That night we could barely see the firework show over the trees from our balcony, but it was still fun :)

Well my email is a bit shorter this week because we are going to go hit up West Side Market today in Cleveland! I'm stoked. I've never been before but from what I have heard it sounds a lot like the huge market I went to in Budapest!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Thank you for your continued love and support.