You are 17 going on 18

 

Dear Nathan,

I will never forget you humming through the dictionary as a toddler....hmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmm, page by page, your calculating large numbers in your head and people thinking you should be on a TV show because you were a genius... (too bad public school ruined you. :) ) You playing adorable little Winthrop in The Music Man, and you didn't even have to fake a lisp because you were really missing your two front teeth! Your singing has improved 10 fold since then. You started to play the bass even though it was 4 times bigger than you. Your ability to pick up a puzzle piece and place it in the right spot first time, every time, still drives me crazy. And one day I'll beat at Boggle....well, probably not. 

You are without question one of the biggest nerds I know. I think you even proclaimed it yourself along with one of your Facebook statuses-"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." -Albert Einstein 

You're my sweet little brother...(most of the time).

Always excited for school....

...and always excited for an adventure. 

(even if it means driving to Beaver with me in the middle of the night.. *cough cough*)

You're too talented and nobody knows what to do with you. When you would sit down at that piano and your little hands and brain were just busy at work...I was jealous every time.I'm being serious though, you've got to pick the piano back up! It'll get the girls every time. No joke.

You were so cute with that massive bass and your little body. 

 You're always there to make us laugh-you do it to me. You make me laugh all the time and I love you for it.

You can be anyone you want to be, from Mickey....

...to a cowboy....

...to Davy Crockett...

...but I like you just as yourself. (Can anyone say 'sappy' please?)...although you do make a pretty handsome cowboy-just sayin'.

 I think we're the luckiest family to have you as our little brother. All of us knew we didn't want another girl. We wanted our baby brother and thank goodness we got him!

But really,  how did you get it so good to have 3 awesome older sisters?! :) 

You used to be so short and cute,

and then something happened,

and you grew,

and grew....(and hopefully you'll keep growing...at least another inch or two, or until you get your mission call-but I hope the spiritual growth will continue forever!)


Even though I don't know much about tennis,

  I think you're one of the best,

  and definitely cutest out on the court.

I have yet to meet a kid that can sing harmony like you can. If you remember correctly, I did have to bribe you with a Happy Hour-Sonic run to be able to record this video. You and your root beer. haha Can I take you to Sonic when I get home? I'll even pay. :) ...but only if you'll sing with me. :)

 You were always so excited to go to scout camp, even though you usually came home with some sort of broken bone or other injury. haha I think you've broken more bones than the three of us girls put together.

 But I'm proud of all the work you did put into the Scouting Program. (I must admit I don't know much about that either, other than it's a lot of work.)...

 ...and you did it! You got your Eagle!

I love it when you get a little emotional and you try not to let anyone see. I think it's the cutest thing ever.

 I know mom and dad are proud of you and everything you've done. And grandma and grandpa too!

I am sad that I have missed so much of the 6 years of your life with being away
at school and my mission and all those things, but I have loved the times that I
have gotten to see you sing and play and perform. You truly are brilliant, I mean really, who gets a 5 on the AP Calculus test at 16 years old and acts like it's no big deal. I barely made it through Pre-Calculus. ha Each of my siblings gets more smart and more talented...you're lucky you're last. I am so excited to see you start your freshman year at BYU and see all the great things you'll do there!

I know that mom would be there if she could,
 at every moment to hold your shoulder and make
sure you're doing what's right. Only because she
loves you so much.

Thank you for supporting me in everything I do, even if it means traveling across the country to see me in Nauvoo, or not hating me for coming to Mexico and missing your high school graduation and your birthday for the 3rd year in a row.

 It's been fun to watch you and your friends grow up. You're not kids anymore though-you have jobs, girls friends, mission calls, high school diplomas, college acceptance letters, etc,etc but I'm happy that you were blessed with good friends!









 Even if I can't get you a physical birthday present right now, like a tennis racket or another frisbee, what do you want from Mexico? I'll bring ya something great!

 I think you're already an old man, but I hope that you'll always be a kid at heart...

 ...and join me and my kids at least every few years at Disneyland! :)

I always know when you and Jenny have been in the car too long together...

because things like this start to happen....

...and they continue to happen...

...and get worse...

...until....yeah. uh, I don't know.

Nathan, I hope you will keep playing--play music (and sing!!!!!), play tennis and frisbee, play in the rain and snow and sun and on the beach and in the mountains. to play=happiness   (could that even be considered equal to a real math equation?-I highly doubt it. ha)

Yup, bottom right corner, that's you. What a cutie head. I can't get over it. haha the more I look at the picture I think you're the only looking at the conductor hahaha, and you have the best posture and vowels. hahaha You kill me kid. Who knew you were such a natural even at 6 years old?!

But also work hard, and then you'll be able to sleep pretty much wherever you want, even if you don't fit on the couches anymore.

You lived the braces phase and I think you even kept your friends through all of it.

I don't even know who this girl is...

It scares me that you can date. yikes...but I guess that's old news now. I still just haven't been home long enough to have it really sink in.

men in black? ...Tanner, did you miss the memo?

But from what I can tell, you and your friends are, well, wanted, in high demand...? Do I sound like an old lady right now? I really don't know how the kids talk these days.

I seriously can't take you seriously in this picture.

ha of course Cezar is dressed as the Mexican.

Do I even want to know?...what is the blue man anyway? (and yes, at this point I am stalking your Facebook, the little there is on there, for these pictures-because like I said, I've pretty much missed the majority of the last 6 years of your life...a good solid year and a half for sure.)

Springville High School Tennis-Nathan, Tanner, Jordan

 I wish I could have seen you sing the lead in Bye Bye Birdie this year, but as you know I was on my mission. Remember how you made me sing over Skype at Christmas because you sang some of your songs from the play. You seriously amaze me. You sing and I don't know where it's coming. It's effortless. Jealous.

I would do anything for shaved ice right now...maybe we'll do that instead of a Sonic run when I get home.

I know Cammy loves you too...and we'll just pretend that other kid in the picture is Jenny hanging out with you... Actually, I know we all love you and are proud of you and it might turn into a highly heated discussion if we tried to figure out who loves you more.

Hobble Creek 9th Ward Seniors 2014

 I am proud of everything you've done in your callings and for the example you've set at church in holding the priesthood and serving others! I pray that you will continue to do the same throughout your life.

I'm so proud of you for graduating from seminary! Onward to institute...(lots of free food. :)  and of course spiritual learning.)

You wouldn't have been a true high school graduate without suffering a sufficient amount of "senioritis"...which I think that you suffered sufficiently.

You're the last to leave the nest...leaving mom and dad, well, empty nesters...except for the fact that a few weeks ago 100% of their children lived there...so maybe they won't be real empty nesters for a while.

Springville High School Graduate 2008

Springville High School Graduate 2010

Springville High School Graduate 2012

...and last but certainly not least, Springville High School Graduate 2014! Congratulations, Nathan!

Your birthday never comes around without me thinking of our Grandma Stapley. I know you didn't know her. She died the day before your 1st birthday. That was 17 years ago, but I will never forgot how I felt that day. I was so sad that my grandma had died. But even at that young age I felt in my heart that I would see her again, a feeling that was reaffirmed by our cousin Devin. He found me crying behind grandpa's big tree in the backyard, but he hugged my little body and told me not to worry and that I would see her again. I believed everything he said even though we were only 6 and 7 years old. I still believe those words he told me. I know we'll see our grandma and grandpa again! I know that whatever happens to our family in this life that because we're sealed in the temple, that everything will work out and we will all be together again someday! They're up there watching over you, and I know they love and are proud of all the good things you're doing.


I love you Nathan and secretly you are my favorite brother! I can't believe how fast you have grown up. I still picture you as my "little" brother. You used to be so cute and I keep asking mom, "what happened to you?" haha I still think you're just a little stud though. I love you! Life has great things that will come to you if you serve the Lord faithfully and work diligently in all things.

Love,

Kjersti

Got Tortillas?

                             Don't ask how many I eat everyday. I can't count that high.

 

I told a story in my e-mail last week about meeting this little man while walking to school the other day. He was sitting outside a little store on the way home the other night and I went back because I just had to get a picture. Isn't he so cute?! :) His face lights up every time he sees this crazy gringa. haha

Can I just tell you how much I love this little guy?! I kiss his little cheeks off every time I get the chance...which is pretty much daily. :) (One of the up-sides of not being a missionary anymore, now I get to hold all the babies I please. :) )

I think my favorite moment this week at school was when I asked the students to write their names on the back of their papers. I wrote Miss Kjersti on the back of mine and before I knew it, this cute little guy had written Miss on the back of his paper... I love these kids so much!!

Every week we have to create lessons plans for the activities that we are going to do with the kids in the next week. This past week my theme was 'shop,' so everyday we built something. One day we made parachutes out of coffee filters and string with popsicle sticks at the bottom, but when you happen to bring a minion to class that day (and your teacher happens to think minions are hilarious) then you get to tie the minion to to your parachute and make all the other kids jealous. Best parachute of the day fo' sure.

                 Another day we made hot air balloons-or do they look more like giant ice cream cones?

p.s. It's pretty much impossible to get all the kids to look at the camera at once. It's a lost hope.

I'm pretty impressed with the improvement of my drawing skills. You can actually tell what it is.

Instead of Taco Friday this week I ate Mexican pizza, aka a giant tostada.

And of course the classic Facebook posted picture of weekly taco night. 

Highlight of the Week!!!

I got to see a family from my mission here in Tehuacán!!! Hermano y Hermana Silva from my dear Banning!!

We are in the Centro with one of the Cathedrals behind us-beautiful, eh?

 It's kind of a long story, but on Saturday I went to Puebla with my family for a birthday party of a little nephew. The Silva's had arrived to Puebla that day to pick their son up from his mission this week. (They are so excited!) I had been talking with Hermana for a couple weeks now, and we were trying to figure out how we could meet up while we were both in Puebla. Long story short it was raining A LOT and we tried to meet them at the bus station before our bus left  back for Tehuacán Saturday night...and we missed them by just a few minutes. I felt so bad because I'm sure they were so tired from their trip and they took a taxi in the pouring rain, etc etc. I really wanted to see them too, I was SUPER sad it didn't work out...BUT they're the best and on Sunday they took the two hour bus ride to Tehuacán. We had 5 glorious hours to spend just visiting and eating and showing them a little bit of the centro. We went back to my house and visited for even longer. (It was so great because there's no way, as much as you want to, to just sit and visit with members on the mission, because we're always running like crazy people from one appointment to the next.) I love the Silva's!

 I can't believe their love and generosity of taking a whole day out of their trip to Mexico just to come see me and Tehuacán! I miss Banning so so SOOO much and it was so good to hear of all the great things that are happening in the branch there. I LOVE those people so much.

 We finished the evening by singing a few hymns with my family and the Silva's before they headed back to the bus stop. Hermana Silva loves singing and she's so good! Hermana and Hermano were being such great missionaries too! Of course we talked a lot about missions and my family has lots of questions about missions and missionaries. It was so fun to be there and be able to answer their questions with other members, especially a family that is about to pick up their son from his mission! :)

We had to finish the night off with a selfie. :)

I love Mexico! I laughed really hard when one of the first things that Hermano Silva told me when they got here to Tehuacán is that I was going to stay here. I laughed and said, "No, I have to go home in August." and he said "I know, but you'll be back. Not necessarily to Tehuacán, but you'll be back." I smiled and told him that I agree. I'll be back. :)

Pantalones Verdes

Clearly everyone should own a pair of green pants. Those green pants are the best $5 dollars I have spent since I got home from my mission. Thank you to good ol' Savers. :)

Note to those who own a pair of green pants-chances are more than likely if you wear them you'll meet someone that is wearing the exact same outfit as you.

Not just once.....

But twice. :)

...to be continued. :)

Culture and Crickets

                                      This is my iliveinmexicoandmylifeisprettyawesome face.

Every week we get a culture class from a lady named Irma. She's pretty great and I have really liked the two classes we've had thus far. Last Saturday we went to a basketball game of a boys team from Oaxaca, but it wasn't just any basketball team. I'm not sure how long ago the team started, but it started with a bunch of really really poor kids (The Triquis people are an indigenous group of people from the state of Oaxaca--Triquis is the name of the team) that didn't even have money for shoes. So they did what any reasonable kids would do, they started playing basketball without shoes. I guess with the amount of time they played with their friends, they got pretty good. Eventually these boys ended up getting sponsors to help them get what they needed to start traveling and playing other teams. There isn't another team like this in the entire world. We watched these tiny little boys between the ages of 7 and 11 play the girls and boys basketball teams from a private high school here in Tehuacan. It was seriously so entertaining. These high school kids towered over these boys, yet these boys were like ninjas and they were running all over the place, stealing the ball, getting fast breaks, boxing out etc etc-it was so funny! Their team has been able to travel the world and in 2013 their team won the international basketball tournament for youth. (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/22/sport/shoeless-mexican-boys-basketball/)Anyway, they were pretty impressive. I wish I took a little video of their ninja moves.

I'm hoping you can see in this picture how small the kids are compared to the high school kids. I can't even think about it without laughing. Those kids were amazing! Notice, they have no shoes on. :)

I love the walk to school everyday. I see a lot of the same people out in front of their shops on a daily basis, a lot of whom make tortillas, but this day a little family band showed up one day on a corner near my house. Live music in the streets is one of my favorite things! The little boy has a can to collect pesos.

 

This week in one of my classes we made flowers. I had glitter on me for 3 days straight, but I think the kids had fun. After we finished making them we went outside to plant them in dirt...that part didn't work so well. It turns out that straws aren't very good for planting. 

so I put dirt in a cup instead and we called it "cup of dirt"

Mom, would you prefer the flowers with glitter? or the ones below that I saw at the Mercado? I've never seen so many beautiful flowers in one place.

The San Francisco Cathedral--Tehuacan, Puebla

We had such a good "cultural activity" with Irma this past Saturday. She took us to the "Centro." El Centro is at the center of every Mexican city. There is always the government building, a cathedral, and the market. This picture above is of the big cathedral that they still use for masses.

This is inside another one of the cathedral in the centro. This one isn't used for actual services anymore, but this nice man let us in to see it anyway. Thinking back these are probably the oldest buildings that I have ever been inside. They are an incredible work of art.

The ILP teacher's (minus one teacher who was home sick) This is the gang. Stephen is from California, Alecia and Kayla are sister's from Ohio and Kevin from Utah and Morgan is from Springville too! We did  not know each other, but funny enough both of us live really close to the high school.

Above is the monastery where the monks and nuns used to live. It was really beautiful in the outside court. No one lives there anymore, but the building is used for offices for the church. I learned a lot more about the Catholic church and how it is run and about their saints and everything. It was pretty interesting.

 If this picture of cow guts doesn't gross you out...All I know is that I've had to eat that before...and I also know that I love my trainer (one my mission) with all my heart for eating what what was left on my plate that night. Thank you. I also saw an entire cow hanging from a wall. I really wanted a picture, but considering the attention we were already attracting naturally (by being a group of pretty white looking Americans) I decided to not completely satisfy the tourist stereotype by taking that picture.

My horizons were broadened at the Mercado...I ate a chile covered cricket. It wasn't half bad. It kind of tasted and crunched a bit like a pumpkin seed that had been roasted. Irma is giving me a thumbs up! "si se puede!" These crickets are called 'chapulines.' The boys were the only other two to eat them. I wasn't going to let them beat me out on a little cricket.

The maggot I ate on the other hand....never happening again. It was a hollow sort of crunchy with an awful after taste. I asked Irma like 6 times before eating it if it was going to make me sick. She said no...All I know is that I was looking for gum to chew the rest of the time through the Mercado.

Other some what cultural things I did this week. 

It has been raining a lot this past week! I LOVE IT! It reminds me a little of the mid-west when the sides of the streets all fill up with water. Karla, Karyme and I went to the panaderia (bakery) that night to get dinner and we came back soaked even though is was less than a half a block a way. I love it. :)

You can skip this next picture if you'd like. It's really for my own enjoyment. I was trying to take a picture of the massive soccer ball sized bruise (not an exaggeration) on my leg. I'm laying on my bed, with my leg in the air...I never found a camera setting that would actually show how awesome that bruise is. I love battle wounds from playing soccer in the rain. We all took some pretty hard hits last week with the soccer ball. haha

actually, looking it at it closely you can see the bottom of the bruise near my ankle and the top of the bruise is where the picture starts.

                        That's right...I am mashing beans in a clay pot. :) I'm going to be pro one day.

                           Spanish class 3 times a week! Yay! ...I should probably actually go to all 3..

            Celebrating Clarissa's 1st birthday! Birthday's are kind of a big deal here. 

My new favorite puppies...they are siblings, but the cute little white one has major runt status. I love it! He's so cute and they're both so cuddly and soft. (This is a big deal for me to love dogs so quickly-that's how cute they are)

This is my oopsthesemightaccidentlybecomemycarryonbacktoutah face

                             My friends-Sandy and Zuri- They are sisters and they are awesome. :)

Making masks with the kids. We're ready to go to the opera now.

Nothing like a good game of giant Jenga while eating ice cream. (I do miss American ice cream though-all that cream and deliciousness. :) ) 

A thank you to Bach, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mozart who blessed my life while I wrote this post. They help me feel smart and I like them a lot. If you haven't given them a chance, you probably should. Anything they wrote is much better than pretty much anything you'll hear on the radio.
Sincerely and with much love,
a music major who is missing her music life.